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izzabela · 2 months

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Howdy 🤠 I hope you’re having a good day! Love your work. Could you do a fic where Johnny finds the fem reader crying because she got broken up with by her first girlfriend? He comforts her and gives her some relationship advice. Maybe throw in a line like “I just thought I was capable of being loved.” Some good angst/comfort please and thank you.

The Other Woman - Johnny x fem!reader

in which you get dumped during a epic party

a/n: omG thank you for reading my shit!

ship[s]: johnny x bi!fem!reader

warning(s): bits of angst, fluff, comfort, post-story, friends to lovers(ish)

You were supposed to be taking a break from training and sparring under Liu Kang.

You were supposed to be having fun with your friends at Johnny's mansion to celebrate his latest movie hit.

You were supposed to be confident in your girlfriend and yourself, that your bond wouldn't break like some do in those cheesy Hallmark films.

Instead, you were upstairs, tucked away in an extra room in Johnny's house, sniffling into a pillow you hugged close to your chest.

Your pretty, black satin dress was wrinkled as you were balled up in the corner of the room. You could feel the music's bass bump through the ceiling and vibrate through the floor of the bedroom.

No one was upstairs, since Johnny had put up a gate and a "DO NOT ENTER" sign over the ceiling edge for his guests. You, though, were the exception.

You were good friend with Mr. Carlton. Formerly a set-partner in his old movie, Flesh Pits, you two kept in touch after wrapping the movie.

At the time, you were dating a cute little barista girl at the local cafè in the studios of Hollywood, so Johnny knew to back off the flirty advances with you.

You were by his side when he fought Kenshi, trained alongside him, Thunder Lad, and Razor Rang, helped him out of Shang Tsung's lab, and every other event that happened during the timeline fiasco.

With everything that happened, it brought you two closer as friends, and you integrated well with the other men. You also met many other allies, women like Ashrah, Princess Kitana, Mileena and Tanya, and more women that aided you in you quest to stop the Titan.

You should have realized that being gone for an unforseen amount of time, leaving no texts, leaving no note, being with both handsome and ravishing women, would definitely send your girlfriend over the edge. When you came back, you though everything was going good.

That text on your phone proved you wrong tenfold.

To put it simply, she broke up with you claiming you lost your priorities. Claiming you didn't put her first, claiming you were unreachable, claiming, claiming, and claiming.

Worst of all, she claimed you were too much for her. You had too many responsibilities, which took you away from her.

"Tch," you scoff as you read the messages. Unfortunately, she wasn't entirely wrong.

After the events of Titan Shang Tsung, Johnny recruited you as his assistant director for the new series he was making (he actually shoved unedited garble on paper into your hands, saying you had to look over it).

Unironically, he named it "Mortal Kombat", and this was a task given to him by Liu Kang in order to introduce the world to... well, the world.

You were also sent on joint missions with the OIA. As one of Liu Kang's champions, the weight to protect the entirety of Earthrealm was huge and heavy.

You were sent on missions for weeks on end, and if you were unlucky enough, months. It was an inconvenience to many people, the most to your girlfriend.

New tears reclaimed your old ones, traversing down the dried stains on your cheeks as the reality of your situation begins to settle.

You're officially single- and if I dare say, it isn't your fault.

As you keep crying into your pillow, you don't notice the door behind you open, muffled steps on the plush carpet as you feel a slight weight on the floor.

Your head is up from the pillow, and your bleary eyes see a figure with pink over his eyes and a pink scarf around his neck. A warm arm hooks you into his chest and you take a whiff of the cologne.

Ah, it's Johnny.

You take a deep inhale, breathing in the pricey cologne, before another wave of tears leave your eyes. Johnny's in a slight fit on what to do, but he lets you claw at his back as you hug him and wail.

"Good thing I sound-proofed my rooms," Johnny griped a bit, which earns him a shove on his shoulder.

"Ow! H-hey! What's the big dealy-o?" You get up and out of his embrace, finding your phone across the room and opening it to your messages. You then toss the phone to him, and he begins to read where the break-up text begins.

"I..." he's breathless at the sight. His eyes dart up and down as he scrolls, trying to find any pretense for what could have caused this.

Unfortunately, no answers come from the texts as he hands your phone back. He takes the star-shaped shades off his face, placing them up on his head as he tosses the feather boa to the ground.

"Wanna sit and chat about it?" he inquired, sitting on the bed and patting a space next to him. You waddle to him, pillow clutched in your arms as you plop down next to him.

"I mean, I should have seen this coming," you sniffled, wiping snot off your nose. Crying into that pillow grossly accumulated the secretions from your nostrils, and it caked up at your nose.

"Good God, woman." He takes his button-up off and hands it to you as a makeshift tissue. "At least wipe."

You offer a small "sorry" before obliterating your eardrums with the roughest blow of your nose. Thankfully, Johnny's got a white tank underneath, meaning his incredible figure is out.

You can't focus on that, though, since your life just got the latest installment update. After blowing your nose, you continue to rant.

"I knew I was busy. Hell, she knew I got busy," you wipe your eyes gently with a clean spot of his shirt.

As mentioned before, you had the full plate of protecting the whole realm. However, as a normal human being, your girlfriend had her own problems, issues, and tasks to take on.

Just as you needed her, she needed you, but you weren't there.

"I know I can be a lot. Fuck, I did my best to keep it all down for her. And yet, I can't control it."

When you're overwhelmed, you find it a bit harder to open up to those around you- even your loved ones. You promised your (now ex) girlfriend you'd work on it, get better, but your chance was gone in the blink of an eye.

Johnny, for once, is quiet, with the only noise being the music bumping from the floor below you two. He's got a sympathetic frown on his face- it's clear he's been here before.

"I just.... I just though that I'd get it right for once," you murmur quietly.

You had shit luck with love. It wasn't that they were complete assholes, some of your exes were wonderful people. It's just that, you were a bit harder to get to.

As mentioned before, you wee hard to each when overwhelmed. However, in general, you were hard to reach period. You kept to yourself, despite the people you called friends. You were incredibly independent, to the point that you never opened up about how you truly felt.

In short, a really stubborn doormat- people walking over you (with a couple of pricks on the bottom of their feet).

"I thought that maybe, she'd get me. With how things were going, I really thought I was capable of..." your breath hitches as you mutter out the rest of your sentence.

"I thought that with all that I am, all that I have, I was capable of being loved."

Another wave of emotion comes over you, and the rest of your resolve breaks as your eyes overflow with fresh tears. The saltiness is in your mouth, and you can't help but choke on taste of it.

The bed is suddenly lighter, and Johnny is on his knees in front of you, both hands on yours as he declares a fact you didn't know about yourself.

"If you were hard to love," he begins, "You wouldn't have me, Ken-doll, Raiden, or Razor-rang by your side."

His hazel eyes stare into your colored ones, trying to touch your soul with his words. However, you look away as little baby tears fell from your eyes again.

He forces you to look at him, a firm (yet gentle) grip on the back of your head as he pressed your forehead on his.

"If you were hard to love, you wouldn't even have those shit-ass exes of yours!"

You let out a gargled chuckle, slightly choking on the snot and spit that was fresh in your mouth and nose. As fucked as it sounded, he was right.

You were capable of being loved, you had many friends to prove it. By the elder gods, you were friends with others not from Earth. You remember your letters with Kitana and Mileena, the spars with Tanya and Li Mei, not to mention the late night walks at the Academy with Ashrah.

You remind yourself of the meals you shared with Kung Lao, whether you won or lost bets was unimportant. You recall the chores you did with Raiden during the slow day back at the Academy, you even reminisce on the days Kenshi scolded you for training too hard.

Of course, you can't forget your best friend, Johnny. You think back to the days Johnny treated you to lunch after your scene-wraps during Flesh Pits. Memories of some birthdays spent with Johnny, even little pick-me-up dates where he'd cheer you up with karaoke or bar-hopping.

You were able to be loved, those people were just cowards. They didn't give all of them for you the way you gave your whole self to them.

Finally calming down, you realize how close you were to Johnny. You could see the shine in his eyes, despite the evident darkness in the room. You could feel his warm, ragged breath on your face as the faintest scent of alcohol whiffed into your nose.

You also note the delicate features of his face: the slight rough skin texture, healed scars from the battles he had endured, even a couple of freckles around his nose.

Was he always this handsome?

You smile and pull away from him, standing up and stretching your body of any kinks or aches it felt while curled up as you were. Concealed in the darkness was Johnny's pink cheeks from how close you two were.

"Thanks, Carlton," you tease him, dropping a bit of his government name. He scoffs, but he gets up as well, making eye contact with you as he searches your face for a sign of any more discomfort.

"Johnny," you groan, "I'm alright now, really."

Johnny takes your hand in his, fingers intertwining as he brings the back of your hand to his mouth. He kisses it, his warm lips making you turn a bit pink in the dark.

"Just remember, you've got so much more than what that bitch had to offer," Johnny says with a confident straight-forwardness.

You look at the door and back at Johnny, and he begins to lead you to it. However, you tug his hand right before he opens it, which makes him pause and stare at you again.

"What? Nervous?" he taunts. You laugh, shaking your head as you let go of his hand to straighten your dress and wipe away any hints of sadness.

You booty-bump Johnny out of the door's way, flicking your hair in his face as you turn to him with your signature, radiant smile.

"Not sure you can handle this much boom, Cage." You wink at him, flinging the door open as you allow the deafening music to envelope you again.

He smirks.

"You're on, pretty girl."

==================

thank you so much for the request! this was actually a lot of fun to write, despite me restarting this fic two times in my drafts

if you guys haven't noticed, i've been calling Kung Lao "razor-rang" because of a little HC of mine due to Johnny's love of nicknames

hope yall enjoyed, and i'll see yall in the next fic!

#mortal kombat #mk1 #x reader #johnny cage x reader #johnny cage x you #johnny cage #mk1 2023 #mortal kombat 1 2023 #mortal kombat x reader

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physalian · 4 months

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A Guide to Productive Filler

I was going to write this post about the wonders of fanfic and how it does not do the “forced miscommunication for cheap drama” trope, and it did not stay that post for long.

I’m sure it’s out there, but it’s not saturated in the most popular fics and I think I know why: Fanfic exists in contrast to the established canon, and the canon has forced miscommunication, thus fanfic looks at the perpetual failure of those plotlines and ignores it.

Nobody likes this trope, yet it keeps happening. In TV, at least in the old days when we had full seasons with appropriate and satisfying filler episodes and actual good stories and such (you know, before Disney +) TV shows were contracted to fill a minimum number of episodes and didn’t always have enough content to fill it, especially CW shows.

Enter filler episodes, which, when productive, still entertained the audience with off-beat side quests or gave more screen time to beloved side characters or explored more of the world and the lore. Filler plots meant that you could casually check in on your favorite show once a week, or miss an episode, and not feel completely lost because the plot wasn’t super tight and lean. Some of my favorite episodes of all my favorite TV shows are filler plots and just because they’re “filler,” as in, not a plot-heavy element to advance the narrative, doesn’t mean they were lacking in story.

That was good writing.

Bad filler elements were sh*t like forced miscommunication for cheap drama and it still exists even in the “mini series” that are really just long movies extended to keep people from canceling their subscriptions. TV shows may have one or two head writers, but they’re still written by committee and producers and production companies trying to milk as much from a profitable product as possible, which means they couldn’t write an efficient, epic romance that ended too quickly. They had to faff about for a few seasons before delivering to keep butts on couches tuning in to generate sweet, sweet ad revenue.

Forced miscommunication in TV shows have always made sense in that light. Yeah it’s a product of bad writing, but I can’t point at the head writer or even the staff writer alone and criticize their writing ability because it likely wasn’t their decision.

Forced miscommunication in books, however—that I have no excuse for. Books aren’t written by committee. In this case, I really can just blame the author for their bad choices, which, in turn, maybe came from their favorite TV shows and how they executed similar plot lines.

Fanfic does not do this, usually. It’s not written by committee and has no quota to fulfill to beef up the narrative with extra chapters.

—

So. You want your story to be longer, fanfic or otherwise, but you’re struggling because your plot is too thin and you don’t know where to go from here.

First, a disclaimer: Novellas exist and can be as short as they need to be.

“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter,” means that just because it’s long doesn’t mean every word serves a purpose. With enough time, the writer can trim down their thoughts for conciseness and clarity, and say the same thing with better impact with less beating around the bush.

So just because it’s short doesn’t make it bad, just because it’s long doesn’t make it good. It’s about what you do with the words you’ve written.

However, if it really is a thin story lacking substance and oomph, here’s some suggestions that are not sh*t like “forced miscommunication”. These are not meant for generalized application and should be considered heavily before implementing, because any one of them can change your book for the worse by adding in unnecessary detail that distracts from the main story.

1. Consider multiple narrators

Now. I just read a rather bad book that could have lost about ⅔ of its story for a variety of reasons and told the same story in a fraction of the page count. One of those issues was giving the villain several POVs that ruined the suspense and the tension because the reader became privy to their grand plan long before the protagonist and instead of having all our questions dying to be answered with the protagonist, we were waiting around for them to stop fooling around and figure it out already.

With that said, if you have a character of second importance to the protagonist whose perspective would benefit and enrich the story, consider giving them POVs to explore either when the protagonist couldn’t be present, or in contrast to the main narrator’s thoughts on the story and conflict.

I’ve never written anything without multiple POVs and still get carried away sometimes just trying to fill in all the missing time that didn’t add enough to the story to make it worth it. I have deleted POVs from ENNS that were better left up to audience interpretation then all laid out on the table.

This technique very much necessitates restraint, but giving your foil character, your deuteragonist, even your villain some narration “screen time” might help you beef up your word count and tell more than just one biased side of the same story. Fanfic tends to be very efficient with this because, again, one writer working for free tends to want to be efficient and not give pages upon pages of useless prose.

2. Side-quests and character studies

My all time favorite filler episode of any TV show is LOST’s “The Constant”. It focuses entirely on the side character Desmond. He’s an unwilling time-traveler and throughout season 4, struggles to control his temporal displacement and risks dying if he can’t find a “constant” to anchor him to the correct timeline.

This episode is often praised as one of, if not the show’s finest hour. Desmond spends most of the runtime flipping erratically between the past and the present as his romantic relationship spirals for other plot reasons. He ends up making his “constant” his fraught relationship and is able to revert to the past with knowledge of the future to get his then-ex girlfriend’s new phone number so he can call her at an exact date in the future to prove he won’t have given up on them. When Des finally makes that call 8 years later, it’s so emotional, so full of catharsis, so exciting to see him finally reach her after struggling since we met him.

And it has absolutely nothing to do with the plot at large, only Desmond’s arc. It explores some of the world’s lore but doesn’t answer any of the main plot questions or progress any other major character, and Des is the only time traveler so all the risk surrounding time travel is only for him. Critically, it still adheres to the themes of the show and fulfills much of the promises of this character’s role in it.

The show’s worst episode, “Stranger in a Strange Land,” is also filler about protagonist Jack’s tattoos. He makes a relationship with a woman nobody cares about and spends the entirety of the episode’s flashbacks, which is most of the episode’s runtime, dicking around in Thailand. With this quasi-wise woman’s tattoo techniques. Nobody cares what they mean, they didn’t connect with the themes of the show, didn’t tell us anything substantial about Jack or the world, lore, or story, and just felt like a massive waste of time.

If you’re going to write side quests, be more like “The Constant” and less like “Stranger in a Strange Land”.

3. “Slice of Life” moments

A repeat of referencing this scene and this movie but I don’t care: “Doc Racing” from Cars is just one example. Adding in scenes like these won’t give you tens of thousands of words, but maybe you only need a couple hundred to feel satisfied.

Slice of life moments slow the pacing down, so place them wisely, and just let your characters be people in their world. Small things, human things. In Cars, it’s an old man letting himself enjoy life again when he thinks nobody’s watching. I have a scene in my sci-fi WIP series where two brothers, plagued by their family’s social status, take a drive and pick up greasy drive-thru food to park on a mountain overlook and just watch the city while licking salt off their fingers. I think Across the Spiderverse is about 20 minutes too long, but that scene of Miles and Gwen upside down on the roof before the plot ramps up is another quiet, human moment.

It could be a character who needs a break from the breakneck speed of the plot and the stress to listen to music, walk away from the project and enjoy the sun, anything. Do try to not get overly pretentious trying to make it super metaphorical and poetic, let the audience do it for you. These quiet scenes could end up being the audience’s favorite.

—

If you’re trying to make your book longer, don’t be like Bilbo Baggins, okay? Don’t let your characters be spread thin, like butter scraped over too much bread. Add, don’t stretch. If the romance is on track to come together sooner, let it, or figure out a more meaningful way to delay it than throwing in a dumb argument that won’t mean anything in 20 pages anyway.

This wasn’t an exhaustive list, just what I think could be the most effective with the widest applications across genres.

#writing advice #writing resources #writing a book #writing #writing tools #writing tips #writeblr #filler arc #writing filler #pacing #story structure #long post #lost

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blubberquark · 4 months

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Looking for Group

Somebody posted on Discord

Does anybody want to collaborate on a [game] project?

but nobody answered.

Nobody said yes. Nobody said no. Nobody even asked follow-up questions. And yet, people in that server really do want to collaborate on games and projects. What happened?

Obviously nothing happened because the asker did not specify anything. What kind of project? With who? For how long? What should I bring to the table if we collaborate? I don't know. I was busy anyway. Maybe I can set up the asker with other people, who weren't busy. But this is not an isolated incident. Every day, thousands of people ask in chat rooms, forums, and mailing lists "Does anybody want to collaborate?"

Answering with yes is a risky move. Imagine being on the other side, and somebody asks an open-ended question... Imagine being on the other side of "I am having a software problem, can anybody DM me?"

Nobody wants to be on the hook to be somebody's personal tech support without at least knowing the kind of problem, and nobody wants to commit, even tentatively, to a creative project. It's kind of a red flag. What can you do to allow others to message you, to just tentatively get you to agree, to just agree to ask you for more details of your project? What should you do so people who say yes don't feel like they are wasting their own time, and yours?

1. Scope

The most important thing to communicate is scope. It's less important what kind of creative project it is, but how big. Is it an ongoing side project? A weekend? A couple of hours a week for a couple of months?

There is a world of difference between "Does anybody want to collaborate on a weekend project?" and "Does anybody want to collaborate on an epic story with 20 characters, multiple storylines, lore, 50 hours of side quests, and 800 pieces of unique loot?"

2. Stakes and Commitments

The next most important thing is commitments. This is doubly important if you are working with friends. Sometimes you want to collaborate on Ludum Dare, and if your partner is busy on that weekend, you'd rather know now. Sometimes you want to submit a demo of your game to some kind of competition or showcase, and it has to be ready at a certain point.

Sometimes you are really putting your heart and souls into a project, and your friend is just in it "for fun" and thinks you are ruining his fun by taking the project seriously. Your "One Story You Had Inside Yourself" can be your friend's "Learn C++ in 21 Days". Your "ticket into the glamorous games industry" can be your friend's "goof off with blender for a couple of hours and then try a different hobby".

It's important to talk out stakes and commitments with your friends, because you might be able to rope in a friend into a project without doing this. You could rope a friend into your project and he starts resenting you a bit because you are gung-ho about art, and your friend just wants to spend time with you, and you are exacting and controlling and ask him to revise the dialogue/animations/3D models he contributed.

If you are talking to strangers, you can't rope them in. They just won't agree to work with you without details.

3. Skills

If you are asking for collaborators in a programming discord, chances are you will get replies from other programmers. Chances are, wherever you ask, your post will be seen by many people who are good at the things you yourself are already good at. Are you a programmer looking for programmers, or a programmer looking for level designers and artists?

There are many reasons for three programmers or three pixel artists to work together, but by and large, you need people who complement your skill set, but fit into your work flow. If you are working with Unity3D, you probably want to work with 3D artists who have rudimentary knowledge of git and C#, even if they aren't supposed to code, and you need rudimentary knowledge of their modelling software and workflows.

So when looking for people to work with, you need to tell them what you can do, what you can't do, what you want them to do, and how you want to work together.

4. Topic/Idea/Design/Genre

This is point #4. This is deliberate.

You could probably take the previous 3 points and cobble together a "looking for group" post. People rarely do that. They usually have an idea they want to realise. Ideas are a dime a dozen though, and you can still pivot later, after you have found your group members.

It can't hurt to include this. What kind of project do you have in mind?

5. Management and Art Direction

There is one more big thing to consider: If you already have a project in mind, you are taking control of the project. You are the boss, you decide that you are looking for four people to collaborate on a science-based dragon breeding MMORPG, any four people who sign up know what they are getting into. It makes sense that the topic is not open for discussion. It also makes sense that you are the project manager, because you made a list of skills and work that needs to be done, and you have worked all this out already.

We are looping back to point #2 here. Why should people commit to your project if you are holding the reins? What do they get out of it?

You should communicate as early as possible what the creative freedoms are, what kind of tone you want to pursue, and how free your fellow artists are to express themselves.

In a commercial project, you can have control because you pay people. If you are doing a game jam project, or just any unpaid hobby collaboration, you should consider giving the others some creative freedom.

In a game jam, you could just decide that somebody else gets the creative control when you pivot to a different idea. In a large, commercial project, it makes sense to delineate how much creative freedom an individual artist has. In an open-source project, the maintainer can just review a patch and decide not to use it.

Ideally, you should communicate early on how weird or wacky you want the result to be, whether you want something with broad commercial appeal, with a sombre and serious tone, or if anything goes. That would be a bit much for the initial post, so just give a hint whether this would be a good project for somebody who really wants to put pigs and frogs in every game, or a good project who wants to make a character based on her ex boyfriend that the player can shoot in the groin. Sometimes people have the most specific ideas...

If on the other hand you have no idea what kind of creative direction you want to go, maybe you shouldn't go this route at all. If you want to give creative control to a yet to be determined team member, why not join another team instead? If you don't know where the project is going, you can't really plan who and what skills you need anyway.

Examples:

A good request for a collaoration reads a bit like a dating profile or a job ad. It covers the five points mentioned above.

Hey, I am Robert, art director and senior gameplay programmer at Blubberquark Software. I am fluent (among other languages) in Python, C#, Lua, and Haxe. I would like to join a team working with Unity3D, libGDX, löve or Flixel for the upcoming Ludum Dare game jam, in the Hamburg area. I like to use Blender, Gimp, Wings3D, ASEPrite, TrenchBroom, LDtk, Tiled, Ogmo, or Crocotile 3D. I also learned some 3DS Max and Cinema4D in university, but I don't have a license for those.

Here's a fictionalised version of myself, looking for a game jam team. To be clear, I am not looking for a team, but if I was, I'd make sure I don't need to learn a new set of tools for a weekend game jam. I'd try to make sure we all know how to use the engine, and we all know how to use the same source control, and we can all build and run a project before the jam starts. I wouldn't want to do a Ludum Dare remotely, so all this goes in there.

Since this is about Ludum Dare, scope and stakes are clear, and the skills I would use are in there. Skills that are irrelevant to Ludum Dare are not mentioned. Topic and creative control will depend on the jam theme, which is TBD.

Hello, we are Jim (programming) and Julius (level design, turn-based games expert). We are working on a fantasy JRPG called "animecha generica" that we hope to sell on Steam. We already have a gameplay prototype with placeholder characters and pixel art, but we would like to work with a skilled artist to create more interesting character designs and expressive/emotive portraits for the conversation system. If you join us, you would create characters, character portraits, quest lines, and dialogue, and we would split the revenue thee ways. We are also looking for a musician (work for hire basis).

This sounds like an early-stage commercial project. There is an engine and a prototype, but the design seems to depend on the content, and the developers are looking for somebody who can contribute the content. The scope sounds rather large (probably at least 5 hours of gameplay, maybe more) and the time commitment would be full-time until release. The artist they are looking for would do a little bit of everything, from art direction and narrative design down to art assets, and there would probably be a lot of overlap between the roles of two developers and the artist. Everybody wears multiple hats.

This sounds really risky, and the success of the project would depend on none of the three developers screwing it up.

Hi, I am Takeshi Kovacs, and I am making a new game engine based on Vulkan rendering, with its on scripting language, but optionally scripted in Python or C#. If this sounds interesting to you, I would like to work with you on a small game project of your choice, and help you realise your game design to test the viability of my Vladimir-and-Estragon Engine. Pick any weekend game jam of your choice. Pacific Time Zone only.

This seems low-pressure, and of limited scope. It could be a good after hours project, but it's probably not necessarily a good fit for a beginning programmer. You'd learn a new and unproven engine and scripting language. Apart from wasted time, it can't hurt that much to try. If you are a beginner, you could try to implement Pong or Tetris with Takeshi's help.

If you take up this offer, you would enjoy significant creative control, but the main objective would not be to produce a game for people to enjoy, but example code, or a game mechanics as a proof of concept for the engine.

We are making an open source shmup written in libGDX. We are always looking for new contributors. We have 100 stars on GitHub, and 50 players, according to our analytics. For the next release, we would like to add new levels, new power-ups, more ships, more content. Play our game [here] or build it from source by [following] [these] [instructions] [(Outdated Wiki Page For Ubuntu 20.04)]. If you have experience with Steam Workshop, talk to us on [our Discord].

This project has a medium scope, semi-mature code base, and low time commitment. You could probably contribute some content, or a patch to the engine, and nobody would really rely in you to stick around. On the other hand, you have little influence on the overall game design. You could certainly try: You could make a pull request that completely re-vamps the gameplay, but at that point, you might as well start a hostile fork.

We at secret studio are making otome dating simulator. Want to have demo ready for PAX Moonbase. We are looking for multiple character artists who can draw our characters on-model on a work-for-hire basis, and two additional writers for our writing team. We are looking for candidates who have experience with authoring systems like twine, ink, Ren'Py, Visual Novel Maker, or RPG Maker. Experience with YarnSpinner is a plus, but not required. You have the opportunity to design your own otome love interests and story lines. You will be expected to work under our creative director.

Like the JRPG example above, this is a commercial project with a large scope and fixed design, but these people are looking to hire more people who wear fewer hats each to create content quickly. This looks like a job ad for a paid position. It should be! You would have some creative freedom, but since this is a commercial project, you will have to stick with the marketing demographics and write romance storylines for girls who like boys, and any ideas you want to convey have to fit into that framework. It looks like they are using YarnSpinner and an undisclosed game engine, and they are willing to teach you how to use their tools on the job, but they seems to expect a writing background, and some prior experience in the tools/workflow/production side of visual novels specifically.

Hi. My name is Jeff. I work in theatre and I produce radio plays. I have podcasting and sound recording equipment at work. I play the guitar, badly, and I can borrow an old Moog synthesiser. I want to collaborate on a game project, by producing foley sound effects, or recording short stings and jingles. I know some QBasic from back in the day, but I haven't programmed much since then. I have licenses for Ableton, Photoshop, and Autodesk Maya.

Jeff is looking for a group. Jeff is not looking for a big commitment. He is willing to help a project out. Jeff has listed some skills and things he could contribute to a project. He is not looking for a new full-time job, but maybe a paid side gig.

Hi. I am Raven Siege Tank Banshee Medivac, a sophomore student majoring in computer science and underwater basket weaving at New England University, Arkham. I can use Blender, Photoshop, and and Logic Pro. I would like to help out with an open-source game project. I would also consider doing a puzzle platformer together. I know some PyGame.

There is almost but not quite enough to go on in this one. In what capacity would Raven work in a collaboration? What kind of scope is right, here? Maybe Raven would like to work on that shmup written in Java, but as far as the puzzle platformer is concerned, we don't know why Raven can't just make it solo with PyGame and Photoshop.

TL;DR

If you want to find people to work together with, you must communicate scope, commitments, and skills you need and skills you bring to the table. Explaining what kind of idea you want realised is also important, as is creative direction, but not as important as the first three. Your post should look like a job ad. Read your post and think if you would join that project or ask that person to join yours.

#game development #project management #indie dev #game jams

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ms-scarletwings · 9 months

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We gotta start accurately calling Sly Cooper a low fantasy universe at some point. It’s retrospectively wild how much supernatural shit is going on in front of your face that you don’t think about because it’s like… nothing to the characters that it’s happening to. People who have never played Sly Cooper have no clue how nonchalantly it grinds this rail between just “real world noire but furries” and straight up DC superpowers stuff.

• The surprising amount of undead, in hindsight

Black magic is just, you know, a thing…. and outside of when it’s the weapon of choice of the villain of the week, it’s not even really brought up. Tsao was building an army of honest to god vampires and Mz.Ruby has been fraternizing with homemade ghouls since she was a child. A second-game side quest involves descetrating a tomb, kidnapping a bunch of restless ghosts, and then unleashing them on the cops for a good prank. For Pete’s sake, Clockwerk, biggest bad of the franchise, is basically an eldritch machine possessed by the vengeful spirit of someone who became too petty and angry to die.

• There are people born with innate superpowers

So, there is no debate going on with the deal about Cooper abilities and this point, right? Sure, the Theivious Raccoonus has a lot of good pointers any thief worth their salt could gain from, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say somethings along the lines of gliding down lasers or turning invisible on command are a bit out of most readers’ capabilities. The 1st game’s humor in explaining off gameplay mechanics as in-universe phenomena had the unintended consequence of establishing that the Cooper clan members literally have a criminally inclined sort of spidey sense- literally hallucinating glowing auras and blue sparkles around anything both valuable and not nailed down. I think I also awkward appreciated the parallel to be spotted between the Cooper honer code and the self imposed limitations other media supers live by. That idea of “you have the gift of amazing power and you will choose to use it responsibly”, all the better here for the ways in which the clan’s premise subverts classic hero/villain dynamics.

• Ancient techniques of sorcery

run right alongside conventional weaponry

Some supers are born in this world, a lot of them are made. As if anyone with the time to practice and learn can just pick it up like karate. Religion has to be crazy in Sly Cooper considering there’s entire spiritualisms given demonstrable and epic power in what their followers are capable of. Murray literally can do some degree of magic from the third game and onward and there’s no telling what else he learned over the course of his Dreamtime training. Anyone with the wits and resources of the Contessa can figure out how to toy around with freaking mind controlling dark arts. Don’t get me started again on the whole “army of undead” thing which gets even weirder by the implication that the world does nothing to regulate these kind of abilities UP AND UNTIL the user starts to roleplay a cocky little warlord with their zombie friends. And Flame Fu is right there. A lot of what the panda king can do is closer to Bentley’s realm- very complicated and meticulous works of pyrotechnics, but Flame Fu is a whole something else that belongs in this discussion.

• Magical items and mythical beasts

The Mask of Dark Earth, the guru’s special stone, an entire kraken, a whole laundry list of things in The Contessa’s possession, an enormous swamp serpent, haunted trees, whatever the hell kind of ring Dimitri was wearing in the second game, a giant stone dragon statue that turns out to be AN ACTUAL FREAKING DRAGON in dormancy, a supercharged ancient bamboo forest, potentially the Cooper cane itself, and the not-to-be-overlooked every single piece of Clockwerk’s cursed body. I know I’m probably forgetting something because that was just off the cuff. It’s kind of wild that most of what we watch the Coopers focus on stealing can be stuff like museum paintings in a world where magic flying carpets are confirmed to exist. The hell. Why was I ever mocking the pirates in Bloodbath Bay for their paranoia and superstition?? Best part was always that basically none of it phased the resident smarty pants nerd character like it usually would anyone who fills that trope. Because of magic is just an accepted and normalized thing in the world, why WOULD Bentley talk about it any different than he would the history of lumberjacks or combustion physics? Instead of conflicting against his understanding of science, it just tacks onto it as more additional info, you know… the way it would if magic was just another set of rules to study and understand.

#sly cooper #sly cooper analysis #sly cooper and the thievius raccoonus #sly 2 band of thieves #sly 3 honor among thieves #scarlet talks about things

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stagefoureddiediaz · 1 year

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Costume Meta 6x13

Was that real - did that episode actually happen or was it all a collective fever dream?!! I”m still sat here with my jaw on the floor trying to process all of the epic goodies we got in that episode, and the costumes were no exception!!!

I’ve spent far too long trying to figure out how to assemble my meta this week, but I’ve just gone with the flow and seen where it take me! Also this beast did not want to be wrangled and my ADHD decided side quests were far more fun and so getting this written has been a real struggle (I came out victorious though which is all that matters) and why its a bit later than normal (we’re not going to talk about my laptop deciding to crash and rebooting to a document that was missing half of what I had written - I couldn’t get it back so sad times!)!!

its under the cut - because as always - its a loooonnnnggggg post!!

We’re starting with the Wilson family (and Chimneys first costume!) because they actually sit separately from the rest of the characters from a costuming perspective this week!

There are a couple of things to note for the opening Wilson family scene which are kind of overarching things. Firstly the fact that Chim and Denny are both dressed in black and grey - a really clever choice when you consider their topic of conversation - fathers and things that have happened that cannot be undone - the grey acts as a form of fade out - kind of like a greyed out button on a computer screen - preventing you from clicking on it. Both Chimneys semi resolved arc (the decision to make his peace with his father and he reality of the situation) and Denny’s current arc echo each other up to this point in time - Chim’s father came back into his life and he made peace with it, Denny’s father is currently (and unknown to everyone) back in his life.

Both Chim and Denny are also wearing chack pattern - chims more hidden and Denny’s down the side - but Hen is also wearing a very loud and bright check pattern - she is the nly one in colour and the test card patterning of her jumper says so mcuh about both check theory and the fact that at this moment in time, she is not active in the plot - not in the conversation Denny and Chim have just had, and not in the Nathaniel of it all either. We know Denny is in danger later on so his check is also foreshadowing that, Hen is also in danger (emotional danger is just as vaild as physical danger) and Chimneys danger is more low key - its closer to his chest - his home being ‘invaded’.

However when Hen does come into play, we get a much more muted tones and we get these, whites, dusty pinks, lilacs and dusty purples, along with teal green trousers. Karen is in a black silk blouse with lilacs in a lilac colour on - this pairs her and Hen up in their respective styles and shows us they are on the same page. Lilacs are an interesting choice of floral and colour - it symbolises youth and innocence as well as love and purity. However Lilacs also mean old love and were often given to and worn by widows in the victorian era as a symbol of lost love and lost innocence! so the black paired with the prolifferation of lilacs (both colour and flowers) are telling that Hen and Karen are no longer ‘innocent’ (by which I mean they have gained knowledge) and they are also mourning the loss of the stable family life they thought they had created.

the choice to have Denny in army green continues a theme we’ve seen with him so far this season - the use of camouflage and army colour-ways to show him as sneaking around going undetected, and now the full on army green reads as an act of aggression - to the family life Hen and Karen have created, as well as to the agreement they had put into place with Nathaniel back in season 2.

I found the choice to have Karen in black with some yellow in her trousers and Hen in very bright emerald green (also with some yellow in her trousers) very interesting. Karens black is carrying on that theme of mourning, but its also a power colour - so its Karen still angry and grieving, but its also her pushing forward. the yellow is her communicating (on a low level) her anger and upset over what has happened.

Hen meanwhile is going full out into jealousy mode - we are seeing a Hen who is feeling threatened by Nathaniel and is jealous of the relationship her son has secretly been building with his bio father. THis is the culmination of all those little hints about the role Hen fills in Denny’s life - that she has been the one supporting and encouraging his sporting interests - thats why we saw Eddie and her throwing a baseball - so she could continue to share a sporting connection and interest wit her son. Hen feels threatened and jealous of Nathaniel’s stepping into that area she previously filled.

The wardrobe department just keep knocking it out of the park with the kids clothes this season. Denny’s mushroom shirt is amazing. Mushrooms are about duality - they represent both decay and deterioration, but also transformation and growth in the darkness. so Denny wearing this shirt here is perfect - he is going through puberty - a time of transformation and his acting out in his sneaking around etc is a symbol of that transformative time. His relationship with his mothers has deteriorated and decayed - they no longer feel like they can trust him, but his conversation with Toni brings him hope and the opportunity for all to grow through this dark time. its a really clever piece of costuming and I love it so much.

Karens dark teal green is interesting - there was actually quite a bit of teal at play in this episode. teal is a colour of clarity the darkness of it here suggests that clarity is coming but not fully in place yet - that Karen is more aware, but not yet fully accepting of the new reality she lives in.

Hens black and beige jumper is a wonderful choice as well - the beige representing neutrality and its being a soothing colour is important - accompanied by the black spots it has the affect of suggesting that the initial anger is passing and giving way to a more open time - one where calmness and the ability to see things more clearly come into play. the fact that this jumper has runs and frayed edges still maintains that idea that this has damaged Hen - that she is scared from this turn of events, even if she is more open to moving forward and accepting of Denny’s desire to have a relationship with his father.

Here we have a Denny in navy blue shirt and a yellow and green palm frond pattern - I thought originally they were bird of paradise flowers when I was watching live, but they are more obvious in the stills! palm fronds are an iinteresting and perfect choice - they are a symbol of peace and triumph - exactly what Denny is experiencing here - triumph in being allowed to see and build a relationship with his father and the resulting peace in his family dynamic that will come as a result.

I know I talk a lot about yellow being a colour of communication - and that still holds - but it is also a colour of anxiety and that very much matches up wit the look on Hens face. Her patchwork camouflage trousers hint at her uncertainty about the situation - she is trying to mask her nervousness and misgivings. These trousers are the same ones she was wearing at her leaving the 118 party - a time when she was also feeling nervous and had misgivings about becoming a doctor. Karen being in a navy jumpsuit with a variety of headdresses on is, again, an interesting choice - headdresses like those depicted are ceremonial (for the most part) and are a symbol of leadership, strength and bravery - perfect for Karen in this moment (and in general).

Just a quick aside before we move onto the ret of the mains! I don’t normally focus on the side and guest characters, but the guy whose wife got a vibrator lodged inside her is wearing the shirt Buck was wearing in his coma dream and that has me both cackling and wide eyed!

The scene in Bucks coma dream where he is wearing this shirt is one of mostly confusion and uncertainty for him - loosely speaking - its when he’s really trying to understand what exactly is going on in this world his mind has built for him - one where after that initial confusion we see him essentially embrace this new reality where he has what he thinks he wants - but what actually turns out to be something else - something that he doesn’t want/need. And here in this scene we have a guy going through the sexual version of the same thing - thinking that this different version of his sex life with his wife will be better - make things better and make her happy, when the reality is that if he’d had an actual conversation with her about it things would more than likely turned out differently. So major props to the wardrobe team for this little gem of a costume reuse!

Maddie rocking the layers here in Black, grey and red - very telling for this scene. layering is generally about protection - in an attempt to deflect something that is making you uncertain or causing anxiety. This is very much what is going on with Maddie here. the red top being the one closest to her skin - the bottom layer, shows that she is happy, in love and in a good place - the red of romance and passion, but it can also be a sign of danger and I think its is a combination of these two meanings here - the danger element coming from the fact that this new neighbour has got Maddie’s spidey senses tingling. The grey hoodie is a little bit of foreshadowing for her later silver top - the grey transforms into silver and becomes reflective (more on that in a moment). Then there is the black blazer - power and mystery. the mystery element is connected to who this woman is/ actually is while the power element is connected to Maddie having the power to control her own destiny in this moment - her returning the muffin tray is about her attempting to assert some authority over the situation. it is worth mentioning that aside from the Black blazer, they have Rhonda dressed in slightly darker versions of the the same colours when she gets caught - red high neck top with a darker grey jacket than Maddie’s hoodie!

Maddie in silver and being reflective is actually kind of a jarring outfit for her -and thats rather the point. Its not a colour we see her in and she wears greys infrequently as well - she tends towards a warmer and brighter palette with the accompanying blacks, so this is out of place for her - it highlights her discomfort and actually there is something in the reflecting of that discomfort towards Athena - the one person who knows exactly what Maddie means about not feeling safe or comfortable in ones own home. The metallic top is also reminiscent of plate armour and suggests Maddie is arming her self - getting ready to protect herself iff needed. Its a top that represents her trauma response bubbling beneath the surface ready to reassert itself if needed.

Buck in yet another grey jumper! honestly I’m beginning to wonder how many more grey jumpers they can find for him to wear!! This one is a much lighter grey than we saw him wear in season 5, and its also lighter than any we’ve seen him in so far in season 6. It follows on nicely from the one we saw him in in 6x12 when he was sleeping on Eddies couch and having meaningful conversations in the kitchen late at night! but it is also tv static grey - it has that fuzzy appearance, which in Buck terms means uncertainty and confusion. This is such an interesting choice for this scene and its vitally important for it as well.

This is Buck outright parenting Chris - completely on his own with no Eddie to be seen. The only other times we’ve seen this happen are during the shooting arc and in 4x08 when Chris runs to Buck after Eddie reveals to Chris he has a girlfriend. Before you all shout at me about the tsunami it doesn’t count because Eddie actively sets up that Buck and Chris time on screen, so his influence remains a part of the scene even if he isn’t present (It is also a trauma event and that means it sits separately). The shooting arc sits separately from this new scene and the 4x08 one by virtue of it being a trauma event - like the tsunami. We also know that Buck looking after Chris like this is a common thing from the canon text, however this is one of the few times we’ve seen it on screen and the first time we see it where Eddie is not even remotely present - making it a step up from the 4x08 scene where he is present via the tail end of a phone conversation.

The grey fuzzy jacket Buck wears in the 4x08 scene is darker and the fact the cookie scene has lighter grey is telling about the level of uncertainty Buck is feeling. this scene is one fraught with potential danger for Buck - his choices could anger or alienate Eddie and erode their relationship if he gets it wrong - he could get accused of stepping in where he doesn’t belong. It could also land a critical blow to his relationship with Chris - what he says could upset him or make Chris feel like Buck isn’t supportive etc, it is a fine line Buck has to tread and he does it masterfully here - giving him the confidence going forward. WE see the results of that in the cookie kitchen scene - Buck bantering with Chris and successfully parenting him - and not being good cop! So here we have costume highlighting the development of Buck and Christophers father son relationship!

The Poker Game!!!!

This gets its own little section because there is a lot going on! to start with I’m going to link to this meta about Bucks costume and this one about Eddies costume, because they still, for the most part, ring true. getting the full scene hasn’t really altered my opinions on their costumes per-say. I’ll add a bit more to them once you get to the stills of them!

We have Chief Miranda Williams in a black sequin and slightly sheer waterfall front top with gold jewellery, and Captain Jeshan Mehta in all black with this dark plum striped tie. A very deliberate choice to have the both of them in full black (except the tie). All of the characters wear black in this scene (Julie only has black shoes so kind of doesn’t count and I’ll explain why when we get to her) Both Buck and Eddie are wearing black shirts/turtlenecks and they are the ones with the power in the game (thanks to Bucks new found math skills) while Chief W and Captain M both have seniority in the real world and therefore power of a different kind. I’d even argue that Chief W has the ultimate power because she wises up and allows the boys to have their fun and thus the power remains with her regardless! the use of a waterfall front top is just another subtle reference to the water theme. the purple tie is also a deliberate choice - purple is the combination of the two jackets Buck and Eddie are wearing - red and blue! Purple is a colour of mystery (much like the black they’re all wearing is) but it’s also a colour of enlightenment and understanding our inner most thoughts and feelings. It being worn by Mehta connects this concept to the shooting and Buck and Eddie finally coming to terms with the realities of it and what it means going forward - them acknowledging their feelings etc and what it means for them, both individually and together.

Julie Rosen in a dark teal asymmetric dress with a high front slit and silver jewellery. Ok so things to focus on with this costume are the asymmetry and the colour teal. Asymmetry represents unbalance (for obvious reasons) and there are a couple of ways to interpret that in this scene - obviously things are unbalanced because Buck has an advantage with his math skills. there is also the fact that Julie is in on the hustle (her comment about Buck being bad at math is deliberate and pointed!) which pits the 3 members of the 118 against Chief Williams and Captain Mehta so its 3v2.

Then there is the teal - a colour of clarity, objectivity, support, earnestness and of being true to oneself. the other thing about teal is that it is a combination of blue and green - a combination of Buck and Eddie’s colours! As a side character and one who is in on the hustle, her costume is supposed to give us more information about our main characters and her dress is really doing that!

So here we have a scene centred on them where we have a connected character wearing a colour that is a combination of their individual colours and one which means clarity etc, the return of Captain Mehta whose name literally means crystal clear and Chief Williams - whose first name is Miranda - which means to be wondered at - can they make it any louder that Buddie is happening if they tried???

Well yes actually they can - because I seem to be doing nearly all of the non main characters tonight, lets talk about the croupier as well! Firstly we need to note her location at the table in relation to Buck and Eddie - she sits opposite them and directly in between them. She is wearing a black shirt with a rusty orangey brown rope pattern woven across it.

I know its not red, but this is yet another example of the show making use of what it can to keep the red string of fate metaphor active. Here we have the rope/string twisted and looped, suggesting things are being tied together and because of her location and the implication is that this poker game is ting Buck and Eddie even more closely together (it really is a date even if neither of them actually realise it!!)

We’ve had so many game, cards and fate metaphors thrown at us across the series, but especially this season, now we’re getting to the business end of things. We have all of the metaphors at play in this one scene - the universe screaming at you (as represented by Mehtas presence), the idea of playing a game to win - when you can’t lose, making the most of the hand you’ve been dealt, the gaining of knowledge and it all being tied up together by the red string of fate - represented by the croupier - who is, like I said, sat in front of and between Buck and Eddie - in front of being the operative point (the future)!

Do you want me to go on with all the subtext in this scene?!!

Then we get to Buck and Eddie - Buck sticking to type and rolling up his long sleeves - taking off his jacket and dressing himself down (a nice touch to add to the mini dressing down he gets from Chief Williams!) but him removing the red jacket is symbolic of him stepping back into himself and his normal role - cracking dumb jokes, being a golden retriever and also reasserts his uncertainty about his future - his desire to become a captain - the theme that has been bubbling along all season.

I will make a more full meta post specifically about Buck and Eddies watches, but for now - we get a better still to scream over! The watch that had been more or less hidden under Bucks sleeves for the duration of the poker game, is now revealed to us once Buck has won his steaks. black leather strap and a white face. black and white - things are black and white - time is black and white - its telling us that Buck is no longer in the dark (all his watches have been fully black up to now) and also that there are no grey areas!

Also they just look epically good so why wouldn’t I add in extra pictures of them for us all to appreciate!!

Everything I said about the choice to have Eddie in a turtleneck holds true - thanks to Joaquin Sedillio telling us that they were inspired by George Clooneys look in oceans 11 - a look that was inspired by golden age Hollywood.

I do want to mention the use of texture in the poker scene and this connects into Bucks burgundy velvet jacket. the scene uses texture very deliberately, only Buck and Chief Williams are wearing anything textured - her texture is rough, while Bucks is soft and smooth (as long as you brush it the right way!) they also contrast each other in terms of look - velvet is a very flat texture - its matt and absorbs light, unlike the sequins which bounce light around and sparkle, drawing the eye and reflecting light. it is the absorbing/ reflection aspect that is the mist interesting because it lays into the idea of showy versus understated - and that is actually giving us hints of Bucks growth - before he was all about being showy - bright and bold and going through the whole fake it till you make it thing and seemingly lacking substance. Now though we see a Buck who is more considered - his brush with death has made him less flashy and more internalised. (I also love that this absorbing concept plays on the fact that he ‘absorbed’ a lightning bolt and lived to tell the tale!!). the other thing about the velvet being absorbing is that it places the focus onto Buck - this scene is all about him and he is absorbing the attention (and revealing in it!)

I’ve put the photo above where I have because of the Athena and Buck connection. Athena wearing a reverse of Bucks poker suit - burgundy top black jacket. The Burgundy has the same meaning that we get with Bucks jacket - the deep love and passion and romance - it is telling us that Bathena are very happy and very in love - that its a deep love. The black leather jacket contrasts with Buck as well - it has a more reflective surface - this scene isn’t about Athena, its about Madney.

So we have a reverse parallel going on between Buck and Athena - something we’ve seen at play many times throughout the seasons combined with Bobby wearing a very Eddie shade of green - that khaki shirt is straight out of the Eddie Diaz playbook and isn’t a shade we see Bobby in that often - he’s often dressed in similarly muted shades to Eddie, but they are never that much of an army colour like this one is. In an episode that shows us Bobby and Athena being in love and happy and finding new things out about each other without any children being a part of the narrative. the show is being pretty on the nose about asking us to draw the parallel - especially when we’ve seen Christopher seeking his own independence.

The blue and green of it all

Honestly the amount of blue and green paralleling going on in this episode was insane! I spent a long time uhming and ahhing about how to present this - to put all the green together followed by the blue, or to keep the coupes together! I’m going to keep this fairly brief as this post is already reaching epic proportions (I write in a very scattered manner so thats how its already super long!!)

Green

First thing to note is that the greens get darker as the episode goes on - we start with Eddie in his khaki olive green, only this one is a much lighter shade and tonally has a lot more yellow going on which actually helps connect him to the first dining table scene and his yellow shirt. Its also important to note that he has his blue face watch on - which I’ve started calling his Christopher watch

This henley is the same one we see him wearing when he is at the Grant Nash house talking to Athena about his Abeula and her being taken advantage of - such a choice by the wardrobe team - foreshadowing the poker game hustle as well as playing on the theme of being taken advantage of and of cards (tarot cards!) they really are going to town with very deliberate repeat costumes since 5b!

We should remember that Hen is also sporting green in this episode - a very bright emerald green as well as Denny in army green and Karen in teal green at various points - they all darken within their own separate arc as well as fitting into the wider arc of the episode (see the Wilson family section at the beginning if you want a reminder).

Chimney wearing army green is showing us that he is ready to fight for his family - for Maddie - so that she can feel safe in her home.

And Bobby rounds out the green in a bottle green tee and jacket combo which is verdant and shows that his relationship with Athena is in full bloom.

This use of green getting increasingly darker is something we’ve been seeing at play throughout the season - we’ve had it with Buck, particularly in relation to the sperm donor storyline, but also in connection with Hen as well as its abundance in the coma dream. Like I’ve said a million times green is generally symbolic of growth and what we’re getting with its use in this episode and more widely this season is a deliberate choice to make that growth even more explicit - whatever story arc its connected to - Buck adn the sperm Donor, Hen and her attempts to connect with Denny so she can be a good parent to him and be supportive, or Bobby and his relationship with Athena and how he is getting a better understanding of her and how that is growing his love for her even more.

Blue

The blue doesn’t follow the same linear trajectory as the green - the colour starts dark, lightens up and then heads dark again in the most general sense, but it also brightens as the episode progresses, .

Athena is in both light blue and dark blue here

while in the same scene Bobby is also in dark blue - they are matching and complimenting each other. Dressing them both in blue at the same time is an indicator of shared trust and loyalty.

Chimney has on a blue jumper here,

which he is wearing over this blue check shirt that we see him in later on, so again dark heading slightly lighter. Check theory was working over time with Chimney in this episode - the only time we see him without check is when he’s in green. That is interesting to me - its making me think that the check is telling us that Chimneys home life is stable and happy, but that his work life might be less so - the blue and the fact that we’ve seen him in check in connection with various members of the firefam in the last couple of episodes - Buck post coma, Hen in this episode, and now Bobby when He and Athena come over for dinner.

Bobby is wearing this dusty blue polo after Rhonda has been caught.

I should point out here that Maddie is wearing a dark khaki green tee underneath her bright blue shirt which is a clever hint at the fact that this playdate she has set up is a trap - Maddie is waging war - fighting for her home and the ability to live in it without fear. The bright cobalt blue indicates ingenuity and enlightenment - playing into the trap that has been set for Rhonda. It is also a happy shade of blue - bright and cheerful it ties into the idea of comfort and contentment and indicates Maddie being able to return to feeling happy and secure in her home.

And finally we have Athena in this cobalt blue running tee and gilet - its a brighter blue than the cobalt of Maddie’s shirt, almost royal blue - it still shares the meaning though - enlightenment and happiness. Its telling us that Athena is finding joy in discovering both her enjoyment of running and her enjoyment of haring an activity with her husband. The otehr thing to note is a contniation of Buck and Athena being paralleled - here we have her in a blue gilet when she flirts and insitgates shower sexy times shortly after we’ve seen Buck attend the sex gone wrong call - wearing a gilet - with him then checking in on his previous relationships and hook ups to see if they were satisfied sexually with him - the loudness is getting louder!

Blue is a colour that has been slowly increasing in frequency for Buck and I have a theory about it - bear with me here because we need to look at when he wears the colour - I’m not going to include them all or I’d be her all day - the ones i’ve excluded are either denim shirts/jackets or where blue is one of the colours rather than the only colour of a top!!

Season 1 - Buck and Abby go on a date - the only time we see Buck wear blue in season 1 and its his blue suit (with a white shirt) Season 2 - Buck wears blue 7 times in season 2 but the two key moments we need to look at come early on in the season 2x01 - the blue henley he’s wearing when he finds Maddie in his apartment - its the first non uniform outfit we see him post Abby leaving and comes after Eddie has been introduced (coincidentally this is the same henley we know we’re going to see Eddie wearing later in the season!). the second one comes in 2x04, when Buck talks to Maddie about Eddie struggling with paperwork to get Chris the help and support he needs (its the boy crush conversation!) Season 3 - Buck also wears blue 7 times in season 3. The 3 we need to focus on are; 3x04 Bucky talks to Chase Mackey and sues the city, 3x06 Bucks return to the 118 post lawsuit and 3x16 - Buck goes to a bar and meets Red. Season 4 - the number of blue shirts goes up dramatically to 10 (especially as its a short season) and we’re interested in 6 of them. 4x03 - games night at he Diaz house when Eddie is dismantling technology and Buck has to do some parenting. 4x05 we have 2 - Peru Buck and the blue jacket he wears when Maddie gives him the postcards he sent her over the years. 4x07 Buck tries dating Veronica. 4x12 Buck, Eddie and Taylor discuss the treasure hunt at Bucks loft (petty Eddie drinking beer scene). 4x14 Buck sleeps on Eddies couch and parents Chris after the shooting. Season 5 Buck wears blue 9 times in season 5 and we’re looking at 5 of them, 5x09 Buck washing up in the loft while Taylor is being distant (pink marigolds scene). 5x11 Buck and Taylor have dinner at the Diaz house - Buck and Eddie argue. 5x13 Maddie’s return from Boston and also Buck breaks down Eddies door and was in the room! 5x18 the blue suit he wears to HenRen’s vow renewal. Season 6, we’re just over half way through and are already up to 19 blue buck outfits!! the key ones are 6x01 - the lasagne kitchen scene. 6x02 post convention locker room talk with Hen, 6x04 Madney apartment Buck tells Maddie about the year of yes, a second one is the navy top he wears when getting drunk with Hen and then the blue striped shirt when he tells C&K he’ll be their donor. 6x07 there are 3 blue shirts when he fails to donate sperm, 6x09 when he tells the firefam that his sperm has helped C&K get pregnant. 6x11 when he comes home from the hospital post lightning strike. 6x12 while he’s trying to recover at his loft and then a second one when he has is appointment with Dr Salazar. 6x13 the superpowers scene.

Eddie also wears Blue at some key moments

Season 3 - 3x03 post tsunami ‘theres no one in the world I trust more with my son than you’ scene. 3x4 - chris wakes from a nightmare. 3x09 therapy with frank. 3x12 Chris has his skateboarding accident and Eddie shouts at Ana. Season 4 - 4x08 Eddie introduces Ana to Chris as his girlfriend. 4x14 - the will reveal. Season 5 - 5x10 Chris has a nightmare. 5x14 dream Eddie in the kitchen serving Chris breakfast. 5x17 talks to Buck about his family - while in Christophers bedroom. 5x18 the suit he wears to HenRen’s vow renewal. Season 6 - 6x08 dressing Chris for his school dance. 6x09, sleeping on the sofa. 6x13 poker night.

Why have I written all of this out you ask - well because I want to show you how all of these scenes (and the ones I’ve not included in the list also fit the theme) are water finding its level related. They are all very key moments when either Buck or Eddie are finding a new level or at turning points - not only in their relationship with each other, but also with Christopher.

All of Eddies wearing of blue connects to Christopher, until the one from this episode - the first time we see Eddie wearing blue while doing something not related to Christopher. I included the dream sequence Eddie in the list because he literally starts coughing up water.

As for Buck - again most of the scenes (even the ones with Maddie) are connected to Eddie and Chris in some way, even if indirectly (lawsuit I’m looking at you) There are a few exceptions - such as Maddies return from Boston, the vow renewal suit, Buck washing up or the sperm donor ones and obviously the one from season 1! I included the Abby date one because Buck chokes on water in that scene and the Taylor washing up scene - Buck literally has his hands in water. The vow renewal is Buck breaking freed of his bad relationship. As for the sperm donor arc, while not directly connected to Eddie or Chris, the parenting connection is a key one - after all much of Bucks journey to finding his level is connected to the idea of parenthood and dad not donor v donor not dad.

As for the lighter blue specifically - which is a post Taylor exclusive colour for Buck and ties into the theme of deepening ones understanding of self and the growth that comes from that - the idea of choosing to be happy. Buck choosing to break free of his depressing relationship was him choosing himself, choosing to be happy. The post Lev dying conversation Buck has with hen in the locker room is about Bucks search for happiness - about him wanting to be happy for himself. The phone call where he reveals that C&K are pregnant - that is him being happy for his friends, but also him feeling the glow of happiness from being able to help them achieve that pregnancy. The blue top we had him wearing in MacArthur park in last weeks episode is showing him choosing to move on from his brush with death - accepting it for what it is and choosing to be happy (whether that s just happy to be alive - something he was clearly grappling with, or a more generalised happiness remains to be seen) that is why we see him looking contemplative - he is choosing to put that life changing event away and accept it for what it is and the chance it has given him to be happy going forward. This theming holds true for other characters too - Athena in light blue is about her happiness - getting her parents sorted in the aftermath of her fathers stroke is making her happy.

So this new light blue top we have Buck wearing (which is the most reminiscent of the one Lev is wearing) is very much about him being happy - we see the joy he feels at being good at something, the happiness he gets from being with his Diaz boys and sharing in happy banter with them and basking in the glow of being part of a family.

Christopher

I’ve saved Christopher for last this week because he also plays into the Blue and green theming - in fact he straddles across the two colours and that makes him interesting.

Firstly we have this seafoam green tee with a pineapple on the pocket. Not only do we have a pineapple though - no we have a pineapple with a sunset scene in the fruit section. Yes you read that right - it is an actual sunset!!! So here we have a physical embodiment of the sunset theme that has been in play since season 4 - a theme that Christopher has always been connected to indirectly - construction on sunset or Bucks heart drawing with sunset colouring and misunderstanding the assignment - both times when Buck has been babysitting and both in some way connected to Christophers homework - Ana teaching Eddie Math in connection to the first one - making the whole Ana being construction on the way to Buck metaphor even more obvious, especially now in light of this new homework scene with a sunset incorporated in it!

The pineapple itself is also interesting - there are a couple of meaning we can attach to its use here. Historically, pineapples were status symbols - they were a show of wealth due to the difficulty in growing them. those who could afford them would display them prominently at dinner parties and the like to show their wealth. Here Christopher is the wealth - he is the thing both Buck and Eddie place most highly. and the scene we see this top in proves that - Christopher being an active part of their conversation about Bucks newfound superpowers - his opinions and comments are a valuable pat of the conversation to both Eddie and Buck. Christophers inclusion, comfort and confidence in this dynamic is being highlighted here - showing the difference to how he was treated in the dynamic between Eddie Chris and Ana.

The modern pineapple meaning is as an emoji - where it is an indicator of relationship status - meaning ‘its complicated’ Need I say more!!!!

Then we have the blue tee from the kitchen cookie scene. A tee with little surfing skeletons on! I’ve said it many times before and I’ll say it again. This show is just so so good at using the kids costumes to tell us things. first up the blue - Bucks colour and its important that Chris is wearing it in this scene where he is alone with Buck. I talked about the buck in grey in both the two scenes where he is parenting with out Eddie, well the same rings true for Chris here - he is in blue for both of the scenes (a pale blue long sleeve tee with the dinosaur wearing sunglasses which show space ships in their reflection). then there is the fact that we have surfboards reappearing on Christophers clothing - the surfing thing has always been connected to Buck in some way - both overtly and covertly. Chris was wearing a shirt with surfers on at Bucks recertification party and the last time he wore something surf related (for definite) was in 4x13 - when Carla returned to the Diaz’s and told Eddie to make sure he was following his heart and not Christophers. The other thing to note is that both of those incidents proceeded a major event - the Tsunami and the shooting. this one has skeletons on and thats making me both nervous and excited. We’ve been saying all season that Chris is due some sort of trauma or incident and I’m now very much expecting it to happen in the next two episodes and for it to be something that pushes Buddie even closer together. those Skeletons are (to me at least) suggesting that the current set up of Bucks relationship with Christopher is about to change - that it will become the old version - a dead version and that post event they will have a new and different form of relationship (as in the father-son thing will become more concrete in the same way that Buck and Bobbys has this season) because all of the surfing theming has been used at moments that have really pushed Buck and Christophers dynamic forward and increased the parent-child bond!

The thing with these to colours is that this season especially, we’ve seen Chris wearing shirts that contain both colours a couple of times - both in and out of dream sequences and both connected to parenting.

We have Chris breaking his punishment and Eddie being an amazing dad. This one is especially close in terms of colours to the two shades from this episode and now I have more context for it, the smashing and merging of the two colours would appear to be foreshadowing the merging of Buck and Eddie as coparents.

And coma Chris - who Buck has to chose to ignore/ leave behind. leaving him feeling guilty, but actually showing that he is a good parent to Chris because he recognises that he can only get back to the real one if he abandons this Chris (a chris who is a representation of Bucks own childhood abandonment issues - and therefore it is showing us Buck breaking the cycle)

In summation - the use of costume and colour was so much more out there in terms of helping with the storytelling and ensuring the Buck and Eddie as a couple message was made loud and clear - more than we’ve ever seen before - its been slowly ramping up and now they’ve taken the breaks off!!

Thank you as always for reading - it really does mean the world to me that you're interested in the costuming of our wee woo show!! I’ll shut up now and let you have your lives back. If you’ve made it through the whole thing then you are my MVP and you get this trophy! 🏆 I’m off to rock in the corner now I’ve finished this epic.

I would tag below but it won’t let me (maybe i wrote too many words 😂 so I’ll be reblogging with the tag list!

Until the next episode! 💜💜💜

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everwitch-magiks · 4 months

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OKAY EVIE. The epic rivalry between a flashy spellcaster and the person who has to complete all the restoration paperwork after the quest is complete. xoxo MJ/kiwiana-writes

Why, hello MJ! Wow, time flies. How about we don't think too hard about how it’s been five or so months since I reblogged this ask game and you sent me this ask.

There is something of a reason why this took me an amount of time: so I decided to make this one more fun by fleshing it out into a little story and also telling it in reverse order. The latter turned out a little challenging. But without further yapping, here it is. Five fun facts from (... more like parts of) a spellcaster/spell restorator (that's a word, right?) AU, told from ending to beginning. Enjoy! ♡

5. Except the very next day, Alex receives a handwritten letter sealed with wax. The seal is the Fox family's. The penmanship is delicate and measured, nothing like the radiant man Alex knows is behind it.

The letter contains both an apology and an invitation. Henry is asking Alex to meet him on the summit of the mountain.

(Alex does.)

4. It goes on like that for months. Henry keeps stopping by, keeps lingering, keeps laughing at Alex's jokes - even when they're mediocre. There's something there. Something beneath the surface. Something that's slowly blossomed this whole time.

One morning, Henry comes early. Before one of his quests. He wants to know if he may visit Alex late that evening, after his return. 'The sunset will be pretty at that time of day. Perhaps we could get up above the treetops to get a good view?'

Alex's heart races in his chest long after Henry has left.

But Henry doesn't come that night. Possibly, his quest went on for longer than he'd anticipated - or possibly, he found something more worthy of his time than Alex.

It'd make sense. Alex can't even claim he's surprised. A common restorator was never a good match for a legendary spellcaster.

3. Henry's pretty when he smiles. He's even prettier when he laughs. He's been spending more and more time simply sitting in Alex's kitchen between quests. It's a little unnerving. Henry has hundreds of admirers who'd happily entertain him during his time off - yet instead he's drinking tea at Alex's table, listening to Alex's rants about the incompetent archivists over at restoration headquarters.

'Anyway, I shouldn't bore you with the details-'

'I like it when you tell me the details.'

That's annoyingly sweet. 'Careful, Fox. I might fall a little bit in love with you.'

Henry's smile softens a fraction. 'I'm sure I shall find some way to bear that.'

Fuck.

Maybe Alex's fantasy of heading up the mountain with Henry could someday become reality.

2. Henry’s off on another quest. Something to do with a flock of wild unicorns inconveniencing a nearby village. Small stuff. If it'd been anyone else the paperwork would've been a piece of cake, but since it's Henry it'll probably take weeks.

Alex isn’t dealing with any of that today. He's off on a stroll up the mountain; the clearance to restore Henry’s most monumental mess hasn't come through yet, so Alex might as well enjoy it while it lasts.

Yet when Alex returns home, Henry is there. He's outside Alex's house. That's so odd. Henry hasn't deigned to stop by since they were first thrown together as partners from their respective guilds - even though, at the time, Alex had thought they'd hit it off pretty well.

Henry smiles bashfully when Alex says as much. 'Work has kept me very busy.'

Alex snorts. 'Yeah, well, me too. All thanks to you. You sure don't do things by halves.'

'... Maybe there's someone I've been trying to impress.'

Oh.

1. Alex has fucking had it.

He's knee-deep in trying to obtain clearance to reverse Henry’s latest disaster: a mountain moved from one side of the kingdom to the other while on a quest to save a young boy from a dragon. Moving mountains is a level five restoration. And moving it didn't even help with the fucking dragon. Ridiculous. Henry’s such a showoff.

Never mind that moving mountains is kind of impressive.

Never mind that the mountain is Alex’s favorite in the kingdom, and now the foot of it sits next to his backyard.

Alex’s whole life revolves around following Henry’s tracks and covering them up. And he’s damn good at it. Best in the guild. But sometimes, he wonders what the point of it all is if Henry always remains just out of reach.

Never mind that Alex told Henry once, in a moment of weakness, that he's always dreamt of being asked for his hand at the top of that very mountain. Henry probably doesn't even remember. And even if he does, it'll never be him who takes Alex up the mountain to make it a reality. That’s just a silly fantasy.

... There we have it! Thank you - belatedly - for the ask! ♡

#ask game #answered #a queen is never late everyone else is simply early

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xxxdragonfucker69xxx · 7 months

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Hi! 10kDays has had a vice grip on my psyche for the last week or so, and I'm really excited to play the preview. However, I don't wanna make anyone else in my group GM this game just because I want to play it, so I'd like to try out the GMless mode of play, and so would they, but none of us have any experience with that style of game.

Is there any game you'd recommend we look at for a general picture of how you intend GMless play to work? I do own Ironsworn, which has a GMless mode, so if that jives with what you're intending that would be really convenient lmao.

Thanks for your time!

So there's a couple of thoughts i have here, starting with the shape of the game and the pieces of it that need different kinds and amounts of attention:

The game itself is kind of designed in three strands: courses, combat, and the Face game.

Courses are an adaptation of the Arc/quest mechanic from Jenna Moran's Glitch. I've found that they reduce the GM load hugely, for two reasons: you can roll up half an hour before game, ask "who wants to be in the spotlight, what does your quest say is happening in your life right now, and what needs to happen?", and drop something in. Connections and debts are also designed to give you improv prompts, and to a slightly lesser extent perspectives. The other benefit of Courses is that they move planning burden from "GM, night before game" to "player, whenever they want to think about their blorbo". So on a large-scale, "figure out what the campaign looks like" view, you can get away with improvising every session and just following your own character arcs. Likewise, the District moves and intentions are intended to give GMs an easy "i don't know what to do next" button, and the focuses of mask/gear/bell are intended to share around the responsibilities of worldbuilding. Ironsworn's oracles are another example of how to help outsource some of that decision-making, and it's the reason Appendix Yi is earmarked to be a million random tables. For more information on how oracles work, please google Jay Dragon's Sleepaway on your work computer (or at least read this Twitter thread from NightlingBug).

There are a couple story structures that are well suited to wuxia and this game. There's the Shaolin Soccer/shadowrunner/classic ttrpg setup where you are clearly a team, and there are enemy teams, and you are doing hijinks against them. But there's also a Jin Yong wuxia epic type thing where you have, let's say three or four PCs, and you're maybe nominally on the same side but you're clashing a lot and you're tied together by sworn and blood kinship and you keep running into each other. I think the most pared-down version of 10kdays you could run and still call it a full game is 3 players, characters living sort of far apart so they rarely run into each other, and interactions are 2 of the PCs clashing at a time while the 3rd player picks up any NPCs, throws in some District moves, etc. You could do a 2-player game but the kinds of interactions you could have would be severely limited, I think. The Face game of politicking and building support structures is kind of just... you two, face to face.

Now the problem on everyone's mind is fighting. It's attention-intensive, everyone's interested in it, and depending on your setup there can be loads of combatants that a GM would normally be expected to pilot. Again, there are a couple of scaffolds for trying to do this GMless. The sample Techniques in Appendix Jia come with combat tactics to make use of them, so any player can pick up an NPC combatant and figure out what they're going to do. Fight choreographing like this runs the pitfall of it feeling sort of bad to hurt your friends effectively, at least for some tables, but there is the incentive of hitting your friend's Bite highlight when you grab the corpo thug and bite them in the ass.

It is one of my mid-to-low priorities to create like algorithm type protocols for enemy fighters to run themselves, though that's still in the pipe dream phase. One thing I'm looking at here is Katabasis by Rathayibacter, which has a super cool system for easily lining up combatant actions, enemy or not). Maybe I'll end up with literal combat loop Turing machines or something.

There's one more option here which is to lean the other way -- to foreground the GM themselves being a player. I'm talking Ryuutama dragons, I'm talking Fellowship Overlords. Obviously I one hundred percent have not added this yet, and I'm not even set that I will, but it's definitely a tool I'm thinking of to help manage the wuxia/cyberpunk/other bullshit genre merger. If you went this way, it would look like picking a district -- secret note, each district is built to amplify a genre. Gongshan is made to focus on wuxia/the bell, Jiaotou is made to focus on cyber/the gear, Youzhou is made to focus on punk/the mask, Jingcai Xin is made to focus on court and courtroom politics, and Yuanhai is made to play Nezha Reborn. Pick a district that corresponds to the genre the GM is playing as, turn those Moves into Heroic/Humbling Moves and the landmarks/NPCs into Treasures and Connections, turn the Intentions into Skills. Now you can combine this with what I first talked about, sharing out cognitive load, and focus on playing as a district/genre. Is that meaningfully different from being a GM, who let's recall still counts as a player at the table? I'm a sicko who loves being a GM so I'm unqualified to comment, but try out any combination of these options and see how they take you.

#ten thousand days for the sword #ill just automate all of tatterpiging its fine #larian did it its fine

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nothwell · 5 months

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The second episode of Right Here, Write Queer just dropped! You can listen in your favorite podcast app.

Today’s episode features Sarah Wallace, author of the Regency fantasy series Meddle & Mend and co-author of Breeze Spells & Bridegrooms. We discuss found family, co-writing, and queer happily-ever-afters with and without romance.

Our other episodes will introduce you to…

Noah Hawthorne (also writing as Aelina Isaacs), author of the fantasy series Take Me To Iverbourne and Adventures in Levena as well as the standalone novel The Rebel Foxes.

Luna Daye, author of the epic high fantasy series The Thoraius Saga and the romantasy series The Fated Fae.

Carolina Cruz, author of the horror romance Blood in the Water and the fantasy series The Creed of Gethin.

Sarah Whalen, author of the contemporary ace romance novel This Doesn’t Mean Anything.

RK Ashwick, fantasy author of the Lutesong series and the Side Quest Row series.

S. O. Callahan, author of the historical fantasy series Fella Enchanted and co-author of Breeze Spells & Bridegrooms.

Tess Carletta, cozy magical-realism author of Kit & Basie and its recently-released sequel, Patchwork.

and me, Sebastian Nothwell!

Our intro episodes will be rapid-releasing every Monday-Wednesday-Friday for the next three weeks, and our regular topic episodes will come out every week after that.

This project has been many months in the making and I’m so thrilled to finally be able to share it with you – thank you for listening!

#writeblr #historical romance #mm romance #romantasy #podcast #sarah wallace #breeze spells and bridegrooms #meddle and mend #letters to half moon street

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cleolinda · 8 months

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Weekend links

My posts

As January drags to a close, I have a shit ton of dental work coming my way. Thrilling. (I too would like to have my toenails clipped while I am there.)

Also, the Diagonal Trees may be coming down soon.

My sister added me to her Apple Arcade plan and asked me to play Hello Kitty Island Adventure with her and my nephew. I have resolved the snorkel issue but now I am despairing over a quest-dependent puzzle. “Just float with some complex touch motions over to a cave ledge on the entire other side of the screen. Then do it again.” Get absolutely fucked.

I slap “Dear diary” on posts here that I feel are just kind of personal nattering, but I also do an actual sort of newsletter “Dear Diary” series over on Patreon, often 1000+ words. As you all know, I have no trouble running my mouth freestyle, so these are easy to write when I have nothing formally finished. This weekend on the Future Vision tier, we have “Dear diary: Liminal edition.”

Reblogs of interest

Listen, I am reluctant to reblog things about Gaza because so many posts turn out to have an undercurrent of antisemitism that’s either obvious, or that I don’t realize until later. But this BBC article struck me as a factual analysis of the discrepancy between the stated goals of the IDF and the enormity of the damage. It doesn’t add up at all, conclusively, and I think that’s worth notice.

With that said, we’re going to build up slowly to lighter subjects:

The Epic of Gilgamesh illustrated by Wael Tarabieh

Breakfast around the world

“There are so many ways to make moodboards, bookcovers, and icons without plagiarizing”

Gritty calligraphy

Hot Vintage Movie Stars (Male) polls, round four. People are shocked that the polls have turned out this way. I’m not. Like. James Dean is losing right now. I’m gonna guess Toshiro Mifune for the overall winner, with Vincent Price as an outside chance, because this is Tumblr. Which, I am sincerely thrilled that people here have sincere opinions about movie stars active before 1970, whether they’re “wrong” or not. I could have written a top 10 list of hot vintage actors based on what I thought people (my age or older) (in the U.S.) would expect to see; I could have written it in my sleep. This is more interesting.

McMansion Heaven: Once again, I apologize for Alabama. But whatever you think this house is going to look like from the back, you are not ready for the scrolldown.

Video

Thrillingly, there is a new Hugo Awards controversy. Resignations ensued. And still, no one will explain why certain nominees were disqualified.

Everything is big and small

Sweet dreams are made of speed

A good pup is hungry

The sacred texts

“More like Pusheen the limits of lab safety”

Personal tags of the week

Definitely animal sounds and fiber art

#weekend links #odds and ends #linkspam

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hatopixlriffs · 2 months

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This week, on CHC:

Welcome to the CHC recap, my name is Pixlriffs, our writer is ZloyXP, our physical copies printed by Lyarrah. So much has happened since the last recap, so without further ado:

Let's take a look at all the events and mishaps that occurred on Camp Hermitcraft, this week!

Starting with @hecatesmadscientist, who went on an epic quest for a subway sandwich, which ended with monster fight and a warrant out for his arrest.

@docm77-hato-ask-blog has been busy bringing new demigods to camp this week.

@spoonsandmustaches and @askscarpjo have both been busy with the camp's newest supernatural phenomena, a cross-dimensional iris message accidentally created by @undead-daughter-of-hebe! Many CHC and CE campers have been investigating this.

Mumbo and Scar's boyfriend, @askhermesgrian, has been busy with their regular love messages and asked Bdubs for flower arranging advice for totally unrelated reasons. Grian has also been enjoying the chaos his side of programming has created as @hato-grumbot continues to answer the other camper's questions.

Grian's flower troubles isn't the first thing @asktheshreeper has helped out with this week, as he's been aiding Etho in the infirmary! They shared a platonic kiss, it was very sweet, and some hermits are going nuts over it.

@boatboynr2 snuck out of the infirmary soon after, and helped Tango with some stomach problems.

@hatotangoftek hasn't been feeling very well this week, and gladly accepted Etho's help. The two hung out with Cleo in the Hades cabin for a bit.

Speaking of Cleo, after accidentally iris messaging another dimension, she made a deal with @thatgayflowerboy to ah, drug @askxisumachc with catnip. Just to see what would happen.

As a result, @askhatokeralis is stuck babysitting a very cuddly and drunk Xisuma while Cleo is hiding out in the Hades cabin.

@goldenqueenfalse has also talked with Scott this week, and had a heart to heard about the accident that put him in the infirmary. She then starts preparing for the fast approaching prom.

@gem-the-oracle spent the week recovering from her magic sickness, but seems to be doing better, according to Apollo.

@askhatoskizz enjoyed the musical with @erempulse, and ended up falling for him. He has been fighting the allegations.

Impulse also enjoyed the musical. He has also been fighting the allegations.

@hatorendiggitydog could not beat the allegations and ended up confessing to and getting together with @inthelittlelore. The two spent the week hanging out.

@pearl-likes-hunting found some bloodthirty chickens and wants to keep them.

@shutupapolloplease says Pearl cannot keep the bloodthirsty chickens. She has also been making progress on her quest to restore her godhood.

@reaperofmenlit has been picking fights with Apollo and @humblebardofcampempires.

@sungod7-fuckyoupearl suddenly has had more important things to worry about than fighting with Literyses, as @notoriginallyatreenypmh found a way to restore @hyancithus to his human form.

Finally, @thesmartonehere has been dealing with @hermes-notthebag, who is one of two gods to have made a blog this week.

The other is @allisfairinloveandwarxoxo, aka Aphrodite, whom has been ruthlessly shipping campers and gods alike all week. She has also started a weekly love report, which she hopes will get some pining relationships moving along.

AND that's about it for this weeks recap, our writer is ZloyXP, and my name is Pixlriff, physical copies printed by Lyarrah. Don't forget to leave a like while you're here, and follow so you don't miss future recaps. Thanks for reading, and we'll see you next week.

#hermits and the olympians #hato pixlriffs #hato recap

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faefarm · 1 year

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Attention Fae Friends!

An important update has arrived! We want to make sure your experience in Azoria is as smooth as possible, so we’re sending out an update for all Fae Friends on September 21, 2023 at 1PM PT / 8PM UTC. Please read more for full details on what you can expect from our newest patch.

Nintendo Switch

Fixed an issue where having "<" in your username could cause dialogue to loop during quest dialog, on Switch. (This update previously deployed to the PC version in update 1.3.2)

Improved an issue where character face detail could appear lower quality than intended on Switch.

Fixed an issue causing the Cozy Cabin Variety Pack (pre-purchase bonus) to not be correctly granted in the Epic Games Store version.

Fixed an issue where some crafting stations would open directly to the queue when using a controller on PC, or playing on Steam Deck.

Allowed Q, W, A, S, and D keys to be used in custom keybindings to better support players using non-QWERTY keyboards.

Created a new input binding for a few special inputs such as Reclaim and the Coziness overlay, to allow them being remapped on PC. (By default it is bound to “G”)

Improved behavior of Almanac unlock popups so that buttons behind them can still be clicked on PC.

Fixed an issue where long quest entries could not be scrolled using the mouse wheel on PC.

Fixed an issue where right-clicking on the right side of the Almanac screen did not consistently take you back a screen, when using a mouse on PC.

Improved the profanity filter on PC to allow some more common names, such as Sam or Brad.

All Platforms

GAMEPLAY AND PROGRESSION:

Fixed an issue where players could not reliably accept shipping contracts. Please note that it is intended that you can only complete one contract from each choice of three, and will need to wait for them to refresh (every two weeks) to accept a new one.

Fixed an issue where players could permanently lose their ability to double jump if they manually unequipped their wings before using Character Customization via a Mirror, or before a wedding. Please note that it is intended behavior that double jump is only available while you have a set of wings actively equipped (and it should now correctly function that way).

Fixed an issue where casting your fishing rod or using watering can special abilities could be blocked while wearing the Cozy, Logger, and Autumn hats.

Fixed an issue where the name you set for your farm during Chapter 1 was not saved correctly.

Fixed a state where you could be left without an active quest if you completed Chapter 2, then left to a multiplayer session before completing the day.

Updated the requirements for the side quest “Versatile Vortex” to only require clearing 10 clouds of mist, to avoid player confusion.

Fixed an unusable version of the Berry Cordial being rewarded from Potion Making job quest 2.

Fixed an issue where Animal Care job quest 1 could not be completed if a chickoo had been bred before activating it.

Fixed an issue where friendship or relationship quests could take more items from your inventory than they were requiring.

Fixed an issue where the celebration animation did not play when unlocking the second and third farms.

WORLD AND ITEMS:

Fixed an issue that was blocking some nuts, greens, and mushrooms from regrowing after season changes.

Updated the names of a number of forage items to include "Wild" to make clearer that they are not grown.

Updated the name of the spring greens from "Arugula" to "Wild Spring Greens", based on player feedback.

Fixed an issue that was causing Hives to generate an unusable item "Medium Honeycomb" when placed near flowers.

Updated the name of "Small Honeycomb" to just "Honeycomb".

MULTIPLAYER AND ONLINE:

Improved the behavior on joining a multiplayer session as a client, so you will now automatically receive the correct staff and wings directly, based on the world’s progression, without having to manually claim them from the mailbox.

Fixed a crash that could occur for a client of a multiplayer session when the host put their device to sleep.

Fixed a crash that could occur when resuming the game after your device had been in sleep mode for a few hours, having previously been in a multiplayer session.

Fixed an issue that could block access to online features when resuming the game after your device had been in sleep mode for a few hours.

Fixed an issue where progress was inconsistently saved when a client left a multiplayer session.

Fixed an issue where the side quest "Wave of Emotion" could not be completed by clients in a multiplayer session.

Fixed an issue where Magic job quest 5 could not be completed by clients in a multiplayer session.

Fixed an issue where the wayshrine in dungeons could disappear after using it to teleport to a new floor, when playing as a client in a multiplayer session.

Fixed an issue where switches or other progression items in dungeons could be already uncovered when arriving on a new floor.

Fixed an issue where eating or drinking audio was played to all players in a multiplayer session.

Fixed an issue where the voice option chosen by clients in a multiplayer session was not correctly played to the host.

INTERFACE:

Fixed an issue where quest accept/redeem banners could stop displaying after playing through levels of a dungeon.

Fixed an issue where the new season banner could get stuck on the screen.

Fixed an issue where the new season banner would not appear if an animal was born on the same day.

Fixed an issue friendship and relationship quests were incorrectly showing the completion dialog when accepting them.

Fixed an issue where upgrading a tool would result in duplicate Almanac unlock popups.

Fixed an issue where the alphabetical sort order in the Storage screen was reversed.

Fixed duplicate UI elements that could appear when using the Randomize option was used while viewing the Voice tab of the Character Customization screen.

Fixed an issue that could cause an unintended screen to appear when leaving Character Customization at the Mirror.

Fixed an issue that stopped the animal interaction options from appearing after using one of them, until you moved away from and returned to an animal.

Made the expiry timer on limited-time quests more visible in the Quest Log.

Removed two unintended invalid entries that could appear in the More Info view in the Almanac.

MISCELLANEOUS:

Fixed a missing section, and other miscellaneous fixes, in the Credits.

Fixed a number of typos in English.

Fixed a number of minor reported localization issues across languages.

Thank You

Thank you all to the amazing people who submitted bug reports and were able to help us pinpoint these issues! If you spot any issues, please update us via our Discord or through our main support page.

You can also join us on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Tumblr to share your experience with us in Azoria.

We can’t wait to see you all in-game!

Sincerely,

The Fae Farm Team

#fae farm #patch notes

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rhozahscraftedcatalog · 4 months

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Onto the weekend which means it is time for more loot and another set of Curious Collectibles tables!

Some additional inspiration for the above:

How long have these eyes been floating in this liquid? ...and is one of them... blinking?!?

A memory left lost on a once scarred battlefield perhaps? Or the sigil to a now secret order?

Does touching the statue impart a curse? Or contain a trapped demon within it?

Could this candle call a fated beast to your side? It smells of fresh roses...

And most importantly, what option would you choose?

This table is available, free for you to use in your home DnD / Pathfinder / Tales of the Valiant / Daggerheart / TTRPG games, to help generate some more descriptive loot and treasure options perfect for a new quest-hook or a truly epic reward.

If you love ttrpg stuff like these and want access to more options for your Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder game as well as a hoard of printable paper minis, terrain and monsters to help fill your table, check out my Patreon page! I create affordable paper minis, VTT Tokens and more, with a release every week! You can follow for free so you never miss a drop or join as a member to get access to all the extra Patreon exclusive goodies.

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bltngames · 9 months

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Let's Talk About Fortnite's Big New Update

It's been about a week since Fortnite added its three new main modes, so I figured I could jot down some notes about how I feel about each one, since I continue to play an absolute obscene amount of this game, given it's basically the only live service game I've ever connected with.

Lego Fortnite

This is maybe the biggest new mode added to the game, and at a glance, you might think it's their take on Minecraft. Having put about 10-20 hours into it now, I can tell you it's a lot more like Valheim, sprinkled with a bit of Terraria. It's a survival game, where your goal is to start a town out in the procedurally generated wilderness. As your town levels up in size and complexity, you attract NPCs to take up residence, which you can put to work gathering resources, manage farms, cook food, or party up to help you explore the world and raid various caves.

There's enough content here to support that 10-20 hours, but you'll eventually run out of things to do, given there's just three biomes and only a handful of creatures. Updates are already promising things like merchants, more creatures and even quest givers, so it definitely feels like it has legs, and I think what's here plays well enough. It just feels more like a foundation right now. This is one of those things where, like, it may be worth checking in on 6 months down the road, because there's a lot of potential it could grow into. And hey, it's the only one of these modes that doesn't have any additional fees hooked on top of it yet. That's a plus.

Rocket Racing

Created by Psyonix, this is a racing mode that's a little hard to quantify. The actual racing mechanics themselves are solid: drift to charge up three levels of boost, with a kind of "active reload" system that can almost double your boost if you hit it just right. There's a jump button, and your jump jets can be used to hover over hazards. After you jump, you can also use the drift button to perform a flip in four directions, because your car can also drive up walls and across the ceiling. So, if you jump, push up on the stick, and then tap the drift key, you'll flip up on to the ceiling. Despite all of this mechanical complexity, Rocket Racing still feels too simple to have much lasting power. Some of the fun of a racing game is how everyone tunes their vehicles differently, but so far there's just the the one Rocket Racing car.

Epic and Psyonix could be going for more of a Trackmania feel, and user-generated tracks (the main appeal of Trackmania) are something they're teasing for Rocket Racing, but it's worth mentioning that Trackmania has always seemed kind of niche. It's never had the success of something like Forza Horizon or even Need for Speed.

This also has one major strike against it that Trackmania does not: you collide with other players in Rocket Racing, which is actually sort of a nightmare thanks to network latency. I've run into a lot of shockingly aggressive opponents that treat the game like bumper cars, and every time they crash into you, it's like rolling the dice as to whether or not the collision will actually register. Sometimes your opponent harmlessly slides off the side of your car, and other times the most gentle tap will send you into a tailspin. I wouldn't call the mode terrible, but judging by Fortnite's own menu system, player numbers are dropping fast. It's cool being able to flip around between walls and the ceiling, but there's not enough to sink your teeth into long-term besides overpriced vehicle cosmetics.

Fortnite Festival

This is literally just Rock Band 5. The main change is the way you play notes -- there's no plastic instrument support yet (that's coming later, apparently), so you're limited to playing it on either a keyboard or a gamepad. The way the buttons are mapped out by default, there are certain combinations of notes they are never going to make you press together, because it's impossible to hit both left and right on the d-pad simultaneously. Besides that, I'm not kidding, it's actually just Rock Band, and unfortunately I'm one of those people who struggles to connect with rhythm games.

I love something like Parappa the Rapper or even Theatrhythm, but I just don't connect with a lot of the genre in the same way most people do. This version does at least connect to Fortnite's cosmetics system, so you can have Michael Myers singing vocals in Gangnam Style, backed up by Beast Boy and Ellen Ripley wearing a Ghostbusters proton pack. During downtime where you might not have any notes to play, you're given the option to use your Fortnite emotes. That's fun enough on its own, but it's extra fun on skins with transformation abilities. Going back to Beast Boy, it's fun to watch the camera pan by him in his regular Teen Titans attire, only for him to suddenly be a bass-playing gorilla the next time you see him.

Also included are "Jam Tracks", which let you play specific pieces of songs outside of the Rock Band mode. So if you want, during a Battle Royale match, you could start playing the bassline to Seven Nation Army at any time, anywhere, and even change the pitch and tempo. Other players can choose to join in, adding vocal tracks, or lead guitar, or drums, all from different songs, creating a strange sort of on-the-fly mashup. It's not super deep, but I suppose it's there to justify the fact that songs in Fortnite Festival are roughly $5 each. Festival also has its own Battle Pass, at $18 -- almost twice what the Battle Royal Pass costs, and unlocking stuff on the Festival Pass feels like the slowest possible grind. Too many Festival quests only give 10 or 15 "points" towards the pass, when you often need THOUSANDS for the next unlock. Kind of a bummer!

Battle Royale

As a bonus, some commentary on the current chapter of BR: as of this latest iteration of Fortnite, it feels like they've basically rebooted the entire game. If you've been paying attention to industry news, Epic's had quite the exodus of high-ranking staff lately, leaving me with a feeling that a completely different team is handling Fortnite now. Every piece of the gameplay has been retooled seemingly overnight, from healing systems to movement speed. The best way to sum it all up is that it feels a lot more like PUBG now. But like, worse? Weapons have attachments now, foregrips and sights and stuff, but there's no way to pull a sight off one gun and put it on another. You can only buy attachments at a workbench, of which there's only, like, seven on the entire map.

So generally you're stuck with whatever attachments are already on a gun when you find it, and there's no easy way to compare attachments if you want to swap for something else. The previous system -- which was basically just WoW's rarity system -- was a lot clearer and easy to understand. A purple gun is always better than blue. Now those waters are a lot muddier, and you don't have access to the information you need to make informed decisions about what is better than what. The simplicity that made Fortnite more accessible than PUBG is gone now. The other changes just take some getting used to, but the slower movement does mean running from a closing storm circle is a lot harder in a way that feels like nobody on the team really understood or accounted for.

The main issue is that Battle Royale is still trying to be the "spotlight" mode in Fortnite right now, which means its trying to incorporate a little bit of everything and it's hurting the experience. The new cosmetics locker system is a total nightmare to use, more tedious in every single conceivable way, to such a degree it's hard to comprehend anyone actually thinking it's a legitimate improvement. Fortnite also tries to pull in your Rocket Racing cosmetics to BR now, but only for certain vehicles, which in itself taps into a long standing frustration with Fortnite's handling of vehicle cosmetics overall.

Close to five years ago, Fortnite introduced its "wraps" system for guns that work like liveries in a racing game -- basically a custom texture for your gun. Wraps have inconsistently applied to other things as well. Fortnite's earliest vehicles like the golf kart and quadbike accepted wraps, as did boats. There are even skins now that can wear wraps as clothing patterns.

But cars could never have wraps applied to them. There were hints that maybe wraps would eventually apply to vehicles, as there were updates where they started appearing on pieces of a vehicle, but never the whole thing. Now we finally get vehicle cosmetics, but it only applies to one vehicle type, and transforms it into a completely different car body? It feels half-baked and deeply arbitrary.

Fortnite has often had many different vehicle classes on the map together, between pickups, sports cars, sedans, and hauler trucks. But now the sports cars are the Rocket Racing car? It's cool on the surface, but a strange portent of future seasons. What of the other vehicle types? They're not in the game right now, but will they be? Will sports cars be a permanent fixture of the Fortnite map going forward, so the cosmetics always carry across between modes? Is this a hint that other vehicle types are coming to Rocket Racing, and that eventually, we'll be able to apply cosmetics to everything?

Which is to say nothing about the fact that wraps don't even seem to apply to guns anymore. There's a lot of systems that hook into wraps that they can't just get rid of -- but it definitely seems like whoever is in charge of things right now is trying to find a way to ignore them, starting with the core functionality they were invented for.

Like a lot of things about what's happening to Battle Royale in Chapter 5, it feels super weird, and very divorced from the Fortnite I used to know and enjoy. Their attempts to try and tie everything together like this so that Battle Royale can have elements of all (or most) of the other modes incorporated into it just don't mesh very well or feel very necessary. They're recreating and then solving problems that were already solved four years ago.

Which is ultimately the bummer: I'm not sold that any of this needs to be inside of Fortnite, and I don't think it's going to pay off in the end. It's hurting the core experience a little bit and the best, most fun new modes would have still been fun as standalone games.

I just don't see the point. How big is big enough, Epic?

#writing #epic games #fortnite #lego fortnite #fortnite festival #rocket racing #psyonix #harmonix #rock band

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comicbookhyperfixationtime · 8 months

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I gotta big question for you: what would be your pitch an animated series based on the Mighty Thor? Spare no details

Oh boy, this is a really tough one. I just have so many different ideas for how this could go!

But let's say we're looking at a typical 21 episode TV series, and lets say we're not 100% sure we'll be getting renewed for a second season. We've got two options.

Safe Option: The series is set entirely in the Nine Realms and based largely off the Journey Into Mystery/Tales of Asgard stories. Think of it as a sort of Journey to the West format, where the whole season is Thor and cast on a grand quest and each episode/two part episodes are one challenge/encounter along the way. This would give us a chance to really do some worldbuilding and show off Thor's Asgardian supporting cast, including more obscure characters. It would probably be more of a fun, lighthearted adventure, I don't mind a bit of violence or dark themes but I'd keep it on the campier sword-and-sorcerer side rather than gritty or dark.

Less Safe Option: We start from Journey into Mystery #83, when Donald Blake first acquires the hammer. The first few episodes are standard faire for superheroes, with Thor's more minor Earth antagonists (like Gargoyle and Zaniac and the like) showing up as villains of the week. All that changes when Loki makes his first appearance. After that the arcs get longer and more complex, climaxing in a battle against Loki and his forces on Asgard. There'd be a more psychological bent to this, maybe even psychological horror, as Thor goes from Dr Blakes' superhero persona to another personality with his own thought patterns dominant personality. We'd really dig into Dr Blake realizing that he doesn't actually remember any of his past before medical school, including his family and origin, and how frightening and discombobulating that is.

Regardless of which idea, there'd be some common elements. Art style would be very colorful, Asgard's aesthetics will be a solid mix of sci-fi, fantasy and a heaping dose of surrealism. There's a direct-to-video animated movie about Thor called "Tales of Asgard" and I actually really adore how clever they were with the trippy geography of Asgard, I'd draw a lot of inspo from there.

Odin will be portrayed as the abusive jackass he is. I'm not going to soften him up whatsoever, especially in his treatment of Thor. I don't think I'll kill him off regardless, but both options will show Thor slowly working towards recognizing the toxic behavior. In Option 1 it will be revealed that Thor's quest was some gambit by Odin that would seriously endanger him and/or his friends. In Option 2 it'll be Thor not only learning that Odin brainwashed him into believing he was Donald Blake, but the reason why he did it (just like in the OG comics it will be extremely petty and more about Thor asserting independence against Odin that actually needing to learn humility or whatever, although he certainly does grow as a person either way).

If the show is renewed for a second season, it will be adapting Roy Thomas' Celestial Arc, expanding worldbuilding with the introduction of the Eternals, the Celestials and the Elder Gods. It will also be the climax of Thor's arc about his relationship with Odin. When it's revealed that A) Odin had him for the express purpose of making an Ubermenschen weapon for him to use, and, B) he had in the past had Thor killed for disobeying him, then resurrected and wiped his memories.

If the show gets a third season, that season will be a loose adaptation of Len Wein's various space epics mixed with the 90s storyline Blood and Thunder (and when I say loose, I mean loose). Basically, Thor cuts himself off from Asgard after finally learning the truth and travels through space having space adventures with various Marvel Cosmic characters. Meanwhile, there'll be B plots with Thor's supporting cast on Asgard and/or Earth working out their own issues in his absence. By the end of this season, Beta Ray Bill will be introduced, and just like in Walt Simonson's run, it will be revealed that the threat to his people he was scientifically modified to face is the rapid approach of Surter and his army. The season will end on a sort of cliffhanger as Thor realizes that Ragnarok is coming for Asgard, and will have to make a choice about going back to save them. After that will be a season with less episodes but longer episodes showing the epic battle and neatly wrapping up any character arcs that haven't been wrapped up yet.

I think the show will end with Thor's "death" at the hands of Jormungand, but how exactly this goes will depend on Option 1 or 2. Option 1 will result in Thor fighting Hela similar to how Walt Simonson's run ends (the plot point about Hela cursing Thor to be easily hurt but unable to die will also be there). Option 2 will result in a death of personality for Thor, he becomes Dr Blake permanently and lives out a happy existence on Earth (depending on whether that feels like a satisfying ending or not, I'll just go with Option 1 then). Either way there's an opportunity for The Adventure Continues but a nice finale and really no need to.

If they force me to make another season I'll adapt the Evil Future Thor story from Dan Jurgens' run, but with some major changes.

#if you need clarification on anything lmk #this was fun #marvel comics #thor #thor odinson

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stagefoureddiediaz · 1 year

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Costume meta 6x18

Wow I can’t believe I actually managed to write one of these (with all the additional mini metas) for every episode this season!!! if you’ve read, liked or reblogged and any all of my metas throughout this series then I just want to take a moment to say a massive thank you - it really means so much to me that you do take the time to read the epics I post, that you interact with them and that you ask me questions and seem to learn from what I say - sorry to everyone who now sees check pattern clothing out in the wild and gets worried 😬 it happens to me too - its good to have your company!

I’m so sorry that this has taken me far longer to get out that I had intended - my internet died on Thursday night and still hasn’t come back up (it has not been fun - who knew how internet dependant I’d become11!0 so I’ve had to find a cafe on my day of to actually get this posted (I live in a 4g dead spot too just to add to the fun!) Not going to lie - I am in need of a little break because these posts are a lot of work (you don’t want to know some of the side quests some of these posts have taken me on!!), but I love writing them so I plan to continue in season 7. I do have some fun stuff planned for the extended hiatus so while I might not post as much, I will still be around - making art and providing some costume related (and non costume related) things for you to enjoy - I have breakdowns for each character which includes spreadsheets and graphs (don’t get too excited - but they are actually interesting I promise!) in the pipeline as well as sorting out my pinned post as I’ve hit the link limit!!!.

Back to the costumes for this episode - it sure was an interesting one (when are they not tbh) with plenty going on for me to talk about! Apologies for the photos - it was really hard to get decent stills this week - everyone and the camera constantly moving!! As always the rest is below the cut to save your dash!

Athena

Athena has just the one costume this week - heading off on the cruise! I very much enjoyed her being in yellow and saying that she might not tell anyone about them actually being on said cruise! There are a couple of reasons why - firstly its yellow - the colour of communication - which means that her character is telling us something which is important. So Athena suggesting that they don’t tell anyone they are off on this cruise is the key point we need to take away from this scene - what that could mean - well its a throw back to when they attempted to go on the cruise the first time - they were communicating their departure then by being on the phone with Beatrice as they were leaving the Grant-Nash house so by not communicating they’ve gone on their cruise they are preventing another interruption from occurring. The other thing its communicating is that the lack of communication between Bobby and Athena and their family and friends could actually be a bad thing - its a bit of preempting costume design - if the show does indeed choose to go with some form of cruise ship disaster to open season 7 (less likely now that they have delayed the show until midseason, but it depends on how they choose to play the time jump!) then this line comes back into play - the 118 being sent to help with the disaster not knowing Bobby and Athena are on board would make for some very interesting storytelling and potentially parallel with the tsunami very nicely!

The other thing about this costume is the fact that we have bold block colour wearing Athena in a pattern - and a floral pattern at that. Athena doesn’t wear patterns - we saw her in a patterned shirt in 6x10 - when she was undercover and therefore it doesn’t count as actually being something Athena would wear

Bobby

Again the only costume we see Bobby wearing outside of uniform is when he is leaving for the cruise, this is the same costume he was wearing when they made the first attempt at their honeymoon cruise . From a personal perspective this was done to provide continuity between the two scenes as Bobby shirt is the loudest and most obvious thing to carry that thread through for a general audience.

Denny

Denny continues to wear muted tones post reconnecting with his biological father and we also have check on this outfit. The fact that the check is only worn down the sides could indicate either approaching trouble or trouble passing, for me it’s more likely that it is a sense of foreshadowing and will be connected to the Wilsons season 7 storyline revolving around the new baby that they will be bringing home as Denny will become a full blown big brother rather than the role he currently fills with the foster kids – that hovers somewhere between brother and friend. This costume is a bit blink and you’ll miss it and so it’s hard to get more of a read on it than the very basics.

Karen

Karen is wearing her typical large print florals for both her costumes this week and we have the contrast of red - a colour of anger, passion and love with t he yellow of communication, happiness and optimism. the use of the two colours to bookend the episode perfectly play into Karens mini arc for this episode - from the love tinged with disappointment and anger (broken hearted rather than fury) over fostering - the constantly having to hand children back, to the happiness and optimism surrounding the baby girl they may very likely get to adopt. the colours rather than the prints are the things conveying messages for Karen in this episode. they also contrast her very well with Hen in her black and white and then orange.

Hen

It’s really interesting that we have hen in this black-and-white check cardigan which is a parallel to the one she wore in 6×10 that one was red with larger neutral face emoji is and foreshadowed her anger over Denny contacting his biological father. This new one is more confused and the smaller design with the variety of boxes lines and neutral face emoji is creates a sense of confusion and also feels like it is chaotic in an organised manner it plays into both check theory and striped theory to a certain extent/theory foreshadowing the news of the baby they may potentially get to adopt and the cheque foreshadowing the upcoming disaster we see in the episode. the black and white also plays into the idea of Hen being settled into the black and white nature of fostering children - accepting the reality and highlighting the difference between now and when they had Nia - this is deliberate as it shows emotional progress, but it is also about emphasising the joy they experience later in the episode when told they will be getting a baby girl - its more impactful because we’ve seen Hens acceptance of their situation.

Hen’s other costume for the episode is this orangey red shirt which both contrasts and matches Karen’s yellow floral print shirt it also fits nicely with the oranges and lemons we see on the kitchen countertop next to her. Orange is an optimistic and energetic colour, it provides emotional strength and joy in its positive outlooks however is -ones are connected with superficiality in patients and domination. I think in this scene we can take the positive traits of the colour as opposed to the negative as we get to see Hen and Karen achieve something they’d given up on – the possible permanent expansion of their family – and brings them both full-circle after their disappointment surrounding Nia.

Chimney

Chimney is wearing a brown shirt with a black check pattern, brown is a colour of stability and reliability, it’s a grounding colour and chimney wearing it here indicates that where he is in his life is grounded in stable, his relationship and impending nuptials with Maddie are built on solid ground and overall this colour bodes well for their marriage. We do need to consider the cheque pattern as being foreshadowing for the potential exploration of Chimney storyline next season, whether that involves Madney actually making it down the aisle without problems arising, or if the show will explore some of chimney’s trauma in more detail remains to be seen however it does appear season 7 May begin a little bumpy for Chimney.

Kameron

Kameron wearing both the light and Navy blues that we’ve seen Buck wearing throughout this season whilst struggling to open a jar of pickles was a direct reference to Bucks struggles with who he is and who he wants to be. The props and costume work together to hint at Buck getting himself in a pickle and struggling to successfully deal with his issues, the fact that Kameron needed someone else to open the jar is a reference to Buck needing somebody else to help him with his struggles whilst the pickles in both this episode and the previous episode are a reference to Buck dealing with one issue but not his others. The use of blue costume in this scenario tells us the viewer should associate that struggle with buck specifically as the show has taken great pains to show us buck in a huge amount of blue costuming this season. The blue costuming also refers to water and water finding its level this has dual meaning in that it is foreshadowing Kameron’s water breaking later in the episode as well as continuing water theme surrounding buck story arc. The costume (and props) parallel Kameron and Buck and tell us to relate their stories to one another - Kameron being in a pickle with her life - her relationship with Connor - paralleled with Bucks own romantic storyline - both of them looking for support in the wrong place - from the wrong person, instead of with their respective partners - Kameron seeking help from Buck instead of Connor and and Buck seeking answers to being seen from Natalia instead of Eddie.

Cameron second costume one she’s wearing when she goes into labour continues the blue theme but also plays into the grey black-and-white theme increase seen in the scenes that appear to be re-shoots. The choice of daisies as appropriate for this dress as they symbolise innocence new beginnings and purity, they are also the symbol of fertility and childbirth.

Maddie

Ok so unusually I am going to talk about Maddie in connection with both Marisol and Natalia because their costumes are all connected by stars!

Maddie is wearing black with a lot of stars in white, while Marisol and Natalia have sparkly stars in fewer numbers on their costumes. the difference is the sparkly nature of said stars whilst the stars make perfect sense on all three of them for their respective scenes, they have different meanings attached to them - both Marisol and Natalia’s stars are a play on the concept of fantasy and dreaming and reaching for the unattainable, there are fewer stars and the glitteriness is a play on the idea of all that glitters is not gold - that the seemingly attractive external appearance is not a reliable indication of its true nature - that it is superficial. That meaning does not work for Maddie, her stars are not glittery or sparkly, they are matt and there are lots of them - there is more substance to her and Chimneys relationship and it is a direct and deliberate contradiction to the relationships of Eddie and Marisol and Buck and Natalia - we are meant to see the contrast - the building of something which has had to be fought for versus the untested and insubstantial nature of both of the other relationships - it all comes back to what bobby told Eddie - Maddie and Chim have sat with each other, taken a moment and stepped into the mess - they are fully aware of the reality where as Marisol and Natalia are both untested and fit much more into the fantasy concept the show has explored this season and the fantasy rarely holds up when exposed to reality.

Natalia

Aside from the stars that I’ve spoken about above, it was an interesting choice to remove nearly all colour from Natalia’s costume for scenes where she is present when life is brought into the world. When not in her ‘work’ role, we’ve seen her wearing a fair amount of colour, even if black is nearly always present - lots or red and oranges and whites and greens, however she was all in black for the living funeral and here again we have her in predominately black, with a little bit of navy thrown into the mix the choice to use very dark colours is intentional and these dark colours play into her role as harbinger of death - she is representing death as life is brought into the world. I wrote a post about that scene and her presence in it and how it plays into the fact that death has haunted Buck since he was brought into the world. Natalia’s presence was necessary precisely because of what she represents and because death is still hovering in Bucks life - the fact that Natalia and Buck get together while she is still dressed in this way is very telling about her position in Bucks world - he is still focused on death and its being a part of who he is rather than seeing/ focusing on other things. It all plays back into the ‘she really sees me’ of it all - Buck wants to be seen beyond his death/ beyond the death that has shadowed his life, but he is still falling back into the safety of being seen for death rather than the life he is living. Natalia is a representation of Buck falling back on these safe behaviours and thoughts because he is fundamentally scared of being seen for who he really is and Natalia’s transition from the orange of their ‘first’ date to increasing levels of black in her subsequent outfits shows that representation in Bucks life perfectly.

Interestingly though we get a direct contrast to all that black in the ‘morning after’ scene with Natalia in white shirt which is meant to be one of Bucks. Honestly - fascinated by this choice! Putting her in a shirt that is meant to be one of Bucks makes total sense, but they could’ve chosen any colour they wanted - Buck wears a lot of colour, but they chose a white shirt. A. White. Shirt. a white shirt that is supposed to be one of Bucks. We all know how things go for Buck when it comes to white shirts - it doesn’t end well - it leads to bad things! Natalia isn’t going to end well for Buck - the white shirt has spoken!.

The other thing with the white shirt is its contrast to Buck being in blue/grey because it puts her in opposition to Eddie who wore black when on the balcony. The balcony is a place that puts her on the outside of things, she isn’t inside with the mess (the couch) and the colour white is considered both a colour of innocence and purity, whilst at the same tie being seen as cold, uncaring and bland. When placed in contrast to Eddies black- a colour of power, strength security and protection, things don’t look great for Natalia’s future, or her ability to understand and support Buck.

We have to have a quick talk about Jo and Mallory for the simple reason that they are dressed in Buck and Eddies colours, despite essentially being representations of Christopher and Buck, the implication being that Christopher would retain a lot of the traits etc he has gained from Eddie, even if Eddie were no longer a physical presence in his life, and that Buck would’ve nurtured those aspects of who he is.

Chris

Christopher in grey as a neutral tone is an interesting choice. The green, specifically khaki green hidden underneath is a nod towards Eddie and, the fact it’s hidden under the grey to me is a reference to Christopher accepting things because he thinks they’re what his father does. But also towards Eddie once again, doing things that he thinks is right for Christopher.

Eddie

We can’t not talk about the St. Christopher being brought out at this moment! We haven’t seen this necklace since 4x14 when Eddie got home and its use here is so very intentional in a camper van that is essentially a microcosm of the will arc - all of the elements of Buck, Eddie and Christopher’s relationship is shown here in the camper - the will, the fridge, the couch, the coffee , the risk of explosion, and the earth mover van crashing into it, we even get similar camera angles and injuries. the entire thing is supposed to direct us to what that St. Christopher means, what it already represents and it is setting up next season - there is no other reason to include it otherwise.

Eddie in blue and in check – blue being connected to Eddie and his family suggests that the check is foreshadowing rocky times for that family dynamic and hints that this new relationship will end poorly whether that’s by fizzling out or in some other way remains to be seen. The other thing about this blue plaid check shirt is that it also ties in with a couple of other things - Eddie rarely wears plaid check - only 4 times before now and generally these are tied with when he’s been having family issues - we see it in the flashback scene in Eddie begins that show family conflict, conversely he doesn’t wear check in flashback scenes where is mind and intention is clear (such as when he argues with his parents and stands up for himself before going outside and asking Chris if he wants to move to LA.) The only other times we see him wearing check and not in a flashback is very much connected with his struggles with Christopher - and being able to support him - feeling like a failure as a father (which he isn’t) such as when he is at Bucks taking about Christopher’s skateboard accident and wanting his kid to feel normal. The only other time we see him in plaid is when he helps Buck move Maddie’s sofa into her new apartment - this is the only scene we have Eddie in non uniform before he goes to visit Durrand and is told he’ll need to get back in touch with Shannon - its kind of foreshadowing the conflict of the school visit when they couldn’t very easily put him in plaid.

I therefore really intrigued by this choice to have him in plaid for this scene when we don’t see any family conflict - so its either foreshadowing upcoming family conflict, or its playing on the idea that he’s internally conflicted - doing what his family wants (dating a woman) rathe than what he actually wants, or if the conflict is going to arise from him including Chris in this new venture into dating (we all saw how well that went last time!)

The other thing this plaid shirt is comparable with is Eddies Poker suit. Which has me all kinds of intrigued because it really does actually imply that the poker game was in fact going to be played as a ‘date’ (which would’ve likely played into the family conflict theme and thus been in keeping with all the other times Eddie has worn plaid) before they changed tack due to getting renewal and therefore didn’t follow through on whatever direction they had intended to take the Buck and Eddie storyline they had planned when they thought this might be the final season of the show.

Buck

Buck in brown with a vertical stripe, the brown suggests solid ground or in a stable place - so Buck is being presented as having made peace with the sperm donation, as well as being a stable place from which to try and help Connor and Kameron sort out their problems. The vertical stripes also play into the theme of vertical stripes we’ve see non him this season. Interestingly, we haven’t seen Buck wearing these vertical stripes around Natalia, which I would expect to see if their relationship was meant to last as the vertical stripes are very much connected with Bucks search for himself, in particular, connected to couch theory (this is the second time we’ve seen vertical stripes in connection with couches/ armchairs) - Bucks version of couch theory, not the second couch theory that he as a character isn’t aware of.

We have this grey marl tee, which is green tinted - perfect choice for Buck delivering the baby he helped create in a scene that heavily played into Bucks own birth. The grey and green tones have been associated with Bucks arcs this season - either in relation to the sperm donation (the green tones) or the family he has been searching for and is on his way to finding/ fully comprehending (why he wears grey around Bobby and Christopher in their one on one scenes - its the father son relationships being more deeply established). so for him to have both on when he gets to be the one who delivers the child he helped to create is a great choice and plays into both themes - especially when he tells Connor to love that child at the hospital.

The addition of the check shirt is solely about Buck starting a relationship with Natalia, and them getting together in a moment not that dissimilar to how Buck and Taylor got together - at a moment of Buck reckoning with something important - the trauma of nearly loosing Eddie with Taylor and now with Natalia his reckoning with the sperm donation and having delivered the baby he helped to create. This is a deliberate choice by the show to parallel the two moments, but the use of check is highlighting it further and telling me that this relationship with Natalia isn’t going to be as ling and drawn out as his relationship with Taylor was. Buck doesn’t actually wear check patterns all that often considering the amount of danger and trouble he gets himself into and we’ve seen him wear it in most cases in relation to mental health struggles (the Equestrian centre is a prime example - Buck trying to raise the shooting with Eddie and being unsuccessful because Eddie wasn’t ready - and its parrallel with the grave scene from this season when Buck isn’t ready in return) so for him to be wearing it a second time is short succession and both connected with Natalia (and thinking he’s finally being seen) doesn’t bode well for anything related to their new relationship.

Buck wearing his watch for the balcony scene is very telling because the scene is meant to imply buck and Natalia spent the night together and this is the following morning when they address down and comfortable and she is wearing one of his shirts, however him wearing his watch suggests that there is already a countdown/ that there is a time limit on their relationship.

Buck grey blue tee parallel with hoodie from the Eddie balcony scene - buck not understanding or seeing things clearly. The new one is darker and less blue, which not only plays into the previously stated concept of not understanding, but also suggests that Buck is currently in a less receptive state than during his previous times wearing the blue/grey colourway. The other thing to bear in mind is that Buck wearing a dark grey plays back into his costuming around Taylor in last season - he wore a lot of grey, but there was a distinct difference between the lighter shades we saw him wearing around Eddie and Christopher (which was the building blocks his grey wearing this season was built off of) and the darker greys we saw him wear around Taylor.

And there we have it - one very late but finished costume meta! I’m off to pray to the internet gods that my home internet will be fixed very soon (current date I’m being given is the 5 June) as I can’t survive much longer without being able to do the things I need and want to! if you want to send up a prayer for me then please feel free to help a girl out 😁

Thank you to all of you that have read one, several or all of my metas for this season. I hope this one was worth the read and I look forward to getting to write metas for whatever they throw at us in seasonn 7!!

As always and for the final time this season, tag list below! 💜💜💜

@mistmarauder @theladyyavilee @leothil @girldadbuddie @kitkatpancakestack @buckscurls @lemotmo @trashendence @elishareads @clipboardsandstethoscopes @comfortbuddie @fiona-fififi @callanee @calyssmarviss @pbandjeremiah @batgrldes @spotsandsocks @livingwherethesidewalkends @idontshitpostbuttheolympicpark @diazboysbuckley @sweettsubaki @shortsighted-owl @sherlocking-out-loud @wh0rebehavi0r @favouritealias @hearteyesdiaz @ktinastrikesback @princesschez75 @bucksbuddie @oneawkwardcookie @leatherati @moniquekatie @wanderingwomanwondering @asharadaine @ajunerose @talespinner230 @pop-kam @swiftiebuckleys @xxfiction-is-my-realityxx @butchjerry @mandzuking17 @yelenasbuddie @copyninjabuckley @name-code-black-widow @rogerzsteven @bi-moonlight @usercowboy @inthecarwithaboy @inandoutoffocus-blog @toboldlynerd @shammers86

#kym costume meta #911 costume meta #911 costumes #911 on fox #911 fox #911 abc #costume meta #evan buck buckley #evan buckley #Eddie diaz #athena grant #bobby nash #maddie buckley #chimney han #hen wilson #karen wilson #denny wilson #christopher diaz #natalia dollenmeyer

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