D'OH!

I had my laptop open. Fully prepared to blog. But then, I got distracted. And what I thought would be a small project turned out to take me nine hours. And I didn't even get everything done I wanted to.

GAH. I'm an idiot.

Blog tomorrow.

In continuing the trend of me working on Red Hood Rider at work, today, I made a decision regarding the time that Gary gets his power-up. (This being an incredibly notable event.) In the original script, this single event was enough that Gary, instantly, is able to mystically overpower all the enemies, to showcase that, yes, he is significantly more of a badass all of a sudden.

Aside from this being a cliche, and also not the most realistic, it just didn't make sense. How was his power increase suddenly enough to instantly turn the tide in the battle? I didn't actually envision the details of the fight, because I couldn't think of them; nothing made sense.

So, I've made a script revision, which I really love.
Gary's power-up is good and all, but while he's considerably stronger and his new techniques have been unlocked (he gets to demonstrate some of them), he's not an instant expert, so he can't singlehandedly turn the tides of the battle. (He acknowledges this, but says: "...Yet." He notes that he should be able to, with practice, especially since "tide of the battle", via wordplay, falls under the jurisdiction of Water.)

Instead, while he does put on an impressive initial hint at what he'll soon become, he decides that with this extra power unlocked, he should have mastery of something he was already close to mastering, that he had practiced before, but that he was having trouble with, because something was blocking it from working, which he now thinks won't be a problem with anymore.

"Hannah, I think it's about time to show why our tokens have their names."

At this point, Gary and Hannah both touch Sally. "Aegis Shield ready."
"Shining armor, ready."
(Both) "Special synchronize:
Gaia's Wrath!"

Gaia's wrath has a different effect on each of the three. It's a special synchronization move, of the three 'natural' elements: water to drink, air to breathe, earth to create, all as life. The three, by coincidence, also have one of the closest friendships, and their partnership is therefore on par with a fire-ice duo, only theirs is a trio.

The effect on each is different. Gary, in one of the only two instances of this (the other being Sentinel Mode), creates a suit of armor. This one's heavier than the Sentinel armor, because it's the full garb of a stereotypical European Knight: head to toe, with the visor over the eyes, and everything.

From this, he uses his newfound powers to make many copies of himself. Not illusions. Proper copies of himself. Each is in the same armor, which is nearly-invincible. Using a combination of water and soundwaves (shockwaves), Gary's fists (his only weapon in this form) enhance his punches. If any clone is punctured badly enough to be dispelled...well, there's plenty more.

Hannah's staff becomes a shield. I actually drew a picture of it, but scanning it's a pain, so have a crude MS Paint drawing in its place:

...Or I WOULD, if weebly wasn't SCREWING ME OVER again and refusing to upload it even though it has not once had trouble uploading a file before and this was literally just a 200x200 small little PNG drawing which should have been absolutely no issue whatsoever for weebly to handle!
*grumble, grumble*

...Since it won't upload, it's basically a curved, nine-pointed star. Uh...how to explain it. Hmm. You know the Klingon symbol? See how two of the three points kinda-sorta have a curve to them? Well, imagine all three of those as exactly the same size, curving exactly the same way, in about the same angle as the biohazard symbol. (Three go the same way. So imagine what the biohazard symbol would look like if the three points going the opposite direction were gone, and it was just three going the same direction.)

But that's only three points. Well, apply recursion twice (well, once and a half, since true recursion would be 12 I believe): in the three spaces between the three curved points, there are three smaller curved points, curved in the same direction. Six. And then, continuing the rotation the same direction (I drew it with the points facing clockwise), you get three even smaller points between the medium-points and the large points, for nine total.

Basically, you know those windmill toys? (The link I gave was for the points pointing counterclockwise.) Each point is shaped like that, with three large, three medium, and three small, all symmetrical to each other, equally spaced, equally distanced. Really neat, really cool image. Well, that should give you a good idea of what the shield looks like; it's a spiral-shaped SHIELD, which she actually has on her arm. (There's tangible yellow wind in the gaps, so it ends up being sort-of like a round shield.)

As for what her powers actually are...it focuses entirely on the defensive half of her powers. In this case, it allows her to, over a VAST area, control her powers simultaneously (meaning, no need for direct touch or even close proximity; she has an area of effect covering the entire battlefield). All civilians become invisible. If harm comes close, they're instantly teleported away somewhere safer. If that somehow fails, they become indestructible, and failing that, intangible.

Furthermore, she demonstrates the true danger in facing her. Hannah's main threat as a combatant is not in her vast array of offensive abilities, although they are very formidable. The true strength Hannah has is that she can debuff enemies, in this case, removing ALL shielding from foes, effectively diminishing their defenses down to human levels.

As for Sally? She's the 'wrath': just a boost in attack power and physical strength. When she's using this technique, though, she happens to be royally pissed off, so very justifiably, the fight would tip to their favor...especially given they have the aid of an eldritch abomination on their side.

It's pointed out that the enemy has an eldritch abomination as well, but multiple factors mean that a 'strategic retreat' is advised anyway. One, they lost their leverage (the civilians). Two, their defenses are down to human levels and the only reason the riders aren't killing them with their super-enhanced abilities is because they're morally obligated to hold back enough to not kill. Three, in spite of having this massive offense advantage, the riders' defenses are still at top-notch levels.

Four, while they had previously thought that they could puncture through said defenses, if the technique could have been broken, it would have already been broken. (This is because the eldritch abomination fighting with them is more of an assassin, specializing in offing opponents in 1-on-1 fights.) Five, not all eldritch abominations are created equal, and they wager that in a fight between the two...theirs is much weaker than the one supporting the riders.

The others are quick to follow once this has been pointed out.

Well, I was literally JUST gonna blog today, but then the power went out, so I'm not gonna be able to say much before I put my computer into sleep again.

I'll start by saying that at the staff meeting, I got some anonymous compliments, which was nice. Understood where most of them were coming from, though there were a couple that I was curious about. One was that I'm funny. I do try to be, but as an introvert, I can't recall that actually coming out much, so I wonder what made them conclude that.

Another which I found interesting was the artistic one. I am in fact an artist, but it's been...basically a full year, at minimum, since I last drew at work. So I wondered where that comment came from, too.

Still, was nice to see.

Anyway, there was also a package which may or may not have been for me. Within was a bracelet, with a letter. I need to ask my mom about it at some point, because I can't read the letter. If it was for me, it might contain some sensitive info, too. If it wasn't for me, then she'd be the one to fix the problem anyway.

Butyeah. I can't exactly do much with the power out, other than wait for it to come back on. I don't have the battery life to write, and the low-lighting conditions (not to mention aforementioned battery problems considering the need for references, both to my script and artistically) renders drawing nigh-impossible, too.

If my dad gets the generator going, I suppose I could get some done, but I'd be incredibly limited in my capabilities.

Kinda frustrating, actually.

I don't need to give myself more excuses to procrastinate! I'm plenty good enough at making them on my own!

Ah, well.
At least I have strong incentive to use my computer tomorrow:

There's a discover and download song which is really good, yet which I don't have because of my procrastination. (Generally, if I blog, I download; if I don't blog, I don't download.) So since that expires Sunday at Midnight...and tomorrow's Sunday...literally will be FORCED to use the computer in order to not miss the good song.

Really hate keeping my blog readers (few as they may be) in the dark for so long, but it is what it is.

So no family night tonight, but I still wasn't very productive. Tomorrow is, unfortunately, a staff meeting, so not gonna get much done then, either.

I'll probably get the time to blog, though!

Don't anticipate much to say, but I'll finally get a chance to post all of these.
And make my computer stop yelling at me.
(Which is scary. It could always mean much worse things. Never know.)

So today, didn't do much.
Developed a new technique for Hannah in Red Hood Rider, the needles of god: basically, combining razor wind and blow you away into a compact form, packing the combined force of the strongest hurricane meeting the strongest tornado. In other words...a whole lotta hurt.

If it weren't so late, I'd probably describe the technique at great length. Since it is...well...bed.

Now.

So my mom and my older sister both believe that there's something going on with me. They think maybe I'm not eating enough, or maybe I'm depressed, or maybe something else, but...

...It's pretty clear they think that there's SOMETHING in me right now that is "off".

And...honestly?

I...

I, uh...actually think they're right.

Because I feel the exact same way.

I feel like something's wrong with me right now.

I don't have any tangible description to it.

If this is depression, it's not a form of depression I've experienced before, at least not enough to be intimately familiar with it. (I mean, normally, when I'm depressed, I know it because I can tell. I just...can.)

But if it's not depression...what the heck IS it?

I don't know. Physical? Mental? I haven't a clue what's wrong with me.

I just know that there's something about me, which just...doesn't feel right, right now.

And I can't put my finger on what.

It's frustrating.

I have no words for this. No idea. No description. No clue.

I can't recall a single time I've felt something which I wasn't able to identify like this.

Even before I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, I could tell I was feeling down.

But...for this feeling, it's more like, "Am I down? Is that what's causing this? Am I depressed?"

It's not knowing. It's GUESSING. As in, "what else could it be other than depression?", guessing.

I just don't know.
And that's the scariest thing.
To have something WRONG...and not know.

Hey so remember when I said I probably couldn't spend the whole day on mafia?

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaah, aboooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooout that...

...In my defense.
I was a bit busy to, well, borrow an expression, I lost a bet.

And most of that time wasn't actually spent on a game. Rather, it was spent on me beginning to lay the groundworks for hosting a game, based off of a dream.

See, I had this really epic dream last night.
I posted about it on there.
Someone, jokingly, said, "now you should make a mafia setup of it".
It WAS a joke.
And I even responded with a semi-joke!

...But then I thought...

...You know...

...That wouldn't actually be such a bad idea.

So I did some writing.
Mafia games normally have some throwaway flavor text.
I did some actual WRITING.
As in, serious, actual, I'm building a world with actual characters, WRITING.
As a mafia game.

This is the sort of ambitious project I got in trouble with for doing before.
But in my maturity...I...actually think I can do it.

I seriously, legitimately, think I can make this game be a good one.

So I'm going to spend some further time making it. Maybe even drawing art for it.
And release a game, a mafia game, that should feel more like a novella than an actual game.

It may not work out, but I want to try it.
I really, really do.

You know, after all that trouble I went through to get a notepad file up to write down a blog entry in the first place (again: it takes about 10-15 minutes to get my computer in full working order from cold hibernation, which it has been in for over a day), I really should blog something meaningful.

But...I don't feel like it, sorry. I don't have anything tomorrow (there's no tae kwon do again), so that means I'll be free to do whatever, and I can't spend it ALL on, say, mafia. Or tvtropes for that matter. Even if I rotated between the two, I'd get really bored and exhausted. So by sheer force of boredom if nothing else, I'll be forced to do something productive tomorrow.

And it might as well start with a blog.

Don't have much to say today, sorry. I mostly made notes for my novel that I need to type up, which I made in lieu of content for this blog. I'd post it, but I want to keep as many details as possible about my novel in ~suspense~ until people actually read it. (In contrast to my webcomic, which...is an open book.)

So let's talk about yesterday instead.
I helped with a tae kwon do test yesterday. It was just a gold stripe test, and of the six expected students, only two showed up, so not much of a time commitment, but it was still nice to see the students perform. They were good, but I could see the nervousness in them, and how the poor kids kept on second-guessing themselves out of anxiety.

Still, always a treat to see the next generation in action. Then came family night, pretty much immediately. It was Andromeda again. We have three episodes left in Season 3. I do know some aspects of the show (a spoiler regarding them and the commonwealth, for instance), along with the cast changes that happen, but with the exception of the season 5 change, I don't actually know when these changes happen. I just know they do.

It's fun watching every episode and more or less thinking, "when will it happen?", and all the buildup present.
We had donuts for desert. We're getting that a lot. But honestly? I kind-of find it hard to believe I'd ever get tired of donuts for desert, especially given the inherent variety within. There's only so many times you can buy the same pumpkin, chocolate, cherry, blackberry, razzleberry, and blueberry pies before they all just...kinda...blend together. Mini eclairs worked for a short while, but then we got them nearly every week, and the effect wore off fast.

I'm hoping the same doesn't happen for donuts, but...I really don't think it could.

Butyeah. That's been yesterday. Not much to report, other than that my dad's probably leaving for realz this time for a week starting early tomorrow, to help his dad down in Oregon.