#worst part of modding is the modding. but once its done its awesome

[cescalr]

This may be the 20th time I've restarted trying to set up my skyrim mod list

[askaceattorney]

Off I pop

A little tribute to my dad there.  ; )

Hap’piraki once again!  Here we are at my final day as a moderator here (temporarily, at least), so...

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(Oh, jeez...  What am I supposed to say here?  Where’s a cue card when you need one?)

So, to begin with, let me reiterate that I’m planning to be gone until July -- that may change, but that’s the plan for now -- and by “gone” I don’t mean I won’t be around, just that I won’t be answering letters.  I’ll still check in every now and then to make sure things are going all right, and I’ll continue posting the remaining character essays that have been requested.  This won’t include any new requests you may have, though, so you’ll either have to ask a different mod or wait until I get back for that.

In the meantime, I’d like to share a few short things about myself, and how Ace Attorney and Ask Ace Attorney have, in my opinion, changed my life for the better.

...Beeeeeeeeeeeeeelow the cut.

So, as I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been dealing with some serious struggles in recent days.  Oddly enough, most of them haven’t been directly related to the pandemic, the political tension, or anything else 2020 brought with it.  For me, the biggest struggles have been internal ones, most of which had to do with my self-confidence.

I’m going to borrow a quote from the Mod (writing as Dahlia Hawthorne, of all people): “When a person speaks, they say whatever is on their mind.  When a person writes, they are allowed to revise and rework.  Literature is the distillation of a person’s intentions into even a single sentence.”  In other words (no pun intended), writing lets a person say things in the most polished way they can, without having to worry about things like stuttering, second-guessing, or sounding insincere.  That’s the version of me that you get here.

In the real world, I’m as human as anyone else: dealing with things like stress, anger, self-doubt, depression, anxiety, worry, lack of motivation, etc.  I’d like to say that I deal with these flaws as best as humanly possible, but that isn’t the case a lot of the time.  In the 30+ years I’ve been alive, I’ve been guilty (no pun intended) of letting my emotions get the best of me, giving up on things too easily, wasting time lamenting the past, and treating myself worse than Franziska treats Gumshoe.  I can’t claim to have been very nice to everyone else I’ve met, either.

The point of this post isn’t to whine about my shortcomings, though.  See, out of all the demons I’ve had to face, one of the worst has been the idea that I can’t do anything well enough for it to make any real difference in the world, and never will be able to.  I hope you haven’t had to struggle with this idea yourself, but if so, you have my sympathy.

Thankfully, I happened to discover a video game series and a fan-made blog that helped me realize how untrue that idea was.  Which ones am I referring to?  I’ll give you one guess.

Like many people do when they suddenly gain some new responsibility (even if it’s something they like), when I first joined the blog,  I struggled with a thing called “impostor syndrome,” which is, according to the internet, “an internal experience of believing that you are not as competent as others perceive you to be.”  Sure, I’d done some comedic writing for fun before, and I'd known about Ace Attorney and its characters for quite a while, but was I really qualified to continue the Ace Admin and the Mod’s labor of love?  And what would it mean if I wasn’t?  Over 11,000 people (minus some bots) were reading what I wrote, after all, so could I continue making the blog enjoyable for all of them?

(Trick question -- satisfying everyone is an impossible feat, it turns out.)

Questions like that bugged me consistently, but thanks to the love of Ace Attorney I shared with the fan base, and the creativity afforded by its fun characters and their incredible stories, I was able not only to power through the challenges of running a popular blog, but to help make it into something even bigger than it was before, as well as gaining some interesting insights from people about a wide range of topics: the law, morality, science, religion, history, politics, philosophy...

...hairstyles...

...and so on.  I'm not sure what I was expecting to happen when I started out, but I sure didn’t see anything like that coming.

So, in summary, this blog and the series that inspired it didn’t just help me to maintain a healthy self-image, which is something every person needs; it’s been a huge part of what kept me sane these last few years.  Athena and her psychotherapy may not be real, but being able to strengthen my writing, artistic, and comedic skills here -- and to delight so many people while doing it -- might have been the closest I could possibly get to it.

And that, my friends, is where you come in.  I’ve said it plenty of times before, but here it is again: this blog couldn’t possibly exist without you.  Whatever reason you may have had for writing a letter to me, a different moderator, or the character of your choice -- whether it was curiosity, love, criticism, or just for the heck of it -- I want you to know that it played a part in reminding me that I, like everyone else, shortcomings and all, am capable of making a difference in the world, even if it’s just for a few Phellow Phoenix Phans.  Needless to say, I’ve appreciated every last bit of it.

My hope is to be able to do something similar to this in the future, possibly on a larger scale (what exactly, I don’t know), but even if that doesn’t come to pass, I’ll always be grateful for the positive impact I was able to make here thanks to your interaction, support, and willingness to appreciate the genius of Ace Attorney alongside me.  I repeat myself, but you guys are awesome.  Never stop being that way.

And yeah, I realize this isn’t my final goodbye.  I just thought I should treat it like it was just in case.  ; )

Anyway, it’s time for one last thing this post would be incomplete without: a heartfelt...

I’ll see you ‘round, folks!

-The Co-Mod

[donaeis]

simmer - get to know

by @cupcakegnome​

i was tagged by the amazing @whyhellosims​ and couldn’t pass up on this awesome opportunity to allow yall to get to know me a bit better! 💖

your name: I went on discord a few years ago for some sims help and just named my account Figaro after my favorite horse without really thinking about it... then I actually got hooked on discord and my friends started calling me Fig, so... fig it is! here’s the real fig, though, for those who are interested:

hes more amazing than i could ever dream to be.

languages you speak: dutch, english, german (i'm gonna go as far as to say dutch and german are mutually intelligible, and tho this gives a bit less of an incentive to actually learn german when germans will understand ur dutch just fine, it also makes learning german significantly easier). I tried to learn greek but even after years and years i just couldnt get past the alphabet LOL. the only greek I know are the bits and pieces I learned from my time spent there, but id have 0 idea how to actually spell that stuff out.

are you a mermaid: if only!! i do feel a very strong connection to water, though—my dad built his own sailing boat and traveled the world with it, and during his travels me and my sis been visiting a lot, living on his boat with him while we did

your play style: so, so story-driven... even when I tell myself I just wanna play the game without a story for once I end up with one by the end of my play session anyway.

your selfsim picture:

stories or gameplay, builds, lookbooks, edits or cc: I do stories most of all, but also like regular gameplay, my stories will for a very large part be game-driven, and from time to time ill post some builds. ive done a lookbook too. basically the only thing that wont have too much of a focus on my blog, despite my using it, is cc

your favorite age state: YA

your favorite season: winter

your favorite holiday: talk like a pirate day!

how was your day: actually absolutely terrible LOL. hungover, lost my temper on both a customer as well as a coworker... at least i got through it. 😂

your favorite career: admittedly, I rarely actually play careers cause my sims are way too busy or too dumb to actually be able to go there. if I had to choose any, though... I might actually go with the military

your favorite aspiration: the one that the most of my sims have completed is Friend of the World, cause I like for my sims to be sociable so it doesnt take too much effort to complete it anyway, and the reward of relationships never decaying is great

your favorite EP, SP or GP: vampires will always hold a special place in my heart, but I also absolutely love strangerville! if I had to choose any one favorite, id go with that one.

how old is your simblr: I posted some stuff in march last year but havent been active since, like, november? december? something like that

have you woohooed: yes

your favorite skill: charisma, cause theyll develop it automatically as I play

the size of your mods folder: 2.77 GB

your 3 favorite mods: mc command center, npc control, and personality please (links) are the three mods i absolutely couldn’t play without

your interests (other than sims): writing, dancing, creating (i love things like character creation), horse riding & anything involving animals, really.

your favorite sim (picture if possible): this is actually incredibly difficult for me cause im not sure i have 1 favorite. a lot of sims of mine will always hold a special place in my heart. my favorite sim to play fluctuates a lot... but god, if i had to choose any favorite sim whom i really completely made through sims and who was not a non-sims character already precious to me turned into a sims character.... itd probably be tika. hes an asshole but man, do i just love him and especially his story.

which Sims games you have played (including mobile games): the sims 1, 2 and 4

propose a crazy scheme: the sims community actually coming up with some GOOD sims 4 qualities for once 

best part of simblr: the amazing people I got to meet on here!

worst part of simblr: hmm... though i feel its much much less toxic than places like youtube or even the official forums, there is still some negativity here sometimes

what other games you play: im kind of a noob with other games, honestly. I used to play a whooole bunch of horse-related games (am a total horse girl), and I played the battle for middle earth (also looove me some LOTR). used to go to my childhood best friend's house to steal her brother's xbox and play gta iv on it, and I bought gta v for myself but sadly, I suck too bad at games to actually progress any with it

other websites or accounts (origin, twitter etc..): im on wordpress (here). i also mod a sims-based, lgbtq+ discord server called simsclub 

are you single: very happily so, yes.

im tagging @wesunnysimmer​, @nyteroseshadowthorn​, @amuhav​, @chaosxsims​, @silverspringsimmer​, @polishsimmersblog​ and well, uh... basically anyone that wants to do this! feel absolutely free to ignore this if you dont want to. 

[thecrazydragonlady]

The Lost Prince- YGO BB 2019

Fandoms: Yugioh GX, Yugioh 5Ds, Yugioh Duel Monsters

Relationships: Kindredshipping, Puzzleshipping

Characters: Yusei Fudo, Jaden Yuki, Johan Anderson, Yugi Muto, Atem, Mahad, Mana, Jack Atlas, Crow, Aki, Lua, Luka, Carly Nagisa, Sho, Ryo, Fubuki, O’Brien, Jim, Rex Goodwin

Warnings: Mild violence- nothing gory is described but there are battle scenes

Summary: A torn kingdom. A rising threat. A missing prince.

Three heroes, Yusei Fudo, Judai Yuki, and Johan Anderson, all destined to meet, each with a future set before them by the strings of fate. The world is falling into chaos and only their bonds can stand a chance of saving everything they love.

Including each other.

Author’s Notes: It’s that time of year again! Time for another @yugiohbigbang. I’m a little bit late to posting (I am absolutely sorry) but I am done and the whole piece is available for reading! 

I’d like to thank the mods for making another year with an awesome event.

I’d also like to thank @kestrelmakesart for making the amazing response piece for this year which you can check out here. I’d also like to say thank you again for being an awesome beta helper too! You went above the call of duty Kes and I will always be grateful to you for it.

Please enjoy!

Prologue: Destruction

The screams filled the air with the sound of death.

He watched in abstract horror as the light grew wider and bright, engulfing a large portion of his kingdom in its path of destruction. The cape he wore around his shoulders blew forward, around his frame, as if the destruction was trying to suck him in for the sins he’d committed, for causing this very situation. He clenched his fists. There was no escaping what he had done. The only thing he could do was accept his fate. Everything moved slowly in his vision and he heard everything. The screams. They were the worst. They rang through the air over the sound of the ground ripping from the earth; whole buildings disappeared in seconds as they were touched. Instinctively, his eyes narrowed. He could hear the people who had not heeded his order to run become trapped, whether in the light or in the crevices that exploded from the ground, dragging them down into eternal darkness. 

The king did not look away. 

He watched stoically.

A gentle hand took his. He looked down briefly to find the face of his queen watching as well, both resigned to their fate. There was no time for them to escape. They had done all they could to ensure that the kingdom was prepared for the horrors it was now facing but it just didn’t seem to be enough.

Her face was twisted. He knew what worried her and squeezed her hand in return, “He’ll be safe.” She sniffed, straightening a bit.

“I know,” she whispered. 

Light exploded in front of them and the air released a horrible snarl.

“This shouldn’t have happened.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I was the one who pushed it.”

“You thought what you had done was best for us, for the kingdom.” She squeezed his hand, leaning her head on his shoulder, “Please, don’t let it end in regret.”

“I wish… I wish a lot of things but most of all… I wish we could have given him more…,” he sighed, dropping his head a bit, “The life he deserved.”

“Shhhh darling,” she soothed. She moved to reach up, gently touching his chin and encouraging him to raise his face. “We shouldn’t be sad now. He will live. That is all that matters. One day, we will see him again and all will be as it should be.”

He sighed again. Leaning down, he pressed his lips firmly to hers, holding her for dear life as the light finally engulfed them.

****

All was quiet.

The kingdom lay in ruins and those alive to witness it did so in numb horror. They began with the few survivors who had not been taken by the light, dragging them out from under collapsed houses and from the crevices they were able to reach. 

It was slow. 

Realization dawned slowly, like the sun appearing one morning after a storm. 

There was no warmth here; this was a place of death and the more the citizens realized it, the more tragic the scene became.

Once full, cobblestone streets were barren of life but heavy with the fires and destruction the light had left in its wake. Once grand buildings were shattered, laid to waste. The castle itself remained only in half and, after several tried to find their relatives in a particular section of the kingdom, did they realize that a whole part had been torn away from land and pushed out to sea.

None could find the King or Queen.

Or their Prince.

****

News travelled quickly to the surrounding kingdoms of the destruction of New Domino.

This was a time of fear.

Who was to be destroyed next?

*****

Want to read more? Check out the full work on AO3!

(I’m sorry. It’s 3 AM. I gotta sleep. I’ll post the rest hopefully later today.)

[sarsaparillaswords]

Winter Soldier Arm Made From Paper

I did a Bucharest Bucky cosplay last Halloween and I’m pretty proud of it. Here’s a close-up:

People have been asking me how I made it and it’s much easier to explain with pictures so I promised them a long tumblr how-to and here it finally is. This is just a forearm, meant to be worn with a henley to cover the upper arm and a glove over the hand. If you want to do a full arm and shoulder then I won’t be able to help you. I mentioned to my husband that I was considering making a full arm for next year and he gave me a look of panic, which is kind of funny because I was the one with glue all over my fingers. The house didn’t even get that messy but whatever. Husbands are still worth it and so is this arm. Here’s another close-up to show off my fake muscles:

Why paper? When I first decided I wanted to do a Bucky costume, I looked at some other examples online. By far the most popular method was thin craft foam manipulated with a heat gun, but the noise and smell would probably have disturbed my child, and I didn’t want to invest in a piece of hardware that would be used once and then contribute to my household clutter forevermore. Finally, although supposedly craft-foam technique is not that difficult, I found it a little bit intimidating whereas I built this forearm with a technique from kindergarten, when we all made papier-mâché* balls by pasting newspaper strips onto balloons. 

* I went to the trouble of googling the spelling for papier-mâché and it’s full of accent marks, so I’m going to cut-and-paste it into this whole post, even though it makes me look like a huge nerd. Which I am.

To make this fine, if somewhat time-consuming, specimen of cosplay craftsmanship, you will need a bunch of trash you already have and a couple inexpensive things:

1) some newspaper (a couple issues of one of those free monthly papers is probably enough, since nobody except my in-laws subscribes to the paper anymore)

2) some lightweight material for padding (more newspaper or old plastic bags)

3) an old pair of pantyhose, old t-shirt, or stretchy scrap fabric

4) tape (I used masking tape but duct tape would probably be better)

5) plastic wrap

6) a small (8 oz) jar of mod-podge ($4-$7, matte, satin, or gloss is fine)

7) a small (3 oz) can of chrome paint ($3-$6)

8) a short length of elastic or very stretchy fabric and some thread (~$2)

9) a small, cheap paintbrush. The cheapest you can find (<$1)

The complete how-I-made-it story is below the cut, plus more terrible cell phone photos and unnecessary brilliant commentary.

I spent about a month planning this thing and only 4 days making it. The whole time, I was screaming internally because although I had the whole thing planned out, I didn’t actually know for sure if it would work until I did it. But it did. Here’s how:

Step 1: make an arm-shaped form to build the papier-mâché over.

Back in my misspent youth, I successfully drafted a homemade dress pattern by having a friend duct-tape me into a T-shirt. This works on the same principle. You need some kind of flexible stuff (stretchy fabric is best) to make the base layer and keep the tape from sticking to you. I cut a leg off an old pair of panty hose and slid it over my arm. Honestly a plastic bag would have probably worked just as well. A piece of thin knit fabric (like a piece cut from an old T-shirt) would be even better. Just make sure you don’t have any exposed skin where the tape will go. Then wrap tape around your arm until the whole thing is covered in a shell like this:

You may notice that I used masking tape. I had this idea that I could capture some muscle definition by using a thinner, narrower tape. This was a mistake. Even while flexing to get the most out of my wimpy muscles, it didn’t really work. Also the panty hose wanted to contract and the tape wasn’t sturdy enough to counter that until I put a whole bunch of layers on. So save yourself a headache and use duct tape (tried and true). Your arm is widest while bent, so do most of the work in that position, but straighten it and move it around a bit to be sure that you will have room to move your arm when the thing is done.

Cut a slit in your crazy tape-sleeve to get it off and tape it back together, then stuff it with old plastic bags or newspaper so it will hold its shape. 

(At this point in my project, I looked at my sad  tape arm and decided by golly, it would have muscles if I had to make them up. So I taped two long pieces of crumpled newspaper where the most prominent muscles of the outer forearm would be. I don’t have a photo of this step, but I do have a nice forearm drawing tuturial and a muscle diagram in my art advice tag. Maybe those will help. Or you could be smart, unlike me, and skip the muscles.)

Step 2: use your arm form as a base to build a layer of papier-mâché

I covered the base with plastic wrap to make sure that my papier-mâché wouldn’t stick to it. Then I used Mod-Podge to paste overlapping newspaper strips over that base. If you aren’t familiar with Mod-Podge, it looks and smells just like white glue. There are probably a lot of different kinds of paste that would work here, but Mod-Podge is inexpensive and readily available. (Also, the hippy aesthetic really goes with my hairstyle.) I quickly discovered that it worked best if I applied the glue to the arm itself with a brush, then laid the newspaper strip over it and smoothed it down with my fingers. It took me a few tries to figure out the best way to lay the strips. As a result, that all-important valley between the “muscles” got papered over and I had to resort to cutting a slit in the paper and pushing it in a bit. It worked--just barely--but it was a real headache. 

Look! Muscles!

So what is the best way to lay the strips? Definitely not like the picture above! In my opinion, a diagonal spiral around the arm works best, allowing you to lay the strip evenly and also keep track of how much you’ve covered in that layer, like this: 

Start your strip near the wrist and let it lay the way it wants to go to stay smooth. This might result in a small gap or overlap with the strip next to it--don’t try to force them to line up exactly. 

Let dry 30 minutes between layers. I did about 3 layers, or roughly the thickness of a sheet of notepaper. I figured that my arm would provide a lot of structure, and I wanted to be sure I could cut it with ordinary scissors later!

Step 3: repeat the process to build a second papier-mâché layer

Once I figured it was thick enough, I let it dry overnight, then wrapped it in another layer of plastic wrap (IMPORTANT!) and started pasting again. About 5 layers this time, or about the thickness of a notecard. I wanted this layer to be very smooth. If I’d had the time, I might have tried to do a “build-up finish” as described on the Mod-Podge jar, but it was only 2 days before Halloween so I just didn’t have time. Instead, I made sure that all my paper strips were torn rather than cut, which made a much less visible edge. Also I finally figured out the diagonal thing. 

Then I coated it in a thick layer of Mod-Podge and let it dry for an hour or so.

Step 4: Draw lines for Winter Soldier Arm plates

The reference images I had were...not great...so eventually I had to shrug and make up something that made sense to me, for a very loose definition of “make sense.”

Was Zola high when he designed this?

You can kind of see the diagonal paper strips under the lines here.

I did this with different colored Sharpie pens. The purple lines are for cutting. Some of the red lines are guide lines, some are where the thinner grooves in the plates go.

I had planned to make those grooves by pressing hard with an old ball-point pen. However, I found it hard to get a good grip on this rounded thing so the line came out shakier than I liked. I panicked and decided not to do the rest, hoping no one would notice, which was a shame because the groove actually looked awesome once the paint was on. 

Step 5: Cut up the outer shell

Let me pause here for a moment.

If you are reading this, then you may be thinking “this sounds like a lot of work!” Which it was! But the worst part was I didn’t know if it was even going to work at all. I didn’t have those completed photos to reassure me. I had a backup plan which was “wrap aluminum foil around my arm and call it good enough” As I built up the structure, it was starting to look like the principle was sound, but I had a lot of work ahead of me and I could still screw it up.

It was late at night on October 29th and I had to make a cut. After that, there would be no going back.

I needed to cut the tube open so that I could get my hand through it. My plan was to cut just to the right of the row of narrow plates on the inner arm. So I did.

The cut itself was fine! I pulled out the stuffing and nothing exploded or stuck to itself. The problem was that it was way too big, probably because of that muscle padding I added way back in step 1. Near my elbow especially, it was maybe an inch too wide. This might not seem like a lot, but when you are trying to hide the edge under a pushed-back henley cuff, it’s frigging huge. 

Step 5a: PANIC

After I was done panicking, I had a pretty cool idea so I ended up doing this:

It’s weird now that I’m thinking about it, but I had no difficulty closing up that gap. Maybe I squeezed it a bit to train it but nothing fancy. It really wanted to curl up on itself already.

Step 5b: Cut up outer layer

This is a little tricky because I had to cut just to one side of the thick sharpie line, then just to the other side, which in practice means cutting a thin strip off the edge of every piece, to make the little gaps between the plates that give the arm its characteristic look.

I used ordinary scissors from an office supply store for most of this, new-ish but nothing fancy. For some of the fine details I turned to a pair of embroidery scissors that I had lying around and wasn’t too attached to (because this kind of thing is bad for embroidery scissors) Imagine my feeling of inverse accomplishment at achieving this:

Like a beautiful flower made of cosplay despair.

While I was doing that I was also waiting for the paint on the under-layer to dry as described in...

Step 6: Prep the under-layer

I needed some elastic to hold the join snug closed over my arm, but I had a bit of metallic stretch velour fabric left over from my kid’s R2-D2 costume, which I had saved every scrap from because it was so expensive. I figured it was stretchy enough to use in place of elastic so I did some estimating and hand-sewed in a panel and...I’m not going to go into depth here. It worked fine but honestly it was so not worth it. In the end, that overlap from step 5a hid most of the join, so I could have just stapled in some elastic and a little flap of cheap silver lamé or something. Then I painted it. I had to mask it so the fabric wouldn’t get paint on it which goes to show how poorly I was thinking things through by this point because it would have been so much easier to paint it first and then add the elastic/stretch fabric/whatever.

The paint I used was Testors 1290 Chrome Spray Enamel from a local store that specialized in model train supplies. I ran down there the morning of October 30, because of course I was doing everything last minute and panicked as is my way. Nor had I taken the time to check any reviews of paint brands. So it was that I found myself standing in the store holding a can of 1290 Chrome in one hand and a of 1246 Metallic Silver in the other. “Chrome.” I murmured to myself. “Metallic Silver. Chrome. Metallic Silver.” I eventually bought the Chrome paint because it “sounded shinier” and because I could use it to make Mad Max jokes.

WITNESS ME!

Chrome was probably the right choice, as this review demonstrates, but on the other hand I might have gotten an even better finish with a different brand, but maybe not in that convenient 3-oz size.

Remember how one of the reasons I chose papier-mâché over heat-treated craft foam was to avoid bad smells? Well, this stuff reeks like you wouldn’t believe. And, forgive me for being such a hippy, but this kind of paint is very high in harmful VOCs, so if you want to use this stuff, if at all possible, do your painting outdoors to minimize health risks. It’s not like you’ll die from painting one arm, but the more often you use this stuff, the more careful you should be.

Getting back to my Epic Forearm Story, I was concerned that some of the paint would have difficulty reaching the under-layer through the gaps between the plates so I gave the under-layer a single coat of paint to avoid any weird paint shadows. It was good practice getting a smooth coat and I was feeling pretty confident about my painting skill. Too confident.

Step 7: Glue cut-up pieces of outer layer onto under-layer

At this point, it was starting to look like my mad project would work, but only if I could finish it on time. This wasn’t reducing my stress levels any, because now I had sunk hours into this project and I had something to lose. I was also concerned that the mod-podge might have difficulty sticking to the chrome paint finish. I lined up the first piece and patiently held it in place until it had dried enough to hold its position after I put it down. Then I waited another half hour or so for it to cure. The resulting join was quite strong, but it was taking flipping forever.

Then I remembered that I didn’t hate life or myself and also that I owned a bottle of super glue. The rest of the pieces went on lickety-split.

(Super glue is not durable enough for extended wear, so if you want to wear this for more than a single Halloween, use the mod-podge)

At this point I had meant to apply another thick coat of mod-podge to seal the edges and make the foundation as smooth as possible but I completely forgot, and maybe just as well because I was rapidly running out of time. Instead I went on to...

Step 8: Apply Chrome Paint finish

The first coat went on beautifully. I was really getting the hang of this, I thought. I put the last coat on just before bed, but this one spot needed a touch more paint, I hesitated just moment too long and...bam. Saggy, bubbly finish. It was so bad it looked like it might actually start to drip, so I grabbed a piece of newspaper and kind of wiped/scraped off some of the excess paint were it was collecting at the points, hoping all the while that I wasn’t marring the finish even further. I was practically in tears but even if I’d had the time, it’s not like I was going to start over so I went to bed and hoped for the best.

In the morning it didn’t look so bad, but I was worried about the edge digging into my arm so I tried to put a strip of that silver fabric over the edge to cushion it a bit, except that fabric is really hard to glue and it only just barely dried enough to wear in time for the trick-or-treating event that afternoon.

Step 9: Wear to widespread acclaim

Or not. Most people didn’t notice that I was wearing a costume at all, which is what happens when you are out on a busy sidewalk with an adorable 3-year-old child. Or people noticed, but didn’t remember Bucky well enough to recognize it. I got a complement on my “nice bracelet” so I guess the metal effect wasn’t too bad. But then I insisted on going to my Friendly Local Comic Book Store to enter the costume contest, and even though it was out of our way and I didn’t win, it was worth it to see the look on the face of the woman working there, just one look of admiration from a fellow nerd and I was over the moon. Hours of work, justified.

In conclusion, this construction method looks great but is somewhat uncomfortable to wear. It would have been better if I had lined it with felt or something. Also this was probably way more difficult than craft foam in the long run. Still, it is very light-weight, relatively cheap to make and allows for muscle contours if you are into that kind of thing. It might have been the best Bucky forearm ever but I flubbed the finish. If anybody decides to make one like it, please show me a picture or something, and learn from my mistakes. Finally, don’t get in any fights with spider-lings.

THE END.

[breegullbeakreviews]

Summary: As was foretold in the Elder Scrolls, as civil war breaks out in Skyrim over claim to the throne, the Dragons have returned to bring about the end of time. Only one can stand against this threat and wield the power of the Voice against the Dragons, and that is the Dovahkiin: Dragonborn.

The Ancient order of vampire fighters known as the Dawnguard have returned. Just in time too it seems as the family of powerful vampire lords, the Volkihar’s, seek to bring about another prophecy foretold in the Elder Scrolls, to end the sun itself. Fight to stop the family or join them and bring about eternal darkness.

As the Dragons return, it seems you are not the only Dragonborn. Journey to the southern coast of Morrowind to do battle with the original Dragonborn who seeks to bend all to his whim.

Overall: Skyrim Special Edition is worth $60 if you’ve never played it before or if you have an itch to play it again. It’s an RPG you can play casually or dive in deep into the world and all its lore. Outside falling into the chosen one trope at every turn, it’s a fantastic game that everyone should check out if they haven’t already.

Changes: Skyrim hasn’t been rebuilt from the ground up. This is the same game in terms of assets and the buggy unstable programing that holds this game together. So then what’s changed?

Well the biggest change is that the game has now been moved from being built on 32 bit PC architecture to 64 bit PC architecture. Basically the game has access more of the consoles memory than the previous version. Also it isn’t running on the PS3’s cell processor so it functions on a PlayStation console day one. This means the game can support more things on screen without dropping the framerate. A lot of the graphical improvements seen in Fallout 4 have also come to Skyrim like those Volumetric God Rays along with improved water and snow shaders along with plenty of improvements that go beyond my complete understanding. Basically the game looks prettier and runs smoother. Also console mods but I’ll hit on those later.

Sadly some of the little things didn’t make it over. On Xbox 360 there were Kinect voice commands for shouts, sorting, and quick swapping weapons. While I know Xbox has downplayed the Kinect as of late, the PlayStation Camera is still a big deal and I’d have loved to see these come over. At the very least add these sort functions into the item storage. While it seems they automatically sort alphabetically now, but I’d like some options.

Narrative: This isn’t my first trip to Skyrim. I was exploring the snowy mountains and grassy valleys from day one back in 2011. I was so hooked in fact that by the 31st of December I had wrapped up all the base game achievements on the Xbox 360 version of the game. That being said I was only 17 when I first played the game, and despite having played the game before I noticed some things I hadn’t my first go-round.

Firstly with the Civil War. Despite it being a side questline it’s the first thing thrusted into your path as you play the game. In the years preceding the game after the events of the Oblivion Crisis the Worship of the Nordic Divine Talos was banned as part of the White-Gold Concordat, a treaty to end the Great War between the Empire and the Aldmeri Dominion. Skyrim’s people became quite angered by this banning and the Stormcloak Rebellion began when strict enforcement of this law began.

Whether you avoid this side quest line or not the game makes it constantly apparent the divide the war has caused. From the major things like destroyed idols to the little things like locals saying “by the eight” instead of “by the nine” or vice versa depending on where they stand on the worship of Talos and the war. Even if you avoid it entirely there is a late quest in the main quest line where you need to get a temporary truce between the two. Even beyond this there is some political long game that isn’t too hard to follow if you just listen to the dialogue. The only downside to this questline is that there is no way to end things peacefully.

The Thieves Guild is probably the height of the base games narrative chops. It’s a tale of betrayal, secret orders, and deception. I don’t want to spoil things, but every major guild questline ends with you as the leader of the guild so I can say that there is some shaking up of the power structure within the guild.

The Companions Guild is unexpectedly about the supernatural. Spoilers, but the higher ups in the organization are Werewolves. While the younger members of the organization are fine with remaining beasts, the elder leader wants to cure himself of this curse so he can go to Sovngarde instead of Hircine’s Hunting Grounds. It’s not a particularly meaty story, but it is fun.

The Dark Brotherhood is another great story as it’s again about an organization down on its luck. This is the last remain group of the brotherhood in Skyrim and they’ve turned away from following the ways of the Night Mother. That is until the Night Mother’s coffin shows up with the keeper in search of the next Listener, and you’ll never guess who that is. While it’s sadly padded by lesser contracts, the story here is good.

The College of Winterhold is the last major Faction of Skyrim. Its questline is pretty lame. On your first lesson you stumble upon an ancient artifact of immense power and evil McEvil-face wants to use if for evil so you need to stop him. Its direction is always obvious so it’s a super boring story that drags on.

Gameplay Loop: Skyrim is an RPG, but like all games it’s got a loop of actions you’ll be doing. You do quests that eventually lead to dungeons where you’ll obtain a bunch of loot. The loot you’ll then either sell, store, or craft into better loot to sell or store. It’s a simple loop that sadly can go off the rails pretty hard. Once your speech skill gets high enough you’ll need to go from town to town to sell all of your junk because vendors don’t have enough gold to let you simply go to one vendor. And don’t think putting things off is a good idea either. As I type this I’m currently several thousand pounds over encumbered as I ride horses from town to town selling all of the gear I crafted with all of the material I had stored over the past two weeks. This affair can last hours and it really breaks up the action, but storing everything isn’t ideal either. Early on this isn’t much of a problem, but it will become one rather quickly.

RPG Elements: I’m not a super hardcore role playing guy. I turn the difficulty down to super easy and pick the perks I think are useful. If you use a skill it works toward leveling it up. You can’t just spam things without them being in a useful context, but it’s not hard to work the system to your advantage.

Certain skills level well with one another. Wear a mix of light and heavy armor to work on both at once. Conjure your weapons to get some work in both conjuring and the weapon you conjured. Plus you can use a perk to capture souls from people killed with conjured weapons to use for enchanting which you can perform on all of your crafted weapons which you can sell to buy more crafting materials and soul gems while boost your speech skill and oh god it’s an endless cycle.

Combat: As I said I play on easy. That being said due to not just dragons, but how broken stealth is, Archery is ridiculously over powered. Unless you play as certain races, magic in combat is really pointless, and I never found myself using potions. Now it’s true I should probably have the difficulty higher up if I want the challenge, but the thing is I really don’t I’m here to explore a cool world and could care less about the combat.

What’s here can get complicated if you let it, but it’s simple enough to grasp if you are just looking to get past it and explore. You have a lot of options, but as long as you focus on one you’ll be fine.

Dawnguard: Dawnguard is the best worst DLC of all time. Everything about it I should love, but its general lack of polish just kills it for me. Dawnguard triggers at level 10 so you can start it super early on, but once you get started you’ll be dealing with vampires attacking towns and possibly killing NPCs. There are two brand new areas that are super cool, but neither of these areas has an overworld map, meaning you’ll need to navigate them with the crummy local map. These areas also have just a single fast travel point to reach them and then you’ll need to wander from there.

You can become a werewolf again if you’ve cured yourself, but only once, which really sucks because being a werewolf was vastly improved with the DLC. Being a Vampire Lord just isn’t fun. You’re constantly too big to get through doors and changing back requires navigating through the favorites menu, which you’d only be told about if you initially sided with the Vampires as that’s the only way to get a tutorial on being one. Now a large chunk of these were fixed with mods, but the fact that they didn’t think to fix these outright for the Special Edition release is to some degree baffling.

Now let’s get to the positives. The story is great. The plot to end the sun so that vampires can rule is a great idea. The fact that not all vampires are on board with the idea is even cooler. It’s easily the best story in the game. Serana is the best companion in the game, and not just because she’ll constantly do other characters story related animations due to some bug. She’s just a generally cool character. As I said the new areas are super cool. The fact that one locks you out after you’re done unless you’re a vampire lord is incredibly aggravating, but while you’re there it’s awesome. The improvements to being a werewolf make it feel less like a curse and more like a blessing. There is also a new side quest that ties in in no way to the vampire plot line that ends with a choice of 3 unique artifacts.

I seem to be in the minority on the fact that I don’t like this add-on because of its faults, but with all of the polish seen in Dragonborn, it really feels like Dawnguard was rushed out the door way to quickly considering the price tag on the two was the same.

Hearthfire: Hearthfire is the house building expansion. 3 of the holds previously without homes to buy will now sell you plots of land in which to build your own home. While not as elaborate as Fallout 4’s settlement mode, the streamlined aspects work to the benefit of the game. For $5 this was probably the best DLC for Skyrim. As soon as the game starts you can experience the new content. Even if you haven’t built your own house, every house already in the game can now add a children’s room so you can adopt children.

Building houses is a mixed bag. You first build a small house, but after building that you can build a main hall and remodel the small house into an entryway. From here you can add a cellar and 3 wings. Each wing has 3 choices: a tower, a high roofed room, and a room with a rooftop patio. Due to the nature of how construction is handled, combinations are limited. Each wing’s 3 choices can only be one type of room. For instance the East wing will have a library tower, a high roofed kitchen, or a rooftop patio having armory. You can only build one on that east wing and you can’t build one of these in a different shape or on one of the other 3 wings. Now with 3 plots you can get all 3 wings built between your houses, but it’s not ideal.

Each plot has its unique items. For instance one home has the choice of a fish hatchery and another your own personal beehive. Slowly building up your own homestead as you play is fun, but it’s the internal furnishing that is the problem. You can choose to blindly build your way down the list, but the game doesn’t show where the item will be built and in some cases if it locks out another choice. You can’t delete things once built so when you build the wrong table or put a Dragon Skull where you wanted a Dwarven Centurion you need to either reload or you’re shit out of luck.

Dragonborn: Dragonborn brings the players to a small island off the coast of Morrowind where the original Dragonborn, Miraak, has plans to return to Tamriel. The plot involves a Daedric plain and of course dragons as you seek a way to stop Miraak.

The new area is massive. It’s roughly half the size of Skyrim, but I’m not actually doing any math. Problem is it has about as many interesting points as Fallout 4, which is very few. Quests are mostly concentrated in the main town you dock in with a handful of other quests originating in one other small town and a research area. It’s also a very barren map as it needs to keep the same feel as Morrowind which means a barren environment. There are trees and stuff, but it doesn’t feel as varied as Skyrim.

Dragonborn is a big add-on, and it’s certainly worth the $20 it cost at launch, but it being a separate continent really makes it feel separate from the rest of the world. It is both literally and figuratively a separate thing.

Mods: I have this game on PS4. Mod support is fine. You aren’t going to get certain things which sucks, but its fine. I spent about an hour playing as a Skeleton before I got bored. On PC I’m sure mods are great, but without the ability to go crazy with the size, mods are just mods. What I want is essentially unofficial DLC and I don’t think we will see that anytime soon.