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kaphzzz · 5 months

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Do you use photoshop to edit your pictures? Their so crisp and clean and I just got 4k res on my pc.

If so, can you maaayyybbee give us a brief tutorial on how you enhance these for previews for tumblr. Because they always come out so clean even in the preview images.

hiii!!! omg sorry almost didnt see this! congrats on getting 4K!!! it's truly life changing *tears up*. and thanks for such a high compliment 🥹🥹🥹

i do edit my photos yes, but i don't do it in photoshop, but rather in mobile apps so i can just do it during time i cant do other stuff like on the subway so, yes, i can give a tutorial, but it's going to be general steps and guidelines :) sorry i can't give anything like photoshop specific! and i know you're only asking for editing advice but i'll go over the whole process for anyone else who wants to read this as well, so please bear with me. (and please don't take my advice too seriously, i'm only an amateur hobbyist too)

1. The base photo

So firstly, I think it's important that the base picture itself looks good when you capture it in game. With a good photo straight out of the game you can avoid a lot of further editing down the line.

One common mistake I see a lot is that the field of view will be left unadjusted to the default value, which is good for landscape shots, but for portraits it will have a wonky fisheye effect. For portraits you'd typically want to zoom in a lot so the character doesn't look super thin and distorted. In photo mode this is the "lens" option, I typically just zoom in to the max, and tweak what fits into the frame with the freecam. Here's a pic with good FOV for a zoomed in character shot vs. one with the default FOV (his whole face is skewed, as well as pupper):

Also, the in game environment is important for setting up a good shot. You'd typically want some kind of light vs. dark contrast to make your subject pop out, especially against any background. I like to use Rampage Trainer to tweak the in game time and weather and freeze them for better lighting and atmosphere, and sometimes spawn an extra light source but that's a rare case. For example, okay vs. not very okay lighting that's impossible to salvage even with editing:

I also like to blur the background and foreground in the game, with either the focus tab of photo mode or with depth of field reshade presets, because it's a big hassle to blur those during editing. It's quite subtle most of the time but really helps focus the shot on your character, especially if the background is so messy it can swallow your main subject (trees, I'm looking at you).

The photos in this section aren't edited; my point is that with good lighting, composition etc in game, your base vanilla photo can already look pretty good :D This is RDR2 after all.

2. Cropping

I typically crop my images at 3/4 or 2/3 ratio, depending on what looks better. But I think a general rule of thumb is that you want to crop your image so that the contents look balanced; I don't know how to explain this in concrete terms... Basically the same way centering your subject or cropping it by the rule of thirds serves to balance an image. All these pics are more or less 'balanced' in different ways, even though they're not straight smack centered. It's an eyeing process but I think with time it will be easier to tell how to balance your photo...

3. Editing

So! Editing!

Editing I think is just a lot of fine tuning based on what you have with the base image. Me personally, I used to do a lot of colour and lighting editing, but more recently since figuring out that you can just make your base image look good right out of the game, the editing has become a lot lighter. The game can definitely do the heavy lifting, but still editing is important.

I'll demonstrate with two images (hello my babygorls *kissy noises*):

So these two images obviously need some work. Firstly, I'll tweak the lighting, so that dark and light areas aren't too extreme, and also improve the definition/contrast, not too much, but just enough so that the subject is more defined. For Arthur's image the lighting is too murky so I used RGB curves to sort it out a bit.

Then I will colour grade it a little by tuning the warmth and the tone (not touching filters yet). For Charles, it's at night so I've made the tone a little colder for the blue, and for Arthur a little warmer, as well as some custom light patches just to make his face stand out a little more against the background. Some other mild adjustments.

Then if I think the background is still too attention stealing I'll blur it out a bit more. Again, I try to just blur it enough in game, since manually blurring is faulty and annoying.

Then if I think overall the lighting and colour is fine, I'll go through the filters the app offers to see if I can improve it a little more. Since I focus on portraits (pretty bois how could I not) and not do really cinematic/dramatic scenes I tend to stick to the more natural looking filters that just harmonise the colours a bit more.

And that's pretty much it for the editing.

On a side note, contrast is a good thing, but not limited to contrast in lighting, and not necessarily in lighting either. Contrast can be in the colour of your subject and in the back/foreground, or in the conplexity of your subject and blankness of everything else. I think for especially atmospheric photos you'd actually want less contrast for that softer feeling, and not like super hard silhouettes. So yeah, the editing process depends a lot on the image itself and what kind of emotion I want it to have.

4. Other miscellaneous things that help

Besides using mods to customise lighting and props and character pose etc. to your liking, reshade is definitely also a big help. It has a lot of presets that can help your photo to have better colours or add blur. I don't really have a recommended list since I don't remember how I set up my Reshade, but I think a lot of the most popular or built in ones work really well, just play with it and see what you like.

A mod I sometimes use for colour grading in game is the 'Seasons' mod. I don't like too much green so I often set the season to Autumn for that warmer tone to the grass and trees. The other seasons also have different colour tones so it's good for trying different tones! Without vs. with the mod set to Autumn (ignore the quality on those they are from ages ago):

5. Most importantly! Do what you think suits your visual preferences and taste!

So personally I think this is definitely the most important point! I think while you should look at others' work for inspiration and analyse what they're doing well, you should also definitely always prioritise your own preferences on what you like to see in your own pictures :D I think it's important to just do what you like in the moment instead of worrying about what's necessarily right or wrong, or looks good to others.

For example for me my style changed a lot over the past year and a half, and there was definitely a learning and realisation process along the way but I think my more recent preference isn't necessarily better and how I used to do things wasn't necessarily wrong either, it's just different taste.

Hope this was helpful!! :D

Please ask me if you've got any more questions or would like me to explain anything else <3

#my tutorials #rdr2 #my vp

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dumbsoftboi · 2 years

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#we’re stress testing babes #they should take away my ability to make polls #sorry did I say polls #I meant post #just delete my account while you’re at it #anyway #I love y’all and I hope you have a wonderful night <3 #god help you if you see this post it’s the worst thing I’ve ever done #hmm… I wonder if there’s a limit on the amount of tags a post can have?#a smart man would just look that up #but I am not a smart man #…however that is a test for another day #skate fast and eat ass folks

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nerves-nebula · 1 year

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Okay so Donnie at the end is a little OOC, but I figured this would happen a long ways down the line, after they were beginning to recover, and he’s gotten some more self-confidence. Pair that with “siblings potentially in danger” and I think it’s justified? I hope you like.

——

Their therapist liked to tell them that it was okay to have moments of immaturity. It was fine to indulge in childish things because it’s not as if they’d had time for it as children.

“You’d be surprised how many adults still love things geared towards younger audiences.”

This was the excuse Leo gave himself.

He was just embracing his childish side.

Donnie had said that the “Shell-mobile” as Mikey had dubbed it was technically road-worthy. He was still working in it, though, wanting it to work as a mobile command center for them when they were scouting or ninja-ing.

All Leo heard was “We have a car now.”

Technically, Raph and Donnie were the only ones with licenses. They had immediately gotten them when they’d officially moved to the Hidden City, just in case. So, technically, Raph and Donnie were the only ones who could legally drive the Shell-mobile.

However, Leo and Mikey still had learner’s permits and were allowed to drive as long as someone with a license was with them in the car, so this should be fine.

Leo slammed the gas, laughing hysterically as the junker van surged forward, tearing down the road as Mikey and Raph clung to their seats. It was exhilarating, the freedom of driving at ridiculous speeds. They’d pulled off the main road, of course, avoiding any major traffic (Leo was impulsive, not stupid), that way they’d be less likely to run into any cops.

The handling on the van was less than optimal. It swerved and Leo could swear he’d pulled them up onto just two wheels at least three times.

“Faster, Leo!” Mikey screamed, throwing his hands in the air as they took a sharp turn, “Donnie’s gonna fuckin’ kill us!”

Raph’s scream was far less excited, “Screw Donnie, LEO is gonna kill us! At least slow down for the turns, you’re gonna crash!”

“You can’t tell me what to do!” Leo laughed maniacally, popping the handbrake to drift them around another sharp corner. There was no way in hell he was slowing this vehicle until Raph either threw up or passed out.

“LEO LOOK OUT!” Raph shrieked (rather high pitched and girly if you asked Leo).

Mikey’s laughter also died down as the van slammed into something, thudding a few times. Leo slammed on the brakes, skidding them to a stop, the smell of burnt rubber quickly filling the air.

“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck.” Raph made to grab at the door handle, but his hands shook too much to get a proper grip. Leo leaned over to help, letting Raph out to get some air.

He and Mikey also got out, all of them turning to see the hunched form of a cat yokai in the middle of the road.

“I’m gonna be sick.” Raph whined.

They approached the yokai carefully, unsure if he was even alive.

“Oh my God, Leo.” Mikey punched his shoulder, “You fucking hit someone.”

“It was an accident!”

“I’m so not testifying for you in court, dude. Lock her away, Your Honor! This woman is a certified-“

Coughing interrupted him.

“Oh fuck, he’s alive.” Raph put himself between the body and his brothers, “Can you hear us?”

The yokai groaned, slowly lifting his head. He was definitely not doing good, his face was scratched to shit and one of his eyes wouldn’t open.

“D-Donnie?” The yokai asked.

The trio froze.

No one spoke for a solid minute.

The yokai collapsed back to the pavement.

“How did he-“

“Could he be-“

“Abe?”

The yokai’s ears twitched.

Donnie, back when they began training their ninpo, had done experiments about telepathy. He’d done tons of tests, both in safe and dangerous environments. He had definitively told them all that, thankfully, their blood line did not mean that they could read each other’s minds. He surmised that any “telepathy” the others thought they had was just them being able go understand one another and know how the other would react to circumstances due to their prolonged exposure to one another.

However, in that moment, the trio only had to exchange one look before they all turned back, going back go the Shell-mobile. They buckled up, fixed the mirrors, and Leo turned them around.

Thump

The drive back home was far less exciting than the drive out to the edge of town, but the adrenaline still ran through their veins. Leo parked the van, smiling to himself as he saw Donnie storming into the garage.

“Wh-what did you d-d-do?!” Donnie looked over the van, “Of all th-the reckless, kn-knuckleheaded- you realize I can remote tr-track the van’s sp-speedometer, right?”

“Oh, no, I didn’t know that.” Leo smiled, “That’s really cool, Don.”

Donnie paused a moment, “I- hey, wait! You can’t distract me w-with compliments!”

Mikey nodded, “Yeah, that’d be underhanded.”

Raph agreed, “You can yell at us, Don, go ahead.”

Donnie’s ire seemed to sizzle out as he looked over his siblings. They all just stood there, politely waiting to get yelled at…

“Have you been body snatched?”

Leo laughed, “That’s a good one. No, no, we’re us. You can run some tests if you wanna be sure.”

“Hey, Don, why don’t I make your favorite tonight?” Raph smiled, coming forward to put a hand on Donnie’s back, guiding him back into the complex, “You can yell at us while I cook.”

“And you can tell us about how you track the Shell-mobile!” Mikey grinned, bouncing beside him as they headed in.

—

It wasn’t until years and years later, after all was said and done, that any of the three of them broke their unspoken vow.

——

And there we go! Originally I wasn’t gonna have them hit him with a car, but that idea was too fuckin funny to pass up.

-Monster Anon

Can We Utilize Unsafe Driving For The Better? More at 11 !!

them being weirdly nice and polite to Donnie afterwards is so funny to me lmao.

#nnstuff #ask #neglected fic #teenage mutant neglected turtles #tmnt abe #car crash tw #violence tw #asks are sweethearts

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uroboros-if · 1 year

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hello, if its okay with you, could you explain how you achieved the following in twine: when you select an eye color, having the text change according to your choice. It seems simple but I can't seem to figure out. Any help would be appreciated!

You probably mean you want to do it in the same passage. I would be ecstatic to help!! I'll be putting it into a read-more because of pictures!

Also note, this tutorial assumes you're using SugarCube. I have very little knowledge of other Twine languages.

First of all, credit to HiEv because I got the base code from them! I just can't find what thread I found it in.

Code?

First—I've uploaded the EXACT passage for eye colors from the IF (even the writing is included...) to itch.io. I've made it restricted to avoid it clogging up my list of projects + notifying all my followers. However, you can play + download it there!

Link / Password: edelle008

Feel free to copy the code exactly, but in this post, I'll be explaining every single thing if you're still confused looking at the code.

Your Passage

Make a passage for where you want the radio buttons to appear. On that passage, have this code:

Red - Make sure to have a ((silently)) macro to not create unnecessary white space. I recommend to end ((silently)) immediately before your writing.

Orange - copy the code exactly (again, I highly recommend downloading the code off itch.io if you just want to copy and paste it!)

Yellow (no yellow on mobile editor...) - This is jQuery. It detects for any "changes" in a ((radiobutton)) macro in that passage. Make sure you don't have multiple radiobutton macros in the same passage.

Green - Replace #summary with the ID you're going to enclose your radio buttons in. If you don't know what I mean, this'll make more sense later.

Blue - When jQuery detects a change in the radio buttons in the passage, it's going to execute this widget called ((eye_color)), which I made solely to check and display different text for eye_color depending on what radio button is selected. Again, if this doesn't make sense, it will later.

So this where the actual radio buttons come. Please disregard the black strikethroughs, that's the code I used to organize the radio buttons into side by side columns.

I'm not covering how you do that here because the way I do it is incredibly scuffed, and only supports three radio buttons side by side. It also only looks good if the number of choices are the same on both sides. I don't want to teach you whatever won't work flexibly.

Above the red line, make a div and assign it an ID. I called my ID #summary, which is why in the previous screenshot, I made it so that the code updates whatever is inside a (span) or (div) with an ID of #summary. Hence, please change #summary into whatever you'd like!

Now you can also style any text within the (div) to anything you want in your Stylesheet.

Inside the div, I put the widget ((eye_color)). You can change this into any text you want to display initially, and it will be updated/written over once someone selects a radio button. The reason I let this stay as ((eye_color)) is so that it first shows the text for the first option, brown eye color (I do this by initializing $eye_color to "brown" in StoryInit, or else it might not show anything when you first look at it.)

Red - Below the red line, please add your radio buttons as normal. Again, disregard the black strikethroughs.

Widget

The reason I made a widget is so that it automatically checks and updates the text depending on the $eye_color variable, or any variable your radiobutton is changing. A widget is essentially a custom macro you make.

Make a separate passage (I called mine "eye_color" for consistency), tag it with "widget". You may copy the code below exactly as base (available for download on itch.io):

Here I made a widget called eye_color. You will enclose all the code inside this passage within the ((widget)) macro.

Yellow - I would use ((nobr)) macro from the beginning of the widget to the end to avoid unnecessary whitespace. This will put everything in one line unless you use (br) to force a line break.

Orange - I made a div for the entire text. The style="(code for transition)" is how there's going to be that transition between texts so it doesn't change it immediately, but gives it that slight fade in effect as it changes. Feel free to change the transition if you know how to. I assign it an ID of #text1 because I'm uncreative, but remember what ID you assign it.

Also, maybe you could test using (span) instead of (div). I don't know why I didn't, and haven't tried it.

Pink - In between the pink dashes, you will write your if statements. This is straightforward -- write an if statement for all the eye colors you want. The (div) for Orange ends when you use your closing ((if)).

Brown - The Orange makes the text have 0 opacity. What this does is make it have 1 opacity. In English, this means the text is originally invisible and this turns it visible.

Purple - Enclose Brown in a ((timed 0s))((/timed)). Usually, Orange and Brown are executed almost simultaneously; that leaves your text invisible. What Purple does is make Orange execute before Brown, so that Brown is able to make the text visible.

Test it

I hope it works for you! Let me know if you still have any questions.

#asks #edelle008 #coding resources #sugarcube coding #sugarcube #twine resources #sugarcube coding resources #twine coding resources

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internetmisfitsworld · 1 year

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I know Call of Duty Mobile comics are not canon (at least to my knowledge), but it's nice to see some crumbs of Makarov contents. Most importantly, there's a hint of "Makarov being a girl dad" moments in the comic that had me screaming.

We get to see more of his personality, though some of it were a bit OOC to me. But most of the time, they got him right. More russian quips and all, something we don't see much back in MW2 and MW3.

His sassy bitchy side. We got glimpse of that back in MW2 and MW3 but in the comics? Deadass he's such a sassy little shit, that at some point I couldn't even be mad at him 😂 .

We also get to see him sort of, kind of, but not really, have this odd sometimes wholesome, mostly questionable, father-daughter vibe with Sophia Couteau. This bit was probably that caught me off guard the most, mostly because we know him as this cold heartless bastard that he is. It was mentioned that he took her in as his protege after her father died. She became part of his crew along with another character Wraith. Funny enough, Sophia even slightly defend Makarov against Dame (her mother) here.

"I know how much you long for big strong parental figure to make things right for you"

"Big Daddy Vladimir" (The way I cackled when I read this line agagahhaha we get it Dame ✋️✋️✋️Makarov is big and strong lmaooo she so real for that)

"As much my mother as Makarov is" (Confirmed. Makarov is mother 💅🏻)

Anyway, back on the topic.

Interestingly, Sophia's father, Edouard "Templar", once tried to kill Makarov. Sooo, you can see why I label Sophia and Makarov father daughter vibe as "questionable", since well... it's Makarov we're talking here. Trusting Makarov is a deathwish.

So, what was Makarov's intention of taking Sophia, whose father tried to kill him, under his care?

Personally, I believe there's a thin line between genuine care and using her for his own cause. I do believe he initially took her in to use her for his personal agenda. But overtime, he grew to care for her a little bit. Maybe he sees himself in her, reminding him back in his days when Zakhaev took him in (different circumstances but still there's similarities). But of course, I don't believe his growing care for her diminished any thought of using her as a pawn for him to use. But damn it he did had me thinking that he genuinely, truly cared for her.

Another thought I had is that, he might took her in because he sees it as some kind of twisted way to get back at Edouard? Maybe he thought; "You tried to kill me? Imma steal yo kid and be a better dad than you then lmfaoo *runs away with adoption paper in his hand*"

But not really though. Considering at the time, Edouard was considered dead (turns out to be alive sometimes later though agaaag this comic really kills me because anyone can never be truly dead). So, him doing this in the name of "getting revenge" on Edouard, is pointless. Unless of course, he's always known Edouard is alive the whole time.

Yeah all in all, it was really a treat to see Makarov being nice and affectionate with someone. A treat and kinda astounding sight too. Especially since we know what he's like in the game agagaa. Like yeah we know who he is and what he is, we know if push comes to shove, he will probably betray Sophia in a heartbeat. But still, it's heartwarming to see their interaction.

Makarov Parenting 101: Gives manipulation tactics advice

Makarov Parenting 101: Be the first to cover your kid's back. Also, keep your kid's close.

Makarov Parenting 101: Teach your kid your language

(FYI Sophia is French. And yeah I know that it doesn't really mean anything considering that a) it's a pretty simple and common phrase so maybe she doesn't really know russian and only knows a couple of phrase or b) maybe she learned the language herself. But still, it's fun to consider that maybe she pick it up from Makarov. Bet she learned a few curse words as well 🤣 Mak disapproves at first but overtime he finds it amusing and snickers whenever she said it)

Makarov Parenting 101: Gives reassurance to your kid (even if you have to lie)

Yeah I'm on the fence on this one, because as much as I want to believe it, part of me have a feeling that he had that family killed. Also,

"I'm not a monster" The audacity of his ass to say this line lol 💀

Bonus:

It's a funny sight to see him helping someone up. Because we know what happened the last time he did that (rip allen you should've never take that hand). Also, he didn't have to help her up. She's more than capable to do that. Not just Wraith but Sophia too. But here he is giving his hand to them. Notice that Sophia was ahead of them, so I'm gonna assume Mak went up first then wait out to help Sophia up the roof then help Wraith. "He really said "I might be a mass murdering psychopathic terrorist but at least I'm a gentleman 👍"

Also another Makarov Parenting 101: Always help your kid up first in high altitude situation.

So yeah. In the comic, they seem to tone him down a little. Shows his light and sometimes dark, humorous side (a nice change though I'm not complaining). A little flirty too ("never darling" "Freya my dear").

"Never, darling" (SWOON GAGAHAHAGA)

#vladimir makarov #call of duty vladimir makarov #call of duty makarov #modern warfare makarov #mw makarov #cod makarov #call of duty sophia couteau #call of duty wraith #call of duty freya helvig #call of duty dame #call of duty cecilia perrin #call of duty edouard couteau #call of duty templar #call of duty mobile

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slickchickchocolatier · 2 years

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My Roommate's Ex - Chapter 1

Hey loves, so I started to dig up my original drafts of this sequel by the same name, just finished re-editing the main characters names to HeeseungxReader pairing. There wont be as many chapters as MGR, and its less poetic and more storytelling. This chapter doesn't have any sexual intercourse, but does have some level of adult only events. There is ALOT of fluff in this one, so I hope you all enjoy. If you hadn't read My Girlfriends Roommate first, I suggest you do, and while I do encourage you to read all 12 chapters, if you feel the absolute need to skip, I would recommend you at least read chapters 8-12 and not skip any of those because they play a major role leading up to the good stuff.

Pairings: Heeseung and you of course. <3

Warnings: Not really for this one, just the mentioning of naked bodies next to each other and that's pretty much it.

Summary: Nah-uh! Y'all should know by now I don't like summaries, at least for short chapters/series. As stated before, Heeseung is a stud (still a stud) and you are (still) the most beautiful damn creature he's ever laid eyes on. Ya feel me?

Read on and enjoy. I'll be posting more chapters either later tonight or tomorrow morning. Okay byeeeee!

Your eyes flutter open, greeted by the darkness in the room. You can’t recall exactly when or how you fell asleep, all could remember, were the events that took place right before you passed out.

The subtleness of movement in your body commissioned you to feel something wrapped around your waist. You looked down, briefly forgetting that the room was pitch black, having no idea what the time was or how long you had been asleep, it came to light that Etha-no, Heeseung fell asleep with you. Next to you.

You mobilize your figure and commit to a half turn, easily allowing for you to lean your head towards the opposing direction behind, you hadn’t realized just how close he was next to you until the tip of your nose is suddenly met with his Adam’s Apple. Your body must of went entirely numb as you didn’t realize that your whole backside was entrenched to his front. Your eyes adjust to the darkness, expanding the limits of your senses as you not only feel his body, but you were able to somewhat make out the lining of his silhouette.

You saw his lengthy arm loosely resting on the indentation of your waistline, right before it meets the curve of your hips; while his other was bent at the elbow as he laid his head on it, asleep. His breathing was hard, slow, and long. He sounded peacefully exhausted as each exhale rushed the air out through his nostrils, grazing your forehead as you laid still with the tip of your nose planted against the hard lump on his neck.

You sigh as the urge within you wanted to give him soft kisses. Your body would slightly shake whenever you remembered the sensation you last felt, admitted by the man who lays beside you, boldly naked just as you were. No wonder you had knocked out without immediately remembering anything, the intense level of the orgasmic high still lingered in your mind as you felt a rush of deep love rising from your chest, tingling you to feel the desire of wanting to do it all over again. Every bit of it, to include the intense pain that introduced the pleasure.

Your bodies felt warm and soft, almost like silk, even smoother than your satin pillow. The motions of his chest as he breathed ranged in the re-expansion of his muscles to kiss your back as he took in each inhale. The coolness of his scent, cedar pine and mint, was still present as you continued to breathe through your nose, right against his neck. Succumbing to its hypnotizing effect, you rubbed the tip against the protrusion of his apple in very faint circles, enjoying the scent spiraling into you as you breathed it all in.

It must have been a sensitive spot for him, he slightly awoke upon receiving your gesture of affection. Yet he wasn’t entirely awake, it seemed he dabbed into consciousness for a split second as he dug his face into your hair and tightened his arm around your waist, bringing you in closer, shoving your face to the side and upwards so that your lips were met with range of smooth skin underneath his jaw. The flat surface begged for kisses, it was warm and not a stubble or blemish was in sight. You grazed over it with soft and tiny kisses as you reached your hand over to greet the extremity that was around your waist, rubbing your hand up and down along his wrist and forearm.

How ironic that it would take only one night for you to feel the immense pleasure of love, joy, and healing, when a man you had been with for months couldn’t make you feel even just a sliver of this blistering sensation. You really didn’t want to wake him, if possible, you would have stayed in that exact moment forever. But you didn’t want to risk Vicky coming in and see the evidence of what transpired on the other side of the evening. You didn’t care about her knowing, it was just the manner of how to relay it to her.

You weren’t sure what made you feel this way, but your instinct told you that Vicky still had some sense of fondness for Heeseung, and you’re not entirely sure how she’ll take the news even if you were to tell her in the best possible way you can think of, if that was even a thing.

Sleeping with your roommate’s…your friend’s boyfriend or ex boyfriend, reminding yourself that you hadn’t received any confirmation on the status of their current standing. For all you knew, they could have still been dating, just managing a break period.

You felt your heart soaring from nerves as you began rolling all the possibilities of Vicky and Heeseung’s situation. You wanted to keep him but not in the manner where you stole him from someone, after all, there is always a right way and a wrong way to do things. You put your mind at ease by coming to a mental pause, reminding yourself that you have yet to hear of Heeseung’s side of the story, or Vicky’s for that matter. The sudden realization hit you upon remembering she had never told you anything. Instead, she had just suddenly appeared at the party with her body fully embraced by Gabe prior to suffering the harassment of him and his indecent friend.

Stroking his forearm, the scented oils of his cologne become enriched at the slight friction of you dragging your fingers up and down the length of it. Feeling the light massage on his skin, Heeseung wakes up, unleashing an exhausting groan as he breathes in the floral scent of your hair. He hugs you tightly and admits the same gesture you were giving to him, dragging his fingers on to the center of your chest, encircling traces around the fullness of your breasts.

“I didn’t want to wake you. But we need to get dressed, in case if Vicky comes back.” You whispered softly against his neck as you lowered your kisses from under his chin, tracing the distance your face had traveled with the brush of your parted lips grazing against him.

You’ve become inebriated at the feel, the scent, and the movement of him. Groaning once more, he lets out just one word in the most pleasant tone, it was a combination of tired and fresh.

“Sure.”

The sudden flow of his arm that was embracing you reaches over to the bedside table to check the time, he leans in hovering over your cradled figure as his reach becomes fully extended. Noticing that he was enclosing you into his chest, he looks down at you, his hand remains attached to the table, placed directly on top of your phone.

He leans his face in and kisses you passionately, your naked bodies generating more heat as they rub against one another. He became so enveloped into kissing you that he had forgotten to retract his arm and stopped moving altogether. Instead, he focused on keeping the kiss alive by maneuvering his tongue in circular motion around yours, reopening your mouth every time you attempted to bring it to a pause.

As his arm remained still, you raised your hand and attempted to reach the phone yourself, not realizing until the last second that it was too far, and your arms are not nearly as long as his. He feels you reach your arm out and your fingers tapping and feeling around the beveled edge of the table, barely touching the screen of your phone. While keeping the kiss going, he pushes the phone further away instead of dragging it towards you, enjoying the feel of you struggling as the tip of your fingers begin to spider crawl along his wrists, trying to link with his bracelet so that you could pull him back in, along with your phone that remained planted underneath his palm.

You both feel the stretch of your smiles as your lips remained pressed together. Your tongues retract back into your mouths as you both chuckle, releasing a mixture of his deep pitch and your light one to fill the room. He drags the phone to your hand, finally. He places the device in both your hands and interlock your fingers together as he brings your arms back in.

Your smile never breaks as you look over to the side, squinting at the sudden brightness of your screen, you read the time on display. The clock read 3:37am, you figured that Vicky stayed out as usual, and would be back mid-morning. You figured she must have left with Gabe right after the incident and stayed with him all throughout the night.

You and Heeseung enjoyed more kisses before finally getting out of bed, cleaning up, and getting dressed. Not yet wanting to part away from you, he asks you to come for a drive with him. You accepted delightfully as you didn’t feel like staying inside the dorm or waiting up for Vicky.

He asked where you wanted to go and you looked at him intently for a moment, your lips formulate an alluring smile as your eyes twinkled at the sight of him before you shifted your gaze.

Looking down at your phone in hand, your memory relives the very moment when Heeseung read the email and shut the screen to black. Thinking about it brought you a feeling that you hadn’t felt before, a carefree one. You placed the phone on the edge of the table, and with your fingers barely touching it, you scooted it to the very same spot it had been at all night. A hard swallow travels down your throat, you blinked a couple of times before turning your head back to him, crossed your arms as you voiced your answer.

“Take me anywhere and everywhere. If I’m touching you and away from everything else, that’s all I care about.” You ended your sentence with a resounding smile, your eyes reflecting an emotion that communicated to him.

The hand that was playing and twirling his keys around suddenly dropped to his side after hearing your words. He stared right back into your eyes, his smile quickly disappears, he doesn't move, just simply stands there for a few seconds, as a couple of deep breathes seeped through the parted distance between his lips. His eyes were just a tad bit glossy, but not because of tears or the urge to cry, it was because he became overwhelmed by a powerful feeling, and it came so suddenly that it made his chest fall into his stomach.

Shifting his stance to lean inward he licked his lips, extended his hand to you, and spoke out. Even though his words were just a thread away from being a whisper, a very faint trace of his tone was present, it was broken, yet soft and tender.

“Come here.”

You walked over and took his hand, the moment you had done so, a familiar rush of force pulls you in. You’ve felt it once before when you had first met, it was when he pulled you away from Gabe. Pulling you so fast and so strongly, he displayed accurate timing and swiftness in his reflexes as he releases your hand, reaches around, and places it firmly on your lower back, all in the midst of you being pulled. Chest to chest, your bodies are like fitted pieces of a puzzle.

The tilt of his face allowed you’re your faces to be much closer to one another, with your noses placed on each other’s cheeks and your lips touching. He took one split second in pausing all movement before kissing you with more passion than any man was willing to give.

He took you for a long drive, taking every opportunity to glance your way with a smile as he kept one hand on the wheel, while the other would sneak over to hold yours. Wherever he was taking you, it was unfamiliar and beautiful. You leaned forward from your seat with your eyes growing wider, your mouth slowly opening upon seeing the amazing view through the windshield.

It was a long farm road that was surrounded by rows of large sycamore trees, perfectly paralleled with each other as they sided the path. Along with the trees, the road was also decorated by large bushes of blue and purple hydrangeas, all in full bloom. The spacing in between each trunk permitted you to view a wide bright green pasture filled with grazing cows and horses, the sight caused a small chuckle as you recall your father’s fondness for cows, and your mothers for horses.

The view was breathtaking. It reminded you of a landscape oil painting your father had hanged up in his study, it had the same sycamore trees and a bright green pasture with cottage houses and a field of lavender. The small gold plate on the bottom titled the painting as “Terre de Nice” by Andres Anroullie, a historic painter who grew up in the countryside of Nice, France; he painted that piece as a tribute to his homeland while he studied abroad, according to your father.

Thanks to Andres Anroullie’s talent, you grew up with a deep fondness for art, and ever since you first saw it, you would sneak into your father’s study to stare at it every day, feeling a sense that you had belonged there.

Noticing you enjoying the scenery and remarking the hydrangeas, Heeseung rolled down the windows, allowing the summer air to flow through, bringing in the loose petals from the flowers decorating the road.

He lowered the speed of the car to 5-10 mph, giving you all the time in the world to enjoy the setting as you stuck your hand out and let the soothing air flow through your fingers. The air was lukewarm as it was still very early in the morning, the sun was barely rising.

“Where are we?” Your voice was breathless, and your eyes never veered away from the view.

You smiled wondrously as you fell in love with the setting, it brought you back to a one of the more calming moments of your childhood.

He turned to face you and was about to answer but stopped. Losing his breath, his heart skipped a beat causing a soreness in his chest, he wasn’t prepared for it but was eternally grateful for what he saw.

The view of your smile dressing your beautiful face, and the slow flowing of air through the open windows causing a collaboration of blue and purple petals to dance in circles against your open palm as you raised it to your face, blowing at them as if you were blowing a kiss. Your hair surrounded you, and just like the petals, it danced in fluid motion from the traveling air.

He heard of the nickname they gave to you at the college, even before he met you, he recalled being informed by his peers that his girlfriend’s roommate was a goddess. Meeting you the first time made him understood why they called you that, but seeing you now made him believe in it. You were ethereal.

Finally able to regain some level of composure as he swapped one hand out with the other on the stirring wheel, resting his elbow on the base of the window, leaning into it as he rested his hand over his mouth and cleared his throat. When he was able to get over the soreness in his chest, he finally answered.

“It’s a place called Terre de Nice.”

You stopped blowing the petals and looked at him, what he just said did more than just surprised you, you were speechless. He remained facing the road, taking a moment to avoid looking at you so he could calm down from feeling overly flustered and dazed.

“Terre de Nice?” You repeated very softly, making sure you heard correctly, which he confirmed that you did as he responded once more.

“Yeah, named after the city in France, it means Land of Nice.”

#enhypen hard hours #enhypen smut #enhypen fanfiction #heeseung x reader #heeseung hard hours #heeseung hard thoughts #heeseung scenarios #heeseung smut #heeseung fanfic #enha x reader #enha heeseung #enha fics #enha smut

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littleladymab · 2 years

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@qt-kt and i have been lost in kalluzeb hell so i decided to write some little canon-compliant vignettes to feed us only i've lost steam half-way through because i need to return to things with Plot™ so enjoy the ones i have written i might eventually return with the second half.

Edit to say if you're still liking and reblogging this one please go dig a little further and find the full version up on AO3, get all the goods with a little extra leg work. If i remember to update this post again I'll include a link because I'm on mobile rn but please go read the finished thing that doesn't have the typos and is also, you know, finished.

+++

"You're doing that thing again," Zeb says, his voice cutting in through the silence that had settled in around him.

"What thing?" Kallus asks, annoyed at himself. He hadn't even heard Zeb approaching.

Instead of a proper answer, Zeb gestures a clawed hand at Kallus' face -- swirling it absently in the air like he means to indicate a general miasma than a specific problem. "That thing with your face."

Kallus frowns and Zeb says, "Ah, you're making it worse."

"This is just my face."

"It's your gloomy face. Your Imperial face."

"This is just my face," Kallus repeats. "Just because I was one of the few Imperials you knew who didn't hide behind a full helmet doesn't mean that it's an Imperial face."

Zeb shrugs as he drops onto the bench beside Kallus. Doesn't ask if he can; simply does. A gesture of familiarity that Zeb insists he's earned after Atollon (and Lothal and Skystrike and Bahryn), but he's still a stranger to. "You don't make it all the time. Just when you're in a mood."

So Kallus tries a different tactic. "What makes it different?"

The Lasat leans in close and studies him, looking for the line that divides Kallus Imperial face from this mysterious second one. "This one is emptier," he says with a low voice like he's telling a secret. "You tend to make it when you're alone or troubled. When you think too hard."

How long must you have looked at me to figure that out? Kallus wants to ask but doesn't. It's a bridge he's not willing to cross -- even after Atollon (and Lothal and Skystrike and Bahryn). "The old me has been dumped out when I defected," Kallus answers instead. "There's a lot of me to fill back up, but I guess I haven't really figured out the man I want to be yet." It's more honest an answer than he originally wanted to give and any attempt at turning it into a joke failed the moment he opened his mouth.

It makes Zeb laugh, though. Loud and full-bodied as he throws his head back with the force of it. An overwhelming outpouring of emotion that Kallus wonders if he'll ever be brave enough to experience.

Instead he soaks up the sound. Drinks it in and lets it start to fill the hollow empty corners of himself that still cling to that Imperial façade.

+++

This is how he falls in love, he realizes -- with the rebellion, with this new life, with Zeb. He is a jug, emptied and wanting, slowly filled to the brim. By the time Kallus realizes, it's too late and the contents are already overflowing.

+++

It was always nothing until, suddenly, too late, it was something.

+++

"Everyone still calls you Kallus," Zeb remarks one day as they help organize crates of supplies.

He shrugs. "I still call myself Kallus."

Zeb regards him curiously. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why not use your name?"

He furrows his brow and takes a moment to stretch his back. "My name is Kallus."

Zeb seems frustrated by this response, which doesn't really make sense. He has no reason to be so invested in what people call Kallus. "No more than my name is Orrelios. It's just weird that you're content with everyone calling you by your last name."

Kallus shrugs again. "Truthfully?" he asks as he reaches for the next stack of crates.

"Preferably."

"I've long since stopped thinking of myself as Alexsandr. As long as I've been a part of the Empire, I've always been Kallus. Or I've been ISB 021, or Fulcrum. Commander. Agent. Rebel." From the corner of his eye, he can see that Zeb has stopped moving and is watching him intently. "I haven't been Alexsandr since I enlisted so… A long time now," he finishes with a huff of laughter.

Zeb makes a grumble that might be in agreement, might be to the contrary, but says nothing.

It's not until they're finished with the crates that Zeb finally asks, "Then can I call you Alexs?"

Kallus stops, stares, tries to wrap his head around the question. "Have you been thinking about that this whole time?" It's the only response he can manage.

"Maybe," Zeb answers awkwardly as he rubs the back of his head and refuses to meet Kallus' gaze. "It just, I dunno. Seems unfair? Your name is a part of you, so why not reclaim it?"

Why not? he thinks in a sudden reckless rush. Why not remake himself now that he's cast off the Imperial trappings?

The thought is weirdly terrifying. Who is he, if not himself? He knows Kallus, the limits and capabilities of that man. He doesn't know Alexs.

"You can," he says slowly. "Though I may not answer to it. Not until I get used to it."

"A work in progress," Zeb agrees, cuffing him on the shoulder.

Yes, that sounds right. Not broken, just emptied. A work in progress, waiting to be filled.

+++

It was always nothing until, suddenly, too late, it was something.

+++

Kallus looks from the packet of freeze-dried vegetables to Zeb. "You're serious?"

Zeb takes the packet with a huff. "Of course I am."

"You know how to cook?"

"Don't sound so surprised, Agent." He taps Kallus square between the eyes with the packet -- making him scrunch up his nose. "There's a lot of things about me you don't know."

Kallus opens his mouth prepared to ask before he realizes he doesn't know where to start. He doesn't know where he's allowed to cross. As always he's too aware of his role in Zeb's past. That there's a huge chunk of time ripped away in the after-effects of war and eradication. "What is your favorite thing to cook?"

"Stew. A recipe I learned from my uncle. I've never been able to get it right because there's some spice and a root that were native to Lasan that I don't have access to anymore, but I enjoy the challenge of trying to find a replacement." Zeb answers without hesitation, without any sort of insinuation. Perhaps he forgot who he was talking to. "Most of the time though I just like to find new ways to make basic rations taste better. Very rarely do I get to make an actual dinner like this."

"Ah, rations. I'll have you know I was very excited to finally not be eating the standard Imperial fare that even these basic rations were oddly delicious."

Zeb laughs -- not the full-chested guffaw he does, but a softer, fonder chuckle. The one he only gives when its just the two of them, caught by surprise by the suddenness of the comment whenever Kallus lets slip something new. "Then you're staying for dinner."

Everything goes hot and cold inside Kallus all at once, though he's careful to keep the reaction from his face. "I can't."

"Yeah, you can. You just don't want to."

Kallus opens his mouth only to find that once again he's at a loss for words. "I shouldn't," he amends. Does he want to? That's a question he doesn't give himself a chance to consider. "I… have work to do."

Zeb doesn't look up from the pan that he's mixing the vegetables on. The Ghost doesn't have a large kitchen, but its dwarfed even further by the side of the Lasat delicately using a pair of long, thin sticks to stir. "Alright. Help until you have to leave."

There's plenty that Kallus can respond to for that. A hundred little quips come to mind, but he dismisses them as he moves to the sink to wash his hands. He moves up to the counter alongside Zeb, taking up the indicated knife and dicing the meat. It's been ages since he's done any sort of food prep. Not since he left home. The Empire always provided.

The shapes he makes are lopsided and uneven and more than once he comes close to slicing the tip of his finger. But he's determined to see the task through, even when Zeb does that chuckle again which means he spares a moment to watch.

"Don't laugh," Kallus says and nudges Zeb with his elbow.

"I should have known you weren't perfect," Zeb answers.

This startles a laugh of disbelief out of Kallus. "Oh, no. No, there's your first problem. Why would you ever think that?"

"A trick of the light." Zeb takes the cutting board from Kallus' frozen hands as if he has no idea the implication his words have. "Fill that up with water, will you?" he asks, jutting his chin at the pot in question.

Kallus takes it wordlessly from the stovetop and steps away to the sink.

This is why he can't stay. He forgets who he is. The domesticity is nearly overwhelming in a time and place where he can't afford it. Soon, Kanan and Ezra will be back from their training. Hera will return from the command center. Sabine will emerge from the depths of the base, covered in paint. They will be the family that Kallus used to hunt -- and Zeb has the gall to joke that, in the right light, he might have thought Kallus was perfect.

"I have to go," Kallus says, setting the pot back on the burner. He doesn't look at Zeb as he dries his hands off on his pants and turns for his jacket.

There's a grumble of an unasked question from the Lasat, but in the end he doesn't say anything.

Except that as Kallus moves to slip past him, Zeb holds out a hand with a ration bar.

He looks up, brow quirked skeptically.

"Since you like them so much that you're not going to stay for dinner," Zeb explains, and taps Kallus on the forehead directly between the eyes. "Next time, consider staying?"

Kallus can't help the smirk and plucks the ration bar free only to shove it back against Zeb's chest. "Next time, I'll consider it."

Zeb's answering grin is as warm as his hand as he catches Kallus' fingers and the bar before they can pull away. He doesn't say anything as he holds on for an unsteady thump thump thump of Kallus' pulse.

The touch withdraws and Kallus returns to himself only changed in some small way that he can't quite identify.

+++

Zeb holds the hat up in his hands like it has personally offended him. "We're supposed to go in disguise."

"That is generally the first step of not being caught immediately, yes," Kallus agrees.

Zeb waves the hat around in the space between them. "This thing is so ugly that I think it will draw more attention to us."

Kallus takes the thing from Zeb, holding it between both hands to study it. "I don't know, I saw plenty of Lothal citizens wearing these when I was stationed there." He shakes it out and reaches up to pull it on to Zeb's head.

There's a grunt of surprise from the Lasat as the hat doesn't quite fit over his head correctly, and Kallus laughs as he tries to fix it. "Stop flinching," he scolds and lifts up one of the flaps to free the chin strap trapped beneath it.

"I feel like a bantha with blinders on."

"Nonsense." Kallus presses a knuckle to the underside of Zeb's chin, forcing him to lift his head so Kallus can buckle the strap beneath it. He takes a step back to see the image in full and can barely restrain the snort of laughter. "You look…"

"Ridiculous." Zeb attempts to claw off the hat, forgetting that its fastened beneath his chin, and ends up getting tangled in it.

"I was going to offer dignified to be nice, but you're making it real difficult right now."

"Oh," Zeb says from the depths of the hat before finally emerging -- fur ruffled and ears flicking in suppressed amusement. "You were trying to be nice. That would be a first."

From the hold, out of sight from where they're tucked away in one of the corridors, Kallus can hear Ezra and Vizago. They don't have much time before he'll join Rex in the cockpit and the others will leave.

The crew of the Ghost, leaving it behind in the hands of the only two people willing to volunteer for this mission. Two people who will be sitting by uselessly, unable to help if anything should go wrong.

Zeb takes the hat from Kallus' hands and shoves it into a pocket of his jumpsuit. "Alexs."

It's been almost a year of trying to get used to that name, and he still has a hard time. He looks up to meet Zeb's gaze. "Hm?"

"We'll be alright. We always are."

Kallus could play along, comment how he knows just how resilient the Spectres are. But instead he says, "You don't know that."

"We kicked your ass on more than one occasion."

"I'm not the biggest threat anymore." Kallus breathes in deep, shoulders heaving with the sigh. "Not that you'll listen to anything I have to say."

Zeb steps closer -- a subtle shuffle to close the distance between them. "Well, what do you have to say?"

Kallus focuses on the hum of the ship beneath his feet, of the warmth radiating off of Zeb, of the unspoken challenge in his eyes. He straightens his posture a degree and says, "I'm looking forward to being in command of the Ghost while Hera is planetside."

Zeb stares at him in stunned silence before breaking down into laughter. "Alright, alright," he concedes. "I won't tell her that you said that."

"No, do, that will inspire her to be even more efficient than she normally is."

"You love to make things difficult."

"I live for it," Kallus agrees, though he allows the small smile. He breaks the eye contact when he hears the sound of the puffer pigs being disturbed. "I should go. Let you finish getting ready."

Zeb catches onto his forearm before he can move too far away. "Just got one thing left," he says and leans down to kiss Kallus.

It's short, over too quickly for him to fully realize and respond. He stares at Zeb in stunned silence.

"For good luck," Zeb says as if that explains anything.

"Be careful," Kallus blurts out. The only thing he can think to say that truly encompasses the storm of emotions suddenly raging inside of him. "Come back safe."

Zeb's surprise melts into a smile that is equal parts fond and reckless. "I'll see you later, Agent."

They turn away at the same time -- Kallus towards the cockpit and Zeb towards the storage. He's a soldier with no time to play at being something new or different but for the first time in a long time Kallus thinks he might be willing to try at being Alexs again.

+++

Kallus understands the exact cost demanded by the Empire in order to ensure freedom. He just never expected to feel it so closely. Perhaps that's because he never expected to be free of the Empire himself every other time he calculated the toll.

It was always a price paid by others until Lothal.

He had thought the Ghost crew invincible -- after all, they had beat him more than once. They faced Vader and Thrawn and the might of the Empire and survived. Lothal reminds Kallus that there's a difference between survival and victory.

They survived Atollon, they were victorious over Lothal.

They lost Kanan and Ezra but they won a planet.

+++

Hera lands the Ghost on the outskirts of the city. Ketsu takes Sabine by the hand and pulls her out of the ship -- into the throng of people that spill through the streets. Rex and Azadi go to Hera, speaking to her in low voices that Kallus doesn't want to intrude on.

So he follows after Zeb. Down into the hold where there are boxes of spare medical supplies mixed in with munitions and food. They work in silence activating the repulsor functions and lead a small train of crates towards the city's edge.

People spot them and run to help and Kallus finds the mindless task of distributing the supplies easier than thinking about what happened. Focus on next steps instead of past ones.

When the first batch has been sent off, he turns to go prepare round two -- only to find Zeb standing a few paces away with eyes staring back in the direction of the old communication's tower. The one he coopted for his Fulcrum transmissions.

Ezra's tower.

Kallus steps up beside Zeb and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Hey."

The Lasat doesn't jump, but his ears twitch at the sound. "Hmm?"

It would be incredibly stupid to ask how are you. Kallus can read the answer plain as day. So instead he asks, "How is your foot?"

"My foot?" Zeb seems to come out of his reverie enough to be confused, which is a bit of an improvement. He looks down at the foot in question, toes wriggling in the shortgrass and dirt. One has a red welt as a sign of a minor abrasion but otherwise isn't that bad. Just a promise of a bruise. "It's fine."

"Let me look at it."

"I don't need medical attention," Zeb says, the words almost coming out as a growl. "There's others that--"

"You flung yourself into the inner workings of a shield generator to fight an assassin. Just let me check you over, okay?" Kallus grabs Zeb by the elbow in a hold he's used on unruly troopers before and drags him back to the ramp.

By now, others have taken over the job of unloading the food and medical supplies so Kallus takes two of the unused munitions crates and sets them up to the side of the ramp.

"Sit," he orders, and Zeb does. "Leg."

With a sigh Zeb sticks out the leg and Kallus pulls it into his lap to investigate.

They've had no time to talk since Kallus returned to Lothal. He hasn't been able to check in on any of them and the only one he's managed to hold onto has been Zeb. Hera and Sabine will be coping in their own way but Kallus needs to at least feel like he's helping somehow.

"Alexs."

He doesn't respond, busying himself with a closer inspection of the injury. It is as minor as he thought, not even the potential for scarring. He still takes the time to apply antiseptic and wraps a bandage around the injury.

"Alexs."

Kallus pauses, hands settling on Zeb's knee. He doesn't lift his head. "I feel like such a fucking hypocrite," he eventually says as the silence continues to drag out between them, neither certain how to break it. "I worked for years to try and bring you down. And now here I am mourning the loss of two soldiers."

Zeb shuffles a bit on his crate but doesn't pull his leg away. "A lot has happened between then and now. They were more than soldiers, they were your friends."

Hardly, Kallus doesn't say. "They were your family."

"Yeah…" Zeb says, and Kallus winces at the sheer exhaustion in the single word. "Yeah, they were."

A dry laugh finally works its way out of Kallus. "Well at least I can save a little face knowing that not even Thrawn and Pryce could take you down so I don't feel like I did such a bad job failing to secure you all."

Zeb chuckles. "If we were going to go, it would always be at our own terms."

"And you've won."

"We've won." There's an emphasis on the word that brings Kallus into the fold, that reminds him he's no longer an Imperial.

Kallus exhales and lowers his head -- doubling over until he presses his forehead to Zeb's knee. Words jumble together in his thoughts but nothing feels right. Everything is too pithy or feel too selfish or hollow.

Zeb's hand lands on the back of his head, warm and comforting, and Kallus feels the tension train from his shoulders. The clawed fingers card through his hair as both of them let the moment pass in silence.

There are things to be said but they can wait.

For now, they can breathe.

#star wars #rebels #star wars rebels #kalluzeb #a lil miss fic #lil miss writings #okay NOW i disappear from the fanfic scene #at least until I finish one of these two other projects

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asryakino · 3 months

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FULL STORY OF THE SAGA OF THE EXPLOSIVE PHONE AND THE ELECTRONICS STORE THAT TRIED TO GET ME TO COMMIT DOMESTIC TERRORISM! -

This is going to take a hot minute to type, so be patient

on June 18th 2024 I was out running errands, and picked up dinner, in doing so I overdrew the credit union account, I THOUGHT I had zeroed it out, but it had actually overdrawn.

I didn't find out until after the bank had closed, and since the 19th was Juneteenth (a federal holiday in the states) the CU was closed.

I THOUGHT I could sign the account up through Zelle and/or cashapp and just transfer money directly into the account, but Zelle continually failed, and cash app let me enroll it, but not transfer the money to the account.

Continually they said the issue was with the DEBIT CARD, not the account and told me to call the bank. I couldn't.

On the 20th, I woke up early enough to call the bank, and began the arduous process of verifying over the phone with my dad just so I could talk to them, and Zelle, and try to figure out why the everloving hell the zelle system said there was something wrong with the card and not letting me even sign up so I could transfer money into the account.

I spent four hours on this. Calling one, calling the other, being on hold. and NO ONE could fix the problem.

I repeated myself so many times I was tired of hearing myself. I got one person who said it was the carrier, so I had to call t-mobile, except it wasn't tmobile it was mint, and tmobile transferred me to aura and not mint, and finally to mint who said 'oh that feature is already unlocked on the account you need to call the banking institution or zelle.

On the final call to zelle, the new tech was refusing to accept the verification. and starts going through her little trapper keeper script of why she was refusing to accept the verification when we had all the answers all the info and had ACTIVELY BEEN VERIFYING FOR FOUR HOURS until this point when she says, off handedly during her script read (she was literally just reading the fucking bullet points, I could HEAR the pauses as she shifted line down) "Your account must have more than a dollar in it to enroll"

I spin, looking at the phone only to realize that the phone my dad is holding has expanded, and popped the back of itself off. And immediately begin internally panicking but externally I'm just being frustrated because THAT was the problem for the past four hours, not me entering info wrong, not the information being incorrect with the bank, not the debit card being mislinked, not a system error THE ACCOUNT WAS ALREADY OVER DRAWN AND IT TOOK FOUR HOURS AND WIGHT TECHS TO TELL ME THIS CONDITION?!

I tell dad to immediately hang up the phone and give it to me, I'm ready to rip my hair out and he thinks I'm going to throw the phone and kind of clings to it. I say, firmer. "Give me that timebomb NOW" and he goes 'what is the pro- what the fuck is that?"

I saiod "That is a spicy pillow and you need to give itt to me -now-. I'm taking it to best buy it should still be under warranty." "Yeah, yeah.." and he handed me the phone "When did that happen?" "When you took the phone out of the case to talk to zelle a second ago. It's blowing out, and It doesn't need to be here." "Yeah you go handle... this..."

I explain the zelle issue why it wouldn't enroll, and go get dressed, grab the spicy ravioli and run out the door with the idea that I'll go to the credit union two cities over, fix the overdraft and then take care of the phone return. While driving it's still expanding so I reprioritize and decide to return the phone first.

In my mind, this is a simple thing. I know the phone is under warranty, it has become a safety issue, their standard practice of "keep this and send it off" is not a viable option so it will HAVE to be a refund/in store exchange.

I know this because I've had to do this once before in the past. I know how their policies work, I know the standard returns but more importantly I know the severity of a bloated li-ion battery and how fucking important it is to get it into a safe disposal unit to be picked up by hazardous waste techs with a fireproof vehicle

I go in, at this point I am forwardly professional, I am not panicked, excitable or anything I have my mask of professionalism on and I'm all fucking business. I go to customer service and say 'I need to make a return but before that, do you have a fire blanket or fire suppressant for this fire hazard" and I gently set the phone on the counter. My only thought is to safely contain this ACTIVELY EXPANDING lithium battery.

She looks down, eye go wide and goes "I don't know let me check" and runs to the back, I hear from the back "We have a bucket of sand" and I retort "That will do, this needs to be contained immediately please"

They come get it, and take the potential fire hazard to be buried in the sand bucket. NOW we may commence the return process. I immediately put on the customer service interaction mask, and give them the information for the account, I joke that my receipt for the purchase had bleached out in the car (It had, I keep it in the sunglasses holder and it had legitimated denatured) and we agree that is why they have everything digital.

The CS says it's a rapid exchange in store for this, I said yay, that's actually really nice, because 'express' is not great. She agrees, and sends me to the mobile department, I say take all the time they need, I'll pick a new phone and confirm it's what my dad wants, and I know the paperwork is going to take a hot minute.

I confirm dad doesn't care as long as it's functional, so I pick out the same type, but updated model of phone (Moto G Stylus 2023 model to replace the 2021 model that is buried in sand in the back)

I talk to mobile, connecting with the associate over customer horror stories and the like while the new phone that he, customer service, geek squad techs, and two other associates and a manager have seen, agreed this is going to be an instore exchange because of the circumstances.

We begin setting up the phone and I realize the sim card is still in the bomb. I roll back over in my wheelchair to ask if it's safe to get the sim card. And they say they have to check the IMEI anyway and I bawk. We've already confirmed it's probably not safe to turn the phone on right now, and they say it's okay, it's on the sim tray. I didn't know that, good information. And I ask, cautiously, if it'd be okay to turn it on BRIEFLY so I can get only the login email on it to know which email my dad used for logging into google so I can get his contacts and account synched

the tech says "I don't recommend it" I asked if it would be okay to do so knowingly against advice to turn it on, get the info, turn it off and rebury the thing?

By now, it's been confirmed the battery is no longer expanding, and it's not actively leaking, smoking or heating up. We all agree it's a compromised cell within the battery but it hasn't been breeched, so it's safe-ISH to handle, briefly, but it shouldn't be agitated too much just in case.

I suggest removing the back fully so there's no pressure points. I'm ignored.

I get the info, turn off the fire bomb and hand it back, where it's taken back to what I assume is the sand bucket.

after a little while, the replacement phone is ready for login, I begin setting up the phone for my dad and logging in his information so it'll be set up and ready to go. They begin the return paperwork for the other phone.

At this point it's been about 45 minutes. It's been a smooth process where everyone was on the same side of 'we do not want to agitate the bomb, and Asrya should be leaving with a functional phone and NOT a fire hazard."

when they try to do the return, the SKU (sales identification number) comes up as dead meaning that the store chain doesn't carry that model any more, and the system won't accept the item as a return for cash, credit, or refund. It just -won't- . Initially, I tell them I've had to do this only twice before (I didn't mention it was spread out over like twelve years that I've been using this specific protection plan with Best Buy) and that they may have to store manager override it.

I've had to utilize this process before with laptops I had to exchange due to manufacture defects... so I actually do know how the policy works, the former general manager of the store had explained it to me YEARS ago.

So I tell them that it happens, and to take their time, I know it's a pain in the ass and I'm sorry I'm taking up so much resources, but it's really okay and as long as the end result is good, I don't mind waiting.

At this point it's 1 in the afternoon.

I've been at the best buy for an hour.

The manager comes up after a while, telling me that it's physically impossible. And I'm going to have to use the 'express return' system, it's the only solution that their system is allowing them to process.

I start getting frustrated, which means I start crying because I am fighting the urge to begin yelling. I've now been here for over an hour, I was in the middle of handling the situation and I NEED the phone in order to process the banking issue this all started with so my dad doesn't get charged overdraft fees.

I explain I can't wait a week for a new phone and what am I supposed to do with the bloated phone?

they explain this process, and get snippy telling me "It's 2-3 days not a week" I tell them it's 2-3 BUSINESS days "well... yeah" "This is THURSDAY, at the earliest it'll process Friday then ship out on Monday, if I'm LUCKY it'll arrive on TUESDAY at the earliest, and maybe not until Thursday of next week! During that whole time my dad's account will have overdraft fees being applied to it for each day! We can't afford that! On top of that you want me to pay a 70$ deposit just to do this! We do not have that money right now"

I was told I could apply for and use the best buy credit card.

I asked for a phone number to call, that there HAD to be an alternative solution, I said I didn't want to take the fire hazard home with me.

By now they had REMOVED THE PHONE FROM THE BUCKET and were walking around with it after me, trying to get me to take the fucking compromised battery.

I tell them to put that thing back in the sand bucket. And they give me 'corporate's number' a 1877 number. I ask if that's the number to call to talk to a supervisor or manager because this is an exception to the policy if ever there was one. If anyone would have the directions for overriding this dead sku problem, it should be the store manager's area or district manager

I am told there is no area or district manager.

I am FLOORED, I realize I've not been around this system for a couple of years but that information just... baffles me. I ask who THEY call when they have a situation come up that can't be handled in store.

They tell me they call the 1877 number.

I am BAFFLED by this, but I call the 1877 number, the call id comes up as 'best buy express kiosk" and I groan because I recognize this as the trunk line call center. I brace for and prepare to handle this for an hour. I am still trying to be as professional as possible.

I have now been here for going on two hours.

I roll out into the entry way, they CHASE ME with the fucking firebomb of a phone and ask if I'm leaving. I look back at them holding this fucking bloated phone and say no I'm just trying to get out of everyone's way so I can call the number and would they PLEASE put that thing back again and leave it in the safe bucket!

I spend the better part of hour three struggling to get through these customer service techs, explaining the situation and begging for them to transfer me to a manager or supervisor. I'm being denied this at every turn until I get to "returns" and am told to ask THEM for a manager by a tech who seemed to understand the situation and why I was calling.

I'm transferred, the tech listens, agrees that I should NOT be handed a firebomb to go home with, and should not be expected to ship a bloated li-ion battery in the mail and that it should be an in store return with store credit. I ask her to please explain this to the manager and go to remove my headset and put her on speaker so the manager can hear it from corporate

the call disconnected

I break

I begin crying, as quietly as I can, and the manager goes 'well' and I explain the call disconnected... I have to get back to that point.. and roll back into the entry way to begin the process again.

I'm crying, I just need this to work.

I've been here for nearly three hours.

The new tech that answers refuses to confirm the account and begins insisting I give my personal number and email to him. Refusing to accept the account information.

He puts me on hold. I call the corporate number again, merge the calls, and he has me on a mute hold. I get another tech that sound like the same guy, who also eventually puts me on hold, and then disconnects the call.

I'm sobbing and breaking down at this point, I'm having a panic attack, and struggling to maintain any type of composure at this point. I tell them I'm going out to my car so I'm not causing a scene in their store and is the manager positive there is no other option. I need to be leaving with a working phone, or at least I do NOT need to be leaving with a fucking FIRE HAZARD that they are expecting me to ship in the mail it is ILLEGAL to ship compromised batteries in the mail.

this fucking manager looks me dead in the face and says I can purchase a new phone to use, and just bring it back after the 'express return' is finished, or I can just do the express return, but there is NO WAY at all physically for her to do the return, in any shape, form or fashion, that I will have to take the fire hazard phone with me and ship it to their facility when the new phone comes in the mail in five days or so

I say I do not feel comfortable holding onto a FIRE HAZARD for a week, much less being without the ability to do the banking and is best buy going to cover the overdraft fees I'll be incurring and what am I supposed to do with a fucking bloated phone that could explode?!

Her solution? "You can go to walmart and buy a bucket and sand and put it in there if you don't feel safe with it, I hear that sand is good for batteries like this"

I snap... I just.. break down and begin crying because at this point I've been here for three hours, I know what she's suggesting is absolutely wrong, she's lied to me about not having an area/district manager, and she's standing over me like some fucking goon while telling me to take a BOMB home and then send it in the federal post in a week!

I break down, I take the stupid fucking bomb, they make me factory reset the phone I had been working on previously, I take the sim card, and I ask again if there is ANYONE I can call to talk to that will help. Who do THEY call when there's a situation because there HAS to be SOMEONE. They insist that nope, there's ONLY the 1877 number to the call centre.

I'm bawling, I'm broken, and crying I'm having heart issues, my head is screaming, my face feels burnt, and I roll out to the car and put the chair away. While unpacking the chair I realize I had actually put a pack of switch thumbsticks in the cart because I had been hoping to buy them with the leftover store credit I'd have when they all thought it was going to be a store credit exchange.

With my legs SCREAMING in pain, and barely able to walk, I limp back in on my crutches, unintelligibly sobbing and return the nearly-pilfered item, then go back to the truck. St this point I've set the phone on my driver's seat, I begin working on possibly loading the chair back on the truck when there's a loud, gunshot-like POP noise

and for a brief, horrifying moment, I think the battery has just exploded in my truck. Only to realize the heat had actually boiled a bottle of soda, and THAT was what had just exploded.

I'm determined, angry, frustrated, pissed, and petty... I don't want this fucking bomb in my possession, I know for a goddamn fact I am not supposed to have this bomb in my possession, I know that if it goes off and causes damages that best buy will be liable for it, and frankly, while the payout might be nice the inconvenience of having to deal with the damage, replacement, insurance, lawyers, and court costs and investigation are too much for me to handle. I don't want to go through it I JUST want a phone that works, the bank situation to be fixed and to NOT HAVE A FUCKING BOMB IN MY POSSISSION

I begin calling the useless as fuck call centre again, and for the next three and a half hours (totaling seven now) I continually try to explain, repeat, get transferred, sobbing, crying and getting hung up on by asshole techs. and I'm losing more and more composure as it goes on.

I FINALLY get a tech who says 'it should be store credit' I said I need the instructions on how to do that because the manager is claiming to not know how to do it. and I beg her to talk to the manager. Success. I go back in side, clinging to this tiny spider thread of hope that they'll fix it.

the manager takes my phone, asks if she can step tot he side, I say yes, and she comes back and they're both just repeating that the only solution is for me to send this bomb in the mail

I tell them it's ILLEGAL to send it, it's literally a federal crime. It CANNOT be policy to do this. None of them will budge. None will do the override, they're INSISTING I have to wait for a phone to come in, and then send a BOMB in the mail. I tell them this is probably why we've had mail trucks catch fire if they're telling people to do this it's ILLEGAL

The fucking manager says 'it's not actively leaking, it's not smoking or how it SHOULD be legal to send it in the mail' I ask for the salary person she mentioned. I go tot the mobile guy I'd been talking to six hours ago. I ask HIM to get me the salary person. This woman comes over and stands over me, arms crossed, with them angrily standing in front of me, arms crossed, like they're trying to intimidate me out of the store for trying to run a scam.

they continue to tell me there's no other option that they wouldn't spend six hours to tell me know they'd help if they could that I'm going to have to use the mail system.

I ask the salary manager who they call. She says corporate. I say that is horseshit. She gets offended and I clarify. That if their new policies is to call the call center number they gave me that is a horse shit policy and THEY are in danger of running into DANGEROUS situations like this without a way of getting out or around it. Who do I call to complain about that policy then?

"You can complain but it won't do anything to change the answer"

"Who do I call?!"

They give me no answer.

I leave

after seven hours of fighting with them. I leave, in possession of a fire hazard, my head pounding, feeling sick, having now gone through MULTIPLE break downs, melt downs, and panic attacks over the past seven hours of being on site trying to get them to do the right things.

I go home and explain to my parents what happened, I unload the tiny amount of groceries I'd picked up (twenty bucks of emergency cash) and realize how much bullshit it is what had happened. So I begin calling the local investigative news stations to see if they want to look into this.

One of the news stations is VERY interested in the fact this store told me to buy a bucket of sand to put a dangerous fire/explosive into. They're interested that the store can't be called with inbound calls, that there's apparently no area or district manager to call, that the store sent me home with an explosive and told me to send it in the mail.

I send the store to the news station. I call other stations, they're not as interested. That's fine. I'm advised to call the attorney general of commerce and leave them the story. I do.

June 21 2024 - I still need to correct the banking situation so I determine to drive to the bank, make a physical deposit with some change I have on hand to bring the account high enough to accept the cash app deposit I tried to withdraw two days before. And while I am in the area of the credit union, I'll go to a different best buy, explain what happened, and see if they give me the same answer.

The bank was thankfully open two hours later than I though, giving me plenty of time. They accepted the deposit, and I was on my way, I get to the other Best Buy.

The battery has expanded again by this point. But still no leaks, smoke, or active heat but I don't trust it, and moving it is a bad idea. I take it inside, I explain what happened and this store is absolutely horrified of my story.

I show them receipts of what happened. I explain their responses, their 'solutions' and their suggestions. This store's crew is just locked in abject horror that this happened. I explain why the other store wouldn't do the store credit and they say 'let me call my manager' and I tell them about how the other store told me there was NO area or district manager.

They look confused "Well he's kind of a roaming district manager, but... yeah... we have... I have a lot to tell Abby."

I breathe a sigh of relief. I was right, there's an area manager, and a roaming district manager... I wasn't crazy I did remember correctly how their policies worked... I tell them about the 'we call corporate' situation and how I was on the phone for 7 hours thereabouts, being hung up on.. they all continue to look horrified... at this point they hit the same dead sku issue, and I lament a possible repeat. They said they were NOT going to let me have that bomb back, we were NOT going to be sending it through the mail (one even said 'Isn't that considered like.. terrorism?!" and I agreed I was pretty sure it was. ) they said I was leaving with a phone they just had to get 'Abby' to tell them how to bypass this... and she did. In like.. five minutes.

"Is store credit okay? It'll probably have to be store credit" "YES! That's perfect, it means I can just get the phone and a new plan..." They help me find a phone they have (Moto G 5g 2024 model) and even with a new plan, I had 33% of store credit left over!

They tell me that phone is NOT leaving the sand bucket, and there's a brief funny moment of one associate holding up the sim tray (they'd used it to confirm the IMEI and confirm it was the phone under warranty) and the tech laughing and holding this tiny piece of plastic "This is probably the least problematic part of the phone"

I agree... the situation was handled, and I tell them I DID report them to the AG, and the news stations, and one of the associates goes "I'm REALLY surprised that store did that... that's the main hub store of the district, and he's on vacation right now but Roy, the district manager... that's his HOME store... I don't know what they were thinking" and I go "Roy.... Roy.... Mister Roy? Kinda tall, brown/black hair? Used to be the General manager of that store? THAT Mister Roy is the district manager?" "Yeah! He was the general manager there for a while." "Yeah about three0four years ago, I've met him! He's the one who told me about the way the protection plans work"

They all agreed he was not going to be happy, and any new friends that store makes from my reports were justified, they were glad I raised hell about the battery because it would have been a disaster if it'd gone off, and "didn't they know how dangerous these batteries are" and "why the hell did they send you home with that?" and me agreeing it was insane and wrong and just... feeling better to know I wasn't crazy in the way I knew the world was SUPPOSED to work.

So in the end - the banking situation was handled, I was able to get a new working phone for my dad, that did indeed transfer all information, contacts, images and everything over (for as evil as it's become, google synching system and account connections are INCREDIBLE for this exact situation) and I had enough money left over to get the switch thumbsticks I'd wanted to get from the other store... I still have some money left over. and they were cheaper than my local store.

the news station hasn't gotten back to me yet, but they may not until Monday at the earliest, but the situation is done at least, (largely) and the end was a good one.

and that concludes the epic saga of "Asrya and the exploding battery - and the store manager that wanted her to commit an act of domestic terrorism"

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tales-from-nocturnaliss · 1 year

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One thing about me: I like community. I like to make people feel at home and welcome, moreso if they make me feel the same.

About two years ago, the husband and I started a guild on Mobile Legends: Adventure. Gained little traction in english, so we decided to switch over to french and go recruit in those channels.

Nowadays, we're a thriving community of 50 people with very rarely an open spot. I befriended a few of these people and generally just enjoy watching them having fun (I'm guild leader, fyi).

Yesterday, I was chatting with one of our two Swiss players who asked a lot of questions about my writing. Not gonna lie: it made me feel sooooo good that she asked. I do crave attention (don't we all?). And with my plans to get some stuff ready to self-publish, I figured I'd talk about the first story I intend to release.

I narrowed the theme down to: Vampire guy struggles with trauma and ends up encountering a creature more dangerous than himself that ends up playing with his head.

Her response was, basically: that's different, usually Vampires are shown as supreme beings, so it's cool that this one'd get manipulated.

I had to take a mental double take on that. Because: I'm so used to my world that, for me, this sort of situation is like... normal. Vampires are apex predators to be sure, but there's still more dangerous things than them lurking about, and this guy happens to meet such a being (with reason). It never struck me that this story could be interesting just because it shows Vampires in a different light. I guess I can no longer tell if something is 'cool' or 'different' because, well, my nose has been stuck in Aeyuu for so long that it sometimes even affects my perception of RL normal (for example, blue is warm, red is cold, yes my brain sometimes thinks these colours are inverted irl in terms of temperature).

All this to say that it made me happy to hear her thoughts, happy in a way that goes beyond excitement. It's a wide, calm sort of happiness, mingled with hope, mingled with premature contentment that reading my stories might make other people happy (even if the themes tend to be dark and tragic XD). This is the feeling I've been hanging onto lately, to try and get past the utter anxiety and dread of self-pubbing something and it 1. getting hated 2. getting ignored.

In that line of thought, I've finally reached out to an editor (on PillowFort) and gotten the first reactions to this story yesterday. A lot of it is pertinent. It sure as hell drove my anxiety through the roof since, y'know, there was criticism in there... but I'm also glad to finally be taking yet another step forward. And I'm liking their style, be it a bit too brutal for me in places, but then they do see things that I've either overlooked, ignored, or that need a tad better wording to make the meaning/reason clear.

Additionally: today, I find I have 7 more followers on here. Which... wait, just, wow? How? And I check my notificiations and see: oh yeah, I reached out in a nice, encouraging, honestly-me way to people. Not gonna lie: much as that is my personality, I'm also still autistic, chronically tired, and some days I don't have the spoons to socialize, let alone to like people. But when the energy allows, I enjoy just going to the quiet places and leaving a friendly message. Creating a sense of: you belong with the community, too.

This said, I do have plans to 1. write a real writeblr intro sometime, 2. make feedback asks available. With my potential/likely editor not being a pro but someone like me who is self-taught and picks up instinctively on issues, I feel like this is something I want (and am allowed!) to give out in turn.

Creating community, y'know? And the world I want to see, which is a world where people are nice to each other, help each other out, but also get to have boundaries and see them respected without a 'no' turning into an argument or anything. Utopic to be sure, but what's wrong with having ideals?

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devsgames · 1 year

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Hi! I saw your post and decided to ask for an advice. I'm an aspiring level designer, but I have yet to start working on a portfolio 😅 I've finished level design course on my uni, and they taught us a lot of different things, but my question is, should I do a lot of level design for different games (like FPS, stealth, platformers) or just focus on what truly interests me? I worry that if I don't broaden my portfolio it will look bad, but then I think that designing for every single genre out there is kinda eh

Hi, thanks for the ask and congrats on finishing your course!!

First off I've answered some more generic portfolio advice in previous asks so I'd recommend checking some of those out too for wider advice on the subject of portfolios. I'll also include my obligatory plug to Anthony Panecasio's excellent "Pointers For Anyone Wishing to Build A Better Level Design Portfolio". Advice that works for most types of Portfolios, but written by an LD!

Per your question on LD specifically: I've absolutely been in your exact position as a level designer in college and I empathize - it's super stressful! A lot of this is pulled from my own experience:

The biggest thing I usually recommend is figure out what studio you want to work at and setting that as your goal, which will help to inform your portfolio work. Once you know where you want to end up it's much easier to tailor the kind of work you should be showcasing in your portfolio based on who you expect to be reading it.

When I was first building my portfolio I started wide and it just didn't work. I had CRPG mods, mobile arcade games, prototypes, narrative games, platformers, and everything else. I enjoyed making everything (and considered myself more of a general developer than an LD), and while I managed to get a co-op position at an excellent local indie studio, my portfolio was just too busy and a lot of people said my skillset seemed too broad.

Eventually I drew a line and made my goal Ubisoft, since they were a big developer who was also local to me. This made it way easier to know what to build: I designed some levels in Far Cry and focused my portfolio on showcasing them (which coincidentally the local Ubisoft branch was in the process of developing). It definitely wasn't the only thing that got me the work, but it made it way easier to design my portfolio knowing that I specifically wanted people from Ubisoft or a AAA to look at it, as opposed to a local indie studio who would have different ideas of what an ideal candidate would be. Instead I specifically made a portfolio that a AAA recruiter would look at and say "oh this person's work looks perfect for what we're doing".

It doesn't make it less stressful knowing you're potentially cutting out an avenue of interest from some recruiters from your portfolio, and it's a hard choice to make on what you want to focus on, but it's much more realistic than building a portfolio that tries to appeal to everyone. Like you said, it's hard to know how to focus a portoflio when taking a wide approach, and it's also something that will be a knock against you to potential hiring managers since it could represent you as someone who has an unfocused skillset or doesn't know what they want. So a portfolio that's too wide can mean you're shooting yourself in the foot to some degree.

This also doesn't mean "only plan to apply to one studio". Odds are good that if you make a portfolio that say, leans heavily into something like AAA 3rd person adventure level design work, it will still likely appeal broadly to many AAA studios working on similar projects. In that case, genre is more important than studios specifically. You still have many avenues to apply to, you just need to decide which types of studios you want to focus on applying to most, and which ones you're okay with potentially being less interested.

Also I think this is super worth mentioning:

I think one of the more frequent complaints I heard from peers in college was "I wish I didn't leave making my portfolio so late".

In my program we had a co-op class in our 3rd year which involved sending out applications and (since I have really bad anxiety around finances) I was determined to land a position that paid, so I started making a portfolio at the end of my 1st year. By the time I graduated I think it's safe to say that I had entirely re-designed my portfolio from the ground up maybe 4-5 times, and probably spent several hours every week modifying, adding and removing things from it. It's a constant, ongoing process and a big pain in the butt, but completely worthwhile.

No portfolio is perfect but getting it to a point where it's actually representative of your work, usable from a UX perspective for recruiters, and makes you seem like someone who has their stuff in order is really really time consuming. Portfolios can take a LOT of work and it's a time sink I think most people frankly don't see coming.

Not trying to put the Fear of God in you or anything, but the more time you give yourself to really start that process of chipping away at it the stronger it's going to be (and the less stressed you'll be about it on the whole!). You'll be thanking yourself the sooner you start it! :)

Anyway yeah, focus on establishing your goal and a studio to target and build from there, and give yourself as much time to work on it as you can.

Good luck!

#gamedev #game development #game dev #gamedevelopment #game industry #game developers #game design #level design #advice #asks

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dailycharacteroption · 1 year

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Pop Culture Builds 12: The Hunter (Bloodborne)

Ah yes, Bloodborne, one of many difficult “Soulsborne”-style games in which the horrors you encounter are brutally powerful and quick, and only with great care and skill can they be overcome… but you will still die a lot, and each death is canon thanks to some weird mystical circumstance that causes you to come back.

Bloodborne in particular is notable for being the “werewolf” one until suddenly it’s the eldritch horror one, but we’ll leave it at that to preserve the mystique for those who haven’t played it or watched it be played yet.

The player character, known as The Hunter is of variable origin, though the one thing that seems to remain true is that they came to the cursed city of Yharnam in search of the Paleblood, which is not adequately explained what that is. However, they seek it to “Transcend the Hunt”. Which is also unclear, though theories range from ending the nightmare over the city to transcending their humanity in some way.

Either way, the Hunter wields a firearm and powerful melee weapons that are able to switch between modes based on what the situation requires, often a smaller, more agile mode and a heavier one designed to deal heavy damage to massive, dangerous foes.

Of course, the Hunter is not limited to these weapons, and can collect many strange eldritch and magical items throughout their travels.

For the purposes of this build, we’ll be mostly ignoring the origins and focus on a build revolving around the blunderbuss and saw cleaver, as that weapon combination is what is used in most of the game’s promotional materials.

Ostensibly, the hunter is human, and you can certainly play them as such. However, after consuming so much tainted blood they are occasionally able to transform into a more feral state. So perhaps beastkin (either standard or werewolf-kin)? It’s really up to you.

For the class, it took me a bit to consider, but I think the hunter works best as a slayer with no archetype. They are, after all, skilled at reading monstrous foes to better avoid their attacks and strike for their weaknesses, after all. And they are quite adept at finding all sorts of horrors lurking here and there.

As far as talents go, Blood Reader is good for getting an idea of how much hp a foe has left, Bleeding Attack (via rogue talent) is perfect for racking up damage, Firearm Training (via rogue talent) for proficiency with your gun, as is Combat Training. Meanwhile, advanced talents that prove useful to the build include Assassinate, Deadly Sneak, Evasion, Hunter’s Surprise, and Swallow’s Reversal.

In terms of feats, Improved Critical is useful, but what is truly critical to the build is the Improved Feint line, bolstering their ability to create openings in their foes’s defenses to get that sneak damage off. Definitely also pick up Dodge and Mobility. Also consider taking Two-Weapon fighting if you want to fight with gun and blade together.

The trickiest thing with this build was figuring out how to do the weapons and other equipment, but I think I’ve come up with an elegant solution. The hunter blunderbuss sadly cannot be a true blunderbuss due to it being one-handed, but dragon pistol is a decent replacement, particularly when supported with enchantments. The saw cleaver was more difficult, but I settled on the weapon having a unique enchantment similar to a lesser form of the transformative ability, able to shift between two forms. The first I based on a drow razor, though any light or one-handed weapon with a larger than normal crit range is good, preferably with a bane enchantments against humanoids (shapechanger) or monstrous humanoids. Meanwhile, the alternate form I based on a dwarven waraxe, though any weapon with a big damage dice and crit multiplier is good, and works best loaded with the keen enchantment and a generally high bonus.

Beyond this and their armors (which favor lighter garb to maintain mobility), the Hunter collects a lot of magical and mundane items in their travels to harm foes, protect themselves from harm, and the like. As such, take every opportunity to pick up weird wondrous items they can pull out in various situations, be they directly emulate any of their canonical “Hunter’s Tools” or not.

But perhaps you want to emulate another one of the hunter weapons? Certainly the Hunter Pistol can easily just be your choice of pistol, but the trick weapons remain, well, tricky. The threaded cane would probably be a mace and whip sword or scorpion whip, for example, whereas the kirkhammer would be a silver longsword that can turn into an earth breaker, and so on.

Beyond that, perhaps slayer doesn’t suit you? You can easily play an inquisitor or occultist instead, using the spells and magical abilities of those classes as a reflavored stand-in for Hunter’s Tools.

With their powerful shapeshifting weapons, many players will instantly recognize the inspiration for this build, but I think it has plenty of merit beyond that.

#pathfinder #pop culture #pop culture builds #pop culture characters #The Hunter #Bloodborne #slayer

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danganronpasurvivoraskblog · 1 year

Text

Death Approaches.

[WARNING: This chapter contains graphic depictions and illustrations of gore and violence.]

Alright, we’re here. What’s going on?

*Kyoko and a fair few other members of the Foundation gather at the comms point, where Miu is currently fiddling with Rantaro’s laptop.

Where’s Rantaro?

Hell if I know. He left camp last night to go on what he called a “private mission.” He left me in charge of the comm point, and told me how to use it while he’s gone.

But something’s happening, and I needed to show you.

*Miu shows the screen. A line of code appears on it, a prominent part that reads [INCOMING MESSAGE]

Looks like someone’s calling us.

Well, why don’t you answer? Kaede might have more info for us, right?

Yeah...that’s the problem.

Huh?

The contact code of this transmission...It’s not the same as before.

Which means...what?

Which means...this ISN’T Kaede.

Or in the very least, it’s not coming from Kaede’s phone. You know, the one device we thought worked in terms of contacting us from inside?

...

Well, what do we do then? Ignore it?

What if this IS Kaede, and Sora’s been compromised somehow? We can’t just turn it down.

Well, we don’t know that! I-It could be a Zetsubou trap for all we know!

That’s true...But that’s not an excuse to just ignore it.

Iruma, answer the transmission.

...

*Miu nods and types something into the computer, loading up the screen.

Future Foundation to Contact: 2511312015. This is Miu Iruma, Branch 6.

Wow...Miu is...surprisingly more professional than I gave her credit for.

I know, right?

*The screen loads and a figure appears on the other side.

Good, glad to make contact. This is AI program, Yamato Kisaragi.

YAMATO!?

Holy shit, it’s actually you!?

Wait...Rei!? Wow, I barely even recognized you! Look look so old!

Uh! Sorry! OLDER, not Old. You’re still pretty young, just...older than I remember...

Dodged a bullet there, huh?

Shut up, both of you.

Who’s this guy?

THIS is the AI we suspected was blocking all other communications into the lab. He’s an Alter Ego of the late Yamato Kisaragi, the late Ultimate Inventor.

Inventor...? But...That’s ME!

You’re not the ONLY Ultimate Inventor Miu...

So you’re the man who the Kisaragi Foundation was named after?

Yes...Originally, his Alter Ego rescued Rei, Tsurugi and Teruya from the Kibuogamine Killing Game, then his AI shut down when it got out of range.

Reirei studied programming and tried to rebuild it as a common CPU program for the Foundation, similar to how Chihiro Fujisaki’s Alter Ego is for yours...However, the base CPU disappeared at the same time Dr Ando did.

So Zetsubou kidnapped the AI on top of the doctor...

I’m glad I could make contact. There’s two things I would like to say.

First of all, I’d like to apologize. It was I who was blocking all previous communications and hacking attempts on the lab mainframe. I had no way of knowing whether you were allies or enemies, and was just following the directives Dr Ando gave me...

But then I was found by another AI, and was told the truth...That Dr Ando was brainwashed and I was unwillingly working for the enemies.

Another AI? This wouldn’t happen to be Sora, would it?

Yes, it would! Ah, you must be Yoruko, her wife! She’s told me about you.

Y-Yeah, that would be me...

Well...apology accepted Kisaragi. Without knowing your circumstances, I’m assuming you had your reasons for it. As long as you’re with us now.

Yes, I’ve already had the pleasure of meeting Kaede and Sora, as well as their little friend. Now I’m helping them.

...What “little friend?”

Uh...Oh...Never mind!

The other thing I need you to know is this. Mobilize whatever forces you have, as well as many medical practitioners as you can handle at once. I’m going to open the lab’s doors from in here!

You can do that!?

I can now. I just needed to get into the system, which Kaede helped me with. I’ll be opening the doors in a few minutes...Just get people ready to come in and storm the lab.

Got it. We’re on our way!

Thank you! Signing off!

*Yamato disconnects.

Well! Looks like Kaede didn’t need our help after all! She found a way out all on her own.

But...how? There’s no way she or Sora would even know about the AI system, or how the lab works, or how getting Kisaragi on their side would help them get out.

It doesn’t matter. Even if she didn’t need our help before, she does now.

How do you figure?

Did you not hear Kisaragi? He said we needed as many medical practitioners on hand as possible.

That means even if she’s alive, Akamatsu’s in a rough spot. She needs help.

Byakuya’s right. Even if she survived, there’s no way she got out without a few cuts and bruises. She may need help, and badly.

Alright. Let’s get to the first door first of all. There should be soldiers posted there already.

*The group grabs their stuff and all head towards the first door.

...

Kuripa? Munakata?

*Both Kuripa and Munakata stand with their backs turned to the rest of the group, unmoving, and expressionless, save for a look of despair and rage.

What’s gotten into you two?

Yeah, did something hap-

...hah...

...!

!!!!???

...No...!

What the fuck...!?

Ah....AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!

I...I think I’m gonna be sick!

What...the...hell...!?

I...Is this real...?

No way...No fucking way!

How...!? How in the hell...!?

...!

*As the Foundation steps out into the clearing, they see firsthand what it truly is that leaves the two in such a trance...

*Every single soldier positioned outside the door...is dead...Their bodies mounted, mutilated, beheaded, and desecrated in the worst ways anyone could imagine. Kyoko is the first to step forward.

What happened!?

I’ll tell you this much...I had nothing to do with it.

Kurafto and I arrived here together...and came across this carnage.

But...how...!? Who could have done this!?

Your guess is as good as mine. Whoever it was, they completely slipped under the radar. We’ve already sent what few men remain here to the other door and the hatch to check for any culprits, including Gokuhara and Chabashira.

I was wondering where Gonta and Tenko were...Glad they’re ok.

But who could do something like this!? Zetsubou!?

It has to be. No one else would have a reason for such carnage!

But how come they wiped out this squadron, and left the rest? And where are they now?

...

*Setsuka steps forward, reaching down and checking the bodies.

Setsuka, what are you doing?

...Shh...Let me look...

*She starts to look around, her eye glowing underneath her hair. After a few minutes of examination, she approaches the door, and stands upright.

...Oh no...

“Oh no,” what!? Spill, woman!

*She turns around and glares at the group.

There’s a blood trail...and it leads towards the door...

Not only that...but there’s traces of blood within the hatch.

Whoever did this...They’re inside the lab, with Kaede and Sora!

!!!??

How!? I thought the doors were locked tight until now, and Kisaragi hasn’t even opened them yet!? How did they get in!

Assuming this is a member of Zetsubou we’re dealing with, Shirogane might have manually opened the door for them, then closed it again before anyone else could get inside!

It’s not like any of these CORPSES are gonna follow whoever did this.

But...who could be capable of such a thing? Zetsubou is comprised of total psycho’s sure, but which one would require this level of manslaughter!?

...I can think of one...

[Meanwhile...Inside the lab...]

*drip* *drip* *drip*

*Fresh blood gently drips from the axe and knife used to butcher the FF soldiers.

♪...Total...Slaughter... ♪

♪ Total slaughter... ♪

♪ I won’t leave...a single girl...alive... ♪

♪La Dee Da Dee Die! Genocide... ♪

♪ La Dee Da Dee Dud...An Ocean of Blood... ♪

*The murderer scratches the blade of her axe against the steel walls of the lab, as she rounds the corner...

♪ Let’s begin...the killing time...! ♪

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unnecessary-feelings · 1 year

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Tell me abt the oc u lovingly refer to as "weird arson motherfucker" pls

HI sorry i forgot to answer this, thank you for asking abt her!!! i’m still in the process of fleshing everything out so things might change but she’s my ace attorney OC! i’m putting everything under a read more because this post ended up being longer than i meant it to be and i don’t want this to be a pain to scroll through for anyone on mobile who doesn’t wanna read me rambling about blorbo from my brain, i’m sorry if this is hard to read i have trouble putting my thoughts into words for other people to read hdjdbfbdn, also spoilers for cases 4-1, 6-1, 6-3, and 6-5

i made her because i started wondering what would happen if dhurke and amara had a daughter older than rayfa that was in line to become queen before the khura’in royal residence fire and then i accidentally got carried away with her story lmao

her name is kaba’anyi padma khura’in (i was thankfully able to figure out a name for her after i created her tag, it means something along the lines of “daughter of the sun” because sun motif go brrr. ALSO i got to that name because nyi means sun in tibetan and khura’in is in the himalayas so i figured that link made sense. i’m very proud of her name because i struggle with naming characters so being able to make up a name for a character from a country that doesn’t exist is very big for me), or anyi for short, and she uses she/her pronouns. she was born in 1998 (for the sake of timeline consistency in this version of AA dhurke and amara are around 5 years older than they are in canon because after i had already chosen a birth year for her i realized that dhurke and amara would have been too young at that point in time shdnrhdh) and i played around with the idea of her committing a couple of crimes as a member of the defiant dragons, set a couple of government buildings on fire to get back at whoever tried to kill her and amara (she didn’t know it was ga’ran at the time but since they would have had to have access to the royal palace she knew they would have to have been high ranking and probably still were in that position) which is how i got her tag name but now i’m not sure if i wanna keep that part in or not lmao, now that i have a probably-concrete name for her i might move everything in her tag over to a new one, probably should do that sooner rather than later before the tag has too many posts

anyways, no matter if it was arson-related or simply because y’know, she was the daughter of the man who the country believed had murdered the previous queen, she was arrested, but she broke out and managed to fake her death to avoid being looked for (that part may be subject to change if i can’t figure out how exactly that happened, while i have a good grasp on the rest of her story there’s a gap between the royal palace fire and her moving to the US that is just kind of a loose collection of things i thought would be interesting for now hjsjdjsjfh)

so after that, she moved to the US when she was probably around 21 (still working on a concrete timeline but that’s somewhere around the right age) because of the rebellion. she changed her name to guinevere amos (i chose guinevere because the rest of the WAA except for trucy has mythology themed names so i figured arthurian legend would fit into that even though i’ve gotten all of my knowledge of arthurian legend from the mechanisms lmao, and i just chose amos because it was the first name of the main character of the book i was reading at the time and i’m pretty sure amos is also a last name so i went with it) and ended up joining gavin & co law offices which turned into a very awkward sibling reunion with apollo, i think she would have acted as a second co counsel alongside gavin (pretty sure that happened once in dd so i’m choosing to believe that double co counsels are a normal thing in the aa legal system) during 4-1 and helped apollo and phoenix get kristoph arrested, then she joins the WAA alongside apollo (although i think she would have joined a little bit earlier than apollo as she was quicker to accept phoenix’s invite at the end of 4-1) and then she helps the WAA with the rest of AA4 as well as AA5

as for AA6, anyi decides to go with phoenix to khura’in because it’s been nearly a decade since she was last in contact with her family and the rest of the rebels and she felt it was time to go back even if only for a couple of weeks, since she was now going under a different name she decided that it was safe to go back if she could keep her head low and avoid getting into trouble, obviously that didn’t happen, which marked the beginning of Guinevere Amos AKA Kaba’anyi Padma Khura’in’s No Good Very Bad Vacation, canon shenanigans ensue, you get the idea, when i get around to replaying the AJ trilogy (i’m intending on replaying it when it comes out on the switch but i might end up doing it before then as well) i’m thinking abt doing a liveblog thing (is it still liveblogging if you’ve already played the game in question?) where i also explain how anyi would interact with the events of the games if that makes any sense

after the events of 6-5. she stays behind in khura’in with apollo, and works with him at justice & co law offices, my original thoughts were that she takes back the role of royal priestess alongside being a lawyer and then quits when she becomes queen instead of rayfa but it could also be that she stays a lawyer and rayfa becomes queen like in canon, either way i’d imagine it could be a source of conflict between the two, although i think they would be able to work it out, unlike amara and ga’ran

one last thing, i’m currently working on some art for her and i am so excited to post it here because she is literally GORGEOUS i’m so proud of her design <33

i think that’s everything! i hope this made sense lmao

also is it normal to be nervous talking about your ocs to other people? it feels so weird trying to explain the things that come out of my brain like this

#weird arson motherfucker tag #sorry if anyone noticed the unedited version i was having trouble figuring out how to use the read more

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