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ciggylungz · 4 years

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Summer Bummer

y/n x harry pairing

summary- y/n and Harry are part of a cast of a reality show called ‘summer bummer’ that’s a uk version of the jersey shore and things are chaotic

(hoping if it’s received well it can become a series, tbh I’ve been rewatching jersey shore and I stan snooki and pauly’s friendship)

2.8k words

The first thing that Y/n was hit with when she walked into the large mansion was booze, a giant whiff of it as she entered the doors trying not to react too much since the cameras were already following her around and she didn’t want to risk any horrid screenshots on twitter when the episode aired.

“woah, swear I could get wasted just smelling this place…” she giggled to herself as she made her way to the kitchen where she heard people who she assumed were her new roommates chatting.

“Oi! Hey love! Welcome.” The first person to welcome her was a tall tanned guy with a pretty strong posh-ish accent, big muscles and obvious over grooming, he seemed a bit full of himself just by how he looked. Y/n internally laughed as the guy hugged her calling him a ‘wanker’ in her brain.

“Hi! I’m Y/n, what’s your name?”

“Tommy, here I’ll take your bags. Take a load off sweetheart, everyone’s cool don’t look so nervous.”

Y/n was in physical pain from how badly she wanted to roll her eyes at this kids cocky and terribly flirty aggression, he wasn’t her type at-fucking-all. He looked like a guy who would cat call her when she’s out buying groceries, a hard pass on that one.

But- she managed to hold back and focus her energy on the other people all mingling in the kitchen. She counted 7, seemed like 4 girls- herself included- and 3 guys which means there was one person left to show up since she was told by producers ahead of time there were 8 cast members in total.

She introduced herself to her fellow cast mates who she learned were named Mandy, Kaitlyn, Selena, Ryan, Casey and of course the dreaded Tommy who was now looming over her again, topping off her basically full cup of vodka and red bull without asking her, and giving her a wink that made her want to vomit from cringing so hard.

Finally, the door opened again revealing the final person, who had all eyes on him as he closed the door behind him and set his luggage down, giving everyone a smile and making his way over.

Y/n let herself slyly size the man up. He looked to be about 22, long hair with a nice body to it with some curls, green eyes, dimples- he was cute. Plus he was at least a foot taller than her which was always a plus, she has always had a thing for tall guys.

The man greeted everyone, introducing himself as ‘Harry’ and Y/n smiled as he ducked down to hug her and politely kiss her on the cheek as he greeted her, asking for her name making polite conversation with everyone while they tried their best to ignore the-what seemed to be- millions of cameras surrounding them. The crew had left the house for the time being but the house was covered in cameras in pretty much every corner, on every wall- even outside.

It was a bit unnerving to the girl, she wasn’t used to being on camera and she was a bit worried about if she looked alright. She was one of the youngest in the house, freshly 19- a year over legal drinking age in England and when she saw the ad for casting of a summer reality show, she thought ‘fuck it, im young and hot and I wanna get wasted. If someone wants to pay me to do it, all the better!’ and she took the risk, auditioning and thankfully getting her spot on the new show.

It was around 8 in the evening when everyone sat down for their first dinner together, opting to make a simple meal of pasta and some nice finger foods as well since they were going out to a club tonight and the last thing she wanted was to get sloppy drunk her first night and puke all over herself in front of her new roommates. She wanted to at least have a chance to make a good impression.

They all seemed to get along great, besides Tommy who was still creeping on Y/n trying to flirt and being a total tool even when she was just trying to enjoy her dinner, making conversation with everyone. She of course gave him nothing in return making it pretty obvious she wasn’t interested and seeing as this kid was such a cocky little bastard he seemed to get butthurt over her cold shoulder. He was used to getting any girl he wanted back home, since ‘apparently there they have no taste or standards’ is what she thought to herself as she finished off her food and helped the rest of the group wash up the dishes leaving the pouting man child to sulk at the table while everyone else ignored him.

“alright guys, I think we should all chill for a while then start getting ready to go to Headliners and we should leave at like 12 since clubs usually busiest from 1-5am and I’m not trying to have a lame night. Sound like a plan?” Selena cupped her hands around her mouth as she spoke to everyone making sure they all could hear her, getting approval from everyone before smiling and making her way to her room.

Y/n was sitting on her bedroom floor using the full-length mirror to do her hair and makeup as she sat in her robe, her dress and heels already picked out and laid on her twin sized bed. All the girls were chatting among themselves as they groomed themselves and glammed themselves up. They were fucking hot and they knew it, making sure to highlight their beauty with the clothes that would probably burst into flames if they were worn in a church and heels as high as they could handle.

The girls went into a frenzy rushing around when they heard Ryan yell up the stairs that they were leaving in 30 minutes, all of them scrambling to get the skin tight dresses onto their bodies making sure they sprayed themselves with some deodorant and perfume since they fully planned to fool around tonight and BO from dancing your ass off in a club isn’t exactly an aphrodisiac.

All of the guys heads turned towards the stairs as the girls rushed down them, their heels loud on the wooden steps making it sound like a heard of elephants was rushing through the house but they didn’t care.

“Christ…look fucking good girls.” Casey smiled at them as he looked each one from head to toe, licking over his lips a bit as he took them in. They looked like sin personified and what’s better than that?

“Right?” Selena laughed and turned towards Y/n and Kait “Kait looks fucking hot and Y/n looks so fucking good I’m questioning if I’m bisexual now” Selena was their hype woman, even on the first day of meeting she was ready with a mouthful of compliment word vomit to spew into their ears.

Everyone laughed at her comment, Y/n smiling and smacking her roomates ass as she walked towards the door , “Sel, if I don’t find a cute guy tonight you can bring me home instead” Y/n giggled a bit as she watched all the guys eyes blow up wide at the comment, getting a few ‘can I watch’ comments from some of them which just got them an eye roll and groan from the girls.

Everyone piled into the cabs that were waiting for them, all excited and already a little buzzed from the pre-gaming they did before and during dinner anxious to get to the club, all of them just wanting to dance and enjoy their first night of summer. And of course, get absolutely trashed,

And so the team of young adults did just that. They made a b-line to the bar as soon as they got let in all taking a round of shots together before moving to the dance floor sipping the cups of liquor they held in their hands as they grinded and danced on whoever was near them.

Y/n was pretty wasted as she stumbled towards her group of roommates again, making a grossed out noise when she saw Kaitlyn kissing Tommy, hearing a laugh from next to her as she turned to see Harry. “poor girl, I guess being drunk does make people seem more attractive.” He commented while eyeing the younger girl getting a slight disgusted shiver from her as she thought about the guy. “he’s such a tool, I almost wanna stop her. He’s a total wanker, wouldn’t leave me alone and then pouted like a child when I wouldn’t flirt back at him. He’s got no chance, doesn’t matter how many of these I’ve had. I promise you that one.” She held her now empty cup in the air as she said it, giggling like crazy at her own words getting a lazy drunk smile from the man who joined her in the laughter.

He went to the bar with her to get both of them another refill on their drinks of choice, Y/n’s being a screwdriver and his being a rum and coke. They were both pretty wasted, but they were having fun and that’s what it was all about, plus she was almost chest to chest with the hottest guy she’s seen in a long time, in the middle of the club as they both are crammed into a corner trying to talk to each other a bit.

“Where you from love?” Harry asked her as he took another swig of his drink, looking down at the girl that he swears he’s torn between scooping her up like a baby and cuddling like a teddy bear and fucking her hard against the wall till she’s begging him to stop. She’s adorable, yet she’s just so goddamn sexy.

“Up in North London, how about you?”

“originally Holmes Chapel but live in Central London now.” He gave a smile to the girl and she returned it

“ahh London, maybe if I decide I like ya’ enough we can meet up after summer since we’re not too far from each other.” She offered with a playful poke to his stomach getting a smirk in return as he leaned down a bit to be a little closer to the girls face

“maybe we can, cmon wanna dance with me?” he held his hand out to the girl who took it, following him into the sea of people all grinding against each other to the blaring music, and Y/n wasted no time in doing the same.

Her back was to his chest as she danced on him, her heels putting her at perfect level for her ass to grind right on his crotch. They were like horny kids dirty dancing on each other, Y/n was having the fun she came here for and well, Harry was too.

When Y/n spun around in his arms she was pushed chest to chest with him by another couple who were dancing, nudging into her a bit seeing as the floor was packed with people. Harry of course took the opportunity to smoothly wrap his arm around her waist leaning down to look into her dilated pupils giving her a smirk that she gave right back to him before he leaned down to talk in her ear

“you got no idea how badly I wanna fuck your brains out right now darlin’, but I’m a gentlemen. Can’t do anything like that with a drunk girl, at least till I talk to the sober version about it first.” Harry talked in a deep voice right into her ear getting a shutter from her as her body tingled at the tone. When he pulled back he was met with a adorable pout on her pretty lips letting out a chuckle himself at her rather dramatic expression.

“that’s not fairrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, you’re so hot! And you wanna fuck me but now you’re being a tease!” she gave him her best puppy dog eyes but he just shook his head with a smile tugging on his lips, he was firm on his rule. He never wanted to hurt a girl, well unless they liked it but right now Y/n was in no state to truly decide that. Her body was swaying from how wasted she was, and he could tell by the slow speech she wouldn’t pass a basic sobriety test let alone be able to fully consent to having sex with him.

“Not tonight, maybe next time sweetheart.”

“Can we at least kiss? Snuggle?” she tugged on the collar of his shirt a little giving him her best pouty face and he couldn’t help but smile down at her giving her a nod.

“I’ll go for snuggles and kisses, but that’s all for tonight little girl.” He pointed his finger in her face jokingly scolding her getting a gentle bite on the tip of that finger before she pulled him down to kiss her.

It was 25 past 4 in the morning when the group of housemates stumbled their way out of the club, all completely wasted and some even having a plus one this cab ride, and Harry didn’t mind one bit as Y/n held onto him like a little lost puppy keeping a hold on his shirt sleeve the entire way home stealing kisses from him every so often.

“I’m taking the extra room tonight guys, me and my girl need some privacy.” Casey managed to slur out as the random girl-who was equally as wasted as him- tugged him towards the extra bedroom with the only full sized bed in it. Everyone besides Harry was completely fine hooking up with randoms while completely wasted, but he didn’t wanna do that to Y/n and he knew it would be wrong of him when she’s a bit drunker than he is. She was a smiley mess as she held onto the wall for support looking back at Harry who kept his hand on her lower back to keep her from falling.

“Both my roommates are getting dick right now and yours is in the guest room, and what am I getting? No penis, not even a little bit! How rude mister Harry!” she put her hands on her hips and he laughed

“ ‘m sorry, can’t offer my services up when you couldn’t even remember how to spell your own name back in the taxi love. I promised snuggles and kisses as a compromise though, did I not?” he tilted his head a bit and looked down at her raising an eyebrow as he reminded her, which didn’t help her libido since first he called her ‘little girl’ and now he’s being all stern, the guy was killing her here!

“yea yea, both my roommates are in there though, who do you share a room with?”

“just Casey, so it’ll just be us in there its only a two bed one, Ryan and Tommy share the other one.”

“Yuck, I feel bad for whatever girl Tommy is about to bang. I can tell by his attitude he has a small dick and he finishes first. I bet he even has cooties!”

She was a babbling mess as he walked her down the hall to his room, sitting her on his twin bed that’s against the farthest wall right under the window.

“He probably does have cooties, here put these on I’m gonna go take a leak and change myself.”

The older man handed Y/n one of his shirts and a pair of his boxer before grabbing his own change of clothes, helping her tug her heels off before he left her to change while he relieved himself and got ready for bed himself.

When he came back she was putting her hair into a messy bun, mumbling to herself about how bad the knots are gonna be tomorrow.

“bed time, ironically the suns about to come up but lets pretend it’s still night time.” His voice was deep and slow from his sleepiness and the booze as he spoke, getting her to scoot over so she’s on the inside of the bed, back against the pillow he had leaning against the wall so she’s more comfortable and he slid in next to her laying on his side to give her the last few kisses of the night, nibbling on her bottom lip a bit before pulling away laying on his back letting her tuck herself into his side.

‘yea’- he thinks- ‘this summers gonna be fun’

#harry styles fluff #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles #harry styles imagine #harry styles angst #harry styles au #harry styles writing #harry styles series #harry styles fanfic #harry styles blurb #harry styles concep #harry styles smut #older!harry #younger!yn

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libermachinae · 3 years

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Fault Lines Under the Living Room

Part IV: Touch - Chapter 11: Ripple

Also on AO3 Summary: They’ve only just arrived at their destination when things start to go wrong. Word Count: 2193

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“Picking up some light readings,” Drift reported. “Limited tech, similar to Vitrious. You getting anything?”

“Just a massive, concentrated energy spike a few degrees northeast,” Rodimus said. “Recent exposure, Cybertronian markers.”

“When’s the last time you took that rig in for a tune-up?”

Ratchet hated having to repeat himself, but either Drift was incapable of recognizing the severity of his ship’s disrepair (unlikely) or he was being even more obstinate than normal. Exchanging their vessels’ specs had revealed the truly horrific condition the ship was in: fuel efficiency half of what it should have been, unreliable pressure seals, thrusters that should not have made it into the air, let alone off a planet. That he had survived transit was a—not a miracle, an insult to probability and reasonable calculation of—

Rodimus put a hand on his shoulder and tried to think calm thoughts. Drift had survived. It didn’t make sense, and maybe the luck would run out now that it had been acknowledged, but—

Ratchet halfheartedly swatted at his hand, more like a firm pat.

No wonder you liked him so much. Morale officer doesn’t suit you. He failed to dislodge Rodimus’ hand and didn’t bother trying again.

“Haven’t had the time.” The sound of flipping switches was followed by a hard smack from Drift’s end, rounded out by imprecise grumbling. Drift’s report had lacked any details on the state of his ship’s user interface, but the variety of language he had spoken to it with, impressive even by Ratchet’s standards, gave the sense that it was functioning at about the same level as everything else: barely.

“Still think it’s an outpost?” Rodimus asked.

“Lot of things it could be,” Drift said, voice accompanied by a few more mechanical noises. “We’d need more info to say for sure. Or a visual.”

Rodimus considered the readouts in front of him. There were more he hadn’t read out, but only because he didn’t know how. Ratchet translated what he could, but they were trying to keep his focus on piloting which meant Rodimus couldn’t spend too long wondering about the more mystifying aspects of his screen. Was that box in the top corner a map, or a graph? He didn’t know, and he had to look away before it overtook their other priorities.

“There are also stockpiles, energon plants, and decoys out there,” Drift went on. “Traps, if you’re really unlucky. Whole lot of empty shacks; lot of boltholes won’t have anyone living in them most of the time.”

“On the move a lot?” Rodimus asked.

“Sure. Only one in a dozen stellar systems will have a planet good for energon harvesting, and then there’s having to be vigilant about competition and enforcers. Sometimes needs will change or new opportunities will open up, and a crew will split up to deal with it.” He sounded annoyed at that, briefly breaking from his researcher-describing-mysterious-outgroup tone.

“Couple Decepticons on holiday accidentally give you the slip?” Rodimus asked, just to keep him there.

“More like an entire platoon,” Drift said, rising to it so quickly that they could only assume he’d been waiting for someone to complain about this to. “I tracked them to their covert thermal operation on a smelter of a planet, got all the way in, only to discover the one mech they’d left behind was their communications specialist—it was a mess. But, that’s the past now.” And just as quickly, the wall was back up. “If our intel’s good and Grit’s got a byte of sense, there should be someone here. Just no idea how many.”

“Sounds like there’s a good chance we’ll get this thing cleaned up quick,” Ratchet said. “So long as we stick together.”

Drift’s Hm’d agreement was more than either had expected. Maybe they were making progress.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Good to go,” Rodimus said, adjusting the items on his screen to focus on the ship’s status. “Defense and surveillance up, and we’re at about descent altitude. Just give us a head’s up when you start improvising, so we can get out of your way.”

He was not supposed to say that. He shot over a grin in response to Ratchet’s disapproval; what point was there in denying the inevitable?

Practicing being a good friend, remember? That means saying no to stupid ideas.

It also means being there to catch him instead of holding him back.

It was the kind of argument that couldn’t be solved with a few pointed thoughts or memories, the kind that they did not have time for now, as the visual feed showed Drift’s ship starting its descent. They set it aside in their own ways: Ratchet simply stopped thinking about it, while Rodimus let himself run through the myriad arguments he would have made simultaneously before reconnecting himself to the present. A moment later and they were ready, Ratchet punching in the commands to follow Drift down.

The planet’s cloudless atmosphere gave them a clear view of the terrain below, its massive, dramatic rock formations contoured by deep shadows. North of them, the average surface elevation increased and smoothed out into tall hills, but where they were going the difference between peaks and valleys created a network of shelves and tunnels that would be perfect to hide a secret base in. And stealth did seem to be one goal of whoever had set up shop down there: besides the sloppy energy output, there were no obvious signs of cyberforming on the planet’s surface. Rodimus was about to suggest that only those who came looking for Cybertronians would ever notice they were here, when a glint in one of the visual feeds caught his attention. He brought the feed to his station and zoomed in. Metal?

The word hit his vocoder as Ratchet shoved them into a dive.

“Turret!”

The energy beam was hot enough to ripple the air around it. Even though Ratchet got them turned away fast enough, the whole shuttle shuddered from the near-miss. Crates and containers rattled in their restraints, and Rodimus was too busy keeping up with Ratchet to think about the sounds of crashing down in the hold. They should have been at a safe distance to avoid detection; how had they been pinpointed so quickly?

“Pull up! Get out of here!” Drift shouted.

No time to wonder about it right now.

“Can’t,” Rodimus said while Ratchet wrestled with the controls. “I’ve got visual; they’re charging up for the next shot. Reversing momentum would have us hovering like an auto-skeet.” If the console would stop bombarding him with warnings, he might have been able to make better estimates about their next move, but a ship this size wasn’t designed to be flown by just two bots with half a processor each. Ratchet was demanding so much of their attention that even reading the words on the screen demanded resources they didn’t have, so he scrubbed the whole thing until all that was left was the visual feed, the twinkle that shone just before the storm. “Diving. Keep on our tail.”

“No, that’s—fine. Aim for cover.”

Ratchet switched off the reverse thrusters and the ship plummeted out of its gentle descent. The entire world rocked nauseatingly as the discordant visual feeds broadcast the tilting horizon and rising ground, and they startled as the second blast singed the air behind them, the crackle of Drift’s failing comms suite not enough to prevent their sparks from clenching down in panic. The rear cameras recovered from the overexposure, and there was the speeder, intact and keeping pace.

“What now?” Drift demanded.

“Evasive maneuvers,” Rodimus said, following the ticker tape of Ratchet’s intentions. “Triple Thunderclash!”

Ratchet twisted hard on the controls and sent the ship spiraling. Rodimus would have been flung across the bridge had they not been secured, but even then struggled to maintain focus as they were thrashed around, over and over. He couldn’t see Drift anymore, or the distant turret: everything was swirls of color, broken up for only a split second as the third blast went wide and passed them by.

Ratchet drew back and pulled them out of the spiral, then hastily steered them aside as the recovered visual feeds revealed an oncoming peak. Landing thrusters were engaged; slightly dazed, Rodimus picked out a promising valley for Ratchet to maneuver them into. Drift reappeared in the rear feed, keeping his distance in case they had to dart again. Not that there would be much room for it, as the canyon walls rose up and enveloped them.

Ratchet brought the shuttle to rest on a wide shelf and sat back, optics dim. The constant, pounding beat of his focus dispersed, and he sunk into pillowy relief, buoyed by Rodimus’ burst of Wow we made its and What kind of gun was thats and I’m alive Ratchet’s alive Drift’s alives. It had been hard, keeping that iron grip on himself while Ratchet put in the work of keeping them alive, but—

“Wouldn’t have seen that shot coming without you,” Ratchet said. Rodimus looked away as he flushed, warm with appreciation and embarrassment; sincerity was an intimacy he was never quite prepared for. He was grateful when Drift’s speeder landed alongside them.

“Everybody intact in there?” Ratchet asked. He thought Rodimus’ embarrassment was amusing, frag him, but was willing to set it aside out of concern for their friend. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t find a way to exploit it later, but for now, Rodimus was safe.

“We made it,” Drift said. “That was more more like a Double Thunderclash.”

“Ratchet was between Thunderclashes and I had to make a best guess.” Rodimus tried to mime the path of the two ships with his hands, twisting his arms as far as his joints would allow. “It’s a Triple Thunderclash because it’s three times cooler than a thing Clash did in some fight,” he explained, since he felt Ratchet wondering.

“Battle of Ambustus Major?” Ratchet asked. Rodimus shrugged and tried not to pout when Ratchet immediately brought up an old vid file of the maneuver.

“Is the ship stable here?” Drift asked, reminding them they were here with a purpose. In the aftermath of such a close call, it was natural to want to ease back for a moment, but Rodimus couldn’t fault Drift for wanting to stay on track. The stakes weren’t any lower just because they’d made it to the surface intact.

“Should be,” Ratchet said, leaning over so he didn’t have to keep relying on Rodimus to funnel through the ship’s readings. “Holding steady for now. We’d probably need to conduct a physical survey to be sure, but I’m not seeing anything troubling from here.” Ratchet wasn’t sure of the composition of this planet, but the lack of dust in the atmosphere suggested it was made of a lot of hard, compact stone, hopefully strong enough to support a spacefaring vessel. They just had to hope that whatever geologic event had formed this shelf hadn’t terribly weakened the wall it was anchored to.

“Good,” Drift said. “The good news from all this is that the turret gives us an idea of where they have their main base; it’d be a waste of fuel to have to drive back and forth a long way. Once I’ve scouted it out and located Grit, you can come in.”

“Okay, and one more time with a plan we’ll actually follow?” Ratchet’s edge emboldened Rodimus. If it had been just him out here, he might have let Drift make all the decisions out of guilt, but the strong presence beside his mind pulsed with gentle encouragement.

Drift sighed.

“Right. Give me a minute.”

Ratchet gave Rodimus a thumbs up. Progress.

Rodimus got up from the captain’s seat and walked to the bow of the bridge, where the narrow viewshield gave him a closer peek onto the planet. The impression he got: rocks. Though the surface was painted mainly by dull shades of brown, down here they started taking on more color, hints of red and green only noticeable against the stark homogeny of everything else.

Why had the Decepticons chosen this planet? Were there fuel reservoirs buried too far below the surface to show up on orbital scanners? How would they have known to come looking for them? If not, if this was just a backwater hideaway, why the powerful defense system? Who was hiding here? And for how long? He itched to pop the hatch open and start exploring, but Ratchet’s presence kept him in place. This world, with its unknown Cybertronian population, confronted them with a new variety of complexity and danger. Though they could be rash in their decision to help Drift, they couldn’t risk being stupid about it.

Ratchet gently nudged him away from that kind of thinking. No one here was stupid. Everyone was trying to do the right thing for the people of Vitrious, the universe at large, and each other.

Rodimus cast a small, grateful smile over his shoulder.

“Okay.” The comms came back to life with Drift’s voice. “I still think this is a bad idea. But I’ve got something.”

#maccadam #transformers #dratchrod #ratchet #rodimus #drift #my writing #longfic #fault lines #edit: pfff forgot the link :P

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alexboehm55144 · 3 years

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Alex Final Wars 2: Dark Alex, Chapter 33 - Midway

The Typhoon had been zipping all over the pacific throughout the US-Chinese war. This was possible because the ship had cloaking technology and could fly. But a large portion of the US navy was still relegated to the eastern half of the ocean, unable to move west due to Chinese forces.

However, with recent US gains, the offensive had started. Naval forces were now planning a significant strike back against the Chinese Navy and Air Force at the island of Midway.

A US armada, including the Typhoon, aircraft carriers, and numerous smaller escort vessels, was already making haste to meet with an equally sized Chinese fleet.

"I expected more airships," Laval said from the bridge of the Typhoon while JayJay sat nearby and filed her claws. "But we're the only one here."

"Airships are still an experimental technology, Laval," Toothdee noted, sitting in the captain's chair and piloting the ship. "Aquatic vessels are still the mainstay for the world's nations."

"Oh great, your telling me our home and HQ is an experimental vessel?"

"Don't worry, Laval, it's perfectly safe."

"Say, have you guys seen Fabienne?" JayJay asked.

"Oh, the reporter. She's probably filming something." Laval said, "I just hope she stays safe when the fighting breaks out."

"She's worked as a war correspondent before," Toothdee said. "She told me she was getting some shots of the ships from one of the outside decks. Speaking of which...."

The Heroes commander turned the radio on again.

"Fabienne, do you read? Are you alright?"

The snow leopard had set up some recording equipment on one of the outside platforms on the Typhoon's exterior. The ocean breeze blew through her fur, and the beautiful blue sea and sky were visible all around her.

"Do you read?"

The reporter's ears perked up, and she grabbed the radio she had been given since her first day on the Heroes ship.

"Yeah, I'm here. I'm ok. Just about to film a quick shot of the fleet."

"Ok, finish up quickly and get back inside."

"Will do."

The snow leopard turned off the radio and took one last look to make sure her tripod-mounted camera was lined up properly before clicking the record button. Afterward, she quickly tested the audio and the microphone on her collar and stood in position. She was a meter from the camera, off to the side. Enough so that the device could see the fleet of US warships in the background, along with the reporter. She was careful not to step too close to the edge of the platform. Because while there was a railing, she did not want to risk falling overboard.

"Hello, this is Fabienne Growley, coming to you from aboard the Typhoon in the pacific. US naval forces are moving to secure the region around Midway island. They are being led by Heroes, and their airship, the Typhoon. A Chinese fleet is in the area, hoping to defend their territory from the encroaching US forces. At this time, it is impossible to say what will occur during this battle, but this could be a turning point for the war in the Pacific."

The snow leopard moved over to the camera and stopped the recording before packing up all her equipment. As she entered back into the vessel, Fabienne contacted Toothdee on her radio.

"I'm heading back inside Toothdee. I'll get to my battle station."

"Ok, you'll be safe there."

"I guess she got her shot," Laval said as Toothdee disconnected the call.

"Let's check in with everyone else while we're at it. Our forces are spread out all around the area, so we should be able to cover the entire field of battle." She said, switching the channel on her radio. "Heroes, this is the Typhoon. What's your status?"

"This is captain Boehm. Eris and I are flying the deadly skies."

The 2 young pilots zipped through the air above the fleet in their jets. Eris was flying her blue and white eagle interceptor, one that she had modified to her specifications.

Alex flew a custom F-35, one of the standard jets of the US Air Force.

"Nice flying," Eris said, the pair of jets turning and circling the US fleet.

"Thanks, your pretty good yourself. But your reputation precedes you." Alex said, looking at the tally marks on the jet's hull.

"I like your plane's color scheme," Eris said, drawing attention to the aircraft's metallic exterior, which was dark gray in color. A few shiny red, white and blue lines ran along the wings and near the cockpit as a patriotic gesture.

"Thanks! Lately, I've been wondering if I should paint it with some other pattern or color scheme. But that's not the only thing that's different about this plane. It's been modified with upgrades including stronger weapons and armor."

"Alright, you two, don't you keep your heads in the clouds for too long," Toothdee said, be forcing changing the channel on her radio. "Kion, Jasiri, what's your status."

"Kion here. I'm just taking a look at the cannon on this destroyer. This thing looks like it will pack a serious punch."

The lion touched and inspected the barrel of a forward-mounted turret on a US destroyer. Jasiri was nearby, leaning against a railing and enjoying the sea breeze.

"I'm here as well, Toothdee, just enjoying the calm before the storm."

"Alright, keep your heads on the swivel. Your job is to provide support to other US forces. That's why your stationed where you are. Toothdee out. Nick, Judy, you two better not be making out or something."

"Hey!" Judy said, jumping up from where she was lying on the beach.

"Unfortunately, no." Nick said, "we're just sitting here, relaxing- I mean, guarding, this wonderful- I mean, important beach on the midway island."

"Well, you two better stay on guard, lest the Chinese land on Midway, and it's an atoll, Nick."

"Don't worry, no matter what it is, we'll keep it safe."

Judy was still blushing a bit from embarrassment as Toothdee switched the radio channel over to someone else.

"Well, carrots, that was a rude interruption to our make-out session."

"Haida, Retsuko, are you there?" Toothdee said.

"Oh hey, Toothdee," Retsuko said. She was standing in the cargo bay on the Typhoon, stocked with equipment and whose walls were made of hardened metal. "Haida's in the bathroom, but we're right here on the ship, ready to help however we can."

"Glad to hear it. I know your job isn't the flashiest, your not racing into combat, but your job is no less important. It's because of you two that we get our supplies, and all the paperwork gets sorted."

Retsuko blushed and smiled to herself. Her last job didn't appreciate her at all, so it was nice to hear that she mattered.

"Thank you, you don't know how much that means to me. Oh, and that reminds me...."

The red panda clambered on top of a large crate. It was a crate designed for lion-sized mammals, so it was difficult to scale, but Retsuko managed. She compared the label on the container to the writing on a notepad in her hand.

"....we should be fully stocked. We've got plenty of ammo. I checked twice."

The red panda jumped down from the crate and brushed some dust from the blue pants of her uniform. It wasn't required by regulation, but it made her feel a lot more formal when working, which helped her focus.

"Again, thank you." Toothdee said, "always know that you're a part of the team."

The Heroes leader switched the radio channel for the last time and spoke again.

"Jack and Skye, do you read?"

"We hear you, Toothdee."

The fox and bunny couple were in a small rubber-hulled military boat, speeding through the waves. Skye maneuvered the rubber craft around warships and larger vessels. At the same time, Jack stood ready at the boat's mounted minigun, which was a bit large for a rabbit, but he was up to the task of operating it.

"We're ready and waiting," Jack said, holding on tight as the boat hit a wave.

"Lovely day for a battle," Skye said.

"Keep your heads on the swivel. I'm glad we have the support of 2 ZIA agents during this engagement."

Toothdee turned off the radio and returned her focus to the Typhoon's controls.

"Why do you think the Chinese are even here anyway? We keep stopping their assaults."

"I can only speculate, but they probably just can't stop fighting. China has to demonstrate its strength and that it is the world's foremost superpower. Basically, the Chinese need to prove that they, and their way of thinking, are right. Not to mention victory would put them in a very favorable position on the world stage."

The radio came to life again as the voice of a US sailor came through.

"Enemy vessels spotted!"

On the horizon, black shapes appeared and started to grow closer and closer. Chinese warships of the People's Liberation Army Navy. Accompanying them were planes of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force.

"LAVAL! JAYJAY! BATTLE STATIONS!" Toothdee said, prompting the lion and wolf to hop into their weapon positions as armored panels slid up to cover the Typhoon's bridge window.

There was a brief respite of calm, yet the tension was palpable as the two fleets drew closer and closer before entering weapon range.

Missiles and cannons opened fire, projectiles cutting through the sky and either splashing into the sea or impacting enemy warships.

JayJay, Laval, and Toothdee operated the Typhoon and its weapons systems, sending a flurry of shots towards enemy ships and planes. A dark black PLAAF fighter jet that looked heavily modified was leading the charge. Still, it weaved and launched flares to avoid incoming fire.

"that lead aircraft is giving off a unique signature on our sensor equipment," Toothdee noted.

The pair of gunners targeted a formation of hostile bombers with missiles and machine gunfire. Shots were tearing through the wings and into the fuselage while missiles filled the planes with shrapnel. The large airplanes either crashed into the ocean or exploded violently in a massive fireball.

"You know, this is cool and all, but somehow I'd rather be on the ground fighting," JayJay said.

"I get that," Laval said. "We all have our preferred style of combat."

"Agreed." Toothdee said, "It's just sometimes someone has to be around to operate the ship and its weapons. Thankfully you guys are trained for that."

The Typhoon then moved to engage a Chinese destroyer, battering the side of the vessel with cannon shots.

Explosions ripped through the metal of the ship, with the hull starting to fracture and break. After a few moments of sustained bombardment, the boat sank beneath the waves with a loud gurgling noise.

The Typhoon then focused its weapons on a group of smaller watercraft, with PLAN soldiers on the sides of the vessel, firing machine guns missile launchers.

"Damnit, they keep moving too fast!" Laval said, the small vessels zipping at high speed around the typhoon and opening fire.

However, despite this, the Typhoon eventually was able to appropriately target the smaller craft and shred them with weapons fire.

One escort vessel was torn apart with machine guns. While another was utterly obliterated by large cannon shells.

"We're really mopping the floor with them Heroes, but that's going to be a problem," Toothdee said, looking straight ahead towards a hostile aircraft carrier that was launching fighters. "We're going to need some support for that."

The Heroes leader looked out the port side of the ship and saw a US destroyer nearby and quickly radioed for backup.

"Destroyer, USS Gridley, this is the Typhoon. We're heading towards that Chinese carrier and would appreciate the support."

"Affirmative Typhoon, moving to support."

Along with a few other escort vessels and aircraft, the pair of warships made haste towards the PLAN aircraft carrier, accompanied by escort craft.

The vessels closed in on each other, and once the Typhoon was close enough, it opened fire on the carrier with its weapons. The Gridley followed suit, both ships pummeling the carrier with weapons as the escort vessels of both sides battled it out.

The Gridley and Typhoon pulled close, able to wreak massive damage at this close range. Shells ripped through the vessel's hull, and missiles pummeled the bridge.

Kion was operating a mounted machine gun on the outside deck of the Gridley and was spraying the aircraft carrier deck with machine gunfire. Shots tore through equipment, aircraft, and personnel.

"RELOAD!" the lion yelled.

Jasiri was ready to support him, quickly removing the empty magazine and inserting a fresh one, allowing Kion to resume firing. Chinese troops on the carrier deck fired back but were swiftly eliminated.

"Hell yeah!" Kion said, triumphantly raising his fist in the air.

The pair of ships pulled away from the carrier, which was billowing smoke and listing heavily. While the Typhoon moved off to find another target, the Gridley made haste towards an enemy destroyer moving away from the battle zone, having sustained heavy damage.

This hostile ship had been marked as a high-value target, a destroyer that was equipped with a wide range of advanced electronic sensors and weapons. These were used for area denial and electronic warfare operations, along with communications support. Its advanced capabilities were making it a thorn in the side of the American fleet.

"I'm guessing that's our next target," Jasiri said, pointing towards the damaged ship.

Kion laughed, "ha, easy prey."

But the Chinese destroyer was not alone. It was covered by a squadron of planes that moved in to engage the approaching US destroyer. The unit included the jet black PLAAF aircraft that had led the charge earlier. This elite plane was faster and more maneuverable than the others, and its weapons were likely more powerful as well.

The warship's guns opened fire on the incoming aircraft, and even Kion tried engaging them with his mounted machine gun. But the lion and Jasiri needed to duck as explosions went off nearby, missiles hitting and crippling the ship's gun systems.

One fighter was destroyed, and it crashed into the sea nearby with a massive splash. As the jets came around and prepared to make another attack on the destroyer, friendly aircraft arrived and chased the Chinese jets off.

But the Gridley had been left worse for wear, smoke billowing from damaged areas, and alarms blaring all over the ship.

"We better go see what the situation is," Kion said before he and Jasiri entered the warship and moved to the bridge.

The captain of the vessel, a mountain lion, was looking over a computer screen and talking with two other sailors.

"Hey, what's going on?" Kion asked, and the Mountain lion looked up.

"Our weapon systems have been hit. We can't return fire with our main guns. But that enemy vessel we were going after is still active. Its own guns and engines have been knocked out. However, it still has its electronic warfare capabilities."

"So it's been disabled..." Jasiri said, "...but not destroyed."

"Correct. Its systems are wreaking havoc with our own sensors." He pointed to the computer screen, which was partly frozen and full of error messages. "It still poses a serious threat."

"Hmm, then we still need to destroy it. Pull up alongside the vessel, and ready the marines and sailors."

"What? What are you going to do?"

"Something they definitely won't be expecting."

Kion, followed by Jasiri, headed down to the ship's main deck, where friendly troops were preparing themselves. A fox marine opened a weapon container and handed out rifles to other troopers before tossing one to a sailor some distance away.

The two Heroes stood in front of an assembled group of troops ready to receive orders.

The US Navy vessel pulled alongside the Chinese ship as enemy troops swarmed the deck of the hostile craft.

"Follow me!" Kion yelled, raising his sword and roaring, prompting US marines and sailors to raise their weapons and let our battle cries.

Blade in hand, Kion charged towards the PLAN vessel, leaping off the deck of the American ship and landing on the enemy destroyer, cutting down a Chinese sailor as he landed.

The marines and sailors were shocked at what had just transpired. This was a pirate tactic from the age of sail. But with no better options available, the marines followed the lion, jumping onto the deck of the enemy vessel and gunning down hostile sailors.

"Forward!" The young warrior said, sprinting down the length of the ship, cutting down more enemies and deflecting their bullets with his sword.

Jasiri and US troopers were close behind, providing support with gunfire. Some marines even broke out zipline launchers and grappling hooks, using them to board the hostile vessel.

The US troops continued down the deck of the Chinese warship, engaging hostiles and putting them down as they moved. Kion sliced down an enemy trooper that had taken up positions next to a series of different-sized doors. At the same time, Jasiri unloaded her pistols on another enemy standing a few meters away.

The team moved to the series of different-sized doors and prepared to enter. Still, before they could, the doors opened, and enemy personnel of many distinct species came out with their paws or hands raised.

US troops kept their weapons leveled and ordered the PLAN troops down to the ground. But the Chinese wouldn't respond, and they all remained clustered in one big group.

Suddenly one of the enemy sailors, a female panda, yelled out in English.

"imperialist warmongers!"

Two of the surrendered troopers pulled the pins on grenades they had concealed and tossed them at the US sailors.

Jasiri and Kion reacted quickly. Kion swung his sword and hit one of the flying grenades, knocking it into the sea. The other grenade bounced to the deck, and Jasiri bravely kicked it into the water, where both explosives went off with small splashes.

The American troops and Heroes opened fire, gunning down the Chinese sailors, lest they make another attempt at fighting back with more concealed weapons. Kion even cut down one of the sailors who was starting to pull a knife.

"Damnit, what a shame," Jasiri said as the enemy troops dropped to the deck.

"They did it to themselves," Kion said.

"Yeah, your right."

Before the US sailors and marines could move inside the vessel, a small rubber boat passed close by the ship, and the Chinese gunner on board opened fire with the mounted weapon. Two marines and a sailor were taken out as the boat pulled away from the massive warship.

Kion cursed and took cover before Jack came through on the radio.

"We've got you, Kion."

Jack and Skye raced by in their boat, the fox keeping hot on the heels of the PLAN boat. Jack aimed the minigun and fired, bullets ripping through the enemy sailors. The enemy boat stopped, its operators dead, with Jack and Skye racing by, rounding a friendly warship and heading towards Midway Atoll.

"More Chinese!" Jack said, and Skye maneuvered towards a pair of hostile sailors on jet skis, armed with pistols. The sailors opened fire with their weapons, forcing the fox to duck in cover. Jack was able to engage the jet skis, taking them down.

Another jet ski with two troopers on it appeared. The second soldier on board opened fire with an assault rifle. However, he was also quickly eliminated.

"Look! Over there!" Skye said, pointing to a group of watercraft, including landing vehicles, heading towards Midway Atoll.

"Get us over there," Jack said, readying himself. At the same time, Skye maneuvered the boat into a formation of US watercraft and helicopters. Even two troopers were piloting small personal hovercraft.

The US boats and aircraft closed the distance to the hostile vessels, and once it was within firing range, Jack opened upon them with the minigun. A hail of lead took down another jet-ski and another rubber boat.

Suddenly the jet black Chinese fighter dived down towards the US watercraft, launching missiles. The missiles took down a US helicopter, sending it crashing into the sea. Another barrage of rockets destroyed a US patrol boat.

"Whoa! Ok, watch out for that!" Jack said.

Skye pulled alongside a slightly larger enemy escort craft. Jack opened fire as the gunners on board the boat returned fire. The ZIA agent took down one of the gunners, then focused fire on the vessel's hull and bridge.

The vessel soon started to smoke before it stopped moving, dead in the water.

"Landing craft!" Jack said, noticing a group of marine lizard vehicles getting closer and closer to Midway island. These were identical to the vehicles that had deployed troops during the first assault on Zootopia.

Skye pulled alongside one of the vehicles. Jack fired into the troop compartment, killing many of the Chinese soldiers being transported inside the vessel. Jack then focused his fire on the control area of the boat, hoping to kill the driver or destroy the control system.

After filling part of the vehicle with bullets, the landing craft lost control and crashed into another landing craft. Both vessels flipped over, leaving Chinese soldiers treading in the water around the wreckage.

But more landing craft had reached Midway island, and the hostile troopers onboard disembarked and charged towards the American soldiers who were set up in defensive positions in trenches. Nick and Judy were also in place, behind a rocky outcropping. The pair of ZPD officers felt a bit out of their element in the island environment. It was not urban at all, unlike the city of Zootopia, their usual stomping grounds. But they were still determined to give the battle they're all.

"South blade incoming!" An American soldier yelled before being gunned down by the fast and dark black PLAAF fighter jet that was strafing the beach to support advancing troops.

"South blade?" Judy asked as defending troops returned fire.

Nick radioed his human friend, firing arrows at the incoming enemies. "Hey Alex, would you-"

"Give me one sec, Nick."

The human-focused on a Chinese aircraft he was flying towards, flak in the air all around him. He took the shot, a missile streaking through the sky and impacting the ship's bridge, obliterating the glass windows and the mammals on the bridge, before the captain pulled his jet back up into the sky.

"I'm sorry, go ahead."

"Would you happen to know about enemy soldiers called 'South Blade'?"

"South Blade? Those are special forces soldiers capable of air, land, and sea operations. Akin to US navy seals. Eris and I will move to provide you with air support."

"Ok, better switch to something a little more powerful," Nick said, drawing a death arrow from his quiver. He fired a hail of arrows, downing three PLA troopers in quick succession.

Judy used a standard-issue ZPD pistol, supported by a tranquilizer pistol that could down even the largest mammals.

A human commander joined the two ZPD officers behind their rocky outcropping and surveyed the situation on the beach. Two more marine lizard landing craft were incoming, bringing more troops to the battle.

"Demolitions team! Get up here now!" The commander yelled.

A pair of armadillos, who were fantastic with explosives due to their natural armor, ran towards the human commander with rocket launchers. Then the team each got down on one knee and aimed their weapons.

"Fire!"

The rocket launchers fired, their projectiles streaking towards the two incoming Chinese landing craft and hitting them. The vehicles exploded in a bright orange flash and a shower of metal.

"Nice shot," Nick said. "I wish I could do that."

"You should get some arrows with explosives on them," Judy said.

Before Nick could respond, a barrage of gunfire struck nearby.

A PLA bear soldier, armed with heavy armor and an LMG, moved towards Nick and Judy, opening fire with his weapon. Simultaneously, an otter diving team with SMGs moved out of the waves and onto the shore, joining their bear ally in engaging US forces.

"Yeah... I really wish I had some explosive arrows right now!" Nick said as everyone behind the rocky outcropping took cover.

"We've got you!" Eris said over the radio as the roar of jet engines filled the sky.

Eris's eagle interceptor came in low over the beach, opening fire with its front-mounted chi blasters. Bolts of energy peppered the hostile forces on the beach, neutralizing many of the enemy soldiers.

Alex's jet followed behind, strafing the beach with machine gunfire. The planes turned around for another pass on the beach.

The bear heavy weapons soldier angrily turned his LMG towards the sky. Still, he was obliterated by missiles from the American jets.

Explosions tore through Chinese soldiers on the ground, reducing their landing craft to burning husks.

Nick, Judy, and US troops cheered and watched the jets fly above.

"Thanks for the save, guys," Judy said as the jets headed back out to sea.

"Eris, prepare to target remaining Chinese naval vessels," Alex said, pulling alongside his eagle companion.

"Way ahead of you, literally!" Eris said, engaging her afterburners and pulling forward. Captain Boehm laughed and throttled up to chase after her. The aircraft returned to the battle zone, where the United States and China continued to engage. But the scales had been tipped, with the US looking more likely to come out on top.

"Let's target that escort vessel." The captain said, prompting both jets to nosedive towards a PLAN ship. The aircraft fired hails of machine-gun bullets and chi blasts, ripping through the Chinese vessel.

Smoke and fire erupted from the ship as the aircraft pulled around for another attack run.

"Missiles away!" Eris said, the pair of jets firing missiles, streaking low above the water before impacting the hostile escort ship with a massive explosion.

The vessel started to list and soon sank beneath the waves, leaving behind only debris and stranded crew.

"We've got incoming!" Eris said, noticing a group of PLAFF bomber planes moving towards a US aircraft carrier, escorted by some fighter jets.

"This is Hero leader." Captain Boehm said into his radio. "Requesting immediate fighter reinforcements. Hostile bomber squadron moving towards the friendly carrier."

The voice of an airmammal came through the radio.

"Affirmative Hero leader, fighter squadron moving to assist. ETA 2 minutes out."

"It's going to take some time for them to get here, Eris."

"Well then, let's give them something to shoot at!"

The pair of pilots gunned their engines and made haste towards the enemy bomber formation. Pouncing on the enemy aircraft, Eris scored a critical hit on one of the bombers, causing it to lose control and crash into a Chinese fighter nearby.

Alex fired a salvo of missiles that took down one enemy aircraft and heavily damaged another. The escort craft reacted and began to engage the American planes. Bullets whizzed by Eris, the eagle having to fly erratically to avoid them.

An enemy jet fired a missile at Alex, who deployed flares to interfere with the weapon's heat-seeking capability.

The engaging aircraft danced across the sky, turning and maneuvering with immense speed and agility, pushing the machines and their pilots to the limit. Whenever a hostile plane was in their sights, the pilots opened fire with machine guns or missiles.

Eris and Alex gained the upper hand, not sustaining much damage while dishing out plenty of damage to PLAAF planes. But the bombers continued to near the American aircraft carrier.

"Eris, you keep the fighters distracted. I'll go after the bombers!"

"You got it, Alex!" The young warrior said, looping around in her aircraft, getting behind a Chinese jet, and reducing it to scrap metal.

Captain Boehm pulled behind one of the enemy bombers, unloading into it with machine guns and rockets. Flames and smoke came from the plane, which began to rapidly lose altitude.

"Fighter support arrived!" Said a voice through the radio as more US aircraft entered the battlefield, engaging the remaining bombers and fighters.

The Heroes captain cheered and pulled around to rejoin Eris. The eagle had taken down two Chinese aircraft, but a third plane had gotten behind her and opened fire with its machine guns. Eris flew erratically and tried to shake off her pursuer, but to no avail.

"He's on me!" Eris said.

"I'm on him!" Alex responded, pulling behind the attacking jet.

The captain pressed a button on the control stick, firing the jet's machine guns. Bullets tore through the enemy aircraft, and it dove towards the sea, the pilot ejecting.

"Whew, I owe you one, Alex."

"No problem, don't mention it."

Suddenly, a high-speed jet zoomed by, the object only looking like a black blur as it passed by.

"Ok, that's something new," Eris said.

"It's not showing up on my radar as friendly." Alex said, "Assume it's hostile."

The pair pursued the aircraft into a cloud, with the other American fighters capable of finishing off the remaining Chinese planes.

Alex and Eris passed through the cloud, obscuring their view. In that brief moment of blindness, the enemy struck.

Gunfire suddenly struck both American aircraft, forcing the two pilots to move erratically to throw off the enemy. As the planes swerved, they exited the cloud, and pursuing them were 3 Chinese fighters. There were 2 standard fighters, but also a dark black and extremely customized aircraft leading the charge.

The 2 fighters went after Eris, while the head plane went straight for Alex, a voice coming through the radio.

"Hello, hero leader."

Captain Boehm recognized the voice as his own. It was his dark counterpart.

"You! Guess that explains the unique jet."

"I could say the same of you."

"Eris, where are you?"

"I've got some jets on me! Might be able to handle them, though." Eris said, dodging the incoming fire.

Alex also had to dodge and roll to avoid his counterpart's machine gunfire. The captain pulled around and opened up with machine-gun fire of his own, forcing his adversary to go on the defensive.

The aircraft flew circles around each other, both pilots trying to get the other jet in their sights. When the enemy plane was in the gun-sights, the attacker opened up with machine guns or missiles, forcing the pilot to roll or deploy flares.

As he turned his plane, Captain Boehm's vision went hazy as he felt himself about to blackout due to the immense G-forces, prompting him to slow down.

"Not a bad plane." Dark Alex said. "Engines and weapons on par with my own."

"Well, let's see who's jet is better!" The heroes captain said, firing a barrage of missiles. But the dark counterpart rolled his plane and avoided the projectiles, returning fire with machine guns.

"All US fighter craft in the vicinity!" Came a voice through the radio. "We have another enemy bomber squadron incoming!"

"Shit! Someone get on those bombers!" Alex said into the radio, knowing that those aircraft were headed for a US carrier, a ship with thousands of crew. But in this brief moment where he was focusing on the communications, Dark Alex made his move, hitting the Heroes Captain with a barrage of bullets.

"Your care. Your drive to put others before yourself... it is a weakness." The counterpart said. "It holds you back from what you need to do to achieve true strength. You'll always feel yourself chained to others. I learned that lesson long ago and heeded it."

"So that's it, you just think I'm weak?"

"Yes. You are nothing. Both you and your nation are weak and hopelessly lost. It is time for a new power to rise, which is why both you and the United States must die. So new warriors may take your place."

"Oh, so I'm just a target for you to take down and prove yourself? So you can prove your strength and establish your place in the world?"

"This is nothing more than natural selection in the wild. The strong creature devouring the weak one."

"Last time I checked, Heroes took down more of you and your band than you have done to us."

"And you shall pay dearly for it!"

Dark Alex fired a salvo of missiles. With Captain Boehm's craft already damaged, the missiles struck. The Heroes leader felt his plane shake violently as the deafening sound of an explosion and rupturing metal rang through his ears.

The captain hit the eject button, the canopy breaking away, and the seat blasting out of the damaged aircraft.

As the parachute unfolded, the captain looked around for his counterpart's aircraft. He didn't see anything, so Alex turned his attention to where he was going to land.

Below him was a PLAN aircraft carrier and an American destroyer, both heavily damaged and sitting dead in the water over a dozen meters apart. But in the water between the 2 warships was an assortment of debris. Crates of supplies had fallen off the ships, floating in the water. A variety of random scrap and wreckage littered the area. Made of all sorts of materials and even smaller vehicles that had been wrecked. A Chinese fighter floated in the water nearby, having slid off the deck of the carrier. A damaged US patrol boat sat partially sunk in the water, listing hard to the side.

The captain braced himself as he touched down in the sea, unclipping himself from his ejector seat. The Hero leader started to look around, looking up towards the US destroyer and noticing something on it. A Chinese helicopter had crashed into the vessel. Now it was sitting precariously on the deck of the ship, hanging over the water.

As the captain continued to try and get his bearings, he heard a roaring engine growing closer and closer. Looking up, the captain saw his counterpart's jet incoming, prompting Boehm to quickly swim into a large cargo container partially floating in the sea.

Dark Alex's jet engaged hover mode and started to inspect the area, searching for any sign of captain Boehm.

The captain, however, was cursing under his breath and watching the hostile plane. His plane had been destroyed, and he only had a pistol and knife to defend himself with. But this could be a valuable chance to take out his dark counterpart.

First, the captain used his knife to cut up some cargo inside the container that had been covered in a dark blue cloth. The human draped the dark cloth over his head, which would help camouflage him. Spotting the damaged patrol boat nearby, the captain waited till the hostile jet had turned away before diving into the waves and swimming as fast as possible towards the patrol boat.

Reaching the boat, Alex scrambled inside and examined the weapon controls. The main gun was still operational, and the captain immediately targeted his counterpart's jet.

The weapon fired at the unsuspecting jet, shots slamming into the plane's armor and dealing significant damage. As Alex dove back into the water, the enemy jet turned around and took aim.

Dark Alex's jet fired a missile at the wrecked patrol boat, obliterating it. Shards of debris rained down into the water near captain Boehm as he swam his way through the area.

Although damaged, the jet continued to search the area, forcing Boehm to dive underwater when he couldn't get out of the jet's view fast enough. If he came to the surface at the wrong time, the plane would shred him with its weapons. But stay underwater too long, and the captain would drown. All the while, Dark Alex scanned the water and debris for his counterpart. He could not lose. He had a customized jet, while his enemy was simply flailing around in the water. Nothing more perfectly represented the discontinuity between the pair of warriors. One was weak, and the other was strong.

Coming up to the surface out of view of the enemy plane, captain Boehm spotted another cargo container nearby floating in the water. This container was marked with symbols identifying the contents as explosives.

The young warrior made his way over to the container, hiding behind debris and diving beneath the waves when he had to keep out of sight of his counterpart's view.

Once he reached the container, he opened it up, finding explosive material and detonation equipment. Boehm quickly armed some of the explosives, setting up a timer. Once everything was ready, it was time to get his counterpart's attention.

"HEY, OVER HERE!" Alex said, waving his hands and trying to get noticed. The deception worked, and once the jet turned towards him, the captain dove back beneath the waves as the jet fired its machine guns. The bullets missed the young warrior and hit the damaged aircraft carrier as Alex swam as fast as he could underwater.

Once at a safe distance, the human came to the surface and gasped for air, the constant diving taking a toll. Meanwhile, the hostile jet advanced towards the location where Alex had been, searching for the captain. But then the container of explosives detonated, a massive fireball engulfing Dark Alex's jet. The aircraft nearly lost control, spinning and turning before its pilot could regain control.

As the jet turned towards him again, captain Boehm retreated into the US destroyer. Swimming through a hole that had been blown in the side of the ship by weapons fire. However, the enemy jet must have seen something because it moved closer to investigate.

Swimming around inside the ship, the captain realized he was in some sort of control room. There was equipment for controlling electrical systems, engines, and the ship's ballast tanks. Alex suddenly realized something and immediately swam over to the machinery that controlled the ship's ballast tanks, taking care to avoid any exposed electrical equipment. He listened closely and looked towards the hole in the side of the destroyer. His counterpart was still there. With that, Alex activated the pumps, filling the ballast tanks along one side of the ship with water while removing water from the tanks on the other side of the vessel.

The ship slowly listed more to the side. Eventually, the Chinese helicopter hanging from the destroyer fell off the side of the vessel, hitting Dark Alex's jet as it splashed into the water. The hostile plane was heavily damaged, smoke emitting from its engines. Its villainous pilot was filled with rage. How could his top-of-the-line aircraft be bested by his inferior counterpart, and what could be found amongst wreckage. He angrily fired at the damaged US destroyer but could only get a few shots off before the weapon system stopped working due to the damage. Dark Alex turned his aircraft back towards the sky. With no other offensive measures, he started to limp back towards a still active Chinese aircraft carrier.

Hearing the sounds of aircraft engines fade, captain Boehm emerged from the destroyer, catching a glimpse of his counterpart's black jet flying into the distance. He couldn't help but feel proud of himself. With nothing more than wreckage, the Heroes leader defeated his dark double, who had been piloting an elite aircraft. But his pride suddenly turned to concern as he heard another aircraft approaching. He spun around, wondering how he was going to defeat this second enemy plane. But he breathed a sigh of relief once he saw that it was Eris's dark blue eagle interceptor. The eagle pilot put the aircraft in hover mode and opened the cockpit, flapping her wings and flying over to the human in the water.

"So, how'd your big fancy jet work out?" Eris laughed, hovering just above her friend.

"Just get me out of here," Alex said, reaching his arms up towards the eagle.

Eris flew around behind the human and grabbed him under the arms, rapidly flapping her wings to lift him out of the sea.

"Your all wet!" Eris said, "water is heavy!"

Despite the weight of the water, Eris was able to pick up the human and deposit him into the passenger's seat behind the pilot's chair in the cockpit of her interceptor.

"Try not to get water all over me or my controls." The eagle said, sitting back down, closing the canopy, and flying off back up into the sky.

"Get me back to the Typhoon. I need to get back out there." the captain said.

"Get back out there? Look around you."

The captain looked out the cockpit window at the area around Midway. Wreckage was strewn everywhere as ships sank beneath the waves. But there was a lot more wreckage from PLAN vessels than US naval vessels. The Chinese had suffered a massive defeat, stopped dead in their tracks by the US navy, marines, and air force.

"What about that second squadron of bombers?"

"Don't worry, Alex, I dealt with them. They're nothing but wreckage now."

Eris flew low and slow over Midway island, and the pair could see the smoldering wreckage of PLAAF bombers and fighter planes. They also spotted Nick and Judy capturing some Chinese soldiers, with backup from American troops. Jack and Skye had parked their boat nearby and were helping to oversee the operation.

Eris then turned towards the Chinese vessel Kion and Jasiri had helped capture. The interceptor did a victory lap around the ship as US forces on the deck raised their fists and cheered, including the two Heroes aboard the vessel.

The eagle pilot then moved towards the US fleet, steaming past the wreckage of burning enemy vessels and collecting stranded sailors. At the head of the armada was the Typhoon, the crown jewel of the US fleet. The captain could barely believe it.

"Wow….Looks like we won." He said.

"Heh, you can say that again."

Some Chinese naval vessels and jets had managed to flee. But most of their fleet had sunk to the bottom of the ocean. US ships cut through the waves while American aircraft streaked through the sky. No PLAN forces were left to hold the line. Midway belonged to the United States.

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trevorfkyi452 · 3 years

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Photo organizer software

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#photo organizer software #photo organizer #easy photo organizer software #windows photo organizer software

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ashxpad · 3 years

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The Wonderful Widelux Panoramic Camera: Jeff Bridge’s Love Affair

It is rare that one brand of camera becomes seriously associated with a single celebrity as Academy Award-winning actor Jeff Bridges is with his Widelux panoramic camera.

Jeff has been a master of the Widelux for years and has created an iconic, behind-the-scenes, super-wide, and inside look at the world of movie making. The Widelux has been the perfect format to photograph movie sets like The Big Lebowski, True Grit, and the Tron movies as the Widelux aspect ratio so closely mirrors our widescreen movie experience.

youtube

Here is some background from the introduction to his book, Pictures by Jeff Bridges.

For more than twenty years, on dozens of film sets, Bridges has perfected his own photography, shooting between takes and behind-the-scenes with a Widelux F8 camera. This fascinating, surprisingly candid body of work began as a personal project, as he recorded the arduous, emotionally intense, evanescent work of the film shoot in books that were privately printed and given as gifts to cast and crew. These are not traditional “Hollywood” pictures, but rather—despite the costumes and lighting, the crowds of extras, the stardom of the subjects—pictures of friends at work. Taken together, the pictures act as Bridges’ personal and professional diary, with actors, directors, and crew appearing as coworkers, all equal participants in the job at hand.

Jeff and Me

I have been shooting with the Widelux F7 model since the 1970s. Like Bridges, I saw the camera as a unique people and portrait camera. A camera that gives a very broad sense of space and, importantly, the environment to the personal portrait. A camera whose visual field of view closely mirrors how we physically see our world.

I became aware of Bridge’s work because of how rare it is to see people using this camera for portraiture. If you scan the history of Widelux photography, you will see the camera used primarily as a landscape tool. I always found this use unfortunate since the usual landscape-only approach felt very limited.

On a personal note, a few years ago I wrote Jeff to give him some kudos and sent along a couple of my Widelux portraits. To my surprise, I heard back from his assistant who asked me, then living in Oregon, if I ever made it down to L.A., as Jeff would like to meet me to talk about the camera. Wide guy to wide guy. The idea of going down to L.A. to meet Jeff thrilled my teenage daughter who was a mega-fan of “The Big Lebowski”. As fate would have it, whenever I was in L.A. on business, Jeff was on a remote set somewhere else in the world.

Going further down the filmmaker trivia road, Stanley Kubrick, the director of 2001: A Space Odyssey, was also a fan of the 35mm Widelux. It is notable that this highly spacial movie was made for the very wide screen and was filmed using 65mm film with a frame size of 70mm.

The Camera

The Widelux was introduced by Japan’s Panon Camera Shoko in 1958 and ended production in 2000. It has been produced both as a 35mm and a 120mm camera.

It is a mechanical film camera that uses a unique fixed focus 26mm swing lens with a slit that pivots and acts as the shutter. It has a 126-degree field of view (not the listed 140 degrees) with an image size of 24x59mm. The negatives are 2 times the width of a standard 35mm frame.

Widelux F7 with the back removed.

The Widelux is a very simple viewfinder camera as it has only three shutter speeds: 1/15, 1/125, and 1/250 plus f-numbers from 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, to 11. There is no exposure meter, focus system, or flash. In fact, the viewfinder is virtually useless. It is better to use your own field of vision and occasionally the arrows on top of the camera to shoot.

I bought my Widelux F7 new in the mid-1970s. It is one of a series of 8,000 that was produced between 1975 and 1988. In total, Panon produced approximately 21,000 units.

Today, a used Widelux in good to excellent condition costs approximately $1,000 to $1,500.

My Widelux F7

I immediately realized that a Widelux was a camera that could make a photographer stand out from the pack. While my friends were running around with Nikons and Leicas, I had a camera that often made people stare at me and ask, “What the hell is that?” Without question, this interest has helped me get to a more personal connection with my subjects.

In recent years, I have used the camera primarily in trips to Asia including capturing the tiny world of small retail shops in Japan, a series on the squatters who lived in Phnom Penh’s The White Building (where outdoor stairways framed every image), Muay Thai boxing in Bangkok, people on Hanoi’s railroad tracks and bridges where the industrial geometry framed every image. I also shot a magazine series at an indoor rodeo in Oregon where I could fill the frame with a bull and rider. The camera works well in tight spaces where every inch can be controlled.

Photo by Peter Levitan.

The Pros and Cons of The Widelux

The pros far outweigh the cons for this special camera. However, this is not a whip-it-out camera like an iPhone. Using this mechanical camera takes some thinking.

Pros

The Widelux is seriously unique. Carry it and you will look like a pro.

It is gloriously simple to shoot. No menus of dozens of digital options that you will never use. You will usually need a light meter however.

It is virtually distortion free considering how wide it shoots.

It is a film camera, so it gives you sweet images.

You can look like a Dude just like Jeff Bridges.

Cons

The camera isn’t inexpensive. And film and processing can add up.

It has aperture and shutter speed exposure limitations. Shooting in low-light conditions is difficult, if not impossible. The only way to shoot outside of the camera’s exposure range is to use an LED light source.

The camera requires occasional service as it can show some banding if the slit does not rotate smoothly. This requires professional repairs and can get expensive.

The Widelux is a film camera. Despite film’s aesthetic benefits, film takes more time, and effort at that higher cost. Of course, if you are a movie star, you can just hand the film over to your assistant.

Back to Jeff Bridges.

I suggest you visit his website and watch his video on The New York Times Lens blog.

About the author: Peter Levitan began life as a professional photographer in San Francisco. He moved into a global advertising and Internet start-up career. Peter photographs people around the world using a portable studio and his Widelux. This is his excuse to travel and meet people.

Image credits: Widelux camera photographs by Kenneth C. Zirkel and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

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150289city · 3 years

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HND1 – MOVING IMAGE {RESEARCH TASK}

Task #1 Research a selection of memorable adverts that have stuck with you since your childhood. • Describe what it is that you think makes these adverts so successful; • Study the way your chosen adverts have been shot and edited and the important role that sound and narration play in the production of these Ads.

Red Bull advertising has been with me for many years. It seems to me that its effectiveness lies in a short cartoon film that reproduces children's drawings and is funny in its own way. I remember that each time I was curious what cartoon movie would be the next time.

The sound and narrative was always perfectly suited to the people who were talking and the moment that was at the moment. here is a link to one of the many Red Bull ads

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHdL4BgSz_U

Task #2 Research a variety of Moving Image techniques: - Camera movements: panning, tilt, zoom, tracking, dolly, pull focus; Composition: a} Focal length, long / standard / wide; b} Viewpoint, high (birds eye), eye level, low (on ya hunkers); c} Action, identify what is moving in the frame (to aid the transition 'cut on a move') • Now go back to the adverts you have selected and try and see if you can match the camera movements and compositions with the various shots utilised within your adverts.

The simplest movement - pan. This is the simplest camera rotation on the tripod head. The camera does not change its position here, but rotates along the axis. Movement in the image left-right (in the case of reportage it is the rule in accordance with the reading direction - if any text appears in the frame, it will be readable). It has to be smooth enough for your viewer to see the details of the surroundings, or very fast if you want to blur the background (and use it for a creative transition to another scene). Panorama is useful to, for example, track a moving object in the frame, show panoramic scenery or the distance between given objects.

Tilt As before, the camera does not change its place, but rotates in the up-down axis. With this movement, you can show how tall a given object is (e.g. a building or a tree) or show the entire silhouette of the figure (from head to toe).

Dolly The camera moves along with the operator on rails and moves closer or further away from the object in the frame. Of course, you can try to make such a move not only on a wheelchair on rails, but even on an armchair with wheels or a skateboard (I saw it in action). This movement allows the viewer to literally "enter" the action, gives the impression of following the protagonist and going deeper into the scene. With a small camera and a short distance of movement, you can use the slider. It is also visually much more plastic and natural than the zoom effect of a lens. If you combine the approach of the camera with the zoom, you can get a very interesting background effect, literally falling on the hero's head (the so-called vertigo effect).

Zoom (aka Transfocation) Here the zoom is caused by the change of the focal length of the lens, the camera does not move. Once often seen in movies, today rather in television reports. The camera approach looks more natural. Telephoto shots give the impression of standing right next to the figure in the heart of the action.

-zoom in - for example, by filming the full set of a person reading a book, and then zooming in on the book itself in such a way that the viewer can read the title and author's name from its cover.

- zoom out - here it can be the other way around - it starts with the detail, i.e. the book, then you move away and it turns out that the book is in the hand of a girl sitting on a park bench!

Raising-lowering (pedestal) This time the camera rises or lowers vertically along the axis. You can show, for example, the height of a basketball player or lower the staff by filming kids.

Truck driving As before - the camera moves on rails (or wheels), but this time parallel to the scene. In this way, we can follow the action like an outside viewer from the side of the stage. It is possible to use a slider at a short distance.

Camera crane (jib) The camera at the end of the long arm of the crane (typically 2 to 10 meters) moves a great distance and height. This is often used for coverage of events, concerts or sports events, the camera then flies over the audience's heads and hovers over the stage.

Handheld In fact, maybe I should say that this is a basic shot, since it only requires a camera and operator. The operator holds the camera in his hand and can move freely with it. On TV, shoulder cameras are used in this way for quick interviews and reportage, and in the cinema, sometimes the camera effect is simulated by hand to give the pictures credibility and the impression of someone watching the action. Dynamic action scenes (e.g. in war movies) are also filmed in this way to conquer the drama even more. When shooting handheld, it is worth remembering not to use a high zoom, it is better to stay in wide-angle shots. First, the image shakes much less then, and second, it looks more like something that can be observed naturally.

Shots with mechanical (steadycam) or electronic (gimbal) stabilizers. Thanks to such devices, the movement of the camera held by the operator is extremely smooth and is not limited by the range of rails or slider. A great technique to follow the action, sometimes the operator can literally run after the protagonist deep into the stage, but without a shaky image, which would not be too much to be seen in such a run. The movement of the camera is not only suitable for making the materials more dynamic, but it can also be used consciously to present information, show viewers the space where the action is taking place, make them “voyeurs” or be drawn into the very center of the plot.

Focal Lenght:

Long – This type of focal length gives the photographer a close crop effect and can be useful for nature and close portraiture (without the need to be right in at your subject’s face). Best used for: Bring far away subjects closer to the camera Emphasize blurred backgrounds Longer focal length is great for portraits Great for landscape photography.

Standard - These lenses offer natural-looking perspective. They’re good for two-shots of people, and mid shots (hips to head) but they give slight distortion if you use them for closeups. 50mm prime lenses are usually small and ‘fast’ (they have a wide maximum aperture to let in a lot of light).

Wide - lens is any lens with a set focal length that is shorter than the length of the sensor or film. For full frame sensors, a wide angle lens would be any lens with a focal length equal to or less than 35mm. These lenses are very useful for filming master shots of a whole scene, or getting in close and working in cramped spaces. They’re easy to handhold, perspective looks dramatic, and there’s good depth of field (a lot of the shot is in focus at the same time). The big drawback is that closeups will be distorted. If you want to shoot with just one prime lens, this may be the one to have.

Viewpoint - The position of the camera in relation to the subjects can affect the way the viewer perceives the scene. A scene may be shot simultaneously from multiple camera angles to amplify the cinematic effect and the emotions.

High (birds eye) An overhead shot is from way up high, looking down on your subject and a good amount of the scenery surrounding him or her. This can create a great sense of scale and movement.

The Eye Level Shot. When your subject is at eye-level they’re in a neutral perspective (not superior or inferior). This mimics how we see people in real life -- our eye line connecting with theirs.

A Low angle shot frames the subject from a low camera height looking up at them. These camera shots most often emphasize power dynamics between characters. A superior character with the upper hand is often framed from down low. This makes an inferior feel like they are looking up to them.

Camera framing is the placement and position of the subjects in your shots. Shots are all about composition. Rather than pointing the camera at the subject, you need to compose an image. For filmmakers and videographers, a major consideration for framing is the number of subjects you feature in your shots, and their physical relationship to each other and the camera.

Considerations when camera framing a shot: Size — the size of your subject has a direct relationship to the importance of that subject. Relationships — when we see more than one character in a shot, we are meant to acknowledge their relationship (romantic, contentious, etc.) Balance — a "balanced" frame includes elements on the left and right side of the frame.

#preproduction #movingimage

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wildeyephotography · 3 years

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How to photograph Dragonflies in flight

It's pretty obvious to anyone who observes dragonflies that they spend the majority of their time in flight and they're extremely quick and agile. Their acceleration is astonishing - one moment they are perched on a reed, the next they're 30 feet up in the air catching a fly or seeing off another dragonfly.

So, how on earth do you get in flight images? Let me take you through some key pointers.

1. Gear & Settings

Using the right lens is critical, as are the settings. I'd say that a 300mm lens is about ideal but other focal lengths will work. Between 200-400mm is probably best so you can capture images from a few feet to a few metres in front of you. A lens that has a fairly close minimum focus is quite important as some species will come quite close.

Once you have the right selected on the camera, there are some key settings to consider:

Manual Focus - Dragonflies are small and very fast and no matter how good your camera's auto-focus, it won't be able to locate & track your subject very well, if at all. Manual focusing is the best way to go (see below).

Shutter Speed - This depends on what you're trying to achieve with your images. You want to freeze all motion, including the wings. In that case, you'll want a shutter speed of around 1/2000 of a second but that'll depend on your subject. Personally, I like to have some motion in the wings but everything else frozen. For this, I use between 1/800 & 1/1000 typically, again dependant on the species and conditions (if it's really bright usually 1/1000).

Aperture - This depends on a number of factors including what sort of image I want, light conditions, background and angle of the subject. I use anything from f4 through to f11 typically. F4 will usually only mean part of the subject is sharp but provides the best way to get a clean background, whereas a higher number will give you a better chance of getting more of the subject sharp, but could mean the background is not so clean. Higher f numbers could also mean you have to choose lower shutter speeds to let enough light onto the sensor for a good exposure. It's all a balancing act which usually requires some trial & error on the day.

ISO - It pays well to try and keep the ISO fairly low, say maximum 400. This isn't usually an issue as it's very likely to be bright & sunny. I have been frustrated at times when using Auto-ISO, photographing a subject against a dark background as the camera will bump the ISO up and images get very noisy.

2. Observe your subject

One of the greatest things about dragonflies from a photographers perspective is that they are not that bothered by humans, especially when in flight. Each species has its own general characteristics, that can be picked up after a short time observing them. The males of the Hawker species for example usually patrol a patch using the pretty much the same flight path, time & again, often hovering as they reach one end of it before turning to go back to the other end. Chasers are much more erratic flyers, spending most of their time chasing others either for territorial or breeding purposes. They are very quick and quite small and photographing them in flight it extremely challenging (to date I have not had any success).

Emperor's are similar to Hawkers and as they're typically larger, are perhaps the easiest to photograph in flight.

Emerald's like to follow fairly set flight paths, albeit usually quite close to the water's surface and their fairly small size makes it pretty tricky.

To date, I've not yet attempted to photograph Darters and Skimmers in flight due to their small size and erratic flight.

Take the time to observe your subject. Is it following a fairly set flight path? Where is it hovering? Where's the best place for you to sit or stand to give yourself the best chance of capturing good images of it?

3. Get in position

Once you've observed your subject, you can choose the best place to stand, crouch or sit. As well as deciding based on where you think the dragonfly is going to pass/pause etc. You also should consider the position of the sun - ensure you're not facing it and if possible you should try and keep it at your back. There will be times when having the sun to your side or even to your front works fine and produces some nice images but for the best chances of a well lit, sharp image, keep it behind you.

Try and get level with your subject so the image produces a feeling of connection with the subject. That can often mean crouching or perhaps getting into the water if you're working with a low-flyer.

Once in position, give it some time. As with most wildlife, if your presence has spooked your subject, it probably won't be long before it returns.

4. Manual Focus

If you're new to this, as most of us, given how reliant we are on auto-focus, it does take some patience (and a lot of deleted images!) before you get fairly consistent.

If you've observed your subject and selected your position based on where you think the dragonfly will be when you photograph it, then you can focus at roughly that point using some nearby vegetation for example. It's then a case of waiting for the dragonfly, getting it in the viewfinder, make adjustments using the focus ring and taking some shots when you see the dragonfly is sharp.

I have found it challenging to learn that it takes only very small movements of the focusing ring, often overcompensating and missing the shot.

I have tried setting the focus at a specific distance and leaving it there, on the proviso that the dragonfly will fly through that point and so providing I take a shot at that exact moment, it should be in focus. This, however, is not the best advice as it usually means dozens of unusable images and rarely a usable one.

It really is down to practice and suddenly you'll find you're seeing the subject sharp in the viewfinder a lot more often.

Getting sharp images using manual focusing is very satisfying in my opinion but learning this technique is frustrating at times and certainly bumps your camera's shutter count up!

5. Post-processing

Once you have a bunch of images saved on your camera's memory card, you can start to go through them and select the ones you want to digitally process. I use Adobe Lightroom (which is pretty much the standard) and work with RAW images.

In terms of which images to work with, as a rule of thumb, I make sure that first & foremost the eyes/face of the dragonfly are in focus and sharp. After that, it's all down to personal taste and what you have to work with. I usually consider composition, exposure, contrast and noise as well as making sure the colours in the image look as natural as possible.

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steelandash · 4 years

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TRP Flag: Mathaes Silverdew - Lord of Dick-all

Directory Information: Race: Sin’dorei Class: Mechanic Age: Adult Eye Color: Fel green Height: 6′2″ Body Shape: 172 lbs. (Broad, muscular) Birthplace: Windrunner Village Residence: Northern Ghostlands

Additional Information: Pronunciation: “Math-ay-ess” House: Silverdew Scars: Faint silvery cross-hatching on forearms and shoulders. Vitality: Robustly healthy, rather tired. Languages: Thalassian, Common, Orcish, Dwarven

Personality Traits: Chaotic (7) < Lawful (13) Altruistic (3) < Selfish (17) Peaceful (10) = Bloodthirsty (10) Cautious (13) > Impulsive (7) Swords (13) > Spells (7) Extroverted (3) < Introverted (17)

Physical Description: With thin lips and a pronounced brow, this elf looks like he wears a perpetual tired scowl. It wouldn’t be far from the truth either. Rich auburn hair sweeps to the bottom of his shoulder-blades, though he often styles it with nothing fancier than a spare scrap off a wiring harness. Deep-set peridot eyes wear bags beneath them like the elite wear their Pilton Gigantiques. Mechanic’s grease mixes with soul dust under his nails, but his clothes seem to be upper class cut and cloth mired in working class dirt. There’s gravel in his voice and profanity in his words, bitterness dripping from every smooth and perfectly easy motion. As tired as he appears, he moves like a cat in a rocking chair factory - somehow both sleek and jumpy.

Faint silvery lines mar much of his skin, though this tracery of scars is most prominent on the outsides of his forearms, the top of his shoulders and back, and the top of his thighs. Healers should easily recognize the signs of extensive healing and re-wounding.

History: Records list House Silverdew among those destroyed in the Razing of Silvermoon. While still a land-owning title, the land is twenty acres of barren, blighted waste now. Clearly, Mathaes knows this and is kind of a dick about it if you bring it up.

Those with some knowledge of noble social circles are likely to recall House Silverdew for a history of contributing patriots and diplomats to Quel'Thalas. Gossip-mongerers might dish that this house suffered an embarrassing tragedy in the wake of the Cataclysm and the elder lord hanged himself! And gracious, has anyone heard from the young lady who was supposed to inherit?

Most of the time, he's better known as the reclusive and irritable owner of Silverdew Servitors on the southwest end of the Bazaar. He repairs arcane constructs and the occasional machine.

At First Glance:

Smells like... A light masculine cologne based on citrus and a clean musk. You'd have to stick your nose against his neck to smell it though.

Glitter and grease. Enchanting dust glitters under his nails and mechanic's grease dirties his cuticles. He definitely works with his hands, and he doesn't much care if you think his glittery skin makes him girly.

Fine tremors. Sometimes, his right hand shakes uncontrollably. It tends to be a fine tremor instead of a violent one, but it can be noticeable if he's holding anything.

* Formally Masked! Dressed for the Wicked Moon Ball in a black coat shot with bronze threads, fitted black trousers, and riding boots. Also wearing a lion's face mask and a gold signet ring on his left pinky finger.

Currently (IC): Retired military. 2000% not involved in the war.

Other Information (OOC): I like big words and I cannot lie. http://steelandash.tumblr.com

Inventory:

Cigarette Case Container Case “A gold (brass) cigarette case the size of a deck of cards.” Bloodthistle Cigarette Consumable Drug “A simple hand-rolled joint of bloodthistle soaked in mana potion.” Use: Smoke the joint. ----- Dreamer’s Cigarette Consumable Drug “A hand-rolled cigarette blend designed to put the user in a dreamlike trance: dreamfoil, purple lotus, and a pinch of rain poppy.” Use: Smoke the joint. ----- Wakener’s Cigarette Consumable Drug “A hand-rolled cigarette blend meant to provide alertness and focus: Khadgar’s whisker and mana thistle extract.” Use: Smoke the joint.

Engraved Wristwatch Jewelry Watch “A gold wristwatch, engraved around the casing with delicate scrollwork.”

Set of Keys Tool Keys “A set of jangly keys! There’s several of varying shapes and styles.”

Holographic Crystal Comm-link Device “A flat slab of draenei holographic crystal about the size of a deck of playing cards. This device is a sophisticated communication link which can contact other users as a group or individually, and transmit text, voice, and photos.”

Simple Dagger Weapon Dagger “A small, simple dagger of good steel and minimalist design, meant as a back-up or last resort weapon.”

Glasses Jewelry Head “A pair of delicate gold, wire-rimmed spectacles.”

Wardrobe Furniture “A large wardrobe, like one might find on a modest estate.” Embroidered Dress Shirt Armor Chest “A sharp-looking, well-tailored navy blue dress shirt, embroidered in abstract designs with silver thread.” ----- Fancy Belt Armor Waist “A fancy metallic leather and silver belt, showy without being ostentatious.” ----- Dress Slacks Armor Legs “A pair of crisply-tailored charcoal grey slacks in soft windwool. Fashionable in their timelessness.” ----- Dress Boots Armor Feet “A pair of simple, high-quality, black leather dress boots. Rising to mid-calf and sporting a very slightly heeled (1″) sole.”

Periwinkle’s Music Box Device “A music box designed to play any number of recordings on harmonic crystal.” Harpsichord Waltz Document Recording “A music recording on harmonic crystal. Can be played on a certain type of music box.” Use: Play the recording Spooky Jungle Crimson Hall Choral Chant Pennywhistle Polka Siren’s Quest

Darkshore Amber Half-moon Trinket “A thick, honey-colored stone of petrified tree sap which absorbs pain and negative energy, and helps to alleviate stress and sadness. Joined to ironwood.”

Deck of Cards Game Cards “A common, standard four-suit deck of playing cards.”

Gemstone Comm-link Device “An unassuming, thumbnail-sized purple gemstone - suitable for mounting in jewelry. Also a voice-activated communication device.”

Security Camera Device “A modified S.E.L.F.I.E. camera which unobtrusively watches and records for security purposes.”

Gobscout Cookies: Ginger Beer Jukes Consumable Food “Gingerbread cookies in the shape of instruments.”

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

Periwinkle - Personal Assistant Servitor

Periwinkle is a knee-high miniature patrol construct that has been programmed to guard the interior perimeter of a construct repair shop, and occasionally play recordings of the Silvermoon Symphony Orchestra.

Rain - A very small puppy

A small ghost wolf puppy from a breed common to the Twilight Highlands. Knowledgeable observers might be able to tell the pup is female.

#TRP flag

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stuartha06-blog · 4 years

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lizeng · 4 years

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A Checklist for Interaction Designer in a UX Design Project

After designing for all 3 platforms (Web, iOS and Android) on every project for almost 2 years, I think it’s worth to note down some of the key interaction checklists that usually help me think during a product design project. As a designer who has a visual background, these interaction states help me dive deep into considering all the details of how a user interacts with a digital product. As some of my friends who are considering entering into the UX field, I thought these can be helpful starter tips for them to think about interaction in a design project too. Now let’s take a look, what kind of interaction should a product designer consider in a UX design project?

Default Display

This is how the product or elements would look like before the user interacts with it. As a designer, I usually consider how it looks and the overall layout. But in some conditions, for example, dropdown forms, I have to consider the default selection from the list of options. And that default state matters because it can be the most common options users would choose, or it is a default option based on accurate data (e.g. location, timezone etc).

Hover State

Another important aspect to consider for Desktop based products is definitely hover state. It is not only the visual change (e.g. hover over a button will bring a different color), but also in many ways it reflects the action a user can take. Something worth to think when considering a hover state:

Is there enough visual cues? (Consider highlight in color or shapes)

Would a user understand what actions to take? (Consider tooltip)

Are there any options a user needs to know before clicking? (Consider dropdown menus)

Whenever thinking about hover state, it’s always important to consider Mobile Web Responsive display. Because there is no hover state on mobile, it’s important to show every action the user can take right at the default state. So considering Mobile Web Responsive during hover state can be very helpful for web developers.

Clicked State

Usually when clicking happens, a user can be taken to any pages or state depending on the need.

If the interaction still happens on the current page or elements, it’s important to highlight where the user is at or what they can do on the current page. For example, an input bar will be highlighted when a user is at focus mode after clicking to type. The rule of thumb is that a user knows exactly what has just happened after clicking. The worse interaction is that nothing happens after a user clicked, that can cause a lot of frustration.

If the interaction takes a user somewhere else, like a completely different page, always consider if that fits the expectation of the user. For example, some tricky sites can place a huge download button (as ads) on a video converting website. After I accidentally clicked on it, I came across some irrelevant page which is something I don’t expect at all. So, as a result, I will for sure to close the webpage and consider it a bad experience.

Loading State

This is a state a lot of inexperienced interaction design can often ignore. Especially when the clicking interaction involves bringing in some data to the user right away, a loading state is necessary in case the system cannot load that fast. Some common examples are: any numbers the system is calculating, any URLs the system is trying to recognize, any validation (username and password) the system is trying to go through, any new info entry (uploaded a resume or doc) that takes time to parse, and any list items (a list of comments or blog articles) the page is trying to load, etc.

Waiting Period

A common sense all designers need to know is that users are impatient. Especially when it comes to waiting for something to happen after an interaction, no one has even 10s. Of course that requires the back end to be fast, at the same time, as designers, we need to consider the waiting state in case the system requires a longer waiting period.

If the waiting period requires a user to stay on the page without closing, there should be a very obvious countdown, allowing a user to know how long exactly they are going to wait for. If not a timer countdown, at least an estimate with a loading bar. The best is to avoid waiting at all, simply let the system work in the back, and the user doesn’t even have to notice the time it can take.

If the waiting period is not controlled by the system alone, but rather by some outside circumstances, as a designer, we should communicate it clearer to the user right on the page. This happened when I was designing for a notification system on iOS. After the user takes some action, it is not up to iOS to approve certain things, not the App itself. So, I had to design a state to let the user know we are in the waiting period and we will notify them once it’s been approved. This can be true for any other product that involves human interaction (e.g. recruiter checking a resume) or validation from another source that’s not controllable from one end alone.

Error State

Always remember to design for an error state because this is something engineers will be asking all the time. It’s easy for us as designers to consider the perfect experience, but a lot of times, things can go wrong. What will happen when things are going wrong? What if the system cannot recognize certain patterns? As simple as someone entered a wrong password, an error state can also expand to system or data failure. If this doesn’t come natural, always ask the engineer team what can possibly go wrong for a specific interaction. They usually have a much better idea what the different scenarios are, and having a meeting to talk about it also helps.

Scrolling State

This usually involves a list of items on the page that’s long enough to scroll. When considering scrolling state, we often have to think about what stays the same, and what scrolls away. In some cases, the scrolling state can allow some elements to change positions or sizes based on the needs. Whenever the page gets long, consider how a user would see the content at the very bottom, and how the scrolling interaction would affect the way they consume the content.

Browser Breakpoint

As a visual designer, I always strive to make the best layout on a page. However, designing for a digital product can be very different compared to designing for paper. Different from a fixed size paper, the web browser’s size is dynamic. Here I am not only talking about the different screens and devices (E.g. HD screen, regular web, ipad, iphone etc), I am also talking about how people can change their browser size anytime on one single screen. Whatever I designed has to fit in any size when the browser changes. So, whenever there’s a page full of content that goes across the horizontal view (e.g. tables, calendar, modules), consider different layouts for different sizes of browsers. That requires us as product designers to know what are some key browser breakpoints. Here is a list of what I have been using:

HD Desktop: 1440px

Desktop: 1309px

Tablet Large Size: 1076px

Tablet Medium Size: 933px

Tablet Small Size: 828px

Phone Large: 620px

Phone Medium: 420px

Phone Small: 375px (or Android 360px)

Image Cropping

I used to think image is an easy component in design because a lot of the images are standard sizes people take from their phone or camera. However, after designing for a system that involves a lot of images displayed in various areas in different sizes. I started to consider the image and its size, a giant beast in the world of products.

When it comes to image, there are several things we have to consider as designers. First, no matter what kind of image size or shape the user upload on the website, we have to think about auto cropping. It’s easy to think just fill the image up in the square or circle we designed for the product, but we see many sites have stretched images due to bad design. As designers, we don’t want to distort the image, so cropping is the best option, but how to crop and what are the rules behind it? It’s important to communicate what is the safe area (after cropping) to the users, and we can achieve that through image preview. The safe area helps users understand how the image will be cropped so they can add text or design in that image without getting it cut off.

Another thing to consider after cropping the image is the ratio display. Especially when designing for products that involve a lot of image display, we cannot just give random height and width numbers to engineers. Because we talked about the browsers size can change, and different platforms can display different sizes of images, it’s important to define some image ratios that engineers can stick to no matter what platform it is. Here are some common ratios that I have used in my design: 21:9, 16:9, 3:2, 1:1.

Numbers, Time and Date

This is a simple one, whenever designing with numbers, always consider the max number of digits. It’s easy to think of numbers with the common 2-3 digits. But what is the max number we can show on the specific component? How would that affect the element’s design, the visual display and the interaction? Always consider the maximum first and the minimum version comes easy.

This can also relate to time and date display. I remember this very well when I was designing something that has a creation date on it. Due to limited space, I have to consider fit “Created 3 weeks ago” within a very small area. This element seems simple, but it actually has many cases:

Created 30min ago (Max: 59)

Created 4 hours ago (Max: 24)

Created 5 days ago (Max: 7)

Created 3 weeks ago (Max: 4)

Created 2 months ago (Max: 12)

Created 3 years ago (No Max)

Each unit (min, hours, days, etc) should have a max count, and at that point it turns into the next unit. Also, due to the limited space, the repeated info like “Created” and “ago” can be eliminated. So in the end it looks like 30m, 4h, 5d, 3w, 2m, 3y. This is just a simple example to consider the different variations, always consider what the max number would be in those different cases.

Max Text State

This is the same as numbers, always consider what’s the max number of lines, or characters that can be displayed as text. Or should there be a limit when it comes to display. If the text runs over the limit, what will happen?

This could involve in default display mode, or during typing mode, or after typing mode. The common solution is to truncate at a limited line or character, add character count during typing, or display error messages when it’s over the limit.

As a product designer though, always consider the max state for text display, but don’t forget how the regular text display and minimum display when communicating with the engineers. And if there are special cases combined with other element variations, don’t forget to mock them up in the design, so engineers can see it as crystal clear as possible.

Those are the interaction checklists I would go through myself and I would recommend other beginner product designers to go through whenever they are designing. I summarize it as a learning for myself as get more and more familiar with the interaction world, and I hope it can also bring value to my fellow designer friends who are considering UX design as a career in their next move.

#UX Design #Interaction Design #product thinking #design thinking #web/tech

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enchantment1385 · 5 years

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My most magnificent mega must (have) mods memo.

So, I’ve been putting this off (big surprise!), but the time has come! I am going to try and provide some recommendations of my favorite mods. Mods I will not play the game without, or mods I love so much, I can’t recommend them highly enough! Hopefully some of you will find a new excuse to play one of these games again! I will split the list up into games so you skip if you don’t play a certain game. Again, these are my personal recommendations, so please don’t get all bent out of shape over this people. I also won’t be adding the very amazing utility mods (such as SkyUI or mcm or mod organizers) as I feel these are required mods. Today's installment -

~Skyrim~

VIGILANT + VIGILANT Voiced - English Addon Okay, where do I start with the amazingingness of the mod? It’s massive, compelling, scary (chapter 3 holy fucking shitballs, batman!), and just absolutely perfectly executed on every level horror mod! This is not a mod you complete in a couple of hours, this you need to put aside a day or 2 and go through all 5 chapters! 1 guy made this. 1 awesome japanese dovha, alas it’s not as adored as it should be as, when originally released, the english subtitles (literally translations from Google) didn’t really translate well... or at all at some points. Hence why you need the voiced addon which makes this mod a 15+ hour, fully awesomely voiced adventure to seek out daedra, and be physically, and morally tested by the one and only Daedric Prince of domination, Molag Bal. Your choices WILL affect the outcome. This mod gives you everything you want from a mod. New weapons, new armour, new enemies, dark soul like boss battles, new places, new people, new land. With Halloween quickly approaching, this is the perfect time to give this a shot!

Legacy of the Dragonborn

I stayed away from this mod for SO long thinking it was just a massive oversize player home to put all your crap on display. I was wrong. I was SO wrong. This mod is the ultimate scavenger hunt turned up to 11. It adds some of the best mods out there and puts them all together to make you WANT to go find that bloody staff, or helm, because A, it now looks amazing, and B, there’s a place for EVERYTHING in the museum, it must be filled! It adds old relics, new quests, a very gorgeous fair sized player home, you get to go to Elsweyr, and even get an airship you CAN use later! And trust me when I say, there is nothing that looks quite as impressive as your dovah walking around a city with your massive ass airship looming overhead. The way everything gets placed into the world is fucking flawless, and if you’re bored or just want more out of Skyrim, this is the mod that does that, and WAY more. Also a massive bonus, it has several patches for other mods that didn’t get incorporated (vigilant being among them) to add extra wings for you to display the items from other mods!

Interesting NPCs

Another mod I stupidly avoided to begin with. So as we know, vanilla followers are... meh. But now with all these new battles and exploring you have to do, you might want someone watching your back, right? Forget vanilla, time to go interesting! This mod adds -

• 250+ Voiced NPCs • 25+ Followers with Location Based Commentary • 15+ Marriage NPCs

This mod makes Skyrim feel inhabited, but with REAL people. People who you can, should, and will want to talk to. The voice acting is just fantastic, the characters are an absolute joy, they fit into the world so perfectly you’d never know they weren’t there all along! Well... Except for the fact they’re actually interesting, and have more than 5 things to say! It also has something called ‘Super Followers’. These followers actually comment on what’s happening in your story. Just about to go kill your first dragon? They have something to say about it. Just joined the college of mages? Have a chat to see what they think! I can not express how much this will change your game, but 151% for the fucking better! Oh! And just in case you were running short on things to do, this also adds 50+ more quests! *(footnote) Pleaaassssee go to Soljund's Sinkhole and take Rumarin with you. What he says when you clear that place out has me laughing my ass off every time.

Immersive Citizens - AI Overhaul

Are you tired of being the only one is Skyrim who actually seems to DO anything? Are you weirded out by the fact when you walk into an inn at 4am everyone is doing the same thing as they were at 2pm last week? Confused as hell by the comment ‘Do you hunt? The plains outside Whiterun are ripe with game.’ How the fuck would you know, Anoriath?! You never leave Whiterun, dude! EVER! That ends with this mod. Now people have routines. They sleep, they eat, they walk around, they don’t just stay in one place all the time! It makes the npc’s go from a static feature and changes them into actual people, or goes a long way to help! Even people like carriage drivers now have a lil tent near the carriage, and will even take shelter under cover if it starts raining. (if it’s not too far from the carriage!) Random people will now not try and fight the big dragon who is burning everything to a crisp, but instead run away and take shelter, you know, like a normal person would? Which is helpful, as I tend to hit them with a stray spell then get into shit for accidentally electrocuting the blacksmith or someone who shouldn’t have stood in the way of the MASSIVE FUCKING DRAGON IN THE FIRST PLACE! Anyway... This mod is awesome and makes all the vanilla npc’s less static and weird!

Relationship Dialogue Overhaul - RDO

Don’t know about you but, I’m kinda bored with the dialogue in this game. The same 5 lines on repeat, over and over and OVER again. I want people who hate me to say something a bit more nasty that ‘What do YOU want?’ This mod adds over 5000 lines of dialog that was never used. Braith finally has more insults to throw at you! Which is great, because I hate that kid and now you will too! Your rivals will be rude to you. Your friends will compliment you. And your spouse will finally say more than a handful of lines to you! With this and the AI overhaul Skyrim will finally feel like it’s come alive. It seems like such a small addition, but it makes a huge impact when you hear lines that you’ve never heard before!

PC Head Tracking and Voice Type & Expressive Facial Animation (M) (F)

So we’ve finally got a living breathing Skyrim, and holy shit, it’s a beautiful thing, right? Time to focus on bringing you to life. Don’t know about you, but I found it plain fucking odd that I didn’t ever look at the person who’s talking to me. Like, not even accidently. I also found it creepy the only time I ever made any sound whatsoever was when I shouted. So the first mod is going to fix that shit. You’ll finally look at the person talking to you, or at that dagger you’re just about to steal. What's more, you’ll be able to assign a voice to yourself, so you’ll greet people who talk to you. Fun doesn’t stop there! You can download voice packs such as, Ciri, Yenifer and loads of others! But... What if you know who you want them to sound like and there isn’t a pack for them? Well, make your own! The page is really good and explains how. So we’re not a clueless goon anymore, we look and talk, but that basically makes us no better than the T 800 terminator. The second mod will make you actually have emotions, instead of constant blank face. You’ll smile at friends and loved ones, and scowl at people who you hate, like you Elrindir. For the last time, I didn’t mean to steal the fucking apple pie! But I think me spending HUNDREDS of gold should have made up for that and did NOT warrant you sending a group of thugs to come kick the shit out of me! Sorry. Just... Some unfinished business between me and that bastard bosmer.

Enhanced Lights and FX

I have a potato as a laptop, as such a lot of these amazing ENB’s are totally off the table for me. But... We all deserve a pretty Skyrim, right? Fuck yes we do! And this is the mod that does that for me. So there are two versions of this bad boy, and you will really want to think about which one you want to go for. You’ve got standard, or hardcore. The MAIN difference is, the hardcore version will make dungeons dark. No, I mean pitch black darkness. Really think you know bleak fall barrow? Install hardcore then go run through it. It make sense that it would be dark down in these places, but fuck me dark is now really dark, which I personally love, but you might not. Install at least the main file and the weather mod and I guarantee when you boot your game back up you’ll be saying ‘wow’.

Enhanced Character Edit OR RaceMenu

Okay, first off you only need one or the other NOT both. Here’s the difference. If you want to make a character that looks like they’re from FFXV or korean mmo, you’ll want to get Enhanced character edit. They’re all so damn pretty! Even the men are pretty! If you want something a little less cute looking and maybe more mature, Racemenu is character creator for you. Both give you a TON more customization when creating your new oc, down to finger and toe length and what’s not to love about that??

Enhanced Camera

You finally have a body in first person mode. not just hands when attacking. Which FYI Bethesda, is creepy as fuck. Next mod.

Familiar Faces

Right, last one as we could be here forever, but I need to do more of these things for other games so let's finish with something stupid, but awesome, shall we? You know who’d make the best companion? That spellsword character you made. Or the sneaky archer. Or that tanky as fuck warrior, but they’re on that other save.. No more! When you fire up the game with this mod installed, you get a portal stone placed in your inventory. Use it and get get warped into this empty hall. Go to any of the books on the pedestals and hit yes when prompted. You, your abilities, spells, shouts, game progress and inventory has just been recorded. Load up another save and do the same in a different book, then you can go recruit... you! You can even make yourself marribale! Got that perfect otp? Create them both and have them travel around with you! Want them to use their shouts? No problem! Want them to not use shouts? That’s fine too! Isn’t that overpowered? Who gives a flying fuck?!

Now go have fun in Tamriel, Bahlaan fahdonne!

#skyrim #tesv #skyrim mods #i tried to keep it short #there are so many good mods #but tried to keep it to stuff that will make your game better #and not add things that are really down to personal preference #like body mods #or armour #i may have rambled a bit #all of these mods are available on oldrim and special edition #the links are for oldrim

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