#Advanced Tactics

[techdriveplay]

How to Improve Your Gaming Skills

In the competitive gaming landscape, where esports tournaments and online multiplayer games dominate, every gamer aspires to level up their abilities. Whether you’re a casual player looking to climb the ranks or a dedicated gamer aiming to compete professionally, knowing how to improve your gaming skills is crucial. This guide will explore the strategies and techniques that can transform your…

[letslearnanything]

Ready to elevate your negotiation skills to a whole new level? Discover invaluable insights into the art and science of negotiation in our latest article, "How to Develop Effective Negotiation Tactics". From mastering the fundamentals to employing advanced strategies and enhancing your negotiation style with emotional intelligence, this guide offers everything you need to transform conflicts into opportunities for mutual gain. Dive in now and unlock the secrets to negotiation success! #NegotiationSkillsCourse

[acquired-stardust]

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Gameboy Advance 2003

[allisonmckenzieart]

[cultural-marsism1]

ruststalkers of dock alpha-rho had a good vacation and are now back on duty!

[bacchanal333]

Literally came here to tag you guys xD beat me to it. Long live Sheepthara :O

bye. this is hilarious

[chocodile]

Nu Mou pins are available for order on my Storenvy! The Nu Mou fandom has waited LONG ENOUGH for merchandise, I say.

[wario-land]

Game Boy Advance's All Stars in...

SUPER SMASH BROS. ADVANCE

A concept idea made by me, because i love GBA and it's various games

[staxdeadempress]

Marche and Ritz, from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

[divorcedfiddleford]

You made a post saying “it has been zero days since our last alex hirsch hates ford so much bullshit” and i know it was mostly hyperbole, but you have some really good takes that I would love to be elaborated on in terms of how ford is written

it really wasn't hyperbolic. over the years he's just really shown a lot of hatred towards this one character.

content warning: discussion of abuse

i want to start with this clip from the commentary which i think of as a microcosm for how the writers and especially alex think about ford.

transcript:

rob renzetti: i mean he [mcgucket] should've basically knocked ford out, and... and destroyed the... you know, tied him up, and, destroyed... and... alex hirsch, speaking over him: yeah he should've beat ford with a wrench and taken this thing apart piece by piece! he's the one who understood how to built [sic] it, but...

... so that seems like a pretty violent course of action. shall we unpack that?

ford is a character who's pretty explicitly written as a victim of abuse, and who now has c-ptsd as a direct result of the abuse he experienced. alex hirsch believes that ford deserved everything bad that happened to him, that it's ford's own fault, and that he also deserved worse things to happen to him. this is why, given every narrative chance, alex hirsch has piled more suffering onto ford's plate. the biggest example of this i can think of is in the journal, when he wrote that fiddleford was actively erasing ford's memory (despite this being a massive timeline contradiction which i still refuse to accept). because god forbid ford even have one remotely healthy relationship with somebody. that would be too good for him. ford was manipulated and lied to by bill, but alex repeatedly compares him to icarus, a teenager whose demise was the result of his own ignorance. this comparison is still so fucking offensive to me. the sun did not lie to icarus, did not guarantee icarus all of the happiness and success and sense of belonging which he had been denied all his life, did not actively shut out the voices of those around him who would try to help him.

alex in general has a very strange relationship with abuse. he seems to get really upset when people read his characters as victims of abuse. the strongest instance of this is actually not with ford, it's with pacifica - especially in the nwmm episode commentary. the episode says "pacifica's parents have conditioned her to respond to a bell" and alex says people got "the wrong idea" about it. like. dude. what the fuck. you wrote abuse. even if you didn't mean to, that's what you wrote. you can't say people got "the wrong idea" just because you didn't think about the subtext of what you were writing. anyway, back to ford: i believe this extends to him as well. alex wanted to write a character who's a foil to stan and who was a selfish unlikable victim of his own arrogance. however that's not what he wrote. he somehow seemingly accidentally wrote a really compelling and relatable awesome autistic guy who had to fight for every good thing he he ever had in his life only for it to be taken from him every single time. but alex can't let go of seeing ford as just "the opposite of stan". when he talks about "how someone as smart as ford could fall for bill's tricks", he refuses to realize he wrote a situation in which a man was being psychologically manipulated and tortured.

it goes back further, too. people repeatedly theorized that filbrick was... not a very good father, to say the least. on top of the very explicit and canon fact that he threw one of his children out on the street (seriously, there is no defense for this), people pointed out that stan would flinch at filbrick, that ford seemed upset by things filbrick said but dared not talk back, that filbrick was mad at stan not for hurting his brother, but for "costing the family potential millions". but alex can't have people seeing ford as sympathetic. ford can't have it bad like stan did. ford had to have everything and he lost it all because he sucks so much. so he wrote the graphic novel story where ford is filbrick's favorite child and filbrick also is not even a bad parent you guys he's just stoic. ignore the whole thing in dreamscaperers where stan perpetuates the abuse that filbrick did to him. ignore the fact that ford was shouting at stan and then completely shut up as soon as filbrick entered the room and did not say another word for the rest of the night. ignore all that because i just made up this story where he cries at a present from stan. filbrick loved his boys for sure you guys!!!

i'm not even touching on how alex repeatedly villainizes traits commonly associated with mental illness and neurodivergence. ford's hypervigilance becomes arrogance. his passion for knowledge means he's a know-it-all. his difficulty socializing and making friends means he's a misanthrope. his lingering resentment for the way he was raised means he hates his brother and is the worst human being to ever have lived. i could go on, go even further into how the finale reaffirms this, but i feel weird talking about this too much.

[acquired-stardust]

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance Gameboy Advance 2003

[genjyoandgojyoandhakkai]

The modern!Crow AU no one asked for. Especially not me.

Compliance Department Viago is a menace, and I blame this monstrosity on @gatesofminrathous and this post by the always funny @rookanis-de-riva

unbeta'd, mistakes are from the last 2 hours of my life laughing at my keyboard

800 words

Viago de Riva loved his job. Senior Vice President of Corporate Resource Optimization & Workforce Strategy. It was a mouthful - he allowed employees of his department to lovingly call themselves CROWS, but only internally. Viago had worked for Advanced Negotiation & Tactical International Vacancy Alignment (A.N.T.I.V.A.) for twenty-five glorious years, and every department he’d ever worked in was the better for it. Viago’s organizational skills were legendary, and though many of his coworkers flinched when they saw him coming, Viago recognized grudging respect when he saw it. 

This particular Monday marked the kickoff of internal compliance undertaking season; Viago’s favorite time of year. He had circled in on the desk blotter calendar, with the letters ICU written in precise block script, diagonally centered. Viago sat at his desk in his top-floor corner office of ANTIVA HQ (the furthest corner from the front door, but a corner office nonetheless), tapping his long fingers impatiently on his mousepad. The time was 7:04 in the morning. 

“Arthik,” Viago called softly, knowing his assistant would hear him regardless. 

“Boss?” Arthik leaned back in his chair, cracking the door to Viago’s office open a little wider. He pulled the vertical blinds open wider, offering Viago a view of Arthik’s desk space and the open office beyond. “What’s up?”

Viago steepled his fingers, elbows placed on the corners of his calendar. “Do you know what today is?” 

“ICU,” Arthik replied without missing a beat. “We’re deploying the email campaign at 8:30 this morning, just as planned.”

Viago’s satisfied smile was all the confirmation Arthik would get. He’d lasted eight months as Viago’s assistant and was familiar with recognition for a job well done by now. 

“Coffee?” Viago inquired, but Arthik had turned away to look at a new face, mostly hidden behind a double-stacked tier of Karasu Kafe carryout cups from the cafe downstairs.

Viago knew it was a new face because:

He didn’t recognize the hair that went with it

Coffee was due at 7, and 7:05 was unacceptable

HR had informed him there was a new hire starting this week, and the hiring of said person was not negotiable, nor did he have insight into the hiring process.

“De Riva?” a melodious voice asked. “This is the 5th floor, exec suite T, correct?”

“You’ve got the right place,” Arthik said kindly. “Are you the new guy?”

Before the hair could respond, Viago intoned, “Send them in, please.” He needed to see the miscreant himself. 

The coffee cups made their way into Viago’s office, followed by the shiny white hair of their bearer. Viago watched with (internal) mild amusement and (mostly) withheld judgment as the person shifted their stack of cups and placed them on the chair just inside the door. 

“Good morning, Mr. Viago de Riva!” the person chirped. 

They wore a velvet suit jacket, shiny satin slacks that didn’t reach their ankles, and colorful socks with sneakers. A clear violation of the ANTIVAn dress code, if Viago had ever seen one. 

“It is morning,” Viago said dryly, trying not to make eye contact.

“I’m Aydenne de Riva, no relation, but isn’t that weird?” Viago didn’t have a chance to process this odd coincidence, because the Aydenne kept speaking. “I’m your new seasonal intern temp-to-hire shadow, and today’s my first day!”

Viago’s jaw dropped. This...Aydenne...with that suit...in his department? Shadowing him? He’d thought the hiring was for a replacement for Arthik, who seemed to show more frequent signs of interest in other roles.

“Leave the coffee. Arthik will show you where to go.” Viago turned his chair to face the wall, as clear a dismissal as he could give, with so little time to prepare himself for this news. 

There was no sound of a subordinate exiting in an orderly fashion with their eight little coffees (which clashed unpleasantly with Viago’s aroma diffuser in the corner). Viago waited five more seconds in case the newcomer was unclear as to their directive. 

“Mr. Viago?” the beautiful voice asked, sounding unsure. 

Just great. Viago now faced the predicament of turning to address this person once more, or waiting to see if they would finally understand what was being asked of them.

Power plays on a new hire’s first morning, before 8 AM? 

Viago allowed a hint of his arctic annoyance to creep into his tone. “I trust you know which one of us is Arthik?” 

“I...yes?” the newbie said uncertainly. 

“C’mere, Rookie, I’ll take you around the office and show you to a desk you can use,” Arthik said helpfully, if belatedly. 

“Arthik. Please ensure the...Rookie reviews the employee handbook and signs off on their compliance training before you start with the tour.” Viago needed this eyesore to understand what the rules were before they knew which cubicle the headhunters kept their peanut butter and cracker stash in. 

“My name is Aydenne,” the Rookie said. “I use he/him pronouns, if that helps.”

“I use Excel whenever possible, but it’s nice to meet you,” Viago responded crisply. “Hand me my coffee, if you please, and close the door behind you. It’s an important morning, and I have much to do.” 

I truly and honestly enjoyed this and it's going to live in my WIP bin because I think I'd commit to a whole story or series about them 🤣 writing about a hapless new hire and their dramatic manager in corporate hell is certainly a topic close to home lolol

[theblindarcher]

The Beoulve name stands for truth and justice! It is not a tool to be used for selfish gain! Portrait of Ramza Beoulve commissioned by HeirOfLeonster on Twitter back around the end of 2022. (Repost)

[hakhub]

been playing FFTA again because once every 3-5 years I go through Ivalice fixating so have a Marche! Every FFT/TA/A2 file I have features the lead character/opinion leader becoming a dual wielder.

made w ballpoint pen and coloured pencil // 2hrs

I'm not used to how these pencils blend (they are very dry???) and the lack of warm brown shades is more than a little frustrating but I like 'em nonetheless (because they did not cost a limb and a half)

[who-do-i-know-this-man]

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️