#plus some ramblings from the tortoise

[snickerdoodlles]

✨What's a fic you've posted you wish you could breathe life into again and have people talking about it? (or simply a fic you wish got more credit)

(prev) hmm, maybe Hair-Trigger? like, it got a good response, i'm very grateful to everyone who's read it ❤❤❤ i don't mean in a 'im looking for more hits' sort of way, i just really love Porsche & Kim as a duo and spin them around in my head like a shiny rock all the time. this mostly manifests in me spamming tortoise with Kim & Porsche snippets and thoughts that never seem to flesh out into proper fics, so Hair-Trigger has a special spot in my heart because it's my one finished Porsche & Kim fic and I want everyone to look at Porsche being extremely fond of Kim and Kim feeling all sorts of things about how fond Porsche seems to be of him (surely???? this is a trick????? he is so nice and smiley????????? a mystery)

💫what is your favorite kind of comment/feedback?

i like them all!! i genuinely enjoy all "types" of comments for different reasons, it feels weird to rank them against each other. so long as the comment is excited to engage with me/gush over idiot nerds together, i'm excited to answer and chat with them (although, i am. very behind on my inbox rn. hjghjg im sorry friends, i promise i will respond even tho it might be v late 😂💦)

💘Is there any posted fic you want to rework/re-edit/re-write?

I've actually been rewriting a *checks date* 5.5 yr old yoi WIP (*winces*) for a while now. very slow as my attention gets drawn away, but i love epistolary fic and there's a funny satisfaction without pressure to re-writing it.

but the story rewrite that actually has been sitting on my head for...forever really, is my ft story Jinxed. i was very new to fandom/writing fic when i first posted it, and at the time i'd just posted what i wrote and then went "...wait, how the fuck do you write a multi-chapter story???" and i really psyched myself out of posting more for it.

however, it's always like...sat in the back of my head, even after the fandom bullshit and when ft went to shit. because i just...don't like soulmate/soulmark AUs. 😅 the reasons behind my dislike for the trope are uh...kinda long and extensive actually, so i'll save that for a different post if anyone cares enough to ask, but the premise in this story of two girls with mismatched timers who fall in love and choose each other anyways is one i'm extremely drawn to. and i'm still like, figuring out how to write long stories, and i'm never going to write again for ft, so whenever i look over the old story drafts and notes, i'm actually thinking about it as an original story. not one i've started and maybe i'll stumble into a fandom that i want to apply this premise to, but...after i figure out long-form stories, i really want to swing by this one again, if simply to have it stop haunting my brain every few months.

(rest under the cut because i am rambly lol)

🌈is there a fic that you worked *really fucking hard on* that no one would ever know? maybe a scene/theme you struggled with?

hmm Silver for Truth is the obvious one since i whined about it taking a yr+ to write, but i think everyone understands when i say Tawan is an annoying ass bitch to write.

i'm actually going to cheat and say the freezer!Kim WIP i'm writing with @majestictortoise. there's a few different POVs in this story and one of them is Porsche's POV, and there is something about Porsche's POV specifically that i find very hard to capture. even when i know what i want from his arc and character struggles, post-canon Porsche carries around some conflicting beliefs and mindsets that i find really tricky to write, plus he's also a guy of action who's been forced to a standstill and i want to capture that trapped feeling without making it obnoxious. he's just tricky to me in a way that other characters aren't. (i actually ran into this issue with Hair-Trigger too, except it wasn't so hard because that's a fic about him Doing A Thing He Wants To Do, which is why i was able to write it within the timeframe i did. oh Porsche, ilu, why do u stick in my head so. orz)

🦋what are you most insecure about when you post a fic?

everything? idk, my reaction after i post a fic is to either Stare At My Inbox or desperately try to distract myself from the fact that i Posted A Fic, which really go to show how secure i feel about my writing 😂 i try very hard not to let a fic's reception get to me when i post because i've been down that road and it's really bad for me. all fic i post is fic for me, but i haven't hit the carefree attitude of "idc what you think, its for me first and foremost" yet.

🌻what makes you want to give up on writing? what makes you keep going?

there's nothing that makes me want to give up on writing specifically. i wail and cry when stuff isn't flowing right, but like. so i had an irl thing run me over like a truck april/may of this year and it's bullshit kept spilling out through june and july too, so i had like no time or energy to write or even spend much time on fandom stuff for four months, and i went absolutely bananas. i need to do something creative to feel good, and writing is my favorite of those.

posting...posting is a different story 😂 weirdly if im chasing the high of posting a fic/the high of comments on fic, i dont like to post as much. the hill in my head is too much to get around, so that ig.

🌿how does creating make you feel?

*points up*

also prev

🍉in what ways has writing helped you process trauma and/or navigate through your own life?

...this is such a weird question lmao (not u, the person who made the question list should have deleted this). i've always found writing as a good way of examining my internal biases and preconceptions i might not have otherwise had opportunity to find and reflect upon so clearly, and i'm going to leave it at that.

🎈describe your style as a writer; is it fixed? does it change?

fuck if i know what my writing style is 😂

🎀give yourself a compliment about your own writing

*curls up in more shy* hmm, i really like reading my own stories. like, i always have cyclic periods of "oh god this is garbage what the fuck was i thinking" feelings for each of my fics, but i know now that feeling is brief and it'll be gone soon enough and it will stay gone longer than it comes. the person who reads my stories the most is me, and the fact that i want to go back to read them again is really important to me.

🎉how often do you celebrate completing & posting a work? how often do you give yourself the credit/validation that you seek from others when you post? (if you don't, you should!)

i don't think i linger so much on the actual posting of the fic, but i return to my fics a lot and i've also started paying more attention to how much i post. i'm trying to find a balance between acknowledging that i posted stories vs "oh god, im not posting ENOUGH," but back at the turn of this year, i was really bummed that i didn't get as much posted during december as i had set out to do, specifically because i felt like 2021 had been a really strong year and i'd let myself down not finishing as many fics in 2022. then i actually checked my AO3 stats for 2021 to 2022, and realized i'd posted 4x as much in 2022 than i had in 2021. over 100k words altogether even!

i think i'm getting off topic, but between rereading my own stuff pretty frequently and trying to get a better grasp on how much i've actually posted vs what's in my head, i think i celebrate pretty often? idk 😂

💞what's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

characters!!! everything's built around the characters. i love worldbuilding, making up worlds is a lot of fun, but i worldbuild through the lens of "what am i interested in?" (which starts with characters) and "how does this affect x?" (because if it doesn't matter to/affect the character, it shouldn't be a priority to me). similarly, plots exist for me to put Specific Guys Into Situations. a plot can be objectively interesting, but i'm not going to stick to it if i don't care about the people going thru it, my brain just doesn't focus like that.

the actual writing of the story is lowest priority on my list. there's a lot of writing types i don't like, but i can muscle thru a lot in the name of a good cast or plot. similarly, i don't give a flying fuck how pretty or polished a writer thinks their sentences are, if the actual story is boring or OOC, i am not reading it. or i am reading it and bitching extensively in friends DMs, which is worse. 😂

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

honestly, hard for me to answer because i'm actively trying not to think about what sort of response i do get. i guess one that still amuses me quite a bit is the response to my fic Shining Dishonesty (howls moving castle AU for haikyuu!!). i love this story to bits and i really love the comments i have on it, but it's weird/funny to me because it's my most recommended and mentioned fic on twitter, but it's one of my lowest in terms of kudos & comments. idk what's up with that 😂

🤍what's one fic of yours you think people didn't "get"?

*big shrug emoji* nothing that comes to mind???

maybe Silver for Truth, just a little bit???? everyone got the message of "get fucked Tawan" but there was also a little more pity for Tawan than i'd expected. like, not really, because Tawan's annoying, but i don't know that everyone quite caught Khun's trap for Tawan in it. Tawan could've completely turned things around for Vegas and ruined Kinn's lie by confessing his own failures/betrayals and accepting the consequences, except Tawan puts himself before all others, even someone he claims to love.

🕯️was there a fic that was really hard on you to write, or took you to a place you didn't think it would take you?

honestly? i don't remember the specific writing issues once something is done. even for something that takes me a while to write. usually my writing hang-ups are related to irl stressors. Pitch It was an extremely hard fic for me to write, but that was because it had a deadline attached to it while i was also trying to come up with money for a new car after my previous one was totaled 😂 and while i approach all stories with a vague plot in mind, it's purposefully vague so i can adapt to where's best for the story to go. that's the part i look forward to the most when writing lol.

💥find your least kudos'd fic - say something wonderful about it.

lol i don't even have to sort my stories to know which one is my least number of hits/kudos. it's by dawn's early light, which i wrote for the bnha myths zine, and it is literally one of my favorite fics i've ever written. there's some stuff i would've done differently now, but i liked it when i finished it, i liked even thru that fucking project's mess, and i liked it enough to post it after the project was finished, and that is probably the highest praises i can give that particular fic.

(this response probably doesn't make much sense to anyone who hasn't participated in a zine before and i'm not going to burden you with context if you haven't, but like. trust me. that's saying a lot 😂)

🍭why did you start writing?

to make a dick joke. i haven't changed.

💎why is writing important to you?

it's just fun. i really like doing it and i really like connecting with people over it/through it.

🪄what is your post-writing/sharing aftercare? How do you take care of yourself or celebrate yourself when you've finished a fic?

i re-read the story about a bajillion times in that first week. you'd think i'd be sick of it by the time it's posted, but the satisfaction of having finished something changes the way i read it and i just bask in that.

📡why is writing and sharing your writing important for fandom?

another terrible question in this otherwise nice questions list.

i like it, so i do it, and i'm lucky enough to have made friends through it.

🎙️which one of your fics would you like someone to make a pod-fic of?

i'm excited if anyone wants to make a podfic of my work and i give general permission for it, but it's not something i seek out specifically. i have very bad ears, it just doesn't really cross my mind.

🤲what do YOU get out of writing?

*points up however many questions ago* it's very fulfilling for me and i like it a lot. i'm lucky enough to have also made connections to others by way of writing, but first and foremost is i enjoy the actual act of it.

💋when you leave comments on a fic, do you want to hear back from the writer?

maybe? idk, i leave comments because i like to leave comments. i like hearing back, but its not like im leaving a comment looking for that. wrong mindset for this question, u know?

☯️how do you think engaging with each other through tumblr, twitter, comments, kudos, creates healthy fandom experiences? How do you deal with that if you're not a social person/experience social anxiety?

*sighs* this fucking questionnaire maker lmao.

responding to fics is fun for everyone. it's a great way to make new friends if that's the fandom experience you're hoping for (same goes for responding to edits, art, etc). if you're anxious to start talking to people or leaving comments or whatever, take the babysteps you need to try to push and expand your comfort zone. and be gentle on yourself -- there's no "right" way to interact with fandom, and you don't have to be perfect at what you want to do right away either.

but if that's not the way you want to interact with fandom, you don't have to. there's nothing wrong with "lurking" and frankly i care about my stuff being enjoyed (even if i never hear about it!), not the ~proper~ way to be in fandom or whatever. furthermore, my healthy fandom experience is regulating and maintaining my own reactions to the reception (or lack of) i get when i post so that it stays fulfilling for me, and that's how i create my healthy fandom experience.

🧿what steps do you take to not take things personally if a fic doesn't do well, or if your writing/posting/sharing experience isn't going how you'd like it to?

mostly i look inwards to see what exactly im dissatisfied with and examine why. there's plenty of stuff that i wish had a bigger reception, but i focus on things that i can control (what im happy with in a story, what i enjoyed about the process, talking about it more in my own blog space so people can choose to engage or ignore, etc) and push myself to that framework of mind. the worst thing you can do is focus on things you can't control, especially something as random and fickle as other people's reactions or a post/story hitting the trend wave just right.

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

timeloop AU!! (prev)

timeloop AU will be 3 chapters + an epilogue. first chapter is Kim POV, the second one is Big POV, and third is Chay POV. Kim is the first one trapped in the timeloop. Big joins him later. Chay never does.

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

in my fic Single Star Review, Khun goes to university and then starts seeking extra therapy help. i am Extremely excited for this one, but one of my favorite-favorite parts of it is Khun dismissively says "it's not like i can call Kim and gossip about boys" and Flop (the therapist, no that's not actually his name) asks Khun "why not" and Khun stares through a wall for a solid three minutes realizing hey, he CAN call Kim to talk about boys actually.

-later that night-

Khun: Kim! Kimmy-Kim my littlest kin! forget your other plans, tonight we are painting our nails and gossiping about BOYS

Kim: what the fuck

Khun: my therapist thinks i should try talking to you about stuff

Kim: THERAPIST?!

Khun: THAT'S NOT THE IMPORTANT PART HOW DO I HANDLE HAVING A CRUSH

(Kim is, ofc, over the moon and extremely excited when his brain catches up with his ears, even though he's a total little brother about it.)

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

Red Line fic is the first installment of a 4-fic series (tortoise is laughing at me for thinking it'd stop with 1). mostly because it immediately dived into one of my favorite variations for how Chay kills Korn.

Korn's death is not a fix-it.

[tyranttortoise]

*You finally go on a date with Axe.  

_____________________

FIFTY CHAPTERS!!!

Excuse me while I come out of the ether to slap you guys with a random update.  ;D  

This one is one that I’m half-happy with.  The first part feels a little sloppy; I rewrote it five different times and then had a long moment where I thought I lost my touch and would never be able to write again.  This used to come so easy!  And then, I got to the second half, where I switched to Axe’s POV, and oooo, that flowed so well.  It’s much longer than the other part, but I went through it quicker, and it felt so natural.  I think I just needed to get into Axe’s head for this one because he’s such a fun character to explore.  

Also, as an aside, my birthday is on the 17th, so I’m going to wait and read the Ao3 comments then as a special treat lmao.  I’m actually flying to Orlando in the morning to celebrate (and look at turtles and feed a walrus), so I’m in pretty good spirits.  And did I mention that the Mass Effect Legendary Edition came out today, and the timing is so amazingly perfect that I can’t contain myself because that’s my favorite thing in the world.  Mmmm Garrus.  <3

AlsoResidentEvilVillageAHHHH

Anyway, I used this update to ramble because I’m on like 2 hours of sleep since I worked overnight, and I’m a little delirious, but I really hope you guys enjoy the update -- especially the part from Axe’s POV.  It was so much fun, and I’ve really missed the fic.  If you guys have trope suggestions or date suggestions for the remaining bois, don’t hesitate to send me an ask or message or comment!  

[seven-homosexual-dinosaurs]

Nature wives au where Katherine is a princess running away from an arranged marriage and Shelby is the witch accused of kidnapping her when in actuality she’s helping Katherine escape. It sounds like Tangled but I promise it’s not

Rambles under the cut

- Katherine is the kind but mysterious princess of a powerful kingdom who mainly exports in the form of fabrics and tailoring materials

- She’s not mysterious on purpose, it’s just that her parents are protective and don’t let her get out much

- She knows a lot about tailoring and actually quite enjoys it, finding it freeing

- She also likes snooping in on the knights and blacksmiths at work

- Her parents arranged her to be married to a far off sailor prince named Joe

- Katherine doesn’t want to marry some guy she doesn’t know, so she runs away

- Shelby is a witch who journeyed to the kingdom to try and find someone to make her a witch hat

- Unfortunately, this kingdom is not super witch friendly. Ergo, she’s generally shunned and kicked out of any towns she enters

- She tries not to get discouraged and makes it to the castle town, renowned for its tailors, hoping it’s the witch hate is a small town thing

- It’s not

- As soon as she’s spotted by a guard, she’s chased down

- She gets away on broomstick, but not before offering the girl she saw also running from guards a ride

- Katherine takes the ride and whoops, Shelby accidentally kidnapped the princess

- Once safe, they talk a bit and get to know each other, learning of each other’s plights

- Katherine offers to make Shelby a witch hat if Shelby gets her out of the kingdom

- Now Shelby normally wouldn’t get involved in something so dangerous just for a hat, but she did embark on this solo quest for a hat from a kingdom notorious for its tailors. Plus, everyone back home expects her to fail

- Motivated by spite, desperation and her quickly developing crush on this cute princess, Shelby agrees

- Now they’re on this gay magic road trip/mad escape from the kingdom

- Shelby has two familiars. Tortoise the toad, who was a gift from her grandmother, and Nimbus the crow, who showed up around when her magic turned weather-wise and is closer attuned to her elemental magic

[free-pancakes]

Kiss the Drummer

Summary: a LeviHan Jazz!AU

Levi, a talented trumpet player famous in the jazz clubs of New York, is struggling with his instrument and feels burnt out—he wonders if he chose the right path in life.

The bassist of his quintet, an old friend named Erwin, invites a quirky new drummer to play with them, who brings a new spark into Levi’s life.

Notes:  Drum "chops” describe a drummer's technical ability, including a large vocabulary of licks, and how freely they express themselves on the instrument. BPM = beats per minute Songs: Giant Steps - John Coltrane

sorry this AU fic is pure self-indulgence and has become much longer than originally intended lol

crossposted to AO3

CHAPTER 1

He licked his lips and pushed them readily against the smooth, silver mouthpiece, ready to hit the first note of the song, Giant Steps. He suppressed his desire to grumble at yet another fast swing tune.

He stared out into the audience, peering at the people sitting around the tables of the club. Their faces were slightly lit from the reflection of the stage lights, wearing expressions of both excitement and anticipation. “Just another night of the same old thing,” Levi thought to himself, letting out a soft, exasperated sigh, one only he could hear. His stance conveyed confidence, but his eyes spelled apathy.

He heard snaps on 2 and 4 marking their starting tempo at 289 bpm and Levi quickly puffed warm air into his trumpet.

“One… two… one two three four—“

——

Levi wiped down his trumpet, carefully cleaning the beautiful brass after yet another great performance. He gently placed it in his case, and looked up at himself in the dressing room mirror. He stared blankly at his reflection, noting the tinge of purple beneath his eyes—he knew his body was aching for sleep. It had been restless upon restless night for the past year or so, and he wasn’t completely sure why. He looked down at his trumpet case with both affection and disdain. Maybe... he just wasn’t meant to do this for this long.

He didn’t hate playing, but the truth was, he had simply been good at it all of his life. Quite gifted at it, one would say, and thus he passively let it lead him to success. It was just what it was. He was good at jazz, he was good at trumpet. Naturally he studied it at a top university for jazz performance and joined this famous quintet, and naturally he worked hard to improve his skills. But as any routine would, practice and rehearsals became monotonous, grunt work.

While lost in thought, his eyes trailed over to his small, neat pile of math textbooks at the edge of the dresser.

If anything, he did enjoy jazz theory. It was just math, anyway—circle of fifths, cadence patterns, fancy scales—it all just added up and broke down for any message or feeling you wanted to convey with a melody for your solo, and those tools were simply available in your brain to make it happen—tools to play some straight dirty solos that make you smirk satisfactorily when listening. To Levi, it just made sense, to a lot of other people, he was called “genius”. But after years and years of this, he was burning out and he was quite aware of that. He felt like he was losing his edge, and he was just a machine clunking out music most nights of the week. Again he thought, maybe he just wasn’t meant to do this forever. But what else would pay the bills?

Shaking his head, he let his jumbled thoughts fall away momentarily. He picked up a textbook, and leafed through the pages. He clicked open a ballpoint pen and began adding to his lesson plan for one of his students, a young girl named Sasha. Honestly, she seemed utterly hopeless with math at times, but he was determined to help her at least pass her algebra class. Her little friend Connie on the other hand…well that’s a story for another day, he thought, and chuckled softly to himself. If anything, he did enjoy his side job as a math tutor for the local school system. He didn’t really need the extra pocket money, but something compelled him to keep up with it.

As he jotted down notes, muffled noise of cheering and commotion rocked against the door. Tonight’s gig was Nile’s last performance with them, as he was moving out to the west coast to play with another group and accept a teaching position somewhere out there. Levi didn’t care much for his drumming or his personality for that matter, so he wasn’t particularly sad to see him go, nor was he keen on joining the celebration out in the bar. He yawned and continued finish up writing his lesson plan, as he knew he’d probably have to drive his drunk colleagues home.

——

“Levi! I’m gonna miss you buddy!” Nile exclaimed as he aggressively ruffled Levi’s hair, causing the cowlick he spent every morning trying to gel down to stick straight up embarrassingly at the top of his head. “Yeah, yeah, yeah… good luck Nile.” He shoved him and Mike into a cab, as they lived in the same apartment complex. He turned back into the bar to Erwin smiling drunkenly and Nanaba knocked out cold, sleeping soundly as she sat with her head down on a table. Levi grumbled and picked up Nanaba’s saxophone case to haul into the trunk of his car. He returned to pick up Nanaba and carried her on his back, and Erwin walked with them to Levi’s car.

“Hey Levi, Our new drummer is flying in tomorrow. I told her I’d come and pick her up from the airport at 7am.”

Levi looked Erwin up and down with a look of disgust. “In that sorry state, Eyebrows? Tch, go sleep off the hangover tonight, I can go to the airport. What’s her name and what does she look like?”

“Her name’s Hange. She has messy brown hair usually worn up in a ponytail, wears tortoise clubmaster glasses and well… honestly you can’t miss her, I’m sure you’ll find her right away.”

“Okay. So why’d we need to bring in a completely new drummer anyway? Couldn’t we have just brought in Moblit?”

“Ah you know his style doesn’t fit ours as well, plus he’s doing well with his band right now. Don’t worry, Hange and I played together all 4 years of college together, she’s got chops. Plus, I think Hange will probably bring in the change we need. Your playing’s gone a bit stale... hasn’t it, Levi?”

“Stale?! Pfft you’re just drunk,” Levi muttered, irritated as Erwin raised his eyebrows at him. They arrived at their apartment complex and Levi begrudgingly unlocked the car doors, gently woke Nanaba, and the three of them walked up to their floor. Erwin fumbled with his keys, and Levi snatched it out of his hands, frustrated at how long it was taking him. Erwin chuckled, and Levi scrunched up his nose at the stench of alcohol in his breath. As soon as the door opened, Nanaba immediately ran to the bathroom, retching into the toilet.

“I got her,” Erwin laughed. “Go to bed, Levi, you’re the one getting up early. Flight info’s next to the door.”

Levi nodded, turned into his room, and plopped down on the bed. He stared at the ceiling, and wondered how much longer he’d keep playing, or more like, how soon he’d quit. If this Hange person was as annoying as Nile, well… he probably wouldn’t hold out much longer.

——

Levi stood with his hands in his pockets, eyes peeled for this Hange person. He looked at his watch—“Maybe she was still waiting on her luggage,” he thought. He walked over to the small cafe to his left, and waited in line, squinting for any decent teas on the menu. Before he could decide, he suddenly heard a small yelp, and something shoved right into his chest, feeling piping hot coffee running down his white, longsleeve shirt. Before he could yell obscenities at the moron who just ruined one of his favorite shirts, he was met with frantic apologizes.

“I’m so so sorry! Oh my goodness it was a complete accident, can I get you a drink to make up for it? Man I am so clumsy...oh! Maybe you can wear one of my shirts I have here, free of charge! Or I could just—“

He looked up in the middle of incessant rambling to see the culprit—a tall brunette, hair messily tied up in a bun, wearing tortoise clubmaster glasses, and a bright yellow coat.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Levi thought to himself. He looked down to see a large black cymbal case and a stick bag with yarn mallets and drumsticks poking out of it.

—I could just buy you a new shirt! Oh, how bout—“

Levi was livid—this clown was potentially going to be playing gigs with them over the next year? The coffee stained fabric was sticking uncomfortably to his skin and he felt the biggest headache coming on—all this pain just from one person. He reached up and gently placed his hand over her mouth to physically stop her chattering.

“Is your name, Hange?”

She nodded, Levi’s hand still covering her mouth.

“You’re Erwin’s friend?”

She nodded again, her eyes lighting up at the name, Levi feeling her lips forming a smile under his palm.

“Okay, I’m taking you back to our apartment.”

Levi reached for her bags to carry them, but was interrupted.

“Wait—the least I can do is give you the extra shirt I have in my backpack so you can change out of your soiled one,” she said softly. She reached in her bag, and pulled out the shirt and Levi felt his eye twitch in annoyance at the words printed on its front. He sighed, and debated sitting in his wet shirt, but it seemed like he didn’t have much choice—he’d have to wear it.

——

Levi blinked his eyes open. He felt oddly rested, but one thing was strange—he was sitting up, and he felt something unusually heavy on his shoulder.

“What the—“

He looked to the side and saw a mess of brown hair immediately to his right, heard the soft sound of snoring, and felt… something wet on his arm? He looked down and grimaced. “Drool. She’s drooling. On my goddamn arm.”

He looked around for some kind of napkin. He didn’t remember falling asleep, let alone letting this absolute stranger curl up against him. How in the world did he let his guard down this far?

He stared blankly at Hange and thought, “What a mess—what was Erwin thinking? We’ve known each other for less than 5 hours, and she seems to have already made herself right at home. I haven’t even confirmed whether she was good enough to play with us, yet.” He tried to shift out from underneath Hange, but before he could wriggle is way out—

“Kiss the drummer?”

Erwin and Nanaba stood before Levi, both with hair in a complete mess, having just woken up from sleeping off their hangovers. Smirking and holding back laughter, they stared at the scene—Levi wearing an oversized t-shirt with the words “Kiss the Drummer” in bold letters plastered across his chest, along with Hange sleeping quite cozily on his shoulder, her glasses held gently between his fingers. Levi tried covering up the words and scowled at his two friends.

“Laugh it up,” he muttered. “What is this, Erwin? She’s clearly made herself at home already—and we haven’t even gotten to play together yet.”

“Relax, Levi, she’s a great musician. And look, she likes you!”

Levi grimaced at Hange draped over his shoulder.

“Hmph, I still have to hear her play and have my opinion considered. We all get a vote yknow…”

Over their hushed voices, Hange shifted groggily towards all of them and rubbed her eyes. “Erwin?”

Hange’s eyes lit up immediately in recognition, shoving Levi back further into the couch as she jumped up to wrap Erwin in her embrace, excited to finally be reunited with her friend after so many years.

After a few minutes of catching up, Erwin smiled brightly. “Yes, we can take you around the city a bit. Rehearsal’s not til this evening anyway—we did have a gig lined up last minute for the middle of this week if you were comfortable with that, Hange.”

“Of course I’d be down to do that! I—“

“Oi. Like I said, we still vote if you get to play with our group officially. Don’t be late to rehearsal tonight.” Levi then slowly stood up and walked quietly towards his room.

“Don’t mind him, he’s just being strict about our technical audition policy,’ Erwin reassured. He and Nanaba quickly darted for their rooms to ready themselves to take Hange sightseeing for a little while and introduce her to the city, leaving her standing alone in the middle of their living room. Her eyes trailed after Levi, curious about his calm yet sad energy. She felt that she saw through that aura, noticing every little kind gesture he made towards her from the time they met at the airport to the moment they fell asleep on the couch. Hange was determined to get him to show that side of himself a little more. As he turned to grab the door behind him, she smiled at him, and was quickly met with a scowl and the slam of his bedroom door in her face. Seemed it might take some more effort to get through to him than she originally thought.

[pascalpanic]

hi there! congrats on 1k, that’s so awesome! if possible, i’d like a ship please!! i’m 23 and use she/her pronouns. the basics about my appearance: i’m 5’9” and i’m plus size/curvy. i’ve got short dark hair (pixie cut), blue eyes, and wear tortoise shell glasses! as for personality, i’m a really passionate person; I love theatre and the performing arts and can totally ramble about it for too long if no one stops me!!! i’m an incredibly loyal and caring person; i’m the kind of person who would do anything for her friends and loved ones without thinking twice. I struggle a lot with anxiety and I can be quite neurotic at times, but when i’m all cool and calm, i have a quick wit and sense of humor, I love very deeply, and i’m very passionate!! some miscellaneous info: my love language is words of affirmation, i’m an INFP, and if you’re into astrology, i’m a cancer sun/gemini moon/leo rising! again, congrats on 1k!!! ☺️

I would ship you with Marcus Pike!!

Marcus loves the performing arts, especially theater, and he’d absolutely adore watching you perform. He gets tears in his eyes watching you on the stage, even if it’s a comedy. He’s so proud of you and never shuts up about it, constantly rambling about how beautiful and skilled you are.

When he isn’t working, Marcus makes it a point of being a very relaxed person and leaving work at work. He has a very calming vibe and he’d be wonderful at helping you relax or calming you down from an anxiety attack. Marcus loves your sense of humor, and the two of you are often cracking jokes and sniping teasing roasts at each other, but it’s always in jest. He knows how much you love him and he loves you just the same.

We know that when Marcus falls in love, he falls hard, and that’s reciprocated by you. That’s one of the things he loves about you: how passionate you are about everything you do. He admires that about you just as much as he loves your looks and body and every little thing that makes up you.

ships are closed!

[scoutception]

Final Fantasy Type-0 review: Depression central

If there’s one Final Fantasy subseries whose fate gets me feeling down, it’s the Fabula Nova Crystallis series, a novel and ambitious concept based around various games and stories of different settings and casts of characters, but sharing common themes and mythos, putting them in different contexts in each. While a fascinating idea, it ran into nothing but trouble with each of its entries, with Final Fantasy XIII and its sequels being very divisive, to say the least, Final Fantasy Versus XIII running into an infamously extended development hell, only to finally emerge as Final Fantasy XV, now almost completely separate from its original concept, and the final big entry, Final Fantasy Type-0, vanishing until 5 years after its announcement in 2006, as a PSP exclusive that only came out in Japan, a rarity for the series when it comes to its higher profile spinoffs. Thankfully, in 2015, Type-0 got a remaster on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC, finally allowing other audiences to enjoy it. Was it worth the almost 10 year wait? Well, that’s something we’re about to find out now.

Story:

Final Fantasy Type-0 takes place on the world of Orience, divided into 4 great nations blessed with Crystals: the Dominion of Rubrum, a place for the study and teaching of magic granted by the Vermilion Bird crystal, the Kingdom of Concordia, a female led monarchy able to communicate and control monsters and, more importantly, dragons, and home to the Azure Dragon crystal, the Militesi Empire, a technologically advanced state able to produce great machines of war known as Magitek Armors, or MAs, through the power of their White Tiger crystal, and the Lorican Alliance, whose citizens are much larger and powerful than any other in Orience thanks to their more direct connection to their Black Tortoise crystal. Orience is, unfortunately, not a place of peace, with each of the 4 crystal states wishing to unite Orience under them, and making plenty of attempts to in the past. The motive behind this is the legend of the Agito, a messiah said to appear during Tempus Finis, an apocalyptic event prophesied in the somewhat dubious, yet widely believed, Nameless Tome, with every crystal state seeing it as their divine duty to create Agito, to the point of Rubrum training so called Agito cadets from its brightest and most magically adept citizens.

The story opens with yet another war being started in the year 842 by Milites, whose emperor has been deposed by the brilliant and ambitious Imperial Marshall Cid Aulstyne (Final Fantasy games have a tradition of having a character named Cid somewhere, and finally, he made it as main antagonist), who immediately sets out to attack Rubrum. What would otherwise be a “normal” invasion quickly turns disastrous for Rubrum when Milites unleashed a new device called a crystal jammer, which cuts Rubrum’s legionnaires from their connection to the crystal, rendering them helpless before the Militesi invaders. Even worse, Milites also deploys a l’cie, a human chosen by their nation’s crystal to become its direct servant, in exchange for immense power and near immortality, the use of which in warfare was mutually banned by each of the 4 nations. Just when Rubrum seems doomed, the mysterious Class Zero arrives, 12 cadets who are unaffected by the crystal jammer, raised by Rubrum’s even more mysterious archsorceress, Arecia Al-Rashia, who proceed to liberate the capital, Akademia. Now, with the addition of two promising but otherwise normal cadets, Machina Kunagiri and Rem Tokimiya, Class Zero becomes a vital part in Rubrum’s efforts to reclaim their lost land and defeat Milites, once and for all.

To just come out and say it, the story’s biggest weakness is the cast, or, more specifically, its use of the cast. While the playable cast alone is certainly large, at 14 characters, and the supporting cast only grows from there, almost nobody gets proper focus. The main 12 members of Class Zero, named after playing cards, consists of Ace, Deuce, Trey, Cater, Cinque, Sice, Seven, Eight, Nine, Jack, Queen, and King, and despite being the “proper” members of Class Zero, they all only have a few character traits each. Trey is a knowledgeable type that tends to ramble, Sice is an arrogant loner, Nine is a violent muscle head, Cinque is nice, but downright weird, and so on. While after a while they all grew on me, it’s still pretty unsatisfying, especially when Ace, the face of the game, gets neglected just as badly. The supporting cast gets it even worse, as outside of Arecia and Class Zero’s commanding officer, Kurasame, most of everyone else that’s notable either has minimal at best story presence, or doesn’t show up in the story, period, being relegated to sidequests. Ultimately, the most focused on characters are the two “normal” people in Class Zero, Machina and Rem, which kinda makes sense, giving a more grounded air compared to off how putting the others can be to begin with, but even they don’t work out quite well. While Rem is fine, she doesn’t do very much interesting with the time she gets, while Machina, on the other hand, is very, very unlikeable to the point of hurting the story, whether it be his own cold attitude or broodiness to put the usual RPG protagonist stereotype to shame, he ends up way more unsympathetic than near anyone else in the story, even most of the antagonists. While the cast overall is definitely flawed, though, they’re definitely entertaining at a lot of points, whether they come from the main cast, mostly Trey or Cinque, or from some of the side characters, mainly the extremely greedy Carla and, most memorably to me, the paranoid, bombing throwing Mutsuki.

Since the story doesn’t focus on the characters very much, the main focus is instead the war itself. While it definitely has a few twists and turns, especially starting in chapter 4, overall, the battles and events of the war aren’t the most interesting subject by itself. More interesting is the elements around the war. This is by far one of, if not the darkest game in the franchise, and it doesn’t shy away from showing just how messed up Orience is. Rubrum’s main strength comes in the form of its Agito cadets, meaning, teenagers, as young as 14, at that, and the tactics the military uses means they tend to die in droves. Even when it’s technically pragmatic, between magic proficiency peaking at teen years and decreasing with age, plus not having many other means to resistance, it’s still very uncomfortable, and keep in mind, this is what the good guys, or the relative ones, get up to. Milites, meanwhile, is all too happy to deploy superweapons, such as literal nukes, and its soldiers are disturbingly fanatic, being more than happy to massacre towns, and even refer to Class Zero as demons. Class Zero themselves were raised to be soliders, and feel almost nothing in battle, and Rubrum’s leadership are paranoid and petty, to the point of the military commander actively trying to get Class Zero killed out of pure spite. Eidolons, extremely powerful monsters able to be summoned by mages, demand the lives of their summoners, and there are outright suicide squads of cadets who are only meant to summon more powerful Eidolons. Additionally, a very important plot point is that the crystals automatically erase the memories of anyone who dies from everyone’s minds, to the point Rubrum’s citizens need to wear dog tags just so it can be confirmed they even existed after they die. While they try to justify it as a blessing from the crystals that allows people to move on and not be held back by the dead, all it’s done is completely desensitize Orience to death, and having characters casually talk about being informed of their friends or family dying, and not feeling a single thing, is pretty disturbing, especially when it’s named character involved. It does a very good job of showing how constant warring and lack of reverence for the dead has corrupted this world, even when many of the characters affected still remain sympathetic.

Unfortunately, the biggest flaw of the story to me is that there simply isn’t a lot of it to be found, at least in regards to the main story. While the game is comprised of 8 chapters, that’s more than a little inaccurate, as half of those consist of a short introduction and a singular mission, rather than the 2 or 3 missions in the rest of the chapters. The story only really gets moving in chapter 4, and even then, many important points aren’t addressed until chapter 8, which is a downright bizarre and sudden change of subject and tone compared to the rest of the game, to the point a second playthrough is required because of how many holes are left otherwise, and even then, it can be a bit difficult to figure out just what is going on. The biggest achievement of the writing, on the other hand, is the lore of the setting. Orience is a fascinating world, with a detailed history of each nation, plenty of info to find on the various characters, and examinations of the various enemies of the game, all stored in a book in the hub called the Rubicus. It’s also quite interesting seeing the perspective flip compared to Final Fantasy XIII; instead of l’cie “merely” being granted the use of magic, and quickly going through their usefulness, at least by their masters’ consideration, along with the main cast being comprised of them, l’cie in Type-0 are near demigods who often live hundreds of years, and are just as fearsome to the party as to everyone else, for instance. Overall, though, while there are certainly many problems with the writing, I can’t help but say it works quite well regardless. Even with the limited time for both the story itself and the characters, it still builds a cast worth rooting for throughout the horrible situations, and an effective atmosphere that’s quite good at leaving you feeling somber. Moments like the entirety of the opening chapter, showing the utter devastation inflicted on Akademia in a mere three hours, and the various costly, large battles are very effective moments, and the ending is easily one of the saddest endings I’ve seen in a video game, for all the right reasons. Even the final chapter, odd as it is, has a lot of cool revelations and setpieces to me, at least now that I comprehend it.

Gameplay:

Type-0 is an action RPG that has you control the 14 members of Class Zero on various missions, each one possessing a different weapon. Ace uses cards, Deuce uses a flute (I swear they aren’t all this weird), Trey uses a bow, Cater uses a magic infused pistol, Cinque uses a mace, Sice uses a scythe, Seven uses a whipblade, Eight fights with his bare hands, Nine uses a lance, Jack uses a katana, Queen uses a longsword, King uses dual revolvers, Machina uses dual rapiers, and Rem uses dual daggers. Each one possesses a vastly different moveset and playstyle, such as Cinque being slow, but strong and tanky, Sice encouraging an aggressive hit and run style of play, even getting stronger for the more enemies she defeats while taking minimal hits, Trey excelling at range to a much degree than anyone else, while being near helpless up close, and Deuce being more of a supporter, having great support abilities, while her attacks are fairly weird to get used to, though effective on their own once you understand them. Despite the huge amount of characters, they’re actually fairly well balanced, all of them having important strengths and weaknesses, and while some can definitely be better than others, with Trey in particular coming to mind, possessing absurd range and the ability to charge his shots, it’s never quite game breaking. You can have up to three characters in your party, though their AI isn’t exactly great. They can certainly distract enemies well, and will make sure to heal you if your HP gets low, they don’t tend to be aggressive, and are terrible at avoiding the attacks of most enemies more complex than your average imperial trooper, and are near guaranteed to die to bosses. Speaking of which, the main wrinkle is that, while it varies, overall, your characters are not very durable, and in fact take hits about as well as wet toilet paper when faced with most enemies. This is balanced by the sheer amount of people you have. One person dies on a mission, don’t sweat it, you’ve got 13 backups. Of course, this also encourages training them all up and learning to play them as well, which is complicated by only characters in the active party gaining experience. Leveling up, in addition to granting the usual stat boosts, also grants ability points, which you can use to purchase or upgrade command or passive abilities and moves.

While just attacking enemies normally is decently effective, it can put you in unnecessary danger, and while you do have items like potions you can use to restore your health quickly, the most efficient way to fight is to use breaksights and killsights. Every enemy has at least one attack that leaves them vulnerable for a short time either before or after using said attacking. Hitting them during this period will trigger a break, or, if their health is low enough, killsight. Breaksights take a good chunk of their health away and stuns them, giving you a chance to attack them freely, while killsights just kill them outright. This one mechanic adds a lot to the gameplay, encouraging you to learn enemy patterns and attacks to see when they are vulnerable, and getting the timing down can make otherwise fearsome enemies easy to take care of. Of course, some enemies won’t take this very well, and may counterattack or even go into berserk states after recovering from breaksights, so you still have to be careful. Every character has 4 commands: regular attacks with their weapons, 2 slots that can either hold abilities or offensive magic spells, and a defensive command, whether it be the cure spell to restore health, putting up a magic wall to nullify some attacks, or just flat out blocking, which, while still causing you to suffer damage, prevents being knocked down, letting you score breaksights easier than if you were to simply dodge. Magic can be upgraded by harvesting phantoma from dead enemies, coming in various types like red for fire magic, green for defensive magic, and purple for unique spells. While powerful, magic usually takes a large chunk out of your magic points, meaning it’s better to save it for more dire situations, though harvesting phantoma restores small amounts of MP. As for equipment, aside from weapons, you have access to accessories that do things such as increasing HP by a certain percentage, giving immunity to status effects, or raising defense, though everyone can only have 2 accessories at a time. You also have three different squad commands: triad maneuver, which simply causes the party to do 3 powerful, rapid attacks, Eidolon, which summons an Eidolon you can control for a short time, in exchange for KOing the character that summoned it, and Vermilion Bird, a powerful spell that, to actually become powerful, has to be upgraded using crystal shards, which, while fairly easy to get most of the time, aren’t very numerous.

Type-0 uses a mission system, throwing you into various locations to complete objectives, though it usually equates to to reach the end of the area and kill an enemy commander. Most locations are pretty linear, though they all have a few side areas you can go to, usually for more items. You get graded based on how fast you completed the mission, how much phantoma you harvested, and how many party members got KOed during the mission, with getting the best rank on all three categories getting you an S rank, which gives a bonus item. Beating each mission on a difficulty above easy also unlocks other bonuses, whether they be additional items up for purchase or unlocking new spells or Eidolons, or just flat giving you a rare item. Completing missions also gives you money, with more the higher the difficulty and the higher your rank. Speaking of difficulties, there are 4 of them: cadet, which is just easy mode, officer, normal mode, Agito mode, which is a hard mode that makes every enemy 30 levels higher than on cadet and officer, and Finis, which is only available after completing the game once, and is, just plain absurd. All enemies have their levels increased by 50, they’re in permanent rage mode, causing them to move twice as fast and hurt twice as much, and you’re restricted to only being able to use one person per mission. It’s not much worth the effort. Aside from completing missions, your main source of items, magic, and Eidolons is from completing special orders, optional objectives that can pop up in various areas. While there’s various generic, white orders that only give items at the end of the mission for doing stuff like not getting hit for 30 seconds or not using magic for a few minutes, there are also specific, red ones with more specific objectives like taking out certain enemies, that give out better rewards. The main problem with accepting them is that, if you fail to complete them, you risk instant being killed over it, though you can avoid it you’re fast enough, as it’s delivered through portals on the ground.

In between missions, you’re allowed to explore Akademia, chatting with NPCs or party members, or engaging in “free time events” which are either conversations with random people, or cutscenes that tend to have much more interesting information. You only have a limited amount of hours until the next story mission starts, with each event taking two hours away, though time doesn’t pass just running around and talking to people without events. While a neat concept that could easily be like Persona, in practice, it doesn’t add much. While you can get some interesting information at times, and doing events also gives you items, it’s not very in depth otherwise. Even the sidequests with the more prominent side characters just consist doing their events whenever they’re available and doing a sidequest for them, eventually getting admittedly very good bonuses at the end of their little storylines. The other thing you can do with your free time is go out into the world map, where you can visit extremely small towns, get into random encounters, visit dungeons, and... not much else. While the world map isn’t tiny, there’s just not much to find. While there’s many towns, they are, again, tiny, only consisting of a single small area with a shop or two, a sidequest, and a little unofficial side quest to get a l’cie stone, which can be traded into a certain NPC to unlock lore entries in the Rubicus. There’s just not much of interest, and you’re very heavily restricted in where you’re allowed to even go on the world map, only being able to go to areas officially reclaimed by Rubrum, or that are the destination of the current story mission. Only in chapter 7 do you finally get some kind of freedom, to the point of being able to gain an airship to allow easy traversal of the world. Plus, most dungeons aren’t even meant to be explored on a first playthrough, with only about one or two being reasonable at that point, not that there’s even much to find besides l’cie stones and a chance at a rare item, emphasis on chance, since they’re always in a specific chest at the end that can only be opened once without reloading your save, and the chance of getting the most valuable item from them is rather low.

As for other activities, you can train in the arena, for downright piddly gains, or take on sidequests, most of which just contain of going out and defeating a certain amount of specific enemies, giving over items, and so forth. Most rewards aren’t great, but a few, namely from the more notable characters like the leaders of Rubrum, Kurasame, and Arecia, give very notable rewards. Sidequests don’t take time to do, but often require you to leave Akademia, meaning you need to weigh the time lost going out to do the quests against the time you could use doing events, which is difficult when you don’t know just what rewards either give out. When it comes mission time, though, you gotta venture out on the world map to your next destination. Speaking of the world map, along with the regular missions, there are also RTS style missions, where you, controlling a party member on the world map, help the dominion army reclaim forts and towns by taking out enemies and having units generated by controlled areas weaken said areas until you can invade them in a regular mission style. Instead of being graded on phantoma harvested, you’re instead graded on objectives completed, as occasionally you’ll get orders to do stuff like defend a fort for a specific amount of time or taking out a large enemy. While technically optional, you get bonuses for completing them beyond mission grade, such as access to “hero units” and direct control of certain areas. There’s a decent amount of these missions in the game, and they do make for an interest change of pace, but they aren’t much notable. You’re even allowed to skip participating in them, though obviously you miss out on rewards.

The highlights of the game are, rather sensibly, the end of chapter missions. Not only are they much longer than typical missions, they have much more unique settings, and, of course, bosses. This game has some very enjoyable, if difficult, bosses, ranging from the giant mech Brionac that is more than capable of wiping you out in a single attack, to the highly mobile mech of Qator Bashtar, Cid’s second in command, to several fights with the near invincible Gilgamesh (another recurring character in the series). My personal favorite is the boss of chapter 5, the dragon Shinryu, which is also all too happy to instantly kill you with most of its attacks, even more so than Brionac, and spend most of the fight enveloped in the darkness surrounding the arena you’re in, only being visible by the lights of its glowing red eyes. It makes for an amazing setpiece, and losing to it is almost more enjoyable than winning simply due to the failsafe implemented since the devs expected most players to lost, the details of which I simply cannot spoil. Finally, on a second playthrough, two new types of missions are available for you: expert trials, and Code Crimson missions. Expert trials are optional missions you can do during your free time, which you’ll likely have a lot of since events you see on a previous playthrough can be viewed again at no time cost on repeat playthroughs. While technically available in the first playthrough as well, they are way too difficult for the average player, i.e who isn’t insane like me. Code Crimson missions, on the other hand, are replacements for the end of chapter missions, consisting of you going off to do other stuff. While an interesting concept, in practice, they aren’t anything special, especially when they’re replacing the most interesting parts of the game, and they barely give any more story context either. The chapter 7 mission is the one exception, being very short, but an interesting concept and adding a bit more to the story. Plus, completing them all on one playthrough unlocks an interesting alternate ending, so that alone makes them worth a go.

As for the hardest challenges to be found, they’re a bit lacking. Aside from the regular optional dungeons, there’s one notable bonus dungeon and two notable superbosses. The bonus dungeon is the Tower of Agito, which can only be reached by airship, which consists of 5 floors where you need to fight 100 specific enemies, such as tonberries and behemoths, with plenty of chests to open in between, ending off on an extremely disappointing end boss that is just a Malboro that happens to be massive. While it certain sounds difficult, and pretty much everything is capable of one shotting you, once you get into a good pattern, it’s really just boring. Most of the time, they just spawn so slowly, and while after a while more of them come out at a time, it takes about an hour and a half at best to get through even if you’re otherwise efficient. As for the superbosses, there’s Nox Suzaku, only available in a second playthrough and onward, who has a chance of appearing whenever you harvest phantoma, stealing everything you try to harvest until it decides to go away. Aside from making it go away on its own, you can beat it up, which is quite a doozy. Instead of fighting you directly, it summons phantoms of various enemies to fight you, and while you could just defeat them all, this doesn’t do anything to Nox itself. Instead, you have to let the enemies defeat you, causing Nox to appear for a short time, allowing you to attack it until it retreats. Rinse and repeat, it’s not that difficult, and the rewards aren’t that great, so the main reason to beat it up is just to make it go away, because it stealing your phantoma is extremely annoying, especially when it can show up during missions, since you can’t just leave to fight it, and it’s entirely possible for it to flat make it impossible to get an S rank on that mission it decides it doesn’t want to leave. Not exactly a fun mechanic. The other superboss is, per tradition, Gilgamesh, in a stronger form than in the story. He only shows up on a third playthrough, at a few different locations on the world map, in the form of a portal. Entering said portals causes him to randomly select one of your characters to challenge. If you win, you get that character’s ultimate weapon, but if he wins, he steals your character’s current weapon. The ultimate weapons are kinda underwhelming, especially considering you may well have everything else done after a second playthrough, and it’s annoying getting specific people picked, but it’s actually a fun and fair fight, if easy to figure out.

Overall, Type-0 has some of the tightest gameplay among all the Final Fantasy spinoffs, and is the main thing that holds it together. It has a fast, hectic pace to it, interesting enemies to tackle, and a wide variety of people to try out. Really, the main criticism I have is the actual missions you have with which to try them out. The other main story missions aren’t much to look at, and same goes for the expert trials and Code Crimson missions. I’m sure this is at least partially due to originating on the PSP, and having to deal with its limitations, something that’s about become a theme in this review. Overall, though, it’s still more than satisfactory.

Graphics:

The visuals of Type-0 are a very mixed big, unfortunately leaning more towards negative. More than anything else, they make it very apparent that Type-0 was originally a PSP game. While the members of Class Zero themselves have decent looking models, if rather unemotive, everyone else, except a few important characters like Arecia, are much lower quality, especially the faces. Here’s a comparison between Ace and Carla.

The textures don’t fare much better, looking very blatantly stretched and blurry, especially on the world map, where bridges are just one long, hideous texture. Most locations outside of, again, the end of chapter missions don’t look anything special, and so many areas are just reused over and over. You go into a town, it’ll look like every other town, at least of that region. You invade a fort, it’ll look like every other fort. Repeat for almost every mission in the game. Thankfully, the big story missions look quite impressive and creative, my favorites being chapter 5′s, taking place on frozen clouds that end up near breathtaking, and especially the setting of the very final mission, which is, to avoid anything too specific, downright insane, in a good way. Another positive are the enemy designs, more specifically, the actual monsters, with enemies such as bombs and flans resembling their earlier FF designs much more than most modern entries. Unfortunately, there’s just one problem: the actual variety of enemy designs is rather lacking, with the majority of enemies being slight alterations or palette swaps. It’s a more minor point than most, but still something. The original enemy designs are quite inventive though, and overall, this is a game that excels more in general design than actual fidelity, like the spiraling Concordian capital surrounded by a sea of clouds.

Sound:

The music of Type-0 is plain great, as is usual for the series. The boss themes especially are fantastic, along with the main theme, The Beginning of the End. It also sounds quite distinctive compared to most of the rest of the series, having a greater focus on metal, fitting the more modern aesthetic. The English voice acting, on the other hand, isn’t quite great. It’s pretty obvious the dub was a rush job, considering Type-0 lacked the simultaneous localization process of the main series games, resulting in it being very lackluster overall. There are some notable voice acting names in it, like Cristina Vee as Cinque, Bryce Papenbrook as Machina, Danielle Judovits as Carla, Cassandra Lee as Mutsuki, and even Matthew Mercer as Trey, and they all do good jobs, but the rest of the cast varies, especially Class Zero itself. Ironically enough, the side characters tend to have much more solid performances, with special props going to Steve Blum as Cid, giving a very menacing perfomance, as well as other characters like Aria, Class Zero’s orderly, and Kazusa, the resident mad scientist. Corri English as Sice and Heather Hogan Watson as Queen also fair quite well. Beyond that though, the performances can be rather forced, like Nine and Cater, or just weak overall, like Rem and Deuce. This is not helped by the normal, in game cutscenes themselves, with their structure causing many long, awkward pauses nearly every sentence. It does, however, improve as the game goes on, to the point of the final cutscenes not being hurt by it near at all.

Conclusion:

Overall, this is a solid recommended by me. Even with the weakness of elements like the graphics and the short, underdeveloped story, the core gameplay just holds up that well, and there’s quite a bit to enjoy in the weaker elements even beyond that. Overall, this is one of my favorite Final Fantasy spinoffs, and the fact that it will most likely never get a sequel due to the departure of its director, Hajime Tabata, makes me very sad. With that unneeded note, this shall be the last of the Final Fantasy spinoffs I play in some time. The next time the name Final Fantasy pops up as the subject of one of my reviews, it shall be about the main series. Till next time.

-Scout

[gyrrakavian]

Hypothetical Pokemon region based on the Midwest

Unova is based on the East Coast, and the channel Mr. Buddy already did a video on a hypothetical region based on the Western United States, so I figured I’d write up one for a region based on the Midwest. If someone else wants to take a stab at this, be my guest. [IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, & WI]

It gets a bit rambly and isn’t entirely complete as I had trouble placing some of the gym types and there’s just so many choices for who to base the gym leaders and Elite Four on. But, I do throw out some suggestions here and there.

Terrain: There's shortgrass and tallgrass plains, mountains, semi-arid areas, lakes and rivers.

Starters: Region starters would be based on a tiger salamander, American badger, and the Eastern red bat (water, grass & fire respectively).

As to what the starters would end up as type wise; flying-fire for the bat is pretty obvious, but what about either a grass-ground or a grass-fight typing for the badger? I figured the water starter would more resemble a Hellbender in its final form and would have either the counter-intuitive typing of rock-water or dark-water from the Hellbender’s preferred habitat.

Other new Pokemon: New animal pokemon would likely be based around the alligator snapping turtle, American bison, copperhead or cottonmouth, coyote, either golden or bald eagle (we've got both), an egret or a heron, a hawk, mastodon (fossil), mudskipper, red and grey wolves, river otter or beaver, porcupine, prairie dog, pronghorn, sandpiper, stinkpot (a type of turtle), a toad, and warbler. There's so many possible bug types I made a separate list: arrowhead orbweaver, arrow-shaped micrathena, at least 2 beetles (probably a borer, water beetle, or tortoise beetle), a centipede, katydid, luna moth, a rodent or two (several to choose from), a jumping spider (probably Sassacus papenhoei or Phidippus audax) prairie walkingstick,  sweat bee, tolype or other woolly moth, a tortoise beetle, a weevil, and the white-lined sphinx moth.

If we were to get a new deer pokemon, a grass-ghost or ground-ghost typing would be interesting to see.

New plant-based pokemon would be based on boneset (Eupatorium), corn, soy, cottonwood tree, snakeroot (Asarum canadense), snakeroot (Polygala senega), wheat, and some of the various wildflowers.

New object-based pokemon would be based on scarecrow (ghost-grass), and American Civil War era cannons and mortars (ghost-steel), and a microphone.

Legendaries: Legendaries would probably be based on the Thunderbird (flying-electric), the The Water Panther (water-dragon) and a giant horned serpent (dark-dragon or dark-water).

Places and Cities: Major cities would be based on Branson, Chicago, Clevand, Detroit, Indianopolis, Kansas City, Milwauke, St. Louis, and Wichita. The notable sites would likely be be based on both Native American and Civil War sites in the region. With both the Mississipian culture (with emphasis on Cahokia) and the various Civil War battle sites and forts throughout the region. It would be interesting to see the St. Louis as something of a reconstruction of Cahokia in its heyday. Mount Rushmore would also likely be referenced in some way (both the presidents and Crazy Horse monuments). Being that Kansas has one of the world's largest salt deposits under it, the salt mine in Hutchison would also make a good spot to visit. Areas based on Nebraska and Iowa would likely get mashed together, same for the Dakotas. Kansas would be spared getting mashed in with Iowa and Nebraska due to the sheer number of ghosttowns the state has.

There'd be no getting around the regions history with both the Wild West and Prohibition. So, activities could include something based around either. Maybe a cattle drive sidequest, or a quickdraw event. Though, both would work as basis for the plot as well.

Routes: Special routes would include extreme hot-cold shifts, tornadoes, and prairie fires.

Gyms and Gym leaders: Considering the vast amount of history in the region, there's all manner of historical figures to draw from for the basis of gym leaders. Several writers, musicians, actors and artists, as well as notable inventors, atheletes and outlaws. Thirteen presidents were elected from the region, as well 11 US presidents having been born in the region. Plus, Eisenhower was raised in and retired in Kansas.

Just listing writers alone: Ray Bradbury, Gordon Parks, Truman Capote, Kurt Vonnegut Jr, William Allen White, Ernest Hemmingway, Mark Twain, Betty Friedan, Charles Schulz, Abigail Van Buren (Pauline Philips), David Mamet, Carl Sandburg, Ann Landers (Esther Lederer), (James) Langston Hughes, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Garrison Keller, Standing Bear, Erma Bombeck, Zane Grey, and Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Michigan would have the water and steel gyms, Wisconsin the poison and ice gyms (Milwaukee breweries), Kansas the flying and ghost gyms (Air Capital of the World), Nebraska-Iowa would have the grass and normal gyms, the Dakotas would have the ground and fighting gyms. Missouri would have the rock gym for certain (the Ozarks) and something else. I wasn't really too sure about what all the other states would have. Maybe fairy and normal type gyms for Ohio? Anybody have any other suggestions for the rest?

The only gym leader I could really peg down would be for the Wichita gym. She'd be based on Amelia Earhart and two of the other trainers in the gym should be based on Clyde Cessna and Bill Lear. Though, I was thinking maybe John Brown (the dude was f---ing nuts) as basis for the ghost gym leader.

Elite Four: Again, tons of historical figures and artisans to choose from. If we went with entertainers, Oprah Winfrey, Walt Disney, "Buffalo Bill" Cody, and the Ringling Brothers. If singers, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and Bob Dylan. If inventors; The Wright brothers, Thomas Edison, John Deere, and John Atanasoff (inventor of the digital computer).

You get the idea.

[curious-minx]

Lost Treasures

Short story based around the recently shut down Fletcher, NC thrift store called Lost Treasures. 

Memorabilia store owner Trent Darcy is heaving himself ontop of his store’s rooftop all while carrying his plastic tortoise shell strapped to his back. Upon reaching the roof Trent begins lolling towards his store sign Lost Treasures snuggling up inside of the Old English script letter O, which for a man of Trent’s capacity proved a valiant challenge. Down below, a clearly plagiarized mascot from the Nintendo corporation appears  stenciled across the store’s feeble shopping display. This spritely maintenance man with a goatee and Medterrenan swarthiness  is  waving out while holding a large gold Button behind his back like a smoking gun. His eyes crossed out and replaced with large crude Xs. The city of Hendo pleaded with the memorabilia store owner that his store could be left empty wearing a graceful expanding sticker declaring Foreclosure, For Sale! A man wearing a typical outfit most associated with the death of the working class American’s ambitions, a full khaki suit and denim jacket,  is shouting through his cupped hands heavenwards,  his man is a walking ambonation declares Trent with all of his might, which considering the strains of his orthopedic shell his declarations are only audible to Trent’s own inner ear. Trent begins pacing.

“Mr. Trent Darcy, I beg of you to please come down! I am here on the behalf of te town of Hendo to let you know that you are well within your rights to resist this demolition.  A full on demolition crew is pricey business. I get that. Once they start demolishing your former building they are then likely to spread their bulldozing onwards and outwards  towards just anywhere. They are insatiable and unreasonable degenerates, but at least they’re not the government.. Put that samurai sword down Trent. You’re making me nervous!” as soon as  the khaki denim man mentions his nerves, Marfa Poonce wirls her rifle around and  fires off several rounds, all shots missing around Trent.

Officer Poonce wipes her gun down with an offensive cloth and keeps staring down up at Trent as she says as loudly as anyone would call across a cubicle,“I’m gonna go get me some okra fried donuts do you want anything?” Trent hears each word crystal clear.

“No Marfa! Get the fuck out of here you dirty rotten cop!” spittles the demolition Crew representative, a sinewy and scarred body wearing black out goggles with a tube running from his nose to a device inside his pocket. The rest of his clothes are the same color as his flesh, a gray and chalky. He sizes up the billowing armored cop wielding fetid destruction in all of her puffy and padded horror. Marfa Poonce turns her body camera off and scratches at her badge. She  evaporates into a bile and donut soaked pit of charred organs, billowing around the shopping center, the sound of one thunderhead clapping.

“You understand that I won’t back down. I’m putting the sword away it’s way too sentimental of a sword to be used against a  nobody like you. Now me, my enfeebled struggling botanist wife, and our clefted son are going to be gathered right here. Not inside this lettering but somewhere else nice inside the store, and then you’re going to demolish my store and only then” Trent waddles down from the rooftop and pokes inside the emptied out Lost Treasures, a lone copy of a VHS of that one movie that emotionally scarred you in your childhood that is different for everybody remains in a dust covered box. The demolition representative follows Trent inside, clicking on his head lamp calculating every movement to avoid accumulation of as much of the stench of failed capitalism as possible. The demolition representative  had to go home to his partner who said they could smell him before he’s even thinking about turning into the driveway. He will have to sleep in the underground isolation chamber and constantly hose himself off for hours, steam, rinse, eco-bleach, and then maybe even inject hair dye.

“This is ridiculous. Me and the wrecking crew can’t come swinging blaze a glory while you and your whole brood sit and munching on pocky sticks.”

“Then you’ll construct us an opera  box or some sort of observation deck  in which me and my brood can sit and watch the demolition safely and out of harms way. This is not a negotiation.” Trent begins the slow and careful descent into his car, shaped and designed after an electrical rodent that he always admired since birth but refused to say the name of the creature. The name held too much weight in Trent’s mouth.

“The demolition team build a structure?” The demolition expert is banging on the roof of Trent’s Pickachu car. The Pickachu car alarm begins off which is a recreation of the actual soundbite  of the electrical rat being hit with a rock type attack. Trent heaves himself out of the car, holding back the tears being produced from the shredding and the shocking of his muscles. The demolition representative immediately backs off of the vehicle and leans up against the storefront glass he turns around and then shouts, “Hey isn’t that a copy of Gremlins 3: Rude Awakenings? Christ alive that movie scared the shit out of me! My ma and pa got into so many fights over trying to remember who was the one to blame for exposing me to this curious nightmare. Looks like it's in pretty good condition. Can-can-I have it?” The demolition representative before spitting out the request was already tucking it away in his rubber flesh colored suit.

“Do we have a deal?” Trent scowls and turns his tough guy Doosan Bears baseball cap around and lets the folds of his face meld into one sour pucker.

“Sure sure sure, now get out of here! I will personally see to making sure that You’ll have your safety box,but I can’t say for sure it will be able to fit you and what is sure to be your beastly family. That said the Demolition Experts of Hendo are bonded to their word.” The demolition representative pushes Trent out of the store and locks him out. Trent stumbles backwards and catches himself  his flip flops sticking to the pavement releasing a squelching hiss with every heavy step taken back into his Pickachu car and then drives across the street to an opposite parking lot for a different shopping center and gets into his  actual vehicle of choice the Nerd Van. All of the action figures from franchises big and small,  bobble heads, hula hoopers, and even one Black Buddha all precariously cluttered in salute on his dashboard were shaking with anticipation for his return. Trent tried his best to ignore his icon gang whose only crime was thinking the world of him.

Trent drives the eight miles back to his unspectacular open faced neighborhood comprised with rambling shacks, mcmansions, anonymous trailer parlors and Trent’s squat one story home. The yard, much to the annoyance of his neighbors, was utterly barren rough silty clay and sand except for one proud purple cactus that towered above the Trent residence sharing a blooming bushel’s worth of shade.

Inside the house was devoid of Trent’s wife Delia and son Agnus “The Flex” were nowhere to be seen. Trent flings his shoes off his feet without bending down and collapses into his easy chair. Before allowing himself the grace of a hard earned slumber he made sure to program an alarm on his phone in the morning. He knew he wouldn’t need the alarm because Delia would wake him up anway tending to her screaming mottled plants in the master bathroom she turned into a greenhouse. Agnus would be sizzling up some kind of different egg, he made sure to have a different type of egg for every day of the week, Trent kept getting mysterious charges for parrot eggs and want to bruise Agnus’ ego black and rude, but he always managed to dodge Trent’s questioning. Sometimes he would just stuff money in Flint’s cup of chalky morning Jose.

Trent woke up to his phone’s alarm feebly wheezing as if the phone was mocking Trent’s condition. Trent plugs the phone in and blearily searches the house  for Delia and Agnus who remain elusive. They probably beat him there. Knowing how much they wanted to see all of his hopes and dreams get flattened out was the kind of bonding time each was hoping was going to fix all of their internal familial strife. How much longer was Agnus planning on sticking around? Will his mid life crisis be moving out of his parents house? Trent hoped not  and then he found himself openly weeping, calling out for Agnus and Delia resigning to their absent responses and getting himself dressed and ready for the big day. A triple XL tuxedo print t shirt and respectable camouflage khaki trousers with a lot of zippers and pockets, all mostly functioning. He puts on a pair of black dress socks and slips them into his black flip flops and goes outside and sighs at the sight of the Nerd Van missing. He reaches into his apps and summons up a ride share. The ride should only cost $5.99 plus a tip depending on the smell of the car. Trent was willing to pay any price for demolition day.

A ragtag ragoo racer pulls up the driver, a gaunt Mexican woman that looks like a stren vampiric  boarding school teacher in a telenovela with a touch of calibrated goth. Her pouting lips said “hop in and let’s ride,” but her smoky eyes said, “but you’ll not leave the same person.” Fine by Trent who sloshed himself into the back of her sleek and shiny new car that smelled like a Tuscan Leather gimp’s kiss. Trent begins calculating an exorbitant tip.

“You know you can ride in front if you like. Especially if you’re all beat up.” the driver says in a clear and distant voice, a gossamer transmission. How could someone with such striking features, whose expressive face takes up your eyeballs’ entire attention, could have such a feeble and creaky voice/ Trent remains silent and tries to stare out the window covered in pyramid stickers. She manages to get Trent to Lost Treasure in five less minutes than it takes Trent to drive. He wishes he could just get one good glimpse outside to figure out what her route looked like. Four stars, and he tips her five dollars. The powder iceberg blue bullet of a car peels out of the shopping center and drives up into the opposing side of traffic, thankfully there are no oncoming cars and disappears from view.

“Watchu you looking at Trent?” asks Agnus who is wearing a domed helmet and heavy goggles that make his eyes look depthless.

“I think the lady who drove me here may be some kind of famous person. I missed you this morning, and last night too. Where were you and mama bear?” Trent says as he begins the ascent up into the observatory box suspended from a crane. Trent and Agnus squeeze inside the box gasping with air with Delia. Agnus is desperately trying to avoid touching either of his parents by closing his eyes and shaking back and forth.

Lost Treasures is torn down, each pillar and column displaced into rubble, the ceiling scrapped and dismantled, glass raining down in sheets, the whole enterprise is now a dust cloud and debris. The demolition crew makes sure to go about the whole process as solemnly as possible. Turns out having spectators made the whole crew uneasy and where they normally would have triumphed and gone ahead and committed acts of inevitable far reaching destruction on other doomed businesses. The exposed wall of the connecting empty for sale building was covered up with a thick fresh wall of concrete and the demolition crew slinked away without even destroying the observation box. Trent tries calling out  “You’re forgetting  the platinum rule of demolition: Make some smash em’ up fun!”  the demolition representative shrugs and silently responds that they would come back for it some other time. With no one to operate the crane Flint, Agnus and Delia were left stranded and suspended, or they would have been if not for Delia being wise enough to bring along her pocket ivy tucked in her bra. Delia produces thick and stable roping strands of ivy that provide the trapped family with a means of returning to soil.

[fawkesthefox]

OK IM GONNA RAMBLE A BIT HFKDS (under cut cause I don't want to clog up anyones dash too much)

The basis for the oc's is that they're other mutants from Draxums lab. The story is that the place Draxum actually got the turtles from was a reptile seller, and he also grabbed a bunch of other animals to do experiments, though his main focus was turtles for their armored shells so they're the ones that went through the main experiment with Liu Jitsu.

These are Mary(left) and Shelley(right) Mary is a red footed tortoise and Shelley is an indian star tortoise.

They were both unmutated when Draxum brought Liu Jitsu in, positioned near the turtles. They weren't mutated with them because Draxum was set on turtles and he only had the four slots anyways, but the proximity meant that they were splashed with the goo that mutated the turtles and they are mutated with Liu Jitsus DNA as well. In the chaos of the lab they cling to whatever they can grab to feel safe, including eachother and another fleeing mutant which heads for the surface. After being able to calm down it shakes the babies off of it and disappears, they're found by a nurse as the woman is walking home, she doesn't really understand what she's seeing but she gets that they're defenseless and cold so she brings them home and raises them.

They barely manage to remain secret over the years that they grow, and that difficulty only grows when mutants become more commonplace and its more difficult to say that its impossible for there to be a big bipedal tortoise in your apartment building. They just lay low for a while, hating being cooped up but not seeing a better option as they don't want to scare anyone. Then they see the turtles in the news, people don't realise that they're trying to help, but the girls get that that's what they're trying to do. Mary gets the idea to try and do something similar, going out when there are attacks and disasters and rescuing people and providing medical care they've learned from their mom. After doing so for a bit, with their plague-doctor-esque masks to protect them from breathing in dust/gas or getting anything in their eyes (plus a bit of a disguise as a lot of people don't realise that they're not just people in strange costumes, which helps when you're trying to help someone afraid of mutants), they started being seen as heroes as plenty of people told stories about being helped by them. They were nicknamed the "turtledoves" as they have shells and birdlike masks.

On the other side of things! This is Plato(Play/Clay idk its hard to shorten a 5 letter name), Aristotle(Ari), and Socratese(Sock) Plato is a green iguana, Ari is a burmese python, and Sock is a satanic leaf tailed gecko (sick as fuck, I know)

These three were experiments with mutating animals with human DNA (taken from the pet seller they were stolen from) before Draxum tried anything on the turtles. They had just a bit of time to grow and process what was going on around them before Draxum found Liu Jitsu, so they eagerly took the chance to escape when the opportunity presented itself. They took a different path out of the lab and ended up in the underground city, luckily they didn't have to fend for themselves for too long as they were found by a kitsune who took them in and taught them. They live relatively normal lives compared to the turtles and tortoises as they don't have to stay in hiding (they still get some strange looks from yokai as they're not any identifiable species, Ari kinda looks like a naga but even Xe doesn't really get a pass) (I don't have as much story for them kdhf but they're all blorbo from my mind ok they're beloved)

i am very observant so i hope you’ll forgive if this is a silly question but fawkes do u like rise tmnt? if so who is your favorite turtle

I do!! I kinda got a obsessed with it fairly recently fjd

I'd say either Donnie or Mikey are my favorite. Donnie cause me autism he autism. Mikey cause he's so charming and goofy but he barely gets any expansion on his character beyond "little sibling not allowed to do stuff!" and the Dr Delicate Touch/Dr Feelings bit (The latter is more to help the others instead of being about Mikey anyways :\\)

I've also come up with a few oc's but I haven't really had anyone to talk about them with so they've jsut been rotating in my mind for a while

[fasnasticgf]

It's yet another day and yet another Game Fart.

Another week down the drain, another hour plus wasted on audio about farts and video games.

You life is wasting away. You know that right?

I mean... Playing video games is bad enough, but listening to *other people* (especially THESE three idiots!) *TALK* about video games, in a one way conversation you can never respond back to in real time, no less... It's pathetic mate. It's just utterly pathetic.

Shame on you....

THIS WEEK ON GAME FART!!!! IT'S A SLEEPING DOGS & NO MANS SKY & BLACK FRIDAY SPECIAL!!!! WOOOHOO!!!!

The guys discuss all the latest games (The Last Guardian - might not be that shit?!), Lord Matthew's favourite game (Sleeping DOGGSSSSS!!!) and the new English tradition of the American tradition of Black Friday (so silly)!!!! Oh, and No Mans Sky gets an update which Peter refuses to play (because, even post update, it is obviously still rubbish).

It's arguably an ACTION PACKED (and in our opinion, EXTRA FUNNY?) episode of Game Fart this week, with a tremendous amount of rambling off topic. To be honest - It's barely even about games this week.

ITS SUPER EXCITING ~~~~~~~ LIFE IS WORTH LIVING AGAIN!!!! 😙

G A M E F A R T

# NEWS - The New Playstation Flying Chicken Dog Game - Marvel Vs Capcom: A New One

# GOOD - Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition (it’s free!)

# BAD - No Mans Sky Version 2.1.Refund

# UGLY - Black Friday Sales

# GETS A MENTION - RabbitNeedleNeckGate - Aaron's gammy legged / three legged tortoise - Aaron's depressed cat - Black & White - Peter Molyneux's questionable prepubescent boy simulator / artificial intelligence 360 - Sunset Overdrive - Read Dead Redemption 2 - Bloody Raw - Tony Hawks / Matt Hoffman / Dave Mira games - PowerStone (and Kung Fu Chaos) - Snowboarding Games - Call of Duty - Cooking Games - Anita Sarkeesian - The Holiday Hole - GAME RAGE! Revenge on frustrating games (Peters broken controller image attached http://imgur.com/LjP01yR) - PSVR Games (That one with Robinson in the name, Battlezone, RIGS) - Ukraine & Russia & The Crimea(?) - URI GELLER KILLED A MAN - Peter Jackson watched Humphrey Is My Hero? (It's better than No Mans Sky) - A message from Kryton from Red Dwarf - Fei Comodo - Lord Matthews Brief MTV Presenter Career (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjJKJv3SUWk) - Alexa: Initiate Sex Mode - James Loveridge Automated Home

# POST SHOW - Peters Adventure Game Engine - Peters Head Hair & GAME FARTS Discovery of the Cure for Baldness (http://imgur.com/e3AquxI) - The Playstation V is eradicated - Quantum Break - Broken Age

Follow us at... gamefart.fasnastic.com twitter.com/fasnasticgf facebook.com/fasnasticgf reddit.com/r/FASNASTIC

This podcast is brought to you by FASNASTIC LTD. in the UK and intended to be listened to on the train to work, or in bed for some falling asleep background noise.

Comedy Fasnastic Game Fart Podcast video games news playstation vr psvr gaming console xbox sony microsoft nintendo funny lord matthew aaron peter

[newsdistribution]

Post Graduate Diploma in Management and Leadership

Post Graduate Diploma in Management and Leadership

10 Commandments to Ace Interviews by Deepa Kapoor

Deepa Kapoor is the director of Center for Leadership at The NorthCap University. She is the Program Director for a 1-year PGD in Management and Leadership in Gurugram. The course enables students to make career shifts through career coaching, customized placements while offering a world-class curricula including Wharton Certifications in Business Foundations and Analytics, and a world-class faculty. With the B-school interviews right around the corner, Deepa shares her 25 years of experience in hiring people, to help ace the interviews.

1) Listen. Think. Speak. 

We all remember how the tortoise, despite being slow, won against the hare in a race. Why? The tortoise took its time to understand how to win. In the same manner, there is no hurry to answer a question asked by the interviewer. Listen to the question carefully and think about what should be your answer. Take a few seconds to prepare your answer in your head and then speak. This will not only help you to understand the question better but also answer in a more structured manner without rambling.

2) Ask For Clarification 

Despite spending time thinking of your answer, it is possible you will ramble. If you feel your answer is stretching on and you are not making a specific point, it is always a good idea to ask for clarification. Ask if you are, in fact answering the question. Ask the interviewer to repeat the question. Take a pause to understand where you are in the answer.

3) Be Honest

If you do not know the answer to a certain question, be honest and admit it. Honesty is always a better way to go than making up an answer and not getting it right. However, it is a good idea to suggest that you try and guess the answer through some logical deduction, whenever possible. Or if you know the answer to a related topic, tell the interviewer that this is what you know. Bottom-line: don’t give up an opportunity to showcase what you know.

4) Engaged Body Language 

Maintaining eye contact with the interviewer, a little hand movement and organization, sitting slightly forward all constitute as engaged body language. These gestures show that you are interested in the conversation and would like to take it forward. This is also a sign of confidence and comfort. Sitting stiff with arms crossed and leaning back are a big no-no.

5) Ask Questions

When the interviewer offers information about the organization, always try and have a follow up question. It shows your interest in their organization. It is also a good idea to remember that an interview is first and foremost a conversation with two people talking. So if you can engage in a back and forth with the interviewer it means things are going well.

6) Be ready to talk about the past 

There will be questions about your past role or gap year, if you have one. Be willing to discuss it, why you took it and what you learned from it. Similarly know what you want to say about your past roles, what did you learn and what did you achieve. Quantify your achievements, keep the figures ready on your finger tips and use them wherever possible. Highlight some people aspect even if you did not lead people.

7) Be Human 

When talking about your strengths also mention one weakness. It makes you seem more human as well as honest. Make your weakness seem real and indicate how you are working towards it. This also helps build a relationship with the interviewer because he/she can relate to it.

8) Talk about the Role 

At the end of the interview, summarize your understanding of the role that you are applying for as well as your understanding of the organization. This helps keep communication clear and answers questions which might not have been asked before.

9) Smile & Be Positive

Smiling through an interview shows you are a positive and easy person to be around. It also shows your attitude which is even more important than what you know. You can also try and make your communication more positive by using words which portray positivity. e.g. instead of saying I do not understand numbers, try saying numbers are not my strength but I am working on it and have tried to take on roles that will help me get over my barrier.

10) Prepare, prepare, prepare 

All the above points are most effective when you have researched the organization and the industry well. Have more than enough knowledge about the organization as well as the role. It is a good idea to speak to the employees/alumni beforehand. By preparing in advance you feel more confident, comfortable and in control. And it allows you to focus on having a meaningful conversation with the interviewer thereby increasing your chances of success.

The Center for Leadership offers a 1 year PGD in Management and Leadership. The second round applications have started. GMAT, CAT and XAT scores are not mandatory but preferred. Two plus years of work experience is ideal. To know more, please v

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