#(and by newer ones i mean like. generation 6? i think is what it was?)

[sonknuxadow]

littlest pet shop officially coming back in just a few months nobody talk to me nobody touch me nobody look at me .

[project-sekai-facts]

Hiii I'm a newer fan and I have a few questions about how the SEKAIs work

1. When you leave the SEKAI, does it spit you back out the same place that you entered it? Or can you use it to teleport?

2. On that note, in the Wonderlands x Showtime main story, Emu and Nene hold on to Rui while Tsukasa transports them all. This means you do not need one phone per person to travel. Can he do this because they also have the Untitled songs on their phones? Or can this be done to ANYONE? Could it work on those from a different unit?

3. Do we know if there's a limit to the number of outside things someone can bring into the SEKAI? For example, if the Empty SEKAI is essentially limitless, could it be used essentially like a bag of holding from DnD? Could it store the Mediterranean Sea? Could you steal something and put it in the SEKAI to erase the evidence?

4. Do things brought into the SEKAI ever disappear? If they do, do they return to where the objects were in the real world, or do they simply vanish?

5. If you give something to someone inside the SEKAI, can they take that thing with them outside of the SEKAI? Can it be used to teleport objects? Or will the object return to the person who originally brought it? Or will it stay in the SEKAI until the original person takes it out?

6. Why do they have to hide the Vocaloids on their phones? What do they think will happen if people see a hologram of Kagamine Len? Wouldn't it just be assumed that they're looking at a vocaloid video or some kind of sophisticated VTube program? Why would someone automatically assume magic?

Thank you for your time! I have no idea if these questions have even been thought of; it seems more like the SEKAI are supposed to be metaphorical than treated as proper aspects of science fiction. So if you have/find any answers, I would greatly appreciate it!

1. It sends you back to where you were when you went in. This is shown most notably in the wxs main story where kigurumi-san says he saw Tsukasa and Emu disappear and reappear.

2. Sekai only allow certain people into them (the people with the specific untitled file on their device). This might change later this year.

3. This is something that they've never really gone into detail about, but you can probably put as much in as you want. They're pretty much endless or at least very very large.

4. No, they just stay there until you take them back out

5. The way the game seems to work is that whatever you are holding goes in/out the sekai with you (things like chairs you are sitting on seem exempt from this). So yes this technically means you can teleport objects, but only ones that came from the real world. Stuff that was created by the Sekai can't be taken out.

6. Probably just basic sci-fi rules of not trying to freak out the general public. Emu mentions that normal phones are able to display holograms in-universe, so in theory it shouldn't weird people out. But then again if anyone found out any level of detail about you having an mp3 file that warps you to an alternate dimensional plane where Hatsune Miku is legit real and based on your emotions would probably make you subject of government research. Like WxS use the vsinger holograms in the Wonder Magical Showtime event because they can use the excuse of "it's a show we just have the technology" and they never get sued by crypton and you could probably just say "cool app" if anyone saw it briefly but if people find out any actual info it's a problem.

Hope this is helpful!

[90shaladriel]

AI Manipulations of Rings of Power. (Longish)

Saw the AI edits of Haladriel scenes being altered by GenAI to make the characters* kiss. I have seen chatter about it and the negative implications of creating or interacting with AI generated content.

At the risk of being nuanced, (feel free to block or scroll past this) it interests me what exactly is the concern with it and why. To be clear, I do work in an industry that is both working to incorporate and profit off AIs while simultaneously my own job is increasingly at risk by the same products or we are forced to use them for productivity reasons.

Some reasons that make sense to me that you would not want AI content would be

1. Legal and copyright infringement of the ownership of the art or source material used to train the AI models. Stolen work, no credit or payment to artists

2. It’s generally shitty, sloppy, uncanny valley. Which aesthetically I think most people would be against

3. It directly competes against manual labor of a human, devalues work, replaces jobs, or floods the market so creators never can be separated, investment in a skill or art form isnt worth it.

4. It extremely energy intensive, the environmental implications can he huge with the climate crisis.

5. Its being shoveled in our faces by overhyped tech bros because they think its cool and can find gullible investors for, like NFTs and crypto curriencies

6. Deep fake abuse with AI, making up fake news, abusing a real person image in a degrading way without consent.

I think all of these are serious issues with AI.

The stuff that was shared about Sauron and Galadriel kissing does it materialize those concerns? I’m going to assume that it may for the first one, legal and copyright ownership of training data. Im not a lawyer, and there are also some AI models trained on legally owner content or public domain / open source content. I have no way of knowing what models were used by the GenAI that made those haladriel kisses, so we probably have to assume they may have questionable provenance, and I think by that alone we should boycott those.

Now what if someone used a more solidly vetted model or genAI service without those legal issues? What if the artists do get paid or some form of royalties?

The kiss videos themselves were ok, maybe halfway believable, there were obviously the weird uncanny ai artifacts and stuff. It’s objectively worse than if ROP had actually filmed a kiss with live actors in the show proper. But who am I to judge whether that slop is aesthetically pleasing to someone else or not? Sometimes I have found AI art that is truly bizarre in that this is too weird surrealness quality like looking into a dream while being awake. I’m not sure that this feeling is necessarily wrong to enjoy on its own.

Regarding the AI replacing jobs argument. I suppose it depends what we mean. They were never going to remake ROP Season 1 or 2. Morfydd and Charlie won’t be offered the same role if another company were to buy the rights and make Rings of Power reboot. We will never get those kisses on screen. Maybe you can say that if people were fed content for Haladriel you could give them that almost infinitely by GenAI and then those people would be less likely to consume or pay for some other newer media that might otherwise give a satisfactory ETL with backstory and build up equivalent to what ROP has done with Haladriel? I’m not sure how to weigh that, it might be true? I tend to think these AI kisses arent replacing any creative workers in the film/tv industry. I don’t think we say that fanfic reusing known characters competes with original written stories (or do people argue this?) although i suppose it does on some level. Do people boycott fanfiction?

Along these lines, what about the actors consent and deep fake aspects? Personally, I don’t see how the AI images are more offensive or harmful than fanart which uses the actors depictions to do all sorts of things, stabbing, killing, kissing, screwing and everything and everyone in between. Or fan edits which use clever editing and overlay soundtracks with pointed lyrics which completely change the artistic intent of the actors /creatives who made the original in a particular way, say make two characters have a romantic chemistry that wasn’t there in the original? Or even the old photoshop manipulation stuff? I thought we’re ok with this in the fandom world, is this that different?

I’m not saying I like AI or you need to. I probably wont interact with it and try to avoid it personally wherever I can. But I do wonder if the arguments people are making against ROP AI edits are actually in good faith? Because then i question why other kinds of fan creations are acceptable?

[embarrassinglastwords]

the results are in!

with 314 votes these were the top 10 stsg moments people can’t believe are canon (top 10 based off of the ones i listed lmao) this will be long but i did say i was gonna make a post of the results so -

10: in last place with only 1.9% - their names complimenting each other + Geto’s robes being called “gojo-gesa robes”

i included these together cause they are similar imo. both being based around the other.

9: “the only one i have”

the iconic quote with 3.2% that is so misquoted cause of that translation that i’m pretty sure people ignore that that’s actually what he says rather than “my one and only”��� (myself included but for the sake of the poll i did the accurate translation)

8: the light novel in general

maybe i’m biased cause of my user but only getting 3.8% of votes surprised me lmao.

i mean i just think about “Even if everything was different now, there was still one thing- from that very moment it all started- that had never changed” as well as “Geto Suguru It was a name that the Jujutsu tech organization feared…but to Gojo Satoru, he was—“ all the time

i posted more quotes from it here

7: with 7.3% (nanami surprise appearance) we have their official songs stated by Gege.

Shame On Me being Gojo’s

and Come Back Home being Geto’s.

6: 8.9% of votes for this insane moment from the newer chapters after Gojo’s resurrection lmao

him and Kenny are fighting and Gojo offers to fight on Dec. 24th (Geto’s death anniversary) with Kenny replying “How romantic”

this legit made me scream when the chapter came out… anyways

5: i almost didn’t include this moment because i was sure it was gonna win because of how often it’s brought up but i’m glad to see i was wrong💀

but still in the top 5 with 9.6% is Gojo recognizing Geto by smell in JJK0… i have nothing to add to that cause like. what.

4: with 10.5% we have Gojo’s last words to Geto being “3 words” as stated by Gojo’s english va! (which i also mentioned in the post linked above)

(that being paired with the light quotes above and “such embarrassing words” and it being words they had “never said to each other before” … we all know what he said…🙄)

3: with 12.4%, the one that made me spiral and realize Gojo is probably done for, Gege himself saying “one cannot exist without the other” about Gojo and Geto…

so either Geto is miraculously gonna come back or they are sharing a death anniversary lmao

2: at 18.8%!

the infamous vol 0 quotes that are 100% parallels because the entire movie is.

Gojo, to Yuta in reference to Rika: “Love is the most twisted curse of them all” (idk why i said 'worst curse' in the poll lmao)

Geto as he dies: “At least curse me a little at the very end.”

bangs my head into a wall… okay and number 1!!

1: at 23.6% is the stsg moment. “My six eyes tell me you’re Suguru Geto but my soul knows otherwise! Hurry up and answer, who the hell are you?!”

not only was seeing Geto the reason for him getting sealed but he went against his own power, his own technique which makes him the strongest, to listen to his soul. and to quote Song of Achilles (which i made a joke the other day about stsg being modern day achilles and patroclus) “He is half of my soul, as the poets say.”

okay this was the first poll i’ve done like this besides some random funny ones on my other blog and i can’t believe it got 300+ votes. maybe i’ll do more in the future if i can think of some topics.

[eddiediazismyhusband]

I think part of the problem I have (and this may be an unpopular opinion) is all the hopes and opinions and ideas people (fans) have about the new season. And I don’t just mean things like the “mustache = obvious gay Eddie” that’s happening. But thoughts on Bobby, his and Athena’s living situation, Gerrard as captain, let alone Buck, Eddie, and others.

I know a lot of spec is just for fun, but some people take it quite serious. And I know I’m newer to this fandom but sometimes I read serious takes and go “….but that would never actually happen?! I know many of us don’t trust Tim and the writers but realistically that would never be a storyline on a tv show.…that’s a fanfic.”

So I can’t blame you for your pessimism or want to avoid spec. I hope we don’t get a lot of bts stuff either too, because I feel like fans will be trying to (over)analyze everything to figure things out. Only to likely be disappointed because I don’t trust these writers to write/do anything half as creative, original or logical as fans come up with. Expectation is the enemy and I’m afraid a lot of fans have theirs set too high for this season already

anon i have disgraced you by leaving this burried in the inbox and i feel awful 😭😭

i think fandom in general (and i mean any fandom not just 9-1-1) have this tendency to blur the line between cautious optimism/spec and actually convincing themselves of something happening…

i think a lot of people (and if you are one of these people this is NOT a dig at you) still want to have faith that the writers are actually going somewhere with the story, and they do so by speculating and putting actual thought into what the overarching storyline could be but unfortunately after 6 seasons of waiting, i’m getting tired of the whole thing being dragged out.

it’s no longer a will they/won’t they between the characters for me because multiple times they’ve reached the point where they don’t need anymore of that build; the only will they/won’t they is in terms of the writing team actually going somewhere rather than continuing to bait us

i have no issue with spec/theorizing (i may not wanna see it but i just filter out the spec tags) but my issue lies with some of the more popular buddie blogs having this whole “i can sense that buddie is happening” and then treating people who are validly apprehensive towards getting our hopes up like we’re brainless idiots who don’t know what we’re talking about

even though we literally went through the same thing of buddieblr being like “s7 is our year i can FEEL it there is no way they aren’t going canon”….. just for them to not go canon bc the writers (yet again) changed their minds last minute when they got an early renewal and realized “oh- we don’t actually have to commit anymore, we can just keep baiting snd dragging them along— and they technically can’t call it queerbaiting anymore bc buck’s bi now!”

like everything surrounding this season has been screaming to me (NOT anything from oliver and ryan— ive spoken before about how i think they are where we’re at in terms of being strung along by the writers every season) that we are just being baited again.

and as far as the over-analyzing, i’ve seen so many people saying things like “omg oliver and ryan posting candids/photos and tagging each other buddie is obviously happening”……. as if oliver and ryan aren’t friends…. like i fear the two of them posting eacg other doesn’t really mean much if anything when they’ve done that throughout their friendship.

and just because there are some deranged people on the internet spewing hate about them being friends doesn’t mean that their posting is a sign of anything either other than the fact that they’re probably blocking the lunatics and posting each other anyway…. it’s not some gotcha to anyone in the fandom, it’s not a sign that buddie is coming, it’s two castmates being friends, and doing things that friends do all the time

overall, like i said, i have no problem with people (other than myself) engaging in spec and at this point the people who are getting their hopes up will only have themselves to blame if we’re let down again… my issue mainly lies with some of the bigger blogs being dicks to people raising valid concerns over the new season and not trusting the writers when the writers haven’t done anything to earn that trust; in fact having only done things to the detriment of that trust.

anyway, sorry for the super delayed and super long response, anon 😭😭 i’ve been neglecting my ask box lately in lieu of a spike in temu stans sending me hate yet again but i was just scrolling through and noticed this one and wanted to make a response!

[roughribo]

A potential Dom used my mouth without much warning, and he didn't check-in on me atall afterwards, no conversation, just left. I'm able to brush it off, but it doesn't feel right or good that he didn't even ask if I was okay or how I found it, even if it had just been by text after. He didn't want to talk about it either when I tried to bring it up. He's the very experienced one with multiple subs, constantly claiming he's a real Dom who cares about his subs, while I'm much newer to learning about BDSM. That can't be good Dom behaviour though, can it? Is there something I'm missing?

No this is not appropriate behavior for a dom at all and you are right to think that. This is classic bad dom behavior and legally this would be considered criminal sexual assault.

Him having multiple subs and experience means nothing if that experience translates to low quality and unsafe experiences for you that violate your body and boundaries. And remember that even if you enjoyed something about it in the moment, enjoyment IS NOT consent. And as a general rule, if they're willing to commit a crime then refuse to discuss it, that's not just a red flag, that's a RUN NOW flag.

As a newbie sub, I strongly urge you to separate and untangle yourself from this person and spend some time by yourself or with a friend you trust learning about consent frameworks and how to practice healthy bdsm ethically. It sounds like you are very new and need to learn more in order to protect yourself. Whether or not you like this man, you need to put space/distance between the both of you until you at least feel more comfortable about how to handle abusive behavior, protecting yourself, and walking away from it if your wellbeing is at risk. I'll leave some links below to trusted sources of kink educational content.

I know it can feel boring and what you really want to do is play with a partner because that really is the fun part, but I cannot stress to you enough the sheer amount of submissives I have met or have known that have permanent physical or emotional damage/trauma because of a bad or even an inexperienced person masquerading as a dominant.

There are submissive people I've met who have visible burn marks on their arms when they were told they couldn't say no to a dom putting out their cigarettes on them; someone who has a chronic pain disorder from getting their hair pulled by someone who didn't know how to do it; someone who suffers from migraines because their dom accidentally hit them in the head with a spanking implement because the dom was inexperienced and wasn't taking things seriously; a hypno sub who wasn't practicing safe hypnosis whose partner suddenly passed away and now she has to live with the hypno triggers of her deceased partner in her head constantly reminding her of him; and almost all subs, particularly women, have a story where they were sexually violated or something was just done to them without any consideration of if they were even down to do it in the first place.

Those are just examples from people I've met with my measly 30 years on this Earth. That's not even taking into account that systemically subs get disproportionately injured, handicapped, or even fatally injured compared to their dom counterparts.

If there's anything to take away from those people and their experiences, it's that permanent damage to you as a sub is NEVER worth any dom's temporary pleasure. It is so worth it and so valuable to take the time and learn how to do things in the kink world responsibly and learn what healthy dominance and submission looks/feels like and how that can fit in to your preferences and orientations.

And if he can't understand that and let you go learn by yourself, then he doesn't value you as a person, he sees you only for what you can provide him, and he doesn't deserve you period.

Check this video, especially the timestamp 6:30 onward:

Sex Nerd Sandra is a great sex educator who is very passionate about consent and is willing to talk about the nuances of consent in down to earth terms. I recommend learning the merits of the FRIES consent model then learning about how power dynamics can create ambiguity and coercion and how SSC and RACK can help prevent that. Consent is always reversible and a dom that respects that reversibility is worth it.

If anyone else has some resources for anon please feel free to add them.

[lackablazeical]

I know in Usagi’s ref sheet he’s 16 (not sure if he’s been aged up because of all the art), but you’d drawn some art of Usagi with artistic nudity as well. Remembering back to that one really fun thing where you had us pick how Usagi spends a day, he said that he felt “dirty” and felt Leo’s hands on him, before it switched to bugs, and he seemed to have marks on him, plus the art of all the bites and what I can assume are nonsexual(?) hickies??

Is Usagi a victim of SA?

His relationship with Leo seems to hint that at times, with Leo’s nonconsentual biting and repeated flirts, plus all the comments in the past in art with Ichida or Mikey saying Leo “takes Usagi’s belt off” or “Well I can’t just meow and spread my legs to get what I want”..

I might be reading too into it, but I love their dynamic and am trying to make a list of the psychology behind them and what really happens in their relationship, as most art seems to be behind rose colored glasses or from Leo’s manipulative point of view

OKAY SO.

When I originally made the AU, I was not a victim of sexual assault myself, and therefore did not feel that I had a right to represent an SA victim, especially one as a main character.

Usagi was originally just meant to be representative of an abuse victim/people pleaser having a lack of bodily autonomy and (bc of my own hatred and disgust of physical touch) I often project that into Usagi (the artistic nudity is bc 1. I don't think nudity is inherently sexual (or that anything is inherently sexual) 2. Usagi has a body type I love drawing and 3. It is a metaphor for how he's objectified and vulnerable, and also with an air of shame around his body, evoking body dysmorphia/dysphoria and purity culture)

I'm also aro/ace and autistic so my relationship to my own body, sexuality, nudity etc is not conventional and may not be popular but that is MY intent behind my art and not whatever anyone else says the intent is

WITH THAT BEING SAID, as my life did not stop after I made the AU, I eventually experienced sexual assault myself (1 out of 6 n all) and I will say, with my newer perspective, that if you want to view Usagi as an SA victim, that is completely fine and valid within the narrative. If you Don't want to, that is also completely fine.

Usagi is meant to be seen more as a representation of a lack of autonomy. Of course that lends itself to Leo assaulting Usagi, but this is also a lack of autonomy in his own life, body, relationships, etc.

The life of a gifted kid people pleaser, constantly bending to the whims of expectations and such. If that means he's an SA victim to you, he is. If that means he's trans to you, he is, if that means he's from the bronx to you, etc etc. Usagi kinda evolved be a vent character to me, so he can absolutely be that to yall 👌

The comments made by characters like Mikey or Ishida are generally non-canon now, they're a bit crass and almost. Just kicking Usagi when he's already down, which just feels like torture porn after a while. The hamatos see Usagi as 'Leo's thing' but that's simply objectification bc the turtles donr really see other people as People. I did that mostly as a form of bullying to myself, kinda cus I always feel Gross and projected that.

As for the rose colored glasses part, I agree. I adore contrasting themes/exaggeration/satire in art, so I love dark topics seen in cutesy/silly ways, often bc its much more accurate to how it can feel/look from the outside. A dizzy, serotonin laced kinda trance as your brain barely processes what is going on. I cut bc I get a kinda dopamine rush high from it so I put that perspective in my stuff often LMAO

I'd also be lying if I didn't say I loved Dreamalgia and their use of creepycute styles and aesthetics. Plus it lends to how Leo twists the narrative of their relationship in the AU and to the viewer (that's also why Usagi seems kinda 1 dimensional sometimes, Leo has made him a shell of his former self, before Leo Usagi was a lot more nuanced LOLZ)

If any of yall don't like that answer, that's fine, just unfollow me LMAO I truely don't mind how ppl HC about the AU so 👌 I'll keep making content that can be interpreted however anyone wants fr 💯

[galactic-glamour-girl-posts]

The Powerpuff Problem

See the thing with Powerpuff Girls is for four seasons it's like this:

"Oh, our hit kids show isn't that weird. I mean sure, it's a show that stars adorable little girls that are so unapologetically violent that there's blood in the intro and even some episodes..."

"OH GOD, aliens are invading! And even worse - THEY'RE BROCCOLI!"

"...they fight a zombie magician, we do a mecha episode whilst simultaneously mocking the mecha genre, one of the main recurring villains is straight up Satan..."

"Oh I'm sorry, did you wanna go on vacation? Too bad, your absence will mean the end of society as you know it. Everyone you know is either miserable, insane, or dead, and they all blame you! Did I mention you're five?"

"...in fact we have another one called Sedusa...now that I think about it we put a lot of innuendos in this actually..."

"Hey. Hey Craig. Hey Craig I wanna do a double length episode where the stars of this children's show say "dick" over and over again, is that cool? Great...also I'm giving it one of the darkest endings we've ever done k byyyyyyyyyyyyye."

"...b-but there's cute stuff too! There's a fun episode where the girls play inside on a rainy day, there's one where they get turned into cute little puppies, there's one where they sing about love to save the day, there's one where they eat candy which we use as a way to tackle the subject of addiction-wait..."

"Let's do our own take on Frankenstein! Can it have a sudden downer ending that will scar a generation of kids? Sure, f*ck it!"

"...OK maybe it's pretty weird. But being unique is good! That's part of what our show's all about - it's unusual to see little girls being the ones who kick butt, but they're characters young girls deserve to see, and characters EVERYONE can be inspired by. Now let's watch the movie that came out less than a year after 9/11 where the heroes destroy a city that totally doesn't resemble NYC!"

Then the last two are just...

"OK, who wet the bed?"

"So in this episode these usually kickass heroines are forced to quietly ask a criminal to leave their house, with noooooo onscreen fighting whatsoever... don't worry the kids will love it!"

"...and then all the characters sing about how they should all get along. The End! All of them? Yep. Even the villains? Yep. Even Him? Yep. With no bait-and-switch joke where all the villains immediately go back to their old ways? Correct!"

"OK, so like...crying. We make can make 11 minutes out of that, right?"

"Let's bring back the Rowdyruff Boys, not just for a rematch, but permanently! OK! What do you want them to do? Graffiti, rob and beat up people for fun, property damage, stuff like that. Don't the Gangreen Gang do that stuff already? I guess. So what will THEY do? Eh I dunno turn them into simps for an episode. Anyway, wouldn't it be cool if 2 out of the 6 appearances the RRB make after being revived never actually happened?"

"Yes of course we need multiple close-up shots of the sunburnt, bulging skin of three five-year-old girls. Yes of course we have to show it peeling off towards the end! How else are we gonna teach kids to use sunscreen? Could you tell this episode was part of the Chris Savino era?"

"Hey is it just me or is the pacing of our newer episodes kinda...slow? What do you mean? They're fin-zzzzzzzzzzzz-"

"mAyOr wAnT ToAst!"

[ellraiser]

Mudborne Devlog #6 - Garden Variety

Hey friends! The last month I was able to work on Mudborne pretty much full-time, so I got a whole lot designed and implemented - let's get into it all.

Biodiversity

After finishing the designs for all of the mechanics, I also spent some time trying to design how each of the 5 main regions would look and feel.

Originally when doing the overworld design I didn't think much more than what the waking vs dream world, but now I knew roughly the size of the world and the areas in it I knew I couldn't get away with just using the same "biome" style throughout the game - sure I could do a few different flora/fauna and setpieces to match the utility of that area in-game, but I wanted to make each of the regions more unique and interesting.

I went through a lot of different styles before settling, here's a few of them!

1. Initial idea, blue/greens for waking and then more vibrant for the dream

2. More detailed flora + grass that you can see in the first two green areas, can also start to see more interesting tree designs + stone decoration for the islands

3. Settling on the third "residential" area and the dream counterparts for the first three regions, plus starting to narrow down the snowy + central region styles

4. The current designs, with the first 4 regions implemented while I still tinker with the final central region

Lots of the color changes were tweaked slightly over time too - the first concept was drawn towards the start of september, the fourth one is what is currently used in-game (although still working on the 5th one)

The main thing I wanted was to have lots of variety and interesting plants and flora to make each region feel more unique outside of just palette changes - some areas also go a step further with some larger unique stuff, like the algae in the swamps or the flooded rooms in the residential district.

As I was designing them I changed the grass style to be an actual texture - darker blades that are part of the tiles themselves, and then lighter blades that I actually individually place.

I think this was a nice middle ground as I can get some unique grass patterns that are not tiled and dont look too repetitive. I also added a lot more stone tile decoration stuff, like the bricks or the vines - just to help make those sections more interesting as in contrast to the water they were very flat and empty.

For comparison this is what the demo had for a standards building:

And here is a normal building in the full game with the newer designs:

It's a bit more work to create the levels now as I have a lot more stuff to place manually - but I think the end result is worth it and let's me have much more interesting and pretty areas to explore, which is important for a game where I want players to explore and find all the secrets.

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Spore Printing

While working on and off on the actual world style, I started to work on implementing some of the new mechanics for the full game - the main one not really covered by the demo in any way is spore printing and hybrid mushrooms.

As it stands in the demo you farm mushrooms, each with a special effect to modify traits. You can then combine 3 of these together into 1 "magic mud" to modify your frogspawn.

With hybrid mushrooms the idea is that you can combine any two standard mushrooms together to make 1 mushroom with the effects of both - this means you could have up to 6 modifications within one generation!

To do this you collect spores from either natural spawns or your farms, and then you make 'prints' of the spores to paper, which lets you print two different mushrooms to the same piece of spore paper.

You can then use this paper in your farms - so instead of waiting for spores to form naturally you can just set the spores you want. You wouldn't even need to use a hybrid spore paper for this either, so it's a bit more control on exactly the spores you're farming.

Once the mushrooms bloom (as hybrids either mushroom's conditions can be met), you gather them as normal and grind them into powder as normal - but they are now a hybrid mushroom/powder with both effects applying to them when used.

This will get a bit complex, but it will be useful for a bunch of reasons - you can counteract 'bad' modifications you don't want into one mushroom, you can do more changes quickly in less generations, and then the main reason to solve more complex genetic puzzles.

It also gives the player a lot more options to approach making a genetic key, as there will be more than 1 'correct' answer or combination to meet the trait changes required across generations.

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The Kindergarten

In the demo you're just in an area based off the 'Spawning Pools'. In the full-game, after leaving this area to a central hub region, one of the first main regions you can go to is the Kindergarten.

This is the region where frogspawn+tadpoles are raised at the pond, as well as where mushrooms and bugs are farmed for resources and food.

Because of that the gameplay focus of this area is on learning about hybrid mushrooms, getting some better farming options, and upgrading the bug collection mechanics to make it easier to get bugs en-masse - like the bug traps that let you use extra-stinky frogs to attract and catch bugs automatically while you're away.

It also introduces the first overworld "obstacle" (not counting the puzzles like the gates or the pressure pads or lilypads) - algae blooms.

These deadly blooms can't be crossed, so you need to clear them. Luckily you have a whole hoard of frogs at your disposal, and by boosting the "Edacity" trait you can make some very hungry frogs that'll eat anything not nailed down.

Placing them in filters will slowly clear the algae nearby and let you pass through to the areas they're blocking off.

When you come to this region you'll get to learn about how to handle algae and given the tools to clear it - but you would of already come across some smaller blooms in other regions. So once you have the machines and the frogs from this region you can go back and explore those other areas.

I also wanted some stagnant water pools to this area as it seemed fitting with the theme that certain areas would be blocked off to make stagnant pools for certain bugs or flora to grow in - not entirely sure what I'll use these for yet but it's nice to have some stuff open ended for when I come to the actual real world design and playtesting to tie everything together.

While testing all of this I've been using a "dev" map - which is just a bunch of different regions slapped together each with a mini-island.

It's helping me visualise the look+feel of each region and means I've already implemented the gruntwork for adding that region - when it comes to designing the map of the full game I won't have to do much more work outside of just creating the areas, the rest is ready to go.

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Residential District

Moving onto the next main area, the residential district - this focus on two main things, Saturation, and Croakwork. Saturation is one of the frog traits, the higher the trait the wetter the frog, the lower the trait the dryer the frog.

This is taken to extremes in this region, as you will get the ability to make a 1S frog that is so dry it absorbs water, and a 7S frog that is so wet is seemingly makes more water. Together this frogs can be used with a Dehumidifer + a Hydrator to effect the nearby environment.

This is hinted at in the demo with the standard cultivators - that there'll be mushrooms that require the extremes of moisture and temperature, and this is the first region to cover those extremes.

Using these machines lets you make the environment a lot wetter and dryer than it should be - for example making extremely damp indoors regions, or extremely dry water (has science gone too far?).

An even more extreme use of this trait comes in with "croakwork" machines - automated machines powered by the sound of frogs, created by the Engineer. The first of these machines is the Drainer - a powerful croakwork machine that uses minimum saturation frogs to drain the flooded rooms of the residential district.

You can enter these rooms at first, however you can't interact with any of the flooded objects until you drain the room - revealing the objects plus anything else that might have been hiding under the water...

By draining the rooms you're helping to restore the region ready for the hibernating frogs to return, as well as uncovering some pathways to get around the area and find other secret places or basements.

Other croakwork machines introduced here include the "Masher" - an automated grinder upgrade, and the "Harvester" - an automated machine that will harvest nearby blooming mushrooms and renewables automatically.

There's not a lot in Mudborne that needs to be automated, so there's not too many machines, but there's a few that should be useful and as I play more I'll be able to spot any processes that might need an upgrade that can be added to the Engineer's stock.

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Fancy Flooring

While implementing these two regions I was also messing around with some flooring designs. Both the algae and the flooded room water are types of flooring, so I was already having to implement that system and the auto-tiling stuff, so it was easy enough to then start adding more decorative flooring.

These will go alongside a whole host of decorative items and furniture to allow you to make any area you're own.

I tried to give both the wooded flooring and wooden piers a bit more interesting textures to them too rather than being perfect repetitive planks, as the original texture (ripped from APICO) no longer matched with all the new design stuff I'd done with the environment.

I had to do some messing around with the flora in the water and the new grass, as due to how I render the order of certain things the flora would be on top - so when placing tiles you temporarily disable any flora underneath so it's not causing issues.

This is similar to how the algae disables any plants underneath it, meaning that you can't get bugs or mushrooms on any areas of water covered in algae - and also what I'd use with ice to decide whether to show a frozen/snow covered variant of the sprite instead of the default one.

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Ice Frog Cometh

After finishing up those two areas and all the mechanics in them, towards the end of this month I started working on the icy region, Cold Storage.

This is where the residents of the research pool store their food and genetic materials, using the cold to keep things preserved. This area introduces temperature extremes (hot+cold), as well as ice that can be thawed out - or created to allow you to cross deeper water by freezing it.​

I've only just now started to get the region loaded into the game - there was a lot of design stuff I was doing first. However now it's here I can work on the new machines that utilise the temperature and let you freeze water or melt ice. There'll be other things to unfreeze too - frogs, gates, and NPC...

As it's the region themed around storage you'll also get a whole bunch of new storage themed upgrades and advancements, like a big box to store all your frogs and search them easily, or an upgraded cauldron that can store all of your powders inside.

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While doing all of this there was a few other odd bits and bobs I was working on, like polyps which are growable jellyfish for the dream world - or huge mangroves which will have a special use in the dream.

I was hoping to have done all the mechanics this month and implement them all, but I ended up not getting through them because I was sidetracked by adding the actual regions themselves - I didn't need to for most of the mechanics (and even flooding/ice I could of tested without the region itself), but I think it helped me see how the region would look and tweak things with the mechanics to fit better into the world that I wouldn't of done otherwise.

Over October I'll be finishing up the cold region and the central region, and getting through the last lot of machines to implement (orange, purple and brown sections below)

With that done I'll then be able to leave the developer map behind and start designing the actual world itself - which is going to be most of the game development time I think!

~ Ell

[wingdingery]

20 questions for writers

Thanks for the tag @wildsofmarch :)

(Answering most of these questions about wingdingery but including some counts from other accounts because I was curious.)

1. how many works do you have on AO3? 24 DC (78 total)

2. what's your total AO3 word count? 283,276 DC (795,332 total)

3. what fandoms do you write for? Dick Grayson (I’m usually tunnel visioned into one fandom for years at a time)

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos? I don’t perceive stats/counts on my works or others’ thanks to a site skin so this is a mystery to me!

5. do you respond to comments? I try to! But I don’t have time consistently so I usually fall into the trap of falling behind → feeling guilty about replying late but also feeling guilty about replying to newer comments when I haven’t gotten through the older ones yet → paralyzed into not replying to anything → force myself to finally clear my inbox months later → run out of time and begin the vicious cycle all over again.

(But I do read all of them as they come in and appreciate them so much! The number of times I am driven to reread old works/write more due to a kind comment cannot be counted.)

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? once upon a time, maybe?

My non-happy endings are usually more ambiguous than overtly angstsy (on main, at least – the darkfic endings are equally angst, I think).

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? I’ll pick hospitality for dummies just because I think that’s my lowest-stakes/happiest DC fic so far. But I do tend to write happy endings in general.

8. do you get hate on fics? The standard fare ship hate.

9. do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yep! I’m not really sure what “what kind” means… I’ll write pretty much anything if I’m in the right mood for it and I can make it make sense for the characters.

10. do you write crossovers? I like writing fusions but I’ve only contemplated writing one crossover in my life and never actually did it, so I think the answer is no.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen? Not as far as I know!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? right through my walls has a Spanish translation courtesy of Luck__y!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? I’ve done a lot of co-slinging-ideas-at-the-wall but I’ve never actually co-written a fic. I’m interested in trying it but my writing process is so wild that I’m reluctant to ask anyone to get near it. 😂

14. What's your all-time favorite ship? All-time is so hard to say! I shipped BruDick a long time ago and I’m back here now, so BruDick, I guess?

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will? If this question is referring to published WIPs, I will finish all of them. This year, even. You heard it here first.

(If unpublished… way too many to count, lol.)

16. What are your writing strengths? From what people have said, I think my top 3 are dialogue, characterization, and generally having wild/unexpected ideas (otherwise known as crack played so straight it develops angst).

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I think my writing is pretty plain. I have next to zero visual imagery (some people read or write like they’re watching a movie and seeing the scenes go by, but all I think in are words) so consequently my writing isn’t particularly descriptive unless I really try and figurative language is hard for me to come up with.

I used to stress about this a lot, but I’ve heard that this makes my writing feel easy to read, especially for non-native English readers, so I’ve made my peace with not being particularly poetic.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I always write limited third POV so I’ll typically use a phrasing like “…,” they said in [language] or They said something in [language] if the POV character doesn’t understand it. I only ever write it untranslated if something about the exact wording is relevant to the plot (but even then, I only highlight the specific word(s) after).

19. First fandom you wrote for? Nancy Drew… the yellow hardback books Nancy Drew…

20. Favourite fic you've written? Currently, make a mercy out of me. As much as I love writing fics with a lot of plot and action and shenanigans, it was really satisfying to craft a quiet character/relationship study that’s introspective without feeling too heavy.

tag @artenon @faiasakura @chejuu @roipecheur you're it!

[ashalsdream]

I have some Thoughts about the reset so I'm just gonna write them all down:

This is in no way aimed at anyone specific and is mostly just my overall thoughts as a viewer

I think the fandom are being a bit dramatic over it atm, its been only a few days i think yall need to just chill. I know you dont like change but like, give it time?

for 1) the old builds lore etc arent GONE, they're just 200k blocks away, its the same server, theyre just very far away likely due to new terrain generation (if im wrong on this, please correct me) 2) the players were bored of the old server, theres a select few that WERENT bored when the majority were. I'm sorry if your lore got interrupted or was replaced but 1 or 2 players compared to the over 30+ other players, it was bound to happen. Timings just don't match up and any cc who is being stubborn abt it needs to understand its not All About Them when its a SERVER 3) about the above ^ ccs like Luzu, Mariana, Willy etc those that felt they COULDNT log on because it had been too long are finally being given a chance? PLEASE give them a chance. I know you're attached to your current ccs but these guys are AMAZING and deserve your time and finally they're able to do that! I'm sorry to say but having a lot more players on will mean more than losing one or two players who are being stubborn about old builds

4) I understand the frustration over things being behind pay walls or being slowly introduced but you have to understand THEY DID THE SAME THING AT THE BEGINNING OF THE QSMP! A lot of the newer creators just weren't around at that time so they joined to having everything unlocked. This isn't a new thing! Give it time! 5) at the moment everyone is just trying to find their footing again, this happened at the beginning of the qsmp as well - again just be patient, they'll get there! 6) this reset was done likely to remove the builds that F*rever did, I completely understand WHY this was done and I think moving forward we can look forward to an island that isn't tainted with his lore or what he built.

overall, I'm really enjoying the reset, especially as a Luzu watcher, I'm REALLY glad he's back because he's an incredible streamer. I get why people are so frustrated but PLEASE JUST BE PATIENT i know change is difficult but you need to give it time to settle - I'm sure they will be allowed to go back to their old bases, old lore etc!! There's no way they just destroy everything and forget about it. Just give it timeeee!

[project-sekai-facts]

based on the interview posts, it's definitely thought-provoking to consider what's going to happen next. personally i do wonder if pjsekai will become "multi-generational" if it remains popular enough to continue (which is nearly impossible not to be considering a good portion of its competitors have been going for longer than 6 years at this point), the original 5 units would be the first generation, a conceptual new number of units being the next, and so on, because of the implication that "the original 5's stories will reach their conclusions and have an end" and after their conclusions are reached then, while they could write a new story with the characters with new adult issues and seeing them grow up further, there are still a lot of opportunities to expand on the game's lore and universe with new units, how the original units affected others, and especially sekai lore, especially since a lot of the game's lore has to do with miku helping out many individuals with their problems, and currently the majority of that is only done through the original unit's sekais, which is only a select 20 people's views (minus the vs fes cards which only have little lore anyways). Maybe it will be something like lovelive where the original generation (u's) has officially graduated but are still featured in newer games and still get some content in those games. Ultimately what happens next is something we just have to see the game develop closer to, but it's a solid option that the game can technically go for.

yeah like they said it's a difficult decisions. because on the one hand you've got these beloved characters and stories that people will have grown up with at that point, and continuing them on into 3rd year/university would mean there's more things you can do with them and new ideas you could include. and i think in a natural storytelling sense it would make sense to carry on with the main 5 because quite frankly having them all achieve their dreams and that before they've even finished high school is... somewhat unfulfilling? especially with n25 i think it would make a lot of sense to carry them on into uni, maybe have Ena go to art school and Mafuyu go to nursing school. even if their stories ended before they graduated uni I feel like that would be a really satisfying conclusion for them compared to maybe just mentioning that's where they're going when they finish high school. but then there's the fact they mentioned about just carrying on because it's popular and the story going stale because they only wrote so far. and that's definitely a threat because that can happen if they've only planned so far ahead. then again, the writing team is generally top-notch and other games have proven that you can stick around without people ever getting tired of the story.

i do however think the generational format could work. as you said it could expand more on the lore, introduce new characters with new problems, and prevent people from growing tired of the old ones. on the lore side of things i wonder if they would be included in the Tree SEKAI with the main 5, or if there would be a new collective sekai for them? the only thing about having a generational format similar to Love Live (where you completely conclude the story of the previous generation before the next generation...ish) is that you have to execute it well. SIP -> Sunshine worked because there was an in-universe 5 year timeskip. it left you with this legacy that u's had left that people were trying to chase, and Aqours had to learn that they had to find their own radiance instead of trying to directly copy u's. u's was long gone from the story and never actually appeared in the present day and that worked really well and i think was the best decision they could have made because actually having them there i think would ruin the whole idea of legacies and how they can work (sorry for rambling on a bit here I really like Sunshine). even in Superstar and Nijigaku there are nods to SIP and Sunshine but the characters never actually appear. It's similar to the VBS story actually with Nagi and trying to carry her legacy (with the difference is that u's and aqours are still alive. probably.).

that got a bit rambly but what i'm trying to say is that if you want to do a completely new generation and retire the old ones completely, it has to be done in a way that doesn't rely to much on stuff like random coincidences. you need there to be solid reasons why some kid would look up to a group of 4 kids who performed at a disneyland equivalent or 4 kids who held a music event. obviously there will be development in their stories between now and new units being added but I think adding in a timeskip and saying "yeah, they went on to do this really big inspiring thing" would be much more effective than a bunch of new characters who are hugely inspired by a niche teen music group that honesly doesn't really have much of an impact on anything. the reason VBS' story with legacies works is because there's actual stakes. RADder was a hugely successful group that had CD sales, national tours and a member that became a successful independent artist worldwide. RAD WEEKEND, although more limited to Tokyo, was still massively popular and inspired many people to put on an event that will surpass it. RADder is a big name and a big inspiration and leaves big shoes to fill, and that's why it works so well because there's big goals to work towards.

also in some ways as well a bunch of characters surpassing RW2 just after we saw VBS&Co put on RW2 would be a little bit unsatisfying I think. RADder are side characters who people are less attached to than VBS, but if you were to introduce VBS2 just after the original, even if there's a timeskip, it would probably leave a bit of a bad taste for some fans of the original VBS who'd spent years following their story.

to throw my own personal wishes for the games story on here, i think doing something similar to bandori or d4dj would work best for them. as in, adding new units who kinda take centre stage but still having the old units getting events and stories of their own. we could have new characters to keep things fresh but still get to see the original 20 growing up, having their careers take off, facing more adult problems and such. you could have the OG20 around to mentor the new characters as well, and keep the whole tree sekai lore intact with that being something that revolves around the original 5 units (and actually fucking develop the lore holy shit colopale it's been 3 years don't drag it out another 3 and then actually reveal all the lore before then completely retiring it). ahaha maybe this is a bit too self-indulgent and wishful thinking because I am way too attached to the main 20 but also from the perspective of someone who has done screenwriting classes at college it does work.

[crepes-suzette-373]

Garuda, Judge, Germa 66, The Divine

@sangerie Perfect timing that you bring up Garuda in your reply, because I remembered a while ago that I didn't check what Judge's current belt looks like when I made that other post and I was just about to make a new post about my findings.

---

I messed up and completely forgot to check when I made that other post. That was just more of an idle thought, though, not something I really wanted to analyse or make theories out of. This one is the (conspiracy) theory/analysis post.

Artistically this is big enough difference that I cannot chalk it off as "simplification/wonky artwork because of image size":

Plus, the "simpler" shape from the MADS flashbacks would be drawn long after the WCI arc. So this has to be a purposeful change on sensei's part.

What was it beforehand and why the change? What is the newer shape supposed to be?

So anyway, that realisation prompted me to look into Karura (the Japanese interpretation of Garuda) because I thought the current belt shape looks like the helmet Judge is wearing, which in turn vaguely reminds me of headdresses in Buddhist gods' statuary.

I think there could be connection between the two in terms of design:

Like, his hair could look reminiscent of the Karura's "fire halo".

The Karura in Japan is a being who is heavily associated with flames (which happens to also look like number 6 spirals in the statue, very interestingly). Some Buddhist teaching even say the Karura either manifests itself as flames, or lends its flames in support to other deities.

Karura's "fire halo" behind Fudou Myou'ou:

This I find to be even more curious, because in the first place Garuda is divine being, and Garuda's "holy flame" is something that purifies evil. Judge seems to be awful in every way, so why give him a nickname that's based on a holy being? Is this just irony, or is this a hint that there's something weird going on that has yet to be revealed? (something in their ancient history?)

Also, about the "69" in the skull's eyes. Even Sanji's Stealth Black/Osoba Mask belt has that "69" element, even if it's in the little wings on the sides and not the skull's eyes. Is that symbol so important that it needs to be everywhere? (to sangerie, if you see this: Niji's belt still has that 69, even much later in the cover story, it just sometimes look wonky in the art because it's too small)

That symbol is known in Japan as "two tomoe" (considered different from yin yang by the Japanese). A tomoe is that comma like shape, and the Germa one is specifically the "right curling" one, because there are versions of it that goes the opposite direction.

A tomoe is also a divine symbol, so it's very frequently seen as the "crest" of shrines. Funnily enough the origin of the tomoe symbol is actually water, but I'm not sure if sensei would go out of his way to research that. If he was using this as a purposeful symbol I feel like he's using it more in the generic divine/shrine related usage.

It's a symbol you see in the drums used by the the Raijin (god of thunder), which also was the design inspiration for Enel.

Interesting thunder/lightning connection there. It's 3, though, and not 2, so I'm not sure if this means anything.

You see that exact symbol with just two in Wano, though it's turned 90 degrees anticlockwise:

I have wondered multiple times if the Vinsmokes have connection to Wano in their past. Even literally just a few hours ago I made a post mentioning the same thing. I always worry that I'm making too deep of a reach, but every now and then I still wonder.

It also has historical connection in Japan, since a two tomoe design is a common samurai crest. I highly doubt it's related to this, but that exact "69" shaped crest is the crest strongly associated with the 47 Ronin.

The interesting thing about the 47 Ronin is that even though they're typically celebrated as heroes who defeated an evil lord even to this day, by historical accounts the 47 ronin were actually the ones in the wrong and the guy they had revenge on wasn't a tyrant or corrupt official. Still, I don't think this has any relevance.

I mean, there's nothing about Germa that suggests that "they seem evil, but actually they're secretly good".

I will admit there is a part of me that is developing a suspicion that there could be a random twist where Germa's whole point was "their motivation/end goal is not bad, but their methods is what's really absolutely disgusting" for various reasons. As in, what if their desire to conquer the North Blue is not just for greed or power, but for a bigger goal beyond it, and this "bigger goal" might not be entirely bad.

I doubt it, because so far everything that we've been shown is just nasty. I'm just automatically suspicious because the World Government labelled them evil, and I don't trust WG.

It could just be something like "they're so evil, that even demons are disgusted", though.

[fuck-customers]

I talked about my ordeals with who I dubbed Stalker Boy a while back, since I still don't know his last name (it took me about 6 months to find out his first name, since he decided to start stalking me at work after seeing me there once) but this isn't about him lol.

This time, the stalker wasn't here for me, he was after my coworker I'll call C. For context, C is barely 19 and tiny, and generally looks even younger than she is.

Well a couple weeks ago (the week after Mario came out), she was walking around in the back with a manager doing whatever, and this guy, who was about 40, and also roughly 6ft 5, was following them. After a while, the manager stepped away and the guy used the opportunity to corner C. And you'll never guess what he says.

Creep: "Hey, I think you're really attractive. How much would I have to pay you to have sex with me?"

C ended up kinda staring at him and saying "I can't disclose that information" because she didn't know what else to do.

Luckily the manager who'd walked away got a bad feeling and came to get her. C filled in the manager but the guy had disappeared, so they had C shut herself in the break room (where I was on my lunch) until they could find him and remove him from the building.

After I come back from lunch, I go back to working door (taking tickets), and keep my eye out for the creep, which was hard because I never actually saw him.

(Seriously dude, I have a lot of respect for sex workers, but what the fuck makes for think that's an appropriate conversion starter, let alone using it on a teenager half your age and size that you cornered while she's sweeping up popcorn???)

Fast forward a couple days. We had what I was told was a glitch, but I think was actually human error, but we ended up having three shows, in the span of roughly an hour, for Mario where two shows had been created for each time slot in the same room. So it was crazy busy since they sold out and twice as many people showed up as expected. And since there were two tickets per seat, we had to implement system for explaining what was going on to people as they come in and establishing who gets the seat and who gets a refund, and it was just a huge mess. One of the shows, the first one that was double booked, had 250 seats, meaning there were 500 people there for it. And guess who decided to use the confusion to sneak back in.

So I finally managed to get to the end of the line, but the managers were still at the service desk trying to do refunds, and I hear one of the newer girls radio about a creepy guy who was standing inside the doors to the auditoriums and just staring. I'll call her N. N, like me, is butch, and I'm not sure if Creeper realized she's a woman, or if he was just only interested in C. Here's a helpful artistic rendering of what N was seeing.

(Not pictured: being in shadows because he was standing in a dark room)

At this point, we had no way of knowing that it was the same guy, but she kind of walked away, and when she came back a few minutes later, he was still there, though he later started moving to other auditoriums and doing the same thing. C was actually there that day but was on lunch.

So N was radio'ing about needing help dealing with a weird guy who's movie-hopping, and she said he was getting really aggressive when she asked him what he was doing. The managers kind of just waved N off (over the radio), saying that they were busy, and told her to deal with it the best she could. I was getting bad vibes, so I walked over to tell the managers directly that they need to go help N. I'm working the front door so I'm not actually allowed to leave the little area, but luckily, the service desk is right on the edge of my area.

And one of the managers snapped at me as soon as I got two words out and said "We're we're with customers, you know better than to interrupt". Which, they're right. I've worked here longer than both of them combined. I know damn well how things work and I follow the rules, so if I'm suddenly not doing that, it's because I have a fucking reason, m'kay?

N managed to summon enough guys from the cleaning crew to help her herd the guy to the front, at which point the manager who'd kicked Creeper out last time recognized him and realized how serious it was (she's not the one that snapped at me) and she kicked him out again.

Because I don't know why this guy would be hiding in dark rooms and watching and waiting, unless he was waiting for C to walk by so he could do god knows what to her.

And then about 10 minutes later, one of the managers who snapped at me came over and was like "did they tell you about The Guy?" And I just stared at him and said "*I* was trying to tell *you* about The Guy, and you told me to go away." And he didn't say sorry or anything, which is what I expected.

And then apparently Creeper came back two more times later in the week on days I wasn't there and on the fourth time, the manager had finally decided enough was enough and called the cops and he ended up getting arrested. So I hope that's the last we'll see of him but I'm not going to hold my breath.

[princess-of-the-corner]

You. . .should probably not have informed me that you have seen Sky High and have ever had thoughts about it, because now I am going to QUESTION you (I have not seen BNHA, despite my absolute best efforts, so some of these may be stupid questions):

1) I get the sense in Sky High that the power ratio is swapped compared to BNHA. Like, having superpowers is the 20%, not having powers is the 80%, which is why it's still expected that you hide your powers. Is this a regional difference? Is the power ratio actually different or is it just that Sky High is only for kids who's parents are heroes? And so lots of people are powered, they just aren't heroes and aren't focused on?

3) Actually, back on the hiding your powers thing, why do they do that in Sky High but not BNHA (to my understanding at least)? Is it just that the Sky High cast is all superheroes or the children of superheroes trying to maintain a secret identity, or is it that America has some sort of stigma on superpowers (possibly due to it being a minority)?

3) What is Sky High's relationship to UA? How rare are these hero schools? Are they even aware of each other? Are they rivals? Friendly? Do they do exchange programs? Does one have significantly more clout than the other?

4) The Commander and Jetstream are very very patriotic and American heroes. Is this just like their aesthetic, or does it have something to do with them being diplomats/representatives/mascots for America?

5) Sky High is built off beloved cheesy stereotypes, which means the stated goal of most of the villains is World Domination TM. Has anyone ever actually gotten close, and what would that have looked like in both areas?

6) What would a regional super school in somewhere like europe or south america look like and how would it compare to UA and Sky High?

7) Any and all thoughts on particular plot and character beats that you liked or did not like from Sky High, and/or how you would do them differently?

Sorry this is so long, I just wasn't aware other people who watched this movie ever had Thoughts about it outside the initial watch, and I am EXCITED!

Honestly I think most of my thoughts would be that Sky High happens earlier in the Timeline.

When Quirks are less common and being a Superhero is only a new profession, and due to how few Heroes there are they still maintain Secret Identities to the public but are government-registered.

Over time it transferred to how it is in bnha where Heroes are publicly known and less secret identities (though many do keep their homelife on the downlow while hamming it up at 'work'), and Quirks being much more common in newer generations therefore allowing more schools.

Hero Schools nowadays are decently common. Like in Canon bnha there's half a dozen for Japan alone. So you can only imagine how many America would have. At LEAST one per state. I think UA and Sky High would be aware of each other in the sense that they're considered the best Hero School in their respective country, and some friendly rivalry and international programs together. Similar with Hero Schools in other countries.

The Commander and Jetstream are def just Like That™ for aesthetics lmao.

Also in terms of plot, I'm not sure there's anything I'd say I wanted to alter, exactly. But Sky High was a single movie with a 1hr 40min running time. There wasn't a lot of time to explore everything it set up! So I'd say just make a whole series and explore all of it.

I think the only plot point I felt :/ about was Layla's whole 'I'm only going to use my powers when the situation demands it!' thing which meant..... not using them ever unless it was literally life or death at the last second? Like girl you're going to a Hero School to learn how to utilize your abilities through safe (ish) training exercises so you'll know how to use them in real combat. I think in a darker-toned series she might be forced to confront this fact in a harsh way, like another student calling her out on it because of their own tragic backstory.

[macgyvermedical]

Using Over the Counter Insulins to Manage Diabetes

In the United States, you can buy some older types of insulin (regular human insulin, NPH insulin, and 70/30 insulin) without a prescription. The cheapest place to buy these is WalMart, where these often cost just under $25 per 10-mL vial. This makes them an attractive option for someone looking for an emergency replacement for newer, more convenient insulins. This post gives an idea of what that could look like, and how to plan around it.

Now, it's important to understand that these insulins are not 1:1 your current regimen. You need to plan for this, and not wait until you're out of insulin to consider them.

The first thing you're going to want to do is make an appointment with your diabetes educator. Don't have one? Call your doctor's office and ask if they have one on staff. If they don't, ask if you can be referred to one. If you have the option, see an old one. One that was practicing in the 1990's, preferably.

Tell them you are making a plan for if you ever run out of insulin and need to use over the counter insulin. If they try to offer you discount cards or other ways of paying for insulin, accept them, but still insist they work with you to develop a plan to use the ones available over the counter. This is your backup, and you really want to have it available.

The reason it is your backup and not just your day-to-day (and also why you NEED to see a diabetes educator about them) is that the older insulins are genuinely more difficult to use. They require a lot more planning, a lot more timing of food, and often counting of carbohydrates or other skills not necessarily required of newer regimens of rapid-acting (aspart, lispro) and basal (glargine) insulins. Plus, this is going to require probably significantly more blood glucose checking if you don't use a continuous glucose monitor.

Next, you're going to want to present this to your doctor. You know your doctor better than I do and know how they're going to take this. Generally, this is second because doctors don't have a lot of time to discuss this plan, and it's easier to get them on board if you've already thought through things and discussed them with a diabetes educator. Reassure them that this is for short periods to prevent emergencies that could put you in a hospital, when other options have been exhausted. They're probably still not going to like it. Be prepared for that.

Below I'll discuss the differences between "newer" (what you are probably taking), and "older" (what Wally World has on offer).

Newer insulin regimens usually involve a rapid acting insulin taken each meal, combined with a basal insulin given once per day that covers the rest of the time. Since rapid acting insulins closely mimic the body's response to ingestion of carbohydrates, they can be taken immediately before a meal, which gives people a lot more flexibility as to when they need to eat. Long acting insulins don't ever really peak, so you don't need to time them as precisely with food. Skipping a meal, as long as you also skip a rapid acting administration, generally won't cause hypoglycemia.

Older insulins are less convenient and carry a higher risk of hypoglycemia. Older human insulin peaks about an hour after administration, meaning that to use it effectively, you have to give the dose, wait an hour, and then eat. It lasts about 4-6 hours. NPH insulin, which works for about 12 hours and peaks at 4-6, often requires a meal or snack at it's peak as well. Since both of these are often needed to manage blood sugar levels, timing is everything. That means no oversleeping, no changes to meal schedule, and no unplanned-for snacks.

TL;DR: If you ever think you might want or need to switch to an older, cheaper, OTC insulin, you should start planning now by seeing a diabetes educator about how to use older insulins.