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peachcitt · 4 years ago

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Hi! You've mentioned on Discord that you read a lot of books, and I was wondering if you could rec some? Either your favourites, or ones that had a big impact on you/your writing 🥺

yes!!! all my favorite books generally affect my writing style, and often after ive finished reading a really good book, i'll write something and end up emulating that book's style (either on accident or on purpose haha). sometimes on my ao3 you'll find in my author's notes me saying what book i just finished, and if you read or know those books, you'll probably see me mimicking certain aspects of style

for other reccommendations/more in depth descriptions of book plots, i also have a reading list that i posted this past winter on my writing blog that you can check out, and im planning on posting another one at the end of the summer!! (in fact ive already started the list lmao)

the list will be structured as follows: book or series name, author, and a couple reasons why i like it. in addition to this, i will put stars by author's names if i have read other books by them and greatly enjoyed them.

without further ado:

The Grishaverse by Leigh Bardugo*

this has got to be my favorite series of all time. i love bardugo's capability to write complex characters and complicated plots, and i really like the way she structures her books. the series is just so artfully done and when i finished it i was so perfectly satisfied and so perfectly sad because i mourned the fact that it was over

I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak*

literally my favorite book. this is the book i tell people is my favorite if anyone asks. i love zusak's casual humor alongside his ability to write such heartbreaking and heavy moments in just little scraps of images. it's a romantic book without being about romance - it's about love and kindness and how powerful those things can be be, and that shit gets me every time. i have reread this book so many times - yearly since i got it, i think, and i got in middle school, i think. im in college now. and every time i reread it, i get something different out of it

The Chaos Walking Trilogy by Patrick Ness*

i think about these books constantly. these were the first books i read by patrick ness, and, now that ive read some of his other books, i know in classic patrick ness fashion, these books haunt me. patrick ness has this uncanny ability to take genres you think you know and twist and warp them until you're on the edge of your seat trying to figure out what will happen next without the safety net of genre supporting the story. in addition to that, his characters are always wonderfully flawed - he puts real people into fantastical situations, and it's fascinating and always an emotional and satisfying read

The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith*

dude i think about the alex crow so much. i said i normally call i am in the messenger my favorite book, but every so often i'll say this one is because i just love it so much. the alex crow is just so bafflingly weird but the teenage boy main characters are so real and gross and hilarious. andrew smith has the amazing knack for writing weird as hell plot lines and telling stories that are about everything, all at once, while still making it about one thing. that doesn't make sense, but if you read the alex crow (or his other book i've read called Grasshopper Jungle that is actually on my summer list) then you will know what i mean. the alex crow is so many things, and i love all of them

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson*

i used to read a lot of ya romance and, to be honest, the stuff i used to read was not all great, but this book absolutely changed the game and probably made me raise my standards exponentially. the timeline of this book is so creative, and it's done in such a way that it leaves you wondering how the timelines will reconcile. in addition to this, both romances in the book are so interesting and loveable, and the relationship between the two main characters (who are twins) is an amazing thing to see unfold. this is a peak ya romance book, and i can't recommend it enough

Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven*

another ya romance, and i have to say the romance in this book is so beautifully done. generally, this is just a really sweet book that gave me butterflies, to be quite honest. i think niven has a really good knack for writing characters that are diverse and a little strange but all have their own distinct personalities that mingle really interestingly with each other.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe By Benjamin Alire Sáenz

this one is an obvious choice, and for good reason. aristotle and dante is just a classic queer novel, and it's earned its place as such. it's a poetic sort of book, and i love the voices of the characters, as well as the pictures of the world we get through ari's voice. this is a visual book written in text - i think a lot about the steady, careful romance of the book and the way sáenz makes ari an unreliable narrator by artfully excluding his feelings from scene descriptions and dialogue tags. it's such a creative and heartbreaking technique that i often find myself wanting to do

The Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld

oooohh this trilogy changed me. for starters its such a weird, creative concept - alternate history steampunk and biopunk world war I. like doesn't that sound so interesting?? and this trilogy's main characters are so easy to love - and watching their relationship unfold and develop is so endearing. also, my copies include these wonderful illustrations (which i think might be in all copies?) that really let you put images to the weird fantastical things westerfeld included into the world.

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

this book was actually on my winter book list, and i read it so fast and so obsessively because i wanted so badly to know what was going to happen. the plot absolutely pulled me in, and the first line - "I forgot everything between footsteps" - stuck with me because just look at the way that's written!! it's so artful and intriguing, i was just dying to know what would happen next. the timeline is this amazing maze that as i read i couldn't help but admire how long or how much turton had to plan in order to make everything line up in just the right way. it was a fascinating book with so much to say - im really looking forward to reading it again

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

this book was also on my winter book list, and it just absolutely enraptured me. its witty, quiet sort of voice was amazing to read, and the imagery instilled into every scene made it seem like everything was so real, just right there for me to touch or smell or taste. the plot of a secret huge magic library really roped me in, and i think this is a love story for people who read, people who love stories, people who love the magic of a library.

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero*

cantero's works are just so creatively written - not just by plot or character standards, but by style standards, too. meddling kids is great not just for its complex, loveable characters or for its fantastical, dark, and mysterious plot, but also for the weird and intriguing liberties cantero makes with style. in his other books, too, is the switch between snarkily written prose to stage directions to video or audio transcripts, and it makes for such a visual sort of book - i mean, i could easily see any of cantero's books being made into a film or series because all the material is right there. cantero's creativity with style is so intriguing to me, and because of him, i've become more familiar with playing around in style in an attempt to create something as interesting as his novels

and that's all i'll put down here now!

i mentioned it a little, but probably my biggest style references are leigh bardugo, markus zusak, edgar cantero, and andrew smith for various reasons that i am more than willing to talk more in depth about if anyone is wondering<3

thank you for asking im always willing to talk books :')

#ask #miabrown007 #book rec list #book recs #long post #I ALWAYS TALK SO MUCH WHEN IT COMES TO BOOKS IM SO SORRY #someone: what are you favorite books? / me (vibrating at the speed of sound):#anyway if anyone is truly curious about my style references just send me an ask and i will answer!

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colony22games · 4 years ago

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NON-LIVEPLAY GAMES, MARCH 2163 - ‘Double Trouble’

OBJECTIVE: “DOUBLE TROUBLE” is a LAST TWO STANDING, ‘Hunger Games’ style game and will commence at sunrise. Survivors will begin the game as every individual for themselves, at the edge of the gaming grounds. When the starting horn sounds, survivors may choose to take a chance at The Hoard for weapons and resources, or head straight for the woods. Forming alliances is recommended, but remember, alliances are temporary and can change.

TEAMS: None. 1 vs. All, Personal Alliances only.

WEAPONS: This game will include ALL COLONY-APPROVED TRAINING WEAPONRY. Players begin the game without arms, but may obtain them at The Hoard or at hidden caches around the gaming grounds.

*HIT LIMIT: 1 *KILL LIMIT: 1

KILL PROTOCOL: SURRENDER; Participants who reach Kill Limit are immediately eliminated and must report back to the games staging area.

ADDITIONAL RULES AND INFO:

⚒The game will commence in a clearing at the edge of the gaming grounds, with the treeline ahead (NE). In the clearing, to the SE, will be The Hoard, a large resource and weapon supply. At the start of play, participants may choose to run for it first, or bypass it and head to safety.

⚒Personal alliances may consist of 2 to 5 participants from any house. They must never exceed 5 players. Alliances are based on an honour system; there are no official rules against targeting an ally.

⚒’Sponsor Kits’ can be found hidden throughout the grounds. If an individual receives a hit but has a Sponsor Kit, they may use it to remain in the game. Sponsor Kits are metal cylinders about ten inches long and 3 inches in diameter, and contain a cloth bandage which can be tied at or around the point of the recent hit. Sponsor Kits are one time use only; when the seal is broken, a vial of dye will shatter and soak into the white bandage to indicate its use.

⚒The winning pair may be from the same house, or different houses. Throughout the game, an individual’s achieved kills earn points towards their respective houses, and the winners will get to keep these for their house, plus an extra 250 points. In the case of winners from two different houses, both houses will receive their respective earned house points, plus 250 for the win.

⚒All PDD messaging capabilities have been disabled for the Games. They function only to receive notifications.

CHECK BELOW THE CUT FOR GAME RESULTS AND HIGHLIGHT SUMMARY!

“Bloodbath” - the First Hour

When the horn blares, about half the games participants head straight for the cover of the trees, while the others book it to The Hoard: the huge weapons stash in the clearing. Charlie Essex and JR are among this group. JR gets there first, quickly holstering two handguns, and is about to go for some grenades, when Charlie waves at him with a supply backpack in hand and they both run off. It’s not until they get deeper into the gaming grounds that they realize Charlie’s ‘bag of supplies’ is woefully empty.

Back at the weapon stash, it’s still pandemonium. Draco Pavlović gives Mei Zhu Fitrei a bloody nose in a scuffle over a sniper gun. Alexander Donovan finds Annie Perrault hyperventilating behind a weapons rack, white knuckling a bow. He shoves a quiver into her hands and tells her to run, watching her back as she nervously complies. Meanwhile, Felix Turner and Rosalind Stein nearly collide going for the same bag of supplies. Rose is confident she can easily overpower Felix, until he starts literally shrieking like a maniacal banshee. His wordless wail makes for such an alarming scene, that she opts just to retreat.

Underdogs, Constantin Lupei and Adrien Bennett decide they’ll start off the hour strong, and team up to ambush the next pair of people they see… which turn out to be Mei Zhu and Alex. This backfires dramatically, and Costin and Ajay are among the first half dozen players eliminated. Angel Thorne follows suit when he decides to simply walk off the gaming grounds. He is immediately disqualified.

“All for One…” - Hour 2

Hour two is the time to start forming alliances. Lake Valentine is travelling with Lissy McCall and Annie Perrault, but he dooms them all when he accidentally sets off an InertiaShell. They are all caught in the red vapour and slowed to a crawl. Annie passes out from the effects of the grenade and her usual exhaustion and while trying to wake her, Lissy and Lake become very easy targets when they get attacked by Caelan Whitmer and Arvo Covey. Annie, Lissy and Lake are all eliminated.

Roy Walters hasn’t come across anyone he trusts to team up with, so resolves to lay low. He manages to steal a Sponsor Kit from Mitch Douglas when the elite isn’t looking, and then camouflages himself into some bushes. Meanwhile, Petra Starr convinces a handgun wielding Teilo Aisling not to shoot her, only to shoot him with his own weapon as soon as he agrees to the alliance. Orson Hurst, Maisie Pace, Mason Quinley and Mira Sigar come together to form an only slightly more promising lineup.

Rosalind is fashioning an illegal slingshot up in a tree when she spots wifey Josephine Parker and quickly pairs up with her. As for Charlie and JR, despite their slightly disappointing start, they’ve stuck together and take out Emmanuel Trent as their first victim.

“Acclimating” - Hour 3

Bode Lindqvist has kept to himself but has proven resourceful. He is well armed and has already found a couple of Sponsor Kits. When Koda Payne and Clayton Boyd attack him with ranged weapons, he manages to evade them and escape unscathed. Orson is much less lucky, when he is briefly separated from his group and finds a stash of grenades that apparently Dylan Meir had also had her eye on. Orson grabs a couple tilt grenades, but his nerve-damaged hands spasm, and he drops one, setting it off. With Orson briefly incapacitated by the blue vapour, Dylan has plenty of time to shoot him with an arrow, grab the rest of the grenades, and take off. Nearby, another woman is kicking some nerd-boy ass; Charlotte Williams effortlessly picks off Kip, acquiring his Sponsor Kits.

Koda and Clay try again to make an impact: they sneak up on JR and Charlie in the woods, only this time, they’ve thought it through and have set up traps in the area. They even manage to take out JR with a well-aimed arrow. Charlie then chases both Koda and Clay, firing his handgun as he goes. He eliminates Koda with a stim in the back, then lets off a wayward shot just as he bulldozes into one of the traps and falls to the ground. The weapon skids across the forest floor, but the last shot has caught Clay in the shoulder. Fortunately, the Delma has a Sponsor kit, which he uses to survive. He doesn’t have to go it on his own too long, however, as he runs into Corbin Ealy, who’s trying to evade a prowling Kaiser Bahr. They hide together (because fuck that noise), then decide to team up.

Left alone after Kip’s elimination, Arvo stumbles across Enoch Lynch, while he is caught in hand to hand combat with Paxton Semenyuk, and steps in to help. She and Enoch form a new alliance (which we’d like to coin ‘NET’: Newbie Elite Transfers). Alois Van Asch, on the other hand, is a bit slow on the uptake, and has been wandering the grounds somewhat aimlessly, enjoying the (mostly) quiet of the woods. At one point he is spotted just gazing at the sky.

“Imprudent Behaviour” - Hour 4

Fate, never a kind mistress, soon interferes with Bode’s chances. While he is distracted by an unfortunate issue with his hearing aids, Jo and Rosalind steal the weapons he’d set down and make a break for it. As they run, however, they encounter Dante Carrington; true to form, the Good Doctor puts rules first and disqualifies Rosalind for the illegal slingshot in her grasp. This is witnessed by Corbin and Clay, who were drawn in by the kerfuffle. Corbin reckons it would be hilarious to orchestrate an ambush against Colony 22’s biggest Tight Ass, and with Bode still nearby, it’d be like ‘taking biscuits from a baby’. Fortunately, it doesn’t take much convincing, and the three of them take Dante out without any issue.

Meanwhile, Draco climbs high up into the branches of a tree, seeking a moment to formulate a plan. Aurelia Ferris chooses this particularly inopportune time to walk by, and she doesn’t even see who shot her. Diederick D’Mornay, the perpetual gentleman, spots Anaya Dolman with a Sponsor Kit and doesn’t have any trouble liberating it from her. Emboldened by his success, he gives chase to a couple of other totally threatening Calysets: Mira and Maisie. In his hasty pursuit, he loses his footing and face-plants on the forest floor.

Unlike Ricky, Petra Starr has a little moral fortitude. Alois has grown excruciatingly bored of the Games and asks Petra, (who has now paired up with housemate, Dylan) to just shoot him so he can go the fuck back inside and sleep; obviously this wouldn’t be the same as earning an elimination and would basically be cheating, so Petra declines.

After his temporary alliance with Clay and Corbin, Bode decides to roam alone again, which backfires when Madison Vega eliminates him quickly with a sniper. Persephone Evans and her bleeding heart take a moment to tend to a small injury Cambie Andrews has sustained, but they have to run when they spot Clove Modius and Benji Imes approaching.

“Homestretch” - Hour 5

It’s the final countdown and about halfway through the fifth hour, we’re left with eight tiring finalists. Of these eight, seven of them are in two different alliances. The first such alliance is made up of Torren ladies, Ada Woollacott, Petra Starr, Dylan Meir and Charlotte Williams. The second is a group of egomaniac loudmouths: Corbin Ealy, Draco Pavlović and Diederick D’Mornay. Madison Vega is the eighth finalist, currently remaining a one-woman operation.

Catching a glimpse of Charlotte through the trees, Draco splits off from his group to chase after her, ignoring the protests from his allies. He proves himself rather too big for his boots when he catches up with Charlotte to find her not alone at all, and the team of girls take him out, Charlotte’s Angels style. Nearby and hearing the shouts, Maddie is so caught up watching her back that she steps right into a snare set hours before by Roy. With no one to come to her rescue, it’s endgame for her, too.

But time is running out, so the Charlie’s Angels gang decide to pair off to cover more ground. Petra finds Ricky vulnerable while he does a damage check from his earlier painful fall, and gets him in the back with a stim, while Charlotte manages to catch Corbin similarly unaware. Just like that, the prideful Delmas are out of the running. But while Charlotte and Petra were away steamrolling the Delma boys, Ada had immediately turned traitor, submitting Dylan with a pair of chameleons around her neck.

So naturally, when what’s left of Ada’s allies return, Ada is on the offensive. There can only be two winners, and Ada wants to make sure she’s one of them. Unfortunately for her, feral strength won’t be enough this time; she launches herself at Petra and Charlotte but is overpowered by their exceptional teamwork and clear heads. Moments later, the victory horn sounds: Charlotte and Petra have officially become an unlikely pair of winners. Between Charlotte’s congenital heart defect and Petra’s only recently recovered ankle injury, it is a victory hard-earned and well-deserved.

WINNERS CHARLOTTE WILLIAMS & PETRA STARR

FINAL STANDINGS Torren: 525 pts | Brink: 275 pts | Delma: 250 pts | Calyset:250 pts

POINTS AWARDED 725 pts to TORREN HOUSE

ELIMINATION TALLY*

*Please note that though we included a small handful of NPCs in the games generator, we did not include them all, so there would obviously be plenty of other participants whose eliminations are not established in this list. It can be assumed that many of these would have fallen in the first hour or two, though of course not all. If you need any NPCs for any further plotting or head canons for the games, you may reference any listed open characters/NPCs from the dorms list who fit your idea, or you may use a nameless NPC. If you are unsure, do not be afraid to reach out!

In no particular order:

Hour 1: Constantin Lupei, Adrien Bennett, Siddhartha Jha, Angel Thorne

Hour 2: Annie Perrault, Lissy McCall, Lake Valentine, Teilo Aisling, Emmanuel Trent

Hour 3: Mitch Douglas, Orson Hurst, Caelan Whitmer, Roy Walters, JR, Koda Payne, Felix Turner, Paxton Semenyuk, Andreya Roche, Xavier Crane

Hour 4: Kaiser Bahr, Rosalind Stein, Dante Carrington, Enoch Lynch, Aurelia Ferris, Mason Quinley, Anaya Dolmen, Maisie Pace, Charlie Essex, Bode Lindqvist, Arvo Covery, Alois Van Asch, Mira Sigar, Alexander Donovan, Mei Zhu Fitrei

Hour 5: Josephine Parker, Cambie Andrews, Clayton Boyd, Benji Imes, Clove Modius, Persephone Evans, Draco Pavlović, Madison Vega, Diederick D’Mornay, Corbin Ealy, Dylan Meir, Ada Woollacott

THANK YOU TO ALL OUR MEMBERS AND TO THE PARTICIPANTS OF THE COL22GAMES, MARCH, 2163!

The timeline has now moved forward to the 4th week of March. If you need more information on the these non-liveplay games and how to move forward with plotting, check out this post.

#col22games #nlpgames #double trouble #post apocalypse rp #literate rp

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Critters: The Making of a Comedy Horror Cult Classic

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Rupert Harvey knew he was on to something with Critters after one memorable test screening. Specifically, it was the scene where the Critters, who had already been terrorizing the Brown family, were standing on the doorstep of the family’s home talking in their guttural language with subtitles translating for the audience…until one of them is blown to gooey bits by a shotgun blast (wielded by none other than E.T. mom Dee Wallace), and the other lets out a subtitled “Fuck.”

“It totally destroyed the audience,” Harvey recalls. “They just howled. We lost the next scene because they were laughing so hard and I thought: ‘Okay, this is probably going to work.’”

It had already taken a lot of work for Critters to get this far.

Bringing Critters to Life

Released on April 11, 1986, the horror comedy about a small town and farm-dwelling family under attack from little furry space aliens with a taste for human flesh was unfairly dismissed by some as a Gremlins knock-off.

But that did a disservice to the unique tone of Critters; a sci-fi comedy featuring belly laughs alongside genuine moments of terror. A film that owed as much to 1950s sci-fi B-movies as it did anything else, with its tale of picturesque Americana under attack from aliens.

It also overlooks the film’s quirkier narrative aspect like the pair of shapeshifting alien bounty hunters who arrive on Earth to hunt the Critters down, with one of them assuming the form of a popular Jon Bon Jovi-esque rock musician.

This surreal sci-fi tone, coupled with the copious violence, occasional bad language, and general unpredictability of it all helped give Critters the feel of a rebellious younger brother to the more mature Gremlins.

To many, it was the cooler, edgier movie and one that boasted underlying themes that remain universal to this day.

More importantly, the accusation of imitation was incorrect. If the two films were related, it wasn’t by design with screenwriter Brian Dominic Muir first writing the script for Critters back in 1982, two years before Joe Dante’s film hit cinemas.

“I don’t think I saw Gremlins until we were in post-production,” Harvey, who produced Critters and worked on two of its three original sequels, tells Den of Geek. “It was certainly not something we were thinking about very much at the time, if at all.

We were dealing with very different creatures and the fact that they were so different in concept meant I wasn’t terribly bothered by it. Gremlins were these mythical, earthbound, magical beings whereas Critters were extraterrestrial. People who say there are similarities are just influenced by the fact Gremlins was such a huge success, but it was a much bigger budget movie.”

Muir’s script didn’t see the light of day for nearly three years before he showed it to friend and fellow budding filmmaker Stephen Herek who developed it further. That was where Harvey came in.

The three men met while working on Android, a distinctive low budget sci-fi film Harvey was producing alongside independent movie trailblazer Roger Corman.

“Brian gave me Critters to read and l loved it,” Harvey recalls. “It was an archetypal American story about foreigners invading the homeland. It’s quite prescient given the current state of politics in America. There was this quintessentially American setup with this almost pioneering family struggling through adversity to come out the other side.”

35 years on, that notion of protecting the homeland is one Harvey feels is reflected in the inward-looking politics increasingly prominent in America and the UK today. That sentiment was already bubbling under the surface when Critters came out in the Reagan-era of the 1980s.

“It was novel to look at that then through the lens of Critters,” he says. “No one was seeing the film in those terms but that human fear of outsiders coming in has always been there and has been a fundamental part of cinema and drama since forever.”

Harvey agreed to develop the film under his production company, Sho Films. Though he mulled over an offer to produce a low budget version of Critters with Corman, everything changed when Bob Shaye and New Line Cinema came calling.

Writing Critters

“New Line was really a mom-and-pop operation at that point. They hadn’t made A Nightmare on Elm Street yet. They weren’t the New Line of today, but Bob offered to double our budget, so I did the deal.”

Even so, Shaye took some convincing on the choice of director.

Herek would go on to helm Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, and a string of big budget Disney movies in the years that followed but had never directed prior to Critters, having previously worked as an editor.

“Stephen, to his credit, even though he had no leverage other than a script we wanted to make, absolutely insisted that nobody would direct it but him and if he didn’t it wouldn’t get made,” Harvey says. “He stuck to his guns and there was never any shift in that position on Brian’s side. I had to convince Bob on several occasions to go ahead with us and, even during production, to actually stick with Steve. But we were all very glad that he did.”

On the writing side, Harvey enlisted Sho Films’ in-house writer Don Opper. A fellow Roger Corman acolyte, Opper had written and starred in Android where he also worked with Herek and Muir.

He was seen as the ideal candidate to work alongside Herek after Muir became unwell.

“Brian, unfortunately, became quite ill not long after we started making Critters,” Harvey says.

Muir was reportedly battling Hodgkin’s disease at the time. Though he recovered, the writer, who often wrote under the pseudonym August White for Full Moon Entertainment later in his career, sadly died from cancer aged 48 in 2010.

“He was a very sweet, nice man,” Harvey recalls. “In Brian’s absence, Don worked with Stephen on polishing the script. One of the ways was to enhance the family and their relationships.”

By then the distinctive looking Opper had also been cast in the pivotal role of Charlie McFadden, the town drunk and a conspiracy theorist convinced the fillings in his teeth are picking up signals from outer space.

Like a cross between Randy Quaid’s deranged pilot from Independence Day and Billy Bob Thornton in Sling Blade, Charlie would eventually emerge as a fan favorite, appearing in each of the three Critters sequels.

He was one of several quirky locals introduced early on in Critters with much of the first third of the film dedicated to establishing the Brown family, their farm, and the characters of the fictional Kansas town of Grover’s Bend where the Critters land.

In one picture postcard scene of the perfect nuclear family, the Browns gather round the breakfast table in a primary colored kitchen, blissfully unaware of the approaching danger and disruption to follow.

That slow build-up may be less commonplace today, but it’s something Harvey believes was crucial to the success of the film.

“That was one of the things that appealed to me about the script,” he says. “If you set that up properly and the audience is in there with you. They gain an understanding of the family dynamic right away and they are engaged. It helps you then feel for each one of them subsequently…The rules are the same, and they have been since the first Greek dramas; storytelling is still about humans and the human condition. Just making stuff about what the monsters are doing has no appeal.”

Critters came during a time when horror comedies were commonplace in multiplexes.

“Studios started to notice in test screenings that the audience response was often bigger when you capped a scare or moment of high tension with a bit of wit or humor,” Harvey explains.

Post-screening surveys bore this out; using humor to emphasize or punctuate a terrifying moment drew a bigger response from the audience. Regardless of the visceral impact of the scare itself. It made it more memorable to viewers.

The Cast of Critters

It helped that Critters boasted an impressive cast to bring the script to life.

Blade Runner’s M. Emmet Walsh appeared as the grouchy local sheriff while Dee Wallace, who had starred in E.T. only a few years earlier, was also convinced to sign on as the Brown family matriarch Helen. Billy “Green” Bush was cast as the hardworking man of the house Jay Brown with Nadine van der Velde as his high school teen daughter April.

Despite some impressive names, Harvey ranks the casting of future Party of Five and ER star Scott Grimes in the role of mischievous central teenage protagonist Brad Brown as the most significant. It’s Scott who first discovers the Critters and Scott that begins to fight back against them using his slingshot and potent firecrackers coming off like a hellish Kevin McCallister from Home Alone.

“Scott was tailor-made for the role,” Harvey says. “He was at the center of the craziness and he had the audience’s sympathy and support because no one was paying attention to him.”

For all the acting talent on display, however, much of the movie’s success rested on the tiny shoulders of a few hedgehog-like puppets.

“The biggest challenge was making the Critters appear to be a viable threat as the antagonists,” Harvey says. “We were really fortunate that we found the Chiodo Brothers.”

A trio of siblings who specialized in stop motion and animatronic work, the Chiodos were relative newcomers to the movie business and would go on to projects like Elf and Team America: World Police.

“We knew from the script we were dealing with a fur ball that got around fast by rolling around and was all teeth and voracious,” Harvey says. “That was the extent of the design parameters. They came up with the drawings and the details as to how they would work.”

Harvey cites the Critters’ distinctive, almost limbless design as both a blessing and a curse.

“From a construction and manipulation point of view, they were relatively straightforward,” he says. “But from an action perspective, there was not a lot you could do with them.”

While other projects, like New Line’s later Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies, would struggle with glitchy animatronics, there were no such problems with the Chiodos’ creations with each running impressively well thanks to a crack team behind the scenes.

“Even though the Critters were fairly simple creatures, there were times for some of those shots, when we had 10 guys running different cables and things to them to get them right,” Harvey recalls. “They had eye movement, mouth movement, lip movement even their little arms and legs move because these things needed to look as believable as possible. But it was still tough to make these things that rolled around something scary and frightening rather than cute and laughable.”

That was where Billy Zane came in. A good horror villain needs a good victim. Cast in the role of April’s unsuspecting boyfriend Steve Eliot, the then unknown Zane ended up falling afoul of the Critters in arguably the film’s standout gory death after encountering the furry fiends while enjoying a makeout session in the family’s barn.

“It was the first thing he’d ever done. I think he’d arrived in L.A. a week before,” Harvey says, recalling how uncomfortably hot that barn scene was for everyone involved. “It was 100 degrees in the barn. He had little furry creatures stuck to his stomach and was covered in fake blood. It was so hot and sticky. We stayed there for the whole day, getting all the inserts and various other bits and pieces to make the scene…But that setup in the claustrophobic space of the barn helped to make the scene much scarier because we could set it up in a kind of way that made the punchline, the payoff, much more visceral.”

The Bounty Hunters

For all the machinations of the Critters themselves, it’s their pursuers from outer space, the two faceless bounty hunters, who almost steal the show.

Especially after one decides to take the form of fictional hair metal superstar Johnny Steele, the singer of “Power of the Night” a song so pitch-perfectly cheesy, you had to wonder if Steele is a real artist rather than musical theater actor Terrence Mann.

“I went to see Terrence who was appearing in Cats on Broadway. He’d been suggested by a friend and was seriously interested in doing the film,” Harvey says. “We had a friend in New York who was in the music business and had a recording studio. He put together some tracks and we created this imaginary band that he stole the identity of the lead singer from.”

Despite some striking similarities to artists of the time, Harvey insists Johnny Steele wasn’t set up as a deliberate lampooning of any one artist.

“The band was generically inspired by particular bands of the time,” he says. “There wasn’t any one group or individual. We were post punk and before real heavy metal. There was more of a glam goth influence.”

Teaming up with Charlie and Brad, the bounty hunters eventually destroy the Critters though it comes at a cost to the Browns, with the family home blown-up in the process. It was a powerful symbol of the way these invaders had shattered their lives but not their spirit. Unfortunately, New Line Cinema didn’t like it as an ending.

“Bob wanted it changed so that the house was rebuilt in the end but I was against it so we had a few arguments about that, but it was Bob’s money, and we did it and it came out very successfully.”

Shaye and New Line would occasionally prove tricky customers, with Harvey often forced to traverse the familiar pitfalls of independent filmmaking.

“We were in production and things were really tough and there was one point in time when Bob and I sat down in the trailer and he explained to me some things that I won’t go into,” Harvey says. “Things were very tricky for a week or two financially, but they sorted themselves out. That was a typical attribute of an independent movie. ‘Oh God you’re spending $150,000 dollars a day, can you spend $100,000?’. Not unheard of but no fun at the time.”

For all the trials and tribulations of the film, cast, and Critters themselves, however, he has fond memories of working on the film.

“We weren’t stuck in Los Angeles in some smoke-filled space,” he said. “The set was built on Newhall Ranch, this huge bucolic area of land outside of L.A and there we were for five weeks shooting in relatively hot temperatures.”

Critters Sequels and What’s Next

After a quick turnaround in editing, Critters was released in cinemas, proving to be a hit with over $13 million made at the box office off a budget of $3 million. This kind of success made sequels inevitable.

Though Harvey was unavailable for the second film, he returned for the third and fourth movies, which were filmed back-to-back and released direct to video.

“By then video cassettes were a huge component to New Line’s early success and helped finance the Nightmare on Elm Street and Critters sequels and all of the other movies that they then started making in order to become the powerhouse they became,” Harvey says. “I think it funded something like 40 to 40 to 50 percent of New Line production for that period of time.”

Harvey was initially hesitant to get involved, citing Shaye’s wishes to make the sequels for even less money than the first film. However, he ultimately relented after agreeing to film them back-to-back.

Harvey has mixed feelings about the two sequels, particularly the third movie, which he had conceived as being “much darker and much more violent” than what eventually made it to the screen.

“I wanted to do a George Romero homage for the third film,” he says. “I was very much interested in the claustrophobia of the tenement building in New York City, that kind of atmosphere. Boy, did it ever turn out differently.”

Having also agreed to direct the fourth film, which was set in space and wrap up the franchise, he found himself too busy to oversee work on the third movie.

“It was different. I didn’t have as much to do with Critters 3 because I was directing the fourth film. We were shooting back to back. We had a week down in between the two. All the time we were shooting Critters 3 I was prepping Critters 4.”

While the fourth film featured both a young Angela Bassett and Brad Dourif on top scene-chewing form, the third entry has become among the most noted in the years since thanks to the presence of a young Leonardo DiCaprio in the main role.

“It’s the movie that shall remain nameless on Leo DiCaprio’s resume,” Harvey jokes.

He doesn’t have a lot of memories about DiCaprio on set though there was already a sense he was destined for big things.

“One day he told me he needed some time off. He had to go and audition for this movie. After he came back I asked ‘How did it go?’ and he said ‘Robert De Niro is really great’. he’d been off auditioning for This Boy’s Life…And of course, when he did that movie, it was like, ‘Holy shit. Well, where was that actor when we were making Critters 3?’”

While Leo is unlikely to return to the Critters franchise anytime soon, Harvey, who had no involvement in a recent TV revival, believes that there is life in the old furballs yet.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

“It’s not a franchise that’s going to go away,” he says cryptically. “Whatever comes next needs to be something that is responsive to contemporary sources. I can’t really say too much about it, because nothing is final. All I can tell you is that I don’t think this is the end.”

The post Critters: The Making of a Comedy Horror Cult Classic appeared first on Den of Geek.

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skvaderarts · 4 years ago

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Hiraeth Chapter 22: Proposition

Masterlist can be found Here!

Chapter Twenty-Two: Proposition

Note: This entire chapter feels like a shitpost, and I love it. Also, dear god have I been busy working on things for a physical release of the fic! You’ll hear more about that next week on Wednesday, but if you are interested in beta reading, I have left a form below. Doing it myself is tricky, and there is a free copy in it for you bound in your choice of type (hardback, paperback, hardback with a paper cover, etc) and you will receive credit because I’m not a monster XD.

I think I want to do it as a charity thing, so suggest charities the proceeds should be donated to in the form below even if you’re not interested in being a beta reader! The size of the charity is irrelevant. They just have to be credible (IE not a nightmare like Autism Speaks or the Salvation Army, or PETA, not to get judgy or upset anyone. They just have a very bad rep.) Anyway, enough of that! Back to the story!

(-~-)

By all accounts, the initial plan had been simple enough. They were going to eat dinner and then see where the evening took them. The only issue was that not a single one of them had really thought the plan through. That was typical enough, all things considered, but none of them really considered the fact that accomplishing that goal might be a little bit harder than they had originally expected it to be. Namely because of one major problem.

While Sirrus’s intentions had been pure enough when he had offered to cook, and V’s had been equally so when he had agreed to allow him to do so, the execution of those plans had left much to be desired. Making plans without knowing the full extent of their impact seemed to be something that ran in the Sparda family, regardless of the context of the plan, and while this was a minor occurrence in a sea of what had otherwise been huge high stakes situations, that didn’t change the fact that it was literally impossible to cook without food. And if it wasn’t, no one present wanted to know how that was done.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems that you might be a little short on… everything at the moment.” Sirrus said as politely as he could, clearly amused by the utter emptiness that he was presented with when he opened the cabinet door. “Am I getting my hopes up by assuming that you have something in the refrigerator, or are we just going to have to make a run to the store? I mean, we’re probably going to have to for what I had in mind, but still.”

V felt himself die a little inside at his companion’s polite yet ruthless assessment of his current living situation. Sirrus was entirely correct, it was too much to hope for. He hadn’t really been home much recently, if at all since he had acquired the place, and as such, grocery shopping had been very low on his list of priorities. It had been easier to just grab something and call it a day in the two days that he had actually been in the house so far. He only wished that he had thought of that before he’d offered to allow Sirrus to cook! He could have saved himself a lot of unneeded embarrassment.

Was this what it felt like to be Dante? Because if it was, that was a tragedy. The only upside to his current situation was that Lucia, Nico, and Nero were in the next room talking, so they were not able to experience his deep loathing and shame first hand, not to mention the verbal beatdown that he had just suffered at Sirrus’s hands. Or should he say vocal cords? Either way, the point still stood that he did indeed need to procure food because the only thing available to consume in the house was peeling wallpaper, dried-out paint, and dust. And knowing V’s luck, Shadow had probably already consumed those already when he wasn’t looking. That was absolutely something she would do.

“I would say the latter is the most true, given the options at hand. That is not to say that the second option is not correct, as it absolutely is… but that’s not the type of narrative I’d like to weave at this juncture.” V “But the thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest, so it is probably best that I simply accompany you to the store so I can see to it that my cabinets are not as bare as Dante’s office is dark.”

Sirrus nodded as he closed a stary cabinet door, turning to fully face the slightly frazzled young man. “That seems agreeable enough. Hopefully my matter of fact, no-nonsense way of stating the obvious wasn’t as abrasive as it seems now that I am able to look back on it. Hindsight is 2020, as they say.” He straightened out his long shirt, adjusting his shoulders as he allowed his head to pull from side to side. He was slightly uncomfortable as, for the first time, he stepped close enough to V to notice that they were largely the same size and stature. What an eye-opening realization. “I’m sarcastic, some would even sardonic, but I like to think I’m not unfeeling. I’ve yet to lose my grip on the reality of the world around me and start to view the rest of the world with a sort of cold dissonance like so many around me have. What do people call that now? Being edgy? Somehow I am under the impression that that might not be the proper use of that term.”

V brushed him off, taking a step to the side instead of taking a step back. He wasn’t intimidated by the tall redhead despite the fact that he was sure that he probably had ample reason to be. There was a certain mysterious quality to him that was carefully outlined with a certain measure of involuntary menace that he couldn’t quite place, and his prior comments didn’t help in that regard. There was just something… feral about him, some sort of wild strength that he knew that his guest could reach into if he wished to do so and bring to bear against those he considered deserving of it. It was something that he could just feel in the pit of his stomach, a sort of primordial sense of strength and power that reminded him of his own family, but it was notably different in a way that was hard to describe. Was it darker somehow? Was that the right way to put it?

But that wondering was enough to keep him grounded in a situation like this. He seemed trustworthy, but he would still keep his guard up until he was absolutely sure, even if he wasn’t actively trying to do so. It was simply instinct, and going with his gut had kept him alive this long, so he was going to continue doing so. If it wasn’t broken, then he wasn’t going to fix it. “Think nothing of it. I take no offense to you stating the obvious. I don’t think that there has been food in this house in at least a decade.”

“Probably longer than that, if I remember correctly. This place has been empty for about fifteen years. After the will was read, Magnolia’s side of the family cleaned the place out as quickly as they could before they went their separate ways. Quite a lot of bad blood between them, from what I could tell. It was a shame how that all played out, but grief brings out the worst in people, especially when the root cause of that grief is so… unexpected.” The man with the long red hair peered out of the back door for a moment as though he were expecting something or perhaps had heard a commotion of some sort. He seemed to study the bushes against the back wall for a long moment before continuing. “As per your request… that is more than fine by me. I won’t, then. I shall pretend that we never mentioned the food in the first place.”

“You say that as though you were personally there to see it. You seem too young to have witnessed something of that nature, but you have first-hand knowledge of it from a viewpoint that would suggest that you were a neutral party witnessing it from within the inner circle of what was going on.” V was admittedly curious as to how Sirrus would explain something like that in a way that made sense. Or would it make sense at all? Who was to say. He would simply have to wait and find out. “I had assumed that we were quite close in age. But then again, everyone knows what they say about assuming things. I should have known better than to think that I know everything about someone that I barely know. My mistake.”

“Looks can be deceiving, as I’m sure you know first hand. Your family is quite literally living proof of that concept. I assure you however that I was present. I just seem younger than…” He stopped, catching himself as though he were about to say something that he didn’t mean to, waiving off both his near mistake and V’s apology casually. V was clever, something that he had pegged about him from the very first moment that they had made eye contact. It was something intrinsic in the way that he held himself, and every time that he had opened his mouth since then had only served to strengthen that notion. But now his keen intellect was becoming troublesome, not that it changed anything in the end either way. ”That quote from before about the harvest… William Blake, if I remember correctly? I’m quite fond of his works, especially the illustrations. Quite the brilliant man.” He stopped for a moment, seemingly considering something before looking over at the doorway. He then nodded quietly to himself before redirecting his attention towards V once more, finding his companion’s silence interesting. He seemed to be waiting for him to continue. “Personally, Mary Shelly is my all-time favorite. Frankenstein and all that. I have a more contemporary favorite as of late, but telling you that might say more about me than I mean for it to, so I’ll keep it to myself for now.

Now V had more questions than answers. Sirrus was a walking mystery, and the more that he spoke, the more V questioned his own perception and his impression of him changed. It was as fascinating as it was confounding, but he couldn’t say that he disliked it. There was just something captivating about not being able to read him, regardless of how hard he tried. A part of him wondered if anyone else in his family had this issue. He would ask them when presented with the chance to do so. Well then, back to what we were discussing before.”

“We were discussing something before? I can’t say that I remember anything. But I do recall you saying to “think nothing of it.” The playfully smug, all-knowing tone of voice that he spoke in was enough to make V shake his head and roll his eyes, but he resisted. It was a welcome juxtaposition to the conversation that they had just indulged in, and they were both somehow simultaneously relieved that they didn’t have to indulge in it any longer.

He couldn’t help but snicker somewhat at that response. Sirrus was endearingly hatstand, wasn’t he? Despite the unintentionally tense conversation that they had just indulged in, the white-haired summoner couldn’t help but be amused. It was complicated, and yet so very simple. “Let’s go to the store, Sirrus. I’ll tell the others that we will return shortly. You may accompany me if you’d like.”

Sirrus nodded politely, using both hands to signal to him that he was to walk first as he bowed lower than what was needed and stepped back out of his companion’s way. V scoffed in amusement but went along with his slightly antiquated gesture, admittedly entertained by it. Yes, this had to be what other people felt like when they met him for the first time. He understood why they looked at him like that now. Slowly but surely, it was all coming together.

(-~-)

From what they could tell, the store was mostly empty. It was nearly 9 o’clock at night, and it seemed that everyone who wanted to buy groceries had done so by then. While it was understandable that most people in the city wouldn’t want to start cooking this late, it was still a little bit surreal to see just how few people were willing to make a midnight dash to the supermarket to stock up on general goods and necessities. One could only imagine that recent events in the region had made people more than a little bit jumpy, but this was an entirely new level of silent unrest that made an already somewhat eerie environment that much more uncomfortable.

As the absentmindedly browsed the shelves in relative silence, V shifted in discomfort. He couldn’t shake the persistent feeling that something simply wasn’t right, and that he should go with his gut and leave this place before something happened. Although it was basically impossible to predict something like that, V was convinced that the persistent feeling of unrecognizable dread that he felt brewing in the very pit of his stomach was something more substantial than he was allowing himself to believe. And under the guise of trying not to seem silently panicked, he couldn’t help but feel a nameless terror overtake him. This feeling that he felt was familiar in the worst way possible. It reminded him of the train ride back in Lucia’s homeland, the strange subconscious sensation that he was no longer in the driver’s seat in regards to his own cognitive feedback. And the idea that his enemy might be trying to do something, anything at all, was not good. He needed to do something fast.

“I apologize if my being around you alone is subconsciously offputting. I get the impression that you are disturbed, and you probably aren’t sure what that is just yet. Let me assure you that it is in fact, me, and that I am not doing so intentionally.” Sirrus casually reached up and took a can down from a shelf, turning it over in his hands absentmindedly as he studied it to see if it was something that he could use. “But the disturbance that you feel is most certainly tangible. I recognized your specific gifts and aptitudes a while back. You have a heightened sensitivity to certain things. Very useful if utilized correctly.”

He paused for a moment to look at V, seemingly waiting for him to respond in some way. As he realized that his companion wasn’t speaking, he sighed with bated breath, looking slowly from side to side as he checked to make sure that no one was around them. Not that he needed his eyes to do that. It was more for V’s benefit than his own, in any case. “To someone with a trained eye, abilities like that stick out like a sore thumb, especially when the person in possession of them doesn’t yet know how to control them. But that is not to say that you don’t have amazing potential if only someone were to educate you as to how to do deliberately what already comes to you so naturally.”

“Gifts? What are you…” V paused as he considered what he wanted to say next. Sirrus could see something about him that the rest of the people he knew couldn’t? That was alarming to him for reasons that he couldn’t quite place at the moment. Was he that obvious? What else had he been doing that he just hadn’t noticed was a dead giveaway in regards to his true nature? Could anyone else tell, or was that something specific to Sirrus?

“Your grandfather is the Dark Knight Sparda, yes? I couldn’t help but notice your surname. He was a good man. And he was very powerful. I see things in both you and your brother that I do not see in your older relatives.” He seemed to be speaking carefully as he headed to the center aisle in his search for… whatever it was that he was looking for to cook dinner with. He seemed to notice V’s quiet, well-concealed panic, but the atmosphere had changed notably in the air around them. There was a certain latent hostility to V’s demeanor that hadn’t been there before, and for the first time since he’d arrived in town to carry out his mission, he felt genuinely threatened by someone. While he had indeed encountered resistance, nothing so far had felt so pure, so dynamic in its ability to utterly destroy him, and he got the impression that neither V nor himself truly knew what the young man with the white hair was capable of at that moment. And as exhilarating as that might be under most circumstances, this was far from the case at this moment in time.

It was time to start explaining himself.

“... Sometimes things skip a generation, carried in latent genes by your forebears. This may be one of those cases. That’s what makes me as powerful as I am in some regards. And it is why we have what I like to call Dry Generations; instances in which nothing particularly interesting happens.” The hostility level didn’t decrease much, and Sirrus took a mental note of that, preparing himself should the worst happen. And he hoped with every fiber of his being that it wouldn’t. Something told him that if he had to resort to that, Vergil wouldn’t appreciate him having to explain it after the fact, and the last thing he wanted to have to do was pry Yamato out of his own chest. Vergil had quite the throwing arm. And as fast as he was, he wasn’t sure he was quite that fast. “But when more interesting individuals are born, well, they are most certainly more… intriguing. You and Nero seem to fit that bill nicely.”

“Are you threatening me?” V asked point-blank, his posture slightly more straight than it had been a moment before. Perhaps without thinking it, V had shifted into a readied stance, unwilling to be taken off guard by any kind of sudden attack. Resorting to this kind of public display of power had to be against some code of ethics or something, but he wasn’t going to stand there and take something like that laying down if it came to it. He needed to make that clear, even if Magnolia probably wouldn’t appreciate him bringing Sirrus to her in the middle of the night filled with puncture wounds from Shadow and several broken bones from a trip off of a local roof, courtesy of Griffon. He just hoped that he wouldn’t need to do that. And although he was somewhat sure that he wouldn’t need to, that didn’t change the fact that he might still need to defend himself.

In a moment of self-awareness, Sirrus shook his head, stepping back slightly as he allowed his head to rest on the edge of the center bin that he stood next to. There was some kind of meat inside of it with a sale sign next to it, but that would only become relevant if they made it out of this encounter in one piece. What a fascinating reaction. I would have never thought that he was capable of actually being overtly aggressive considering his physical state and general disposition. He normally has such a mild mentality.” He thought to himself as he let his arms fall to his sides, wanting to demonstrate as clearly as possible that he was not trying to intimidate V or cause him any harm. One could only imagine what he had been through in his young life, and he wasn’t going to add to that pain and suffering if he could help it.

Maybe it was simply the demon side of him showing itself a little in that moment as a natural defense mechanism? He knew that they were not entirely human, after all, and he had no idea how much demonic blood ran through his veins. It mattered very little if he was being truthful with himself. His pedigree alone ensured that he was powerful, And that was something he could deeply sympathize with on an extremely personal level. He too carried his own darkness locked away deep within himself, even if it was a different form of it. He couldn’t judge him for the one time he slipped up. Hell, he’d give him a hug if he wasn’t so sure it would get him stabbed through the gut with V’s cane.

“Oh, perish the thought. Not even slightly. I wouldn’t dare. Though I do admit that it probably seems that way.” He watched V relax slightly, at least physically, sliding back into the comfortable leaning position that he was accustomed to associating with him. It made him wonder what the young summoner had been through that had made him this way, or if perhaps it was a one-off fluke reaction to this exact situation. Maybe he could ask him another time when he calmed all the way down. It seemed that he had at least a little bit of his father in him after all. “Quite the opposite though. I am extending an invitation. I would like to help you with that. Now, were you thinking fin or fang in regards to protein for this meal? It seems we have simpler choices to make this time around. But something tells me it won’t always be that way. Darkness looms on the horizon, and I have the feeling that something sinister might be readying itself just out of view.”

V gave him an apprehensive look, unsure as to what to really say to that. This entire conversation had certainly changed his outlook on a few things, to say nothing of how it had nearly taken a turn for the worst. He needed ample time to think things through. He was used to being the logical, level-headed one in situations like this. Something about that conversation had severely taken him out of his element, But at least a few of his questions had been answered, even if more now lingered in the back of his mind. And more importantly, there hadn’t been a public display of supernatural violence that could have destroyed both of them and the building along with them.

Sighing gently as if to physically rid himself of the toxic experience he had just suffered through, V looked at Sirrus, the both of them somehow knowing that the other regretted what had almost just happened even without saying it. It was best to leave things alone for now and just leave this store. Maybe the building itself was driving them both insane. “Fang.”

(-~-)

Gosh, writing this chapter makes me want to work on the story that I’ve been wanting to write for so long now. But not yet! I don’t pick projects up easily after I walk away from them, so for now, I will wait. There is still much to be done with this AU, but gosh writing Sirrus gets me in the mood for that. Let’s just say he doesn’t originate from this AU universe.

Here is the link to the form! It’s only 4 questions and should take about two minutes to answer. Thank you! You’re a big help to me. I want it to be clear that I’m not making anything from this fic, I just want to do something neat for charity and give you something cool in return.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1jD0AKYiX3EfLjt-M_Rk8CapJ0GdzVqB-9oDMhV3SG2A/edit?usp=sharing

Sorry for my rambling this week! I’m just excited, I guess! Also, a special thank you to the like 2 people on Tumblr that like my chapters every week. I like your energy =^~^=

#Hiraeth #V #Vitale #Devil May Cry AU #Sirrus #DMC #DMC5 #Post DMC5

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daemongal · 6 years ago

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Can I request a fic of Dante and his s/o kinda like you're Up and Away fic but maybe the s/O is curious and shyly asks Dante how it is to fly and he shows her? I just thought it would be cute

Of course! Lets just imagine this as the prequel to “Up and Away” I apologise if this isn’t quite as cute as you’d expected but I can’t help but write Dante this way :P

Turbulence

“I’ll meet you there babe, gonna get a head start and make sure it’s not looking too messy.” You winced as he summoned his sword into his hand and proceeded to impale himself through the stomach, something that you were sure you’d never get used to.

“Geez, surely there has to be a better way of doing that. It’s just nasty.” After an explosion of energy blasted hot air into your face, a hulking red demon stood where Dante once was, slightly hovering above the ground. Although unnerving and menacing in equal amounts, you couldn’t deny the sheer beauty of his new form. It radiated raw power from every inch of its body as its scales crackled with energy.

“See you in five.” The words were spoken from deep within his chest and raised the hairs on your arms as your body responded unconsciously in fear to the being before you. He didn’t scare you, but just being around him like this sent your senses, acute from years of demon hunting into overdrive. Your mind kept your body stilled, but every nerve in your body was telling you to flee. It had happened the same the first time he triggered into his normal form, but after a while you grew accustomed to the feeling of the potent demonic energy being right at your side. This however, would probably take a bit more getting used to.

You sighed as he ascended like lightening into the sky, shooting off the ground as if fired from a cannon, leaving crackling ground in his wake. You headed in his general direction on foot, the pace of a light jog in the hope that you would arrive before he had finished off the bulk of the fighting himself.

You muttered away to yourself, frustrated that you were so much slower than him and that the gap in your strength had grown even wider. The first time he had decided to fly to his destination rather than walk for a “change of scenery”, he had asked if you wanted to join him. You would be lying if you said you weren’t curious to know how it felt, the freedom of owning the skies, of looking down at everyone and everything from dizzying heights. To be cradled in his arms as you did so… you felt your face heat up at the thought. You brought your hands to your face as you shook your head.

“Stupid brain, stupid brain.” You slapped your hands to the side of your face in an attempt to knock the thoughts out of your mind. “Stupid Dante…” You dragged your feet, pouting your lips as you exhaled out of your nose in a huff. You had rejected his offer outright, playing it off as some kind of fear of heights, when really it was the thought of the closeness that terrified you… and excited you.

You quickened your pace again, snapping yourself from your thoughts as you cursed, you’d taken too long you just knew it. Low and behold, by the time you reached your destination Dante was finishing off the last of the stragglers. You stood an observed the sight unfolding; his huge figure waving his ridiculous sword, cleaving the grunt demon in two: Never stood a chance.

“Now that’s just complete overkill right there,” You shouted across the field, Dante’s form dropping to the ground as scales and spikes faded away.

“Yeah well, gotta let them know who’s boss, am I right?” You sighed. Another job, another fruitless effort and now you had to get back to the shop again. “Gotta admit though,” he started as he approached you, “I looked totally badass didn’t I?” He nudged you playfully with his elbow as you rolled your eyes.

“I mean, you were basically done by the time I got here. Leave some for me next time or I’m gonna start getting bored.” You turned to start walking back to the shop begrudgingly.

“Well that’s your fault for being too slow.”

“Oh pardon me oh mighty one, if you happen to remember correctly, I don’t have freaky demon wings. Bit hard to keep up with you when your shooting through the air.” Your voice was laced with sarcasm to cover the irritation that rattled through you.

“Oh but I do.” He responded with a smirk, looking all too pleased with himself. “The offer still stands you know. We could be back at the shop in ten seconds flat if you would allow me to be the pilot of your flight.” He bent his knee and leaned over into a mock bow, holding his hand out for you to take, winking at you in the process.

You scoffed, turning away in apparent annoyance to hide the blush creeping up your cheeks. You really couldn’t be bothered to walk back, but you couldn’t get the image of being bridal carried in his large demon arms out of your mind. You took a deep breath and turned back around to be met with his hulking form where Dante once stood, in the same pose you remember.

You couldn’t help but giggle at the sight; it looked ridiculous. Such strength and power bowing before you. Well, even at a bow he towered over you, his large hand still outstretched.

“Hmph, fine.” You pouted. “But only this once, and only because I’m equal parts curious and tired. Don’t think I’m making a habit out of this.”

His chest thrummed with a guttural chuckle. “Time to board then ma’am.” With a tut and a roll of your eyes you took his hand as he heaved you towards his body. His scales were cooler than you had anticipated having never touched them against your skin before. The air around him hummed, but not with heat as you had expected. They were hard and rough to the touch, but much less rock-like than you had thought they would be. Your cheeks began to heat at the contact, your mind reeling at what was to come. You were hoping he wouldn’t notice your face as you hid within his scales.

You gasped as his large hands scooped you from the ground to place you… over his shoulder? This wasn’t right, this wasn’t how you imagined it at all. A hand pressed against your back holding you in place as you started to shuffle uncomfortably.

“D-Dante, what are you-”

“And we are cleared for take-off!” Your stomach lept into your throat.

“Dante wai-” He launched you both into the air at incredible speed, the air in your lungs left at the ground below. You wanted to scream, to shout his name, to kick and scratch at him but your body was unable to move under the shock. Your eyes watered as the cool air battered your hair into your face. You gripped onto any spikes within reach for dear life until you stilled. Your knuckles were white, your throat raspy and your eyes sore as you blinked and gasped for air.

“Da-Dante you absolute piece of-” You stopped, stunned into silence as your vision focussed again. You were hovering about 1000 feet in the air over the city, the lights from the building lighting up the ground like stars in the sky. Dante adjusted his grip on you to move you into his arms, seemingly done with the fun and games, as you held onto one of his large horns for purchase.

“Wow… this- this is really something. I can see why you do this a lot.” You felt his chest vibrate with what could have been a hum or a purr as he held you close. “So, you’re an ass,” you poked him in the chest, near the large crack in his scaled, “buuuut I guess it was worth it.”

You both stayed there in silence for a few moments before Dante started grumbling.

“Ahh shit.”

“Dante, what’s wrong?” Your eyes widened in horror as the scaly arms holding you began to dissipate into human arms, along with his stomach, then his chest. “Dante? DANTE?!” Panic struck your whole body when you saw how wide his eyes were, as the demonic façade wore away.

“Shit, we stayed up here too long. I can only keep it up for a little bit!” As his wings on his back began to fade, your whole body lurched as you began to freefall, Dante’s arms wrapped tightly around you. You couldn’t tell if you were screaming, the air was whipping past you too fast, your lungs struggling to fill with the onslaught of sensations hitting you.

You wouldn’t survive this fall, you knew it. Dante would be fine in a few hours, maybe even minutes, but your weak human body would turn to nothing more than a red splat against the pavement at the impact. You gripped onto Dante for dear life as you closed your eyes tightly, awaiting your fate.

You felt his arms moving, shaking you slightly. No, he wasn’t shaking you, it was his body shaking. You opened your eyes for a split second, long enough to see the smile on Dante’s face, as laughter erupted from his chest. No, he hasn’t, he wouldn’t you thought.

“We apologise for the turbulence! We will be arriving at our destination shortly!” Before you could react, his body changed again, returning to the hulking form, wings sprouting from his back as he took to the air once more, continuing your original course. You had no words, no words and no reaction. You stayed still in his arms for the next few seconds before you reached solid ground once more.

You pushed yourself out of his arms immediately before toppling to the ground, your legs completely useless. From his shadow, you saw Dante had shifted back to his human form.

“And we have reached-”

“Don’t.” One word was all you could say, laced with malice, so much so Dante took a step back. You wobbled your way back to your feet, pleased that he didn’t outstretch an arm towards you as you would have had to fight the temptation to slice it clean off. “Don’t say a word. Not. One. Word.” There was nothing you could say or do to express how you currently felt, only silence seemed fitting as you hobbled your way into the shop.

Dante sheepishly followed, face expressionless at your pure show of rage. If it was possible for him to be scared of a human, he would have been. He held his tongue as long as physically possible.

“Babe-”

“Ah.” You held your hand up, silencing him, as you took a deep breath. “I am going to bed. I will not be coming out until I have regained enough of my self-control that I won’t stab you through the chest multiple times if I look at you. Goodnight and good-day.”

You started up the stairs as Dante stood in dumbfounded silence. “Oh, and I will never be flying with you again… EVER!” You slammed the door to your bedroom and collapsed on the bed.

Whether it was from the adrenaline or a result of you picturing Dante’s face in your head you’ll never know, but you began to laugh uncontrollably into your pillow. Your emotions began to calm and you bundled up under your quilt.

“He’s such a fucking ass.”

_____

Dante is a complete ass but i’d like to think he learnt a lesson from this. I’m sure you’ll forgive him after some mighty fine grovelling. Hope you enjoyed it!

#ask #dante #dante x reader #ficlet #sfw #dmc #dmc 5 #devil may cry #dante's an ass #but we love him anyway #hope you had fun reading this!

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thirstzone · 6 years ago

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On The Interpretation Of V

V is an interesting character to be sure, and certainly one that’s taken the hearts of many of us, I’m sure. I’m still trying to nail down how I want to portray him, so hopefully this helps organize my thoughts a bit more. As always, everyone is entitled to their own character interpretation and their own way of writing characters! This is just how I personally analyze things.

On to the topic of the mysterious one, V.

Where to begin with V... As I write him on this blog, he’s... sort of his own character? I leave it ambiguous whether or not he’s his own entity or if he retains his origins. I do this because most of the time, it’s not relevant to the writing at hand. This leaves it up to the reader, and everyone has different opinions on this. Everyone can see V as they wish, so long as they aren’t attacking others for having a different opinion. Personally, I’ve already crafted a completely alternate storyline for the purposes of my own fantasies. However, for this particular analysis, I’m writing strictly from canon. So let’s dive in.

Before I reflect on V’s personality, let’s trace back his beginnings and his emotions when he came into existence.

With the release of the Visions Of V manga, we’re getting some more information about V directly after being formed. It’s still being released on an every other week basis, so this is absolutely subject to change as we get more information from that.

I think to understand V’s situation, it’s important to understand where Vergil’s been in his life. Of course, that post will be coming soon, so for the short of it, Vergil’s been broken. He didn’t always start out so corrupted, but having been tortured to the point that he completely lost his identity must’ve seriously messed the guy up. Even before that, Vergil was trying to suppress his human side, but he still acknowledged it, sort of. But after all that broke him, well... we saw the state he was in. In the manga, he states that he needs to sever his human emotions because it was doing nothing but holding him back, plaguing him with nightmares.

And thus, V came to be.

V was just dregs. I’m honestly stunned there was enough of him left to even manifest alongside Griffon, Shadow, and Nightmare with how absolutely broken down Vergil had been. But there’s something the manga revealed: he was scared. He realized he was separate and he was scared of what “he” had become. We can even see it on his face in the game. He’s absolutely mortified when he sees Urizen. He realizes he’s helpless, and it terrifies him. And let’s not forget this panel.

Pardon the non-translated text, but the website I use to read the English translation isn’t connecting at the moment. What he’s saying is shinitakunai which translates to “I don’t want to die.” He knows almost immediately that being split off means that it’s a death sentence. Given what he’s saying, and the imagery of the darkness creeping in around him, it’s obvious that he’s at least mildly afraid of dying.

So let’s tie that in with the prequel novel Before The Nightmare. I won’t linger too long on this because I’m mainly analyzing his actions in relation to his emotions. He’s already mentally separated himself from Vergil, as evidenced in the manga when he says, “I guess ‘I’ had forgotten how scary it is to be helpless.” Or something to that effect. I attempted to use Google translate before the chapter was actually translated and I noticed that when he uses the pronoun “I” in that sentence, it’s in the equivalent of quotation marks. Just that shows he sees Vergil as someone different. And in the novel, he even says that his “past self” was “full of delusions.” Though it’s interesting to me that Griffon seems to treat V’s actions as surprising when he chooses to leave on Dante’s suggestion. It’s possible that Griffon sees V as Vergil, even though V himself doesn’t feel the same way.

Another action of V’s that Griffon is shocked by is his decision to stay in Redgrave City to try and help the humans there. Vergil would’ve never done something like that. He may not have actively tried to kill them, as Urizen was doing, but he wouldn’t have bothered saving them. So for V to actively want to do so is something out of character for his old self. And V volunteers to do this knowing that doing that would only accelerate his death.

So we know that at the beginning, V is, to some extent, selfless. He would wear down his already decaying body to save people, or at least attempt to.

Regardless of this, let’s not forget that V has a touch of ruthlessness to him. In Before the Nightmare, he obtains the money to hire Dante by basically mugging a man. He’s not above doing things like that if he really needs to. He’s not maliciously manipulative, but he knows how to pull strings to reach the outcome he desires. He even refers to how he gets Nero involved as “using” Nero, with that exact word. In the prologue of the manga, he states that he will use anything at his disposal. In the game, he tells Dante “I never would’ve dreamed of using that child.” He’s pulling strings by getting Nero involved. He didn’t outright lie to Dante, but he did leave out some pretty important facts. He told Dante his adversary was Vergil, which was partially correct. He knew the name would mean nothing to Nero, and so he named him Urizen when speaking to Nero. Why he would make this distinction, I’m not sure. It wouldn’t have impacted anything to tell Nero Urizen’s name was Vergil from the start.

In regards to Urizen and Vergil, I think another thing that I should discuss is his motive. Was V planning to re-merge with Urizen? Was he planning to defeat Urizen? In my personal interpretation, I think merging with Urizen again was not his initial intention. So what changed?

When he tells Trish the story of his birth, you can tell he’s sincere. He’s being genuine and open and vulnerable. He is truly regretful for the things that Vergil had done and wanted to set things right by taking down Urizen. He’s guilt-ridden, and it’s clear in his voice. I do think he told Trish his origins in particular because she looked like Eva. Vergil’s mother. The memories V was in possession of. When he tells her, she basically brushes him off and tells him that it’s his own problem. To hear that from someone who reminds you of your late mother must have hurt. To add insult to injury, my friend pointed something else out: that must’ve drove home the fact that no one cared about V. When he says he’s glad Lady’s okay, she responds “You too, I guess.” Now, I get it. This stranger you know nothing about is kind of shady. But to add the “I guess” on is sort of... well, it’s rude, in my opinion. Then again, I’m southern, and manners are a huge thing here. And when Trish also shows that she’s not personally involved with V, it must’ve made him realize that oh right. They don’t care about him. They’re only working with him because he’s paying them. What happens to him or what he feels doesn’t matter to them.

So when Trish tells him “You need to see this through,” I think that’s when his goal changed from “I need to take down Urizen” to “I need to take down Dante.” He wasn’t seeing his goal as V through anymore. He was seeing his goal as Vergil through. That moment is when he decided to merge with Urizen, even though he didn’t originally plan to do that. I think he really was ready to bring down Urizen and save Redgrave City, even if it meant he died.

Now that I’ve talked about that, let’s talk about his personality in regards to how I write him.

When I write for V, I always write during the point of the story that he wants to save Redgrave. So basically I write V as he is before mission 12. Whether or not he’s a part of Vergil or his own person doesn’t come into play with his personality, as it only effects his motivations. V is polite, that much is certain. He tells Lady that he’s glad she’s okay, he specifically picks up a piece of Geryon for Nico without her asking him to, he doesn’t fuss when Dante tells him to turn back, among some other examples if I thought a little more about it.

He’s kind, but not too kind. He would willingly sacrifice his health to help the people of Redgrave. At the same time, he doesn’t have qualms about acquiring money (or clothes, according to the new Visions of V chapter) by unsavory means. He’s most definitely an “ends justify the means” sort of person, as he strung along Dante and Nero with just a bit of manipulation, although his intentions were good at the time.

Above all, being someone’s concentrated humanity, I think V feels his emotions very strongly. He may not know how to process them, but he’s the most open about what he’s feeling.

#devil may cry 5 #devil may cry #v dmc #dmc v #v (dmc)#musings #I'm almost done with the next request. It's not long by any means but I got SO HUNG UP ON IT #writer's block hit me SO HARD #and it was a double whammy of being overworked for the past week #ANYWAY here's this #I have so many feelings about V

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babblingblondegenius · 6 years ago

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Felicity Megan Smoak-Queen really can have it all!

Genius, bamf, wife, mother, hero, and HBIC of Smoak Technologies!!!! EPISODE 7x17 SPOILERS>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

SMOAK TECH RISE! After we’ve waited for 84 years, Felicity is finally launching Smoak Tech in the present using the ‘Archer’ program. I am so excited for this precious bean to create her company and make a difference in the world the way she has wanted for so long. She already has her first employee--Alena who finally got a last name Whitlock. And who I now fear might be killed in the line of duty. Let’s hope I’m wrong and just enjoy the cuteness.

I am also emotional af since we are inching closer to the end and even though we’ve known about Archer for months (thanks FFs), seeing it in the present hit me right in the Olicity feels that Felicity named her premiere pilot program as a homage to her husband. Do you ever just cry over how much Felicity Smoak loves Oliver Queen and how proud she is of him?!?

Perfect reason to use one of my favorite gifs of all time. :) Felicity does think the world of Oliver and most of the time, I do too. Oliver being epic tonight was when he took out like ten baddies all by his bamf self and then arrowed the drones in rapid succession. Not so epic was Oliver being willfully naive and blindly trusting of Emiko. Including but not limited to bringing her to the secret Arrow lair that his brilliant wife just got restored. Although Emiko made a fan of Felicity when she found out that Emiko was the one who killed Diaz.

Probably won’t feel that way once Emiko goes after Archer. :/ In the meantime, Oliver’s guilt complex was back in full force and he believes he can make up for his father abandoning Emiko by saving her from the Ninth Circle. Oliver still hasn’t quite figured out a couple of things: 1. you cannot save someone who doesn’t want to be saved; and 2. it is not necessary or even very prudent for him to always try to fix his parents’ wrongs. And there’s a whole lotta wrongs.

Oliver keeps looking backward to heal the hurts of the past. But those wounds can’t be healed; time turns them into scars that we carry with us, whether they are external or internal. Our scars teach us lessons and serve as a catalyst for change. Oliver knows this from experience. That experience and those scars are what drive Oliver and his huge marshmallow heart to try to right the wrongs his family created. He hasn’t quite realized he can only redeem it by living his best life in the light and truth of the present. Which he is already doing. As his amazing wife has told him repeatedly, Oliver is better than his parents’ legacy.

Yes, Oliver. Let go of the past. Focus on the present and future. Listen to your wife. Always. She’s super smart. That’s one of the reasons you married her. And now those impeccable genetics are part of a tiny human you created. That should be a reason Oliver wants to redeem his family name and maybe it is but they didn’t mention it. I was glad they had BS point out the obvious blind spot Oliver has and then Diggle discuss the fact we’ve tread this road before with him and Andy. But the difference is the emotional connection that John had with his long-lost sibling had been established since season 1 well before we saw them reunited and then at odds in season 4. Emiko was introduced as an unknown quantity and then once unmasked, hated Oliver. This was only maybe the 2nd or 3rd time they have interacted. Arrow waited too long to try and hinge such a huge emotional impact on a character we’ve barely had a chance or a reason to connect with. I’m sorry that Oliver has been betrayed by someone else he cared about but not at all surprised and quite frankly, he shouldn’t be either.

And IMHO, the only family that Oliver should be concerned about at this point is Felicity, William, and baby Smoak-Queen. (Also, the Diggle family since John seems to be fully restored to the Dig we know and love). One look from Felicity and John went with Oliver to Emiko’s hideout and gave him a tried and true Yoda Diggle talk. These are the dynamics I really hoped they would focus on.

But instead we had to hash out some more plot and in an interesting but kinda sudden twist, we find out Emiko isn’t just part of the Ninth Circle, she is their leader. So when did Dante hand over the reins? And why? We also find out that she knew about (or helped orchestrate?) the Queen’s Gambit bomb plot. Apparently, Robert Queen pissed so many people off, that boat was going down no matter what. He at least left his son with some encouraging words.

He did. He survived the event that altered his life forever. The source of his scars. His catalyst for change. The start of Oliver’s journey that brought him tremendous pain and loss. But also ultimately led him to find his purpose and the love of his life. Years after returning to Star City, he made it home and is making it better.

We got a cute Olicity moment in the lair when Felicity was comforting Oliver with one hand on his face and the other resting on her belly while Oliver looked at her in his broody affectionate way. I really would have liked if Oliver had placed his hand on hers. He doesn’t need to be super overbearingly protective now that Felicity is pregnant but some little demonstrative touches would sure be nice to show he is thinking of their future, especially when the dialogue is lacking. Also, what happened to the little kisses? Yes, I’m greedy. We only have so many episodes left and I want all the adorable Olicity moments we possibly can.

We’re now entering a three-week hiatus, fam. Also, don’t forget when they return on April 15, it will be an hour later. Please let the writers utilize the new time slot appropriately by letting Olicity have dessert. 7x20 is coming up. Let’s see if the writers were smart enough to capitalize on this amazing chemistry and continue in the fine tradition of 3x20 and 5x20 epic love scenes! ;)

#without these cuties flirting #the episode felt meh #balance is key #arrow spoilers #random thoughts

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teppencheatjewels-blog · 6 years ago

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TEPPEN Guide

TEPPEN Guide was recently released. There is no point in having more than three copies of the same card, and the Cards screen allows you to reap any extra card you can't use. You can reap any card that isn't part of the Basic set, so if you don't expect to be playing some cards in the near future, feel free to reap them if you really need the Souls to craft a card you need to finish a deck. You earn additional Basic cards by leveling up with each specific hero, so make sure to play all of them! This comes in handy when you don't want your Action card to be countered, as your opponent will have expended his Mana Points on something else, and won't have enough left to counter your play. For example, when playing against a Red deck, they could play Path of the Warrior to deal 3 damage to your defending creature, kill it before it could defend from an attack, and kill you. But you can then answer this play by playing a card like Secure Supply Route, whose effect will resolve before Path of the Warrior's and save your creature, saving you the game. The motivation behind why there is no unbiased cards, is on the grounds that every group or shading has unmistakable fight techniques and players can blend them to make fascinating and complex mix deck, subsequently not by any means requiring nonpartisan cards. Blending the red group's unnecessary animosity in buffs and direct assaults with green's protecting and wellbeing buffs is only one case of how mixes can end up obliterating. There is a stunning expense for blending hues, a player's absolute MP is chopped down and a player might most likely play certain cost cards. Not awful. The card fights occur continuously, bringing a fresh out of the box new component to the conventional card put together interactivity that we see with respect to cell phones. What's more, guess what? TEPPEN is extremely lovely darn great, genuinely. I know, I know. I didn't hope to state that either, yet Capcom and Gung Ho Online Entertainment truly thumped it out of the recreation center with this one. In this guide, you will discover truly all that you could wish to think about TEPPEN. One of the significant draws of the game is that players will get the chance to see battles, for example, Street Fighter's Ryu versus Occupant Evil's Leon Kennedy, and Monster Hunter's Rathalos versus Darkstalkers' Morrigan. Different characters from the beginning program of eight are Street Fighter's Chun-Li, Monster Hunter's Nergigante, Mega Man's X, and Resident Evil's Albert Wesker. What sets TEPPEN separated from most computerized card diversions is that the activity occurs continuously, which may change into a turn-based arrangement through the Active Response framework. GurenFrog has made a Morrigan deck in TEPPEN that has a 85% success rate. Nonetheless, before players can assemble the deck, they should do some legwork. Initially, they should open Morrigan in TEPPEN. To do that, essentially play through the three parts of her story mode, which incorporates battles against Ryu, Nergigante, and Dante. When they've been finished Morrigan's story mode, players will probably make their very own Morrigan decks. Be that as it may, to get the Darkness Illusion Hero Art that GurenFrog suggests, players should get the opportunity to level 3 with Morrigan. Cards additionally have a class, they can be Normal, Golden, or Secret. This grouping is only for corrective reasons: Golden cards gleam, and Secret cards have a similar sparkle as Golden cards, while additionally being enlivened. They look extremely pleasant, however you can't create them, so it's up to possibility whether you discover any in your packs. Creating is extraordinary and all, however you will require Souls to specialty cards, and Souls are earned by pulverizing the cards you as of now have in abundance. Every saint is extraordinary, and the best decision of Hero Art relies upon your deck organization. You can check what these do by making another deck and choosing a pioneer, the three expressions will be there in a jiffy. You open new Hero Arts at level 3, and 10. Units can have different characteristics, a few, similar to Flight or MP lift are constantly dynamic, some actuate when the cards are played, others enact when the unit slaughters an adversary unit, and finally, there are capacities like Resonate or Revenge that initiate separately when you play an Action card and when the unit passes on. TEPPEN hangs out in various ways however. To start with, we should discuss the game's set up. Every legend has 30 wellbeing and there are three spaces in which players can set flunkies/animals. A player's hand size is five with two included spaces utilized in different ways. The game looks and feels progressively like a functioning battleground in light of the arrangement and the more restricted field of play Second, TEPPEN utilizes a functioning fight framework. Consistently that goes in the match gives you one MP, your MP is utilized to gather animals or characters or use activity cards, so utilize your time/MP shrewdly. You can manufacture decks that contain different hues, however there are confinements in doing as such. A deck with cards of two distinct hues can just have cards that cost up to 5 MP in them. You can get considerably crazier and play cards from 3 unique hues, yet then the confinement will happen to 3 MP. Furthermore, you don't really need to play cards of a similar shade of the pioneer, yet this likewise gives you a similar punishment as though you were playing two distinct hues. Capcom will add more Heroes and cards to TEPPEN after some time, which should given aficionados of its establishments more things to anticipate in the game. Pose an inquiry about working or talking at TEPPEN Corporation. Our people group is prepared to reply. Nobody anticipated this game. No one requested it, yet here it is. Truly it isn't too pitiful either. TEPPEN is a card game with a turn from Capcom and GungHo Online Entertainment. This game takes card fighting to a better place taking into account wacky game play and more activity and speed; In the Land of Illusion, numerous incredible creatures from various pockets of reality merge to fight. Activity cards resemble Instants in Magic: The Gathering, you can play them at whatever point you need. The game obtains another idea from Magic: The Gathering: impacts from Action cards settle dependent on when they were played: the last Action card played purposes first. When you play an Action card the game clock stops, and your adversary has a few seconds to choose whether or not they need to answer your play with their very own Action cards. You can likewise play Action cards that don't straightforwardly impact the result of the present line. This pushes players to buy new card packs from the in-game store, frequently through microtransactions that cost genuine cash. Highlights characters from Resident Evil, Mega Man, Street Fighter, and other well known game establishments. Guardians need to realize that TEPPEN is an allowed to-play collectible card game accessible for download on iOS and Android cell phones. Players manufacture decks of virtual cards and fight in story-based missions just as player versus player matches. Matches are introduced to players as battles, but there's almost no onscreen savagery really appeared. That is a completely included versatile card game, and keeping in mind that it's not the best one I've at any point played, it offers a pretty darn great resistance to the huge young men available. Contingent upon your preferences, it may even drag you away from Hearthstone. Besides, the cast of Capcom characters is truly alluring. Ryu, Morrigan, Albert Wesker, Nergigante, and a bundle more are incorporated. The quantity of arrangement that are included right presently is quite little thinking about Capcom's broad library, yet I'm certain we can anticipate that more cards should be included what's to come.

#teppen gu #TEPPEN guide #TEPPEN cheats #TEPPEN cheat #guide for TEPPEN #TEPPEN jewels

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brazenautomaton · 6 years ago

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here is a pitch for a playable Lady in Devil May Cry 5 that is probably unworkable and overly complex and nobody cares about but I am posting anyway because I like to do this sort of thing

Lady is a fusion of Nero (charge attacks that encourage striking at the right time instead of mashing, Wire snatch) and Dante (wide selection of available means of attack encouraging you to switch often). She has one melee weapon and four ranged weapons. She’s meant to be a Gunslinger that encourages more stylish and varied and mobile gameplay. She moves fast and has a good dodge but her life bar is only half the normal length because she doesn't have preposterous "let's stick swords in my chest" durability.

T: Close-Range Attack (Sawed-Off Shotgun) S: Basic Shot C: Advanced Shot (Gunslinger Style Action) X: Jump, Dodge (with R1+direction), Rocket Jump

L1: Overdrive R1: Lock-On L2: Explosive R2: Wire

D-pad: Select Weapon

Lady's close range weapon is a sawed-off shotgun with a much shorter range than Coyote-A. Gunslinger style actions go off of the Triangle button, except that Fireworks is spin+T, normal/combo attack shot is T, and tapping T during Gun Stinger turns it into a ground slide with a launching upward shot. Shotgun blasts can parry enemy attacks like a normal melee weapon. It cannot charge by holding down the button, but during Overdrive mode, its shots are much wider and have delayed explosions that increase the length of hitstun.

Lady's ranged weapons heat up while in use, changing their properties and eventually causing an overheat that renders them unusable. The invisible heat bar has 3 visible regions, indicated by the color of the circle around their icon: blue is cool, yellow is hot, red is very hot, and flashing a color with black means that the weapon has overheated and can't be used until it completely cools down to the very bottom of blue. Normal shots increase Heat by a smaller amount, and circle shots or special techniques increase Heat by larger amounts. Mashing the attack button faster than the attacks can come out still generates Heat for the nonexistent attacks (punishes button mashing, but also helps to build up from low heat levels).

Heat dictates the power of the weapon's attacks, so it is like Lady's weapons all charge like Nero's, and all charge automatically like Ebony and Ivory in Gunslinger mode. However, low/blue heat corresponds to uncharged attacks, medium/yellow heat is level 2 charge, and high/red heat is level 1 charge. Heat goes down over time whether a weapon is equipped or not, and Heat gauges over 50% go down faster by accumulating style points.

Thus, Lady wants to swap weapons to keep as many as possible in the "sweet spot" of yellow heat, not using them too much to redline them or too little to cool down to uncharged blue heat. Because it is so easy to put out multiple "fully charged" attacks in a row, the effect of her charge is somewhat less impressive than Nero's. (It's really more like red is level 0.75, and yellow is level 1.5 charged attack.)

Lady has 4 ranged weapons, accessible from the D-pad.

KALINA ANN II: A rocket launcher. Works almost exactly like Dante's version, but higher level rockets have wider explosions with increased knockback, serve as launchers against the targeted enemy, and at level 3 stick to enemies to explode again. Kalina Ann II can still be charged and the effect of Heat multiplies the effectiveness of charge, but not by a huge amount. Generates heat quickly.

MARVIN & TAMMY: Twin machine pistols. Lady's version of Ebony and Ivory or Luce and Ombra. S firing targets one enemy, C firing targets multiple enemies (Twosome Time, Rainstorm, etc, but switching targets automatically). Holding down the button results in continuous fire that increases the heat gauge. The bullets can juggle airborne enemies, deal more damage and stun with Heat, and at level 3 bullets are incendiary, lighting enemies aflame for minor but stacking damage over time. Generate heat slowly.

DIANA: A weird laser crossbow thingy. A de-Deviled version of Artemis from DMC3. S fires a laser bolt. Holding S increases the lock-on targets, and firing against multiple lock-on targets increases the heat gauge by the same amount as shooting one. C shoots slow-moving energy orbs. Holding C detonates the orbs to deal more damage, and circle-C fires an Acid Rain storm from Lady and a much smaller one from each orb. Energy orbs deal damage on collision with enemies and continue to move through them, and normal Artemis shots fired THROUGH orbs deal greatly increased damage (and the seeking aspect tries to be lenient about routing through an orb before turning in midair). Higher charge levels increase the number of orbs out at once and the number of lock-ons. Orbs stay out when switching to another weapon and increase the damage of other shots that pass through, but not by as much. Generates heat at a medium rate.

TYPHOON: A massive .600 Nitro Express revolver. A smaller version of the Spiral anti-materiel rifle from DMC3. This huge revolver was designed for half-demons to use, and normal humans would shatter their wrists from firing once -- Lady uses a mechanical brace and holds it with both hands. S fires implosion rounds that stagger, break guards, and suck enemies into each other increasing effectiveness with heat level. C fires piercing rounds that penetrate right through enemies and ricochet around, and heat level increases the number of times this can happen. Each enemy pierced increases the damage of the next shot. Holding S or C puts Lady in a manual-aim mode like Tomboy + Blue Rose with a corresponding increase in power. Back + S or C "fans the hammer", spraying fire wildly, greatly increasing the heat gauge, and knocking Lady back. Forward + S or C is a slow-aiming shot to a weak point with greatly increased stagger and either a much wider implosion radius or a guaranteed extra ricochet. Can't be used in midair without Wire Snatch. Generates heat at a medium-high rate.

OVERDRIVE: Lady is a full-blooded human and does not have a Devil Trigger mode. Instead, she has an experimental cooling system that is activated by pressing L1 and governed by what is basically the same thing as the Devil Trigger gauge, expanded by Purple Orbs, refilled by White Orbs. During Overdrive mode, all of her weapons fire faster and all have the level 2 effect regardless of their heat gauge. When a weapon would overheat during Overdrive mode, it instead consumes some more of the Overdrive gauge.

EXPLOSIVE: Tapping L2 basically emulates the function of Lady's Devil Trigger replacement in DMC4SE, consuming bars of Overdrive to toss grenades in front of her. The longer the button is held, the more grenades are thrown, in a wider arc. The power of this move is toned WAY down from DMC4SE and now serves mostly as a "break away" measure. Lady can drop grenades at her feet to break out of grabs like Dante can do by activating DT or Nero can by activating Break Away, but it takes at least 3 bars that are consumed instantly to no other effect.

WIRE: Lady has a grappling wire like Nero's, on its own button instead of tied to Kalina Ann. Back + R2 on the ground against a movable enemy performs Wire Fling, where Lady anchors herself to the ground and and attempts to fling a grounded enemy upward or airborne enemy downward and smack it into another enemy without moving herself. R2 in any other circumstance does a Wire Snatch like Nero, but since Lady is lighter and doesn't have devil force, she always moves toward her target instead of bringing it toward her.

Pressing an attack button during the Wire Snatch flight performs a special aerial attack: Shotgun has her perform a point blank shot on impact. Kalina Ann II launches an explosive that detonates when she lands, blowing her away in a backflip. S with Marvin and Tammy slows her approach as she unloads into her target, while C has her twirl about and spray every enemy but her target with fire. Diana fires a batch of lock-on bolts into the target upon landing, firing more bolts the longer the Wire flight was, and then slides away a moderate distance. Typhoon has her arc over the target, fire straight down into them, creating a large implosion effect and landing a little bit away from the target on the other side. The damage increase for heat level on these attacks is greater than normal.

Ricochet from enemy to enemy, blasting them and flying off. Bunch them up with implosions then knock everything apart with explosions. Set everyone on fire so the enemies you aren't attacking still take damage. Dance around to make sure your Diana orbs are between you and your target. Keep swapping weapons to maintain as many as possible in the "sweet spot" of the heat gauge. If a boss gets sick of you sniping it, fling yourself into its face, shooting wildly and bouncing off, or just deliver punishing shotgun combos at close range.

#devil may cry #my fiction #sort of

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itoshit · 4 years ago

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I think I've never been that ready to break some skulls before. I took more weapons than usual, having two on my hips, two others on my thighs and finally, two again in my shoulder straps. I've never been a huge fan of knives, but still got one joining the strap on my leg.

Ran and Rindou were ready, Ran still had his unfamous baton. The others, Kakucho, Koko, Sanzu and Akashi, had guns like I did, ready to pull them out if needed.

Looking over Dante and his men, I noticed the same thing. But one of them looked particularly heavily armed.

Hey Dante, he's your sniper isn't he?

Yeah, we always bring one with us, someone who could change the course of our lives from afar. Also Manjiro, if I can call you that?

Nodding, I got inside the van, him sitting by my side.

Perfecto then. La Cosa Nostra bases its values and morals on their allies. Back in Osaka, I didn't intend to kill you nor severely hurt you. I hope it didn't bring too many inconveniences yeah?

Nothing I'm not used to. But I appreciate your help and concern though

Did you change your hair for your girl?

Cocking an eyebrow at him, I stayed silent.

My girl?

She is, isn't it? Look, I wanted to talk to you last time but I needed to check your strength before. We have minutes ahead so listen to me. In our family (note: the term family refers to the mafia here), women play an important role, and I'm not talking about their pussy. In La Cosa Nostra, we're not ashamed of parading with our girls, our wives. Some of us even have children, like me. I don't understand since when being with a woman in the underground scene made you look weak. Women give you strength, something to fight for. I don't know you very much, but I know how to spot an enamoured man. You're deep into it Manjiro. We have nothing but genuine intentions with Bonten, and we want our allies to be healthy and happy. If I could give you a piece of advice, when your girl will be freed, and I'm saying your girl because she's not a bitch or an animal, tell her how you feel. Life is short as the falling of snow, you could die tomorrow. Don't live with regrets buddy, that's the worst, trust me. Cherish the moments you've with her alright?

After his monologue, Dante smiled cheekily at me, patting my thigh. He wasn't wrong, I knew that. I knew that I'd feelings for Vee, but I was afraid she didn't. I let her enter my life and warm my heart of stone, and it could seem selfish but I didn't want to let her go, never.

You don't have to he ashamed of having feelings for a woman, or a man if that mattered. Partners influence our decisions on a daily basis, and without women in La Cosa Nostra, let me tell you, it would be a mess. They keep us on tracks, scold us when needed. My wife, showing me his ring right after, is my everything. She keeps me sane, Manjiro.

My men were in the other cars and only Dante and I, except our driver, were here.

I don't want to bring her in this life, she doesn't need more-

Sorry to break it to you buddy, but she's already deep enough. Her face is all over the news, you must have seen that yeah? Nodding at him, I kept my gaze on the window.

Then you know, the best thing you can do now is protect her from your world, by staying by her side. That way, these events won't occur ever again. The Yamaguchi-gumi is pulling a nasty move right now. Ones of our few rules are; never look at friends wives; respect wives. The Yamaguchi-gumi disregarded all of them.

Venus isn't my wife.

But you want her to be yours don't you?

Silence settling between us, I tried to imagine myself with her, having a future together.

Do you see a future with her ?

... yes

Here you go. When she'll be saved, you'll have to present her to me, the kitten seems feisty enough to make you go crazy for her

Smiling a bit at his words, I took a decision. As soon as this shit is over, Vee will move in with me. Officially this time. And I won't prevent her from having her life, I'll give her the freedom she wants and needs.

My phone vibrating into my pocket, I took it out. Vee?

But what I heard after made my blood boil. She was screaming, begging me to come and save her. Eyes opened wide at the sound playing in the car, I gripped the phone tightlty, breaking it in the process. Gritting my teeth, I lowered my face down, nails tearing the skin of my palms open.

I'm gonna kill them all, I swear to god, these bastards will regret the day they were born.

Dante's hand on my shoulder, I turned to him.

We'll get them. No one touches our wives, remember? You even dyed your hair to please her. They'll pay for it, no worries Manjiro.

And that's precisely when we arrived. Opening the van's door, I was met with my executives. Ran and Sanzu had a wicked smile on their faces. These two will probably have fun.

Destroy them. I don't want any of them alive at the end of the day. I don't fucking care how you process, break their neck, pierce their eyes, rip their bodies apart or burn them to hell, I want blood. Understood?

And as I gave them my orders, they bowed.

Your wish is our command, boss.

-Mikey

I've changed the presentation, it's easier to understand that way 😌

it’s so nice!

The pain had me passing out, waking up only from the slaps my torturer, who so generously told me to call him Koda gave me. I’d wake up, see the handle of the knife sticking out of my bloody, trembling thigh, get woozy and faint.

This time when I woke up, I didn’t even get to follow the routine established between us because Koda was in my face, gripping my cheeks roughly. It hurt from all his prior roughness, his finger edging closely to the lip he had split. C’mon, Vee. You know I don’t want to hurt you. Just tell me what you know. I’ll even let you go.

I knew nothing, just like I told him every time he asked, but since he wanted a different reaction, I’d give it to him. Nodding my head, I watched his face slack into a grin as he let mine go, granting me free rein to speak and move my head. The first thing I did with it was cock my head far back and send it slamming into his own, head butting the shit out of him. The impact made my vision blur for a bit, but the sickening crack I heard made it all worth it.

Venus, I corrected, spitting blood onto his now-bleeding nose. I might have broken it. It’s Venus to you, you piece of shit.

You stupid bi— Gunshots. An entire slew of them. Natalie burst into the room, body slick with sweat, eyes wide and nervous.

They’re here! Bonten’s here! My heart leaped. Mikey? They found out about our hideout much earlier than we expected them to! The sound of rapid fire rounds echoed around us, each one sounding closer than the last. If they kept that up, they’d be in this room in no time. The thought of Mikey raining hell down on their skulls made me much happier than I thought it would. They deserved it. I hope they got it. My cackle, sudden and wheezy, startled both Nat and Koda.

I stared Natalie dead in my eyes as I calmed down. You should run, I advised her. She had endangered my life twice, and although I would probably have little say in what happens to her now—she’d burnt too many bridges; Mikey wouldn’t hesitate to put a hole in her skull— so the least I could give her was a head start. You might be able to get out of here if you run now, because if Mikey gets his hands on you… I don’t even allow myself the pleasure of blinking as I speak, wanting my words to resonate deeply with her. So much so that even if she survived, she’d see my face. He will kill you, and I won’t be able to stop him. And you know the worst part, Nat? I don’t think I’ll want to.

The fear in her eyes was palpable like it was that day in the hideout, but I had no sympathy left to offer her. I also could have told her what Koda told me, let her know she’d done this all in vain, but I didn’t, allowing her to walk out of the door and my life for what just might be the very last time.

So, Koda, I turned my head back to look at him pacing. What’s the move? You gonna run too?

Somebody else came flying through the room as I asked him, an underling of his perhaps, yelling the same question I had just asked him in more or less words and a much louder volume. They’re coming, Koda! We have to go!

A certain bang made even me jump. It sounded like it was just around the corner from us.

What’re you gonna do, Koda?

I’m gonna fucking kill you, he snarled, putting the cold nozzle of a gun he yanked from his pocket to my head.

I tried to hide my dread with fearlessness. I don’t mind that, you’ll be coming to keep me company wherever I end up in five minutes. Maybe less.

I could hear the gun clicking as he turned off the safety, eyes level with me. I was about to die, and the funniest part was I wasn’t afraid. Perhaps I knew deep down that even if I did, I’d be avenged. That nobody who tortured me or sought to hurt me would leave this place with their lives or their limbs perfectly in tact. I don’t know what kind of person that made me, but with this gun to my brain, I don’t think I’d have much time to ponder it.

Mikey flashed in my head, my last memories with him. I didn’t even get to kiss him goodbye. I’d have to add that to my never ending list of regrets, not telling him how much he had come to mean to me in such a short time. That he mattered, that he wasn’t cursed. That he deserved to be happy.

A small smile came across my face as our memories played out in my mind. We had come so far, and I was proud of it. If it all came down to it, I lived an overall good life with some really big lows. Pretty alright for me.

Kill them, Manji, is the last wish I made to myself mentally, making sure it got out before my brain matter was splattered across the wall. Kill them all.

#🗝; citizen #🗝; mikey #🗝; chronicles of vee: vol. 1 #gooood morning mod!!!

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fma-facts · 8 years ago

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Applying FMA’s Philosophy to Real Life

Here’s something a little different from what I usually post! For some reason I found myself thinking about this in the shower for almost an hour today, so I thought I’d write a post on it. (Also, keep in mind I wrote all of this spontaneously in one go.)

Now, here’s a little disclaimer: This is very subjective. There are a thousand different ways to personally interpret the philosophy of FMA, and even different ways to interpret what “the philosophy of FMA” even is- Is it the overall themes of the story? The actual real life alchemical/philosophical concepts mentioned in the series? The politics of the FMA world? Arakawa’s outlook on life and writing manga? Some sort of weird deep subtext about the Philosopher’s Stone or something?

It all depends on how you want to look at things, and everyone and their mom has a different interpretation. Every anime analysis blogger or YouTuber has done something on the philosophy of FMA. But I wanted to do something a little different: Take the philosophical concepts within the FMA universe, and find positive ways to interpret them that you can apply to your own life to better yourself.

Like I said, there’s a thousand different ways of interpreting these concepts. But I’m an optimist, or at least I try to be, so I tried to choose interpretations that are positive and motivating. I think Dante’s already got the whole “pessimistic existential despair” thing covered.

So, without further ado, here we go! This is an extremely long post, so it’s under a cut. Feel free to skim it and only look at the parts that interest you.

Concept: A lesson without pain is meaningless. Interpretation: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Sometimes the most difficult challenges are the most rewarding.

“Teachings that do not speak of pain have no meaning, because humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return.” -Chapter 1: The Two Alchemists “A lesson without pain is meaningless, because gaining anything worthwhile requires sacrifice. But if you can overcome that pain and achieve your goal, you can achieve a fullmetal heart, and that’s irreplaceable.” -Chapter 108: Journey’s End

It’s very easy to have a negative interpretation of this phrase, to take it to mean that suffering is necessary. As another favorite anime character of mine once said, “People never learn from their mistakes until they are hurt from them.” But like I said, I want this to be an uplifting list, so we’re going with a happier intepretation.

Everything is a learning experience. You can’t get a diamond without subjecting carbon to immense pressure and high temperatures, right? Even when things seem dark, if you can power through, you’ll come out with experience and strength that others might not have. And even if you can’t win, as any scientist knows, failure can show you where you went wrong and what you need to do to improve. There’s an old proverb in the go (east Asian strategy board game) community: “Lose your first 100 games as quickly as possible.”

This is what really got me started on this tangent, thinking about... believe it or not... Alchemical encoding methods. (Oh, on a side note, does anyone know the proper usage of “alchemical” vs. “alchemic”? Please let me know. It’s been driving me up the wall for years.) Think about it: Alchemists encode their work so they can’t be read by those who aren’t worthy, right? It’s fairly likely that there’s a standard system of alchemical encoding in the FMA world; We’ve heard Ed and Al mention real alchemy concepts like the green lion, or the sun and the moon as masculinity and femininity- things that wouldn’t make sense to a non-alchemist, but are probably standard knowledge for most alchemists. There’s also that mural from Xerxes, which Ed was easily able to understand, because certain symbols and phrases are known to have certain meanings in alchemy.

Encoding systems like this would really only be useful for keeping out non-alchemists and novices, but any skilled alchemist would probably be able to understand them. Because of this, it would probably only be used for fairly benign things. But if you look at things like Marcoh’s notes on the Philosopher’s Stone, or Scar’s brother’s research, those are the really big ones. There’s layers upon layers of coding there that require a ton of skill, time, teamwork, and in Scarbro’s case, knowledge of alchemy across multiple cultures and languages. That’s some intense stuff, but incredibly important. Of course the most rewarding alchemical secrets are the most well guarded.

Challenge yourself. Challenges can often be scary, difficult, and stressful, but sometimes the harder it is, the bigger the reward.

Concept: All is One, One is All. Interpretation: Everything is connected. You are part of a greater flow, and you are not alone.

“Remember when we talked about what would happen if we died here?” “Uh-huh, and I said everyone would be sad.” -Ed and Al, chapter 22: The Masked Man “Maybe it’s ‘the world’, maybe it’s ‘the universe’... Life is a complex cycle, so vast that we can’t see it with our own eyes. But whatever it’s called, you and I are only a tiny part of the great flow. One part of the whole. But all those individual parts come together so that the whole can exist. And the cycle keeps flowing because all of nature follows this fundamental law. Understanding that flow, deconstructing and then reconstrucing... That’s the meaning of alchemy.” -Ed, chapter 22: The Masked Man

Nothing exists in a vacuum. Everything has impact on something, no matter how small. A huge number of factors came together to create the you that is here now, and in turn, your existence affects the lives of others. Even if it seems like you’re alone, like nobody loves you or pays attention to you, you’re not invisible and you’re not alone.

Maybe you’re someone’s favorite blogger, or maybe someone passed you on the street and thought your hair was beautiful. Maybe you own a shelter pet that would have been otherwise put down, or maybe you helped introduce someone to something that changed their life for the better. Maybe you buy a coffee from Starbucks every week, and your purchase contributes a little to the overall income of that particular Starbucks, which allows it to stay open, thus keeping a single mom employed and able to feed her kids. It’s impossible to exist without having an impact on others. The way each little person operates as part of the great web of humanity to make the world what it is today is part of what makes humanity so beautiful.

You’re never truly alone, no matter how much it feels like it, and there’s always someone who would suffer in some way without you. Try to make meaningful connections. If you ever feel like you’re alone in this world, take some time to think about what things you do that affect others, and how you are connected to the world as a whole.

Concept: The energy of the world is cyclical, and only flows in one direction. Interpretation: What you do comes back to you. Be mindful of the attitude you choose to put into the world.

“The foundation of alchemy is the power of the circle. The circle dictates the flow of power, and when the proper runes are written within it, it is possible for the power to be released. Even when you’re not using alchemy, the flow of power has many practical applications! For example... If you can read your opponent’s movements, you can turn them back against him. That’s one way of manipulating energy. Accepting the flow, understanding it, and using it to create... That’s what makes an alchemist an alchemist.” -Izumi, chapter 23: Knocking on Heaven’s Door

Due to some spiritual experiences I’ve had in the past, I very much believe that likes attract likes, and that the energy you put out into the world will come back to you. But you don’t have to be even the least bit spiritual or religious to see how this can sometimes be true.

If you snap at someone for no reason, even if that person was in a good mood, that’s going to discourage them from being nice to you. If you’re a generally mean, angry, nasty person, people just aren’t going to like you. But if you gain a reputation for being nice and treating others with respect, that’s going to earn you respect as well.

I’m not saying you have to be cheerful all the time- everyone has their bad days, and plenty of people (myself included) might naturally be a bit more Raven than Starfire. I’m not even saying you always have to be nice to everybody, because there will always be people who aren’t worthy of your respect. What I am saying is that you have control over how you generally interact with others, and it pays to be nice rather than mean. Things like keeping a generally polite attitude, saying nice things to others, and helping people when they need it are things that people will remember, and make them more likely to want to be nice to you as well.

If you find yourself in a situation where you can choose whether or not to be mean, take a minute to think to yourself: Does this person really deserve this treatment? What will this accomplish? How will this affect how others see me? If you can choose whether or not to be unnecessarily mean, I encourage you to not be mean.

Concept: You cannot gain without sacrifice. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. Intepretation: Change doesn’t happen on its own. If you want something to happen, you must first take steps to make it happen yourself.

“Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy’s first law of equivalent exchange.” -Al, Fullmetal Alchemist opening monologue “It is impossible to create something out of nothing. If one wishes to obtain something, something of equal value must be given. This is the law of equivalent exchange.” -Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood opening monologue

Again, it’s easy to interpret this as a negative, “We all must suffer” thing, or as a (50-year-old conservative voice) “If you’re poor it’s just because you’re a lazy bum and blah blah blah” thing, but this is the positive interpretation I’ve come up with.

Nothing ever happens without some sort of catalyst. You have to take the initiative. Like Ed once taught Rose, no matter how religious you are, you can’t just sit around praying and expect all your problems to magically be solved; You have to at least make some effort yourself. Does this mean hard work will always be rewarded the way you want? No. Sadly, this is an unfortunate reality of the world. But it does mean that nothing will happen if you don’t try.

For example, I see a lot of people say, “I wish I could draw.” ...And then that’s it. They just say that, over and over. Guess what? Literally nobody is stopping you from drawing! You have to be the one to pick up the pencil/pen/tablet/paintbrush/mouse etc. and start drawing. No, your first drawing will not be perfect, and it may take a very long time before you’re able to draw something that you can really be proud of. But you’ll definitely never be able to make a great drawing if you never start drawing in the first place.

If you have a goal, and you’re already doing what you can to work towards that goal, even if “what you can do” is next to nothing: That’s great! I’m proud of you for trying, and I hope you can achieve your goal. But if you’re constantly sitting around lamenting how you wish for such-and-such without actually doing anything to try to make it happen... Well, you’re not really going to get anywhere.

Concept: There’s no such thing as “no such thing”. Interpretation: Don’t underestimate yourself. Never give up on something just because others don’t believe in you.

“Nothing is impossible.” -Greed, chapter 27: The Beasts of Dublith

People can accomplish amazing things. I’m sure you’ve all heard the stories of how Harry Potter was written on napkins in a bar and rejected by like 2872193 different publishers or whatever, or how much Vincent van Gogh struggled both in life and art, or how Dav Pilkey wrote Captain Underpants while sitting out in the hall in grade school as a punishment from teachers who told him being a cartoonist isn’t a real career. Even against impossible odds, sometimes with enough determination, you can come out on top.

It’s easy to get bogged down by negativity. If your goal is somewhat out there, you may get a lot of people telling you that you can’t do it, but that’s not necessarily true. In a similar vein to the previous topic, you may never be able to accomplish your goal- life just happens that way sometimes- but there’s always a change that you might. If you let others discourage you to the point of giving up, you’ll definitely never be able to achieve your goal.

Believe in yourself, BELIEVE IN THE ME THAT BELIEVES IN YOU!!!, and keep trying. Don’t give up just because things are looking grim, or because other people say you’ll never be able to do it. They don’t know what you’re capable of.

Concept: A king without his people is no king at all. Interpretation: Life is collaborative. Don’t neglect those who support you.

“A ruler’s duty is to his people. Without them, he is no king at all!” -Ling, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood episode 22 (because I sadly still don’t own volume 12)

You can’t do everything on your own. People move through life by interacting and helping one another. It’s ok to ask for help sometimes. But at the same time, you have to be ready to give help when the time comes- If someone does things for you, and you turn your back on them when they need you, what kind of person does that make you? Not a very nice one.

Of course, that’s not to say that you have to be giving and giving and giving all the time. If you don’t have the money, time, skills, knowledge, physical ability, or emotional/mental availability to help someone, that’s ok. It happens. But if you can help someone, and choose not to just because you don’t want to make the effort, that’s selfish. Why would you do that to someone who helped you? Who, in turn, will help them? And when people see that you weren’t there for them when you could have been, again, that’s going to come back to you. Nobody wants to help someone who takes without giving.

Also, if you’re in a leadership position, your job is to lead. It is your responsibility to keep an eye on the needs of those below you, and to make sure the system runs smoothly. If you treat your subordinates like garbage, they’re not going to want to respect you.

If you do treat your subordinates well, and help others when they need it, people will look up to you and be more likely to return the favor when you need it.

Be a Colonel Mustang, not a Brigadier General Fessler.

Concept: Take 10, give 11. Interpretation: It doesn’t always take much to be kind. You can do nice things sometimes without expecting something in return.

“My brother and I met so many wonderful people on our journey, people like Mr. Hughes. I’ve come to realize how much happiness they brought us, even if we didn’t see it at the time. That’s why I feel that now it’s our turn to try and give back some of that happiness. If we receive ten and only give back ten, then it’s a zero-sum gain. Instead, if we receive ten we will add our one to it, and give eleven in return.” -Al, chapter 108: Journey’s End

You don’t always need a specific motivation to be nice. Being kind for kindness’ sake is always a good thing to do, and doesn’t necessarily have any negative payoff. A lot of the time, doing something nice for someone can take as little effort as just saying, “You look nice today”, or even- as Arakawa herself has said she believes to be important- just saying thank you when someone does something for you, no matter how small.

If you’re grateful to have someone in your life, show it! Be nice to them. You don’t even have to give a heartfelt speech; sending people posts you think might interest them, for example, can really make them happy. Also, if you see someone who’s feeling down- or even someone who’s perfectly fine- it never hurts to show them a little kindness. Your small compliment may wind up meaning far more to them than you think.

One way I personally try to spread a little kindness: When I see art on my dash, unless I have some particular reason not to want it on my blog (bad pairing, too sexual, etc.), I reblog it. Even if it’s really terrible art, I reblog it anyway, because I know how much it can mean to beginner artists to have just a little bit of encouragement. I also usually try to gush in the tags about how much I love it, or add specific compliments, like “This is a really cool art style” or “I like how you draw his hair”.

Most of the time, I don’t get anything out of this, and I don’t expect or need to. But every once in a while, someone will message me saying how much my comment meant to them, and that’s a really wonderful thing. Also, whenever I leave a comment on a fanfiction, I always end it with a simple, “Thank you for writing this”. The other day, someone said the same thing on one of my fics, and I was shocked. People so rarely show such simple, straightforward appreciation for the amount of work writing takes, and it really made me happy to read.

Anyway, that’s all! I hope you guys enjoyed this spur-of-the-moment little pep talk, I hope it gave you something to think about, and I hope it might be of some help to some of you. And remember: It’s not hard to be nice!

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junker-town · 6 years ago

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Kyle Shanahan finally has his 49ers offense cooking

Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images

We take a look at what happened in the 49ers’ blowout win over the Bengals — and why the rest of the NFL should be concerned.

It took until his third year as head coach, but we’re finally seeing Kyle Shanahan’s offense as it was meant to be. The 49ers are off to a strong start to their 2019 campaign, even if the two teams they’ve beaten — the Bengals and Buccaneers — are of questionable quality. The offense is clicking with a healthy Jimmy Garoppolo at quarterback, and the rest of the league should be on notice.

Good teams win in different ways. In Week 1, there were flashes of brilliance on offense, but a strong defense ultimately led the 49ers to a 31-17 victory over the Buccaneers. In Week 2, it was all about the offense, set up by Shanahan’s playcalling, in a 41-17 rout of the Bengals.

Expectations were high when Shanahan was hired away from the Falcons, where he was a well-regarded offensive coordinator. However, a long list of injuries — including losing Garoppolo for the bulk of the 2018 season — has impacted our ability to see what Shanahan can really do as a head coach.

That’s changing this season. Following their game, both 49ers and Bengals players had praise for Shanahan and his ability to script entire drives several plays in advance.

“It makes my job very easy,” Garoppolo said after the game. “His mind is incredible, just how he thinks. He’s two plays ahead while we’re running the current play and it makes everything so easy. And when he gets in a rhythm like that, it just puts everyone in a good position.”

That’s exactly how it looked on Sunday: everybody on offense in such a rhythm that the Bengals were always on their back feet. Misdirection, play-action, and trick plays led the 49ers to an average of 8.41 yards per play and 572 offensive yards total. The 49ers had six pass plays of 20-plus yards, nine runs of 10-plus yards, and went 5-for-9 on third down.

But more important than converting third downs is getting the job done on the earlier downs, and that’s where the 49ers had their biggest plays. And those were successful because Shanahan kept the Bengals guessing from the start.

How Shanahan’s offense can take control of a game

On Sunday, the 49ers got out to an early lead and Shanahan never let up.

“When he gets in a rhythm, whatever personnel is out there — even if we haven’t gameplanned to go that many plays in a row — he just keeps it out there and he keeps it going,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk said after the game. “He likes to keep his foot on their throat.”

That sentiment bore out on the 49ers’ very first possession of the game. The team came out and ran three short plays in succession for a first down, then immediately went deep.

The play was also the first dose of play-action, a staple of Shanahan’s offense, which the 49ers used often and to great effect. The Bengals didn’t necessarily bite on the play-action, but it caused enough movement by the linebackers that Marquise Goodwin slipped right past them for a huge 13.2 yards of separation from the closest defender, per NFL Next Gen Stats.

Here’s some more play-action, and a great throw into coverage from Garoppolo:

This time, it’s second-and-10 and not long after the Bengals marched down the field to tie the game. Shanahan wanted to limit third-and-long situations, so the Niners ran a fake draw. Goodwin managed to find a soft spot in the zone, which Garoppolo hit with ease.

But play-action alone isn’t going to be enough — you have to do other things to set up the play-action, including getting the running backs involved in as many different types of plays you can. Before this next play, Garoppolo made some calls at the line, and ended up going with what looks like a screen option, with actual targets to his right and the screen set up to his left.

The Bengals sold out on the screen, but Garoppolo got it to running back Raheem Mostert. Mostert is a relative unknown the 49ers primarily use on special teams, but he’s the No. 2 back right now due to injuries. After he racked up 151 total yards Sunday, he showed he can be a playmaking threat.

That’s another takeaway from this season so far: the 49ers have a lot of young, quick, and versatile players who can turn short plays into large gains.

Most of the runs the 49ers had against the Bengals were tough rushes designed to move the chains. They did get some big plays in the running game though, like this bruising piece of art by Matt Breida:

That’s a third-and-1, and Shanahan knows as well as any coach that if you get too cute on third down, bad things can happen. So he put it in Breida’s hands, and the running back — starting after both Jerick McKinnon and Tevin Coleman were lost to injury — wound up making something out of nothing.

When Shanahan is rolling, trickery is even more effective

The 49ers were constantly moving the pocket and using misdirection, something several Bengals players noted postgame.

“They came out with a lot of gadget plays,” Bengals cornerback William Jackson said. “They used every trick in the book. It’s about having the right eyes and being in the right spot. They clearly play some Madden.”

Take this play, late in the second quarter:

That’s a fake handoff to rookie receiver Deebo Samuel, which made the Bengals initially lock in on him. Once they realized it wasn’t a handoff, they started to scramble. They didn’t expect Garoppolo to go right back to Samuel, but he did and it resulted in another massive gain on first down.

Near the end of the half, the 49ers had already done multiple fake sweeps, fake screens, and actual screens. The time was ripe for a bigger trick play.

On this second down play, Garoppolo never looked to his left, completely selling the idea that Dante Pettis was getting a screen. The Bengals had six guys looking at or coming in on Pettis, who then tossed it to Mostert for 16 yards.

Sometimes, after a little trickeration, a simple play-action can absolutely ruin a defense. Like here:

Check out how many Bengals players were looking the wrong way. Specifically, watch No. 36, safety Shawn Williams. He was faced the opposite direction until tight end George Kittle had caught the pass. Nobody was looking at Garoppolo rolling out, and it was an easy gain for Kittle.

The Bengals are capable of making stops on defense. They held Russell Wilson to under 200 passing yards and Chris Carson to just 46 yards rushing in their narrow Week 1 loss to the Seahawks. But the 49ers did everything to keep the Bengals on their toes. They avoided third down, they went for the big plays, and they ran when it was smart. By all accounts, this can be attributed to Shanahan’s ability to take control of a game with his playcalling.

It’s too soon to say if the 49ers are a playoff team this season, but at 2-0, they are trending upward. While they still have to show up against better teams than the Bengals or Buccaneers, the Niners will get that chance when they face opponents like the Packers, Ravens, and Rams later this season.

As long as Shanahan’s offense keeps playing to its potential, all of those teams would do well not to overlook San Francisco.

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cryfromthevoid-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Cry From The Void, Chapter 1, Part 1

Chapter 1

Part one

The wind roared, violently assaulting the young man’s ears. He opened his eyes, to see a black abyss with a man standing above him as he fell. “huh?” He blinked and he was falling, thousands of feet above the ground, buildings rushing past him, if he didn’t do something now he would hit the ground and become the headline of today’s news. He watched as the ground came closer and closer, it looked almost inviting. “Should I even try to stop?” he whispered to himself, he suddenly snapped out of his trance and examined his situation with fear, “Shit!” the young man was seconds away from embracing the ground, but just before, he extended his arms and crossed them, forming claws with his hands. He braced for impact and summoned all his strength.

Without hesitation a black void surrounded his hands and taking their shape, covering them like a second layer of skin, reaching out towards his elbows and he used his elbow to land on the ground.

And with a loud “CRASH!!!” he had finally touched down, in a rather gorgeous bloodworks display. That is, if he was a normal human. But this six-teen year old kid was no normal human. A crowd of people surrounded the crash site, the kid stood back on his two feet, examining his situation and the crowds. “EVERYONE GET BACK! NOW!” he yelled to the bystanders as a flash of light beamed towards him at top speed. The crowd had seen the beam and rushed to get away from the crash site, in a split second, the beam of light had closed the distance towards the young man. “I’m not done with you boy!” the beam had suddenly grown a body and limbs, and a face, and that face had an evil expression on it. The boy crossed his arms once more to brace for impact from the attack. The man had finally landed in the young man’s face.

He launched the attacker off of him and readied himself for a fight.

The young man yelled out, “Ugh! Devastator! I really don’t have time for this!”. The Devastator egged on the boy, “Awe! Look at chu! So cute! You got a date? Well let me doll you up!” the Devastator charged balls of light in his hands and without a hint of hesitation, launched the two balls of light directly at him.

The kid extended his arm away from his body and his other in front of him to protect himself. Within seconds the black void that was on his arms left them and formed a pure black blade, and a pure black shield.

The balls of light impacted the shield and exploded fantastically, he lowered his shield as the shield returned to his arm. The kid then launched himself at the devastator with blade in hand. The Devastator readied two more balls of light and threw them at the kid, but the kid sliced through the balls of light, with more fantastical explosions. He emerged from the explosion, grabbing the blade with both hands. The void on his other arm moved to the blade, the once flimsy, katana-like, blade was now turned into a huge hammer. He finally closed the distance between him and the devastator, and it one continuous motion, raised the giant hammer, turned around, and spun himself and the hammer towards the Devastator’s puny looking face. The hammer had made an impact with the ugly russian’s face, and for a second distorting it with the impact sending teeth, spit and a little bit of blood flying.

The hit sent the Devastator flying towards a wall, making a loud crash along with it. He raised the hammer to rest on his shoulder, but he realized he didn’t have his mask on, he wasn’t worried about the devastator remembering his face, he wasn’t going to be awake for a few hours. But he was worried about the crowd that was beginning to form around him. He lowered his backpack and reached for something. After searching for an awkwardly long time he opened his eyes in realization and let out a little “Yippie!” and brought out a mask.

The mask was split down the middle, one side was more angular and “robotic”, while the other was smoother and devil like, with a horn poking out.he placed the mask on his face, cover his head with the hood from his jacket, stayed just long enough to get recognized by the news and crowd for taking down the villain and left home.

The building he lived in was a shabby old abandoned apartment building on 23rd street. The neighborhood was nice.. It had its usual friendly thugs and dealers that had their own special way of greeting and welcoming newcomers. He walked up to the steps leading into the building entrance when he was stopped by the heavy stomping of a man encased in armor.

The armor was jet black. With accents of blue, and blue spikes, adorned on the top of his helmet like a crown a king would wear. The youngman stopped and glared at the man in armor with a menacing look; he turned his body to meet the man in armor. “What do you want?” he spoke with the words of a broken record. “I can’t let you keep doing this..” the man in armor said, he took two steps forward to meet the young man.

“There’s nothing you can say to stop me” he said coldly, “Fine, have it your way” the man in armor menaced back to the kid.

The two were now within inches from each other’s faces, like animals fighting for a female. “Let’s settle this? Shall we? Dante?” The man in armor stared into the endless void that was Dante’s jet black eyes. “Jeez! You’re already making a move on him? You beat me to it Eric!” a feminine voice erupted, rather rudely into the staring contest. The two bewildered men raised their gazes towards the voice. A girl no, a woman stood above them, she wore a small red leather jacket, some fingerless gloves and rocked some short black hair with crimson accents. This girl was the typical “biker girlfriend” style of woman, only she lacked the girlfriend part since the only guy she loves doesn’t see her that way; no matter how many times she throws herself at him.

That man was in fact, Dante.

Even though her body was one that any man who put their gaze upon her would instantly heel at her feet to even have a chance with her, Dante never saw her like that.

It isn’t to say he didn’t like her; rather he liked her too much, he was afraid of dropping everything for her and falling in love with her and forgetting everything else he needed to work towards. So, Dante chose to lock away those human feelings he had for her, for that he had two reasons. One was because he wanted to focus on other things, another was because of something that she did recently.

“I don’t want to speak to either of you” Dante turned back, walking towards the building entrance. “Dante, are you still mad at me?” she said softly, she exposed part of her cleavage as she said that to Dante, but he paid it no mind and answered with a plain and fast “Yes”. The fast remark threw her for a curve as she had physically been taken aback. Dante opened the doors to the building and entered without even acknowledging the others. “Jeez, I can’t believe he’s still pissed at me. I didn’t think it would hurt him that much” she changed her posture and tone as she said this, she wasn’t acting anymore.

But unfortunately for her, she had been too convincing and had Eric’s gaze, affixed onto her. “What are you looking at?” she said as she spat at his feet and walked away. “S-sorry Ali” he stated to her as he followed her, “Just talk to h-” an alarm on her radio interrupted her. “Ali! You there! We have a situation near 23rd street!” a young sounding voice came out from the other end of the radio. A loud “BOOM” followed the alert, “Looks like we got bigger problems now Ali” Eric stated, “Y-yeah, lets go, Dante must’ve heard the alert to. Hopefully he’ll show up” she started towards the sound, heading towards the mysterious threat.

#oc #original #creation #original creation #written #sci fi & fantasy #sci-fi #fantasy #super powers #chapter 1 #the beginning #superhero #draft #part 1

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characteroulette · 8 years ago

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Vektor, EVERY NUMBER

trash prince. it’s gonna be a long one.

1. What is your OC’sfavorite color?

> Vektor is fondof gold, golden browns, and khaki or really ugly yellows.

2. Does your OC collectanything? What do they collect?

> Not.. really??If anything, he collects interesting bits of code he sees and storesit all in his backup modem space. Like a nerd.

3. What kind of thingsis your OC allergic to?

> He’s allergic tosuccess–no, haha, he has no known allergies currently.

4. What kind ofclothing does your OC wear?

> Suits! He likesrefined, rich-styled clothes, mostly suits and button-ups and a tieor two here and there, but he hates shoes so he runs everywhere withbare feet like a heathen.

5. What is your OC’sfirst memory?

> Hisgrandfather’s battle with a Mainframe enemy and his parents’ bodiesdisappearing into the code. (Always gotta have dead or estrangedparents I swear)

6. What’s your OC’sfavorite animal? Least favorite?

> He thinks bearsare pretty neat and he’s not really a fan of vampire bats.

7. What element wouldyour OC be?

> Computer.……nah probably metal or light, he’s got a nice glow to him withhis creation magic and all.

8. What is your OC’stheme song?

> He finds comfort in thesound and the shape of the heart, how it echoes through the chestfrom under the ground. And as the hills turn into holes, he’ll fillthem with gold..

9. Do you have afaceclaim / voiceclaim for your OC?

> NOPE I’m notreally good at those kinds of things. I always use my own voiceswhenever writing them (and reading their dialogue out loud to myself)and therefore have a hard time separating the tone/inflection/accentI give them and that makes looking for voices for them REALLY HARD.

10. What deadly sinwould best represent your OC?

> Probably Pride?His carelessness and disregard for others’ feelings tends to be forprideful reasons..

11. What are your OC’shobbies?

> Getting annoyedwith Dante and wandering around reality in WONDER with a perpetualtourist expression. Also chasing after Vektoria.

12. How patient is yourOC? How hot-headed are they?

> Not all thatpatient, actually! He gets antsy very easily and likes to pace ifthings are taking too long, as well as getting aggravated at othersaround him if matters are not progressing quickly enough. Hisimmaturity holds him back from being a good King candidate…

13. What is your OC’sgender / sexuality / race / species / etc.?

> Vektor is codedMale, with no clear sexuality, mostly looks Israeli, and is acomputer being!

14. What foods doesyour OC like to eat? What are their least favorite foods?

> Vektor likes allfoods, whether or not they taste good, haha. He’s dumb and likes todrench his foods with different condiments to watch how the codingchange, with no regard as to how much food he ruins Vektor why do youact like such a rich kid don’t waste food

15. If your OC couldhave any pet, what would they choose? Why?

> Vektor’s perfectpet fit would probably be a puppy, as they’d both be so excited andtire each other out. However, I can definitely also see him gettingalong well with ferrets.

16. What does your OCsmell like?

> He smells alittle like the school labs and a little like a certain cologne nearconstantly, despite never using cologne or being seen in the labshimself….

(I know nothing aboutsmells tbh don’t mind me)

17. How do they make aliving? What kind of job do they want / not want? What is their dreamjob? What do they think of their current job?

> These are allgood questions that I’ll think about later after Vektor is out ofschool

18. What are your OC’sgreatest fears? Weaknesses? Strengths?

> Vektor’sgreatest fear is that he’ll fail his people and that they’ll alwaysconsider him a failure. His weakness is his impatience with otherpeople’s faults, while his strength is his pure belief in the best ofothers.

19. What kind of musicdo they listen to? Do they have a favorite song?

> Vektor’s beenenraptured by every piece of music he’s heard out here in reality andwhile his favourite sounds tend to be techno or electronica (or videogame), he loves it all.

20. If they came fromtheir world to ours (if not already in our’s) how would they react?What would they do?

> Vektor is theliving embodiment of this question holy shit hahaha

He’s a perpetualtourist expression, wowed by everything he sees and impressed by eventhe littlest of wonders. His favourite thing to do is wander theschool campus at nights and just look at the scenery and he continuesthis even after his sleeping schedule stabilizes.

21. What personalproblems/issues do they have? Pet peeves?

> Despiteeverything being so amazing and wonderful out here in reality, he’snot sure why he gets so frequently told not to use his powers.Surely, the others remember being able to utilise their powersoutside of the game? Also he’s struggling with the fact that hefucked up and projects pretty hard onto the others, especially Dante.Also he gets to go through an existential crisis YEAH

His pet peeve woulddefinitely be someone having the power to circumvent issues, but notmaking use of that power.

22. What kind ofstudent were they/would they be in high school?

> Vektor’s apretty grade-A student, mainly because he’s kinda a computer.

23. What is a randomfact about your OC?

> In his currentform, Vektor is at a disconnect with his emotions, which is why hetends to slip into a more robotic tone and expression (kinda like hedisassociates due to being unable to tap into his emotions properly?)

24. What is theiroutlook on life? What is their philosophy / what do they think ingeneral about living?

> Vektor’s prettypositive about life, believing that any sour situation can be rightedwith the correct steps and a fervent belief! If only that weretrue….

25. What inspired youto create them / how did you create them? Were they originally afancharacter? What was their personality / design like when you firstmade them?

> YO OKAY so allof my Game Kids were supposed to be Code: Lyoko OCs, BUT HERE’S THESCOOP ON VEKTOR SPECIFICALLY:

Vektor was meant tobe more sarcastic and deadpan, like my OC KS, but as I wrote him hejust turned into his excited tourist expression child haha. I wantedto create an Aelita-like character who held the keys to unlocking thedifferent areas in the game, and some of that has stuck (Vektor is aKey and has unlocking powers), but then there was also supposed to bethis huge thing about Day/Night shifts and a huge emphasis on notgoing against the stream which got phased out because it was toocomplicated.

26. Who is the mostimportant person in their life? Why? Who is the least important tothem (that still has an impact and why?

> Dante isprobably the most important person in his life, for spoiler reasons.Both Jonathan and Frank are very important to Vektor as well, and Vektor has to admit that Vektoria is also kinda important.

27. What kind ofchildhood did your character have?

> Vektor lived asheltered childhood in a rich setting and never wanted for anything(besides being able to go bare footed). He loved walking around thetown with his people and enjoyed the lessons his grandfather gavehim. The scariest thing really was learning all the different enemiesthat existed in the Mainframe and training his abilities in order tocombat them should they ever get loose again.

28. What kind ofnervous habits do they have? Do they stim? Do they have any kinds ofaddictions?

> Vektor paces alot. It kinda drives Sonya a little crazy. Which is why Vektor tookto walking around the school after hours.

29. If they couldchoose their epitaph for their grave, what would they choose?

> Uh. Vektor’s waytoo pompous to believe he’d die, ever. But after certain events, he’dprobably just want it to be his full name and title: Vektor Ketziah,Crown Prince of the Mainframe Kingdom.

30. Do they want to getmarried? Why or why not? Would they ever want kids? Do they havekids? Why?

> Vektor has neverthought about relationships, much less marriage. (In the future,maybe, but first he has to solve the issues going on in his Kingdom.)

31. What is their mosttraumatic memory/experience? What is their favorite memory?

> Probably thestory of his parents’ deaths that his grandfather told him is the most traumatic thing he can remember. Hisfavourite memory becomes the group hug with Dante and them, whoaccepted him and forgave him for his incomplete nature.

32. If they could haveone thing in the world, what would it be?

> His people’seternal happiness.

33. Would they everkill someone? What would someone have to do to push them to killsomeone? If they would kill someone, why?

> Even if Vektortried to kill Vektoria, I’m not sure his coding is capable ofdeletion at all. He could defeat her in the game, but that wouldn’tkill her…

34. What social groupsand activities does your character attend? What role do they like toplay? What role do they actually play, usually?

> Vektor wanted toattend EVERY school event, causing a lot of scheduling hell for Paigeand Abraham (and total disaster as Petel couldn’t attend some of theevents due to band stuff and therefore no one was able to keep Danteor Vektor in check at times), but Vektor is eternally the tourist. Hehas to see the sights and try every stall and see everything! He’sgood in a debate, but he’s also kinda the worst customer at timesbecause of his tendency to list math equations explaining certainthings.

35. How is yourcharacter’s imagination? Daydreaming a lot? Worried most of thetime? Living in memories?

> Vektor livesmostly in the present, as he’s not that great at daydreaming.Something in his processing is broken there. He has flashes ofmemories from when he was growing up in the Kingdom, but they’re notvery strong and as such he can’t get caught in them. Vektor is waytoo confident to be worried most of the time, at least.

36. What does yourcharacter want most? What do they need really badly, compulsively?What are they willing to do, to sacrifice, to obtain?

> The thing Vektorwants most in his life is to take back his throne in the MainframeKingdom and heal the wrongs that Vektoria caused. Compulsively,Vektor needs to put others down to forget about the fact that hefucked up. To obtain his people’s trust once more, Vektor is willingto sacrifice himself to make things right once more.

37. What’s somethingthat your character does, that other people don’t normally do?

> Vektorcalculates the formulas for how things work. I’m pretty sure not verymany people do that.

38. What would yourcharacter do with a million dollars?

> Vektor has noconcept of monetary worth! (He’s a hopeless dork who would ask thecrew what he should do with the money and Paige would proceed to leadVektor through a very complicated series of steps that would end withthe crew suddenly owning some very illegal hacking tools)

39. What is in yourcharacters refrigerator right now? On their bedroom floor?Nightstand? Garbage can?

> On top ofVektor’s desk in the dorms is his school books and notebook. Hisgarbage can is always clean it’s sorta terrifying to Sonya. Andmostly on the floor of their room is Sonya’s music sheets ofunfinished pieces he and Petel have been working on. (Vektor ownssurprisingly little in reality)

40. Your character isgetting ready for a night out. Where are they going? What do theywear? Who will they be with?

> Vektor’s off towander the campus in the dead of the night because he’s all readyfulfilled his sleep requirement! He just wears his regular suit,nothing fancy for those late night rendezvous with that lab nightowl….

41. What does yourcharacter do when they’re angry? Why?

> Vektor shoutshaha. He gets mean when he’s really angry, most of the time you seehim he’s just irritated.

42. Does your characterhave any scars? Where did they get them from?

> Vektor does nothave scars at the moment! Not sure if he ever will.

43. What was the mostoffensive thing your character had ever said?

> Good question.

44. How does yourcharacter react to / accept criticism?

> Vektor doesn’tdo well with criticism in the beginning because he’s so goddamnheadstrong and he’s right, you’re wrong. Royalty always has to beright, after all! As time goes on, though, he does start taking astep back to analyse his actions when told he’s doing somethingwrong. He starts to accept his faults rather than outright reject them.

45. If your characterwas given a slice of pineapple pizza and they HAD to eat it (orsomething bad would happen), how would they react? Do they even LIKEpineapple pizza?

> Vektor’s neverexperienced it before, so he’d be open to try it. Not sure if he’dlike it, but Vektor likes weird shit so he probably would find itinteresting even if he didn’t like it. (Good luck finding somethingthat trash prince doesn’t like, though. He likes onion ringssmothered in mustard.)

46. Your character isgiven a voodoo doll of themself. What do they do with it? Do they seeif it actually works?

> Vektor wouldtake it to Frank or Jonathan, convinced one of them would know whatit is (or know who made such an interesting code that was attemptingto ensnare Vektor’s health values). In the end, Dante’s the one whofigures out how to de-link the doll from Vektor’s health safely.

47. Can your characterdraw? What do they like to draw? Do they doodle?

> Vektor’s neverthought about drawing or doodling, but he’s a mixture of disgustedand fascinated by all of Dante’s drawings.

48. What were theirparents like? How has that affected how they are as an adult?

> Vektor wasraised by his grandfather, as far as he can remember, so thatdefinitely shows through in Vektor’s antiquated manner of speech andmannerisms. Vektor is still a child, so he’s plenty flawed and moreof a mess, but that vindictive streak and callous disregard for humanfeelings definitely comes from his creators.

49. Does your characterlike candy? Do they get sugar rushes? What are they like when theyget a rush?

> Vektor does likecandy, even if he thinks they’re a bit boring. He understands thatsugars attribute to energy gain, but has never experienced a sugarrush (and probably never will, his body processes that stuff fardifferently than a normal human’s would).

50. If your characterwas presented with imminent and unavoidable death/fatality, how wouldthey react? Would they try to avoid death anyways? Would they try tomake their last days count?

> Vektor acceptshis death graciously, trying not to let on to any of his friends thathe’s going to die. After all, sacrificing himself to save someonewould cause a stir, but would be a much better use of his life thanthe current inevitable failure he’s destined for, right?

#Momo replies to things #Game Kids need their own tag #Vektor #sighs heavily #why did I do this to myself #trash prince is one of my faves though #couldn't think of a non-OMAM song whoop #more info here than you'd ever need #Vektor is a train wreck here's 50 reasons why #Momo talks about OCs no one knows about

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