#am i tweaking or did it decrease the quality

[winterstellarr]

slurrrp ow slurrrp ow slurrrp ow

[chidoroki]

TPN - Isabella one-shot

Okay, so.. I have so many emotions right now it's not even funny. I don't care how many times I've said this since ch169, but I'm gonna say it again: Isabella is a goddamn QUEEN! I thought the side chapter was going to reflect the light novel like Krone's was last week (it was based on that, correct?), so being able to witness Isabella be that dangerous “iron woman” mastermind again was simply fantastic.

As Krone's extra chapter reminded us, every woman in this mother/sister academy is fighting to survive by any means necessary, so seeing these ladies put on a pretty face one moment to praise Isabella on her promotion only to talk shit behind her back the next minute was of no surprise to me. What did make me a little stunned was that these women are unmistakably the same women who stood so proud and confidently behind Isabella once she revealed her wonderful revenge plan to the rest of the facility back in ch170.

So, what changed? Oh, it's quite simple and a complete joy for me to talk about, so allow me. Isabella had a reputation of never making mistakes, as she always received perfect scores on both written and physical tests, so upon learning that she allowed 15 children to escape is a bit jarring, especially to the other ladies. The quality of her loss was such a huge hit to the farm's profit that they couldn't fathom why she of all people would be chosen to become the next Grandma. They believed it to be unfair, that Isabella must have had some sort advantage after working under Grandma Sarah that could've been kept under wraps. They both got rid of Krone with little to no explanation at all, so some rules must have been tweaked. It's no doubt the ladies saw Isabella as a major threat to their own survival, so they kept a close eye on her and waited for the perfect opportunity.. to create a fake lead to raise suspicion on this flawless woman.

Too bad dearest Grandma was already ten steps ahead of them! HAA! Did they honestly think they could take her down? And Jessica, sweetheart, you even spoke about Isabella's training days a couple of pages ago and how “she calmly got revenge on all the girls when they tried to sabotage her.” That literally just happened again so y'all can't really be surprised by this outcome! She knows that Jessica, Sienna, Scarlet & Matilda, are the current top four choices to become mothers, so it was quite easy for Isabella to determine who would go after her and her new position, if anyone were foolish enough to think about such a thing.

Luckily for them, Isabella has no intentions of killing them off. Since they're all quite intelligent and skilled, she decides to recruit them as allies in her pursuit to destroy Grace Field. Their reaction is similar to the other women we see from ch170. Everyone is apprehensive at first, as going against the farm is nothing but a crazy idea, and yet Isabella assures them that there is no bright future if they remain stuck in the system and obey their rules.

They betray each other to give themselves the best chance at surviving, but it'll be an endless hell if you live out your entire life in fear. So if not for each other, what do these ladies have to live for? Oh, just their children they all chose so hard to forget about.

By now it's no secret that Ray is Isabella's son, but ever since ch170 I couldn't help but wonder if any of those women were the biological moms of any of the other kids we know. You can't tell me the lady with that distinguished nose isn't Nat's mother. I also thought the others could be mothers of Rossi, Yvette, Anna and perhaps Don? Sienna might be Emma's, Matilda to Norman's, Scarlet to Phil's, and Jessica.. I'm not sure honestly? I know it could be any of the kids at GF plant #3, not just the 15 that escaped, but it is fun to think about though and I wasn't expecting to learn that their kids were all at the same house.

It's quite convenient that Isabella had the chance to raise their children actually, because after a few more words of encouragement and the knowledge that their children are indeed still alive, the four ladies agree to support Isabella's plan. Well, once she guarantees to not double-cross them, which is reasonable. It's best for them to have some trust in each other in order to work together. Isabella gives them her word and some much better evidence of her mistake in the form of… aaaaahhh Ray's note.

Bro, believe me when I was completely shooketh upon reading this. It's been a question we all had for so long that I was fairly certain we weren't going to get an answer for it after the series ended. Of course the knowledge of Ray being Isabella's true son was the weakness many of us thought the note contained, but I could've sworn I read somewhere, in some interview or whatever it was, that Shirai said it was something else Ray baited Krone with (right? or am I completely going crazy about this trivia). Anyways, I guess a farewell note is different enough but damn.. what a punch to my heart. Not only did he address it as “dear mother,” but the fact that Isabella kept it this entire time. Like wow.. I'm kinda speechless here. No doubt she still loves her son, just look at how fondly she holds it! If anything, I must know the full contents of said note! Shirai, please! I'm begging!

And if that wasn't enough to make me emotional, Isabella's wish certainly had me tearing up. I hope she knows that her precious children are all happy together in a free world living the best life they possibly can. Honestly, if I had any power to change just one thing in this series, it would to let Isabella live. Having Emma keep her memories is a close second, but I've come to accept that inconvenience after seeing how happy she and all the other kids are post-series. Look at this precious family! I love them! (also I wanna see that full photo on top with her and ayshe darn it!)

Seriously though, her death is still something I'm not over. I literally have not listened to her lullaby since ch177 dropped because I'm scared I'll become a tearful mess. Yes, sacrificing herself to protect Emma and that other girl from the demon was very admirable of her and helped with her redemption, but she didn't have to die from it! (hell, if emma could survive being stabbed then so could isabella, right?? damn plot armor! ) To me, I just feel like it wasn't necessary, especially now after learning what we just did from this extra chapter. Not only did she agree to become Grandma to help the children when they eventually returned to GF in two years, but Isabella also decreased the number of shipments in order to produce higher quality goods to make up for those that escaped, which is exactly what Emma believed would happen once she decided to leave the kids four and under behind. I love how Isabella adopted Emma's ideals and spirit in order to go against the system and rally everyone else up to accomplish the impossible. Personally, I forgave this woman the moment she retrieved the ropes in ch37 so the farm wouldn't know exactly where the children escaped from. She didn't have to die to prove she was a good mother who cared and love her children, because she showed that several times over and over again. She literally did everything in her power to help these kids secure a brighter future while remaining in the shadows.

Yeah, it makes me happy that they did at least take her body to to the human world so they all can continue to pay their respects to her, but aaahhh.. how I wish she were still alive. She suffered so much, she deserves to live in peace with her children and love them all normally. Ray especially!! You can't just formally introduce these four brilliant women to me and then be like “oh yeah, they have GF kids too and now they're free in the human world with them” and not have Isabella with Ray! I'm sure their relationship would've been rocky at first, but I still would've love to see them at least give each other a chance to be a real family. Hmmmm.. this chapter, man.. so not good for my heart, but I loved every bit of it. Once again, rest in peace to the iron woman. What a queen.

[ahiddenpath]

Seven Years of Writing Fanfics

I’m being a little premature- I’ll celebrate seven years of writing as ahiddenpath in September- but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I’ve learned.  Please read on if you want to hear about the writing habits I wish I had when I started in 2012, and about the habits I wish I didn’t have back then!

I’ll also be talking about my writing plans in general.  Check it out below the cut!

1.)  Make a story bible.

A story bible is a reference document for your story.  Before you post a new fic, I strongly suggest creating one.  For digimon specifically, this means making some choices before you begin:

Which version of the character names will you use?  Do you intend to remain consistent with this choice?  For example, I’ve seen a lot of writers use Japanese character names and English digimon names.  Will you use official honorifics?  Custom honorifics?  Will you use terminology from one translation of the show, or a mashup?

Make these choices upfront, create reference charts, and remain consistent.  

After that, you can also keep references for topics such as characterization details (if you say that Bob’s favorite drink is coffee in one chapter and tea twenty chapters later, be prepared for a flood of comments pointing out the inconsistency), setting details, and anything that you don’t want to forget.  Spending half an hour hunting down a silly detail instead of writing is a huge bummer.

Growing Up with You is my worst offender of ‘problems a story bible would have fixed.’  It’s got... every issue you can imagine, lol!  For example, pairing Hikari with Gatomon (instead of Tailmon), using ‘digitama’ and ‘digimental’ interchangeably in the 02 arc, using the English terms for evolution stages while using Japanese names for other things, confusing Bakemon and Bakumon, it’s a mess.  It’s so bad that a complete, painstaking edit is the only thing that can fix it...  Which is enough to make me weep, given that the story is over 400K words long.

Organize yourself before you start.  Here’s a link to some printable Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02 references.

2.)  Avoid Longfics.

I know I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating.  NEVER PUBLISH A NEW STORY WITHOUT HAVING AN ENDING IN SIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING.

I’m not saying you can’t write huge, epic tales.  God knows I’m unlikely to stop doing that.  But, if I could go back in time, I would separate Growing Up with You into four fics.  It would be something like this:

Growing Up with You I: Childhood

Growing Up with You II:  Digimon Adventure

Growing Up with You III:  Liminal Space

Growing Up with You IV:  Digimon Adventure 02

I’m sure some arcs would be longer than others, but this way, I’d have four stories that are roughly 100K words long.  

A lot of folks just... don’t want to read a 400K story.  It’s intimidating, man!  Although it varies by genre, the average word count for a fiction novel aimed at adults is 80K words.  That 400K fic is like FIVE NOVELS, DUDE!!!!  That’s a commitment for readers!

Shorter stories are more reader friendly, but there’s also a huge benefit to you, the writer.  Separating your longfic into multiple stories allows you more opportunities to write towards an ending.  Breaking your story into digestible chunks decreases the writing paralysis that comes with being nowhere near the ending.  It also cuts back on meandering chapters that don’t carry the narrative closer to that ending.  Furthermore, thinking of the story in arcs before you start writing forces you to plan more...  Something I never did in 2012!!!!

Best of all, once you reach the end of an arc, you can take a break before launching the next one.  It’s hard on a writer to continue endlessly producing without a break.  It’s hard on a reader to hit the final available chapter in a fic and wonder if it will ever update again.  But if you complete an arc and take a break to plan and write a few buffer chapters, the tension and impatience is gone for your audience, and you get to breathe.  It’s a win-win!

3.)  Avoid long chapters.

Back in 2012, I often posted chapters that were 10K words and longer!  Here are some benefits to posting shorter updates more frequently:

-Shorter wait times between updates.

Let’s say your planned chapter is 15K words long.  I could update my story once in the span of a month, or I could break the chapter into three parts and update three times in a month!  This keeps readers happy and interested in your work.

Over time, you’ll develop the ability to create sub arcs/movements, finding spots to break them up into separate updates.  This also creates natural moments for cliffhangers, tension, and mini resolutions.  It’s a great way to insert more moods and movement into your narrative.    

-More exposure for your story.

Every time you update your fanfic, it gets pushed to the top of the update list on fanfiction.net or AO3.  The more you update it, the more hits your story will receive, thanks to all the extra time it will spend on the first page of newly-updated fics.

-Easier editing.

I do my best editing when I’m working with 5K words or fewer at a time.  Personally, I can only focus on close editing for about 90 minutes before I start missing mistakes and forgetting details.  I could edit a 10K word update in two sittings, but then it’s possible to forget about details and moods from the previous editing session!  So, unless your story bible is really hardcore, your editing process could benefit from shorter updates.

-More feedback/support

I have a few amazing readers who leave some form of feedback/appreciation for me whenever I post a new chapter.  A supported writer is a happy, productive writer!  More updates means more chances for feedback and support from your readers, which in turn can fuel and direct your writing!  Again, everyone wins!  (Thanks, guys, I love you!).

4.)  Publish your story on both fanfiction.net and AO3.

Why reach one audience when you could potentially reach two?  There are plenty of readers who only use one platform or the other.

At this point, it would be ridiculously difficult to post my 70+ chapter fanfics to AO3...  Do yourself a favor and post to both from the start!

5.)  Remember: writing and editing are two separate processes.

Guys guys guys guys guys.  Lemme be real here.

I used to painstakingly write a first draft, check for spelling/grammar errors on my word processor, and then post it.

Here’s what my process looks like now: word vomit a first draft, do an edit in my word processor, print the edited draft, make edits on paper, transfer edits to word processor, print new draft, make edits on paper, transfer edits to word processor, final read through, post

If my new method looks more time intensive...  In a way, it is, but in a way, it isn’t?  I bang out that first rough draft without a care in the world, where I used to agonize over every word.  Agonizing is not fun.  Word vomiting can produce some, ah, discouraging results, but it feels like creative play.  It’s fun, it’s flexible, it’s fast...  And you can fix it later through the magic of editing.  And if you’re having fun, you’ll keep writing.  If you’re agonizing, you’ll find yourself making excuses to avoid writing.

Plus, my current method produces tighter, more deliberate prose, while maintaining the freedom and energy of word vomiting...  And avoiding the angst and doubt.  This is my best defense against writing paralysis and my greatest weapon in the battle of producing words.

My method can’t be right for everyone, but I do encourage you to try it out, especially if your writing hasn’t been joyful lately.

6.)  Don’t run too many fics at one time.

I encourage writers to have one longer fic open and one shorter fic, preferably of different tones/settings/main characters.  This gives you a way to keep writing when you’re sick of one project without bogging you down.

You will likely have some readers who love everything you do (god bless), but many people have particular genre, character, and setting preferences.  If you have three fics open, then readers of any one story have to wait much longer for the next update while you alternate updating each fic.

And more importantly, having a ton of open stories just...  It feels heavy, guys.  It’s a weight, a pressure.  Trust me.  Forgive me, fanfic gods, for I have sinned.

7.)  Maintain a buffer

Okay, so my Nanowrimo project for 2018 was to write 50,000 words for After August, my current open fic.  By the end of the month, I had a roughly 80% complete first draft of the entire fic.  

Guys!  Guys!  It’s so cool to know exactly where the story is going, from start to finish.  My editing is so deliberate on this piece!  I can spot repetition and inconsistencies, since the draft is printed and sitting in front of me in a binder.  I can tweak emphasis and maintain more balance between character appearances.  It’s a whole new ballpark for me, someone who always wrote one update at a time and posted it upon completion (or worse, wrote ahead and lost the material when I changed my mind about the plot before reaching that future point).

Plus, even if my life gets extra busy or hard, I can still maintain my updating schedule.  I can print out a chapter, take it to work, and do hard edits during my lunch break (I realize that makes me antisocial, but have you ever endured coworkers telling you all of their problems while you try to eat a sandwich in peace?  The editing is much more fun.  I am antisocial, is what I’m saying.  Born into it, baby).

Regular updates are a big part of maintaining steady readership, so having a buffer both increases the quality of your work (since you know where the story is going for sure) and ensures that more people read it.  Awww yisssss.

Okay, well, my concentration is gone now, so that’s the end of my advice!  If I think of anything else, maybe I’ll add it?  

I do want to touch base with my writing plans, though.  Currently, of course, my goal is to complete After August.  If I can post one chapter per week, it will be compete in early March, but I’m going to aim for completing the story in May, to allow for any issues that might come up (for example, Kingdom Hearts III is coming out soon!).

After that, I want to complete Seeking Resonance...  Although I have no idea how long that will take?  I just know that the heavy atmosphere was really starting to weigh on me.

After that... Well, do you remember that survey I made a while back?  It looks like my next project should probably be completing Four Years.  

I might simultaneously work on one of these two stories and Tales of REM, or maybe I’ll alternate between SR and FY for a while?  To be honest, though, I would really like to wrap up SR as soon as I can.

Either way, completion is the name of the game this year.  Please look forward to it!  Let me know if you have any ideas for future fics, or if you have a favorite from my list of potential future projects!

[mcu-in-da-maze-with-werewolves]

Does this mean that the surprise has succeeded?

{ Imagine having been taken to Asgard by Thor because he wants to spend some quality time with you, and having him surprise you

Warnings: fluff, SMUT SMUT SMUT (A lot!)

Word count: 2712

It was about a week ago that Thor had taken you with him to Asgard, leaving your life on earth behind you for a little while. You were part of the Avengers, your ability to freeze anything in your sight often proving very useful during missions. It wasn’t always a nice thing to have such an ability. People were often afraid of you. Though you were considered a hero, people often found you odd and tended to avoid you. It wasn’t like with Tony Stark or Steve Rogers. Tony was still a normal human being underneath his suit, and no one would ever consider Captain America a freak or anything of that sort. There was a time when you were a little out of control. You’d just been ‘gifted’ with your ability and did not quite know how to handle it. It had been all over the news, most likely being the reason why some of the people feared you. You had gotten it under control when Tony had taken you in, giving you weekly trainings and eventually making you part of the team. How you got your abilities? That wasn’t exactly a nice story. Let’s just say that you’d been used as some kind of test subject, and ditched when the desired results were not achieved. Since you were a part of the team, you were eventually introduced to the blonde god, and it was clear to everyone that you were immediately intrigued by one another. You couldn’t believe that someone like him was interested in you, but everyone could see that Thor cared very much for you. That is also why he decided to take you with him to his home, introducing you to his world. You felt honoured, but at the same time nervous about coming with him. You were just a mere mortal in a realm full of gods. It definitely took some time getting used to. However, everybody welcomed you with open arms, except for Odin and Loki then, both for different reasons. Thor mostly kept you away from the two of them, not wanting you to feel unwelcome in Asgard. He hoped you would become his queen someday and wanted nothing but the best for you.

“Thor, where are you taking me?” you giggled. He had blindfolded you and gently guided you towards god knows where. “I have told you it is a surprise, my queen” he chuckled and held you gently around your waist. A slight blush appeared onto your cheeks at the mention of the little nickname he’d given you. It made you feel special. You were his and he had every intention of showing that. After a little while of walking and you complaining about wanting to know where he was taking you, you two finally stopped walking. Thor let go of your waist and you heard a door close behind you, the blindfold still covering your eyes. You had to admit, it did smell good wherever you were. It faintly smelt like roses and citrus, together with a slight scent of coconut. “May I take the blindfold off now?” you asked impatiently. You felt Thor’s chest against your back, his hands slowly untying the blindfold. You blinked a few times to get used to the lighting and gasped as soon as you saw what he had planned out for you. It was the biggest bathroom you had ever seen. If you thought Tony Stark had big bathrooms, this one was ten times bigger. What really caught your attention was the huge bathtub in the centre of the room. It was already filled and steaming, rose petals covering the top, and some fancy-looking drinks plus a few snacks on a little side table. You looked around the room, your eyes finally landing on Thor’s figure. He was looking at you expectantly.

“This is amazing! Wow, I- I don’t know what to say.” He walked up to you and took your hands. “I am glad you enjoy the surprise I had in mind for you, my queen. Now if you don’t mind, would you like to join me in the tub?” he smiled. You immediately nodded and started to take off the Asgardian attire that you had been blessed with upon arrival, leaving you in your matching black, lacey underwear. Thor did the same, never once taking his eyes away from you. You slowly unclasped your bra and let it fall to the floor, before taking off the last piece of clothing that prevented you from being completely naked. “You look absolutely mesmerizing” he whispered, and took your hand in his. “You don’t look so bad yourself, my love” you replied and followed him as he lead you towards the enormous tub. Being the gentleman he was, he helped you into the tub first and followed soon after. You took a good look at his body before it disappeared into the water, not realizing that you were licking you lips and ogling him like a piece of meat. His body did most certainly not disappoint. “Do you like what you see?” he chuckled, pulling your body closer to his so that he is now seated behind you. You leaned back against his chest and closed your eyes, a smirk plastered onto your face. “Very much. I can’t ever get enough of looking at you.” His hands slowly moved towards your stomach, teasingly going up to your breasts. Your body shivered at his gentle touch. As he reached your nipples, he lightly tweaked them, which caused a gasp of pleasure to emerge from within you. Meanwhile, his mouth had started to place featherlight kisses along the side of your neck, moving to your shoulders and back up again. The feeling of his beard only added to the feeling, causing you to squirm under his touch. If this was only the beginning, you couldn’t even imagine what he was planning to do to you next. One of the hands that had been tweaking one of your nipples, inched towards your scorching heat, you already being wet from the feeling of him touching you. You automatically spread your legs a little and welcomed his exploring hand. As one of his fingers touched your clit, you immediately pushed back against him a little, wanting more. Your left hand gripped Thor’s lower thigh and you breathed heavily. “Please” you begged, squeezing his thigh impatiently. His beard softly grazed your cheek, and you eventually felt his breath against your right ear. “What do you want, my queen? I want to hear you say it” he whispered, his finger moving in slow circles on your clit. “I want your fingers inside me. I need you now!” you exclaimed as you pushed against his finger. A long moan escaped from your lips as soon as you felt two of his long, big fingers sliding into your wetness, stretching you out a little. His thumb was now pleasuring your clit, while his other two fingers were pumping in and out of you, skilfully pressing against your g-spot with every pump. “Oh god, that feels so good. Harder!” you groaned, throwing your head back. He complied and started to move his fingers faster, increasing the speed of his thumb as well, bringing you closer and closer to the edge. You also didn’t fail to notice his obvious boner than was now strained against your back. “Fuck don’t stop. I’m cumming!” you almost screamed out, Thor’s name leaving your mouth in a mix of moans and whispers as you reached your high, coming undone all over his fingers. The speed of his fingers decreased, eventually coming to a stop and he slowly pulled them out of you. “My queen, you always look so gorgeous when you come for me” Thor said, his eyes dark with lust. You turned around, legs still slightly shivering from the amount of pleasure you had just experienced. “It’s your turn now, my love.” You motioned for him to sit onto the edge of the tub and he did as you asked. He received a passionate kiss from you, before you leaned down, back into the water. Your own eyes darkened with lust as they fell onto his impressive length, standing straight up and all ready for you. Licking you lips, you quickly leaned forward and gripped the base of his cock with your right hand, and softly kissed the tip, moving all the way down and back up again while moving your hand in a pumping motion. You continued the same thing, but this time with your tongue instead of your lips, leaving the blonde god to moan your name in bliss. He gripped the back of your head, which you knew meant that he wanted your mouth around him. He absolutely loved the feeling of your warm mouth taking all of him in. You, however, decided to tease him and sucked only on the head a little, before continuing your little kisses along the side of his shaft. “You have to stop teasing me, my queen. You’ll regret it” he groaned lowly, causing you to shiver. He was probably serious about his threat, but you couldn’t care less. You absolutely loved it when he said things like that. It mostly only resulted in more pleasure for the two of you. Deciding you had teased him enough, you licked away some of his precum before engulfing him into your mouth. Your hands were placed onto his thighs for support as he started to push your head down. Not harshly, but just enough to push you a little further. You had no problem with that. In fact, you liked it when he got a little dominant with you. Everyone always saw sweet, gentleman Thor, prince of Asgard, but little did they know what he could do to you in the bedroom. You teased the bottom of his cock with your tongue as he gently started to fuck your mouth, the feeling of your mouth around him making him lose control just a little bit. As well as you could, you tried to hold down your gag reflex as Thor moved your head up and down. An occasional moan escaped your mouth, earning similar moans from your god in the process. “We have to stop this if you want me to continue our little adventure, my queen” he breathed out, pulling your head away from him. With you index finger, you motioned for him to sit back into the tub, which he did. Your body immediately found its way back to his, straddling his waist, your pussy rubbing his length daringly. Thor didn’t wait any longer, before he positioned his cock in the right position and slid right into you, pushing you all the way down until both of your thighs met. “Fuck” you breath out at the feeling of him stretching you out all the way. Without letting you adjust, he started thrusting into your heat while moving your body to meet his powerful thrust. His hands did not waste any time and moved towards your ass cheeks, kneading them softly while pleasuring you. Water was splashing all around the two of you, probably going over the tub as well, but it wasn’t like either of you worried about that at the moment. The familiar feeling started to build in the pit of your stomach as your walls oh so slightly clenched around Thor. That feeling made him stop immediately, making your eyes shoot open in confusion as he pulled out of you and pulled you up. “What do you think you’re doing? I was close!” you whined, pouting at him. There is a dark twinkle in his eyes as he suddenly grabs your and pushes your front against the edge of the tub, your upper half pressing against the cold stone edge, whereas your lower legs remain in the water. “I told you you’d regret teasing me, my queen” he chuckled and continued to rub you from your back to your ass. An unexpected slap emanated a squeal from you. “I will make you beg for me.” Your hands found the edge of the tub and firmly held onto it, already feeling the wetness pooling between your legs. Another slap caused you to squeal once more, only leaving you wanting more. He surprised you further by grabbing a hold of your neck, pulling you against his chest as he stood in between your legs, his length rubbing in between your ass cheeks. A moan of bliss emerges from you at this new position. This man really does know how to make you want him even more than you already did. “Please, my love. I need you inside me” you pleaded, earning another slap on your ass from him. “What was that?” he chuckled darkly into your ear, sending vibrations throughout your whole body. You groaned from sexual frustration. “I need you fucking inside my pussy. I need you to come inside me dammit!” You gritted your teeth and moved your left hand towards your clit in order to get some relief. Thor immediately swatted your hand away with his free hand and placed it back onto the edge. “Your hands stay there” he said sternly. You then felt him grab his cock as he pushed against your entrance, only sliding the tip inside. He did that a few times, which drove you absolutely crazy. This is what you get for trying to tease the God of Thunder. However, you don’t deny that it turns you on to no end. Once he had decided you’ve had enough, he slid his whole length into you ever so slowly, making you cry out for him. Thor’s grip on your neck slightly tightened, just enough so you could still breath normally. Now that he was completely inside of you once again, he started to move quickly, showing absolutely no mercy. You felt the need to touch yourself, touch him…just anything, but he had specifically told you not to move your hands away from the edge. You definitely didn’t want to go against him if it could risk him taking away your chance of an orgasm for the second time tonight. That is why you pushed yourself back against him as hard as you could, profanities escaping from your mouth every once in a while. The only sounds that could be heard at the moment were those of skin slapping and heavy breathing, mixed with moans and groans from both you and your blonde god. That familiar feeling started to build again and you were sure to let Thor know by clenching your walls a little. His free hand wondered from your breasts to you clit, rubbing his fingers in quick circles as he continued to pound into you. “Come for me, my queen” he breathed into your neck as his own thrusts started to get a little sloppy. You didn’t need more encouragement as your eyes rolled to the back of your head, your body shuddering violently as Thor helped you ride out your orgasm. He quickly turned you around and laid you onto your back, right on the edge as he slid back inside you, driving himself to his own release. Your legs found its way around his waist and your hands found his hair as you pulled him towards you and kissed him, his tongue battling with yours. With a few final thrusts he released into you, his seed filling you up completely and causing another mini-orgasm to erupt from within you. Your body shuddered as he slowly pulled his lips away from you and leaned his forehead against yours. “I have not been too rough with you, have I?” he asked worriedly, causing you to chuckle and shake your head. “Don’t worry, my love. You were perfect. You know how it turns me on when you get rough” you smiled, playing with the hairs on the back of his neck. He smiled back at you and tugged you back into the water, hugging you to his chest. “Does this mean that the surprise has succeeded?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. You giggled and nodded in response. “Trust me, it has more than succeeded” you replied, pulling him into another passionate kiss.

The End  

[yekulan-dothkah]

Stormblood Live Letter: May 22 discussion

I reblogged a post earlier regarding the live letter summary in quick notes form. I just wanted to express some thoughts and state some clarifications verbally expressed during the stream; because I sat and watched the whole thing and some people are freaking out or assuming the wrong information. There will be some of my own opinion thrown in so keep that in mind.

Job Changes:

Base Abilities: Do not assume all your abilities will transfer over, the original versions of many abilities will show as grey with a red line through them. Many abilities have been reworded, combined with other abilities, or slightly modified. This has been done to help level the playing field while maintaining play style. They appear to have taken a lot of care with new and modified abilities to make the classes represent themselves more clearly, and offer logical abilities that benefit both self and allies. Please be patient and willing to work with the new abilities, and capabilities that come with them, rather than complain you no longer have X ability.

Role Skills: Some cross class "mandatory" abilities may not all be able to be selected because of the role skills replacing cross skills. Role skills are arranged by  tank/healer/melee/ranged/caster, and all the role skills have been carefully selected, modified, and tweaked. For example, Goad is now a melee role skill, along with Rampart as a tank role skill; while Quelling Strikes and Raging Strikes have been taken off the list of shared abilities for ranged role skills. The interesting factor this will bring is to playstyle, you can only select 5, and there are about 10 to choose from; many of these abilities are useful and it will be hard to pick the last 3, this will hopefully give playing the variety and choice we've been lacking, while still offering our very job specific playstyle.

Healer DPS/Cleric Stance: Cleric stance is a huge change, to clarify if you've missed the memo, it is no longer a stance and is now a cooldown that gives us a temporary boost to damage, our Mind stat is now also being used for our attacks instead of Intelligence. This is a huge quality of life improvement to all healers, if you've been nervous about dps'ing and healing as a healer, please reconsider after this update because now there's little to no risk of dps'ing and not being able to heal in time; you may even find you enjoy it. 90% of healer attacks have cast times, simply twitch your character in a direction to interrupt casting and begin healing instead. People I don't expect to dps and most of the community doesn't either: People with horrible ping, people who are unfamiliar with the job, people who are "rusty" and are playing after a long break from class/game, people who are new or still relatively unfamiliar with the dungeon and it's mechanics. Simply state something like the aforementioned  when you enter the dungeon and everyone will understand; you may also be offered hints, tips, even tricks. Please openly take the advice offered and use it if you didn't know the information before, if you already knew the information, say thank you either way. People who stand there for 99% of the dungeon and don't really heal that much, you're probably going to get some flak from people; if you want not only do the content more slowly, but are not affected by the words your party spews at you, ultimately willing to be kicked and queue again, then by all means don't do anything. Understand however that people will react negatively if you make absolutely no effort to speed/make a mechanic passable in the dungeon/raid/trial up by participating when you literally have nothing better to do; so don't cry me or anyone a river when you get kicked for the 20th time today because you weren't dps'ing when your search information and gear clearly states you are a skilled and competent healer.

Resources & Their Graphics: Resources have been added to classes that lacked a resource, like dark knight and paladin. Some resources have been added to classes that already had them, like scholar and dragoon. All these new and existing resources have User Interfaces (UI) to accompany them, an extra bit you put on your screen to clearly state where you are in your usage or build up of said resource. These are an expansion on the first point that is giving each of our classes a more distinct feel by pushing us to use our combat techniques and a skillful manner to open up opportunities for high utility and damaging moves. To people complaining they've turned PVE into easy mode with the reduced actions and simplicity, this is where the skill level of you end game raiders will separate you from the casual players. People able to fill and maintain these bars efficiently will be the kings and queens of their classes, while still allowing the casual individual to use and play effectively.

Attribute Changes:

Blocking: Blocking is still a shield stat and not increasing from the sounds of things, blocking will now be possible from the sides and backs, deteriorating at a rate based on how far the angle is from your front. Block is also being applied to magic attacks to give Paladins and shield & scepter casters & healers a bit more utility.

Parry: Yes parry has been removed as a stat, but it has not been removed as a mechanic. You will still parry, they stated there will be calculations similar to blocking that allow you to parry based of a set percentage instead of a stat affected number. Parry materia will, as a result, no longer be present; all Parry materia affixed and obtained, will turn into "Tenacity" which I will address next.

Tenacity: Tenacity replaces parry, and the best way to describe it is your ability to wield the weapon both offensively and defensively. This stat will both passively increase your attack, and decrease the damage you take. This is a stat I am very excited to test on all the tanks as the passive damage reduction and increased output will be a boon if the calculations are significant enough.

Accuracy: Much like parry, this stat has been removed, but not the mechanic. Increases to evasion and blinding the respective combatants will still decrease the chance to hit. Attacking something of a higher level will have a reduced chance to hit. However, attacking a creature from the side, and back, will have increased chances to hit. For example hitting someone head on from the front and they are the same level as you with no debuffs or buffs will mean you have a 100% chance to hit, but being a fighter at the flank or rear will increase your chances significantly so even when blinded you can land blows. Likewise your position when casting will be crucial if you are under leveled or debuffed. As a result, Accuracy materia have been replaced with "Direct Hit" just like Parry was replaced with Tenacity.

Direct Hit: This stat will give you more consistent, smaller, critical hits. Say a critical for you right now is 4k, two times your normal damage of 2k, a Direct Hit critical will likely be in the ballpark of 2.5k-3k. What is interesting is this damage WILL stack with the damage of criticals, so if you get a direct hit critical of 3k, if your critical hit triggers at the same time you'll do 6k damage instead of 4k as it will go off the new base damage. Now this is speculation; the is also the possibility your crit could also just be 4k + the extra 1k your direct hit did so it could only reach 5k. Still this is a huge boon to fast attackers like Monks, Ninjas, Bards, and Machinists, I look forward to the science side of our community experimenting, testing, and posting their new numbers thanks to this stat. I am also curious and excited to see how this affects criticals for Scholars, and Astrologian nocturnal sect healing.

Strength: A change to tanks and no one else, you will have this stat added into your damage calculations once more. It is unclear at this time if you will do more damage for having VIT over more STR, or if STR will be a drastic enough increase that tanks will be willing to skip out on some VIT. Whatever the result is, people, please take a deep breath and calm down. The decision to go VIT instead of STR is the tank's choice, not yours; if they're willing to compensate for the loss of HP by using game mechanics like having more defensive role cooldowns instead of offensive ones and they do just fine, then you have no place to call them stupid for that choice. People will play how they want, and as long as you get to the end of the content I don't see a problem with people spec'ing their stats the way they want, or choosing uncommon skills for role abilities. Please note, you will not be able to equip STR DPS accessories like you could pre-Stormblood, this applies to any classes trying to equip different accessories from their defined sets, so stacking a high Strength stat will be much harder for tanks, hopefully this will prevent extremely low HP tanks while still offering an alternative to materia melding from VIT.

PVP:

Gear: Gear has become 100% aesthetic, this is nor more PVP gear item levels or stats, this leads me to assume that current PVP gear will be reduced to lvl 1 glamours, or lvl 50/60, but not actual equipment for combat. Alternatively they could leave the stats on, and people who use the seals to buy the gear for use in PVE could keep doing so (even if that isn’t optimal it’s probably a lot less coding work.). So go in strutting your best glam and love it.

Stats & Attributes: Everyone will have “comparable” stats and attributes now. What this means is tanks that are going to have more hp that most, then next highest is likely melee dps, followed ranged dps, and casters/healers at roughly the same amount. It appears everyone has the same MP amounts as well, but that is likely subject to change. For examples on this, tank will probably have 15k HP, we know dragoons have 12.5k HP, red mages have 10k HP, and both dragoon and red mage have 10k MP.

Skills & Abilities: Everyone will have “comparable” abilities as well, how this factors in is that everyone has combo’s, and the abilities, even if they go by the same name have much different potency and effects from outside of PVP, this also means we get PVP separate hot bars. Everyone gets between 9-10 abilities and these are your heals, attacks, ect. Next everyone gets 2 PVP abilities that are like the “remove all detriments” or “Greatly enhance evasion” for current examples. Lastly you get 3 passive abilities that are available to all roles, there’s roughly 10 of them and they have things like increased damage types, increased stats, and passive effects judging from what we could see in the live letter. 

What this all means for players is a level playing field where actual skill and teamwork are rewarded, instead of playtime and gear. All three of these changes are a huge improvement to a previously very unfair and relatively broken system we have put up with for so long.

Also: PVP can be entered at lvl 30, instead of lvl 50 or 60, minor yet important note.

Shortcuts:

Story: I completely understand this, the story is long and tiring, it's pretty painful all said and done. While it is a good story in my opinion, not everyone has the time to play through it all, and catching up  to your friends is fine and dandy. My beef with this is removing the newbie bonus from dungeons affected by story. Should the story dungeon and side dungeons be accessible? Yes. Should the MSQ dungeons be marked as cleared? No. These people join into a dungeon, have no clue what's going on in say, Aurum Vale, and then die because they stood in a puddle. If I see the newbie bonus, I typically ask "Does anyone want an explanation as we go?". Most new people say "Yes please" or "Sure" or "Yeah, it's my first time.". This establishes that not everyone knows the drill, that not everyone is on the ball with what is going on. I could care less about the actual bonus but just knowing "This is someone's first time" makes me and a lot of people I know very understanding of any mistakes. To queue up and get The Vault and have someone who has no clue what the hell is going on with the final, second, or even first boss is NOT doing anyone favors. People who are not forced to run every dungeon along the way have no idea what all the different mechanics look like, they have no clue what's going on or why they're dead. It's not fair to us as players paired up with them, and its definitely not fair to the people who are put in the uncomfortable situation of having no clue. Ideally they do research on the dungeon, but that’s IDEAL, many things that are IDEALLY a good idea fail in practical application as history has taught us. So what is the list of dungeons and trials that are required to be completed for MSQ that will be auto completed? Every MSQ dungeon obviously, but also every primal trial besides: Odin in normal mode and most hard modes, especially extreme modes are excluded. The Hard Mode (HM) of the first 3 primals, and a number of things like the steps of faith, and the final steps of faith; all are trials that are very hard if you have no clue what's going on and can be mechanic heavy that people will have ABSOLUTELY NO FREAKING CLUE ABOUT, but are MSQ required. "What cannons?" / "What does this do? *queue activating mechanic too early*" / "So I stand in the blue AOE's right? They're friendly?" / "Why did we all just die?" / "Healers screwed up?" / "I'm supposed to do what with the adds?". All legitimate questions I've seen or been asked already, and marking these dungeons as "completed" is going to cause a ton of wipes, frustrated players, kicks, and "House rules" that are unfair to new players. Please, mark these as "First time" SE, it will avoid a lot of pain with that simple tiny little message pop up.

On a side note that is related, there is a cheaper shortcut to just do 2.0-2.55 msq of A Realm Reborn (ARR); the other package does ARR plus Heavens Ward (HW) msq content of 3.0-3.56, but is more expensive as a result. This also does NOT grant any levels, you will still be level 1.

Levels: This I am on the fence about, right now you are only allowed 1 per service account, that's fine, and most people who shortcut the story will also buy this to make the catch up process complete. Now we will have people with no clue about mechanics attempting to complete content without even going through the process of learning how to play the class they currently are. Thankfully, on Balmung, these people are likely "smurfs" or "alts" and this will be less common as most people have a main trained in everything but they want their OC to be trained as X class. Other servers that are still open to new characters and population are going to be the ones suffering most from this inexperience. Yes we have cross world duty finder but you are more likely to get someone from your own world I find rather than other worlds. Yes they prompt you to "Go to the tutorial level and learn how to not be completely horrible at your job" but it's a poor and painful alternative to the learning you go through doing the dungeons. I would rather SE increase the novice hall's lessons to include more complex tactics as "Bonus courses" but knowing them they will sit there and leave it as it because it's still better than nothing. My biggest issue is the novice hall is OPTIONAL. You don't have to do it at all, and you could choose say, dark knight to 60, and proceed to not use grit when you're the only tank, and not use any aggro grabs because you don't even know what those are; now the dps and the healer are dying, it's a party wipe, and you have no idea why everyone is mad and you, or why you got kicked if it was bad enough. This is bad for the new characters because new people will feel they wasted 50$ buying the packs only to get kicked out of every dungeon and told to learn how to play the game and even insulted. Please blacklist and report people who get foul at others or you like this, but by all means this new player can still be kicked for "griefing" well before the ones who kicked are called on being rude and disrespectful.

Final Note:

Please, as a community it is our job to be patient and willing to teach these new players the basics, or those inexperienced in X job, even those relearning their jobs, especially those performing the experiments that help us understand the game better. If the person is rude to you or others for trying to help them, or rude to you and others for stating you are learning, yes kick and report them as applicable, but at least try to be the mature teachers and mentors we should be to each other?P.S: Don’t be that WHM that uses the leash ability the wrong way, jokes are fine and dandy especially with friends, but with great power comes greater responsibilities.

[leireunzueta]

How I edit my landscape photographs taken with Fujifilm cameras

Last week I received an email from a fellow photographer wondering if I could explain how did I finally manage to edit my landscape work with the Fujis. That is why I decided to write about what the process has been like for me. 

My journey with Fujifilm cameras started a couple of years ago when I wanted something smaller and lighter for my trips. Back then, I used to bring a full backpack with a camera, several lenses, filters and a tripod. For cityscapes though, I would bring the 6D and one lens. I remember that it always ended up being a big hustle and so uncomfortable to carry it around from one place to another. So I made up my mind, and chose to get a X Pro1 with a couple of lenses. In the summer of 2015, before going on our month and a half trip to the US and Canada, I really wanted to get familiar with the new system and went to shoot several portraits in the forest with some friends. I was sold immediately and that’s when my love for Fujifilm cameras started. I really enjoyed the sharpness and the quality of the images and I loved the camera itself. It was one of the most beautiful cameras I had ever seen and so much fun to shoot with. 

While in the US, I took the X Pro1 around NYC and other cities in California, Oregon and Washington. I was really happy, it was perfect for what I wanted. Small and great, much easier to carry on a day out exploring the streets than lugging around the 6D. I also shot landscapes with the Fuji around the Capilano Suspension Bridge near Vancouver and in the Olympic Peninsula in WA. The experiment with a new system turned out to be really exciting and I was happy with the results. So last year (May 2016), I got the XT1, and up until August or so my 6D stayed in a shelf. I also stopped taking a bag with filters, the tripod... and guess what? Everything felt lighter and so much comfortable. I loved everything about the cameras and when I used them for portraits or as daily carry I literally thought I would sell my Canon gear.

My favorite thing about these cameras has always been their size, the layout of buttons and dials, the EVF and simply how beautiful they are. Also the dynamic range is incredible, and I’m always amazed by how I can get the perfect balance between the highlights and shadows. This is so much better compared to my 6D where I always have to underexpose to get some details in the clouds in post production. With the Fujis though, it only takes one look through the viewfinder to adjust the settings and you’re done. But there was something major that stopped me from selling my Canon and actually keeping both systems, and that was my editing. I couldn’t match the looks between my Canon and Fuji files. For some reason the landscapes were really difficult to edit to my liking. I could have given up and sell all my Fuji gear, but I didn’t. I just loved it so much for all the other situations!

Now that I think about it and after months of working on it, I guess my problem was with colors and the learning curve of working with a different kind of sensor and processor. I know people love the color these cameras produce, but I don’t really enjoy the blue tones SOOC and I totally dislike the greens and the way the camera renders them in landscape photographs. I have also figured out that the photographs I make on cloudy and misty days are much easier to edit to my liking than the ones taken on sunny days, I just can’t handle to edit those blue, cloudless skies (this also happens to me with the 6D, by the way). I love muted tones and for some reason I couldn’t achieve that with my usual editing. Sometimes the vivid colors of these files just don’t speak to me because I find them really different to my editing. So it was a matter of learning what works for me and what doesn’t when post processing the files and that, unfortunately, took me longer than expected.

As I mentioned earlier, if you take a look around my portfolio, you will see that the majority of my work is done on rainy and cloudy days. I believe it’s the atmosphere of those days that really pulls me to get out and photograph nature and landscapes. Light conditions and the time of the day that you shoot at can make a phograph go from stunning to meh. That is a fact. So I started to go out to photograph on days like those described above, and slowly I started developing some presets that worked for these images. Rich colors mixed with dark shadows, that was it! I developed a moody and dark way of editing that really caught my attention and made me really picky when choosing the time and conditions in which I went out to shoot with the Fujifilm cameras. 

Last summer we went on a 13000km roadtrip in our van to Norway. I knew that I would be photographing some of the most spectacular locations for landscape and travel photographers like me, so I wanted to be prepared. Since we were sleeping in our van, I decided to bring the big camera bag along with the 6D +17-40mm, the XT1+ 18-55mm and the X100T. For some strange reason, I always reached for the Fujis, so I only used the 6D for 15 photos in total and the 2000 + others were from the XT1 with the kit lens and the X100T. This made me even more excited than the previous year. I didn’t hesitate to use the Fuji for landscapes and the conditions were just as I wanted them: misty, moody and super cloudy. People may think I’m a weirdo for loving that kind of weather for my summer holidays, but when travel and landscape photography is your job and a trip like this is the perfect occasion to create some portfolio worth images, that’s all you really wish for. As soon as I came back home from Norway, I pulled out the files into Lightroom and applied my own presets. I was relieved, it had worked. I was improving, and on my way to finally love these cameras and the editing process of their files.

So I guess you are wondering how I post process them, so I will give you a few hints. As I have said on a previous blog post, I achieve these colors by moving the sliders of three different panels of Lightroom. My most used presets are based on VSCO’s Portra 160+++ which I’ve tweaked until I’ve found something that I really like and works for my images. The following are some common adjustments that you can find on the majority of my images: In the tone curves panel, I always lift the shadows and decrease the highlights a bit. If it’s cloudy, I will accentuate those clouds, but if there’s a dull sky, I will usually blow out the highlights in the basic panel. In the HSL panel, my green tones are usually yellowish, and the yellows are a bit more orange. The saturation of the greens is really low but the luminance however, pretty high. I believe split toning is really important too. I usually have a bluish tone for the highlights and a warmer one for the shadows. Those are the three panels where the “magic” happens in my editing.

Many people have asked me to put my presets for sale, but I don’t think I am ready for that because I believe each of us has to develop our taste and work on something that works for our images. I really encourage people to just keep working on it and not copying literally other’s editing processes. I could show you screenshots of my editing panels, but I adjust every slider in each image, so I don’t think that is worth it. However, I do have some before and after screenshots where you actually see what I mean (check previous blog posts). But I am willing to give people tips and talk about how to think on your editing while you are making the actual photographs and how to improve their editing once you are in Lightroom. If people are interested, I may even create some videos to show you how I work in Lightroom and I can make some videos also editing some of your RAWs, if that is something you might enjoy. 

So what is my plan from now on… Ever since I started to enjoy my new way of editing with Fujifilm cameras, I’ve been saving up to build a lens collection that I am comfortable with. I am currently looking for the 16mm and the 23mm 1.4 since those are my favorite focal lengths. I’m also keeping my Canon system because I can’t let go of my Sigma 35Art for portraits. I have to say that even though I have 4 digital cameras in my bag, they all have a purpose for the work that I do. Except for the X Pro1 maybe, that I only take out when I feel some nostalgia... and I know for sure that I don’t want to sell it. This summer, we are planning on going on a trip to Japan and Indonesia where I want to bring a Fuji camera with the 16, 23 and the 35 1.4 (that I already own). I want to be able to travel light, with everything that I need in a ONA bag. In some of the tests that I’ve seen, it seems like the new XT2 and X PRO2 show less mushing in landscape photographs, and I would love to hear from those who own any of them if that is true or if it's just my eyes suffering from G.A.S (which I admit, Fujifilm cameras make me have it). Hopefully, I will be able to try that for myself sometime soon and we’ll see where that leads to. 

Probably this post was longer than expected and doesn’t answer all your questions... or maybe it leaves out some important information that you were expecting to hear from me. If that is the case, please don’t hesitate to write down in the comments or dropping me an email with your questions. I will try to do my best to give you a detailed answer. 

I would like to finish this post with the before and afters of my favorite 25 photos I’ve taken with the Fujis so far. I hope you like them!