Tales of a Lex

Man: Oh my god! You’re coming! You’re comin’ after me! I don’t know- ohhh, jesus, here you-

As he speaks, he turns the camera to look over his shoulder, revealing about six tiny kittens running through the grass after him.

Man: Oh m’god! You’re still comin’! 

He turns the camera back forward, still running.

Man: Ohh m’god! You’re gonna eat me alive! I don’t know what to do!

He turns the camera again as the closest kitten reaches his feet.

Man (voice rising in pitch): Oh my god, now it’s got me! Oh m’god! Ohhhh god, ohhh…

With this imitation of dying gasps, he drops to the grass; the camera captures the remaining five kittens as they catch up to him. The last kitten is able to face the camera directly.

Man: Hi. 

Avatar: Magic is limited to the four elements (and some spirit stuff). Furthermore, everyone except the Avatar is limited to at most just one element.

The magic battles are spectacular displays of creativity where each element is utilized to its full potential in a variety of ways.

Harry Potter: Magic is basically limitless, with there being a spell to do pretty much anything and any wizard can learn it, including an instant-death spell.

Which is why fighters on both sides only ever go for the best and most effective spells (Avada Kedavra for bad guys, Expelliarmus for good guys) and magic battles look like this:

I know what you’re talking about. With the most obvious example being Spiderman vs. Superman.

Spiderman’s powers being basically the same for 60 years now, and writers had to come up with new ways for him to use his abilities.

While Superman (especially in the silver age) is pulling new powers out of his ass at every given opportunity.

But I think unlike Harry Potter where there’s no reason for wizards to use anything except their go-to spell, Superman does use the full array of his powers to deal with different foes.

#this is important context #if you weren’t around at the time it is easy to miss but #anti-corporate sentiment was pretty much the lynchpin of cyberpunk until there were movies and games making money off it #it was the 1980s you guys #the entire point was that corporations are evil and technology should be used to circumvent them and escape their control over our lives #and not be used to make ourselves into another product #now that the internet is entirely monetized and corporate it’s harder to remember that originally it was synonymous w freedom & independence

it feels better than drugs when i finish making a thing—and then show it off or gift it.

and then so people my age say to me ‘well—i can’t draw/paint/knit/etc. like you can. my stuff would be terrible.’ yeah, well duh—a part of developing skill is sucking at something and then practicing it over and over and over again until you suck less. u’ll have a hard time feeling lonely or bored when you can’t stop thinking abt a technique you want to try or something you want to make for someone else. making things has SAVED MY LIFE. it gave me a reason to keep living day after day when i wanted to die.

making things improved my generational relationships (when i worked for the newspaper i would talk to customers abt jamming recipes or cross-stitch, one of my grandmas always gives me pattern books and tell me abt when she knitted things for mom, my other grandma is giving me a wedding quilt that HER grandma gave her 50 years ago because she knows i will appreciate it). it also got me likeminded friends who also make things.

There is a little shrine that offers shade and a place to sit. A disembodied voice asks you about happenings in the world, what you’ve been up to, and so on. If you give them entertaining stories, or give valuable info, the voice will give advice on how to better survive in the area, or produce a small trinket.

A group of hooligans who get around the desert on shields and sails made of capes who ride the crazy winds.

A crazy looking old man is preaching about the end times. He might be on to something. The sun has slowly been taking longer to come up and longer to go down and keeps getting hotter. Its almost unbearable. Eventually it scorches the land and burns crops, small animals, and even starts small fires.

An old monsterous being has woken up deep below the earth. Its slowly digging its way out of the earth and a large sink hole has appeared where you think the mouth is.

A wizard is trying to bring back an old ocean that dried up long ago, and all the sea creatures with it.

Under a few layers of sand you find a trap door. It opens up into an upside down pyramid dungeon filled with all sorts of traps and monsters.

Help a NPC out. He calls himself an “archaeologist”, but really just seems like a grave robber. When is it even okay to dig someone up? Help him dig up a site to do “research” or whatever. 

An oasis thats actually just a mimic or four.

A crazy wizard is summoning storms and messing up

There is a lush green forest in the middle of nowhere. There is rain, animals, 

I have no faith in a proper investigation.

I have seen many things being said about the German people…

About our angry way of speaking, of people confusing Germans with Bavarians, of clichés and the everpresent ghost of nationalsocialism.

But never, I repeat, never have I, as a German, seen any image that represents this nation’s mentality as perfect as this:

Currently for GotE, I try to aim for around 5k words a chapter, though sometimes it’s more or less depending on the plot beat I end on. My real goal is to make sure something happened, in a way that answers a question or solves a problem, while introducing a new one. 5k’s been a good benchmark, considering the length of GotE as a story, but it can vary.

I like to think about how I can make a story fun, or how I can create a new or intriguing character motivation to propel the plot. One of my biggest goals is to not only enjoy writing the story and bring it to life, but also make it something that can surprise and entertain my audience. What happens if I pull the rug out from this character? What if due to one event getting triggered, this event can’t happen, or something different happens entirely?

My inspiration often comes from mystery novels, music, and various experiences + research. Mysteries are my favorite thing, and are great to read and analyze for how they introduce bits of information at a time, are solvable if you pay attention, but still can blindside with the ending. Music-wise, it varies. Fleet Foxes and stuff like Blondie, Cyndi Lauper or Thompson Twins are big ones for atmosphere and tone. I also just had an idea for the end of the first half of GotE from a horror movie soundtrack (it’s not as scary as it sounds, I swear). I tend to derive inspiration for setting and symbolism from experiences in botany/entomology/ecology.