#it's a really neat pattern aside from that one error though!

[kirby-the-gorb]

if you eventually want to see the crochet lace work I struggled all day on fixing I am now sporadically posting my crafts on @sleepy-princess-craftery

[eden-falls]

3 rings for the elven-kings

design notes below!

annatar (sauron)

• ok i know the eye motifs are over the top. i like them

• the shade of gold at his neck is the same as galadriel's headdress, as are his flowing white sleeves of the same material as her dress. weird freak who i HATE (get a job!)

• the only one not in direct profile; he looks towards the rings rather than the people who oppose him. i originally thought about having him looking out at us but i changed my mind because his one goal is power and that's in the rings, not in us measly humans

• ears resemble wings

celembrimbor

• silver jewellery rather than gold like the others. something something inferiority complex

• blue overcoat of his own design; orange tunic to represent annatar's influence

• tassels!!! i love tassels. thats all really. i am guilty of loving witch hat atelier (best manga ever)

• he also looks down at the rings rather than the others, but with a different kind of feeling than annatar's

galadriel

• pure white dress to signify her strength and purity in the face of evil (that never sways her bless up) as well as her birthplace

• her hand is poised as if she rests it on a sword hilt, but what need is there for one when presented with ultimate power?

gil-galad

• she looks past celembrimbor and the rings at annatar

• headdress a little inspired by ancient egyptian designs because im writing about hatshepsut for one of my university modules rn and like aside from the half brother marrying im kind of obsessed with her whole deal and i think her and gal would be friends. so.

• his crown is inspired by a laurel wreath. a lot of the time i see him depicted with some kind of crazy gravity defying be-not-afraid type of headdress and while aesthetically i am obsessed with the idea i have some personal qualms with the practicality of it. also i didn't want to draw something like that because im a lazy perfectionist which is a terrible terrible combination especially for an artist. so i just did a simple little crown

• dressed in all gold and rich patterns because. u know. king and stuff

• he too is entranced by the rings. boy look up for a second!! watch out!!!

elrond (side note: i know he's not an original ring bearer. however i like him)

• slightly different look from my third age elrond design but with the same colour scheme. theres more gold detailing on his tunic

• sorry ROP fans i don't like the short hair on him or brimby. short as i'll go with the elves is shoulder length (again refer to my third age elrond)

• i tried to make an arc with the ear shapes of the three on the right. it doesn't mean much i just think it's neat

• even here his clothing style is slightly different from the others' because he is one of those darn youths.

• i like to think he stays the same height though even if tolkien describes him as tall because tolkien describes all the elves and men as tall so he can still be like 5'10 and count as tall

final note: still havent read the silm; gathered knowledge from the internet. i don't think theres any insane errors. i know better than to trust rings of power with more than a base storyline (as much as i like it. no egregious ROP slander will happen here)

[scribbleclipse]

Did I make yet another new fursona? Of course I did X) I didn't really know what to call this creature, I just borrowed the word "alicorn" from my little pony, because it was easier than saying "single horn winged cat" .. with a lion tail XD So I'm just calling it an alicorn eclipse kitty X) cuz it's vaguely catlike, features a singular horn on its forehead, and a pair of floaty wings. Calling it an alicorn probably doesn't make sense, cuz that refers to a creature that's both a unicorn and a pegasus XD and this is different cuz it's a cat X) BUT I'M DOING IT ANYWAY ✨ Because I didn't know what else to call it X)

I also baked some personal symbolisms into this design uwu The black, white, grey, different symbols for the paw pads, the sun and the moon, eclipse symbol on the belly, all sort of are references to the importance of balance in a summarized nutshell X) the four card symbols on the paw pads are also references to the four elements, which can be used to✨ Make Stuff ✨ (sorta XD) which is mostly just an extra roundabout way of saying I like art X) In a way the light/dark themes are also related to art, because you need both of those to be able to see anything else. The brown is there pretty much just cuz my actual hair color is brown XD and I also thought it looked neat with the silvery grey X) it's also a neutral color though uwu which is relevant because it's like, aside from grey, one of the most "in between" colors ever ✨w✨ and that's relevant because balance X) woo

I was tempted to give them devil horns to pair with the almost angelic wings X) but I thought the unicorn horn looked cuter XD so there isn't really any fancy symbolism behind that X) I just wanted one (though it also references one of my favorite pokemon, Dragonair)

OH, I also put the "club" symbol on the left hand cuz I'm left handed X) this is relevant because in tarot, the club symbol is the same as the "wands" which has to do with fire and creation uwu I'm also a fire sign, and creative hobbies is my passion X) The creativity metaphorically shooting out my finger tips. Boom, pow, art X)

This was a kinda rambly post XD but I don't know if I've ever really broken down the silly symbolisms I usually repeat in the designs of my own personal fursonas before here X) I'd been making new fursonas over and over again, sort of trying out new things and experimenting with different symbolisms and designs until I found the pattern I felt suited me the most X) Through trial and error I think I've made a design I'm satisfied with, finally XD It's taken me a good while though X)

Anyway ^^ Here's my silly fursona X) I also included some little doodles in funny colors because I CAN uwu doing those reminded me of those funny little rainbow scratch papers I used to get all the time, but with the power of art program, I can now do these... Whenever I want ✨w✨ be prepared for rainbows 🌈

[yandere-kittee]

Aiko (Female Yandere x Gender Neutral! Reader)

Contains: Stalking

Aiko meets a trouble maker reader.

Aiko, put into simple words, Perfect.

She's perfect in each and every way, Aiko is beautiful, with her long black hair that's been brushed and kept neatly as to be neat and tidy, along with rest of her.

Aiko is smart and an overachiever, she knows what she wants and knows how to get it, hence why she studies hard for her future, because she knows that she won't settle for less.

(Google play Top of my School by Katherine Lynn-Rose)

Hence why she is looking for someone who is just as smart as her, though there are people who's come close but didn't exactly live up to her standards.

Aiko really wanted someone equal to her to be by her side, it's what her Mother would want.

Aiko's Mother dictates everything that goes on around her life, friends, diet, schedule and little things like her hobbies.

Maybe what she truly needed was someone who will bring the best out of her and show her what it's truly like to live the 'perfect' life.

Though, Aiko didn't know that since she was dead set on her plans.

One day, Aiko was smiling down at her paper when the teacher had handed her her test paper that was graded and recorded, a bright red 50/50 was on the right top side of her paper, the teacher telling her a 'good job' when she went to hand another student their paper.

"L/n, It's nice to see you did your best during the test. You got full marks." The teacher said as she smiled down at you, patting your back before continuing to hand the rest of the students their papers.

Aiko turned around and looked at you, watching you snickers your friend land a punch on your left arm, causing you to push them roughly, them almost falling off their chair.

'Them? There's no way they didn't score full marks without cheating.' Aiko thought to herself as she squinted her eyes at you.

'Yeah. That must be it.' Because there was no way someone like you could actually have the brains to pass a test, let alone get full marks.

So Aiko, using her connections had collected information about you, gaining a folder about things like your family, your achievements and other things like medical records.

Aside from getting detentions for being such a loud and rowdy student, you were pretty decent, you were laid back with your studies because she's seen your grades before, she recalls some of them just being enough for you to pass.

As if you were actually smart but don't put as much effort as she did when it came to studies, which, enraged her?

How can someone like you effortlessly pass when she has to study her ass off to get the grades she needs, were you mocking her?

It doesn't matter if you were, once she graduates college, she'll have a position that is higher than you could ever dream of.

She had met you again while she was in the library studying fot a test next week, but she stopped when she felt liquid dripped down her nose and onto her notes, it was blood.

She gasped as she quickly went to find a tissue to wipe the red liquid and had a hand on her nose in order for it to not drop onto the floor, a shadow had loomed over her, making her look up to see you handing her your handkerchief.

"Your nose is bleeding." You point to you own nose.

"I know that. I don't need that." Aiko sighed as she failed again to find herself a handkerchief or tissue.

"Yes you do. You can just take it. I have tones of these at home." You say as you place the handkerchief on top of the table and left the library, not letting Aiko say another word.

Aiko watched your retreating form and looks down at the handkerchief that had a fancy looking flower pattern that had your initials sowed on them.

Aiko took it and wiped her hand and placed it over her nose.

Y/n L/n...

Your different from what she thought you were like.

That may have been due to the error of her judgement.

She'll just have to get to know you more to know how you manage to stay under her radar.

--

Can you guys tell I have a thing for girls? Yeah.. Women<3

Anyways, Follow if you like fem yanderes!

Picrew link.

[blackpoliglota]

Moi assistant une réunion qui aurait été un e-mail...

This is me in that scenario and now after having spent WAY TOO MUCH TIME looking for a GIF for this post... that doesn't even fit the space properly on the desktop version 😭😭😭

Ah well, much ado about nothing, I suppose... anyway, I'M BAAAAAAAAAACK!!! So sorry for the unannounced hiatus... which wasn't really much of a hiatus, as I was still reblogging things BUT STILL. I ended up getting super sidetracked with teaching and dealing with the biggest headache on the planet known as the Spanish Beaurocracy™️🤦🏾‍♀️ Seriously y'all, those people DO NOT know how to do their jobs! If you want to hear about the fun time of trying to get my papers in order so I could remain a legal foreign resident, lemme know! Well, even if you don't I may create a post solely dedicated to that anyway; I could use the opportunity to let out some steam.

Now without further ado, onto my first original post of 2021!!!

As you may have guessed, this is about emails, particularly those written in French. I have 2 recent-ish emails I sent off to a college French professor asking for a recommendation letter for a fellowship. Wanting to keep up my French skills (and not disappoint my former professor), I used that opportunity to practice French by setting aside several lovely hours of my life for each email... yep, you read it right, HOURS. If I wrote those emails in Spanish it would've only taken me a hour tops for each email, but since this is French we're talking about here I had to spend the majority of my email-writing time looking up virtually every other word/phrase, cringe over each eventual sentence(s) I'd create with said word/phrase, and ultimately convince myself to move onto the next sentence to repeat that same process. . . all of this with taking a break after every 3rd sentence due to being lowkey dissuaded from continuing. . . fuuuuuuuun🙃🙃🙃

Anyway, not all language learning sessions are great. BUT, ya gotta push through those annoying/bad times to achieve greatness, amirite? Right, so with that being said, ALLONS-Y!!!

So I mentioned having spent the majority of my time looking up words and phrases for these 2 emails, meaning I now have a lovely list of vocabulary to get through! Check it out below:

Le premier e-mail

La Nouveauté - innovation / novelty / originality / freshness [In the email I mistakenly used it to mean "news", when I really should have used "nouvelles"]

À part - Aside from

La folie - madness / lunacy / insanity / chaos

Supporter - To put up with / to tolerate / to bear

Pour l'instant - For the moment

Falloir (qqch)- To have to do (sth) / must do (sth) [In the email I mistakenly used it to mean "should", when I really should have used "devoir"]

Déménager - To move (house)

L'essai (m.) - Try / attempt

Remettre - To turn in / to hand over [there are many more meanings for this verb, but in the email it's used to mean this]

Le formulaire - (Application) Form

Le faute - Fault / mistake / error

La date limite - Deadline

Faire face à - To deal with / to face

Opérer - To operate / to work / to function

Quoi qu'il en soit - Anyway / either way / be that as it may

Ce que - What [As an antecedent, not a question word]

Se rendre compte de (qqch) - To realize / to become aware of (sth)

La bourse - Scholarship / fellowship / grant / stock market

Requérir - to require / to call for

Le solliciteur / la solliciteuse - Petitioner / solicitor [In the email I mistakenly used it to mean "applicant", when I really should have used "demandeur / demandeuse" according to WordReference]

Le motif - Reason / motive / pattern / motif

Si longtemps - So long [As in "such a long time"]

Le thème - Topic / subject / theme

La déclaration personnelle - Personal statement

La déclaration d'intention - Statement of purpose

Payer le luxe - To have the luxury (to do sth) / to afford (to do sth)

Urger - To be urgent [In the email I mistakenly used it to mean "to oblige", when I really should have used "obliger"]

Amitiés - Best Wishes / All the Best [Letter sign-off]

And for the sake of breaking up these two lists so you won't be too overwhelmed at all the vocab I need to study, here's a picture of the first email below:

Now for the next one!

Le deuxième e-mail

Le tour - Turn

Désolée de. . . - Sorry for. . .

Tel (m.) / telle (f.) - Such (a)

À temps - On time

Lié (m.) / liée (f.) - Related / connected

L'affaire (f.) - Matter / issue / business

Le séjour - Stay / temporary residence / family room / living room

Donc - Therefore [Grammatical position is after the verb, after "pas" if negation is present]

Une fois encore - Once again

L'objet (m.) - (Email) Subject / object / purpose / target

La nouvelle normale - The New Normal [COVID-19 related]

Vécu - Lived [Past participle of the verb "vivre"]

Propre - (One's) Own / clean / tidy / neat

Lorsque - While / when / as soon as

S'étonner - To be surprised / to be astonished / to be amazed

Chacun de nous - Any one of us / each of us

Poursuivre - To continue / to pursue / to keep up

Presque - Almost

L'enseignement de l'anglais langue étrangère - Teaching English as a Foreign Language [abbrv. "TEFL"]

Instituteur (m.) / Institutrice (f.) - (Primary school) Teacher

Le déménagement - Move / moving

Devenu(e) - Became [Past participle of the verb "devenir"]

L'éducateur / l'éducatrice - Educator

Le retour - Return

Bien que - Although / even though

La carrière - Career

La demande - Application

Écrasant (m.) / écrasante (f.) - Overwhelming / crushing / heavy

En réalité - Actually / in fact / in reality

Le résultat - Result

La ronde des finalistes - Finalist round

Alors que - While / even though

Les études (f.) - Studies

Réviser - To review

La communauté - Community

À ce sujet - On that note / speaking of which

À l'avenir - In the future

Postuler à (qqch) - To apply for (sth)

Scolaire - Academic / scholastic

S'améliorer - To improve / to upgrade / to get better

La capacité - Ability / capability

Cela dit - That (being) said

Fou (m.) / folle (f.) - Crazy / insane / mad / wild

Être en bonne santé - To be healthy

Être en sécurité - To be safe

Jurer - To swear / to vow / to curse / to cuss

Le temps de réponse - Response time

Chaleureusement - With Warm Regards / Warmly [Letter sign-off]

And here is the second email itself:

As you can see, I blocked out the name of my professor because Consent Tings™️. Hopefully the email images help with putting the vocab into context! I plan to make quizlets for these vocab words soon and will post the link to it here for y'all if you're interested in studying them! Also, DISCLAIMER: if you didn't know this before, I am by no means an expert in the French language; I'm hardly at the B1 level. Cela dit (that being said. . . see that? heh heh😏), I'm sure there are a plethora of errors in both emails. If you're feeling extra critical when reading them, please please PLEASE point out those errors to me! I want to discuss them with you and learn from them so I can poursuivre m'améliorer (keep on improving. . . once again, hehee😂)!

Alrighty, that covers just about everything! Again, I am so sorry for not having created any original posts in such a long time; life carried me away🤷🏾‍♀️ Now that I finally have my first post of 2021, here's to more frequent content creating!

乾杯(Gān bēi)! 🥂

EDIT: Links to the quizlets below!

Le premier e-mail: https://quizlet.com/_9mktlv?x=1jqt&i=3dk8u9

Le deuxième e-mail: https://quizlet.com/_9ml1s4?x=1jqt&i=3dk8u9

[carabas]

So I’ve just finished reading the Dragon Age Tevinter Nights anthology, and short reaction: enjoyably hit and miss right up until that final extremely thorough direct hit, thank you Patrick Weekes.

Much, much longer version:

1. I don’t know how reasonable it is to try to extrapolate about what’s going to be in the next game based on a random short story collection, but hey, the novels that came out before DAI were about the mage rebellion, the Orlesian civil war, and eluvians, so.

So things I’m now expecting to see in the next game, aside from the Tevinter-Qunari conflict and Solas of course: Nevarran necromancy, Antivan Crows, Wardens who are struggling with decimated numbers after DAO and DAI (would be the perfect time for Razikale and Lusacan to both wake up at once really), and the Lords of Fortune, a never-before-mentioned Rivaini treasure hunting organization which appeared in I think three different stories here. 

Plus a few stories were very much signalling This Specific New Character Will Be Showing Up Again, whether in the games or elsewhere; I'll be shocked if Lucanis the “Demon,” reluctant heir apparent of the Antivan Crows who just got into a cliffhanger conflict with a Tevinter magister, doesn’t have more to do.

2. THERE IS A MAP, there is a great big fantasy map surrounded by nifty little illustrative details to poke at.

There’s a label reading “White Spire,” not in Val Royeaux, but on a mountain beyond the Arlathan Forest. Is that an error or is there really a White Spire mountain? If not an error, has it always been named that or is that new, possibly a new center for the mages after the war, after the original Spire fell? At no point is either Spire mentioned in this book aside from this map.

Lots of astrological sun and moon patterns prominently featured around the edges. Is that one moon chart depicting moon phases or an eclipse? Is it too conspiracy theory of me to be counting the nine dark moons (or spheres? like in that DA4 idol illustration’s seven slots?) on the dragon’s wing? Probably. Or are those spheres a reference to the second moon that never seems to actually be visible, is that missing moon actually deliberate. 

Most of the astrological charts are fairly straightforwardly showing sun/moon phases but what is the crowned figure in the one on the lower right meant to represent? The Maker? What’s going on with the horizontal lines passing through it/behind it? The two moons beneath it - is that an illustration of the moon in two phases or being separated into two (metaphorical moon in that case, presumably), do those horizontal lines also indicate separation, do I need to move on from the astrological depictions here, definitely.

Love the big horseshoe crab sea monster.

3. Patrick Weekes’s first story in the collection: halla shapeshifting! An elf named Strife who I fully expected to be revealed as an agent of Fen’harel mimicking ancient elven names like Sorrow and Pride, though I was wrong - would it be charming or just annoyingly unsubtle if that became a thing among his agents. An ancient forest guardian with lyrium blades who hunts magic in a way that struck me an awful lot like a forest-themed equivalent of a golem, though I may be wildly off base with that one.

4. Nevarran necromancy story. An odd bit of the chant to highlight for a funeral: “And the Maker, clad in the majesty of the sky, set foot to earth, and at His touch all warring ceased.” I continue to squint suspiciously at overlaps between Maker and elven god imagery. Also, evidently mortalitasi believe that when someone dies, an inhuman spirit is pushed out from the Fade into the physical world, and that’s part of the reason behind their housing spirits in bodies - neat! The existence of Curiosity spirits, also neat!

5. Is Ghilan’nain’s horrible body horror place supposed to be spelled Hormak like in the title and previous canon references, or Hormok like throughout the text here? I know this was just a mistake but maybe I’ll use this to say that in-world there’s multiple ways of transliterating Dwarven.

6. Lukas Kristjanson story #1, the one featuring approximately a million minor Inquisition character cameos and a meditation on Solas’s regrets, introduces a character with the phrase “free mage by special commendation,” and I was briefly thrown by that little signal that we are Not In My Worldstate, that the mages aren’t all free by default - except then the story went on to destroy Solas’s fresco so I wound up quite grateful for that little heads up that this isn’t my worldstate actually.

(Unfortunately I can’t get into this guy’s writing style at all, which is a shame because it’s one of the big Solas stories in the book.)

7. There’s a little plot point in the Wigmaker Job story that demonstrates those elven artifacts Solas had us activate all over Thedas do indeed strengthen the Veil - like, he wasn’t lying to us about what those orbs do, that is how they work, here we see a Crow stab one in order to deactivate it, weaken the Veil and unleash a horde of vengeful demons. Nice confirmation.

8. Genitivi is the Randy Dowager. (Possibly. At least, Philliam wrote a scene in which Genitivi alludes to being the Randy Dowager. I do appreciate an unreliable narrator but after a certain point it does make the lore hard to keep straight.)

9. By the time we got to the story about adventurers stealing an incredibly powerful healing amulet just to donate it to a mysterious contact at a makeshift hospital trying to help people where the Qunari-Tevinter war has spilled over, I knew better than to expect any cameos from DAO/DA2 characters. And with the mention of the squire, I was pretty sure the mysterious contact was going to be Vaea, and it was. Still. Anders would approve. And for a moment I was fantasizing that it would turn out to be him, or connected to him. A new mental setting for him and Hawke post-mage-freedom - makeshift hospitals at the edge of the invasion, secretly sponsored by a certain pair of absurdly overpowered, dungeon-crawling, treasure-hunting fugitives.

Yes, my Dragon Age interpreting is still all about Anders even when he’s not remotely present.

10. You know, I really expected the leaders of the Crows to be a bit more ruthlessly competent than this. Someone is setting up a grand demonstration, recreating infamous historical assassinations carried out by the Crows but now with the leaders of the Crows themselves as the victims, incredibly flashy, incredibly clearly sending a message, and yet not one of the characters trying to figure out whodunit is speculating about the meaning behind that message??? the motive in going to all that trouble??? it’s all, hm, perhaps it’s the qunari invaders. hm, this one was posed with a pearl necklace just like the one in the historical murder it’s recreating, i bet the culprit owns a pearl-fishing business! I know they’re assassins not detectives but at least show the professional courtesy of paying attention to the message in the show your fellow assassin is putting on for you, geez.

Anyway. Interesting Crow details: they talked about neutral ground and territories divided between the Crow households here, does that just apply to Antiva or like, does Arainai have claim to all jobs in Ferelden? 

And the line “Teia's back was bare except for a tattoo marking her as a member of House Cantori” puts Zevran’s tattoos in a slightly different light for me - he’s mentioned that some symbols are sacred to the Crows, and logically it follows that having that symbol tattooed on him would indeed mark him as a Crow to other people in the know, but that his tattoos mark him as belonging to House Arainai is a thing that did not hit me from that.

11. An agent of Fen’harel muttering “Felassan” to activate a rune. In memoriam? Charming. I mean it’s a rune that’s intended to kill an entire city, so possibly the more literal slow arrow is meant, but I’m still charmed.

12. PATRICK WEEKES CLOSING OUT THE BOOK BY JUST DUMPING THE CONTINUING DREAD WOLF HUNT PLOT ON US. 

So much. 

An actual giant wolf in the Fade, I’m so happy for tumblr user corseque. 

A character again raising the possibility that Solas is not an ancient elf but rather a young elf who stumbled onto old magic, a theory I thought debunked by Trespasser but here we are considering it again. 

A minor side note that a lot of Kirkwall’s templars went rogue after the explosion - that’s not relevant to the post-DAI plot really, I’m just noting it for my generally-DA2-focused fanfic purposes. 

The possibility that somniari (presumably) can kill even dwarves who don’t dream in their sleep. Somniari in general or did Solas personally step in here?

A ritual involving the red lyrium idol resulting in the phrase “As if we were the blood and the cavern the body through which it flowed” right before the POV character enters the Fade, which is a rather Titan-esque turn of phrase. 

The Dread Wolf again asserting that all creation is in danger and he’s trying to fix that. A biased POV character recognizing that, huh, funny how those spirits around the Dread Wolf which surely must be demons actually look an awful lot like Justice and Valor. 

And Charter’s notes at the end, so direct, not only spelling out the new details on the idol for us (that the figure represents a crowned figure comforting another) but thoroughly hitting us over the head with Solas’s essential characterization in his own words, as if Weekes is still trying to clear up any possible lingering misinterpretations there. (Prideful, hotheaded, foolish. Doing what he must. Sympathetic to elves. Said that he was sorry.)

And the quiet simplicity of Solas coming to this meeting of spies in person because, pause, “...the Inquisition was involved,” written in such a way that you could read all sorts of things into that pause, whatever the Inquisition and the Inquisitor might mean to him.

The book would have been worth reading for this last story alone, what a note to end on.

[ladala99]

Spyro Reignited Countdown - A Hero’s Tail

And finally we get... I guess it’s not really a return to form but it is a return to greatness.

A Hero’s Tail uses the Spyro characters and basic mechanics and makes it a modern (for the time) platformer. This does eliminate one of the franchise’s core features (finite gems), but ultimately, it did a good job and did the franchise justice.

And it also officially introduces Ember, who Spyro fanficcers liked to ship with Spyro, especially as a rival ship versus Cynder of later titles. Yes, that was a part of the fanbase I frequented. I am not sorry.

Gameplay

Spyro’s controls are brought to the modern (again, for the time) age, with a much more responsive camera and really that’s the only major difference. Spyro feels like Spyro. He flames, he charges, and he glides.

...Well, aside from the fact that they swapped the Flame and Charge buttons, and now you have to hold X to glide rather than just press it. I first played this game as a demo and legitimately thought the change was a mistake, but nope. Not entirely sure why it was made, but it was. Perhaps it aligns with other PS2 platformers better?

Mini rant, courtesy of how 3-year-old me remembered the controls: Circle is flame because it’s red and the mouth makes an O. Square is Charge because the sides are pointy. X is jump because the X is blue like air and you are in the air while jumping. Triangle is zoom in because the bottom represents a really wide view and the top represents a really narrow view. Why would you change this?

But anyway, it works for the game. Aside from not matching previous games, it’s easy to adapt to and the controls are very responsive. They’re not quite as tight as in the originals, but they’re very close.

Additional Playable Characters

We’ve got a few this time. There’s Hunter, Sparx, Sgt. Byrd and the new character Blink. Totally new. What are you talking about with the “but he appeared in a GBA game”?

While Hunter was technically playable before, this is the first time you can platform with him. His moveset’s pretty similar to Spyro’s, aside from one of his main attacks being very ranged. Aside from his arrows, he’s basically Spyro, but not as maneuverable. Yeah, he can scale walls and Spyro doesn’t in this game, but that ability originally belonged to Spyro, so it doesn’t feel unique.

What is unique is that one section that you’re forced to play as him as part of the story. That was neat. And frustrating because he does not platform as well as Spyro does, since his movements are floaty and you can’t correct them with gliding like you can Spyro’s, and this area has a lot of small platforms.

Sparx has a completely different gameplay style this time: rail-shooter. It’s honestly not that bad, especially in comparison to Season of Ice’s Speedways. I just prefer the other Sparx gameplay.

Sgt. Byrd, speaking of Speedways, takes over for Spyro during them. And his levels are definitely not designed in the same way the old Speedways were designed. It used to be that there was a clear linear path to take from one object to the next, but that is not the case here. I like these Speedways better than Season of Ice’s, but I don’t like them much.

As far as actual controls go, Sgt. Byrd does just fine. Sometimes his turning is a little difficult, but it works for how wide open the areas are.

Blink controls very similarly to Hunter, with the main difference being how the level is designed. Blink’s levels are all underground, having a specific set of enemies and such, and they’re all considered minigames with the goal of destroying Dark Gems. He suffers from the same floatiness as Hunter, and there’s certainly a lot of platforms. Somehow, though, his levels never got me stuck like Hunter’s did in that one section.

Sometimes I feel that Eurocom wanted to make a Blink game, not a Spyro game. While Blink’s levels are minigames, they’re really fleshed out and well-designed. They have plenty of variety, if not in appearance.

Collectables

Gems are not just currency to be used at Moneybags’ shop. They’re found everywhere, and can be collected from enemies multiple times. At the beginning you’ll be hurting for them, but by the end of the game you’ll have much more than you know what to do with. At least, that’s my experience.

Dragon Eggs return, with a twist. They’re pretty much optional, and much less valuable than the other main collectable. This time, dragon eggs come in different patterns and if you collect a set, you unlock a thing. A lot of those things are just the ability to play minigames from the main menu.

The things that I care about are the concept art gallery (as that’s always cool) and the Ember and Flame skins. Mostly Ember since I like playing as female characters. It’s just a skin, though, and it changes back to Spyro in cutscenes plus uses his sound effects. Still: first time skins are in the game, unless you count the color cheats!

Finally we get Light Gems. They’re used to power up gadgets and open doors. They’re required for progress in certain places, but not always. They’re always rewarded on the second round of minigames, which means everybody talks about how worthless Dragon Eggs are in comparison. We don’t want these unborn children, give us the shiny thing!

Oh, and Dark Gems. They aren’t collected, but destroyed. You need to smash all of them to continue.  They’re just scattered around the levels. You’ll come across them.

Powerups

Supercharge returns! Sort of! It’s one of the powerups that the Professor unlocks for you when you collect enough Light Gems. It really doesn’t feel the same, and it’s used for a few doors, some of which you can’t just charge to from the pad.

There’s also invincibility which works like it did in Lost Fleet, allowing you to travel through acid. Just with a stricter time limit and now it makes Spyro metal rather than red.

Finally I’ll mention the orb-thingys that let you use a ranged version of your breath abilities. I literally have never used them, but they’re there. I can’t say one way or the other how useful they are, but they definitely are not necessary.

Other Modes

The other minigames, as all minigames repeat, are turrets and ball gadgets.

Turrets aren’t hard, but they are stressful. You need to protect the thing while other things try to steal/eat/whatever it. Or you need to protect yourself and hit a huge number of enemies. I don’t like this minigame. Especially the baby turtle one.

Ball Gadgets are much more fun to watch than they are to play. The controls work, but it takes a bit to stop. There’s also a couple of on-rails ones that are really trial-and-error. Even knowing what to do, you’re going to fast to react so you need to memorize every action.

Breath Abilities

This game continues the trend of having them! And acts like it’s the first time at the same time. Enter the Dragonfly is apparently not canon.

Fire acts like it always has. They didn’t do the particle effect thing like Enter the Dragonfly did so it moves forward with you as it should.

Electricity starts out as a weaker Fire and then ends up being much more useful. It takes longer to defeat enemies, but there are certain enemies that are immune to Fire but not Electricity. After a point, it’s not worth it to switch back, since Fire just isn’t universally useful like Electricity is.

Water is just used for puzzles. Nothing else. This is also the only time Water is an element in the series.

Ice freezes certain things (like steam vents so you can use them to pole spin), and enemies of course. There are certain enemies in the final area that are only weak to Ice. (Maybe Water too, but I haven’t tried) Otherwise it freezes enemies so you can charge them like in other games.

Bosses

Finally, we get some new ones!

Gnasty Gnorc returns as the first boss. He’s actually far stronger than he was in Spyro 1, ironically enough. The fight itself is a pretty fun platformer boss fight, but his personality... it’s so childish. It’s like they didn’t know who he really was before.

Ineptune is a new character. The fight itself is, again, great for this style of game. Her character is kind of forgettable, though.

And then we get Red, who we fight twice. The first time is actually harder if only for the fact that you’re in an icy arena and thus the controls are more slippery. He’s not a very complex villain, but his fights are pretty fun, but very similar to the other two.

Special mention to the mammoth, who wins via being in a cutscene. You never see him again, having no chance to best him. He is truly Spyro’s greatest foe.

Levels

Continuing from Attack of the Rhynocs, the levels are much more seamless. They’re still very distinct, but in a lot of cases (moreso early-on than later) they feel like the same level as you begin in.

And again like Attack of the Rhynocs, the levels don’t have concrete ends. You can check your map and see how many Dark Gems are left, but it doesn’t really feel like you’ve finished even after you smash them all.

There’s no main conflict to defeat or anything, it’s just exploring and smashing Dark Gems, and occasionally finding a Dragon Elder to give you new skills. You get a checklist, but it’s not the same.

The theming is fine, if generic. Older Spyro games tended to have an irony to them, but not this one. Everything is played straight. Which, of course, makes it so this game doesn’t stand out very much.

Story

I don’t even know if I fully understand it. So Red’s an evil dragon who mined some Dark Gems to spread evil throughout the lands. And the Elders are very hesitant to tell you more.

Eventually it comes out that Red used to be an Elder, but he betrayed them. I really don’t understand why they couldn’t just tell Spyro that. Do the Elders just have a reputation that they don’t want to sully or something?

We get no motivation on Red’s part, and normally I’d be fine with that, but with all the secrets I expect a bit more. Also: who’s Ineptune in all this?

There’s parts where I feel I missed a game. Ember knows Spyro, and Spyro appears to know Ember. I feel like I should know who Ineptune is just because of how little introduction she gets.

I read that there was going to be a TV show that got cancelled but the games didn’t, but it was literally one forum post and it may have just been someone making things up. It would certainly explain things, though.

Unique in the Series?

Yes and no. It definitely has a unique feel as far as the series goes, but it’s very generic at the same time.

A lot of what it introduces is used again in later games, even though that part of the series is very different.

But yeah, Water Breath, Pole Spinning, and Wall Kicking are unique to this game in the series. They aren’t unique in general (See: Mario. Yes, even Water Breath. See: Sunshine), but for the series, definitely.

It’s at that weird awkward part in which it’s not anything groundbreaking, but it’s still really good.

Conclusion

Best post-Insomniac Classic Spyro, if only by default. It’s generic for its time, bringing Spyro fully into said time. It works, it’s fun, and I wish there were more to this part of the series that weren’t... well, Orange.

[terryblount]

The Mighty Quest For Epic Loot (Mobile) – Review

Do you remember The Mighty Quest For Epic Loot? It was a free-to-play game by Ubisoft that involves Diablo-like action RPG and an interesting castle building mechanic, where you make the levels other players are raiding and looting.

You don’t? Yeah, unfortunately, that game got shut down.

Fortunately, The Mighty Quest For Epic Loot has now lived on again as a mobile game, with some major changes. It’s a decent free-to-play action RPG, but without any neat gimmicks, I find it hard to imagine this game can stand out from the deluge of free mobile games.

Presentation

First, let’s start with the strong point of The Mighty Quest For Epic Loot. Its loot is epic. As in, the whole look and feel really stand out. The whole aesthetic is about simple colour shades but with art design that stands out.

There’s a good amount of variety on how the loot, or gear, you acquire. The levels, which may be simple to navigate, is nice to look at. A good mix of drab dungeons and appropriately opulent landscapes. The combat sounds punchy and feels satisfying thanks to the nice little animations.

There’s this hint of edginess to the dialogue texts, but it’s totally PG-13.

However, I feel that some parts of the UI are a little too cluttered. I don’t feel the need to have a tab just for the many different ways to upgrade because I prefer doing it all on the gear tab. But going in one of the upgrades menu, then exit back and it will throw me to the upgrade tab, not the gear tab I was on before. A few of the menus feel like one click too many. And the in-game shop is a mess of too many options to throw your premium currency, or real money, at.

Gameplay

The Mighty Quest For Epic Loot is an action RPG looter game, or a hack-and slash Diablo-like. A looter-hack-n’-slasher?

The premise is that you need to traverse the lands of Opulencia in search of the Epic King, and get loot along the way. The lands are conveniently, separated into multiple floating islands, which makes up for the bite-sized levels.

These levels take less than 3 minutes to complete, with some branching paths that hide treasure chests. The gameplay loop is simple- go in a level, kill enemies, loot the area, win, upgrade or get more loot, and repeat. It’s simple, but proven.

Being on mobile devices, the game is designed for one thumb/finger use. Tap and hold to move, swipe to roll and tap to attack. You have access to three skill buttons, located depending on the opposite side of the screen of your dominant hand- to the lefties out there, the developers got you covered.

The combat is pretty satisfying. The characters, both yours and the enemies, are animated well and there’s a good heft on each melee attack. Especially the hammer, it has a good thud to it. When you’re overpowered, tapping the screen is just glorious to see.

But it’s not that simplistic. As later levels reveal, there are enemies with specific attack patterns, each clearly projected beforehand with glowing circles and lines like an MMO RPG. This is seen most in the boss fights. Status effects and environmental hazards also come into play later on. It difficulty trickles in slowly- you’ll be getting progress blocks thanks to the required gear level than the moment-to-moment gameplay most of the time- but it does ratchet up significantly.

But the thing is, outside of the small details, this is pretty much what you’d expect on any other RPG of its liking on mobile. Sans waifus.

Content

Mighty Quest does not have customisable characters, unfortunately- so you’re stuck with that generic default man. Though thankfully, the gear you get to equip really changes your look drastically. Some of the gear even changes appearance once you’ve upgraded it to a higher star.

The game does not have classes, so you can mix and match your gear, weapons, skills and talents (passives) to your liking. There’s some depth to mixing the skills and talents, you can totally make one skill overpowered by stacking all the passives slots for just one skill.

There’s only one ranged weapon type on launch- the staff. So even with the classless system, there is not much variety on character builds that changes your moment-to-moment gameplay.

There are ten Acts in Mighty Quest that makes up for your normal progression currently, with two additional harder difficulties to unlock. With the usual energy meter and the bump in required gear score, our guess is that it will take a week or two of playing to see them all without spending money.

There is a PVP mode, the Arena. It’s a four-player, free-for-all deathmatch and it’s utter chaos. The good thing is matches are only one-minute long so you don’t feel too salty if you’re losing thanks to kill-stealers. It’s a legitimate strategy in this mode.

The loot itself is great, but earning the good ones, of course, will take time and money. There are loot chests you can open, both using paid currency and in-game resources. There is also a battle pass, the paid version is bought using the paid currency. And there’s tons and tons of paid bundles on offer. Ubisoft isn’t shy about asking for your money.

The problem is the loot from regular levels are, as expected, pretty useless. You can fuse those loot to level up the ones you love, and you can raise each of the loot’s star level, should you have the resources. It’s time-consuming, but possible. But it makes that rare occasion of a good chest opening more exciting. Just like any mobile game these days.

But, if you don’t mind all of these, Mighty Quest will keep your busy. PVP, battle pass challenges, daily tasks, and events will keep you busy, and the developers promise to continue updating the game.

Personal Enjoyment

I came in with zero expectations on Mighty Quest. And I came out after completing half of the main progression Acts, and a lot of the PVP, feeling this game is okay. Ubisoft Paris Mobile nailed the loot design, which got me hooked enough to play until the game has me stopping due to energy meters. It’s a competently made action RPG, and simplified in the right ways for mobile.

But maybe a bit too simple and a bit too bland as a result. I wish there were a gender choice and distinct character classes. And I can’t point any cool gimmick or mechanic that other mobile game hasn’t done yet.

Also, I have to point out during the review process, the servers can be a bit lagging. So many button prompts took too long to process- which adds to the clunky UI feel. There were even server outages and lost saves happening. Though the game heavily compensated for such errors- I got enough premium currency from these issues to get the battle pass.

Verdict

The Mighty Quest For Epic Loot delivers a solid action RPG experience for free on mobile. The well-crafted loot and gear designs you get to wear, the pretty art style and good-feeling combat should be enough for some folks to keep their thumb tapping every day. But aside from that, everything else feels too familiar if you’ve seen and played enough mobile games.

Mighty Quest is decent, but at its current state, it will need to do more to keep you hooked in the long run. It’s still worth checking out for a bit if you’re curious.

The game is out now on iOS and Android.

Review based on the Android version played on a Moto G5. Early access to the game provided by the publisher

The Mighty Quest For Epic Loot (Mobile) – Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[livefromhouseatlantic]

Chain Breaking, pt 12

Okay. I'm running on like two hours of sleep. This has been more common in the last week or two. I've been walking up at eight or nine am like clockwork (I'm born on an eighth. I've always felt 8 was my number.) Generally, with considerable effort (two or three hours of tossing and turning kind of effort) I've been able to get back to sleep, but I didn't bother today. I'm off anyway, whatever.

I've got tricks that help me sleep. Some are healthy. Meditative exercises, that type of thing. I picked up some from my parents and the internet at a young age to cope with vivid, recurring nightmares. With enough focus, you can sort of think parts of your body to sleep, pins and needles and everything.  It's kind of neat. The idea is that you work your way from your toes to your head, blanking out your mind and your whole body as you go.That one... doesn't work as well as it used to. I can still do the pins and needles part, not so much the fall asleep part.

I have unhealthy ones, too. Here's a cough remedy that I do not recommend you try. You take two tablespoons of Robitussin or Buckley's. Pour em into a NeoCitran if you want, or don't. Add honey for flavor. Then put in two to three shots of whiskey. That's a Scots thing, actually. Got it from my mum, who got it from her mum. It's called a Hot Toddy (not “totty.” That means a totally different thing). I just added cough syrup one night when I was really congested. That one was from a coworker at my old job. I don't care how sick you are - you're going to bed after that. If that'll put me out, it'll probably work for you.

I kinda used that when I wasn't sick for a while there. I've stopped doing that. I've also stopped reaching for the bottle of Grants I keep on my makeshift liquor shelf. Partly, I'm on a health kick. Liquor is not my protein shakes. It won't help me. Part of it is I know that relying on shit like that to sleep is probably not a great idea. Self control, right?

But the downside is, it leaves me a bit stuck. I work night shifts and get home at 6 am. So I'm going to bed as the sun is rising. I've tried melatonin in the past during other, more pronounced bouts of insomnia. It didn't really help me much after the first two days. So, I toss and turn. And buy blackout blinds. And hope that if and when I do go back under, I wake up with my alarm. That hasn't really been happening. I haven't been late for work yet, which is a plus.

So, last post talked about Invisible Kid. Bit of a segue, maybe, but I do think all of this ties together somehow.

I'm having a much easier time talking to people about where I'm at after having written these. After all, if you really wanted to, you could look me up and read it all anyway, and ask me about it, so I might as well be open. That's actually why I've made a point of telling some friends about all of this and asking people to read it. If I know people are reading it or are at least aware, then I fulfill the criteria laid out in that previous thought. Gotta be open. It's all out there anyway, and easy enough to find if you're familiar with tumblr. I need that in order to really talk completely freely. At the same time, doing this puts me more than a little outside of my comfort zone. I'd rather be quiet, as mentioned before. It's what I know. So I'm a little nervous about having this all out there for the whole world to see. But, same time, as I've said, it doesn't matter who knows, they won't bother to read it. And if I ask, I'm unnecessarily burdening people I care about by making them have to deal with me. And they'll reject me for being a head case. (Authors note: I hope I remember to put all the hyperlinks into this draft later. I'm not used to writing in stages. I usually bang out whatever I'm working on and then it's done. My compromise is that all I'm editing are hyperlinks and the occasional spelling error that I catch. I'm not changing the wording of any of this in order to maintain an honest stream of my thought process).

That whole paragraph there ^ is as close to an actual look at the "script" (if you will) of what goes on upstairs as I think I can manage. As you can see, there's a lot of ping pong action happening. I just kind of bounce from one put down to another at a fast pace, and then it loops back around. The first parts would be my actual thinking or desires, namely, to be able to tie this all together to make it make sense for me, and anyone else who I might happen to talk to about any of what's going on. The rest is "the noise". "The guy upstairs". I've been told that I'm "the reasonable one"; I'm inclined to agree. The guy upstairs tends to be kind of an asshole.

In all honesty, looking back at some of these posts, I'm thinking maybe that this isn't a guy upstairs, so much. And he's probably not as much of a jerk as I think. You know how people talk about their "inner child"? I'm guessing that somewhere in here is a very scared and very sad twelve to fifteen year old who never thinks he'll be good enough for anyone or anything else on Earth and is just resigned to being discarded like yesterday's classifieds and left alone. Any time I feel rejected or unfulfilled in any way, these patterns of thought tend to start back up, and a lot of the time, my reaction is sadness or fear. Sometimes it's followed up by anger. Other times I just get stuck in the "sad" gear and I just weep. Here's a line from Fall Out Boy: "I've cried tears you've never seen..." Could be that there's more than one cause for my different tracks of thought. As I've mentioned, I can have more than one or two going at once in a way that I find very detrimental.

I'm the type that, as mentioned, tries to tell the truth all the time. I tend to take people at face value - what reason do you have to lie? That's burned me on more than one occasion. I got into a relationship back in 2016 with a girl to whom I had grown really close over the preceding five years. She talked about emotional bonds. Said a lot of things that were really nice about wanting to be with me, etc etc. Had just (finally) gotten out of a really on again, off again relationship with some guy who she'd given me and others the impression was... Kind of a loser. I never really met the guy, so I can't actually say. It had lasted most of the preceding five years.

There were high points. Mostly at the start. The relationship itself was a nightmare in the end. She changed - not in the normal way you kind of expect when you date someone. It wasn't just seeing more of her in an unguarded state. She was completely, 100% different. Callous. Mean spirited. Manipulative. Fond of gas lighting. She preyed on a lot of my own self doubts and had me doubting that what I was seeing was true. Folks with low self esteem tend to criticize others and tear them down instead. They might talk about your weight. Or your habits that they don't like. They might just say or do something really mean and then somehow blame you for it, like it's your fault for misinterpreting something or seeing something that wasn't there. This relationship only lasted three months. I ended it in a moment of clarity when I realized that it wasn't going to get any better, only worse, and that I deserved better. The length of time I was in it didn't fuck me up as much as, like, the thought that none of it was real. I'd been so close to this friend and trusted her. Believed she was looking out for me. And then I got to date this person that was totally different. Viciously so.

I stayed single after that. I dated around my workplace and picked up a girl here and there from bar nights or whatever. Turns out I can't do causal well. That, or I picked the wrong people to do that with. I found one or two that reminded me of this ex in all of the wrong ways (and managed to be wary, but not wary enough at times). I'm closer to you after I take you home. I've shared part of me that not a whole heck of a lot of people get to see. I feel that in sharing whatever took place, you mean more to me. Not everyone feels the same way about that, and that's honestly okay, I understand that. Again, I can empathize.

It's just that I also tend to end up feeling kind of... disposable. (I told you we'd get to that!) I've described to people I trust before that I feel very much like a way station. In other words, I'm just a transient point. The lace between where you're from and where you're going. A lot of the people I have dated over the years have (or had) perhaps more baggage than would be considered "normal" - whatever normal means, anyway. I'm honestly not sure. Anyway, I've often come away from relationships feeling as though all I'm going to ever do is be there for folks who will, in time, toss me aside as soon as it's convenient and then move on to greener pastures. Call it what you will; a B-Team, the second string, way station, "any port in a storm", disposable, it all means the same thing in my head, anyway. It means that you’re going to use me for whatever emotional or physical support I might be able to offer, build yourself back up as best you can, and then - leave. Byeeeeee.

A friend of mine from my old job said it really well - "I pretend to be a cynic, but really, I'm a hopeless romantic at heart". I feel kind of the same way about myself. I'd like very much, anyway, to be a romantic. I just tend to get scared. And I also get very bleak. After 2016, I concluded that I was never going to be in a meaningful relationship again, because there was no way that anyone would ever like me in that way. I can’t actually remember what specific thing brought that feeling on - but I could definitely point to any post in this series as a background reason for thinking that. Sometimes, I get hopeful that I am wrong. Any time I try and fail, I kind of reinforce to myself that I am, in fact, doomed. Unlikable. Unlovable. And then it repeats... you get the idea. 

That might be it for tonight. I've been looking forward to tonight for a few days now, and I honestly don't know how late I'll be up afterwards, because I'm exhausted. I might actually sleep tonight, which would be nice. Fingers crossed.