#how to make it accurate but still cohesive with the colors i already had down | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

parkissat · 3 years

Text

My Art Process (sort of, for painterly portraits)

So a long time ago @iartsometimes asked me if I could make a post about my art process and here it is finally! I'm not really sure how to explain it in an accurate or interesting way since a) I didn't save as many progress pics as I should have and b) my process isn't always exactly the same every time, but I'll do my best to describe the main ways in which I make this sort of art most of the time. And I'm using the process for this drawing as example.

This was a relatively very quick one so it's not as detailed as some others but the basic principles still apply. For practically all my art on this blog I was using at least a couple of different brushes but nowadays I'm only using one of those, set at 50% oppacity. I always start by just filling in the background with the main color that stands out to me from the bg of the ref itself, and then I lay down some more basic big blotches of color here and there to get a sense of the overall colors and values (light and dark areas).

It doesn't have to be totally accurate to the ref but I just take my cues from there so it fits well in the end and also because I don't like to start drawing on a blank/white canvass.

Then on a separate layer I just start blocking a general shape of whatever part of the subject grabs my attention the most, so sometimes I might actually start with the clothes if it's a bigger area of solid color, or the hair, but in this case it was the face. And again I just pick a main color to start blocking and then keep blocking dark areas to start getting the shapes before eventually moving on to highlights and other colors (like warm and cold tones).

I never sketch with this kind of drawing where I'm using a ref and find it easier to just paint and slowly make out the shapes and build the details, and I prefer doing it on one layer or as few layers as possible that I'll end up combining into one.

Sometimes I block out the whole overall shape before starting to add the inner shapes and details but in this case for some reason I just felt more like doing it part by part so I did a lot of work on just the head for a while, and then the shirt, and then the jacket, and then the cigarette, but kept going back and forth to all those parts to add and adjust more little details. While I'm doing this I'll often also resize the drawing at least once or twice and move it to where I want.

I usually make colors by just changing them however I need from some color I already put down in the bg or some other part of the painting. Something I really like is color contrast so I often like exaggerating little blocks of warm and cold tones, and I also love just leaving things looking a bit rough around the edges with visible brushstrokes.

So after these one I didn't save any more progress pics I think. I just finished some details everywhere like the top hair, the print on his shirt, some stuff on the jacket and probably his face too. I'm never really completely done with any particular part of a drawing until I decide I'm done with the whole thing.

And then another thing I always do, sometimes during the process of the rest of the painting but other times, like in this case, after I finish the subject, is that I add more detail to the background. I do this on a separate layer and usually it's just adding more colors to make it all flow better with the rest of the drawing, fix anything with the values, and just add some random spots of contrasting colors to make it more interesting by making some big brustrokes and then partially erasing them (though I didn't add the smaller spots so much in this case and left it at bigger adjustments).

After that the only thing left is that I almost always adjust the final colors in all the layers (I usually end up with about 3-5 layers) to make them a bit more intense. Usually I like to make the midtones warmer by increasing the reds or magentas, I make the shadows more blueish, and the highlights more yellow.

Not sure if I mentioned everything I do or if it was cohesive and interesting but yeah I think these are the main "steps" or elements about my portrait painting process. In general, I prefer painting without sketching, focusing on the bigger picture rather than details, leaving things kinda rough and having visible brushstrokes, and play around with bright colors and exaggerated color contrast. And finally here's a little progress gif of all the images above plus the final drawing where you can kinda see it coming together.

Thanks for reading! And thanks Tanya for asking about this!! Hope it was the sort of thing you had in mind XD

#slothart

15 notes · View notes

antisocialxconstruct · 5 years

Note

4, 12, 20, 22, and 34 for the sidestep ask!

4. what does their villain armor look like? what is their typical style of dress?

Okay I’m gonna cheat a little on this one but since I am conveniently an artist and have visual representations of these already, why wouldn’t I use them?

The helmet is really the “statement piece” of Shiloh’s armor, the rest of it is largely designed to be lightweight and practical but still cohesive. Mechanics-wise, their armor tag is “terrifying” but I think it’s more accurate to say the look they were going for is “unsettling,” hence the subdued color palette with bright spots that draw the eye to sort of random points, the skull motif with too many big empty eyes, and the cape which WOULD be adding a nice extra layer of ~mystery~ if they still had it.

As far as their everyday wardrobe, well…..

When you only find out two decades into your life that you’re allowed to own things sometimes it goes to your head.

12. do they prefer to solve things diplomatically or through violence?

I mean… a sucker punch is a kind of diplomacy, right..?

Shiloh has the capacity to be very tactful and persuasive, but if it comes down to what they prefer, they figure it’s a lot harder to argue your point with a bloody nose. Back during the Early Days they felt like they had something to prove because they were a scrawny little nobody who wouldn’t even show anyone their face, and typically it was easier to send a concise message by taking a swing at someone when the moment called for it, rather than taking the time to delicately make their case. These days they’re just really tired of being asked if they’re “okay.”

20. how do they feel about death?

By their own admission they’ve got a very “live fast die whenever” outlook on life. They’re not looking to die but in a sort of abstract sense they’ve made peace with the fact that it’s going to happen, and probably not that long from now, so they might as well not worry about it and have some fun in the meantime. Death is an inevitability but it doesn’t scare them, it’s just a non-issue. HOWEVER… I think it’s safe to say that’s not gonna last. They’ve been in danger plenty of times throughout their life but with, y’know, one notable exception, they’ve never really felt that absolute, indisputable certainty that they were about to die and there was nothing they could do about it. When that does eventually happen (because I have zero doubts that it will lmao), it’s going to make them realize very suddenly that they do in fact have a profound, desperate desire to live, and assuming there’s still a chance to act on that, some things are gonna change.

22. how do they feel about their telepathy? is it a gift? a curse?

It’s absolutely an asset they couldn’t live without, and an advantage they firmly believe they have every right to use. As far as they’re concerned no one else’s superpowers come with a side of ethical uncertainty, so why should theirs?

Not to mention being able to eavesdrop on people’s innermost thoughts does a lot to keep them moored in a solid idea of what it’s like to Be Human, and if they didn’t have that they’d be vastly more adrift in their own uncertainties and insecurities than they already are.

34. are they nostalgic for their sidestep days or eager to move on?

It’s… complicated. For the most part, if Shiloh never heard the word ‘sidestep’ again in their life it would be too soon, and there are definitely parts of that era, and the person they were then, that they would gladly let die–maybe most notably, they’ve grown a lot more comfortable with their appearance and presentation now, and it bothers them that there are people who still remember them from a time when they could more easily be mistaken for a girl. At the same time, they remember things being easier then, and they’re still not completely sure what changed but they miss feeling like they knew how to connect with people in a more authentic way. They don’t necessarily miss being Sidestep but they miss when things were simple.

#fallen hero #fallen hero: rebirth #shiloh becerra #my art #mine #no one's gonna see this one either LOL I'm killin' it with these prime time posts #arthrmorgann #ortega: where do you even get the money to dress like that??#shiloh: the repair shop pays me $30 an hour

71 notes · View notes

optimusphillip · 5 years

Text

OptimusPhillip Reviews 16: Transformers: Generations Soundwave (WFC: Siege)

It seems that the old Micro Change Transformers can never get a proper update these days. Megatron can’t be a gun because that’ll apparently get kids shot, and a robot that turns into a camera or a microscope just doesn’t please the kids like it used to. But the thing that never ceases to amaze me is that apparently, kids don’t even know what cassette tapes are. Primus help me, I’m only nineteen and I already feel old! As a result, Soundwave and Blaster always feel the need to get creative... even when they’re marketed towards people who do know what cassettes are. Anyway, today we’ll be taking a look at Siege Soundwave, the latest attempt to update the classic communications officer.

Spaceship Mode

It seems that when Hasbro can’t think of a new vehicle mode for a Decepticon, they default to “Cybertronian spaceship.” As a result, Soundwave transforms into a flying brick with booster rockets and landing skids. At the very least, he proves my point about Hasbro forgetting the battle damage feature wrong. The entire top of the vehicle is slathered with silver weathering detail, as are the sides of the nose. It’s one of the busier examples of battle damage, and I’ll admit, probably my least favorite. At the very least, I don’t think the vehicle had much aesthetic value to detract from in the first place. On the plus side, all that sculpted detail I love so much is still here. I like the little antenna sticking off the back of the ship. Brings a bit of interesting asymmetry. Though I do question the decision to give him a cockpit.

In terms of functionality, it’s pretty much as much of a brick as it looks. You can play around with the position of the thrusters, but I don’t think that’s intentional. It feels like they just aren’t locking in the way they should. Most of the functionality comes from the weapons gimmick. Each thruster has a COMBAT port on it, where you can attach his weapons: a pair of matching cylindrical blasters with stubby little barrels. He also has his third weapon, a double barreled blaster that stores by tabbing in beneath the right thruster. All of their barrels are compatible with the blast effect parts, but strangely not the thrusters themselves. Though be careful when putting a blast effect on the “Concussion Blaster”, since the peg on that one is designed to slide in for a robot mode feature. Just remember to push back on the rear and you’ll be fine.

Aside from that, there’s not much to the spaceship mode. It’s honestly kind of a throwaway mode... but you do have an alternative.

Lamp Post Mode

Yes, after many years of fan-modes, Hasbro has finally made a real bonus mode. In this case, Soundwave is capable of transforming into the lamp post mode seen in the pilot episode of the cartoon, and to the toy’s credit, it doesn’t just consist of putting Soundwave into a T-pose. That said, it still has a lot in common with the robot mode, and it doesn’t really do much in this mode either: what you see is what you get. It’s more a fun novelty than an actual mode, and it is a lot of fun.

Conversion

Converting from spaceship to robot (or lamp post) is fairly bare-bones at its core, but actually does have some interesting tricks, particularly in the way the legs transform. Not only do the side panels of the legs fold up to hide the thighs, but the feet are cleverly concealed by a set of panels, which collapse up to fill the cavity left behind by flipping them out. From there, most of it involves flipping parts around the torso. The arms split apart and fold up from underneath the ship mode, and the waist assembly comes down from the back, and the thrusters collapse into a backpack. Take special note of the rear antenna, however: it must be folded down in order for the right arm to tab into place, and for his shoulder cannon to peg in.

Robot Mode

Soundwave continues the trend of Siege toys mimicking their G1 counterparts ludicrously well. Granted, Soundwave isn’t a particularly hard design to replicate, but they still pulled it off really well. The battle damage is, of course, still present, but it’s far more subdued here than in spaceship mode, since most of the spaceship roof is hidden away here. Now it’s mostly in his legs, with some scuff marks on his forearms, and my personal favorite detail: the cracks spider-webbing in his chest. It’s a clever way of incorporating the design feature, though it probably won’t win over those who still dislike it. Me, though, I like this level of battle damage, and would like to see more toys take the approach of this mode.

As far as other painted details, it’s about what you’d expect from a Soundwave: red bands around the wrists, silver on the faux tape deck buttons, a fully painted chest door, and some extra detail on the shins. Of course, the head sculpt is 100% Soundwave, though his eyes are done in yellow plastic rather than red, like his original toy. It’s kind of odd: eye color is usually the one thing Hasbro keeps from the cartoon over the toy, which makes Soundwave kind of an outlier among his teammates. Still, he’s got some good light piping, and if it really bothers you, a red sharpie should do the trick.

Siege has been a great line for articulation, and Soundwave so lives up to that standard. Ball jointed neck, universal shoulders and hips, with skirts to provide forward clearance, bicep and thigh swivels, double-jointed elbows, 90 degree knees, a waist joint and ankle rockers. Though I will say, the right shoulder does have a tendency to pop out of its socket. You know, as much as I found the antenna amusing, I feel like I’d rather have a secure shoulder.

For extra functions, the robot mode adds seven new COMBAT ports, meaning he can be armed up with extra weapons if you so desire. Of course he gets his classic shoulder cannon (or “Sonic Cannon”), which now has a jointed peg to serve as anti-air fire, as well as his “Concussion Blaster”, which lacks the midway extension, but still gets its blast effect compatible slide-out barrel. He also gets the “Blitz Charge Blaster”, which is unique to this version of the character, and which I honestly don’t use very much. Sometimes I’ll peg it onto his arm or something, but it just doesn’t feel right giving it to him. Though interestingly, it can actually be used with Siege Megatron to recreate his back-mounted cannon, in case the sword-gun doesn’t work for you. I may actually just end up doing that with it instead. And of course, the weapons can be combined to form the “Sonic Compression Mega-Blaster”: basically Soundwave’s two main weapons strung together with a gray rod. It’s honestly kind of underwhelming, though it’s length is impressive. I’m guessing this is the reason the Charge Blaster was included, but it feels like an odd choice, considering the two main weapons can just peg together on their own, and if anything look more cohesive that way.

But of course, it is Soundwave, and so it retains his classic gimmick. Pressing a gray button on his shoulder causes his chest compartment to spring open, with enough space to accommodate one cassette. None are included, however, so you’ll have to buy them separately. I like how his left hand has an extended finger, so he can actually be posed ejecting the tapes. One thing that merits mentioning, however, is that the chest door has no permanent stopper to keep it from going all the way down. Instead, it’s held up by the waist piece, which isn’t doesn’t clip in all that securely, so opening the chest may mess with some alignments. Oh well, it’s not a huge deal.

Normally, this is when I’d go into my final thoughts on the figure, but there is one thing I feel deserves a mention...

Boombox Mode (Fan-Made)

“If a Soundwave toy exists, fans will attempt to turn him into a boombox.” --Rule 84

It’s honestly not surprising that fans have made a boombox mode for this figure. Not only is Rule 84 totally a thing that I did not just make up, but this figure is so well-articulated and so accurate to the G1 model that it’s honestly child’s play to figure out. Of course, the legs aren’t designed to look like the sides of a boombox, and the thighs aren’t well hidden, but it’s still more than passable. That said, there’s one hiccup: the arms. The arms have no place to go in boombox mode, meaning they have to come off for everything to sit flush. Fortunately, they’re just on mushroom pegs, so they can be removed by hand, but it still means you have parts lying around. If you’re willing to shell out 15 bucks, however, you can buy a set of add-on parts that peg into the hollow parts of Soundwave’s arm mounts, creating a track for them to slide along. I personally do not see that function as being worth an additional $15, especially when I could 3D print a set of my own for cheaper (not counting the cost of CAD software and the printer itself, both of which I already have access to).

Function-wise... it’s a boombox. It retains the spring-loaded compartment from robot mode, but aside from that, it’s just a box.

Final Thoughts

If you love classic Transformers, this toy is a must-have. His official vehicle mode is forgettable, but his robot mode is phenomenal, and a great representation of his G1 self. In addition, not only does he have the secret lamp post mode, but he can also easily assume the best boombox fan mode I’ve ever seen on a Soundwave toy, making him an overall well-rounded figure, especially if you get the upgrade parts. But of course, what is a tape deck... without tapes?

#transformers #war for cybertron #siege #soundwave

3 notes · View notes

love-takes-work · 6 years

Text

Steven Universe Comic Harmony #2 (2018) - Outline & Review

Steven Universe: HARMONY is a five-issue miniseries focusing on Sadie Miller’s personal life and the Gems’ problems associated with a Gem artifact called the Harmony Core. It’s written by S.M. Vidaurri and illustrated by Mollie Rose, with colors by Meg Casey and letters by Mike Fiorentino. The paper issue I bought has the main cover by Marguerite Sauvage!

Plot:

When we last left our heroes, the Harmony Core had done something strange to Greg and Sour Cream. We now open on Sour Cream, who's been sucked into some alternate dimension where he meets up with other humans who have have been affected by the Core. He runs into Greg, and also his mother Vidalia.

Meanwhile, Connie is helping Steven with the human side of things. She arrives with lunch and reports that her mom (who's a doctor) believes the affected humans are physically okay, but they can't find a way to wake them up. Steven is too worried about everyone to eat his lunch, so Amethyst eats it. She's also been helping Steven play video games, and she's trying to encourage him to just relax while he holds the Harmony Core. Steven has bubbled it, but he still feels like he hasn't "bubbled the whole thing." He's frustrated that there seems to be nothing he can do but wait.

With Amethyst and Connie encouraging him to just chill, Steven takes a quick rest and finds himself dream-traveling into the Harmony Core. There, he sees the affected humans (now joined by Mr. Dewey), and he is able to communicate with them. Chilling out helped him find out something useful.

Meanwhile, Garnet, Peridot, and Pearl have gone back to the Temple where they originally found the Core. They've learned from inscriptions what the thing is called, and Steven already wants to go back inside it to try to learn more. Pearl is worried that if they accidentally do something that damages the stone, Steven could have his consciousness split into pieces. Garnet, Pearl, and Peridot want to go back to do more research, while Connie insists she's good to help Steven with human matters, but that reminds Steven that he was supposed to meet with the band about Sour Cream. Amethyst volunteers to substitute since Peridot's contribution last time did too much damage. (She broke a guitar.)

Sadie and the remaining members of the band are discussing recording their demo, worrying that they really can't go forward if they're missing band members. Amethyst shows up to play, so they decide to take a break and try a new song by Sadie. She gives some minimal direction for the kind of song she wants and starts experimenting with the others, reading from her lyric sheet about how she loves to get lost in scary stories to distract herself from missing Lars.

Sadie's delighted with Amethyst's performance, and though she offers to be part of the demo recording, she's unable to answer whether Steven will be able to record. Amethyst reassures them and returns to Steven's. Meanwhile, the other Gems are investigating the Harmony Core's Temple again. Peridot thinks it might have been a prototype colonizing device. The electronic sentries are a mystery; there seem to be fewer than last time, and they activate with energy whenever there's a pulse from the Core. Peridot narrowly misses getting creamed by a sentry, but Sardonyx briefly appears and saves her.

They decide to rush home because the sentries' sparseness makes them worry Steven is in danger. But Amethyst has already arrived and found the place trashed, with wrecked sentries that apparently overwhelmed Connie and enthralled her as she watched over Steven's sleeping body. A sentry is about to take the Harmony Core, and Amethyst interrupts it, snatching the object back with her whip. She doesn't know what to do when it starts to hum, since Steven is passed out and no one's there to help and she's just not good at puzzles. Desperately, she touches the stone, apparently trying to get it to not go off and claim Steven.

Steven, meanwhile, is in his dream state exploring the Core's alternate reality, and he's frustrated at only finding a bunch of empty caves. He's wishing he was strong and confident like Garnet or smart and graceful like Pearl or able to take on anything like Amethyst. And then she appears in front of him, golden and glowing and urging him to get back to reality now. When the other Gems return from the Core's temple, they find Steven holding Connie's inert body and Amethyst's golden, humming Gemstone.

Notable:

1. The video game Amethyst is helping Steven with is referred to as a "Creature Collector" where if his character runs in a circle, it'll make his eggs hatch. I guess a Pokémon reference is a fun thing to have!

2. When discussing recording a demo without Sour Cream, Jenny mentions "we were going to record with his stepdad's cousin." Seems like a really specific thing to mention if we're not going to meet him, so maybe we're going to?

3. This is a common complaint I have about bands in fiction, but it seems like the song Sadie performs with her temporary band gets laid down in a very strange way. Just jamming and seeing what comes out is usually fine, with a band jamming and a singer coming up with stuff, but since Sadie had written a song with lyrics and a specific structure, the band would need something more than "I need like--something crunchy but fun?" before they could support whatever her vision is.

4. I like that Sadie is singing about "replacing" the hurt of missing Lars with fake fear from scary stories on the Internet. The lyrics say exactly what she means, so there's not a lot of need for interpretation, but hearing her express those things is very touching.

5. In the first issue of Harmony, we saw Opal, and now we've seen Sardonyx. I wonder how many other rarer Fusions we'll see in this series?

6. Amethyst worrying about not having the skills to solve this puzzle was very accurate for her. I did wonder about her calling herself a "force-the-puzzle-pieces-together kinda gal." They usually don't refer to themselves using gendered words, though Amethyst would be the most likely to do so since she uses a lot of slang picked up from humans and has called Peridot "homegirl" in the show (though she's also called her "dude" and "bro"). And one time Garnet yelled "get it, girl!" to Pearl in encouragement. Just wasn't too sure about this usage, but I'm being picky.

7. Steven refers to Amethyst, saying, "Nothing can phase her." Common error but the right word there would have been "faze."

8. I guess the characters are just trying to make things seem more normal and trying to continue to have lives despite disruptions, but I'm a little confused at why band practice keeps being upheld as so important, even though I'm liking the scenes where we get to see it. If multiple members of your band are being absorbed into an unexplained magical coma, band practice and even recording a demo seems like it should be secondary, but it keeps being treated almost like the characters think it's an emergency--someone's got to fill in. Wish there was a way to see this really cool dynamic with various Gems playing with Sadie's band without feeling like it shouldn't be happening when the situation is so dire.

Still enjoying the story, though the feel of it was a little like "and then the characters went there and did that, and then went there and did that"--it feels a little pushed forward by an external narrative than by the characters' actions, but it felt more cohesive the second time I read through it, so maybe it's just me.

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

#steven universe #steven universe comics #su spoilers #long post #steven universe harmony #myblog

226 notes · View notes

thekpopaus · 6 years

Text

Corsair

Jackson x Reader

Chapter Two

Word Count: 2933

Warnings: Violence, mentions of blood and death, nothing in great detail.

I wrote 85% of this in like an hour and a half and I’m actually kind of okay with how it turned out so...yea...I have a few requests in my inbox that I’m working on, I’m not sure when they’ll be out, I’m hoping for some good inspiration! Hope you enjoy!

Ch 1

It only took the crew a few days to treat you as one of their own. Bambam and Mark were the friendliest. Mark took to you quickly because he was glad he didn’t have to stab his fingers anymore. Bambam had picked out the fabric he wanted for you to use to make him a shirt. It was a beautiful teal colored silk, you had started on it immediately, along with a few shirts of your own and for the rest of your new family.

A sail ripped on your third day and according to Mark, who watched diligently, you finished it in half the time it usually took him. The stitches were way more perfect also. It made you proud but when Mark told you they won’t rip as often now you had a twinge of doubt. There wouldn’t be any need for you on the ship if the sails were in perfect condition all the time.

When you voiced your worries to Bambam he assured you that no one would be kicking you off the ship. “The only way you’d escape this ship is if you left yourself. Jackson wouldn’t do that to you. I was an orphan at 12 years old and Jackson took care of me for four years until I was old enough to start helping with everything. By then this was all I knew so I just asked to stay. He said he already thought I planned on it. He might seem cold but he really is a nice guy. He just wants to help people, he’s just afraid to be taken advantage of.”

You wondered why he would feel that way., but thinking back to what Yoyo said before about their reputation being important made sense. He did have a certain image to uphold. Bambam did make you feel better though.

Your interactions with Jackson were short and curt. Bambam and Yoyo made him out to be a kind person, but he seemed to be the exact opposite. You had started making it a point to avoid him unless it was absolutely necessary to speak to him. That wasn’t often, but the rest of the crew started to notice pretty quickly.

Mark, who had quickly taken on the roll of a big brother, was the one who confronted you about it. The reason he came to you surprised you though.

“So, Jackson thinks you hate him.” Mark had been sitting in your bunk next to you reading a book while you sewed. You stopped what you were doing and just stared at him in shock.

“No, I’m pretty sure Jackson hates me. He’s always so short with me and I just feel like he doesn’t want me here so I just started avoiding him. The rest of you are fine with me I just don’t know why he doesn’t treat me the same way you guys do.” You shook your head and went back to sewing Bambam’s shirt.

“He doesn’t have an issue with you, we’re just not used to women on the boat. Jackson grew up on the sea, he didn’t set foot on dry land until he was 11. His mom was really the only woman he interacted with. That’s a little different than having girl friends. He just doesn’t know how to act around you so he just hides himself behind the Jackson persona. It’s really not how he acts all the time, I swear to you it’s not. I’ll talk to him. Jackson’s favorite color is black, maybe make him a shirt and that could be a conversation starter.” He pointed to a bolt of black silk lying on the pile.

“Thanks Mark, I’ll try that. I just didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t want to say something wrong and piss him off, I don’t have anywhere else to go if he kicks me off the ship.” Thinking about it made you upset, you did throw away a life that was at least stable to join a pirate crew you knew little of. It wasn’t a great situation but at least you had a roof over your head. Now you had nothing but this little sack of silver pieces and your sewing skills, not enough for anything really.

“Don’t worry about it, if he did try to kick you off the rest of us would revolt. Especially Bambam, he might make him walk the plank. You’re the only ‘sophisticated’ one here.” He chuckled and you laughed along with him.

Bambam had quickly become a dear friend to you in a short period of time. Your personalities couldn’t have been more different, but he had a good heart. He had come to you for fashion advice more than once, and a few times even asked you to mend a favorite shirt of his. This small crew felt like the family you never thought you’d have. Each of them had taken you under their wing, teaching you whatever you asked to learn, and they never expected any less from you than one of the guys.

The cohesiveness of the crew is what really surprised you. When the ship was in action, even Bambam and Yugyeom quick their bickering. They all worked together so well, it was almost like they could read each other’s minds. While one lets a rope down the other ties it and lets the other rope up.

You hoped after long enough you would be able to function like that also. Until then though, you did need to figure things out with Jackson. Walking around on eggshells wasn’t going to work for very long. You looked at the bolt of black silk again, taking Mark’s suggestion to heart. You could have Bambam’s shirt done by dinner if you kept at it. Then you’d start on Jackson’s and work as quickly as you could to get it done. Maybe that won’t totally fix everything, but at least it would be a start.

Mark hung around for another few hours until it was time for him to go up and help with dinner. You kept working on Bambam’s shirt, just finishing up a few stitches here and there until you were finally happy with the results.

You wrapped it up in some left over fabric and stuffed it under your bunk until after dinner. Bambam would be so excited, he hadn’t stopped asking when it would be done.

Dinner went well, Jackson still as quiet as ever at the head of the table. The rest of the crew were making a fuss and being loud as usual. Bambam was once again arguing with Yugyeom over wine being healthy. Bambam insisted is was and Yugyeom firmly believed it wasn’t. You just laughed at them and continued eating until Bambam paused for a minute to catch his breath.

“Hey Bam, come down to my bunk later, I have something for you.” He cracked a smile, figuring it was his new shirt that he’d been so excited to try on. You were too involved in discussing which pants he should wear with it that you missed Jackson’s scrutinizing gaze flitting back and forth between Bambam and yourself. Mark however notices everything, making a mental note to ask Jackson about it later.

When everyone was finally finished eating, you rushed below deck with Bambam so you could give him his shirt. You pulled it out from under your bed and unfolded it, holding it up for him to see.

“I made it to be a little loose but hopefully I got all the measurements right!” He made you turn around so he could change.

“This is amazing Y/n! I don’t think I’ve ever owned a shirt this nice. This is even better than that merchant at the last port we were in! The stitching is perfect and it fits perfectly! You have a gift my friend, a real gift!” He pulled you towards him and kissed your forehead in thanks.

Not used to the contact you blushed, but you were glad that Bambam loved the shirt so much. You just hoped to have the same success with Jackson. Once Bambam decided he was done modeling, you started on a shirt for Jackson. The measurements you would have to guess on, you hadn’t really been close enough to Jackson to get anything accurate enough that you felt comfortable. Jaebum had broad shoulders, maybe he could help you get a basic size. You’ll ask him tomorrow after breakfast.

Sleeping on a rocking ship took some getting used to. Some nights it was just a gentle, barely there motion. Other nights, like tonight, it was tossing the ship around pretty roughly. The more violent rocking kept you awake, not yet knowing the limitations of the ship, you were afraid of capsizing. Probably a ridiculous thought, but something had to go wrong soon, your life was actually looking up or once.

Sleep was impossible for now, so you decided to take a walk up on deck. Maybe if you see how small the waves actually are it will calm your mind. Wrapping your thick blanket around your shoulders you walked as quietly as possible through the cargo hold and up the steps to the top deck. The boards felt rough on your bare feet, but it’s not uncomfortable. You used to run around the cobblestone streets at home barefoot all the time.

Moonlight illuminated the deck just enough for you to see where you were going, the wind catching your blanket and whipping it around your legs. Over the side of the ship you could see the waves, which were much smaller than the rocking ship would have you believe.

From the deck the water looked black, not the beautiful blue it is during the day. Sometimes you wondered if mermaids and sea monsters actually existed in the murky darkness below that beautiful blue layer.

“It’s a different kind of beautiful at night isn’t it?” The deep voice came from beside you, making you jump and let out a surprised yelp. You hadn’t even noticed him walking up behind you. Jackson leaned on the railing next to you, staring down at the dark waters below.

“I didn’t mean to scare you, I thought you would have heard my footsteps. The water is mesmerizing. That’s why so many men die at sea, the water just seems to pull you in and it never lets go once it has you. It doesn’t look so terrible in the daylight, but at night, you make one wrong step and go overboard? That’s it, you’re gone.” Not sure what to make of his speech you just told him you’d be careful to stay away from the edge.

He turned to look at you, wrapped in your blanket, “Can’t sleep?”

“I still haven’t quite gotten used to the rocking. I feel like the ship is going to sink even though the waves aren’t that big.” You wrapped the blanket tighter around your shoulders, trying to get the image of drowning in freezing water out of your head.

“You don’t have to worry about that. This ship is sturdy enough to handle even the roughest waters. Bambam’s been through enough storms to tell you that. The shirt you made for him was really well done by the way. You have a talent. When you decide to settle down somewhere Bam thinks you could make it as a clothes designer. Some big port city somewhere, you’d make a lot of money.”

“I’m glad he thinks I’m that good. I still don’t feel that confident in my skills. That old witch of a seamstress would beat us just for sewing a single stitch that wasn’t perfectly even with the rest. One time I was so exhausted and stressed out that I sewed a shirt collar on backwards. I thought she would have my head for that one. She locked me in the cage for a few days but at least it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.” You shivered a little, remembering how cruel she was to the poor girls unlucky enough to work for her.

Jackson looked like he was about to say something else, but something on the horizon caught his eye. Through the dark sky you could just see the shadow of another ship sailing straight towards yours. It was coming on fast, which couldn’t mean anything good.

“Y/N, go wake up the rest of the crew, tell them I need all hands on deck. That’s not one of our ships. Go!” You threw your blanket off and raced below deck, yelling all the way. The crew sprung into action faster than you thought possible once you told them about the enemy ship.

Bambam grabbed your shoulders and spun you around towards your bunk. “Go to your bed and hide under it, keep as quiet as possible and don’t come out unless one of us comes to get you, okay?”

He didn’t give you any time to respond, running to catch up with the rest of the crew on deck. You did as he said, throwing a sheet over yourself as you crawled under your bed.

It was mostly quiet except for Jackson’s booming voice shouting commands to the other pirates. There was a moment of quiet, and then you heard a cannon fire.

It must have been from your ship, the loud bang making your ears ring. One blast after another sounded through the cargo hold. You hated not knowing what was going on and you decided it would be wise to learn how to fight. Learning how to fire a cannon would be helpful as well.

Nothing could be heard over the cannons and it was making you nervous. The cannons stopped entirely and then you heard the sound of splintering wood. A shudder ran through the ship, the creaking wooden planks singing under the stress of the impact. The impact of two ships colliding.

All was quiet for a few seconds, then a voice you had never heard before sounded over the water.

“Board the ship! Take the crew alive, bring me Jackson’s head!” You heard swords being unsheathed and boots landing on the deck above you. Worry for your new family outweighed how scared you were.

You couldn’t bear the thought of any of them being hurt while you just hid under your bed like a coward. Swords clashing on the deck fueled your frantic search for a weapon. Something, anything that you could use to protect yourself and your friends.

You stumbled into the bunk area, hoping someone left behind an extra sword. The only weapon there was a small knife, you weren’t even sure who it belonged to. Nothing else would be of any help to you there, so you made you way into the kitchen, grabbing a cast iron fry pan and a kitchen knife. It wasn’t much but maybe you could just distract them.

By the time you reached the deck, there were multiple bodies bleeding out onto the old wood. All of your friends were still fighting however, and it filled you with relief. Your relief didn’t last long however, it was clear Jackson’s crew was severely outnumbered. They were fighting for their lives but there were at least 6 enemies for each of your friends.

Having nowhere to go without the crew, you threw yourself into the fray. The heavy cast iron pan wasn’t easy to swing so you opted for one of the knives. Without any experience you would be lucky to survive but you’ll be damned if you let your friends die without helping.

Bambam finally noticed you and told you to go below deck, but the enemy had already seen you. They would just follow you and make you an easy target.

He maneuvered himself away from the pirates he was fighting to run over to you. He shoved a short sword in your hands, “Aim for the head or the stomach, swing and stab, doesn’t matter as long as they die and you we don’t, okay? I’ll watch your back if you’ll watch mine.”

Trusting you to protect his blind spot probably wasn’t a great idea, but you knew he would do anything to keep you safe, so you would do the same for him. For each pirate you took down, another two would take their place. Bambam kept turning his body to take the brunt of the attacks, leaving you to finish them off. One pirate ran straight towards you before he could spin around. You raised your sword and swung down, hoping for the best. The steel connected with flesh and bone, his sword clattering onto the deck.

By the time Bambam turned around he had already dropped to the deck, no life left in him. The darkness helped hide most of the blood that stained the deck, thankfully not much was from Jackson’s side. The others were still fighting, but the crowd of enemies was slowly dwindling.

Bambam was looking towards the other ship, waiting to see if any others were waiting to attack. Neither of you saw anything, but looking behind the ship you could see another ship speeding towards yours. Bambam had already seen it though, and a look of relief passed over his face.

He turned around and called over the deck, “The red sails are here!” The rest of the crew grinned and seemed to fight even harder.

“What does that mean, what’s the red sails? Why is it good?”

Bambam turned to you and smiled, “That ship belongs to Jackson’s mother.”

#jackson #jackson wang #jackson fluff #jackson angst #jackson smut #got7 #got7 fanfic #got7 fluff #pirate au #pirate jackson #mark #jaebum #jinyoung #youngjae #bambam #yugyeom #tw #tw violence #tw abuse

71 notes · View notes

myaekingheart · 3 years

Note

How did you come up with Rei’s (and all your other original characters’) design(s)? I sometimes struggle to get a firm grasp of what my OCs look like, especially because I can’t draw.

This is a really good question that I actually love talking about, so thank you, Anon! I hope this helps answer all of your questions but if you ever have anymore, by all means feel free to drop another ask in my inbox!

So, with Rei specifically, the process was kind of two-fold: I thought about the basics of what I wanted her to look like and then I sought inspiration from canon character designs to cohesively put together those basic ideas. For example: when Rei was more of a concept than a character, I knew I wanted her to have red/"orange" hair and green eyes, and that I wanted her to be an ANBU. The ANBU part was easy enough because it already gave me a set outfit to put her in, but the style of her hair and the construction of her face was a little more work. I took inspiration from Ino and Anko for her hair (bangs covering one eye, big fluffy ponytail) and also a little bit of Mei Terumi. Her facial features, at first, were more aligned with Hinata's face in Shippuden but after a while kind of shifted more to what came naturally to me from an artist perspective. Her casual outfit was inspired by Sakura and also a little bit of waterbender fashion from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

For me, personally, I'm a really big fan of using canon influences to inspire an OC's design because even if I take it and totally flip it on it's head (like Mikazuki's shinkantazagan--a third eye in her forehead, and pupils that look like pale green byakugan--that were inspired both by the average byakugan and also Kaguya's eyes), I feel like it's still believable to the rules of the universe if it's rooted in something canon-compliant. Not that you have to restrict yourselves to those rules, which you're by no means obligated to. It's just my personal preference to take heavy inspiration from things in canon because I want to be able to look at my OCs and kind of think to myself "Yeah, I can imagine you easily infiltrating canon and looking normal while doing it, I can imagine you blending in with the other characters and fitting the style of the universe." Though even I'll admit, not all of my OCs fit that bill, either, like sometimes I do genuinely take artistic liberties that reach outside of the realms of the style and rules of canon and that is okay, too.

When creating everyone else, I kind of just played around with personality traits I thought would be interesting to represent and also color combinations/character design ideas. Aside from Rei, the first three OCs I ever made were her best friend Sekkachi, Amai (the waitress at the dango shop), and Hiretsuna (the hospital receptionist) because those were the three contenders I came up with for women that Naruto and Sakura try to set Kakashi up with on a blind date. So the majority of their character designs started around a central personality trait that they're all named after: Sekkachi is impatient, Amai is sweet, and Hiretsuna is basically ditzy. Their first appearances all put them in uniforms, as well, though, which made things a little easier in the character design department because we have canon references to jonin uniforms and hospital attire, and waitress uniforms can have a distinct look that we can turn to. So all in all, I think considering what your OCs career is can be really helpful in figuring out what they look like and how they dress.

And personality can also play a huge part in it, too. I'm a big believer in people using fashion to express themselves and make a point about who they are, and I think that a lot of times fashion can be a really good indicator of what a person is like (or can also be amusingly deceptive, which can be fun to play around with). For example: someone walking down the street in a designer pant suit makes you believe that they have money, and are likely driven and dutiful to deadlines and overall have their life sorted out. Someone else walking down the street in pajamas with their hair in a messy bun makes you believe that they are an exhausted mess who is probably on their way to Starbucks for a much-needed coffee, or they had a really rough night. And another person in athletic wear of course gives the feeling that they overall are an athletic and very health-conscious person. These are absolutely stereotypes but sometimes it can be really helpful to use those as a jumping-off point in figuring out who to present your own characters. You can emphasize that someone is nerdy by giving them glasses or you can hint that someone is confident and comfortable with their body if they're wearing a crop top or showing some skin in other ways. If a character is more athletic or a tomboy, they would likely be more inclined to wear pants or shorts that they can move in rather than a dress. If a character is self conscious about their body or themselves, they may be more inclined to cover up and wear ill-fitting clothes and long sleeves. I think a good exercise for honing in on how fashion can manifest itself as a hint of someone's character can be people-watching! Look at the people who see walking down the street or in the store, and the way they dress and act. You may not be accurate in your assumptions about them, but by analyzing the way they present themselves, you can start to formulate a story or understanding in your head of what kind of person they might be.

Another thing that really helps me out when coming up with character designs is using Picrews and character creators! Even as an artist myself, I always like to go in and mess around with character creators to get a better grasp on what someone might look like in more specificity and also play around with design choices like hair color and style, clothing, and facial features. That was actually the baseline of how I designed Rei, Sekkachi, Amai, and Hiretsuna at the very beginning. I used a (since-defunct) Naruto character creator to play around with design choices and come up with my very first inclination of what these characters might look like. Of course they kind of evolved over time as their own personalities and stories developed, but those first designs laid the basis for all of that.

(And as a side note, it is also totally okay for character designs to change over the years. Characters in a constant state of flux and as their stories evolve and influence who they are and who they become, so can their physical appearance. And don't be afraid to change something about a character if you don't like it anymore, like the way they wear their hair or the type of clothes they wear, because again, characters in a constant state of flux and are always evolving and changing.)

But back to the subject of using character creators, this is one of my all-time favorites to mess around with character design. The anime style can be really helpful when focusing on anime OCs to get a grasp on a more canon-compliant art style for their appearance, and there are plenty of options to choose from. Another option I really love is using The Sims 4 Create-a-Sim if you're a Sims player (I'm not 100% sure if this link still works, but they did at least at one point have a free demo that you could download and play with). With Sims, I really like how you can hone in on specific details that may not come across as clearly in an anime-style because the character design is arguably more on the realistic side (at least compared to anime). Custom content can be really helpful, too, but isn't necessary. This CC creator has a lot of really cool Naruto content, though, that can be fun to work off of and play around with. And of course, Picrew is also an option, and they have tons of little avatar makers to choose from so you can mess around with a lot of variation in style and design to help find what feels best for you and your character.

I know this got really long and I really hoped this help, but like I said before, if you ever have any other questions then by all means feel free to drop another ask in my inbox and I'll try to help out as best as I can ^_^

#thank you for asking!#answered asks #anon #awesome things to refer to

0 notes

impracticaldemon · 7 years

Text

Nalu Fluff Week 2017 Within the Law, Chapter 2

fanfiction by impracticaldemon Words: ~3000 | Also on FFnet | AO3 (coming soon) | CH. 1

Author's Note:

Chapter 2 of Within the Law is based on the Day 4 prompt "History", with several nods to the Day 1 prompt "Soulmates".

I'd like to thank everyone who is reading, following and liking this story so far, with special thanks to those who have taken a moment to drop me a line to tell me what they think of the story.

Chapter 2—Friend or Foe?

Prompt: History

I—Scrutiny

The interview did not go at all as Lucy expected. For one thing, it was a great deal more informal than any interview she'd ever had for a job (other than one for a paper route that her father wouldn't let her keep). The real shock, however, was finding out that the law firm of Makarov & Vermilion—known to lawyers as Fairy Tail—had a history with her family.

The room was more or less what she had envisioned—corporate-Fiore standard boardroom with an oval table, big comfortable chairs, and fully updated with the newest in lacrima technology. The artwork was a little unusual, and appeared to have been contributed by various members of the firm, since there wasn't any cohesion or similarity between the pieces that she could make out. Lucy couldn't help but glance at Natsu when her eyes caught what appeared to be an original Star Wars movie poster in all its kitschy, late- seventies glory, mounted in a place of honour on one wall. Natsu gave her two thumbs up, apparently aware of her interest—in the poster—and Lucy found herself smiling.

"That's the slightly more common version, of course," he stage whispered to her as she sat down in her designated spot. "But I have the Type A poster at home."

Lucy had no idea what he was talking about; apparently Natsu was an even bigger geek than she was. Also… was that a pick-up line? Gray either shared her concern or saw her expression. He punched Natsu none-too-lightly on the shoulder.

"Seriously, Pepto B? Lucy's here for a job interview and you sound like some kind of nerdy pick-up artist."

"What the hell, Gray?! I just thought she'd like to know—I mean she can recognize an Imperial Destroyer-class capital ship when she sees one!"

"So could anyone who's known you for at least five minutes," argued Gray, unconsciously pushing back his sleeves. His pale blue shirt was now unbuttoned most of the way down his chest, revealing a stylized silver sword on a matching chain around his neck—and some very nice muscle, and part of a dark blue tattoo.

Lucy saw Erza Scarlet, the firm's youngest-ever managing partner start to tense at the childish behaviour. She leaned forward, but Makarov Dreyar, the firm's senior partner, shook his head at her slightly, and Ms. Scarlet sighed but didn't intervene. Lucy wondered just how often this kind of thing went on around Fairy Tail. Were they at least more professional around clients? And did their lead forensic specialist really need to show off his chest like that? Lucy found herself looking back at Natsu in the hope that maybe this was a common habit for Fairy Tail guys. Hope?! Did I really just think that? Ugh! This is getting out of hand.

Ignoring Ms. Scarlet's glare, Natsu poked Gray in the chest with a forefinger. It didn't look like much, but Gray almost fell out of his chair.

"Hah!" crowed Natsu. "Shows what you know, Stripper! Lucy hadn't known me for five minutes yet!" He beamed at Lucy, who once again felt like a deer caught in particularly attractive headlights. She scrambled to get her wits together, her task made harder as Natsu reached up and loosened his tie and unbuttoned his collar. Mercifully, he stopped with just one button.

"… I guess not," she ventured. "At least, I know it wasn't for very long."

Gray leaned forward toward Natsu with a predatory smirk. "Thought so. You didn't go fetch Lucy like you were supposed to, did you? I'll bet you ran home to let Plue out, set Happy to keep an eye on him, and then—let's see—you had to rush back here because you can't stand riding the subway. You know, I thought it was strange that Lucy got caught in the rain."

Lucy felt a blush starting—why had she lied to cover up for Natsu? Then she discovered that nobody else seemed especially upset, although Ms. Scarlet was obviously irritated.

"And which great detective are you today, Ice Cube Brain, Poirot or Holmes?" Natsu rolled his eyes. "I mean for crying out loud, Ice Princess, don't you—"

"That's enough!" Ms. Scarlet's hand smacked the table, and Lucy jumped right along with the guys. "Natsu—we'll have to have another chat about your billable hours later today. Gray, put your shirt back on and stop baiting Natsu."

Wait, what? Lucy stared at Gray, whose expensive broadcloth shirt was hanging neatly over the back of his chair. What the hell?

Okay, so the lawyers at M&V were a little… unusual. Lucy had already known that in advance. She'd done her research—and seen the news stories—so she'd been aware that Makarov Dreyar was extremely short and tended to conduct business sitting cross-legged on top of tables, podiums, bars, and—in one very famous case—the back of a client's expensive and extremely explicit Greek statue of three lovers.

Mr. Makarov had argued that as the statue was a perfectly functional chair, and as there were no obscenity by-laws regarding lawn furniture, the City of Magnolia had no right to either fine his client or force him to remove the object from his front lawn. He'd lost the case, but it had made his law firm known to most of Fiore by the time it was over. On top of that, the client had reputedly been pleased that he and his statue had been on the news for the better part of two months. It had allegedly doubled the client's business, which Lucy preferred to not think about too hard.

Lucy had also been prepared for Erza Scarlet to be a gorgeous redhead who was not much older than she was. Ms. Scarlet was known equally for her uncompromising courtroom tactics and her custom-designed suits, which had a strange tendency toward colorful bows and thematic patterns that she claimed were related to her cases. Three years ago, journalist Jason Khol had commented that if Erza Scarlet ever showed up for court in a regular black or navy suit, he'd know for sure to leave immediately; the case would either be boring or leave people dead. He had also reported that the lawyer's one weakness was strawberry torte with real whipped cream. Looking across at the giant portrait of a piece of cake so deliciously realistic that Lucy's mouth immediately began to water, Lucy concluded that the information might have been more accurate that Jason's usual offerings.

She was called back to the present when Ms. Scarlet cleared her throat and thanked Lucy for coming to the interview. Lucy almost hugged her for saying something so normal.

"I'm very happy to be here," she began.

"Well, that's just it," interrupted Makarov. "You see, we've had our eyes on you for some time, but since we're all very much like family here, we had to make sure that you weren't just applying for a position in order to spy for your father."

Lucy froze in place. This was actually worse than she'd expected. She'd become more or less inured to being courted for her family's wealth and connections, but she'd never ceased to be hurt on the rare occasions that she'd been met with grim scorn or open hostility because of her family's "opportunistic" business practices.

"Oi, gramps!" Lucy blinked in surprise. It sounded like Natsu was—angry?—on her behalf. Sure enough, the pink-haired securities lawyer waded in with total disregard for rank or protocol. "You didn't have to put it like that! Besides, it's perfectly obvious that she's not here to spy for Old No-Heart Heartfilia!"

No-Heart Heartfilia. Yes, that's what they called him—the nebulous "they" being almost anyone from whom he'd ever wanted something.

Lucy looked up when a heavy arm dropped around her shoulders and squeezed. She automatically noticed the high-quality wool of the suit and the fine linen of the shirt cuff. She'd been raised to notice things like that in the same way that others noticed hair and eye colour. Still a little in shock at the unexpected—well, not attack exactly, but close—she mused that she didn't like Natsu's cuff links and would have to choose him a new pair. That thought brought her out of her daze. What was it with him that made her think things like that? He smells good, her nose suggested. She didn't recognize the soap, so it was probably an off-brand—something he'd picked up for himself—but there was a hint of pine and fresh wood smoke that was both very odd and somehow comforting.

"I have to agree with Pinky, jiji." To Lucy's surprise, that was Gray's cool, rather deep voice, and it sounded like he was on her side too. "Lucy lied like a champ for Natsu and—as we've heard—she barely knew him. Not just that, but I'm pretty sure she didn't know he was a partner, so I doubt she was looking to buy favours." Gray must have moved closer, because she heard him murmur sotto voce: "Waste of time with Natsu anyway…"

Lucy looked up at Mr. Makarov, who seemed to be frowning at her. All at once she realized that Natsu was still hugging her. It was nice, but she preferred to stand on her own two feet, metaphorically speaking.

"Um, Natsu?"

"Natsu—personal space?" Erza's voice sounded slightly weary; no doubt they'd had this conversation before.

"Yeah, Natsu, she hasn't accepted your offer to come see your Type A Star Wars poster yet you know." Sure enough, Gray was right behind her.

"Gray—put your shirt back on."

"Oh—sure thing Erza."

Gray's presence disappeared from behind her and at the same time the warmth around her shoulders vanished. She felt surprisingly disappointed, but persevered.

"Mr. Makarov—Ms. Scarlet—is this still an interview for a job? Or am I here because you're angry with my father?"

"Hmmm, well, I wouldn't say I was ever angry with you, Ms. Heartfilia. It's just that your father has a way of hurting people when he doesn't get his own way, so I am… protective."

Lucy stood up, pleased to find that she was fully in control of herself and her voice again.

"There is nobody who understands my father's nature better than I do," she said in a clipped voice. "Am I here for a job? Or a trial?"

Mr. Makarov smiled at her, and to Lucy's surprise, his smile had quite a bit of the same elusive, sunny charm as Natsu's.

"Actually, if Gray and Natsu hadn't jumped in so quickly, I would have explained that although we were concerned about your motives for seeking employment here, we've already determined that you're just the kind of person we want here—and the right person to make sure that past history stays in the past."

"Oh." Lucy suddenly felt deflated. Then her normal good spirits—which had somehow survived her father's rule after her mother's death—started to bubble back to the surface. "Um, Mr. Makarov?"

"Yes?"

"Does this mean I'm hired?"

"If you want the position, it's yours."

Lucy nodded firmly. "Absolutely. I've dreamed of working here."

"Awesome!" That was Natsu, and he was grinning even more brightly than before.

"Welcome to Fairy Tail," said Gray, who still hadn't put his shirt back on. He offered Lucy a slight smile—the first she'd seen other than when he'd been laughing at Natsu.

"We're very happy to have you here," put in Erza. "Please, just call me Erza. If you have some time now, we can do up the proper contracts and so on."

"And discuss billable hours," muttered Natsu.

"Nonsense, she's a summer student," Erza told him sharply. "You on the other hand…"

"Right—got it! And, uh, I've got to get going… are we done here? I mean, gramps has a beer out now and all…"

Sure enough, Mr. Makarov was drinking placidly from a giant beer stein. Where had that come from?

"Fine. Go." Erza shook her head as Natsu rushed off. "That boy… brilliant, of course, but not focussed."

"He's young," murmured Erza's boss—to the extent that she had one. She started to nod in agreement, when Makarov added, "So are you, of course."

"Well then, time to wrap this up," said Gray. He was looking impatient, but was too polite to simply leave.

Just then, Natsu stuck his head in at the door.

"Lucy! I forgot! I'll walk you home, okay? Also—don't let Gray convince you to try out for the hockey team and don't let Erza talk you into putting on a musical. See you in a couple of hours!"

The pink hair vanished as quickly as it had come.

"Musical?" Lucy asked, puzzled.

"Oh yes!" replied Erza, suddenly looking much less severe and considerably younger. "I happened to notice on your résumé that you've done some amateur theatricals, and…"

Lucy heard a snicker from Gray; he patted her on the shoulder on his way out, careful not to interrupt Erza's excited description of the potential for the first ever Fairy Tail musical operetta. Seated to Erza's right, on the conference table, Lucy saw Mr. Makarov smile into his beer.

II—Not Alone

"So, how was your first day?"

Lucy looked sideways at Natsu, who looked cheerfully unrepentant about leaving work early. He'd told her that he'd probably go back later. Unless she wanted to see the poster today, of course. Lucy had declined, citing fatigue and a need to find a place to live in the city now that she could more or less afford to pay rent.

"Well, I didn't really do any work… I mean, I still have end of year exams to go before I can work full-time for the rest of the summer."

Natsu gave her a knowing look.

"I'll bet Erza talked you into the musical."

"True. But she agreed that it might be better to consider a play to start."

"Heh. She wants Gray to sing—he's a dork, but he's got a good voice. He's usually willing to go along with stuff, but he's put his foot down on the singing." Natsu paused, considering. "So far."

"I know exactly what you mean," Lucy told him with considerable feeling. "Erza's amazing, and she's been my idol for the last two years, but she's really… intense."

"Accurate," Natsu agreed. Despite the beautiful clothes, Lucy was starting to believe that he really wasn't much older than she was.

They walked along for a few more minutes, chatting and laughing with surprising ease, when Natsu stopped abruptly and looked toward a park about a half-block away.

"Come on," he said. "I've got to get Happy and Plue."

Bemused, and amazed that she was going with him despite her skirt and heels—she'd ditched the stockings and not bothered with her spare pair—Lucy trailed along behind Natsu. When they reached the park, the white dog and blue-grey cat came trotting up. At Natsu's request, Lucy carefully squatted down in her tight skirt to pet the dog. He was an adorable little thing, with short, velvety fur and dark, expressive eyes.

"So his owner is away?" Lucy asked.

"Yeah… Well, kinda." Natsu shifted from foot-to-foot, his cat Happy in the crook of one arm. "Actually, they're not coming back. But I didn't want Plue to go to just anyone, so I took him in. The building doesn't allow dogs, but I'm planning to get my own place soon anyway, so I thought—why not?"

There was obviously some kind of story there—more old history?—but for some reason, Lucy didn't feel the need to find out about it the way she usually did. She liked the dog—more of a puppy, really—and for some reason, she liked the man. She smiled when it occurred to her that Natsu seemed like a bit of a puppy himself at times. Corporate law shark he might be, but she hadn't seen it so far. She might feel differently once they'd worked together for a while, of course.

A hand reached down, and Natsu helped her to her feet. He seemed a little abstracted, so Lucy gave him his space. Or tried to, anyway. He appeared to like walking close to her, and—again, she wasn't sure why—it didn't bother her.

"How about I give you a hand with finding an apartment?" Natsu asked, after several minutes of silence.

Lucy stopped, since they were about to head down into the subway station, and it would be next-to-impossible to chat down there, given the noise and people. She was surprised by the offer—but not really.

"You don't mind?" She hesitated, and then said bluntly, "The thing is that I'm going to have to do a fair bit of looking. It's got to be nice enough to be comfortable, but not too expensive—although I've got some money saved up, which will help. But the big thing is that my dad's going to be really upset. So I need to look without him knowing."

Natsu nodded, obviously thinking. "So you're running away then?"

"Pretty much. But I've still got a year of school to go so… I don't know exactly how it will work out."

Her companion studied her face and then smiled reassuringly. "We'll make it happen—no problem! You're not on your own now, you know?"

An odd lump rose in Lucy's throat, and she hastily blinked away tears.

"Yeah. Thanks, Natsu."

"There is one thing, though."

"What?" Lucy could feel her original wariness return.

"I really hate subways. Worse than anything." He looked embarrassed and ran a hand through his pink hair.

"Oh. I see the problem." Lucy pulled herself out of her unproductive thoughts. She smiled at Natsu. "I think I can make it home from here on my own, to be honest. Besides, Erza will be happier with you if you head back to work, won't she?"

"Yeah… After I drop off these two, anyway." He seemed a little disappointed, and Lucy hoped it was because he was sorry she had to go. "Well, maybe you can come by on the weekend? Hang out with me and these guys?" His head indicated the cat and the dog.

Lucy didn't know what to say. She wanted to say yes, but it was ridiculous to trust a guy that she barely knew.

"Aren't you going to be working?" she temporized.

"Probably not; there's nothing big in the works for a couple more weeks. Actually, that's the thing—I don't always have a ton of free time, but this weekend's good. That's how it goes in my practice area—you're either working flat out or not too much. I don't mind it. But I want to help you find a place, so…"

"Well, okay then." Lucy gave in and decided to go for it. She couldn't tell if the guy was just being nice—very nice—or whether he was asking her out in a very, very circuitous way. It was impossible to tell. At the very least, he seemed to want to spend time with her. She definitely wanted to spend time with him, although she couldn't quite explain why. She felt less alone than she had in years.

Natsu was frowning again, but he grinned at her response. "Great! Okay, let's exchange numbers"—they each pulled out their communications lacrima—"and we'll aim for early Saturday afternoon. Good?"

"Works for me."

"Also, if you ever just want to come over and study, I can probably help. Gray's not too shabby either, though I wouldn't tell him that."

"Such fulsome praise!"

"I know, right?" Another blinding grin.

"See you on Saturday, Natsu!"

"Bye Lucy! Don't trip in the turnstile this time!"

Lucy opened her mouth to protest—it was Happy and Plue that had tripped her up—but Natsu was already jogging away. She suspected he was laughing.

[END]

A/Note: So, this chapter ended up three times longer than planned—mind you, I'm using the term "planned" in a very general kind of way. I hope you enjoyed it! I'll probably do one more to wrap up Fluff Week. The story needs at least a kiss and definitely some cuddle time... but what do I know?

As always, your reviews and comments are very much appreciated! You'd be surprised how encouraging it is to know that people look forward to reading your work. :)

Confession time ~ I do have a law degree and practiced law in a large firm for just over two years after finishing law school. I practice law in Canada, which means primarily "common law" - that is, law based on both legislation and the decisions of the courts. The US, and most former British colonies, are also common law jurisdictions. The system is different in "civil law" jurisdictions, such as Québec (in Canada) and most of Europe.

@shell-senji @nalufever @eliz1369 @nalu-natic @naluloverforever @unashamed-shipper @kazama-hime @sabinasanfanfic @sanguine-fairy @very-x-vice @walk-tall-my-fr1ends @hakusaitosan @strawberrysweetlove35 @fic-writer-appreciation @ftfanfics

Note: I may not be tagging all the right people; I apologize to those I’ve included by mistake and (in absentia!) to those I’ve missed.

#fairy tail #nalu #nalufluffweek #fanfiction #impracticaldemon #within the law 2 #prompt history #nalu fluff wk 2017

63 notes · View notes

hellchilde · 7 years

Text

Reactions to Beauty and the Beast: 2017

Like most of my generation, I have a special connection to the Disney animated film, Beauty and the Beast, when it was released in 1991. I was 4 at the time, already obsessed with Disney, enough that I had the Little Mermaid memorized and my parents had recorded Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty on cassette tape for me to listen to in the car. Beauty and the Beast changed the game for me. Here was a princess with brown hair who liked to read and was considered a little odd by her village - awesome, just like me! The music and visuals were stunning, the story was captivating, and it became my new favorite Disney film (until 1992′s release of Aladdin, which I remember seeing five times in the theaters, but that’s another story).

When news came that they were remaking Beauty and the Beast in a live action film, I had a mixed reaction. On one hand, I was excited about how modern technology might remake some of my favorite Disney visuals in a whole new medium. But at the same time, I was skeptical of recapturing the magic of the original. I have never seen the Broadway show, so I didn’t have that for reference. I just hold the original animated version very dear to my heart.

The movie was just released on Netflix, and my reaction is still mixed. It’s probably best summed up in a pros and cons list...

Cons first:

- I saw this for the first time on a laptop screen, rather than in theaters. I could tell there were portions that were meant to be viewed with 3D glasses in a theater, and that’s one thing I hate about movies produced for 3D. I can’t stand it when you see a part that is so obviously meant to have some kind of visual effect, mostly because I don’t see movies in 3D and the effect is always lost and just generally superfluous. I almost never see an effect that works better in 3D. The exception might be something like How To Train Your Dragon, where the 3D effects are subtle and woven in more seamlessly. - A side effect of this 3D effect was maybe some of the grandiose, sweeping shots felt just kind of ... boring. One of my favorite songs/shots in the original was Belle’s song about wanting a life of adventure and excitement as she runs out to the field, right before the horse returns and signals her father’s imprisonment. The song is stirring and beautiful, and she looks so wistful and hopeful. In the 2017 version, rather than keeping the focus on Belle’s longing expression, the scene pans out over a boring kind of landscape like an excuse to show off more CGI work. The movie did this a few times, zooming out or panning when I would have preferred a closer look at the characters and the emotions on their faces. - Why was this movie so effing dark? Maybe it works better in a theater, but on my laptop screen, even with the brightness turned up, it was often hard to figure out what was happening. The lighting definitely needed some work. - For a big budget Disney film, I found the CGI lacking. I know the Beast’s design has come under some criticism (understandably). The other CGI characters looked intricate, but again, there was a severe lack of focus. The shots were too wide-frame or quick or dark to take in the details that were so beautiful. I really liked Cogsworth’s design, but we only clearly got to see it in a few shots near the end. - There were some tweaks to the story, some more bothersome than others, and some of that is probably nostalgia speaking. I’m undecided about how I feel about Gaston leaving Maurice to die in the woods ... in the end, I think it was kind of extra and didn’t add much of anything to the story. I did have a problem with Agathe being the secret sorceress the whole time. Again, didn’t add anything to the story, and she didn’t even have any dialogue that would explain her reasoning behind staying so close to the prince all these years. She showed up to save Maurice (pointless) and then at the end to wave her wand (also pointless). - The change that I hated the most was the library scene! In the original film, the Beast has the library set up as a gift, and he’s so excited he has Belle close her eyes before she enters, and he flings the drapes open, and he’s so THRILLED to see her reaction! It’s beautiful character development, and I love the Beast’s facial expressions in the animated version. In the live version, the whole scene is underwhelming, he brings her to the library because he thinks she isn’t well read, and he doesn’t even think of offering it as a gift until she seems excited to be there. Just so womp-womp and lacking the emotion of the original. - Actually this exact same thing happens in the final scene! It’s the climax, Gaston has cornered the Beast, verbally and physically berating him for daring to fall in love with Belle, and the Beast has basically given up the fight, too heartsick to go on. But then she appears, and his face transforms like light breaking over the trees. He sighs her name like it’s the meaning of life, and his whole body softens, and he has the will to fight for his life once more. It’s utterly beautiful. Cut to the 2017 version, which is shot far too wide for any kind of such beautiful emotive transformation and the CGI lacks the subtlety or lighting to portray the Beast’s relief to see Belle again. Yeah, you can tell he’s happy, but it’s not nearly as effective as the original. - Not entirely sure how I feel about “historically accurate” Disney movies. The original took place in a sort of timeless “France”, possibly post-monarchy but somehow with a prince ... you just don’t question it. But between referencing “the war” and flashbacks to Paris (and needing to leave it) and the costumes referencing a very specific time period, you have to wonder what’s going on. Has the monarchy been overthrown? Why is there still a prince? What’s Napoleon up to? What are the politics outside of the little town? I found it distracting in the course of the movie because these questions can never be answered and still keep the integrity of the original story at all intact. That would be a different movie. Possibly very interesting. Probably more in line with the Anastasia movie than Beauty and the Beast. - I almost forgot the accents. It’s a thing with all of these movies, but honestly, we have British accents, French accents, and American accents. I wish they would stick with one accent for everyone in the movie, it would make it much more cohesive.

That being said, there were some things that I really liked about this movie...

- When the movie wasn’t overly dark and jerking it to the wide pan shots, the visuals were beautiful. When they got the CGI right, they got it REALLY right. The marketplace was really well done, so colorful and cheerful - I got the feeling this was something they had pulled from the Broadway version because the ensemble thing worked really well. Also that final ballroom scene where they’re all dancing ... stunning colors, not too dark, well-shot in a wide frame that fits the scene. - Luke Evans killed it as Gaston. Loved it. A+ performance. Hot damn. So entertaining to watch. - In the same vein, I was pleasantly surprised by the celebrity cameos! Kevin Kline! Emma Thompson! Ian McKellan! Ewan McGregor?! (did not recognize him in all the makeup) All very entertaining. I loved Kevin Kline’s Maurice. - Le Fou’s character definitely didn’t match with the original, but somehow I didn’t mind it? I liked that he was a little less of a bumbling idiot and questioned Gaston and even brought him down from some kind of weird PTSD-related rage surge. I thought he was pretty fun. Did not like the gay crumbs thrown to us by having him dance with a guy for 0.5 seconds. But I am willing to overlook it because he was fun to watch. Also, such amazing chemistry with Luke Evans/Gaston. - At first I was pretty annoyed with the Beast in general, and overall I liked him less than his animated counterpart. He was pretty mumbly and not nearly animated enough with his expressions. So, partly the actor and partly the CGI. But as the film went on, I liked him more and more. When he wasn’t being mumbly, he had a fun dry humor that I enjoyed. The transformation into a human is still basically disappointing because human men are boring, but I giggled when he growled playfully at Belle at the very end. - The ~music~! All of my old favorites and some new ones! Again, some I liked better than others, and the Gaston song I felt was particularly disappointing if only because it’s really a favorite of mine and I’m nostalgic enough not to want it to change at all. But it was so good to see them done in a new way and to relive that piece of magic.

When it comes to it, I was entertained and I’d probably watch it again. It doesn’t come close to beating out the original, which I think was both more emotionally effective and beautiful to watch. But it was a good new take, and there were parts of it that I really enjoyed. I’m still bothered by the historical stuff, though, and I want to figure it out! Why doesn’t this movie give me the answers I so desperately require!

#beauty and the beast #beauty and the beast 2017 #movie review #movies #movie #long post #i just have lots of opinions

2 notes · View notes

nomurapls-inactive · 7 years

Text

What’d they do to Sora?—A visual analysis of KH 1, 2, & 3

One of the biggest staples of the original Kingdom Hearts games is their visual charm. The team managed to do what Disney rarely could: transform the animation giant’s 2D into amazing 3D and then some.

But something kinda funky is happening in KH 3. Somehow Sora and the gang are looking less, well, Sora-and-the-gang-y, and it’s not just the new wardrobe.

Before I get into what’s off about KH 3, I need to map out what makes KH 1 and 2 so visually appealing. There are three big reasons for why KH’s visuals have stood the test of time:

Color

Style

Animation

Color is usually what our eyes notice first in a given scene and is a vital tool for setting the mood. We universally associate color with so many things that we can immediately assume the tone of an image with a quick glance before even looking at the details. This psychology of color is utilized in everything from retail, to movie posters, to social media, and so on. Unsurprisingly, KH has also tapped into this with lush, playful color palettes that hearken back to each respective property. Disney takes us to places with magic, fairytales, talking animals, and monsters—nothing of the “real” variety, and KH reflects this first and foremost with color palettes that immediately tap into that fantastical setting. The color schemes that exist throughout KH are not likely to exist in real life settings, and they work hand-in-hand to assist cartoony shapes.

(At least, I would hope you don’t find something like this in real life.)

This lack of realism ties directly into style, another key factor in letting your audience know what kind of vibe you’re going for. KH sets this fantastical tone by taking elements from Disney and breaking them down into their most basic parts, playing with stylistic choices popular in both Western and Japanese character design to create something new. It’s a “less-is-more” approach to art direction. Simplify, simplify, simplify. This, combined with its vibrant colors, allow for unreal environments, ones reminiscent of the same childhood wonder classic 2D films instilled in audiences. Likewise, Final Fantasy characters, who normally exist in realistic settings, become softer in order to accommodate their new space. The end result is a world that seamlessly blends the simplified visuals of hand-drawn animation together with the complexities of 3D modeling.

(The gang’s all here.)

These would not be complete, however, without equally fantastical animations. No matter the medium, the best way to tell the audience more about your character is through body movement. How characters move is also dictated by the overall tone of your content. Sora and the gang are animated with exaggerated motions and grandiose body language to remind us of the fanciful world they inhabit, and the larger-than-life personalities they have.

(Donald’s hat jumps with a mind of its own while Sora’s facial features spread across his face. Goofy unfortunately missed the pantomime memo.)

Contrastingly, characters from live-action movies rather than animated films move with much less grandiosity because they exist in realistic worlds. They are dictated by their setting just as much as stylized characters.

(Jack Sparrow may move in dramatic ways for a human, but Sora’s got all that and more thanks to being a spiky-haired shounen with giant feet and hands.)

Levels like Port Royal are where we can begin to see the problem with KH 3: once you strive for realism, you’ve already aged.

Achieving realism is still incredibly limited by technology. We’re getting closer, but as it stands we don’t have the necessary technology to make 3D indistinguishable from reality. Games especially fall victim to what’s known as Moore’s Law, which (as far as games are concerned) states that a graphics chip will upgrade every two years. So, once something is put out, it already has to worry about looking dated within as little as two years. Because of these limitations, a lot of media dip into uncanny valley real fast. Simply put, when something is meant to look realistic but fails, our brains take issue with it. We think, “Hey, I know that’s supposed to be a real bear, but it doesn’t quite look or move like a real bear, so I’m uncomfortable.” But take that same bear and turn it into a stylized cartoon and we no longer have a problem with it not looking like a real bear. The former is what’s happening to the KH 3 crew, while the latter is what they should be aiming for.

To begin, let’s look at these two screenshots of KH 2 and KH 3 respectively.

(Feel old yet?)

The bottom shot may be an early reveal, but it’s not far from the material they’ve released recently. As you can see, it’s much more detailed than the top image, but this is actually hurting the scene rather than helping it. The colors are muted and muddy in comparison, which would more accurately represent a real environment, but it’s so starkly contrasted by the unrealistic characters that it doesn’t connect. Sora is harder to see against the background because his colors and effects are also mimicking a more realistic application. Even the UI is harder to see, compared to the brilliant colors and shapes of the top image. What the top image lacks in explicit detail it makes up for in readability, creating a cartoony scene of implied information that more closely resembles a classic Disney film (which is the point of KH’s art direction to begin with).

(While both swatches contain brown hues, KH 2 is more vibrant and thus allows for better readability and contrast. KH 3 literally looks like mud here.)

KH 1 and 2 largely avoid this readability and incohesive problem because hardware limitations were used to their advantage. When you’re tasked with creating a game full of Disney- and Final Fantasy-inspired assets but lack the technology to make anything look as “real” as pre-rendered cutscenes, you opt for airbrushed gradients, vibrant colors, cartoon features, and exaggerated shapes. Everything needed to look distinguishable from one another because PS2s were still developing and TV screens were fuzzier. Looking at the games now, it’s easy to see that they were made in the early 2000s, so of course they show age, but it’s also easy to see how beautiful they still are when compared to other games of the era which took on a realistic approach. (Also, imagine if Okami had gone with realism like it originally planned instead of sumi-e, and you can get a further idea of why style can easily trump realism in 3D aging.)

(Only one year apart. Neither are ugly, but when you aim for realism like in the first game, your age shows more and you dip a bit into uncanny valley.)

Now, I don’t think all of KH 3 looks terrible. The technology and efforts should be applauded, and in truth the Disney characters and Heartless shown thus far retain much of their original charm, and definitely benefit from the graphical upgrade most of the time. The animation is spot-on, as well.

(You just can’t look too closely, or else you get a face full of suddenly detailed textures that do not belong on a cartoon character.)

The counter is, unfortunately, that based on other released material, the art direction is not cohesive yet. You have some great-looking enemies and allies, those of which you know right away belong in a KH game, but stacked against a realistic background with lighting, effects, and muted colors that make it difficult to see. Details that are there solely because the technology allows it. More-is-less rather than less-is-more. They can’t seem to find a balance between simplified and detailed, 2D and 3D, Disney and Final Fantasy, that the original games built.

(I don’t even know what to say about this. It’s just straight up ugly. Why do his hands look like that? I feel like I’m looking at one of those nightmare-fuel fan renditions of “X character in real life.”)

(fix this.png)

Until they make up their minds about modeling Sora and other original characters, and about how to handle the lighting, effects, and other issues which are holding simplification hostage, there’s always going to be something off, something that isn’t translating well from the jump to next-gen consoles and preventing the games from feeling as KH as possible—and it has everything to do with the industry’s fixation on realism. Cartoony/anime-esque characters comprised of simple shapes and designs, like 90% of the ones in KH, do not mesh well with realism, whether it’s in the details on their clothes or their environments. Hopefully the team can see that before release date, otherwise, KH 3 is going to be full of uncanny valley and readability issues.

im still gonna play the shit out of it tho

#kingdom hearts #kh #kh3 #kh tag #for the record I like the Toy Story models but overall the scene was difficult to see #also if I see anyone regarding this as hate...............do u know me #Do U #kingdom hearts is my momther #this should also be titled WHATD THEY DO TO RIKU???#bc wow. that shot of him with kairi i just. water u doin

14 notes · View notes

something-wicked-sims · 7 years

Note

Dear Jade, I am writing this to ask a few questions I've had regarding writing in the sims form. How would someone start one of these sims stories? And how would someone keep it from becoming flat, and continue writing it past writers block? Some tips on developing a character inside the story would also be fantastic. Coming from someone who has only written novels and poetry, any advice on writing short pieces to go with photos is greatly appreciated! Sincerely, Mel. PS: This is 100% Real

Wow Mel, hit me with the heavy questions why don’t you Q_Q But you know, as someone who also made the switch from novel writing to sim story format, I kind of know where you’re coming from. Hence we begin…

Jade’s Mega-Fantastic Tips For Adapting to Sim Story Format

#DearJade to block, as this is an extremely LONG post.

Disclaimer: These tips don’t apply to everyone. The general rule of simblr is to have fun and DO WHAT YOU WANT. This advice is only really aimed at people who are serious about the craft and want to improve on their writing and how to present it in this medium. Not everyone takes it this seriously, and not everyone needs to. But for those of you who are looking for more direction with your writing, this is my personal, and humble advice. The fact that I titled this “mega-fantastic” was 100% sardonic. I’m just a chick on tumblr. I have a B.A. in English with a focus on creative writing, and nearly 6 months of simblr experience. These are my only qualifications. So, with that being said, don’t listen to anything I say from this point onward.

How to Begin:Everyone’s writing processes are different. Some people like to map things out, while others tend to go with the flow. If your goal is to write some sort of cohesive linear storyline, and not just sporadic bouts of gameplay, then it’s good to have at least an idea of where you want to end up. Some point to make within your story, or some goal for your main character to accomplish. That way, all the things you do between point A and point B will have a similar thread, and you’re less likely to get lost on random tangents.

General writing tips: Start with something interesting! Introduce your new characters in an exciting way. If you’ve never heard the phrase “in media res”, now’s a good time to learn it. Start in the middle, at the beginning. It’s nice to already have something going on at the beginning of your story, and don’t put too much time into explaining who all your characters are, what they do, what they like… right up front. It will engage people with your story more if you start off with action instead of description.

Presentation: Since you’re writing a sims story, you have to think double time. Here, writing is only half of the work. Which is why simblr writers really don’t get enough credit! Think about how you want your scene to reflect in photos. The first sims story I did, I made the mistake of writing it in it’s entirety as a novel, and then having to take “necessary photographs” to go with each scene. I ended up with a great deal of pictures of people walking around aimlessly, or standing in the same room talking, or sitting on a chair talking, or on a couch talking… You get the point. You can still write as a novel and adapt it (which is still what I do), but I would recommend writing your scenes with your blog in mind. Think “This scene could happen in their kitchen, but what if I moved it to a park instead?”, better scenery, probably more angles/more things to look at. Try to be creative with your screenies. Experiment with different angles. Think about your favorite movies, and the ways they are filmed. Try to incorporate those elements into your pictures. Sims stories have a certain cinematic quality to them, so write with that in mind, because how interesting your photos are will draw more people in to read your writing. Trust me.

Character Development:Understand that the vast majority of sim stories and legacies unfold over enormous amounts of real life time. If you’re afraid of longterm writing commitments, you should probably run away screaming! No, I’m kidding (kind of), but they are huge commitments. I know people who have been writing their legacies for years. My first sims story took four months to complete and was around 75,000 words in its extracted tumblr form. My point is, it’s going to take a lot of time. Which is great! Because character development takes time. My advice for adapting character development to sims stories is to make sure every scene has a point. If you want to make a post just for fun, that’s great too! But when it comes to scenes that move your plot forward, answer the question “What does this accomplish?”, “Why is this particular scene necessary?”, “Would the story be the same if this didn’t happen?”.

Simblr writers can spend hours putting together a post. I would think that is a pretty accurate statistic. From the writing, to building the set, clothing your sims, downloading CC, posing them, taking photos, and then editing the photos, each 3-4 pictures you take for a particular scene probably consumed precious long minutes of your life. So make sure that it’s an important scene that you’re spending all this time on. And, of course, just like most anime fans will tell you, FILLER EPISODES SUCK Q_Q (Not always. But sometimes). Anyways, sim story format sometimes forces you to consider what is vital to a story and a character, as we usually make posts to highlight specific moments in our sim-babies lives. I think development is really inherent to this medium, so I wouldn’t worry too much about if your character is developing or not.

General writing tips:

Dialogue is important!

How your character reacts to things is important!

Formatting:There are many different ways to format your sim story, and none of them are wrong. Do what you are comfortable with. If you’re coming from writing novels or short stories, then paragraph format is a great way to go. You can do caption writing, which is writing your text (typically dialogue and similar to playwriting in effect) directly onto your screenshots. You can do textual playwriting, which would be to have short exposition to setup a scene followed by tagged dialogue:

Maria: I went to the store yesterday.Bob: Really? What did you need to get there?Mari: Oh, I just had to pick up a few things for the party Saturday.

These are the three most highly used formats I have seen used on simblr. I think they all work great, and you can even mix them. Just do what you are comfortable with and what you prefer. Don’t try to stretch yourself to change the style of your writing just to match what other people are doing.

General writing tips:

One thing I will say is to be wary of your Point of View (or PoV). If you are using multiple PoV’s (as in you swap them between posts) then you should label whose PoV it is for your readers (I do so in my tags), if you use captions, usually changing font color to depict two or more players is the way to go. If you would like to switch PoV within the same post, I recommend using third person point of view e.g. “Bob walked here. Maria said this.”

And how would someone keep it from becoming flat… As I mentioned above, the best thing you can do here is just to make sure your scenes are vital to the plotline, or character development in some way. Don’t bog down your stuff with useless scenes, if your goal is to write a cohesive story. There is a #ts4 gameplay tag for a reason. It is not the same tag as #ts4 story, and people who follow one tag, may not necessarily want to follow the other. As a reader, I’m interested in the storyline. Is your character involved in some shady business? Are they going to find out that their loser husband is cheating on them? I don’t really want to see three different posts devoted to your sim cooking eggs for breakfast. SORRY. #justiceforeggs

General simblr tips:

@medleymisty has recently incorporated the usage of #simnovel for longer text posts. I think this is an excellent step forward for hobby sim story writing. So you can use this tag if you thing it applies to your work!

….and continue writing it past writers block? I can’t answer this! I am not a magician, unfortunately. Sometimes inspiration comes and sometimes inspiration goes. Writers block is a legit thing, and if I had a super-fix for it, I would hand it out lovingly to the world’s writers. But since I don’t, I will say that you shouldn’t pressure yourself ahead of time. Don’t think you need to post regularly. Go at your own pace. If you need a break? Take one. Just bounce right on out the door. I hear there’s a new Mass Effect game out. Go play it! Tumblr will still be here where you come back.

Remember, this isn’t your job, it’s a hobby. As for how to get inspired or stay inspired, I really feel motivated to work on my sim stories when I am having fun, either playing the game, or putting together some scenes. So just have fun with it. Make Pinterest boards. Dudes, Pinterest is so great for writers, utilize it as a tool! Make character boards and pin things that you remind you of your babies and go look at the beautiful pictures when you’re feeling stuck. Share your boards, too! Lots of simblr’s have pinterests and you can follow them, they’ll follow you back, it’s great. Fantastic. But yeah, just have funnnn and do your thing and when you’re not feeling it, don’t try to force it, because you’ll just regret it and start to resent your stuff, and it’s just a bad time.

This concludes my massive wall of pretentious text.

#okay I wrote a fucking novel #extremely long text post #long text post #saviorhide #dear jade #advice and tips #tutorials #sims story tutorial #sims story tips #myresources #asks #pottery-sims #dearjade #justiceforeggs

46 notes · View notes

exotahu · 5 years

Text

Bronycon 2019 “THE END”

Okay so... I kinda procrastinated on putting this out. I wrote the shell right after the con but only now finished it for posting. I don’t use tumblr much anymore but I couldn’t think of anywhere else to put this. Here is my rundown of the 2019 Bronycon. As per usual, this was written in pieces over time and might be a bit of a mess. I’m not the most coherent person when it comes to writing this sort of thing. So for one final time, Here we go. I apologize if tumblr breaks it all.

Wednesday

The power went out as I was getting ready to leave. I had everything pretty well prepared ahead of time this time.

I was super stressed about things going wrong and of fucking shit up actually helped me get my shit together. Still thought, I left the goddamn pop-tarts behind I had bought to have cheap easy breakfasts, but oh well, wasn't the worst thing that could have happened. Left a little bit later than planned but, we weren't too terribly late either despite all this, and we got to Baltimore in good time. Made a couple stops a long the way. Found a nowhere gas station with a super yikes level sticker display next to a rack of GFT comics. Place sure had an aura about it that did not suit my pastel-horse ribbon wearing shenanigans. Made another stop and bought some twisted tea tall boys that I never ended up drinking at some other rando gas station. Made another stop at the Speedway that was a Hess and got some hot dogs. The one with the M&T next to it, that I've stopped at almost every time I've gone down. It’s dumb, but I’m gonna miss that spot. Some of these places, though dumb and random to anyone else, have memories. Like sitting on the hood of my Geo just shooting the shit with friends on the way to Otakon, or my first solo trip where I unintentionally scared the shit outta my parents cause I accidently made them think I was on the wrong side of the state or how I always took the wrong turn and had to use a middle school parking lot to turn around. Recorded a bunch with my phone cause its gonna be a long time until I’m back to some of these places. Little videos or pictures for nostalgic purposes. Made it into the hotel. No issues with the weirdness with the room reservation, thank god. (I had to do some nonsense with having two reservations and rewards points and stuff due to not getting Sunday night in the con block) Pre-reg was starting at 6 and going until late some time so we did other stuff instead. We went to Tir na Nog for dinner and hung out in the inner harbor, went to Barnes and Noble then the ice cream place. Just some of the staples of hanging out in the Inner Harbor. Went to CVS and I bought some more pop-tarts to replace the ones I left at home. Then we went to pre-reg to pick up badges. Line was pretty huge at the start when we walked past to go get dinner, figured it’d get smaller over time, but holy fuck it didn’t. Pretty sure they had no idea that many people were going to show up which was unfortunately a pretty accurate descriptor of the whole weekend tbh. We waited in line for like two hours, but it went fast enough and was kinda fun. Lots of songs being sung and merriment, especially for a two hour line. A bunch of people asked me about my digital badge or goggles. It’s funny how often the answer to “Where did you get those” is so often “Here a couple years ago” or “Otakon, a whole bunch of year ago”. A 4th of all the people registered showed up supposedly. So many people showed up that they capped line but we were already in. Not much to do after so we went back to the hotel for sleep. Got to bed Pretty early. The bar trot wasn't this night so we just went back. Got a great night of sleep sleeping on a mattress that wasn't butt, almost 8 hours. I wish my mattress at home was as good as this hotel one.

Thursday

Today was the bonus day. There wasn't much going on con-wise, which was fine. It was good to just relax and wander. I got to meet up with a friend from a discord server I'm in. Wandered around a while and took pictures. Also met up with someone who is actually from Baltimore but is moving to Syracuse (and only like a couple days after the con) Waited for vendor hall to open and hung out as a group for a while. There was a big line to get into vendor. It was in a weird spot this time, inside of the harmony plaza and not its own space. Bought a KDA Akali mask but mostly just did a scope out. The vendor was packed. A little more cramped due to the limited space. It was a little hard to move. Couldn’t maintain unit cohesion. Learned the layout though and where most of the vendors were. Got to briefly see a few other cool people from that Discord sever. Planned to do most of my buying, but Justin lost his hotel key (always get spares), had to go let him in the room. On the way back I did a Rayquaza raid with a couple friends. Me and Josh forgot we were one day away from best friends in game and that raids count towards the daily interaction so we didn't pop a lucky egg, whoops. Ate at Jimmy Johns before going to meet up for opening. Unfortunately, Opening got capped due to space. The BCC got shared with a Rubix cube competition so we only had half the space because I don't think they planned on having their highest attendance ever at over 10k people. We didn't have the top floor big hall so the Mane Hall was in where palooza was and it's certainly not sized to hold that many people. This would be a difficulty the whole weekend. I got back into the Harmony Plaza/Vendor Hall. They were livestreaming the Mane Hall, so the staff set up a huge monitor in Harmony Plaza to watch it sorta live. It was pretty emotional. Even the BCC president showed up and said we should keep going. That was a little rough. Then they did something neat. They got Gilbert Gottfried to sing/read This Day Aria. Everyone in the room went bananas. It was hilarious. I met back up with everyone at the hotel and we headed to the bars. Part of our group went to a ramen place they all like. There wasn't enough space for all of us without waiting an forever, so me and Justin just went to the bars. I started drinking at the Dogs Watch. They didn't have any pony themed drinks but there were pony decorations and music playing. It's a nice atmosphere, it's a bit hard to explain, being in an alcohol establishment with music from a colorful pastel horse show playing. I had 3 vodka cranberries. Met back with everyone and went to The Admiral. They had almost no Trixie left, but still enough for me to have one. And I fucking did it, I got the recipe or at the very least I know the materials. Had some of the other drinks too. There was a Pinkie, Twilight and I believe Tempest? The bartender used Champagne for the Pinkie themed drink because it was the last Bronycon. I had a bunch of those, a couple of the others, then a mix of everything. Everyone in our group went back in groups. Me, Sam and Cody were the last ones in our group. Met up with some cool people. One of the guys ordered a Vodka shot for everyone, and then a Tequila shot. After that before I left I thanked the bartender one more time for all he's done to make the bar one of the highlights of our yearly trip and all the cool theme drinks. (Seriously, if you're ever in Baltimore and drink alcohol, go to Fells Point. Find the Admiral Fell Inn, it's a little underground bar and it is AMAZING, and the bartender is a really cool guy.) Our newly formed group left. We didn't want to walk all the way back to our hotels drunk, which funny enough were all next to each other so we summoned a Lyft. While waiting we took a group selfie. We took two, Cody was missing from the first one and then Sam was missing from the other. Plus there was a random guy in both of them we didn't know who it was. THey were seconds apart and I still don't know how that happened. I got a selfie in front of a lingerie shop which amused drunk me greatly. The Lyft came and we all got in, Don't Stop Believing started playing and we all started singing along. It was a good ride back. We got back and me and one other person decided hey, Palooza is still going, lets go. Met up with a fursuiter on the way. Got to catch the last couple acts. It’s a hell of a time drunk. I could feel the soles of my feet vibrating. I had a blast and then went back to the hotel after it ended. Got to bed at like 3. It's fun to stay up doing the late things but it makes it hard to do early things.

Friday

I tried to get up early so I could get there earlier to get one of Baron's commission slots. Alcohol didn't cause many problems outside of a minor headache and mild plumbing problems. Still slowed me down a little. Surprisingly not really hung over aside from that, despite how much I drank. Drink water everybody, it really does help. I went to the con and got into vendor hall. I bought some stuff. I got a Soarin' daki, a game for a friend, among some other things. I bought some original art from Baron too. Didn't get there in time for a commission though. Went to the comic vendor and bought my comics. I'm only missing a couple now. Ended up getting into the line for Whoves Line almost on accident. Got in with no issues, which was cool. It’s good fun, they put on a good show. There was a proposal too which was neat, especially how they did it. Dropped stuff off at the hotel. Went to meet up with our other group and got to see the other hotel we’ve never stayed in. It's fancy af. Our group went to Bubba Gumps and I went in. I figured if it's gonna be my last time here for a very long time I was gonna do it big. Someone jokingly said I should get two Shrimper's Heavens. And then I did it, plus my usual shrimp cocktail. The Great Shrimp Massacre of 2019. Also discovered that their cheese sticks are fuckin massive and I wish I had known. I got a bunch of them that the others couldn't eat. I ate all of that. I did it big. Plumbing didn’t even break. Dropped 100$ at once. It's the most I have very spent on one restaurant trip. I don’t think I’ll be doing that again, but hey, for the final BronyCon that's kinda the point isn't it? We went to ice cream place. (Okay so I don't eat ice cream but they sell some really good tea) Then we went to the Palooza. Forgot to change my socks. Knee-high stockings no good for rave as I discovered. Vylet’s set was absolutely fantastic. (I mean all the acts were great, but she’s a favorite). Also got to see the secret guest whose name was obscured the whole time. I knew who I wanted it to be, and it was. Garnika came back for one more and played a wonderful set. Like usual we stayed the whole thing. It’s so much fun despite knowing waking up will be hard cause I’ll only get like 4 sleep. There is like this odd sense of dread knowing the effect the late night is going to have on you, but you stay anyway because there is such an energy you can't pull yourself away from.

Saturday

Once again I tried to get up early to get a commission slot form Baron. Didn’t end up making it, however, he said he’d do it anyway, and mail it out. (I'm referring to Baron Engel, he's an artist I really like, go look him up!) It's a picture of Fluttershy dressed as Jotaro from JJBA. I've gotten it now and it's really good! I bought more stuff, including another daki that Kyle and Josh jokingly pointed out to me. Didn't think I was going to, but I couldn't turn down the price the guy gave me. I lined up for VA panel script reading. It was an EqG script about the cast graduating and the Celestias swapping places and causing chaos. It was not so subtly about the end of the con. I started to tear up. I realized that was gonna be a common theme throughout the weekend, I fuckin knew it. I do not like crying, especially in public. The closer we got to the end the worse it got. Ran into the cosplay photoshoot which was neat, and there was another proposal. After that I made a hotel deposit and got some Jimmy Johns, and then went to anthology panel. Because of course it was, Gardevoir community day was the same weekend as the con. I bought a new Pokemon+ thing that does it automatically, so I still got to play despite being in a panel or in line for most of it. It was alright. Anthology was great (and holy shit a little raunchier than usual), But then at the end they told us that it was actually longer and they had to cut it for time. (To which I call bullshit, any additional content I’ve seen was far too explicit for the actual con, lul). Went to the Palooza for one final time. I remembered to change my socks this time. Saw Black Gryph0n and Michelle Creber, and then the super band made up of a large variety of fandom musicians. It was really cool. Even got to hear an orchestral performance of one of 4everfree's songs which is something I've not seen them do before. Things ran a little long and it threw the schedule off a bunch. 2 AM hit and Eruobeat hadn't gone yet. (2 is usually when we have to leave by) But Eurobeat did get to do his set despite this because whoever was in charge decided to be cool. "We're suposed to be out by 2, but its 2 and Eurobeat has to play still. We can stay for this but, but when it’s over I'm gonna need y’all to get the fuck out.” And then Eurobeat performed he was one of the first fandom musicians and one of the first to perform at the original BronyPalooza. And of course, for his final song, he performed his 2019 version of Discord. The whole fuckin' room went nuts. It was nothing short of magical. It was the perfect way to end it, the final Bronypalooza. The energy in the room was insane. Bronypalooza was always one of my favorite parts of the con. I’m told other EDM concerts are crazier, but I don’t know if I want crazier. There was something absolutely magical about a room full of all different kinds of people losing their shit to pastel horse based music waving dakis and plushies and some in full fursuit and some in cosplay and some in plain clothes and every kinda nonsense you can imagine. Just rocking out and having a good time. It's an experience and a kind of magic that I don’t know what will ever be able to compare. I'll never forget it.

Sunday

THE FINAL DAY. I switched over reservations with no issues and went to the con. Ended up mostly wandering around the vendor hall yeeting money away before lining up for closing. I recorded a bunch of wandering around. There was a Bronycon memorial shrine that was set up too that people had left all sorts of crazy stuff at too. I bought some random but cool stuff. I also commissioned a badge of my pony character! (Better late than never huh?) Was gonna buy a couple things but ended up not. I ran into Vylet wandering the vendor hall! Got a picture with her and Namii!. Lined up for closing, which turned into a bit of a clusterfuck. It got capped again due to room. In the clusterfuck I was able to meet back up with Andy, Sam, and Justin. However while in line I got to see a whole bunch of con staff set up huge monitors to stream it to the overflow room so as many people as possible can see it. It was... very emotional, was pretty much just sobbing in a whole room full of people. Got a conclusion to the mascot storyline too. I never want to forget how I feel after these things. Walking out of the con center for the last time was fucking surreal. I've been there so many times. I remember being confused by the layout the first couple times and by the end, I had the whole thing memorized. (Okay, I couldn't remember lobby names for shit, but I knew where it all was.) I cried a whole bunch as we all walked out together reminiscing. We sat in the hotel room as a group just kinda being sad and reminiscing and decompressing for a little while. Then we went to a bar after party event things in a place I’d never been. It was a pretty relaxing atmosphere. Instead of being in the bar we sat outside on these sofa things on the deck rather than watching the concert on the inside (But hoenstly it was so loud you could hear it well enough). A lot of the non-EDM rock musicians there. It was honestly really nice sitting there under the open sky just listening to music. Feeling the sunset while the city lights get brighter and the sky fades to dark was nice. I checked Pokemon Go since I had my automatic bracelet thing doing it's thing, turns out I caught a random Shiny Alolan Geodude. I nicknamed it the Bronycon Memorial Rock, it's a Golem now. Had some shots too. After a while we went back to the hotel. We decided to do a Insomnia Cookie order, since it went so well last year. And oh was it a clusterfuck. So we made our order. I forgot to mention that we were in a hotel so I called them and they said they'd call us when they got there and that I would come down. Roughly 15 minutes later, the call came. I said I'd be down. I went to the lobby and found a delivery man with a white box. He comes up to me and asks me if I was the one that ordered pizza. Nope, wasn't me. He got a little frustrated but continued to wait for his people. No cookie delivery guy. I call him back. This was basically the convo: "Hello, I'm down in the lobby but I can't find you" "Wait, it wasn't you that picked up the cookies?" "No I just got here, there is a confused pizza man down here though." (I should note that they're both white square boxes) "Oh fuck I'm so sorry I gave it to the wrong person we'll remake your order and come back" "No problem man, it happens to the best of us, I'll just wait down in the lobby this time" I repeated the order, he apologized and hung up. The pizza guy just left the pizza with the front desk. I saw that they still had the menus up for the pony themed alcohol so I ordered an Applejack(Apple brandy, hard cider and ice). Accidentally ended up calling another friend trying to call the cookie guy back who also happened to be at a bar back home and had a chat about what we were drinking/doing so that was cool. Eventually the cookie guy came back and we had cookies. Then everyone wanted pizza. Yet another clusterfuck occurred, turns out they ran out of dough or something so after like a half hour wait, we got our money back. After that we just went to sleep.

Monday

We packed everything up and loaded the car when we got up. Then we decided to have one last day in the inner harbor. We went to Tir Na Nog as a big group for one last time, then headed to the aquarium. The aquarium is nifty. I like to watch the jellyfish. They're so goddamn relaxing. Even one of the employees said the same thing. We left and took a group picture in the harbor before finally heading back. Once again, leaving was a bit sombre, there was just such a finality to it, walking past the BCC down Pratt St. After hanging out in the hotel lobby for a little bit, we got on the road to home. During the ride back, It ended up coming up why the area is significant to me and why I wanted to do certain things and why this whole crazy thing started in the first place. I never really bring it up, but it felt kinda good to talk about it. It was a relatively uneventful ride home. We stopped at a McDonalds at some point. Got home, unpacked and crashed, feeling exhausted from the weekend.

Conclusion:

Yeah it's no secret I procrastinated writing/finishing this for a couple months. I guess I just didn't want to deal with it being over. I've mentioned before that this con and the surrounding area is pretty important to me. A yearly tradition that I looked forward to and saved for. I had gone to Otakon almost every year between 2006-2012. Once I realized interest in Otakon had waned, I got kinda sad, but then something wild happened. Bronycon announced they were moving down to a new location. The Baltimore Inner Harbor in the BCC. I had been talking with a couple friends about going to the next Bronycon and that absolutely cemented it. That was 2013. Then in 2014, I was contacted by some guy my dad worked with who was wondering if I had intended to go the next year. That's how I met Andy. I made a bunch of friends through the con/show and reconnected with old ones too. I made sure to go down every year since. Aside from 2010, I've gone to the Baltimore Inner Harbor every year since 06. It's gonna be hard knowing I won't be back there for a while most likely. I've got a bunch of memories down here across many years. I know this has been totally disjointed because I'm writing it months later, coming off the MLP series finale, so I'm feeling some feels. I think that's part of why I decided to finish it now. I've said for a while that Bronycon was one of the best conventions I've ever attended. The atmosphere was something unique and magical. I don't think I could ever describe it properly. I don't think I'll ever find anything that quite captures the magic, but one thing is sure, I'm never gonna forget the times we've had here. It really has been magic.

#bronycon bronycon2019 ididntmeantowaitthislong

0 notes

fizzyhibiscusteainapoptabsodacan · 5 years

Text

rooookieeee

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”

nuanced

“The utopian ideal of the internet—unregulated access to information, pure connectivity—now feels antiquated. Also antiquated: trying to determine if the internet is simply good or bad. Possible and necessary: thinking more deeply about how it’s rewiring our brains and warping our experience of time, about the vistas of reality it’s revealing and creating, and what to do with our positions therein, so that we do not go mad from it all nor flee altogether.When the internet was less mobile, the distinction between online and offline was perhaps more defined. There was real life, and then there was the place that hosted our reflections on it. Now we are experiencing a collision between underbaked thought and tangible experience so great and rapid and omnipresent that it’s less of a crash, more in the water supply. Those who use the internet as an escape are thought of as outliers (Catfishers, video game addicts, radicalized young men), but its increasing presence throughout our daily lives has made a state of unreality not only more accessible, but very hard to resist.Rather than providing a shadow of reality, these platforms shape reality. They’re not pure outlets for our feelings and experiences; they are catalysts for what we feel and experience, how we feel and experience, and our shrinking capacity to process any of it. What we share on social media platforms does not disappear into a void, but increase their engagement and make them more profitable—even criticism is additive to the forces we seek to counteract. (Donald Trump: “Without the tweets, I wouldn’t be here.”) What we share also tells people how to sell us more stuff, so that the CEO of Netflix can stand before his peers and declare that their number-one competitor is sleep—“And we’re winning!”The internet feels chaotic, but it is not out of control. The internet is not one giant, democratic forum where opinions rise to the top by their own merit; it is a very deliberate structure, carefully calibrated to convince its users that visibility is the same as power.“

suspended in mid air

PALIMPSEST is the word

The above is a photo of a photo of my aura. I had it read in Chinatown a few weeks ago and nodded adamantly as the woman told me I was “removed, observant, in [my] own castle.” It is very likely that other parts of her reading were far less accurate and that I seized only on what resonated with me, but that itself is an innate part of being removed/observant/in your own castle: picking and choosing what you’ll remember later, curating moments, architecting your own narrative, as opposed to being open to the possibility that she could’ve been telling me something that did not already fit my idea of who I am. She said, “There is something between you and the rest of the world,” and gestured as though to indicate a screen in front of her face.

This year, I graduated from high school and moved out of my parents’ Midwestern home into a New York City apartment and started acting in a play every day, wondering, constantly, what it feels like to bring down that screen. This was for the sake of being onstage but also because I was trying to start my life: How does it feel to exist in a moment, connected to another human being and to the world, without thinking about what it signifies, what it’ll look like in memory?

To be able to consider these questions at all is not only a privilege afforded by a life with time to think about HOW EXACTLY to FULLY APPRECIATE all these MAGICAL MOMENTS I am #blessed with CoNsTaNtLy!, but also just how my brain works. I started a blog when I was 11, and every day after school, I came home and took photos of my outfits for it. I was very picky about the setting and the colors and the lighting, not out of any interest in photography, so much as a desire to draw connections between things and delight at the order of it all. I didn’t feel like they were self-portraits, although I’m in every picture. They felt similar, instead, to doing plays at camp and community theater, or sitting at our family’s piano going through a Bible-thick Broadway songbook and shifting among my favorite characters.

When I stopped writing my blog halfway through high school, I began keeping journals just for myself, each one cycling through a different personality as I had with fashion and with acting. For the duration of each journal, my handwriting would change, I’d dye my hair, I’d hang new posters on my wall, I stuck to a narrow selection of my wardrobe and my music, I chose a new route for the walk to school. I am similarly strict about the monthly Rookie themes, dictating to our illustrators and photographers which colors, motifs, and types of lighting to use in their work for us. My friends get annoyed with me for how often I try to art direct our hangouts instead of seeing where the night takes us—Can we all wear these colors, walk down this street, listen to this song? That cohesion frames the moment and turns it into a scene from a movie. I don’t quite know how to let experiences just unfold and be surprised by how they affect me; I want to know that I’ll write down the aesthetic details of an event later and be pleased at how they fit together: We wore fur coats and wool cloaks, walked down Lafayette, listened to Blonde on Blonde.

Sometimes this quality veers into the realm of vampiric hubris. Like: I sat on my roof on opening night of the play with a perfectly nice fellow who put on “Astral Weeks” by Van Morrison and his arm around me. Why did I let the lovey part of the song go over my head, but hear “to be born again, to be born again,” over and over, marveling before the skyline at my own personal reinvention over the course of the past few months—at how perfect it was that I was wearing my fuzzy pink moving-to-New-Yorkjacket—instead of returning the embrace of a person I liked?

There is a terrible YA novel cliché of a girl who lives her life looking for movie moments, and I recently defended her/myself in my journal:

1. Why worship a life that is movie-esque? 2. Why should something be significant for feeling movie-esque? 3. Isn’t life the real thing itself?

No. Movies are what make life real to us, because they pay attention to and crystallize emotions, colors, movement, human behavior, etc. (When I say movies, I also mean TV, I also also mean plays—even though a play is not recorded, it’s crystallized in that it lives on in the minds and memories of its audience). Movies are like “LIFE: The Best Of.” “LIFE: The Essential Collection.” “LIFE: Not Dead Yet!” So saying a moment is like a movie is how we can comprehend its beauty and grant it significance.

I can defend the art direction and the obsessive documentation, but I also know that there are different answers to the above questions. I know there are infinite moments that could take place and affect me in ways I can’t conceive of, if I could only put down my notebook every once in a while and actually live my life instead of trying to immortalize everything.

“We don’t like to admit it,” said Julian, “but the idea of losing control is one that fascinates controlled people such as ourselves more than almost anything. […] And what could be more terrifying and beautiful, to souls like the Greeks or our own, than to lose control completely? […] To be absolutely free! […] To sing, to scream, to dance barefoot in the woods in the dead of night, with no more awareness of mortality than an animal! […] let God consume us, devour us, unstring our bones. Then spit us out reborn.”

The above is from the novel The Secret History. It summarizes why I like acting, and why I was so eager to listen and learn from all the times our playwright said to me, “You know the play. You know the character. Why are you still watching yourself perform, telling the audience how to feel about her, dictating the moment? Just be in it.” I’m paraphrasing, from my castle. But that was the gist. And, to throw a wrench in all of this, the characters in The Secret History do end up losing control and being totally present…and MURDERING someone in their state of freedom!!!! But for now, this is where this month’s theme starts: the combined beauty and danger of inventing yourself, owning your experiences, putting yourself on record.

0 notes

postgamecontent · 7 years

Text

Quintet Spotlight: ActRaiser

Original Release Date: December 16, 1990 (JPN)

Original Hardware: Nintendo Super Famicom

Quintet's first game, the Super NES title ActRaiser, is also by far their most famous. Part of that is likely down to timing. The game came soon after the system's launch in both Japan and North America, trailing the respective launches by a matter of months, placing it right around the time that players who had quenched their Super Mario World thirst would be on the look-out for something new and substantial. Another part of its success is probably due to its creative design. ActRaiser is both a side-scrolling action game and a god simulator, which isn't exactly a natural combination. Finally, it's well-remembered because it deserves to be. ActRaiser has its rough edges but in some ways it's the most well-rounded of all of Quintet's games. Only Terranigma is better, in my opinion, and that game didn't get a release in North America, essentially ensuring it would be forgotten by most.

ActRaiser presents us with a world teetering on the brink of destruction. Civilization is in ruins, monsters relentlessly attack the surviving humans, and the hearts of the people have turned to evil. This is the work of the devilish Tanzra, who defeated the world's creator, The Master, with the help of his six lieutenants several hundred years ago. The Master retreated to his Sky Palace to recover, and in doing so, fell into a deep sleep. This has given Tanzra and his minions full freedom to run amok, bringing the world to the precipitous state that it finds itself in. Fortunately, The Master has finally awakened, and with the help of his Angel assistant, he means to overthrow Tanzra once and for all. To do that, he'll need to reconnect with humanity through prayer, help them solve their problems, and rebuild civilization so that they can give The Master greater strength through their worship.

Even in its localized American form, ActRaiser isn't very subtle. The Japanese version drops all pretenses, referring to The Master as God and Tanzra as Satan. It's no coincidence, I think, that all of the bosses found in the game take after mythological creatures and deities of non-Christian religions, either. God is back, and he's ready to stick a literal sword through the heart of heathens everywhere. Even with the changed names and edited graphics, it's kind of impressive that Enix was able to slip this one by in North America. Mind you, we never actually see The Master, and I suppose if anything it carries a message that might appeal to those who might have taken umbrage. In the end, when you've finally set everything right again, you'll find all of your temples across the world are empty of their usual worshipers. Your Angel assistant sadly notes that people only seem to want to pray to The Master when they need something. No atheists in foxholes, as they say. I suppose if a near-endless stream of demons, dragons, and giant bats were belching forth from glowing symbols on the ground, I might find religion, too.

There are two basic types of gameplay in ActRaiser. You'll start your entry into each of the game's several areas by inhabiting a warrior statue and battling through a side-scrolling action stage. The controls are a little slow and clunky here, but given this is an animated statue, I guess I can forgive that. There are plenty of enemies to slice through with your sword, and the occasional platforming sequence will keep you on your toes. The level culminates in a battle with a boss, usually a fairly large creature that shows off the Super NES's graphical muscle in some way. These levels can be a little tricky early on when your level is low. You can only take a few hits and the warrior never seems to be as agile as you'd like him to be. The key is to avoid taking damage while letting the enemies come to you. You can often hit them before they even look like they're in range, so keeping your distance is a solid strategy.

After beating that initial stage, you'll be thrown into the game's other mode. You'll have an overhead view of the land, and a temple will be established along with a pair of worshipers. In these sections, you'll control your Angel assistant directly. You have a few jobs here. First and foremost, you need to direct the construction of the city. Getting in the way of that job are seemingly endless waves of monsters that spawn from lairs strewn about the map. If you guide your followers to those lairs, they'll permanently close them, just in case you were getting any anxiety about how to build your city. As lairs are closed, the level of your civilization will improve, bringing more advanced buildings, a higher population, and more offerings. As the population of the world increases, so too does The Master's level, granting more health and magic points to help you survive the next challenge. Until those lairs are closed, you'll need to use your Angel assistant to protect the people by firing arrows at the little beasties before they can cause damage.

The people will occasionally come to you with a problem of some sort. You'll have to solve these problems in one of a few different ways. You might have to use a miracle, such as causing lightning to strike or making it rain. Sometimes, you'll need to seek out something from another land and bring it back. At other times, you'll need to direct the city's construction towards some sort of landmark or object. You'll earn lots of useful items by solving these problems, some of which can be used in the sim portion and others in the action stages. The most important goodies you'll earn are the magic spells that allow you to deal heavy damage during the action stages. Once you've got the second spell, most of the boss fights in ActRaiser become trivial. A second action stage serves as the book-end to each land before you head on your merry way.

The sim portion of the game does a good job of making it feel like a lot of different things are going on while still keeping things relatively simple. You can't choose what the people will build, only a general direction of where they'll build it. That's probably for the best, though. Particularly in the overseas versions of the game, you'll be so busy keeping the monsters at bay that you probably wouldn't have enough energy to handle anything deeper than that. The pace of the Japanese version is positively relaxed by comparison, suggesting that the localizers were worried Western players would get bored if they didn't have something to shoot every second or two. The simulation aspects of ActRaiser are considerably more difficult all-around in the American version. It's very tough to reach the maximum level for The Master as a result.

That ends up being less of a problem than it could have been, since the other major change in the game involved making the action stages significantly easier. The original versions of each stage can still be found in the US version, but only after clearing the game once and starting over on Professional Mode. On your first playthrough, you can get away with spamming magic to take out most bosses, and even when you're out of magic, simply swinging your sword like a maniac gets you a lot farther than it really should. It's hard to come up with a reasonable explanation for these seemingly contradictory tweaks to the game's challenge. It doesn't matter too much, though. The game is still tough enough to keep you from getting bored, and a lot of fun to romp through when you've gotten used to its mechanics.

On careful examination, neither the action stages nor the simulation parts are really strong enough to stand on their own if they had to. But the fusion of the two is interesting and meaningful for the themes the game is trying to express, and there's assuredly some value to be found in variety. The core structure of the game makes it easy to step away between the different lands, but the flip-side of that coin is that it's almost impossible to put the controller down until you've brought peace and prosperity to a particular area. ActRaiser presents a great balance between stop and go, push and pull, create and destroy, and any number of other dichotomies. That is the strength it leans on, and that strength does not fail to support it.

I've already touched on the game being something of a visual showcase for the then-new Super NES, but it's also an impressive display of that hardware's audio prowess. The soundtrack was composed by the legendary Yuzo Koshiro, and he uses the hardware's sampling capabilities skillfully to create rich themes that are both inspiring and memorable. Koshiro tends to be more famous for his FM synth-style soundtracks, but ActRaiser proves he can handle himself just as well with a different kind of instrument. The soundtrack is regal when it needs to be, oppressive where it must be, and even manages serenity quite nicely. The range demonstrated by Koshiro’s compositions couldn’t have been easy to pull off with the cohesiveness found here.

But here I am, glossing over the game’s graphical achievements. ActRaiser is an awfully pretty game for its place in the Super NES’s lifespan. It’s a little flashy with the Mode 7 effects in a way that many launch titles tended to be, but it never feels gratuitous. Zooming in on each stage’s landing point from your heavenly perch makes sense, as The Master is descending into his earth-bound avatar. The overhead map proves particularly enjoyable as you watch each of your cities go from nothingness to an accurate, albeit low-detail, representation of your progress in that area. Of course, the game saves most of its graphical flourishes for the side-scrolling stages. Sprites are relatively large with lots of fine details, and the backgrounds are lush with colors.

ActRaiser makes use of the Super NES’s hardware features to create some interesting background effects at times, reminiscent of the sort of tricks that Konami was quite fond of. The main showpieces are the bosses, though. They’re often large and even more impressively detailed than the rest of the visuals. One of my favorite fights in the game isn’t with one of the large bosses, however. It’s a battle with a regular-sized sorcerer who, halfway through the battle, transforms into a werewolf. It’s an unexpected trick, though likely a familiar one these days for Castlevania fans. It was quite the surprise at the time, at least.

There’s a wide variety of settings among the game’s stages, with deserts, forests, pyramids, castles, snowy fields, and more. No stage looks quite like any other. By contrast, the simulation parts of the game aren’t quite as showy. Plenty of colors, of course, but the overall level of detail is lower. Fascinatingly, while the action stages take a serious approach to the designs, the characters and monsters in the simulation mode are almost cute. It’s just another way the game creates an interesting texture by mixing two very different elements.

That’s essentially how ActRaiser distinguishes itself in general. Besides its presentation, it tends to be serviceable rather than great. But in matching flavors that aren’t usually combined, Quintet came up with a compelling recipe all of its own. Even today, there aren’t really any other games like ActRaiser. Experiencing its unique flavor makes it quite worthwhile putting up with its foibles. I certainly recommend giving it a go if you haven’t tried it before. There’s even a relatively easy means of doing so, since this is the only Quintet game to be re-released on Nintendo’s Virtual Console service. It’s only available on the Wii Virtual Console, though, so you might have to go shuffling through the closet. At this point, it seems unlikely Square Enix will go to the trouble of releasing it again, so that might be your only official option.

Previous: Introduction

Next: Soul Blazer

If you enjoyed reading this article and can’t wait to get more, consider donating to the Post Game Content Patreon. Just $1/month gets you early access to articles like this one, along with my undying thanks.

This article was made possible thanks to the generous commission of a Post Game Content reader. Want to commission a game article? Get in touch!

#quintet #actraiser #snes #superfamicom #enix #gaming

0 notes