August 29, 2012

more untitled shit

skimmin' through your pics
missin' you
wanting to hold you
and love you.

life holds us back
worlds hold us away
i can still breathe
but i want you.

my heart beats in fear
that the days will end
with you so far gone
and i'll never see you again.

but you do what you must
and i won't hold you back
but know that i miss you
and i love you.

The Lonely Mind

the lonely mind roams
and the lonely mind gets lost
and the lonely mind conquers itself
in loneliness and fear.

the lonely mind finds gray areas
and the lonely mind stays there
and the lonely mind refuses
to find shades of color.

the lonely mind enjoys being alone
and reveling in a pool of electrons
that charge up a downward spiral
when there's probably nothing there.

but all the lonely mind seeks is an end,
a companion that won't make it lonely,
a reason to avoid the ideas it designs,
a reason to avoid the gray.

August 28, 2012

untitled. *sigh*

Haven't escaped the woods yet,
And now, it grows dark.
Is it the shadows of a bright fire
Started by an invisible volcano?
The path ahead is unsure,
But should not be underestimated.
You may have taken damage,
But lead with your best tool.

The problem with the darkness
Is that you can not see.
The problem with the the woods
Is that you should have left.
Dangers of all kinds
And you know none of them.
You need water.
You need to drink.

But is it the thirst that drive you?
Why do you walk?
The fall would be easier,
But then where would you be?
No one would find you
As you lay there, collapsed.
However, it is not a legacy
That you are looking for.

Dark roads, invisible fires,
Everything escapes what make sense.
Yet you continue with hope.
You lead yourself with your blind eye.
You put everything on the line,
To travel this dark road in the woods,
Hoping for a new kind of light
Because it looked grander than you.

August 21, 2012

This doesn't have a title

all of this.
we sleep with power.
some don't sleep.
i prefer the winds.
sun down sun up sun down again.
breaking patterns.
produce clouds and make us assume
because we didn't see
and we couldn't see
in the darkness
that was artificially real.

plan this game.
plan the attack.
all of that planning will disappear
with the single roll of the dice
down the hill
down 
down
down
and into the gutter
where you get snake eyes.
i don't know if that's technically bad
but i rather not get bit.

and all of you will continue to love
and continue to hate
and continue to travel the spectrum
until the traveling stops.
there will be no refs.
no coaches.
no players.
no game to play.
recklessness and endangerment
was the path of the day
but today
we met destruction.

these are colors of desire.
this is how we live.
and sometimes, we don't live.

and when we don't live we waste.
and when we waste we hurt.
and when we hurt we reach.
and when someone grabs us we live again.

but time is infinite.
but ours is limited.
and ours is wasted.
and ours is precious.
but its infinite for all those things
that can not measure it.

the message will get lost
upon the lack of care.
and then you will never know
what a legacy was.
and you will never have a page.
and you will never have a title.
so you're better off staring at the sun
than praying for rain.

August 13, 2012

Marvel vs. Capcom Origins: A Fair Warning



So Capcom recently annouced the release of a downloadable game titled "Marvel vs. Capcom: Origins" for PSN and XBL. MvCO will come packed with Marvel vs. Capcom 1 and Marvel Super Heroes.

I own neither system, and yet, I am quite excited. The games mentioned are my two favorites in the series. Marvel Super Heroes has great one-on-one action (I believe that most prefer X-Men: Children of the Atom in terms of that, but I honestly super suck at it and have no idea how that game works), and Marvel vs. Capcom 1 has the most insane 2 on 2 action you can find.

These games, however, are insanely broken, maybe even more so than Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Now both games have a higher percentage of viable characters, but what those characters can do and exactly how broken those characters can be potentially exceeds how ridiculous Marvel vs. Capcom 2's optimum brokenness is.

You see, on the low, MvC1 (and to a slightly smaller extent, MSH) has been advanced far beyond normal comprehension for the past 10 years via MAME and, more recently, GGPO. While I believe that MSH will probably remain slightly familiar to those who played it before, there are more than enough things that might even make the vets go "what the fuck?"

But in MvC1? Forget about it.

I'm talking about uncombo'd loops, insane wavedashing, insane resets, ambigious cross ups, guaranteed guard breaks... that game is going to be a problem, and I really hope that Capcom doesn't patch it up because I think all that craziness is what makes MvC1 so fucking awesome and so fucking unique. There are things that can be done in that game that can't be done in other vs. games, and, if the people accept it, it will give that game the identity it deserves.

But don't take my word for it... let me show you some game play of recent years that will blow your mind.

What I am about to show you aren't combo videos. These are actual matches played in real time...

These are "casual" matches.


This is a First to 10 Set... serious business.



And even with a "No Infinite" agreement with the players, this game still comes off as crazier and more entertaining than UMvC3 to me. No flipping out of dropped air combos here.




So I'm just saying... when you finally get your hands on MvC:O this fall, don't be surprised if you get blown the fuck up by some shit that you have never seen before in your entire life of playing fighting games. This game has been taken to a new level, a level equivalent to, but totally different from Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

BONUS:
Month -1 Marvel Super Hero tech.



If you hated gems in Street Fighter X Tekken, then when both players hold Start at the beginning of the 
match, gems turn off... if, of course, Capcom keeps that feature in. See? Capcom used to be so ingenious.

Villains have Character, Too

My internal editor strikes again.

Like, I was thinking that maybe the villain(s) of the book, and perhaps the villains in general, haven't exactly been fleshed out completely as characters. Like, as they stand, I really have villains, and they have powers and abilities and the drive to either take over or destroy the world, but who exactly are these guys? Why do they do what they do? And what do they do on their spare time? Do they have spare time? Why or why not?

Of course, once again, this is why I'm definitely going to have to rewrite everything, because I do want to implement some kind of depth in the series. The lack of depth is the reason that I'm sure the books wouldn't have been published when everyone was all like "Oh, you should get your books published!" when I was younger. (I could obviously be wrong, but based on how publishing works, I doubt it.)

I guess some day I'll have to lay down the groundwork behind the villains, and maybe lay down some extra groundwork on the heroes and everyone that lays in between as well.

For now, I guess the best approach is to keep it simple and keep it fun and make it as epic as possible. Which is good. I think that even with the over thinking that I've been doing, my writing has been keeping me relatively sane as of late.

Relatively.

August 12, 2012

The Internal Conflicts of the First Book


So I'm writing the first book in the Marko Man series, and it's coming along... I'm getting the minimum 200 words a day, and because of work and life and stuff, I'm not exactly finding much time to get that much more than 200 words. The most I've written thus far couldn't have been much more than 1300 words.

But besides life's limitations on this extended project of finishing the series in its entirety lies an internal conflict that I'm having when it comes to writing this first book. You see, I'm having a hard time making this as epic as my usual material while making it a "first book" if you will. Even with the weathered down fighting styles, my recent writings with Marko Man and company have found themselves representing a relatively grand scale. On contrast with what I'm doing now, there isn't much grand at all. Granted, I haven't gotten into some of the grander parts of the story yet (both in this particular book and in this series), but at the same time, first impressions are everything and even though I know where this story is going to go, I'm not 100% impressed with what I've done thus far.

Of course, that's what the rewrites that I will doing after I'm all said and done with this are for, right? That's what I'm thinking, but it still worries me a bit.

I don't want to start over again. This time, I'm in the middle of the fourth chapter, which isn't that deep, but right now it's more than I'm willing to want to rewrite at this time, especially since I'm hardly getting enough writing in to begin with, but I guess I just need to press on. If I know that this is going to get much better, and I know that I will be rewriting this once all ten books are in draft form, then I should have nothing to worry about.

And it is now that I remember my "internal editor" and how you have all the advice that says that I should ignore it when it comes to writing that first draft.

Guess I'm going to ignore it.

But I am going to write that "Chapter Zero" as a placeholder for a more interesting beginning, and then try to fit it in better later... *sigh* I think I'm making this out to be harder than it has to be.

August 11, 2012

Because I Think It's Important I Keep a Log of the Crazier Dreams...


I just don't understand my dreams sometimes...

Like in the dream I just had, I fought mad racist white dudes, watched Jeffrey Butler F5 the shit out of some fat chick and having some random little kid pin her 1, 2, 3 (which I remember had me laughing and I'm pretty sure had me laughing in my sleep), then I was in someone's house stealing important data files that they didn't know they had, only for some hot secret agent chick to goad me into giving her a foot massage to ensure that she'd tell no one I was there.

Like, what dafuq does that dream even mean?

August 3, 2012

False Start


So I came up with some rules for the books I'm writing:

1) If good things happen to the good guys for no logical reason, there must be a consequence.
2) If good things happen to the good guys for a logical reason, there can still be a consequence.
3) If good things happen to the bad guy for no logical reason, we call it plot advancement. lol

I was also trying to ensure character development and employ themes and make things interesting and all kinds of funny shit. But in the end, I was forgetting the most important rule to writing, and especially to writing the Marko Man series:

HAVE FUN!

And thus, I had a false start. The start in and of itself was weak, and it was probably due to all the prssure of all the rules that I was coming up with. So no more pressure. I'm gonna start over (I didnt get that deep though, maybe 300 words in) and I'm gonna have fun with it.

I can deal with all the intellecutal depths when I start the rewrites. But for now? I have to remember...

Fun Comes First.

August 1, 2012

A Random Adventure Within My Mind Part 10

King started to glow his golden aura again, and his power was increasing again, and he was growing slightly bigger. Team Ultimate looked on in awe at King's growing power, unsure of what was coming next.

"It is time I end this," King said. "No more games, I will have to crush all of you!"

King suddenly vanished before the Team's eyes. A quick analysis from Cyron found that King had teleported himself a few miles away from his original location, hovering in the sky, still glowing.

"What's he planning?" Keisha asked Cyron.

"Inconclusive," he replied.

"Great intel," Convict said.

"So what are we gonna do?" RPJ asked.

"We take the staff and we take the crown," Marko said with determination in his voice, "that's what."

"But Marko --"

"Nope, no excuses," Marko interrupted. "Forget them. We don't have time to think about our weakness or our disadvantages. Only think of your strengths. We can do this."

Suddenly, the ground started to quake. The buildings around them started to shake, and then they started to rise up out of the ground. The Team looked and saw all of the building that were once down on the ground floating.

"Holy shit."

The buildings started to fall down towards the team. Cyron was able to dodge the buildings relatively easily being airborne, but the others had to rush and run as fast as they could to avoid the falling buildings. Cyron watched as the building fell in the attempt of crushing his teammate, and he seriously couldn't tell if they made it out all right. He noticed Marko climbing out of the rubble first, then Keisha, then Convict and RPJ.

"What the fuck was that?" Keisha said. "How the fuck --"

"I dunno yet," Marko interrupted once again, "but we are. Period. Wanna know why?"

"'Cause we're fucking Team Ultimate," Convict said, getting into Marko's heroic spirit.

"Fuck yeah."

As if to challenge the renewed Team Ultimate spirit, more buildings started flying in the air.

"Fuck it," Marko said. "We need the crown, and we need the staff. Let's do this."

Marko took off running in King's direction towards the buildings. Convict followed, with RPJ and Keisha running as well, and Cyron still in the air.

"YOU GUYS ARE FOOLS!" King said. "YOU CAN NOT CONTEND WITH MY POWER! DIE!"

The buildings started to fly towards the Team. One was headed towards Marko, and he was able to quickly use a Blaze Dash to avoid the building completely and continued to run. Convict found himself smashing his way through the building with his raw strength. RPJ hopped onto the building that came his way, climbed on the long top side of it, and started to run on it as it passed him by. Keisha used her hair to get a building clear out of her way. Cyron used his Heavy Bullet Cannon to blast a building into smithereens.

Marko was ahead of the pack, and he kept running as building kept flying into his path. He stayed quick on his feet, making long strides to dodge the buildings. King came to the conclusion that he probably wasn't going to hit Marko, so he sent two buildings Convict's way. Convict managed to crush his way into one, but before he could crush his way out of it, a second building collapsed on him. Marko turned around and found himself Bazooka Blasting the debris away to try and help Convict get out. Cyron clear dodged a building that was headed his way to help Marko out with the save Convict process by using his Heavy Bullet Cannon to help get Convict out. Keisha got in on the help as well by using her hair to pick up debris.

Meanwhile, RPJ kept pressing ahead. The buildings were still flying, but for the most part, they seemed to be headed for the rest of the Team while RPJ was able to get a clear run in for a while. Marko, Cyron, and Keisha teamed up to keep the buildings out of the way while RPJ kept running towards King seemingly unnoticed. Convict finally busted his way out of the mess he was in, and he pressed forward. Just as he got out, the ground below RPJ's feet started to shake just to knock him down, and a building was falling towards him while he was down on the ground. Convict was able to make his way to RPJ and stood over him to punch a hole in the building to make sure that neither him or RPJ would get crushed.

"Help them out," Marko commanded. "I've got the diversion covered."

Marko quickly jumped on the building that was crumbling on top of Convict and RPJ, and he Blaze Dashed the remaining length of the fallen building and launched himself into the air. He shot a single Megodoken towards King, not to hit or do damage if it did hit, but simply make himself the spectacle of the hour. King saw Marko, and sent four buildings his way. He was pretty easily able to Blaze Dash out of the way of the four buildings, still headed towards King.

Cyron and Keisha was able to get Convict and RPJ out of the latest building's last mess pretty easily.

"You guys all right?" Keisha asked.

"Yeah," RPJ replied, "but next time? I'm on top."

"Whatever," Convict said.

"Stop joking," Cyron said, "we gotta help Marko out, and he's already ridiculously far ahead."

The rest of the Team started to press forward while Marko was still diverting all the attention of King and his flying buildings. Marko was avoiding the buildings clearly, and he continued to press forward. King noticed that he was unable to hit Marko with any of these buildings, and he knew that he would be within striking range pretty soon, so he decided to leave him alone and sent buildings towards the rest of the Team. Marko saw the buildings fly past him, which made him stop. He turned around to see that the Team was able to handle themselves, but he was pretty sure that he was going to need the rest of the Team to help finish the job against King, so he came to a stop.

King continued to send buildings at RPJ, Cyron, Convict, and Keisha. While they were doing their best to keep the buildings from smashing them into dust, it was slowing down their process immensely, especially since King decided to send more buildings at them at a given time.

"I hope this doesn't drain me too much," Marko said, "but I'm going to need them for this to work... here goes nothing."

Marko started to charge up an attack.

"Final..."

Marko was charging up the most powerful attack in his arsenal.

"Bazooka..."

He was hoping that he could use it to try and slow down King's building hurling ways.

"Beam!"

Marko launched the Final Bazooka Beam at King. It completely obliterated a building that was flying in its path, and it hit King. It seemed to have done some damage, as King let it hit him, not expecting it to be as powerful as it was especially from the distance, but it hit, it hurt, and it did slow King down a bit, giving the rest of the Team time to catch up.

Marko stopped the attack as the rest of the Team progress past him. Cyron took the time to slow up and check on Marko.

"You okay man?"

"I'll be fine."

"You sure? You used up a lot of energy doing that."

"Maybe, but I'm not going to be able to take off his crown and relief him of his staff by myself. We got to do this. Emphasis on we."

"Affirmative."

Cyron took off flying again while Marko gathered energy and started running. King launched a few more buildings at Team Ultimate, and they were able to get pass the buildings just fine, so he stopped launching them.

"YOU FOOLS! YOU AMAZE ME! BUT YOU CAN STOP AMAZING ME NOW!"

King staff started to glow, then he launched a huge beam in the direction of the Team. They were able to split up and dodge it, but the beam was definitely powerful enough to wipe out any one of them in one shot. He launched this extra powerful beam at Cyron, who was flying and was able to dodge the blast easily. He then launched it at RPJ, who was fast enough on his feet to dodge the blast. Cyron's analysis led him to the conclusion that Keisha was next target, and he had a feeling that she wouldn't be limber enough to dodge the beam on her own, so he flew just above her. Sure enough, the next beam from King was aimed at Keisha.

"Keisha!" Cyron yelled. "Grab my hand!"

Keisha immediately used her hair to grab Cyron's hand, and Cyron pulled her up while she pulled herself up. With the momentum from all that movement, Cyron was able to launch her forward for quite a distance. King witnessed the teamwork from Team Ultimate, and it started to frustrate him.

"OKAY, SO YOU'RE A TEAM? HOW ABOUT I DIVIDE AND CONQUER?"

King went back to lifting up buildings, but this time he made sure he had about twenty buildings.

"Convict, meet up with RPJ!" Marko yelled. "Cyron, you with Keisha!"

"What about you?" RPJ yelled back.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine."

Buildings flew towards Cyron and Keisha, and Cyron was able to fly Keisha out of the way of the buildings. Buildings flew towards RPJ and Convict, and they pretty much punched, kicked, batted, and smashed their way out of that mess. Marko, on the other hand, maintained his location as the buildings came his way, and they slammed into him.

"Whoa!" Keisha said, seeing what happened. "Marko! We gotta get him out of there."

Cyron was about to fly over to help Marko.

"He said he'll be fine," Convict said. "Let him rock and let's get to King."

"But --"

"He'll be fine."

Convict and Keisha nodded, then the rest of the Team proceeded towards King.

"YOU'VE LOST YOUR BEST MAN AND YOU THINK YOU CAN TAKE ME?"

"What makes you think he was the best?" Convict said, obviously insulted by King's statement. He charged forward, really wanting to sock King in the face. King fired a huge blast at Convict, and he was able to dodge it, but the explosion still knocked Convict off course.

"PLEASE! WITHOUT MARKO MAN, YOU'RE ALL NOTHING."

"Now that's where you're wrong," RPJ said, making his move. King sent five buildings RPJ's way, so he jumped on one of them, then he jumped towards another, and another, and another, but that building collided with the last one, which messed RPJ's footing for the final jump off the final building wall, having him fall towards the ground.

"AND I PROVE THAT YOU'RE NOTHING ONCE AGAIN! MARKO'S DOWN? YOU'RE ALL DOWN!"

Cyron analyzed the current situation, trying to come up with a plan, but he had nothing because he did not know about the unknown that was Marko Man. He looked like he was finished under the rubble of the buildings, but Convict was sure that he was fine, so he didn't know what to do.

"If you're confused, you could at least let me go so that I can try and help the others."

Cyron looked at Keisha, then he let her drop towards the ground.

"I'll provide cover," Cyron said. "Bullet Cannon!"

To conserve energy, Cyron used the Bullet Cannon as opposed to the Heavy Bullet Cannon, and he sent those blasts King's way. King didn't bother paying those blasts any mind, and he launched a building at Cyron. Cyron dodged the building and continued to shoot. King continued to pay the blasts no mind, but this time he launched that powerful beam attack of his. Cyron was able to dodge that was well, and he continued to fire at King.

"YOU LIKE RAPID FIRE BLASTS? GET A LOAD OF THIS!"

King created ten huge golden energy blasts and had them hover around him. He then launched four golden energy blasts into the sky.

"IT'S CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF DOOM!"

The blasts that were surrounding King exploded and sent an uncountable amount of blasts the Team's way. At the same time, the blasts that were in the air exploded and also sent an uncountable amount of blasts the Team's way. Before he had to deal with the blasts, he saw Marko in the distance, behind King waving.

"Cyron, I can find Convict... holy shit! Cyron watch out!"

Cyron looked up, and he saw the blasts coming down towards him. Keisha took cover under a piece of brick, hoping that it would protect her. Cyron dived down towards Keisha, dodging blasts all over the place. They were seemingly coming from all directions, and once Cyron got to Keisha, he managed to blast a deeper hole in order to protect Keisha and himself from the onslaught of blasts that King had launched with all of his power.

Soon, the all of the blasts had finished up. King looked in the distance, and he didn't see any of the heroes anywhere.

"YES! YES! THEY'RE FINALLY FINISHED! I KILLED THEM!"

King's power and size started to decrease back to what it was before he decided that he could no longer hold back. He landed on the ground triumphantly, proud of the fact that he was able to take Team Ultimate down.

"Now all I have to do is reap their souls," King said. "They were a persistent bunch. I never thought I'd ever have to use that much power. But no matter, with them dead, I can reap their very, very strong souls, and no one will be able to stop me!"

King raised his staff in the air, hoping to reap the souls of the fallen Team Ultimate members, but nothing happened.

"What? What's going on?"

"Turn around and find out."

King heard Marko's voice, and he turned around, surprised to see all five Team Ultimate members still in tact. Keisha wrapped her hair around King's arm and King's neck. Convict held Keisha's hair in place, and Cyron held Keisha's body in place, in case King threw up last second resistance, which he did.

"Hurry!" Convict said. "Hit him now!"

"Static Shock!"

RPJ hopped forward and popped King in his chin with the Static Shock kick. It forced him to release his staff to Keisha's hair, and with a Blaze Dash from Marko, he scooped up his crown from his tilted head. With neither his crown or his staff, King was completely powerless, and he fell to the ground, hurt from RPJ's kick.

"Well, look at that," Marko said. "Never has it been more fitting to say checkmate."

King struggled to get up. He looked, and he found himself completely surrounded and with no defense. Marko slammed the crown to the ground and stomped on it, and Convict took the staff from Keisha's hair and broke it in half.

"And with that, all the souls you stole should be able to rest in peace," Marko said. "And you? Well, I could care less about what happens to your soul. Bazooka Blast!"

Marko launched one last Bazooka Blast at King, and it killed him instantly.

"Still ruthless against evil, I see," RPJ noticed.

"Yup," Marko replied. "Well, I guess we can go home."

"Yeah..." Keisha said, "how exactly are we getting home exactly?"

"With this."

Marko pulled out a device, pressed a button, and a wormhole that was supposed to take them back to their home dimension was made.

"Wait a second, this was a different dimension?" RPJ said. "How the fuck was anyone supposed to know that?"

"Yeah, and do you what kind of plot holes this creates?" Convict said. "How did we get here in the first place?"

"Guys, guys, you're reading too much into this," Marko said. "I'm starting the real series soon, this was merely a tune up, and I just came up with the 'not so obviously another dimension' thing like, maybe, three parts ago. And besides, this wasn't about plot or character development or anything like that. I was just trying to make this as epic as possible. And was it epic?"

"Affirmative," Cyron replied immediately. "Very epic indeed."

"Alrighty then. So King's dead, souls can rest in peace, and the story, even with all its deficiencies, was epic, so we can go home. Missions accomplished. We rock. Now wait until I'm done with the series and you see what I really have in store for you guys."

Marko walked towards the wormhole with a smile on his face.

"Wait!" Cyron said.

"What now?" Marko said.

"The destination that wormhole will send us is relatively inconclusive... there's a chance we might go home, and there's a chance we might end up in another dimension."

"Well Cyron, if you don't want to enter, and you'd rather stay here..."

Marko pointed at the mass destruction that laid behind them with all the buildings and all of the King's lifeless minions.

"... then you're more than welcome to stay here."

"We'll miss you!" Keisha joked.

"Speak for yourself," Convict added. "One less teammate means more spotlight for me!"

"You mean more looking like an idiot," RPJ said. "You have nothing to gain from Cyron staying here."

"Hmmm... you're right."

Convict grabbed Cyron and pulled him towards the wormhole.

"Come on, get in there you sonofaglitch."

Convict pushed Cyron into the wormhole. RPJ shook his head and followed. Marko took Keisha's hand and helped her in.

"After you."

"You ain't slick."

"I wasn't trying to be."

Keisha entered the wormhole, Marko followed, and the wormhole was closed.

THE END

*************************
That little exchange between Marko and Keisha at the end was in reference to a joke that I used to use but I'm pretty sure I won't be using in the actual series... I might change my mind about it, I'm kinda on the fence with it for different reasons... but we'll see what happens.

And anyway, that is the end of this Random Adventure Within My Mind. It was fun as hell to write (when I was writing it) and I hope you had fun reading it. Eventually, I'll link this thing up properly for easier reading in the future for both future readers and returning readers, but for now, this thing is over...

Oh wait... I almost forgot... I had an alternate ending in mind. LOL I'll definitely have it done before August ends. 

I do have some other Marko Man material I want to put up here, such as the few Sparring Sessions I wrote and this one story that I have to transfer from paper and pen to computer that I wrote... I got some pretty cool stuff coming in the distant future, but for now, I'm seriously getting the Marko Man series started. 

Seriously.

So until next time, friends.

And yeah, Alternate Ending to this is coming before August ends. I'm sure of it. :}D