#(i just had a random number gen and it picked 3 (which was them both dying)

[implausiblyjosh]

Snack Pack Adventures #1: A Crystal Clear Nuzlocke

I’ve been in a Crystal Clear mood, so let’s play a Nuzlocke.

To pick my starter, I had a random number generate a number 1-6 then picked any of the 6 Gen 1 & 2 starters based on that number. Crystal Clear has options for like 10 or so starters, including both sets of actual starter Pokemon, and they’re listed in National Dex order for the starters, so it’s an easy thing to roll for. I rolled a 1, so I got a Bulbasaur.

After naming our Bulbasaur Celery, the real fun can begin! Before we start on our journey properly, let’s outline the rules.

1. Any Pokemon that faints cannot be used anymore. Release them ASAP. 2a. Catch only the first Pokemon encountered in a route/area/town/whatever. Static, Gift, & Duplicate Pokemon do not count toward this rule and can be caught/received. 2b. A Duplicate Pokemon is any Pokemon in the evolutionary line that has already been caught. Ex. A caught Caterpie would mean a Caterpie, Metapod, or Butterfree would be considered a Duplicate. 3. No items during battle, only Pokeballs and Held Items. 4. I win if I defeat every Gym Leader & the Elite Four, I lose if I white out.

I think that’s it. We don’t have wondertrade or any other fun stuff to worry about, so we can just use these rules and carry on. And so, we head out towards Cherrygrove and then Violet City.

Our first encounter is a Hoothoot, which is an easy catch. They are now named Pringle. The Snack Pack is growing. We should head north, towards Route 46, because we’ll need some more pals before Falkner. Hopefully a Geodude, but I’m not sure they’ll actually spawn at night and I’m not going to look it up.

That is not a Geodude. But, we cannot be picky this early on, so we’re just going to have to make due. I have named our new friend Sandwich. We grow stronger. At Cherrygrove we heal up and pick up some potions. Even though we won’t be using them in battle, we don’t want to have to run back to PokeCenters at the slightest hint of trouble, so they’re good to have. I’ll also pick up a couple extra Pokeballs as well. Oh, and some Antidotes. Anything to keep my Pokemon not-fainted for longer.

After emptying my wallet, it’s time to go on Route 30. Let’s see our first encounter!

Oh damn, a Poliwag! It’s an easy battle, Poliwag’s Bubble only does 1 damage to Celery even on a critical, and Celery’s Tackle does little enough damage to not faint. After eating one Pokeball, Poliwag is captured and we have a new friend on the team. They are now named MTN DEW.

Route 30 seems like a pretty solid place to switch train for right now. Celery takes 1-2 damage per Poliwag encountered, and we can easily wipe them out with one Petal Dance, and they each give a whopping 42 EXP. Let’s get everyone to, say, 7 or 8?

I got bored of grinding after about 10 mins. Let’s just keep moving.

Our first Trainer battles are up ahead. Sandwich will take the lead for switch training, and Celery is level 6 and will be level 7 by the end of the next fight, so I think we’re in a good place. Let’s do this.

Youngster Joey is up first, with a level 3 Rattata. Not even worth mentioning, Celery takes him out with a Petal Dance. Youngster Mikey is afterwards, with a level 3 Pidgey up top. I don’t think it has a flying type move, so I switch into Celery. Two Petal Dances and it’s gone, with a level 5 Rattata taking it’s place. We have our battle mode set to Switch, so we switch back to Sandwich then back to Celery. Celery is at 15/24 HP, so I throw a Leech Seed out. One more Tackle, and now we’re down to 10/24 HP. This is not good. We Petal Dance then we get hit again, down to 5/24 HP. Leech Seed only gets us up to 7/24 HP. We can take one more non-critical hit, and we’re locked into Petal Dance for our next move. The Rattata uses Tail Whip, our Petal Dance hits. Victory!

We definitely need to heal up before the next couple of trainers. I use a Potion on Celery and we move on, avoiding Spinarak as they pop up. Next up is Bug Catcher Don and they send out a level 3 Caterpie. I don’t think this will kill Sandwich, so I try one Tackle. It lands, does about 1/3 of their health. Their Tackle lands, and it takes off 2 HP. Oh, we got this. Two more Tackles and Sandwich gets his first taste of solo victory. Well, over one Pokemon. Don still has another level 3 Caterpie, which Sandwich destroys in 3 hits. Actually, this worked out really for Sandwich because a held Berry gets eaten during battle, so now we’re up to full health and we’re level 5!

We hit Route 31 next and get our first instance of our Duplicate rule, a Poliwag. Then another Poliwag. Then finally!

This isn’t great. Our next gym is Falkner, who has flying Pokemon. Having one type disadvantaged Pokemon is bad, but two? Ugh. But, we also need more bodies, so I get Celery to chip away health and get a catch on the first ball. Carrot has joined the team.

Now, one of the gimmicks of Crystal Clear is that while the whole game is opened up and can be approached from all different angles, with trainers scaling based on your badge number, some places are static. Take Sprout Tower, usually a great place for early-game EXP. In Crystal Clear, the Pokemon are at level 30-ish, so my team of levels 8-4 will not work there. Because of this knowledge, I am scared that an encounter in Dark Cave could go very badly, but I also want to try my luck at getting a Geodude or some other not-grass Pokemon.

I’m going to put MTN DEW in the front and they will be my sacrifice. I switch the party, I walk into Dark Cave…

Oh. We’re fine! Switch into Celery, Tackle a few times, and now we have Salt. We are about to get to Violet City when we get into a battle with Bug Catcher Wade. A level 3 Caterpie opens the fight and I think about who to switch Salt out for. I decide on Pringle and it’s a 2-turn Tackle victory. Another level 3 Caterpie comes out as I switch back to Salt. I think Salt can take this, so I leave him in to Tackle. It takes way too long and is barely worth the 33 EXP, but it is one more level. I almost let Salt stay in until I notice the new Caterpie is level 7. I switch to Celery, who defeats Caterpie and stays at full health thanks to Leech Seed. Switch back to Salt and a level 5 Weedle comes out. Unfortunately, rocks can be poisoned, so I switch back to Celery for safety reasons and destroy the Weedle.

Now it’s time to grind, for real this time. Salt needs to be up in levels and fast, because I believe he’s our only hope with Falkner. Luckily, outside of Poliwag & Bellsprout, Salt can take on just about any wild Pokemon in this area, and we need to get to level 11 for Rock Throw, so this shouldn’t take too long.

After 20-ish minutes of grinding (I watched a Yakuza Kiwami speedrun) here’s the party.

Salt, Lv. 11

Celery, Lv. 9

Pringle, Lv. 5

Sandwich, Lv. 5

Carrot, Lv. 5

MTN DEW, Lv. 4

It’s gym time.

Bird Keeper Abe is first with a Lv. 9 Spearow, and one Rock Throw takes them out. Bird Keeper Rod is next with two Lv. 7 Pidgeys. Two Rock Throws take them out. We use a Potion on Salt before Falkner. This is it.

Falkner sends out a Lv. 7 Pidgey first, which hits us with Mud-Slap, lowering our accuracy. Rock Throw misses, so we’re moving to Tackle. The Mud-Slaps are getting ridiculous, so I switch into Celery. I pop a Leech Seed then bait the Tackle and switch back to Salt. I’m getting hit hard by these Mud-Slaps, but Leech Seed keeps me healing. Pidgey eventually goes down and Pidgeotto comes out, so I switch to Celery to remove the accuracy issues and also setup another Leech Seed. I don’t know if Pidgeotto has a Flying-type move, but I hope not! Gust does 20 points of damage, but Celery gets off the Leech Seed. I swap back to Salt, hoping that Pidgeotto uses Gust and that it doesn’t do much damage. The Gust does 2 damage, and I recover 5! Salt connects with a Rock Throw, and we win!

And with that, our first badge is done. I’ve been writing this as I’ve been playing, and it’s about 11:57pm right now, so I have gotta go to bed. Next time: Azalea Gym!

[whosbex]

You ain't missing out now! 👏

❤- Favorite Tangled Character?

💔- Least favorite Tangled Character?

✨- Moonstone or Sundrop?

🎥- Favorite Season (½/3)?

📺- Another show you’d like to see have a cross over with Tangled?

😺- Number 1 animal companion?

💎- Favorite AU?

👗- Favorite character outfit?

👔- Least favorite character outfit?

🧠- Random Tangled Headcanon you have?

🌙- Favorite Moon Character? (E.g Cass, Varian, Eugene.)

📚- Favorite Tangled Fanfic?

⏰- When did you join the fandom?

💭- How did you learn about TTS?

🎶- Best Tangled Song?

🙉- Worst Tangled Song?

💞- Which character do you relate to the most?

💢- Which character do you not relate to the most?

💥- A big a opinion you have related to the Tangled movie/series?

We all know Cass is my gurl from now until forever! But I also love her smokin hot dad where she definitely got her looks from,Hector and her aunt Adira.😌

Nigel. He can go die in a hole for all I care.

Moonstone 1000%!!!! I have built SO MUCH lore around that opal.

Season 2. Gave us all a lot to work with when it comes to lore and it Twas sad that it Twas not touched on enough in the next season.

Probably HTTYD and the book series the Wingfeather saga. They are both heavily based on dragons so I’d put a WHOLE ASS BUNCH of Saponin lore in there.

I can’t pick one animal 😭😭😭. My number ones would have to be pascal,owl,little big guy,and Hector’s pets who I have named Raynan (rhino),Kinzey & Thanatos (bear cats)

Any next gen aus and anything involving the brotherhood!

Cassandra’s adventure suit and her armor in season two. And raps and Eugene’s outfits in season three. I also like the redesign outfits I’ve made for Cass and Andrew for my next gen au.

Probably Rapunzel’s coronation gown. It just doesn’t feel like her with the big poofy skirt. And Eugene’s outfit for rap’s coronation

I have WAAAAAAAYY too many 😭😭😭. Here are some of them: Hector has ADHD,Cass is near sighted and also has ADHD but she’s medicated (idk if they had that but let’s just say they do),varian and Edmund are both autistic,Stan and Cass are cousins (the cap being Stan’s uncle),Quirin is the oldest of the brotherhood,Edmund is the second oldest after him is Adira and Hector is the youngest. Hector is a Capricorn and is born on Christmas eve (is there a specific reason y I headcanon that? No) Hector and Eugene’s mom are half siblings,Cap had a wife when he adopted Cass but they got divorced,and then Cass’s “mom” died when Cass was 16. Willow has ADHD,and her and the Cap used to be a thing. I also headcanon that the Cap’s name is Caleb. Adira and Eugene’s mom used to date,earlier in high school. Hector stole his rhino from a circus that was passing through the DK,and he found the bear cats in the woods. Cass found Owl as a bb chick that fell out of his nest and was hurt and this happened not too long after her mom died so Owl just became her emotional support animal as well as her fighting bird. Andrew is dyslexic,oh and Quirin is color blind.

Idk ig Cass but I don’t like how they wrote it in the series. But my second would have to be Varian cuz ngl that would also make sense. But yet again I’m also interested with the moon!Eugene au.

I need to read more but so far Blood of my brother by AMax76✨😌✨

2018,when season one just ended. I did watch the short film when it came out but,then I just kinda forgot abt it😅. So yah I officially joined in 2018

Saw the teaser on Disney channel.

My top three should be, 1) ready as I’ll ever be 2)waiting in the wings 3)nothing left to lose

Through it all and living the dream.

At the beginning:raps. By the end? Cass,Eugene and Varian.

Fred.

Again I have too many😅. But I’ll try to keep this one shorter. IMO we should’ve had more lore on the DK and especially Saporia. I really would’ve liked to see them really dive into the motives of why they wanted to take Corona back. I also think that Ready as I’ll ever be should’ve gotten a reprise ont eh finale I stead of us getting through it all,cuz let’s be real that song was not it.

[paradoxrealm]

In a timeline separate from any current RPs, AGiT Vanessa's cell has mysteriously opened. And she's been given a knife.

Oh fun, they're both dead! Good job vanquishing the evil with some more evil?...

Moon had looked like the victor for a moment there, but Vanessa managed to catch him just before dying herself.

Moon had managed to pin her down, tearing a hole straight to some vital wires. He went to cut them out, though he only managed to sever about three of them before Vanessa wedged her arm free (tearing his off in the process) and stabbing that super nice knife you gave her right through his left eye, almost immediately killing him.

Unfortunately for Vanessa, that started sparking, catching Moon's old wiring on fire, some of the sparks (and the occasional stray flame) catching onto her newly exposed wiring before she could escape, causing a rather large explosion just a moment later, the fire effectively eating away at her insides.

Fuuuuun. I'm sure Snatcher would thank you.

[mevekagvain]

Chapter 189 - I still have no clue why the lords' sanctuary is used as a grave like okay yeah I do it's mostly symbolic and to grieve but I still think it doesn't make sense. All the other uses? Yeah cool. Grave? Nah, not when purebloods dissipate into red mist when they die. Extremely funny imagining mvp lord picking out a fancy coffin full well knowing he won't leave a corpse though like okay king <3 and I haven't even started on those damn stairs.

- Everytime Rael's being cringe I flash through renditions of memes that cover the general energy of habitual suffering that is simultaneously willing yet forced.

- Tbh as someone who doesn't particularly believe in the whole concept of honourable fighting unless it's sports or agreed upon beforehand by all parties and because they're going against what they perceive as traitors or invaders... Rajak shouldn't be scolding Rael for trying to get rid of the trio.

Chapter 190 - Here they know the traiters were behind the Loyard massacre but later Seira doesn't even think that Zarga may have played a part until he said it himself so what's the truth.

- Really, Rousare having died should make it obvious that Gejutel wasn't involved and prevent all this. At least Ludis has some sense.

- Ah, time for grandpa's trashtalk.

Chapter 191 - It always drives me insane that Raskreia knows jack shit about Frankenstein and Raizel like she really did not give a fuck about them did she lmao? Oh father has sent clan leaders out on an arrest warrant? Oh father asks me to regularly visit this random stranger who he adores often and wishes for him to be lord? Why would I ever wish to learn more about them? Like queen ily but keep track of important events in Lukedonia even before you're lord please.

- I know Gejutel's just bullshitting but like. The traitors having foresight? Sjjsjsis where? Lagus and Roctis yeah sure I get it. But the rest? Ignes literally experimented on ppl in Lukedonia. Urokai, as much as I love him, is definitely the stupid dumbass of the group. Zarga if he had any foresight would have either just stayed on Lukedonia and chilled as a loner or had a heir who he passed Lontrick on to and left Lukedonia to once again chill as a loner since unlike the others he only disagreed with the new ideals rather than wanting to actively murder someone. As for Gradeus... we know he can use his brain but he really turned it off entirely when deciding to install bloodstones huh? Like if all you want to do is fight than becoming that strong even when you're already the strongest around is not gonna be enjoyable. Well then he went cuckoo so whtever. Ofc I do wonder whether his goal went from enjoying fighting to mere murder before or after he was exposed to bloodstones and the same for him massacring his clan since the options have implications.

- And here we are at the "clan leaders should go into eternal sleep with the lord" bullshit. Like sorry but just cos the good guys are the ones spouting it doesn't mean I'll ever agree with it. Like tf. It makes me think immediately of rulers who had their servants buried alive with them, emperors whose harems were killed upon their deaths, wives set fire upon their husbands funerals, etc. It is interesting ofc that even nobles who are very obviously written as the best race in noblesse have such regressive and cruel practices. Much more fascinating to have humans take inspiration from them for both good and bad after all.

- Grandpa really tried to be mean so Raskreia wouldn't feel bad executing him huh. Not that it worked ofc.

Chapter 192 - It's so funny that Raizel changes his clothes to Lukedonia's black and gold upon entering because like, did he feel like the odd one out or something?

- Darling clan leaders, I'll excuse your ignorance and underestimation of the enemy, but esteemed lord please, you should know better.

- Hilarious that Gejutel saw that the current gen had extremely spotty knowledge due to their predecessors being like that ig but instead of fixing that he essentially went "It's none of my business idc idc" and ignored it until it came back to bite him in the ass. Like at least tell the lord about all this pls. She should know what a noblesse is 😭

Chapter 193 - Rip Karias not finding everyone in the throne room. It's like when a class gets changed last minute and you have no clue which new place it's in.

- Raizel just take the earring off normally I swear. Imagine having only one memento from a friend you actually meant to keep but you just tear it apart. I would cry.

- Gejutel being apologetic about making Raizel use his lifeforce... grandpa,,,

Chapter 194 - The fact that Ludis' eyes glow as he sets up the protection for the sanctuary,,, love him.

- Insert 300 page analysis on Raskreia's relationship with being lord and just her in general here. I'm too lazy to type it out so insecurities, lack of communication, lack of clarity, formality and duty leading to distant relationships, etc etc etc.

Chapter 195 - This is so rude 😤

- God Karias' entrance and interactions with everyone,,, the way he fusses over Raskreia openly, the way Rozaria beckons him over, them,,,

Chaoter 196 - "The clan leaders share my thoughts" obviously not with the traitors. Well Roctis may have agreed but Ignes prevented him from all that. Still, even from the other 4 non traitors of Ru, Elenor, Loyard and Mergas, it's very much possible they disagreed but simply kept quiet about their thoughts because how dare they go against the lord? I mean, the track record isn't exactly great and that's just how it is in these sort of systems.

- Well I definitely think the method he decided on was stupid but I do think mvp lord's sentiment was very sweet. And ofc just how he wants the best for Raizel... it makes me sad everytime like he just wants him to be happy and be able to enjoy life and yet. Just how his message always has him with that soft smile for Raizel as he tells him to live a long joyous life... that he wants him to be safe... that he's happy he's been outlived... gonna go cry brb..

Chapter 197 - Yeah just gonna ignore and replace the misogynistic bs they make mvp lord spout with like "Be wary of men; instead of wasting time beating them up see if you have any interest in women instead. Especially if they're not nobles. Only wear what you're comfortable with and don't let anyone pressure you. Remember to train often with swords or your skills will become rusty. Etc etc etc."

Chapter 198 - At least he has earring number 2 ig

- "This house is a little old and needs some renovation" It's great that you're being tactful but Tao we both know that this estate that hasn't had any upkeep for at least 5 centuries needs a hell lot more than a little fixing.

- M-21 just has his priorities straight okay,,, you all do need to change.

- Why did Tao pack aprons and gloves for the trip?

[super-famicom-star-inactive]

Friday Special #14

March 19th, 2021

Hello friendos, and welcome back to another Friday Special!

So with the recent announcement of Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl for the Nintendo Switch as well as Pokemon Legends: Arceus, for this episode, we’ll be taking a look into the original titles of Pokemon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum for the DS and how they forever changed the Pokemon world.

The year is 2004.

The Pokemon movie Destiny Deoxys was just released in Japan and it’s the newest Pokemon movie to be released at that time. The Pokemon anime would  still be in Gen 3 (Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald) for a few more years. 

The film features a new Pokemon that was never seen before: Munchlax, who was the first revealed Pokemon for the next Generation, Gen 4 (Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, Heartgold, and Soulsilver).

Munchlax wasn’t the only Pokemon teased before Gen 4′s release, however.

That following year in 2005, Lucario and the Mystery of Mew was released and it prominently featured several new Pokemon to the gaming public such as Lucario, Weavile, Mime Jr., and Bonsly. This now was five new Pokemon revealed to the gaming public. 

Then came 2006, the crunch year.

Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea was released and it introduced more new Pokemon in the forms of Mantyke, Buizel, Chatot and the Legendary Manaphy. Also revealed that year were the first of Gen 4 Legendaries Dialga and Palkia for the new games’ box art. 

In the end, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl were officially released in Japan on September 28, 2006, in North America on April 22, 2007, in Australia on June 21, 2007 and in Europe on June 27, 2007. Diamond and Pearl would also be the very first Pokemon games to be released in South Korea on Valentine’s Day in 2008, setting the precedent for future Pokemon games to be released in the region. 

Diamond and Pearl were the first Pokemon games not only to begin a new Generation but also on a brand-new console, the Nintendo DS. In order to capitalize on the new system of choice and its capabilities, Diamond and Pearl were the very first Pokemon games to utilize 2.5D graphics (the effect can best be seen in various objects like buildings and the train in the Great Marsh in Pastoria City). Speaking of sprites, new and never-before-seen trainer sprites were added as well to ever-growing list of types of trainers. The list of Pokemon expanded as well, thanks to the addition of 107 new Pokemon exclusive to the Sinnoh region. 

As the introduction goes for both games, you are greeted by Professor Rowan and you have the choice of either going as Lucas or Dawn, though the player does have the option to create their name for their chosen character. Their rival, Barry, also can be named by the player like in previous versions. 

The game starts with your character watching a broadcast about Johto’s Lake of Rage and its elusive Red Gyarados. You then meet up at Barry’s house, who is also your best friend in addition to being your rival, and the pair go off to Lake Verity to search for Legendary Pokemon. There, you are greeted by Professor Rowan once more along with his assistant and they accidentally leave behind their briefcase and before the pair can retrieve it and return it properly, they are attacked by two random Starly and the player has to pick one out of three Pokemon to fight them with and succeed. Once the battle is concluded, the assistant comes back to retrieve the suitcase, aware of the Pokemon being used and leaves the pair with their new chosen companions. Back home, the player’s mother gives them a pair of Running Shoes to traverse faster across the land and instructs them to meet with the Pokemon Professor in Sandgem Town. Upon arriving, Prof. Rowan bestows upon you the Pokedex, sending you on a quest to retrieve data for the Pokedex of every Pokemon in Sinnoh. 

Thus, the Adventure begins.

In the games, you face Battles, attain Gym Badges and work your way to defeating the Elite Four as well as the Pokemon League Champion. Along the way, you have to defeat Team Galactic, an evil organization who want to erase the entire universe in order to create a new, more perfect universe, and they need the power of the Legendaries in order to accomplish this massive and frightening goal. By defeating them, your home region of Sinnoh, and the universe at large, will be safe. 

Some of the features to make a comeback in a newer fashion was the day/night system first introduced in Gen 2 (Gold, Silver, and Crystal), Pokemon Contests from Gen 3 (Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Leaf-Green and Fire-Red) and even a new battle system which allowed for a more versatile set of moves for a Pokemon but ran into trouble with older fans as the attacks were now labeled as either physical or special instead of just by type alone. 

The pair of games were met with commercial and critical success upon release with particular praise being given to the soundtrack, story, the inclusion of Wi-Fi, the voice chat function. Unfortunately, it landed criticism with the graphics with IGN being quoted as saying “everything still has that Game Boy look to it” (Which in retrospect made the games more appealing as they still appeared timeless without looking too dated). Famitsu gave it a 35 out of 40. 

With this massive success, there was a growing need to continue the Generation.

In response, Game Freak created Pokemon Platinum, an enhanced version of the Diamond and Pearl. 

Pokemon Platinum was released in Japan and Taiwan on September 13, 2008, in North America on March 22, 2009, in Australia on May 14, 2009, and in South Korea on July 2, 2009. Like its predecessors, it also received high praise, and was both commercially and critically successful.

There were a few notable differences between the original Diamond and Pearl versions and Platinum:

On the TV in Twinleaf Town, instead of a special about the Red Gyarados, the special instead talks about Prof. Rowan’s arrival back to Sinnoh from Kanto. 

The outfits of the main characters change to be more suited to a colder environment.

Instead of recovering a suitcase in the forest and fighting Starly, you meet up with Prof. Rowan and receive your Pokemon at that time. 

The sprites of important Trainers (like Gym Leaders or the Pokemon League) have their own individual animations like the Pokemon do.

Instead of facing either Dialga/Palkia depending on the version, your Legendary Battle will be with Giratina instead and it will be down in the Distortion World (more on that in a moment).

Platinum also expanded on previously introduced features such as:

Allowing up to 20 people at one time in the Wi-Fi Plaza (it was only a few people before)

Allowing your starter Pokemon to be admitted into Amity Square in Hearthrome City (in Diamond and Pearl, only a select number of “cute” Pokemon were considered)

Players can now challenge other Trainers in certain Pokemon Centers (first game in the mainline series to do this)

Faster animations with HM Moves such as Surf and during Battles

to name a few.

In regards to new Pokemon, 59 Pokemon were added to the Sinnoh Pokedex, rounding the number of entries to 210, including Legendary Pokemon. Legendary Pokemon like Shaymin were also added and other Pokemon like Rotom were enhanced either with new abilities or new forms. 

So about that Distortion World bit from earlier...

For those unfamiliar, the Distortion World is only available in Platinum and it was how the player fought Giratina. The Distortion World level in particular was considered impressive at the time for the Pokemon community as it utilized 2.5D graphics that almost looked 3D.

How did they do this?

They allowed the character to move up walls in order to complete the current level as there were multiple levels. 

Here is a video of the entire Distortion World walkthrough (the video is a little gritty as it was published way back in January of 2009 and it’s the original Japanese version):

At this time, this was considered insane for Pokemon in 2008/9 and it was one of Platinum’s biggest selling points. Although it may look a little dated with today’s newer titles, this the was bridge that connected GBA-styled graphics to more modern 3D ones. 

So with that, Generation 4 was well underway and these games, as well as the ones that followed by the names of Heartgold and Soulsilver (a topic for another time), are still remembered fondly by fans to this day. 

Thoughts From The Head

When I first got into Pokemon, I got into Pearl, making me a Gen 4 kid. I have very fond memories playing this game with my friends back in elementary school as they either had Pearl like I did or Diamond. When Platinum dropped, it was the hottest game to get on DS and I remember everyone and their mother clamoring to get a copy of it. I never did because I was broke at the time, so I wound up having enough to get a copy of Soulsilver, which I just rediscovered the Pokewalker (remember those?). 

I remember the Distortion World bit like it was yesterday. A friend of mine had gotten far enough in the game to get to that point and I remember all of us crowding around behind him and glued to the screen as he traversed into this strange, new world. 

We were blown away to say the least. 

We also utilized the crap out of those Action Replay devices (which I used to max out both the Sinnoh and the International Pokedexes as well as the inventory), making the Champion Fight with Cynthia almost a breeze with the maxed out Rare Candies we had to boost the levels to Level 100 for the entire party. Now a couple friends of mine had managed to even hack the Platinum game to not get the special event Pokemon like Shaymin and Arceus without the special event in question, they were even able to clone Pokemon as well as steal other Trainers’ Pokemon outright with no issues (still not sure how they pulled those off). 

Thanks to the announcements of the Gen 4 remasters and a mutual of mine playing Pokemon Diamond for a YouTube stream via Desmune emulator, I rediscovered my Pearl game and now I’m currently playing my second run! As of this post, I am about to take on Fantine of Hearthrome City so wish me luck!

Here’s the photos of my copy of Pearl!

I was in the process of leveling up my Chatot so she ain’t looking too good right now.

So do y’all think about all of this? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Thank you for reading!

[greekletters]

this post, coming to you from the grave...

just kidding. I'm alive and well. just had a lot of personal things to struggle through. but I'm working on getting my life together so I can get a writing schedule set up. here is a question thingy to clog up your dashboard in the mean time.

1. From one to five stars, how would you rate your writing? (No downplaying yourself!)

~ maybe like 3.5. I find typos and errors a lot when I read through stuff for the    millionth time 

2. Why do you write fanfiction?

~ mostly to get things out of my mind so that they don’t live in there rent free and drive me crazy. 

3. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works?

~ well, it used to be that I wrote in 2nd person POV and no one liked it. But I have since altered that mindset. So now I need some new stuff for everyone to give me that feedback so I can improve. 

4. Are there any writers that inspire you?

~ mostly, fellow fanfic writers inspire me. But from strictly like a “wow their writing makes me want to be like that, but better” I would have to say its going to be the modern poetry that I read. A lot of r.m drake, Amanda Lovelace, occasionally rh sin. 

5. What’s the fic you’re most proud of?

~ if only. Because it was my first fic and it was my own story. 

6. What element of writing do you find comes easily?

~ the idea of the story. I can play it all out in my head, no problem. 

7. What element of writing do you struggle with most?

~ the writing part. And occasionally, like right now, the motivation to write part. 

8. Which character(s) do you find easiest to write?

~ Blake is the easiest to write for me, but I enjoy writing Weiss and Yang as well. I’m fond of Winter and Pyrrha sometimes. 

9. Which character(s) do you find most difficult to write?

~ Ruby. But I think that’s just because I don’t have any kind of emotional connection to her. Out of the four RWBY girls, she’s my number four. 

10. What’s your favorite genre to write for?

~ fiction. 

11. Who or what do you find yourself writing about most?

~ when it comes to fanfic, monochrome forever and always. Not fanfic, its going to be poetry that is inspired by my somewhat boring life. 

12. Tell us about a WIP you’re excited about.

~ I have a multi chapter fic in the works, which is why I haven’t posted much. And I like to get everything complete before posting. But I’m struggling to find motivation to do the actual writing. 

13. First fandom you ever wrote for?

~ RWBY and it will prolly be the only one I would write for. 

14. What’s your favorite fandom to write for?

~ RWBY. 

15. What’s the weirdest fandom you’ve ever written for?

~ oh look, RWBY again. 

16. Any guilty pleasure trope(s)?

~ friends to lovers is obvious. But I always like the cold, grouchy, lonely ones that come together. 

17. A trope you’ll never, ever write for.

~ something nonconsensual. Or incest. That’s just yuck. 

18. Wildest fic you’ve ever written?

~ I don’t know if it counts as fic, but it’s not public and I don’t think it ever will be. And its kinda smutty. 

19. Do you prefer canon-compliant, AUs, or something in-between?

~ AU all day and night. 

20. Gen fic or shippy stuff?

~ the shippy stuff. Forever and always. 

21. Favorite pairing to write for? (platonic or romantic!)

~ monochrome. 

22. Do you listen to anything while you write?

~ sometimes if I’m stuck, I listen to please be naked by the 1975. That song has deep seated emotional attachments for me. 

23. Do you prefer prompts and challenges, or completely independent ideas?

~ for the short stuff like one shots, I need prompts or something. For the multi chapter stuff I usually develop my ideas independently. 

24. One-shots or multi-chaptered works?

~ one shots for the in between multi chapter works. I say this ironically because I’m not doing well at either right now. 

25. Have you ever daydreamed about side adventures/spin-offs from your fic? Tell us about them!

~ not really, because my actual life is the spin off of my fic. It includes a cross country desertion of my entire life. Riveting stuff. 

26. Is there anything you’ve wanted to write, but you’ve been too scared to try?

~ right now? Just words. 

27. What’s the nicest comment you’ve ever received? 

~ I’ve gotten too many lovely ones to pick a single one out. 

28. How well do you handle criticism when it comes to your writing?

~ its part of my regular job to take feedback and criticism, so that helps with writing. I have an objective brain. 

29. Have you ever gone outside of your comfort zone for a fic? How did it turn out?

~ I think just writing the first one was outside of my comfort zone. Turned out alright, since I’ve written a few more. 

30. Tooth-rotting fluff or merciless angst?

~ why not both?

31. Do you have any OCs? Tell us about them!

~ my brain isn’t creative enough for OC and the time required to develop them. 

32. Summarize a random fic of yours in 10 words or less.

~ feeling love with nothing felt in return. 

33. Is there anything you wish your audience knew about your writing or writing process?

~ I’m slacking on my writing a lot, and I had a lot of real life things blocking my writing brain. But I’m working on it. 

34. Copy and paste an excerpt you’re particularly fond of.

~ I just spent over an hour reading through things I’ve written and couldn’t pick a single one. 

35. Ramble about any fic-related thing you want!

~ this year is gonna be the year I get my writing life together. I’ve worked through a lot of the personal things that prevented me from dedicating time to writing. So I promise monos content for 2021. 

[jarmes]

Beating Pokemon Sapphire with (almost) no damaging moves

Last year, I decided to beat Pokemon Leafgreen without using any damaging moves. It was hard, but doable. A few weeks back, I decided to try and find out if you can beat Pokemon Sapphire under the same ruleset. The answer is no. You can’t. It is physically impossible. Let me explain why.

I started the game up, fast-forwarded through the introduction, and chose Mudkip as my starter. Unlike Leafgreen, which features Bulbasaur, one of the best stall Pokemon in Gen 3, all of the starters in Hoenn are terrible for this run, lacking any real way to stall. I went with Mudkip because it’s the most defensive. Tackle is a damaging move, so Mudkip is unable to use anything but Growl. Fortunately, the Poohcheyana is programmed to run away before it beats you.

I named Mudkip GarbageBoyStinkman (technically GBSM because of character limits) and traveled to Route 103 to meet with May. Having no way to deal damage, I ran from all wild Pokemon along the way. Unfortunately, this is the point the run becomes unwinnable.

You cannot beat May without dealing damage. It cannot be done. None of the starters have any moves that can take out opponents through status moves. Now, you may be thinking, what if I caught another Pokemon on the route? Well, you can’t. You can’t buy Pokeballs until after you beat May. And you can’t trade because you only have one Pokemon. We can’t beat May because her Torchic takes us out in a few hits, and we can’t level up before May because all of the wild Pokemon around do the same. So, the run is over. Game over.

Hence the “almost” in the title. Because May is impossible, we’ll try to beat the game without attacking anyone else. It takes four tackles to take out her Torchic. Technically, because criticals do double damage, two criticals could take May out in two hits, setting our minimum attacking moves at two. Getting two crits in a row only happens one percent of the time, but it is possible. I opted for four hits because the battle was already a wash and moved on.

Birch gives us five Pokeballs and we finally have a little breathing room. Our best strategy, for now, is going to be stalling until enemy Pokemon struggle themselves to death. Mudkip lacks the bulk needed to take a few dozen hits and would end up struggling before the opponent, so I need to get some reinforcements. I caught five Zigzagoon: Chocolate, Caramel, Taffy, Lolly, and Liquorice. Full party in hand, I marched to Route 102 and ran into Youngster Calvin, a six-year-old with a single level five Zigzagoon.

Calvin is the hardest trainer that I’ve ever beaten in any challenge run. Calvin is so insanely difficult that he made me question if the run is actually possible.

At level five, Calvin’s Zigzagoon knows three moves: Tackle, Tail Whip, and Growl. Combined, these two moves have 75 PP, meaning I need to stall for 105 turns before the Zigzagoon will struggle. Growl and Tail Whip are fine, but Tackle deals damage, and my team needs to shrug off 35 of them, plus however many struggles it will take for the Zigzagoon to knock itself out.

Even when my team has used Growl six times and Calvin has avoided all uses of Tail Whip, Calvin’s Zigzagoon can take a member of the Candy Squad out in five hits and GBSM out in six. Now, looking at those numbers, it seems that Zigzagoon should just barely be beatable. Unfortunately, it isn’t. Cal’s Zigzagoon is able to take out the first two of its brothers before they minimize its attack and tail Whip lowers the number of hits we can take. Plus, Struggle does just as much damage as Tackle but only does half as much in recoil, meaning that, if my math is right, it’ll take ten struggles for it to die, meaning that even in the absolute best circumstances, we’d need to survive 45 hits when we only have enough HP to take 36.

Now, there are a few random factors that make me think this battle may be technically possible at this point. Zigzagoon chooses its moves at random, meaning that it could in theory save all of its Tail Whips until after wasting its Tackles. And, as previously mentioned, Tackle can miss, which gives us a free hit to survive. But, at the same time, Zigzagoon can get criticals which effectively doom us. After two more tries, I decided that this battle wasn’t winnable, at least not yet.

So, we can’t beat a level five Zigzagoon. But, the question is, can we beat a level two Wurmple? Because if we can beat some wild Pokemon on Route 201, we can get some EXP and become strong enough to beat Youngster Calvin. Unfortunately, my team right now is just barely too weak to survive a single battle.

Fortunately, I bought a couple of potions. If I use a potion right before the Wurmple can take out Mudkip, I can just barely survive. Now, I only had a few potions, but I wasn’t too worried. After each battle, Zigzagoon has a 10% chance to give a random item after battle, including Super Potions, Rare Candies, and things like Nuggets and Full Restores that I can sell for money. With five Zigzagoon, I had a ~40% chance of getting an item after each battle I won.

But, luck wasn’t on my side. By the time Mudkip reached level eight, I was completely out of items. And Mudkip still wasn’t tough enough to survive a battle without a potion. Game over.

So I completely restarted. This time, I was smarter with my Pokeballs. Instead of throwing them willy nilly and having to buy ten more after running out, I saved and reset until I caught five Zigzagoon using the five balls Birch gave me. I also avoided Calvin until I was ready for him, because losing to him wasted money. The extra money this run gave me was enough to start my grind with ten potions instead of three. Also, I made sure that all of the Zigzagoon I caught were level three this time, hoping that the one extra HP would help. I made a save state and started grinding.

I also switched to hunting Poochyena instead of hunting Wurmple. They deal the same damage at level two and don’t know string shot, which made things go quicker. After my first Poochyena defeat, one of the Zigzagoon picked up a Full Restore, which I was able to sell for five extra potions.

Finally, after hours of grinding, Mudkip hit level ten and was able to survive a battle without a potion. I was ready. I marched up to Calvin and stalled. The battle came down to the wire, with Mudkip being the only team member standing when Calvin started struggling.

And then I ran out of Growls. I could not switch out, I could not attack. I was at full health from the last potion, so I could not use another. Calvin was struggling and I was without any means to beat him. Fortunately, one of the Zigzagoon picked up a Revive while I was grinding and I was able to use it to revive a Zigzagoon and switch to it. Still, I came dangerously close to losing.

After Calvin was defeated, I knew the run was possible. There were half a dozen trainers between me and Petalburg Woods, but fortunately, all of them could be avoided. Petalburg Woods contains two things that were useful for me: Cascoon and Silcoon, who only know Harden and can be trained on easily, and Shroomish, the first member of my actual team.

I caught the Shroomish with an Ultra Ball one of the Zigs picked up and named it Plus Ultra. Shroomish didn’t have any status moves yet, but it did have the ability Effect Spore, which could in theory be used to poison opponents. Effect Spore was too unreliable to rely on, though. I trained Shroomish up to level ten, where she learned Leech Seed. Finally, I had a consistent, controllable means to deal damage. Leech Seed drains one-eighth of the target’s health each turn, giving me a way to slowly whittle down opponents. It doesn’t work on grass types, and it’s slow, but it works well enough for now.

I stormed my way through the early game, beating Roxanne without issue. In Dewford Cave I got the TM for Flash and taught it to Shroomish. Flash is actually a decent stall move; the lowered accuracy does wonders to help Plus Ultra survive while waiting for Leech Seed to kill. I also grabbed the Everstone and gave it to Shroomish to keep her from evolving. Brawly was tough. His Pokemon hit hard, especially after a few Bulk Ups. I managed to get lucky and beat him on my second attempt. All of what I’ve said so far happened in a single six-hour play session, by the way. After beating Brawly, I saved the game and went to bed.

I booted up the game the next day and, for some odd reason I was back in Odale town. That’s weird. Also, I didn’t have any badges. And I didn’t have Shroomish. And all of my Pokemon were as weak as they were before the grind. That’s really weird.

I’m sure I saved after Brawly, but for some reason, it didn’t go through. I reverted to my last save before that. So, naturally, I did the only sane thing: redid everything until I got back to Brawly. It was...fun.

I went through Slateport without much issue; I ran out of Leech Seed PP against a Marill in the Seashore House and had to struggle it out, but that only took an eternity. North of Slateport I caught a new team member: Tex Mex the Gulpin. Gulpin had a decent bulk and comes with Poison Gas and Yawn, giving me a second way to take out opponents and a way to deal with Grass types.

I ran into a trainer with a Roselia on Route 110 and was reminded that Grass/Poison Pokemon are nightmares. Fortunately, I was able to walk around her. I mean, in theory, I could either take a Roselia out with a Zubat that knows Supersonic, by struggling it out, or getting it to kill itself by using Mega Drain on Gulpin because of her Liquid Ooze ability, but none of those plans are worth the effort.

May was, like before, annoying. I took out her Wailmer and Numel easily enough, but her Grovile took out Gulpin with Quick Attack. Fortunately, it poisoned itself thanks to Effect Spore. I made my way to Mauville, grabbed the Mach Bike, and made my way to the Day Care. I abused the Day Care to get both of my main team members up to Level 28. Gulpin evolved into Swalot and gained the new, fantastic moveset of Toxic/Poison Powder/Encore/Amnesia.

Leech Seed and Poison Powder both kill in eight turns. Toxic kills in five, making it our new method of taking things out. Also, I kept Poison Powder because it has a lot of PP making it a good move to waste time with.

I also evolved Mudkip, hoping the new Ground typing would help me beat Wattson. I ended up not needing it, because Shroomish and Swalot took him out with ease. I kept moving through the game until I reached a roadblock on Route 112. An unavoidable trainer with a Roselia. Fortunately, I had a plan.

In the Fiery Path, you can find wild Slugma. Slugma has the ability Flame Body, which has the ability to burn your opponent if they hit you with a contact move. The roadblock Roselia knows Poison Sting, which is a physical move. So I caught a Slugma and named it Sheers. Unfortunately, it has Magma Armor instead of Flame Body. So I caught a second one and named it Sheerz. It also had Magma Armor. The third Slugma, Shers, did have Flame Body. I took it to the Roselia, let it get pounded by Poison Sting, and...it fainted. Turns out Poison Sting doesn’t do contact.

So anyway I released the three Slugma and struggled out the Roselia. On Route 113 I caught a new team member: Punji the Skarmory. Skarmory is a famously bulky Pokemon, with great defensive stats, fantastic typing, and access to the interesting combination of Spikes and Whirlwind. Unfortunately, it doesn’t learn Spikes until level 42. And I caught it at level 16. So, he’s going to be wearing the EXP share and working as a tank for a while.

I stormed through the game until reaching Lavaridge. Lavaridge features cheap herbal medicine, which I used constantly throughout this run. Flannery’s fire Pokemon were a nightmare for Shroomish and Skarmory, but Swalot saved the day, using Amnesia to boost her Special Defence and tank Torkoal’s Overheat. After Flannery, I ran to the desert and grabbed the Sandstorm TM, which I taught to Skarmory to give him a way to deal damage. Sandstorm kills in sixteen turns, which isn’t great, but it does give us a way to take out Roselia. I also caught a Baltoy. I named it Tick because the first two I tried to catch Self Destructed. Baltoy doesn’t learn any status moves until 31, so I taught it Flash and kept it on the bench for a while.

Norman was tough. Poisoning his Pokemon allows them to decimate me with Facade, so I was forced to rely on Leech Seed for damage. Even then, he was able to use Focus Punch flinching, making the battle brutal. Fortunately, Truancy gave me time to heal my team and Norman eventually went down.

I ignored Wattson’s pleas for help and made my way to Fortree City. Along the way, I picked up an Absol I named Obama. His only good move at that point was Taunt, meaning that I had another near useless Pokemon to babysit. Wiona was tough, but Skarmory’s bulk and Swalot’s toxic helped me survive. I had my new Absol Taunt her Altaria to keep her from spamming Dragon Dance. Her Skarmory ended up being the most frustrating one to take out, because it kept killing Shroomish before I could get a Leech Seed off.

After Wiona, Baltoy learned Sandstorm and I taught it Reflect and Light Screen via TM, giving it a use. I caught a Duskull and named her M87. She started with Confuse Ray and Disable, making her a good Pokemon to shut down opponents while waiting for Toxic to kill them. Tate and Liza hit hard, but they only had two Pokemon, both of which Swalot was able to Toxic before going down. At the end of the battle, only Duskull and Baltoy were still standing, but the twins were down. I saved the game and ended another lengthy play session.

And I ended up back at Norman. It was at that point that I learned a fun quirk of my emulator. If you make a Save State, then play for a few hours, then make a battery save, it deletes the battery save and instead opens the save state next time. This also explains the weird issue with me ending up back at Odale Town.

This time, I didn’t have the patience to go through the game fighting trainers. Instead, I snuck past trainers until I caught Absol and Duskull again then abused the Daycare to get all of them up to level 42. This left the team without EVs, but I considered it a good sacrifice for not having to sit through dozens of slow battles.

After my Day Care abuse, I had a few new toys to play with. Duskull evolved into Dusclops, learning Will-O-Wisp and Curse along the way. Baltoy learned Cosmic Power and evolved into Claydol. Finally, Skarmory learned Spikes which, when combined with the Roar TM, gave him a reliable damage method. I also taught Obama Protect from a TM. I stomped the rematches against Wiona and the twins and made my way to the undersea cave.

The Undersea Cave was annoying, both because I had to leave Claydol and Absol behind for HM requirements and because the grunts kept using Taunt. Archie revived Kyogre and I went to Sootopolis to defeat it. Kyogre, the monstrous God of the sea, went down in four turns thanks to Dusclops’s Curse.

Wallace’s Milotic’s spamming of Recover was annoying, but I taunted it and stalled it out. With my eight gym badges, I was able to take on Victory Road. But I wasn’t ready, not quite. The late game battles had been getting harder and harder, so I decided to do a bit of prep work. I fought one hundred different Marill to give my team some HP EVs. I was going to do the same with Cascoon/Silcoon, but decided that I value my own time too much. I grabbed the Focus Band from Meteor Falls. I also made my way through the Ruined Ship because I remembered that the Leftovers were located in a trash can; they aren’t, they’re on the boat that you unlock by beating the Elite Four. Finally, I went back and fought some of the trainers I skipped so I could get money for healing items. My prep work done, I marched through Victory Road.

The trainers were tough, but beatable. I did have to keep leaving to heal my team at the Pokecenter, which was annoying. Waiting at the end of Victory Road was Wally. He sent out his Roselia, that devil, and I took it out with Dusclops’s Curse. I did some quick grinding before the Elite Four and Absol learned the move I caught it for: Perish Song. Perish Song essentially allows me to automatically win if I can get an opponent down to a single Pokemon. Going into the Elite Four, this was my team:

Plus Ultra (Shroomish)

Leech Seed/Flash/Stun Spore/Toxic

Tex Mex (Swalot)

Toxic/Amnesia/Protect/Attract

Punji (Skarmory)

Spikes/Sandstorm/Roar/Sand-Attack

Tick (Claydol)

Sandstorm/Cosmic Power/Reflect/Light Screen

M87 (Dusclops)

Will-O-Wisp/Confuse Ray/Disable/Curse

Obama (Absol)

Perish Song/Double Team/Taunt/Protect

I started out my battle with Sidney with some Spike/Roar comboing from Skarmory. After Skarmory went down, I switched to Swalot and took out a few Pokemon with Toxic. His last Pokemon, his Absol, went down to my Absol’s new Perish Song.

Phoebe’s team of Ghosts abused status moves, forcing me to keep switching out Pokemon. None of the team was knocked out, but the whole team had to step in to get rid of Phoebe.

Glacia was a challenge. Her super effective Ice Beams and Shadow Balls cut through my team. Worse, she managed to freeze Swalot twice. Her Walrein hit like a truck and would have taken out the entire team without Perish Song. At the end of the battle, all I had left was a red health Absol.

My plan for Drake was to have Swalot use Toxic then switch to Claydol. Unfortunately, I was out of Toxic when the battle started. Shroomish managed to take out Shieldon, but was one-shotted by Drake’s Flygon. I sent out Dusclops to use Will-O-Wisp, which missed three times in a row. Dusclops went down to a super effective Crunch, but I revived it and took out both Flygon and the Salamence with Curses and heal item spam. Altaria went down to a Perish Song, opening up the Champion battle, but I knew I was far from ready.

I used my Rare Candies I’d collected over the run, thanks to my Zigzagoon, to get a few last minute levels in. Shroomish finally learned Spore. I took off the Everstone and my boy finally evolved into Breloom. Would it have been easier to just forget about Spore and evolve at 23, as opposed to carrying around a near useless Shroomish for half the run? Yeah, probably. But whatever, I wanted the cool 100% sleep chance.

So, how did my fight with Steven go? Well, I recorded it and uploaded it here.

By the ingame timer, this run took 72 hours. But, I used superspeed. In reality, it only took 17 hours, mostly done during college lectures. I enjoyed this run, it was a fun challenge. I’ve already started on another run, this time in a much more difficult Pokemon game, so look forward to that. Thanks for reading.

[unrivaled-super-hottie]

QZGS Masquerade 2019 Reveals

The guesses are in for Masquerade and now it’s time to reveal everyone! There were 22 guesses (+1 late guess I tossed in for fun), and one author remained unguessed throughout the whole event!

(Please note the collection will be de-anoned by 11/15 at 11:59 pm EST so if you still want to keep your fic on anonymous to the general public who doesn’t know about masquerade, please add it to the general anonymous connection on AO3 in addition to the masquerade collection)

Read below to see results/statistics for all the fics

(later on i realized i forgot to ask for a discord ID/ao3 name on the form but luckily I knew the first place at least)

First off for the guessers:

The one who guessed the most authors correctly: TheDefenestrator [ni(redacted)@gmail.com] with 16/21 correct guesses

Honorable Mention:  Dayadhvam [da(redacted)@gmail.com] with 13/21 correct guesses

The average number of correct guesses was: 4.826086957

Median number of correct guesses: 4

Both of them left cool deductions so please check out the raw spreadsheet at the end of this post!

Now for the fic which will be revealed in order of most to least guessed

disclaimer: In my comments, when I said I guessed someone, I’m referring to my active speculation I made as I read a fic before I checked the form submissions. I did not actually make an official guess that was part of the statistics

Number of Correct Guesses: 9/21 (43%)

Most Incorrectly Guessed as: Lauchis and eloboosting (2 guesses each)

Correct Author:  Battle_god_Ye_Xiu

Host Comments: Look i guessed this was you almost immediately because  I saw Zheng Xuan tag + the words “soft family” (you like using soft a lot, with ur “uwu soft angst” )

Number of Correct Guesses: 9/22 (41%)

Most Incorrectly Guessed as: Autumn_Rain, DesertRain, Syncogon (2 guesses each)

Correct Author: desikauwa

Host Comments: Everyone said you have a really distinctive style and I agree, especially the paragraph length + dialogue. I enjoyed the rarer Fang Rui content!

Number of Correct Guesses: 8/22 (36%)

Most Incorrectly Guessed as:  swanfrost (3 guesses)

Correct Author:  Shirou_UOHS

Host Comments: Shirou I think your writing is really distinctive and I guessed you right away because you love sibling stuff and YOU LITERALLY DREW FANART OF THIS AND POSTED IT ON THE SERVER. SO SUSPICIOUS. I think you would have been guessed more, but kiri (desertrain) gave you some cover because both of you use “gege” in your fics and you were guessed a lot for the other fic. 

(Also for the swan as most incorrectly guessed, RNG was 2/3 of those guesses so not as accurate..)

Number of Correct Guesses: 7/21 (33%)

Most Incorrectly Guessed as:  fayah (4 guesses)

Correct Author: sakuchii

Host Comments: So many people guessed me for this one! Probably because Su Muqiu/Ye Xiu, jokes on you all I wouldn’t be that obvious. I didn’t guess this one to be you off the bat but apparently you had something stylistically distinct because a lot of people did correctly guess!

Number of Correct Guesses: 7/21 (33%)

Most Incorrectly Guessed as:  syncogon (4 guesses)

Correct Author: Dayadhvam

Host Comments: Most people concluded that this fic was written by someone familiar with Chinese because of the references so I’m not surprised Synco was the most guessed. This was one of the fics I knew who wrote it almost immediately as I read it because Journey to the West references!! I remember one of the first posts I saw from you in the server was you explaining LJY’s old username. I laughed that your profile pic on discord this whole event was Innocent Eye Fang Rui, I wonder if that helped anyone guess/suspect? 

Also can I say the dialogue for this was great and this was my favorite fic out of the masquerade

Number of Correct Guesses: 6/21 (29%)

Most Incorrectly Guessed as:  Shirou_UOHS (5 guesses)

Correct Author:  DesertRain

Host Comments: So many people guessed this off the usage of “gege” which was why Shirou was guessed so often! (Also Shirou under suspicion for Ye Twin fic I’m guessing) For the first 4 guesses you had a 100% guess rate even by RNG and it made me laugh a lot, congrats on not ending up as most guessed despite your early lead!. Also “no beta we die like su muqiu” is the best tag you win just for that

Number of Correct Guesses: 6/21 (29%)

Most Incorrectly Guessed as:   Missing_Ninja_History (4 guesses)

Correct Author:    eloboosting

Host Comments: I think this was one of the easier fics to guess because so few people in the fandom write porn. Gma (Missing_Ninja_History) was probably guessed the most because she recently posted TKA nsfw rare pair fic lmao. Also Tread (havingonlydreams) was guessed twice since she wrote nsfw hanzhang before. Zoe ( Battle_god_Ye_Xiu) tried to convince everyone this was possibly her fic but absolutely no one believed this except 1 random rng guess.

I may or may not have been converted to HanZhang by this fic.

Number of Correct Guesses: 5/21 (24%)

Most Incorrectly Guessed as:  senata_isivelia (3 guesses)

Correct Author:    qyff

Host Comments: I think your style was somewhat distinct but SO MANY people guessed you for another fic! Not one of the ones I was 100% sure of off the bat, but is it weird that I suspected you just for the triple question marks? haha

Number of Correct Guesses: 5/21 (24%)

Most Incorrectly Guessed as:  Dayadhvam,  qyff, and  rimenorreason (2 guesses)

Correct Author:  Swanfrost

Host Comments: I thought your summary style should have given you away so much more! The block quote + one line zinger is so you. Also I was happy to see so many good gen pieces for masquerade! The fluffy feelings here also vaguely reminded me of your other fic, I guessed you pretty much off the bat when entries were coming in

[From this point onward, we’ve reached the top 50% of well-hidden authors!!]

Number of Correct Guesses: 4/21 (19%)

Most Incorrectly Guessed as:   DesertRain (4 guesses)

Correct Author:   Missing_Ninja_History

Host Comments: This was another one of those fics I guessed off the bat because of your copious use of dashes and the “Happy birthday, Qiu.” near the end. That last part basically ruled out most of the more Chinese-knowledgeable writers. I also felt under 2k words would be a breeze for you so the early submission just gave me the strongest gut-feeling this was you. Felt so validated when I checked the forms and was correct haha 

This was also a somewhat popular guess for the two authors that didn’t have previous fic history

Number of Correct Guesses: 4/21 (19%) 

Most Incorrectly Guessed as:  qyff (10 guesses)

Correct Author:   qq_riri

Host Comments: So this was THE most successful fake-out fic out of the bunch, because qyff is so well known for liking MF + QYF. I just read from you that you did this on purpose and it worked so, so well /slow clap

Number of Correct Guesses: 4/21 (19%)

Most Incorrectly Guessed as:   jellysunfish (4 guesses)

Correct Author:   DancingBloomTKA

Host Comments: The way you formatted BOLDED poetic lines in between your storytelling was really obvious, even if you tried to hide it with adding the spacing lines. I think Jelly was guessed because they also do this, but you do single lines so I immediately suspected you!! I just didn’t expect you would join the event with IRL and stuff keeping you busy, I’m glad you did! 

Also I totally noticed in the server you asked “Who’s the “Time to let my inner demons out” in Dying Flame? Li Xuan?” How shameless, asking about your own fic. I feel this should have made more people suspect you rather than throw them off, but alas I don’t think many people noticed this except me.

Number of Correct Guesses: 3/21 (14%)

Most Incorrectly Guessed as:   swanfrost (3 guesses)

Correct Author:   wackernagel

Host Comments: This was a really cool rarepair! Unfortunately it also was one of the things that outed you haha. That and you accidentally kinda said when you finished your fic and your wordcount woes and tried to bluff it off with editting but apparently some people remembered

Number of Correct Guesses: 3/21 (14%)

Most Incorrectly Guessed as:    Missing_Ninja_History (6 guesses)

Correct Author:  Lauchis

Host Comments: This was the third most misdirected fic. Maybe because Gma (Missing_Ninja_history) wrote Wu Xuefeng rarepair before? I like how you stole Tread’s headcannon post but Tread (havingonlydreams) was suspected for so many other fic instead that everyone just chose to blame Gma. Also thank you for using the title I was trying to bait people into using!!  Unfortunately we only fooled one person with this :(

Number of Correct Guesses: 3/21 (14%)

Most Incorrectly Guessed as:   senata_isivelia  and DancingBloomTKA (4 guesses)

Correct Author: rimenorreason

Host Comments: Since you and Senata both had no fic history, a lot of people actually did tend to guess which two fics you two wrote but mixed up the correct order haha. I didn’t guess this one right at all tbh :’D

[From this point onward, we have the top 25% most well hidden authors]

Number of Correct Guesses: 2/21 (10%)

Most Incorrectly Guessed as:  lauchis (4 guesses)

Correct Author: Fayah

Host Comments: This was mine! I did a few things to throw people off - I never wrote Tang Rou before so I picked her as a subject. I just rushed this in 24 hours and hoped that was enough to make my writing not sound so much like myself. I also never use long (parenthesis) lowercase titles so I hoped that it helped throw some people off too. Vaguely I tried to implicate Syncogon because she wrote WangRou before and the lyrics were from the TKA live action which I haven’t watched but she has posted about listening to the OST repeatedly.

I never expected lauchis (who also ships wangrou) to join the event and give me even MORE cover. Thanks lauchis :)

Number of Correct Guesses: 2/21 (10%)

Most Incorrectly Guessed as:   Fayah and Autumn_Rain (3 guesses)

Correct Author: Syncogon

Host Comments: This was really obvious to me and I was surprised it wasn’t guessed more because you’ve actually written fem!YX fic?? And talked about this fic in the server. YOU’VE ALSO LITERALLY USED THE “Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex“ TAG BEFORE!!!!!! This guess rate is a true miracle, this wins the “most surprised that it wasn’t guessed more.” Maybe because you have 41 fic and people gave up before going to page 3 and seeing your very first fic that was fem!YX 

Number of Correct Guesses: 2/21 (10%)

Most Incorrectly Guessed as:   Battle_god_Ye_Xiu, qq_riri, sakuchii  (3 guesses)

Correct Author: senata_isivelia

Host Comments: I figured you would do well since you had no other fic. I also helped secretly beta this fic though I don’t know if that actually would have affected people’s guesses. Not surprised that Zoe (Battle_god_Ye_Xiu) got guessed frequently for this because YuHuang. One of the times you got correctly guessed was from RNG but I’m really surprised someone did guess you accurately!

Number of Correct Guesses: 1/21 (4.8%)

Most Incorrectly Guessed as: fayah (4 guesses)

Correct Author: havingonlydreams

Host Comments: I’m so surprised everyone thought I wrote Liu Hao fic??? I’m honored because I enjoyed the perspective, but still baffled. Tread, I’m really disappointed you weren’t 2nd place because you really deserve it - you had some Zhang Jiale level luck in this event. The one person who guessed you cited RNG as their reason. 

Number of Correct Guesses: 1/22 (4.5%)

Most Incorrectly Guessed as:   havingonlydreams  (8 guesses)

Correct Author: Autumn_Rain

Host Comments: This is probably the strongest accidental masquerade misdirection that happened because I know you had no clue Tread (havingonlydreams, who is strongly associated with Thunderclap) would participate. I did not expect to see/read this pairing but it was a really fun fic!

Only one person (Fenes/The Defenestrator) guessed correctly and saved my ass from having a two-way tie for first. Congrats on the Zhang Jiale award!  

Number of Correct Guesses: 0/22 

Most Incorrectly Guessed as:   Autumn_Rain (5 guesses)

Correct Author: jellysunfish

Host Comments: Our masquerade winner! I think your spacing made people think Autumn_Rain. I definitely couldn’t pin you down either, so congrats! I’ll DM you when I start working on the art :)

[Raw Data Spreadsheet + Deductions if guesser chose to include]

[Raffle Ticket List]

And the winner of free Nitro is Syncogon!

Thank you so much to everyone who participated! I hope you had fun. Also feel free to slide me your feedback/suggestions/if you would be interested in doing this again next year :)

[daniellethamasa]

Hey all, Dani here.

I love talking about books. It’s the reason why I started this book blog, but over the years I’ve tried to balance my love of reading with all of my other geeky passions and hobbies. Occasionally that means posting about non-bookish things on here. Honestly this is more like my little corner of the geek universe. Today is one of those days where I just feel this huge need to talk about not quite as bookish things.

I say not quite because today I’m talking about shows that I’ve been binge-watching or re-watching quite recently. However, I can also say that they all have books attached to them, so I’ll talk about both the show and the books that go along with it.

It’s kind of a shorter list, but I’m probably going to gush about most of these for a little bit so it’ll still be a decently sized post.

First off, I have to talk about “The Good Place.” This show just finished its four season run recently, and I’ve somehow managed to avoid spoilers for the season finale, which is really impressive. I’m in the middle of season 3, so I’ll have to wait a little bit to be able to watch the final season, but you guys, this show is utterly amazing! The way it is able to balance all of these deep philosophical and ethical lessons and debates with ridiculous randomness and hilarity, as well as having massively compelling characters is just wonderful.

The character development is pretty exceptional overall as well. Watching these characters, who some of them are self-centered or obnoxious or arrogant or downright evil, learn and grow and change through all of these events that happen, and all of the ethics lessons that are presented to them, it’s just a delight to watch.

I don’t own this book yet, but come on, how cute is the idea behind it? A cookbook based on the show? Like, there are some pretty fun episodes around food and such throughout the show, so I’m excited to take a look at the book in the future.

Next, I’m going to mention one of my more recent manga/anime obsessions, and that is “Fruits Basket.” When it comes to reading I’m only through the third volume of the Collector’s Editions, which I think is like the first 9 volumes of the standard manga editions.

This story is just really cute, and like a lot of manga and anime I seem to enjoy, there is a fairly decent focus on food. It is a shojo manga, which is a story that is aimed more towards a teenage female audience, and the stories typically involve romance. This one follows a young woman named Tohru, whose mom recently passed away, and through a series of circumstances she ends up temporarily moving in with a classmate…only to learn that he and several other members of his family are possessed by the animal spirits of the Chinese Zodiac.

I just think that Tohru is so adorable and caring and compassionate, and watching how she interacts with members of the Sohma clan is really intriguing. I didn’t get into this series back when it was originally released (back in like 1999/2000), and didn’t even actually know it existed back then. I think the only manga/anime I really knew about back then was Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura, though I had heard of Dragon Ball Z and all that.

Anyway, I’m glad that Funimation decided to bring back the anime, mostly with the original cast as well. Much like what they did with Fullmetal Alchemist/Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, this new adaptation is supposed to follow the manga more closely. Now, considering I never watched the original series, I can’t say if that’s true or not. But based on images I’ve seen from both shows, I can say that the art and animation style has certainly improved over the past two decades, so that’s great.

I’m looking forward to continuing with this series and meeting the last members of the Zodiac, and seeing how Tohru living with a few of the Sohmas affects and changes them all.

My third current show obsession is “The Witcher.” Clearly I have to talk about this show, because I’m a little bit obsessed with it at the moment. I have the whole season downloaded on my phone so I can watch it anywhere/anytime. I own all of the books. We own a couple of the games.

The action in the show is phenomenal. Okay, yes, if you aren’t fully paying attention, the timeline in season one can be a little confusing, because there’s like three different timelines running at once for most of the show. I personally didn’t have any issues with it, though I know a lot of people complained about it. I enjoyed the costuming, and the magical special effects. The creatures were fantastic. There was a dragon in one of the episodes and he was glorious. Most of the creatures that Witchers hunt were delightfully creepy, which I thought was pretty darn cool.

I had tried to read the first book of stories twice before the release of the show and didn’t make it that far in, because while it was good, I still struggle with translated books. After watching the first couple episodes of the show, I picked up the book again and I was completely hooked. I don’t know what it was but all of the stories and characters and the world, it all just clicked for me, and now I just really want to binge-read the whole series, but at the same time, I want to savor the books…especially since we’re apparently not getting season two until at least early 2021.

Okay, fine, I have another manga/anime to talk about, and that’s “Black Clover.” Yes, I gush about this series pretty much every time I do a Manga Monday review for one of the volumes. I absolutely adore the characters in this show/series, and I’m excited about every time I get to enjoy more of their adventures.

Honestly, seriously, one of my absolute favorite parts about the Black Bulls squad of the Magic Knights is how they work together, and fight together, and stick up for each other, and defend each other, and how they never ever give up. They could be hurt and weak and be at the end of their magical ability, but if the people around them need protecting, the Black Bulls find a hidden reserve of strength and find a way to overcome any obstacle in front of them. It’s really awesome and inspiring.

Plus getting to watch the development of each character’s magic is really fun too. I’m completely caught up on the released volumes of the manga, but I have I think like 40 episodes or something of the anime to watch yet. I’ll be getting to that on my Funimation account next; I want to finish Fruits Basket first.

Finally, my obsession absolutely continues with one of my favorite shows, which you can watch for free on YouTube or you can just listen to as a podcast, and that is “Critical Role.”

Again, this is another one of those fandoms that I’ve talked about a number of times on this blog. I’ve been to three of the Gen Con live shows, I own a whole lot of merchandise, and I just love how this show sparks the creativity of so many and helps to inspire a lot of us out there.

I just, I really connect with the characters, each of them in different ways, but you do grow to really love them, and it’s all improv, and some of what happens is truly decided by rolls of the dice, so you never exactly know what to expect. But the characters and the stories are just complex and they get deep, and sometimes you’re watching it and you get emotional about it. If you’re like me then you get emotional sometimes while thinking about the characters and the story lines. Like, you know, right now while I’m typing this. I’m probably not helped by the fact that I have the show on in the background as I try to get completely caught up. –not having the best internet at home has meant that Damian and I have fallen quite a bit behind. It’s like if we don’t get to watch it live each week that we sometimes forget that we need to watch it.

There are a number of books that can be enjoyed from this fandom. There’s the art books, the prequel comics, a third party 5th edition setting book, and coming in March an official 5th edition setting book. So there’s so much out there to expand the massive world that Matthew Mercer has created and it’s fantastic.

All right, that is all from me for today. What are some shows that you are currently watching/obsessed with? Let me know in the comments, and I will be back soon with more bookish content.

Recommendations: Shows I’m Loving Right Now Hey all, Dani here. I love talking about books. It's the reason why I started this book blog, but over the years I've tried to balance my love of reading with all of my other geeky passions and hobbies.

[monster-addict]

Unexpected

Orc x Human!OC 

Multipart Fic - Part 2

I woke up early, and took a shower. I already had my bag packed for class, I had my textbooks on my phone, so I didn't need to worry about that weight. I had my notebooks and different colored pens for my note taking. That's mainly what these first few weeks are going to be, note taking.

I made breakfast for everyone again, but it was small, toast and sausage. I put some tea in my water bottle and waited for Nick. He came down not too long after I finished my food. We didn't really say much, but it was comfortable. We got to class and I sat in the front or the far left side of the class, no one really sat over by me, which I was glad about.

It was a small class in a big lecture hall, it was maybe 14 of us in the class. Nick sat directly across from me in the class, but later on during the class when our teacher wanted us to read. That was when a girl from the middle of the class went over and sat by him. I assumed it was his girlfriend, or a close friend of his. I continued to read and next thing I know, class was over.

"I forgot to show you my schedule yesterday." I went up to Nick after class.

"Yeah, you share my schedule except for the gen ed classes. I think Orlov has those classes though." He told me, the girl was lingering behind a bit.

We walked to the next class which was down the hall a little bit, him and the girl talked a little bit more before they parted ways.

It seemed as if it were the same class, fewer people too. It was mainly orcs in this class, three female orcs, and I was half the amount of human females. It was about 4 human males and 5 male orcs. This professor was orc, with long hair down his back. I took out a different notebook and started my note taking process. This class he mainly talk, our reading was to do on our own time. I made a note in my phone to read, as well as in my agenda.

Class was over and I had about an hour before my last class started for the day. I went to the library just to browse their collection. I was going to do all of my reading once I got in, it wouldn't take me long anyway.

"Are you new around here?" I heard a voice come from my right.

"Yeah, I just transferred actually." I turned to the male.

"Demetri." He stuck his hand out.

"Skylar." I shook his hand.

He wasn't as big as Orlov or Nick, but considering I'm only 5'2 most orcs tower over me. He has a slimmer figure should I say, but he's still very tall, maybe 6'3.

"What are you majoring in, literature?" He asked.

"No, I'm actually a biochemistry major." I laughed a bit.

"Oh I would've never assumed. Most of the girls around here found those classes to be boring or not really for them. Now if you were taking the regular classes to be a doctor, that would be different. Not a lot of people around here are doing biochem in the first place to be honest." He said.

"Yeah, I've noticed the lack of students in my earlier classes, on top of the fact that they are early classes. What about you, what's you major?" I asked.

"Take a guess." He said.

"Accounting, or sometime of business major?" I asked him.

"You hit it on the money." He said.

"Lucky me, so what year are you in?" I asked him.

"Well, technically my second year, I just switched my major around so these classes are new for me. I like them more than psychology." He said.

"That would've been my back up, psychology. Either that or dermatology." I said.

"Why dermatology?" He looked confused.

"I like extracting comedones." I said.

"Whatever that means." He rolled his eyes.

"Blackheads and whiteheads." I laughed at him.

"Come sit with me?" He asked.

"Sure."

I followed along beside him as best as I could. I could tell he even tried to slow his pace so I could keep up, but it didn't work too well. We finally sat down in a nice corner without too many people.

"How are you liking it here so far?" Demetri asked.

"I haven't been here long enough to have an opinion, but so far so good." I said.

"How's your dorm and roommate?" He asked.

"Well, honestly, my best friend is the one that convinced me to come here. She just got one of the houses they let you rent out. She said beforehand she was in the co-ed dorms, but her roommate didn't like her. She got along with the two dudes she shared the bathroom with, so they are our other roommates in the house." I told him.

"What's your friend's name?" He asked.

"Aria." I told him.

"Oh that's the one that helps out with our dance team, do you dance?" He asked me.

"Have you seen any of her videos?" I asked.

"Yeah, but not many, why?" He asked.

"Oh well, I'm in some of her videos, so yes, I do dance." I told him.

We talked a little more until I had to go to class, we exchanged numbers and he walked me to class.

I got seated in what is going to be my regular spot, for the rest of my college life. This professor was an elf, so that was a little change up from the rest of my routine. That class went by fairly fast as well, and before I know it I'm walking over to Nick.

"Hey, you mind dropping me off at the house. Orlov said you like to go to study hall after class." I said.

"You aren't going to come too?" He asked.

"No, I don't do well studying in groups, or around a lot of people. I'd rather be in the comfort of my own bed." I tell him.

"I get that, I can drop you off. And for the record, I only go to study hall to meet up with June." He said as we walked.

"June is?" I looked up at him confused.

"Oh right, June is my girlfriend." He said.

"I didn't want to assume, but it seemed like it." I said.

We didn't say much of anything walking out to the car, but I saw Demetri on the way out. I gave him a slight wave and he gave me a head nod. Once I got to the house, I gave Nick a quick thanks before he drove off. I went in the house, and no one was home, not yet at least. We need a group chat for the house, or at the very least, I need to be added to it. I went up to my room and got out my agenda, going in order by class. I opened the book on my laptop, so I can annotate it while I read. I then wrote in my notebook some things to better help me understand the subject.

I spent around 3 hours doing my work, an hour for each class, making sure I at least understand the material. I went online to check my work to make sure I didn’t forget anything. I heard the front door open and close with a little bit of force. It was hard to tell who it was, all orcs are really strong, and tend to over do things when not paying attention. It turned out to be Orlov, I figured by peaking my head out.

"Hey Sky, you need something?" He asked before he went in his room.

"Nothing major, I wanted to know if there was a group chat for the house? I wanted to cook dinner for everybody again. But I don't have you guys numbers, nor am I in a group chat." I said.

"Oh yeah, we do have one, give me your number, I'll add you to it." He pulled out his phone.

I gave him my number and he added me to the chat, I already had Aria's number, and Orlov just told me his, so that just left Nick.

"Hey, umm, do you think you could help me with something?" Orlov asked.

"Sure, what's up?" I asked him.

"I need some help with my math, and Aria would always say how you were a pro at math, and she would go to you for help." He said.

"OH, I remember you now, you play football right?" I asked him.

"Yeah." He smiled and puffed his chest out a bit.

"But yeah I can help you, you want to knock it out of the way right now?" I offered.

"Yeah, might as well get it over with." He lead me into his room.

He got out his workbook and textbook and showed me what he had problems solving.

"Oh this is easy, let me show you a different way to think about it." I told him.

He had some geometry like stuff so I was grabbing random objects around his room using them as examples. I could show him how to do the problem, but that won't mean he'll understand it. If I help him understand the process, then he can solve the problem himself.

"Oh man Aria was right, you are good at this. Thanks, I really appreciate it." Orlov tells me.

"It's no problem, anytime you need help with anything, just let me know. I'm happy to help." I tell him.

"You want to join me for a few games of COD?" He asked me.

"You have any other work you need to do?" I asked him.

"No, I got it all done in class and during my hour break period." He said.

"Sure, I'll play a little, then I'm going to go cook." I told him.

He put it on Blackout immediately this time around, a first we were dying a little bit. I blamed it on both of us just now starting to play. After the first 3 games, we started to place higher in the matches. In our last game, we got really far, 3rd team, before someone killed Orlov, so I was left by myself playing. I was able to take the last two teams out and win the game.

"YEEEEESSSS!" We both cheered.

Orlov picked me up and spun me around, before Nick opened the door, that's when Orlov put me down.

"Well, time to get cooking." I smiled and walked towards the door.

"What's going on in here?" Nick frowned a bit.

"Sky here just carried me to a victory." He said.

"Oh please. I'm making tacos that sound okay?" I asked them both.

"Yeah that's fine, corn or flour?" Nick asked.

"Well which do you want?" I asked.

"Corn." Nick said.

"I hate corn, it's all dry and nasty. FLOUR PLEASE!" Orlov said.

"How about I make both, I like both so they won't go to waste." I laughed at them.

They agreed and I went downstairs to brown the meat, that's when Aria came in.

"How was your first day?" She asked me.

"Nothing too exciting." I said.

"Meet anyone?" She asked.

"Someone named Demetri, but I get a playboy feeling from him, not that I'm looking for a relationship. I just--"

"Yes, the drama attached to the dick-- I mean man." She cut me off.

"Exactly." I laughed at her.

"Tacos?" She asked standing next to me.

"Yep, corn or flour?" I asked her.

"I'll gladly take flour, who eats corn?" She said in a fake disgust.

"I do, and apparently Nick does too." I laughed at her.

"You two are something else." She shook her head and went upstairs.

I finished making the taco meat, and I assembled all the toppings and tortillas out.

I sent a text out, letting everyone know that the food is done, shortly after everyone came down.

"Just taste it." I handed my taco out to Aria.

She hesitated for a second before she bit into it.

"Mmm, you know, that actually is good, what did you do to it?" She asked me.

"I warmed it up of course." I laughed at her.

"O, you really should try it." Aria took a taco off my plate.

"And convert me to your corn tortilla loving cult, I think not." He put up an argument.

"Please." I gave him a slight pout.

He stared at me, debating whether he wanted to take a bite.

"Man, you don’t play fair." He took the taco from Aria, biting into it.

"Damn, when you're right, you're right. This is good." He laughed nodding his head.

"Told you." Nick pitched in.

"I still love my flour though." Orlov hurried and added.

I shook my head and laughed at him.  We talked and laughed a bit before I got tired. I cleaned up and put away the leftovers. I went upstairs and took my shower, I checked to make sure my bag was packed for tomorrow and I went to sleep.

//Masterlist//

[squiddybeifong]

Table for Two: Chapters 6-8

BabsRae Weekend Day 2: ‘Support’

@ravensflockofrobins

Ao3 here

--

Ch. 6

--

She hadn’t even worried that Babs had set her up. 

If she had she could’ve rationalized it away due to that awful accident earlier that turned seven blocks into gridlock, or even Babs’ 3 o’clock bus being off schedule, but she didn’t. No, when her iced mocha had sweat so much that the cardboard holder started to rip and the latte she’d ordered for her girlfriend had officially gone cool, the only thought that went through Raven’s mind was that something was wrong. 

Barbara Gordon was many things --basically a genius, a kickass librarian, an insane student with an even insaner work ethic, not to mention gorgeous to boot-- and punctual was near the very top of that list. For her to not only be 17 minutes late but to also not even send a single text? The knot in Raven’s stomach worsened as she got up to give up her table to an old lady, holding their drinks as she lingered near the entrance. Gray eyes kept glancing at the retro clocks that lined the cafe’s walls, counting down the seconds until 18 minutes had passed.

Her pocket buzzed and Raven nearly dropped their drinks as she scrambled to pull her phone out. Her breath caught in her throat as she spotted Dick’s message; a simple ‘SOS get to gen hosp NOW!!!’

No other explanation. Cursing under her breath more out of worry than anything, she tossed her drink and offered Babs’ to some startled passing stranger before taking off in a jog. Raven knew better than to even try the transit, yet alone how long a wait any car service would take just to get her. It took some effort getting past the rubbernecking pedestrians the closer she got to whatever accident had happened. 

Seeing that two buses had been brutally struck by a pick-up (well, she assumed it was a pick up. The vehicle was a metal ball on the side of the road) brought that knot in her stomach back ten-fold. She couldn’t spot any markings for which buses they were but Raven had an awful idea of which route one of them was on. Her jog turned into a near sprint as she pushed past some of the people milling about the sidewalks, watching as the last of the glass and random debris were being cleaned up. 

When Gotham City General Hospital loomed in her sights there was no relief. Rushing through the automatic doors, Raven practically ran up to the location desk. The woman behind the counter aimed an empathetic smile her way at how frazzled she was, “How can I help you, Miss?” 

Raven’s nails drummed on the polished counter, the tap-tap-tap keeping her sane as she rushed out, “Barbara Gordon. Do you know if she’s here?” 

A part of her practically fell through the floor as she realized she was certain that Babs was the one in the hospital, but most of her was on edge at the lack of information she had. The waitress reached for her phone and cursed under her breath when she remembered Dick hadn’t given her a room number (or any solid idea of what was going on). Before the receptionist could ask for more Raven blinked as she felt someone step up behind her. A deep, tense voice spoke, "She's with me."

The woman’s eyes widened and she stammered but caught herself. The man stepped next to Raven and he said, “Barbara Gordon, Room 706.” He glanced at Raven from the corner of his eye and put a hand on her shoulder, “We both have family permissions.”

Raven’s eyes went wide as she gaped at Bruce Wayne’s hand on her shoulder, her brain trying to reboot as she took in his morose attempt at smiling despite the mood. A part of her recognized that his money and reputation was the only thing keeping the receptionist from finding out that she technically shouldn’t be allowed to visit, but the baker stayed quiet and forced the closest thing she could muster to a smile. 

The minute and a half of getting their authorization labels passed by in a blur, Raven’s mind flicking from Babs to Bruce to the buses to Babs again. Luckily, he seemed to be just as much at a loss for words as she was. The billionaire waited until they were in the elevator to speak, his voice more a sigh than anything, "Raven, correct?"

Forcefully brought back into the present (and the ride that was bringing her closer to where Babs was), she ducked her head and tucked some loose strands of hair behind her ear, “Mr. Wayne.”

A brow rose at her formality but the Bruce took it in stride, glad for some distraction. "The boys have been talking a lot about you."

Raven bit back a soft chuckle, the sound not as genuine as she hoped, “Really?”

"Barbara's been smiling more often too," Bruce’s lips twitched a bit as he added that fact, watching as Raven perked up at the news. His eyes tightened as he watched the light fade from her, the young woman abruptly remembering why they were there. 

Gray eyes flicked up to his face for just a second and she chewed on her lower lip, "I hate to meet like this…" He nodded solemnly but Raven didn’t notice. Her eyes rarely strayed from the numbered lights for more than a few seconds, anxiously watching as they climbed from the third to the fourth floor and continued on. 

Raven’s fingers twitched against her thighs. She took a deep breath and kept looking ahead, “Do you know what happened?”

There was a short lull, then the billionaire softly explained, “Dick said she was on the bus. Apparently her seat was close to where the truck first hit.” His sapphire eyes glanced at her but she didn’t look his way. 

Bruce took in the way her fingers kept clenching and unclenching, then added, “It’s bad but apparently she’s not in critical condition.”

“Is she… gonna be okay?”

He didn’t speak. The shadow of a hum was her answer and then the elevator doors were opening on the seventh floor, effectively ending their conversation. She rushed out and Bruce was only a step behind her when she caught sight of Dick. He was hunched over in the chair opposite room 706 and his legs vigorously bounced as he stared at his folded hands.

Gray eyes flicked from him to the door and back again, “Can we…”

He slowly nodded at her unspoken question, “Yeah, the doctors left a few minutes ago. She’s still asleep.”

Taking a deep breath, Raven slipped into the room, barely recognizing as Bruce stayed behind to have a quick word with his oldest son. All her attention was on the librarian tucked away in the fluffed up pillows. One arm was in a sling and a cut roughly sliced her bottom lip, but that was the most damage that she could see. The pillows kept her head steady but there was no need for any further support, but her legs were tightly covered by what must have been three blankets.

Raven felt her heart fall to her feet at seeing her love so hurt, but she was ecstatic that things didn’t look too bad. Shakily sitting down on the bedside chair, the baker tenderly traced the lines of her girlfriend’s knuckles. Too worried about whether or not holding Babs’ hand would interfere with the multitude of wires that she couldn’t possibly guess what all of them were for, she settled for simply laying one hand atop Barbara’s, the other playing with a frayed piece of her flannel.

Bruce came in and Dick leaned against the doorframe, both men looking a smidge less worried than when she’d left them. Raven went to stand to give the billionaire her seat but he shook his head, “It’s fine. You stay there.” 

He lifted the chart from the bottom of her bed-frame, glancing over the nurses’ hastily written notes. The Gothamite didn’t remember much from his brief stint in medical school, but most of it looked hopeful. Bruce bit the inside of his cheek as he tried to decipher the list of tests Barbara would need to undergo once she woke up, one sticking out. It was probably just routine, but that didn’t keep the worry from curling around his heart.

Taking a deep breath through his nose, the billionaire glanced at Raven again. “Gordon--Her father won’t be able to get here till later,” He softly explained. Sapphire eyes flicked over her chart one last time and he put it back. His gaze fell to the waitress again and at her barely furrowed brows he offered a bit more explanation, “There’s a commotion on the other end of Gotham. He’s the commissioner.”

Raven blinked at that, taking a second to nod. Her voice cracked as she offered him a small smile, “Alright.”

“And visiting ends at six,” Gray eyes flicked to the clock --reading 4:28 p.m.-- and Bruce continued before she could worry, “But you stay as long as you need.”

The man sighed and walked to the other side of Babs’ bed, softly brushing aside some of the hair that as askew from her bun. He ran a tongue over his teeth, “With all the traffic and whatever going’s on Gordon should be here before eight. Dick and I are gonna talk to the doctor then go get the others, let them know she’s okay. We’ll probably be back a bit after Gordon.”

Nodding slowly to himself at how stable she looked despite everything, he met Raven’s stare, “You’ll stay with her?”

“Always.”

He blinked and watched as Raven seemed to shrink into herself at the impulsive answer, her fingers fiddling with the rings that she wore as her eyes flicked to and stayed on the redhead. The business mogul let out a quiet chuckle, “Good. I trust you to it, then.”

She nodded, hardly noticing as Bruce gave her one last look and ushered Dick out; hell, she was barely aware enough to move aside so that one of the nurses could check the redhead’s IVs. Her gaze didn’t stray as fifteen minutes turned to fifty. 

Someone left her an iced coffee on the sink counter and she mindlessly scooted her chair to reach it, stretching so as to not let go of her girlfriend’s hand. Raven let out a little hiss when her moving made Babs’ bag slip off the chair; as the tote fell Babs’ book toppled to the floor, it’s cover facing the ceiling. 11/22/63 shone up in bright red numbers and Raven raised a brow at the obvious style, languidly rubbing circles on Babs’ knuckles; she certainly never pegged her for a historical fiction fan. 

Quietly picking up the librarian’s current read, she flipped between the cover and the first page of the novel, her heart crumpling as she realized what genre it must have been. Reading an alternate history novel didn’t seem the best idea now of all times.

Although it certainly beat agonizing in silence…

Sighing, Raven sipped at her watered down drink and opened to the beginning, a tiny smile quirking her lips at Babs’ little pencil notes in the margins. She leaned against the side of the hospital bed and began reading, tenderly squeezing her girlfriend’s hand as the steady beep of her monitors filled the room. 

--

Babs woke up to a snore filling the room and the dull throb of sore muscles. She let out a fleeting sigh of a groan, the sound cutting off at how dry her throat was. Painfully creaking her eyes open, the redhead squinted at the dimmed hospital lights and turned her impossibly sore neck, catching sight of Raven next to her. 

The waitress was sleeping on her folded arms, her fingertips just barely resting right above Babs’ wrist. Behind her, the dingy glow of her dimmed clock read 7:34, it’s pale orange lighting up the back of her girlfriend’s head like a halo. Emerald eyes blinked at her well-worn Stephen King novel staring back at her, trying to pierce together what had happened. Shifting on the starched sheets, the clicker on her middle finger stretched as the wire tugged under her body and a monitor to her right let out a shrill beep of warning. 

Gray eyes snapped open at the sound and Raven nearly jumped out of her seat. The confusion was plain on her face as she tried to get her bearings as half-asleep legs knocked the plastic chair. Shaking her head, her face snapped to the librarian. Their eyes met. 

The air escaped Raven’s lungs and Babs practically fell in love with the relieved, lovestruck way the waitress beamed at her, “You’re up.”

She smiled back but couldn’t speak, her eyes glancing at the water on the counter. Her voice was a croak, “Can I?”

Gray eyes glanced at the foot of her bed, well aware that she wouldn’t be able to understand a word of the notes, “I’m not sure…” Raven thought for a moment and shrugged, “Probably. How about you just don’t swallow?” 

Babs rolled her eyes and Raven chuckled at her reaction. “You should be fine either way. Here,” She put the glass to the redhead’s lips and helped her drink. Raven pecked her forehead, “Better?”

“Mmhmm.” The librarian shifted the best she could in her bed, sighing as Raven helped her adjust, “What happened?”

“Your bus got hit. Apparently close to where you were sitting.” As she spoke the baker brushed aside the short strands that were sticking to the bandage on Babs’ forehead. She rose up to peck her girlfriend’s temple again, her relief palpable as she rested their foreheads together, “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

Barbara hummed at the sentiment and chanced a tease as she realized their proximity, “Am I too gross to kiss?”

Raven raised a brow and leaned in until their noses bumped, “You literally just woke up. In the hospital. I should be getting a nurse before you miss something.”

The redhead gave her a little smile, tilting her head up until their lips brushed, “But I also missed our date.”

Raven let out a little snicker and sneaked a quick peck. Her voice was a breath against Babs’ lips, “I love your priorities.”

Impatient and sore, Babs surged forward that last inch. Her baker urged her back against the pillows, not once stopping their soft kiss. Everything hurt obviously, but kissing Raven was a great distraction. 

Babs tugged on her girlfriend’s shoulder, pulling her closer. A little groan slipped out when Raven rested an elbow on the bed, her hands slowly rubbing little circles along her sides. Something was different in the way Raven moved her lips against hers, but the redhead was still a bit too foggy to fully grasp what it was. All she knew was that this was probably the sweetest, most tender kiss she’d ever had and Babs sunk into the embrace for as long as she could. 

All too soon they had to break apart for air. Before they could go back for more, someone knocked three times on the outside of her door. Jumping away, Raven hastily wiped at her mouth and fixed her hair as she plopped back in her chair. Babs smoothed the blankets back down the best she could and they glanced at each other. 

Snickering, both had to bite back their laughter at their reactions, acting like teenagers almost caught getting handsy. Clearing her throat, Barbara gave her girlfriend a wink and softly called out, “You can come in.”

Her doctor strolled in, “Evening, Miss Gordon!” His smile was comforting as he checked the list on her bed-frame, “Good to see you’re up and have company. I’m Dr. Nick.” 

He looked them over, a lazy chuckle escaping as he added, “This shouldn’t take too long, just have a few tests to do then you two can go back to doing whatever it is you were doing.” Raven palmed her face when he motioned to her smudged lip gloss and Babs let out a squeak as she rubbed the residual shine from her lips. The doctor aimed a quick smile up at them and joked, “But besides that it should be easy. No needles, I promise.”

He walked to the other side of her bed. “Now let’s get a check on your eyes…” Babs handed Raven her glasses as the flashlight shone in her face. Her shoulders relaxed when he nodded at whatever he saw, the curl of his lips relieved as her eyes came back fine. 

Both women watched as he lifted the blankets from her legs, just leaving the thin sheet atop her feet. His smile wasn’t as reassuring as the first and Raven shifted in her seat at the undercurrent of solemnity that overcame him. Babs raised a brow as he said, “Okay, second thing is your legs. I need to see if you can wiggle your toes.”

Raven tilted her head at the question, a breath of surprise leaving her. Gray eyes flicked to her girlfriend and widened at the uncertainty on the librarian’s face. “You, uh--you were moving them before he came in, right?”

Barbara didn’t answer her. She looked at her feet under the sheet, her breath hitching as she attempted to wiggle her toes. The redhead squeezed Raven’s hand as tight as she could and tried again, flexing her thighs and feeling a bloom of anguish when her knees didn’t respond either.

The doctor’s lips tightened into a straight line at the dawning horror on her face. His quiet “Miss Gordon…” was shadowed by Raven pressing a firm, desperate kiss onto her bandaged knuckles, the waitress softly whispering against her skin, “Darling…”

Babs squeezed her eyes closed and waited to wake up again.

--

Ch. 7

--

Despite the severity of her injuries the list of stretches for preliminary physical therapy didn’t seem like they’d be a problem, all things considered. Babs was in good enough shape already that moving her upper body was hard, not strenuous. Sighing as she let the paper rest on her pillow, the redhead tore her gaze from the ceiling to her girlfriend, her nose scrunching as she caught sight of the snack that was the visitor cafeteria’s dessert that day.

Ignoring her love’s pout, Raven casually munched on her bite of fruit cake as she waited for the nurse to finish redressing the few wounds Babs had, grateful that most of the injuries appeared to be healing up quickly.

She aimed an appreciative smile and a quiet “Thank you” to the nurse as she left, stretching to rest an elbow on her girlfriend’s bed. Raven batted her lashes at her favorite patient, knowing that it was best that they get right into it, “Ready to work on sitting up?”

Sure enough, Babs pouted up at her. “I can sit just fine.”

“You haven’t stopped reclining in like three days, Darling.” Biting her lip, gray eyes brightened as an idea came to her. Babs squinted at the look on her love’s face, “What are you--”

Being careful for the wires and doing her utmost best to stay above the librarian’s thighs, Raven crawled up onto the bed and straddled her waist. She grinned down at Babs, biting back a snicker at the furious blush that started to flood those freckled cheeks. Raven leaned down to rest her palms along Babs’ sides and practically purred out, “Well, Miss Gordon…”

She held up her weight as she all but laid on top of the librarian, unable to hold back her smile as their lips nearly brushed. Babs started to reach up to end the teasing and Raven pulled back an inch, “With an attitude like that I bet a kiss you can’t reach me.”

Babs let out a snort and raised up to steal a peck, a flabbergasted sound slipping out of her when Raven pulled out of reach again. Emerald eyes halfheartedly glared at her girlfriend, “Really?”

“This isn’t the context I thought I’d first say this in,” Raven shrugged. She leaned back until they were half a foot apart and tapped her girlfriend’s nose. Her hands fanned out above the redhead’s stomach as she wiggled her hips and she savored the stunned way Babs squeaked at the movement, “But right now ya gotta work for it, Babe.”

They stared at each other for a second, then the waitress’ brows teasingly jumped and she sing-songed, “PT’s orders.”

Babs pursed her lips and nodded, her breath coming out in a puff as she stretched to reach Raven. Groaning as their noses touched, she could only get a ghost of a kiss before her girlfriend was retreating again, the baker looking entirely too pleased with herself as she waited another few inches away. 

They kept at that pattern for a few minutes until Babs had worked herself up to nearly where she needed to be. Raven made sure the pillows were sturdy behind her back and let her own knees support the sides of the redhead’s hips. Chuckling, she snuck a kiss and helped keep Babs’ glasses on her face when their noses bumped. 

Raven murmured against her lips, “Can you do one more for me?”

Exhausted at finally sitting upright, the redhead stuck her tongue out at Raven, “Don’t!” The waitress paid her whine no mind, giggling as she sat back on Babs’ lap and opened her arms. Even as she took a breath in preparation of reaching even further, Barbara’s words were a pout, “You’re a dick.”

Still a few inches away, the waitress bit her bottom lip. There was a certain pride and a lot of love in her dark eyes as she teased, “Then c’mon, Ahab. Keep going and you’ll get me eventually.”

Babs pushed on for that last stretch, her victory laugh smothered by her partner’s lips. 

She sighed and let herself slump into their embrace, a little trill of a sound slipping out of her as Raven’s hands split directions; one went to entangle in her hair and the other started running along her sides. The waitress hit a ticklish patch and Babs laughed, pulling away as her girlfriend let her butterfly kisses trail down to her jaw. 

"Last time I checked," The librarian breathed out as Raven helped her settle back into the pillows, "With how we’ve been we’re supposedly in some obnoxiously fluffy romance, not a nautical adventure fiction."

“You never know, my bookworm,” Raven leaned in to steal another kiss. She hummed out as Babs cupped her face, “With all the stories you work with you might’ve fallen into one.”

Babs ran a thumb over the baker’s cheek, her head tilting in thought, “That seems more like a fanfic idea than anything.” 

Raven shrugged a shoulder, “True. But all of them involve making out at some point, right?”

Babs bit back a smile and put a finger to her girlfriend’s lips before she could lean forward, “I don’t want a nurse to walk in on us.” 

Raven snickered and lightly swayed to an unheard beat, kissing a freckle on the side of her girlfriend’s finger. Gray eyes flicked to the closed door, “Wanna be a model patient for them too?”

“I do. So no getting handsy in the hospital.”

The baker pursed her lips and blew a raspberry against the redhead’s finger. She couldn’t keep the teasing lilt out of her voice, “Even when your white whale’s right in front of you?”

Babs giggled and allowed one last firm kiss, lightly shooing her love off the bed right after, “Even then!”

--

It should have been obvious with how little time a doctor had for each of their patients, let alone how overworked and spread thin nurses must have been, but she had never really thought of the day-to-day of an extended stay. Truth be told, hospitals were mind-numbingly boring. There were less than ten channels, half were constantly showing ads, and her sling and IVs made reading a book impossible. Sure, Babs knew she wasn’t one to talk about being bored; what with Raven constantly by (or on) her side, Dad poking his head in to have a chat every two hours and the rest of the Waynes gracing her with their shenanigans what seemed to be every ten minutes, she was probably the busiest patient this hospital wing had seen in awhile. 

But that didn’t make the boredom any less stifling. Especially when her stay surpassed a week and the waitress had to keep up with her busy schedule at the Tower. Babs had to keep back a sigh at the thought of the place, wondering when she’d be off this hospital-sanctioned diet and able to each all the pastries Raven could possibly bake for her again. 

The idea of junk food made her perk up and the librarian narrowed her eyes at the ceiling, counting back the days; she had missed their last date, sure, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t go out on a date now, right?

Her emerald gaze settled on the call button and Babs grinned.

The sun was starting when her girlfriend came back. “Hey, Darling!” Raven’s voice was light and airy as she strolled into room 706 again, bringing the scent of shortbread cookies and tea with her. She couldn’t sneak any in for her librarian even if she wanted, but her gray eyes were bright as she jerked a thumb over her shoulder and showcased her dessert with the other hand, “The cafeteria’s got fruit cake again.”

Babs laughed and blew a raspberry at her girlfriend’s back as Raven set down her satchel, “You’re supposed to be helping me feel better.”

“It’s a winter staple,” The baker instinctively called over her shoulder. She pulled out a thin square package and her smile widened, “Besides, I got you something from the giftshop.”

The redhead shifted in her bed, nervous and excited at all the possibilities of her plan, “Good. I got you --well, us-- something too.”

Gray eyes glanced at her, focusing on her obvious excitement, “Yeah?”

Barbara pointed with her good hand, “Behind the curtain.”

Eager, Raven stepped to the curtain and pulled it aside, her eyes widening at the sight of a wheelchair sitting there. She let out a little gasp and snapped her head back to her girlfriend. Babs wiggled her shoulders at the look, scratching at her nape as she hummed out, “I might have gotten Bruce to get them to let me go out and about on the floor.” 

“Oh?” 

The redhead nodded, “Apparently there’s a lot of windows closer to the elevators, if you wanted to hang out there.” 

Raven blinked, her face filling with light as her smile grew, “Wanna people watch again?”

Babs fiddled with the top of her blanket, a bit overwhelmed at the brightness in her girlfriend’s face. Raven seemed to be even more excited at the prospect than she was and the librarian drawled, “I was hoping.” 

“Well, uh,” Raven giggled as she perched on the side of the bed and kissed her love’s cheek. Her words were a breathy laugh as she placed the package on Babs’ lap, “Maybe we can add this to it? Make it a real date.”

The gift was loosely wrapped so she could pull the paper away with just one hand. Babs raised a brow and bit back a smile at the ‘Recipes in Literature Classics’ that came into sight. Directly under it was a small, thin box of dark chocolate. Emerald eyes flicked up to her girlfriend, “And what are these?”

“Well, my beloved Captain,” The waitress got comfy on the side of the bed and placed a lazy kiss just above the sling’s strap on Babs’ shoulder. “Melville put a chapter all about cod and clam chowder. Once you officially get out I’ll make you some with this.” She tapped the tiny recipe book with her fingertip. After a second her head sheepishly tilted to the side, “And the gift shop didn’t have anything whale related, but the almonds kinda look like shells. Figured it’d fit with whatever sea puns we can think of.” 

Babs laughed at that and she added, “Plus, I asked the nurses. They said you can have them if you want, just gotta log how many.”

“You’re the best,” Babs shifted on her side and nudged her girlfriend’s face down towards her own. Her green eyes were bright and she brushed their noses together, softly speaking in the tiny space between them, “Thank you.” 

She let out a hum as Raven closed the gap between them, kissing her softly. Babs rose up to nuzzle closer, pouting as the baker started backing away an inch. Pale fingers lazily circled a cluster of freckles on her jaw, “Ready to get out of this room?”

Her fingers started sloppily unraveling the bottom of Raven’s braid from its elastic, “Depends. Can I kiss you while we people watch?”

Raven laughed and pressed their noses together again, “It’s a date, then.”

--

Ch. 8: Pretzels and 1Q84

--

Babs reclined in her wheelchair as she flipped through the second novel of the trilogy that her girlfriend had in her bag, relieved that she was going to have Raven with her the whole day. Dad and Bruce had given (if not requested, knowing how they were) Alfred and Dick full reign to coddle her and she was getting so sick of them constantly peeking over her shoulder. 

It wasn't as bad with Raven, though.

Babs let out a quiet little sigh as she slumped in her seat even more. Raven’s gait was steady as she pushed her up the slight incline and the redhead let her head fall back, mindlessly taking in all the little scars that graced her girlfriend’s face and neck. Her fingertips twitched around the book and the small foil bag balanced in her hand, her forearm still sore from her IVs being taken out and the press of her sling annoying against the fuzz of her sweater. 

She aimlessly popped another pretzel into her mouth, getting lost in the casual sway of her girlfriend’s long hair; Raven without her signature braid was a rare but very appreciated sight, after all. When her stare surpassed a minute gray eyes flicked down to her and a thick brow teasingly arched, “Like what you see?”

“Always,” Babs sighed out. 

She ate some more pretzels and kept watching Raven as she directed her towards their next date. The redhead had a pretty good idea of where they were going and her heart ached as she thought of the last time she had been in Robinson park. Sure, she and Raven had walked out of the park together, just barely holding onto each other as the snow crunched and slid under their boots, but everything was different now. Most of the snow had melted and spring was making her entrance known; the leaves were small but lush, the grass wild and speckled with weeds, flowers showcasing their buds as they waited until the bees were ready to open up. 

The skip of her wheelchair’s wheels and the clack of Raven’s boots comfortably blended in with the sleepy birdsongs and Babs’ smile widened as she caught sight of the bench they had used. A box of dried peaches was sitting there, decorated with a lemon bow pasted on the middle of it’s plastic top. 

She tried to pout but her laughs were getting in the way, “And here I thought we’d be enjoying carbs together.” 

Raven snickered and leaned down to kiss her girlfriend’s jaw, sighing as her nose nudged a freckle just below the librarian’s ear. Her soft exhale sent wonderful shivers tap-dancing down Babs’ spine and Raven grinned at the reaction, “I’ll take them off your hands if you’d like?”

“It’s gonna cost you,” Babs’ smile was as cheeky as her voice and she put her free hand on the baker’s bicep, urging her down. Her flannel was warm from the sun and Barbara cooed as Raven cupped her jaw. The waitress’ other hand went to her lap and moved the bag against her thigh, settling down on the bit of midsection right below her sling.

A pair of squirrels chirped as they chased each other through the treetops, slipping and shaking the boughs above their heads. Smiling into the kiss, Barbara reluctantly pulled away at the noise; Raven let out a whine and nudged an inch closer, a groan slipping out as the redhead’s hand tangled into her hair. The librarian let out a breathless giggle at the sound, “We’re supposed to be heading down to the Tower soon.” 

Emerald eyes softened as her girlfriend reached up to fix the way her glasses sat on her face. Babs rested their foreheads together, “You don’t wanna be late.”

“Is Bruce gonna be there?”

Raven’s question was immediate and the redhead only smiled, “He wanted to see you again when later this week, actually. Maybe when I get this dumb sling off.” Her hand lazily twirled some of the waitress’ hair around her fingers, amused as she remembered, “But I thought you two got along when you met? You’re still nervous about just… interacting with him?”

Pale hands began lightly tugging on her armrests as Raven walked backwards, slowly urging them towards the bench. Still, her eyes were wide and her face flabbergasted at her love’s question, “He’s Bruce Wayne.”

“You’re Raven Roth.”

Raven snorted at her and bumped their noses together, “Last time I checked I wasn't the only one rich enough to buy a private plane at the drop of a hat."

Babs batted her lashes up at her girlfriend, “And the last time I checked you were the only one that can sneak me an extra cookie at the Tower.”

Gray eyes playfully rolled and Raven snuck in one last peck, “That segue was awful.” Still, she straightened up and plucked the box of peaches off the wood, offering it to her girlfriend. he waitress kissed her hairline and muttered against her skin, “Promise you won’t fall asleep this time?”

“I dunno,” Babs tilted her head back until their noses booped, “Will you cuddle and feed me later if I do?”

Raven snorted, “That was always the plan.”

Babs giggled and pushed a pretzel into her girlfriend’s mouth, “Then I’ll stay awake.”

--

The Tower wasn’t too busy for a Thursday afternoon, but that didn’t stop the barely-contained groan of disbelief from bubbling out of Barbara as she caught sight of her siblings. Or, more importantly, at the sight of the sweaters and flowers and a whole arrangement of presents awaiting her. 

She didn’t mind the gifts but Dick was fully prepared to coddle her --again-- and he seemed to have all the others on board. Duke and Cass were poking over a pristine collection of first editions that admittedly made her heart skip a beat, Steph was showcasing what seemed to be a signature edition box of Eggos with her face on it and Damian was busy sketching in his notebook, but given the way Jason and Tim were looking over a canvas (and the fine whiskey and coffee sets that they must’ve gotten), the boy probably painted a scene just for her.  

Raven noticed her emotions and nudged her shoulder, “Wanna take a few to prepare?” 

The redhead felt some of the tension leave her, “You wouldn’t mind?”

“Don’t worry.” A kiss to her temple, then, “I know just the place.”

Babs blinked as Raven expertly maneuvered them the long way around, avoiding being anywhere near where her family could spot them until they got to the counter and slipped past. As her girlfriend let out a low “Ta-da!” Babs palmed the side of her face, biting back a snicker as they hid from her family’s view, “Really, Rae?” 

She let the burst of laughter out as she reclined in her wheelchair, “We’ve fallen to hiding in the storage room?”

Her girlfriend giggled with her, crouching down to kneel in front of her. Raven’s voice was lazy and teasing, “Is there anyplace more romantic?”

The librarian wrapped her arms around Raven’s shoulders. She drummed her nails along the flannel collar and mused aloud, “None that I can think of. Unless you think we can head out to a different reality?”

That got her a quick kiss and the wonderful feeling of Raven smothering her laugh against her lips. The baker drawled out in the space between them, “As long as there’s only one moon out when we leave we should be fine.”

“Oh?” Babs’ tongue poked at her cheek until it bulged, “You’re not even gonna look out for any air chrysalis in the trees?” 

Snickering, Raven rested her palms on each side of Babs’ thighs and pressed a loud smooch to her freckled cheek. She giggled against her girlfriend’s skin, “That’s… not really how 1Q84 went.”

Her hands fell to rest on top of Raven’s, “I’m a librarian, Babe. We’re holed up in a storage room, let me shoehorn in these references.” 

“Murakami would be proud.” She leaned back on her haunches and grinned as Babs rubbed away some of her smudged chapstick. Raven tilted her chin and softly smooched her girlfriend’s finger. “And besides, we’re in a storage room in a cafe where I work,” The waitress stressed. She rested an elbow on the wheelchair’s arm and curled closer to her girlfriend again, “I’m connected.”

Barbara couldn’t hold back her smile as she booped their noses together. Her smile turned into a grin as gray eyes winked at her, “What are you planning?”

Leaning back, Raven peeked out the door and caught sight of her favorite co-worker. He turned at the stare on the back of his head and she waved him down, grinning as he strolled up to them, “Heya, Vic!” 

He crossed his arms and casually leaned against the doorframe. His brown eyes flicked to the mishmash of three tables pushed together and Victor’s smile brightened as he guessed the obvious, “You hiding from the family?”

“Maaaaybe,” The waitress looked positively cheeky as her fingers slid in between Babs’ and she squeezed three times, “Wondering if you could hide us for a bit?”

“I gotcha,” Victor’s head tilted towards the shrouded booths near the exit, completely out of the Waynes’ sight. He glanced at the sling still on the librarian’s arm and then the wheelchair she was in, amending, “Unless you wanted something outside?”

Raven looked to her love, brushing some of the hair away from her forehead. Babs squeezed their joined hands again and softly smiled up at him, “Could it be a table for two?”

[maltedmilkchocolate]

I don’t understand the gen-z/millennial thing because... Or rather just, the stupid ‘demographic’ names in general. NONE OF IT MAKES SENSE. This is a long vent over stupid names, and vague mysterious dates, and why the hell did they start at the END OF THE ALPHABET!? Also the fact this a western convention, and not a global one.

Experience wise: Anyone born in the 90′s were in the same school/s together. All grew up with the same intense speedy technological developments, and same culture.... Millennials AND Gen-Z are both the technology generations.

Like I was born in 1992. Three years before Gen-Z apparently starts in 1995.

My experiences are gonna be the same as the kid 3 years younger than me. We’re gonna get the same tech advancements, the same economic bullshit, the same school fuckery, the same job prospects, all of us in university debt, all of us with bullshit housing prospects. 

But apparently those in 1995+ are the tech gen??? Sounds fake but okay.  But also everyone between 1995 and 2000 is simultaneously a Millennial and a Gen-Z cause no-one ever made up their mind. Also Canada thinks Gen-Z starts at 1993. Just start it at 1990′. MAKE IT SIMPLE. Start generations on the ‘00′ marker and make life easier to document in terms of DATES. Instead of picking REALLY RANDOM YEARS. WHY DO THESE THINGS START MIDWAY THROUGH THE DECADE???? 

Like Young Millennials, and older Gen-Z experiences are both so interlinked. We shared school years, our siblings were one, two, three years above or below us.

And like......... Who defines where one gen starts, and another gen ends??

LIKE LOOK AT THIS:

The Lost Generation, also known as the Generation of 1914 in Europe,[26] is a term originating with Gertrude Stein to describe those who fought in World War I. The members of the lost generation were typically born between 1883 and 1900. All members of this generation are now deceased.

The G.I. Generation, is the generation that includes the veterans who fought in World War II. They were born from around 1901 to 1924, coming of age during the Great Depression. Journalist Tom Brokaw described American members of this cohort as the "greatest generation" in his book The Greatest Generation.[27]

The Silent Generation, also known as the Lucky Few, were born from approximately 1925 to 1942.[28] It includes some who fought in World War II, most of those who fought the Korean War and many during the Vietnam War.

The Baby Boomers, also known as the Me Generation, are the generation that were born mostly following World War II. There are no precise dates when the cohort birth years start and end. Typically, they range from the early-to-mid 1940s and end from 1960 to 1964. Increased birth rates were observed during the post–World War II baby boom making them a relatively large demographic cohort.[29][30] Generation X, commonly abbreviated to Gen X, is the generation following the baby boomers. Demographers and researchers typically use starting birth years ranging from the early-to-mid 1960s and ending birth years in the early 1980s. The term has also been used in different times and places for a number of different subcultures or countercultures since the 1950s. Millennials, also known as Generation Y,[33] are the cohort of people following Generation X. There are no precise dates for when this cohort starts or ends; demographers and researchers typically use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid 1990s to early 2000s as ending birth years. According to Pew Research, in 2019, the Millennials will surpass the Baby Boomers in size in the U.S., with 72 million Boomers and 73 million Millennials.[34] Generation Z, also known as the iGeneration, Post-Millennials, Homeland Generation,[33] or Plurals[33] is the cohort of people born after the Millennials. Demographers and researchers typically use the mid-1990s to mid-2000s as starting birth years.

(I bolded stuff)

So that’s:  - Baby Boomers: [Start] early 1940′s - [End] mid 1960′s. (20 years-ish). - Gen X: [Start] early 1960′s - [End] Early 1980′s. (20-ish years) - Millennial’s: [Start] early 1980′s - [End] mid 1990′s OR early 2000′s (WHAT’S THE TRUTH?) (15 years?? 20 years??) Why did they suddenly drop 5 years???? - Gen Z: [Start] mid 1990′s AND mid 2000′s - [End] (No current ‘end’ date). BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE

Xennials (also known as the Oregon Trail Generation and Generation Catalano) is a neologistic term used to describe people born during the Generation X/Millennial cusp years, typically from the late 1970s to the mid 1980s. People who identify with Xennials, Oregon Trail Generation or Generation Catalano do so because they do not feel they fit within the typical definitions of Generation X or Millennials.

So that’s: - Baby Boomers: [Start] early 1940′s - [End] mid 1960′s. (20 years-ish). - Gen X: [Start] early 1960′s - [End] Early 1980′s. (20-ish years) - ‘Xennials’: [Start] Late 1970′s - [End] Mid 1980′s - Millennial’s: [Start] early 1980′s - [End] mid 1990′s OR early 2000′s (15 years?? 20 years??)  - Gen Z: [Start] mid 1990′s OR mid 2000′s - [End] (No current ‘end’ date).  So???  SO??????? If Millennials ‘End’ Mid-90′s OR Early 2000′s And Gen-z ‘Starts’ Mid-90′s OR MID 2000′s. Who are these voidless people born between 1995 and 2005???? Millen-Z, X Zennials The Return? Look what you did? You took a weird generation naming system and gave it an existential crisis! Also apparently the ‘every 20 years’ is sited as ‘coming of age’ on wikipedia?? Which??? Yeah If you’re born at the START. But what about the person born at the end, who’s still technically that random Gen. They aint come of age. They got another 20 to go, yet arent the new gen. SO HOW IS THAT A COMING OF AGE DEMOGRAPHIC?!?!?!?! It’s so arbitrary and VAGUE.  But listen, Bob The Gen-Z Kid is three years younger than me. We were in the same school. We played football, or runescape (lol remember that), and neopets together! A ‘Millennial’ born in 1991, had WILDLY DIFFERENT experience to a ‘Millennial’ born in 1981. That’s a DECADE gap. THAT’S A TEN YEAR GAP. They didn’t go to school together! Or grow up together, unless you had a 10 year older, older sibling or cousin. WHICH I DID.  I have cousins a decade older than, born in the early 80′s.  My experiences to theirs? WILDLY DIFFERENT. HUGE DIFFERENCE. But yet??? Me, a ‘Millennial’ born in 1992 A Millennial-Gen-Z-Void Child born in 1995  are somehow... from 2 incredibly different worlds??? Bruh we were trading Pokemon cards together at lunch, until the teachers got pissy and banned them. When we literally shared school years together |D and were part of the same technological, economical, and educational generation. Born within the same 10 years of each other????? WHO DESIGNED THIS WEIRD ASS GENERATIONAL DEMOGRAPHIC SYSTEM????????? IT MAKES NO SENSE. Someone born in 2010? As a Gen-Z kid??? Yeah, that’s a huge difference in experiences. There’s been big school system changes, government changes, etc AND THIS IS THE THING It’s the same for everyone.  A person born in 1979 will have had the same experience as someone born in 1982. It’s a 3 year age gap. Yet they’re 2 different generations????????? I have 2 cousins. One born 1972, the other 1982, and me 1992. All 10 year gaps. All extremely different experiences. Yet somehow 72 = Gen X, early 80′s is Gen X AND Millennial, and 92 is Millennial. My cousins born 1990, and me in 92? Very similar experiences, and struggles. I shared uni classes with friends 2-3 years older than me. Same boat, same paddle. LIKE SERIOUSLY. WHO DEFINES THIS SHIT????????? POKEMON CAME OUT IN JULY 2000 IN EUROPE. I WAS 8. The Gen-Z kids were 5! WE TRADED POKEMON CARDS TOGETHER IN FRONT OF MY NEIGHBOURS HOUSE.  ............ Who started this whole thing?!?!?!?!

The Lost Generation - 1883 - 1900 (17 years) The G.I. Generation - 1901 - 1924 (23 years) The Silent Generation - 1925 - 1942 (17 years) The Baby Boomers -  early/mid 1940s - 1960 to 1964. (20-ish years) Generation X -  early/mid 1960s - early 1980s. (20-ish years) ‘Xennials’: Late 1970′s - Mid 1980′s (10-ish years) Millennials | Generation Y -  early 1980s - mid 1990s/early 2000s. (15/20 yrs) ’Void Generation’ - 1995 - 2005 (10 years. Not A Real Demographic) Generation Z -  mid 1990′s/mid 2000′s - [2020???]

There’s a 20 year theme occurring here.

What will the Generation 2020 be called??

Can’t use X,Y, Z any more. (WHO STARTED THIS AT THE END OF THE ALPHABET???? WHY DIDN’T YOU START WITH THE LETTER ‘A’???? WHY WAS THAT A GOOD IDEA????)  So far, I’ve seen from googling: - Generation Alpha (lol) - Generation C (for computers???) YA’LL. Why are you trying to make ANOTHER computer gen??? You already gave that title to Gen-Z as the ‘tech gen’, completely ignored the fact that Millennials were the ACTUAL tech gen, and now you’re taking away Gen-Z’s identity to give it to Gen-C????? WHO NAMES THESE STUPID THINGS!?!?!? All of this is really stupid. All of it.

----------------------------------------------------- I want the 2020 Gen to the be the Space Generation. Let them be the Generation where they finally invent all the Sci-fi technology we’ve all dreamed of, and they get to use ACTUAL hover bikes, and Tony Stark style holographic computers that are AFFORDABLE and not rich-people-only-tech. And like get non-shitty schooling, and a better government. Millennials and Gen-Z can work hard to get that for them. Let them have something fun and cool and NOT ON THE VERGE OF WAR AND ECONOMIC COLLAPSE AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS. .............. But then, given how media loves to use ‘demographic terminology’ to demean, insult, and other wise pit generations against each other |D I don’t imagine it will be too great BUT HEY. Hopefully it’s younger Millennials and older Gen-Z’s leading the media hopefully in a more positive, less shitty light... I have way too much faith in journalists lmfao.  Any way. Point is. All of this is stupid |D And i’m pretty sure these things should be classified via economic divides, or even just start dating things on the ‘00′ to make life less confusing, not just for people, but also for researchers, and data gathers, and documenting demographics. Doesn’t it make more sense to just say ‘children born in the 90′s’, or ‘children born in the 2000′s.’ But noooooo ya’ll gotta create a bullshit system. Having vague ‘oh it might be mid 90′s OR it’s mid 2000′s’ is just stupid. The naming conventions??? ALSO MAKE NO SENSE. ON TOP OF THAT THESE ARE JUST THE WESTERN NAMING CONVENTIONS. This is isn’t even a global thing. Ya’ll just like making life difficult for historians and researchers, and confused kids born into void-generations.  In fact, just scrap the dumb naming stuff altogether. It’s so unnecessary and makes a grand total of 0 sense.  .... Consider. Generation M. The Meme Gen.

[weareassassin]

The Assassin Class - Palladium Fantasy. Part 1

Oh! I’d almost forgotten about this project.

For those of you without long memories, back in the day I was planning to doing write-ups of The Magpie for different systems. But it fell by the wayside. However I’m making an effort to do more. But, instead of me going straight back the AD&D 2e character I was supposed to share with you... two years ago... I’ll try something different. Well a little different.

Let’s continue below the break.

Palladium Fantasy RPG must have started life as Kevin Siembieda’s homebrewed version of AD&D e1. He obviously played with the optional Psionics rules as well as a bunch of stuff from Unearthed Arcana, including the Comeliness attribute/ability. Of course like a significant number of these homebrewed variants, ol’ Kev’ filed off all of the D&Dness and published it as its own thing. It was quite successful. There are 21 sourcebooks, many still in publication, for the fantasy setting alone. There are also many other settings and different versions of the system, including Heroes Unlimited (superheroics), Beyond the Supernatural (horror), and various historical settings. Not forgetting licensed rulebooks for Robotech (giant anime mecha IN SPACE!) and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (which is where many of us first encountered the system). Of course all of this ultimately led to Rifts. A post-apocalyptic smorgasbord, grabbing something of everything that Palladium Books had published up to that point to create the weirdest and wildest game of the second wave of TTRPGs.

Now it may come as no surprise to any of you that there is an Assassin class (Occupational Character Class; O.C.C.) in Palladium Fantasy. Nor should it come as any surprise that I’ve adapted The Magpie for it. After all it’s close enough to D&D that I can almost transfer stuff straight over without changing anything. Almost.

I’m using the 2nd edition of the rules, published in the mid 90′s when Palladium was at the height of its popularity. I’m going to follow the character gen rules as written. Well yeah, apart from the stuff I’ve pregenerated.

Str 13, Dex 15, Con 17, Int 16, Wis 11, Cha 14

These are the pre-rolled ability scores for the Magpie in every version of the character. Only Palladium doesn’t use Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma. Oh no. Kevin likes to use two letter codes instead. (Or possibly four characters with at least one “.”)

I.Q. (Intelligence Quotient) instead of Int. M.E. (Mental Endurance) instead of Wis. M.A. (Mental Affinity) instead of Cha. P.S. (Physical Strength) instead of Str. P.P. (Physical Prowess) instead of Dex. P.E. (Physical Endurance) instead of Con.

Then he adds two new ones.

P.B. (Physical Beauty) which seems to replace the optional Comeliness (Com) from Unearthed Arcana. Basically how good looking a character is.

Spd. (Speed) which is literally how fast a character can run. Multiplied by 20 and you get the number of yards or meters the character can run in a minute.

Okay so the first six are easy. I just convert the D&D ability score into the Palladium attribute score at 1:1.

The last two require 3d6 rolls. Thankfully my old trusty plastic knuckle bones are with me today. I roll a 15 for P.B. Yeah I’d say that’s about right. And then I roll and 18 for Spd. Jay is a fast boi.

I.Q 16, M.E. 11, M.A. 14, P.S. 13, P.P. 15, P.E. 17, P.B. 15, Spd. 18

However for any attribute that rolls 16 or higher (is “exceptional”) gets an additional d6 added to it. I roll a 6 for I.Q., 3 for P.E. and 4 for Spd. I adjust the attribute scores (but not for the last time. Oh no! We’ll be back).

I.Q 22, M.E. 11, M.A. 14, P.S. 13, P.P. 15, P.E. 20, P.B. 15, Spd. 22

Hit points are equal to P.E. and add 1d6 per level. I roll a 4 for first level.

S.D.C. (Structural Damage Capacity) are different from HP for some reason. But also the same. It says here that “Men at arms” roll 3d6 for S.D.C. and assassin is listed as one of those classes. I roll 13.

Now we get to Psionics. 

Psionics are basically another term for “psychic”. Psionic characters have a set number of powers and a pool of points (I.S.P.; Inner Strength Points) to use them. There are even four Psionic character classes; the Psychic Sensitive, Psi-Healer, Psi-Mystic and Mind Mage. However there are no Psi-Assassins (Psisassin?). But there is still a chance for Wild Talents. Which are are available, at random, to 1 in 4 characters of other classes. There’s a 9% chance of being a Major Psionic and a 16% chance of being a Minor Psionic. By sure chance I roll 01; this incarnation of the Magpie is a Major pain in the b Psionic. I can choose any 6 spells powers from the three lists of Healing, Physical or Sensitive; or 8 from just one of them. There’s no shadow themed list, or powers. So I choose Bio-Regeneration from Healing, Summon Inner Strength from Physical and, Meditation, See Aura, Sixth Sense and Telepathy from Sensitive.

My base I.S.P. is 4d6 + M.E. score. I roll 21, which gives me a base of 32. There’s also an addition 1d6+1 per level. I roll 6 (5+1). So I start with 38 points of I.S.P.

The downside is that my skill bonuses from my O.C.C. (class) are halved and I only get half the additional skill picks. Although Secondary Skills are unaffected.

Next we choose Race and Class. There, again, is no Dhampir and given that Palladium vampires are more like Buffy vampires (’demonic’ intelligences possessing and animating the dead) there isn’t any likelihood of there ever being any. So Human will do, especially as the big difference between races is the number of dice rolled to determine attributes.

Class is, of course Assassin.

Assassin’s can’t be of any good alignments (and this is a game that allows evil paladins. Sorry “Palladins”.) and are limited to the alignments Anarchist, Aberrant, Miscreant and Diabolic. 

As an aside Palladium doesn’t use the Lawful/Chaotic and Good/Evil dichotomy. It has 7 alignments: Principled, Scrupulous (both Good), Unprincipled, Anarchist (both Selfish), Aberrant, Miscreant and Diabolic (all Evil). There are no neutral alignments as Kevin doesn’t believe in them.

The Magpie is Aberrant. Which is to say evil, but with a strict code of honour.

Assassins must have an I.Q. of 9 or higher and a P.P. of 14 or higher. We qualify.

We get a bunch of bonuses to combat and saving throws, which I shall detail on the character sheet. When we get to it.

There’s a long list of skills with bonuses to them. These I have to half because of the Major Psionics. Skills in Palladium are usually percentile based, with a maximum of 98%. Otherwise they are Weapon Proficiencies (WP) or they give some other bonus. Palladium is possibly unique in that some skills modify attributes. You don’t get +1 to strength just because you hit fourth level. No, you buy the Body Building skill which gives you a bonus to P.S. as well as some other benefits.

I get Climb/Scale Walls which also gives me the sub-skill of Rappelling, Concealment, Detect Concealment (& Traps), Basic Maths, Pick Locks, Prowl, Track Humanoids, a Native Language and two other languages.

I get 4 WP. I choose Knife, Sword, Two Weapons and Targeting (which gives a bonus to thrown knives). I also get the Assassin Hand-To-Hand skill. Which is one of the big draws to the class. I then get to pick two skills from the Rogue and Physical skill lists and another two from the Espionage skill lists. Then I get 5, no 3 (psionics again), picks from a bunch of other skill lists. 

I pick Disguise, Intelligence, Interrogation, General Horsemanship, Surveillance, Running, and Acrobatics.

Running gives me +1 to P.E., +4d4 (I roll 12) to Spd. and +1d6 to S.D.C. (I rolled a 4)

Acrobatics gives me +1 to P.S., P.P. and P.E. +1d6 (I rolled a 6). It also gives me a +5% to rappeling and the sub-skills Balance, Highwire and Back Flip.

I then finally get two Secondary Skills. Given Jay’s tendency to run away into the wilds I picked Land Navigation and Wilderness Survival.

Jays attributes are now:

I.Q 22, M.E. 11, M.A. 14, P.S. 14, P.P. 16, P.E. 22, P.B. 15, Spd. 36

All that’s left now is to gather equipment and go adventuring. 

I’ve written enough for now. Part 2 will follow soon enough with 1st and 15th level versions of the character.

Join me then.

[notwhelmedyet]

TF Fanfic Census 2017 (pt. 3) - Quantifying IDW Fics

Let’s dig a little deeper into what’s going on with IDW Transformers fanfics on AO3 and try to quantify what people have posted. 😃

First off we’re going to take a look at how IDW Transformers stacks up against some other popular comics for number of fics - 5,000 seems like a small fandom, but the readership of print comics (excluding manga and some graphic novels) is really low these days, so it’s only fair to look at us in comparison to other print comics. All of these were fairly popular series that had a comics specific tag I could zero in on; keep in mind that series popular before AO3 existed (2009) or with demographics that don’t use AO3 won’t be fairly represented.

That said, wow! We’re right up there with some of these random-ass popular comics I picked cause I thought they’d have a lot of fanfiction. Cool!

Notes: If you have trouble reading the graphs, they’re also available in an image post: here and here

Most of this data is queried directly from AO3 using their advanced search. However, some data you just can’t get that way. So I also randomly sampled 620 IDW fanfics to give us some approximations - I’ll indicate if a chart is pulled from the sample instead of the full dataset.

Ratings Breakdown

There are nearly twice as many explicit as mature works, while teen and general audiences are about the same, nestled between the two.

Complete vs. Incomplete Fics

How many works in the archive are currently incomplete/works in progress? About 14% of fics.

But then, only a multi-chapter fic can possibly be incomplete. We should probably look at them separately from the one-shots. Slightly less than a quarter of all fics are multi-chapter fics.

So, let’s zoom in on just those mutichapter fics. Here we can see that nearly 60% of multi-chapter fics are currently incomplete.

Incomplete in this case doesn’t necessarily mean abandoned - they could be active works in progress. Let’s take a quick look at when incomplete fics were most recently edited (and I’m not saying everyone who’s taken more than a year to update has abandoned a work! this is just for reference! write at your own pace!)

So 55% percent of incomplete fics (387 of them) haven’t been updated in the past year. Take from that what you will.

How Many Works Were Being Written Each Year?

This, of course, gets complicated. Because a multi-chapter work could have continued on for many years - should we look at when it began or when it completed? If we look at all works and when they were last updated we see a sharp peak in 2015 and then a shallow decline in 2016-2017.

Is that the real data trend? Or are multi-chapter updates messing us up? Well, if we look only at one-shots, we see something very similar:

There’s still a peak in 2015, but now we see a steeper decline into 2016 and 2017. Which seems sad, I just got here. ☹ But have no fear, 2017 seems artificially low because we’re just counting the first 10 months. If we extrapolate a uniform upload rate for November and December, the total count should be at about as much as last year.

This chart could also reflect a shift towards multi-chapter fics instead of one-shots. I can’t figure any way to query that, so there’s no way to check.

How Long Are They?

First let’s query the database and see how many fics fall into different length ranges.

Hmm...interesting. How does that compare to Transformers fics as a whole?

Well, from here they look pretty similar, but it’s tough to compare them because the IDW sample is so much smaller. Let’s look at what percentile of fics fall into each bracket instead and see what’s different:

Ah, that’s better. Here we can see that IDW fics are more likely to fall in the 1,000-5,000 range than other Transformers fics, but less likely to be very short or very long.

We can also use the database to find the median fic lengths: just sort by length and go to the center. From that we can see that the median length of a IDW fic is slightly longer than that of the median aggregated Transformers fic.

We can also see that, predictably, one-shots are shortest, followed by incomplete multi-chapter works, followed by complete multi-chapter works. No surprises here.

If we look at it by rating, though, we get some interesting data. Explicit and mature works are by-and-away longest, while teen and gen works are comparatively short. Works that aren’t rated fall between the two.

The reason to look at medians instead of means is that fanfiction is going to have a bunch of outliers - the longest work in any category is far, far longer than the majority of other works and pulls the average up. Let’s take a peek at the longest work in each rating.

From our sampled data I estimated the mean lengths; sure enough, they’re a lot higher than the medians. I calculated an average length for a finished multi-chapter work at 33,943 words (versus the known median of 8,156) and that of an unfinished multi-chapter work as 10,225 words (versus the known median of 4,965). Meanwhile, one-shots have an average length of 1,906 (versus the known median of 1,316).

We can also use the sampled data to see see what the distributions look like. If we look at how many chapters fics have, the one-shot predominates.

If we look at the same dataset excluding one-shots, we get a better look at the spread of chapter numbers for multi-chapter fics. 2-3 chapter fics are nearly twice as common as 4-5 chapter fics. (The data gets patchy on the upper end since a sample of 600 fics is going to pick up on very few very long fics.)

Since the sample includes both word count and number of chapters, we can approximate how many words stories have per chapter. The calculated average number of words/chapter was 2,541 for complete multi-chapter works and 1,906 (same as the fic length) for one-shots.

Let’s look at the spread of all fics. (The histogram here has stupid block sizes which I could not change 😐.) If we look there’s a surprisingly sharp decline after a chapter length of 580 words.

This is, of course, because of short one-shots. If we exclude one-shots from the dataset we get a very different shape. Now chapter lengths are fairly evenly distributed between shorter-than-500 and 2000 words, then beginning a gradual decline.

And that’s about it for looking at lengths, chapters, publication years, complete/incomplete works and ratings.

What’s Next?

Pt. 1 - Quantifying TF Fanfiction between Adaptations

Pt. 2 - Relationship Scoreboard (All Series) - A Quick Look at the Most Popular Pairings

Pt. 3 - This post!

pt 4 - (IDW) Quantifying Reader Response - let’s take a look at how readers respond to the fanfics that have been posted.

pt 5 - IDW Relationship Spectacular (½)

pt 6 - IDW Relationship Spectacular (2/2)

[sneakers-and-shakes]

How To Build A PC Pt1: Choosing Parts

So as you may know one of my goals back in July was to build a PC. It seemed like such a daunting, expensive task and there were so many components to consider that it was easy to drag my feet. But I knew I had to just push through all that and just do it.

And so I did.

Building a PC isn’t as hard as it may seem and it’s actually a lot of fun! And based on my Instagram poll last week, you guys seem interested in learning about the process. So in this post I’ll outline the first step of building a pc: how to pick the parts.

I’m going to preface this by saying that this is by no means everything you can ever know, so I’ll do my best to leave links to places where you can learn more about things to supplement what I talk about. Tech is also constantly changing and evolving so keep in mind that depending on when you read this, some of these things might not be the newest anymore. I’m also going to be focusing on my build specifically and the parts I used.

So with that out of the way, let’s get started!

I’m going to start off with the different components and a baseline of what they do. To build a PC you only really need 7-8 things:

Motherboard: This connects all the different parts together to make everything run. This needs to be compatible with all the other components of your build.

GPU (Graphics Card): This is the component that handles all the graphics based things for your computer. For gaming or video editing, it’s especially important.

CPU (Central Processing Unit): This is responsible for interpreting and executing the commands you give your computer. So the more cores and threads your CPU has the faster your computer can compute everything.

CPU Cooler (optional): Depending on the CPU you’re getting and the workload you’re putting it under, you might be able to use the stock cooler that comes with some CPUs, so you need to buy a CPU cooler to make sure your CPU doesn’t overheat.

RAM (Random Access Memory): This is what stores the computer’s working memory. So if you have more RAM the computer will be able to process more things at once.

PSU (Power Supply): This supplies power to your whole system.

HDD (Hard drive) or SSD (Solid State Drive) or both: This is the storage on your computer. Hard drives, or traditional spinning drives tend to have more storage but are more easily broken if you bang it around. Solid State Drives are also storage, but they don’t have any moving parts like the hard drives so they’re faster and more stable but usually more expensive. I’d recommend having both if your budget allows for it.

Chassis (case): This is the case that your components are going to live in. Beyond aesthetics it’s good to make sure your case is big enough to house your parts, if it has any fans and what the ventilation is like.

Cooling solutions: Your pc will get super hot and there are many ways to cool it. Fans, AIOs, water cooling.  To keep things simple I’ll just focus on fans, since that’s what’s on my build. You need at least three fans, two in the front as an intake and one in the back as an exhaust, but may need more depending on your parts.

Okay, so those are the main parts and a little about them. This is by no means an exhaustive explanation and you should do more research and reading on these parts. (I'll be attaching links to articles that further explain all this in the next part).

Alright, so now lets get a little deeper into it!

CPU:

This is the CPU I chose. Let me run through why I chose it so you can see the decision making process.

There are two main companies to buy a CPU from: Intel (which I’m sure is a familiar name) and AMD. I would say that at this point, both are pretty comparable. Intel is generally more expensive, and AMD is cheaper and usually offers more cores and threads. (Here is a link that explains cores and threads: https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-a-cpu-2618150 )

Basically, the more cores and threads the faster the CPU will run. So I went with an AMD CPU. Specifically the Ryzen 5 3600x. Let me explain those numbers.

Ryzen is just the name of the CPU, 3600 means it’s the 3000 series for AMD (the higher the series the newer CPU). Ryzen 5 has six cores and 12 threads. You can go higher and get the Ryzen 7 3700x which has 8 cores or go down and get the Ryzen 3 which has 4 cores.

But for me I went middle of the road with the newest series that was out at the time because not only did it give me 6 cores and 12 threads but it was cheaper than Intel. The Ryzen 5 3600x also can run with the stock CPU cooler that comes with it, especially if you aren’t doing anything crazy with it, so I didn’t have to buy a CPU cooler the way I would have had to do if I went with a Ryzen 7.

Here are some links explaining Ryzen and Intel CPUs:

https://www.windowscentral.com/amd-ryzen-which-processor-best-you

https://www.goodgearguide.com.au/article/633263/which-intel-core-cpu-best-how-do-decide-between-core-i3-i5-i7-i9/?

GPU:

The graphics card I chose was the EVGA KO Ultra RTX 2060. Let’s break that down.

Nvidia is one of the biggest companies that makes graphics cards (AMD is the other big one). Currently, the latest series are the Geforce RTX 2000 series, RTX 2040 (lower end), RTX 2060 (middle of the road) and RTX 2080 (super powerful) and the RTX 2080ti (even more powerful).

Nvidia makes the graphics chip and then other companies incorporate that into their own designs to make a GPU. In my case EVGA is the company and one of the GPUs they have for the RTX 2060 is the KO Ultra which I chose cause it was compact and had good reviews.

It’s really beneficial to look at tech reviews for components like the GPU since there are multiple companies making them and they all have their own quirks.

I chose the RTX 2060 because it’s powerful and can handle a lot of gaming and rendering but I’m also not overclocking or doing anything too intense so it didn’t warrant the more money an RTX 2080 would have cost.

Links:

https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/gpu

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gpu-buying-guide,5844.html

RAM:

I chose the Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDRR RAM at 3200MHz. DDR4 RAM is the newest kind of RAM you can get. I have links below that explain more about DDR4.

16GB is a sweet spot for how much RAM you’re generally going to need. 4GB and 8GB are a bit low (Windows needs 4GB just to run) and 32GB is obviously better but usually overkill for most people.

32000MHz is the frequency of how fast the RAM can run. A RAM at 1.6MHz or 2.6MHz is not as fast as 3.2MHz, which is why I chose it.

Corsair Vengeance LPX is the name of the brand and type of RAM I got. Corsair is a pretty well-known brand and the RAM was rated well, but there are many other companies that make this. Again, I recommend looking into reviews.

Links:

https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-random-access-memory-ram-2618159

https://www.lifewire.com/types-of-ram-4150713

HDD:

I have the 2TB Seagate Barracuda hard drive in my build. There’s not much to say about it and I chose it because Seagate Barracuda is a well-known brand and I wanted at least 2TB of storage on my computer.

Links:

https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-a-hard-disk-drive-2618152

SSD:

I also decided to also put a SSD in my build. I’d recommend getting both an SSD and HDD if your budget allows because you can have a bulk of your storage on your hard drive but install your operating system on your Solid State Drive so that everything will boot up and run faster.

I chose the Western Digital M.2 500GB NvMe SSD. Western Digital is a good brand, 500GB is a good amount, especially since I also have an additional 2TB of storage and NvMe is faster than a SATA connected SSD.

Links:

https://www.lifewire.com/solid-state-drive-833448

https://searchstorage.techtarget.com/definition/M2-SSD?amp=1

https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/m2-ssd-vs-sata.html

https://techterms.com/amp/definition/sata

Motherboard:

I went with the MSI B550 Gaming Edge with WiFi motherboard for my build. Now firstly, this motherboard is compatible with my AMD Ryzen 5 CPU. Secondly, it comes with wifi, which is important to me since I don’t have access to an Ethernet port where my PC is. Thirdly, B550 means that this board is compatible with PCIe Gen 4 connections, so I’m accounting for the future. Now PCIe Gen 4 isn’t the standard right now, but it will be in the future and basically it just means that connections are going to be faster.

Here is a link explaining what PCIe Gen 4 is:

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pcie-definition,5754.html

It was also rated pretty well by tech reviewers. Once again, I highly recommend looking into reviews especially with a motherboard since so many brands make them and it can be hard to figure out what you want.

Things to keep in mind: make sure your motherboard is compatible with your CPU. Make sure that there’s at least two SATA ports for your HDD and SSD. If you’re going to use an M.2 NVME SSD make sure that there’s room on the motherboard for that. Motherboards come in three sizes or form factors: ATX, Micro ATX and Mini ATX. Make sure that whatever size it is, it will fit into your case. Also, make sure your motherboard has ports for any connections on your case (like USB ports).

Links:

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/motherboard-buying-guide,5682.html

PSU:

The power supply I chose was the EVGA BQ 600 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply. EVGA is the name of the brand and BQ is what EVGA calls this version of PSU.

Wattage is important and I chose 600W because it’s a 100W more than what the GPU requires, that’s a good rule of thumb to follow. You never want to be under the required wattage.

You also want to choose a power supply that has some 80+ certification. In my case it’s bronze but even just 80+ is better than nothing and obviously silver or gold is even better.

The last part of that name is the Semi-Modular. PSUs can be completely modular, semi-modular or not modular at all. And what that really means is how many connections are already built in and how many you need to make yourself. I chose Semi-modular because I just preferred it and it was easier than making all the connections myself.

Links:

https://www.wepc.com/tips/full-semi-vs-non-modular-power-supply/

https://techguided.com/how-to-choose-a-power-supply/

Case:

Finally, we come to the case. I chose a Phanteks Eclipse P400A. Things I was looking for: a mesh front panel for proper ventilation, a PSU shroud (so you cant see the PSU on the bottom, a tempered glass side panel (cause I like the look) and thee fans.

I didn’t want to buy any extra fans and this not only came with 3 fans but 3 RGB fans. (RGB just means it as pretty rainbow lights). All three were installed in the front so all I did was remove the bottom one from the front and put it on the back as an exhaust fan. It saved me some money and now I have matching RGB fans.

The case is also ATX form factor, which is also the size of my motherboard so I knew it would fit. There are two USB ports on the case and my motherboard has USB ports so I can connect the two.  It also fit my GPU and Power Supply.

Always look at the specifications sheets for all the components your buying to get the sizes to make sure everything will fit.

Links:

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3226748/how-to-buy-pc-case.html

-.-.-

And that’s how I chose all the parts for my build. I know there’s a lot that goes into it, but it’s not too bad if you have some guidance.

Here is a link to an extremely helpful video on choosing parts and how everything connects:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiVWQthb-20

My budget was roughly $1,000 through by no means do you have to spend that much on a PC. I’ve seen builds for $500 dollars that are still awesome. But given my budget, these were the parts that worked for me.

Here’s a link to a very helpful video on different parts list at different price points:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93SwSYQL9D4

I learned all of this from watching the videos I have linked. Three channels in particular taught me everything I needed to know, I’ll link them here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCftcLVz-jtPXoH3cWUUDwYw

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXuqSBlHAE6Xw-yeJA0Tunw

https://www.youtube.com/user/paulshardware

The website I used to create my parts list (which also has some good resources):

https://pcpartpicker.com/

This blog post has gone on long enough, so I’ll stop it here and do another post on the actual build part because that was also quite an experience. Stay tuned for that to see how all the parts I’ve mentioned came together in the build!

I hope you found this helpful and educational. By no means have I covered everything and tech is constantly changing, even as I write this there is a new series of GPUS and CPUs out that are better and faster than the ones I used. But nevertheless, I hope you guys liked this!

Please share your thoughts! I’d love to hear your experiences or questions!

And as always, thank you for taking the time to read this!

See you in the next one!

[minimilitiacheat-blog]

Mini Militia Cheats

Mini Militia Guide

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