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I'd actually like to add to this. Visualization is key, especially for me when I'm reading a book or fanfiction. I need to see it happening to actually understand what's going on. More than this, I need to actually be there. Often, while I'm reading, I'll pretend to be a camera man who is capturing the current scene, as opposed to just seeing it as a movie. If I can picture myself close enough to touch the characters, to interact with them, it helps me to retain the information a lot more. Sometimes I'll even put myself in the shoes of a character, visualizing it from their perspective. My only issue is that I get too drawn in to becoming this character and my mind wanders off on its own tangent. I'll spend five minutes playing out a scenario of something that's not even happening. It works though because, upon resuming my reading, the information is now solidified in my mind because I tied it to something I created.

Basically, for me I need to become part of the story to really take it in. Just try and make yourself a part of the story. You can even invent your own character to come in and interact in each of the scenes. Sort of like an interactive story. Imagine what your character would do or say in response to a scene. I've found this to be very helpful in retaining information on the stories I read.

Hope this helped.

I sleep with a fan pointed on me, have ever since I was in middle school. At first, it wasn't because I couldn't handle the silence, it was more to make sure I kept breathing while I was asleep. At certain points through the night, prior to the introduction of the fan to my sleeping regimen, I'd wake up gasping for air. Never could figure out why, even by going to have it studied. Probably because I couldn't actually sleep in the room I was being studied in. I will say that it's a mixture of both now. I've gotten used to the white noise of the fan in the background, even while I'm sitting at my desk. The silence has become too unnerving and I find myself unable to concentrate without it.

Considering that, towards the end of the hour, you'd be nearing REM sleep, I'd say that no sleep would be better. It's harder to wake up from REM sleep which can leave you feeling a lot groggier starting out in the day. I've often faced this issue a lot in the past, especially when getting ready to do something important, like starting a new job. Too excited/nervous to sleep, I'll lay awake until it's time to get up. I'd rather do this over getting just an hour.

A short nap wouldn't be very harmful. As long as you're not entering REM sleep, a short nap can leave you feeling relaxed and refreshed.

Just remember, even if you can't rest your mind, you should allow time for your body to recover from the physical strain of the day.

I hate to admit it but ... Twilight is more acceptable than ... that ... movie ... Ugh. Between "50 Shades" and "Magic Mike" I can't have movie night with my friends anymore. I don't trust them enough. >.>

Seeing as how dreams are, basically, your subconscious mind trying to sort things out, I'd say that there may be some underlying issues. Unresolved conflicts of some sort. You say that there's always another person with you and that you're trying to escape from something. Maybe you have some unresolved conflict with a close friend or family member? Something your subconscious might be trying to escape from. The people watching could be due to an anxiety caused by the conflict. I'm no psychologist and I have a very limited understanding about the human psyche so I could be wrong here but I'd think about any major, or even minor, events that have happened recently. Maybe you need to get something off your chest.

I do know that, typically, when the conflict your subconscious is fixated on has been resolved, recurring nightmares tend to dissipate. If the issue continues to occur and you can't find where the problem lies, I'd recommend seeing a professional. Nightmares, especially recurring ones, are a major burden. They leave us feeling tired, confused, and sometimes even scared. Seeking help, face to face, would be a lot more suitable if the need arises. They'd be able to help you figure out what's going on and help you way more than anyone can online. If that's not an option then maybe you could just find a close friend or relative, someone who'd be willing to listen, and just talk. I find it takes a lot of weight off my shoulders to just be able to talk with someone, meaningfully. Even if it's not about a problem. Sometimes in conversation a problem I'm facing will pop up without my even meaning to talk about it.

I wish you the best of luck. I'm no stranger to the recurring nightmare. I understand how burdensome they can be.

Avatar: 7/10

Lacking a bit in originality but I loved the land before time. I used to watch the movies religiously as a kid.

Signature: 7/10

Informative but not very captivating. I do really find the shows you've listed to all be ones I've enjoyed or still enjoy currently, though.

This is the exact way I feel about anything and everything I see when shopping. I only ever intend to just get the one cheap pair of headphones, so I guess I should just buy every variation of the most expensive ones. That might be overselling it a bit but same process.

I've never been very knowledgeable when it comes to comic books. I did enjoy reading them as a kid but I've never actually gone to a comic book shop. At least you'll have a good amount of reading material for a while ... or not, depending on how fast you can blast through an issue.

You could become the comic book hero of comic book heroes. Though I think Deadpool might have already taken that slot. You could open a nerd cafe and have all your comics out on display ... well, except for the rare ones. Those are for personal use only. Hmm. Just have fun with your comics I guess. As long as you get enjoyment out of them then it's a dollar well spent ... or twenty ... forty ... umm.

-Nights

Aww, thanks everyone. Much appreciated ^^ Though I am a little bit late to the party, lol.

@. : tale : . Anyone who makes me a Princess Luna birthday cake is permanently on my best list. ;)

Thanks again, everyone!

-Nights

Several actually. It's the same with anywhere you go. Korean, Chinese, Japanese, etc. It's pretty noticeable in America. If you go south you get a country accent more frequently. North, Bostonian accents. West, I'm not really sure. East you can get the rare "Jersey" accent. Basically, if you travel a big enough distance you'll notice a change in the way people talk. It's strange.

That's pretty awesome, Llave. Hope you two have tons of fun and maybe you can improve your accent while you're there. I hope you get to meet up with some of the other peeps and have a great time. But so help me if you come back saying colour I'll lose it.

-Nights

After five years and many, many, many ups and downs, this place still feels like home. This place has taught me so much, given me so much. Between the friends I've made, the lessons I've learned, and getting to watch the passage of time within a community ... there's just something about this place I can't let go of. I've slowly been losing a grip on the concept of time, everything seems to blur, but this place is still so crystal clear.

From joining, my starting posts, making new friends, watching the site change from style to style and eventually from vBulletin to XenForo, making more friends, more posts, more styles ... it just didn't stop. I've said it before but I'll say it again; if it wasn't for this place, I wouldn't be who I am today. I wouldn't have learned the things I did, not the way I did. I wouldn't have made these irreplaceable friends. Half the stuff I do for fun spawned from one decision to join this strange thing called a 'forum'.

To be honest, I really owe it to @Destiny's Force and his fanfics. I don't know if I ever actually told anyone that. Destiny's writing was what actually encouraged me to join the site. I was so interested his work that I wanted to be able to say something about it. So I joined. Hard to believe that five years ago I was just a kid on a couch who had just fallen in love with a game series.

Honestly, if I could go back and have it to do all over ... I wouldn't change a thing. I'm glad I joined this site five years ago. I'm glad I met you and all my friends on here. Ha, I'm even glad for all the times I caused a little chaos. There's a few lessons I wouldn't have learned if I didn't. It's just so nostalgic looking back now. I was just some dumb kid with a laptop and new interest. Now, I'm some dumb adult with a lot of skills and a lot more interests. If I had never made that google search that fateful night, I can't imagine who I'd be today.

So, I'd like to personally thank you and this entire community for helping to shape me into who I am today. I'm really proud to say I'm a khvidian.

Thank you, everyone,
-Nights

Woah, this is messing with my head. It's a birthday thread for Amaury but it wasn't created by Amaury ... this isn't real.

Seriously though, happy b-day dude. I know it's a day late and a few dollars short but still. If we ever meet up, I'll be sure to dish out all the owed birthday pinches. Even if you give me mine, I'll always have three extra xD

Happy birthday, Amaury.

-Nights

To be honest, I don't really even know where to begin. Wow. I'm not going to lie, I haven't been extremely active as of late and, even when I do log on, I rarely check new stuff. It came as a big surprise to me when Amaury told me to check the Departure Hall for "something significant." Out of all the things floating around my head, seeing your name listed as the creator of the thread wasn't one of them. Seeing your name anything but that bright blue we've all come to love wasn't even a possibility. I had noticed a decrease in activity but I can't say much about not being active. This ... made my head spin, so to speak.

We may not know each other all that well but ever since I joined the site, five whole years ago, you were always there. If anyone asked me to name one person, one user who stood out the most, I'd say, "Well, Misty, of course." It didn't matter what I was viewing, be it forums or projects the site has worked on, you were always there. Okay, maybe not in everything but for the most part. So it's a bit of a shock to see this sudden change. It's like living in water your whole life and then one day realizing you can breathe air. As you walk further onto land, the river starts disappearing. You know that everything isn't going to just up and end because you're still breathing but at the same time ... you know that things are going to be ... different. I'm not saying it'll be different in a bad way. To the best of my knowledge, you've been a mentor to most, if not all, of the current staff and they you. It'll just be a weird adjustment knowing that ... I don't really know how to explain it.

I don't know if you know it or not but you've actually been a role model for me, and others I'm sure. I've looked up to you for quite some time. I might not have seen eye to eye with you, and other staff members, at times but I still respected you. You're the reason why I think twice about what I say. You're the reason why I don't lash out anymore over things that are, for lack of a better word, dumb. You're the reason why I got into web-design. All the amazing things you, and of course the others, have done on this site ... I saw that and wanted to be able to do that too. If it wasn't for this site, I wouldn't be who I am today. If it wasn't for you, this site probably wouldn't be what it is. You helped make me who I am and I'll never forget that.

I know this isn't goodbye but it still feels like it. I'm a little teary eyed while writing this. I understand where you're coming from though. I've recently been going through a lot of stuff and had to step down from a big position I'd taken because I couldn't find a good balance anymore. I'm happy that you're taking the first step in moving on with your life and moving on to be a better you. It's not easy going through college while balancing a job (not to mention the fact it's a managerial position) and a relationship. I'd like to personally wish you the best in everything you do. So, good luck. Show 'em who's boss!

Also, I'd like to thank you for everything you've done, not only for the site but for all of us. Thank you for being the wonderful "twelve-year old" who's been more than a little wise beyond her years. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Nights

• Prompt
• Submission
• Authors Note

• Prompt Submission for 9/6 - 9/12​
• Ecstatic Ensemble​
  
  

  "Aria!" A young teenage girl was shouting down the hall at one of her fellow classmates, "Come on, we're starting without you!" She had short pink hair, green eyes, and wore the typical attire, mostly anyway, for her school, Misagi High. The Misagi uniform consisted of a blue skirt with white stripes for the girls and blue pants for the guys, a normal white dress shirt, a blue jacket with 'MH' embroidered in gold lettering in the upper left, and a blue tie with white stripes. This young lady was in major breach of uniform. She had her jacket off, sleeves rolled up, and tie all askew. Honestly it was typical of her and nobody really said much.
  
  Aria, the girl being yelled at, was dressed according to school code. She was a bit of a stickler when it came to the rules and was one of the only people to chastise the yelling girl for her wardrobe malfunction. Her goody-goody personality was complimented by her long silky-black hair, her half-circle glasses, and her midnight blue eyes. "Doremi," Aria cried, "I'm packing all this stuff Can't you give me a little help?"
  
  Doremi smiled in response, "You're doing an excellent job though. Don't worry, I believe in you." With a thumbs up, Doremi disappeared around a corner.
  
  "Remi!" Aria pleaded.
  
  Doremi rounded back the corner giggling, "Of course I'll help you, Ari. I just wanted to hear that cute scream of yours." She skipped all the way to Aria.
  
  "That's not very nice," she pouted.
  
  With the two of them carrying all the items, they carried on. They rounded the corner Doremi disappeared behind and met Aria's arch nemesis, stairs. Aria was frail compared to Remi, though Remi also has to be pretty tough for as much of a ditz as she is. Aria might be frail but she's careful. In step with their personalities, Aria carefully climbed the staircase while Remi sprinted her way up. Several minutes later and Aria runs into a very 'tripped falling up the stairs' Remi.
  
  Aria sighs, "Won't you ever learn to take your time?"
  
  "I was almost to the top though," replied a very disoriented Remi.
  
  They heard a door open and then a voice, "Oh, there you two are. I was wondering if you were going to show. Hopefully Remi didn't damage the snacks?"
  
  Aria turned her gaze to face the girl talking and laughed softly, "No, I wouldn't let her carry those, Ballad."
  
  Ballad was dressed mostly according to code. Her jacket was off, which was acceptable, and her tie was slightly loose. Her hair was fire red, long but spiky towards the ends. She had red eyes to match and nobody was sure if they were real or contacts. "Good, we're gonna be up here for a while."
  
  After assisting Aria, the three exited the door and walked out onto the schools roof. Ballad cracked her knuckles, "You two sure you're ready for this?"
  
  "Of course," they both replied, the look of battle on their faces.
  
  "Alright then, let's do this."
  
  The three would later be chastised for being on the roof but the officers enjoyed hearing them play. Ballad was a pianist, Aria a cellist, and Doremi did vocals. All three were in the music slash choir club. Remi wasn't very talented with an instrument so they had to throw choir in there. It was definitely an opening ceremony to remember.

  
  
• Something I just really wanted to play around with after listening to the prompt. I was running on no sleep at the time of writing this so it's a little bit shorter than what I wanted. I plan on making an actual story out of it and this may or may not be canon in the story line. It's kind of obvious but for those who didn't catch it, I named all three characters after musical terminology.
  
  Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed writing this. If/when I decide to write the actual story, I'll put a link here in the Authors Note. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.

-Nights

Alright, it's been a while since I've actually reviewed a work. I'd like to start off by saying I absolutely loved the color scheme. Highlighting all the dialogue by using a brighter pink was also something I enjoyed. Now I'll get into the review and after I'll post any grammatical/spelling errors that I caught along the way.

Review

This was a pretty interesting read. I wasn't really sure where the content warning was going to come into play. I could tell by the narration that something bad had happened but I had no guess it was going to be that. I also enjoyed the character descriptions. It made painting the picture a whole lot easier. I will admit that, even though this was supposed to happen at a country club, I did play everything out in a gymnasium. It still played out the same way, twist and all.

One thing I didn't like, I know that this was a narrated story, was the constant use of pauses. There were times where sentences either halted completely or melded together, for me at least. I know that it was supposed to be narrated by a terrified girl, recounting a very tragic incident, but I'd recommend toning the pauses down a bit. In some cases they were alright. When she seemed to be breaking down due to, what would possibly be considered, PTSD was a very good spot for pauses. Pauses are like a word. You never use the same word too many times consecutively. It is understandable that you'd like to display the narrators state of mind, recounting such a tragedy, but, again, it made it difficult for me to read.

The story itself was really good in terms of plot. It started strong, built up tension, and finished with a bang. There wasn't too much character building though, no real experiences to go off of. The characters weren't easy to relate to, aside from being teenagers at one point. I suppose it's hard to get good character building into a short story, especially for all the characters, but it's nice to be able to relate to the protagonist. I wasn't really able to find a strong connection to Trista. I don't mean to sound harsh, but, in regards to what happened to her, it was like reading an article about a new moisturizing creme. I just wasn't all that interested. Again, don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the story. I just didn't have much empathy for the characters.

Overall I'd definitely rate this story at a 7/10. I can be pretty harsh with my criticism so a seven from me is like a nine or ten from most people. I can definitely see there is some room for improvement, or not. It's all up to you. You're not going to be able to please everyone and I'm just one person. The best way to tell if your story is worthwhile is if you enjoyed writing it. If looking back on it makes you feel accomplished and overjoyed then that's all that matters.

Marking this as "Would read again" material.

Grammar and Spelling Mistakes
Spoilers, obviously. Don't read further if you haven't read the story.

Spelling errors will be highlighted in red. Grammar errors will be highlighted with blue. Suggestions will be highlighted in orange. I'll only be quoting the paragraphs from the story that I found errors or possible improvements in.

In this paragraph, 'sigh' should be 'sight'.

Here there is no need for the comma before "but classy." I'd also suggest breaking apart the last sentence. As it stands, it's a bit difficult to read. Something like, "I wasn't dressed extravagantly but classy enough for the occasion. I was sporting a turquoise dress that touched the floor. It had a halter cut with tiny silver sequins lining the cleavage area."

Personally I don't see the need for the parenthesis here. Maybe try changing it to something like, "She really did. She was wearing a tangerine-colored dress with small hints of yellow," italicizing 'She really did.'

It's not really a grammatical error as it's more of an expression, but a strand of hair is a single hair and it's kind of hard to see Trista only moving a single hair behind her ear. "Lock" might be a better word here. For instance, "a lock of almond hair."

I'd recommend taking the text in parenthesis and turning it into its own sentence. Parenthesis are typically accepted in writing when noting something, especially if there are already a ton of commas being used, but it doesn't really fit in here. Something like this might work, "...girls. Not me though, he never asked!" italicizing the newly formed sentence.

The last line is also a bit lengthy here and could use a bit of a breakup. Perhaps something like this, "Oh well, I thought at first, I'm here for the night of my life. I hurried off further into the dark yet colorful dance room. It was swarming with high school seniors doing some kind of joint dance that was popular back in the day." Makes it easier on the reader.

Using 'and' multiple times in the same sentence is typically frowned upon. It's okay in some cases but here doesn't look good. Try changing the comma, after passed, to a period. Then remove the and and capitalize the 's' in 'slow.'

Also, in the last sentence, I'd recommend removing the semicolon and making them two separate sentences. A semicolon isn't really necessary here.

There should be an apostrophe after '80' but before the 's'.

Change the colon to a comma.

The last line is a bit weird. I had to reread it several times to understand it. I'd remove the comma after 'hesitate' and add 'from' in its place. Like so, "...hesitate from moving any closer."

'Including me' shouldn't be in parenthesis. Instead, wrap it in commas like so, "...us, including me, were..."

Also, I would put a break after 'area' and start the next sentence at 'all' like this, "...dancing area. All of the adults..."

'Gunshots' should actually be in quotations. In this instance it's an internal dialogue for a younger Trista. So, ""Gunshots!" I thought, and..."

You can also remove the comma after uninjured. 'So was Angus' isn't a complete sentence by itself. Alternatively you could remove the and after the comma.

Capitalize 'where' at the beginning, technically it is a new sentence.

Angus also needs an apostrophe after it.

'Her' should be capitalized after 'stuff'. I'd also recommend reworking this paragraph. It's extremely difficult to read. All of the pauses make it very hard to follow.

Put an 'I' between 'would' and 'still'.

Man that took ages. Hopefully my review was helpful to you in some way. Even if I only managed to point out some errors. Thanks for taking the time to look it all over. I did kind of put several hours into this. Again, great story.

-Nights

The experience calculator is different for every game. I know in LOTD, way back in the day, experience was set per area. So if you were a level thirty and went back to the starting area, you wouldn't gain much xp. From the sounds of it, in this one, they just used a calculator and didn't bother changing anything based on the area. It could be intentional because of the games potential difficulty otherwise or they might have just overlooked it.

The only real way you could figure out how/why they did it is to contact the people who made it, which is probably out of the question, or, as Pat said, you'd have to bust out a calculator and do some high level maths, which is beyond my expertise.

Sorry I couldn't be much more help. Anything more than business math, anything with xy in it, isn't my forte.

-Nights

Sorry to hear that, Amaury. Pet's are always hard to see go. She's not in pain anymore though.

-Nights