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JUN. 12, 1998. Ramer Cemetery.

Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.

Many were lost during the fight between the Brotherhood and X-Men and Omegas. Funerals and memorial services were held for many. Some were treated with just a night out, their alcohol either poured onto the ground or consumed, and a few nameless individuals didn't receive anything. Elliott Winslow, the former Essex Escapee, and Brotherhood member were loved and appreciated by many. If his ghost was still on Earth, he would see the large group gathered around his grave. The crowd was a mixture of Brotherhood members, Essex Escapees, and his coworkers, everyone dressed neatly in black, mourning in their ways. Even despite his explosive and venomous tongue, Elliott was a friend to many. He was always the type to fight for what he believed was right, and he truly did—too bad he was killed by some fucking cop. It wasn't a death he deserved but a death he got.

For the Essex Escapees, the group was hit with the realization that they'll never be safe. Just because they escaped death at the hands of Essex scientists, they'll never escape the death brought by others. It was a brutal reminder that hit all of them, but Monique Washington took it harder than others. Even after escaping Essex's clutches, Monique has lived within a fictional bubble where nothing could hurt them or their friends. It was perfectly constructed, a world that took them thirteen years to make. But within seconds, it was destroyed by witnessing the death of their friend.

The collapse of this world was the shove Monique needed to change themself and society. After waiting for the Brotherhood and Elliott's coworkers to leave, Monique brought up a solution to their problems before the other escapees. Unknown to the other escapees ( minus Seven ), their parents came to town. After learning what happened to their child, the couple offered to use their position as celebrities to publicly take down Essex House. For Monique, that meant exposing themself to the entire nation and reliving their trauma, and they weren't ready to do something like that, so they rejected the offer. Until now. With the death of Elliott, the fear of losing another friend, and the fear that Essex was seeing this as a win as one escapee dies, it was what they needed to share the plan with the other Essex Escapees and ask for their help.

Unlike Monique, the others all accepted within seconds. It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to destroy Essex and their personal hell of many years. Their answer brought relief to Monique but also proved one thing to them: how much of a coward they were. The discussion was relatively short, Monique stepping back and avoiding all of their eyes. "I have to go back to Florida for a few weeks, but I'll be back with more details. I'll contact all of you when I get them."

They were the first ones to leave, not looking back at anyone as they disappeared from their eyes. One by one, each escapee left until it was just Elliott Winslow. Now cold and all alone for all of eternity.

JUN. 21, 1998

They all waited by their landlines and computers, waiting for their friend to get back to them with details. Nothing came from Monique; instead, they saw their friend on magazine stands everywhere. Their face was plastered on every cover, ranging from Tiger Beats, Sassy to Hollywood Gossip. There were candid pictures of Monique Lanchester with their parents, some at restaurants, others at Basketball games—the mystery child of the Lanchester couple that the public has been waiting for. Tiger Beats talked about Monique shooting hoops with their dad and his basketball players, Sassy had pictures of them with their mother, but Hollywood Gossip had the chance to speak with Monique.

It was a private interview with Monique and a Hollywood Gossip journalist. The questions were easy enough, "It's so great to finally see you! We've only seen baby pictures of you, and that's it", and "How did you feel after your father's team lost months ago?" simple things that Monique could easily laugh off and answer. Then came the big question everyone was asking: Why are you now appearing after twenty-three years of radio silence?

Monique shuffled nervously in their seat, fingers tapping on the table as they stalled answering. The journalist waited patiently but was on the edge of their seat. Finally, Monique responded to their question, "I think it's better to show you than to tell you." They then took off their hat, showing the journalist their ears that sat on top of their head. A mutant, of course! It was always a theory that the Lanchester child was a mutant, but no one delved more into it; it was just a theory, nothing more. But now, it was a reality and the perfect story that the journalist was looking for. "I'm a mutant, a wolf, to be specific. It happened so suddenly that my parents didn't know what to do except to hide me, afraid of what the public may do or say about me."

It was the partial truth; they kept to themself that their parents were also terrified of Monique and what they could do. That wasn't important, right? What was important was hooking the journalist in and using them to get the necessary attention for this plan. It was all set up by their father's agent: Monique needed to pique tabloids' interest nationwide to take down the Essex House. Tabloids were the bane of every celebrity's existence but were the backbone of this nation; without them, no one would know anything. And for this situation, the tabloids would help Monique and their friends expose the facility that had ruined their lives for so long.

"No one else in my family is a mutant, so there was no one who could help me with it; my parents didn't know what to do," they said. "Until news about the Essex House came on our television. It was perfect; we were told Essex would help young mutants like myself, so my parents sent me there immediately. And I truly thought that they would help me, but I was wrong… So, so wrong."

"Why? What was wrong with it?"

Their ears lowered, the journalist's watching those specifically. "The Essex House wasn't a safe haven for younger mutants. It was all a lie. They didn't care about us, much less help us with our abilities. No, to them, we were nothing but lab rats who they could torture and experiment on. Thank God I was able to get out there but… the scars… They're still there and will never fade, no matter what I do."

Monique gave the journalist enough information to get them by for the article. Two days later, the magazine article about Monique's interview could be found everywhere. It sparked the necessary attention from everyday people to other reporters and journalists who wanted to know if it was true. If the Essex House really tortured them and other young mutants, how could Monique get out there alive if Monique was telling the truth?

The attention made Monique nauseous, but this was what they wanted, no, needed. The plan that the agent created was falling into place. It wouldn't take long for the second part of the plan to be set into motion: garner enough attention for a talk show to allow Monique and the other Essex Escapees to talk about their experiences. Within a day, the agent was contacted by various talk show representatives who wanted to cover the story. While the number was amazing, it was narrowed down within hours. For all of this to work, it needed to happen right away. They couldn't partner with anyone who said it would take a month or two to cover the story, nor could they partner with someone who would handle the situation without grace.

It was a delicate topic that needed to be handled carefully and quickly, or else everything would end before anything could happen. When it felt like everything was no longer going their way, one representative told them they could meet their requirements. A talk show host who could handle a case like this, who was popular and willing to air this episode within two weeks. Monique didn't even care to see who it was as they ran to the nearest phone to call the other Essex Escapees. The plan was on, and it was all thanks to–

JUL. 2, 1998

Lights come onto a stage where Oprah Winfrey stood alone. There were seven chairs behind her and an audience that surrounded her. As soon as the cameras started rolling, the audience cheered, all excited for the woman and what was to be discussed. The woman tried to smile, but it was obvious that it was difficult to do so; even for a woman with years of experience, nothing could prepare her for this.

"The knowledge of mutants has been made public since the eighties, though, they've been around since, what many believe, the beginning of time. Despite their differences, they still bleed the same color and bruise the same as us. Today's episode is a special one with a sensitive topic. The United States is the land of the free, a country that is founded on freedom and creating a home for our children to live a safe and free life. However, some lost the chance to live such a life. For many mutant children, they're born into a family of humans who don't know how to raise a child with powers. Some of them push through it and continue to love their child despite their differences. Others disown their children, looking at them with disgust in their eyes. And the few who try and seek help for their children.

"The Essex House is an institution that takes in mutant children, promising to help these children learn and hone their abilities. Parents send their children here or teenagers or barely eighteen-year-olds who arrive to get help, only this institution doesn't try to help them. It's all a façade as the institution cares for one thing: conducting experiments on these poor children.

"With us today are six former Essex House residents who are no longer children but adults, most nearing their thirties. They were tortured, abused, experimented on, and forced to fight for almost twelve years. Let me repeat that; they had to go through almost twelve years of that. Children turned into adults who escaped what they call a Hell Hole. These six have decided to come onto my show to share not only their trauma but to expose themselves to the entire world. Please welcome to my stage Milo Burke, Seven, Jessica Turner, Lachlan McLeod, Jack Torrence, and Monique Lanchester!"

Interview with Milo Burke

"— do you think you're comfortable showing us now, Milo?"

The interviewer's voice was kind and patient, but Milo had been disassociating so aggressively throughout the first part of the interview — it had been all "we" and "us" instead of "me" — that he seemed dully startled by his own name. He swallowed hard, throat painfully dry, and offered a stiff nod. "I- yeah. Um."

Milo stood and reached for the buttons on his shirt, his fingertips already buzzing with familiar panicked energy, panic only compounded by the way he could see the cameras all turn to him in his peripheral vision. It took some fumbling, but eventually, the one thing he'd struggled so much to hide the past year and a half was fully displayed: his scars, the most concrete proof he had to offer of the torture they'd all endured.

"These are, uh. From the fights I mentioned." Milo's fingertips grazed over thick, diagonal claw marks across his chest, but he moved on quickly because he knew Mo was watching — and the scars were from them. "And this was… the experiments." He wouldn't repeat himself, he couldn't, but his hands now framed the suspiciously regular, cross-hatched patchwork of lines across the rest of his torso. "They're… they're all over the rest of my body," Milo continued uncomfortably, a little distantly. "I was awake for most of this."

Interview with Seven

Seven walked into the frame, wearing shorts and little else. An uncomfortable beat as there was no slow reveal: Seven simply sat with every scar on show. They were a pale blue with faint streaks of pink through them. They still looked raw. He found that he spoke carefully under this pressure, practiced everything he wanted to say, and always bowed and obeyed when stressed. They were ignored at first. Seven simply talked about the routine, the experiments, and the fights. The collars. The casual sadism of the guards. Finally, he addresses the elephant in the room.

"A part of my mutation is my heart can heal itself," he carefully trailed a finger down his sternum, under his pec where the scar shows a chest opened like it were on a hinge, "They cut me open, without anesthesia. I feel the same level of pain as anyone else. They tested for that." Seven rolled his left shoulder, showing the mottled burn scar, "Essex employees forced us to fight each other." His hands shook as he opened them to show scars on his webbing. They remained the only sign of nerves throughout his interview.

Interview with Jessica Turner

Jess had come to the interview -- perhaps confessional -- stripped. Just enough to get past censors, all makeup removed, near paper white skin exposed. If she couldn't talk about the scars around her limbs, her wrists, on her head... she could, at the very least, show them. Then, withdrawing many, many, many pages of paper, Jack did what he had too often done for her, becoming her mouthpiece as he read the cards she flipped through:

"I would like to say what the worst part of Essex was, be it the fights in the ring or their' experiments.' But I couldn't. Not just because I physically can't when I'm not talking about Essex on the surface, but because I think that the worst part was being fitted with a ball gag and calling it a muzzle. I don't really know why they did it. I couldn't use my ability, deadliest with speech, with the nullification collar. Maybe they wanted to make camaraderie harder. Maybe they wanted to incentivize me to win those fights in the ring. Maybe it was just another experiment, long-term.

"Sometimes, they would take my only means of communication away if I lost there. It happened each time for the first few months, then it was a gamble after that, and I don't know which was worse. Twelve years, sometimes you get so desperate, you'd rather write in blood! I would've taken more lobotomies, more invasive brain surgeries, hacking off limbs, more temporarily sewn lips, more losses in the ring, more of it over twelve years of silence. Only able to speak when I was trying to maim or kill a friend. (The worst part, I might add, is that you aren't allowed to stay dead.)

"But at least my writing and their reading speed got quicker! Jack and I didn't even rehearse this!"

Interview with Lachlan McLeod

"I checked into Essex House willingly," Lachlan began as the spotlight fell on him. His first thought was why he imagined it was a good idea to show his face, "They fed me lies like they do to everyone else and told me they could help me control my abilities. That I could make sure my family felt safe with me." His family will know he's alive now. He wished that felt more like a silver lining, but he wondered how upset they'll be that he didn't come home. "I wasn't allowed contact with the outside world, and we were barely allowed contact with each other if it wasn't a cage match." There was also something he needed to prove. He wasn't sure if it was to Jess or himself, but he didn't want to be a coward in Knight's clothing anymore. He knew other members of their group looked to him as a leader, brave and steady, but this was his moment to prove it was true. Even if that meant Lachlan was putting a target on his own back in the process. He could only hope that putting his face to this story would appeal to people's sense of compassion.

"Their idea of teaching me control was literal torture." Tentatively, he rolled his sleeves to reveal the lightning bolt scars across his hands and arms. "They electrocuted me; there are more scars like this on my legs and feet. I was told they wanted to see how my skin would react because I can control water. They cut me open like a science project—my hands, chest, and even eyes. It's a miracle I can even still see or feel a thing. I was forced to fight like the others and have the scars to prove it. They forced me to develop parts of my abilities in ways I would give anything to forget. They were monsters who tried to make it seem like we were the problem. For twelve years, that was my everyday. And, not a single day in those twelve years was for my benefit. Not a single one." The nerves were gone, replaced with the outpouring of relief of telling his story for the first time in his life. He had let it fester all this time, building up to the moment when the world finally knew what had happened and that he had somehow survived it.

Interview with Jack Torrence

"—And the scar? That's from Essex, isn't it?"

Long fingers reached to trace along the raised tissue at the edge of his lip, his half-smile. "Yes." He can recall its creation like yesterday, in the same moment, it had happened a million years prior. Vivid but fragmented, memories haunted his days just as well as his nights. "My mouth wouldn't open wide enough for them, so they tore it apart." He remembered the cold bite of metal, of restraints. The sting of blood in his mouth. Them forcing wider, wider, wider until Jack, much like a serpent, could swallow his chosen prey whole.

"What was the purpose of that? Pure torture?"

He shifted in his seat, uncomfortable. Eyes continued to seek out the camera in the background, the millions of eyes upon him. Is it worth it? Is it worth baring the worst parts of his soul so that Essex's could be destroyed? It had to be. It had to be. "The things—" things, living and unliving. "What they wanted me to eat wouldn't fit. I think the torture was just a bonus."

"Could you elaborate on what things they wanted you to eat?"

He felt sick. Dizzy. Nauseous. He remembered the last time he felt nauseous. "They wanted..." he trailed off, out of breath. His heart hammered in his chest, alien to him. "They wanted..."

"It's alright. Take your time. Maybe a drink—?"

"No. No. I'm fine." The force of his rejection surprises even him. He needs to do this. He needs to do this. "They wanted me to..." His fingers locked against the arms of his seat, pure white. He couldn't look at the interviewer. He couldn't look at the camera. His long stare landed on the spot on the floor. "They wanted me to eat someone else."

"—You mean—?!"

"They made me eat another mutant."

Interview with Monique Lanchester

"Do you remember any of your fights with the other residents?"

Monique shook their head. "My situation is different from everyone else's," they said. "When I turn into a wolf, I can't remember anything. I black out, I guess. As the… the wolf takes full control of my body and does whatever it wants. When I come to… I'm back in my room. Even at the end of a fight, the wolf can't change back to normal. Rage fills my entire body, and the wolf runs on the rage because of Essex. They forced it—me, to be like this. Whenever I changed into a wolf, I was provoked because they pushed me to the limit. It was like they were trying to create a killing machine; I was their special project to commit murder."

"Have you ever murdered any of the other mutants?"

"No—I don't think so?" Everyone always kept their scars a secret from Monique; it wouldn't be a surprise if they kept someone's death from them. "I'm sure I've come close to killing someone, and the scientists would just watch… To test everyone's durability and to see if I can do it. If I can kill someone." They paused. "I hate it, really, what they turned the wolf into. I'm not a killer, but in a way I am, and it's because of Essex. I went to their institution to better understand the wolf within me, to have control over it. But instead, they molded me into this monster that attacks their friends and, one day, family."

Monique kept their head up high, but their ears dropped drastically. They wanted to leave right away. "I have wounds that healed or scared over the years; that's stuff I can hide from the public eye. But I can't hide or control this wolf, no matter how hard I try; Essex has fucked me up so much that I'm always terrified of the day that they'll attack someone that I love, and there won't be anyone to stop me."

JUL. 8, 1998

The interviews, newspaper articles, and gossip magazines didn't take long for the public to riot against the Essex House. Protests outside the facilities, parents who had sent their children there were calling and demanding their children to be freed, and reporters who waited for workers to leave and talk; it was a disaster for anyone working there. But it was the hope that all of the mutants needed. It took the Essex Escapees too long to do something, but it was better late than never. By the end of the week, NYPD was given permission to storm Essex House with all parents to get back their children and a timid Monique who hated that damn building.

All mutant children and young adults were freed, families hugging and apologizing to their children, while others without a family stood to the side awkwardly. Not all of them were lucky enough to have a loving family who felt bad for what they did wrong. Many of their families feared them and called them terrible names just because of their abilities; the outside world and the inside of Essex House were all the same.

That was why Monique was there, to offer them a home and a new family. For anyone who didn't have anywhere to go to, Monique had bought a home in Valtoria for the remaining mutants. It was only a temporary situation, just something to help them integrate into society until they were ready to live independently. Many of them accepted the offer, while others chose to leave the city entirely. The situation brought a smile to Monique's face, the Essex Escapee leading their new family out of the facility. For all of their sakes but mostly for Monique's.

It was a win for them, but the facility was still there, and there was nothing they could do to truly destroy it. Against all of their desires, the facility will remain standing as if it didn't fuck all of them over for years. That was a win for Nathaniel Essex, making them sick to their stomach.

JUL. 9, 1998

The Essex Escapees weren't the only enemies the Essex House had to worry about. While the Essex Escapees ruined the Essex House's public standing and released all of their residents, the facility still existed. It was still a reminder of the torture and abuse that many went through for over twelve years as if it was mocking all its former residents. Even after everything the Essex Escapees did to destroy it, it wasn't enough.

That was when the Brotherhood entered the scene. After a month of radio silence, the organization met up again within Club Nyx. Erik Lehnsherr said nothing about the battle a month ago or about the lost members; instead, he spoke of a group mission for the entire organization: to finally destroy the Essex House once and for all.

No one objected to the order, nor was anyone anxious about it. Not even the group tasked with destroying the facility in April objected. They had a score of their own that needed to be settled with the Essex House, and this was the perfect opportunity to do so. The plan was for everyone to meet outside Essex House at midnight Wednesday night. Come prepared in their suits, masks, and anger for those who tortured their kind without proper punishment.

And they all listened. Every single member surrounded the facility from different angles before they broke through the gates. There were still guards and scientists around, guards who put up a fight, and scientists doing whatever they could to protect themselves and their research. But none of it was used as they were stormed by all sorts of mutants. A trail of non-mutant bodies was left both outsides and inside, empty cells and labs were destroyed, and all data collected over the years was burned before the scientists who were soon murdered.

For many, this plan was probably in honor of Elliott, the only Essex Escapee in their organization. But as a unified organization, it was for all mutants for once for those younger mutants who lost their childhood, teenhood, and young adulthood to a facility that lied about helping them. A facility that tortured, abused and experimented on them relentlessly. This was for them and a message to Essex Corporation: try this shit again, and the Brotherhood will be there to destroy them again.

JUL. 10, 1998

There was something to be said about the organization of power, the heady mix of money and influence that drew people such as herself as metal did to magnets.

January St. James may rush, may come to illogical conclusions brought on by pride and arrogance, but at the end of the day, she played the long game. And by God, she knew how to play it well. Banks to lean on. Favors to take. Locations to put on her lease. The building of power is a slow thing, a careful thing, built upon years upon years of hard work and manipulation, and now, after the whole debacle with the Brotherhood and the Institute, she had enough social capital to play it.

Brandt and Goetsch was a good play, but while Maxine was as much of a viper as Jonas was, she was also a mutant and one that was as close to her personality—both of them could never have survived each other for long. So, with a farewell and nary a shed tear, she fixed everything she could in order.

Disappearing from the building, as if she hadn't even been there, several things happened, all at once. At his desk, Cas saw a handwritten letter apologizing for his current predicament. As Jack was her employee, she will be dealing with him personally and thus returned the money she'd been given for a job with a generous tip once over, and as she hardly reneges on a deal, this was a rare exception.

Another courier arrived with a bouquet of roses and a card that chilled Cas to his core, sent by January herself, with a smile as sharp as her knives.

She knows. Good luck.

In the back of her mind, miles away, Maxine heard January's voice whisper the name of the mole. Castello Laurenti. This was the term of their deal, and with it, she got a clean break from Brandt and Goetsch, off to seemingly do whatever powerful ladies of society were able to do day in and day out.

And all they did was spend.

An old building, built of vintage and glamour, scraping the skies as if it were the Tower of Babel itself. Her old lover would tell January that it would have all the makings of a good tragedy, but he's dead, and what use are the qualms of a dead man to those who still live? So she built, laid out the organization to her friends, business partners, and the more powerful mutants in the vicinity, and put out the invitations.

Letters, sent by a touch of magic and antiquity, found themselves on the desk of the powerful, all for the taking. To only humans, they see invitations to parties, to luxury, to connection. The Hellfire Club was for the most powerful, the most cunning, and the most to dine on the lap of luxury and be seen by only the elite.

But the mutants?

Seats of power are offered to select people through auditions and secret gatherings, the thoughts of connections that reach the country and the other side of the globe. The Lord's Cardinal, the inner circle of the Hellfire Club, an old myth among the old money, using their wealth and influence to turn the world as it spins on its axis, and now she set the foundation on which they'll stand. January may be as hungry for power as the next socialite, but she knew how to use it in the service of the mutant race. At least, that's what she told herself.

In the old building, in the penthouse suite that felt as endless as catacombs, portaled only by her reality-warping, she sat on a chair, on a throne, with a dark figure next to her, only coming to light as the smile on her face grew as she saw all the work laid out before her.

Her friend, her employee, and recently appointed second-in-command, Jess Turner, was invited to join and help build the Hellfire Club, to which she eagerly agreed. Placing focus on the founding of the Hellfire Club was both a welcomed task and a distraction. As January dealt with finances, connections, locations, and all the things she was accustomed to, Jess handled the more minute details. She began running enforcement and completing the smaller errands necessary for its rise, herself rising along with it.

Intimidation and imposition came naturally to Jess. She was built on blood and commandment. Judge of character, on the other hand, had to be polished. The least trustworthy seemed the most, and the most trustworthy seemed the least. Thus, recruiting those on the lower scale was not a talent but rather a skill that January aided in honing. By the beginning, she no longer felt obligated to run all the recruits by the goddess. While those within the high-risk category, such as known Brotherhood members, were one thing, those who posed little to no risk were feely offered recruitment, however sparse.

Cracking heads. Intimidating, hostile bosses. Poaching people off bad contracts. Not unlike her old self, both of their old selves, something discarded. A necessary venture, but one that January's long since grown tired of. Now, she stood tall, along with those closest to her, ready for whatever horrors the world had in store for her—no, for them, for there is no more her.

There is no more I for January, nor any for Jess.

There is only we and they.

There is only Hellfire.

. . .

While the two sides focused and fought each other, there was a new mutant enemy who finally decided to make an appearance. The city's new mayor watched the woman across from him closely. He had been wary of letting her into his office, much less agree to this meeting. Until he learned that it was a meeting scheduled by the Pentagon, he absolutely could not reject it. But goodness, something about this woman did not sit well with him! Maybe it was how casual she acted while sipping the coffee offered her. As if she owned this place.

"So," he began, clearing his throat. "What brings you here, miss–"

"Linda McCall, but feel free to call me Linda," she answered, smiling.

"Yes, of course, Linda." He nodded his head, smile tight and fake. "What brings you here to my office?"

Linda took a long sip from her cup, and the mayor could only wait for her to stop. And when she did, she took forever to set down her cup. Five minutes in and she was already beginning to annoy him. "Well, it's rather simple." She placed her folded hands onto her lap, leaning back into her seat. "I've noticed that your city has dealt with a certain… population that has done nothing but disrupt the peace for the past year. From the fight last month to the riots and even the assassination of the former mayor—My! It's all so much. I'm sure many of your citizens are in an uproar!"

She would be right. He had to deal with the press every single day, protestors outside of his building, and even corporation’s bigwigs who all complained. Telling him that he needed to do something to fix all of this or if he had any solutions. The most he could think of was to get rid of all mutants that lived in their city and push them elsewhere so they could fight and do whatever they wanted. But he couldn't necessarily do that, not on his own at least. "And you'd be correct," he said, mimicking her body language. "But I'm working on fixing the problem."

"Really? Then what do you plan on doing?"

"There's no need for me–"

"Because if you don't have a plan, which I'm sure you don't… I can offer you some assistance."

He raised an eyebrow. "What kind of assistance?"

He wasn't sure, but it looked like her smile was becoming more and more sinister by the passing second. Linda stood up, heading over to his bookcase, messing with one of the old, worn-out covers on the first shelf. "What if I told you that I have a weapon that is much stronger and better than any lousy officer or gun you own?"

"What, do you have a nuclear missile that could eliminate all mutants?"

"Oh, even better!" She pushed the book back, attention completely on him. "I have mutants of my own but not just any. No, they were ordinary humans like us. Before I turned them–"

"You turned them?" That couldn't be possible! "There is no way for a human to become a mutant. It's impossible–"

"Oh, but it is possible, and I achieved it. Humans that are now mutants, and they're stronger than any naturally born mutant in the world. Not only that, they listen to us, to humans, to me specifically. And I'm willing to offer them to you for your little situation."

"You want me to fight mutants with… mutants?"

"Exactly that!"

"Now, Linda," he said, sighing deeply. "I think you need to understand something… that's what's been happening since we brought in those damn Omegas. And it hasn't made anything better for my citizens or me." Or for the former mayor.

"And that's why you need my mutants because they listen to me and now to you. Not only that, they’re loyal. They'll do whatever you tell them to do whenever you need it done." She walked back to where she was sitting; she picked up her bag and pulled out a manila folder, holding it out for the mayor. "Take the time to read over their files; these are seven mutants you can trust, I promise you."

He took it, though he was still watching her warily. "You have a lot of trust in these people."

Linda chuckled, closing her bag and throwing the strap over her shoulder. "Why wouldn't I? They are my children, after all. A mother must always love and trust her children."

OOC INFORMATION:

Welcome to Arc Two of C23! Again, we'd like to thank everyone for being here. You're all fantastic writers and we love you guys so much!

Also, a HUGE shoutout and thank you to the members who helped us with this plot drop: Kael, Gray, Alex, Cola, May, and Casey. WOO, WOO, YOU GUYS ROCK!!!

If you're wondering, yes, you can start roleplaying! IC, the date is July 10th, 1998 but feel free to do backdated threads that take place AFTER the previous event.

The Essex House facility has been officially destroyed by ALL Brotherhood members. Though, it's because of the Essex Escapees that the facility has lost all trust and public standing. HOWEVER, Essex Corporation is still alive and thriving.

We now have more affiliations for mutants: The Hellfire Club, The Seven Deadly Sins, and Former Essex House Residents. More about these affiliations will be posted later.

It's here, what everyone has been waiting for, our first-ever skeletons: The Seven Deadly Sins! Please click here to see the six open skeletons. To make it fair for everyone, you can reserve a skeleton on July 10th @ midnight C23 time (PHT). To reserve a skeleton, please open up a ticket on discord and send in your top two choices. This will be based on first come, first served basis.

Requirements to get a skeleton: Must be a member for 4+ months; active on ALL of your current muses for 2+ months; and you cannot drop this muse. The Seven Deadly Sins will be essential for the arc two plot, so please only take up one if you can handle it.

That’s all! Happy roleplaying everyone <3

#c23plotdrop #death mention tw #abuse mention tw #body image tw #cannibalism tw #BITCHES WE DID IT #shoutout to tin for the graphics #welcome to my chaos arc!#now let me make some damn starters bc a bitch is READY

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bbbrianjones · 3 years ago

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SPLIT ENZ ON AMERICAN BANDSTAND, 1981

#split enz #neil finn #tim finn #i wrote this as tin finn :')#1980s #graphic design is my passion #i love this clip more than anything it's just so funny!!#nigel's face after they scream is pretty much the only reasoning i'm giffing this!#also shoutout to jay... you know why <3 #*

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daichxato · 3 years ago

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A THAICHI DRABBLE : August 1997 - July 1998.

"You're the first person I've been serious about, ever. I have never dated anyone, I never cared to. Having a romantic relationship with someone was never on my mind, and don’t get me started on marriage! If I were to marry someone, it would be a woman my parents find for me.

“But with you… it’s different, it’s the first time that I ever cared for someone like this. It’s the first time where I want to, ya’ know, fall in love, or at least figure out what love is.”

#connection ❆ how i wish i could have never let you go #self para #ft. heroicals #death tw #shoutout to tin for this amazing graphics and parts of this drabble!#:)

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gotta-get-back-to-hatchetfield · 4 years ago

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Serious note, big shoutout to Starkid for putting on this little game because even though it was awful, I am absolutely exhausted and hexgons are haunting my nightmares, in other ways it was a lot of fun and I feel like I’ve gotten a lot closer to a lot of people as we basked in our shared pain

Special shoutout to the vertex fandom for being the real ones (@memories-are-mine thank you for tolerating my tin foil nonsense) and major major shoutout to @hatchetfieldtheories for keeping track of everyone’s theories, being the first to work out the actual layout of the letters, and making the most incredible graphics (seriously mate you’re graphics are incredible)

Also shoutout to everyone who didn’t unfollow me when I became a delirious mess rambling about vertices

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polygarnstars · 5 years ago

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part 1: 4, 12, 15, 18, and 19

If you think I’m going to have common sense and not answer all of these in a single post, I have Bad News lmao

4. how did your elementary school teachers describe you? Smart, mostly. “Gifted”. This very much Did Not Last lmaoooo

12. name of your favorite playlist? I literally never make playlists I’m a stupid fuck who uses their spotify premium to skip freely through all my thousands of liked songs on shuffle until I find something I want to listen to lmaooooo (Having said that: Rey and I put together a playlist for some characters we were entering a contest to win last fall which I titled Story and Song after the TAZ arc and also because we wrote Way Too Much for it and I’m Very Proud Of That)

15. favorite book you read as a school assignment? Okay upon reading this I initially genuinely couldn’t remember any of the books I read in school because for the last several years of my schooling I just fuckin Sparknotes and TV Tropes-ed everything lmao... having said that, I do remember enjoying Maus! It was neat having a graphic novel assigned amongst all the “literary classics” that I couldn’t sit through a sitting of without falling asleep, and it may be the furry in me but the depiction of the characters/people as animals was Good :0c See, if all history was depicted with methods like this, I’d maybe actually be able to remember it ghfdjhgjfkdl

18. ideal weather? Depends on the day, but generally: Between like 65-80°F, not humid, not a lot of wind, and either sunny, partly cloudy, or drizzly but not outright storming. Basically decent temperatures without feeling like I’m walking through soup because of the humidity and weather that’s not completely gray and boring. Aka what Maine basically never is lmaoooo

19. sleeping position? I change positions every five minutes I swear to god (don’t take that out of context gfhdjbhvjd). Usually with at least one arm draped over a pillow that is Definitely Not Being Mentally Portrayed As A Character I Like To Supplement The Fact That I Did Not Get Enough Affection To Be A Functional Adult As A Child ghfdjknbhgfjdk

21. obsession from childhood? bold of you to assume i don’t still obsess over nintendo games (and just video games in general tbh)

23. strange habits? OKAY I COULDN’T THINK OF ANYTHING FOR THIS AT FIRST BUT I HAVE ONE NOW: MIDNIGHT FRIES

28. five songs to describe you? Speeding - LightsDaydreaming - ParamoreMusic - Mystery SkullsNo Lullaby - SIAMÉSLonely Dance - Set If Off+Bonus because it came up on Spotify while I was shuffling for songs for this and it’s a Mood: Pineapples Do Not Belong on a Pizza - Vargskelethor

29. best way to bond with you? I don’t know I usually just scream about ocs or video games with people and suddenly it’s been a year??? @riskreyes how has it been a year since we started talking but also how has it only been a year??? Wild bvhfdjkbhvgfjdk

30. places that you find sacred? Lmao I’ve never had anywhere like that really. Need a goddamn lock on my door :p I guess... the woods by my house? As a little kid before things got shitty my neighbor’s cousin or niece or something would go out there wandering around catching frogs and stuff in the spring or almost falling into the frozen streams during winter. When things started to go to shit in my life as a teenager I would hide out there to get away and nobody would find me. I haven’t been recently but the last time I did my friend and I walked along the train tracks and dove off into the woods by the side to avoid the amtrak coming by, it was great lmao. Uhh, other than that... I dunno, Boston and New York and New London all make me feel good to visit. Probably mostly because during those trips I don’t feel trapped in a dying land like Maine feels like bgvhfdjkhvgfjd

31. what outfit do you wear to kick ass and take names? ......my entire wardrobe is my work outfit, excessive graphic tees, and jeans. So uhh... I dunno. I guess my NWTB shirts are pretty rad, I’d kick a dude’s ass wearing Nate’s merch

34. advertisements you have stuck in your head? if i have to see another ad for some fuckin branch of the us military while i’m just out here trying to watch people play video games i swear to god-

40. weirdest thing to ever happen at your school? Oh boy I don’t know how weird these are but do you want a list??? I can give you a list hang on- In 4th grade we had a day of class where we all just had a party and ate chips and salsa and stuff because the pats won the super bowl and our teacher was Obsessed- In middle school my math class started working out of college textbooks, which is a bit much when you’re 11, advanced classes or no. Yet somehow none of the other students had any problems with this- Also in middle school, the school counselor really wasn’t very Good at his job so I usually just ended up playing Rock Band in his office instead of talking out any of my Many, Many Problems. I played the drums, for the record- Also in middle school, one time I straight up fell down a flight of stairs? Like, a full flight of stairs. Fuckin somersaulting down the stairs. The binder I was carrying broke open, papers went everywhere, my arm got cut open somewhere along the way and started bleeding. I get to the bottom, the other students are staring at me in horror, aforementioned counselor fuckin steps out of his office which is, of course, right at the bottom of the stairs, all concerned because what the fuck a kid just fell down the stairs, right? And so I, laying on the floor disoriented and laughing, declare, and I quote: “That was fun, let’s do it again!”- THE MOTHERFUCKING MAC AND CHEESE MUFFINS IN HIGH SCHOOL. Macaroni and cheese baked into the sweet batter of a muffin. I refused to touch the stuff but a friend of my did and it was bad enough he had to go to the trash can and fucking empty his stomach in it.- SAID FRIEND ALSO MANAGED TO GET A CARTON OF MILK THAT EXPIRED A MONTH BEFORE SCHOOL STARTED AT THE START OF ONE OF OUR YEARS IN HIGH SCHOOL and if I didn’t trust cafeteria food before that sealed the deal on me Never Trusting It Again- OH BUT SPEAKING OF CAFETERIA FOOD one time in the old school before the renovation, in like freshman year I think? I laughed so hard a piece of spicy chicken strip flew up my windpipe and got stuck in my nose and it was too big for me to snort out so I had to suck it back down and for the rest of the day all I could smell was burning- ON ANOTHER FOOD RELATED TOPIC down in the library I was on my iPad and 3DS because I had Long Since Given Up On School and some asshole dudes threw a rotting orange at me and it splattered all over the screens of both? So I picked up the remains and chucked it back at them and yelled “Do you wanna fucking NOT?” and they all ran off. The librarian heard me yell and saw me throw the orange back at them and she just didn’t give a fuck lmao- The librarians at my school were cool as shit really during one of our years we had to do x hours of volunteer work so I did some adjustments to the library catalogue for mine but the thing is I was fast enough at it that there really wasn’t enough to fill up my required hours so instead of giving me more to do they just sort of let me and my friends hang out playing Yu-Gi-Oh and called that good lmao. (For the record I only had one starter deck so I let my friend pick half of the cards and I would use the half she didn’t want. I managed to fuckin WRECK her with throwaways it was Iconicque)- OKAY ONE LAST LIBRARY STORY on the last day of finals I was hanging out in one of the smart tv rooms in the library right? My last finals weren’t for a few hours and lord knows I wasn’t gonna study, ADHD ass couldn’t do that and I’d already given up on school lmao. So I fucking... I brought my Wii U to school, hooked it up to the smart tv, and just started playing Splatoon there in the library. One of the librarians walked past to check on everyone, stopped at my room, watched me play for a minute (I noticed her and just sort of nodded and waved like ‘Sup’ so she Knew what was going on), and then just LEFT. Like, she didn’t give a fuck. Shoutout to the librarians, the Chillest- ALRIGHT LAST STORY LAST STORY I straight up never got all the credits I needed to graduate lmao. I was missing half a credit but they let me go anyway and to this day I cite the reason as being my high scores on the SAT/PSAT? I was the first student at the school in like, a decade, to have gotten an award from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation for my performance on them, and I guess they must have thought that me failing to graduate on time would look bad on them because, uh, yeah, it would, if people found out their teachers couldn’t handle a ~smart kid~ to the point that they did poorly enough to not even graduate with the rest of their class nobody would be willing to send their kids there lmao. And that’s the story of how I graduated when I wasn’t technically supposed to!!!

50. what made you laugh the hardest you ever have? That’s a good fuckin question hey shit memory what was that thing that made us laugh so hard we couldn’t breathe again?...Don’t remember? Yeah I thought so lmaoI dunno, probably a joke in some let’s play? Or... god. Now that I think about it was probably the Slicer of T’pire Weir Isles moment actually. Holy shit, that was good.

68. worst flavor of any food or drink you’ve ever tried? That I’ve ever tried? Jesus, I dunno, I have issues with texture more than flavor. I Refuse to eat my mother’s stuffing because it’s literally just soggy ass bread. In terms of pure flavor alone? Her shepherds pie. It’s just... there is no flavor. It’s like eating cardboard. I’m begging you, De, use seasoning. If I ever have to eat shepherds pie that just tastes like tin from canned peas and vague hints of unseasoned beef again I’m going to go on a murderous rampage.That said? F in the chat to Cameron for that mac and cheese muffin. Rest in pieces

73. favorite weird flavor combo? GVFHDJBVDN JUST GONNA MAKE ME SHARE THE DILL PICKLE/CHOCOLATE PUDDING PACK COMBO FOR ALL THE WORLD TO SEE HUH

93. nicknames? Gar, Garn, Lane, Bill, Master, Pants, Shortpants. The first three are self-explanatory, first two are shortenings of my name and then my masc/surname. The latter four come from usernames of mine - Bill from Bill Ciforce (If you stack a Bill Cipher on top of two other Bill Ciphers, you get the Ciforce), Master, Pants, and Shortpants from MasterShortpants in reference to one of Link’s nicknames in Skyward Sword

95. favorite app on your phone? Does the internet app count? No? Lmao. Spotify I guess :p Need me some Tunes

#if you're on a version of the site that readmores don't work on i'm sorry #long post #ask game thyme

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isobelillustrates · 7 years ago

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A Day In The Capital: London Design Festival

One graphic design student + one solo day trip + one very poor sense of direction... what could possibly go wrong? That’s right, your local hermit crab ventured out into The Big City™, because an entire festival dedicated to design was simply too intriguing to miss. Needless to say I couldn’t squeeze the entire events list into an eight hour itinerary, so here’s the stuff I made a beeline for.

The Design Museum

The Design Museum celebrates design in all its forms, with the addition of the Beazley Designs of the Year, an exhibition showcasing new and innovative ideas within product design, architecture, graphics, fashion, digital design and transportation. Whilst each concept is unique, many of this year’s entries focus on sustainability and waste reduction - important themes in the current climate. It was refreshing to see conscious design being celebrated, particularly as mainstream reporting on our ecological future is so doom and gloom.

One of my favourite concepts is the Algae Lab; designed by Studio Klarenbeek & Dros, these 3D printed vessels are made entirely from algae, a natural material that could one day replace non-biodegradable plastics. As well as helping to tackle humanity’s waste crisis, they’re also gorgeous to look at, with sculptural, luminescent forms that make ditching plastic all the more appealing. This project, amongst the many others nominated for their pioneering use of materials, made me realise just how important it is to consider the environmental impact of design in our everyday lives - packaging especially. Dutch supermarket chain Ekoplaza’s plastic-free aisle, for example, demonstrates how we could adapt our shopping habits to cut out non-biodegradable packaging, with glass bottles, tins and even clear bags that are all plastic-free.

The Victoria and Albert Museum

Next on my whistle-stop tour of London’s art spots was the V&A. I was particularly keen to check out the “Dazzle” installation; a typographic mural inspired by a camouflage technique used in the war to confuse enemy U-boats. It's definitely visually disorientating, with overlapping stripes that confuse your depth perception, and layers of geometric shapes reminiscent of art movements such as Cubism and Vorticism. Combined with Wilfred Owen’s poetry, the display is a wonderful example of how functional wartime design can be reworked for a contemporary audience.

Papersmiths

Lastly, an Isobel-style trip to London wouldn’t be complete without a visit to a stationery shop. Papersmith’s new Chelsea store is practically a museum in itself, with every meticulously designed ink pen and leather-bound notebook occupying its own sacred bit of shelf space. Naturally I did about a dozen laps of the shop floor before buying anything (shoutout to overdrafts) and now my pencil case game is stronger than ever.

So, approximately an hour later than scheduled, I left London feeling exhausted but inspired. I’d conquered my anxiety, had my daily dose of good design and lived to tell the tale. Going into second year (side note: how did that happen?!) I really want to focus on the wider impact of my work in relation to the environment, not just the audience I’m communicating with. This could encompass many aspects of the design process, from the materials I use to how a project functions in a public or green space.

#london design festival #ldf18 #ldf2018 #branding #packaging #personal

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markesackett-theboxsf · 4 years ago

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Well hi! I’m Mark E. Sackett, and this is a tiny view of my passion project called The Pressroom and Mercantile of @theboxsf in San Francisco, California. Of all of the 100’s of Creative Projects I have Designed, Directed and Produced in my career, this is by far the biggest and most ambitious! Today, I honestly decided to give myself and my 2 amazing staff members Melanie @decowitch and Israel @israel_srs a big individual shoutout, because they have kept me going through the Pandemic. The last 19 months has been horrific, but we are still standing. We still don’t know whether this is a idea that will survive and fully find it’s legs, or if it will die a slow death, either is ok, because I accomplished what I set out to do! When I came up with this idea, it was done with great planning and a desire to design my version of the ultimate retail store if I were to imagine it. I have put the last 5 years and my life savings into making it a reality. With over 15 million items in over 200 categories of Ephemera, Advertising, Tins, Toys, Books, Posters, Letterpresses, Lithography and ‘All Things Printed’ we work everyday to make this place special, approachable, warm, creative and special. We are asked daily if we are a Museum, a Publisher, a Archive, a Printing Shop or a Store! The answer is that we are a Store, and Letterpress Shop, an Events and Meeting Space as well as Graphic Designers and Art Directors working on a series of Books and Products based on our material. We sell on our Website, on @pinterest here in the Mercantile, at Shows and Fairs, here on @instagram on @facebook @twitter and @ebay We offer Tours on @airbnbexperiences and @atlasobscura We are open daily 10am to 5pm and above all else we consider each other Family and love coming to work each day! We are grateful to still be here, and thankful for each and every one of our friends, followers and customers around the world. I am deeply grateful. Thank you! -Mark TheBoxSF.com / 415-602-9500 🙏👨🏻‍🎨🙏 (at The Pressroom and Mercantile at The Box SF) https://www.instagram.com/p/CU9XobvLaRD/?utm_medium=tumblr

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daleisgreat · 5 years ago

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PSP 15th Anniversary & Neo-Geo 30th Anniversary - Flashback Specials!

A couple months ago in March, the PSP hit its milestone 15th anniversary of its North American launch, just a few months after its end of 2004 debut launch in Japan. It came and went without much hubbub in the gaming media however due to that hitting around the same time the COVID-19 outbreak started to make waves in America and that pandemic rightfully getting the bulk of the press attention. Writing about game platform anniversaries over the past several weeks has been helping me get through these wild times we are now in by reflecting on my memories of these platforms, so with that said, please join me in looking back at Sony’s debut handheld….and later on in this very same flashback special I will have a bonus addendum with my memories of the Neo-Geo since it recently celebrated its 30th anniversary.

I remember when the PSP was surprisingly announced at Sony’s 2003 E3 press conference. I was there in Los Angeles covering my first E3 that year! The website I wrote for at the time, the long defunct vgpub.com, was a smaller gaming press outlet and only had one invite to the Sony press conference so our website founder, John attended the Sony conference while I and another staff writer slept in! I will never forget when John got back shortly after it ended and my colleague and I asked him if there were any big surprises (still a year or two away at this point with conferences being live streamed and with MySpace being the only major social media in 2003, there was a lack of live minute-by-minute news reporting and you would have to wait at least a couple hours until after the conferences ended to check gaming websites for news updates). John replied with an ‘oh yeah’ and proceed to hand us a little PR packet with a press release announcing the Playstation Portable (PSP) and how it would have near identical tech to the PS2 and be able to play movies with its UMD-discs. By mid-2003 the PS2 was a juggernaut around the globe and took up a little over half the market share in the home console gaming market against the Xbox and GameCube. With the PSP offering a big upgrade to the then-current GameBoy Advance out on the market and having near PS2 quality graphic capabilities, and with DVD movies being a huge factor into PS2 sales, it only seemed logical the PSP would be a sure-winner in the handheld gaming market. All three of us were buzzing about the news and how the PSP would be huge for handheld gaming and how Sony likely would take over. That did not quite happen however due to the surprise success of the Nintendo DS, but that did not stop the PSP to go on and be a viable gaming handheld alternative and have a fair amount of global success. I recall being incredibly stoked for the PSP launch, with a lot of hype going into its 20-plus launch game lineup.

I particularly remember being excited for Lumines, a new puzzler from Bandai that put a new twist on Tetris-style dropbox puzzle gameplay. It achieved this by making combo-clearing squares, instead of lines, and having a mesmerizing evolving soundtrack and graphic scheme whenever certain score targets were hit. Amazingly, the gameplay ranked right up there as top-in-class puzzler gameplay with Tetris. Combine that with its dazzling visuals and phenomenal soundtrack and it resulted in Lumines being the surprise killer-app of the PSP launch. Earlier this week I popped in Lumines Remastered on the PS4, and the gameplay is still as addicting as ever, and my anticipated quick five minute round for a refresher resulted in nearly playing an hour nonstop! From the other launch games I remember getting Untold Legends, Twisted Metal: Head-On and Tony Hawk’s Underground 2: Remix. Head-On was an all-new Twisted Metal game that was a good handheld version that also offered up online play, which was among one of the first of all handheld games to do so. I was a big fan of the hack ‘n slash action-RPGs on consoles during that era like Dark Alliance and Champions, and Untold Legends was a fun portable take on that which also offered up local wireless multiplayer. My friend, podcast co-host and also fellow VGpub staff writer Chris, along with my brother Joe, met up for a few memorable multiplayer sessions of Untold Legends.

All three of us played a whole heck of a lot of PSP in its initial weeks. At this time in early 2005, downloadable audio shows were kind of catching on but it was still a few months before Apple officially dubbed them as ‘podcasts’ on iTunes. I brought up the idea to Joe and Chris to get together to record an audio show for VGpub all about the PSP launch and our initial thoughts on the games available. We had no idea how to set it up on the technical side, so we winged it and Chris brought over one of those old-school stationary, coffee table tape recorders that are kind of stereotypical in psychiatrist or detective interview scenes in movies. We hooked an auxiliary cable from it to my PC and somehow produced a digital tin-can-and-string version of what would be the pilot of VGpub’s podcast. We sent the pilot to the VGpub editors to see what they thought, but we were dismayed when hearing back they thought it was too long at around 50 minutes in length. Bummed with that reception, we wound up not posting the PSP pilot show, but eventually gave podcasting another go when that scene took off several months later after it caught on with iTunes. We had a fun seven year run on the podcast, and when VGpub sunsetted a couple years after we started, we continued with the podcast on its own site for a few more years and as part of the launch posted the long lost pilot episode. And now in honor of the PSP’s 15th anniversary, I dug out that amazingly awful audio quality pilot from my hard drive archives and uploaded it to YouTube so now you all could relive our initial highs over the PSP’s launch. You can check it out by click or pressing here, or by checking out the embed below!

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Behold our low-tech, amateur endeavor of the very first podcast I participated in that focused on the launch of the PSP. THUG 2: Remix was a nice port of the console version of that Tony Hawk game I played a lot of. It was shortly after playing this is when I realized I did not want to play PS2 ports on the PSP. While a lot of them packed in a lot of the same content as their PS2 counterparts, they suffered noticeably due to the PSP having one analog ‘nub,’ only one pair of shoulder buttons and having to dial back the graphics and/or features in order to get it running on the comparably lower-powered PSP. I realized this moreso over the next year picking up and trying out PSP versions of BurnOut, Virtua Tennis and Gun. Once again, nothing against the PSP versions since a lot of them played and looked fine on the PSP, and if I primarily was on the road or travelling I would have been thrilled with these versions. It was over this next year I realized I would rather play these PSP ports on the PS2 instead of dealing with those compromises.

Unfortunately in the early years of the PSP, it was dominated by PS2 ports and five star original titles like Lumines were few and far between. This culminated with barely getting any play out of the system and selling off my PSP a little over a year later in mid-2006. Things were looking dire for a little while for the PSP, but Sony and strong third party support from companies like Square-Enix, EA and Capcom continued to pump out games and eventually the PSP established a strong portfolio of original releases. Some of the original efforts from Sony were so strong that games like Twisted Metal: Head On, Syphon Filter and Motorstorm: Arctic Edge got remastered ports on the PS2 to keep up first party releases for the PS2 in its twilight years. I want to make sure to give a shoutout to other strong original PSP titles such as the Patapon series, WTF: Work Time Fun, both Phantasy Star Portable entries, all four SOCOM titles, Resistance: Retribution, both Pursuit Force games, Killzone: Liberation, Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Final Fantasy: Crisis Core, both God of War titles, Mega Man: Powered Up and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. In 2012, I acquire PSP’s successor from Sony, the Vita. It featured digital backwards compatibility with a fair amount of the PSP’s library. I wound up acquiring about a dozen of the PSP games I always wanted to try this way that I missed out on after selling it. The Vita was also compatible with most of the PSone classics that were available on the PS3. This lead to me playing a lot of Final Fantasy VII a couple years ago in anticipation for the recently released and long coming FFVII Remake. This past week a fired up a few of them for a refresher on some of the PSP titles in preparation for this article. I had a lot of fun with the original Pursuit Force….at least the first couple missions anyways since that game had compatibility issues and frequently froze on the Vita.

I dusted off my Castlevania skills in my attempts at playing the remake of Rondo of Blood that is part of Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles. It has a challenging but fair degree of difficulty in the few levels I progressed through. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops I dug a lot for its first couple bite sized missions that focused on the origins of Snake meeting Campbell. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker I consider to be the true, fully featured fifth installment of the series since it essentially has a full length story and slate of missions available. I did not play it on the PSP, but instead on the HD remaster collection that released a year later on the PS3 and loved grinding through its wide variety of missions that set the stage for The Phantom Pain. While it is not compatible with the PSP’s physical discs, the Vita is a good alternative to experience most of the PSP’s library through digital download for those still curious about the PSP’s games. On the UMD movie side of things, launch PSPs came bundled with a copy of Spider-Man 2 which I eventually watched on a plane trip. The quality of the UMD movies were undeniably good. Later on, I got sent a UMD to review of the fun underdog sports film, Dodgeball and those wound up being the only two UMDs I owned. For the first year or two of the PSP lifespan I remember game stores being flooded with physical UMDs, but a lot of them cost nearly as much as their DVD versions at the time and I am speculating that people anticipated they would only cost half or a third as much as DVDs kind of relative to how the portable-to-console game pricing goes, and when that proved not to be the case it lead to a quick exit for UMD movies on the PSP. I look back at the PSP and will fondly remember those awesome early months I had with it, and how it later redeemed itself by having a fleshed out lineup of original games. I want to also give the PSP props for becoming the only platform that easily surpassed portable efforts from other companies that tried to compete against Nintendo in the handheld gaming market like Atari, Tiger, Sega and SNK. I adhere caution when tracking down used PSPs due to reports of some PSPs being susceptible of having bulging battery packs over time. Sony released a few different revisions of the PSP, so I do not know if that is related to only the launch version, or for all versions of the PSP. This is why I recommend tracking down a Vita instead to get your PSP fix for those interested.

In the bonus addendum to this PSP anniversary flashback, I will touch on my brief memories with SNK’s Neo-Geo to commemorate its recent 30th anniversary of the original launch of the Japan arcade hardware. The arcade side of the Neo-Geo was dubbed the Multi-Video System (MVS) and it debuted in Japan in April of 1990, and following in American arcades a few months later in August. For those not in the know, the 24-bit arcade hardware had a home console version called the Neo-Geo Advanced Entertainment System (AES) that launched in Japan later on in 1990 and in 1991 in America. The unique thing about the Neo-Geo is both the MVS and AES used the exact same technology so it was possible to have 100% faithful home ports. SNK wanted the home experience to as close as possible to the arcade that it bundled the system with two mammoth arcade sticks. I first remember seeing Neo-Geo games in MVS format at various arcades in the early to mid-90s. The MVS cabinet was unmistakable with it having the eye-grabbing Target-red color and the two-to-four mini-game marquees listed at the top of it. The big draw to arcade operators at time of the Neo-Geo MVS was that the games came on friendlier priced cartridges that could easily be swapped out like games in a console instead of ordering whole new arcade machines to replace them. I have seen the four-slot MVS plenty of times, but I mostly remember seeing the two-slot version more frequently in arcades over the years, and for the most part it was the same two games featured on them: Puzzle Bobble (AKA Bust-a-Move) and Metal Slug. These were the two game I primarily encountered on the MVS in my childhood arcade experiences. I was not all that great at Puzzle Bubble with its unique spin on puzzle games by shooting bubbles onto the playfield from the bottom of the screen. I did however love Metal Slug and its sequel that I also recall seeing originally on the MVS. Metal Slug was arcade bliss at the time, with charming cartoony soldiers oozing with detail and twee animations as they run ‘n gunned with an arsenal of over-the-top weaponry, villains and larger than life boss battles. Metal Slug is one of the few games where slowdown is a good thing in my opinion because it primarily happened when encountering daunting bosses and explosions that filled up the screen and it felt like the machine was doing all it could to keep the action moving.

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Jason and John from the MetalJesus crew do a fine job here giving a 101 lesson on the Neo Geo hardware and have lots of footage here of some of the best games to hit Neo-Geo.

A few weeks ago I did a quick playthrough of Metal Slug X on Xbox One since it was on Game Pass, and everything that I fondly associated with those run ‘n gunners was still there, even the slowdown! Thankfully the AES and MVS games did not remain trapped on their original expensive hardware. By the mid-2000s, SNK regularly started to output various collections of games both digitally and physically. I highly recommend Metal Slug Anthology that hit PS2 and Wii, and later got digitally ported onto the PS4. A majority of the individual Neo-Geo games got ported over individually in recent years on PS4, Xbox One and Switch. Since all these marketplaces frequently run sales on their back catalog, you can now find a lot of these games well under their default price of $7.99 each. Over the last few years I checked out plenty of original Neo-Geo games this way. I tried out too many fighting games to count by doing this, but also finally got a chance to play SNK’s arcade sports offerings that got overlooked by their many fighting games. Three Count Bout is a graphically impressive wrestling title, but its button-mashing leniency takes a toll on thumbs. I loved Dunk Dream/Street Hoop, which is SNK’s take on NBA Jam, but with a hip-hop makeover and catchy rap-filled soundtrack. Neo-Geo Turf Masters is a fast-paced, fun golf title and until recently I had no idea that the Super Volleyball game I loved so much on Genesis had a beefed up version and a sequel featuring amped up robots and robotic attacks on the Neo-Geo. The Neo-Geo is renowned for its acclaimed catalog of fighting games with several entries each in hit series like Samurai Shodown, Fatal Fury, World Heroes, Art of Fighting and its flagship fighter, The King of Fighters which saw annual entries on the platform for 10 years from 1994-2003. Of all these, the ones I frequented the most of were various re-releases were King of Fighters ‘97 and ’98. Its team based fighting style made it standout from the other fighting games, and it was only in recent years with some longer sessions with KoF ’98 that I finally started to come around on it. One of these days I want to give an honest effort at getting into Samurai Shodown. I remember the gaming mags were hyping up its debut entry at the time as a major breakthrough to fighting games with its gruesome swordplay it brought to the table. I eventually picked up its anthology disc on PS2 and dabbled with a couple entries, but never too seriously and need to correct that sooner than later. A random memory is attempting to play Samurai Shodown II at Arcade Infinity in Koreatown one evening in the afterhours of covering E3 in 2003. Shortly after starting it up, someone sat down and challenged me and proceeded to properly dominate me. Looking back, that may have something to do with why I never gave it that much of a shot.

I never had a chance to play the AES home system until well after its lifespan in the early 2010s at regional retro game conventions. That was because I did not see one in the wild until then. Unfortunately in 1990, the home console market was dominated by the NES while the Genesis was only a year old and just starting to break in, so while the MVS was a bargain for arcade operators, the AES arcade perfect tech was way ahead of the times and cost exponentially more compared to the NES and Genesis at the time. Reading copies of Game Players and Electronic Gaming Monthly back then I associated Neo-Geo AES games as being the games that literally cost $200-300 individually in the back of the magazine ads for mail service game catalogs. Occasionally there would be SNES/Genesis ports of the popular games like the original Fatal Fury and Samurai Shodown, but obviously there quality was dialed back to run on the weaker machines and that was realistically all of what was available to a majority of the home console market until those anthology collections started to get released in the mid-2000s. I never owned an AES, but I was stunned by its lasting power with official games being released for it all the way until 2004. I only a saw a Neo-Geo AES for sale once at my local retro game shop all these years back around 2008 and I want to say it was going for about $200, and part of me wanted to get it for the standout collector’s item it would be, but another side of me knew the games went for insane amounts by that point and the games were already by then starting to get re-released on other consoles in more wallet-friendly anthology discs. If you have yet to dip into the Neo-Geo catalog, I would highly recommend either grabbing the digital copy of Metal Slug Anthology on PS4 for some awesome two player run ‘n gun couch co-op with a friend as the perfect way to start off. Otherwise, type in ‘ACA’ in the Xbox One/PS4/Switch digital marketplaces to see most of the Neo-Geo games released digitally under the ACA banner. While it was damn near impossible to afford to play the AES games at home during their initial release, I will close by giving major props to SNK for keeping their back catalog of Neo-Geo titles alive for current generations to discover on current platforms at consumer friendly prices! Thanks again for sticking with me in reliving my memories of the PSP and Neo-Geo with this two-for-one flashback anniversary special! Want more retro-game goodness? Then take a peek at my other flashback specials below!

My Other Gaming Flashbacks Dreamcast 20th Anniversary GameBoy 30th Anniversary Genesis 30th Anniversary PSone 25th Anniversary Saturn and Virtual Boy 25th Anniversaries TurboGrafX-16 30th Anniversary and 32-X 25th Anniversary

#videogames #psp #neogeo #snk #sony

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gigsoupmusic · 6 years ago

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ArcTanGent 2019 review

‘ArcTan…what?’ ‘ArcTanGent. In Bristol. Same team as 2000trees.' ‘Oh yeah, the chilled punk fest you keep talking about. Same vibe?’ ‘Similar set-up, but different music.’ ‘What kind of music?’ ‘Heavier, more prog and math-rock’ ‘What’s math-rock?’ ‘…..never mind.’ If 2000trees is the UK festival worlds best kept secret, its sister festival ArcTanGent is a fleeting rumor, a prog and math-rock haven known only to insiders. While Trees has, despite its relative obscurity, bolstered something of a ‘little fest that could’ indie-reputation, and a whack of awards, ArcTanGent seems to only be known to those who go to ArcTanGent*. Seven years in, and Goc O’Callaghan’s Bristol event has expertly carved out its niche, filling that gap between Download and Bloodstocks ‘big arena festival with a general-heavy vibe’ and Damnations ‘niche genre festival that’s too small to justify a full weekend’. With a cap just shy of 10,000, ATG (as she’s known to friends) enjoys a nice-sized crowd while retaining a relaxed ambience, mellower staff and the gratifying ability to manoeuvre the site, check a new stage or run to the car within a 10 minute window.

While it’s categorically a genre festival with no claim to offer ‘variety’ in the Glasto or Leeds sense, it would be remiss to call ATG one-note – there are plenty of flavors within the fairly flexible boundaries set here. Those looking for ‘fuck my eardrums’ heavy get an atmospheric, highly visual set courtesy of the always-excellent Cult of Luna and tech-metal Scots Frontierer. Bossk are out offering the layered sludge, enigmatic Carpenter Brut does his synth-wizard thing, with Bostonian veterans Caspian providing the bass-laden post-rock. Further afield, affable Taiwanese trio Elephant Gym are a grand discovery. Matt Calvert makes two appearances this years event, once with Three Trapped Tigers, and again with an orchestral arrangement – only the third time he has performed in this style, and a thoroughly enjoyable change in tone. There’s more experimental and some brass with The Physics House Experiment. And The St Pierre Snake Invasion, swiftly becoming one of the most fun heavy festival staples, bring the hardcore, the cracking stage-irreverence (‘this is a song about being a sad Welsh twat’), and whatever the hell that keyboard-recorder is – if you’ve not seen a St Pierre set, get right with that. Friday night splits the crowd and pits the experimental (official headliner Battles) against the groove-metal (Brutus, packing out the tiny PS3 stage)

Opening night headliners Coheed and Cambria are probably the closest thing to a ‘mainstream’ act on this years bill – one of the few on a major label anyway - and considering they are an indie-prog band whose albums are accompanied by a series of existential graphic novels, that says a lot. Lets talk about that headline set though - their first this side of the Atlantic, and it was a journey – both a display of prog-smithery and a nostalgia bite for those of us who cut our teeth on ‘Good Apollo’. With swirls and eddies of melodic riffs backed by enticing yet unobtrusive visuals, Claudio ‘Cousin It’ Sanchez* and his merry prog-men prove an excellent choice, and a contender for the ongoing ‘next generation of metal headliners’ debate. Setlist-wise, it’s a very ‘festival’ tracklist – aka, heavy on the 00’s ‘hits’* and the latest album. Not a bad thing - Dark Sentancer proves a powerful gig-opener, and we get ‘In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth’, an unexpected ‘The Suffering’, and come the encore, an explosive cheer as the iconic acoustic intro of ‘Welcome Home’ ushers the first night to a close.

The event has been lumped with something of a ‘Friday curse’ – this year is no exception, as the second day was treated to 12 hours of relentless downpour, turning the entire site into a quagmire of Mr. Whippy-consistency. If there’s one negative to throw out about this years Arc, it’s the relative lack of effort from the team to counter-act this apparently recurring problem – the stalls quickly ran out of ponchos and there was enough straw for the main stage, but not for the mud-Baikal that blocked the entrance. It’s a festival of treats, many sets feeling like rewards for the loyal punters here for the music. Northern Irish instrumental colossus And So I Watch You From Afar have garnered a well-earned reputation as one of the most exciting live acts in the genre, and their playthrough of their self titled debut to mark its tin anniversary is an experience – watching the pure intensity on their faces as they carve out an intricate wall of sound is a feeling of watching master craftsmen at work. Its not even the only album play-through, crowd favourites Black Peaks give their last record, ‘All That Divides’ a full run, with Jamie Lenman (‘I don’t have a saxophone and my moustache isn’t as good’ he cheekily warns the sodden crowd) featuring up front.

Speaking of treats, a rare set from elusive Swedish titans Meshugghah finishes the weekend – the crowd gathered before the Medusa columns segue beautifully between a 10k strong sing-a-long of ‘I Want to Know What Love Is’ into a war chant of ‘ME-SHU-GAH!’ as the grizzled quintet emerge on stage for a blistering, relentless hour-and-fifteen onslaught that is both technically complex and phenomenologically overpowering. Its an unassuming festival with no need for bells and whistles – while there are a few fun side activities (axe throwing, a board game café) the crowd are unquestionably here for the music. Still, the team must be commended for the subtle touches – havens of quiet, some intricately designed merch. Food-wise, Arc shares Trees selection of small-time festival stalls with few of the big names from arena events – the Pad Thai stand bringing so many bangers it became a sixth stage. Shoutout to Piggie Smalls and a peanut-butter jelly hot-dog that was transcendental. A selection of local ales, real West Country cider and White Russians grace the bar, while new for 2019 is the Bar Room stage – treated to a number of sets, the apogee of which comes courtesy of No Violets, whose frantic grungey vibe and captivating PJ Harvey-esque front-siren Ellie* mark them as one to keep a serious eye on.

The after-hours entertainment is a fun twist on the norm - ArcTanGent does the typical Silent Disco but with its own take on this festival staple – the Thursday night crowd are treated to a full-on silent gig, with Gost providing an entire set through the headphones. The Disco King revellers for Friday and Saturday get an astute blend of nu-metal classics and 80’s numbers….with the added option of an entire channel dedicated to Mars Volta* ArcTanGent is a strange one to critique – of course its highly recommended for fans of the heavy and the intricate – but it seems a futile recommendation when pretty much anyone whose heart lies in this heady world is likely already an ATG convert. As for casuals looking to explore a new avenue…. Well if you like your riffs complex, your crowd in good spirits, and a place that’s somehow heavy-as-balls while retaining an easy-going atmosphere, well, ArcTanGent has you covered. As long as you can deal with a little mud. *As a metal-fest aficionado but math-rock casual, I was only dimly aware of Arc before my flatmate Nathan, an ATG regular, piqued my curiosity enough to check it. *There was something of a contest going on in the photo pit as to if anyone could get a shot of his face. *I mean, Coheed don’t really have ‘hits’ as such, but the Apollo/Silent Earth tracks that were singles – Suffering and Home here. My wish for Ten Speed wasn’t met and Wake Up would have probably confused the crowd…. *6 seconds of Google did not turn up a last name so……sick vocals, Ellie. *Speaking of bar…. the crowd managed to literally drink both remaining bars dry by the end of Sunday’s disco. I’ve literally never seen this at a festival before, and took weird pride in having the last can of cider at the event. *I’d heard of this beforehand but genuinely wondered if Nathan was going for satire. Nope. Whole channel. Just plays Mars Volta for four hours. Read the full article

#ArcTanGent #Bossk #CarpenterBrut #CultofLuna #Frontierer #MattCalvert

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chrissyrholmes · 7 years ago

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Unconventional Ways of Getting Your Design Work Noticed

Rather than channelling the same methods that every Tom, Dick, and Harry utilize, lets look at a few unconventional (but highly effective) ways of getting your work noticed.

Showcase Your Work in Print

Web design is all about digital, but there’s something elegant about looking at a portfolio of work on high-quality paper. Thanks to the huge influx in digital devices over the last few years however, print is most definitely a dying industry.

The majority of your competitors will have shrugged off print as an ineffective means of attracting clients, but that in itself is a great reason to start using it.

Portfolio Booklet by Iara Grinspun

The key to getting noticed is to stand out from your competition. You need to showcase your work in a way that very few people are doing, and print is a great way of doing it. There’s a reason why major brands have huge budgets set aside for print catalogues, flyers and promotional material – it’s a great way of getting noticed.

If you’re a web designer, design a simple portfolio booklet that showcases your skills. If you have never worked with print, it’s not a million miles away from digital, so don’t be scared to download a trial version of a print program like Adobe inDesign and start creating.

Look for new and changing businesses in your area (we cover that a bit further down the article) and send them a copy of your booklet with a cover letter explaining what you do and how you can help them.

To make an even bigger impact, arrange a meeting with a decision maker of a local business, slap on your best birthday outfit, and give them your printed portfolio in person!

Take Advantage of Bespoke Promotional Products

Novelty products are a great way to get your name in front of potential clients. Bespoke identity merchandise comes in all shapes and sizes, from personalised sweet tins to fridge magnets… you can even get shot glasses with your logo on them!

Whilst not the cheapest option, getting personalised products to send out is a cool way to get your work noticed; and it’s also not as expensive as you might think. Personalised sweet tins (little metal mint tins) cost between £0.95 (~$1.15) and £0.45 (~$0.60) each.

Personalized Chocolate Almond by Nate Braxton

These little novelty products are an excellent way to get your work noticed. Make sure you research and think about the people you might give them to and pick out a product that either represents your target market or represents your brand.

Send out a promotional product that is useful to the person you are sending it to. If your target clients are office dwellers, send them something that they can put on their desk and use, remembering to make your brand and logo clearly visible on the product.

That way, every time they walk into their office and sit at their desk, they’ll look at your useful product and think about you. Even if they don’t need your services straight away, theres a chance they might in the future, and you’ll be the first person they think of.

Scout Out New and Changing Businesses in Your Area

This step is absolutely key if you’re going to be sending out promotional products or print material. You need to make sure your target clients actually want to see your work, and who might actually need your services. If you’re a web designer, there’s no point sending your promotional material to Mrs Brown the housewife – she doesn’t want or need a website!

Established businesses in your area may be going through a change of management, or require an updated website, so be sure to take the initiative and contact them.

There are a lot of ‘mailing list’ services out there that do the hard work for you. These companies catalogue new businesses, using legitimate, public business databases and will compile a list for you.

Directory websites like Yell.com are also a great way for finding new local businesses. However, be careful not to use them as a marketing means, as that’s against their terms! You don’t want to go and spam 100 businesses with a generic product and a copied cover letter – personalise your approach to each business and carefully pick your targets.

Hit the Trade Shows

Trade shows are absolutely full of businesses looking for your services. If you can find shows that are specific to your niche, they are most definitely a great way of getting your work noticed.

However, other industry specific trade shows are also an excellent way to get people seeing your work as well, especially if they’re business related.

You don’t need to spend thousands renting a stand for the weekend. Simply order some nice keepsakes (as mentioned above) along with some eye-catching business cards, and get networking!

Look for businesses with stands that may want to use your services, approach them and tell them about how you can be of benefit to them. A lot of people at these trade shows will have a business, or be looking to start one, so they’re the prime contacts to speak to.

Again, it may be that they don’t need your services straight away, but if you have a nice little leave behind with your name and logo on them, they’re more likely to speak to you in the future. Don’t forget to show interest in their business, product or service as well!

Create Infographics

Infographics are a very effective means of grabbing attention. Just remember that they’re called “info” graphics. That means that they need to be graphics that portray information. Before designing one, make sure you’re clear on exactly what information you want to relay and how you want to communicate it. Make it something that people might want to share or be interested in.

Once you’ve got your infographic designed, pop it on your website and then rave about it wherever you go.

Approach Popular Social Media Figures

Social media is a HUGE. In comparison to other methods, social media is still relatively untouched from a marketing point of view. There’s been a massive increase in popularity for Instagram, opening the way for some really unconventional, but effective ways to get your work noticed.

One proven way is to approach popular social media figures and offer your services free in exchange for a shoutout.

There’s no point messaging Kim Kardashian, as you won’t get very far, but there are thousands of ‘non-celebrity’ Instagrammers with literally millions of followers all waiting to see your work!

A lot of these people are already making serious money from their Instagram accounts, and will jump at the chance of getting a personal website or some other service that will increase their online presence (and therefore their revenue).

Make Helpful Comments on Popular Websites

Making helpful comments on websites is an effective way to actually get people to look at your work. Look for sites that have users needing help, such as StackOverflow, and create a profile that includes your website and contact info and then get helping!

Make sure you’re actually helpful in what you write. In fact, forget that you’re even using it as a means to get your work noticed, and simply view it as a way of giving back to the community and sharing your knowledge. You’ll be surprised how many people click on your profile and view your work if you’re offering sound advice.

Give Away Freebies!

Everyone loves free stuff. Giving away some useful stuff for free is another great way to get people looking at your work. Take advantage of sites like Dribbble and Behance as platforms to make your resources freely available. Again, make sure your free stuff includes a link to your own work, but don’t force your link in a way that makes it obvious you’re trying to grab attention.

Be sure to make free stuff that is actually useful! Layered Photoshop files or Illustrator files of UI kits, templates and icons will likely get downloaded often.

You’ll pick up a lot of followers on your profile and then you can start showing off your portfolio work to them as well.

Don’t Underestimate Conventional Methods Too

There’s a reason why conventional methods are used by most creatives: they work! The unconventional methods mentioned in this article are great ways to get your work noticed, but don’t underestimate the importance of also having a strong digital portfolio, a good social presence, and just marketing the old fashioned way.

If you’re able to combine these unconventional methods along with the conventional ways, you’re very likely to get your work noticed.

from Web Designing https://1stwebdesigner.com/getting-your-design-work-noticed/

0 notes

noahdnicholus · 8 years ago

Text

Unconventional (but Effective) Ways of Getting Your Design Work Noticed

Rather than channelling the same methods that every Tom, Dick, and Harry utilize, lets look at a few unconventional (but highly effective) ways of getting your work noticed.

Showcase Your Work in Print

The majority of your competitors will have shrugged off print as an ineffective means of attracting clients, but that in itself is a great reason to start using it.

Portfolio Booklet by Iara Grinspun

To make an even bigger impact, arrange a meeting with a decision maker of a local business, slap on your best birthday outfit, and give them your printed portfolio in person!

Take Advantage of Bespoke Promotional Products

Personalized Chocolate Almond by Nate Braxton

Scout Out New and Changing Businesses in Your Area

Established businesses in your area may be going through a change of management, or require an updated website, so be sure to take the initiative and contact them.

Hit the Trade Shows

Trade shows are absolutely full of businesses looking for your services. If you can find shows that are specific to your niche, they are most definitely a great way of getting your work noticed.

However, other industry specific trade shows are also an excellent way to get people seeing your work as well, especially if they’re business related.

You don’t need to spend thousands renting a stand for the weekend. Simply order some nice keepsakes (as mentioned above) along with some eye-catching business cards, and get networking!

Create Infographics

Once you’ve got your infographic designed, pop it on your website and then rave about it wherever you go.

Approach Popular Social Media Figures

One proven way is to approach popular social media figures and offer your services free in exchange for a shoutout.

Make Helpful Comments on Popular Websites

Give Away Freebies!

Be sure to make free stuff that is actually useful! Layered Photoshop files or Illustrator files of UI kits, templates and icons will likely get downloaded often.

You’ll pick up a lot of followers on your profile and then you can start showing off your portfolio work to them as well.

Don’t Underestimate Conventional Methods Too

If you’re able to combine these unconventional methods along with the conventional ways, you’re very likely to get your work noticed.

from Web Designing Tips https://1stwebdesigner.com/getting-your-design-work-noticed/

0 notes