#if we get enough alternate good bits and lore in the notes I’ll run another one

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

Dream SMP Recap (January 30/2021) - Bad's Visit, Ranboo’s Confrontation

The day has come. It’s time to visit Pandora’s Vault again.

The first visitor after Tommy is Badboyhalo, whose visit with Dream leaves him a bit uneasy, conflicted about how he feels about the living conditions of Dream’s cell. 

The second was Ranboo, though his visit wasn’t exactly what it seemed at first...

---

Here is the link to Badboyhalo’s VOD

(I’ve been a lot more specific with the details of what happened in this stream since the VOD is unlisted, but I figured I’d also just link the VOD here as well)

This post is pretty long, so I’ve only recapped the two very lore-heavy streams today to keep it from being even longer.

---

Also note (CW/TW):  Today’s streams had some heavy themes, including derealization. 

---

- Badboyhalo goes to visit Dream at the prison.

- Awesam asks him questions. This will be the first time that Bad has visited Dream at all. He resides at the Mansion. He hesitates a little at the question of whether Dream deserves to be locked up, saying an uncertain “yeeeeesss?”

His prior relationship with Dream is that they were friends. Were friends before he chose to destroy L’manburg. Maybe not 100% not friends, but...neutral.

- Sam directs him to the lectern with the waiver. Bad signs it. He places his valuables in the locker room.

- They start heading through the security measures of the prison. They make it to the lava wall and wait for it to drain. Bad is nervous.

- He turns to face Dream. Dream says he hasn’t had a visitor in a while.

- Dream starts spinning the clock.

Dream: “I used to write, but I...burnt a lot of my books.”

Bad checks the chest and sure enough, many of the books are missing.

Dream would try to get out, so Sam disallowed visitors for a few days.

Bad: “I bet you have a lot of time to think about what you did.”

Dream: “Yeah, I do...It’s a...think and think and think.”

- Dream asks Bad about how George and Sapnap are doing. He says they haven’t visited him...

Bad says he’s sure that George and Sapnap miss him.

Bad: “You’re telling me they haven’t come by at all?”

Dream goes over and starts spinning the clock again.

- Dream asks Bad about what’s been happening outside. Bad tells Dream about how Tommy is starting a hotel. 

Bad: “I’m sure a lot of people miss you!”

- There’s still a giant Crater where L’manburg used to be. Nobody’s tried to clean it up. 

- Bad also mentions the Egg. Dream remembers Bad showing him the Egg a while back. Bad says that it’s spreading Vines across the server.

Dream: “That’s interesting...”

- Bad asks if Dream’s named the clock yet. Dream says he has, but he doesn’t want to say what...

- Dream writes up a thank-you book to Bad for visiting him. Bad wouldn’t be able to take it with him on the way out, so he puts it in the chest.

- Bad asks how long his sentence is. Dream says forever. 

- Dream says he likes to watch the clock, and when it hits halfway...he’s happy. They watch the clock hit halfway. That was awesome.

- Dream asks Bad how long he’s been in there. Bad says...a couple weeks, he thinks? A week? Two weeks?

- Bad asks who else has visited. Dream says Tommy. The only one until Bad. Bad is shocked that no one else has visited, but Dream explains that there are limited visiting hours, and people have to schedule. He’s sure they will.

- Dream says he sometimes plays a prank on Sam by burning the clock so that he brings a new one, so that he can see Sam and say hi.

Dream: "He comes over." 

Bad: "I mean, you don’t get in trouble for doing that, do you?" 

Dream: "...Not yet...Sometimes he'll give me less potatoes, but--" 

 Bad: "Oh, so he starves you." 

Dream: "...No, I’m not saying -- I dunno, I wouldn’t say I’m starving."

Bad: “Do you have three square meals a day?”

Dream: “...”

Dream: “I have potatoes!”

Bad: “Yeah, potatoes are good!”

...

Dream: “He’ll do it later.” (chuckling) “Later he’ll come and he’ll say ‘why did you do it again?’ And then he’ll look at me and say ‘don’t be so dumb, Dream!’ And I’ll laugh at him, and I’ll say ‘oooooh, I -- I got you though!’”

- Dream tosses the clock into the lava and laughs. 

- Dream says Sam is making a system soon so that he can just drop the potatoes down so that he doesn’t have to visit Dream to give them. Bad doesn’t like the idea of this and says Dream should encourage Sam to continue visiting Dream in person.

- Dream sniffs a bit, but tells Bad he’s happy there.

- Bad will become a guard soon, and says he might be able to suggest giving Dream new things. He suggests a plant. Dream likes that idea. 

- Bad asks who Dream wants to visit. Dream says he wants George and Sapnap to visit him. Bad says he’ll go and talk to them about it. They probably already want to come and see him! Maybe they just need a little reminder.

Bad: “Yeah, and if you keep up -- I assume you’ve been maintaining good behavior, right?”

Dream: “...”

Dream: “...Yeah.”

Bad: “Okay, ‘cause like you gotta maintain good behavior, ‘cause if you. maintain good behavior --”

- Dream suddenly runs into the lava. Bad is freaked out, but Dream says he swims there sometimes. That’s just how it works. It’s a way to keep entertained.

Sometimes he likes to touch the lava and burn for some time, only extinguishing himself at the last second. He laughs a bit. Bad asks if this is another way to prank Sam? Dream just keeps laughing.

- Dream says Bad’s time is probably up. 

- Dream asks Bad if he knows how long each block would take to break? He says he’s sat for twenty minutes once trying to break the blocks. 

He helped design it, though, and knows that there’s an observer behind the blocks that will teleport the guards. Maybe if he wants to see Bad sometime, he can break it and teleport him over.

- Bad says maybe he’ll visit soon again, but with George and Sapnap. Dream says there’s only one visitor allowed at a time.

- Bad says his goodbye and exits the cell.

- Sam asks how his visit was. Bad says it was good, but Dream needs a new clock. Sam is exasperated -- this was the fourth/fifth (hard to hear) time already -- and says he might not get a new one this time...

He’ll give him a new clock, but Dream’s on thin ice.

- Bad tells Sam he needs a clock! Sam asks why he would need one. 

- Sam asks Bad what Dream said. Bad said they just talked about stuff, and that Dream jumped into the lava. Sam says he does that a lot, that “usually he just wants attention.”

- Bad exits the prison, thanking Sam. Sam says goodbye.

- Bad says he doesn’t know how he feels. It’s a lot to take in. On the one hand, Dream did plenty to land himself in the prison, but on the other hand, the conditions of the prison are horrible. 

- Bad says there’s no way he could ever be broken out, and he doesn’t even deserve to get broken out anyway. He was going to kidnap Skeppy! 

But at the same time, a part of Bad can’t help but feel a bit sorry. 

It’s not too much to feel a bit sympathetic about the conditions, and hope that they can be improved a tiny bit. Maybe giving him a plant! Or a pet!

- Bad plans to become a guard to incentivize better conditions.

- Bad thinks Dream deserves to be in there, and he doesn’t want to free him, just provide better conditions. He was spinning a clock just for entertainment! 

Even prisoners deserve good living conditions. 

(To paraphrase) He totally deserves to be in there! But the conditions are awful. There’s no reason why being there needs to be torture. And having more friends coming to visit him is good, providing a positive influence. 

- Bad was a little horrified. He didn’t know what to say when Dream started spinning the clock. He named the clock! Pretty soon he’ll be counting up the bricks in his cell and naming them, too. 

He thinks a pet, a potted plant, something like that would be a good start. Something for Dream to take care of.

- Bad was a little unnerved about how Sam was acting in the prison, like he didn’t care or was apathetic. 

- Dream belongs in the prison, but there’s a difference between torture and just locking someone up. Dream is in there because he’s a danger to others, but his stay there doesn’t have to be torture. 

What else could they get him?

Maybe...a jukebox and some music discs? Bad has music discs he could gift him. Maybe music can lift his spirits.

Or perhaps some paintings to lift the spirit of the room.

- Bad examines the growth of the Vines. He’s noticed that the Vines aren’t growing past the border of the Holy Land. 

- Bad speaks with Quackity. He asks about Dream being in prison -- question, would it be too much to ask about improving the living conditions in the prison?

Quackity says maybe they could “improve his living conditions” by building another wall or bullying him. 

- Bad says Quackity should go and visit him. Quackity is planning to. Maybe then they can discuss it. 

Quackity says that now he’s thinking about it...they do have quite a bit of leverage. Maybe he could reconsider it...a plan to provide him with more comfortable living, but any comfortable living comes with a price...people would owe him.

Bad doesn’t like that idea. It sounds manipulative. 

Quackity: “At what point has Dream given you anything? At all? Has he ever helped you? Exactly. So listen to me, okay? What we need to do is get something out of comfortable living. I’m sure he’d love comfortable living, Bad. So that is why we need to go to him and strike him a deal...”

Bad: “What can he give us? He’s imprisoned.”

Quackity: “I know exactly what he can give me.”

- Quackity leaves the call. 

- Bad wasn’t sure if he should’ve told Dream about the Eggpire so he didn’t, because he was worried it would make Dream more sad.

--- From here on, all of this takes place on an alternate server ---

- Ranboo starts off in the panic room, looking at his sign. Today’s the day.

“After today? He’s gonna know who I am. He’s gonna know exactly who I am.”

- Ranboo starts heading over. The construction sign at the hotel site is completely blacked out.

“Dream’s not the one in danger here...so I could get rid of him if I wanted to...I could get rid of him if I wanted to. But then other people couldn’t come back...No, I couldn’t do that.”

- Ranboo goes in through the portal. He comes out into the Nether in an area not within the prison’s Nether chamber. Ranboo comes through and gets teleported to Sam for a moment.

- Sam asks him the questions. Ranboo says this is the first time he’s visited and Sam accepts his answer with no hesitation. He’s talking with a very cheerful tone of voice.

- Ranboo tells him he lives near Techno and Phil, and that he thinks Dream definitely deserves to be locked up. With regards to prior relations, he actually hasn’t spoken to Dream before...

- Ranboo needs the Memory Book with him. He gives it to Sam to inspect. Sam says he can allow it in, but Sam will have to transport it for him.

- As they go through, Sam notices that Ranboo is nervous and reassures him that everything’s fine. He is also always holding a clock in his offhand.

- Ranboo signs the waivers, the first as “Ranboo” and the second with “Ranboo2.”

- They make it to the lava wall and Sam gives Ranboo his Memory Book.

- Dream’s surprised Ranboo didn’t come sooner. They’re best friends, right? Ranboo says they’ve barely spoken. Dream says he’s probably talked to Ranboo more than anyone else on the entire server!

- Dream asks why Ranboo’s acting different? He then realizes. But he’s still glad to see Ranboo. He’s been a good helping hand, after all.

“You did do those things. After Dream told you to do them.”

- Ranboo points out the clock. Dream says he doesn’t really like it.

- Dream asks if Ranboo would like to see what he’s been writing, and hands him a book labelled

Do not read.

- Ranboo looks through the chest. Not only is the chest completely filled with books that weren’t there earlier, but every single one of them is labelled “Do not read.” They are all unsigned and unfinished, and there are no anvils in Dream’s cell.

Every single one of them is the same, 17 pages long unlike the 4-page book in Ranboo’s hand. 

“I know what I went through because I’m you!”

“Look, you’ve been helping Dream! The only reason you haven’t been talking to me recently is because you can’t picture what he sounds like...he would tell you thinks to do, you were like his little...servant!”

- Ranboo asks how it’s possible that he could help Dream so much and not remember any of it. 

“You do! You do because I’m you.”

 “I’m...I’m not even real.”

Dream disappears. The screen goes black. The white smile appears without the crown. The crown flashes in code:

“Not free yet.”

---

Upcoming Events:

- The next Tales From the SMP episode

- Tommy’s next visit with Dream

- Bad wants to visit Dream again in the future

- Tubbo’s possible visit with Dream

- Quackity’s possible visit with Dream

- Puffy’s visit with Dream

- Ponk’s visit with Dream

- Punz’s visit with Dream

- Jack Manifold’s visit with Dream

- The Eggpire possibly speaking with Technoblade

[andmaybegayer]

psycholonials, huh?

man this is a good story anyway here's a way too long self-indulgent note-to-self that I didn't want to do on my typewriter.

I haven't gone and checked if there's more to it yet, I don't think there will be and I'm pretty happy with the way this has concluded so I can do a Thoughts On Post.

First up I never understand people who keep trying to dunk on Hussie. Nothing you can do to him is worse than what he has done to himself, which is to say being popular on the internet.

(Oh huh there's something in the Load Save menu, brb)

Oh okay that changes that segment a bit. There's a postscript. I'll put spoilers and whatever under a cut for the most part.

This game ping-pongs very rapidly between the very big and the very small, very elegantly and effectively. I think a lot of people don't give Hussie credit for writing a story that managed to hold an audience as large as it did for as long as it did, Homestuck is very easy to dismiss as dumb fandom bullshit, but it's an extremely earnest piece of work if you think about the author instead of the characters.

I mentioned that I expected the "locked choices" thing to be a bait-and-switch, which of course panned out. Nothing presented that obviously in a story like this would ever be straightforward. I hadn't hit on the "Z is the narrator" bit but I wasn't really staying on top of game lore for this one.

The final arc touches a lot of places that I think about frequently, hopefully because everyone thinks about them a lot and not because I have some kind of Hussie brainworm.

There's a brief segment about countries and what it means to Be From One and why and how people Go To Another One and generally about what you are responsible for, which sort of aligns with a thing I wrote a while ago after I learned about the Leningrad Seed Potatoes. I think about this a lot! Especially since it seems ever more inevitable that if I want to use my abilities to their fullest I'll have to go away. There's no silicon foundries around here.

The other discussion goes all over, from large-scale geopolitics down to very intimate personal problems. I appreciate that, stories that try to stay at grand scale 100% of the time lose a lot of the value you can get by bringing the side effects of the grand scale down to human size.

It's absolutely clear that some of this is autobiographical. "Started an extremely large community that has an outsized influence on all sorts of things that eventually causes serious problems for you and those around you" I wonder what that could be about. Hussie is basically the joker of fandom after 20+ years of doing this and we really do live in a society.

There's the whole bit about how the whole situation basically vanishes when you log off, which, yeah. Trump's twitter got deleted and I think I maybe see his name once a week these days, rather than the four times a day I heard people say it out loud just last year. Many Big Things are only Big Things when you're embedded in the community, and I always think about this when I see a twitter trend with "12 million people posting about this!!!!!!!" which is an utterly trivial number of people in a world of eight billion. Black Lives Matters is easily one of the biggest things on Social Media at the moment and they just had a huge win but according to my twitter feed there's 1.1 million tweets about that cop and that's... nothing. A fraction of a fraction. The Biggest Twitter Account has like 100 million followers. A nothingburger, one in a hundred people.

And a pretty good ending. I had a bit here but I saw the epilogue which leads well into...

The epilogue is well timed and well placed: like if undertale had more subtlety. It says very little that's new, but if you maybe didn't catch something or didn't think it was emphasized enough, here it is. There's no doubt someone out there who did what I almost did, just quit the game and delete it without even trying to see if there was an alternate path. I had already assumed there wasn't, it just wouldn't fit with the story. Deleting the save files is a good touch, and unlike some other games, I trust that there's nothing hidden in a replay that this is egging you to try. Psycholonials was a very honest game for the rest of its run. I'm not about to distrust what it says now.

I wrote another hideously unfocused emotionpost a while ago about Evangelion and The Importance Of Trusting Yourself To Be Valid, which is most of what I took away from Evangelion at the time, and I stand by a lot of that. This aligns in some ways, in that the importance of being recognized by others can't be the only thing you base yourself around, but it can help.

Like, Toby Fox was able to make Undertale the way it was because he had a sound understanding of Fandom from another 20 years of Being Online, of which like 10 of them were with Homestuck. Hussie has seen a lot of shit happen with his work. I think this is partially as /clear/ as it is because ambiguity (PEACHY) is the route to madness when dealing with audiences this big.

I don't know what happens next for Hussie, from here. It sounds almost like an announcement of retirement. I don't really care, but I will say that I unironically enjoyed it while it lasted.

[thewakingcloak]

On Creative Burnout and How to Get Stuff Done Without It

Over the past week or two I’ve had a bunch of conversations with people who were burned out and having a hard time. And this is a bit lengthy, but it goes out to you guys.

I hit some pretty nasty burnout in early 2018. I couldn't create anything for months. Even just *thinking* about making something made me mentally cringe away. I'd not only used up all my fuel, but I was also up against some tough tasks that I didn't know how to tackle. AND I was stressed and frustrated because I didn't think anyone was noticing The Waking Cloak. I felt like I wouldn't be able to make it "good enough" even for what I wanted it to be. I felt guilty because I thought I was letting people down who were following along with the project... and I wasn't delivering.

Sound familiar? Let's talk.

I got past the burnout and am working in a much healthier way now, a year later. But this took a shift in how I thought about working on creative projects. I used to be constantly working on The Waking Cloak because I thought that’s what it was going to take to finish it. I couldn’t afford to stop, because what if I never picked it back up again? Now I see things differently.

Part of this came from the general internet, part of it came from years of experience writing and critiquing (and now, y’know, actually applying it to game development), and part of it came from learning project management at work.

0. Before we start...

You can do this.

You’re not alone.

If you’re burned out, it gets better.

I’m around to talk if you need it.

1. The Creative Cycle AKA PLEASE REST OR YOU'LL HAVE A BAD TIME

This is a principle I learned from @emcheeseman on Twitter with this diagram:

To quote her: “Creators feel pressure to spend every second creating, but CREATIVITY IS A CYCLE between active productivity and dormant recovery.”

So the two sides of creativity: Action and Recovery. Too much Action, you get burnout. Too much Recovery and... you’re not doing anything. These two absolutely have to be kept in balance. If you're burned out, you need to spend more time recovering. If you're procrastinating, you need to spend time building up the momentum and taking action.

(Note: it’s important also learn to recognize the difference between the two versions of procrastination: some can come from burnout, in which case you need to recover, not work more.)

This is a cycle that should take place every day. When you're in balance, you'll be working on something creatively every day, but you'll also be resting. If you neglect either, you'll be thrown off balance and have to take remedial action--especially in the case of burnout.

This is because the creative mind is like a muscle. Muscles gain strength essentially by being torn and reknit together stronger. If you continuously work out the same muscles without giving them a chance to knit back together, you won't get stronger. This is why strength workouts have alternating days between muscle groups.

You know all those articles and studies coming out about how crunch is bad? All those big name game studios that required crunch and burned out all their developers? Guess what, the same principle applies to your personal creative work too. Crunch is bad. Somewhat counter-intuitively, just doing "more work" will actually make you less productive, while taking time to recover every day makes you significantly more productive. So don’t make yourself crunch. Not even if you’re enjoying what you’re working on.

I'll talk about Action later, but how about Recovery? Well, congratulations, I have good news! Having fun is now part of your creative process. Do something passive you enjoy. Play video games. Read a book, watch a TV show or movie. Go outside for a walk. Take things in. Don't feel guilty: this is vital for your creativity. What if you always exhaled without inhaling? Would you feel guilty for breathing in oxygen?

If you are currently burned out, you need to spend a lot of extra time recovering. The more you’re burned out, the more time it’ll take. That’s the part that sucks, but trust me on this. It will get better. You'll be able to tell after time. This can be days or weeks or longer, but you need to take it until both of these conditions are satisfied:

You no longer feel yourself mentally cringing away from creating something.

The idea of not creating something is unbearable

2. Motivation: creating for yourself, not to satisfy others' expectations

It's super important to come at creative projects with the right motivation. Even if you have a pretty decent Action/Recovery balance, if you're trying to please others, if you're often jealous of others, if you're comparing your work often, you will still get burned out. Creating with these as your motivation is a bit like trying to drive on fumes. It’s not sustainable, and you will run out of gas.

This is incredibly important but difficult to put into practice. How do you shift your motivations?

Some principles:

Creating for its own sake is valuable.

Other people are not competition. They are friends.

Other creative projects are not competition either--similar projects can, and should, and do exist in harmony. You can learn from one another.

If you work primarily from a standpoint of pleasing others, you are going to be very easy to disappoint.

Make what you want to make, for yourself, for your tastes particularly if this is your hobby.

The “validation machine” is tricky. At first, you’d be over the moon to have a hundred followers and maybe ten likes. Then a thousand followers and fifty likes. And on and on, all the way up--your expectations of validation will scale up. Don’t expect to keep getting high off those likes and retweets/reblogs. Make an effort to value every one of the people who follows you, even if it’s only five people.

All games are held together by duct tape and prayers. You're not alone!

Some of these are easier said than done. Just keep an eye out for these thoughts/emotions in yourself. If you notice them, take a moment, take a few deep breaths, and remind yourself what it's all about. Do you feel yourself getting jealous? Don't take it out on yourself (or anyone else). Try encouraging that person you're jealous of instead. Tell them what they're doing well, and not in the mopey "I wish I could do this as well as you" way. Instead, the "This [specific thing] is so good! Keep it up!" way. It's hard for jealousy to exist in the same place as encouragement, even if it takes a little bit to ebb.

Another suggestion is to write down the things that excite you about creating, about the specific project you’re working on, etc. This can be broad (“I like bringing my ideas to life”) or specific (“I always love exploring caves in video games and seeing what secrets they hold”). Keep this around and remind yourself of it. For The Waking Cloak, I love working on exploration, lore, and maps!

3. How to actually work and get stuff done

This is going to be the biggest point, but it revolves around a few foundational principles:

Work INCLUDES rest. It's part of the deal. You're not allowed to skip it. (see #1)

Short term goals are more important than long term deadlines (aka Agile "sprints")

Task-tracking and manageable, bite-sized chunks

One Thing a Day/Momentum

Do it fast, THEN do it right

Most of this is stuff I learned from my day job when we got our new head-of-department and jumping onto what's broadly known as DevOps principles. DevOps involves a lot more than I'm going to talk about here, but I bring it up because these aren't things I'm just making up because they sound nice. They're tried and tested, and they work.

So first, let's talk about short term goals.

Years ago (and sadly still too often today), common practice in software development was to plan big projects spanning months at a time, build the entire thing, and then deliver it. Major problems occur with this: requirements change, the world changes, technology changes, the users wanted/needed something different and you didn't know until they got it in their hands, etc.

The core problem is that nobody knows what's going to happen in the future, not with absolute certainty. I'm not joking when I say this: it's best to focus on short term goals and skip out on long term deadlines altogether. This is commonly in the form of two-week "sprints" which are geared towards delivering some complete functionality, not the entire project/software/game/etc. Here's why these work:

You have something achievable now. Two weeks of work is so much nicer than... months? years?

You get quicker feedback and can quickly adapt to these in the next sprint

Sometimes project/features of higher priority get discovered that you couldn’t have planned for

You're consistently finishing some chunk of functionality every two week sprint or every milestone. Progress feels nice!

Two week sprints don't necessarily work for all game projects, but the principle is the same: plan short-term, time-based goals, NOT functionality-based goals. If you're getting close to the deadline, move that functionality to the next "sprint", don't crunch any more than a day.

If you don't have a long-term deadline for your game set by external factors (publisher, need food to eat, etc.), and especially if you're doing this as a hobby, my advice is to not set a final deadline until you're more or less done with the game. Know what your major functionality is and a general order that you’ll work on this functionality in, but long-term deadlines are almost always unsustainable. You don't know what's going to pop up, you don't know how long certain features will take, etc. You can't predict the future. But you can create milestones.

In normal game development, this generally includes pre-alpha, alpha, beta, and so on. But for our purposes, we’ll want to redefine this and break it down even further. An alpha could take many months. I’m more interested in defining sets of features that can conceivably take a few weeks to two months, closer to a sprint.

In The Waking Cloak, these milestones are the ProtoDungeons. Each has a set of functionality (I only know the broad strokes, not the specific functionality each will contain--that only gets planned at the beginning of the specific ProtoDungeon). There will be eight of these, one for each of the player’s items, and they will be a self-contained dungeon. This is to:

Get quick feedback on how the items feel

Get practice building dungeon maps

Build a lot of the “unknown pieces” that you don’t generally think about--doors, triggers, camera transitions, pits, z-coordinate levels, and so forth.

I’ve only completely planned out one ProtoDungeon. It included the item mechanic and all the functionality mentioned in the last bullet point, but it also included more, like enemies and a boss. But then I cut everything that's unnecessary for getting these into the hands of some testers--so that meant a lot of this extraneous stuff got bumped to ProtoDungeon 2. That way, the quicker I get this demo out, the quicker I can improve for the next ProtoDungeon. The result is that working on the game feels very light and extremely productive.

Now that we have milestones and short-term goals, that brings us to tracking tasks.

I don't really care how you do this so much as I care that you do it in the first place! Tracking tasks is extremely important. Without, it can be easy to get lost in where you’re at in development. You have to hold everything in your brain, which is extra wear and tear.

I use Trello, which is free! At work we use Microsoft's Azure DevOps/VSTS and Kanban boards. You can even just use a notepad if that's what you like (though I suggest something where it’s easier to move stuff around, even if that’s Notepad on your computer). Once you have a place to keep track of stuff, I recommend creating some sections (I use Trello columns):

Backlog - tasks you're doing this milestone

Bugs/issues - you'll find these all the time :)

Doing - this is the bug or task you're working on. Only work on 1-2 things at a time. If you're not working on it, it goes back in the backlog

Complete - just a pile of your accomplishments! :D

And then here’s how you create your tasks for your “milestone”:

List out your major functionality

Break those functionalities into chunks

Break them into smaller chunks

Smaller

Still smaller

Are they now tiny? Can you do these tasks in a day or two maximum? No? Still smaller!

Stop when you're basically at the "atomic level" of tasks. They need to be bite-sized (if they’re ridiculously small, you can include them as part of a checklist on a single task)

Take all these tasks and dump them into your backlog!

As I mentioned, plan for the current milestone only. You can have a bucket of general tasks for future milestones and even a general idea of the order you want to accomplish these tasks in, but you're only planning for the current milestone and a bit into the next one.

Prioritize your tasks. You can put a number next to each task (1 being highest, 4 being lowest is what we do at work). Or if you're using Trello like me, you can drag the highest priority tasks up to the tops of the columns to work on next. I occasionally switch these around depending on what I feel like working on next, so don't feel like you have to strictly adhere to a specific set of priorities.

If you're feeling really snazzy, "weigh" your tasks. How long is this going to take? You can do this by hours, days, a generic numbering system, etc. Enough to let you know what's going to fit into a milestone and what needs to be moved to the next one. I don't think this is strictly necessary for a hobbyist project, but it's pretty vital for our day-to-day at work.

Also, you will discover more tasks as you work. "Oops, to do this, I need to add that." That's fine. Add it as a task, prioritize/organize it, and keep going.

Like rest, planning all this stuff out is hugely important but often missed because it doesn't feel like you're getting stuff done. It's deceptive. Taking time to plan and maintain your tasks will actually make you more focused and productive.

If something isn’t necessary for the deliverable, move it to the next milestone and forget about it for now. This doesn’t mean you’re procrastinating or that you’ll never get to it. Your job is to keep things light and manageable for now.

Okay, so now you have a list of tiny, bite-sized tasks, and they're all organized. Time for the next principle: “One Thing a Day.”

I mean, with everything we’ve discussed, this is pretty easy now, right? You have a bunch of bite-sized tasks. Work on at least one thing a day! You don’t have to finish it, though the fact that you’ve got these small tasks means you’re more likely to get tasks done quickly.

Let's say you're me and you have a lunch break. Well, now I can try a task or two, or check off a few of my checkboxes on one of my tasks,  or at the very least get started on something I know I can finish in a few days. Or we just got the baby down to nap and she'll be asleep for an hour and a half (probably)--I can pick up another task and work on it there.

By having small tasks, you have a constant sense of progression, which is important for your morale. And by doing at least one thing a day, you develop momentum, which is extremely pivotal in countering procrastination.

For a while I logged these on the devblog, largely for accountability, but over time I haven’t needed to do that as much.

Also, keeping the creative cycle in balance is still important. Some days I absolutely did not have time, or just felt like it would be “too much.” So I didn’t do one thing that day. Instead I’d take that time to recover.

Finally, the principle of "Do it, THEN do it right."

This has helped me on so many occasions. My procrastination often stems from a feeling of being overwhelmed. I sit there thinking about a task and how long it's going to take, and all the different things I have to make in order for it to work well.

Beat the system. Hack that sucker in there in the cheapest way you can. Hardcode values. Tack code on to an existing object instead of creating a new one. All you have to do is add notes. //TODO is helpful--it doesn’t do anything automatic in GameMaker, but you can still do a project search for it to come back to it later. Then see if it works. See how it feels to play. Only after you've got it working and feeling nice, come back and polish it up a bit. Make it less hard-coded. Put it in a script so it's easier to call from multiple places. Create those objects.

For example, I just added some "Game Over" functionality. First I just whipped up the screen (draw black rectangle, draw text) and then made it show up at the press of a button. Looking good? Nope, the text is off. Let's fix that. Okay, now let's take it off this key binding and add it to the transition manager to trigger when the player dies. Shortcut: add a key that kills the player. Still triggers? Good? Okay, now make it reset the game (well, in my case, reset the room), and test with that kill key. Does that work? Remove the kill key (that would be a nasty surprise for a player if they hit the wrong key), polish (I’m summarizing, there was a lot more of this), and voilà! The important part was taking those shortcuts to blaze the trail before I paved it over (I know that makes no sense, just go with it).

This is the same idea as the rough draft of a story. No (good) book was written the way you pull it off the shelf at your bookstore. It was much rougher when it started and only got good by drafting over and over again. The point is to get your raw materials out there, like a big ol' block of stone if you were building a statue, create the vague shape (chisel off big chunks), then work on finer and finer details.

You cannot judge your work by its first draft. You'll absolutely be disappointed. Instead, come into it with the INTENTION of doing it fast and sloppy so that you have those raw materials to work with as quickly as possible.

4. In summary

It’s going to be okay.

Burnout can be avoided by taking time to rest.

If you’re burned out, it gets better by taking time to rest.

Good motivation helps avoid burnout and procrastination.

Plan generic long-term, specific in short term chunks, and work in bite-sized tasks.

Working in bite-sized tasks helps keep up momentum and morale.

Keep action and recovery balanced every day.

It’s going to be okay. :)

[smolbeandrabbles]

Science & Faith - Finale - Talos/Keller (Captain Marvel: AU)

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 

Authors Note: See what I did 😉 Well, I don’t know what to say, my first complete series!! I got some more Talos/Keller in the works... So don’t fret, I’m not giving this man up entirely 😘❤ Oh god, I tried so hard to cut her damn Lore down because it was just gonna read like a guide to her race... I was somewhat successful... I think... Disclaimer: I own none of these characters. Except Maliyah and all her race Lore. I have to say I’m not completely sure of Supernova’s powers I just LIKE the idea of it being something to do with dying stars... That Lore is kinda twisted with my own. Slight lyrical liberties with ‘Color’ by Carly Pearce. Premise: So often told she didn’t belong on Xandar, and for so many different reasons. Now she has a way out... Is Maliyah brave enough to take Talos up on it..?  Words: 6563 Warnings: Zip. (Assassination?)

ALTERNATE UNIVERSE USED Not Reader Insert

I give up, I surrender And be nice, 'cause this heart's a little tender You were right, I was wrong, boy Yes, I know that you knew it all along, boy Tried to tell me we belonged together, I knew better, I was like "no" I admit it, I'm a wild child looking for a hand to hold

I’ll be the lines, you be the color Just like the day and night need each other Life ain't as great without the other I’ll be the lines, you be the color you be the color

Oh, nothing feels like you, boy I don't know how you knew, boy

 ---

Oh, and there's a view I just can't describe No, I'm not there yet, just a few more steps, baby wait Okay, you can open your eyes

This is it, this is now, this is what I've been talking about Looking out, can't you see forever? Take my hand, just take it in This is a moment we won't forget On top of the world, here, together If there ever was a time for a perfect kiss, this is it

 --- Maliyah zipped her jacket and popped her collar, rolling her sleeves down as far as they could go she actually looked half presentable as she entered the meeting room. The conversational lul was quiet... She stopped at one end of the table, frowning and pointed to the empty chairs; “Where are...???” Talos and his lieutenants were noticeably absent. “Well, seen as we don’t seem to be able to come to a satisfying conclusion with them here, I decided we would have a debate without them. Then we give them our final answer.” Maliyah nodded and walked slowly to her seat, this was all her fault and she knew it. She was bringing her personal life into her professional one and if she didn’t do something, she was about to screw this up for two races. Neither of which were hers. She sat, noticing how Yoel almost ignored her. Oh, so he wasn’t happy with her either?! Figures. Reis hasn’t arrived yet... Maliyah took a deep breath. She could do this; she could get through this. Reis arrived, and he wouldn’t take his eyes of her. That stare coupled with that smirk meant trouble... It was times like this she wished Garthan was still around. He wasn’t. Maliyah was back to defending herself.   The only non-Xandarian of the Nova Corps. Reis wasn’t down for that, and he was even less down with the races of her significant others... Nova Prime sighed deeply; “As of right now, we have no conclusion. And quite frankly I’m sick of it. They deserve nothing less than a straight answer and this political bickering is embarrassing.” She gave Maliyah a sharp stare “I expect better from you.” Even though she was addressing the table as a whole Maliyah winced – time to make her decision. “I know you do.” Nova Prime looked a little taken aback. It took a lot for Maliyah to swallow her pride. Yoel shifted. Aha... all she needed was him back on side... That was all she needed... “I expect better from myself. I’m not pretending to speak for the table. I understand we have only just fought and lost a great deal to the Kree. But that does not mean we should be uncivil to the Skrulls.” She took a breath; “It should never have got to the point where you felt the need to call this meeting. And I am disappointed in myself and my actions.” Maliyah folded her arms, “I realise I have a great deal of influence as your military leader and I have abused that power. There have been many good ideas around this table that I have rejected for personal reasons. That was stupid. And I retract all previous statements. I retract my right to veto anything that comes from this, and I am almost tempted to tell you I should leave... I should have no power here...” Her eyes flicked to Reis, to how smug he looked at her admitting she was wrong. That was exactly what he wanted. She was about to wipe that off his face though. “They need us. I think we need them.” His face fell, looking like she’d just betrayed him. Those on the fence would sway with her, she’d seen it happen in the past few days alone. Reis’ little bit of power was slipping through his fingers. She turned back to Nova “...Give them what they are asking for. In honestly it isn’t much.” An alliance between races didn’t have to cost either a thing… But, Maliyah had ideas of her own. She tipped her head “Though I’d bargain on that light speed engine… We need something like that... I’ll work on it.” She tapped her fingernails against the desk in thought. Talos would probably agree on giving her something. And something that fast – she might need a back-up plan for when her own race came calling… At this, Yoel swivelled his chair and stared at her, she looked back to him and waited for him to smile; “I wondered when you’d start seeing sense!” Reis wasn’t having it. He tried not to let his anger show on his face, calling all attention back to him; "Blue to Green? I don't think we can trust our Denarian to do anything but date her way through the colour spectrum. I move for a vote of no confidence.” The whole room fell into an awkward silence. Maliyah just folded her arms and pursed her lips. Really? He wanted to play this game? Well, she guessed she had ignited a vote of no confidence in herself… Of course he’d make a play. "I think with some semblance of humanity there, you've missed out a colour..." "Not if he was never human." "... Then that's consistency; a far more trustworthy trait than political backstabbing." Ah-! That made him back down. He sat back in his seat, staring murder at her. Nova Prime sighed; “Maliyah… I want you to know… These personal reasons of yours, that both you and Reis speak of…” Maliyah swivelled back in her seat, biting her lip gently. She was aware that even with her jacket pulled up, it was still virtually impossible to miss the lights crossing her skin. “…They are not an issue. I understand why you made them such. And I appreciate your honesty in knowing you were wrong to make them one.” Maliyah bowed her head; “I made hot headed decisions out of spite. And… For that, and what it means for Xandar, for these negotiations I can only apologise…” Yoel looked pretty proud of her, but Nova Prime just smiled; “I feel it is not us you should be apologising to…” Maliyah received another significant look from her partner. “Oh-! Well… I guess you’re right!” *** She re-entered an empty apartment and sighed. She could only blame herself… She unzipped her jacket and rolled her sleeves up. Would he come back? Would he come back to her? He was probably at other meetings. She guessed Nova Prime would call upon them to discuss the final verdict. Then Maliyah would have to try the prospect of the lightspeed engine proposal on him… She wasn’t sure how he’d take that. Another thing to help her run away?? Well, what if it wasn’t him she was running from? She was sitting on the bed with her legs crossed watching the sky when Talos returned. He noticed she did this a lot. Far more than on Earth. “What do you keep looking for?” She shrugged “Something’s coming. Always is... Earth was the only place I never felt that. And look what happened... There I could just watch the stars.” He crossed her apartment and sat in front of her, if only to pull her attention away from the sky. “I owe you an apology...” “What? What for?” She gave him a look, like he was just being polite; “Everything.” She steepled her hands in front of her lips “I’m sure they’ll tell you everything is resolved; the deal is finalised. You’re getting everything you asked for. I’m sorry for standing in the way of that.” “You had reasons.” “Yeah, that weren’t good enough reasons and I should have kept to myself... I’m their Denarian and their Supernova I should know I sway everything here... You talk so much about fixing this... I decided I needed to fix something myself.” “What is a Supernova? To you. The significance of me calling you that is far more than just a name...” She indicated to his wrist “You’re wearing part of it.” He looked to the fine chain, the North Star looking pendant she always called a Nova. “My brother gave it to me... I gave it to you. He was the original Supernova… It fell to me, but I’m not Xandarian... He knew his limits. The fact that no-one knows mine is scary. To them.” He held his wrist up “So what is this? The source of that power?” Maliyah took his hand in hers so that the star fell between them; “No... The two pieces together... That energy? As far as I know, we’re talking a real supernova.” His face scrunched like he was trying to process that information “…You’re… Talking about yourself?” She nodded slowly; “I am now… You’re meant to keep me grounded. The significance of you with my Nova star should not be taken lightly.” She took his other hand “So don’t you dare go dying on me!” He raised an eyebrow "Is that your version of I love you?" She narrowed her eyes slightly with a wry smile; “The last time I told someone I loved them he wasn’t who he said he was.”  **  Maliyah could sense it before it happened. Strolling through the Capital with Talos just to get used to him. She needed to know him as well as she knew Keller. They were technically the same person... But nothing about them was similar... His love for her, maybe. But the way his feelings presented themselves to her - she had to get used to all of Talos' nuances. So she just made him walk and talk to her. Maliyah didn't have to concentrate on anything but his voice; allowing herself to get wrapped up in him. “…What happened to you?” “Hmm?” “The day I left, what happened to you?? Even if you got shot, you’d bleed…?” He laughed, and his genuine amusement sent another wave of gorgeous sparkles across her skin; “Oh. No. Not bullets. More… energy.” “Energy!?” “The same kind of energy in fact that powers the engine. Only... in a more condensed form.” She was clearly trying to figure out how that worked in her head. Accepted she couldn’t. Was impressed he could take a hit from a mini infinity stone and changed subject, slightly; “Wait - you were there for the drive?!” “No... I helped make the drive. Well, commissioned the drive - for my people.” “So how long did that take?” “Well... Let’s just say Keller didn’t become a Director overnight… I’d have given the drive up and stayed for you, you know?” “I figured. Would you ever have told me?” “Whether you believe me or not I tried many times. But... Jonathan to you was... Everything... and I... I didn’t want to take him away from you.” “Well, I guess in a weird way, he’s still here...”   Maliyah was not a true empath. She could only ever feel everything from her significant other. But if the feeling from someone else was intense enough - if it was so out of place, she could sense it. And on this sunny afternoon, walking down the promenade and absentmindedly watching other lovers and families go about their days, she felt it. It was close. And it made her uneasy. It pulled her out of her focus on him.  Maliyah turned; the problem was nothing looked out of place. Everyone seemed to be going about their business happily. But it was something; an uneasy, panicked feeling. She ran forward a few steps and turned, so she could still talk to Talos - walking backward. She slowed herself, making him slow his walk - by the look on his face he knew something was up too - but she had to make this natural. How else was she supposed to find out who or what it was?  Then she spotted him. Not because he was trying to stand out, but because he wasn't. And not only was he trying to be inconspicuous, as the crowd moved around him and he weaved - he only kept his eyes on one thing. And she realised with horror that that one thing was Talos. Oh - HELL no. The crowd fluctuated again and she lost him. Now this was bad... Maliyah picked up her pace again, instinctively trying to distance him, Talos followed no questions asked. Her colours ran over her skin where it was exposed in vibrant warning lights and her eyes were alert. She wasn't pay attention to his talking, but he kept the conversation flowing to appear natural. Maliyah sprinted forward - yanking Talos back and out of the way, despite the fact he was bigger than her, she slammed her shoulder into the guy; he was winded and floored in seconds. And her Yaka arrow was in his face. Oh-! Talos almost smirked, now she was using it to defend him? That was sure an interesting turn of events. The weapon the assassin had been carrying skittered across the floor as the crowd froze and parted to see what was happening. "What the hell was that you just attempted!?"  He wasn't a real assassin; she could feel his panic now. It was a cheap move and it hadn't paid off. With that arrow in his face Maliyah wasn’t surprised he could barely speak - she squinted. He wasn't going to get away with that.  He cried out in pain as the arrow began to dig into his skin at her insistence; "I could just kill you, of course." She stood back, "That would be a violation of several Nova Corp rules and I'd probably be sanctioned. But it’s not half as bad as what YOU just attempted." "He is a killer!" The man spat "He deserves to die." Was he Kree? On Xandar…? "You've got about 10 seconds to change your opinion." He whimpered as the arrow began to draw blood. Talos reached for her "Maliyah." It was like he snapped her from her anger, "Do not end his life on my account..." It was as much a swell of pride as surprise that she would. She was serious. About making this work. He didn't think she'd ever let Keller go... That she would ever accept him. But here she was. She took a deep breath; pulling the Yaka arrow back a few inches. Tapping her coms "Nova Corp. Arrest made in sector 3. Immediate escort to the Kyln necessary." She called her arrow back in disgust as she heard dispatch send out ships to her location. "This so called murderer just saved your life. Asshole."  Talos had to be quick to follow her through the crowd. She was pissed, they were here on political asylum and someone had just tried to kill him!? Was there literally no end? Would it never be over...!? She realised she was tired... of everything... He caught her arm; "Mali... Mali wait..." She turned back to him; "I'm sorry." He was taken aback; for what? "Sorry? Maliyah. You just saved my life." She blinked a few times; before giving him a crooked smirk - "Yeah. Don't get too used to it." He shook his head; he knew she didn't mean it the way it'd come out. She was still about that front. But it was an ever increasingly flimsy front. "What are you sorry for?" She looked around her; "I'm just tired..." "Of what?" "Of war... of all this political nonsense... of races... fighting over EVERYTHING. I don't want to live this. It's why I left Xandar in the first place. Only, Ravagers aren't much better... So I went exploring. And then I found Earth - and – I just... Earth gave me something so real..." she shook her head, and gave a gentle smile, that extended to the sparkle in her eyes and the soft colours in her skin. Genuine happiness "Earth gave me you." Talos opened his mouth; but realised no words would do that moment justice. He realised it then, what he thought he had before, but looking at her now it was just so clear. Maliyah Saal had really fallen for him. The real him.  *** “You want the lightspeed engine?!” “No. No… Not the actual engine just something like it.” “Why!? So, you can run away again.” She sighed, but there was a smile there – she knew he was teasing her this time “…No! Not exactly.” “That sounds like a yes-! What did I do this time!” “Stop it!” She placed her hands on the table – currently they were looking at holograms of tech. It had started as a tactical discussion. It was fast becoming something else “Nothing-! I’m thinking of me. My race. My planet.” “…?” He tilted his head “What?” “You know eventually they’ll come after me and drag me back home. I figure if I can’t beat ‘em, and certainly won’t be joining them… Then running as fast as possible across the galaxy is probably the best option.” He chuckled; “Alone?” “I didn’t say that!” “That’s what it sounded like.” She tried her best to look grumpy as she rounded the table, pointing at him “Now, alone is no good for me is it!?” “Are you telling me this about your planet to try to get me to give up on you?” “…No!” He crossed over to her, with a little smirk; “Good. Because it kinda sounds like you’re giving me an excuse to leave…” He placed his hands delicately on her shoulders “But… I don’t want to leave. You and your race and all those problems we can work through… Right? I’m down. I’m ready when you’re ready. Don’t rush this for me…” He placed his forehead to hers again “I love you. Do this at your own pace. I’m always gonna wait for you…” Maliyah pulled back from him for a minute, shaking her head gently, she knew that already. He already had… She smiled, pulling him towards her and into a kiss; “You should be done waiting…” **  Talos watched her stare absentmindedly out over the port as his lieutenants continued to move about the dock, resupplying the ship; "Don't you ever think maybe it’s time for another change?" They were standing by his ship; now everything on Xandar was finalised he really had little reason to stay. And he certainly didn’t want to outstay the welcome. "You look like you need one..." She folded her arms and tilted her body back "Oh? Really? Any suggestions?" He frowned “You don’t belong here. Maliyah.” “…So, what? I belong with you…”  It took him far too long to realise what part of that sentence was a question. When he did realise he had an instant idea; "That’s-! That's not a bad idea! Maliyah-!" Talos took her hands in his "Come back with me.” "Huh? How?!" "Well, someone from Xandar surely needs to check we're keeping up our end of the bargain on this treaty right? We could do some kind of political consulate... swap... That works? Right?" She studied his face very carefully, before she laughed, and she kept laughing until tears were in her eyes "You're serious! Oh my gosh! You're serious!" He watched her look back to him in wonder, and he nodded in confirmation "I've never been more serious about anything." Nova Prime looked between them with a smile; "I don't see a problem with that." They looked to each other with wide eyes - it shouldn’t have been that easy? Should it?! Why was it that easy!? She chuckled; "Maliyah, darling. I have known you for far too long. Could I really ever have stopped you from leaving." Maliyah chewed her lip for a second; "Well... My duty is to the Nova Corp. As I hold the Nova Force.... I just.... I should be here..." She had to admit it. "Perhaps the Nova Force being kept separate to an Infinity stone would be a good thing. Two great sources of power here may cause problems.... You are correct. Of course. But, we can make it work... Who would you have take over for you?" "Day has always been the better Denarian. It’s time we gave him the full title." "You will come back whenever we call you." It also wasn't a question. Maliyah nodded; "Yes M'am." Nova Primes eyes flicked to Talos; “That will work with your people?" He nodded, but didn't have much of a choice "We shouldn't need her for anything more than politics. I hope. That power would surely be useful..." His eyes flicked to Maliyah "But she isn’t one you want to bore or tie down." Maliyah almost snorted. She wasn't sure life with a shapeshifting race could ever be boring.... "Now on that we certainly agree. Very well, Maliyah. I will see your complete hand over to Denarian Day... And then you are free to leave as a Xandarian Emissary for the Skrulls." They both bowed "Thank you M'am." Turning to leave Nova Prime called her back; "Maliyah... Just hold on a minute..." She stopped, But Talos respectfully took his leave. "M'am?" Nova Prime approached and gently took Maliyah’s face in her hands "My darling girl. I have known you since you were very small. You are not of Xandar. But you will always be Xandarian. I am proud of the woman you have become. Your parents are proud of the woman you are... I know Garthan would be the proudest.... He might not have ever said it, far be it from Garthan to do so, but my darling... He was. He always was." Maliyah couldn't help beaming "T-Thank you... That is an honour." Prime smiled; "Maliyah Saal - wherever this universe takes you, and with whomever you chose - you will always be our Supernova."  Talos was standing just down the corridor when she left, and Maliyah sprinted to him, slowing to a stop with a smile that he couldn't help but mirror. "So, you're officially coming back?" "Officially. I’m a political mission, General." "Of course. We shall have to be very serious about this." "I am serious about this." He nodded "No doubt..." Maliyah entwined her fingers with his; "But your planet. I want to know EVERYTHING! Tell me everything I need to know!"  *** Before she left, Maliyah had one more thing she needed to do. She had arranged to meet Reis in the Corp HQ, so she could tell him the news. He still gave her that same look of distaste. He’d never be happy until she was no longer Xandar’s problem... “Looks like you’re about to get your wish.” He raises an eyebrow and tilted his head questioningly; “I will no longer be Denarian of the Nova Corp effective tomorrow. Instead all duties will be handed to Day as a true Denarian just like my brother was...” “And you think that makes me happy?” “I wasn’t finished! I will also be leaving Xandar. I have a new mission and new orders - so you’re going to be rid of me. Likely once and for all. Surely that’s got to make you a bit happy?” He couldn’t help but smile a little. “And where will you go? With them?” “Not that you have any reason to have a problem with that Reis... Not that you should have any reason to have a problem with the Skrulls at all. But, I guess the threat of another War is too much for you, is it? Or is a war just what you want…? Is that why you did it?” He looked back to her; eyes narrowed. “What did you just say?!” “See, I’m proud of this, Reis. Of what my race has the capability to do. Of these colours. So, I really hope you’re proud of yourself...”  Maliyah could sense his panic even though Reis looked controlled; he was trying to keep so composed...  ”I don’t know what you-” ”Cut it. I know I don’t have proof. But I know you’re responsible... And that it didn’t work...” It shouldn’t have surprised her that all paths on this attempted assassination currently led to Reis. It wasn’t just about how it would affect the treaty... But how much it would hurt her too... She turned away from him; “We’re done here.” but she flicked her eyes over her shoulder; “But I’m never going to stop looking for that proof... So watch your back.”  “You have no power here anymore...!You’re not even Xandarian!” She shook her head as she walked away from him; “See Reis there is your problem. I wasn’t born here... You’re right. But Xandar is my home. I have a duty to my home that I will fulfil. And the fact that you can’t do that, makes me more Xandarian than you will ever be...” *** It was good to be back amongst the stars. Saying goodbye might have been hard but Maliyah knew it wouldn’t be forever, she would come back to Xandar every so often. But the explorer in her felt most at home here... The light speed technology clearly didn’t extend to all ships. But she would rather have the time to think about her decision than watch her beloved stars blur by...  Talos let her stand alone and think about it, and almost didn’t bother her for the duration of the trip. Waiting for the tension to work itself out of her, until she at least looked more relaxed. He didn’t have her gift for sensing emotions but he could read her body well. She didn’t truly relax until they came upon the planet itself. Like she was accepting that there was no going back now. Talos joined her. “How are you feeling?” She leant her head against the window frame “Like I made the right choice? I’ve never been here before… I’m thinking of how much I get to discover for myself.” That was the adventurer in her talking “And you’re here. So I think I’m gonna be just fine.” He laughed. He’d certainly take that. The ship descended into atmosphere and he watched her face closely. He loved coming back home; but she was seeing this for the very first time and he was desperate to know her reaction. Maliyah’s eyes widened in joy, it had to be at the way colour flashed across her skin, and she couldn’t take it all in fast enough. The planet was covered in what appeared to be lush green forest areas, grasses of different species, she could see for miles upon miles - to the mountains raised in the distance and the great glassy lake reflecting the sun. Every so often cities raised themselves up, all with great glass structures. They had built up instead of out. Preserving as much of the planet’s natural beauty as possible. An almost seamless blend of technology and nature. Talos had to look back at it for just a minute, so he could imagine what was racing through her mind... “Take the war away from the planet, everything grows back…” But he couldn’t help it; “So, tell me, did you make the right choice?” She didn’t answer, but a smile spread across her face “Ah-! That’s a smile!” Maliyah pushed his arm; “Shut up! It was NOT a smile!” He didn’t believe her for a second, and worse, now she was blushing…  * Maliyah Saal was not one for thinking she made many mistakes. But her first month was a hard period of adjustment. Everything about the Skrulls was different from everything she’d ever known. Immersing herself in the culture wasn’t hard – but they were all so interested in her, she found herself answering the same set of questions ten thousand times. She could only cope with so much at a time before she got overloaded. Talos knew this and he shadowed her, giving her just enough space to explore as independently as she wanted, but always close by when he felt she needed rescuing. She was always welcome for the respite of just being alone with him and letting herself get as wrapped in his emotions as she had with Keller. It was so different and yet so familiar, and it was a sensation she never wanted to fade… Sometimes he would let her take Keller back. And that was comfortable. There was something else in that he would do that for her… But that wasn’t her life anymore… “Please stop doing this…” She took his hands in hers, sincere “…You don’t have to do this for me anymore…” She bit her lip, as she so often did, to suppress her smile – but what was the point in that when the lights flashing across her skin so often gave her away? “…He is not the man I want…” Eventually she got culture shock. It was too much and she would spend excessive time alone. To counteract that, Talos took her back to the stars. The trips were short, because Maliyah promised herself she wouldn’t leave until she’d explored every inch of his planet. Still, it was amongst the stars that his Supernova belonged. She always looked at home here. He was in tune with her enough to know, she might have been tied to Keller on Earth but she would never have stayed. She was far too tough to tie down. Maliyah was made to explore. Talos was determined to make the most of that. To make sure if her race ever came looking she would never be found. “…You want to save me from my race?” “…Yes. Because I know I can.” Talos tilted his head “Maliyah, you weren’t made to go back there. And it would be a travesty to let them take you away now.” His look was defiant “They will not take you from me.”  *** “I was told I’d find you here” Maliyah was starring around the room with interest; “I was told this is where Skrulls come to practice shifting…” “We do.” He studied her carefully, she really was getting into this... “…Well then…” She looked up at the ceiling; and took slow, deliberate steps “What are you doing here.”   Ending her walk at the open window, Maliyah leant on the sill. “You know. Sometimes I can’t get over it.” “What?” “…My kind was made – MADE – to traverse the stars and combine DNA with other races… Everything about how we are made is tied to that notion. Even down to the way we have children…” She turned from looking at the scenery to look at him “…Yet we became so insular? We’re explorers – but now it’s all about purity…” She turned back with a sigh; “…When Aurons started leaving home they did it to bond… To find that perfect DNA match. And your DNA… that’s almost perfect. But it’s so discouraged now, if home calls me back what would I be good for? What would my children really be good for? Bloodline purity? The age-old ways of my race were never about that.” Talos joined her, “…Your race… Are you telling me your race is compatible with all others?” “If all the markers in both parents’ DNA is correct. Then yes.” “…You’re talking about children again.” Maliyah scoffed “So were you.” She turned to him; “Yes. But it’s not an exercise in intercourse. Intercourse will not result in anything. My DNA will simply reject yours… It will create colour, but not life. A real DNA bond is a two-way consensual street.” “Meaning what?” She raised an eyebrow; “You’re ready for that?” “Aren’t you?” “…I thought I’d highlighted the significance of what our children would mean…” She gave a shrug “But now I’m here…” She relaxed herself against the railing, regarding him coolly – “…It requires your blood to mix with mine. Your DNA becomes a part of my very existence. However… MY DNA must also become a part of yours.” Apparently this information didn’t deter him “How?” “That’s really up to you, isn’t it... It needs to be a serious decision and commitment because it is an irreversible one.” “All I’m hearing out of your mouth is not now but later.” Maliyah smiled – oh, he knew her far too well – with a nod; “Not now… But later.” ** As the months continued to pass, they only continued to grow closer. Maliyah revelled in this kind of intimacy; she'd never loved or been loved like this before. The closer they got and the further their bond strengthened, the more Talos noticed she started to pick up. His language was almost second nature to her now, and there were times when Maliyah would forgo the universal transmitter completely. She didn't need it. He'd offered to try to learn hers, but she'd just laughed. Maliyah decided to teach him basic Xandarian; but her language was a waste of time – For Auron’s, their lights meant sometimes they didn't need words… It was all a little too good to last. He knew she'd be called to Xandar eventually... And late one evening that call came. "We are under attack-- Maliyah we need you to go come back - - they are after the infinity stone...!" “…I gotta go…” “Right now!? Right this second!?” Talos was only halfway dressed before she attempted to walk out of the door; “If it’s the infinity stone they need me – my planet needs me!” It struck him that she didn’t say home… "Don't you need the lightspeed engine?" "No..." She turned to him; "I can get there pretty quick. But I do appreciate the offer...!" He threw his jacket on "Should I come anyway?" Maliyah shook her head, taking her hands away from the door she turned back to him; "I am not risking your life for Xandar... You belong here. They need you here." "You need me too..." Talos placed his hands gently on her arms, making her lean up to kiss him with a smile; "I know. But I can't let you come with me...." He took her hands "Then come with me. Let me show you something. " "Do I have time?" He was already pulling her down the corridor "Yes! It's a good place for you to set off from too!!" Talos knew this much, Xandar needed Maliyah because she was their Supernova... He didn't know nearly enough about the powers she had under that responsibility. But that would probably be what got her there... And he guessed his shooting star could fly.   She followed him cautiously; even though he was moving at pace. Maliyah guessed he knew the urgency that was needed back on Xandar. But before she left there was just one more thing he had to show her... They continued on a path out from the city on a slow incline. In the months that she’d been here she wondered why the hell he hadn’t shown her this before?! Maybe he was waiting for the right time?? Talos hesitated at the edge of the forest area and turned to her; “... Close your eyes.” She stopped and tilted her head with a raised eyebrow. He held out his hand; “Don’t worry I got you.” Maliyah smiled, closing them without question and lacing her fingers with his “I know you do...” she breathed, and let him pull her gently. She could feel the warmth of the sunrise as he led her gently. “Okay. Open them.” She did so slowly, and breathed, hands covered her mouth as she gasped. And she thought she’d seen beautiful from the atmosphere. Talos smiled, taking in the view for himself “This has got to be my favourite place on the whole planet...”  The edge of the cliff opened out onto the Great Lake below, waterfalls running into it throwing colours as the sun just caught them enough to sparkle. The sky was clear, and as the closest star began to burn in the sky, the evening stars melted away. “... and now I get to share it with you...”That wasn’t a significance lost on her as she grasped his hand tighter, she couldn’t say anything. But she didn’t need to... “Look you got your thing with Xandar, I’ve got my thing going on. But it’s okay… We’ll do our own things, but we’ll always have THIS and we’ll always have each other.” Maliyah bit her lip at his sudden seriousness “Promise me you’re gonna be here when I’m done...” Talos turned to her with a gentle sigh, “I can’t promise I’ll be here. But I can promise I’ll always find you.” he held up his wrist, that gorgeous Nova Star. She took a step back with a sigh “... I don’t know how long this is going to take.” “Take your time. Maliyah. I can wait on you... I’ll always wait on you.” “I’ll aim not to keep you waiting forever...” She gave a smile and closed her eyes again. This time when her lights flickered, they were in blue and yellow. The star around his wrist glinted – it was obvious to him now, the two were connected. Her eyes were much bluer when she opened them; with a gold sheen, and she very slowly lifted herself from the ground.   “Stay safe!” Talos couldn’t help but smile that she’d addressed him in Skrull. She was getting good at that. “If you do.” She laughed, “…Fair bargain.” Maliyah hovered out over the edge of the lake and sighed; “I’m gonna miss you!” “You haven’t even left!” He laughed; “Go hurry on and save your damn planet so you can get back here then!!” And he said it like it was so obvious.  Maliyah gave him one last gentle nod as she turned to leave but she wasn’t even half way to the atmosphere before she was turning back. She pulled herself closer to him, radiating heat and energy. She was right - she held the power of a dying star... She ran her hands over the markings on his skin, and kissed him gently. When Maliyah broke it she placed her forehead against his. Hands still on him. She felt like the warmth of the sun too. He decided whoever was attacking Xandar had a world of hell coming… And they probably deserved it. But Talos didn’t expect for her to mimic the same purring sound he had. He almost froze. Hang on... Maliyah let him go, and floated back to over the lake, and the smile on her face said the same thing he had as Keller when he’d done it for the very first time; I love you...  Suddenly she looked like she’d remembered something and began rummaging through her jacket “Oh! Yeah! If you’re saying we’re compatible…” She threw him a small glass vial. The liquid contained within was thick, blueish-purple, just like her eyes. “Prove it!” He looked a little confused as he looked back to her. She gave him a wink “When the time is right... well, you’ll know what to do.” Was she saying what he thought she was saying..??! “D-don’t you need m-my blood for this?!” Talos felt lightheaded for a moment just thinking about that. She didn’t just love him. That wasn’t all this was about anymore... Maliyah gave him a mysterious smile that made him think she might already have it. Back on Xandar they’d run many security tests, including on his bloodwork. She gave a gentle shrug but didn’t say another word. She hesitated once more, then sighed. Leaning in for one last kiss; just one more and she could do this… And she would come back… With that and her eyes telling him everything she couldn’t say, she turned. Illuminating in a soft white-to-yellow glow… Starlight… Maliyah forced herself not to look back as she shot towards the atmosphere. Talos watched her arc across the sky with a smile. She was still the most beautiful shooting star he’d ever seen. The brightest supernova.

---

I just want you all to be sure, that now we’re clearly linked back to Avengers: Infinity War canon, she’s gonna be okay... He’s gonna get her to Carol and they’re gonna go kick ass on Earth....

[its-morphin-time-xiv]

TBH, I've always wanted to RP with your Belladonna, she seems interesting,but for quite some time now I've never been able to figure out who, or what, she is? I see a lot of what I'm guessing is the power rangers, as aesthetic posts and I've been trying to figure out how that would apply to FFXIV and its lore? I'm not accusing you of lore breaking, and even if you were it's your choice to play how you want! I'm merely just curious how she fits into the FFXIV world and what she is about. Help me?

Hello Anon! I’m actually really glad you asked, I know with how vague the blog itself is in regards to everything like who, or what she is. And quite frankly, Tags on posts aren’t helping either. The concerns or at the very least, curiosity in regards as to how “Power Rangers” fits into FFXIV Lore and the universe itself are entirely understandable, and I’m always more than willing to explain the reasoning as to why its here, or even how!

I’m more than willing to help explain things in a more clear and concise manner, now with that, please bear in mind that this post might be a touch lengthy, but I hope you understand and that this isn’t something that can be explained with full-clarity without getting down and dirty. I hope that by the end of it, some of the fog has been cleared! So without further ado… Let’s get started, shall we?

I’ll go ahead and place everything I’ve got under the cut, I hope you enjoy it!

–

I suppose we can start from the beginning and that, Bella, the initial character concept was created about… maybe two years ago. Three technically if you just count how long this blog has been standing. Initially, Bella is (was) a Thavnairian blooded hyur. Or rather, for a bit more clarification, is from an Island near Thavnair that could be and is considered part of the island.

Now that we’ve gotten an… okay grasp as to how long I’ve been working on this, we can properly start with things, like where she’s from, then we’ll move from there!

If I could place it on the global map we’ve been given of three continents it would be placed around here, right under the span of clouds within the red circle. 

Around there is a fairly good estimate of where I’ve placed the island she’s from, that island being “Gisana” (Yeah, totally original with names, i’m great.) [Not Really] Now, Gisana borrows very basic culture concepts of what Thavnair is, I use Morocco mixed with my own culture, which is Filipino. It’s bit of a homebrew, yes. I take influences from what we know, what we’ve been given, then I slip my own to fill in what gaps I need filled, if that makes any sense. 

Now, the island itself is a moderate size, nothing too extreme or anything like that. If anything? It’s about the size of one of the islands there, circled in blue. The island is surrounded by a maelstrom of whirlpools and actual maelstroms due to the unfortunate blend of the waters of The Bounty, and the Dorvos Narrow. Those two create fairly poor conditions for an island’s existence, so much so that the island lays in the ‘eye’ of an ever churning storm. 

Something I could equate it to visually, was the storm that surrounded Skull Island in the newest King Kong movie. (If you’ve ever seen that, it’s pretty cool). 

The storm itself on the outside and within the clouds were extremely rough, but any sailor with an actual heading and idea of how to travel through the treacherous waters or pilot grave enough to fly the hurricanes could make it through no problem. But solely due to that, this island gets left off the map fairly frequently, which is why it’s counted as nothing in particular outside from just a natural disaster waiting to happen.

Now the reason why the storm remains seemingly like a permanent constant is due to the fluctuations of the aether in the environment, being so turbulent and visceral. Far more than unmanageable than that of Eureka (The Isle of Val) [At least I think that’s what it was called]. 

Due to the fluctuations, the veil between this realm and the Void is thin, very much like how Eorzea is, except on a much more smaller yet just as dangerous scale of that. This meaning, that incursions of the void are more frequent on the island itself and solely on the island (not counting the water of course). 

That’s unfortunate for the inhabitants of the island, which Belladonna was one of them, as a child anyways. Now that’s essentially the ‘Fanon’ locale of where the Rangers essentially originated from. 

But not quite yet of where a Ranger comes from, per se. In order to do that, I’ll need to divert our attention back to the island, just a little bit. The Island has been present and weathered the passing of the Astral and Umbral eras ever since the age of Allag. And the people of the island have, through this time collected themselves and united to create one settlement, one city for themselves since they could not bear to leave their island home in the state it is. (That and the storm’s a thing too).

While forging themselves a forever home, they raised walls to keep the demons at bay and away from their people. But walls alone do not protect a fortress, so sometime ago, two of the most brilliant minds there sought to create a tool, a weapon, or even a shield of sorts to defend against the darkness that clawed at their doorstep. 

Now I mentioned that the island had been present since the fall of Allag, the “Tek” that the Rangers used are extremely basic in comparison as to what the old Empire had, but it uses old plans and even ideas that they could and would have used back then. Now, I say this because, Nero has a magitek transformation, and Gaius has a powered up transformation too! That only seemed to bolster my idea that or at the very least influence to m that the notion of ‘magitek morphers’ could and would be feasible. 

With this in mind and using it as my springboard, I use it to essentially state that the “Morphers” that they use are inherently modified Allagan devices if not further worked with and attuned for the uses that are needed, in regards to Gisana and it’s constant demon plight. 

Thusly, Ranger (suits) are created via the Morpher itself, first designed outside by an armorer, then the device essentially borrows the design/uses the armor itself and “stores” it within the device. Sort of like Aetherial de-materialization and re-materialization on the spot, via commands of magick incantations and actual magitek innerworkings. Alternatively, you could describe it like they would use a separate method entirely, like how Allagan teleportation nodes work, and it just gets -teleported- onto your person. Either one works honestly but it gets pretty… mumbojumbo at this point, but it’s a fair explanation on things, at least it is from my perspective. 

If that isn’t necessarily as clear as needed, I can further branch upon it, please let me know!

My idea for a city within a wall and the darkness beyond that was pretty inspired by The Last City in Destiny, while the island secluded away, only by natural disaster means was a mix of “Themyscira” and “Wakanda” but also “Skull Island”. More predominantly the latter most than the foremost.

The magitek morphers are also powered by not Ceruleum, but of crystals, more so hypercharged ones. (I am keenly aware of how dangerous that could be in a character/ situation.) But they’re handled on such a far and infantismal level that most characters hardly have to deal with it save for the scientists and Belladonna herself. Crystal shards get reduced and refitted down to be the size of a coin, a “Power Coin”, as it were. Much like how Power Rangers Zeo, Megaforce, Dinocharge, Dinothunder and Lost Galaxy exhibit their Ranger powers and the like. 

I like Lost Galaxy because they use ‘beast spirits’ along with crystals. I akin those to soul essences that are also required to properly use a Ranger’s armaments 

I hope its been clear, or at least a bit more digestible with this explanation! We’ve still got a little more!

So, lorewise this sits a bit snug in with essentially backdrop and background happenings that weren’t really… significant to anything stated already on the timeline. As the Eras passed, the island suffered, but still most encounters go unnoticed or unrecorded at all do to the hostile nature of the island’s environment surrounding it? Or the denizens within the water below. The island itself could and would become what essentially amounts to sailor’s tales, mysteries and myths you’d hear in passing at your sea-side Tavern. 

Sort of like tales of colorful beings in shimmering lights fighting harrowing beasts countless times. Stuff like that! 

Now, let’s take this back to our girl!

(Sorry, I just really love this picture.)

From here and below, if I can recall some writing that could pertain and assist with a bit more contextual understanding, I’ll make sure to link it with bold letters to identify!

But yes, as I stated prior, Bella is a character concept that’s been growing and evolving over the course of the past two years since her first… ‘creation’, in a sense. I suppose its also very important to note that much of her story is very much ‘The past doesn’t stay dead’ kind of thing. Some reading may or may not have figured that from my previous drabbles regarding Belladonna. Essentially, Belladonna, herself has been present and around for a long time now. Fifty or so years at the moment, regarding the Game’s Lore Timeline. 

That being, from an ooc standpoint, I  would run into… rather serious hurdles, regarding my personal life, and to cope, a new concept would be formulated. But I already have trouble playing more than one alt, in regards to RP, i am… poor at attempting it, but I am working on getting better at that. And so, at the time, Balmung was already locked forever™. And I truthfully only had one character to play for a long time. So instead of re-rolling my character and essentially ‘stranding’ myself as it were in regards to RP, I would.. just insert another chunk onto Bella’s timeline. If that makes sense. 

While yes, that is a poor maneuver some might say, it’s helped me, in all truthfulness create very memorable moments.  But that wouldn’t be without my friends who accept my ideas openly, without them? I might not even have this blog anymore. 

But anyways, before I get too far off-topic; Belladonna is a woman who has had a lot of history happen, solely through the past. And what you see now, are mostly new developments and new experiences. I guess you could say, a woman out-of-time, as a possible explanation. 

This, however doesn’t explain why she’s an elezen, and not a hyur, as she started, or even why I refer to her as “Mutant” in my writings a lot. You might be sighing and rolling your eyes, but please allow me to explain just a little bit longer. 

At her very core, she is still a ‘hyur’. But the reason she is an elezen now, is due to a unfortunate mishap during one of her adventures in which a voidal summoning turns hectic as a Succubus sought to inhabit Bella’s body. Her aether signature already being in turmoil and a rough state in general due to an Imperial sub-project that she subjected herself to in order to.. “keep up” and “combat” the things she fights with her comrades in arms.

She happened upon a very small trace and trail of the Empire’s workings through connections she had gained while living in Kugane and of her own brief Imperial service. 

The end result of the use of said ‘project’ gave Bella more drawbacks than features. Having lost all sense of pain, she can push past her would-be limits, even if it means self-harm. Her body wasn’t attuned or conditioned to any capacity for it to handle the testing done, so she now suffers a biological and ‘aetherial’ mutation. Since the project itself deal with matters of using Voidblood and essence to infuse Imperial conscripts / criminals with it for further service of the Imperial Banner. 

Learning to live with these new changes, such as biologically having.. a new spine extending from where your old one, being shorter, looking like wade wilson /after/ project x –

– like that, only y’know… “prettier” and with hair. Mildly like a mix of both Wade Wilson and Marrow, if you’ve ever seen them.

I don’t believe there’s any right to call it living, rather than just calling it suffering, because that’s truly what it was. She received extreme chronic pain from her mutations, and.. essentially she wanted an “out”. This was around the time she started really going back to her roots, her roots being… “Rangers”, and the island. 

Slowly, in time, despite the rather… negative results she had been given during her time home in an attempt to “cure” herself. And.. possibly to a degree, she got better. 

With her already weakened state, she looked to intense and darker means to try and find a way to rid herself of her “problems”. This eventually leading to the summoning and the disasters that came swiftly after. The Succubus, seeing her would-be host in no suitable condition to survive, took liberties and adjusted Bella to her liking. After all.. this is a succubus. The change itself was gradual, a hex on a very slow burn after the situation was resolved, albeit messy. 

Slowly she’d see height differences, skin cleansing but some things don’t go away, like the spine. That would learn to stay and not all of her wounds and scars from testing would disappear completely. So she sought after an ink artist, giving her tattoos that coincided along with her scars, some even masking out the worse ones. 

And now, she looks the way she looks. Tall, and a bit more happy too. 

—

Final Fantasy XIV’s Lore leaves a lot to be user interpreted, even with lorebooks being published. And with the Allagan empire and dark magicks abound, there’s still… lots of room to leave up and open to people to have some creative fun and freedom with. 

Knowing this, and using this, and even using the lines from the book(s) themselves, we can come up with amazing stories and do amazing things. All while still being.. in the relative realm of ‘grounded’ to its roots. 

[Here’s a link to her about page as well on her tumblr]

Belladonna Slater is a very… complicated character, she strives to learn her place in the world once more but also sees the past calling back to her to be a “Hero” again, hero being a very loose term now since she has grown from lawful neutral to that more of a chaotic neutral in response to just about everything that has happened to her.  

But I hope that.. me writing this as an answer to your ask, Anon, that this helps clear the air, if by only a little as to worries and or questions you had. I’d also like to note that this isn’t a complete character breakdown, there are still at least one or two elements of her ‘story’ that could be branched upon and explained if asked. 

If you’d like to know about them, you’re more than welcome to ask me, either through Tumblr inbox for the sake of anonymity or even in Tumblr DMs, Discord is also an option as well. 

I also do have a document that I have written out in regards to Ranger Corps. I can leave that in a link here below as well. However: The document itself hasn’t been edited or revised since May of this year, 2018. So there are revisions and slight edits to be made. I just haven’t sat down with the time to do it yet. But let it not discourage you from reading! 

Ranger Corps - Documents and Information 

Anon, I do hope this writing, both the answer to your ask and this document have been able to assuage some of your worries, or curiosities, rather. And if there is anything else from you, specifically, or from anyone else for that matter, that would like to know more, or have a specific question?

You are more than welcome to come and ping me for a conversation! 

I love being able to talk to new people, and well… I hope you’d like to talk to me too!

Thank you for your curiosity and question, Anon. 

I hope I was able to help.

– M

[minisception]

So I saw this guy, ‘Haarkon Worldclaimer” when the warhammer community article went up (link), and I’ve got a lot of mixed feelings about him.

Starting with the good, I love the model.  Yeah, it’s super busy, but I actually really like that in a 40k era chaos marine lord.  To me it’s a great blend of the dark vengeance chosen and current raptor kit.  I like that there’s more of that mutated/daemonic look going than in the Blackstone Fortress character.  Lightning claw and... power lance?  daemon weapon?  Seem like potentially an odd equipment load, but that’s not too hard to convert around if it isn’t particularly effective in game.

Admittedly the posing & proportions are a bit weird.  At first I thought that the central chest armor detail would prevent him from seeing anything directly in front of him whenever he was just standing on the ground, then I noticed the oddly elongated midriff, and realized that his whole upper torso craned back to look forward mid leap, instead of just his neck, which is just sort of awkward.  Also, the connection to the base seems remarkably small and fragile, but that’s been a common problem with GW models lately.  When and if I get this guy for myself, I’ll have to build up the base a bit to provide some more stable contact points.

But again, overall I love the model.  The character on the other hand?  There I’m not so sure.

Before getting into lore stuff, rules-wise the “new characters” lately have just been generic heroes with particular, usually suboptimal, wargear.  The Blackstone Fortress lord is literally just a generic black legion lord with a thunder hammer.  Granted chaos lords can’t currently take thunder hammers, but still.  I kind of expect the same here, just a generic lord with jump pack, lightning claw, and... power lance?  The spear might end up being a unique daemon weapon, but those are pretty hit & miss.  Having a jump pack is a good starting point in the current csm ruleset, though, and it shouldn’t be too hard to convert an alternative weapon loadout, so even if ‘Haarkon Worldclaimer’ isn’t a competitive unit in and of himself, he will make a solid foundation for reasonably competitive conversions.  Well, to the extent that any generic chaos HQ that isn’t a daemon prince can be competitive these days.  So... he’ll be a nice display piece.

The lore side of things is the bigger issue.  I /should/ be excited to see a new name and face added to the Black Legion’s lineup, and I /want/ to be excited to see the legion get some more ‘screen time’, but past experience tells me not to get too excited.

Chaos Marines in general and the Black Legion in particular have a history of being used as the go-to jobbers of the 40k narrative.  It’s a reputation some authors have been fighting to reverse - ADB in particular has done a good job of that in his series covering the origins of the legion - but for every ‘Talon of Horus’ or ‘Black Legion’ that depicts the legion as dangerous and competent there’s a ‘Pandorax’ or ‘Fall of Cadia’ that depicts their soldiers as background fodder and their commanders as buffoons who either fail miserably or succeed despite their own best efforts to the contrary.

There’s this related problem of portraying Abaddon as discount bin Darth Vader and the soldiers under his command as knock-off storm troopers.  This despite the fact that, if any faction in 40k were to be the analog of Star Wars’s Empire it would be the Imperium.  Chaos marines are the rag tag rebellion relying on the individually superior skill and passion of its soldiers combined with hit-and-run guerrilla tactics to chip away at a larger and better supplied foe.

As such, Abaddon isn’t the supreme commander of an omnipotent military state served by countless interchangeable soldiers brainwashed from birth to be obedient to the point of self destruction.  Rather, he’s the head of a ramshackle allegiance of self interested traitors and turncoat drama queens.  Abaddon can’t just expect obedience from his forces, he actually has to convince them that they *want* to risk their lives for him.  Every time he kills his own people it makes it harder to buy that he’d ever be able to do that.  It’s a really awful bit of characterization that never worked to begin with, yet was so commonly employed that it came to define his character, to the point that his Battlefleet Gothic rules had him firing on his own ships if they missed a roll.

And that brings us back to the actual topic of this post, Haarken Worldclaimer, and I’m sorry to say it but everything about this character and his introduction screams ‘jobber’.  I mean, first, look at is name.  World”claimer”?  So he’s named not for something he’s /done/ but for something he’s boasted he /will do/?  That’s a pretty bad sign to begin with.  And what is it he’s claimed he’s going to do?  Win the Vigilus campaign by himself against like 9 other factions?  Including the big re-release/update of fan and franchise favorite Calgar?

Being showcased opposite of Calgar in particular screams that Haarken is not a serious new player to take note of, but rather a no-name, no-stakes easy win to make the aging Poppa Smurf look good after his recent hip replacement.  Once again, it seems the Black Legion are being employed as the ‘jobber marines’.

But Haarken isn’t just boasting that he’ll take Vigilus from all the other forces vying for it, he’s boasting that he’ll do it in a scant 80 days.  And that particular tidbit, to me, screams that the dev’s aren’t *just* going to have Haarken job to Calgar, but rather are going to have him slink away in failure, or worse keep fighting till the 80 days are up only to have Abaddon show up and kill him for his ‘failure’ in another example of GW clumsily and lazily aiming for “this guy is evil and scary!” but instead landing on “this moron is a bigger threat to his own followers than literally anyone else,” and I’d rather have no new Black Legion character at all than one that only exists to job, and in the process of jobbing to undo some of the hard work that’s gone into rehabilitating him as a credible threat.

So yeah, I *want* to be excited for a new Black Legion character, but everything about the setup for the ‘worldclaimer’ screams “this is a nobody who exists only to make your chosen faction look bad and who won’t even exist six months from now when his model is re-packaged as a generic unnamed chaos lord.”  I hope I’m absolutely wrong about all that.  I’ve been excessively pessimistic about CSMs in the past, so maybe I’ll be wrong again, but we’ll see. 

Honestly, even if I *am* wrong about all that, I still kind of wish this was a Night Lords character rather than a Black Legionnaire.  Even if Vigilus doesn’t go down like I expect it to, and Haarken does stick around long term, did we really need another Black Legion special character when Word Bearers, Iron Warriors, Alpha Legion, and Night Lords don’t have any yet, outside of a couple half baked Forgeworld heroes?  In particular, of all the legions that might want a jump lord model, wouldn’t Night Lords want it most?  If this guy had been a Night Lord to start, maybe the fact that there aren’t any other Night Lords named characters would make the dev’s less likely to waste him just to build up calgar.  And even if they did just set him up to job regardless, the night lords haven’t already been used in that role to the point of losing all respectability.

It’s rare enough that the Night Lords get any ‘screen time’ at all, so getting some focus, even at the cost of taking a loss, would probably be seen as a positive development by most Night Lord players, especially if they got a permanent named hero out of it.  Where as Black Legion already has a named hero, and have been overused as the losing faction in grand imperial victories to the point that, even after Fall of Cadia (which was a rather embarrassing “victory” to begin with), no coverage at all still seems preferable to taking yet another dive.

[tngrayson]

A New Life - Ch.7 - Blade

A/N:  This story is a slight AU that begins roughly around season 9.  Reader is Cuthbert Sinclair’s daughter. I do not own Supernatural or any of its respective characters. Only this story’s plot. 

Characters: Reader, Cuthbert Sinclair, Sam, Dean, Castiel

Pairing: eventual Dean x Reader, Castiel x Reader (platonic)

Warnings (story): Violence, adult situations

Warnings (this chapter): none

Word Count: 1500

Summary: When you decide it’s time to leave the nest, your father points you in the direction of the bunker. What happens when two strangers show up in your new home?

Catch up here

Dean woke early the next morning. Carefully he pulled his arms from around you, trying not to wake you. He figured you’d be exhausted from the hunt, so he opted to let you sleep a little longer. 

You woke up an hour or so later, well rested and in Dean’s bed. Stretching your arms out, you were surprised to find that he wasn’t there. You looked over at the clock on the nightstand, hopping up when you realized it was nearly afternoon.. 

Walking into the Library, you saw Dean pacing, holding a familiar red book in his hands.  You stopped dead in your tracks, knowing what he would probably find within its covers. Your father had a copy of this book in his library at home. Sam looked up at you from his seat, your strange behavior not going unnoticed.

“Hey, you ever hear anything about the First Blade?” Dean asked you, not quite looking up as he continued to pace, flipping a page.

Suddenly, your heart was racing. In fact, you had read quite a few things about the First Blade. It was a nasty thing, a blade that could kill anything--leaving a horrible bloody trail behind it everywhere it had gone. It was rumored to be even worse when it was paired with the Mark of Cain.

Cuthbert would look for the blade off and on, contacting dealers and monsters alike, hoping to add it to his collection one day. Sometimes he would get close, only to lose all traces of it for years at a time. The stories from the lore would give you nightmares as a child, and as a teen you would try to talk your father out of trying to find it when he would get obsessed, arguing that there was no way to have the mark as well since Cain was the last person known to have it and, “what’s the point of searching for one when you know you can never have the other?” He would always smile and respond with, “Pumpkin, If I ever find Cain I’ll put him in my Zoo too.”

“Y/N?” It was Sam.

You blinked, and they were both staring at you now. Crap. “What?” you asked, pretending you hadn’t heard them before.

Dean spoke up, dropping the book to his side. Your eyes were locked on it. “The First Blade. Ever heard of it?”

“No.” You spoke with finality.

“Really?” Sam frowned, searching your face, “You’ve read everything, I’m surprised.”

You swallowed thickly, prying your eyes away from the book in Dean’s hand and trying to calm yourself. “I…I’ve never heard of it.” You lied, hoping it was convincing enough as you turned to make a hasty exit.

You power walked down the hall, heading for the wall of files in the Dungeon to hide away anything else they would find on the First Blade or the Mark of Cain. Even though it could kill anything, you would never have suggested it to Sam and Dean as an option for ganking Abaddon. The price was too high and you were terrified of the monster it would no doubt make out of Sam or Dean over time. Finding the folders you were looking for, you tucked them under your arm and headed for the garage.

Standing at the side of your blue Corvette, you cast a quick glamour on the files. Now, to the common eye, they would look like they only held recipes. You tucked them into your go-bag and hopped in the driver seat and hauled ass out of the Garage. You would have to find another way to kill Abaddon.

You pulled out your phone, dialing your father’s number.

“Hi, Pumpkin! How are things in the fortress?”

“Things are good, Dad.” You were so happy to hear his voice on the other end, it had been weeks since you last talked.  “Could I come by in a bit?”

“Of course, Y/N. You don’t have to ask, you know that. Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I just…I’ll talk to you when I get there-“

“Great! Listen, Pumpkin, since you’re heading this way, I need you to pick some things up for me.”

Sam and Dean looked after your retreating form in inquisitive silence.

Sam cleared his throat. “Did you two..”

“Nope.” Dean pinched the bridge of his nose, I don’t know what that was about.”

“So that was-“

“Weird? Yeah.” Dean crossed his arms, thinking. “You think she’s hiding something?”

Sam pulled his laptop closer. He pulled up the digital index you had been working on off and on since you moved in and searched ‘First Blade.’ Immediately he found one result with a note on the file it could be found in along with some books that mentioned it, including the one Dean had in his hands right now. Sam looked up at Dean. “I know she is.” Sam sighed, running a hand through his hair.

Sam and Dean looked through the Archive, but they were unable to find the files and you were gone.

“She’s not answering her phone,” Dean said, typing up a quick text before tucking it back into his pocket.

You parked your car just off the dirt road.  Stepping out, you grabbed your bag with the archive folders inside it and carefully balanced the boxes your father had you pick up in your arms along with a couple bags of groceries. You were determined not to make more than one trip. Walking to the center of the clearing where the invisible mansion was hidden, you called out, not wanting to set the boxes down only to pick them right back up. “Dad? My hands are full, can you let me in?” You waited for a moment and there was no answer. You huffed, ready to set the things in your arms on the ground when you heard faint whispering of the spell to get inside. Seconds later, a door appeared out of a thick cloud of smoke and you walked through.

The next thing you knew, the boxes were being taken out of your hands and your father was setting them down on the table in the lab.

“How was the drive?” he asked, grabbing a box and opening it. He was set up to catalog the new ‘collectibles.’

After putting away the groceries in the kitchen, you explained how Abaddon was on the loose and you needed a way to kill her before things could get any worse. You didn’t talk much about Sam and Dean, but he was amused to learn that hunters had taken up roots in the Bunker and he was especially interested since they were Henry’s grandsons. You told him how they had begun to look for the First Blade and how uneasy it made you feel.

“Anyway,” you continued. “I don’t think they’ll ever find it, I mean, you’ve been looking for it for as long as I can remember with no luck.”

Cuthbert snickered quietly as he continued going through the boxes, adding the items to his catalog. You didn’t notice.

“We need to find a different way to kill Abaddon, so I took these so they wouldn’t find them in the archive.” You showed him the thin folders you had nabbed and glamoured. “Do you have any ideas?”

He stopped working, resting his hands on the table as he thought about an alternative. You could practically see the gears turning in his head. “Well, you’re not going to want to hear this, but the First Blade and the Mark of Cain would get the job done.”

You sighed, “Dad. I asked you for a different way to kill her.” Your phone beeped again and you pulled it out, revealing a few missed calls, a text from Sam—‘What are you hiding? We’re friends, Y/N. You can tell me what’s going on.’  And a text from Dean—‘What do you know?’ 

You shoved your phone back in your back pocket without responding to the messages. How were you going to explain this to them?

“Maybe we can banish her somewhere or I don’t know…blow her up? you said absently.”

Cuthbert took off his reading glasses, breathing on them and wiping the fog away with a handkerchief as he looked at you. “Those hunters are wearing off on you, I can tell.” You just rolled your eyes at him. “Well, you know what I always say.” You did know what he was going to say. “There’s a spell for damn near everything,” you spoke in unison. “You just have to find it,” he finished.  

“Will you help me research later, then?” you asked as you made to leave, ready to get a start on dinner.

“Sure thing,” he said, grabbing the last box. “Or you could just borrow this.”

You turned and walked back to his side as he opened the box. Inside it was a massive, sharpened jaw bone that still had the teeth attached to it. The end was wrapped in a leather coil and had been fashioned into a handle.

“Oh my God.” You stepped back.

Cuthbert clapped his hands, rubbing them together with a huge smile on his face as he picked it up and turned it in his hands to inspect it. “I know! Isn’t she a beaut!?”

Your father had finally found the First Blade.

Feedback is always welcome and highly encouraged. I love to hear what you think of my work.

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[themadvigilantist]

dantalion - all of the following original info is from (here) and i’ll just end up making references to this (I ALREADY HAVE PAST ME and i put a small edit there but, everything else?? solid. but i mean the version of dantalion i play as??? won’t mention any of these because he does what he wants so all of this, for the most part. he should because this is a great resource if there’s just not enough lore about solomon’s lesser key demon!!eventhoitsnotofficialbutilikeit) so my commentary is [like this]

“Who is Dantalion you may well ask… and it shall be answered” (…)

Dantalion - Spirit of knowledge, empathy, passion, love, emotions/intellect, Demon of mind.

Abilities (Generally, he can teach you everything that each human in this world has thought about or known, but of course these are his main job)

He knows thoughts of all people and can change them at his will - and also can teach you how to do this (also telepathy) [time lords are perfect hosts]

He teaches all art & sciences (ya know this before, but I wanted to classify it) [time lords are perfect hosts, specifically prydonians/patrexes]

He teaches how to achieve alternative states of consciousness (OOBE, Lucid dream, higher states, past life reading, hypnosis etc.) and he can accompany you during them. [time lords are perfect hosts.]

He can help you open astral senses or knowledge of something that you want to know (but better be ready, cause your brain may take a break for a really long moment…) [time lords are perfect hosts!]

Teaches persuasion, manipulation, lies, flirt, good speeches, relations, mind control, generally all social skills. [time lords are perfect hosts!!!!!!]

He can heal/or help you with low self-esteem, negative thoughts, neuroses, depression, other coded wounds in the subconscious. [time lords are perfect hosts: missy vault scene? just eps centered around bill’s mind?]

He can suddenly put in a state of deep peace and relaxation, and show you how to do this with your mind (He also knows a word which makes your mind calming down). [time lords are perfect hosts: see episode LISTEN]

He shows similitude of any person including your person (it’s for empathy skill, when you want to more understand others or people you may like) [time lords are perfect hosts: any new who and yes, shalka is new who fight me]

He can cause love or other emotions (but remember, it’s not like someone who never knew you will love you automatically, but he/she will have more positive thoughts/attitude towards you) [this why he hates it]

Causes obsession, illusions, fear or hallucinations. [this is fun to him]

Causes lust (No, he’s not a nerd who is sitting on the armchair and reading his book with a moral look of your catholic aunt. He knows what is sex and he knows it very good) [WELL OK THEN]

Finds persons similar to themselves and causes them to unite (even if your other half is in the beyond) [time lords are perfect hosts: see the introduction of missy/danny pink arc]

Knows secrets (knowledge, but not only) and reveals secret councils. [all those secret councils??? he’ll expose if you bad.]

Can show you other aspects of your personality and makes you more charismatic/or who you want to become. [time lords are perfect hosts: that entire rose arc and no, the moment is not part of that arc. sorry! but, the moment herself said she aint rose tyler. so technically she took the form of the first incarnation of the TARDIS’ heart, second being 9th (in books she took the form of war doctor) and 3rd being idris (involuntarily)]

Causes people not paying attention to you ( so you can secretly work) [time lords are perfect hosts: the earth not knowing the doctor/timelords exist plotline...I MEAN]

Preferences (you probably saw lots of other planets/elements/zodiac assigned to him and you were wondering what’s going on - these depends really on aspects, that’s why I mentioned a few, best suited to his nature)

Zodiac - Pisces(venusian), Aquarius (saturnian) Planets - Venus/Moon, Saturn [and this is why dantalion knows venusian aikido] Elements - Water/Air (perfect harmony between the intellect and emotions) Number - 9 [he think he funny w/ that upside down 6. he aint] Quarter - North (north gate) Time - Night time/morning (generally before noon) Color - Gray, red, purple, green, (dark green or dark purple) blue, black. [can you believe that i sure didn’t know about this until i stumbled on this??? a muse meant to be OKAY!!! all those years rping and i was guessing oN A WHIM??? that demon must have told me: do me justice because !!! ] Candle color - Green, purple, generally dark shades (u can also use white) Tarot card - 9 of chalices. Stones - Pearl, emerald. King - Paimon (he’s one of his dukes) [note: formally]

Offerings Raspberries, cherries, tea, honey, whisky, classy wine, flowers - dandelions, roses (especially with passionate colors - he’s a romantic guy) nuts, your love.

Scent - Sandalwood, honeysuckle, jasmine, rose petals.

Appearance Usually shows up as a robed man with women’s and men’s faces and with the book in his right hand (sometimes replaced with a mirror). But he’s a shape-shifter, so he can take any other form. This spirit can look like a man you may personally know (or not) or even he may look like you. You can also see him as a black cloaked figure, black mist with eyes, gray cloud or floating face. He usually appears as a tall and slim man, in style of gentleman or businessman. ( I (the author) usually see him as a man dressed in dark robes with pale skin, black long hair decorated with jewels tied back and with crown) [TALL SLIM MAN ok sure]

Voice Most often dark and deep. Can also be as whispers or male and female alternating voices. Often speaks quite poetically (but he also knows nice slangs) [thanks 15.ai!Tenth Doctor. you right on the money]

Energy (how to recognize) His energy is very strong, focused and deep. You can feel the multidimensional planes of his being and it’s very characteristic. It is very penetrating, surrounding you from all sides and you may feel like your mind is a bit underwater. Generally, his energy is quite psychedelic and the effects are different. After, you may feel on high (like after good marijuana) have a headache or just feel weird. If you look closer, you will also feel great calm from his essence. [time lords are perfect hosts: the matrix]

Personality Just remember one word - COMPLEX. You will never really know how he will behave, because he’s like chameleon - he adapts to people, situations and places. For one, he will be a nice guy full of heat, and for another a dark tricky spirit. He may look cold and serious at the beginning, associated with his “knowledge aspect” (air) but he’s also very emotional spirit. He’s impulsive, determined and it’s quite easy to offend him. He has these two aspects connected (intellect/emotions) with whom empathy and healthy thinking can exist. If he behaves quite dark/annoying/arrogant that’s usually because he wants to protect himself (it was a bit like empath complex - the most openhearted and sensitive people are used by others the most) So he seeks balance and tests people. In reality, he’s a very generous spirit, patient and forgives quite quickly, but also he trusts hard and always needs control (he must see everything).

Dantalion is a spirit who is focused on human bonds, so you may see him talking about ethics/morals or knowledge which opens people to the truth about their nature - that people are the same. We will always be individualists but our needs are very similar - we want to be loved, appreciated and satisfied with our actions. People may create stereotypes, hierarchy, determinants of coolness but no human will create your face and never see through your eyes.

Dandelion (sounds familiar to Dantalion, it’s not a coincidence) is a symbol of this unity. Seeds of this plant may flew away with the wind but they’re still a part of this plant with which they have formed the whole before.

Tips for working

Take it slow. This spirit can make you very obsessed (u feel these nights when you were searching the entire internet to find him and you didn’t know why?) [AHAHAme] Look through your thoughts and set your clear goal - if you want to find him try invoke him or meditate, but don’t rush. Follow your goal not obsession. Dantalion will not run away from this world.

If you want to start relationship with him, prepare for patience again. At the beginning he’s formal, cold and not very emotional. He must find a place for you and adapt. (he’s a real thinker) Show the heart, he will show it too.

Get ready for a tests - he can test your intellect or your transparency in thinking.

Speak directly. He has sense of humor, don’t worry, but sometimes he takes words a bit too literally…[he do tho]

He doesn’t like work alone. If you’re this type and you prefer sit and wait when the spirit will end all his work, this may take a long time (except when these aren’t big things, then no problemo) Otherwise, He may start to make sure you’re still planning to pay him, and everything will be slower. (He non stop must watch what’s going on)

He usually works quick but he sometimes has a several episodes when he’s a bit more limited (idk maybe he has this delegation again) and he answers for a few days. Just wait 3-4 days and if nothing happened try again.

As I said before, it’s easy to offend him. He has big ego. Know your way and know what you want but unnecessary words can cause an awkward atmosphere. Get upset, but continue anyway with determination. Let it be rational and intelligent talk.

Other asks

When you did invocation/prayer and you don’t feel his presence that doesn’t mean he wasn’t there. He usually sees everything with his eye and even he may already work with you but you don’t feel it consciously. He likes working behind the curtain.

Sometimes he acts weird and unexpected. People do strange things, your cat began to like him more than you, one time he wants to talk and the other he prefers to sleep, he walks on the wall, whispers strange things and this day he prefers eat pizza than classy alcohol. Can encourage you to play. It’s just his complex nature. [yep]

He’s not a demanding spirit. Just give him something from your heart or what you think is valuable.

He’s a good guardian when it comes to safety with people.

This spirit has equal gender. Dantalion is both female and male. Here I prefer call him “he” because that was my experience and this spirit’s attitude. [time lords are perfect hosts]

Dantalion is a djinn, demon, fallen angel, dark angel - he’s everything. Name as you want. [he prefer demon/fallen angel because he was an angel]

He may look nice and with good heart but he also HATES. He really gets pissed off and can destroy your life very hard when you think you shouldn’t give him what have you promised earlier (and then there’s no empathy at all …) [time lords are perfect hosts: i did make vin his host for a time for a reason...didn’t think that i end up being true to that character......]

He’s [used to be] a very loyal boy if your work was successful. He can come back to you even after a year without contact.

His attributes/symbols are - eyes/eye, faces, crown, books, the speaker, the judge, Judge’s stuff of high social rank, scepter, psychedelic waves/smoke, dandelions, brain, mask, mirror, water, clouds, the priest (absolutely not about religion but more about education and speaking to people) [EMOJIS]

[roninkairi]

A Look Back At "Turtles Forever" and "Transdimensional Turtles"

As many of you know, the current season of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Nickelodeon is also known as the final one before a new series, with a new animation format, is premiered later. Now while I have enjoyed a lot of this 2012 incarnation, I would be doing it a huge disservice by not mentioning that it owes a lot of it’s success to it’s ties, both spiritual and literal, to the original 1987 series. No doubt you may have noticed that many of the characters that inhabit this show have in some way or another been derived from the first cartoon, some of them with very radical changes (points at Robot Irma)

But my focus for this little piece will actually be on another issue. That being the 25th Anniversary movie “Turtles Forever” and the Season 4 episode “Trans-Dimensional Turtles”. Why you may ask? Well, sit down and let me explain.

First a little backstory: To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the TMNT, 4kids, the company responsible for so many anime fans’ outrage (a discussion for another time) made a TV movie featuring not only the current TMNT (known here as TMNT2K3) but the original 1987 cartoon TMNT…well, SORTA. The original voice actors from the cartoon could not take part in this special (because apparently 4Kids had this rule concerning union workers) so alternate voices had to be cast. The movie even threw in the original comic book TMNT just for the fans. And while the movie did get many favorable reviews, it was not without some controversy. And that controversy: the 1987 TMNT. Or, at the least how they were portrayed.

TMNT2K3 was, in essence, much closer to the original Mirage Comic series than it’s predecessor.  There were some darker stories, bigger story arcs, episodes that were directly lifted or borrowed from the Eastman and Laird run, even characters that only appeared in the comics (Such as Renett and Karai) were put in this series. And there were a lot of action as well, along with starling revelations and adaptions/changes to TMNT lore. (Such as the reveal that the Shredder in fact was Che’rell, an Utron war criminal…and despite whatever he may have claimed he was NOT the One True Shredder, as it was a title he stole from the Demon Shredder. Yeah, there was more than one Shredder in this one, don’t try to make sense of it.) In contrast, the 1987 TMNT was a beast of a different nature. There was a good deal of action, yes, but there was a more comedic approach to the portrayal of the team, and the series was tailored for a young audience. But it was well beloved enough to spawn at least 3 movies, several video games and God Knows What Else. So, the meeting of the characters from these 2 universes would be cool right?

Well…that depends.

No doubt, if you are a 1987 TMNT fan, when you look at the way that the first team are portrayed compared to the TMNT2K3, you note that if anything, their comedic aspects are a LOT more prominent. Moreover, their methods of fighting seem to be more ineffectual unless they work in tandem with the TMNT2k3 Turtles. I think though for me, what made me feel more than a little, well, shell shocked, was one point in the move’s climax, where the 1987 Team was sent crying into the arms of TMNT2K3’s Raphael.

Like little children.

…No, I am not making this up. Go on, go find a copy of this movie or look on Youtube. I’ll wait..

…

Oh you’re back. Yes, that happened. And to be honest, certain aspects of the cartoon are met with some derision, like Karai’s comments on the Foot Soldier tech. (Based on tech that, I should add, brought Che’Rell to them in the first place.) and Raph’s joke about the Turtle Blimp and Turtle Van. Even  1987 Shredder and Krang were not immune from some character decay; while no doubt Che’rell as the Shredder is a far bigger menace to the universe as a whole, The Shredder and Krang were not incompetent villians as this movie seems to have them pegged. The 1987 Shredder was no slouch in the hand to hand-ruthless tactics department (who, believe it or not, got even more ruthless in the later seasons) and the only other person who could actually stand toe to toe with him was Master Splinter. (Who was actually treated with much more respect in this movie). Krang, while overbearing, was also somewhat of a viable threat as well. He was exiled from Dimension X for a VERY GOOD REASON.

But against the Mirage TMNT? Yeah, both teams have good reason to be afraid of them…

Now, lets fast forward to the episode “Transdimensional Turtles” . I consider it a better more compact version of Turtles Forever myself and it’s honestly more of an homage to the show than anything. For starters, the original voice actors are back. (Minus James Avery, the voice of the Shredder, who sadly passed away a few years ago) And unfortunately we don’t have Rocksteady and Bebop here. But we also got back the original voice of Krang. This episode manages to easily shift between both the 3D and 2D styles well and, to many, keeps the personalities of the original 1987 TMNT intact. There are some jokes about the original show (like Leo’s awkward kicking at Krang) but they do not seem mean spirited and it goes along with some jokes about the current show (like Rob Paulsen voicing both Raph and Donnie) and the francise as a whole. Plus the 1987 TMNT fight WAY more effectively than how they were shown in Turtles Forever. And even the Mirage TMNT show up. (Rather briefly, and with no lines). The overall plot even seems to be a shout out to the plot of “Turtles Forever” (bad guy tries to destroy all of the TMNT) but subverted (The Kraang of the TMNT2012 universe points out that destroying all of the universe just to get rid of one is incredibly stupid.)

So where was I going with this? Uh yeah, good question…I guess what I wanted to say is that we all enjoy different versions of this franchise for different reasons. And while the 1987 series may not be as dark as brooding as some of the later incarnations. (And believe me, TMNT012 got away with a LOT of dark themes when you look back at it later) it does not mean it’s no less enjoyable than the others. So yes, Turtles Forever is good but I enjoyed Transdimensional Turtles a bit more.

That’s just me though.

[doycetopia]

Dungeon World Character Creation Thread

img[src<em>='#left']{ float: left; } img[src='#right']{ float: right; }

We’re starting up a mini-campaign of Dungeon World, with most of the conversation taking place in a single private Google+ conversation thread.

But it was too good, so I’m saving most of it here for posterity.

Okay, I think the plan I’m going to go with is running a Dungeon World thing, followed by a Masks thing. (I’m especially jazzed about Masks since I just got a new packet of playbooks from the Kickstarter yesterday, but patience…)

SO, here’s the particulars.

The Roll20 page is [link redacted] – you can jump in there and open a character sheet and put in stats and moves as you like, if you’re super motivated. (Mike, your Artificer is in there already.)

Dungeon World is baaaasically a PBTA take on classic DnD, so the standard DnD classes are there: Fighter, Wizard, Cleric, et cetera, and you can dig into alternate playbooks if you want to go the Basic DnD route of “Dwarf is a character class” or whatever. The System Resource document has all the basic classes, but seriously if you have some kind of fantasy trope you want to play, ask, because it probably exists out there somewhere.

Once I know what people are playing, I will hit you with personality and background questions.

The tone of the game will be fantasy closer to White Dwarf and Heavy Metal magazine covers than The Hobbit. Magic is powerful, weird, and dangerous.

We’ll be using Flags instead of Bonds, so ignore Bonds in the rules.

That’s about everything I can think of right now.

Yay! Glad to finally be back to Dungeon World and interested in how Flags play out. Might I also suggest this document.

Oh I like those! Good stuff!

Basically, unless you’re a bard or some other highly social character (some priests might qualify), pick or design two flags for people to hit. If you’re super-social, three.

BTW Doyce, are we still going to be doing the thing with the timeloop where my artificer remembers what happened that you’d mentioned in the previous thread, or are we doing something else? Will probably help me determine my Flags.

What do you think? I was thinking something like you suddenly find yourself riding a horse on the way to Frostberry at the base of the mountain, with these people you know, but also with that other set of very vivid (but fading?) “memories”… it would tie into your experiments in the cabin pretty well.

Or you could play someone else and your other guy can be a backup character following someone’s gruesome death.

Actually, Mike, I was looking over my notes from that other session, and guess what? During the lead-in questions, we found out that group was actually the SECOND group you were heading to the mountain with – the first group was wiped out before you ever got to the mountain.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BE TRYING TO REACH THE PEAK?

(~Ash tries to play it cool as he relives a hellish groundhog day scenario for the 113th time…~)

I’d forgotten all about that. Man, Ash really shouldn’t have played with that clock… every single time.

I kind of like the idea of Ash just flashing back to town, with a brand new group of adventurers ready to head up to the Mountain. “Gods below, why is it always a new group of people? Why do the memories always end when we get to the door? Why is it always the same day but everything is different? Maybe things will turn out differently this time…”

I love this, so much.

Also of use: the dungeonworldsrd.com site has a section just on Character Creation – nice, since the actual character class pages don’t cover things like “what stat numbers you get.”

I’ve been re-reading the Flags article Doyce originally linked to at http://walkingmind.evilhat.com – From Bonds to Flags.

(Saying this aloud to be sure I get the idea): a Flag is a Significant Personality Trait, with how others can tap it to demonstrate it (both trait and tap being something that makes the game interesting) and so earn them an XP.

I would say the label of a flag is usually expressed as a personality trait, although the actual flag itself is the action that somebody takes to point at that personality trait

To go down a little bit further, it’s not just a personality trait that your character has, it’s an aspect of your character that you think will be FUN to see called out fairly regularly in play. People are going to be getting Xp rewards for hitting this thing, so they’re going to want to hit it. if you don’t want to see it… actually I’m going to say that if you don’t think you’ll enjoy seeing it repeatedly, pick something else.

(As a side note, and not to discourage anyone, but bearing in mind that this is meant to be a short campaign, it may not be necessary to boil the ocean to create our characters. Though I’ll confess I have several paragraphs of backstory already written …)

He’s going to feel so silly when he dies in the first room.

No worries, I can run an immediate sequel campaign using Wraith: the Oblivion.

Is there a mechanical reason to put the Flags in the Roll20 Bio page, vs. putting them in on the main character sheet as if they were Bonds?

(We’ll probably want to gather all of those into a convenient document, since we need to know each other’s Flags more than our own.)

The bio page is the only page that other people can see, other than the people who can actually edit the character sheet. So you can see the part of the sheet with all the stats and numbers and moves, but somebody else looking at your sheet can only see that bio page. So if I wanted to see what flags to hit on your character, I can click on your character sheet and see those flags on the front page, but I won’t be able to see them if they’re inside your character sheet, and even if I could see them in the character sheet they’re a lot harder to find in there.

Basically I would put them in both places, but I’m weird like that.

Put another way: The bio page is basically for everything you want other people to see and know about your character

Poifect, thanks.

Did anyone else figure out what they are playing?

Dave’s got a bard, Mike is doing his Artificer, Kay is I think gravitating toward a Ranger or Fighter. I don’t know about Margie yet, and my personal experience with her character choices, while extensive, isn’t deep enough to let me guess.

I do know that she’s usually as willing as you are to fill a needed gap, so you need not wait.

Right now, the ‘gaps’ are primarily thief- and fighter- or cleric-shaped, I think?

That said, it’s three sort of hybrid classes so far, so more dual-mode stuff (an unclassed ‘elf’ or ‘dwarf’ or something, for example) also works.

Knowledge/lore stuff can be covered by both the Artificer and Bard, but don’t let that rule out a Cleric or proper spell-caster.

I mean, really, I’d say go for whatever type of play most appeals to you – if you guys don’t end up with a bend-bars/lift gates or lockpick person, you’ll have to work the problems another way.

I shall sing to the iron bars and they shall part to let me pass!

Or … most likely not.

My favorite part about the alternate Bard playbook is that it’s specifically designed to remove the ‘singing with a lute in the middle of a fight’ stuff.

Okay, stock Thief is statted in Roll20.

I will noodge the kinfolk.

Bill, you say “stock thief” but the image makes me think of a very specific thief who wants my HP or my GP. 😉

I’m not picky.

“Cowardly: Put us in situations I can justly complain about.”

Well, there’s everyone XP fountain for the game.

PERFECT.

Hey, Ash and Basler can complain about everything together! 😀

Actually just noticed that they both have the same flag, just named slightly different; I found mine under the Lawful header, but I figured I’d rename it for something more character appropriate.

Hmm. Yeah, that duplicate flag might be troublesome. Something to ponder. Hmm…

Oh I don’t know Doyce, that just means that Ash and Basler will want different things to complain about. Can’t speak for Bill, but from the Cowardly tag it sounds like he wants Basler to complain about being put into dangerous situations that he doesn’t want that he can complain about. “Hey Basler, this hallway looks suspicious. Mind taking a look?” “Oh, I don’t know…”

I see Ash’s more of seeing other people in danger and after helping them, complaining about being put upon to help. (just making some assumptions here…) Eduard: “Oh no, I’m being beset on all sides! Someone help me!” Ash: disgusted noise “I swear, if I wasn’t around to pull your butts out of the fire.”

Sure it’s a slight distinction, but I can see it being quiet different in play. Sort of an internal vs. external dynamic, if that makes sense.

I am 100% on board if you guys are.

Kay has given you all a marvelous gift for this campaign.

“Go fight that demon! This talisman will protect you.”

By the time that PC dies, the rest of us will have leveled up enough to beat it.

Actual conversation I had with kay on Roll20 tonight:

“Seriously, can I trust the thief?”

GM looks at your ‘Gullible’ flag.

“Absolutely.”

This whole thread is a national treasure.

Just checked out all the characters on the Roll20 page and I must say I’m very excited for tonight’s game.

Yeah, thank goodness this is just a one-off adventure, otherwise folk might have put real effort into devising interesting characters …

If you guys don’t end up destroying the world, I will keep them around for additional Adventures.

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