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lostgreekgod · 3 years

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delusion

a/n: hello aaaaa i had @theaudacitytowrite give me a prompt for a loki x reader fic solely because I do not find entertainment elsewhere! anyways

word count: 2776 (shit got longer, but what can I say I'm very feely when it comes to angst)

warnings: angst. angst angst angst. some crying. there was this one mention of blood, tendons & stuff ? but that's about it have fun crying

pairing: loki x f!reader

summary: you and Loki have been together for quite some time now. what happens when his insecure self realizes that you love him? and that he does too?

another a/n: I feel like this could use a part 2 i might come up with it next week because I've got a 7 day break from school yayy lmk if you'd like that nexie

4 years. It had been 4 years, 3 months, and 27 days since y/n had shed a tear. But on this fine autumn morning, as the yellow and brown leaves rustled in the gentle winds, as the smell of coffee, pumpkin, and spice wafted in the air, she let a tear fall- courtesy of her lover. No, scratch that. Her ex-lover.

\\ 3 hours earlier \\

Humming a tuneless song, an exhausted y/n walked back to her room in the Avenger’s tower. A whole day of training wouldn’t be smart when she had a crucial mission to lead just the next day, but she wanted the mission to pan out exactly right. This wasn’t her first mission, but the stats were so much more critical compared to the missions she had been sent on before. A new rival organization was springing up in SHIELD’s radar, and they seemed as high as ever in spirit, regardless of how the Avengers had managed to crush HYDRA not so long ago. Apparently, according to a message they had received a few moments before, the up-and-coming organization had 4 junior agents in captivity, and in exchange for those agents, they wanted intel. Fury’s plan was to provide a hard drive with incorrect information with an embedded virus, and have the agents rescued before the rival agents decrypted the file and realized SHIELD’s play. Two birds with one stone, as he had phrased. y/n was going to go in with Natasha and Loki. Nat, because she was as light as a cat on her feet, and Loki because he had his seidr for illusions, teleportation, et cetera. This wasn’t going to be her first mission with her 4-month boyfriend either, but she was excited to be fighting alongside him, nevertheless. As she washed up in the shower, she heard her room door open and close with a click. Finally. She thought with a smile. She could go to sleep in her beloved’s arms for the few hours she had left for rest and relaxation before they set out. Putting on her nightgown, she left the bath. She saw how Loki was cocooned on her bed, arms reaching out towards her, a little smile on his face. Unlike her, the god didn’t train much- but he still looked tired.

“Hello, my little lioness. Whom did you beat up today? You do realize it is wiser to rest before a mission.” He said in a loud, lazy whisper. All y/n could do was smile sweetly at him and snuggle under the covers. He knew how the lack of training made her insecure about her ability to be stealthy. Instead of letting Loki’s arms wrap around her like most of the other nights, she spooned his chest instead. Loki’s eyes widened at the sudden gesture, his body tensing up at the sudden disposal of love. He had only given love; he had never been on the receiving side of it. Wait, love? He didn’t love y/n. He didn’t. That swell he felt in his chest every time he saw her was simply the result of the great appreciation and respect he had for her. Nothing more. He couldn’t love her. After all, everyone he had ever loved ended up being taken away from him.

Chuckling lightly, he hoped y/n wouldn’t catch onto his nervousness. “What are you doing my dear?”

Inhaling his scent, y/n mumbled, her eyes still closed. “Sleeping. Go to sleep my love. We have to be up in less than 3 hours.”

My love? Yes, y/n had called him that multiple times, but he had never thought much of it. Why was he suddenly so wary of it? Did y/n truly love him? No, maybe she wasn’t thinking. She was already worn out and sleepy, maybe she blurted it out accidentally. No one could love him. No one.

y/n sensed that he still hadn’t relaxed. Cracking her eyes slightly open, she asked lightly, “Is everything okay, love?” Loki’s brows furrowed at her question. There it was again. Love. Loving him was impossible. To love him would be delusional. A move of delusional stupidity. Blatant ignorance.

Loki shifted away from her and sat up, ignoring the throbbing in his chest when he heard her whine in response. He met her eyes only to be asked another question. “Love, what’s the matter?”

His heart clenched against his chest, suddenly the room was too hot. He had to understand what was going on. He had to figure this out before it was too late.

“Love?” he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

y/n scanned his face, trying to understand the reason for his sudden withdrawal. She simply hummed in response.

Loki raised his eyebrows, indicating her to reiterate her response.

“Yes, what is the matter?”

“You referred to me as ‘love’.” He repeated, his tongue spewing out the last word like it was coated in dirt and grime.

“Yes, I suppose I did. Is something bothering you?” she asked again, placing her hand on his thigh as a gesture of concern.

How was he expected to ask her if she actually, truly loved him, without causing a kerfuffle? Without making it seem awkward, without losing her? What if she said she didn’t love him? What then? Would that make him feel better? Would that make him happy? A chill ran down his spine when he realized his answer. No. he wouldn’t be happy. In fact, he’d be terribly upset. He wanted y/n to love him. Shaking his head, he tried to heed logic over his emotion. He had to stop himself before he caused something he couldn’t fix. Before y/n realized the monster he truly was. He had to protect his beloved y/n, that would be the least he owed to her, after all that he had led her into.

He neutralized his expression, calming his breathing. This was for the best. He was the God of Lies, he did not deserve love after all that he had done.

“As a matter of fact, y/n, something is bothering me.”

y/n nodded, encouraging him to explain his predicament. “You can talk to me, love.”

Loki inhaled quickly, the use of the blasted term knocking him out of character for a second before he was able to regain his composure. He would ask the question directly. Right to the point, like he was doing business. That was the only way he could maintain his pretense without breaking down too soon. y/n might never forgive him after tonight, but to have her angry at him was so much better than losing her, on his account.

“Do you love me?”

y/n gasped lightly at the sudden question, her eyes widening at how Loki asked her about something so deep with no emotion in his voice. She sensed his sudden hostility, this coldness he was presenting her with. Sitting upright, she looked into his eyes. Nothing. She could read nothing from his expression. All she could pick up was this eerie sadness radiating off of him.

She decided to try reasoning with him. This sudden hostility meant something was bothering him at a much more personal level, and such issues mustn’t be dealt with before an important mission. She would know.

“We don’t have to do this today, Loki. We have to be up early tomorrow, and I doubt- “

“Answer the question, y/n.” Loki interrupted, his voice hardened like steel.

“Loki, we really mustn’t-“ she tried again.

“Answer, y/n.” he pressed.

y/n could only look at him and wonder what the cause was for the unexpected change in his demeanor. How was she supposed to tell him? How was she supposed to give the answer to the one question that could either make or break everything that they had together? How was she supposed to tell him that her love for him was far more than life? That he was her life? It didn’t matter how less time they had spent with each other; she knew him a lot longer before they had decided to begin their courtship, and she had fallen in love with him even before they had gotten romantically involved. She only fell harder for him after she saw how he truly was. How broken and vulnerable, how he yearned for a place in someone’s heart, how he wished someone could love him without any foretold conditions. How he wished to be free. Loki’s eyes widened as realization dawned upon him. y/n’s lack of response answered his question. She did love him. But he had to hear it from her. That was the only way he could finish this for good. For his y/n.

“I’m waiting.” He prompted, slightly flinching at the coldness in his voice.

y/n’s eyes flicked over to his, her skin eliciting goosebumps from the steely nature of his voice. He had never been like this to her. The last time she had seen him like this was when he was under Thanos’ control. Breathing deeply, she reached out and held his hands, shutting her eyes for a moment.

“Yes. I do. I love you,” she whispered, blood pounding against her ears. Her heart convulsed in her chest when Loki didn’t reply. She cracked her eyes open, her fingers growing cold at Loki’s unchanged demeanor.

Loki’s chest heaved at her response. ‘I love you,’ she had whispered, her eyes shut at the vulnerability of their situation. He already knew what she was going to say, but to hear it from her own mouth, her voice tiny as ever in fear that he wouldn’t return her feelings had him gasp slightly. His blood ran cold, his mind freezing at another realization. He loved her too. Of course he did. How could he have been so blind? He loved her so much, he hadn’t even noticed. Finish it! Finish it right now! Before you make things worse! His mind screamed at him. He knew what he had to do. Swallowing, he tried to memorize the feel of her hands against his. This was all he was ever going to have. A memory. A memory of his little lioness, a memory of what he would have had if he was someone different. Someone nicer, better. Someone not him. He pulled away from her, and met her eyes, his expression stoic and emotionless. Like the monster he was.

“Pity.” He whispered, his heartbreaking at how y/n’s eyes widened. He thought he experienced heartbreak when he lost his mother. As destructive as that moment was, many years ago, he believed he wouldn’t feel anything over this. After all, you can’t break something that’s already broken. But boy, was he wrong. This was heartbreak. And apparently, it's even worse when you go through it a second time. His veins felt like ice, his head heavier than ever. He could feel his throat closing up, all he wanted was to rip his heart out of his chest. He didn’t deserve her. Hell, he didn’t deserve to live after all that he had done.

“What?” came y/n’s voice, a little barely over a whisper. He couldn’t help but notice how her voice was heavy, laced with hurt.

“It’s a pity you think you love me.” He reiterated, his words chapping away at his already cracked heart.

y/n couldn’t process the event unfolding in front of her. Loki didn’t love her. No, worse. Loki thought it was stupid that she loved him. If she had any concern for her dignity, she would ask him to leave. But she loved him far too much. She decided to try one last time. Straddling him, she reached over and cupped his face in his hands, pressing her lips against his ice-cold ones. He was shocked for a moment, and before he realized, he was kissing her back. I love you, he wanted to say. I love you too. But all could do was try and engrave in his mind the feeling of her soft lips on his, the warmth of her hands against his cheeks. This was the end. He had to use all his willpower not to pull her in his arms and deepen the kiss, and whisper sweet nothings in her ear.

Breaking away, y/n whispered, “it may be stupid that I do. Pathetic, even. -It isn’t pathetic. I love it.- Honestly, not one day goes by where I don’t face criticism about how I must be an ignorant fool to love someone like you. But what these people don’t understand, is that they are the ones that are ignorant. They do not see you as I do, and although I wish every day that they would, I doubt it will ever happen. You are, the best thing that has ever happened to me. That ever will happen to me,” she says, taking his hand and placing it over her heart. “Can’t you feel this? This is what I feel every time I think of you- this is how I feel every time you merely breathe in my direction. -You are the reason I still exist, my dear. You keep me tethered to the outside world.- My love for you has been in existence for far longer than our courtship. I wish I could do more than just tell you how much I love you, if I could, I would give you anything, everything you’ve ever wanted; my heart was yours the moment I set eyes on you 2 years ago. So take it, trample over it- it was yours to do anything with anyway. -So was mine. I am yours, just as you claim to be mine.- I love you, Loki Friggason, and I refuse to stop. -I love you too, my darling y/n. but I must do this. For you. Forgive me.-”

All Loki could do was hold in all those thoughts he desperately wanted to put in words. He could feel his eyes well up, his chest convulsing for the umpteenth time. Inhaling her scent, he hoped he would remember the sweet smell of chocolate and wine she always smelled of.

With great restraint, he pushed her off of him, his heart churning at y/n’s gasp. Her heart cracked at his dismissal. He couldn’t look at her while he shattered her heart, while he ripped it right off the pedestal. This was the end.

“You say all this, but you mean nothing by it, I assure you. I have encountered numerous midgardians professing their love for me, but I can tell when someone lies y/n. And it is very clear to me how you are simply overwhelmed. You do not love me. You are simply but a blatant, ignorant fool.” Could his heart shatter any further? Apparently, yes. It clawed at his chest, pain searing in his bones. He would feel all of it. He would embrace it.

He forced his lips to morph into a twisted, sickening smile. Agony. That is what he felt. Fresh burning agony, like fire in his tendons.

“What we have is all but a product of boredom. I was simply bored, silly mortal.” He looked up at her when she gasped, her hand on her heart. It was almost as if he could hear it shatter. All he wanted to do was hold her and weep. Tell her how sorry he was. Tell her how he wished he was the person she truly deserved. Instead, he was going to crawl into a ball and wish for death.

He got up to leave. Once and for all. Shutting his eyes for a moment, he willed his tears to sink back to wherever they came from. He didn’t deserve to cry.

“Did I ever matter to you?” he heard her whisper. Deciding not to answer, he stepped towards the door before she called to him. “Did I, Loki?” she asked again, her voice steadier. There was the woman he had hopelessly fallen in love with. A lioness, she certainly was.

He turned around to look at her, the same lifeless smile dancing across his lips. If he was someone else, he would have been taken aback at y/n’s stoic expression. She would rise again. She would continue to live her life, and no one was going to stop her. Especially him. That was the lioness he knew of. The only evidence of her hurt was the tiny teardrops prickling in her eyes, which he could see only because of the morning sun rays peeking in through the gaps in the curtains. She never cried.

“No,” he breathed, swiftly exiting through the door before she could see the tears that had traitorously fallen onto his cheeks.

part 2 here!

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riceacc · 3 years

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How to Teambuild on ARB And Score the Highest

Yes, even if you can’t read Japanese because I can’t either

Hey y’all, it’s Picklesz and here I am for a post I don’t think has been made yet! Although I can find some translations I don’t think anybody has made a guide on how to score the highest in this game, and with the advent of tiering — or you just want to high score contest all the songs — I think this may be helpful for newcomers or people who simply don’t know what the card skills mean (it took me a while to memorize them all too). And has someone who has played the game since day one, I know my way around things :)

Disclaimer that this is based on my own research from playing the game for over a year and figuring out what's good myself although I think I am right

Anyways, on with the guide!

What Actually Matters?

In ARB, there are a few things that matter when you build a team, some way more important than others. Namely, there are three things. In order of most importance:

1. Leader Skill

This is clearly the most important. Leader skill determines how much of a stat boost you will get, and some of them won't apply unless you meet certain criteria (but more on that later).

2. Auto Skill

Auto Skill determines what boost you get while playing a song. These can either make passing the song easier or increase your score: obviously you want increasing your score if you want to score the highest.

3. Stat Synergy with the Leader Skill

The least important but should at least be mentioned. Leader skills can boost one, two, or three stats (though there's only two cards in the game that I know of that increase three stats). If you get late game, you'll want to have all your cards in your team to have their highest stat/stats be the one that the leader increases.

I will be going over all these in depth! So lets start with the most important one.

Leader Skills

Leader skills are the first thing you need to think about when building your team. Generally, there are only two leader skills that you want when building your team: multi-division and division only. These skills, however, have specific requirements; if you don't meet them, your skill will not activate. Multi-division requires that the cards on your team be from three or more divisions, while division only requires that all your cards be from the same division.

These skills are the best skills because they have a higher boost than all up and division up (division only and division up are different). If your leader skill is maxed, multi-division and division only will boost your stats by 120% while all up and division up will only be 90%. Even their level one are better, so unless you have a maxed all up card and not a multi-division/division only, you should always be using one of those two skills.

Examples of the skills:

The text on the right side of the slash signifies what type of leader skill it is, this one multi-division. Notice how the text below has 120% in it...

While this card only has 90%. This skill is all up, and as stated earlier is less than either multi-division or division only adds up to.

So when it comes to division up and division only, how can you tell the difference? This card is an MTC only card. Notice how it has character after MTC...

While this one does not. This one is simple division only, division being MTC on this one. These type of cards will all have their division abbreviation to tell you which one it is (BB, MTC, FP, M, BAT, and DH).

So, how do you upgrade these cards to get to the 120% percent? Well, there's two ways: star pieces and leader skill tokens.

Star pieces you can use on any card! You can get them from tiering in events and in the biscuit shop once a month. However, you can only get the gold biscuits to buy them from selling SSRs and SRs, so I recommend selling dupes from the event box that you don't want to get these and use them on cards you do want.

Leader skill tokens you can also use on any card but there is no way to actually get them. You have to wait until ARB decides to give them out, usually on half-anniversary or anniversary - that's the only time we've got them in the past.

One last thing: in the long run, you want a leader skill that increases one stat only. This is because the boost stacks much better when it increase one stat by 120% rather than two stats by 60% (all stats doesn't exist on any multi-division or division only card so don't worry about it). You can tell if it increases one or two stats, because one stat will say 120% in the description while two stats will say 60%. However it's really not a big deal unless you really need those few thousand extra points and you have like. Ten maxed cards so you can afford to be picky.

Auto Skills

The bread and butter of your team. While you only need one card to have a good leader skill, ideally every member of your team will have a good auto skill that boosts your score (from here on out, I will be referring to score boosts as simply boosts).

So what is a good auto skill? Well, if you're just starting out, it's any skill that scores, but if you want to score the highest there are four specific skills you want: critical tap, combo boost, perfect boost, and tap boost. Don't worry, I will actually be at least briefly going over every auto skill because there are a LOT and being able to recognize the text for each one is important (although unfortunately due to the ten image limit I can only show pictures of the best ones 😭). So in order of best to worst, here are all the auto skills!

Critical Tap

Look for 4% in the auto skill description!

Easily the best auto skill. It gives you a 4% boost on all notes, with the caveat of being the timing on notes gets stricter. You can disregard that because it literally does not matter if you get a perfect or not when you are getting a 4% boost on every note you tap and if you're reading this guide you're probably getting full combo anyways. This the the highest boost you can get on every single note so having at least one of these is amazing.

Combo Boost

Look for 3% in the auto skill description!

Basically a poor mans critical tap. You get a 3% boost on all notes as you as you keep your combo. Again, most of y'all are probably getting full combo anyways and if not you can always use the autoplay cassettes!

Perfect Boost

Look for the word "perfect" and 3% in the description!

A poor mans combo boost (see the pattern here?). You get a 3% boost on all notes as long as they are perfects. You probably shouldn't use this with critical tap if you don't get a lot of perfects as the timing gets harder but it still is the third best auto skill.

Tap Boost

Look for 1% followed by 3% in the description!

Lastly, the poor mans perfect boost. You get a 1% boost on all notes except tap notes; you get a 3% boost on tap notes. As the overwhelming majority of notes are tap notes, you can essentially disregard the 1% part unless you are playing Ore Ga Ichiro which I swear has a flick note every other note.

Those are the best auto skills in the game, however there are many others. I'll go over them all briefly here :)

Scratch Note Boost

Look for 2% followed by 6% in the description!

You get a 2% boost on all notes except scratch notes; you get a 6% boost on scratch notes. The 6% boost sounds nice except you rarely have scratch notes so uh. 2% boost on all notes is not very good.

btw the green notes are scratch notes if you didn't know

Long Note Boost

Look for 2% followed by 3% in the description!

You get a 2% boost on all notes except long notes; you get a 3% boost on long notes. This doesn't even have a niche because you can literally get a 3% boost on every note with combo or perfect and a 4% boost with critical tap. Literally what were they thinking when they made this skill. Don’t use it.

Flick Note Boost

Look for 2% followed by 15% in the description!

You get a 2% boost on all notes except flick notes; you get a 15% boost on flick notes. That sounds nice until you again remember you rarely have flick notes except when playing Ore Ga Ichiro Part A. In fact, some songs like Sensenfunkuukou Part A (god I hope I spelled that right, Jiro's first solo if I didn't) don't have a single flick note in it despite the fact they give this skill to every Buster Bro event card I swear. So really just stay away from this one too.

Perfect Up

Don't look for anything this skill sucks 😭 but for real this skill will simply have the word "perfect" in the description.

PLESE DO NOT USE THIS SKILL UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. This skill makes all of your notes perfects. It does NOT score at all. If you are aiming to score obviously you do not want a skill that doesn't not score. I am so sorry if you rerolled for ARB Riou or Dice back in the day because they both have this skill and it SUCKS and does NOTHING.

Um. Anyways. Here're info on how to upgrade skills and what they do!

You can upgrade your skills with either skill tokens or rainbow auto skill tokens. Upgrading your auto skill makes your skill last for longer whenever it activates and will have a shorter time in between activations, so you definitely want to upgrade them.

You can buy skill tokens in the event shop, biscuit shop, or coin shop. You need three mic tokens and ten attribute tokens for every level, and once you hit level 5, you need specific division tokens as well. It is pretty expensive but it does get easier over time to stockpile.

The rainbow auto skill token you can only get either when they give them out OR you completely empty the event box of the rate up card. Once you do that, they replace the rate up card with the rainbow auto skill token. You have to either be ridiculously lucky in the box or spend every minute in the game or both to do this, but it is possible.

Now that that long section is over, on to the last part of this guide!

Stat Synergy with Your Leader Skill

As alluded to earlier, you eventually want all your cards highest stats to be the stat your leader skill boosts. Honestly, you should NOT worry about this until you have several maxed auto skill cards and a maxed leader skill to use it with. But for those who are at that point, here's an example of the stat synergy I am talking about.

These teams technically have the same skills (the Jyuto and Riou card I switched have the same auto skills). In fact, on paper the second team should score higher because I've upgraded the Jyuto card's leader skill so his power score is higher than Riou's. But because their stats are different, the Riou card actually works better on this team because it works better in line with the leader skill and leads to the teams ultimate power score being 2,000 points higher, a pretty noticeable difference.

The case is not always so clear cut, because, well, not all cards have the same auto skill. But if you want to score the highest, especially if you are tiering, you will want to keep this in mind.

So how do you figure out the trade-off between stats and skill when the cards you are switching don't have the same auto skill? Honestly, you just have to play a no attribute song twice and find out :( I don't have a surefire way to track this. In my experience if you are debating between two cards and one of them is Riou the Riou card always scores higher. I do not know why and that is probably just me because I own all of his event cards but uh. Put Riou card on your team :)

Anyways! To increase your stats you actually have to enhance the leader skill of your card. Those ways were outlined earlier, but this part of the guide is why I actually recommend you enhance event cards of characters with good auto skills that you KNOW you are going to use. If they have a good auto skill you can get a max card with maxed stats for free! Again I would not do this unless they have auto skill and you WILL use them since it takes a lot of time but it is totally worth it.

That's all for my teambuilding guide! If you guys would like to see more guides on ARB I am more than happy to make more! Feel free to send my any questions through my ask or reblog and ask :) Take care!

#hopefully some of you find this helpful!!#arb guides #hypmic #hypnosis mic #hypnosis mic arb #ah shit idk how many tags I should put I haven’t used tumblr in forever #but hopefully somebody finds this and likes it :)

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liathgray · 3 years

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yes im planning another fic even tho ive got like 75 others yes im using your ⭐spreadsheets⭐ no i have no idea wbat im doing but its gonna be a Doozy i already know ive been daydreaming about it for a good couple weeks

like its a royalty au but its also zelda which means im gonna havr to create 50mil new characters bcuz i refuse to half ass this (yes i just read the priory of the orange and am riding on the high off a well thought out diverse lesbian fantasy with multiple v in depth courts and what about it??????)

anyway anyway tips and tricks on creating characters??? thats gonna be the trickiest part of this for me i think???? ive never been particularly good at ocs so this is gonna be tough

qlso hi!!!! howre you!!!! its been q minute!!!!! 💜💜💜💜

- writnon

OMG OMG hello writnon!! It's so good to hear from you!

Honestly the way u know something is gonna be fun to write is if you've been daydreaming about it a bunch cause its like... brain rot for ur own ideas. I dont know anything about Zelda but that sounds SO COOL ok ok so for creating characters. Here are some lil tips

Know how important are they are

This will save you a lot go time and energy because really, you don't have to fully flesh out every character. Its perfectly okay to have characters serve utilitarian purposes (ex: the animal sidekicks in Disney movies exist so the princess characters have someone to talk/ voice their opinions to).

If the character isn't going to be around for long, you can just have them server their purpose and move forward. Not everyone has to be complex and that is alright! A simple character is a good character.

The Key Three

This is something that can really help with making your characters feel distinct from one another: give them three key... things.

Sorry thats king broad. What I mean is you can give key traits, emotions they lean towards, items/ people that are important to them, ticks, habits, hobbies, etc. Pick three distinct somethings for your character and keep it in the back of your mind, or write it on their lil character profile thing.

EX: for Alistair Teller, the key three were-- Cheery, vindictive, and conman. For Percy, the key three were-- planes, curious, and energetic.

It's good to have this sort of guideline when creating characters! its a base, cause once you know what their key things are, you can build more around that. Or, conversely, you can do it the other way and give the key things afterwards so that you have a better grip on how you want to writ them.

D&D

ok. listen. LISTEN. this helps I swear.

Give your OCs stats. Hell, give the canon characters stats! it helps to keep there from being a power imbalance with skills and/ or resources.

Stats are designed to keep characters from being too overpowered, and it applies to long form fiction prose as well. giving everyone at least ONE power move, and ONE thing they utterly suck at is 1) funny 2) makes any team dynamics better 3) adds layers to the characters relationships and 4) makes all of them seem more human by default. because they're already flawed in a simple way.

and simple characters are good! they're memorable!

I'm not saying you actually have to like... make a character sheet, but giving a character stats can spice things up a lot. Say your OC is trying to open a jar of pickles and they have an 8 or something in strength. they cant open the pickles! or if someone is trying to be persuasive and they have high charisma. they can persuade!

I think that this is also funny because if you have something happen and check a stat for a character and then cant do it, then it forces the other character to either work together, or more creatively, or pit them against each other, etc. etc.

Names!

Names don't matter. I know everyone stresses about this, but you ca replace names. I've done it several times. this is the very last thing you need to worry about

backstory

you dont need to write a life story. you only need a few moments. find moments that can shape who they are (things that can relate to their key things are especially good!) and have those waiting. You might not ever need to bring it up in the story, but knowing internally how your OC sees things will SUPER help to write them.

in screenwriting we call these the characters ordinary world. it sets up what is normal and expected for them, specifically. it makes up their worldview and how they interact with other people.

haha funny

use your OCs for really convoluted jokes. this isn't a tip its just really fun to do and no one can stop you.

#I hope this helps u a little!!#and I wish you the best of luck with writing!!!!#you got this babe mwah #writing anon #anon #writing #I need a tag for asks so bam #writing advice

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nyanzaya · 3 years

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Ok so I had a REALLY weird dream recently so I’ll send this first ask as like the set up because it’s rlly long. 1/2?

(This involves Neko!Izaya so I thought you’d like to hear about it first) So background information first; for some reason I’m like “piloting” Izayas body. I’m making his decisions sort of??? I only found out when I walked past a mirror and everyone kept referring to me as Izaya (Prolly because I lined him back in middle school lol) and the fact that the other characters CLEARLY did not like the fact that I was still breathing. There’s a lot to unpack so I’m gonna be formatting this in a bulletin point way that’s in chronological order.

- So Izaya and a BUNCH of other DRRR!!characters are staying in this weird group of cabins in the shape of an upside down U, with a road heading into town. Starts off as a dirt/gravel road that goes into pavement. You know the ones.

- So Izaya/I am staying in this cabin building at the very end of the U on the left side. (Since this U kinda warps around the road into town) Across the road is one of the main “Bathrooms”. It’s got the showers while each cabin has like one of its own bathrooms. (This has meaning I promise)

- Within the cabin Izaya/I am staying in there’s at least three rooms. Shinra was in the next door over, while Shingen was in the room at the end of the hall. I saw him go back there once and never saw him a again for the duration of the dream. (So we’ll just call this the Kishitani cabin)

- The bathrooms across the road from The Kishitani cabin is shared with the neighboring cabin. The neighboring cabin was MUCH bigger but also had more people in it. So there was two to a room there, while in The Kishitani cabin we each got our own room. (Which when I first found this out the first thing that came to mind was “what a bunch of losers” lol)

- Shizuo Heiwajima was a resident in the neighboring cabin. Which means we have to share a bathroom w/ him :) (this is actually very unfortunate later on) His cabin contains the Van Gang (didn’t see a lot of them only glimpses), as well as Namie, her brother, and his gf Mika. I had a feeling that Namie was supposed to be staying in the Kishitani cabin, but left because,,,,, brother,,, ig)

- Nobody knows about Neko!Izaya yet, only Shinra and Shingen. And Izaya is hiding as a human VERY well (for now). We get kinda Fucked Up™️ later on too.

A finishing side note for now is that the weather outside is fucking FREEZING. There’s snow and ice slush everywhere, and the air is that really dry cold that burns your nose and lungs when you breathe. There would also be these gusts of really cold wind that would freeze the sides of the pine trees, so there wasn’t snow on TOP of them bist there was snow plastered to the SIDE of them. So right now we’re stuck in cold winter hellscape. Also I don’t know where Celty is, but Shinra had left to “go handle something” or whatever so he was gone for a good portion of time too.

Part 2/4? (This is way longer than expected.)

Mornings sucked because if you left the cabin you would almost definitely start freezing to death. Considering that, We just poked around our room for a bit and found nothing of interest. So it’s around midday now which means that the sun is out in full force and the outside is somewhat bearable, so why not go exploring right?? It can’t possibly lead to something catastrophic that would eventually put us at the brink of death.

- First place we go is to the “Bathrooms” across the little dirt road. As soon as we step through the door you just KNOW that Shizuo had been there previously and he was Mad™️. There was glass all over the floor from one of the broken shower doors, and it looked like someone did a very half asses job at cleaning up said glass.

- Enter: Namie. She apparently had the same idea and was wandering through the showers section of the Bathrooms as well, she had at least one other girl with her but I don’t remember who it was. Namie was also “talking” to me but it was more of just her trying to bicker. Clearly not liking that we had the same idea. So I eventually leave and go back to my cabin. I just remember wanting to avoid the other characters, because avoiding them meant avoiding unwanted conflict.

- I want to say this is the first night in this cabin, but at the same time it was like this had been playing out long before my weird dream had even started. So this is probably like the third or fourth night, and we were clearly avoiding a conflict that I was not present for.

- Middle of the night We hear thumping from down the hallway that works it’s way to my bedroom door. I initially think it’s Shinra walking around but that thought is quickly snuffed out.

- The man who opened the bedroom door was tall as hell and was clearly here for us. The man is having a hard time holding himself together, literally. Eventually his human persona wears off and we’re left having a showdown between us and this man made of GLASS. And this glass is SHARP. While trying to fight off the faceless glass demon/general asshole we “die”, he got the better of us and stabs us through the hand and a few other places. I just remember the hand being the most memorable. Close quarters combat with him is not the way to play this.

- We come to about a kilometer out from the U of cabins, at night, in the freezing cold, buried in the snow like a shallow grave, and still bleeding. Between the gusts of wind you could hear something moving around, and so we knew we had to get back inside STAT.

- Now at this point in time there was no need to keep up the human disguise, so we just didn’t. Enter: Neko!Izaya

Part ¾

We get back to the cabin and the room is a disaster. The bed is skewed and the suitcase of stuff I had is nowhere to be seen. The floorboards are cracked too, and we can see something shining under them.

- We pull back the floorboards, or at least what’s left of them, and pull up a giant steel box. In said box was a pair of thick leather gloves, with sharp nails on the end, a note, and a small map of the region we were in. On the small map was several other little squares which I assumed would be more boxes like the one we just found. (The gloves also helped keep our hands from freezing up which was nice)

- The front door and our bedroom door were broken and would no longer lock so there was no point in staying. No one else seemed to be around either so we just assumed that we were in this alone and needed to kill this thing before it killed us, and maybe someone else. (I also think Izayas sisters were there at the cabins, because I remember that being a pretty motivating factor.)

- After a lot of running we come across some buildings and fences, which looked like a Zoo. Zoos need caretakers, and caretakers were people, and people meant help. So we get onto one of the main roads of the “Zoo” and immediately something is wrong.

- Dawn is breaking and there is still no one in sight. On top of that none of the animals look right. Everything was very much uncanny valley. None of the animals looked like animals, and they were all hyper aggressive. Even the ones that seemed like they were supposed to be harmless.

- So far there seems to be no signs of people, but the farther back we get to the more restricted looking areas, the more signs of human life. There’s crates and Jeep’s, and we even found someone working on a computer in a big open tent. Although when we approached her, she didn’t really respond.

- So we leave again and follow a road into town. Once the town was in sight (think old European style town), the glass man was back chasing us in full force. And it seemed that as long as he was being touched by direct sunlight, he would appear as human.

- Getting to the town and there are people EVERYWHERE. Townspeople walking in and out of shops, driving down the road, and just going about their business in general. It was comforting but also concerning considering that we were still being chased but this glass man who for some reason is targeting us.

Part 4/4 (another long part)

I figured that if I could lose him within the town then I should be home free. Unfortunately wherever I managed to parkour to, he would already be waiting nearby. And If we stopped moving then we’d get attacked again.

- He would make snide comments every time he would cut us off within the town, although after the first few times I stopped listening to what he was saying, and I think this might have pissed him off.

- Eventually we had gotten into this other building which was definitely upper class or something, if you were to judge it by the decor and the sheer size of it. One of the hallway walls had a HUGE painting of this Neko mother surrounded by her little kids. The painting was clearly very old, and I wasn’t expecting to see anything like that.

- In this house we found three more of those Steel boxes. One with a black trench coat lined with wool, and there was a picture of another Neko in the box that was wearing the same coat. On the picture it said something along the lines of “to whoever receives this coat, let it warm and shield you from the night”, something weird like that. Each box that had something in it also had a picture too. Which was interesting, since each time it was always of a different Neko. Anyway I got like some sort of undercoat and I think a thicker pair of pants.

- Obviously we had been found again and were forced to flee to the edge of town. There was a old rickety building that we ran into, and were then cornered in.

- At this point we had to fight him, and as it turns out as long as he is taking human form (in direct sunlight via the giant skylight in the main room) you could do a lot of damage to him. I didn’t want to get too close to him do at one point I had taken an old coffee table and hit him w that, since it wasn’t that heavy.

- The gloves were helpful when we had to use the nails and dig under the guys false skin to tear some of the glass out. The less glass chunks he had in him, the less mass he had and the less damage he could do.

- Once we had whittled him down to almost a skeleton of what he was before, we reached into where his face used to be and pulled out the one piece of glass that wasn’t the same as the others. It was 100% clear and had this weird glittery purple and orange in the middle of it.

- While trying to leave the building we ran into this old man who I guess was working in a facility below the building, who was coming up to see what the commotion was about. He also took the weird glass/rock from us

- That’s how we found out that those weird looking rocks had come down in a meteor shower a few months ago, and that you’re not supposed to put them inside of your house. This is apparently because he cold of the outside keeps them sedated almost. So when you bring them inside they’ll latch on to any sort of free floating objects to create a body for themselves. Which is why when someone put it in the main bathroom where all of the broken glass was, it was able it create a much stronger body.

- Afterwards he, or someone else, had given me a ride to just outside of the cabins we were staying in. It was starting to get dark but it wasn’t getting colder yet, so everyone seemed to be out and about. I saw Kyohei walking back to his cabin so I ran up to him and grabbed him to tell him not to let anyone touch anything outside, and to especially not bring anything else inside. Which I probably sounded crazy but he just went with it.

- During that time I got to talk to the other characters, only for a little bit though. I tried talking to Shizuo but every time I did he would clam up and ignore me. Which fair enough I guess, since very few people got along with me and I had disappeared for the past 24 hours.

- Afterwards it had started to hail, and that was around the time I decided to leave the camp and try and go home. Just to get anywhere else but there. When it stopped I took one of the trucks and drove until I reached a highway, which was very far out. When I went to merge though, the on ramp wasn’t connected to the actual highway. It was like it was never completed and there was a drop off straight down into a canyon. I just sat there in the truck for a bit and watched the other cars driving back and forth across the bridge over the canyon.

- The ramp was only one lane so I and to reverse all the way back to the road, and then back to the 7/11 I had previously passed, so hopefully I could make a phone call to get out of there. Though the dream ended before we got the chance to do that.

I’m sure that there is a lot missing considering that it’s rare for me to remember dreams in the first place. I’m also sure that Shingen had something to do with us being in that location during that time of year. But I hope you found some entertainment in this weird dream that will probably haunt me for a while. Love your blog btw and I hope you keep posting!

——-

I’m in the middle of traveling right now! But omf thank you for sharing this I cry,,, also sorry everyone I don’t know how to make a read more on mobile 😭

This is actually a super interesting dream I wonder what it means tbh LOL what has me is the Neko part I weep softly. This kind of explains why my muse for Iza(Neko!izaya) has been a little low, like it felt like he wasn’t “with me” if that makes sense!

The coat and the pictures I’m hhrhrh…. It’s super funny to me because it kind of falls in line for Iza’s mom and her kits with that picture of a mother Neko and her kids because that was all I could think of but still! This is such a sweet story in a exploratorive way and a interesting lore perspective because those pictures and items were left there by someone for a reason but we have no idea who 👀

Then how you/izaya is trapped there?? I need the part of the dream where we know why and who LOL but tbh maybe Shigen did have something to do with it 👀 damn nebula and their mysteriousness

Ty again for sharing this with me 😭 it really helped and I enjoyed! I have like,,,mild travel anxiety and this made me feel better💕 for the posting part,,,I will try jdhdjs i have to get back to the Iza/Zuo content but I been ensnared in Genshin Impact and FE: Heros and I’m stuck on Link Click LOL but, I hope to post more about drrr/hybrid verse/Iza+Zuo content!

#;Ooc #anonymous #uhhh #long post #durarara

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bookblogbake · 5 years

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The annual end-of-the-year survey is hosted by Jamie at The Perpetual Page-Turner. I’m so glad she puts the work into making this every year because it’s always a highlight to look back over my reading and blogging for the past year!

**2018 READING STATS**

Number Of Books You Read: 94 Number of Re-Reads: One. Wow. I thought it was more than that, but apparently not. My one re-read was THE GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO VICE AND VIRTUE, which I re-read twice. Genre You Read The Most From: YA contemporary. That wouldn’t be surprising normally, but especially considering I judged round 1 of the YA Fiction category this year for Cybils.

1. Best Book You Read In 2018?

Overall favorite 2018 release: Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake

Best middle grade: Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World by Ashley Herring Blake (. . . sensing a pattern here?)

Best adult fiction: The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Best Comic/Graphic Novel: Check Please! Book 1: Hockey

Best Middle Grade

Best adult fiction

Best 2018 Book Overall

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

Allegedly by Tiffany Jackson. To be fair, this came out in 2017, and I read Jackson’s 2018 release, Monday’s Not Coming, first. Allegedly was a let down though because I loved Monday’s Not Coming so much, and Allegedly didn’t quite stack up for me.

3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?

Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram. Based on the summary, it didn’t look like my typical kind of book, but I thought it was beautifully written and I loved it. A rare five star read for me.

4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)?

Sadie by Courtney Summers. I tend to push Courtney Summers books anyway but Sadie seems to be an easy sell (and for good reason–it’s FANTASTIC).

5. Best series you started in 2018? Best Sequel of 2018? Best Series Ender of 2018?

Best series started-Check Please!

Best sequel/companion – Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire

Best series ender– The Way I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2018?

Well, considering she wrote my overall favorite book AND my favorite middle grade of the year, it’s safe to say that’s Ashley Herring Blake.

7. Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone?

Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough. I don’t typically like novels in verse, but this was FANTASTIC and fierce and moving and emotional and ugh, I loved it.

8. Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year?

I stayed up waaaaay into the night to finish Monday’s Not Coming.

9. Book You Read In 2018 That You Would Be MOST Likely To Re-Read Next Year?

Well I always like to start a new year by re-reading my favorite book of the previous year (that’s why The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue was my one re-read of the year), so clearly that would be made Girl Made of Stars. But just so I don’t answer this book for every single question, I’ll also mention I’m very likely to re-read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2018?

I’m sure some people would find this one off-putting because of the bright yellow, but I love the cover of Pulp by Robin Talley and how vintage it looks!

11. Most memorable character of 2018?

I have to go with Sadie from well, Sadie. I just found her fascinating.

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2018?

Oh man, this one is hard. I think I have to go with Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram.

13. Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2018?

Ghost Boys by Jewel Parker Rhodes

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2018 to finally read?

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters. I only read one Sarah Waters book this year, but more will definitely come in 2019 because this book was excellent.

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2018?

Even girls made of stars are captives, bound at the wrists and traded like property. Even girls made of stars aren’t asked, aren’t believed, aren’t considered worth the effort unless they can offer something in return. Even girls made of stars buy into those lies sometimes.

Yes, it’s from Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake, aka the book that has been my response to at least 50% of these questions.

16.Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2018?

longest– Green River, Running Red by Ann Rule

shortest- The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O’Neill

17. Book That Shocked You The Most

I think it’d have to be I Stop Somewhere by TE Carter (a completely underrated book, by the way)

18. OTP OF THE YEAR (you will go down with this ship!)

(OTP = one true pairing if you aren’t familiar)

Jack/Bitty from Check Please!

And then, not quite OTP status but romantic relationships I rooted for in books this year: Alice/Takumi from Let’s Talk About Love and and Steffi/Rhys from A Quiet Kind of Thunder.

19. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship Of The Year

I really loved the relationship between Clara and her dad in The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo.

20. Favorite Book You Read in 2018 From An Author You’ve Read Previously

I have a couple: Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire, Ghost Boys by Jewel Parker Rhodes, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, and Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli.

Best adult fiction

21. Best Book You Read In 2018 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else/Peer Pressure/Bookstagram, Etc.:

Well, I would have never read it for it not been for Cybils judging, so I’m going with Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram.

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2018?

Don’t have any! Maybe if I had read more adult romance. . .

23. Best 2018 debut you read?

I’m going with Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough for this, but just know Darius the Great Is Not Okay by Adib Khorram was a very close second.

24. Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?

I’m going to say the old-school Hollywood glam setting in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo was very vivid.

25. Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read?

So for me I think graphic novels really took the cake here this year. Yes, Check Please! which I’ve mentioned several times, but also The Tea Dragon’s Society by Katie O’Neill and Moonstruck volume 1 by Grace Ellis.

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2018?

I have two, both of which have featured heavily on this survey so far, not surprisingly! Those are Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake and Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram.

27. Hidden Gem Of The Year?

Okay, since I don’t want to say Girl Made of Stars yet again, I’ll have to go with. . . Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World. Yes, by the same author as Girl Made of Stars. I had favorites this year, y’all.

28. Book That Crushed Your Soul?

Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram. I know, I know, it appears once again!

29. Most Unique Book You Read In 2018?

All of This is True by Lygia Day Penaflor. I did not necessarily enjoy it, but I can say it was very unique.

30. Book That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)?

Okay, so first I was going to say The Perfect Sister by Jessica Knoll, which I did NOT enjoy one bit, but then I thought about it, and. . . The Universe is Expanding and So Am I by Carolyn Mackler. I’m particularly mad about that one because parts of the books are good, but I find the entire premise flaw and really upsetting. Also, it deals with a sister coming to terms with the fact that her brother committed a rape, and it’s hard when my favorite book of the year had a similar premise and dealt with it SO MUCH BETTER.

1. New favorite book blog/Bookstagram/Youtube channel you discovered in 2018?

I’m ashamed to say that going back over my subscriptions, none of them were new this year.

2. Favorite post you wrote in 2018?

I mostly wrote reviews (and I really want to get back into doing discussions and other features!), but I’m really proud of my review for Blood Water Paint.

3. Favorite bookish related photo you took in 2018:?

Again, something else I didn’t do very much of this year!

4. Best bookish event that you participated in (author signings, festivals, virtual events, etc.)?

I didn’t really get to participate in any bookish events this year, but hopefully 2019 will change that!

5. Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2018?

I have to say being a round 1 Cybils judge! It was a lot of work and reading, but it was such a worthwhile endeavor.

6. Most challenging thing about blogging or your reading life this year?

Just finding time! I haven’t been nearly as active as I wanted because I graduated grad school, which I THOUGHT would give me more time, but then I moved from one end of Texas to another, started a new job, got settled in, etc. It’s just been a LOT.

7. Most Popular Post This Year On Your Blog (whether it be by comments or views)?

Well, my most popular post was from a few years ago: What do Do with Books You Don’t Want Anymore. My most popular post actually written this year was my review of Girl Made of Stars, which is not surprising since I’ve basically been yelling about this book for months.

8. Post You Wished Got A Little More Love?

I posted one Saturday morning cup post this year, and I definitely wish that one had got more loved.

9. Best bookish discover (book related sites, book stores, etc.)?

Hmm, well, I got to visit The Strand in New York City for the first time so that was definitely a fun bookish discovery/adventure!

10. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year?

I didn’t really set any challenges or goals, and I’m glad because this year was busy enough without those!

1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2018 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2019?

The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir. Not because I’m super excited about it (I mean, I want to read it, but it’s not a book I was anticipating), but because it’s due back to the library in eight days.

2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2019 (non-debut)?

Well, considering two of her books were two of my favorites this year, I’m gonna have to say The Mighty Heart of Sunny St James by Ashley Herring Blake.

3. 2019 Debut You Are Most Anticipating?

I have two: I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver and These Witches Don’t Burn by Isabel Sterling.

4. Series Ending/A Sequel You Are Most Anticipating in 2019?

In A Wayward Dream by Seanan McGuire. I’ve loved every installment in the Wayward Children series, so I expect this to be no different (and perhaps one of my goals this year will to be re-read the series).

5. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging Life In 2019?

Blog more! I’ve missed it.

6. A 2019 Release You’ve Already Read & Recommend To Everyone (if applicable):

I’ve only read an ARC of one 2019 release, but I do recommend it! I read We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia and was enthralled.

2018 End of the Year Survey! The annual end-of-the-year survey is hosted by Jamie at The Perpetual Page-Turner. I'm so glad she puts the work into making this every year because it's always a highlight to look back over my reading and blogging for the past year!

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bmaxwell · 4 years

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Best Games of 2006

As I was going through the list of 2006 releases, I was going to make the joke that 2006 & 2007 was like edging, but for video games instead of cumming. The latter half of the release calendar invalidated the joke, but I’m still going to make it. And even though I can’t scrape together 10 games, I can make a real strong top 5. And I can use the rest of the list to complain, which is fun for me.

10. A Duck

Ducks are violent rapists with corkscrew dicks. Male ducks at least. Mallards? Mallards.

9. The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess

My recollection of Twilight Princess closely mirrors my recollection of Ocarina of Time: everything is a dull smear of green, brown, and grey, and the first hour feels like a dull five hour slog and I put the game down for a year and repeat the first ago again, ad infinitum. The main difference between the two is that people see Ocarina as a classic.

8. New Super Mario Bros DS

I designed a card game once. Players played cards to build a city together, and moved citizens around to activate the buildings in the city. Activating your own building earned you corruption which cost you points. So you had to build stuff that other players wanted. It was going to be a fun blend of competition and cooperation.

The problem is that I forget to put in the fun. It functioned as I imagined it, but it just wasn’t fun. That’s New Super Mario Bros DS. They ticked all of the Mario boxes. It looked, played, and sounded like a Mario game. But it wasn’t any fun. There was no spirit, no soul, no fun. Hire me, Nintendo.

7. Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

No idea. My wife liked it a lot. The Longest Journey series is one of her favorites.

6. Titan Quest

There’s a lot to like with Titan Quest, especially all of the variety in classes and being able to pick two. Customization is a big deal for me. Titan Quest never quite captured my attention the way I expected. Also, it weirdly popped up again with a new expansion like a dozen years later.

5. Wii Sports

Wii Sports gets dismissed by a lot of Gamers™ because it was such mainstream hit with The Casuals, and because it’s played in retirement homes. It’s a super accessible and FUN game, and that’s not a bad thing. I played Wii Sports with my mom and dad, and I don’t remember them ever picking up any console game at any point growing up. While all of the games were pretty fun, 90% of my time with Wii Sports was spent bowling.

4. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Oblivion was the first game played from a first-person perspective that I ever finished, or really engaged with. I played as a stealthy, stabby Argonian archer fella. He was a lizard man which isn’t my thing at all, but since you never actually SEE you character, the race you choose doesn’t matter at all beyond the stats. Anyway, I wrung every bit of goodness out of Oblivion (1250/1250 Gamerscore, ladies). Far and away my favorite part of Oblivion was freely wandering the map, seeing an icon, and checking it out. I’d repeat that process for hours on end, just getting lost in the world.

3. Dead Rising

One of my favorite things in gaming is being dropped into a large, hostile space, then slowly acclimating to it and gaining mastery over it.* That was Frank West and the shopping mall in Willamette in Dead Rising. That game’s design was initially off-putting, but I’m glad I stuck with it. Dead Rising was basically a roguelike, though I didn’t know that term at the time; whenever you died, you’d start the whole game over keeping your character progression and your knowledge of the game world. And it’s a timed game, so there are events that you have to be present for or you lose. A pain in the ass, but also weird and memorable. And running around the mall finding random stuff to kill zombies with is fun as hell.

Oh, and also the text was tiny on my tube TV and the game taught me to hate escort missions.

2. Okami

I’ve written about Okami several times over the years, so I’ll sum up: It’s gorgeous in a way that holds up today, it’s a better 3D Zelda than the Zelda games, and it gets bonus points because it’s the first game my firstborn fell in love with.

1. Guitar Hero II

I was into Guitar Hero and Rock Band in a way that bordered on obsession for a year or two, and Guitar Hero II was the peak of it. Looking back, you can find lots of reasons why later entries are objectively better: later entries used the original music rather than covers, and Rock Band let you play with 4 players for a full band experience to name a couple. I played Guitar Hero II at work, I played it at home, I played with friends, I fell in love with several of the songs in the game.

It’s very good.

*I think I just described video games.

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snowflakesx · 7 years

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Final Fantasy 7 (PS1) impressions

So, a few months ago I finally managed to finish the classic game that every gamer seems to drench with nostalgic praise and hoist onto the JPRG genre defining pedestal – Final Fantasy VII. And, I think I’ll be joining those gamers with doing that from now on.

Final Fantasy VII is a Final Fantasy that the vast majority of RPG players are familiar with. It is also the only Final Fantasy to have produced a vast range of sequels and extra material, with familiar characters such as Cloud, Sephiroph and Tifa dominating the Square Enix merchandise lines. Even most non-gamers will have at least heard of Final Fantasy VII, for sure. One of the reasons why, seems to be because Final Fantasy VII was released back in the late 90s, before J-RPGs had kicked off properly in the West. The graphics and beautifully rendered cut scenes also make for a more immersive and pleasurable experience. Instead of the sprite characters from the previous 6 Final Fantasy games, we now have three-dimensional characters (albeit with boxy-proportions) with expressive movements and actions. I really loved this game. For me, the overall package of the game, which includes the story, soundtrack, graphics, the battle system, the character development and party dynamic truly should define the JRPG genre, even today.

Firstly, the story is pretty straightforward, but players will have to have a degree of investment in both the backstory and origin stories, in order to fully understand everything. Final Fantasy VII’s game story not only involves the present, but also to a large extent – the past. A lot of the character’s motivations and personalities have been heavily influenced by past events, which are revealed throughout the game. The story initially revolves around an ex-SOLDIER mercenary called Cloud, who (reluctantly at first) joins up with an underground rebellion resistance group called Avalanche. They are rebelling against the evil corporation Shinra, who are using the world’s lifeforce, as disposable fuel, which means they are slowly killing the planet. The reason why the story resonated so much with me was because it has a nice parallel with the world we are living in today. Similar to the Shinra Corporation, we have big corporations in real life which pollute the planet with fossil fuels, without a second thought about the long term consequences for our children’s futures. So, Avalanche opens the game with a literal impact, Cloud’s first mission is to blow up a reactor. The clever part is, that by opening the game with a mission such as this, we don’t think about the consequences, until much later on. I thought it was interesting how Cait Sith brings it up towards the end of the game – “Do you realise how many people were killed in that Reactor explosion?” A small point to make, but it hit me a little bit. The characters in the story go through a journey that questions their principles and beliefs, what’s right and what’s wrong. Eventually, towards the end of the game, Cloud asks them to reflect. He tells them, that to continue fighting, they had to think about the greater goal rather than just themselves. The last dungeon was an especially emotional journey for the cast, with Cloud surprisingly saying things such as “Don’t go dying on me”, which is a stark contrast to his indifference at the beginning of the game. All the characters get their own mini story arc to shine. I especially enjoyed Red XIII’s story and Tifa’s mini arc. I have to admit, that at the beginning of the game I liked Aeris and Cloud’s relationship more than Tifa and Cloud, but that was before I saw the memory scenes and dream/lifestream sequences. I loved how Tifa was the one to help Cloud find his real person, and become stronger. I loved Red XIII’s story because it showed how his misunderstandings shaped his initial beliefs, and once that was broken down – he could move on. Cid’s story was also a nice addition, especially as Cid has never been more than a side character in Final Fantasy games. His desire to see space and the moon are totally believable, and it hits an emotional chord when he actually gets the chance to do this. The soundtrack has some of the most memorable tracks I’ve heard from a game. I am all too familiar with the iconic Aeris Theme, but also, there are other tracks that hit the right emotional chords at the right moments.

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I especially loved Cid’s theme (see above), because when ether it played, it just HIT at the right moments. One Winged Angel was also a perfect addition to the final battle with Sephiroph. It was really fitting, and sounded really good through a PS1 version of the game. Sephiroph’s final form, by the way, is an actual nightmare. I knew Jenova was the destroyer of all planets, but, his special attack takes that all too literally. I had the pleasure of that special attack 4 times, it wasn’t nice at all. Moving onto the gameplay and mini games, what I really liked about Final Fantasy VII was the fact that it included more mini games, and some extra challenges (such as timing jumps and steps, and pressing buttons in the right order) which diversified the gameplay a little. I saw the beginning of this kind of thing in FFVI, for example, with splitting up the party and strategically placing teams to meet enemies at different entrances and exits of a dungeon. FFVII takes this further. The mini games with chocobo racing was fun, a different kind of challenge, and also the dialogue choices which would affect future events, was also good for making the player more invested in the story. With regards to materia and magic, at first I was a bit irritated that materia had a detrimental effect on a character’s stats. For example, for every Summon you equipped, you would lose 10 HP. Imagine equipping all the Summons? But when I understood the story more, I came to realise that it actually makes sense. The Lifestream is really detrimental in large doses, and Materia is pretty much crystalised lifestream, so absorbing too much at once is bad for you – meaning its bad for your stats. Either way, the levelling up system and magic use is pretty straight forward. Materia levels up, rather than the character, which is handy too, because it means that characters can take a Materia that was levelled up by someone else and just equip it, to have the same abilities.

For me, the biggest problem for Final Fantasy VII was the way they ended the game. Judging from the response online, this also seems to be a source of contention for most fans too. The fact that the game ends with no epilogue, showing how the characters are, how they lived their lives afterwards, if they did survive, leaves players with nothing but emptiness. It’s like ending a novel mid-sentence. We know it’s over, but there’s nothing left for us to take away with us. The epilogue after the credits is interesting though, it does suggest that humanity has survived, but we don’t know in what form. The faraway scene of Midgar surrounded in greenery may be interpreted positively. However at the same time, players could easily interpret this negatively, as we do not see any humans anyway. 500 years later – did humans become extinct? The developers clearly wanted players to make their own theories and speculate, but, it still leaves us wondering – what was next? I really hope that they have a more solid ending in the upcoming Final Fantasy VII remake. Even though they have produced sequels and movies, etc, it still doesn’t make up for the fact that the game ending itself was vague and gave us more questions than anything else. Until the remake comes out, we won’t know. However having said that, the game was still a great experience for me and I’m extremely happy I finally got the chance to play the game.

#final fantasy #final fantasy vii #final fantasy 7 #square enix #rpg #jrpg games #gaming review

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creativelitlover · 7 years

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Hi readers, hope your having a super awesome day! I have enjoyed OBSESSING over The Ending Series so much, and who’d of thought just a little tag in a fan art piece, by yours truly, started the on going blog posts and art work. Not forgetting how amazing team Lindsey has been…. hopefully I didn’t get on their nerves to much with the constant tags 😊 I have loved every second of it, and The Ending Series will always have a place in my heart and on my TOP shelf!

I was invited to join a VIP reader group, and I was over the moon! Lindsey Pogue has been great, we have spoken over social media which I then asked if I could do a feature Author Interview for my blog and they said yes!!

I seriously can’t get enough of this series!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️ Anyway that’s enough about me let’s meet the Authors to this AMAZING series……

The Ending Series- Question time 😉

1. I’m an emotional wreck when reading and quite often find my eyes blurring with stray tears….the ending series got me good! Real good!! What was the first book that made you cry?

LP: I honestly can’t remember the first book that made me cry, but I can tell you that I cry a lot. I even cry while I’m writing gut-wrenching parts of a story or while I’m watching sappy commercials. When I read Me Before You, I got teary-eyed, but when I watched the movie, knowing what would happen, I bawled my eyes out.

LF: It’s so amazing when we hear that our books create a strong emotional reaction in readers, especially because we had strong emotional connections to the characters as we were writing their stories. I usually have a moment or two during each project where I tear up during the first draft phase, and it’s no different for me when I’m reading other people’s books. The last one to make me cry was the beta version of Sarah Lyons Fleming’s Peripeteia, but the first book to make me cry…hmmmm. I’m certain that plenty of books made me cry when I was younger, but the first book I can vividly remember crying while reading was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I was in tenth grade, I think, and I was outright ugly crying during that scene in the Department of Mysteries when Sirius, well, you know…

2. I can feel rather overwhelmed when my creativity is flowing and sometimes writing really does exhaust me, so I’d love to know… Does writing energise you or exhaust you?

LP: I think it depends on where I’m at in the writing process. If I have a deadline, it’s exhausting because I can’t let my mind rest. If I’m chilling and flowing with a glass of bubbles, lovin’ life, it’s energizing and I don’t want to stop.

LF: Both! I definitely reach a done point during days when I’m writing for the full day, and if I’ve been pushing out books back-to-back, I generally need to take a loooong break (think, vacation) after the second or third book. That being said, during each project, I seem to reach a point where the story is snowballing, and I can’t seem to get it out quickly enough. It’s all I can think about. It’s in my dreams. I don’t want to watch or read anything. I don’t want to see people. I become obsessed with the story, and that feeling is intoxicating.

3. I personally love series! Particularly The Ending Series hehe, and love delving deep into the characters lives…. Do you prefer to read series or stand-alone? And why? LP: Generally, I like a good series. I feel like you can get to know characters so much more and it’s satisfying to be able to hold on to them a bit longer than a standalone allows (Pride and Prejudice, for example). BUT, I read standalones just as much and bear them no ill-will. Haha.

LF: I have a strong preference for series, especially long series. I love it when the characters start to feel like real people to me, and that usually doesn’t happen after just a single book—at least, not for me.

4. We all know mine! 😉 Do you have a favourite book/series? LP: I wish I read more for pleasure these days, but I haven’t been reading as much as I used to. I’m lucky if I get in my book club book in a month (sad, I know). I do a lot of beta reading, as well, so I stumble across some amazing series that way. I can tell you that I used to be obsessed with J.R. Ward’s Blackdagger Brotherhood and I nearly peed my pants with glee when Blay and Quinn got their own book. Sigh.

LF: My all-time favorite series is Kim Harrison’s Hollows series, starting off with Dead Witch Walking, but I have many other near-favorites ranging from Urban to Epic Fantasy to Paranormal or Time Travel Romance to Dystopian and beyond.

5. I’d love to know…. Do you prefer to read or write romance?

LP: I enjoy writing it, but I LOVE reading it more, I think. It’s less stressful and I can sit back and enjoy the ride. J

LF: Um…both? I love the surprise of reading stories with a strong romantic plot or subplot, but I have to admit that writing the romantic subplot is one of my favorite parts of each project. And there’s nothing better than a slow-burn, long build-up romance, which is what I’ve got going on in my Urban Fantasy series, the Kat Dubois Chronicles. I’m several books in, and things are finally starting to happen with the main character and her intended love interest. This next book’s going to be pretty fun to write… 😉

6. I’m writing my first novel and I’m not looking forward to editing it…. Did you edit a lot from The Ending series? If so, was it hard to take parts out of your beloved story? LP: We edited After The Ending SO much it’s crazy. We changed the tense, we took out chapters and scenes and emails—added text messages…the list goes on. Revising has good and bad connotations for me. It’s daunting in that you need to be able to admit that your first draft was crap. That’s just the way it works. But when you revise it, you get to focus on making it better instead of just getting it down on paper. You get to add in the fun details and focus on the characters more than the story, if that makes sense. It does free you mind a bit to know you will be coming back to each word (many times), so writing, “his eyes looked like (something)” helps you keep going when you’re flowing and you can fill in the particulars later J

LF: I love editing and revising! I think that embracing that phase has really helped to free up my imagination during the outlining and first draft writing phases of each project, to the degree that those first drafts end up being better and requiring less revising. It’s a win-win! But yes, for the first couple books, it was hard to cut parts, but we did. We cut entire scenes, even resequencing one of the books altogether. But in the end, that book is so much better than it was originally, and when I read it, I can’t even remember what we wrote originally. For me, the cutting of lines, scenes, and even entire characters has gotten much easier with each consecutive project, but it wasn’t easy, at first.

7. I’ve yet to come up with an actual way to choose characters names…. But how did you select names for your characters from The Ending series? LP: Because we started off writing a blog, we didn’t think about names the way he should have (Camille, Clara, Cece, Cam). We got a lot of flack for not switching them up enough and making it confusing for readers. Now, names are SO important to me. In my Saratoga Falls Love Story, Nothing But Trouble, I had THE perfect name in my head for Colton Hayes’ character—that was his identity. But when beta readers got ahold of the manuscript, there was concern because of an actor named Colton Haynes and that was distracting them while reading. I had to change my Colton’s last name and it was SO hard to do.

LF: Funny you should ask that! I think our method (or lack there of) for choosing character names early on in the creation of The Ending Series is one of the things we would do differently, if given the chance (Jason, Jake, Jack…). Now, I make sure that few, if any, names start with the same first letter, and pay attention to (and try to avoid) names that rhyme, as well.

8. What was the hardest scene to write? LP: Hmmm…shootout scenes are always difficult for me—Into The Fire, in the center of town, outside the Colony, and in Before The Dawn with the final showdown, if you know what I mean. It’s often hard for me to wrap my head around “strategic” ways to kill people, fight each other, etc.

LF: Those final few scenes in the last book of The Ending Series were pretty tough. We wanted to make sure we delivered on everything we’d promised throughout the series, and we ended up heavily revising the ending—cutting one scene entirely and bulking up another quite a bit. I’m super happy with how it all wrapped up, but it wasn’t easy getting there. In another series, I had a scene where I literally wrote my character into a bathroom, trapping her in there with no way out. It took me a week or two to figure my way out of that one, and now I think it’s one of the most memorable scenes in that book.

9. Did you have to set yourself writing goals? Is that the best way to get things finished…. as I struggle to juggle writing and family life. LP: Yes. My entire day is planned around writing. I write for two(+) hours in the morning, then go to my day job. On my full writing days, I try to write for at least half the day and use the second half for the marketing and the business side of it (there’s A LOT to do all the time). If I’m on a deadline, I’ll set word counts per day or week.

LF: I write first thing in the morning, Monday through Friday. No social media, no checking stats and sales. And absolutely no emails. I walk the dogs, make my tea, then cuddle up with the cats and my laptop and settle in to write. I stop at lunch and spend the afternoon doing more business-y things. That schedule works for me, but each person is different. The only absolute is that you have to get butt-in-seat time. Figure out what motivates you, what you need to do to hold yourself accountable, and get your butt in that seat. 🙂

10. If you could spend time with a character from your book…. who would it be and what would you do?? LP: Normally, I would say Harper. But, today, I’m feeling like it would be Jake. It’s hilarious to think about. I have NO clue what I would say or do, especially since he’s the strong silent type. **Cue the crickets and awkward silence** I could pick is brain about spin-off series stuff, though J

LF: From The Ending Series? I’d have to say Jason… *blushes*

11. What genre do you prefer to write? And would you consider writing in another genre? LP: I always say that writing, for me, is like Skittles—I want to taste (write) the rainbow. I write multiple genres, including post-apocalyptic, contemporary new adult, historical fiction, alternative history… all with a splash of romance. I love myself a good love story, so you’ll always find that in my books.

LF: I’m pretty happy with anything in the Science Fiction or Fantasy realm. I’m writing Urban Fantasy right now, but I’ve also finished up a Paranormal Romance/Time Travel series and a Post-apocalyptic/Dystopian series (obviously). One genre I’ve yet to tackle but would like to one day is Space Opera, and I’d also like to try my hand and Epic Fantasy.

12. What is your method when creating first thoughts of your writing and ideas? LP: Honestly, I need to bounce ideas off of people, so I generally come up with a basic story outline and ideas, then I go have drinks with my friend(s) and they give me feedback. It also helps get me exciting about starting something new, which can be daunting at times. I’m a verbal processer, for sure.

LF: I go for walks. Lots and lots of walks. I listen to audiobooks I’ve already read/listened to, usually books in the genre I’m currently writing, and just sort of zone out, letting my thoughts wander through the potential story. I usually do that for a few days, jotting down ideas in a notebook, before actually attempting an outline.

13. Do you have a favourite place and time to write?

LP: Once I get my office fixed up, I will hopefully never want to leave, though right now, I would take the couch to my office (in disarray, though that’s where I sit now). As far as a time to write, I’m currently trying to train my brain to write in the morning. I like to write in the evening when things are quiet and chill, but after work is always crazy and cuts into my writing time. Mornings are more conducive to my crazy life, at least while I have a day job.

LF: Morning, sitting on the couch in my office with a cup of tea and a cat or two.

14. Do you write everyday?

LP: If I have a draft to write, then yes, at least Monday – Friday. Weekends, sometimes. If I’m revising/editing/plotting, I’ll use my writing time in the mornings to do that (or answer interview questions J)

LF: Sort of. I either outline, write, revise, or on the very rare occasion, beta read during my morning block. And I take weekends off. I didn’t use to, and I found I was draining my creative energy faster that I could replenish it. Now, I’ve found a good, healthy balance.

15. What else do we have to look forward to from you both?

LP: Now that Dust and Shadow is finished (or in the final round of editing), I will dive into the 3rd book in my Saratoga Falls Love Stories, Told You So. I’m excited to change things up a bit. Creating a new world for Dust and Shadow was exhausting. Revisiting the Saratoga Falls crew will be like hanging out with old friends. (LF can speak to the Ending Series goodies coming up.)

LF: Well, we’ve got one more project planned for The Ending Series proper—World After: A Collection of Stories. It’s companion book, World Before, comes out on July 31. We have a spinoff project planned, as well, but that’s farther off. Otherwise, I’m currently writing Soul Eater, the fourth book in my Urban Fantasy series, the Kat Dubois Chronicles, and I plan on writing at least two more books in that series before starting something else new.

How amazing are these guys!!!

Hope you have enjoyed getting to know these two fab Authors because I have!!

Have a slideshow of my fan inspired work ☺️✌️

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Happy reading guys 😊

Author Interview ❤️ Hi readers, hope your having a super awesome day! I have enjoyed OBSESSING over The Ending Series so much, and who'd of thought just a little tag in a fan art piece, by yours truly, started the on going blog posts and art work.

#aftertheending #amazing #amreading #blogger #bookreview #excited #intothefire #lindseyfairleigh #lindseypogue #outoftheashes #romance #theendingseries #books #reading #review

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