started resetting for a mudkip alongside the litten bc my sister decided not to take her 3ds to uni w her 🥴🥴

IMPORTANT: I messed up Ambuscade's setup. He should have started with 3 devices in play (number of heroes minus 2) which would have changed things up significantly.

This is the First Post of this series:

Second Post

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Okay, now that I have the first expansion to Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition, time to try this new version. There's a lot of mechanics changes and this has been controversial. A lot of people, including people in my family, who are upset that they declared the game finished and then revamped the whole thing with a lot of new mechanics.

Personally, I haven't owned a physical copy until now, just the digital. (That said, I would love a digital version because some of the people I play with are on entirely other continents)

Anyway, let's get on to introducing our cast of characters.

So, for our supervillain, we're going with Ambuscade: Ansel G. Moreau, world famous French action movie-star with an addiction for big-game hunting that's gone out of control. Leveraging his wealth, he hired a shady genetics company to give him superpowers, but the process went wrong, scarring his million dollar face (it's like... a line, barely perceptible... seriously there's a version of him without the mask... he's vain as hell) and now he spends his time hunting superheroes.

In the prior edition, we usually turn to Ambuscade as a palate cleanser or light game. Often the environment was more dangerous. We've described Ambuscade games as "We fought dinosaurs... also Ambuscade was there."

He is one of the villains coming in Rook City Renegades, which is a bit funny since he usually appears in Megaopolis and hunts Haka. But anyway. This edition has placed him a bit more difficult than before. I had considered fighting Spite because I've heard his redesign is really good, but Spite in the old edition is a SLOG so I decided not to for this time.

In any case, Ambuscade wields a lot of high-tech devices and weapons including booby traps, automated drones, guns and a cloaking field supported by his genetically enhanced physique and healing. In the prior edition his cloaking field was a device you had to destroy before you could attack him. In this case, the cloak comes up when he uses a One-Shot card and goes away when he plays another. He can push heroes to pull his cards off his deck and they're usually more powerful when played on a hero's turn.

Actually, there's a hero version of him called Stunt Man that also did a lot of playing cards on other people's turns and when doing so was more powerful. So it feels like they're basing the new Ambuscade on the Stunt Man version of him.

Seriously, his mechanics are basically based around making sure he's always in the spotlight.

The Wraith, Maia Montgomery, is basically this world's Batman. The ever mythical responsible billionaire superhero. During her hero career she's more an heiress than in control of her family business. She turned hero after a near fatal attack in college. So she doesn't have Batman's sheer skill, (the setting's premiere martial artist considers her form very raw but with extremely good instincts).

Later on, she starts pulling out of the field and instead using her wealth to address social issues and acting as a trainer for younger heroes, going in the field only when needed.

She's about what you expect from Batman otherwise. She is one of the founding members of the Freedom Five

The first new hero of this edition is Alpha: The Wolf Woman. A reporter with the properly comic book alliterative appeal name of Tabitha Taft, she is a werewolf who has "an above average" control of her powers. She doesn't remember when or how she got cursed and it eventually turns out she is the only known werewolf born with the curse.

She disagrees with attitudes of other werewolves who feel humans are food at best and uses her powers to investigate stories, sometimes even getting her claws a little bloody to stop things. She's not really a member of the Rook City supergroup "Dark Watch" but she knows who they are and works to keep their activities out of the newspapers as much as possible.

She has a lot of effects that just automatically trigger, but the more of these she has in play, the more likely she is to hurt other people around her. Though she has some ways to affect that.

Faye Diamond was a private investigator looking into the disappearance of her grandfather Joe (yes, from the Arkham Horror board game themed on Cthulhu myths by Fantasy Flight Games). Her search led her to infiltrate a coven of witches who had... poor control over their magics. The end result was that she was cursed (She's basically a living embodiment of the Mists of R'lyeh.) Soon after she was approached by a man offering to teach her to control her curse and learn magic.

Since then she has become effectively the world's Sorcerer Supreme and is one of the founding members of Dark Watch. Nightmist at one point was cured of her curse but decided she did not like living as a normal person and took steps to recover her misty nature. While she was missing for days from the perspective of the world, she experienced unknown centuries and came back forever divorced from her humanity, a living force of magic, but still a hero.

Nightmist does not survive the OblivAeon event that separates the card game from the RPG. During that event she expends all her effort on reaching out to countless alternate timelines to call for aid from variant heroes and in the end, her essence became the re-instated boundaries between realities. In theory, some centuries down the line she could reach out again, but for the moment, she literally stretched thin across the multiverse.

Her powers involve discarding cards and she does a lot of support effects. She is capable of dealing massive damage, but often this comes at a risk. A lot of her spells damage herself, but she gets ways to redirect that.

The Harpy, Lillian Corvus, in her teens came across a mask of immense power which hooked into her jealousy of her more famous cousin, the brilliant scientist Meredith Stinson and superhero Tachyon (this world's Flash/Reed Richards... only has impact on the world, unlike Reed). The mask drove her to become the villain Matriarch and the extent of her attack was such that she has kept a terrible reputation even though she only ever attacked once.

She spent a good long time in prison as a result, receiving constant visits and support from Meredith. Eventually she got out due to a weird confluence of events and was once again drawn to the mask, but this time her power went crazy with her birds attacking her. Meredith sought out Faye Diamond/Nightmist to help and The Harpy has become her apprentice and will eventually inherit her position as the premiere magical hero of the world.

Not a founding member of Dark Watch, but becomes a firm member eventually.

Her powers work by summoning more and more birds and, like Alpha, has a lot of effects that just trigger. Most of the consequences are directed at herself where as Alpha's attack people around her.

Imagine your mother is a fascist Canadian version of Magneto and you were born with no powers. That's the situation for Amanda Cohen. She's a mix of Nick Fury and the Punisher and has spent lots of effort building up her tactical powers and ability to face off against enemies.

While The Wraith is the Batman of the world, Expatriette is the hero who maintains plans on how to take out every super around her. (She's said it's a calming exercise for her and she does it when her boyfriend, the superhero Setback, breaks something due to his superhumanly bad luck).

Another founding member of Dark Watch along with Nightmist, her powers are about guns, bullets, and tactical plans supporting everybody around her.

Side Note: I don't know enough about their new mechanics to know what turn order position these heroes are best in, so I put them in an order based on story reasons. I have Wraith and Expat taking first and last positions as the more tactical minded members of the party, with Wraith taking point and Expat being a bit more patient and calculating by taking up the rear.

Nightmist is taking the center position as the major mentor type of the group and the two people with major control issues are on either side of her. I put Alpha next to Wraith since Wraith is one of the heroes who stopped "Matriarch" and as much as The Harpy realizes she needed to be stopped, I read her as an incredible dork and a bit nervous (manifesting as over-dramatic mannerisms) so she's distancing herself a bit from Wraith.

For an environment, I'm going with Diamond Manor. Nightmist's home and a collection of supernatural oddities. It also operates as the headquarters of Dark Watch, a hero group mostly focused on the grim Rook City and dealing with supernatural beasties, organized crime, and civic corruption. (Post OblivAeon, they do a lot of civic organizing and outreach in addition to classic superheroing)

This is a low-peril environment and it often help the heroes. The villains have less opportunity to benefit from it, but there's some dangerous stuff here.

The game starts with the Villain going first. Start of turn, Ambuscade shoots the healthiest target (Alpha) for 3 Damage (5 heroes minus 2).

Then he plays a card, Reactive Plating, this is a device not a one-shot, so he doesn't go invisible.

Then he shoots the healthiest hero, which is now The Harpy.

Now we come to Wraith and we get a chain.

In the old edition, "Impromptu Invention" was prone to causing Wraith to just explode on the field, and this is no different.

She plays Impromptu and does the following in order (I layered them a bit out of order in the image tough):

Draw a Card (a second Impromtu Invention... OMG)

Discover an Item (Throwing Knives... Discover means look and play the first card of that type, so her knives go right into play)

She may play a card if she wants to (doesn't have to)... and I have a second Impromtu so definitely playing it)

That draws her Smoke Bombs

Discovers Utility Belt

And then she plays the Smoke Bombs out

This is just her Play Phase, now it's time for Power Phase

Utility Belt lets her do two powers

She uses her inherent power "Stealth" to reduce damage against her until the next round (it used to reduce the next damage dealt and you could stack it up if she wasn't attacked, this covers multiple attacks, but won't stack)

She also uses Throwing Knives to hit Ambuscade and his Reactive Shielding. Smoke Bombs increases her damage by 1 so she gets past the -1 damage from Reactive, but she also takes damage from reactive. It wou;d normally be 4 but her stealth and smoke bombs reduce that to 2. But she did make two attacks, so she takes it twice for a total of 4

This is a VERY good first round for Wraith. Impromtu is one of her best cards and she got both copies in the first round as well as the ability to play both. Also, Utility Belt is one of her best items.

Ambuscade has taken 1 damage.

Side note, I tend to feel that the "Health" is less about health than about the countdown for the storyline.

Like, Spite's deck plays out as trying to track down a serial killer and Ambuscade's is like a cat and mouse game. So part of the "Health" is tracking down and forcing Ambuscade into a confrontation.

Alpha also has a good starting round (incidentally, it's a starting hand of 4 cards, which I didn't think to take photoes of) but not as good and she doesn't quite explode.

I have her play Hamstring which will prevent Ambuscade from dealing damage. Unfortunately it doesn't stop the Reactive Armor from dealing damage, so she still takes damage from it.

I could possibly have hamstrung the armor, but I'm a bit more concerned with the sort of big blasts Ambuscade might have coming up. I don't know what this new edition has done with him yet.

So, I've marked that Ambuscade can't deal damage until the start of Alpha's next turn.

Anyway, this moves on to her Power phase.

I use Alpha's innate power Prowl and choose to Discover an Aspect card instead of dealing damage.

I pull Fangs and Claws and reshuffle the other revealed cards back into her deck.

Note, that when a deck runs out of cards, you just shuffle the trash back into the deck. There's no decking out like in Magic: The Gathering or Hearthstone.

That said, some villains have mechanics where you will lose if their trash gets too big.

So. for Nightmist I play "Call Forth" to summon one of her items and now I'm noticing I made an error... she should have discarded the top of her deck and taken some damage casting this spell. The game is over now, so it's hard to say how this would have affected the game.

Anyway, so if you see the numbers on the deck at the bottom right of the pictures? Those number often determine the power and risk of the spells she casts. In this case, she's summoning her Phial of Exomna, an item that lets her heal, draw, or both if she doesn't mind losing the phial temporarily. If either of those cards were in the discard then she would take that "3" damage marked.

She then uses her Phial's power instead of her innate to draw 3 cards and then her normal draw phase comes and she draws a fourth card.

There is no upper hand limit, so it's entirely possible on some characters to have your entire deck in your hand. That sounds good, but it often isn't. A lot of those characters (including Nightmist here) are powered by the contents of their Trash pile, so if they have no Trash pile, then they can't do much.

Now we come to my girl. Queen of all Chip Damage (in the prior edition at least), The Harpy.

This card works a lot different from the prior edition, mostly because the prior edition's Harpy had a mechanic where she had 5 tokens which would flip between Arcane and Avian. That version of Harpy Hex would do damage whenever one of those tokens flipped. This one will deal damage whenever one of her Flock cards is destroyed.

I then used her innate power "Seeking Order" to try to deal one damage and draw 2 cards. She fails to do damage, which also means she doesn't suffer the retaliation damage.

Side note, the End Phase effect is a "May" meaning it's a choice. Thus the fact I forgot about it most of the game has no impact. That said, I definitely use it here to discover a Flock card

Harpy tends to snow ball in the older edition and seems similar here.

Also note that the Chatter of Starlings are unable to beat Ambuscade's armor so she deals no damage with them, and thus doesn't suffer damage.

So, pondering over Expatriette's options I decide to opt for Arsenal Access.

This lets her discover both a Gun and Ammo getting her the Modified SMG and the Shock Rounds out into play.

Then she uses the last line of the card to play her double-barreled shotgun.

I much appreciate the cleaner why ammo cards work here. You used to have to attach them to guns ahead of time and they would be automatically used the next time you used that gun. Now, they are played to your play area and when you use a gun, you can choose to use one of the ammos.

Afterwards the ammo is destroyed.

Side note: destroyed in this game is basically just narratively no longer available. Like if something destroys Expat's signature pistols, it's just that they're not usable for now. Maybe she was disarmed or maybe she's out of bullets for them.

Likewise, when Harpy's flocks are "destroyed" it's more like they are dispersed to their natural behaviors instead of calling to server her.

Again, while these games can be read as a single battle, it's more appropriate to view each game as a multi-issue story arc with both combat and non-combat scenes.

Speaking of that shotgun and those shock rounds... she applies them to his reactive armor, and now it's gone. Though she does take the damage in retaliation before the item is destroyed.

Now the environment has it's turn and plays The Bloodless Reliquary. Fortunately, Expat just destroyed the Reactive Armor, as such, the target with the lowest HP is now The Wraith. So it moves over to her.

Now it's Ambuscade's turn again.

He plays a Hunter Drone which attacks Nightmist.

Ambuscade also attacks Nightmist, but he's still dealing with a werewolf reporter keeping him busy (in this narrative, I'm viewing "Hamstring" as a more extended chase sequence), so he deals no damage.

Back to Wraith, and her Smoke Bombs are destroyed at the start of her turn. But then, she plays Leverage which allows her to Collect 1 card (meaning she brings it to her hand from either her Deck or Trash)... she opts to collect Smoke Bombs and bring it back to her hand. (THIS BECOMES A THEME)

She then uses Utility Belt's power to play an Item card to put Smoke Bombs back on the Field and then uses Throwing Knives to attack both the Hunter Drone and Ambuscade, doing 3 damage to each due to the Smoke Bombs and the Bloodless Reliquary boosting her damage (I'm now wondering if I forgot to apply that damage properly... ah the paranoia of going from digital version with automated bookkeeping to actual tabletop)

She draws Combat Prowess but can't play it yet.

At the end of Wraith's turn the play area with the lowest-HP target is Ambuscade's so he gets the Bloodless Reliquary now.

Start of Turn, Alpha's Hamstring power goes into the discard and Ambuscade can now do damage again. She also has her Fangs and Claws trigger, choosing to do damage to both the Hunter Drone and Ambuscade (and I'm seeing I did forget to do all of Wraith's damage, ah well, it was only 1 pt)

Since there's a limit to how many images one post can have, carrying this on later.

This is the First Post of this:

Second Post

Third Post

Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!

An Unpopular Opinion of Mine

I really do not think that this is something which is easy to talk about, especially here over at Tumblr. It’s going to be an extremely difficult opinion to express out and I have a feeling that I am going to anger quite a few, or quite a lot of people but I really do not mean any harm in what I have to talk about in regards to this particular letter to the editor and how I feel about this, and if there could be a compromise.

I understand that as our society changes, comics often times reflect what is going on within our society in the form of social commentary or political commentary. Let me say that I do understand and fully acknowledge that representation matters to a lot of people and there’s been efforts made to create representation for fans in a variety of mediums ranging from film, video games, novels, and of course-- comic books. Characters representing many races, creeds and of course sexual orientations have been created and some have become quite popular over the years such as Miles Morales Spider-Man, Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz, Calvin Ellis, Val-Zod, and in the case of IDW’s TMNT-- Jennika, who has become a representative of bisexuals for IDW’s TMNT title under the writing of Tom Waltz and by extension, Sophie Campbell.

For a lot of people, comics are a means of escapism and perhaps even a sense of empowerment. I’ve been reading comics since the early 90′s when I got my first copy of Web of Spider-Man #82 when I was very little, and not once did I particular feel left out. For the record, I am a Latino male and I managed to find enjoyment in reading my first comic which happened to be a Spider-Man comic. And I started to read more of Spider-Man’s adventures in the mid 1990s when the Venom and Carnage thing was high in popularity at the time. Then I moved onto reading Dark Horse’s Alien-Predator series around the late 90′s, and those stories had a very good diverse cast of characters, and I related more to the Yautja (Predators to you uninitiated folk!) than the human characters. Odd I know...

But around the early 2000s, I rediscovered TMNT through the Mirage comics. And the TMNT were the first heroic (or anti-heroic if you’re a Mirage fan) group I actually encountered as a child. And I’ve loved them ever since, some incarnations more than others, with Mirage, Image and IDW being the top three for me. And I related more to the Turtles than any of the human characters. Not once did I really feel left out, and most TMNT media didn’t really have much political commentary aside from the occasional environmental message.

Representation matters, and I do respect that but... there is no easy way to say this and this might get A LOT of people angry, furious even, but I am of the opinion that an established character’s sexual orientation shouldn’t be changed. This applies to both heterosexual and LGBTQ characters. Established heterosexual characters shouldn’t be changed and neither should LGBTQ characters. For example, if Northstar, one of the most iconic and beloved gay characters in Alpha Flight was suddenly turned straight, it would get people upset and rightly so.

Also, there is the news regarding Superman being revealed as bisexual. Well, it's not Clark Kent folks, Classic Superman hasn't been changed. This is a new and different Superman and you know what, that's absolutely fine.

But in the case of the TMNT, canonically they've been shown in most mediums as having heterosexual tendencies. A case could be made that they're asexual in the case of the 2003 series as Peter Laird had no interest in exploring the romantic lives of the Turtles.

In the Mirage canon, Leonardo has had a romantic affair with a Native American super heroine named Radical and even marries her in the future. Michelangelo even has had sex with a Saurian Princess named Seri and even becomes a father to a clutch of eggs. Peter Laird even drew a picture of Michelangelo with his children, prior to Mirage folding in 2021. Raphael even has displayed some interest in Lucindra Thompkins, a sparring partner of his. Donatello? Well, he was too busy with science to be attracted to anyone. I can see Donnie being asexual in this aspect solely because of this.

In the 1987 cartoon, Leonardo developed romantic feelings for Lotus Blossom. Raphael had Mona Lisa. Not sure if Michelangelo or Donatello had anyone. Admittedly my memory of the 1987 cartoon is fuzzy at best, so I cannot recall if Michelangelo and Donatello had anyone.

In the 1990 movies, the Turtles also had heterosexual tendencies when they were flirting with April.

In the Next Mutation, Venus was introduced to be a love interest to the Turtles which had much dismay from fans as it retconned the brothers from being biological brothers. But the Next Mutation isn't canon in the grand scheme of TMNT, so we can discount that one.

In the 2012 series, the Turtles were paired up with characters such as Raphael with Mona Lisa, Leonardo and Karai were sort of love interest, Michelangelo seemed to be smitten with Renet, and Donatello had an unrequited crush on April.

As for IDW... Let's go over that-- Raphael and Alopex are a thing. That's firmly established. Michelangelo has developed a crush on Trib, the Neutrino Princess, and Donatello seems to have a thing going on with Mona Lisa. Leonardo seems to be the only one left but comic covers and teasers suggest he might have an upcoming rivalry with a PoC character named Carmen, and solicitations mention that Carmen is of importance to Leo. But that last part could mean anything such as a platonic friendship or rivalry.

Since the start, IDW has made itself unique with it's own canon and continuity, initially drawing elements from Mirage but gradually pulled from the 1987 toon, the 2003 toon and 2012 series. The writing by Tom Waltz at the time also had it's own touches as well, and some changes to characters were made such as Null and Jagwar being female rather than male like their Archie counterparts.

But I don't believe that changing a character's orientation this far into the canon and story for the sake of representation is the way to go. I don't believe that to be progressive, a character has to be changed so drastically.

When comic writers change an established character’s orientation, especially when that character has been popular for thirty to seventy years, it lessens a victory that could’ve been achieved for the LGBTQ community. Rather than create a new character who could earn the chance to be iconic and popular, it renders the existing established character as a hand me down. It’s also incredibly weak, lazy and unimaginative. It sends the message that they weren’t worthy to make a mark on their own without being given the chance to try first.

It would be a much more meaningful victory if a new character who is LGBTQ was created and well-written with relatable characteristics and put in a great storyline was given the chance to achieve that iconic status and popularity, and stand on their own alongside established legacy characters.

Being progressive doesn’t mean an established character’s orientation has to be changed for representation. In the case of the Turtles, I can see the brothers as being allies for the LGBTQ characters, fighting alongside with them, teaching them and passing whatever knowledge they have, and even adding them to their extended family. I know they’re kind of already doing that, but it would be much more meaningful for a new character to represent and make their own impact to achieve that victory, rather than changing the brothers' orientation.

I suppose that’s all I have to say regarding my thoughts on the matter, and these thoughts don’t come from a place of hate but rather concern and a desire to see the TMNT title succeed and flourish without taking any cheats or shortcuts which might hurt the success of the title in the long run.

For @balou15 and @ice-mage because my askbox noped out of existence for some reason ;) 

14. “You said to be honest, stop hitting me!” (starring sterek and including isaac being an idiot, as per combined request). 

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Stiles really should've known better. 

Of course, that could apply to a lot of things. Stiles should’ve known better than to adopt a bunch of werewolves, he should’ve known better than to order three serving of curly fries the other night, and he should’ve known better than to challenge Erica Reyes to a game of truth or dare two weeks ago (he could still taste baking powder).

In a lot of cases, he really should’ve just stopped to think. But Stiles didn’t do thinking. It took too much time.

So when he asked Isaac to be brutally honest about his opinion on Roscoe, he should’ve expected the curly-haired beta to be so mean. Except, before today, Stiles hadn’t thought it was possible for anyone to hate Roscoe.

“You car sucks,” Isaac said, a stupid blue scarf wrapped around his neck and a stupid smug smirk taking up residence on his face. “If I had to choose between riding my bike everywhere and letting you drive me, I would choose my bike in a heartbeat. Your jeep is a death trap. It wouldn’t even be fit for old parts.”

Stiles wasn’t sure how he’d gotten the rolled up newspaper in his hands. He wasn’t sure when he’d started smacking Isaac over the head with it either.

Only at one moment, he was trying to remind himself that murder was illegal and his father was the town Sheriff, and the next, he was determined to smack the life out of Isaac and his stupid scarf.

“You said to be honest, stop hitting me!”

“Not that honest!” Stiles said, chasing after the beta as he fled with his arms over his head. “Roscoe is my baby, you asshole, and I will defend her with my dying breath!”

Isaac ducked around the corner and Stiles chased after him— only to stumble back as he rammed into a very unimpressed Derek Hale. The man arched a brow and glanced from him, to Isaac, and then back, before sighing heavily.

“I hate to ask, but what’s going on here?”

“I hate your betas.”

“Stiles is being a psycho! I didn’t even do anything wrong!”

“You did everything wrong,” Stiles hissed, narrowing his eyes at the boy. “Roscoe is never driving your little werewolf ass anywhere ever again. I hope you enjoy biking to school.”

“I do have a bike for a reason.”

“Bastard!” Stiles said, trying to leap at him again. But Derek caught his arm and dragged him back, much to the triumphant look on Isaac’s stupid face. 

Stiles tried to wiggle loose but Derek’s grip was like iron and he didn’t let go until they were back out of the kitchen. Dragging him over the the couch, Derek dumped him down. 

“Stay,” the man said pointedly. Stiles leaped back to his feet instead and smacked the man over the nose with his newspaper.

“I’m not a dog, Sourwolf! You stay!”

Derek’s eyes flickered to red. For a moment, he just looked at Stiles and the newspaper he held, and then a terrifyingly feral look lit up in his eyes. “Stiles, can I see that newspaper for a moment?”

Stiles took a step back, heart leaping into his throat. He quickly pulled the newspaper behind his back. “What newspaper?”

“Stiles—”

“Don’t touch my newspaper!” Stiles smacked him across the head and then leaped back as Derek snarled. He scrambled over the couch, taking off back into the kitchen, and squeaked as he heard the sounds of the man chasing him. 

Isaac watched from the stairs, a smug expression on his face. Stiles flipped him the bird. 

For a moment, the loft was silent. Stiles panted nervously as he gazed around. He gripped his rolled up newspaper tightly and waited for the coming attack; but Derek was gone. It was like the werewolf had vanished into thin air.

“Uh,” Stiles said, now thoroughly confused. “Here, wolfy, wolfy, wolfy?”

Suddenly, there was movement from behind him and Stiles yelped as Derek caught him by the collar, lifting him a good two feet off the ground and wrestling the newspaper from his grasp. 

“No, Derek! Give it back!”

Derek smacked him three times over the head and then moved over to dump him back on the couch, leveling the newspaper with his face. Stiles glared at it.

“Stay.”

“Bastard!”

“Stiles.”

Stiles glared and crossed his arms, but didn’t move. Looking satisfied with himself, Derek tucked the newspaper under his arm and strolled back into the kitchen. A few moments later, the air filled with the mouthwatering smell of leftover take-out and Stiles grinned to himself, starting to stand.

But then Derek appeared in the doorway glared. “Stiles, couch. Now.”

“What? But I—”

“Couch.”

Stiles glared at him for a long moment. He debated flipping the man off and starting the entire chase all over again, but Derek’s eyebrows were terrifying and dammit, that shouldn’t have been such a turn on— wait. No.

Stiles shook his head and scowled, but plopped back down onto the couch. Derek smirked at him before vanishing again.

“Furry asshole,” Stiles said under his breath. Derek’s voice floated from the kitchen.

“I heard that!”

“Good!”

Stiles sat there for what felt like hours, though it was probably only a few minutes. At some point, the loft door slid open and Erica and Boyd came in. Stiles had his arms crossed and was glaring angrily at the opposite wall and Erica raised a brow, staring at him.

“What’s with you, Batman?”

“Derek put him in time out,” Isaac crooned from the stairs. Stiles scowled even more.

“He did not put me in time out, scarf boy.”

“Actually,” Derek said, coming out of the kitchen with a dish rag tossed over his shoulder and a plate of steaming leftovers in his hand. “I did. And you still have fifteen more minutes.”

Erica burst out into laughter and even Boyd smiled. Stiles slunk down further into the couch and muttered a series of curse word underneath his breath as Derek sank into the armchair a few feet away and continued to eat his dinner as if Stiles wasn’t even there.

He still had the newspaper on him though, Stiles noticed. He was already planning revenge.

It took a little longer.

By the time Derek gave him a wide smirk and told him he could get up now, Stiles was brimming with silent determination. He shot the man a wicked grin and shoved himself up, flouncing out of the room. 

He hoped that got under Derek’s skin. He hoped the man could tell he was planning all sorts of terrible things.

Later that night, Stiles crashed on the couch. He’d done that more often these days; with his dad working late shifts and Scott being busy with Allison. Stiles had spent the rest of the evening smiling brilliantly at Derek and acting like nothing had happened whenever they were in the same room together.

He started noticing Derek’s expression getting a little less certain. The man was watching him with narrowed eyes. His expression was nothing but distrustful.

Stiles reveled in it.

Late that night, when he could hear the faint snores of the rest of the pack, Stiles pushed himself up and grabbed the newspaper roll where Derek had left it. He rolled it a little tighter, smacking it lightly against his palm, and grinned at the sharp noise it made.

Then he moved toward Derek’s room as quietly as he could.

The Alpha werewolf always slept with his door open; as if he was always ready to come stumbling out for a problem or a fight. But the man was dead to the world as Stiles crept into his room, half buried underneath his covers.

Normally, Stiles would think the way Derek’s nose scrunched up in his sleep was adorable. He’d think the way he face got all soft and gooey when he was unconscious was the cutest thing ever. 

But tonight, he was out for revenge.

Stiles lifted his arm and then smacked the man across the nose with the newspaper as hard as he could.

Stiles really should have known better.

That could apply to a lot of things; like agreeing to babysit the pack whenever Derek was out, allowing the werewolves to copy his homework when Derek wasn’t looking, or letting Erica Reyes pick out his outfits on certain days.

In a lot of cases, he really should just stop to think. But Stiles didn’t like thinking. It took too much time.

Still, he should’ve thought this one through a lot more than he did.

Derek snapped to consciousness with a roar, eyes flashing red and fangs slotting down. Stiles yelped and pinwheeled back, his heart leaping into his throat. His feet caught in the t-shirt that Derek had left on the floor and before he could react, he was tumbling to the carpet. 

In seconds, Derek was pinning him down, claws at his neck and breaths hot on his face. Stiles threw his hands up with a terrified squawk, sure he was going to have his throat ripped out or something.

“Sourwolf, Sourwolf! Don’t savage the token human!”

There was the sound of running feet and the pack came spilling into the bedroom. Stiles caught Erica’s eyes and her gaze snapped from Stiles, to the newspaper, and then back. Then a grin cracked across her face and she dissolved into laughter.

“Oh my god, Stiles, you’re such an idiot.”

Slowly, the red faded from Derek’s eyes and his claws retracted back into his fingers. He pulled away and stared down at Stiles, an incredulous expression replacing the one of anger that had previously been on his face. 

Stiles was still trembling a little, terror and adrenaline making his heart race.

“Stiles,” Derek growled, his voice slightly warbled by his fangs. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Um,” Stiles said. “Revenge?”

Derek glanced beyond him at the newspaper lying a few feet away and his face tightened. He released Stiles of one hand and reached up, touching his nose. It was slightly red.

Erica laughed even harder. Derek glared at his betas.

“All of you get out.”

Stiles’s heart did a little flip and all three grumbled, but followed their Alpha’s order. Stiles could’ve sworn he caught Isaac smirking at him before the curly-haired beta left, but he couldn’t be sure.

He probably had, though.

“So, Sourwolf,” Stiles said nervously, wiggling a little. “Can we talk about this?”

Derek pulled him to his feet by the collar. “Revenge, Stiles? Really?”

“It sounded good in my head.”

“You know what sounds good in my head?”

“Letting me go, going back to bed, and then pretending like this never happened?”

“Yeah,” Derek said, smirking. “I don’t think so.”

That didn’t sound good. 

Stiles chuckled nervously and wondered that if he tried, he could make it out the door before Derek caught him. But then the man turned him toward the corner and patted him on the head, before letting go and trudging back to his bed.

“Twenty minutes, Stiles. Then you can leave again.”

Stiles blinked dumbly at the wall for a second. It took his brain a second to catch up and when it did, he spun back around. Derek was already back in bed, smirking at him with a look of smug triumph. 

Stiles opened his mouth to argue— and the man’s eyes flashed red.

His words died in his throat and Stiles stared for a moment, before turning back around. Crossing his arms, he glared at the wall. “This house is a fucking nightmare.”

Derek chuckled and rolled away.

- -

I have no idea where this ended up going, but here we are. Forgive me for the sheer crackness of it all. But thanks for the prompts, you two! I, uh... had fun?

(if you enjoy my writing, consider supporting your underpaid student writer? Seriously, I’d adore you guys so much). https://ko-fi.com/rh27writer

Chew the Bullet - Chapter One

A Modern Warfare series

Casey Vos is a liaison officer for the Dutch Special Forces. She has been stationed in Afghanistan and Syria, but now works everywhere they need her assistance. Specialized in counterterrorism and intelligence, she is unmistakably a great asset for the upcoming Taskforce 1-4-1, under the command of Captain John Price. 

A/N: Here it is – the official chapter one of Chew the Bullet. I’m going to slowly introduce all the characters while (sort of) following the storyline of the gaming series, starting with the most recent campaign of Modern Warfare (2019). English is not my first language, but I’m getting better at it. Please, if you see any errors, let me know so I can fix it. It’s much appreciated. Well, I hope you enjoy! And please leave a note, vote or message with your thoughts! Bravo team out.

Warnings: guns.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.

____________

War is not just a three letter word. It is something worse. Something that can obliterate everything. War tears humans apart, even those who were once so close. Victims of war are over and over drowned in waves of guilt, pain and regret. In war no one is safe. Nowhere.

 Returning to a place she once called home was just a foolish thought in Casey´s brain. Everybody moved on in her absence. No one to return to for a warm embrace or innocent chatter. Home was a gaping hole and had long since healed and scarred up. She thought that with growing up in a place full of violence, tears and poverty she had seen everything. But nothing could have prepared her for the life as a soldier. She had seen friends, allies and blood brothers die. The moment you enlist, no matter what age, you either die in combat or live with the guilt of what your hands caused.

 At twenty-seven years old she had seen it all. Done it all. First Afghanistan, then Syria - and now everywhere they needed her assistance. As a liaison officer for the Dutch Special Forces she could be in London one day, and in Moscow the next.

 It has been twenty-six months since the last time she set foot in the cosy coffee shop in her hometown of Rotterdam. The air is thick with the scent of the dark liquid. Before she makes her way to the table in the corner of the place she orders a cappuccino at the counter. The first thing she does before sitting down is grabbing the laptop out of her backpack. She would never leave without the device. You could never know when another terrorist cell would pop up with the most horrific intentions. The laptop didn’t look as new as a few months back, but it saved a lot of lives in the meantime. Collecting information and analysing data were the main tasks on the computer to provide guidance and direction in modern warfare. Since Casey came back from the special operation in Istanbul there has been a lot of chatter about Al-Qatala. Unfortunately, the rules of engagement kept her from acting on it.

 The moment the barista turns up with her drink a notification appears on the screen of the laptop – a new email from Kyle. “Casey- We need to talk.” A short, but clear message. She winced as she took a quick sip from the overly bitter drink. The lack of cream made it just another caffeine shot. Not what she expected, but something she needed. She met Sergeant Kyle Garrick a couple of months back when working on a case at the Metropolitan Police Service. It was then that he crossed paths with allies of Omar Sulaman, also known as the Wolf, for the first time. “Call you in twenty,” was all she replied before sliding the laptop back in her bag and walking over to the barista to pay for the coffee.

 Back in the hotel room near central station she immediately sets up a secured connection to contact the British sergeant. Within seconds after calling in, Kyle appeared on the screen in front of her. “Casey, where are you?” Kyle asked. “Hey Gaz, how are you doing? Nice to see you, too” Casey chuckled watching the intense look on Kyle’s face. “Sorry, Case… but we got trouble incoming. Another one of the Wolf’s safe houses got onto our radar,” he explained. Casey couldn’t believe her ears. “Where?” was all she replied. “South London. Near Sutton. How fast can you get here?” From Rotterdam to London by train would take five hours with a stop in Paris. Taking the train of one o’clock would give her one hour to pack everything and check out of the hotel. “I can be at Saint Pancras at five. Can you send me the intel you got so far?” Kyle leaned towards the camera and nodded, “Great. I’ll pick you up at the lower level of the station, near the taxi rank. We don’t have much, but I’ll send you everything through the server. See you soon!” Casey waved her hand, “Copy that”.

 During the train ride to London, Casey poured herself into the data she had received from Kyle. He had send her a map of the safe house and all the intel they managed to collect in the last couple of days. The Wolf was back on the grit with a desire to make the west suffer to gain advantage and power. Sulaman is the leader of the terrorist organization responsible for plotting terror attacks, inspiring sleeper cells and lone followers to ban against world power. He was once a freedom fighter, a leader and a hero in the eyes of the west, but he turned. A lack of will made him intolerant. His knowledge of the western strategic limitations moulded him a kingpin of mass destruction. Both the man, and his movement gained mass support in the last years. Casey rested her head in her hands as memories flooded her mind. She had the chance to kill him a few years back, but a bullet… one freaking bullet stopped her from ending it all. The voice over the speakers yanked her out of the trance. The train arrived at its final destination, London Saint Pancras International.

 As promised, Kyle was waiting a the taxi rank on the lower level of the huge station. The area was a seething of mass of humanity – people on their way back home from a nine to five office job, tourists on the move to platform nine and three quarters, and teenagers meeting up with friends for a unforgettable night out. “Sergeant,” she said as she walked up to the six foot tall Afro-British SAS soldier. His brown eyes sparkled as he saw the brunette approach him. “Lieutenant,” he replied before embracing her in a tight hug. “Glad to see you, gal.”

 The ride to the Yard was filled with chatter between the two, but as soon as they arrived at the headquarters the talk got more serious. “Did you check the intel?” Kyle asked as they stepped into the elevator. “I did. Got some strategies on how to handle the raid and clean house. There are multiple ways to enter the property, and we need to be prepared for the worst case scenario. We both know how the Wolf likes to set up his security,” Casey answered. “Good. I got a team waiting for us to go through the plan. We don’t have much time, but it should be enough to get in prepared,” he replied. Upon entering the briefing room she already spotted a few men waiting in front of the screen. “Lads, meet Casey Vos. Lieutenant and liaison officer from the Dutch Special Forces. She is going to assist us at tonight’s clean up,” Kyle kicked off. A member of the team walks towards Casey and holds out his hand, “Welcome, Lieutenant. I’m Brooks and this here are Crowley and Fowler.” It was a simple welcome, but greatly appreciated. Meetings like this weren’t always easy, especially not when you were the only woman operating in a team of dudes.  “Thank you. Nice to meet you. I would like to start the briefing in five. Kyle, are we expecting more men?” she smiled while shaking Brooks’ hand. “Yes, we do actually. Let me get them, so you can set everything up.”

  8:45 PM Sutton, South London

The twilight quickly faded to blackness in the small alleys in Sutton, a southern borough in London.  Thick clouds blotted out the stars and the moon in the still air. In the distance you could hear the cry of dogs. “Okay, guys. Be advised. There may be non-combatants on target. Check your shots. Watch those corners,” Casey instructed making way to the residence. Before entering the courtyard behind the house, they met up with another team. Casey, Kyle, Brooks, Crowley and Fowler would enter the premises from the back. The second team consisting of three officers would enter from the side, and a third team would enter from the front. “Ready? Good. Alpha-One moving in on the rear.”

 “Alpha-One, this is Alpha-Two. About to enter the eastern alley,” one of the officers stated on the comms.  “Copy that, Alpha-Two.” Entering through the back door was easy and the kitchen area was empty, but two deep voices could be heard from the living area of the house. Kyle slowly opened the door and dropped the two men, who were both armed. “Secure.” Casey moved up to the hallway when Alpha-Three entered through the front door. Footsteps could be heard from the upper level of the townhouse. “Alpha-One moving to the first floor,” Casey said tapping Brooks shoulder. Quietly they moved in formation and cleared the second floor. “Casey, on me” Kyle spoke pointing to the last floor. Frantic movement could be heard from upstairs. The Al-Qatala members definitely knew something was going on below them. “ I hear two. I got your six, Gaz” Casey said after checking her weapon if it was in need of a reload. The two steadily moved up and ceased in front of the wooden door at the end of the small corridor. They looked at each other and nodded before entering the last room. A woman and a little boy where hiding in a corner of the dark space. “Hold your fire,” Kyle said when he saw they were unarmed.  The sergeant restraint the mother and her child, and guided them downstairs. “Case, see what you can find!”

 The house wasn’t big, but it was a ginormous mess. Papers spread everywhere – on the floor, in cabinets, pinned on the wall. And not to mention the devices that were present that had to be examined. Phones and laptops scattered all over the place. “Alpha-Two for Alpha-One, we need you on the first floor,” she heard in her earpiece. “Copy, Alpha-Two.” Grabbing everything she already found, she made her way to the other team. “What do you got for me?” she asked the officer. “You’re not going to like this,” he said while turning the screen of the black laptop so she had a clear view of the data. Her eyes combed the display from side to side rapidly. She held her breath to concentrate as if her life depended on it. She started to violently beat her fingers against the keyboard in search for more while the glittering beads of sweat trickled down her forehead. All the fragments clogged her mind and she tried to connect them all together. “Shit,” was all she could say after opening one of the encrypted files. “Get Sergeant Garrick. Now!” she spat to the officer. It wasn’t long before Kyle got to Casey. “We’re in deep shit, Kyle. Check this out. Apparently the Wolf has his eyes on chlorine gas from Barkov. A group of mercs are prepping the convoy as we speak. This is really bad. You know what happens when he gets his hands on chemicals like this.” The Brit was stunned by the info he just consumed. His mind was going haywire. “We need to do something,” he affirmed. Casey knew what she had to do. It was her only option to try to prevent any close encounters with chemicals like this.

__________

Masterlist

Want to get tagged in upcoming chapters? Let me know!

Sakura - A Legacy comes to an end...?

After I had completed the Street Fighter Alpha Arcade Mode for the new updated game, at the same time, the first character right out the gate for Season 3 was pitched to me and I only had about 3 weeks to get everything fixed up for Sakura.

Inception

Following a rich history all the way through the Street Fighter Alpha timeline, Sakura has always been the character to (to use the Kondo term) spark joy into the series. And the timeline reaches all the way into SF4 were she technically has reached her peak of her fighting skill with a song to boot her childlike energy. So the plan was now, with the new information at hand, take her melody and reshape it into something more....”mature”.

Legacy

With a long time following with fans all over the world, writing music for my first LEGACY CHARACTER meant I had a totally different challenge in front of me. It seemed to work well with my re-imagining/update for Street Fighter Alpha/Zero here, but this Sakura has become a lot different. It cannot be a carbon-copy of the previous game. We have to find a way to make her still be her, but a progression of her timeline, since right after this game it goes into STREET FIGHTER III territory where she is no longer present. Looking at the timeline we are in the 90′s now, so the most logical step was to go into electronic house music of some kind. But as we all know, taking her lead melody, I had to morph it, rephrase it to fit this style. If her melody was very straight to the point in SF4, I wanted to show that she has grown and giving herself a little bit more thought about her future. Destiny dictates a dreamy piano with serious undertones in the bass would show her progression, meanwhile the lead is doing an off-kilter rendition of her melody. Luckily, I was only responsible for her character theme, but when I saw there was going to be a Kasugano-resident song with another version aching towards her SFA days, it was of course more upbeat to give everyone a homage to not only her more innocent days, but a shout-out to everyone who has been fans of Sakura.

Goodbye..?

Not sure what to say, but I played it according to the specifications of the clients request and I honored the music supervisors goal to complete the character. But many speculates that this would be the end of Sakura as a character. I honestly don’t believe that, but with any movie or TV show, there is always a way to bring back a character even beyond the grave (Alien 4). So if anyone asks me, my answer is that I don’t know. It’s like JK Rowling only told the true intention about Snape to Alan Rickman and he turned in a very interesting, puzzling performance because he knew something nobody else knew. In my case, I don’t and even if I did, I would never reveal any other information. But if according to the timeline, SF3 is what happens after the events of SFV and she’s not in there. With the song we wanted to show that she has started to really think hard about her future and what she will do next. Heck, even I took a break from the DEMO-SCENE for 20 years, came back, blasting a 2nd place at the Tokyo Demo Fest last December.

My first Legacy character was completed with a lot of mixed reactions from the SF-community. Just remember, I think about what fans would like to hear, but I also take in consideration to the client’s request very seriously, and usually we find a middle-ground. Remember that no game-company or music-supervisor wants to micromanage a composer, and that’s where fresh-new direction takes place. They give me ideas and I try my own vision to create something that fulfills the requirement. My ultimate goal with the Legacy Character’s is to stay true, but also to show progression. I believe that is what we have done here in this case. But later... something big. A lot bigger was coming my way. The one and only....

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

Double Moons - Default Replacement Mod

“One small step for simmers, one giant leap for Murf!“

I’ve always wanted something like this in my game, and my 2018 New Years Resolution is to learn to make new things, so here we are: double moons for y'all to use in whatever world you want! :D

Jupiter and Callisto

There’s phases included for those of y’all with Supernatural Lunar Phases turned on.

(HD view here)

Included is a 2000 and 4000 size file - the pics show only the 4000, which is effing huge in the sky -- you have zoom all the way out to see it all.

So, yeah, you get choices in case you want it to appear that your worlds closer (4000) or farther away (2000) from the crap in the sky.

Saturn and Iapetus

Included again is a 2000 and 4000 size file - the pics show only the 4000 flavor, which is effing huge in the sky -- you have zoom all the way out to see it all.

Here’s the only picture I took of 2000:

There’s phases included too for those of y’all with Supernatural Lunar Phases.

(HD view here)

For Saturn I converted a Skyrim moon replacement mod - I edited out the Earth from all the phases, and I changed the colors because I’m gaudy like that. Then I added Iapetus because reasons. :P

You only need the Basegame for this mod to work -- though you won’t be able to use any of the lunar phases without the Supernatural EP, just the Full Moon. Which is the best phase anyway, so who cares!

This will conflict with any mod that alters all these files:

YOU CAN ONLY USE ONE FILE AT A TIME.

Download 2000 & 4000-size moons (package files): SimFileShare

Download (beta version) 1000-size moons: https://murfeelee.tumblr.com/post/170633556094/so-murfeelee-asked-if-anyone-had-tried-out-her

And as a little something extra, I decided to make this post double (lol) as....

☽✶•.¸(✶•.¸★¸.•✶´)¸.•✶´☾ ☆«´¨`•°°•´¨`»☆    ☽.¸.•✶(¸.•✶´★`✶•.¸)`✶•.☾

Welcome to Murf’s School of Crap and Crap-Making!

School Motto: Prepare to be tortured! For Science!

Lesson #12: Jumping Over EA’s Moons to Make Your Own!

☽✶•.¸(✶•.¸★¸.•✶´)¸.•✶´☾ ☆«´¨`•°°•´¨`»☆    ☽.¸.•✶(¸.•✶´★`✶•.¸)`✶•.☾

I dunno about y’all, but I have never seen this done before; people making multiple moon replacement mods rather than just one. So I figured I’d walk those interested through the process -- though really it’s barely any different from making the zillion other moon replacement mods already out there.

All you need is S3PE and a .dds texture image program (GIMP/Paint.net/etc).

You can download EA’s moon textures in the MTS thread here.

Ready? Here we go!

So what you do is open up the EA textures in an image program -- on this new godawful Windows 10 Dell laptop I haven’t secured a pirated copy of Photoshop yet, so I’m settling on GIMP for the interim (which in my limited experience has been a piece of crap with DDS files. So I have to use Paint.net in order to make the dds properly, but yeah, I’m using GIMP right now).

So open EA’s textures -- start with the full moon one (especially for y’all without the SN EP).

Though this tutorial only covers making Twin/Double moons, it works for adding however many moons you freaking want.

And it doesn’t even need it to be round/moon-shaped!

Pi in the Sky. Cuz I’m a little snot, that’s why! :P

(If you’re somehow desperate for Pi in the Sky, you can DL the beta version here -- there are no phases included, and it’s pink. Cuz of course. :P)

Size In DDS Layers

The key is to have your image fit inside the limits of EA’s default full moon.

If your image is too big and goes over the moon’s edges, you’ll end up with the BS cropping I initially suffered through:

Again: It doesn’t matter what image you use, as long as it fits within EA’s moon.

My Steps

This is nothing new for y’all familiar with making regular moon replacements. I just wanted to show how I do it in GIMP, cuz alpha channels in GIMP confused THE EFF out of me with all their Floating Anchor BULLSH!TE and I could barely find any help online navigating this nonsense.

I did each of the moons separately, then pasted them together when I was done. So I’m only gonna walk through making one of the moons, not both - same steps y’all.

Start with opening one of EA’s moon phase images, then open your first moon you want to use. Make sure they’re the same size this time. It’ll look like this:

Now Hide the custom moon layer, and go into the Channels tab. Where it says Alpha Channel, right-click it and select Channel to Selection.

The little marching ants dotted lines will move around the image, so you’re good.

Go back to the Layers tab, and this time Hide EA’s moon and Show your custom moon, so you see the marching ants on yours.

Now right-click your custom moon’s Layer and select Add Layer Mask. It’ll give you a bunch of options -- choose Selection.

Wash Rinse Repeat for your second moon, arrange the two of them however you want on the canvas, then Merge the Layers together into one.

And remember -- when you’re done you have to rescale everything so they fit together within the frame of EA’s full moon.

The texture resolution quality is gonna BAIL on you, so you’ll need to use stuff like Sharpen and Contrast, in order to bring back some of the original quality.

It’s a bit tedious cuz you have to do this for every effing phase (7 phases -- the New Moon one stays clear cuz duh).

When you’ve got your phase finished, and you’re ready to save it as a DDS file, there’s an issue. In Photoshop and Paint.net, what you see is what you get when you save a file. DDS files need their dimensions to be multiples of 256 or whatever -- 256x256, 512x512, 1024x768, 2048x2048, etc. Try any other multiples, and things like TSRW will crash on you -- quickly.

So here comes GIMP when you try to save a dds image with a transparent background: rather than just saving the image as it is, GIMP will for whatever reason wrap around the actual image, not the whole canvas. So when you save it, if your image is only 325x418 on a 512x512 canvas, then 325x418's the dimensions GIMP’s gonna save your dds as -- WHICH IS BAD!!!

I have ZERO clue how to fix this issue, so what I’ve done is save the images as a PNG, since GIMP saves them with the transparency and dimensions just fine. Then I open the png in Paint.net, and export it out as a DTX5 dds.

THERE! Boom! The precious time lost scratching my frikkin head over GIMP’s strange way of dealing with Alphas!

Size In-Game

Now as you can see, your finished moons are gonna be however many multiple times smaller than EA’s moon, even if you use 512x512 dimensions rather than EA’s standard 256x256.

You fix this in the SkyCommon.ini file that alters the Moon Radius parameters.

(S3_1F886EAD_00000000_5E20253AF53E517F_Tunable Parameters Related to Sky%%+_INI.ini)

Find EA’s in something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\GameData\Shared\NonPackaged\Ini.

Import it right into S3PE, right-click it, and click Notepad, so you can edit it.

The only thing you need to touch is where it says Moon Radius = 200. Increase the number and the moon looks bigger in-game. Decrease the number and the moon size gets smaller.

If you’re squeezing all these moons into your dds, and you’ve got like 2 moons that are 10x smaller than EA’s moon, then you should increase 200 to 2000 -- that’s my mindset.

Whatever number you choose, when you’re happy click Save and exit out of Notepad, and it’ll ask you “Resource has been updated.  Commit changes?“ so click Yes. Then Save your package again.

So that’s the whole size & texture thing. ^_^

The Glow Thing

You‘re gonna have to modify EA’s Moon Glow texture so that it’s perfectly transparent.

(EA’s default one is included in the MTS post here. I included the clear one I modified in the DLs.)

Otherwise you’ll end up with this hot mess:

I tried to do The Most and actually make a real edit of the glow -- but it was actually The Least. U_U

Just freaking get rid of it, whatever.

So yeah, when you’re done, just open up S3PE and Import in all of the .dds textures, plus the .ini. S3PE will then auto-generate a _KEY file for you, just leave it. Save your work as a package file, and that’s it!

Now go forth and do the moon walk! (^0^)/

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War of the Spark Limited - Premium Uncommons

Alright, time for the Uncommons. I’m going to try to get through all the cards in the set this weekend, so I can see how my ratings compare to the professionals as they come out next week. All ratings out of 5. Let’s go!

White

Let’s start with a Planeswalker, shall we? After all, they’re the major theme of the set. Evaluating ‘Walkers at Uncommon will be a different experience, but I think it will be rewarding. 

When it comes to The Wanderer, I really like her, and I think she’ll be one of the most impactful Uncommon Planeswalkers in the set. Sure, Bring to Trial wasn’t exactly the best card ever, but that’s because it had to be cast exactly when the threat was present. With The Wanderer, you can drop her turn 4 whether or not there’s a target for her, and just leave her on board. If there are no targets for her ability, and you have a decent 2 or 3 drop out, she’s likely going to be hard to attack right away, and will deter your opponent from playing any big threats for fear of just losing them on your turn. Not only that, but her static ability completely nullifies Band Together, Sorin’s Thirst, and basically all of Red’s removal suite. That gives her enormous potential to blank an opponent’s hand and force them to devote all their resources to getting rid of her, while you can do other things. I can definitely see siding her out against something like a Blue/White deck full of small fliers, but I would start on the premise of running her first, because she seems sweet. 3.0

Effects like this are often hit or miss, but I anticipate War of the Spark being a set where board stalls are common. And if that ends up being the case, this card can be a completely serviceable win condition. The lifelink is especially relevant to making this card work, since it will buffer you from the blowback attack you might face after alpha striking. Again, I’m going to be optimistic on this card at first, and reassess after I see how the format shakes out. 3.0

This one feels like a lot more of a risk, and it definitely ranges from completely unplayable to linchpin of your deck, depending on how many Planeswalkers and +1/+1 counters you have. Generally speaking, any repeatable proliferate cards are worth looking into. I’m going to guess most decks that try will have enough targets to make this worth playing. If the opposing deck has lots of fliers to block with, consider siding it out. But if they don’t, this can run away with the game. 2.5

Saved the best for last, for this color at least. I don’t think there’s any doubt that this is the premium removal for White in this format. It hits basically everything you want, at a reasonable cost, and gives you the benefit of a free Scry 1 out of the deal. Plus, Enchantment removal is light in the set, so this is likely to stick around. All told, I’m expecting this to be a totally solid, first-pickable card. 4.0

Blue

Kasmina is interesting for sure. Her static ability bears some resemblance to The Wanderer’s, in that it’s a protection against removal. However, rather than blanking certain cards entirely, it just makes all spot removal more expensive (Note that it doesn’t affect Prison Realm, which I’m sure will cause some confusion during Prerelease). I think The Wanderer’s will generally be better, but Kasmina’s isn’t just decorative. It will slow things down. From there, she pumps out Wizards, and if you can get both activations out of her, she’s been worth the casting cost. If you can get a repeatable proliferate card of some sort, that will definitely serve you well here, and she can be one of the best engines in the game. I’ll usually run her, but she’s not a slam dunk. 2.5

Honestly, Blue feels more aggressive to me in this set than White. Just look at this beast. 5 mana for a 3/3 & a 2/2 flier is a great deal, but the real power will be if you already have an Army started, because then the flier has Haste. And that’s just rude. It shouldn’t be hard to have a 1/1 or 2/2 Army already going by the time you cast this, so dropping it an immediately swinging with a suddenly large flier is big game. Take this card early, and prioritize cheap Amass cards to curve into it. 3.5

This seems like a mini-bomb. A 3/2 flier for 4 is a card you’ll run anyway, but bouncing a cheaper creature to turn it into a 4/3 is big game. What’s even bigger game is if you can get extra value out of the thing you bounced, such as a creature with an ETB or a Planeswalker that’s almost out of loyalty. It won’t get there every time, but the floor is high enough that I’m picking this early and running with it. 3.5

Black

I expect this to be a controversial pick, but I’m going to stick with it. First, the card has half of Ill-Gotten Inheritance stapled to it, and we all underestimated that card. This makes Ob one of the few cards in the game that has a built-in clock for your opponent. If they don’t deal with it and you can stall, they will eventually lose. Given that I expect this format to be grindy, I honestly think this will be a totally viable way to close out games. 

As for his loyalty ability, people are quick to point out that it’s card disadvantage for you. Sure, you kill their creature, but then they are up 2 more cards! True enough, but sometimes, a bomb is worth killing that much. This is especially true in limited, where the card quality ranges from super mediocre filler to game-ending. In limited, would I give someone two cards off the top of their deck in exchange for their Bioessence Hydra? You bet your ass I would. Because what they’re going to draw is going to be worse. So yes, don’t just kill little vanilla Commons with this. Save it for their bombs. 

The secret additional power to Ob is that you can also use the ability as an Altar’s Reap. If you have an early curve creature that’s outlived it’s value, cash it in for two more cards for yourself. What makes this card good is it’s versatility, an always underappreciated asset at first glance. Will I play this in Commander or a 60 card format? Hell no. Will I run it in limited until proven wrong? Without a doubt. 3.0

This is a nice, clean 2 for 1 in a lot of cases, and there’s not much more you can ask for in a removal spell. Yes, it only kills small things, so I wouldn’t take it over a Prison Realm or something, but it’s still good. 3.0

This guy seems really good. His stats are good enough to play on his own, as you often get vanilla 2/3s for 3 mana at Common. But his attack ability is really strong as a way to ensure you get value out of him later on as well. Sure, he’s likely going to trade or even just killed on attack, but if he trades it’s a clean 2 for 1. I’ll take it. 3.0

This one is definitely more situational, but I think there are going to be enough Army tokens and Planeswalkers running around that most decks should have targets for this. In other words, evaluating this as “Destroy target Army creature or Planeswalker” as its floor still makes me think it’s possibly worthwhile. I may be totally wrong here, but I wanted to mention it, since I think it’ll work more often than not. 2.5

Red

5 mana isn’t a ton, but there’s a lot going on here. First, it’s an automatic +1/+0 to every Red creature you control, and a buff to every Red damage effect as well. That alone can make for a really big swing the turn she comes down. On top of that, she can Shock a couple of times, most likely taking out small creatures or putting Planeswalkers in the danger zone. I don’t think she’s the best Uncommon ‘Walker by far, but she’s a solid workhorse and will get the job done. 3.0

Lightning Strike continues to be good, and I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t stay good here. 3.0

It’s weird to me that if they’re “twins,” the original one doesn’t have Trample, but whatever. It’s two 2/2s for 4 mana, which is a fine rate, but what pushes this over the top is the fact that amassing a large Army token is great, but giving it Trample is better. This is one where you really want to go deep on Amass, and see if you can build the biggest, stompiest monster you can. It may end up playing worse than I expect, but I’ll start with this as a solid card in my mind. 3.0

Arlinn costs a bunch, but man, does she make an impact. On her own, she can pump out three 3/3s, and that is a fine deal for 6 mana, even spread out over 3 turns. If you happen to have any copies of Arlinn’s Wolf in your deck, those also get affected by her static ability, so keep that in mind. Like Kasmina, if you can find a reliable proliferate engine, this will run away with the game. 3.0

Speaking of proliferate engines! This is probably the best one in the set, and I’d run it in any deck that has counters. It turns all your lands into extra utility, so you don’t even have to go through any deckbuilding hurdles to make this good. Just play cards & profit. 3.0

Rubblebelt Recluse was already one of my favorite cards in Ravnica Allegiance, and this is all the stats with none of the drawbacks. In fact, it has an upside! This is going to make combat a nightmare for your opponent, even if the troll is your only 4+ power creature. I look forward to beating down with this guy, since very little in the set can trade with it. 3.0

Mowu is the clear Best Boy of the set, and a card that can singlehandedly run away with the game if you have any ways to put counters on him. Even without that, he’s 3/3 Vigilance Trample, which is totally playable. Once you can put counters on him, he becomes the biggest thing on the board, so definitely prioritize those. I love how well he combos with Yanggu, and at Uncommon, it’s not going to be that rare to get both of them. 3.0

Multicolor & Colorless

Kaya’s static ability is basically just flavor text in limited (unless you’re facing down a Wardscale Crocodile, I guess), but her loyalty ability is the real deal. Most of the time, you’re just going to activate it two turns in a row and remove your opponent’s biggest threats. Sometimes it’ll get taken out in-between, but either way, you’re almost always going to get a 2 for 1 from this somehow, and that’s worth it. If you get a chance to proliferate her enough to activate her three times, you just win. 3.5

Angrath isn’t a slam dunk, and I have no idea why he’s creating Eternals (I’ve heard the flavor is that he’s using his Threaten magic on them, but it still feels weird.) That said, he’s a pretty good deal for 4 mana. Menace matters in limited, and building up a big Army with menace is really sweet. He’ll help you push through damage and take out opposing Planeswalkers, and that’s good enough for me. 3.0

Kiora may seem like a weird pick, but I think people are underestimating just how good of an engine she can be. If you get her early, you can prioritize creatures that will make use of her triggered ability, and her loyalty ability will help you ramp into the mana you need to cast them. She’ll be highly situational, and you really don’t want to run her if you can’t make use of her first ability. But assuming you have a few sources, I think she’ll be good. 3.0

Saheeli is another one whose viability relies entirely on her first ability. You really want to churn out 2 servos to get close to your investment back, but as soon as you’ve gotten 3 or more, you’re in Value-town. Fortunately, Red/Blue spells is a theme in this set, so I don’t think you’ll have too much trouble. To top it off, once you have some servos out, along with some good creatures, you can make one servo a copy of your best creature, to push through some powerful attacks. She won’t belong in every deck, but she’ll be a powerhouse in the decks built to optimize her. 2.5

The last Planeswalker on my list is Vraska. She’s one of the few sources of Deathtouch in the set, which are great against opposing Planeswalkers, as well as excellent defenders for your own. If you happen to have an evasive creature that can slip in for damage, it’ll get bigger each time it hits as long as Vraska remains on the field. All told, I think Vraska will be very frustrating to play against, and a worth ally on your side of the board. 3.0

There’s no shortage of targets with CMC 4 or more, so I’m totally on board for good, clean, unconditional removal of those problems. If you’re in the colors, you’ll absolutely want to play this. 3.5

Domri gets one last blaze of glory, and it’s a suitably powerful removal spell. It’s cheap, effective, and leaves your creature powerful than it started, so you’re never going to want to pass this one. 3.5

The stats on this are pretty impressive, if I do say so myself. 2/3 Flying is almost worth 4 mana, but drawing a card and gaining life on ETB is just awesome. It’s a card worth splashing for, and definitely a good sign that the color combination is open. 3.5

Hexproof & Menace are two words I would very much like to see on my giant Zombie Army, and 2/5 worth of stats, split between two creatures, is a fabulous deal for 3 mana. Expect to hear exasperated groans from your opponent when you land this on the table, because it’s virtually impossible to remove and be anywhere close to even on mana or resources. That said, it’s more of a support card than a bomb unto itself, so there will be decks you don’t put this in. But that will be rare if you’re in the colors. 3.0

If you can cast this on turn two, it’s a 2/2 flier for 2, and that’s a fantastic start. If you get it later, you still get some value out of its ETB. And then, finally, it’s got the mana sink to end all mana sinks, assuming you’ve got the board presence to make use of it. I’m going to start high on this card, and assume it’s going to be great. 3.5

Apparently Prophetic Bolt was too powerful, which doesn’t surprise me one bit. I wish this checked the top 3 of the library, because then it would be more elegant symmetry with the damage, plus it would be literal Lightning Strike & Anticipate stapled together. (Yes, I know Anticipate puts it on bottom of library, but shush. Symmetry.) Anyhoo, I have no doubts this will be fantastic every time it’s cast. 3.5

Okay, I’m torn on this one, because the second part where it loses +1/+1 counters instead of damage is a real downside, because that means your opponent can chump it to death over multiple turns. That said, it does survive Deathtouch, which I suppose is a cute perk. No, the real reason I like it is that it is a literal curve-filler, wherever you need it. Draw it early, and you can always have a relevant card to cast. Draw it late, and you can sink all your mana into it and make a massive threat. If Proliferate weren’t in the set, I’d drop this down, but given that there’s chance for it to get bigger and recover the lost counters, I’m going to declare this tentatively very good. 3.0

Alright. That’s it for all the ones that get highlighted. Below, I’ll run through my thoughts on all the other cards really quickly:

Ajani’s Pridemade - I’ll mostly leave this for Arena Standard, but it’s not an awful card for limited. There are just enough lifegain effects in this set for it to gain a couple counters. One note I will make is that they intentionally made a lot of cards have “mini-quests” to place counters on themselves, so has not to make them too powerful with Proliferate. This fits the mold. 2.5

Gideon’s Triumph - With basically all of the Triumph cards, they need to be evaluated as if you’ll never have the relevant Planeswalker, which is why only Chandra’s got noted up above. This effect is good, and sometimes you’ll take out their best creature with it. I do like that it works on both offense & defense, which makes it better than some variants. 3.0

Rally of Wings - If you have no fliers, this isn’t worth playing at all. If you have fliers out, it’s a decent trick. That variance makes me skeptical that this will work out. If you have a deck with tons of fliers, knock yourself out. 2.0

Sunblade Angel - 6 mana is a lot, but you do get some pretty impressive keyword soup out of it. My only concern is that this will often trade down in mana to a cheap removal spell, so I’m not looking to slam these. 2.5

Teyo, the Shieldmage - Teyo is a precious little dove of a Babywalker, and we need to keep him safe. Fortunately, he’s pretty decent at keeping himself safe. Unfortunately, that’s about all he’s good at. If you really need to stall, I guess he’s fine. But I wouldn’t be happy first-picking him. 1.5

Augur of Bolas - If you’re in the spells deck, this goes up a notch, but mostly he’s a Constructed plant. For limited, his effectiveness is a little more, well.... limited. 2.0

Bond of Insight - Again, if you’re in the spells deck, this becomes playable, but if you’re not, it’s completely unplayable. For the most part, I’d skip it until I’m sure I’m in the right deck. 1.5

Flux Channeler - I’m really excited about the prospects of this for Commander, but in limited it’s fighting with itself a little bit. The more noncreature spells you have, the less stuff you have to proliferate. I can see it working once in a while, but I can see it whiffing more often. 2.0

Jace’s Triumph - Again, you’re never going to have Jace out when you cast this, so it’s Divination. This format seems like it will enjoy Divination, so there you go. 2.5

Lazotep Plating - The dream is to use this to counter a kill spell & be left with a 1/1 for your trouble. That’ll happen sometimes, but not as much as we’d like. 2.0

Narset, Parter of Veils - I expect Narset to make waves in eternal formats, including Commander, due to her Leovold, Emissary of Trest line of text and easier casting cost. In limited, she’s two Impulse that can only find certain card types, and I’m not quite sure that’s worth it. I’d kinda rather just run Divination, I mean... Jace’s Triumph. 2.0

Bond of Revival - Rise from the Grave has always been good, though this format doesn’t look like it’s going to be full of great reanimation targets. It exchanges the ability to loot your opponent’s graveyard for granting Haste, which honestly is better in a set with Planeswalkers abounding, so I’ll give this a tentative pass. 2.5

Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage - This could be a Mind Rot format. I’m not sure yet. But he is costed right, and his static ability is a surprising clock that’s going to force your opponent to play suboptimally once the game goes long. So all told, he could be worse. 2.5

Dreadmalkin - What the hell is a malkin? Either way, it’s unclear if the sacrifice deck will come together or not. Until then, I’m not totally convinced. But it’s worth trying. 2.5

Liliana’s Triumph - Edicts can be great or awful, depending on the format. There are enough tokens in this one that I’m not sure it’ll be great. 2.0

Vizier of the Scorpion - Unlike the other two in this mini-cycle, this guy isn’t impressively costed. 3 mana for a 1/1 and another 1/1 with Deathtouch is... eh? And given that you can only have one Army at a time, Deathtouch isn’t super relevant on it. It does protect well, so I’ll give it that, but Chandra’s Pyrohelix embarrasses this. 2.5

Bolt Bend - Redirecting a kill spell is a solid two-for-one, so that potential makes me optimistic, though beware this will sit dead in your hand sometimes. 2.5

Bond of Passion - OOF. What happened on the costing of this card? Nominally, it’s an Act of Treason stapled to a Shock. I get it, putting these two effects together is more powerful than they are separately, and can easily lead to blowouts. But this couldn’t have been 5 mana? 1.5

Cyclops Electromancer - The Flametongue Kavu impersonators persist. This one will often ping for 1 or 2, but I wouldn’t expect much more than that. In the spells deck, this goes up. 2.5

Devouring Hellion - This set needs a Dragon Fodder before I’d be really excited about this. He’ll probably be a 4/4 most of the time, and that’s only okay for something that requires a sacrifice. 2.0

Tibalt, Rakish Instigator - I’m seeing Tibalt being more relevant for Constructed sideboards than good for limited. The Devil tokens are better than they seem at first glance, since they’re effectively all 2/1s. He’ll do some good work. 2.5

Tibalt’s Rager - Pretty solid. I like his death trigger. 2.5

Bond of Flourishing - The three life is nice, but I’d rather have Shimmer of Possibility and get whatever I want, thanks. 1.5

Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter - I almost included Yanggu in my highlights. I think he’s pretty great as a way to just disperse buffs to your creatures. You really want a 2 drop before him, but I’ll take it either way. 3.0

Nissa’s Triumph - Hard pass. 0.0

Paradise Druid - This set has enough multicolor that I suspect the druid will be really good. Best fixing in the format, and if you can get counters on her, she can grow to be an unstoppable threat. 2.5

Storm the Citadel - I like Overrun effects, though it’s a shame this doesn’t grant Trample. That said, this will lead to some big swings, so I’m okay with it. 2.5

Dovin, Hand of Control - I’m not seeing it. Nobody wants to be this purely defensive in limited. 0.5

Dovin’s Veto - I’d go with one of the mono-Blue counters instead, and leave this one for Standard control mirrors. 1.5

Ashiok, Dream Render - Like Narset to some degree, Ashiok is clearly a plant for constructed formats. Unlike Narset, Ashiok doesn’t even do anything particularly useful while at it. 0.5

Tyrant’s Scorn - I almost included this one in my highlights. It kills any small creature or bounces a bigger one, and both of those are worth 2 mana. If you’re in the colors, play this. 3.0

Angrath’s Rampage - I like that you get to dictate what type of permanent you want them to sacrifice, and that makes this better than Liliana’s Triumph most of the time, if you can cast it. 2.5

Mayhem Devil - This is the buildaround card for the R/B sacrifice deck, and if the deck comes together, it’ll be great. If not, it’ll be a 3/3. 2.5

Rubblebelt Rioters - I don’t like that this requires other creatures in play to do anything. I do like that it has haste. Usually it’ll do something. 2.5

Samut, Tyrant Smasher - Most of the time, you’re not going to cast anything else the same turn you cast Samut, so you’ll often land her, then wait until your next turn to start doing anything useful. Once there, she lends some considerable power to the board, but I’m nervous about her impacting much right away. 2.5

Huatli’s Raptor - The unfortunate thing is that if you cast this turn 2, you’ll have nothing to proliferate. But it does give the card some benefit as a late draw, which adds to its flexibility. 2.5

Huatli, Sun’s Heart - There are a ton of White cards with big butts, so I can see her putting in some work. Combo with Teyo for maximum cuteness. That said, I don’t know that there’s really enough support to make the butts deck work this time around. 1.5

Pledge of Unity - This seems like a beating, though there aren’t as many go-wide cards in the set as I’d like before I really get excited. 2.0

Cruel Celebrant - While my Commander friends are rejoycing, and I’m sure this will have some relevance in Standard, I don’t see it being a huge player in limited. Death happens, but the creature is too flimsy to stick around long enough to enjoy it. 1.5

Invade the City - This is the Red/Blue buildaround for the spells deck. When it’s good, it’ll be great, but you really want this to reliably be X=3 or better. 2.0

Deathsprout - Make no mistake, this is a powerful card, but the mana cost on it is quite restrictive, and makes it pretty difficult to splash. In a dedicated Black/Green deck, you’ll always play this, but it can absolutely be correct to pass this and take more conditional removal in your colors rather than try to force this. 2.5

Leyline Prowler - Black/Green is clearly being pushed as the “Multicolor” combination, so hopefully that ends up panning out. This is a good enabler, as well as solid stats on its own, so I’d basically always run this if you can. 3.0

Heartwarming Redemption - So many feels. While this is likely to be immensely popular in Commander, I’m not totally sure it has much place in limited. 1.0

Nahiri, Storm of Stone - The equip clause is completely irrelevant, but giving all your creatures First Strike does complicate combat. And she can take out tapped creatures that attacked the turn before she came down, so that’s something. Overall, I have high hopes. 3.0

Tenth District Legionnaire - I’m skeptical of this Red/White Herioc archetype really panning out, but if it does, the Legionnaire will be a powerhouse. If not, she’s a hard to cast bear. 2.5

Neoform - Leave this card for constructed formats. Despite the counter, it’s just not worth it in limited. 0.5

Firemind Vessel - Honestly, the Common color fixing is just better. This comes down too late, and can’t even be used the turn it does. 1.0

God-Pharaoh’s Statue - Maybe this is a slow finisher in some kind of control deck? But honestly, I don’t see it. Davriel & Ob Nixilis do this job better. 1.0

Emergence Zone - Great utility land for Commander. Just not great for limited. 0.5

Interplanar Beacon - I’m skeptical this will be all that useful, but if you somehow manage to draft a bunch of Planeswalkers of different colors, I guess this works for fixing. But again, the Common fixing just seems better. 1.5

Whew. This is pretty tiring, but such a useful exercise to go through. Next up are the Rares & Mythics!

Leo Will Never Know: A Butterfly’s Wings (1/?)

In an alternate timeline, Yugi indirectly prevented the events of Arc-V from ever happening. But how could this small change have an impact on a few selected people? A spin-off of the Arc-V Aftermath series. Based on the hilarious comic by @justanotherotakuandartist. Co-written with @violetganache42.

Leo Corporation. A gaming company that specializes in a popular card game called Duel Monsters, which was created by Maximillion Pegasus. The CEO of the company was none other than Leo Akaba, father of his daughter Ray. As a young girl, she was always ambitious and strong-willed while also deeply cared about him, having high hopes for his future…until that one fateful day.

An employee had already informed Leo of some tragic news that occurred. He called Ray into his office, worrying about how it'll affect her. Once she entered, she asked if everything was okay upon seeing his dismayed face. He broke the news about how his meeting with Seto Kaiba was abruptly cancelled, shocking and upsetting her.

"What?!" Ray asked. "How come?!"

"It appears Mr. Kaiba has mysteriously fallen ill," Leo explained. "But not to worry. Hopefully he will come to his senses soon. I really do think adding mass to the current Solid Vision technology will make the basic card game far more exciting than it already is."

"I hope so," the young girl said, sounding a bit sad. "I really want to take part in these Action Duels."

"And you will," Leo said reassuringly. "It will just be a bit delayed."

Several days after the unexpected cancellation was made, Kaiba visited the company to talk to Leo about something, surprising the latter. He had recently returned from a tournament to take care of personal business with Pegasus, so after that whole fiasco was dealt with, conversing with Leo Corporation's CEO was the first thing that came to his mind.

"I thought about what you said about adding mass to Solid Vision," Kaiba informed. "And I came to the conclusion that it's a stupid idea."

"What?" Leo asked. "But you said-"

"Forget what I initially said," Kaiba interrupted. "If you add mass to Solid Vision, what's next? The holograms become sentient and destroy the world?"

"Sir, I don't understand what you mean," Leo said.

"I have undergone a series of rather unexplainable events due to malfunctions in the current system," Kaiba explained. "And I realized that your ideas could doom the world to destruction. So I would advise you to stay out of the dueling business for the sake of everyone on Earth."

Ray overheard the entire conversation between the two CEOs when she noticed Kaiba heading towards his office a couple minutes earlier. She had secretly followed him until he entered through the office's double doors; one of them was left partially open, unfortunately allowing her to hear the world-shattering news. She was left in total disbelief after their talk had ended, turning around to lean against the door to process what happened. Kaiba walked out of the office to head to his limo and return to his company, KaibaCorp, not noticing the disquieted girl on his way out. The moment he turned the corner and disappeared from the hallway, she immediately got up and ran into Leo's office, completely heartbroken about how the deal was officially shot down.

"What are we going to do now?" Ray asked, hugging her father tightly as she sobbed.

"Don't worry, Ray," Leo said. "We're Akabas, and Akabas never give up. We'll find a way to make Action Duels a reality."

Sadly, Action Duels never became a reality as it soon became a forgotten fantasy. One day, news went all around Domino City on the newest craze from KaibaCorp: Duel Disks. They became immensely popular at a rapid rate among Duelists that it left Leo Corporation in the shadows to eventually crumble and fall. Because of the Duel Disks' success, Leo and Ray soon lost the company due to bankruptcy. They struggled to avoid living the rest of their lives in poverty, forcing the young girl to sell all her cards to make some money; she even might have ended up with the possibility of cutting and selling her hair as well. Whatever tactic she resorted to, it was all for one purpose: to make her father happy again. She was willing to give her title as a Duelist up just so they can be closer to living normal lives.

Fortunately Leo recently managed to find a stable job within Domino City that had a good minimum wage during the week before the upcoming Battle City tournament began. Ray got super excited because it means he'll be able to save enough money to buy a house for the two of them. It didn't matter to her if the Akaba family name was overlooked by the general dueling public; as long as they pull through this conflict, that's all that matters to her.

"I'm so sorry we had to go through this," Leo said, realizing his daughter gave up her dreams for the sake of happiness. "Maybe some day we'll be able to afford cards for you."

But Ray shook her head, her now-shoulder-length hair moving slightly. "What matters is us rebuilding our future," she decided. "It's like what you said: Akabas never give up."

To Ray, family was what's important to her and always comes first in her jurisdiction. Not everyone is a Duelist and she is okay with that; she still loves the card game and will check out some duels when she wants to, but even her interest in Duel Monsters pales in comparison to the strong bond she has with Leo. She clearly remembered those words he told her several days ago was definite evidence on how they will stick together through any situation, regardless if it is worse than their current one or not.

Leo chuckled. "That's my girl," he happily said, ruffling his daughter's newly-cut hair.

A few days later, Battle City has begun. One of the first duels that initiated was between Yugi Muto, the King of Games, and someone named Seeker; he was one of the many Rare Hunters that are scattered all over Domino City to infiltrate the tournament as part of orders from their leader Marik Ishtar, who was unknown to everyone while his Rare Hunters were. As the duel progressed, a young boy was watching. He had side-parted hair with a silver color scheme with light green highlights. Many of you would recognize him as Zarc Nightstone from Timeline B, but due to the failed idea of Action Duels in the main timeline, he was still just called by his real name: Michael Lindonson. He wasn't taking part in Battle City because he doesn't want to wager his Odd-Eyes Dragon and end up losing him.

Michael looked at Odd-Eyes Dragon. "Don't worry, buddy," he said. "I'll make sure no one ever takes you away, not even those Rare Hunter creeps."

He continued watching the duel, holding Odd-Eyes in his hand. Seeker had just summoned Exodia's head, enabling Yugi to activate his Trap card Chain Destruction to destroy every copy of Exodia's head his opponent had in his deck and hand in order to prevent him from summoning Exodia the Forbidden One. He then played his face-down Dust Tornado to destroy Swords of Revealing Light. Once it was his turn, he used Monster Reborn to revive Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast in attack position  and had it destroy the Head of Exodia that was on the field. Summoned Skull and Alpha the Magnet Warrior then attacked Seeker directly—with Alpha gaining 200 ATK during the Damage Step after Summoned Skull attacked—and reduced his LP down to 0, resulting in Yugi winning his first duel for Battle City and without losing any of his LP. Michael was amazed at what he witnessed and wanted to talk to him, but before he could, he saw that Seeker was acting weird, almost as if he was being mind controlled.

Michael looked at Odd-Eyes Dragon. "What's that?" he asked, holding the card up to his ear. "You're saying there's something evil going on? Like what?" He paused, then he smiled. "Then it's a good thing we're not in this tournament."

After Marik used Seeker to introduce himself to Yugi and his friend Joey Wheeler and declare he will be a pharaoh by taking some kind of puzzle and the three cards Michael never heard of, his mind-controlled puppet's body fell to the ground; either Seeker passed out or his soul was sent away to some kind of wasteland were all the lost souls wanted revenge. Regardless, after the two friends conversed with each other, Michael walked over to Yugi to talk to him.

"Can I help you?" Yugi asked.

"I... I heard what that creepy guy was saying," Michael said. "Odd-Eyes even told me he was sensing something evil. What's going on?"

"Odd-Eyes?" Yugi questioned.

"Yeah," Michael answered, showing Yugi the card. "I know he's not much, but some day, I'll get some friends for him so he won't feel lonely."

Yugi looked at the card. "I see," he said. "May I take a look at it?"

Michael handed his card to Yugi for him to see. Odd-Eyes Dragon was a Level 7 DARK monster with 2500 ATK and 2000 DEF. His effect allows him to inflict damage equal to half of the original ATK of an opponent's monster that was sent to the Graveyard. Aside from his effective stats, the tri-color-haired teen was more curious about how the young boy treated Odd-Eyes as if the card was real. Does he have some kind of unique ability that no one else had?

"You said this card was lonely," Yugi said, giving Odd-Eyes back to Michael. "Don't you have a deck?"

"Yeah, but it's a Magician and Sorcerer deck," Michael explained. "Odd-Eyes is the only dragon I have, but I want to get more dragons to keep him company."

Michael's deck consisted of regular effect Magicians and Sorcerers, so they don't really stand out. However, all their abilities worked well together with each other and with Odd-Eyes, leading him to his deck construction. He also mentioned on how he wasn't taking part in Battle City because he doesn't want to lose his favorite card, especially at the hands of Marik and the Rare Hunters.

"Odd-Eyes is special to me," the young boy explained. "I saw him in a display case at a card store and it felt like he was calling to me."

"So your dragon chose you instead of the other way around," Yugi realized.

"I guess you can say that," Michael said.

Yugi smiled softly. "You are different from other kids your age," he said. "But know this: never forget to follow your heart. If you continue to stick to what you believe in, you could end up becoming someone extraordinary."

Michael became starry-eyed after hearing these words of advice, almost as if this moment is what changed his life. "Thank you, sir!" he said, sounding too happy. "I'll never forget your advice!"

The next day, Michael was sitting at a park bench, analyzing the cards he currently has. He was determined to trust his instincts from now on after his encounter with Yugi. At the same time, Ray walked down the park's pathway; with her father working to buy a house, she figured she needed a quick walk after everything the two were going through. Her eyes caught a glimpse of the onion-haired boy, causing her to stop walking and turn her head to where he was sitting. She noticed he was scanning through his deck; she may not be a Duelist anymore, but she couldn't resist seeing someone who also enjoys Duel Monsters. She walked over to the bench with a double desire: she didn't to disturb him with what he was doing, but she also wanted to talk to him.

But Michael quickly noticed Ray. "Hi," he said. "Wanna duel?"

Ray looked a bit saddened. "I can't," she sadly admitted.

"Why not?" Michael asked.

"My dad lost the family company," Ray explained. "And in order to help him get enough money, I had to sell all my cards and..." She gently tugged on a lock of her shoulder-length hair.

This was an indicator to Michael that she used to have long hair, but she had to sell it to raise some money. She then explained how her dad recently found a job and how they will soon search for a house to live in and start living normal lives.

"So you gave up on being a Duelist just so your dad could have more money?" Michael asked.

Ray nodded in response. "But I'm not giving up," she said. "Akabas never give up!"

"Akaba..." Michael mused. Then his eyes widened. "So that's what happened to Leo Corporation!" he realized. "Those KaibaCorp Duel Disks must have put your dad out of business!"

"They did," Ray said. "We might have lost everything, but we're trying to improve ourselves."

"Don't you miss your cards?" Michael asked. "Didn't you hear them crying in pain?"

Ray paused what she was about to say after hearing those questions from Michael. She never knew monster cards had emotions…or maybe they really do emote and only a few can communicate with them. She asked what he meant by that and if he can tell how they were feeling.

"It's the reason why I didn't take part in Battle City," Michael explained, holding up Odd-Eyes Dragon. "I'm a good Duelist, but I would have risked losing Odd-Eyes forever, especially to those Rare Hunter creeps. He chose me for a reason, so I want him to stay by my side."

"So you can actually hear your cards speak to you?" Ray asked.

"Just Odd-Eyes," Michael clarified. "We have a special bond. Sure he doesn't fit with all my Magician and Sorcerer cards, but I'm gonna get more dragons so he'll have friends."

Ray was surprised and amazed at how distinct Michael is from the rest of the boys and how much he cares for his Odd-Eyes. She never thought she would encounter a special person in her life, even if she and Leo were in a slowly easing heat of the moment. Maybe they can get to know each other more and help him find some more dragons to include in his deck so that his favorite card won't feel lonely.

"I could help, but I'm not sure," Ray admitted. "My dad has been a bit protective of me ever since we lost the company. He doesn't want me to get hurt."

"It's okay," Michael said. "Your dad will never know." He held out his hand. "Michael Lindonson."

Ray looked at his hand before smiling and shaking it. "Ray Akaba," she said.

And from that moment on, Michael and Ray became friends. They spent the entire day hanging out with each other as they watched a couple Battle City duels and developed a powerful bond with each other throughout the next few days. It was even emphasized not long after the tournament was over when the Duel Monster Spirit World was forced opened into Earth by a mysterious new threat, causing the monsters to spill into the human world and all kinds of bizarre weather events to occur globally. During that time, Ray and Leo still haven't gotten enough money yet despite the work and hours her father was doing; then again, it was a job he was recently hired into, so it will take some time. However, they did save enough money for her to get a new deck that focuses on an archetype called Hope Dragon. She had a total of four aces—Hope Dragons Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon, all with effects that can help her gain Life Points and select monster card zones on her opponent's field to prevent them from summoning their monsters.

"I activate Polymerization!" Ray declared. "And I'll use it to combine my four Hope Dragons to summon Hope Dragon Nature!"

She and Michael were in a tag team duel against two employees from Doma, an organization with the intention of capturing human souls with a Spell card called the Seal of Orichalcos. This threat was virtually life or death because the two kids can't afford to lose any duels as they risk their very souls to try and defeat the employees. Right now, Ray finished Fusion Summoning Hope Dragon Nature and was getting ready to activate her effect.

"I activate Hope Dragon Nature's special ability!" Ray announced. "All of your unoccupied monster card zones are blocked! And for every blocked zone, I regain 400 life points!"

Since she was referring to her opponent, he only had three empty zones, which became blocked as she gained 1200 Life Points. She was then ready for her Battle Phase.

"What?!" the Doma employee asked. "How could you obtain that kind of card?!"

"Because I am an Akaba," Ray answered. "And Akabas never give up!"

"And we're doing this for my friend," Michael said, referring to Odd-Eyes Dragon. "He won't forgive anyone who brings harm to his home world!"

They could tell that Odd-Eyes was absolutely livid at Doma for putting the Duel Monster Spirit World in danger like that. Even if he now resides as a card on Earth, it was still his home and any threat that endangers it must be thwarted at all costs.

"But that's not all," Ray added. "I activate the Spell card Union Attack, allowing me to share my Battle Phase with my partner!"

Both Doma employees were shocked at the Spell card she used. They couldn't believe that something like that exists and it was bringing them one step closer to their defeat. Together, Ray and Michael declared their attacks.

"Feel the rage of my dragon!" Michael declared. "Spiral Flame Strike!"

"Natural Energy Bloom!" Ray added.

Odd-Eyes and Nature unleashed their signature attacks, with Ray destroying one of her opponent's monsters—the one in attack position was sent to the Graveyard while the other in defense position remained intact—and Michael wiping out the other employee's only monster. He then immediately followed it up by activating Odd-Eyes' effect.

"Now I activate Odd-Eyes Dragon's special ability!" Michael exclaimed. "You lose life points equal to half of the monster's attack points he just knocked out, which is enough to finish you off!"

Odd-Eyes directed another attack towards the Doma employee, bringing his LP down to 0. Due to the overwhelming power of the Seal of Orichalcos, it captured his soul and sent it back to Dartz's main organization, leaving his body to collapse on the ground.

"Don't celebrate yet," the remaining Doma employee said. "You've still got me."

"I know," Ray replied. "So hopefully this Hinotama card should be enough to finish you off as well."

Ray activated Hinotama, causing fireballs to rain down towards the other employee, draining his lingering Life Points and losing his soul to the Orichalcos. Both bodies laid on the ground, soulless and unconscious as the two kids were relieved to win this duel, but also horrified that they witnessed as something so scary as that.

"Are we doing the right thing?" Ray asked.

"We are," Michael answered. "Odd-Eyes' home is at risk. We need to protect it."

"But what if we end up losing?" Ray asked. "Could we lose our souls forever?"

"We'll be fine," Michael reassured. "And as long as we keep winning, your dad will never know what had happened."

Eventually, the Doma threat was vanquished and both worlds were now at peace, relaxing Odd-Eyes Dragon. About a decade later, almost one year before the King of Games' influential legacy began with a bisexual soon-to-be Slifer Red male teen, Ray and Michael were now 14 going on 15, with the young Akaba girl having her hair now past her shoulders. Leo has saved enough money to buy himself and his daughter a house, finally putting an end to their struggle with poverty.

On one peaceful evening, Michael and Ray were at the local park, excited about things to come. "I can't believe we're going to Duel Academy in a few days," Ray said. "What do you think the school is like?"

"I'm not sure," Michael admitted. "But I heard the training varies depending on the rank system."

"Rank system?" Ray asked.

"Yeah, Kaiba created them based on these powerful cards from Battle City," Michael explained. "The best Duelists are in Obelisk Blue, the second best Duelists are in Ra Yellow, and the third best Duelists are in Slifer Red."

Ray heard those three names before and guessed they were named after the rumored Egyptian God Cards. She became more certain about her assumption because she recalled hearing about Kaiba and Yugi's duel during Battle City when they summoned Obelisk the Tormentor and Slifer the Sky Dragon respectively. She then thought it was unfair that Obelisk Blue was ranked the highest and Slifer Red the lowest; she wondered just how egotistical the CEO was.

"Guess Kaiba is still bitter about Yugi defeating him," Ray commented.

"Probably," Michael agreed.

"But he definitely deserved that," Ray added. "That's what he gets for ruining my dad's business!"

Although Ray was glad that she and Leo now have a place to live in, she never forgave Kaiba for letting them go bankrupt. Speaking of which, she hasn't gotten a chance to figure out what her future will be since her main intention was to endure and help get out of poverty. She gave up her dreams of being a Duelist by selling her old cards and here she is right now, playing Duel Monsters once again and attending the first ever duel school with Michael. Her thoughts shifted topics and she started thinking about him and how much they have been through together.

"Michael... What are your dreams for the future?" Ray asked.

"Duh!" Michael replied. "I'm gonna be the World Duel King so I can keep the world entertained!"

"Entertained?" Ray asked.

"Yeah," Michael answered. "I'll do that by putting on performances as I duel."

"You don't care about winning?" Ray asked.

"Not really," Michael admitted. "As long as the crowd is entertained and smiling, that's a perfect victory for me."

Michael loved the thought of hosting Entertainment Duels and being what he called a professional Dueltainer. It made Ray remember the rejected concept of Action Duels due to the claim that monsters could gain emotions and cause an apocalypse. Her face then grew depressed because it was the true source of where she and her father were at and how much they suffered over the years. It was more upsetting to know that they would have been perfect for her friend to use to achieve his dream.

"I'm sorry," Ray said, sounding a bit hurt. "It sounds like those Action Duels would have been perfect for you. But now..." She let out a sob, being unable to speak.

Michael wiped a tear away from Ray's cheek. "Don't start crying on me," he said. "Sure I won't be able to interact with Odd-Eyes Dragon during duels, but I can still entertain the crowd through other methods."

Ray looked up at Michael's face after hearing him speak. There was only one type of duels and everyone has been doing these standard duels for a long time, whether it was a single match, a tag team, a 2-on-1, or even a battle royale. She was then reassured on how he knows there will be new methods introduced in the near future, making her pleased to know she had someone like him for a friend. …Or maybe more than a friend. Just then, the two leaned forward and locked lips with each other, sharing their very first kiss together.

Ultimately the two parted for air. Ray had a glazed look in her eyes, almost as if she enjoyed the kiss. But she quickly realized what just happened and she looked away, embarrassed. "I'm so sorry!" she said. "I don't know why I did that! I-"

Michael shushed Ray as he gave her a second kiss. "Don't worry," he said. "Besides, Duel Academy is on an island far away from here. Leo will never know."

hunger - chapter 11

Hunger master post. 

 Stiles is surprised at how easily he fits in with Scott and Melissa. He doesn’t have that same feeling he did at the foster homes they put him in. Like he had to ask to use the bathroom, and was afraid to help himself to food out of the refrigerator, and he always felt like he was a guest in someone else’s house, always careful of what he said and did, and itching under his skin because he couldn’t just be him. He doesn’t get any of that here. The McCalls’ house is comfortable. It feels like it could be a home. He’s not treated like a guest here. He’s treated like he fits.

He misses his dad.

He misses the dog.

He cries himself to sleep more than once, but it’s okay. It’s grief. It’s not helplessness. His tears are cathartic, not desperate.

He has a pile of clothes that Scott has given him. It’s mostly stuff that Scott is growing out of. Stiles is skinny enough thanks to living on the streets that he fits them. He’s a little taller than Scott so the jeans aren’t quite the right length, but Stiles doesn’t care. Who’s he got to impress anyway?

He does a few chores around the house while Melissa is working and Scott is at school. He wonders how long it will be until it feels like the walls are closing in on him. A while yet, probably. The house is warm and safe. During the day he researches his dad’s case, and wonders if it will raise any red flags anywhere if he tries to order a copy of the transcripts online. Then he figures they’re not really what he needs anyway. He needs the notes from the initial investigation, not the prosecutor’s polished presentation. For that, he needs Rafa McCall. And for Rafa McCall to even think of giving them to him, he needs evidence.

He takes one of Scott’s unused school notebooks and makes a list of what he already knows. Which isn’t much apart from Kate Argent’s name, her brother’s address, G. Argent’s address—are they even related?—and how she shot his dog.

He thinks back to that, trying to divorce himself from the impending panic.

“Hello again, Derek. You don’t look so good.”

Except Stiles’s name isn’t Derek, and as far as he remembers he’s never met Kate Argent before in his life.

Derek.

The name snags in the threads of his memory like a hook, but Stiles can’t quite tug the memory free. He pushes it aside for now.

Stiles makes himself a cup of coffee—the caffeine helps settle the more annoying symptoms of his ADD—and takes it into the living room. He sits down on the couch and reaches for his notebook.

Scott’s laptop is open. Stiles was searching the Herald earlier. The elusive mountain lion still hasn’t been caught.

Stiles taps his pen against his chin, and thinks of Kate Argent again, and the exchange she had with Allison’s dad outside his house a few nights ago.

“I told Dad I’d check and see if you’d had any luck bringing down the alpha. Clearly you haven’t.”

Alpha. What is the alpha? First letter of the Greek alphabet. Term co-opted by asshole meninist PUAs. An episode from season six of The X-Files. And, in hunting terms, the foremost animal in a pack, right? Except that mountain lions aren’t pack animals. So what exactly is Chris Argent hunting?

Stiles sips his coffee.

What the hell is going on out there in the Preserve? Chris Argent is hunting something, and Scott got bitten by something, and all of it, every fucking thing, comes right back to those blackened ruins in the clearing, doesn’t it? Everything comes back to the Hale fire.

Maybe Stiles has been coming at this the wrong way.

Maybe he doesn’t need to prove Kate Argent framed his dad.

Maybe he needs to prove she had something to do with the Hale fire.

***

  Stiles likes helping Scott with his homework. He’s missed school. Not the other students or the teachers or whatever, but he’s missing learning. Stiles has always been wired a little differently than a lot of kids. Scott is basically failing Biology, and even though it’s been months since Stiles cracked open a textbook he falls easily back into the rhythm of studying.

“All I know is the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell!” Scott says. “And I learned that from a meme!”

He looks so miserable that Stiles can’t help laughing at him. “It’s okay, Scotty. We’ll make sure you pass!”

“Thanks, dude. I need all the help I can get.”

Stiles chews his bottom lip for a moment. “Are you still hanging with Allison?”

“Yeah.” Scott flushes. “It really sucks that I can’t tell her about you, you know? She said that she keeps driving around town hoping she’ll spot you somewhere.”

Stiles’s breath catches. He tries to smile. “Hopefully not to hand me over to her aunt the cop, right?”

“No.” Scott holds his gaze. “Stiles, she says she hasn’t said anything to her aunt about even knowing you. I believe her.”

“Kate Argent set my dad up,” Stiles says. “Or at least helped whoever did.”

“What?” Scott’s jaw drops. “Seriously?”

“I don’t have any proof,” Stiles says. “But I heard her on the phone to my dad, warning him to drop the investigation into the Hale fire. So I’m guessing that she had something to do with the fire as well.”

“But that was an accident…” Scott trails off. “Wasn’t it?”

“My dad didn’t think so.” Stiles twists his hands together. The knot of anxiety in his gut is growing larger.

“Holy shit.” Scott’s gaze grows distant. “Cora Hale was the year above me in elementary school.”

“I didn’t know them,” Stiles says. “I went to Stuart, not Beacon Hills.”

“Ooh,” Scott teases. “A private school kid! Very swanky!”

“My mom taught there.” He looks down at the open Biology textbook. “We paid reduced fees. It was a Montessori school, which turned out to be a good fit for a kid with ADD plus zero social skills.” 

When he looks up again, Scott shows him an encouraging smile.

“Anyway.” Stiles closes the textbook. “I never met the Hales.”

“Cora was kind of scary,” Scott says. “I heard they never found her body.”

Just another thing that never added up about the Hale fire. Why would the Hales hide in the basement after a gas line explosion? And the fire investigator had said that the fire burned at such a high temperature that there was simply nothing to find of some of the bodies. Cora had never been found. Neither had one of the adults. And another one of the kids too. The teenage boy. The brother.

Derek.

Derek.

Stiles scrambles for Scott’s laptop.

Derek Hale. Sixteen years old.

Holy shit.

Stiles finds a picture online of a guy in a Beacon Hills High basketball uniform. A guy who looks absolutely nothing like Stiles.

“Hello again, Derek. You don’t look so good.”

Kate Argent must be crazy, or that’s her guilty conscience speaking.

He wonders, when she has people over, if she can hear a telltale heart beating from under the floorboards.

If she does, it serves her right.

 ***

 They order pizza because it helps with homework. That’s a scientific fact. They eat the pizza in front of the TV, which doesn’t help at all with homework.

“So you think Allison’s aunt had something to do with the Hales?” Scott asks.

“Yeah.” Stiles picks off a piece of pepperoni and eats it. “That’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“We should really tell my mom,” Scott says. “And my dad.”

“Not without proof! If we tell your dad, then he’s obligated to do something about me being a missing person. And, you know, wanted by the police.”

Scott sumps back against the couch. “I can’t believe she shot your dog.”

Stiles feels the customary low burn of anger in his gut flare for a moment.

“Sucks, dude.”

Yeah. It really, really does. 

 ***

 They talk for a while about whether or not to tell Allison what’s going on. If her aunt has links to the Hale fire, than surely Allison is in the best place to try and discover some proof of that? Scott is sure that she can be trusted. Stiles isn’t willing to risk his freedom on that. Scott agrees that it’s Stiles’s call.

Stiles goes to bed just before midnight. He curls up under his comforter and thinks of all the times he sat in the alley with the dog.

Entropy.

Decay.

He has to act.

At the same time, he’s afraid. Everything is already so precarious that he’s terrified to make any move at all.

He tosses and turns for a while. He maybe dozes.

The basement has windows set high in the walls, at ground-level outside. The moon is a half-moon tonight, but bright enough that faint light filters through the windows. It fills the basement with a gentle glow.

Melissa says that if Stiles is allowed to stay, he can have the room next to Scott’s. But for now he shares the basement with the washing machine and dryer, and a shelf full of old board games, Christmas decorations, and assorted junk. He doesn’t mind that everything smells like fabric softener.

Stiles doesn’t think he’s asleep when the basement door opens, but he seems to jerk awake all the same.

“Stiles?” Scott whispers in the darkness. “Are you awake?”

“Yeah,” Stiles whispers back.

Scott’s footsteps creak down the steps.

Stiles sits up. Scott stands in front of the sofa bed. He’s shifting his weight from foot to foot, and even in the dim light he looks pale and wide-eyed.

“What’s wrong?” Stiles asks.

“Can you hear that?” Scott shakes his head like a dog after a bath under the hose.

Stiles listens in the silence for a moment. “Hear what?”

Scott wrinkles his nose, and tilts his head. “Howling?”

Stiles listens again. “Dude, I can’t hear anything.”

“It woke me up.” Scott’s breath is coming in short panicked gasps.

Stiles remembers Melissa checking with him before she went to work that he knew where his inhaler was. “Do you need your inhaler?”

“N-no.” The question seems to distract him from his rising anxiety. He sucks in a deep, uninhibited breath. “No, I think I’m okay.” Then his forehead wrinkles. “How am I okay?”

“Lets…let’s go up stairs and get your inhaler, okay?”

Scott nods. “I think there’s something wrong with me. Really wrong.”

“There’s nothing wrong,” Stiles tells him.

Scott’s huffs out a laugh that sounds as though it’s bordering hysteria. “I can hear you lying!”

Stiles puts his hand over his fast-thumping heart. “That sounds really impossible, Scott.”

“I know.” Scott drags his fingers through his hair. “I know it does.” He freezes suddenly, and turns to stare up at one of the windows.

Stiles follows his gaze.

A shadow passes in front of the window.

“Did you—” he whispers.

Did you see that?

But the words don’t come.

Because when Stiles turns his head to look at Scott again, Scott’s eyes are glowing gold.

Sleep paralysis.

Imagination.

Frontotemporal dementia.

A nightmare.

Except Stiles knows in the pit of his stomach that whatever is happening now is a hundred times more terrifying than any nightmare, because he knows it’s real.

From outside, a howl tears through the night. It’s loud enough and close enough that Stiles feels the echo of it reverberating through his bones. The sound is big enough to swallow the world, and Stiles knows instinctively that he’s powerless in the face of this, whatever this is.

And then it’s gone again.

The shadow passes in front of the window.

Scott’s eyes are no longer glowing.

“It’s gone,” Scott whispers. “Holy shit. What was that?”

And Stiles stares back at him and thinks: What are you, Scotty?

Sensor Sweep: Sword & Sorcery, Tales From the Magician’s Skull, Boxing, C.S. Lewis, RIFTS

Lit-Crit/Culture Wars (Brain Leakage): They always featured their alpha male heroes in exotic locations, getting into fist fights, knife fights, and gun fights. The women were always fast and dangerous. The bad guys were always powerful and ruthless. The covers usually depicted some hard case with a gun, striking a tough guy pose with a scantily clad woman nearby. Maybe she had a gun of her own, watching his six. Maybe she was just clutched onto the hero, begging his protection. Politically incorrect? Maybe. But so what?

  Magazines (Goodman Games): Tales From the Magician’s Skull is a printed fantasy magazine dedicated to presenting all-new sword-and-sorcery fiction by the finest modern crafters in the genre. These stories are the real thing, crammed with sword-swinging action, dark sorceries, dread, and ferocious monsters — and they hurtle forward at a headlong pace.  Last year, we published issues #1 and #2 to great acclaim. The stories were well-received, and the fans demanded – more! MORE! We hear you, fans, and the Skull is prepared to grant your desire!

This Kickstarter launches issues #3 and #4, as well as subscriptions to future issues!

  Robert E. Howard (Black Gate): I have been mulling this problem for a while now, and of course, I had the answer all along: “Queen of the Black Coast” is the best Conan tale to read if you have never read any before. In other words, it is the perfect story to discover the character, the Hyborian setting, and of course Howard’s talent.

One of the numerous problems that have plagued the perception of the Cimmerian by the general public is this idea that the tales represent as many steps in Conan’s so-called “biography,” though nothing in the series supports that notion.

  Cthulhu Mythos (DMR Books): Price burst onto the Cthulhu Mythos/weird fiction/pulp scene in 1981 when he launched Cryptic Publications and its flagship title, Crypt of Cthulhu. For those who don’t know the history, the late ‘70s was a little bit of a low ebb for things Mythosian and Lovecraftian. Arkham House, after the death of August Derleth, had veered away from the Mythos fiction that had been its bread and butter.

  C. S. Lewis (Mewsings): Some time in the mid-to-late 1930s, C S Lewis and J R R Tolkien agreed to each write an “excursionary ‘thriller’”, as Tolkien put it, with Tolkien attempting a story of time-travel and Lewis one of space-travel. Tolkien never finished his (what exists was eventually included in The Lost Road and Other Writings), whereas C S Lewis went on to write a whole trilogy, beginning with Out of the Silent Planet(published in 1938).

  Sword-and-Planet (Fantasy Literature): The first novel of Farley’s to see the light of day, The Radio Man, was initially serialized in the pages of the 10-cent weekly Argosymagazine, a four-part affair stretched over the June 28 – July 19, 1924 issues; that first issue featured gorgeous cover artwork for the serial by famed illustrator Stockton Mulford. Farley’s novel was later reprinted as a three-part serial in the 12/39 – 2/40 issues of Famous Fantastic Mysteries (which, despite its name, reprinted prodigious amounts of sci-fi and fantasy), and was finally released as a hardcover book, in 1948, by the Fantasy Publishing Company, featuring another impressive cover, this time by one O. G. Estes, Jr.

  Comic Books (Paint Monk): “Conan the Gambler” is the first issue in a three-part story arc, and it begins as many Conan comics do – the Cimmerian stumbles across an outnumbered victim being robbed. It doesn’t take a heady plot to create a good Conan story, and in this case, the trope is well-used but effective.

The victim Conan rescues is a man named Maraudus Mathir, a foreign merchant engaged in a trade war with another dangerous peddler named Kero, dubbed “Kero the Callous.”

  Tolkien (Alas, Not Me): The question arose for me immediately: why do only ‘mortal men’ require enchantment to be ‘contained’ in Faërie? While I had written before about the mortal experience of Faërie in Middle-earth, I had never asked myself this question as far as I could recall. What came to mind at once was a passage from The Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth in Morgoth’s Ring. There Finrod says to Andreth (MR 315).

  Boxing (Don Herron): 100 years ago today, on July 4th, 1919, Jack Dempsey won the heavyweight title from Jess Willard in Toledo. 

It was a remarkable time in the history of sports. Dempsey was more popular than Babe Ruth and boxing was followed every bit as closely as football or baseball.

Here’s what Robert E. Howard had to say about Dempsey in a letter to H. P. Lovecraft, years after Dempsey was no longer champion: “Jack London and Jim Tully wrote their way up out of the abyss; Jack Dempsey fought his way up.”

        Art (DMR Books): Roy G. Krenkel would’ve turned one hundred and one today. I have to say that his centennial year was underwhelming. Despite his importance to SFF art during a crucial period in the twentieth century, his one hundredth birthday year went largely ignored across the blogosphere. I wrote two posts looking at the man and his work, but never quite got around to finishing all that up with a summation of his influence and legacy.

  Magazines (Rough Edges): I’ve been waiting to have a copy of this book in my hands before posting about it, and now I do. THE DIGEST ENTHUSIAST is just about the best magazine out there, and the new issue, Book Ten, features the longest, most extensive interview I’ve ever done, with lots of cover reproductions and at least one photo of me that I’m pretty sure has never been published anywhere else. Doing this interview with editor Richard Krauss was a lot of fun and brought back many great memories of the early days of my career.

  D&D (Blog of Holding): n its 45 years, D&D has spawned a video game industry that’s worth more than either the movie or the book industry. Dungeons, dragons, leveling, character classes, and loot drops define video game design space. But books, movies, and TV shows haven’t absorbed much from D&D that wasn’t in Tolkien.

In medieval and modern fantasy literature, you’ll frequently find magic swords, but no magic armor; wizards, but no clerics; and dragons, but no dungeons.

  RPG (Walker’s Retreat): RIFTS is one of those tabletop RPGs that promise a wide and diverse array of playable characters, explorable environments, and gameworthy scenarios. It’s a lot to take in, and one of the rookie mistakes players make is to just run it cold and stupid like you can–successfully–do with D&D. That way lies disaster. Let me put down one proven practice that is key to running any tabletop RPG with the open scope and scale that RIFTS allows: Define your campaign space.

  Cryptozoology (Brian Niemeier): My crypto-reader returns will a spiritual successor to the tale he shared last time. So, I was just out visiting my cop buddy in Indiana for the first time in two years, and he was regaling me with the backlog of Tales of Rural Police Adventures while we’re out target practicing in his field and had one that’s right up our recent conversations’ alleys.

  Gaming (PC Gamer): Cyberpunk 2077‘s Night City is full of people for you to beat up, including gang members, cops and corporate douchebags—there are limits, though, so you won’t be brawling with everyone. Children, for instance, will be protected from your murderous rages, along with story-important NPCs.

  Gary Gygax (Forgotten Runes): I first encountered Greyhawk in the Greyhawk expansion to the little brown books in 1975. Although there were several pages of short adventure suggestions there was very little setting. I played “Descent into the Depths” as a tournament module at GenCon, but the Underdark has little relation to the surface kingdoms of Greyhawk.

  Sensor Sweep: Sword & Sorcery, Tales From the Magician’s Skull, Boxing, C.S. Lewis, RIFTS published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

Never give up on your dreams!

https://wp.me/p9ahpa-iykp Click below to contact us for our dating coaching services! https://www.kamalifestyles.com/contact-us/ Dating Guide for men http://www.kamalifestyles.com/products/dating-guide-for-men/ Never give up on your dreams! Never give up on your dreams Intro Hi Guys this is Emre from kamalifestyles.com. Today I will be talking about reasons why you should never give up on your dreams. Gentlemen we are not one of the marketing gurus here and actually we teach the real stuff and show you how to do it. The insights and skills that are taught by us are based on years of experience in the real world. When put into practice, they have worked for countless our clients and other guys, and I know it will work for you. So before we start let’s click that magical and fabulous subscribe button and turn on the notifications as there will be many more videos will be coming to your way. So let’s watch the footage. Hey guys its me again and gents today I am all about dreams. I’m a sucker for dreams. I think I have too much faith in ideas and in my dreams! I dreamed it all! My infield approaches, kamalifestyles, trainings, my clients, picking up girls you name it…Why do I dream? The main reason for this is because no one knows what tomorrow may bring I may bloody die and then game over. The mysteries that tomorrow hold makes practically anything in this universe possible including the failures and the achievements. Since this is the case and I have no control over it, why not take my chances with it? Why not dream and let the future surprise you? Another thing that makes me have so much faith in my dreams is because I want so much for myself and since I am not there yet, the best I can do right is to draw motivation from dreaming. Ohh jesus some of them really scares me but at a same time motivates me… I hope we all share in the same sentiments here. Do you remember your dream girl? You know guys we have all been there…Whether or not you still have the image of her in your mind…BUT are you actually looking for her? Where is she? Maybe you saw her in the supermarket or in the street… Or have you given up all hope on your dreams with the burdens of daily life pulling you down? So don’t you dare give up here is why…. 1. You haven't tried everything yet. Just because you had the dream of dating a beautiful girl but have been rejected by numerous girls doesn’t mean that you should give up on every other girl or every even other goal you have. Trust me guys you haven’t even started yet as there are still so many girls out there and opportunities. Most of them haven’t been approached Also, rejection could be the best redirection you will ever get; it doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. I absolutely love retired NBA star Michael Jordan’s quote he says “I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” Gents never forget. There is no success without failing. I prefer to try and rejected than to wonder what might have been. The past has no bearing on the future. Just because you fail at something in the past doesn't mean that you will forever be a loser. You know what you need and when you need it, and you will get it all in due time when you build your skills. Keep pushing on until you achieve the dream and focus on your craft. If it means something to you, you will surely push through. Emre is author, dating coach and CEO founder of Kamalifestyles. He has written books which sold thousands of copies over a decade. Emre trained and coached many clients from all over the world and men of all ages on how to improve their confidence, relationships and dating. He has expertise in confidence, approach and attraction and has been featured in top newspapers and radios. He is passionate on helping his clients to achieve great outcomes and make sure they are not held back by the limitations. Ebooks are on sale at Kamalifestyles.com How to Get Girls to Chase You https://www.kamalifestyles.com/products/how-to-get-girls-to-chase-you/ Dating Guide for men http://www.kamalifestyles.com/products/dating-guide-for-men/ Become An Alpha Male http://www.kamalifestyles.com/products/be-an-alpha-male/ Carpe Diem https://www.kamalifestyles.com/products/carpe-diem/ Get Her Crazy In Bed https://www.kamalifestyles.com/products/get-her-crazy-in-bed/ Leave a Comment letting us know what you think. If you enjoyed make sure you like, share and subscribe! Hope you enjoy! • To stay up to date on dating advice subscribe to the KamaTV channel • Dating advice and dating training at http://www.kamalifestyles.com • Find us on facebook https://www.facebook.com/kamalifestyles/ • Follow us on twitter https://twitter.com/kamalifestyles • Follow us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/kamalifestyles/

Title: Lure of the Alpha   Three Book Collection - Volume 1 Release Date: #AlreadyReleased Author: Anna Lowe Reviewer: Ingrid Stephanie Jordan #DragonWolfBearTigerFoxShifters  My Rating: #5Stars☆☆☆☆☆ ••••••••••••••       There's no words that I can say that will justify how Phenomenal, Amazing, Sensational, lol enough big words just know that this lady really knows how to keep you reading. You need to read all the way to the end, you have to finish it but then once you're finished your dying for the next book. Yes Ms. Anna gives you everything that you would want in a book and then some.     ••••••••••••       Boone is a Wolf Shifter, Hunter is a Bear Shifter, Cruz is a Tiger Shifter, Kai is a Dragon Shifter. Silas is a Dragon Shifter. All five of them were part of a secret elite military corps. Each one has Demons. ••••••••••••      ****(( Copied from book))**** Here’s the plan, Silas had said. I got us the caretaker’s contract at an amazing estate. We’ll form an exclusive private investigator/ bodyguard agency. We’ll pick and choose the cases we take. Earn good money. Live the good life. •••••••••••• Title: Lure of the Dragon Book #1        Tessa Byrne is a human Private Chef and she's doing well for her self under her business "Thérèse Brûler.” Than going to her new client Damien Morgan who lives at a cliffside estate in the Camelback Mountains in Phoenix. Needless to say it was an eye opener, the scariest thing she has ever seen in her life. Damien came in and smelt her and started morphing into a dragon. A DRAGON Shifter who knew they existed? If that wasn't bad enough, he said some awful things. Now thanks to her neighbor Ella she's in Maui, Hawaii at the Koa Point Estate. The huge gate itself is scary, should she go in? Can she ask shifters for help?  Tessa has never been around shifter, Ella said that Koa means an elite class of warrior. OMG!! what is she going to do?      Kai Llewellyn is a Dragon Shifter and part of a secret, elite corps. There were five shifters each with a monster inside. Kai's dragon was driving him crazy. He wouldn't be quite, he kept talking and talking, saying that she was this mate, he needs to claim her, every five seconds. At that point Kai started to believe she was possibly his mate. The biggest question of all was WHY is Damien Morgan after Tessa? She's nothing but a human! •••••••••••• Title:   Lure of the Wolf  Book #2        Nina is a human who was hit than thrown over board half dead. A voice keep telling her to swim over and over. She made it scared out of her mind but she did then someone was asking her questions, Nina her name was Nina, but Nina What? From Where? Who is She?           Boone Hawthorne is a Wolf Shifter who lives with his old military team in Maui, Hawaii at Koa Point. He found her on the shore, after telling her several times she's on a private beach he realized she was hurt and not talking coherently. Carrying up to the den, he felt like he needed to protect her, no he can't do that again he cannot, the last time he was emotionally hurt bad. He still had to help her, he had to protect her no matter what will he be hurt again? •••••••••••• Title:  Lure of the Bear  Book #3      Hunter Bjornvald is a Grizzly Bear Shifter he has known Dawn Meli (who is a human Police Officer) for fifteen years, since high school and there 1st kiss, he also knew she was his mate.           Dawn has given Hunter so many speeding, it's really a game for Hunter. Always when he leaves Koa Point’s he speeds knowing where she will be clocking him, sure enough sirens were on. When Boone was saving his mate everyone ran to help. Dawn was sent there by the police department. She couldn't believe eyes they all turned into animals. A wolf that was fighting came after her and just as she thought he was going to get her Hunter turned into a bear he will never forget how Dawn was backing away in horror. His destined mate, rejecting him. The boy's were hired as extra security for the resort the the biggest ever. Dawn was told she had to work there too. Talk about FATE! Hunters tongue became untied a little trying to talk to Dawn. He was in heaven, but things changed fast, will he be able to save Dawn? Will Dawn be able to save him?  ••••••••••••    A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book and my comments here are my honest opinion.

When and why did you begin writing?

My first story was in third grade, where Mario, Link, and Zelda had to stop an evil wizard. Sadly, I never finished it. As a teenager, I wrote a narrative/humorous diary of a few family vacations. Then I started on a novel, which was terrible, put it down, picked it up again in college, put it down again, and started seriously writing after I had been working a couple years. After reading so much science fiction and fantasy growing up, I needed a way to process what I had read, which turned into novels of my own.

What are some day jobs you have held?

For my day job, I’m a mechanical engineer working at a large construction company doing performance engineering. I also teach karate. I studied Wado-Ryu Karate in college, and now teach a group of about 16-18 students. The elements of my other interests influence my writing. You can usually find some cool physics or martial arts in what I write! In my spare time, I play video and board games. My wife and I cosplay at a few cons each year and also force our pets to cosplay for the annual Christmas card.

What have you written so far?

I have two novellas out Tuning the Symphony and Merchants and Maji both in the same universe.

The Dissolutionverse is a society of ten planets connected by music-based magic instead of space flight. Merchants step from one planet to another to sell their goods. Alien cultures and languages spill from one world to another. Members of all ten species gather inside the Nether, the center of the society, to debate trade, law, and the economy of the Great Assembly. Only the maji can make the portals that link the planets together, and so the maji are central to keeping the economy going. Some of the stories focus on the maji, some on regular folks.

Remember that first terrible novel I wrote? After about 20 years and 4 or 5 complete rewrites, the ideas behind that original story have become “The Seeds of Dissolution.” After so many rewrites (and a lot of great alpha and beta reader feedback), I think it’s good enough to publish, and I’m running a Kickstarter from August 15th to September 16th to raise funds for adding more art, maps, and better editing. You can read the first two chapters here, and the Kickstarter is here.

I also have a couple works of flash fiction and I’ve written a couple (unpublished) YA books. One is about a boy whose father is killed, and he and his mother decide to change history to get him back, with his father’s time machine. The other I bill as “X-Men Evolution meets High School Diary of a Wimpy Kid.”

I’ve completed an epic fantasy, which I’m currently subbing to agents, where magic comes from eating seasonal fruit. The story uses Babylonian names and architecture, and in it two sisters escape slavery with a box marked by the gods. They work to discover the secret of a fifth godfruit where there should only be four when each fruit is blessed by the god of the corresponding season.

Tell us more about your main character. What makes him or her unique?

The main character for Seeds of Dissolution is Sam van Oen, who comes from Earth, and is accidentally thrust into the society of the Dissolutionverse. As such, he’s unfamiliar with it, which means he can learn along with the reader.

What makes Sam unique is that he has anxiety issues with crowds and new places, so showing up in the Nether is really freaking him out. There aren’t a lot of SFF main characters I’ve found that not only have anxiety issues but have to cope with them, rather than something magicking them away. I specifically show that magic can’t just cure him, and if it’s used to help, there are side effects, just like any medication.

In addition, Sam is bisexual (or pansexual, as this book contains species with multiple gender norms). I try not to make a big point of him deciding whether he “is” or “is not” bisexual. It’s a part of his character, and it comes out in the people he meets and the friends he makes. In the rare case of a bisexual main character, I’ve read of only a few males, and their sexual orientation is usually a main point of the book. I prefer it to be just one part of the experience of reading, like when you meet someone in real life.

What is your next project?

Most likely, one or two Dissolutionverse novellas, and after that, the next full novel. I have several novella ideas, ranging from a Sherlock Holmes-type mystery to a heist story, to a romance, or a Jules Verne-like adventure story.

Non-Dissolutionverse, I have two other novels outlined, one about colonists who land on a planet completely occupied by a sentient fungus, and the other about a society based on Incan culture, where body kinesthetics (like martial arts) create magic.

What are some ways in which you promote your work? 

I’m slowly working through all the ways I can find!

I have a website, Facebook page, and Twitter feed. I may have driven a couple sales from Twitter, but I’m not sure. I also belong to a few indie author groups, and when a bunch of authors put together a group event, that gets the most attention and sales by far. Paid services will promote books, but I’ve never actually made money on a promo. Generally, they’re good for attention and a few sales, but probably not worth the price. I’ve also run ads on Goodreads and Amazon. Both generate clicks, but only a couple books sales. Finally, I go to various cons, both to sell books at a booth, and to be on panels. The con booths actually make some money.

Finally, there’s Kickstarter! For my latest novel, I’m attempting to offset the printing cost, and hopefully pay for some cool additions to the book while also giving some extras to the backers, like a new short story, wallpapers, buttons, maps, and even original artwork. If this is successful, I’ll likely do the same for my future self-published works.

As an independent publisher, it’s important to try a lot of methods, however, it’s also important to realize that any work you do on marketing is taking away from time you could be writing.

Do you work to an outline or plot sketch, or do you prefer to let a general idea guide your writing?

When I start a new full-length story, I’ll take a few days to type out connected thoughts about the story. When I hit an interesting thread, I start a bulleted list of events. I usually end up with 9-12 pages in the overall outline.

While writing, I paste sections of my outline below to guide how I write. So far I have not written a story that followed my original outline all the way, because I end up writing something that works so much better. Somewhere in the middle, I will stop to readjust the path of the story to reflect that and keep going.

Usually, I have several major changes to the story during the first edit, and less during the 2nd and 3rd.

How do you feel about indie/alternative vs. conventional publishing?

Self-publishing means you control everything about your book. It also means you have to do everything for your book. It takes a lot of work, and you won’t sell as many copies as a traditional publishing house, but you keep a lot more of the profit.

I’m not yet published traditionally, but I am still submitting and one day hope to be. Having books available by both methods means you can develop your brand in different ways. Your traditionally published books can boost your name further, whereas with self-publishing, you have the opportunity to write experimental stories and subject matter or genres that are not considered “marketable.” More and more traditionally published authors are using indie publishing as a way to make a little extra on the side and to give their readers something more for being loyal.

What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

Keep writing. I’ve heard, at least for self-published authors, that you need about five books out before they start to really get noticed. When my second novella came out, I sold more of my first novella than my second, though that sounds contrary. Of course, if you land a deal with a publisher, they take care of a lot of the marketing work, but that’s why they also get a cut of the profit!

Who are some of your favorite authors that you feel were influential in your work?

I started out with Tolkien, C.S.Lewis, and Moorcock, and worked through Piers Anthony, Terry Pratchett, Robert Jordan, and David Eddings. These inspired me to start writing and to branch out in my reading.

Some of my current favorite authors are N.K.Jemisin and Brandon Sanderson, for their sheer imagination and worldbuilding. Lois McMaster Bujold and Mary Robinette Kowal have awesome characters, Jim Butcher has incredible plotting and sense of timing, and folks like Larry Niven, Neal Stephenson, Charles Stross, and James S.A. Corey obviously put a lot of research into showing how real science fiction can be.

If it’s not clear by now, I try to learn a little from each book I read, whether in style, art, or prose, and apply that to my own writing.

How can you learn more about William and his work?

Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon Author Page | Kickstarter

Book Links:

Tuning the Symphony | Merchants and Maji

  William C. Tracy, author of Tuning the Symphony @wctracy When and why did you begin writing? My first story was in third grade, where Mario, Link, and Zelda had to stop an evil wizard.

Never give up on your dreams!

https://wp.me/p9ahpa-iyko Click below to contact us for our dating coaching services! https://www.kamalifestyles.com/contact-us/ Dating Guide for men http://www.kamalifestyles.com/products/dating-guide-for-men/ Never give up on your dreams! Never give up on your dreams Intro Hi Guys this is Emre from kamalifestyles.com. Today I will be talking about reasons why you should never give up on your dreams. Gentlemen we are not one of the marketing gurus here and actually we teach the real stuff and show you how to do it. The insights and skills that are taught by us are based on years of experience in the real world. When put into practice, they have worked for countless our clients and other guys, and I know it will work for you. So before we start let’s click that magical and fabulous subscribe button and turn on the notifications as there will be many more videos will be coming to your way. So let’s watch the footage. Hey guys its me again and gents today I am all about dreams. I’m a sucker for dreams. I think I have too much faith in ideas and in my dreams! I dreamed it all! My infield approaches, kamalifestyles, trainings, my clients, picking up girls you name it…Why do I dream? The main reason for this is because no one knows what tomorrow may bring I may bloody die and then game over. The mysteries that tomorrow hold makes practically anything in this universe possible including the failures and the achievements. Since this is the case and I have no control over it, why not take my chances with it? Why not dream and let the future surprise you? Another thing that makes me have so much faith in my dreams is because I want so much for myself and since I am not there yet, the best I can do right is to draw motivation from dreaming. Ohh jesus some of them really scares me but at a same time motivates me… I hope we all share in the same sentiments here. Do you remember your dream girl? You know guys we have all been there…Whether or not you still have the image of her in your mind…BUT are you actually looking for her? Where is she? Maybe you saw her in the supermarket or in the street… Or have you given up all hope on your dreams with the burdens of daily life pulling you down? So don’t you dare give up here is why…. 1. You haven't tried everything yet. Just because you had the dream of dating a beautiful girl but have been rejected by numerous girls doesn’t mean that you should give up on every other girl or every even other goal you have. Trust me guys you haven’t even started yet as there are still so many girls out there and opportunities. Most of them haven’t been approached Also, rejection could be the best redirection you will ever get; it doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. I absolutely love retired NBA star Michael Jordan’s quote he says “I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” Gents never forget. There is no success without failing. I prefer to try and rejected than to wonder what might have been. The past has no bearing on the future. Just because you fail at something in the past doesn't mean that you will forever be a loser. You know what you need and when you need it, and you will get it all in due time when you build your skills. Keep pushing on until you achieve the dream and focus on your craft. If it means something to you, you will surely push through. Emre is author, dating coach and CEO founder of Kamalifestyles. He has written books which sold thousands of copies over a decade. Emre trained and coached many clients from all over the world and men of all ages on how to improve their confidence, relationships and dating. He has expertise in confidence, approach and attraction and has been featured in top newspapers and radios. He is passionate on helping his clients to achieve great outcomes and make sure they are not held back by the limitations. Ebooks are on sale at Kamalifestyles.com How to Get Girls to Chase You https://www.kamalifestyles.com/products/how-to-get-girls-to-chase-you/ Dating Guide for men http://www.kamalifestyles.com/products/dating-guide-for-men/ Become An Alpha Male http://www.kamalifestyles.com/products/be-an-alpha-male/ Carpe Diem https://www.kamalifestyles.com/products/carpe-diem/ Get Her Crazy In Bed https://www.kamalifestyles.com/products/get-her-crazy-in-bed/ Leave a Comment letting us know what you think. If you enjoyed make sure you like, share and subscribe! Hope you enjoy! • To stay up to date on dating advice subscribe to the KamaTV channel • Dating advice and dating training at http://www.kamalifestyles.com • Find us on facebook https://www.facebook.com/kamalifestyles/ • Follow us on twitter https://twitter.com/kamalifestyles • Follow us on instagram https://www.instagram.com/kamalifestyles/