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talldarkandroguesome · 2 years

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29th of Sun’s Height, Fredas

It is good that the Count found what he sought without needing to stay for much longer. I would have had a bloody difficult time going to the Harborage to have our monthly gathering with vampires who required my attention. I would have had to meet with Zethith in my chambers before being host for the day, but without alerting Sildras and Avon or any of the servants. It would have been a mess.

As it was, the Count took his leave last night. And so prior to that, I had a final conversation with him while Sildras and Avon entertained Gwendis. I decided that I should ask any remaining questions I should like to have the answer to. I knew I would not be able to lay any more inquires at his feet for several months, in all likelihood, so this was as good a chance as any.

I asked Count Ravenwatch if he had any advice on how to begin to set your thinking to an immortal timescale. How to change your thinking so that your plans are not restricted by a mortal time frame, but not left to languish so long as to make their purpose dissolve.

The Count answered that it was mostly down to experience. It took much trial and error and a concerted effort to alter your way of thinking. He also suggested to employ a great deal of introspection and to speak with others on a similar timescale. His major advice was that there were no shortcuts on this and that it was practice and time.

A bit of a disappointing answer, truly. I have only the Ravenwatch and Zethith to speak with who might understand and of those the only one I can possibly confide in is Zethith. I feel as though our relationship is already intrinsically linked to my working on such a goal. I had just hoped he had a little more I could put into practice right away. It was Zethith who had told me to alter my mindset in the first place. Another dead end.

Not wishing to end on a low note, I asked the Count for any advice that he wished he had been given when he had started out as an immortal. To this he took a great deal of thought. I knew that our situations were much disparate, but also, I knew that he would likely have something of value to impart upon me. Some crumb of wisdom I could take away with me.

He did not disappoint. He told me that I should refrain from isolating myself. Instead, I should make long-lasting relationships with similar people so that there would be a form of support. And he congratulated me on having started to do so already. That might not seem such a big thing, but he acknowledged that he believed our association would be a long one, rather than a passing one, and I felt very honored for his confidence in how things were progressing. Though it was only slightly bruised by knowing that the Ravenwatch were the only immortals I knew, who were ever mortal, and they were across the continent from where I was going to spend the majority of my next few centuries.

He also told me that I should be proactive about problems and not delay facing them until they grew debilitating, as the prospect of eternity meant that it was easy to get into the mindset of putting the problem off until later. And later could be a very long time indeed for an immortal. That it can be far more daunting to face immortality when you face a problem that has suddenly grown too large to ignore, even with the luxury of time. That immortals are especially susceptible to succumbing to melancholy and despair as the weight of the centuries piles on. In response, it is vital to learn how to take care of yourself so that when the inevitable calamities arise you are not crush beneath the weight of them.

So much for the positive ending, I thought. After all, I had already faced three Daedric Princes and helped to prevent two different world-ending events. I could not be certain how much the Count had witnessed himself over the centuries, or even how many centuries he had endured, but he knew of my involvement in the stopping of the Planemeld and yet still chose to impart this advice. Just how often did something threaten to end Nirn? I feared for what it could mean.

Perhaps sensing my inner anxieties, or perhaps just as a show of camaraderie, the Count clapped a hand upon my shoulder and told me that, whilst I was no vampire, I was still an immortal in need of the specialized support the condition imparts, and so, I had an open invitation to visit Castle Ravenwatch whenever I liked. That he may not himself always be available to meet with me, depending on his duties and such, but that the hospitality of his house was always open to me.

I grasped his forearm in sign of friendship and thanked him for the generous offer, making the same of my home and my home in Davon’s Watch. I told him that my family had some access to homes in other parts of Tamriel as well, so that if he should need safe harbor, I would try my best to find a place for them, even abroad. Particularly in Skyrim, where I had several connections.

With that, a final farewell was made amongst all the staff and members of the Count and my families. Gwendis tried to offer me a handshake, but I pulled her in for a hug, regardless of her stiffness and thanked her again for everything. She told me not to let it get to my head, I simply had a really good kid and she would not wish to see any harm come to him. I smiled and noticed she was doing the same as I released her.

We all waved after their carriage as it wound its way down the hill towards downtown Mournhold, the dawn still a couple of hours away.

I shared breakfast with Avon and Sildras and then slept for a few hourse before I knew I should have to begin preparing for my trip to Davon’s Watch. I found Cheerz and told her that by Morndas, the schedules were to go back to normal once more and asked her to summon Black-Silk-Earth, for I had a special task for her.

I packed a small bag of items and when Black-Silk-Earth came to call upon me, I told her that we would be leaving after supper to go to Davon’s Watch. That I had not forgotten my promise and that I should not let her miss meeting with her family and business associates for the month simply because I had guests. That she should prepare for leave, but tell no one about it, except for Cheerz when she was ready.

Then I found Avon, who was on his third or fourth cup of tea, still a little tired from having awoken so early, but not having gone back to sleep. I told him I had need of some advice and he asked me what I needed, worriedly asking if it was anything to do with the vampires.

I told him no, it was to do with my following.

That did not seem to calm him any.

So I explained that I was heading to my monthly meeting with my followers and I was trying to come up with some sort of goal for them to work on in my absence. I was looking for something that would help them to bond and being an activity which was physical, not purely of thought, so they would gain a sense of accomplishment. And if I could give them a burgeoning sense of confidence in each other and the group as a whole, that would be even greater.

Avon told me that he did not have a specific answer in mind, but that he did have a suggestion as to how to go about formulating plans. It was something he had struck upon before and had wished to impart upon me regardless, but now seemed as opportune a time as ever.

I asked him what it was very enthusiastically, surprised and touched that he had been giving such thought to assisting me rather than purely crafting warnings

Avon explained that as he was going through the tome Vivec gave me about Chimer worship of my Prince, there was a section which had stood out to him. He cut me off as I began to protest, asking me to listen before I had made any commentary. He thought that this was likely one of the truths of the True Tribunal that had been stolen and used these days as a modern concept of Vivec’s indulgence.

I gestured for him to continue.

Avon explained that the emulation of my Prince was not so much in the quantity of acts that allied to each of Her pillars, but rather, to the artistry, the quality of the acts themselves. It was clear from the passage that it was far greater an offering to provide an elaborate, but exquisitely crafted lie than to simply lie many times. It was the weaving of everything together in perfect harmony. To complete it perfectly.

There was a knock on the door and Black-Silk-Earth entered, saying she was ready to leave. I had Avon retrieve the book so I could look at the section myself and thanked him. There was something about that which seemed to align with what Zethith had mentioned to me before and I longed to confirm it.

Avon and I kissed farewell and I gave Sildras a big hug and told him I should return in the morning after I had done a thorough check in with my newest crypt keeper.

Then Black-Silk-Earth and I were off.

We parted ways with an agreed time to be back to the manor for our departure. She went to see to her business and I made all the overtures of doing a check. I went to both house and crypt and must say, I was glad to see everything was in order. Even the offerings of food were fresh and all the ancestors I summoned, uncle Tanval included, were much pleased by the care and detail provided. Uncle Tanval even applauded my decision and said he was proud of me. I was shocked.

All of the staff were provided with a bonus for their hard work and to help encourage them t continue to work to such a degree. They will not know when I am going to stop by and see the rewards for doing well. It should be motivating.

Speaking of motivated, Tanur was overjoyed to see me. Told me he had a few new recruits to bring by and that he was very much pleased for me to see the improvements made to the Harborage in my absence. Apparently several of the members wanted to personalize some of the space. And they also had a small surprise for me.

We left for the Harborage immediately and I noticed that rubble had been cleared out, tapestries were set along walls, more furnishings were brought in, the halls smelled faintly of incense and aromatic oils, and many spiders had taken up residence in the high corners of the place. It was, quite honestly, beautiful. Not the dreary safe house it had been when Varen had made it his base. I was silent as I looked about and Tanur asked if I was displeased or if they had stepped too far.

I told him I was very pleased to see that they had made it their own. That they were shaping it to fit their needs. That I was proud of how much work the had all put into it.

I gathered those whom were present to thank fl them for their efforts in making this new Nest a place of beauty. That they should all do what they needed to feel comfortable, so long as it did not cause harm to anyone else. And that for their hard work, there were rewards to be given out later.

The atmosphere was joyous and there was a sense of accomplishment that seemed to fall over everyone present.

It was then that Tanur showed me to the surprise that they had for me. Under the raised platform in the center of the room, where before there was a dusty tunnel of debris, it was cleared and swept with a fine rug. And where the walls seemed mostly the same, Tanur moved a sconce to reveal a hidden room. Inside candles burned brightly and shone upon the humble but elegantly furnished space. A large bed with nightstands to either end, a desk with chair, and a large chest of drawers. All of them were of nicer make than what furnished the rest of the Harborage. The sheets were of satin instead of linen, the cushion on the chair of a deep velvet.

I told Tanur that I was speechless. That I had not expected such a handsome gift, as I was the one who was supposed to be rewarding them. He said that the initiates and he had found the room and thought it would be someplace special where I could stay when I visited.

I asked told him that with this space I could get to work preparing for the night and get everyone’s rewards in order. He left me to my privacy.

I summoned Farayn and had her choose where she would like to make her spot, as I took in the details and got comfortable. I put a few changes of clothing into the dresser and filled the desk with incense and candles and a few books.

Then I recalled the book Avon had returned to me and I went over the passage he mentioned more carefully. For most of the book I have read with a rather jaded acknowledgment that Vivec has his biases and that he had some agenda in providing me a copy. However, there was much in this passage that got my mind beginning to formulate some very specific ideas. And so I asked Farayn to send word to Zethith, who appeared almost instantly.

We exchanged niceties before I told them that I had an idea about the direction I wanted to begin working my monthly goals towards, something long-term, but that I wished to check with them beforehand to ensure that it was adherent to our Prince’s intent. I was unsure about if the source was wholly truthful.

Zethith eagerly took the book and began to read and a smile spread across their lips. They told me they could only speak on this one aspect, but in this section, the words were correct.

So I explained to Zethith that I had been thinking that if it is about the skill and mastery of the pillars as art, then I wished to turn my initiates into artists of the Mephalan arts. I would learn their skills and proclivities and sculpt them into the perfect tools for our Prince’s will. And I had trained as a spy and assassin, learning the arts of subterfuge and seduction and leaving no trace. I would use these skills to build my own network of intelligence and influence for our Prince’s sake.

An expression alighted upon Zethith’s face that reminded me of a guar who had just broken open an anthill. There was pleasure there. And I knew I had chosen correctly. All because of a memory of how I had exceeded expectations to Leythen simply by being more competent than his followers. I had the skills to make what he needed happen and to do it quickly. And all without any repercussions for him or his Nest. And I realized how powerful having a Nest of those with my skills could be.

Zethith told me that this was a very worthy ambition and that I would surely gain much favor for succeeding in this respect, so long as I was able to be directly involved in the training and to raise my brood carefully.

I asked if there was any way that I might grant a special token to Tanur for his service, noting that seeing the rewards of their superiors might encourage the initiates. Zethith said that they would come up with something and it would be delivered during the proceedings of the night.

I asked if I should get started right away and Zethith told me that I would do best if I worried about initiation rites tonight and had a private ceremony for those who were already a part the following day.

I asked if there was any way to do it all tonight, for I had made other arrangements. Zethith told me if I wanted to have the rewards ready, then I would have to postpone my plans. Then they bid me adieu.

I immediately drafted up a letter and had Farayn take it to home, I did not want Avon or Sildras to grow worried if I was gone an extra day. So I made excuses about being invited by a merchant I was trying to seal a deal with to dinner the next night and I did not wish to lose out. I said that for sure I promised to return the following morning.

I also had Goat take two letters by the manor. The first, to let Black-Silk-Earth know we would be meeting the following morning instead, but that she was welcome to make use of the guest quarters in the house should she like. The second, to let the house know I was staying with a friend for the evening and that I would be in and out as I took to socializing since everyone was doing better even than I had expected.

So I got myself into the outfit I had prepared for the initiation and then met with the full Nest, handing out robes for all of them. Each one was identical, save for the cord that tied about the waist. The initiates had white cords, to show that they were just starting out and without their specialty. Tanur’s, on the other hand, was purple, marking him in a tongue and cheek way as an adherent to the pillar of lust. I did not explain this all in full, except to tell the initiates that as they progressed, they would earn new cords. We also practiced the prayers that were going to be covered in the ceremony to ensure that everyone knew the words and pronunciation.

Then we went under cover of darkness to the Streamfont Cavern and met with those Tanur had selected as new potential members. I followed much the same as the previous version of the same ceremony, this time with the other members already present and able to follow along. And they were able to help coach the two new potential members.

The first, a Redguard, was very much a good candidate. He had a sense of humor despite the secrets I saw there and he was not afraid to take a life if need be.

The second, a Nord, was too jumpy. I saw lying, but also much cowardice. He was not going to be a good choice and the way he began to practically twitch was a sign that he was a liability even to this ceremony.

The others seemed to notice as well, but I put up a hand and told him that he was welcome to leave if her was uncomfortable. We had left this ceremony open for him to see if he was ready. If he was not, he was free to leave.

He practically ran to the cavern entrance, so I called out to him to stop for a moment so we could speak on the way out. Tanur did not seem to pay it any mind, but I saw most of my initiates exchange nervous glances.

Perhaps they thought I would murder the man. I cannot pretend it was not tempting. However, I simply lead him back down the road as I had the others begin to anoint themselves and to show our newest friend the ropes. As we walked, I told the Nord that I would greatly appreciate his discretion. That in every shadow, we had eyes watching to see what he did. I knew his darkest secrets. I showed him one I had not shown already in fire, this time in the palm of my hand in flames. I summoned Farayn and told her that yes, this was the one that they should be watching. Farayn stayed on my shoulder and cleaned her mandibles, which made the man squeal, perhaps it looking as though she was planning to eat him? It mattered not, the fear was there. And once a week or so passed, I would have him silenced regardless. Fear only holds but so long for people of a certain disposition. I simply needed him to appear untouched by my initiates so they would not fear me too greatly. I would take care of the Nord some other time.

The rest of the ceremony went splendidly and we had a good lot of fun until dawn was nearly upon us. Then it was back to the Harborage so to rest.

Tanur is slumbering in my bed as I write, having asked if he might be able to join me for a small reward just the two of us. I need to be careful with him not growing too bold. Yet something about his devotion still seems to give me a strange sort of strength. A worry for another time perhaps. I have enough on my plate as it is.

#ESO #TES #RP #Dunmer #Elder Scrolls Online #The Elder Scrolls

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talrayne · 3 years

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It was a very strange day today indeed. I could say what it was, but I think a full explanation is in order.

I'm a student you see. I'm working on becoming a mechanical engineer. I grew up seeing mad scientists in movies and comics and thought "That's what I want to be when I grow up!"

I tended to ignore the fact that they always lost because they "tried to take over the world".

Anyway, that'll be important later. The point is, I'm a student, and I work a part-time job taking the edge off my student loan interest. I had just finished my shift stocking shelves and was walking home to get a hopeful five hours of sleep when I decided to walk the trail. You see, while the town was basically a suburb, it was also built around the woods. The normal way to get to the dorms from where I worked involved a small detour around a patch of forest that was well lit and safe.

But you see, I was tired. I wanted to get to bed as soon as possible, and at that point I felt if a wolf or something attacked my messenger bag of textbooks would serve to scare it off if I hit it in the face. Anyway, the shortcut would save me about fifteen minutes and there was enough light from the moon to see where I was going. If I didn't take that path, I certainly wouldn't have seen it normally.

Sitting next to a log that served as a bench, was a chest. I might have had a thought along the lines of "I should tell someone about it", but the more pressing thought was "what the torque wrench is a medieval-looking chest doing here?"

A wakeful person might have ignored it, assuming it was a prop. I was not a wakeful person, running on sugar and caffeine at the time. Instead, I got curious. I looked around, but I was alone. So I took a closer look. It was about the size of a footstool with brass bands nailed to the wooden planks it was made from and had a lock on the front. However, something I couldn't put my finger on was... wrong. It reminded me of acid washed jeans, or plastic plants. Like it was fake.

That's when my sleepy brain decided it was trapped. Why did I think it was trapped? No idea. There weren't any pranksters on campus that would put in the effort to make an obviously handcrafted chest just to make it a trap, but sleepy brains aren't logical ones by any stretch.

You'd think I would walk on after deciding it was trapped, but no. I was curious, and I wanted to know what was inside.

So I got a stick.

I got a stick and some leaves and rocks and jury-rigged a lever so I could open a small mystery box in the woods in the middle of the night when I should have gone to the dorms to sleep. Turns out, sleepy brain did something right, because as soon as I opened the thing, I saw teeth and smelled it's breath. Then it attacked the sticks.

I jumped back, surprised. It tore apart the makeshift lever like it was trying to eat an animal! I fell back and landed on my butt, dropping my messenger bag, along with my leftovers from my dinner break. When it looked like it gave up on the stick, I decided to throw something at it too distract it.

Once again, sleepy brain, now full of panic, did something nonsensical. Instead of throwing my books in the hopes of scaring it off, I had a fleeting thought of "this textbooks are expensive!"

Instead, I threw my food. I didn't even think of the idea of delaying it by feeding it. I just thought of the food as cheaper. Once again, sleepy brain did good. It stopped to eat. I now had a new problem. I wanted to get my books, but my bag was right next to the animal that was a chest.

I decided to get it tomorrow.

I ran and didn't look back.

My roommate was asleep when I got to my room. Their classes were even earlier than mine so they tended to go to bed early, ignoring their loans for after graduation. I set my alarm, and changed, too exhausted to really think about the fact that I was nearly viciously mauled by a box.

"That's a question for future, more awake me to consider," I thought to myself as I went to bed.

I woke up ten minutes before my alarm went off. I lay there, waiting for a moment. I considered staying awake juuuust long enough to hit the snooze button, but I decided that I was awake enough, and I never handle alarms after the first one well. Instead, I turned off the alarm and made myself breakfast. We had a mini fridge, a coffee maker, and a microwave for amenities, so I made myself a hard-boiled egg cooked in coffee. Cheap and easy.

As I sat in my bed, letting the coffee kick in, I decided to check my notes for class. Then I realized I couldn't find my bag. Weird. As I looked around the dorm, I tried to think of where I set it down last.

Then I remembered.

Cursing to myself, I rushed into the shower and tried to figure out what the bleeding tuning fork attacked me last night. A rabid armadillo? No, it's too cold this far north. A bear cub? Then where was mama bear? Screw it. It didn't matter. It was probably gone and I needed my books before class started.

As soon as I was dressed, I grabbed my keys and wallet and ran to the path from last night.

After nearly knocking several other students over, I got to the woods and managed to avoid tripping on several large rocks before I reached the bench log. Fortunately, my bag was right there. It looked like something tried foraging in it, but my notes were still legible. To me at least. There was a reason nobody asked to borrow them.

I hefted the bag on my shoulder and ran to class, caffeine giving me energy and wondering if the bag was always that heavy or if I was just tired.

#original wip #wip #mimic #dnd mimic #autistic writer #adhd writer #college #fiction #modern fantasy

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phoenotopia · 4 years

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2020 July Update

Things have gone slowly... again.

The good news is that the game is now submitted to the console "authority" and it's entirely off my hands. Once it gets through the console "checking" process, it can get a release date and we can sprint towards release. Until then, it'd be at least a month's wait or more until I hear anything. Understandably, their checking process is impacted by Corona, so wait times are increased.

On my end, I was also slow to submit the game. I submitted it late late June, since I ended up spending 7 weeks fixing bugs (and not 2-3 weeks like I estimated in the last blog post). There were just SO many bugs - now squished, thankfully. Since this is a blog post, I'll talk about what kind of bugs I've been fixing.

The other thing that slowed down the submission process was simply due to unfamiliarity with how these submissions proceed. There were pages and pages of stuff to read, guidelines to follow, and legalese to wade through. It really made me wish I had a publisher to guide me through the process. But I was able to clear it with a couple days work. I had an impression that the submission process went like A->B->C->D, with no room for concurrency. Turns out I could have done steps B & C at the same time and sped things up by 2 weeks... So that's that. I'm taking that as a lesson for next time.

The Console Revealed

What is this console that I talk about so stealthily? So that this blog update isn't completely unexciting, I'll reveal which console I've been working on until now. Drumroll please!

It's Switch!

We actually got the Switch dev kit in late 2017. From my understanding, around this time in the USA, the Switch kit was quite hard to get for indies as it was just starting out and high in demand. So I was surprised that my application got approved. I didn't know it then, but the game would still need a few more years of development...

Tweaking performance and fixing bugs

Here you can see my "expert" playtest setup. Since the Switch is more powerful while docked, I needed to playtest it in handheld mode, so I could catch and profile any problem areas where the framerate was unsteady. The most common thing that caused framerate drops were areas that went overboard with lighting. For these areas, I'd tweak or swap out the lights with alternatives that looked similar while also being less computationally intensive. Maintaining 60 FPS is a must!

An old camera (Nikon D3100) trained at the screen recorded my playthrough and would let me rewind to any moment a bug occurred. It could only record in 10 minute chunks, so I'd have to repeatedly repress the record button. On the plus side, because it's so old the movie file sizes were small and convenient.

The number one bug that I tracked and fixed in the past two months was what I dub the "Gear Ring De-equip" bug. The Gear Ring functions as customizable shortcut keys for the player to map items and tools (see an old video demonstration HERE). Through regular use of the inventory, somehow the equipped items on the Gear Ring would be de-equipped. It was an elusive bug since the de-equip event would happen very quietly and you would only suspect something had gone wrong much later. By then, the trail had gone cold and you weren't sure if a de-equip had actually occurred or if the player had simply de-equipped the item themselves. Two other playtesters noted that something left the Gear Ring in their playthrough, but I dismissed them. "Are you sure you didn't just de-equip it yourself?" It was a bug that bred mistrust and discord. I didn't truly believe it until it happened to me...

Luckily, with the camera setup, I was finally able to track it. In the literal 67th video, I caught a live instance of the bug occurring. After which, it was all too easy to recreate the exact same inventory and gear ring setup and replicate it.

(With this exact item layout, combine the 2nd item with the 14th item... and viola! Gear Ring de-equip!)

After fixing this bug, I then proceeded to fix it 5 more times. Every time I fixed it, it would later reappear through a different mechanism.

Why do bugs like this happen? Underneath, there are two lists of items. Tools on the right and items on the left. Items can occur multiple times because they're consumable. Both lists start counting their indexes with the value 0. However, both items and tools co-exist on the gear ring. So to uniquely identify an entry you need both the item ID and the data index. Failure to check both data types resulted in bugs like the Gear Ring de-equip. Now throw in a bunch of item operations that can confuse the system. You can split items, combine items, swap items, or discard items. The more freedom you allow, the more ways there are for the system to trip up.

If you didn't get all that, that's alright. It was needlessly complicated. Imagine doing more and better and with less code and less bugs! Such a thing is possible if you start with the right design. I'm definitely taking notes here on how to design inventory systems for next time. In the meanwhile, I'm very confident I've squished all inventory related bugs.

Other bugs squashed and features implemented in the past 2 months include the end game arts not unlocking properly, collection percentages climbing beyond 100, stray doors floating in the sky, low HP sfx blaring when loading different files, balance tweaks on bosses, a max HP display when the menu is open - too many to count really! It was only after I fixed them all that I was confident enough to move forward with submitting the game. I apologize for the delay this will cause!

PC version back in progress

You may recall in the March 2020 update I talk about how in pursuing the Switch version, I unwittingly ruined the PC version. Well, since the game is "done" now and I'm waiting for it to go through the checking process, I've started working to reclaim the PC version.

And there is some good news to report. The PC version can compile again! Of course, it will need to have some work done, since it was late 2017 when I last had a functioning PC build.

The opening menu is broken, the underlying save file system needs to be updated, and the controls... oh Lord, the controls. Controls were probably the #1 factor in pushing me to pursue a console version first. There are just so many controller options. Even just the usual suspects are numerous: Xbox, Nintendo, Sony, Logitech, Hori, 8Bitdo, Steam...

One of the number one complaints received regarding the flash game (which was keyboard primarily) was that I didn't allow controller rebinding to start. It was then that I learned of the vast array of different keyboard types.

(Ever heard of an Azerty keyboard?)

I shan't make the same mistake twice! One of the things I'll definitely tackle is the Right/Left face button feud when it comes to which should one should be 'confirm' and which one is 'cancel'. I want to allow the player to choose which is their "YES" and "NO" preference and allow that to overlap other actions like Attack or Jump.

Even after control bindings are taken care of, some things just won't translate well. The right control stick is currently used to access the gear ring and for fishing. Keyboards have no right stick. Aiming the crossbow with a full 360 degrees of range is done with the left control stick - if keyboard only, would the crossbow simply be locked to the 8 cardinal directions? What about those tutorial prompts with button graphics (e.g. "Press 'B' to Jump"). If using the playstation controller, it'd need to be the CROSS symbol. How many button graphics are we gonna load into the text module? What if the player, mid-playthrough, decides to swap out controllers? Indeed, there are many issues to tackle where controls are concerned...

Perhaps I'm overthinking it because even some AAA games get this wrong (Dark Souls has 'B' as 'Yes' on Switch, and it's not remappable, which I find quite annoying). I've seen games on consoles where the controls wouldn't mention the console's controller at all but instead mention a mouse and keyboard. Or, if you remapped the controls, the tutorial prompts still showed the old control bindings, making for a confusing experience. I definitely want to do the controls justice, so this will take some time.

Phoenotopia DISCORD Channels

Ryan and Firana have been running a Phoenotopia discord since late 2017, which I promoted on this blog once. It's been a couple years and it turns out that the old discord link I promoted expired. It's long overdue, but their channel could use another shoutout. Here's their channel : https://discord.gg/cnjrYST

Also, Khalid recently reached out to me about creating a Phoenotopia discord as well. I see no reason why we can't have 2 or more discords, so he has created that one with my blessing as well. You can find his discord here : https://discord.gg/cfnsCwy

I personally don't use Discords, since I'm very busy and there's too much new tech to keep up with. I hear there's a Tik Tok now? Should I create a Tik Tok for Phoenotopia? Hmmm...

Anyway, if you'd like to chat with other people who are similarly enthused for Phoenotopia, do check them out!

Fan Arts

We have five new fanart submissions this time around from regulars and new alike.

Cody G. returns with this pair of sketches of Gail. One seeks to answer the question, "how is Gail so strong?" Cody's answer is that under her sleeves she's actually really buff! This might be the most ripped rendition of Gail yet. Also, in the right drawing, the letter 'E' kinda melds with her bat, making it look like a keyblade!

What if Gale was a Shrek character? A new artist, Samu Kajin, from tumblr answers that question with a rendition of Gail sporting ogre style antennae. Samu Kajin says she can be called "Gaek" or "Shrale". I like the poncho!

Shafiyahh returns with a pretty portrait of Gail. Unlike their previous digital pieces, this one was made with color pencils! I like how her hair blends pink and purple colors together, and this pattern is also present in the eyes. Reminds me of a certain character. And the eyes are so sparkly despite using color pencils! Major props!

Negativus Core also returns with this relevant image of Gail, masked and running, presumably from Corona. It gave me quite a chuckle! I like the angle and tilt of this run pose because you can see the sole of her foot - that's how you know she's at full sprint! A skillful blur localized to her left foot show's just the right amount of motion. Gotta love the robot's expression too!

A rare 3D art has emerged. Dany Q crafted this adorable figure of Gail that is as cute as a button! I like how well it translates the pixel character over to 3D, capturing the 3 stitches on her shirt and even catching her stray strand of hair. It kinda reminds me of a Wallace and Gromit character, so I can picture it moving and animating in that unique claymation style.

Next Time

I'm ~80% confident we can clear the Switch console checking process and drop the trailer with a release date before the next blog post. But once again, if things go slowly, you'll hear from us in 2 months...

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kumoriyami-xiuzhen · 4 years

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Hakuoki Shinkai Kaze no Shou Drama Translation - Shogunate Dogs and Puppies

last post of the month! so as always, i’ll end by asking if you can please support through ko-fi, through paypal or patreon, the latter will give you early access to my stuff and blog translations (changed the tiers)…. also let me know if you have any hakuoki drama cds that you’d be willing to share that are on my looking for list since i either do not have audio for those cds or do not have audio that i can share...

Anyway! im finally done with this! AND I CAN’T FUCKING BELIEVE HOW LUCKY I AM THAT THE AUDIO WAS POSTED FOR THIS RECENTLY!

also the 3rd and 5th sanan tsukikage chapters were re-posted so I saved them as pdfs this time (also kazama’s 7th chapter was taken down but i thankfully already had that saved as a pdf). if im lucky, that translator will repost the other chapters they took down... tho i’m likely not going to translate any of that since i still have a shit ton of stuff on my to-do list plus... ginsei no shou is what im interested in... and i really wanna find some saito stuff to translate lol. especially given the cgs. they’re sooooooooooooooooooo pretty!

lol. as always, final edits will be done on the video (will be delayed due to me being busy)... and since I translated this before I actually heard this cd, I just went with what the Mandarin pingyin reads as for several things in this drama translation. also, there’s a lot of barking not directly mentioned in my tl that i didn’t see in the original TL i used for this.

Aside from the Shinsengumi Oni-tan drama, this is the 2nd drama I’ve always wanted to translate... with the 3rd being ???? xD. only translated track 6 of that one for some reason, and it’s a +30 min drama so i have no idea when it’ll get posted (the 4th would be the Thumb-sized samurai one cuz i’m still annoyed at how i only got tl for 4/7 tracks while the 5th would be the vita zuisouroku one”手紙” for the same reason since im missing tl for tracks 1-6 for that. T_T did find tl for the 妖刀始末记 drama cd i was missing translations for though i don’t have the audio for that).

image from suruga-ya.

enjoy~! do not repost this elsewhere!

Hakuoki Shinkai Kaze no Shou Drama CD “Shogunate Dogs and Puppies”

Translation by KumoriYami

Hijikata: ha.. really. I didn't expect to work so late. the sun's already gone down/set.

Yamazaki: Although we planned on getting back before dinner... it is unlikely that we'll make it.

Hijikata: Yeah.... now that dinner is over, i hope that those idiots haven't eaten everything.

Yamzaki: vice-commander, if you wish to hurry, we can take shortcuts/a shortcut.

Hijiakta: shortcuts? is there a shortcut nearby?

Yamazaki: Yes, it's not a well-known [??] shortcut, (and) could affect the vice-commander's safety, so I don't really recommend it....

Hijikata: No, it doesn't matter. Lead the way. If the Shinsengumi's vice-commander doesnt dare to go, it would be a problem.

Yamazaki: I understand. Then please, go this way.

Hijikata: So/Originally, as long as you passed this road we'd be near headquarters. But/However this shortcut feels a little creepy.

Yamazaki: There were reports of wild dog attacks here. I'll go first, also vice-commander please make yourself quieter----What was that noise/sound?!

[I assume that Yamazaki means for Hijikata to make quieter movements though I can't say that for certain. "也請副長多加小" literally word for word: also please vice-commander much/many add/plus small]

Hijikata: Yamazaki! Get ready! (sword gets drawn) It's in the grass over there!

Yamazaki: Wa! Wh-what... is that a wild dog?

hijikata: no, it's just a puppy. did it get separated from its parents?

puppy: wuwu.....

Yamazaki: Do-don't come (over)/cause trouble....go!

Hijikata: hey, when you meant wild dogs, did you mean this guy? Although it's a bit surprising, however isn't this cute? I thought it was a bandit/robber——

Kazama: hm, I was wondering what was making so much noise over here, it turns out it was the Shogunate's hunting dog/lackey playing around with a stray dog? What a funny display/an interesting sight to behold.

Yamazaki: You are Kazama Chikage....?!

Hijikata: Che! In a sense, this guy is [even] worse than a bandit/robber...... Why have you come here?!

Kazama: That's my line/what I should bee saying. Avoiding the main road, taking this shortcut to imitate a dog and steal a chicken [idiom], all I can see in my eyes/before me are people with no sense of shame.

Hijikata: Hey! Look at yourself before speaking of others! If you show up here, it also means that you're very suspicious.

Kazama: Hm, applying [accusing] what you saying to others/applying what you are doing to others is proof of how despicable you are. [As expected of the] Shogunate's hunting dog, truly how shameless. I originally had no business with you today, but I am not so forgiving as to ignore a bunch of bastard dogs who are always trying to pick a fight.

Hijikata: Interesting. Want to fight?

Kazama: Hmph, just watch how I cut you, and your sword covered in dog filth.

Hijikatta: That's what I was thinking/just what I want, I'll be able to rid myself of you!

Kazama: hmph, "the weaker dog will always bark/the weaker the dog is, the more it will bark" and that barking has been happening from the start.......This is only the start.... and I'm bored to death! What's wrong, I've been shouting since just now!

Yamazaki: C-calm down, dog! come on! come, sit down!

Hijikata: I think I've suddenly lost my will to fight.... Oi, Kazama! Is this dog yours? If it is, hurry up and take it with you [away]!

Kazama: How stupid! How could I have taken in such a filthy dog. Since you're all dogs, it should be a companion of you guys!

Hijikata: Who knows, we don't have a clue. But, what's to be done about this guy?

Yamazaki: The way it''s been barking, has ruined the atmosphere for a fight.

Kazama: Really...... it's no fun if you're saying that you were disturbed by a puppy barking as an excuse for losing. (sheathes blade). Hey, I'll wait. You guys get that dog to shut up now.

hijiktat: don't talk to yourself!

Kazama: Hurry up! Talking is a waste of time.

Hijikata: Che[? the definition of the TL here is 'to yawn' so i'm guessing that this might be more of a 'tsk' or 'che']! hey yamazaki, you think of a way to get the dog to shut up.

Yamazaki: M-me? If that's an order, I will comply...... but just now it didn't quiet down at all.

Kazama: Haha...... the Shogunate's hunting dog has been fooled by a wild dog? You indeed all resemble each other.

Hijikata: You don't have the qualification to talk to us! Hey, have you gotten it to shut up yet?

Yamazaki: It apparently seems to be warning us, as long as we aren't hostile, it should be quiet.

Kazama: Oh.....then you've truly given up. It was probably barking because of how dreadful/awful/fearful/hideous your faces look. Do you want to cover up your faces?

Hijikata: What are you saying about our faces being dreadful? Your face looks more awful than ours, so it was probably barking at that? What do you think? Yamazaki.

Yamazaki:......Uh, ah! yes! I believe Kazama's face is extremely dreadful.

Hijikata: hey, wait...... why was that silence just now?

Yamazaki: It, it's nothing! It absolutely didn’t mean anything!

Kazama: Quit it with the senseless questions and answers. Quickly get that dog to be quiet!

Hijikata: damn it! When this is over, remember this (for me [will probably omit that])! Yamazaki, let's go! Hey, isn't it time [for you] to shut up now? If you don't calm down, don't you know what the consequences will be?........Damn, the barking is really difficult to deal with. Be good, don't worry, so stop barking.

Kazama: hey, just now were you guys trying to please [coax?] it?

Hijikata: ah? Don't bother me!!

Puppy: wanwanwanwan, wanwanwan!!!

Yamazaki: Vice-commander, this is counter-productive. it's rare for that guy to be a bit honest......

Kazama: One or two stray/wild dogs cannot be ordered into doing something, it seems that the dignity of the Shogunate's hunting dog is of no use.

Hijikata: You mouth speaks very well...... however in the end, this guy only started barking after you showed up.

Yamazaki: Indeed. That is to say, the reason for this barking isn't us, rather it is you!

Kazama: What? Being unable to get this dog to shut up, you decide to blame someone else? How unsightly.

Yamazaki: If you were unrelated as you say, why does this dog keep barking at you?!

Kazama: Apparently this lowly dog is unable to understand its position. Then I shall personally get it to shut its mouth.

Hijikata: What do you want to do? Could it be you want to...!

Kazama: It'll only takes a moment to shut it up!

Hijikata: Hey! Stop.... Nn? What's that?

Kazama: ah, since it seems like you want to eat this dango [i’m assuming ‘dango’ is said here since the tl is ‘dumpling.’ usually whenever i see ‘dumpling the audio puts it as dango], I'll give it to you to eat. Dislikeable/ Disagreeable/ Annoying dog [kinda like 'what a disagreeable fellow' i guess? can't really say for certain since no audio].

Hijikata: I thought you were going to kill it!

Kazama: To always cut down those who hinder you........ is it because you normally do such a thing, that you can only think in this way?

Hijikata: There's no such thing! To use food instead of words/To actually say such a thing using food, you're so/truly despicable/mean!

Kazama: That is completely baseless, I only made the use of everything to stop this. Anyway, this guy is only a domestic animal, it's impossible to for it to not have an appetite. What's the matter? Now that it's satisfied, it's quiet so come——

puppy: wan! wanwan......!

Hijikata: What's wrong? It didn't quiet down/calm down at all.

Yamazaki: That seemed to have the opposite effect. It seems to be asking for more/for you to feed it again

Kazama: che, don't you know how to be grateful? what are you dissatisfied with?

HIjikata: Seeing you speak like that, it seems that you also aren't able to accomplish/do it?

Kazama: Let me first say, that it is barking for different reasons. It's barking at you guys because it think your faces are terrible while its barking at me is to ask me to give it more [feed it again... i think makes more sense].

Hijikata: Whatever you say, regardless/in the end, this problem still hasn't been resolved.

Yamazaki: It's as he says/He's right. What are you going to do this time/So what are you going to do with it......

Kazama: Leave it to me, I'll show you what I can do.

Yamazaki: Kazama! You're still trying to kill this dog---

Kazama: Insignificant and lowly dog that is barking! Shut up!!

puppy: wuwu......

Kazama: hmph, see? My majesty/prestige/dignity/authority [??? i guess something like 'behold my authority'?]

Yamazaki: You're just threatening it to keep/stay quiet....? Eh? (It's) Not barking?

Kazama: Okay, now that the annoying guy has shut up, we can continue.

Hijikata: So the outcome/result was like this..........Good grief. Are you ready?

Kazama: I'm up [assuming im ready/prepared].

puppy: wanwanwan! wanwan.......!

Kazama: You guys....! I ordered you to shut up, why are you yelling/barking again?!

Hijikata: What's wrong? You'll have to calm it down and show us.

Yamazaki: Kazama Chikage, what do you intend to do? You took charge of this dog/The dog is in your charge.

Kazama: Hah....! (sheathes sword) Hmph, dogs and dogs really fit together, I truly am stupid for playing around with you guys. I'm going.

Puppy: wan! wanwan!

Yamazaki: Exactly what does this puppy want?

Hijikata: Is it trying to get between/obstruct/hinder us.... Maybe it's trying to stop us from fighting.

Yamazaki: This... how is that possible/how can this be?

Hijikata: Okay, we've wasted enough time, it's time to go.

Yamzaki: Yes. However/But, how should the dog be handled?

Hijkata: It's impossible to bring it back to headquarters, though it might be heartless... but/however, I believe dogs have their own world. Even if we don't worry about it, it'll survive.

Yamazaki: I understand.

Kazama Chikage, Tsuda Kenjirō Hijikata Toshizou, Miki Shinichiro Yamazaki Susumu, Suzuki Takayuki

--End--

....i wanna complain that ive had no motivation to do anything music related since the pandemic started... tho i’m guessing part of it’s owed to listening to increase of songs from TSFH and metal gear, the majority of which don’t really work on piano... maybe that’ll change if i start a certain switch game lol....

next month, i have various translated things from various mediums scheduled.

#hakuoki #hakuouki #hakuoki drama translation #hakuoki drama cd #Yamazaki Susumu #Hijikata Toshizou #Kazama Chikage

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undertalethingies · 4 years

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Judge and Jury

Set after a pacifist neutral ending. (Only Asgore is dead)

Not long after the queen returned, she called a meeting of all Asgore’s old employees. It made sense to, right? Gotta figure out who’s assigned to do what and who’s got tasks they weren’t supposed to chat about and all that jazz.

Sans very nearly didn’t come. But Tori knew he worked as a sentry, so if he didn’t show, she’d notice, and he really didn’t want them finally actually meeting to be marred by her disappointment at his work ethic.

...Or that was what he’d tell other people, if they asked. Truth was, Sans’ sense of duty ran a lot deeper than he let most people pick up on. He’d always cared deeply about the kingdom and the people in it. It was why he’d been chosen as Judge, actually. Because he had both the compassion to choose mercy when it was right and the resolve to fight when necessary.

He still didn’t know whether he’d made the right decision with the human, even though he knew both Asgore and Toriel would approve, if he explained.

Not that he could explain anything to Asgore, now.

...Dammit, he missed the big guy. And the human would still have kept going even if Sans had fought them, sure. They had too much DT to do otherwise, but it didn’t stop him from feeling like even more of a useless shit than usual.

Anyway, the meeting. He went.

Looking around, he could see that not everyone had. Two of the Hotland guards had skipped, along with the Temmies. The latter might be for the best, in all honesty. Even Sans, who was probably the most informed monster in the Underground even before Asgore kicked it, had never been made aware what exactly the Tems did. The few cryptic hints they’d given him over the years had only made him want to know less.

The attendees included all of the Snowdin Guard (including him and Papyrus, the sentries), Undyne, two guards from hotland who he didn’t know all that well, Alphys, and a couple monsters from New home who served in administrative capacities.

Toriel made a speech about how, while she would be dismantling the Royal Guard, she had plans to keep many of them on the payroll as a police force, which shouldn’t be too big a change from their previous duties. (While the Royal Guard ostensibly existed to capture humans, they fell far too rarely for an entire force dedicated solely to capturing them to make sense, so they also acted as a disciplinary force)

Sans made plans to talk with Undyne about letting Papyrus into the new force, since he doubted she’d realize that this removed any reason to keep him off. (Papyrus was pretty much the ideal cop, in Sans’ opinion. Hard to be a criminal when he was so freakin’ nice)

Undyne would be remaining the Captain, apparently. Despite her actions in attempting to capture the human, she’d been acting for the good of her people, and so long as she didn’t let “the ends justify the means” act as an excuse for cruelty again, Tori had no issue with her.

Or that’s what she said, at least. Sans suspected that it was more because Tori didn’t know anyone well enough to appoint a captain who’d be better than Undyne, so she just didn’t bother.

Then she went through the administrators, having them explain their roles and their duties. She didn’t immediately change much there, probably wanting to get a feel for how the kingdom had changed in her absence first, which seemed reasonable.

She had a brief discussion with Alphys as well, and he got the sense that there was definitely more of that to come later. Toriel seemed like the type to expect regular reports from her Royal Scientist, and Sans wondered how long she’d be able to keep the DT experiments a secret with actual oversight.

Then came the part he’d been dreading, where Toriel turned to him.

“Forgive me, old friend, but I do not actually know all of the jobs you worked for Asgore?” There was nothing but polite curiosity in her tone, and he knew she probably wasn’t expecting him to say much more than “sentry”. He’d hinted a few times that his real role is a bit more than that, which was probably the only reason she was asking at all, but he knew she’d probably never guess his real role in her wildest dreams.

“eh, fair. i kinda do a lot,” he was being deliberately vague, unable to resist delaying this revelation for just a few extra moments. Alphys met his gaze, and he could tell she understood.

“Yes, but what, precisely?” Toriel asked, getting that glint in her eye he recognized from every parent he’d ever spoken to. Say what you will about people with kids, but they knew when you dodged a question.

“well, i’m a sentry in snowdin, waterfall, and hotland,” He was, indeed, a sentry in all of those places. It wasn’t like he was lying, just… omitting a detail. Next to him, Papyrus narrowed his eyes slightly, because Papyrus could smell Sans fudging the truth from miles away at this point. He didn’t say anything, though, since he knew it was rude to talk out of turn in a meeting like this. (Sans had briefed him, beforehand, on the social niceties that would be involved)

Toriel just looked mildly startled, presumably thinking of the commute between regions, since he’d never really talked to her about his shortcuts. (He’d never really talked to anyone about his shortcuts, just used them and let them draw their own conclusions)

“You manned three stations? That seems like quite a lot,” Heh, she had no idea.

“eh, i manage,” He could see from Tori’s face that she doubted that, but she was polite and didn't say so.

“S-Sans,” Oh, great. Alphys was glaring at him the way she did when he was being an idiot, and he supposed that he kinda deserved it. No way Tori wasn’t gonna ask who the Judge was at some point, y’know? It wasn’t really a role the kingdom could do without.

“I-if. If you d-don’t tell her, she’ll, she’ll find it in the r-records and then it’ll b-be awkward,” Sans looked to the side.

“i mean, bold of you to assume i wouldn’t just doctor ‘em if i wanted it to be a secret,” Several people in the room looked mildly alarmed, and he wasn’t sure why. He was only implying he had the means to easily edit some of the most highly secured documents in the kingdom, after all. Lol.

“Sans,” Alphys hissed. He knew she was being serious because she didn’t stutter on his name at all, and she only tended to forget to when she was totally pissed. Apparently this actually mattered to her, then. Or maybe she just didn’t want him to get caught in a lie the way she had been, which was a nice sentiment, if misplaced.

“yeah, ok. so i’m not just a sentry,” He admitted. Toriel’s eyebrows drew together into a slightly concerned expression.

“Sans, exactly how many jobs do you work?”

“well, if the sentries are all separate, that’s three. then there’s the semi illegal hotdog stand, but i do that at the hotland station, so i’m not really sure if it counts as its own thing. i also do comedy gigs at mettaton’s hotel sometimes, and then there’s, uh, the one alph was talking about,” His expression slid into something vaguely sheepish and he rubbed at the back of his skull with a gloved hand. He really didn’t want to talk about this, necessary as it may be.

“And what job would that be, Sans?” Toriel asked politely. She was being nice about it, but he could tell she was getting a bit annoyed at his evasion.

Sans placed his hands in his lap, looking her straight in the eye with a serious expression. He kept his tone serious, too, so she’d know he was telling the truth.

“I’m the Judge.” He ended his sentence with a period, even though he knew it wasn’t strictly proper. He’d always liked the finalty a period conveys.

Toriel’s eyes widened, along with Undyne’s. Sans had been pretty surprised when Asgore had said he didn’t want to disclose Sans’ identity to the Captain, but the late King had explained that, while he trusted her unconditionally, he knew Sans wanted to keep his role on the downlow, and Undyne wasn’t exactly chosen for her skills at subtlety.

Sans didn’t see even a speck of surprise in his brother’s expression, which filled him with pride. He’d never outright told Pap about his job, but he’d always been more perceptive than he let on, and Sans had been pretty sure he’d known. This basically confirmed it.

“You never mentioned that,” Says Tori, looking like she felt a bit betrayed but was trying to hide it.

“nothing personal, tor. i just, uh, strongly dislike talking about it,” Sans said, attempting to reassure her. It was the truth. Sans had always loathed people who used high status positions like Judge to get extra privileges or whatever, and he disliked the fear the Judge was regarded with even more. (He’d known the old Judge, and he’d seen the way the guy got treated by those around him. It wasn’t anything he wanted for himself)

Toriel looked mollified by his admission, meanwhile Undyne was still gaping like a fish because she knew both his stats and the things he’d done during his tenure as Judge, and was probably having difficulty reconciling the two seemingly conflicting accounts in her mind.

“I see. Well, we will certainly need to discuss this later, but perhaps it might be better to do so in private,” Wonderful. At least then he’d only be revealing the extremely personal information that had to do with his job to one person, rather than literally everyone employed by Asgore.

On that note, he was pretty sure that the news of him being the Judge would be all over the underground within hours of this meeting’s conclusion, so that was fun.

Man could he not wait for the reset.

#undertale #undertale fanfic #undertale fanfiction #this is probably the most words i've ever typed in one sitting #i don't know how to write satisfying ending so i just don't write an ending at all #sans #toriel #alphys #undyne #vague angst is my jam #along with communication #i'm probably not going to follow this up #obligatory 'people find out sans is the judge' fic #i'm also working on the obligatory 'genocide run judgement hall' fic so look forward to that i guess #and i have a rant i need to edit #because i haven't been finishing anything lately at all #judge and jury

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forasecondtherewedwon · 5 years

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What Can a Ravenclaw Learn from a Spider-Man? Pairing: Peter Parker x Michelle Jones (Spideychelle) Rating: T (a lil’ swearing) Word count: 5343

Spideychelle Week Day 3: Hogwarts/Harry Potter AU

Summary: Michelle doesn't exactly know what a "Spider-Man" is, but from the wild footage she's seen of him on her grandmother's television, she does know he's not your average Muggle. Keen to learn more, she extends an invitation for Spider-Man to be the first speaker in Hogwarts' new guest lecturer series (a program of her own invention).

Her questions will be snappy. Her attitude, professional. Her crush when Spider-Man shows up without the mask? Instantaneous.

Michelle wondered if Hermione Granger would’ve done it. Hermione was an idol of hers, even though she’d been a Gryffindor while at Hogwarts. Well, no one was perfect. Michelle admired Hermione when she made purposeful shortcuts that took her through the trophy room (an excuse to ritualistically pick out each of the academic plaques that bore Hermione’s name as she crossed the floor), when she saw her picture in the Prophet for another career achievement, and, of course, when she read one of Hermione’s fastidiously researched books.

Yes, the woman Michelle strove to one day call a peer was an impressive, maybe unparalleled, intellectual, but as far as she knew, the idea of guest lecturers at Hogwarts had never occurred to Hermione.

Everyone knew Ravenclaws asked a lot of questions―Michelle also made a lot of suggestions. This one had landed, after her Head of House presented it to the Headmaster and the Headmaster said something like, “Can’t see why not!” (The leadership style had reverted to a Dumbledore-esque whimsy, from the biographical sketches Michelle had read of the man, after the sterner yet decidedly more upfront governance of Headmaster McGonagall.)

Indeed, they’d liked the idea, but there was still a certain air of ‘upon your head be it’ about the whole thing, which meant that Michelle was doing extra work to take on primary organization of the project, and a good share of the responsibility for its success or failure. Perhaps it would’ve been more logical to make her first selection of guest lecturers from within the wizarding community… Maybe there was a little of Hermione Granger’s Gryffindor-ishness in Michelle after all.

She wouldn’t say the word out loud beforehand and, when he arrived, she wouldn’t say it to his face, but Michelle thought of her invitee as ‘The Risk.’ His behaviour would be unpredictable, from the very nature of his biology. It wasn’t because he was a Muggle (being half-blood herself, Michelle had spent a significant amount of her childhood in the Muggle world)―although, actually, she wasn’t quite sure that he was a Muggle. The Wizarding world was full of labels, distinctions, and classifications, including those that were out of date and even disgustingly prejudiced, but Muggles were less precise. There was a name for what he was, a sort of childishly worshipful term for this risky guest and others like him, and that name was ‘superhero.’

Michelle was keen to observe any ‘super’ qualities, in the interest of improved quantification and qualification of extraordinary and exceptional traits both evolved and endowed, to be catalogued and studied hereafter. Oh, she didn’t mean to treat The Risk as a test subject, but questions had to be asked. The pursuit of knowledge demanded it. While on summer holiday, she’d passed a week with her Muggle grandmother and had seen footage of him in action.

Not usually one to vegetate in front of a television, Michelle’s fixation on the screen had, of course, been quickly misunderstood by her grandmother, who’d implied in all sorts of embarrassing language that the real object of fascination for her sixteen-year-old granddaughter must be the man’s physique. Ridiculous. She was a scholar, for Merlin’s sake! It was the death-defying leap from a high building, followed by a mid-air catch using some kind of rope (he seemed to create it himself, almost from nowhere―she was very interested in the properties of that as well) that had her heart pounding like a galloping Hippogriff.

Of course, it hadn’t aided her argument when her grandmother had caught her watching another clip the following evening. For the record, Michelle had not sighed when ‘Spider-Man’ was shown from behind, she’d yawned. It was bloody summer and the days were longer and she’d been out in the sun and she was tired.

And it was nonsense to suppose that she’d devised the guest lecturer series solely for the purpose of meeting Spider-Man. Nonsense.

Michelle hadn’t been the one to get in contact, not directly. It turned out that the Headmaster and Spider-Man had a mutual wizard friend, so it was all much easier than she’d thought it would be to arrange things with this superhuman New Yorker with the spectacular arse, ahem, arsenal of abilities. Magical and Muggle cooperation did wonders to make the world smaller in the most useful and unexpected ways.

Apparently, this other wizard, Dr. Stephen Strange, had arranged a portal (portal? Was this in any way similar to either Apparition or Portkey?) to transport Spider-Man from New York to Hogsmeade. Security measures being as they always had been―if not a little tighter since the infamous Battle of Hogwarts, 21 years back―Michelle’s guest lecturer could not be deposited directly onto school grounds. Actually, this was only an assumption, and she hated those. Perhaps when the man was making his return journey, she might have an opportunity to speak to Dr. Strange and initiate an understanding of the workings of portals and how their magic interacted with such spells as guarded the school, specifically whether or not they were able to permeate the wards, if this disruption was temporary, if it would leave any lasting trace or adverse effects… She’d start a list.

The opportunity to interrogate (Michelle had been told she didn’t question, she interrogated, and she was perfectly fine with the upgrade) the wizard on Spider-Man’s coming had passed, as the guest had arrived that morning while she was grinding her teeth in Arithmancy, wishing she could’ve been down in the village instead. Filch had been sent to escort him (the Headmaster having adjusted the protective spells to allow Spider-Man’s passage onto the grounds), really a dreadful alternative―if it wasn’t too self-important of her to note. Now Michelle just had to collect him.

She flew down empty corridors and hiked up the hem of her robe to take stairs three at a time with her long legs. Students weren’t often seen running inside Hogwarts unless it was to reach a bad-tempered professor’s class on time, and this general rule could stand, given that Michelle wasn’t seen. She only slowed as she cut across the trophy room, paying her voiceless respects to the accomplishments of Hermione Granger. The version of her idol that Michelle carried around in her head was full of encouragement.

Composing herself, Michelle straightened her tie before she made the final turn towards the Headmaster’s office, where she was to find her lecturer. She would be professional, she coached herself. She would pace her questions so as not to confuse or overwhelm him. There would be time to find out everything she wanted to know (plenty of time, if they developed a rapport―as she hoped―and entered into an ongoing communication that extended beyond this visit), so it was essential that Michelle contain her giddiness. With a fortifying exhale, she rounded the corner.

There was someone waiting for her in front of the gargoyle that concealed the office’s entrance. It wasn’t Spider-Man. It wasn’t any kind of man.

“Hey,” said a boy about her age. He waved the hand not clutching the strap of a battered rucksack.

Michelle approached him with all the composure of a seventh-year and a Ravenclaw (she was both). It was murder not to immediately ask questions.

“I’m Peter Parker,” he offered, along with his hand to shake, when she halted in front of him.

He had round eyes the colour of the new peat they used during transplantings in the greenhouse. Herbology was one of Michelle’s favourite classes―filling her notebook with plant sketches, hearing the soft tunneling of her classmates’ gloved hands in the dirt, observing change and growth each time she entered the greenhouse. Maybe that was the reason for the comfortable feeling that settled into her as she stared back at him, into those earthy eyes.

“Michelle Jones. MJ,” she said. She couldn’t say where the nickname had come from; she’d never asked anyone to call her that before.

They shook hands and it was unlike any handshake―any touch, for that matter―Michelle had ever experienced. Peter didn’t do the regular reflexive squeeze, no, it was more like he learned her hand and then adapted for optimal contact. Their palms moulded together like the structural soundness of their fit was establishing a critical foundation. His fingers wrapped around her hand with an easy security that assured Michelle they would neither hurt her nor struggle to hang on and pull her to safety should the entire castle collapse around them at that very moment. The motion of his thumb interlocking with hers nearly raised goosebumps; its slide across her skin was that tender yet assertive. This hand was a sophisticated instrument and she knew the other identity of the boy it belonged to before he confirmed it for her.

“Or, uh, Spider-Man,” he added sheepishly. “You can call me that too.”

Michelle was still coming to terms with the handshake.

“You’re not what I was expecting,” she explained after a delay in releasing his hand. That hold. She could feel it still, along with the hundred new questions it had seemed to imprint directly into her skin.

“Yeah, I was gonna wear the suit ‘cause, you know, back home nobody knows that I’m him and he’s me. Everywhere, really,” the boy rambled. “Even some people in space know Spider-Man now. But Dr. Strange said this place―sorry, Hogwarts―is, like, crazy secure―Mr. Stark is gonna freak when I tell him, he loves that stuff―so it shouldn’t really be a problem to come as, well, myself.”

Michelle was smiling broadly by the time Peter paused to take a breath. He was incapable of shutting up. He was perfect. Perfect to question, obviously. She wouldn’t have to pace herself too much after all.

“It’s not a problem, right?” he checked, expression suddenly nervous. Peter’s face was like his hands, performing an emotion or action completely. Except Michelle wasn’t about to reach out and hold his face just to feel the little dents above his eyebrows when they lifted.

“It’s not a problem,” she assured him, though that was really the Headmaster’s role.

“Ok, great, I was just kinda worried because you guys seem really into uniforms here. Makes me feel underdressed, but maybe that’s just my aunt May talking.”

As Peter shrugged, Michelle glanced rapidly down the length of his body, assessing his outfit. A t-shirt under a button-up shirt, jeans, and trainers.

“You look good to me,” she said.

Their eyes met and Peter’s mouth opened, but that was as far as he got in terms of a response for several long seconds.

“Uh, what’s the blue for?” he asked, pointing at the stripes of her tie.

“Ravenclaw. It’s my House.”

Peter squinted and Michelle sensed that he was trying to recall a piece of information. The expression was intimately familiar to her.

“I got some of the basics,” he said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the Headmaster’s office. “Ravenclaw’s the one for really smart people, right? More or less?”

Michelle smiled at him again. She didn’t need the wisdom of her House’s founder to know that she and Peter Parker were going to get along.

\\\

Having Spider-Man in her charge―and he was Spider-Man now, appearing in uniform as they moved about the school and grounds―wasn’t supposed to mean getting an entire day off from classes, but that was how things had turned out.

After an endearingly self-deprecating introduction to Michelle’s Defence Against the Dark Arts class, Spider-Man had demonstrated battle tactics, adaptability, how to work with surroundings, and other skills that were useful whether or not one carried a wand. There had been a positive epidemic of hand-cramping amongst her fellow Ravenclaws, everyone struggling to record Spider-Man’s nonchalantly delivered details of violent encounters of varying success. The Gryffindors composing the other half of the attendance had effectively lost their minds with excitement as they watched Spider-Man shoot webbing from his wrists and climb the walls; a few Lions reluctantly left for the hospital wing after failing to execute one of the flips their guest did with such ease.

As Michelle exited the classroom with Peter at the end of the period, they were met with a small swarm of first-year emissaries, dispatched by professors to whom tales of Spider-Man’s abilities had already spread. Everyone wanted a visit from the guest lecturer. Normally, Michelle would’ve mentally hexed those bloody loud-mouthed Gryffindors for making her miss class to continue escorting Peter, but she was enjoying his company. She was even beginning to admit to herself that the boy’s carefree smile contributed as much to her enjoyment as his thorough answers to each of her questions.

Spider-Man was given the floor in a fifth-year Potions class, where the eyes of young Slytherins practically gleamed as they attempted to replicate Peter’s proprietary web fluid using the offerings of the ingredients cupboard. He won over a crowd of second-year Hufflepuffs in Care of Magical Creatures as he explained how his powers had originated from the bite of a radioactive spider; the little Badgers were very sweet, very sympathetic.

In fact, there hadn’t been a single negative reaction to Michelle’s lecturer, apart from a few envious looks that she’d observed, studying each audience as Peter addressed them. His reputation as an enthusiastic and engaging speaker meant more invitations to lecture than they were able to commit to that day. It would have to continue tomorrow. Apparently, a discussion on Muggle-superhero relations would fit well into the fourth-year Muggle Studies curriculum, so that class was going to be their first engagement the following day.

Michelle was quizzed throughout dinner, Ravenclaws skidding up to her along the benches at their House’s table in the Great Hall like Muggle baseball players sliding to home plate. Most nights, she knew herself to be a worthy conversational companion―the kind of thinker who could only stew in her own thoughts and theories for so long before needing someone to bandy ideas about with. Tonight, she hardly noticed the curious crowd around her. What she did notice was Peter (sans costume) sitting next to Professor Longbottom. Her Housemates might’ve perceived her distraction (as well as its focus) if they weren’t largely the sort to pay more attention to what was going on in their heads than in front of their eyes.

Peter and Professor Longbottom broke into giddy laughter and Michelle heard herself sigh (audibly!), which roused her from her mealtime fixation. With a long drink of water, she swiveled in her seat to face a little blond Scamander.

“Sorry,” she offered, spying the swing of the child’s bare feet beneath the table, “what did you ask?”

After dinner, Michelle felt as flighty as the symbol of her House, practically bobbing her head like a bird as she contended with the departing hoard of students in an effort to spot her Peter. Her lecturer. Peter. Suffering Helena, if the Herbology professor had gotten started on an impromptu plant discourse, Michelle might not see Peter again for the rest of his stay! (She adored Professor Longbottom, truly, but she felt the strain of separation from her guest as the minutes passed. It must simply have been a kind of withdrawal from newly introduced stimuli; she wasn’t going to concentrate on the reasoning at the moment.)

“Oh man,” said a voice from behind her. “I’ve done the big group dinner thing before, but this was insane. Have you ever had shawarma?”

Michelle spun around and nearly sagged in relief.

“No,” she told him with a smile and listened as he described it to her.

Peter barely looked up from the hands he was gesturing with, but he negotiated their way out of the Hall more smoothly than she’d ever been able to through so many people, even on her brightest, most bushytailed mornings.

“Whoa, wait a sec,” Peter requested as the staircase they’d mounted lurched into motion. “I’m lost.”

“I thought you were from New York, one of the busiest cities in the world,” Michelle teased, refraining from citing statistics about population, area, and traffic congestion. “Can’t tell your way around one building?”

“Hey, where I’m from, the streets don’t change! East 54th doesn’t suddenly come out on Orchard Street.” He glanced at her with playfully narrowed eyes. “And I doubt you had this place all figured out your first day here.”

She only smiled, unwilling to verbally own up to her eleven-year-old self’s directional failings. Peter leaned back against the bannister and shook his head at her.

“I know that look’s supposed to come off clever and mysterious, but if you think I’m gonna buy it… you’re right.”

He laughed at himself and Michelle joined in as their staircase jerked to a stop.

“Someone told you where you’ll be sleeping for the duration of your visit?” she checked, not moving yet.

Steps echoed faintly, several floors above, as other students made their way to common rooms or began Prefect patrol.

“Yeah, they said I’d be in the Ravenclaw dorms with you. N-not with you,” Peter fumbled, cheeks turning slightly pink. “Near you. Since you’re my… guide?”

“Yes.”

“Friend?”

She smiled. They had effectively spent the entire day together. It was an impressive thing that she could say she’d spent a day with Spider-Man, though what secretly thrilled her was that she’d spent a day with Peter Parker.

“Sure. And that’s right. A room’s been made up for you.”

“When you say ‘made up,’ you mean…”

“Created. Formed by magic. An extension of the existing dormitory.”

“Ohmygodthat’ssocool,” he breathed all at once.

Michelle stared too long at the wonder on his face, then startled herself out of it, passing him on the steps to reach the landing first.

“Let’s go,” she suggested, not looking at Peter. “I’ll show you how to get to Ravenclaw Tower from here.”

“That’s… that’s really nice of you,” he said, bounding up the steps and touching her arm before she could keep walking. “But if we go there right now, there’s probably going to be a bunch of people waiting up to ask me questions, right?”

“That’s a given. You fascinate… us.” That last word had been difficult to force out, wanting to manifest as something a bit more personal.

Peter huffed a laugh to himself, glancing at his shoes.

“I’m still kind of waiting for everybody to realize I’m not really that interesting.”

“What are you talking about?” Michelle tipped her head in confusion. “You’re incredible! What you can do―”

“―Isn’t anything that anybody here couldn’t do if they tried,” he said with a sad smile that encouraged her to agree (she wouldn’t). “Somebody made me a room out of thin air!”

“No. You’re here because―”

“I get it. I know people know about the Avengers, Spider-Man… I’m not ungrateful! The opposite! Being here is one of the coolest things that’s ever happened to me, I’m just not sure, now that they picked me, that I live up to the, uh, hype.”

Michelle marched ahead, frustrated and mixed-up and searching her mind for solutions. She rounded on Peter abruptly, not ten paces later.

“I picked you,” she said, meeting his wide eyes.

“What?”

“I picked you. I saw you on television. I watched everything I could find. I developed and implemented the guest lecturer program so that I could get you here, so that I could…” Her mouth had completely run away with her, which never happened unless what she had to say was broken up by frequent question marks while her arm grew weary from being held aloft in class. “So that we could hear you speak and have the opportunity to learn. Now, you don’t know me well, but you should bloody well know I wouldn’t waste my time when it comes to acquiring knowledge.”

She was breathing hard, a fool.

“I care a lot about school too,” he said quietly. Her eyes darted to his. “Except what you’ve done makes me look so lazy. I would never have thought of anything like this.”

“Yes, well, I’ve been watching you all day and I think you’d probably have been sorted Gryffindor.”

“Will that be held against me?” Peter smiled.

“I’m certainly trying my best not to.”

They laughed. Michelle felt deeply thankful that he’d chosen to attribute the passion of her speech to her enthusiasm for knowledge. It had been atypically brash of her to lay things (feelings) on the line like that.

“I can show you something, if you’d like. Use up a little time in the hopes of fewer of my Housemates in the common room when we get there.”

“That sounds great,” he said with an easy smile, already following Michelle as she chose a route that didn’t lead to the dormitory. “Are we allowed to be wandering around though?”

“Wandering,” she scoffed, tossing Peter a wry look over her shoulder. “Please. I don’t wander, and I don’t get caught.”

Michelle led him higher and higher, sometimes glancing back because his footsteps were so silent that she thought she may have left him behind. He was always there, giving her a questioning look, not expecting her to doubt that he was right on her heels, moving like they were one person, one unit, in the darkness.

The Astronomy Tower―her goal―was mythic, even in a place as storied as Hogwarts. It had borne witness to the Dark Mark and the death of Albus Dumbledore, but as Astronomy class continued to be held there (it was still the highest tower and therefore offered the best vantage for telescopes), the spot’s solemnity had mellowed with time. Most rumours swapped about the Tower these days involved strange and fantastic things past students had glimpsed in the night sky. Michelle’s favourite modern legend was about Harry Potter himself, and how he’d smuggled an illegal dragon to freedom.

Not one of those tales had been her inspiration for bringing Peter here.

He was smiling, slipping out of Michelle’s shadow to stride to the railing at her side and peer into the night beyond. She was watching him more than it as she wove her hair into a quick braid; it was windy here, a little exposed.

“Whoa,” Peter breathed as he scanned the view.

Michelle grinned in satisfaction. It gave her great pleasure to teach someone something new, but the opportunity to show someone something new was exceedingly rare. Every nook she found, every passage, every thrilling belvedere had been discovered first by a Gryffindor. That was inevitable, with their questing natures. She didn’t enjoy those places any less, but she’d never felt ownership (even temporary) of them as a result. Standing here with Peter, in contrast, was an act of ushering him into her world and offering to share it, all at once.

“I know you saw some of the grounds when you came up to the castle, and when we dropped in on the Care of Magical Creatures class, but…”

“Not like this.”

“Not like this,” Michelle agreed.

She gave him another minute to just look, remembering what he’d told her classmates today about his enhanced senses and wondering how far Peter could see as the sky darkened from the hazy blue-grey of evening.

“I thought it might… remind you of New York. In a way,” she offered awkwardly.

Peter leaned far over the edge, making her extremely anxious.

“I see what you mean. We’re really high up.”

“Terrific. Why don’t you step back a little?” Michelle replied, tense. She wasn’t afraid of heights, but she wasn’t about to put herself in danger unnecessarily either.

He turned with a chuckle that threw his shoulders forward; again, Peter’s whole body participated in enacting an emotion. It caught her off guard, how his delight riled giddiness in her.

“Even if I fell, I’d catch myself,” he assured her, though he did move in her direction towards the middle of the Tower. “You know that, you’ve seen me on TV!”

“I saw Spider-Man on TV,” she corrected with a grin.

“And this is why I can leave knowing I didn’t blow my cover!” Peter joked. “Everybody’s already forgotten me and him are the same guy!”

Michelle rolled her eyes and tentatively crossed to the railing, propping her elbows there. He joined her. He was close enough that her heart sent up an alarm, doing a secret knock on her ribcage.

“I’m not so sure,” she said. “You did come to dinner as yourself in front of the entire population of Hogwarts.”

“Maybe,” Peter shrugged, “but you were the only one watching.”

They glanced sideways at each other at the same moment and Michelle felt her cheeks go red. She spent half a second trying to internally convince herself it was the wind’s nip. No good.

“Uh, have you ever been? To New York?”

Peter blurted it all out, ruffling his hair with a nervous hand. Why was he nervous? Was it her making him nervous? He’d already made it clear that it couldn’t be their distance from the ground.

“I haven’t,” she looked at him quickly, throwing out a fleeting closed-lipped smile.

“You should go sometime. If you’re not busy doing something amazing here.”

“It would definitely be a change of scenery.” Michelle swept her hand at the landscape before them, the sky riddled with stars.

“For sure. I mean, you gotta see the Empire State Building. Central Park, Radio City―”

“The Avengers?”

He laughed.

“Come on,” she insisted. “I’m sure superheroes are a tourist attraction. Your city should be offering each of you a royalty.”

“You’re right. I shouldn’t laugh,” Peter said, suddenly and unusually (for what she’d seen of him) serious. His body twisted towards her, though he kept staring at the far off treeline. “You could definitely come over and meet the Avengers. I think you and Dr. Strange would have a lot to discuss. And Mr. Stark? Boy, he loves getting to talk about his work―sometimes it’s more like bragging―so I bet you could ask as many questions as you wanted.”

“I was actually thinking about you.”

Now he looked at her, surprised.

“Going to see you,” Michelle went on, amazed at herself. “Just you.”

“But you haven’t even met…” Peter was obviously baffled. “When you see what they can―”

“You really think I didn’t see the others on television?” she asked, sarcasm softened from its regular strength. “I’m sorry to inform you, but there isn’t an all-Spider-Man channel. At least, not that I know of.”

“You saw Thor? And Falcon, with the wings? Wan― I mean, the Scarlet Witch? Iron Man?”

“I don’t know what else to tell you, Peter.” It felt good, saying his name. “You’re my favourite Avenger.”

“Then you’re my favourite Ravenclaw,” he responded firmly, gripping the rail. She couldn’t laugh―he was too earnest. “My favourite witch,” Peter professed. “Including Wanda. Shit, forget I said her name.”

Michelle had to laugh that time, but he frowned in return.

“You don’t know enough witches to say that,” she said, straightening up. “I haven’t even told you about Hermione Granger.”

“Well, you don’t know enough Avengers,” he cut in, bungling her chance to educate him.

“I don’t need to,” Michelle shot back, taking a step towards him whilst properly shocked to hear herself arguing against acquiring knowledge.

“Neither do I!”

Peter kissed her before she could point out the weakness of his regressing argument. The wind whipped up and snatched at her braid, but Peter grasped it and trapped it between his palm and her neck, his thumb resting lightly on her throat.

She hadn’t felt like this since her wand had chosen her at Ollivander’s. There was a satisfaction to scoring high on exams or refining a transfiguration, but those were a certain type of accomplishment. In fact, almost all of her accomplishments were that same type. Michelle reflected, as she kissed him back, that she might’ve been due for a broadening of horizons.

There was nothing precise about kissing Peter and letting him fold her body into his arms (she half-wished he could fold and fold and fold her, then stow her in his pocket so she could travel to New York against the thump of his heart), but it had as fair a claim to the title of ‘perfection’ as any other action she had performed.

He helped considerably, of course. Just another thing Peter did with a care and adeptness that truly made Michelle marvel. It felt as though he were holding her exactly right―one hand between her shoulder blades, the other still pinning her braid. And his lips were equally thorough. The heat of her face, when she stepped away with a smile, held off the increasing coolness of the air.

Peter exhaled with humorous over-exaggeration.

“Be nice if all my fights ended like that,” he said, starry-eyed even without the reflection on the sky shining in his brown irises when he looked at her.

“Do they not? I assumed that was how you managed to apprehend so many criminals, drawing them out with that Siren call.”

They laughed, but it faded as they both realized Peter was playing with the end of her braid. Cautiously, Michelle shifted closer until they could rest the sides of their heads together, looking out. His arm was secure around her back.

“We weren’t really fighting,” she felt the need to clarify after a long, still moment.

“Debating?”

“Not quite. You’d have known if we were debating. I never would’ve let you cut me off.”

Peter chuckled.

“That’s one more thing I need to see while I’m here then.”

“Well, we can try to find room for it tomorrow,” Michelle offered, “in between your showing off.”

“I haven’t been showing off!”

She turned her head and gave him a dubious stare when Peter drew back.

“Ok, maybe a little,” he conceded, “but that’s why you asked me to come!”

Michelle saw fit to practice her technique of not responding when he was correct.

“If I’m going to be accused of showing off, then I’m going to have to actually do it so you can see the difference. For your records.”

This boy was full of shit. She grinned at him.

“And what is it you’ll be doing, Spider-Man?”

Peter glanced down the side of the Tower again, then slowly looked over at her. His face was all mischief.

“You’re not climbing the Astronomy Tower.”

“I’ll wait ‘til tomorrow if it makes you feel better. Do it in daylight.”

“There are plenty of towers at Hogwarts, why not begin with a shorter one?”

“MJ, I can handle it. We’ll start at the bottom,” Peter pointed, hand sliding to her waist, “and go up. Easier to set you down if you freak out.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Michelle hedged. “This is not a ‘we’ activity.”

“Sure it is. Don’t worry, I’ll get a good grip on you.”

She laughed anxiously.

“Absolutely not. You will be the main attraction and I will stand safely in the background, as we’ve done since you arrived.”

“Aw, you’re more of a risk-taker than that, I know you are!”

“You won’t goad me into this,” Michelle warned him, though it wasn’t lost on her that she’d been thinking of him as the risk she’d taken all along, “I’m a Ravenclaw.”

“And I’m an Avenger,” Peter declared. “In the words of a guy I know back home, I can do this all day.”

“It’s night.”

“That’s a cheap out, MJ.”

She found him charming and rolled her eyes, leaning into his side as he welcomed her with a friendly expression.

“Just an observation.”

“Are we debating yet?” Peter wondered.

“Don’t change the subject.”

They stood there until they began to yawn, at which point they sat instead (Michelle pulled her wand from her pocket and cast a warming charm). She guided Peter’s gaze through the visible constellations while he enacted his flawless hand-holding magic. The night was so good that she never thought to speculate on whether Hermione Granger had ever had a night like this. Michelle didn’t guess and she didn’t compare. She’d brought Spider-Man to Hogwarts, and she’d snogged him.

She was her own idol.

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fly-pow-bye · 5 years

Text

Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “Man Up 4: The Donnyest Game”

Written by: Haley Mancini

Written & Storyboarded by: Alicia Chan

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

Yup, he's back.

The epic Man Up saga gets yet another episode, turning the trilogy into a tetralogy, putting it in the same category as the Shrek series. I'd argue the quality is very similar, at least in my opinion. The second one was better than the first, one of the rare sequels that was better in every way, and the third one was just horrific. It was so horrific that I didn't even want to watch the fourth one, but somebody once told me that the world was going to roll me and The Final Chapter was better than the third.

I could talk about the Shrek films all day, but I don't think that's what you came here for. Maybe I'm just trying to delay the inevitable, since the very first character we see in this episode is...

...oh boy, Donny. I was sort of hoping that Donny in the title wasn’t referring to the comic relief, as unlikely as that would be. At least they continue the cruelty streak with him that started with Total Eclipse of the Kart, as he struggles to open a jar of strawberry jam without getting it all over himself and getting covered with ants. It's not that it isn't deserved. The Powerpuff Girls, who normally help other people with jars, don't seem to want to help, though Bubbles does give this lovely advice.

Bubbles: Stop, drop, and roll, Donny!

The joke is that he's not on fire, you silly goose! Get ready, because there's a lot of jokes like this. While all of this jam related insanity is happening, a familiar face is hiding in the bushes.

Because this is a part of the Man Up tetralogy, we get the one thing that linked all of them, and the only thing that linked all of them: the villain is Manboy, a man man man man who wants to prove that he is a man man man man by doing man man man man things. The most man man man man thing in this episode is to beat up this majestic unicorn. See, it's ironic, because this majestic horned pony is getting annihilated by ants. Or, "ant-nilhilated" as Donny puts it. He's trying. Oh McCracken, he's trying.

I'm surprised they didn't leave a pause between that pun and Blossom talking about the B-plot of this episode. She doesn't want to waste any time, because they have one hour before they have to participate in the Utonium Strawberry Picking Contest.

The winner gets their photo on the fridge, along with a photo showing the "4th year strawberry champ", which happens to be Blossom! Before I can ramble on about how this show's sense of time is out of whack, I can say that the episode proves that this is not referring to Blossom being the 4th consecutive winner of the strawberry picking contest, but the winner of the 4th year this contest was held. Then again, who would have participated in the 1st? Jojo back when he was a monkey? I'm putting way too much thought into this, am I?

Donny is super intrigued by this grand prize, as if the winds of destiny were whispering "Danny". Bubbles has to slowly move her Finn-faced head in to remind him that his name is Donny, in another amazing joke for this comic relief character.

Buttercup, that rascal, tells Donny he doesn't have a good shot at being the champion of giving Sitcom Dad his sweet, sweet free strawberries, but Bubbles comes in to defend her best friend.

Bubbles: It's okay, Don-Bon! You may not be the best strawberry hunter, but you’re still my best friend!

Yeah, great pep talk, Bubbles. Yeah, Donny is terrible at absolutely everything, but at least he's Bubbles' best friend because he has a great personality he doesn't treat his old friends like dirt when he makes new ones he's a unicorn! Donny seems to take it okay, at least.

Suddenly, Blossom gets a call from the Mayor that the Blimp Shrimp is on the loose, reminding us all that the Powerpuff Girls do indeed save the world before bedtime and aren't just strawberry pickers that can fly. There really isn't much else; we don't even get to see this Blimp Shrimp; I guess we're supposed to just find rhyming funny. It's not really on the money.

Well, there is one reason: it's so Donny can do something that isn't very bright, since he can't seem to use his common sense without the girls to guide him. While he’s hunting for strawberries using his strategy of saying he will not be distracted, he sees a churro on a napkin. This napkin happens to be right next to a lasso hanging off of a tree! He can't fall for this.

(Johnny Test Whip Crack)

At least, that's what Manboy thought. Manboy is bewildered by this specimen, as not only does he not look like the unicorn in his purple guidebook, he fell for the very first trap he put up! You'd think he would know all of this, since he was clearly looking at him getting defeated by ants.

Man Boy: It says here that unicorns are incredibly powerful, are experts at camouflage, and are capable of tracking their opponents across many miles! That doesn't really sound like you!

Donny: I know! I sound more like, "Hi, my name's Donny! D-O-N-N-Y!"

I am so glad to say this is the last time he appears this season. They couldn’t even be consistent with him not knowing his name. They could have at least had him misspell it. Actually, they shouldn’t. Manboy, finding no pleasure in beating up such a weakling, offers him some training that would turn him into a commando. “A strawberry commando?”, Donny asks, and Manboy just rolls with it.

So Manboy trains his own opponent through many tasks, like jumping across cliffs, catching fish, doing pull-ups over a fire, and a few other. This training montage is played a bit too straight to be that funny, but it does have this song about how montages are only here to speed things up. No, really.

Bet you can't guess what's happening here Time is of the essence, so we'll make it clear We only got a minute for a montage song Because this episode is ten minutes long

A montage is happenin'!

I am not going to lie, it's kind of catchy, and at least it gives a scene some sort of a joke.

There is one other thing: there's a scene where Donny gets taken away by what is unmistakably a bald eagle. Later, after he starts getting the hang of being a manly unicorn, he punches that eagle right in the face without even a hit flash. I don’t even know what to say.

After his training and his somewhat justified violence against the national bird of the country this takes place in, or at least it was in the original, he ends up becoming a Rambo-like muscled hero, looking almost exactly like the picture in that purple guidebook. I always wanted to see Donny get the Musclecup treatment, said no one ever. Thanks to this training, Donny stops telling bad jokes all the time and now speaks only in gruff action hero lines. Not sure if I would consider that an improvement.

Manboy: Okay, unicorn! It's time to play the most dangerous game...and you're it!

...so he wants to play a children's playground game with him? That is the conclusion one would expect Donny to consider with that line, but how else would somebody interpret that? I think he may have forgotten a sentence.

Suddenly, Donny starts shooting horn lasers at him. He tries, for the only time in the entire episode, to use his man man man man beard powers, but they get lasered off. Much like the Reboot Puffs in certain episodes, Manboy just knows that a punch would not be able to stop him, and just runs away.

Speaking of the Reboot Puffs, we do get a peek back at the B-plot, and I really mean a peek, because there's almost nothing here. After Sitcom Dad reiterates how this strawberry picking contest's prize is that fabled picture on the fridge, Buttercup boasts that she is for sure that she'll win this time. She has a secret weapon: a dust buster. Bubbles asks if she really learned nothing from that time she used a vacuum cleaner last year.

Insert cutaway gag where Buttercup chases triple chin Ranger Smith with a vacuum cleaner. Honestly, Bubbles should have just stopped at asking if she really has learned nothing, because the answer is usually yes.

Most of this episode is just Manboy getting chased by the Muscled Hellhorn, sometimes hiding in a bush to avoid him. Donny slowly walks, yelling out to Manboy to come out, come out, where ever he is. This is the big irony; he's this big and strong manly man, and he's getting chased away by a sparkly unicorn...who is also a big and strong manly man. I think the muscles and action movie one liners really lessen this.

Buttercup shows up to suck up some strawberries with her dust buster, and she unintentionally sucks up the bush Manboy was hiding in. Hey, something that actually ties the Donny chasing after Manboy plot with the strawberry plot! Unfortunately, that's the only time the two plots really converge; Donny doesn't even seem to be interested in the strawberries in any of these scenes.

As for those strawberries, the next time we see a Powerpuff Girl is when the episode suddenly cuts to a scene where Blossom is picky about what strawberries she puts in her basket. At least that kind of fits her character, even if that seems to sabotage her plans to win. Sitcom Dad outright said the person with the most strawberries wins that coveted photo on the fridge. Honestly, that's really it for the strawberry plot until the end, and no attempt is made to connect this scene with anything else.

It's just more Donny from here on out. If there's any kind of progression, at least the training montage made him a little more competent at dodging traps. He easily dodges an arrow trap, and just walks through a fallen tree. The closest thing to an action scene in this entire episode, really. Eventually something's got to break this new character of his, and it's going to take more than a napkin with a churro on it.

Oh no, it takes a napkin with two churros to make him fall into a trap! He even reverts back to his usual voice just to yell out his love for churros. Manboy shows up that he finally bested this majestic and powerful unicorn...even though he not once tried to lay a finger on him like he said he was going to do. I guess he would take any victory at this point.

Unfortunately for Manboy, that victory doesn't last. Somehow, Donny managed to set up a trap of his own, as Manboy ends up walking backwards, stepping onto a green button, which covers him in strawberry jam. At least that strawberry jam scene from the opening has a point, as he then gets to succumb to the ants.

And not just ants, either, but he also ends up running into a beehive. It doesn't entirely reference the infamous Nicolas Cage remake of The Wicker Man, but we do get this line, which is almost as good:

Manboy: Oh my god! Bees! Bees! Gyaaah!

Okay, he says gosh, but that's not what I heard. Then he gets attacked by a shark, because random. Eventually, he does end up going into a river, which does cleanse him from the jam, the ants, the bees, and the shark. This river ends up going into a waterfall, and then goes into another waterfall. Both times, they have to point out where Manboy is with a giant yellow beeping arrow, as if the context wasn't clear enough. This scene was enjoyable, but that might be because this is the best beating Manboy ever gotten.

And now, the required "I'm so sorry I was such a doofus" scene, though we usually don't see it from a villain. Donny somehow managed to get out of the cage and run all the way down to the bottom of the twin waterfalls to confront Manboy. I honestly stopped questioning such things; maybe it's that same kind of unicorn magic that allows him to poof tickets to ice skating shows.

Donny doesn't accept this apology, and does what he wanted to do as a person who was called "It."

Donny: Tag, you're it! Now you'll have to chase me-e-e-e-e-e!

The conclusion one would expect Donny to consider with that "and you're it" line is exactly what happens. One might ask, if this was Donny's idea of playing tag, why was he trying to horn laser him? The answer, much like most other questions one could ask about this reboot, is pineapples.

Manboy, in his anger, finally decides to lunge right towards Donny to possibly fulfill his promise to beat up a unicorn. Donny moves his neck slightly to make him miss and hit a tree instead. Yeah, it wasn't as cool as when Blossom did that in the original.

In the end, they finally tie this all up with that strawberry plot I completely forgot about, since it barely shows up. Blossom has her pretty pile, Buttercup accidentally sucked up the park ranger, and Bubbles ate the strawberries she found. Since she's best friends with a character who is well established in this episode to be not too bright, Bubbles can't be too far off, you see.

Donny shows up with that tree Manboy ran into, and it turned out to be a strawberry tree. His muscular physique is suddenly gone for no reason whatsoever. Why shouldn't they just have him stay muscular at the end of the episode? The status quo never seems to bother them.

The Professor decides to give Donny that fabled photo on the fridge he always wanted, right next to a fridge magnet of a poorly drawn Texas. Yee haw. Yeah, I can't think of a better ending for this.

Does the title fit?

Sadly, yes, at least with the Donnyest Game. I guess Donny being made more "manly" does sort of continue with Man Up 3's themes, but that's as close as we get.

How does it stack up?

Out of all the Donny-focused episodes, this is the best Donny one by the virtue of having not as much to complain about. He’s not constantly whining and being an absolutely terrible analogy the writers had to deny. He’s not being a terrible friend by ditching him for a total stranger who happened to have glitter and crayons. The episode doesn’t prop him up as this incredibly important character while the characters we should be caring about are getting their butts kicked. Most importantly, it’s not Bubbs and Donny Get The Mail.

However, there really isn't much to praise, either. The strawberry plot doesn't really go anywhere beyond a cutaway gag, and this episode doesn't change my opinion on Manboy or Donny as characters. I don't hate this episode, but I didn't really want to re-watch it.

Next, another episode where a villain cowers in fear over a cutesy character. Will it be any better than this one?

← Watch It! ☆ The Oct-Father →

#fpb ppg 2016 #ppg 2016 #powerpuff girls #cartoon network #fpb reviews

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theonyxpath · 5 years

Link

Figured that now would be a good time to take a look at how things are going with your favorite gaming company.

No, not them, I mean Onyx Path. Sheesh.

After all, we’re near the end of the year – at least the part before everything gets holiday crazy – and next week we start our They Came From Beneath the Sea! Kickstarter.

So let’s take advantage of the time period and have a little snapshot of where we are. We’ll do more of a “Year That Was” thing in a later blog, I think. (This one is long enough as it is – yeesh!)

2018 was a challenging year, but one where we were able to catch up – finally! – on a lot of projects and start delivering some delayed ones…as well as delivering a bunch of Kickstarter projects earlier than estimated!

If you recall from MMN blogs in the past, I started Onyx Path with a three-part plan for the sorts of projects we would take on, so let me divide my comments based on that.

1- Our Wholly Owned Games:

This category is perhaps our timeliest right now, with both books for Scion 2nd Edition and the Trinity Continuum Core and Aeon all having delivered their KS backer PDFs and in various stages of prepping for their traditional print-runs.

This is very satisfying to be able to say, because as our KS backers know, a large part of the delay in getting these two lines to this point was needing to create a system for them that wouldn’t fall apart at higher power play, and which, frankly, was designed with an eye towards the last couple of decades worth of how games are played.

And while still being a recognizable dice pool system for our fantastic fans of the first editions who kept these games alive all these years!

Just today, our old friend and long-time writer and developer Bruce Baugh posted a long and informative “review” of Storypath on his Facebook page and RPG.net, and I’m taking the liberty of posting some of his thoughts here:

I mean to say, if, on the other hand, you tell players that all active approaches are good – that every one solves some problems well and makes for entertaining drama in trying to solve ones it’s not so great for – the choice moves from “should I risk it?” to “_how_ should I risk it?”, because of course they’re taking the kind of risk and get to decide how. Presuming here that players want to have an adventurous good time, the game’s stepping up to point out the scenic attractions and give them a hand where the footing’s tricky. I love it.

Or take a situation where the character’s pursuing someone, using the Athletics skill. The Forceful character uses Might, running fast, bursting through barriers, maybe throwing things to bring down the pursued, and so on. The Finesse character uses Dexterity, perhaps engaging in impromptu (or prepared!) parkour and acrobatics. The Resilience character uses Stamina, and might look for shortcuts that involve kind of long falls, knowing they’ll be able to take the blow, shake it off, and keep going. Every option is good, every option invites the player and Storyguide to look for opportunities to engage with the setting.

Meanwhile, as those two lines move to printing, we have Scarred Lands, which seems to be living up to its name. After a decent start, we had to go back to square one and reconsider how to publish this classic White Wolf-created D20 game after the death of Stewart Wieck, who was originally my partner in publishing it.

I’m glad to say that we indeed have a plan for how to “reactivate” Scarred Lands and you can look for a Kickstarter for the 5e version of the famous Creature Collection early next year. We’re teaming up with a brand new design studio to bring you a gorgeous and exciting new version of SL‘s classic monster manual as the start of more Scarred Lands greatness.

If you’re looking for a Scarred Lands actual play, Travis Legge runs one on Twitch: They play Mondays from 2-4 PM CST at twitch.tv/plasticageplays and archive episodes on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzVwM7FjhlU&list=PLmiXCaSrrCIjmCJQQ7oLwLNahmDbdn_2J and release it in podcast form via anchor at https://anchor.fm/mythsandmatchmakers

They Came From Beneath the Sea! art by Larry Blamire

And for the fourth of our Onyx-owned projects, the aforementioned They Came From Beneath the Sea! Kickstarter emerges from the waves next week on December 18th. Here’s a link to the teaser trailer, created by film legend Larry Blamire (Thanks, Larry!) and we’ll be revealing an Actual Play vid later this week across our social media:

Matthew and I will go into some more detail on what led up to this most unusual tabletop RPG next week!

We have some possible new game ideas percolating away right now, but I’m not in too much of a hurry to launch a new one right away, there are still great expansions and ideas to explore for the ones we already have!

#2- Creator-owned partner games:

Headed up by Cavaliers of Mars and Realms of Pugmire (which includes Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, FetchQuest, and the upcoming Pirates of Pugmire).

These are different than a straight-up license, in that the creators are generally deeply involved with the project. Often they do a large percentage of the writing, or bring in teams they run for it. Depending on how we conceptualize the deal, they may have a lot of input on the art or just work on the concepts and let our art and layout folks do the voodoo that they do so well.

Scarred Lands was originally structured far more like this.

So, basically, I look for creative partners that have a very strong vision for the game world, and who I like and want to work with. From there, if the game line exists in the main book and some Stretch Goals, that’s cool. We made the thing and with the magic of the eternal shelf on DTRPG, that’s all it needs to be a success in my thinking.

If the line keeps gathering interest, we’ll try out more projects if the creator is cool with that. That’s the key, we don’t do anything if they aren’t OK with it.

For Cavaliers of Mars, we have just got the books selling into stores, and we’re going to see how things go. If you haven’t heard Rose talk about Cavs on the Onyx Pathcast interview that went live last Friday, it’s a great listen, and she gives advice on how to get started with Cavs as a bonus!

Here is the link to that: https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/e/episode-29-rose-on-mars/

Roll of Good Dogs and Cats art by Shen Fei

Realms of Pugmire is the umbrella brand for Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau projects, and we still have a wide range of projects that came out of both Kickstarters. Here’s Eddy interviewed at PAX Unplugged by Gamerati: https://twitter.com/gamerati/status/1070095836233646081

I currently have two creators talking to me about teaming up for their projects, and again, I’m pretty good with our current slate here, but if the opportunity suggests itself I am open to adding more.

#3- Licensed games:

Which of course start with our WW-owned World of Darkness, Chronicles of Darkness, and Exalted gamelines, but which also include Dystopia Rising: Evolution, and Legendlore.

No doubt about it, this has been a challenging year with our White Wolf licenses. To give you an idea of the complexity, Matthew’s oversight is primarily “just” the WoD projects, and Dixie covers CofD and Exalted. Eddy covers all the rest, with Matt overseeing a bunch of our fiction projects.

The transition to Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition, and getting Mage, Wraith, and Changeling 20th projects to final stages at the same time was a huge effort, but seeing the success of the V5 Chicago By Night Kickstarter has justified it. We felt it to be important for Onyx Path to be able to show what we could do with V5 books, as we had a few pundits insist we could only do “old” Vampire.

Chicago By Night put the stake in that!

We’re moving along really well on Exalted 3rd projects as well, with Dragon-Blooded looking to release its Backer PDF several months before estimate, and Lunars looking good for having its complete text ready for an early 2019 Kickstarter. Meanwhile, there have been monthly PDF releases all year, and smaller EX3 books working their way through the production progress list.

I can’t say enough good things about the entire EX3 creative team, and I’ve just been impressed as hell with co-developers Robert Vance and Eric Minton. They work with their writing teams and with Dixie to maintain their vision for the line while incorporating the creativity of the team.

The Chronicles of Darkness game lines continue to come on line in terms getting their projects finished up in reasonable time frames, and Dixie is still working with the creative teams to emphasize their strengths, and bolster the areas that give them trouble. We’ve had some real movement VtR2, and the Night Horrors books, and then Mage2 is getting back on track as well.

As you can see in the project progress list below, we have some fantastic WW game line projects already rolling into next year, and a bunch of pitches at WW we are waiting to hear back on.

We ran the Dystopia Rising: Evolution Kickstarter this last year, and it was enough to seed several added projects as Stretch Goals to the line. I don’t think we actually reached as many of DR‘s fans as we could have, judging by the comments we’ve received after the KS was done, so it will be interesting to see how sales go once it is in stores.

We picked up this license for a few reasons. First, DR‘s top folk, Michael and Ashley, are extremely smart and creative folks who have innovated a lot in the LARP area, and we like people who can teach us stuff. Second, a new kind of zombie mythos that we, the horror “experts” hadn’t had a chance to play with.

Third: zombies meet Mad Max. Love that woohoo concept. Finally, and really most importantly, it gave us a chance to try the Storypath System in a world that was both grittier and more horrific than baseline Scion or Trinity Continuum. This was really important, and from I’ve heard it works really well for this sort of genre.

For Legendlore, well, apply what I’ve been saying about finding licenses that we can apply our aesthetics to, not visual aesthetics as we’re flexible about those, but design and thematic ones. For now, I’ll leave it at that, as the book has just appeared in the project process queue, and we’ll say a lot more about it next year.

Will we be adding more licenses this year? Well, discussions continue on several properties, so we’ll see. Basically, a license has to be either one that we feel we can create compelling worlds from, even if it is an already existing game, and that works well with our publishing model, or that pays us oodles of cash for very little work (riiiight, and if you find one of those, let me know!).

Trinity Continuum Core art by Pat McEvoy

We’re thrilled to be able to publish so many immersive worlds where players can find deep meaning in their game play. That’s a testament to the amazing writing and visuals that take us to all these places, and to an in-house team that has filled-in, rejuvenated, cajoled, encouraged, and relentlessly supported our out-of-house creative teams.

Mighty Matt and Mirthful Mike, and our trio of Dixie, Matthew, and Eddy, have pushed, prodded, pleaded, and practically puked to get our vast array of projects finished with love and care this whole year, and their efforts are paying off big time as noted above!

In fact, you can listen to the Terrific Trio every Friday on the Onyx Pathcast and often get some clues as to where the projects they are responsible for are headed, and the sorts of challenges they surmount every week.

This Friday, they flash back to the conventions we attended a couple of weeks ago and tell each other about their favorite characters!

Truly, this post has been all about our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

Next up, we’re working on the Kickstarter for They Came From Beneath the Sea! (TCFBtS!), which has some very different additions to the Storypath mechanics we’ll be explaining during the KS. They take an excellent 50’s action and investigation genre game and turn it to 11!

Check out the teaser above!

Looking to start on Dec 18th at 1pm EST but run it extra long into January!

ELECTRONIC GAMING:

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!

ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there!

https://ift.tt/2w0aaEW

And we’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://theonyxpath.com/press-release-onyx-path-limited-editions-now-available-through-indie-press-revolution/

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

This week, in celebration of both Monarchies of Mau and Cavaliers of Mars being live for retailers in Studio2, we have new themed merchandise on our RedBubble store: postcards and mugs and all sorts of stuff!

CONVENTIONS

Start getting ready for our appearance at MidWinter this January in Milwaukee! So many demos, playtests, secret playtests, and Onyx Path Q&As you could plotz!

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Scion Jumpstart (Scion 2nd Edition)

Geist2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Pirates of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Distant Worlds (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #1 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Creatures of the World Bestiary (Scion 2nd Edition)

Redlines

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Witch-Queen of the Shadowed Citadel (Cavaliers of Mars)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

Memento Mori: the GtSE 2e Companion (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Second Draft

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Scion Ready Made Characters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Development

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

Manuscript Approval:

Wr20 Book of Oblivion (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Editing:

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Aeon Aexpansion (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Adventures for Curious Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

In Media Res (Trinity Continuum: Core)

Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon (Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition)

Post-Editing Development:

C20 Players’ Guide (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Indexing:

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

In Art Direction

Dystopia Rising: Evolution – Finals coming in.

Geist 2e

The Realm

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Chicago By Night – Contracting next bits.

C20 Player’s Guide – Still sketches and more sketches.

Aeon Aexpansion

They Came From Beneath the Sea! – KS prep.

EX3 Lunars – Sketches coming in, some finals already.

Signs of Sorcery

In Media Res

Marketing Stuff

In Layout

Ex3 Dragon Blooded – 2nd proof.

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg)

Proofing

Scion Hero – Page XXs and then Indexing.

Scion Origin – Page XXs and then Indexing.

CtL2 Jumpstart – At WW for approval.

M20: Gods and Monsters – With Phil.

Pugmire Roll of Good Dogs and Cats

Trinity Core – Waiting for errata from Backer PDF.

Trinity Aeon – Waiting for errata from Backer PDF.

At Press

Wraith 20th – Waiting for new cover proof. Everything else good to go though.

Wraith 20 Screen – Printing.

Scion Dice – At Studio2.

Lost 2e Screen – Printing.

Scion Screen – Printing.

Changeling: The Lost 2e – Soon shipping from printer to shipper. PoD proof ordered.

Fetch Quest – Proof sent back to manufacturer, printing starting.

Exalted 3rd Novel – Prepping for release.

PtC Tormented – PoD proof ordered.

TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE:

It’s 7th Sea creator John Wick’s birthday today. I’m sure he doesn’t feel a day older than YARRR!

#Onyx Path Publishing

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ruffsficstuffplace · 6 years

Text

The Viridian Vanguard (Part 27)

Qrow took one long, slow drink from his flask, pulled it from his lips, and sighed heavily. <Alright, I’m good—let them in,> he mumbled as he capped it again, put it away in the inner pocket of his shirt.

Soon, the door on the other side of the room opened up, their first interviewee of the day strode to the dais in the center of the room, Ruby and the rest of the Keeper Team surrounding her. They exchanged the usual formalities, before she knelt down on the large cushion provided for her, bathed in the light streaming through the high windows.

<Welcome to the first round of interviews for the Keeper Team!> Penny said smiling. <First off, congratulations for making it this far! Second, for the purposes of uniformity, we will have to request that you please communicate almost-to-entirely in Actaeon, save for any Nivian sayings, concepts, or quotes that you feel will not, or cannot translate adequately. Third, though we are sure you are already well aware, the questions we may ask you can get intensely personal, and that you are free to ask such questions back, if either of us feel that they may be relevant, or might prove to be a significant asset or liability in the future.

Anouke replied. <I have been a watcher since I was old enough to walk and handle a knife, and have been hunting down, slaying, and skinning almost every dangerous beast and horrific monster that lurks in this Valley for the past five decades. Whether they stalk no man’s land, lurk in the darkest, murkiest depths, or soar the most treacherous skies, I can guarantee you I have faced and bested them all, with one notable exception:

Anouke put her hand to her breast, looked Ruby in the eyes, and said,

<Yeah, say no more, you’re out.> Qrow said calmly.

Anouke’s eyes widened, she snapped her head to Qrow. <Excuse me?!>

<Yeah, I’m really sorry, Watcher Kalla, but Uncle Qrow has a point,> Ruby said. <You have to put your very all into fighting a Soul Eater—and every bit you spend on trying to kill it in a way that preserves its body, rather than just doing everything you can to ensure it’s dead is more opportunity for the Soul Eater to kill you, instead.>

Anouke scowled, before she let out a short, disappointed sigh. she said, turning back to Ruby, and bowing her head. <Thank you for your time and the opportunity.>

Ruby and the rest of the Keeper Team said their half of the formal farewell, before Anouke was out the door, and the next candidate came in.

“Wow, that quickly and just for that reason?” Weiss asked.

“Yep!” Ruby said. “It’s kinda like one of those economic theories or something, where there’s hundreds of folks that want to fill in a vacant, permanent spot in the Keeper Team, so we can just pick and choose whoever we think is going to be the absolute best of the best, though there were some folks where the issues were more, uh, personal.”

“Such as?”

“Well...”

It was mid-day now when yet another candidate strode into the room, a pair of well-worn headphones around their neck. <Yo, name’s Yral Revene, but you might know me by my stage name: ‘Jackdaw,’> they said. <Officially my job is as a watcher-weaver, but only to pay the bills while I work on my real job: music maker. I want in on the Keeper Team as you all are gonna be the key to my revolutionizing music and weaving, and it’s going to start with me helping you kick Soul Eater tail like never before!>

<That’s an incredibly bold statement,> Ren said. <May you please explain how exactly you are planning to do this…?>

<With the freedom to use my Sound, is what,> Jackdaw replied. <I’ve been forced to use all the stock standard sheets and songs, so me and the rest of the sound weavers can harmonize and collab easy-like, and even then, I’ve barely been allowed to use my Sound on the field.>

<Your ‘Sound’…?> Ruby asked.

<They mean their personally composed music,> Penny said.

<Oh!> Ruby said. <So, is this also a set of custom-made and modified spells, then?>

<Yes,> Jackdaw replied. they said, pulling out an external speaker and their comm-crystal.

<Excuse me!> Penny said, rising up from her seat. <I would like to remind you that elemental weaving of any sort is forbidden inside the interview room, and will be considered an attempt to harm the Keeper or her teammates, with the according grave punishment!>

<Relax, it’s just the music this time!> Jackdaw replied as they set it down, before they smiled. <You can experience the rest later, at the Grove. Ready?>

Everyone agreed to it, or didn’t mind, except for Qrow, who said <Hold on.> then ripped open one of the cushions, and plugged his hearing-holes with the stuffing.

<Oh come on, Uncle Qrow, aren’t you overreacting?> Ruby asked him.

<Alright, go!> Qrow said loudly, either ignoring her, or unable to hear.

Without any further issues, Jackdaw grinned, and pressed play, their personal music booming and filling the room. Merely ten seconds in, the smiles on Ruby and Nora’s faces disappeared, Zwei whined and pressed his two heads together and covered his outermost ears with his paws, while Penny looked concernedly at the increasingly uncomfortable and displeased members of the Keeper Team, sans Qrow.

<Oh, Eluna, make it stop!> Blake cried, clapping her hands over her ears.

<I’m really sorry, but please do!> Ruby added.

<Seriously?> Jackdaw asked, frowning. <It’s just new! It’s like an acquired taste! You’ll learn to love it, I swear!>

<My sincerest apologies, but I will really have to ask you to stop, or be forced to!> Penny cried. <Any more of this, and you might be charged with harassing and psychologically harming the Keeper and her Team.>

“And then there were some folks who’d been doing incredibly well, but we had to make the tough decision to reject them because of one deal-breaker or another...”

It was afternoon now, the curtains on the windows drawn to keep the glare of the sun from being too powerful. It was already past 2, their agreed upon lunch break, but they delayed it for the sake of their latest interviewee.

<… While I doubt I will be able to concoct, or even begin to research on something that might affect the Soul Eaters themselves, I’m sure that I’ve proven that my potions can be a great boon to you and the rest of the team, in combat or out of it,> he finished.

<Indeed you have, Maker Nyimu!> Penny said, smiling. <There’s just one more aspect from your record that we would like to address: we’re rather concerned about how dramatically your combat performance dropped after you finished drug rehabilitation, both in training exercises and live situations, and how that might be a liability when it comes to high-stakes situations like a Soul Eater attack.>

Nyimu frowned. <Ah, yes… to be honest, most of my stellar performance before it was all thanks to the constant abuse of enhancers, or using more to escape the consequences. Again, I swear I will improve myself without the cheap, dangerous shortcuts.>

<We know,> Qrow said, <but let me give you a hypothetical situation: everyone but you and Ruby are down or dead. She’s in deep shit, you’re the only one that has a hope in hell of saving her, but you know that the only way you can do it is if you pop a pot, or jam a needle into your arm, give you the boost you need.

Nyimu was silent, his eyes widening in surprise, before his face contorted into all manner of expressions, the inner turmoil clear for all to see. He opened his mouth to speak, closed it again, before finally, he sighed heavily, slumped his shoulders, and shook his head. <No, Watcher Branwen, I believe I cannot…> he said. <Even a single misstep will be all it takes to fall again into addiction, I’m certain of it..>

<So you don’t think you can sacrifice yourself, if it comes to that?> Ruby asked sympathetically.

Nyimu looked at her, and said, <No Keeper—I apologize.>

Nyimu said, smiling ruefully. He bowed, they went through the formal goodbyes, and left.

As soon as he was out the door, everyone started getting up off their cushions and stretched, groans and sighs of relief echoing in the room.

<Ugh, I’m so glad it’s finally over...> Blake muttered as she arched her back. <Please don’t take this as a personal insult, everyone, but I never realized how much truth there was to the stories of what kinds of Fae would want to apply for the Keeper Team… I always assumed there was some element of exaggeration and fabrication to it to make it a more entertaining story, not that they were just reporting it as is!>

<Yeah, Keepers tend to attract misfits, outcasts, and oddballs almost as much as they do trouble,> Qrow said, bending his arms back and forth between their usual and flying configurations. <And sometimes, they’re both at once,> he added, looking pointedly at Blake.

She scowled, and said nothing.

<Be nice, Uncle Qrow,> Ruby snapped softly, before she smiled at Blake. <So, since this is your first time in the Bastion and being out of the house in general since you got here, anything you want to get for lunch? There’s plenty of great restaurants here, and I’m sure we can convince the Council to foot for our bill.>

<If none of you mind, I would really appreciate someplace that serves fish,> Blake replied. <Preferably fresh.>

<Oh, well you’re in luck!> Nora said, grinning. <Ren and I know this great seafood place in the Tender’s Fields, serves pretty much everything—freshwater and saltwater fish, squids, octopi, shellfish, algae, seaweed—heck, they even have these neat compressed balls of plankton you eat like chips! You even get a discount if you catch it yourself.>

Blake smiled. <I’d really like that, actually.>

<Any objections?> Ruby asked. When there were none, she smiled and said, <Then let’s go get some lunch!>

Then as if on cue, all of their comm-crystals sans Blake’s started flashing and beeping wildly in alarm, similar alarms echoing elsewhere in the Roost. Penny projected a holo and read aloud the message:

<Isn’t Thundercall where we were supposed to go in three weeks?> Ruby cried as they started running.

<Looks like the date’s been moved forward, kiddos!> Qrow cried back.

<Sorry to sound self-centered, but what’s going to happen to me?> Blake butted-in as she kept pace with them. <I’m supposed to be with at least one of you at all times!>

<Simple: we take you with us!> Ruby replied. <Your equipment’s all fixed now, and you said it yourself that you’re willing to fight and hunt with us, right?>

<There’s a lot of legal mumbo jumbo about Keeper’s deputizing folks, so don’t worry about going to jail, and just focus on not dying!> Nora chirped. <It’d be really tragic and awful if you died so soon after you just got introduced into the story!>

Blake looked strangely at her, before she shook her head, and kept on running.

Note: Qrow, like many avian Fae, does not have ears, and has hearing-holes instead. Ren also has them, as reptilian Fae and some more exotic subspecies like snake Fae have acquired adaptations from others over the millenia, though the earliest of them reportedly could only “taste” sound or had very poor audio perception.

#rwby #white rose #the viridian vanguard #fanfic

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alisemartinez91 · 4 years

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