#(I'm not going to use the feature to find out whether or not they're real accounts)

[bluefeatheredvelociraptor]

So, this is Tumblr now? Some sort of P*rn Hub redux? OnlyFans wannabe? TikTok impersonator?

Shame on you, Tumblr

(Yeah, I know this feature isn't new, I've just been ignoring it since it was added. Honestly don't get why this feature was even added. Why is every app trying so hard to be a TikTok wannabe? This sucks)

[lurkingshan]

Japanese QL Corner

Another week chock full of Japanese ql. I am officially dropping a currently airing show from QL Corner--let us never speak of it again. Of the other six shows still airing now, five are streaming weekly on Gaga and the other is available via fansub.

Takara's Treasure

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite things airing—it gets better every week, and it's been good from the start! This story is a great example of the way tension and depth of feeling in a great romance can build. I was delighted to have Takara confirm Taishin's confession and coax him into dating this early on because it means we are going to actually spend some time with them figuring out how to work as a couple. And I don't expect it will be smooth sailing, because these two have some incompatible issues that are going to exacerbate each other.

Cosmetic Playlover

This show is gorgeous, but it all feels pretty empty. Thank you to @usertoxicyaoi for confirming that the show is racing through the plot so it can cover the whole arc of the manga. I'm glad to understand why it's doing this, but it doesn't help with my total emotional disconnect from the story, because the show is rushing through and not letting us actually experience this relationship. They tell us they like each other, then that they're in love, then that they're established and struggling, but I can't feel it because they haven't brought us along for any of that. This week featured an interesting plot about their professional growth and how it challenges their relationship, but I was frustrated because I have no investment in said relationship to give the plot stakes. I may just have to accept that this one will stay a treat for the eyes but lacking in depth for me.

I Hear the Sunspot

We back! After a bit of a miscalibrated installment last week, this episode felt more characteristic and we finally got our boys back on track. Maya was less egregiously mean to people this week and her interference was treated as more comedic than sinister, which is a much better fit for the tone of this show. And once Kohei got around her, he finally talked properly with Taichi and asked him to stay on as his notetaker, reaffirming their friendship in the process. Despite Maya's efforts to convince him otherwise, Kohei has not wavered and his firm declaration that he doesn't want anyone but Taichi taking his notes or eating his food had me gasping. For his part, Taichi is getting better at keeping his cool and finding words when Kohei lets his feelings slip, and he's clearly thinking a lot about his own feelings and whether their connection is really about friendship.

Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko

Oh man, this show has really gotten itself into a muddle. We finally got a kiss, but it hardly felt like a triumph. This episode was a bit of a return to form, with Ayaka back to her relentless pursuit of Hiroko, but the way the story diverged to change the conflict midstream has mucked it all up. For the first half the conflict was about Hiroko believing Ayaka is straight, and then suddenly it was about a different work-related closet trauma that did not connect to that. Now it’s touching on both but in a way that makes Hiroko seem inconsistent, because now that she knows Ayaka is a lesbian it doesn't track that she would continue to patronize and dismiss her, and it also sucks that Ayaka is harassing Hiroko at work despite knowing she doesn't want to be out. It feels like the story is invalidating Hiroko’s fears about being out in a way we know is not consistent with reality. This would all work better if the backstory had been about Hiroko falling for a woman who succumbed to comphet and we kept up the misunderstanding and comedy about Ayaka being straight. As it is, I feel like our heroine no longer makes sense and our couple still hasn't formed a real connection, and with only one episode to go it’s unlikely they’ll land the plane.

Mr. Mitsuya's Planned Feeding

I just love everything about this show and its mature perspective on relationships. In the aftermath of Ishida's hasty confession (and his attempt to walk it back, which I love that Mitsuya did not fall for), we take a beat for Mitsuya to consider the two men circling him and what he wants from his life. I loved that he took the time he needed to process and end his relationship with Noguchi on his own terms this time, and to consider whether he has the desire and the energy to try again with someone new. When he said he has his home and his work and his Frito and that's enough for him, I felt that. But Ishida has already gotten to him, and as Shige wisely pointed out, Mitsuya must care about him quite a bit to be considering this deeply before making a move. I'm not sure he's ready to dive in, but he doesn't have much will to fight it, either. You can go here for the files to watch this episode, with big thanks to @isaksbestpillow and @nicks-den.

Tagging @bengiyo to add this week's anime update.

[olomaya]

Shhh!! It's a Library (mod)

27 Sept Update: Found a better shushing sound so I replaced with that. Also added ITUNs for the non computer interactions. Thanks to @cs2te for the Brazilian Portuguese translation! Redownload (if you want these updates) at the link below.

(Note: This mod uses the Ticket Machine animations for the kiosk. If you don't have it, you can download it here. Honestly, it's not that important and without it, your Sim will just stand in front of the machine for a second, that's it)

I'm officially in my Streets era. I'm building out all the community lots in my town so you're going to be seeing a lot of community/town related stuff from me for the next few months. My Sims are trying to be outside!

First up! This is a small library mod that allows you to search for books at the library using this gorgeous kiosk object from @aroundthesims. If the book is in the library, it tells you where they are by panning the camera to the bookshelf that has the book and putting a blue outline around it for 10 Sim minutes. Pretty simple. 

Features:

Browse Catalog… pulls up all books in the library

Search by… Category | Title | Author - pulls up any book that matches your search entry

Request a Book to Order -  allows you to add more books to the library. 

You can only order the types of books that are allowed in community libraries so no books that are destroyed after you finish reading them (e.g. recipes, song compositions) and no academic textbooks.

You can order written books, including articles, as well as books from other worlds (e.g. Shang Simla, etc) though for the latter, there is a §35 “overseas shipping cost” added to order these books. 

Once you order a book, the mod will check whether the library has enough money to purchase it and then place the order. 

Ordered books are added to the library at 8am the next day and you’ll receive a notification that the books have been added.

Library Funding

In order to pay for the books ordered, library kiosks have a budget. Every kiosk, upon creation, comes with a §250 budget.

The library budget is the total amount of funds in all kiosks on the lot. Costs are deducted from individual kiosks even if that specific kiosk doesn't have enough money for the book so long as the library budget has enough money.

Support your Local Library

Sims can donate books (up to 3 books at a time) to the library using the book donation bin. The bin must be placed on the library lot (either outside or inside) and you need to have books in your inventory. Your Sim will get 500 Lifetime Happiness points for every book donated. (this is related to another mod that I’m working on. More on that at a later date!)

There is also a computer interaction that lets you donate money to the library. Sims that donate §2500 or more will get a 4-hour charitable moodlet. Donations are added to the library budget.

Finally, Bookworms and Proper Sims can shush other Sims at the library. Once shushed, all Sims in the same room doing social interactions or playing music instruments will stop. (You'll find, like in real life, people quickly go back to doing what they're doing so it's kind of useless but it was a low lift so I kept it in). If someone can think of a good "shushing" sound from the game, let me know!

Credits/Thanks: Both credit and huge thanks go to @aroundthesims for creating this beautiful library set and the kiosk which I used as the main object. I did recategorize it to Misc Electronics instead of Sculptures. If you already have it in your game, you may need to remove it or you can just change the script to “Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.olomaya.LibraryStuff.Kiosk”.  The donation bin is from Sketchfab created by TheLatestShit (that’s their name, thank you TLS!) and can be found in Misc Storage.

Read through everything below the cut before downloading please! Important instructions below!

Important things to note:

The kiosk must be placed on a counter. If it’s not, your sim will reset because they can only interact with it if it’s on a counter. If you are having issues with resetting, place it on an EA-made counter to confirm it’s not this issue first before you reach out for support. You can use OSMP counters provided they are cloned from a counter and place the kiosk on there and put it wherever you want (like I’ve done in my photo. the kiosk is actually on an OSMP counter, not the white table).

Pulling up the entire library catalog, depending on how many books you have on the lot, can take a few (or several) seconds. Or maybe it won’t, I play on a brick laptop so it does for me

Keyword searches are case sensitive so “raymundo” yields no results, but “Raymundo” will bring up the 85 copies of that 🤬 book that your library probably has

The search will only check books that are in bookshelves, it will ignore library books that have been taken out of the bookshelf and are being read or lying around.

Book requests and financial donations can only be made at public libraries and not privately-owned libraries. So if a Sim in your town owns the lot, these options won’t come up (it should be the owners’ responsibility to buy books). You can still donate books though.

You can have multiple kiosks on the lot. If you delete a kiosk, its funds (if it has any) will be transferred to any of the other kiosks on the lot so you don’t lose the money. 

There is a debug interaction on the kiosk that allows you to check the library budget.

You can order one book at a time but there’s no limit to how many you can do in a day but once the books are delivered the next morning, the mod will check whether the library has enough money and will only order the books there is money for

Download HERE | alt: HERE

@simstifulccfinds @kpccfinds @katsujiiccfinds @pis3update @wanderingsimsfinds

[captainsophiestark]

The Richmond Vampire

Damon Salvatore x Reader

Masterlist - Join My Taglist!

Written for my personal fic writing challenge for 2024, Sophie's Year of Fic! Featuring a new fic being posted every Friday, all year long :)

Fandom: TVD/TO

Summary: Damon's come to retrieve his SO for involvement in some Mystic Falls drama, but unfortunately for him, they're not willing to miss their favorite class at Whitmore, which just so happens to be covering vampires.

Word Count: 1,699

Category: Fluff, Humor

Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.

"Hey! Babe!"

I stopped short of the door to my lecture hall, letting my classmates go ahead at the sound of my boyfriend's voice from behind me. I turned to find none other than Damon Salvatore heading towards me, weaving through the undergrads with incredible impatience.

"Hey yourself!" I called out to him with a smile. "What are you doing here?"

Damon huffed at the last college student in his way as they wandered past, before turning his attention to me.

"I need your help. We've got... business we need to take care of."

The smile immediately dropped off my face. I'd been dating Damon long enough to know that 'business' was code for some supernatural problem that had somehow managed to follow us out of Mystic Falls. I shook my head.

"No. No way, Day. I have class."

"Oh, come on," he said, rolling his eyes a little before taking a step closer to me, into my space. One of his hands came up to play with the ends of my hair. "Don't tell me I'm gonna have to convince you to cut class with me."

He lowered his voice, teasing and flirting at the same time, but I just put a hand on his chest to stop him moving any further.

"You know I love you, and if it was you in trouble, I'd drop everything to help you in a second. But I'm not missing my favorite class, especially not the lecture I've been waiting for this whole semester, just to involve myself in the latest Scooby Gang drama. Whatever it is, it can wait, like, two hours."

Damon opened his mouth to continue making his case, but I just gave him a smile and a wink, then pulled out of his grasp. I slipped through the door of the classroom before he could stop me and headed for a seat near the front. When I sat down, I wasn't surprised to see Damon following right behind me, settling a moment later in the seat next to mine. I turned to him with a grin.

"Last chance to leave before class starts. I can call you when it's over."

He turned to me with a fake smile I knew well.

"Nope. If you won't leave, I might as well stay here with you. Then we can leave even faster once it's over."

My smile only widened. "Alright. But don't say I didn't warn you."

Damon raised an eyebrow at me, but I was able to avoid answering him as our instructor began class, drawing my attention back to the front. Still, Damon didn't have to wait long to see what I was talking about.

"Alright, everybody, it's time for our much-awaited, headlining lecture for myths and folklore. Today... we're talking about vampires."

Damon didn't even bother to hide a snort, but I just grinned. Despite dating a real vampire, their place in mythology, folklore, and other storytelling had never lost its appeal for me. I loved reading and studying about them in all forms, and I'd taken this class largely for this part of the course. Having a real life vampire sitting next to me for the whole thing could only enhance the experience, as far as I was concerned.

"Everyone's heard a vampire story at least once in their life," the professor continued at the front of the class. "Whether it was Dracula, Anne Rice, or just second-hand knowledge of Twilight, as creatures, they're ingrained in our cultural conscious.

"However, not all vampires are the same. Stakes, crosses, cutting off the heads, garlic. Even whether or not sunlight will kill them, although sparkling is a bit of an outlier. Each myth of the vampire, or a vamprie-adjacent creature, has a slightly different description of exactly what makes a vampire. We even have our own local variety, with the myth of the Richmond Vampire existing for just over a hundred years now."

I leaned over to Damon, getting close enough to whisper in his ear.

"How many of these myths do you think you're responsible for?" I asked.

"All of them," he deadpanned, without even glancing over at me. "Except Edward."

Now it was my turn to snort. Luckily, my professor didn't notice.

"Today begins the unit of our class where we look at the permiation of the folklore not just of vampires, but of all the undead creatures that stalk the night. Is it simply a fascination with death that has led to most cultures telling a tale about some kind of undead creature, or is there something more? Something beyond the legends?"

"What do you think she'd do if you turned in a paper theorizing the vampire myths were mostly created and spread by this group of really old assholes we know?"

"Shh."

"Oh, so you're allowed to make little comments to me but I'm not allowed to make them to you?"

"Yes. That way I can make sure I don't miss anything I want to hear."

I didn't need to look at Damon to know he was rolling his eyes.

My professor continued her lecture, digging in a little on some specific examples of the vampire myth. I took dutiful notes, mostly blocking out the comments from my boyfriend, and eventually he settled for just doodling his own, much more sarcastic notes in the margins of mine. I smiled as he drew a particularly cartoonish fanged vampire. That'd make studying a little more fun in a couple weeks.

Damon managed to sit through the whole hour and a half class with me, all in all with much more patience than I'd been expecting. I should've known he was just waiting for his moment.

After class was dismissed, I quickly packed up, ready to head off with Damon to handle whatever ridiculous drama he'd wanted me to get involved with in the first place. When I stood with my bag, however, I found him heading for my professor at the front of the room. I frowned.

I walked quickly to catch up to Damon, hearing the tail end of his sentence as he shook my professor's hand.

"...incredibly interesting lecture to get to sit in on," Damon said, his voice dripping with charm and a fake smile plastered on his face. "Really, it was outstanding. The vampire myth is just so interesting."

I barely managed to stop myself from laughing out loud. For anyone who didn't know Damon, they'd likely be swayed by his apparently genuine interest, rapt attention, and dazzling smile. I'd seen him flip the switch to manipulative people-person enough that it didn't convince me anymore, although my teacher sure seemed to be falling for it.

"I'm glad you agree. It really is a most fascinating topic. You'd be welcome to sit in on future lectures, if you'd like."

"Thank you! I just might have to take you up on that. You know, I had a friend once who swore she saw a vampire in some small town bar around here."

My professor laughed. "I've heard of small town Bigfoot and Mothman sightings, but small town vampire sightings might be a new one."

"Right? I mean, I didn't want to hurt her feelings, but it's a little unbelievable to think a vamprie could be standing right in front of you, isn't it?"

I stepped up to Damon's side and discreetly elbowed him as my professor laughed. He just grinned at me in response.

"Well, it was almost as much of a pleasure talking to you as it was listening to your lecture," Damon said, holding out his hand again for a fairwell shake. My professor took it, and I caught the glint in Damon's eye as he shot the man a wolfish smile. "Take care. Don't let the vampires get you."

He chuckled again, giving both of us a smile as Damon finally dropped his hand.

"I promise, I won't."

Damon hummed and smirked while I fought through the most forced smile of my life as I hustled Damon out of the room, just barely managing to maintain a casual facade. The minute we cleared the classroom door, I turned to my boyfriend with a scowl.

"You laid that on a little thick," I said. Damon just scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"I don't know what you're talking about. You're the one who insisted on sitting through that class. I just decided to engage with the lecturer and the content a little more."

I snorted. "Yeah, sure. I take it you enjoyed yourself then?"

Damon grinned. "Very much."

"Should I be changing your name in my contacts to 'The Richmond Vampire'?"

Damon smirked. "That wasn't very subtle."

"Neither was a single word you said to my professor."

He huffed a laugh. "True. Then sure, if you really want to. Just don't ask me to help you test which vampire myths are true and which aren't. You already know real vampires burn in the sun."

"I promise not to use you as a vampire lab rat as long as you promise not to take a bite out of my folklore professor."

"Hmm..."

"Damon."

"Fine. I promise not to bite your folklore professor. At least not this semester."

I rolled my eyes, but decided to let that one pass without comment, at least for now. Damon gave me his real smile as he took my hand, and I sighed as I leaned into him, the two of us heading for the doors to the building together.

"So am I going to be hearing about your vampire mythology theories for the next few weeks?" he mused as we walked. I hummed.

"Probably, yeah. It's part of being there for each other, right? I get involved in your little brother's teen drama, you listen to me talk about vampires like they're not real, and like the Mikaelsons had nothing to do with the global spread of the myth."

"Sounds like a match made in heaven."

"I'll say."

Damon and I shared a smile, and as we reached the doors, he paused long enough to pull me to him for a long kiss. I smiled into it as one of his hands tangled in my hair. Damon could be absolutely ridiculous sometimes, but so could I. At the end of the day, we made a pretty damn good couple as a result of it.

****************

Everything Taglist: @rosecentury @kmc1989 @space-helen

TVD/TO Taglist: @elenavampire21

[genericpuff]

As someone who can't afford to go to animation school n adores your work- are there any advice or tips they taught you could share that transfer to art or comics? I know you talked about learning how to properly reference things which I admit I think I and a lot of other artists struggle with knowing how to do

Ironically enough, as much as I learned that I do NOT have the patience for animating (which is... ironic, considering all the patience that's required to make a comic LMAO) I did still learn a lot from it that I was able to take into comics. Storyboarding was one of the more obvious ones, as storyboards are basically just the "still versions" of an animation before it's been animated, with establishing shots, camera pans, dialogue shots, etc. all of which you'd find utilized in a comic.

Alongside that was learning how to draw consistently. Turnaround sheets are a shared practice in both animation and comics, they're necessary to creating an ongoing project that features the same core cast of characters. Learning how to draw the same characters the exact same way every time in a way that's both consistent and efficient is crucial.

That said, aside from those little starting tips, I do hope that some day you're able to find the means to go to school for animation or whatever it is that you're desiring to go into and learn. Yes, post-secondary schooling is expensive, and there are a lot of risks in pursuing a diploma/degree that can affect your future. That said, as someone who went to a school that literally no longer exists (like fr I don't even know if I can get my transcript anymore so for all I know, the year I spent in animation college only exists in the student loans that I'm still paying off, rip) I still learned and gained so much that I simply wouldn't have in high school or on Youtube. The biggest of which was the environment - being put into an actual dedicated space for learning art, with peers and teachers who were all unified in that space working towards the same goal, made so much more of a difference in my learning than I initially anticipated. I got so much feedback and guidance thanks to my instructors, and it really put me into a space where I was forced to try new things, I couldn't keep relying on the same tricks and comfort zones anymore. If it weren't for my instructors pushing me to step outside of that comfort zone, I never would have learned how to draw from life or use other mediums that subsequently became the foundations of the stuff I make today.

And while a lot of the things they taught I could have learned on Youtube or CTRL+Paint or Draw-a-Box, being in an actual classroom with grades and a schedule to abide by actually kept me moving in a forward direction and gave me so much more help on a personal level than some guy on Youtube could have given me reading from a script or, in this case, some rando on Tumblr responding to anonymous asks LMAO

Obviously, I'm never gonna recommend that anyone put themselves into financial ruin for post-secondary schooling, ESPECIALLY right now with the economy being what it is, but I do hope that if you genuinely want to go to school that you can find the means to do so, whether it's opting for community classes or applying for scholarships/bursaries/grants/etc or even just signing up for a local art class. Do your research on what's available and feasible to you - even art clubs can be super helpful in getting you out there and talking to people! As much as we may all be slaving away over our desks creating our next big piece, art is still a form of community and interpersonal communication - whether it's between you and an audience, or a peer with whom you exchange new ideas and feedback, or a mentor whose skills you hope to inherit and pass on to the next generation.

Until then though, keep creating and keep getting inspired. If you've never drawn from life before, set up a bowl of fruit and draw it as closely as you can to the real thing, or go to the food court and see how quickly you can sketch the people walking by before they're gone. If you've never tried storyboarding before, grab a piece of paper, find a scene from a live action movie you like, and storyboard it as if you were making an animated film. Try things! Fail at it! Try it again! See what happens!

[doumadono]

I just wanna know why so many adult mha smut creators say they age up minors as if it justifies their attraction to them. Would you say it's okay to age up Eri too?

Ah, aging-up fictional characters, my favorite controversial topic! ♥ You know, I was low-key anticipating an anon to drop this kind of question, sooner nor later (what a pity you didn't have balls to come off-anon tho!). I've had my fair share of childish anons before, and trust me, those went straight into the digital dumpster. But hey, this time, I've decided to lay it all out on the table, crystal clear 🙅‍

You know, I've done it all – murder, rape, summoned demons, even glorified Satan and had several children killed in my stories. But guess what? Not a single pair of handcuffs in sight! 😎 And don't get me started on the horror section at any bookstore - it's like a buffet of dreadful deeds.

Let's be real, the purity police can take a hike. There's something oddly fishy about the fact that fanfic, mostly crafted by awesome writers, gets the brunt of the criticism or some ridiculous accusations, especially the smutty bits, while the gruesome stuff gets a free pass 🤷

Look, folks, it's all about context. Fiction is a realm where creativity knows no bounds, right? So, if I want to age-up a character for a mature storyline, I'll go for it 🤷 Look, it's all a part of the creative process. Fiction is like a playground where we can swing from the monkey bars of imagination, right? Aging-up fictional characters is a common practice in creative communities, and it's important to remember that these characters exist solely within the realm of fiction - they are not real, so it doesn't hurt them in any single way. It allows creators to explore different scenarios and relationships without crossing any ethical boundaries :) Also! Aging-up characters isn't some sneaky scheme to write "inappropriate" content about youngsters. It's about taking characters you adore or find fascinating and giving them a new lease on life. It's like those college AU fanfics for characters in their late 30s or kidfic for full-grown adults. It's all about exploring different phases of their lives. So, whether it's smutty or not, the essence remains the same 😎 You see, the whole "aging-up" thing in fanfic/fanart is just common sense. We're not into the whole "let's sexualize kids" scene, so we gracefully turn our characters into adults. It's all about creating content featuring responsible, grown-up folks. And let's get real, if reading about something meant you were all in on it, then every mystery novel reader out there would have to be either an undercover detective nor a murderer 😎 So let's dial down the judgment and just enjoy our creative freedom, shall we?

But you know, trying to equate aging-up with things like grooming/pedophilia is like saying eating a banana is the same as piloting a spaceship because they're both hands-on activities. Let's keep our perspective here, folks, and not get too carried away with the terminology 😂

If you don’t want to read those stories (containing aged-up characters/dark content/smut with aged-up characters) - then don’t read them - problem solved!

Oh, how times have changed, my friend! Back in the day, I used to let all those comments and anonymous hate bring me down. But guess what? I've evolved, and I've got news for the critics: I write what I want to write, and nobody's gonna tell me otherwise. I've got this little thing called free will, and I'm not about to hand it over to anyone who thinks they can dictate what I should or shouldn't put on paper. If that means ruffling a few feathers, so be it. I've shed my tear-soaked days and embraced the fact that I couldn't care less about those sensitive souls who can't handle a bit of fiction. So, to all you "snowflakes" out there, if you're trying to stifle my creativity, good luck, because I'm just going to crank up the heat and write even smuttier storylines with aged-up characters! Thanks for the encouragement, dear Nonnie – you've only fueled my fire! 🔥😎 I might even consider writing some very dark-themed fic with aged-up Eri, why not! 😈

Oh, hey Anon! Quick question for you. Have you ever picked up a Stephen King book? You know, the master of horror and suspense? Well, if you have, you might've noticed that he doesn't shy away from some pretty explicit content, and not just with adults. Sometimes he writes about kids too, and they're sometimes off legal age as well! Surprise, surprise. You can stroll into a bookstore, grab a book off the shelf, and guess what? There's a good chance that some of those books contain content that would make a sailor blush! Yet, the world isn't collapsing because of it. The point is, even in mainstream literature, you'll find situations that might make you raise an eyebrow. So, let's not throw stones at age-up fiction creators when the literary giants sometimes walk on the same edge, right? 😏

In the conclusion, if you've got a problem with aging-up fictional characters, dear Nonnie, you might want to take a chill pill and remember that it's all just a bit of fun in the end ♥ Well, you know what would truly make my day? If you took the liberty to hit that "block" button with glee and gracefully vanished from my interactions. And if, by some chance, you decide to stick around, don't hold your breath for a response. I'll be too busy conjuring up some fiery, smutty tales featuring Bakugo or Shoto or any other character I like to bother with your, shall we say, less-than-enlightening queries. But hey, chin up, pal – here's a little nugget of wisdom from your "older and wiser" friend: go get a life. It's an absolute game-changer 😜 I'm tagging some content creators who write dark fics or use aged-up characters and might face similar anons/anon hate: @mrskokushibo @ectologia @kyojurismo @bakubunny

[666writingcafe]

A Reward (Part Two)

Content Warning: a MC-centered orgy featuring blow jobs

MC

One moment, I'm watching a movie with everyone. The next, I'm back on the bed I was on during Belphie's portion of my chastity test.

"Welcome back," Belphie greets me. He's sitting cross-legged across from me.

"What's going on?" I ask. "This isn't a surprise final, is it?"

"No, no, nothing like that."

"Then what am I doing here?" Belphie sighs.

"We've noticed how tense you've been the last few days and figured it was due to the emotional aftermath of the test."

"I mean, you're not wrong. I know it was designed to push my limits, but damn. It didn't need to be that fucking hard." Belphie chuckles.

"That's why we decided to reward you." That's the second time he's said "we", but the word just now registered in my brain.

"We?" I repeat. Belphie nods his head, smiling. There's no way this is happening right now.

"You mean all of you agreed--"

"Yep," he answers, interrupting my train of thought. "It was surprisingly easy."

"Belphie, I...I don't know what to say."

"Just tell me when you want to begin." I'm completely speechless. The fact that these guys are willing to play out this particular fantasy of mine is something I never thought would actually happen. It's part of why I resisted Asmo's charm for so long; I didn't want him--or anyone else--to think less of me for it.

"Don't overthink it, MC."

"It's not that," I tell him. "It's just...well...why is it happening here?"

"Diavolo was worried that your body couldn't handle the stress of this in the real world, so this is the next best thing."

"But this is only a dream." Belphie rolls his eyes.

"You're forgetting, MC: I can make this feel like reality. That includes leaving evidence that will still be there when you wake up. We're simply taking advantage of the nebulous nature of the dream realm to make this happen for you." I close my eyes, still feeling overwhelmed. Part of me considers having Belphie send me to another part of the dream realm that has rainbows or something less intense than this.

"It's okay," Belphie comforts. "You don't have to worry about a thing. We'll take care of you. I promise." I take a deep breath. The person that I was before the exchange program would have never agreed to do something this slutty. Not because I didn't want to, but because I was afraid of making a fool out of myself.

But I've grown a lot since then, and these guys seem to accept me, flaws and all.

"Okay," I whisper. I feel the bed shift. Moments later, I find myself up against someone's chest as Belphie's lips are on mine. The mystery person's hands reach inside my shirt and lightly slide up my sides, making me shiver.

"Relax," Lucifer whispers, planting a kiss on my temple. "You're allowed to enjoy yourself."

"We don't have to do this if you feel uncomfortable," Belphie adds. Opening my eyes reveals his face inches away from my own. "Just say the word, and we'll stop."

"Please keep going." I sound pathetic. Rather than tease me for it, however, the two men resume their actions. Their hands travel up and down my body as their lips focus on my face and neck. At some point, my shirt disappears. Whether one of them actually took it off or it simply vanished into thin air is anyone's guess.

Lucifer gets off the bed, and Belphie gently pushes me so that I'm lying on my back. Multiple hands and lips immediately begin roaming all over my body, reducing me to pants and soft whines.

"Aaaw," Asmo coos. "You're so adorable, MC."

"We've barely gotten started, and already you're a trembling mess," Satan observes.

"I..." Their constant touching is making me forget what I was even going to say. Something about me not being able to help it?

"Ssh," Simeon whispers. "You don't have to talk, MC. Just focus on us, okay?" I feel like I'm melting.

"Give them a moment," Diavolo instructs, his breath hot on my belly. "They're not used to having this much attention on them. They're probably overwhelmed." Everyone's movements stop as they look at me, waiting for a reaction.

"It's..." I have to really focus to get the words to come out of my mouth. "It's like my brain's turned to jelly."

"Is that a good thing?" Solomon asks.

"I think so. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I'm just not used to it, that's all."

"If I'd known you'd react like this, I would have made this happen a lot sooner," Belphie chimes in. "It's nice seeing you truly relax, MC."

"So, are you good to continue?" Beel asks. "Or do you need more time to recenter yourself?" I take another deep breath. I have a feeling I'll be doing that quite a bit this evening.

"I'm ready." With that, the men resume their touching, keeping a closer eye on my reactions to make sure I don't become overstimulated again.

"You're doing so well, MC," Barbatos praises. "Such a good little lamb." Hearing the compliment makes me whine.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this to you guys," Belphie states. "Well, Asmo may have known already, but it seems as though our MC has a bit of a praise kink."

"Is that true, MC?" Mammon asks, rubbing his hand up and down my thigh. "Do you like being told how good you are?" I hum affirmatively.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of," Levi responds. "I have one, too. It helps boost my self-confidence."

"For me, they help me feel valued," I explain quietly. "They assure me that I'm doing the right thing."

"So, does degradation have the opposite effect on you?" Belphie asks.

"I mean, if that's all you're doing, then yes. I'd probably start crying. But if there are praises mixed into it, then it's not so bad."

"So, if I told you to take my dick in your mouth like the good little whore that you are, you wouldn't have a problem with that?"

"Oh, that got their attention," Asmo quips before I have a chance to answer. It makes sense that he picked up on that; he is the Avatar of Lust, after all.

"Then let's put it to the test." The other men move off me, and Belphie repositions the two of us so that my face is level with his crotch. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Satan, Barbatos, Asmo, and Diavolo all exchange knowing glances. They've all witnessed first hand how I react to having a demon dick in my face, and it's not by acting all shy about it.

Belphie makes the clothes on his bottom half disappear with a snap of his fingers, and without hesitation I wrap my mouth around him, gripping both sides of his waist as I begin moving up and down.

"Fuck!" Belphie hisses. "Where'd you learn to do that?"

"That was my reaction when they did that to me," Asmo responds. "Really threw me off guard at first. I didn't think they even knew how to give a blowjob, let alone be able to excel at it."

"It appears to become the only thing on their mind," Diavolo adds. "They won't stop until you've cummed completely in your mouth, and even then they might continue sucking."

"Hang on," Mammon chimes in. "You mean to tell me that you two received a blowjob from MC before the rest of us?"

"Make that four," Barbatos answers.

"Four?! Now, that hardly seems fair." I briefly stop what I'm doing to tell Mammon that I'd be more than happy to help even the score, so to speak, making him shut up and allowing me to continue pleasuring Belphie.

The next little bit goes by in a blur as I make good on my promise. Mammon's quite loud, Levi babbles incoherently the whole time, Beel mostly growls, and Lucifer and Solomon groan like the old men that they are.

But the one that stands out to me the most is Simeon. After making 100% sure that he's okay with me doing this to him, I go for it. The noises that consequently come out of his mouth are some of the prettiest I've ever heard. It almost sounds like he's singing.

My jaw aches when I'm finally finished.

"Our turn," Belphie states. The bed creaks as he gets on it, pushing me up against the headrest. He then grabs my legs and spreads them apart before positioning himself between them. The gaspy moan I produce when he begins pleasuring me with his mouth appears to be a kind of siren call, for everyone else resumes touching the rest of my body with their hands and lips.

I don't know how much time passes or how many orgasms I have. And yet I can't find it in me to care that much. There's only one word on my mind as they have their way with me: more.

Taglist: @lost-in-time-wanderer, @fuzztacular, @dianedancer18, @sweetbrier2908, @flare-love, @completelyshatteredbrokenmschf, @thunderlightning351, @l3v1chan

[childrensward]

Making Accessible Interaction Banners - a Guide by Binoo "ChildrensWard"

Interaction or "DNI" (do not interact) banners are a staple of the age regression community, but too often are they made without taking accessibility in mind, whether it's because they're unreadable, have excessive eye strain, or aren't marked with alt text.

Therefore, in the hopes that I can help people out with this, I decided to write a mini guide on how to make your banners accessible for as many people as possible!

Under the "read more" cut, this guide will cover the following:

Fonts, and how to choose the best ones

Text, and what your interaction banners should say

Colour contrast, and why it's important in making your graphics accessible

Eye strain, and why it generally should be avoided

Alt text and image descriptions, and how to write them

And an example of an interaction banner I made using the criteria I've written in this guide!

So, without further adieu, let's get into the real meat of this guide!

Fonts

Fonts are easily the most important thing about an interaction banner! It's how you're going to best convey the contents of your banner in a way that's readable to the viewer. Here's a quick and firty rundown of the different kinds of fonts, as well as which ones you should (and shouldn't!) use for your banner:

Body Copy fonts are your basic Sans and Sans Serif style fonts that you'll most often find on books and websites, because they're some of the easiest fonts to read in smaller text (10-14pt) due to their lack of details. Examples of Body Copy fonts include PT Serif, Arial, Comic Sans, Roboto, and Helvetica Now.

Display fonts are often used for headers and subheaders and include features such as being thick, having unconventional letters, and, on occasion, being in all caps. However, these fonts should not be used for body or small text, as they will be very hard to read. Examples of Display fonts include Futura PT, Elephant, Noto Serif Display, and Shoreditch.

Script and decorative fonts are subtypes of display fonts, with the former having a handwritten quality to them, while the latter are considered to be the fun display fonts. However, you should be very careful with using either of these fonts- not only can they be hard to read on their own, but neither should be used specifically for body or small text in any circumstance. For the sake of readability and accessibility, however, I'd be more inclined to avoid using these fonts.

Text

Aside from the fonts that your text will be written in, the text itself is also a mandatory aspect of your banners. After all, it's what banners are entirely based on, and it's the very thing that tells you who can and can't interact with your posts.

However, there's something important to keep in mind, and that is how much text you're trying to cram into your banner because you're trying so desperately to fit your entire DNI criteria onto it.

What I think is important when it comes to making your banners is to keep any text you have on there as short as possible. If you bombard your banner with all this specific criteria, then you're more likely to make your readers confused, whether or not they happen to be a screen reader user.

When making your banners, ask yourself the following questions when deciding on your criteria:

How likely is it for someone interacting with the age regression or similar communities to fit this criteria? Have I come across a good number of people who fit this criteria that makes it worth mentioning?

Is this criteria at all relevant to the content I'm presenting? Do I need things like inter-community discourse terms from other communities on my banner if I'm making content specifically for age regression?

Is there any "unspoken" criteria that everyone agrees upon that doesn't need to be included? These might include nazis, racists and white supremacists, homophobes and transphobes, ableists and eugenicists, misogynists, anti-choice, etc.

If your answers show that the specific criteria is not relevant, then it's best to leave it out to keep the information on your banner more clear and concise.

Colour Contrast

While colour contrast is something often talked about in web development circles, it's also an important skill to learn when making any sort of graphic design- which is what interaction banners essentially are. Without taking colour contrast into mind, you're left with a banner that may not be easy for most people to read; let alone those with low vision or blindness. We also need to think about things like people who may be using old or outdated monitors, people reading on smaller screens (like a smart phone), and bad lighting and glare. As Contrast Rebellion puts it: aesthetics are important, but aren't the ultimate goal of design.

Okay, so you've understood the reason why colour contrast is important, but how do you put it into action? How do you know your colours of choice are readable?

Well lucky for us, there's many resources out there that help us in choosing the right colours! Here are a few of my favourites:

CSUN: Color Contrast - An introduction article on colour contrast, why it's important, and some examples of good and bad colour contrast choices.

Random A11y - If you don't have any colour combinations in mind, Random A11y is here to help! With it's vast amount of randomly generated colour contrast combinations, you'll have plenty of options to work with. Don't like the combination you're given? Just click on the "new colours" tab to generate a new palette!

Colour Contrast Analyzer - This is a free program for Windows and Mac that helps you with colour checking with a variety of different features; including multiple ways to select colours (CSS color formats, RGB slider, colour picker tool), and a colour blindness simulator.

Accessible Colors - If you don't want to or can't download the program above, then this website works just as fine with checking colours, too! Just enter in the hex codes of your colours, the font size and weight, and which level of conformance you'd like your colours to pass.

Eye strain

A bit of a sore topic for some, but I feel I must put it bluntly for people to understand: making your colours easy on the eyes of the viewer should be your top priority over your aesthetic. Some people, like myself, have certain health conditions that are triggered by eye strain, and by continuing to slap extremely contrasted rainbows on your banners, you're continuing to put disabled people through worsening symptoms, all because you feel the need to retain your aesthetic.

Many of the same resources shared in the Colour Contrast section can also help you to rule out any eye-straining palettes. Also, a general rule of thumb to keep in mind is: if a colour palette is eye straining enough to cause you some mild problems, then it's enough to cause someone with a disability more severe symptoms.

Alt text and image descriptions

I think a lot of us find writing alt text to be daunting- I know I did for a long while, which is why I never wrote any for my posts until recently. But really, once you get the hang of it, it can be very simple and easy to write! Even so, people who don't know how exactly to write alt text often fumble with this- either writing too much or too little, not being clear enough, or just copying the image caption and calling it a day.

Here's some tips and tricks on writing better alt text:

Alt text generally follows the Object-action-context rule. In the words of Alex Chen at Medium: The object is the main focus. The action describes what's happening, usually what the object is doing. The context describes the surrounding environment.

Be specific and concise, and even consider the content of the post or webpage it's on as well. You'll also want to consider the function or purpose of the image, and what you want your viewers to gain from it.

Keep your alt text short, as long descriptions with too much flowery language and filler words can be distracting when using a screen-reader. Generally, most screen-readers will cut off alt text at around 125 characters.

Avoid using "image of..." or "picture of...," as HTML codes will already identify your images as such. However, in this case, mentioning what type of image it is can add context.

Always check for spelling mistakes, as this can affect the user experience, causing interruptions and confusion.

Not related to interaction banners specifically, but avoid including alt text for decorative images that are used to make your post prettier. In this case, insert the word "null" in your alt text fields.

Image descriptions are a little different in the fact that they're allowed to be more descriptive than alt text, considering screen readers won't be able to cut off any alt text at 125 characters. Even so, it's still best to keep your image descriptions as short as possible to save from redundancy and confusion.

Please remember that writing alt text and image descriptions can take a lot of practice and trial-and-error, so don't give up if you can't get it right the first time! Write and rewrite it as much as you need to, or even consider changing your interaction banner altogether if you think it can't be described in words concisely.

An example

Taking what we've learned above, let's take this banner I made just for this post as an example of these characteristics put into action.

In this example, I have chosen the hex colour #4D0000 for my text colour, and the colours #B5F3DC and #E3B158 for my background. According to CCA, the contrast ratios for my colours of choice are 12.8:1 and 7.9:1 respectfully, which both meet the minimum contrasts of 1.4.3 for AA and 1.4.6 for AAA.

I have chosen the font FS Lola Bold, which is a type of display font that's best for headers and subheaders, but not so much any body or small text. I don't have to worry about this though, because I don't have any small text in my banner.

I've also kept my criteria to a simple "No DDLG/CGL interaction," because I feel that this is the most relevant information regarding the content of my blog and the posts I make. Short and simple, yet specific to who I don't want interacting with me. I also like the idea of my favourite fictional characters protecting my blog, which is why I've included another short sentence for it!

Here's an example of what the image description or alt text for this banner could look like:

[Image description: Banner that reads "Toopy and Binoo protect this blog, no DDLG/CGL interaction!" On it are the titular characters from the show. /End ID]

And if I were to have both alt text alongside an image description, then the alt text could be as simple as what the banner reads, which would be:

"Toopy and Binoo protect this blog, no DDLG/CGL interaction!"

Remember, you don't have to go into every little detail with your image descriptions or alt text, because then it can become very confusing for certain people to decipher! Keep it simple and state the minimum.

Closing words

I think that's everything that I wanted to cover in this post. Of course, there's more to accessible design than just text and fonts alone, but when it comes to interaction banners, it's usually the focal point of the images, which is why it's so vital that people with disabilities can also read your banner- especially when they contain important information about your personal boundaries.

Age regressors often pride themselves for the image we've set up for our community, that it's safe for everyone to join and no one will be judged or excluded for who their are. But the reality is, we still have lots of work to do before we're ever at that place, and making our community more accessible is just one of these steps that we should all be encouraged to take. Besides, what kind of message are we sending if we don't take the steps to make our space as accessible as possible? How do you think it'd feel to realize that a community you wanted to join is actively hostile towards you because of the refusal to learn how to accommodate for them? Especially when we have such a huge demographic of disabled people in the community, we can and should be doing better to accommodate for everyone as much as we possibly can.

Learning accessibility is a skill that requires time and practice, and I don't expect anyone to be perfect at it the first time around. The aim of doing these things isn't to make sure that every single thing is 100% accessible in every single way imaginable and with no mistakes whatsoever; but to instead encourage, develop, and incorporate good accessibility practices into our every day lives.

Thank you for reading,

- Binoo

[glass--beach]

I know you're not being open about your maybe-plurality on tumblr for other people's sakes, but I want to say thanks for being open about it, and speaking honestly about your feelings. I've been through a very similar journey recently and I felt extremely alone with how I was thinking about/approaching it.

I firmly believe that it doesn't matter whether you have a diagnosable dissociative disorder, I'm too critical of psych to put much stake in that. My journey has always revolved around one question: What is the most useful way to think about myself?

And I spent years trying to be a "singlet". I spent my whole life trying to be one person. But then I didn't know how to introduce myself. I don't know what my hobbies are. I don't know what my goals are. It wasn't just indecisiveness for me, it was a whole different way of seeing the world, of thinking, different core beliefs and opinions that changed the way I behaved and socialized and studied and worked.

For all these years I thought of myself as a "nothing person" as a result. Someone with no particular talents or skills of personalities. I watched my friends grow up and get PhDs and high paying jobs and write books and I still felt like a toddler too overwhelmed by choices and drawn to too many things and not present enough to commit fully to being anyone in particular.

I don't think singlet people understand how damaging it is to not know yourself, or to try to be someone you're not. Well actually, maybe trans singlets do know that. It did feel an awful lot like gender dysphoria but it wasn't just about gender, it was about my whole me.

I'm doing better now. And the reason I'm doing better is because I stopped trying to be a singular person. I recognized that there are multiple identities in here. We have an artist. We have a scientist. We have a sleepy caterpillar. We have a young child. None of those people feel that dreadful "nothingness" anymore. They know who they are, what they like, what their aspirations are, how they like to talk to people. They don't feel like a confused upset failure when they suddenly aren't *themselves* anymore.

A different part/alter/headmate being asocial doesn't undo all of the social skills I have. Me being bad at math doesn't take away from one of my alters who is awesome at it. They're still allowed to identify with their own traits and features without feeling like a fraud because of the fact that they can't consistently be that person all of the time.

Accepting my plurality has saved my life. I love myself now, all of my parts, as they are. It's OK that they're extremely different from me. They're still real. And now I don't spend every day agonizing over why I don't have their skills and interests. I'm ok with being like this.

Sorry if this comes across as over sharing because that is not my intention. I just hoped to illustrate why reconceptualizing yourself as plural can be helpful, and change your whole perspective, and allow you to be more forgiving and kind to yourself. I can't possibly hate the amazing friends I share a brain with, and they don't hate me, how could I hate myself in these conditions after all? I hope this does the same for you. If you do find that you have different parts or personalities there is no shame in letting them fully indulge in what they like and in what they are good at. Don't hold yourself back from being you to the fullest extent just because it doesn't align with your other parts. You will be way happier if you can recognize who you are and then listen to what that part of you wants.

love this and vibe with it heavily. i’ve embraced being a contradictory person but i think actually pinning down the patterns to those contradictions is going to help me out immensely. sounds like that’s what’s worked for you pretty much. glad you’ve gotten something out of my posting, genuinely

[level2janitor]

grid-combat sandbox thing!

i get distracted with new projects a lot, but lately my brain's been hyperfocused on one in particular. i wanted to take a crack at combining 4e-style tactical combat with OSR-style sandbox play, which on the surface seem like entirely opposite directions. and they kind of are, but i think i have something

since i started work on it i ended up dropping the words "OSR" and "4e" from my descriptions of it bc i think they end up evoking the wrong image. there's a lot that's core to both playstyles that i'm omitting to make it play nicer with the other playstyle. but it's far along enough now that i can talk about some of the design philosophy and how that manifests.

little to no scaling

the traditional way modern D&D (and to an extent even old-school D&D) handles progression is with big numerical scaling. a level 2 PC has nearly twice as much HP/damage as a level 1 PC. so you scale monsters to match, because the PCs have to get into fights around their level for the game to work.

skeletons are a real danger at 1st-level. they're manageable by 3rd, easy by 5th, and a joke by 7th-level. so you just stop running into skeletons, and when you're nearing the end of that level range any skeleton encounters that do happen will have a lot of skeletons.

this is bad for sandboxes! say i'm preparing a sandbox setting ahead of time and have a dungeon with a bunch of skeletons in it somewhere. i don't know what level the PCs will find it at - depending on whether they go through it as a 2nd-level or 6th-level party, it might be incredibly easy or so dangerous there's little they can do to mitigate that difficulty. or i'll just have to redo my encounter math the moment they find it, and that sucks for both the GM and players.

so, big numerical scaling is out. there's levels, you level up, but most of what you get from that level-up is a new ability. not a big pile of hit points and more damage. there's some scaling, your numbers are like twice as big at 10th-level compared to 1st-level, but it's a small enough range that a hard encounter at 1st-level will stay relevant throughout a whole campaign.

the game's far along enough i can create & fully level a fighter PC, so i made a 1st and 10th-level (max) character and put them side-by-side to get a feel for the scaling.

the warrior class

speaking of, the first class i made is the fighter, obviously. it's always the first thing i want to get right if i'm making a D&D-like system.

this is a good showcase of what each class is going to end up looking like: you start with a few core features & two perks (3 for warrior bc i like them being customizable). warrior perks range from a few unique moves to useful passives that let you resist statuses, strike multiple enemies, move further, equip heavier gear, parry weak attacks, etc.

the two core features, versatile fighter & combat opportunist, are designed to reward you for engaging in core combat mechanics. you get bonuses to attack from high ground, and this increases that bonus. every weapon has a unique special move you can do with it, and this lets you use any weapon you have with no cost to switch.

i've never liked the way most D&D-likes handle weapons, where you design your build around one specific weapon. you invest all your feats into being The Polearm Guy and when you find a cool magic warhammer or dagger you're just like. well i don't want this. it's not a polearm. so this fighter is instead designed to encourage you to carry around a ton of different weapons and use all of them.

exploration & the ranger

i used to hang out in the 5e community a lot, and people hated the 5e ranger. why? cause nobody used the travel rules, and you can't really blame them. the game has rules for how far you can travel each day, for random encounters & whether they ambush you, foraging, encumbrance, different travel speeds.

but most people who play 5e don't want that kind of experience, and 5e half-commits to it by leaving these rules scattered through the dungeon master's guide and making them too tedious. everything's measured in real numbers - miles, minutes, pounds. you track weight with pounds instead of item slots. of course nobody wants to track encumbrance when they have to stop the game to ask the GM how many pounds the macguffin weighs. nobody wants to dig through the DMG looking for the rule that tells you how many miles you can move. it just gets in the way and stops the game, so nobody does.

all of this screws over the ranger class which gives you bonuses to things like travel speed, not being ambushed while traveling, finding more rations, and tracking. people disliked the ranger so much that a supplement came out that replaced all of their exploration features with naturey combat features and some skill boosts, and since then that's the actual ranger when anyone wants to play one.

with that context, here's the exploration features my game's ranger gets.

the feature on the left is inherent while the right two are perks. there's combat features, but they're not part of the point i wanted to make.

the ranger needs to feel useful, and for that, the exploration needs to be front and center. so what better game than one designed for sandboxes?

i don't want this to be the kind of big-damn-heroes game where you skip to the next setpiece because the travel is boring. the travel is the game. that's where the OSR influence comes in.

you track rations. it's important - if a place is far from civilization, it feels like it because there's nowhere safe nearby to restock rations.

you track encumbrance. deciding how much space to spend on arrows and rations, and how much to spend on treasure, means more decision-making.

you do hexcrawling, you track time, and you care how many days a journey takes because the world changes as time passes. enemies & other factions progress their schemes, new developments come up. so sometimes you go, wow, good thing we have a ranger - we can move 3 hexes today instead of 2!

the ranger is better at foraging rations so you can venture further into the wilderness, better at moving your party faster, better at keeping watch. i want that to matter! i can envision it being so satisfying to play a ranger and constantly come in handy. and i want parties without a ranger to wish they had one in a way that isn't just tedious.

so hopefully that gives you a good idea of the sandboxy direction for this game. will be posting about it more as i make progress, and gonna continue to support iron halberd in between this sort of thing

[nostalgia-tblr]

My Next Attempt At Long Fic (by which I mean more than 10000 words and it has chapters) Should Be...

Poll and the (actually quite long) gist of each option below le cut:

The Sylki Con Artists AU

This one I have a wee bit written of already but I go back and forth on this one because it's Alternative Universe - Modern Setting and I feel like there's already a lot of those (which I also complain about a lot), and I have to justify it to myself as an experiment in whether I can do a Sylki Modern AU that doesn't just end up as "two people called Loki and Sylvie do normal stuff together". That's why they are con artists in this! Because 1) MISCHIEF (or crime, or whatever) and 2) if they have the same 'job' for similar reasons and I go on about them being similar a lot then that's maybe as close as reality can get to selfcest. (The selfcest is not just a feature of sylki, I feel it is THE feature and to admit to being Bad At Shipping (again) I'm just not that interested in it if they're different people who aren't even aliens. The same alien.) (You can tell me they are gods all you want but I've seen enough Doctor Who to know that must be A LIE so I reject it as such.)

The plot is that they meet in a bar one night and shag (obviously!) and then the reader discovers that Loki is trying to buy a painting from an old woman (planning on ripping off both her and his own buyer) and Sylvie is an artist who is selling a forged painting to some posh twat on the internet who she knows is trying to rip off her fake old lady persona on the deal but she's selling him a fake painting anyway so at least he deserves to be conned. They meet up a few times before finally realising that they are in fact conning each other under fake names on the internet, and then I have to try and fix it when they inevitably get mad at each other because of it. Also, Thor works in a shop because the brodinsons are Downwardly Mobile (dad spent all their inheritance, oh no!) Plotwise Loki is going to actually need Sylvie's painting for reasons I have not yet entirely worked out so one way or another they will have to eventually forgive each other for being con artists as they themselves are and for having attempted to con each other.

Ideally I will be able to make this one funny in some way, as I think the concept can get absurd enough to make a rom-com out of it.

2. The Jotun Heat Fic (also sylki)

I was into this one for about a day and now I have second thoughts because I am not sure I care enough about Frost Giant Biology to have to write an entire fic about it. It would continue my tradition (I did it once, that's enough for it to be a tradition) of turning a tiny ficlet into a much longer thing. This one: The Opposite of Heat, in which Loki and Sylvie go into whatever the Jotun equivalent of the fandom fave 'mating cycles/in heat' trope is, having never done so before because (see if you can guess...) they've never previously spent enough time around another Jotun for the hormones to kick in properly. They have no idea this can happen, and what starts out as Fun Porno-Fic Times soon gets a bit worrying and then I suppose they have to Investigate and that's the bit I fear might end up boring me.

This is set in an AU where S2!Loki did not instantly demand that Sylvie help him with his cop friends' problems and instead just went to live in Oklahoma with her, so the other/'real' plot is them getting used to living together and the weird-but-sexy medical issue bringing them into conflict because of course the first place Loki wants to go for help is the TVA (this not unreasonable of him, as they have a lot of info in their archives and he has no other friends anyway), which Sylvie is not keen on as she would rather just avoid them for the rest of forever. Gosh, I hope nobody goes to the TVA for help behind anyone else's back!

I need a way to make this one stay interesting once it gets to the Find Out What Is Happening part and also it needs to not just immediately end with a sensible solution like just going to Jotunheim and asking someone there for a talk about the frost-birds and the frost-bees.

Also I think they should fuck in that McDonalds. Just because.

3. Jotunheim Rejects The Guy Who Cannot Possibly Be Its Rightful King, Because I'm Annoying Like That AU (not thorki)

Speaking of going to Jotunheim, you know all those fics where Loki goes to be the Rightful King Of Frostland, as Odin apparently planned all along? That but it doesn't work, because I am not at all convinced he can have been Laufey's heir (who the fuck infanticides their only male heir?!) and even if he was well it'd just look awful, wouldn't it? Crusty Old Odin, worst friend to Jotunheim for several years running, sends back your kingdom's heir having raised him as one of his own family. (I hope at least one of you is thinking "US-Backed Puppet Ruler Who Will Do Whatever The CIA Tells Them To" because I did too! Ooh, geopolitical barely-subtext!)

The problem with this one for me is it requires a fairly large cast of Original Jotun Characters, and I still fear writing OCs because of the constant 'Mary-Sue' complaints in my fannish youth. Also I would Controversially (LOL not really) make some of them women, including Angrboda the ambitious would-be consort and Laufey's tragically spurned lover who on finding out that her long-dead son is not dead makes the most of it by insisting everyone call her 'My Lady, the King's Mother' (yes, I stole that from History but I do that sort of thing now, for the LOLs). So I have a bit of an idea what happens in this one, though I'd need to think of more political type plot stuff and also I just finished writing a multichapter fic that involved the Jotun succession so maybe I'd be overdoing it if I did this one now as well.

The other problem is Jotuns are too fucking tall. I mean really. This doesn't seem to bother anyone else but they are Too Fucking Tall to interact with the shorter characters, to the point that it just seems accidentally comedic to me. Just imagine the totally-not-a-puppet king of Jotunheim sitting on a massive throne, swinging his wee legs in the air. And I don't know how to work around that other than just saying "they are Less Fucking Tall in this fic" and I don't know if that would just annoy people. Also it does feel a bit incendiary to go against the general fandom insistence that Loki Is Totally The Rightful King Of Jotunheim. Though I suppose in this he is, it's just that he attempts to become so in the sort of circumstances that make everyone start saying things like "are we really that keen on our monarchy?" or at least "surely there's a cousin or an uncle we could give the crown to instead? yeah, even a woman would do. no, she doesn't have to be alive if there are only dead ones available."

(It was a mistake to let me read books about the Wars of the Roses, wasn't it?)

Oh and this isn't a thorki fic, but Thor is going to go to Jotunheim with his bro to help him settle in and also he will be going back to rescue him from it at the end. Bros before snows!!!!

[the-lunar-library]

TO THE RAVENS

Alexandros the Peregrine, a dashing, cutting, irreverent prophet with a tame god.

When it comes to the inspiration for this character, that's easy: He's based on the real life prophet Alexander of Abonoteichos, the subject of Lucian's famous essay “Alexander the False Prophet”. But Lucian fans will also notice some references to Peregrinus, a lesser known but still colorful prophet whom Lucian also skewered on the end of his stylus. They're both interesting figures, and it was a lot of fun combining them into my Alexandros, the second most important character in the novel.

Read more to learn about this very pretty trickster.

Out of all of the characters, Alexandros most closely mirrors his real life counterpart (though even there, not very closely), so in that way he was an easy character to develop. And engrossing to research for. He's a false prophet who throws together his own religion. Religion as a subject fascinates me. Even before starting this project, I was pretty familiar with a number of niche religious movements, both those that would be considered cults and others that would more neutrally be called unique. So along with looking at Alexander of Abonoteichos' traits (as thoroughly criticized by Lucian), I also drew from these other references, though hopefully not too closely; I want the details of Alexandros' cult to ring true to real-world movements without sounding too derivative.

I think one of the things about Alexandros that required a lot of thought was setting the tone for his personality, the way he talks, the things he does, and overall his impact on those around him. On the one hand, we're talking about a cult. You can't realistically write about a cult and ignore how serious they are. But on the other hand, I still wanted to play around with humor. Religion – and I'm not writing this as any kind of skeptical or atheistic statement – is inherently funny. It's an important thing, and important things often have very funny elements to them, partially because of their very importance. According to Lucian, the real life Alexander made some extraordinarily ludicrous (and daring) gambles, and I wanted to play with that. Play with that, have fun with it. But – at the same time – you can never shut off your brain and pretend all of this is just funny.

As far as his design goes, Lucian tells us Alexander was handsome, even “godlike”. With my Alexandros, I decided to make his features almost uncannily ideal. We only ever see him directly in the heroine Akantha's pov, and when she meets him she's had very few men in her life who take her as seriously as Alexandros does, befriending her, caring about the things that hurt her, taking her into his secrets. So she's dazzled by him. It's arguable whether his dazzle is objective or comes more through her perception of him, but I do want him to have a beautiful, almost godlike quality at times.

I decided to throw in a small cheek scar. Sort of a permanent dimple, as well as a hint that at some point in his reckless and quicksilver past, things didn't go according to plan. It's supposed to be on his left cheek, though it appears on his right cheek on the book's back cover – I wanted to include it but he was facing to the right, so I'm guilty of a deliberate inconsistency.

I love writing Alexandros. My hope is that the reader finds him intriguing – perhaps funny and charming, perhaps perceptive and intelligent, perhaps some other things – and, above all, is never bored when he's on the page.

[cagedchoices]

The dash has been in a fairly spicy mood this weekend, and I feel that but I'm really more in the mood where I just wanna be soft and affectionate about my ships for a minute, so I thought I would share some of Caleb's favorite things about his partners. Under the cut because I don't shut up ever lmao

@killjoysanonymous — MAEVE MILLAY

He loves how sharp-witted Maeve is and her sense of humor which typically falls on the dry, sarcastic, and sometimes a bit morbid side. Caleb doesn't get to joke around a ton as he takes things so seriously most of the time, but when he does get to joke, it's usually very similar so their humor pairs well together.

He admires her motherly, nurturing side—the part of her that will do anything for the ones she loves, and her resilience as a survivor who has to do exactly that just for an un-guaranteed chance to one day be reunited with her daughter.

He loves her looks, which...yes I know as a host she's designed to look hot because she's built specifically to gratify human desires, but you'd be amazed how quickly all of that becomes an afterthought to Caleb when he spends time around her and doesn't overthink it. And anyways we have AUs where Maeve is human and equally as hot so really. It doesn't matter. His favorite features of hers in particular are her smile, her eyes, her hands, and her voice. He really likes saying her name out loud too.

Caleb genuinely just loves spending time with her. It doesn't matter what they're doing or where they are, he just wants to be there with Maeve.

@timerevolt — LULU WARREN

The first thing that ever came to mind was her looks! I think because the first time we decided to ship together all started with Caleb and Lulu matching on Tinder. Lulu's photos had such a dreamy vibe surrounding them that he was drawn to the idea of who she might be. But even in AUs where they meet in-person first, he's just taken with how pretty she is.

Her positivity and optimism. Despite being through some fucked up, traumatic things in her life and carrying a dark side that she knows she can trust Caleb with, Lulu strives to spread kindness and happiness to others by maintaining a cheerful outlook on life.

Her free-spiritedness. Lulu likes to keep things light and she doesn't really let labels or status define who she is or what she's capable of. Caleb adores this about her, but it's also kind of the main factor that prevents him from telling Lulu he's in love with her sometimes, because he worries she won't be happy if she ends up tied down in a relationship with him. It comes as a real shock to Caleb when Lulu willingly chooses to leave her old gig as a circus performer or a burlesque dancer just to move in with him and expresses the desire to adopt a dog, get married and have babies with him because as it turns out, she is happy in a relationship.

Her baking/cooking skills. I think rarely a day goes by where Lulu isn't making something good to eat. Whether it's born out of pure joy for the love of the hobby or done as stress relief to take her mind off of trouble, she's usually there with a fresh plate of brookies to brighten anyone's day.

Her resourcefulness. Okay, so the fact that she often combs through garbage cans and dumpsters looking for things to repurpose is an aspect of it that does gross Caleb out a bit, but just look at how happy Lulu gets whenever she finds something she wouldn't have without scavenging. Occasionally they probably do have a stern moment of Caleb going "Babe, I can buy you some of these things. You don't have to go dumpster diving." and Lulu "But baby it's free this way—" but overall, he thinks the idea of Lulu taking something someone else threw away and fixing it or making it into something new that she can use is actually very romantic.

@walkswastes — OPHELIA

These two are pretty new and just starting to figure each other out, and I feel like there's some things that feel similar to Lulu—free spirit, optimism— but the very first thing that really struck Caleb about Ophelia is the way she pushes his boundaries a little further than he'd normally go with them! She's very flirty and forward, and sometimes he doesn't really know what to do with that so he just locks up. But so far with her he's been a bit braver and more confident than he normally is.

[mermaidsirennikita]

The enemies to lovers trope has been distorted way to much, practically anything is considered enemies to lovers when in fact is not enemies to lovers

Can I be real real right now? The idea that "enemies to lovers must have an equal power balance between the lovers" is uh... not real. I've been a fan of enemies to lovers since I was a fan of anything. I've watched more movies and shows than I can even begin to count. I've read more romance novels (and non-romance novels!) featuring EtL than I care to admit. I've consumed it in so many genres, so many eras of production. In kids' media, in YA, in content for adults. Long-form, short-form. Open door, close door, whatever. With or without an HEA.

While an equal power balance may be a thing that YOU as an individual (not you, anon, the general you lol) want out of EtL--and that is okay! I endorse people finding their joy, and honestly, if You've Got Mail is EtL for YOU, whatever, I can't see that but chase your bliss--this has never been a universal requirement of EtL. It just isn't lol. In many forms of media, EtL gets DARK and always has! And that's okay.

I see that the rhetoric has shifted to the idea that if the power balance is not equal, one party is oppressed and the other is the oppressor, and like... I don't think a power imbalance inherently equals this (because there is a lot of territory you can cover between "are not on an equal playing field" and "one is oppressing the other") but sometimes, yeah. That is the case.

And I don't think you're a bad person or that it's inherently wrong to enjoy that dynamic.

I say this because I read historical romance, and if you want to get super real about it, on a basic level essentially any m/f historical romance ship in any form of media is oppressor/oppressed because men have historically oppressed women. (I mean. Men still oppress women. But I'm talking about "the heroines in historical romance novels usually do not have significant legal rights" here.) Whether or not the characters are enemies to lovers, the hero is legally an oppressor on some level. Unless, MAYBE, he's completely broke and lower class and she is rich and upper class; but even then, once they're married? In most of these settings, he has the ability to acquire and use her funds and control her bodily and legally.

I feel.... that is.... kind of the point.

Because while there are many reasons why people get into these imbalanced power dynamics, I believe that many consumers (and I'm definitely thinking of historical romance readers who love a horrible alpha, like ME) enjoy seeing the person with more power broken down. (Would recommend Fated Mates's episode on the Alpha hero, by the way, it has a great discussion of this.) We want to see them lose the power, bend the knee, become powerless and at the mercy--emotionally, physically, or both--of the other party.

Is that not the appeal of the grovel, often? Seeing the person who should have done better and had the power to do better and didn't completely shattered and begging for forgiveness?

And look dude, there are a lot of things I absolutely will not mess with. I'm never going to be down with, say, the type of dynamic you'll see in a movie like Palm Trees in the Snow. But that's kind of the point. Not all of these things are the same.

Some things are absolutely not okay, and I would side-eye people who are into them. But I don't think you can look at like... a very BROAD concept and go "if you do it in this very broad way that covers a million angles, you are bad" without missing a lot of nuance.

I also feel like a lot of this often comes down to some people actually just disliking certain ships and using these qualifiers to make people who ship those things look bad, and that's just not my game anymore lol. I mean, I try not to do that anymore.

[autoplaysdigimon]

Another game I've been playing on and off recently is a fangame called Pokemon Insurgence.

There are two big draws for this game. One is that it has a "dark" storyline, though later updates added an option to tone back the edginess. And that's fair enough, whether you're put off by Pokemon games having murder, violence and sacrificial cults in them, or whether it feels 2edgy4me. Seriously, there's multiple things before you even get your starter that feel very "look at how DARK and GRITTY this game is!! This ain't your pappy's Nintendos!!!!" and it really reminds me of the stuff I wrote in high school when I thought that I was so adult for subverting the cutesy Pokemon image. YMMV, though.

The other big draw is a feature from the official card game. In it, there used to be cards of Pokemon that were Delta Species, which had a different type than usual. For example, Psychic Cyndaquil or Dark Meowth.

...because that's not a feature that would ever come up in the official games, surely.

Yeah, this game came out in Gen 6, juuuust before regional variants became a real thing in the series. Whoops! Still, it's neat to see their take on them. Delta Pokemon in Insurgence are treated like their own different thing, and they can't even breed with regular Pokemon, only Delta Ditto. (Which I think is near the end of the game, which kinda sucks, but hey.)

The starters are Delta versions of Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle, or you can pick a regular Eevee. There are no additional Eeveelutions or anything, but there is a Mega evolution for Eevee itself, so if you keep it unevolved for the entire game, you can mega evolve an Eevee! How awesome! I picked Bulbasaur because fuck that.

Look at her, she's so cute. She's Fairy/Psychic! I think Bulbasaur might be the only Delta Pokemon with gender differences.

It's kinda neat, but female cuter :3

Charmander is a Ghost/Dragon, and it looks fucking sick as hell. Squirtle is a Dark/Fighting and it looks like a ninja turtle, which is pretty rad.

For being all about the Delta Pokemon, there have been very few so far. There's the starter, and the rival's if you pick one of the Delta ones. Then you don't see any others until, potentially, just before the first gym. Which doesn't sound like much, but it's actually quite a way there. To get there, you have to go through three seperate caves.

Three. Seperate. Caves.

THREE CAVES.

That's not counting the ruins you go into to stop some villain action, or the optional one that leads to a small hidden area, or the one that you have to go through right after the gym.

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY CAVES.

Anyway here's the other Delta Pokemon I've encountered. Sandy sandy boy.

What I'm finding is that the wild Pokemon are very high level, to the point where it's pretty hard to grind. I'm watching some others play this game (albiet an earlier beta version) and they're doing a Nuzlocke and it looks roouuuuuugh. Grinding is both incredibly necessary and ridiculously tedious.

But! This is a fun game, and the designs are pretty fuckin neato. From other times I've played this (and quit bc attention span is no) I know there's a Delta Aipom coming up soonish, and I'm excited to catch the lil guy :)

You can download the game here :)

[rggcharacterarchive]

intro post

hey! this is a blog dedicated to archiving character interactions in the ryu ga gotoku series. ideally, this can be a resource for anyone looking to find particular exchanges or checking characterization. the focus will be on non-cutscene interactions, but some cutscenes may be included. my hope is that i can begin with major characters (i.e. kiryu and haruka) and branch out to minor characters (i.e. pocket circuit fighter)

DETAILS:

1. posts will be tagged with names of the characters involved and the game(s) the screenshot(s)/video(s) originate from.

if the relationships are particularly frequent/prominent, then i may have a tag like "kiryu and date" for their interactions specifically.

if you're looking for something, check the featured tags.

if you still can't find something, feel free to reach out to me, and i'll see what i can do.

if there is a common merged name for that dynamic (i.e. a ship name, though some people use these to refer to a dynamic generally), then it's likely i'll include that as well, regardless of whether the content is romantic or my feelings on that pairing, so that people can find what they're looking for more easily. if i make exceptions, it will be in extreme instances, and i reserve judgement on those. please don't ride my ass for this, i don't want to have to block you. this is for everyone. play nice.

2. i will be accepting submissions and requests for particular characters and/or interactions, etc.

use the submissions to send in screenshots/footage, and use asks for requests/other communication.

if you're not sure if something belongs on this blog, go ahead and ask/submit! chances are i'll put it there anyway if it's official rgg stuff.

please do not submit fake/doctored screenshots, even as a joke, without explicitly stating that they are fake/edited. i don't think i'll have the time/means to verify all of these myself, so please just... don't do that. don't shit where you drink, y'know?

submissions are especially welcome for hard to access dialogue (i.e amon victory dialogue) or games that are hard to access (i.e. kenzan or the kurohyou games).

it'll make it a whole lot easier to fill this archive with others helping out, but feel free to be browse-only!! even if i populate this blog on my own, i'm very excited and happy to be able to do this. :D

3. submissions will be accepted for all games under the rgg banner, but i will likely be unable to fulfill requests for games i haven't played/don't have access to.

in such cases, i will likely put out requests to the broader community to see if someone can provide what you're looking for. i'd suggest not making such asks anonymously so i can @ you if i get it, but it's up to you. i'll try to keep track, but forgive me if i don't.

currently, i have played 0-7 and LAD ishin. i have the judgement duology, but i have not played them yet.

4. please be patient with me!

im writing this at the blog's creation so im not sure how it'll go, but requests will likely take some time to fill, especially if they require a lot of time (i.e. late-game hostess or real estate dialogue).

additionally, if i get a lot of requests, response time will likely be slow.

i'm a full-time college student, but i'll do my best!!

5. interactions will be from my main, @skrunksthatwunk . come say hi there if you wanna :3

Sometimes I'll post analyses/meta posts in the reblogs of things from this account. I'm trying to keep the archive neutral on analysis and intepretation, but I loooove analyzing and interpreting rgg so that's where that'll be. I'll put it under the "archive response" tag on skrunksthatwunk if you want to find them.

6. i'm open to suggestions on organization or content, especially right now, since the blog is very fresh. it's a community resource, and it exists for us.

i may take away this feature or not implement suggestions based on my judgement in the future, but right now it's all good, and i don't think i'll stop it unless shit gets really caustic or out of hand.

7. there will likely be a delay on new games, and i don't know how quickly i will put out content.

i expect it will be a very gradual process, but we'll see.

8. i'll add tags for characters to the tags i use as i post.

if there isn't one, chances are i haven't made a post with them yet, but feel free to ask me directly.

ok update i didn't know they limited featured tags so you'll just have to search for some of them

9. some characters/dynamics may be difficult to tag. in such cases, i'll try to come up with a system for:

types of characters (i.e. "hostess: rina" or "hostess: yuki")

or groups (i.e. "morning glory orphans", "ichigang", "shinsengumi", "majima construction")

if there's nothing else, i'll likely put the game if it's a one-off character (i.e. "mayumi (yakuza 5)")

this might be a bit shaky, but i'll try to make it all very clear and send out updates if/when i change things.

10. i might end up tagging certain things "archive: x" so i don't clog up popular tags (i.e. "archive: kazumaji"), but we'll see.

11. some posts may require threads. i will tag the final posts in these "🧵" to indicate it is the final version, and i will edit the top of the chain with a link to its finished version for user convenience.

my hope is that this'll make it easier to find the full post without having to dig through reblogs, especially if the post gets popular (because people may not reblog the whole thing, and may reblog an earlier version without the link. which is totally fine btw).

if a post gets popular, i may add another tag called "popular", to make it easier to search for these posts specifically. search for this along with 🧵 or character(s) and game(s) for the best results finding older, popular posts.

again, if you're really struggling, reach out, and i'll do what i can to help you.

12. various other infrastructure tags:

"text only" for pure transcriptions (i.e. transcribing a cutscene, no screenshots)

"screenshot" for posts that have images (these will include alt ID transcriptions, but "text only" is intended for screen reader use. i do not use screen readers myself, so if there's anything i can do to improve that experience, i would love to know)

"video" for posts with videos, which will have transcriptions under a readmore (and will likely have text only transcriptions, which i'll try to link to such posts)

"cinematic"" if the content is from a fully animated cinematic (i.e. ones you can rewatch from the menu)

"cutscene" for those scenes that are mandatory to progress the plot and often happen between cinematics, but are posed in the typical dialogue format (i.e. scrolling text in boxes)

"overworld" for dialogue that occurs in other circumstances (i.e. speaking to an npc, substory dialogue)

"objective" for objectives located on the pause menu, which are characterized as the player character's inner monologue

"substory" for content from substories (these will likely also separately be tagged "substory #: title"). if they are from a particular minigame's line of substories, i'll tag them something like "mesuking" to distinguish them

"maps" for maps

"menus" for store inventory and bar/restaurant menus

"location ref" for references of particular locations, especially interiors (i.e. tojo HQ)

"location: x" for various locations, i.e. serena, purgatory, prison, restaurants, etc

"inventory" for items (corresponding to the game's classification of them)

"equipment" for weapons and armor (corresponding to the game's classification of them)

"abilities" for ability descriptions, categories, users, and costs

"messages" for emails, pager messages, etc (excluding phone calls, which have their own tag)

"phone calls" for phone calls, both cutscene and overworld

"misc" for other stuff, in case you're having trouble

[will do my best to update these as i get all this better]

13. when applicable, i'll indicate chapters. cinematics will be labeled "CHXCMY", where X = the chapter number and Y = the cinematic number. this way they can be reviewed in order

anyway, i hope you enjoy!