#-points at the original- It has puzzle Key.

[wrathful-reptile]

i hate that i am in a small, dead fandom where basically there's source material (with a canceled sequel/continuation) BUT no one's out there making fan content. The fanartists haven't drawn anything in years. There is no fanfic.

If I want to read about it, I must write it myself.

But I am bad at finishing stories so I never get the endings.

If I want to view fanart, I have to see the art I've viewed 1000 times or draw it myself. I don't draw humans. (it has dragon characters and I have drawn those but sometimes? I want the other characters in my life too)

It's like playing with OCs BUT like... with a glimmer of hope that something might pop up eventually.

[x-i-l-verify]

Being honest, I think using Miss Delight and Ollie in this chapter instead of the Critters was a mistake. Dogday would have been a great candidate for the role Ollie filled. It would explain why he already knows us when we find him in the dungeon, why he calls us "Poppy's Angel," why he already seems to know what she's planning. It would also just be thematically appropriate, because of course he knows Playcare like the back of his hand, of course he would be the one to bring back the power, the light, in order to chase away Catnap's darkness. It would make the fact that we couldn't save him at the end of the Playhouse section that much more of a gut-punch, because he would have already saved us multiple times at that point and he would have felt like a friend.

As for the other Smiling Critters, a couple of them could already be dead, sure, but others could have been lurking in various buildings and locations within the Playcare. Bobby Bearhug and Picky Piggy could have been who we run into in Home Sweet Home, with Bobby languishing in the bedrooms that held the children she once loved so dearly, while Picky, who has gone insane from hunger, haunts the kitchens, desperately prowling for fresh meat. We could convince Bobby to help us, while evading Picky, lending a sense of true danger and urgency to the level that was lacking in the original, since we are never in any actual danger inside Home Sweet Home in that version outside of running into the red smoke without our gas mask.

Craftycorn and Bubba Bubbaphant could be who we run into in the school, or Bubba could possibly be found in the caverns or in one of the power rooms, giving us a key piece of equipment that we would need to progress or helping us with solving puzzles. Craftycorn could take the place of Miss Delight, with the same mechanics and everything, but instead of being insane with hunger like Miss Delight, she could be desperately seeking out new art supplies, since she has long since run out. Fresh blood makes great paint.

The antagonists in the Playhouse could still be the mini Critters, or it could possibly be Kickin' Chicken or Hoppy Hopscotch, who are trying to get your grabpack and take it for their own in order to escape. Whichever character isn't trying to steal your grabpack would be helping you play keep-away with it. Alternatively, Kickin Chicken and Bubba could already be dead (since their voice lines end in screaming in their cutouts), and Hoppy could be trying to help us get the power back on after Dogday's death (since her symbol is a lightning bolt). When Catnap finally makes his appearance, she could sacrifice herself to distract him, giving us key time to get away and set up our defenses with the batteries.

[honey-milk-depresso]

Batfam x reader going to an escape room

Gesus I went insane from this, I was too lazy to do Babs and Bruce I’m sorry- 😭😭

***S/o is above 18, which means characters below are also aged up!

Batfam x S/o VS Escape Rooms

Dick Grayson

God forbid you bring him to a horror-themed escape room. He can fight Joker, Slade, almost get killed like three days a week but he’s scared of them nasty ass sound effects when you unlock a clue and begin jumping on you while screaming until he stops and goes “oh hey, a clue-”

Sometimes keep pointing at the wrong kinds of clues. Like the ones that have the sticker label that says “NOT PART OF ROOM” and can still ask, “is this a clue???”

If you’re scared, both of you can cling together although both of you would push each other to try to punch in the coordinates because you fear the whacky effects this escape room offers.

He will, however, do everything you tell him when trying to solve puzzles. Dick will sacrifice all his loud sound fear and do it for you. Otherwise if you’re brave enough (magically) he’ll just look from behind and clap with amazement.

Whether you two escape or not… usually not. You guys get stuck there most of the time although he wouldn’t be so jumpy and can focus if you two pick a non-horror-themed escape room. You two still had fun though and that’s all that matters. <3

Jason Todd

I felt like he might’ve destroyed the props inside the room out of frustration. Horror themed or not, this man can get frustrated over puzzles he’s failing at. Like one time this man was punching in possible combinations as stated in the piece of paper you two found (miraculously) that had a riddle to the password of the lock the two of you were trying to open and ends up breaking the lock with his bare hands out of frustration that the host had to rush in after catching all that on camera.

He keeps complaining, “that shit is more nonsensical than Riddler’s riddles, goddamnit!” He just wants to win and get out of here with you. That’s the whole POINT.

The one who keeps making sarcastic jokes about all the clues like “this guy puts ‘DEATH’ as the password, how original”, “wow. Who could’ve guessed the VAMPIRE out of the three options where the two others are HUMANS is the killer. Incredible.” You’ll never here the end of it-

If you’re scared, he’ll hold you closer to him (while he slowly loses his shit to colour coordinated buttons) and secretly likes how you cling to him if you are scared. If not, he’s appreciative you try to calm him down and help him stay focus.

You two would sometimes get out, sometimes not successfully, but all the time you’d usually get a bill to pay for the damaged props. Couple goals. <3

Tim Drake

He is full on lock mode INTO this escape room game. By this point, you two are just speed-running through this to get out and win.

Tim is a detective with an IQ of 142 after all, so most of the escape rooms are just easy for him that you complain isn’t fun anymore. Thus, you two go for the really hard ones and I mean those REALLY hard ones like “The Caretaker” kinda with a 1.5% success rate THEN would things get interesting.

Tim likes a challenge, and he gets even more determined to be successful in escaping. He’s not scared of the props, even in horror-themed because he’s super driven to win. If you get scared of horror-themed, and even more terrifying is that it has such a low success rate he’s still by your side trying to reassure you while trying to solve the clues to get the both of you to the next section. Most of the time, you two get out. He gets super salty if he was about to key in the code to get out but just that split second he ran out of time and the both you didn’t get out. Kiss his cheek so he’ll completely forget being salty and more red-faced. <3

Damian Wayne

Like Jason, might’ve break a few props in the process of being frustrated. He’s laser focused in winning and escaping, it’s just that he’s frustration bubbles up easily in an escape room when he come across a particularly challenging roadblock he might push away his rationality and break the lock with his bare hands like Jason (dude how??).

He’s not scared of escape rooms, and maybe for the cheaper ones he’ll think are lame: commenting on how fake the blood is or how plastic-y the skull is with his bad painting. If you’re scared though, he’s silently celebrating the fact he gets to hold you close all while having a straight face.

Inside, his brain is yelling “YESSSSSSS- THANK YOU LORD FOR LETTING ME HOLD THEM IN MY ARMS AND-”

Yeah- pretty much just sums up the most chaotic experience for you or at least, whatever goes on his head.

Usually would get out with him, although sometimes you two would find a bill to pay for broken props but it’s not as bad as Jason’s count so don’t worry. <3

Duke Thomas

He’s pretty good at escaping actually. Well, he’s not as fast as Tim, but if given an hour on an average escape room, Duke can get out with you in maybe 50 minutes flat.

Of course, he’s not gonna try escaping an escape room with a success rate of 1.5% like Tim is, he knows his limits.

Has fun in horror and non-horror themed escape rooms alike. He’s mildly scared of the horror ones, maybe just be slightly jumpy but he won’t scream hysterically or anything. He’ll probably laugh it off and focus on figuring out the clues.

Maybe throw in a joke or two like, “wow, this guy just gives us the password through people’s surnames that are all colour names. If only it was that easy in stakeout mission-”

If you’re scared, he’s there for you and reminds you it’s fake. You’re not gonna die here (because this isn’t a twisted kind of escape room set up by Joker or anything like that, it’s an entertainment one so it’s okay-) and is pretty chill about the whole thing.

Pretty high success rate to escape for most escape rooms and definitely a lot of fun with him even if you guys fail! <3

Cassandra Cain

Also pretty high success rate of getting out of your average escape room, but she also might be another one to break the props but usually by accident.

She might be a little frustrated rattling with the locker and wondering what other possible the lock combination could work when she accidentally uses her strength and kinda… breaks the lock by accident. The two of you would look at each other as Cass slowly just… puts the lock away and gets to the next clue while the two of you act like nothing happened.

Very calm and collected and she’s just unfazed with the horror-themed escape rooms. She’s seen far worse and in fact, she thinks the horror-themed ones are fun that she’s seen smiling more while solving each clue.

If you’re scared of the props, she tried to reassure you they’re face by showing the blood is fake and the skulls are fake (and then accidentally breaks them somehow or drops the fake blood on the floor-) as she tried to reassure you.

Overall, 10/10 good time with Cass. <3

Stephanie Brown

Okay so… she’s focused, yes, but she takes a really long time to think. Just a tad bit. Might be like Dick: points to the prop that has a “NOT PART OF ESCAPE ROOM” label and goes “is this a clue???”

She’s trying, she really is. Has a pretty normal chance of escaping with you but usually with only 5 minutes left or less. I think the most insane one was when you and her finally broke out on the dot when one hour was over and it was time’s up. The host was just doing that white guy blinking meme thing and was like- “huh- okay-”

She’s kinda jumpy in horror-themed escape rooms, but she’s not like Dick to scream her lungs out. Maybe just let out a yelp or “HOLY SHI—” out loud and be like “goddamnit” when she quickly recovers.

If you’re scared, it’s okay she’s got you! Even if she’s a bit startled in the beginning, she’ll be your (mostly) knight in shining armour!

She jokes a lot about the props around like: “Lmao, this goofy horse painting’s like Jason”, “Why the skull look so poorly painted on the eyes”, “What is with that silly sounding witch laugh, lmao” to lighten up the mood.

Funny times with Steph in there so 10/10. <3

Reblogs help! ^^

[jamiepaige]

Constant Companions Closeup #6: BREEZE BLOWS

(also on spotify!)

Welcome back… to Constant Companions Closeups…. a series of in-depth dives into the songs off of my latest album, Constant Companions…

Last time, we talked about Cadmium Colors! Today, we're keeping the alliteration but moving back a letter in the alphabet! Breeze Blows, with Marcy Nabors and Marlow Jacobs!!

---

oh baby mental health

Last post, I mentioned as an aside that I have OSDD-1b - a kinda complicated diagnosis that is defined by not quite being Dissociative Identity Disorder but being similar enough. And obviously that's super reductive but I'm not an expert on this I just have brain peculiarities. I won't fully explain how this functions, or every intricacy of how I deal with it, but I can try to convey what it feels like.

My sense of self is comprised of parts. Not an exceptionally high number, but nonetheless distinct parts that fit together like puzzle pieces to make a full individual. They talk to and interact with each other, and most times it is one specific part that takes the lead while the others simply follow, but ideally, they all move in sync and work together.

This collaborative effort is relatively new and was an incredibly hard-fought state of being. For many years, it felt much more like there was just me and a bunch of nightmare voices in my head constantly lashing out violently!! My own inner monologue felt completely out of my control... and it ultimately turned out that it kinda was, but not for the reasons I thought.

Showing those voices kindness and starting a conversation was the big moment of revelation for me, that there was this whole other half of me that had been locked in a box for god knows how long. She was scared and lonely and just wanted to be understood, and really, that was all I wanted as well.

Writing these self-directed songs of love and companionship became a really important part of becoming 'whole', in some sense. Not that there are no more individual parts or anything!! Just that my inner monologue these days is far more of a conversation between friends.

...

Constant companions, if you will.

---

As a couple people have pointed out, this song is very much a counterpoint and companion piece to weathergirl, a song by my band FLAVOR FOLEY! Neither song was originally written with the intention of complimenting the other, but the parallels simply emerged naturally, and it only felt right to reinforce them. At 2:14 in Breeze Blows, you can even hear the icy little keys motif from weathergirl front and center!!

On that note, while I would love to make MVs for every song on the album, Breeze Blows is the one song I am dead set on putting out an MV for no matter what... A yellow, very natural aesthetic to contrast with weathergirl... ANRI in a sundress, fluttering in the wind and clutching her hands to her chest...

the fucking yuri...

Of course, this song was a collaboration with some other dear friends of mine, Marcy Nabors and Marlow Jacobs! We've been fastidious friends for freaking forever. Marcy, especially, has been with me through thick and thin - together, we've gone on road trips, worked on Homestuck music, bounced countless ideas off of each other, embarrassed ourselves in front of each other's parents, queued for probably a triple digit number of FFXIV instances, and of course, collaborated on some of my favorite music I've ever released. Not to discredit Marlow or anything!! These two are genuinely some of the coolest people I know, and I love them wholeheartedly. Hopefully we can play some mahjong again sometime so I can kick their asses and feel like I'm even a tenth as cool as them

Our initial ideas for this song came together while we sat at the piano at my parent's house, aimlessly banging out chords together while I left my phone recording on the other side of the room just in case. Ultimately, the voice memo barely sounds anything like Breeze Blows, because the process of translating things to MIDI on Marcy's laptop also introduced a lot of defining creative choices, but it's still at least amusing to hear.

Apologies and/or you're welcome for the shorter post this time around!! Thank you for reading regardless; If you have any more questions, I'd be glad to answer them below!! Tomorrow... we can grow so big.... (aggrandicize)

[sanzaibian]

“Sir, here are the Beatty files.” The young woman told me, handing a USB key.

I have heard a lot about these files. They were intercepted in the town after which they’re named by the secret services a while ago, but were encrypted in such a puzzling way that only now can we view them. And of course, I am the first one to be able to review its content.

I know a lot of things, as it is my job to be informed of anything and everything happening around the world. I know the plans of China over Taiwan, the successor to the Ayatollah, the contents of the talks between Putin and Kim Jong-un, and all the current US military strategy. In my line of work, everything can happen, yet at no single point could I make sense of the Beatty files. Nor could anyone else for that matter.

I excused the young woman, bidding to her my thanks for the deciphering team, and went to the unused laptop I had prepared. When it comes to matters of national security, I cannot afford to be careless, and let anyone unlicensed to get access to this. So brand new laptop, created by us, which has never been opened, to open these files.

And so I fiddled with the parameters a bit, entering the secret code, and inserted the USB key to view its contents. Inside were a few files, all of which videos. Their names were not informative, since I know for a fact that their original names were not recovered, so I just opened the first file in the list.

The video opened looking down in a white cubic room, meaning it was very likely a security camera recording. In addition, there was the time indicated on the bottom right, yet something felt weird about how it was displayed… 15:58… 15:59… 15:60 ???... 16:01, etc. Why is it not counting time correctly ? Nobody indicates time like this ! It’s wrong, it’s incorrect ! I just opened it and there’s already something I cannot in any way explain !

Taking a deep breath, I look at the center of the screen, in which I have a good view of a man sat in a chair. He has tanned skin, black hair and black stubble, and a very developed musculature. He looks to be a very attractive middle-eastern man, although I cannot say which ethnicity he precisely has.

The chair he’s sitting on is quite massive, and he looks almost as if he is… restrained in it ? Yes, there seems to be little handcuffs tethering him to the armchairs. But most striking are the numerous tubes going out from his arms, legs, torso and even head, linked to some types of medical appliances I cannot recognize, as well as to a sort of glass tank.

Suddenly, I notice the deep voice of a man. I up the volume, and hear… a language I cannot understand.

“Tzai en 19/03, 2:17, en tzoujkbruoi odogattzion program en Scipio Labratory. Ny hse Hk. Adtem, tzai widt nyn hskadiais, Sjd. Fingtrosy ÿ Sd. Vagohs, ÿ naum wom fill no tzoujketvÿsn ekspÿrians widt no #1073 bymarjen.”

At first I get some German vibes from it, but then it seems to be Polish, and then French… Whatever that language might be, it is not one I have ever heard. The man in the chair looks around, seemingly half-dazed, as if he was drugged. I don’t know what will happen to him, yet I get the feeling that it won’t be a desirable fate.

Suddenly, another voice, that of a woman by the looks of things, speaking in that same strange language.

“Hsüzmalhs��v drël en im.”

Then a buzzer sound. There seems to be some white substance flowing inside the man’s body, through the tubes from the medical appliances. As it flows, I can see his eyes starting to become more droopy, before fluttering, and then closing. At the same time, his body starts floundering in the restraints, as if he was keeping himself from falling asleep. But as time went on and the white liquid ran dry, all of his muscles were relaxing and his stance become limp, like that of a dysfunctional robot. However, looking at his accelerating breathing rhythm, it seems to my trained eye that he is not actually asleep. It’s only his body refusing to function correctly.

“Drël ingkatzt. Etvÿsn harjimÿll.” Says another voice, deeper than the last one, but not as deep as the first one.

I don’t really know what’s happening. If the counter on the bottom-right of the screen wasn’t ticking up, I would have thought that the image was frozen. But then, suddenly, I can hear a low sound in the recording. And that sounds starts creeping higher and higher, as if something was charging up… Yeah, definitively charging up, since I almost saw some lightning sparks going off from the chair…

I don’t know what’s happening, but it seems to be malfunctioning. The sparks make themselves more and more intense, and it almost seems as if the machine is ready to explode...

Just as I say that, the first deep voice makes itself heard once again, but this time more in a frustrated or worried tone than an official one.

“Sel heont havy… Go huop sel hstill pÿrdont...”

But suddenly, the sparks stop, and while the sound doesn’t stop, beige liquid start flowing into the pipes… from the man to the tank ? What is that thing ? I don’t understand ! However, I can hear cries of rejoice in the audience, with all three voices I’ve heard since then saying incomprehensible stuff that I wouldn’t even be able to transcribe. I guess they also didn’t think… whatever this is would work ?

I take a drink from my water bottle as I keep an eye on the video. However, since I need to reach my bag, I cannot actively monitor it. Besides, according to what I hear, nothing of note seems to be happening... But when I have put down the bottle, I stop the video. I rub my eyes, but even then, I still see it.

The man seems smaller.

Somehow.

I go back in the video to the time where the man with the deepest voice sounded worried and… Yeah, looking like that, it’s even more apparent. The man has been losing mass. And the tanks have been filled by this beige skin-color liquid… Heh, if I didn’t know I was in reality, I would have said that this is muscle-juice, but this is ridiculous…

Especially since the body mass hasn’t been the only thing to change.

As I play back the video and continue through the long haul of high-pitch noise and not much else, I notice that the man’s stubble seems to be disappearing… and his head hair growing as well, somehow ? It almost seems as if he’s becoming less masculine by the second, if it even makes any sense, even though nothing about this video actually makesanysense. If I didn’t know who supplied it to me, I would have said this was a fake…

As his pecs were shrinking, his arms were thinning, his waist narrowing and his legs slimming, his stance almost seemed to be relaxing further – if it’s even possible. I mean, I don’t know ! It’s just the impression that I’m getting ! As the last of his stubble vanishes, at least according to what I can see through the pixels, he almost seems to be getting cuter ? Whence more relaxed ? Fuck, this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever…

Oh. I know why I get this impression. It’s not anymore weird or nonsensical, but at least in this context it seems to make sense… I think he also is losing height. Yes, actually. Height. It’s almost as if someone took the textbook definition of a “twink” and decided to impart its characteristic on this poor fellow – don’t ask me why I know what it is.

As I continue watching in horror, the woman’s voice says, gleefully :

“Entzony as hen !”

How can they sound so… happy ? Happy to torture a man like this ? To, quite visibly, drain his muscles into those tanks that look more and more full ? It just goes beyond me ! Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen my fair share of horrible and unethical treatments, and a ton of unethical human experiments. But this by far takes the cake of the most disturbing thing I have ever seen ! They’re taking away what he is, his identity ! Him ! That’s the most cruel violation of human rights I have ever seen ! To gleefully disfigure someone like that…

The tanks have finished filling up, and the sound starts lowering in intensity. The man left looks only like a shadow of who he was. He still looks like himself, except devoid of any… meat, may I say ? When the machine was well and truly turned off, the deep voice rejoiced, seemingly announcing the success of that terrible plot.

“Fÿstyfuroll ! Oll fod havy kotzvong !”

Funnily enough, the first word made me think of “feast for all”, which just feels wrong given the context. On that, they all seem to have left the premises, as a nurse came in and untethered the poor man from all the equipment, and taking with her the tanks filled of muscle juice.

I continued watching, hoping that I would get to see the young man wake up.

And wake up he did, looking around, before standing up… and immediately falling. Presumably due to him not expecting to be this skinny. He then looked at himself, and had an utterly horrified look in his eyes, as if he was processing the fact that he was irremediably different.

He crawled towards the wall, and using that, he climbed back to standing, managing to take a position so that he could be looking at the camera.

And on that, the video suddenly stopped, leaving me on this freeze frame :

I absolutely don’t know what to do with that. Now I not only understand, but also feel how confused the secret services were by intercepting this message. It just seems wrong in so many ways, so much that… it might not even have occurred on Earth for all I know ! The language is unknown, but familiar. The way to count time is disturbing, but otherwise identical to ours. The events depicted are of typical mad experimentation, but in a manner that is unthinkable in my knowledge of the world.

I don’t have the strength to view any of the other videos, since they’re likely all the same amount of disturbing. So I close the laptop, and already starts asking myself the question I need to give an answer for my superiors :

Just what the hell are the Beatty files ?!

[spore-galore]

What is a Spore megabuild? How are they made? Why make a megabuild in the first place instead of just making a regular creature/creation? Are you insane? What's wrong with you?

I got all the answers and more below! As well as progress pictures of my most recent megabuild, Ysera from World of Warcraft!

A megabuild in Spore is a creation that is made up of multiple different creations (mostly creatures). All of these individual creatures are assembled in the Adventure editor (where you can make custom missions and stuff) like a jigsaw puzzle! So, the head of Ysera is one singular creature, as are her limbs, her left wing, her right wing, ALL FOUR of her legs are also individual creatures, her tail, etc.

So...why make a megabuild instead of just doing all of the detail on one creature?

Well, back in the good old days of vanilla, unmodded spore, people wanted to show off their full potential for creature creation. People wanted to add LOTS of detail to their creatures, but there was a problem: the creature editor in vanilla spore has a complexity meter, meaning it has a cap on how many parts you can actually use before you’re literally not allowed to add anymore parts. There is a cheat that you can type into the console called “freedom” which unlocks a little bit more room on the complexity meter, but it’s not TRUE freedom of the complexity meter, as you can very much still reach the complexity meter cap even with the cheat turned on (I did so many times as a child).

Sooo, spore players were looking for ways to share their big huge epic creations that they wanted to make on the sporepedia, for everyone else to see (and download). This is where adventures come in.

As I said earlier, adventures are custom missions that you can make. You can set the scene, the characters, the story, the things you’re supposed to do to complete the mission etc. And within the adventure editor are these like…plasma gates.

These can be locked or unlocked via keys and such (if you chose to place them in the adventure, of course), and a very interesting thing about these plasma gates is that you can make them do 1 of do things: make them invisible, or disguise them as a creation that you or another player made. However, there is a caveat, and that caveat is that you can only disguise the gates as either buildings or vehicles.

At some point though, someone out there found a work around, in which you can choose to edit the building you’re going to disguise the gate as before you officially choose it, and then you can view the sporepedia as you’re currently editing the building...allowing you to view creatures in the sporepedia! And then...you can click the edit button on those creatures, switching you to the creature editor. Then you can click the “save and exit” button within the creature editor, tricking the game into disguising the gate as the creature instead of the original building you were editing! Once it was found out that you could do this, AND that adventures with the gates-disguised-as-creatures in them could actually be shared on the sporepedia for others to download and play, it then became obvious that you could probably use this trick to make what we now call megabuilds. In which each of these individual parts of the body (head, body, limbs, tail, other details etc.) could be disguised as gates, and then moved around to create a bigger, more highly detailed creature than what you could actually make in the creature editor!

Obviously, with mods, you can remove the complexity meter and just put as many parts as you like on a creature, but with this comes the risk of your game crashing with the more parts you put on your creature. This has happened to me within the past week alone (specifically with the Tyranid warrior), and it will continue to happen to me for as long as I have Spore installed on my computer because Spore is just Like That. Megabuilds, on the other hand, allow me to kinda circumnavigate the chance of my game crashing with such a detailed creature (for example, if I'm only detailing one limb as opposed to the whole body), giving me more breathing room, and allowing me to add significantly more detail instead of having to say “okay well I guess I can leave those details out, they’re not important, I don’t want my game to crash again and lose all this progress.”

TLDR; Megabuilds are highly detailed big ass statues in spore made up of different creatures that look like limbs, all stitched together. Yayy!!!! We’re an evil scientist! Now here is how I made Ysera, in case you wanted a play by play of how I make my megabuilds (if you perhaps wanted to make your own).

How I made Ysera

Now, personally, IDK how other megabuilders make their own stuff, but my process for starting a megabuild is this: I basically start with a “base” body that has all of the limbs, and then I pose them how I want them to be posed. I do not add any details. This base doesn’t even have eyes! We’re doing this purely to get the pose correct, so that we can use the base as a reference for when we’re putting all the individual pieces together in the adventure editor. We have to keep this base creature, and make sure not to save over the top of it, even after we’ve finished making all the individual body parts! Here’s what the Ysera base looks like:

Now..we have to start detailing. I had references of Ysera’s most recent model (from Dragonflight) with a variety of different angles, so I used those pictures to make her as accurately as I could. I usually like starting with the head.

(Before I get into the progress pictures, I should note that with every different “body part” i’m making, I’m essentially making a copy of the “base” creation, removing everything except the limb/body part i’m working on, and then detailing it. This means I keep the exact posing of the wings, tail, limbs etc. so that when I use the base body as a reference for putting stuff back together in the adventure editor...all the body parts should be in the right shape/pose!)

Anyways, because it's possible to resize the gates-disguised-as-creatures within the adventure editor, I actually got the “croc kisser” mouth and made it twice as large as it was on my base creature, so I could more accurately see what I was doing (and add more detail). Then....well this is the hard part isn’t it? Idk how to explain how to make stuff in Spore. That's like trying to explain how I draw things lmao. But what I usually start with is “sculpting” the face, by placing knurldowns upside down on the head, and then positioning them and resizing them until I get a face shape that looks nice! You can also skip the mouth altogether and do the sculpting on an elongated limb (which is what I did for The Windsinger and the Tyranid warrior) which honestly I prefer because sometimes sculpting on top of an already existing mouth/head can be really annoying!

After 3 hours of non-stop work, here is what the finished head looked like!

Sorry that I basically did a "draw the rest of the fucking owl" to you all, buuuut I didn't want to make this post any longer than it already was sooo..yeah lmfao.

Initially I had made her floating headpiece on the same creation, but when it was rendering in the adventure it looked. well. strange. so I elected to make her headpiece separately, and to make it in the spaceship editor instead of as a creature, and honestly...I'm glad I did so, because it looks super cool and I get to actually have it properly floating above her head, and I can also position it how I want.

After that, it was time for me to move on to the limbs! Honestly, if you’re like me and all 4 limbs have slightly different different poses (which is done by pressing “a” on the keyboard and clicking on a part and/or limb to allow it to be moved without the limb on the other side moving), it’s best that you actually detail the limbs BEFORE you make them asymmetrical and pose them, so that you have the luxury of symmetry/mirrored building so you only have to detail one leg. Then you make the legs asymmetrical, pose both legs and either save them as a duo, or save them individually (I chose to save them individually so that I could have more control on the limb posing in the adventure editor, but that’s just me being extra lmao).

For the wings, I chose to individually detail 1 limb after the other, since I knew I would need differently shaped and sized webbings for both wings, and it wouldn’t make sense to detail both of the wings and THEN pose them, since I knew that would mess up all the parts I’d already put on the wings. Thankfully there was only two of them so it wasn't a big deal! The “organic helper” mod which gives you a lot of individual webbings for wings is...well, quite helpful! And it also means significantly less parts used for the wings, meaning I got an opportunity to add more detail, if I wished.

Okayy and then it was time to do the body. Not much to say tbh! This was probably the easiest part of the megabuild to do since I (for the most part) wasn't dealing with any asymmetry and I didn't need to put a huge amount of detail onto the body.

Finally, the last thing I made was the tail!!! This was not as hard as I thought it would be, it was just tedious and time consuming. At this point I was getting kinda of this megabuild xD I just wanted it to be over already. It took about an hour to make the tail (mostly fiddled around trying to make ysera’s tail pinecone look like....well, a pinecone. I do not think I succeeded in making it look like a pinecone. I tried my best).

Then....it was onto putting the pieces together! This is where I opened up the adventure editor, and used the gates-disguised-as-creatures trick to get all of the different body parts assembled! This is also where the base I made came in clutch!

Sooo, the first thing I put down was the base body, and then I started layering the completed Ysera body pieces over the top of it.

Then I just had to do that a bunch of times with all of the pieces, delete the base body, tweak some of the limbs’ positionings and bam!! The megabuild was complete!!!

I hope this was an informative post about Spore megabuilds! If not, then I guess I can just eat dirt from the ground or something. I hope this helps others understand how megabuilds are made and inspires people to make their own.

[welcometothejianghu]

Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: 致命游戏 / The Spirealm.

The Spirealm is a 2024 drama about two young men who fall in love while basically playing a whole bunch of horror-themed escape rooms that can for-real kill you.

This show/book combo has gripped my entire ass. The second I knew I wanted to watch this, almost immediately after it started airing, I muted the tag. I was so right to do this, because this is worth not spoiling yourself about. If you are a Guardian fan in particular, you owe it to yourself to watch this for reasons I think will become clear as you go about watching it.

So! If all you need to know is that I think you need this show in your life, great! You don't even need to scroll down to the end of the post for the links; go to Viki and press play. In case you need more convincing than that, though, I'm going to give you here five reasons to watch it that are as spoilerless as I can make them.

Before we start, though, I'm going to take a moment to note that I had to torrent the video files so I could make screenshots of my own, and if I hadn't, this would have been a much uglier rec post than the others I've done. Not only were there not many promotional materials or official stills released, the show itself barely stayed up two hours on iQiyi, and that's because this drama is a...

1. (Barely) Censored Adaptation Of Same-sex Original Work

Ah, you know that MyDramaList tag well, don't you? Yeah, the original novel, Kaleidoscope of Death (which has a rec post of its own!), is supernatural story about grief and loss built on the love story between the two male leads. Now of course you know already that a mainstream Chinese television adaptation of something like that is going to straighten up everything and turn the horror romance into the sci-fi platonic love of besties.

...But damn, folks, it's still real gay.

Ling Jiushi, the sweet-faced newbie, is a canonical virgin and loving cat dad who plays the mysterious video game once, then finds himself suddenly able to enter the game worlds bodily -- and of course, if you die in the game, you die in real life. He's pretty much doomed, until he meets...

Ruan Lanzhu, the cool-as-a-cucumber veteran of the door worlds, who falls pretty much immediately for the completely oblivious Ling Jiushi, then has to spend the rest of the series consumed with lust while trying to keep him and a couple other dipshits alive.

The show preserves so many overtly gay beats and declarations of affection from the novel, to the point where it's just this side of suggesting that the romance is actually, textually happening just offscreen, every time the camera cuts away. I am forever grateful that working with Zhu Yilong on Reunion seems to have perfected sweet baby Junjie's ability to look at a man with nothing but love in his eyes.

I adore so much the dynamic they have, one where a man who has never told the truth a day in his life encounters a man so sincere and naive that you cannot seduce him with anything but absolute honesty or he's never going to get it.

There are three (3) separate door worlds where they share a bed, and in every one of them, they both sleep with their shoes on. Like the absolute freaks they both are.

2. It's puzzle solvin' time!

So if you've read some of my rec posts before, you know that I am critical of stories that center around cases that are unfollowable, uninteresting, or both (e.g., Mysterious Lotus Casebook and White Cat Legend). I am therefore thrilled to tell you that the door worlds are actually (largely) thoughtful mysteries with reasonable solutions, where you care about what's happening and why.

The way each door world is set up is that you have to solve the puzzle to find a key and unlock the door that will let you leave. One of the challenges is each world's door ghost, who has the key and does not want to give it up. The other challenge is the world-specific set of taboo conditions, where violating them means the door ghost can kill you -- and you are not always told what those taboo conditions are. That means that solving a door involves 1) figuring out what will insta-kill you, 2) not doing that, 3) finding where the hell the exit door is, 4) placating and/or scamming the door ghost long enough to snatch the key from them, and 5) running like hell to the exit door with that key before the door ghost fucks you up about it.

As the show goes on, you get introduced to the concept of door-passing shepherds, which are experienced door-finishers who take through lower-level players, building them up in the process. A lot of these shepherds work for organizations, such as the one Ruan Lanzhu runs. And a lot of them are ready to reach the exit by climbing over everyone else's corpses.

That's part of the fun of the setup: You're not just thrown in alone. You show up with a random number of other players, some with very different levels of experience. At least one of you will make it out; not everyone will. So you can add a step 6) to the list above, which is: surviving all the other players who will gleefully stab you in the back in order to be the first player out the door.

The door worlds are also lovely. They all feel like sets -- and I know that's a weird thing to say about places that are literal sets, but they manage it feel it even on film. In fact, even the show's uses of clunky-ass greenscreen feel appropriate, because of how unreal everything is supposed to be. Everything looks like a dream, which is only amplified by how beautifully everything's shot.

(What's that you say? You say the guy who directed this was the editor on Infernal Affairs? No kidding.)

From a fandom perspective, what's great here is that even though there are technically just twelve doors, there are canonically way more than twelve door worlds out there. That means that whatever worlds you want to create are valid. The best pieces of fanfic I've read are the ones that dream up their own door worlds, complete with taboo conditions, key puzzles, and world-specific perks that lead to gay sex, because come on.

3. A good middle ground of horror

So at this point you are perhaps wondering: How scary is it?

And the answer is, kind of as scary as you're willing to let your mind go with it. Everything has been science-fictioned real hard, including the video game premise that "explains" what's happening with these doors. It relies on dread way more than jumpscares. The blood/gore/gross content is extremely low, again on account of Chinese content censorship. Most icky things are done with offscreen sounds and shadows. I'm pretty squeamish about pain and injury, and I can't recall a time I had to look too long away from the screen.

However, that means the show works some real conceptual horror. That picture up there is of a man forcing three young girls to hold raw eggs unbroken in their mouths. There's nothing about that image that's not technically G-rated, and it's awful in context.

The best bits are when the monsters don't need a lick of CG to become horrors. They cast a contortionist in the Waverly Hills door world, and she absolutely earned her keep.

I have a lot of critiques about how the show handles things, especially in terms of defanging the horror elements (which it does), but one thing I think it absolutely gets right is that it understands that ghost stories are first and foremost tragedies. That's a thing I've always liked about Asian horror in particular, how often you wind up siding with the ghost. Yes, sure, she tried to strangle you with her hair, but have you ever considered she's the real victim here? There's always a bit of a calculus: Can you negotiate with the door ghost, or do you just need to stab them and run? The Spirealm prefers negotiation, and frankly, so do I.

So yeah, it's about as scary as you let it be. If your horror tolerance is low, watch it in a well-lit room and focus on the unreality of it, and you'll be okay. If you're looking for something genuinely spooky, spend some time thinking about the existential dread of the entire situation, and that'll be good for a couple good spine tingles.

4. The Obsidian Family (& Friends!)

In a show where death is always an option, you have to have characters where you actually care if they live or die. Fortunately, all your allies are charming and loveable enough that you are going to be real upset every time they get put in danger!

Obsidian is one of the organizations I mentioned earlier. It's run by Ruan Lanzhu, and it includes a cool and collected doctor, a mom friend who cooks for everybody, a guy who's maybe not having the best mental health day of his life, and two identical twins who could not be more different if they tried. They all live in the same amazing big fancy house, which is where Ling Jiushi too goes to live when he joins the group. They have big family meals, they look after one another, they hang out together -- I mean, if this is the kind of setup you love, then you will love this setup.

There are also plenty of allies who aren't technically part of Obsidian, but who are our friends nonetheless, and who come over to hang out in the Obsidian house from time to time. Some of them are rivals turned friends, some of them are clients turned friends, and some of them were just friends all along! Surely nothing bad will happen to any of them, and they'll all live happily ever after, right? ...Right?

5. Toast and Chestnut!

Of course, the true heroes of the show are Toast the Corgi and Chestnut the Kitty.

Animals are so good.

Truly, I love that one of Ling Jiushi's defining characteristics is that he is a Cat Dad. He is a simple man with simple needs, and one of those needs is to pet his kitty or he'll explode.

caveat: Some thoroughly bad adaptation choices

Yeah, so I keep talking about the novel (and talk even more about the novel in its own rec post), but I assure you, you don't need to have read the novel to feel the degree to which this is an adaptation -- and one that's had its rough, nasty, spooky, gay edges all sanded off in the desperate hope of ever seeing daylight.

Now, sometimes I consider batshit nonsense janky creative decisions to be a selling point for a show (see: Mysterious Lotus Casebook, Legend of Fei, Sand Sea)! In this case, however, I'm going to have to take points off for how incoherently bad they are here. We're talking Psych-Hunter levels of Why Would You Do That-- and the answer, as always, comes down to how you write around what censorship won't allow on television.

The novel says the doors are supernatural. The show says they're a virtual-reality computer game. Now, on the surface, this move sort of makes sense -- you can't have ghosts, but you can have computer games that make digital ghosts, which, sure, okay. But then the problem quickly becomes that the plot of the novel is not remotely built to support a sci-fi premise, so a lot of things have to be grafted awkwardly on. Like, say, a bad guy who stole his corporate logo from Even Worse Twitter. Or a game-designing bestie whose face is never seen. Or [late-stage spoilers about a major character].

The eventual explanation is that this whole setup is a righteous and good game that has somehow been corrupted by evil game-designing capitalists from the West, and that's why it can abduct you in broad daylight and kill you if you fail it. There are good people who want to purify (???) the game, and evil people who want to make money off the game. And I don't mind spoiling you for that part, because it's garbage nonsense. You will be deeply unsatisfied with the show's half-assed attempt at resolving it all. (You may, however, have that disappointment tempered with the amazing concurrent display of heterosexuality that is apologizing to your best bro by coding his perfect man for him. The Spirealm is a land of contrasts.)

Look, I consider myself a mild to moderate socialist, and even I was yawning and making jerk-off motions every time someone started to wax halfheartedly poetic about how evil American capitalism is. Like, yeah, but not because some college student made a vile and wretched video game that eats people! This show is a critique of capitalism like a five-year-old crying because he doesn't get ice cream before bed is a critique of authoritarianism.

And even this, I can't be too mad at it about, you know? I just assume that this was some absolute Hail Mary attempt at getting past censorship -- you know, maybe if we make all the right "grr, USA bad!" noises, they'll let our gay ghost story slip by? And it worked! I mean, just barely, but it did.

So yeah, fair warning that the Spirealm is a show that, if you love it (and I do), you will have to love despite some glaring flaws that haunt it all the way through and hit especially hard during what should otherwise have been an amazing endgame. But hey, we're c-drama fans! We're good at loving janky things, right?

Want to enter the World of Doors?

As I said at the start of the post, Viki's got it -- and only Viki. I'm not sure what circumstances got it up on Viki after iQiyi pulled it, but I'm glad. Watch it quick, before Viki changes its mind!

Hug him! Hug that boy!

[mysticstronomy]

WHY IS EVERYTHING IN SPACE ALWAYS MOVING??

Blog#434

Saturday, September 7th, 2024.

Welcome back,

Have you ever wondered why everything in the universe seems to be in constant motion? From our planet's orbit around the sun to the rotation of galaxies, nothing in space stands still. But what drives this cosmic dance?

The story of movement in the universe begins at the very dawn of time, with the Big Bang. According to Edward Gomez, an astrophysicist and the education director at Las Cumbres Observatory, the universe started expanding outward from an infinitely dense point.

This expansion set everything in motion, imprinting movement into the very fabric of the cosmos. As Carol Christian, an astrophysicist and outreach project scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope, explains, "The beginning was movement, and so movement has been built into the universe from the very beginning."

While the universe’s expansion mainly affects vast distances, it’s not just about objects moving through space; it’s also about the space between them growing larger. On smaller scales, however, rotation plays a key role in how objects behave.

This spinning motion is a fundamental aspect of the universe, evident in everything from the tiniest particles to massive galaxies.

So, why does everything spin? The answer lies in a concept called angular momentum. When two objects in space come close to each other, their mutual gravitational pull often causes them to orbit one another, rather than colliding or drifting apart. This effect is responsible for the rotational motion we observe in celestial bodies.

Edward Gomez likens the formation of our solar system to making a pizza: as you spin the dough, it flattens into a disc. Similarly, the solar system began as a spinning mass of gas and dust, which eventually coalesced into the sun and planets. Angular momentum ensured that this spinning never ceased, and it's why the planets continue to orbit the sun today.

Interestingly, galaxies don't spin the way you might expect based on visible matter alone. Instead, they rotate as if they were solid objects, a phenomenon that puzzled scientists until the discovery of dark matter. This mysterious substance, which doesn’t interact with light, exerts gravitational forces that influence the motion of galaxies, adding another layer to the complexity of cosmic movement.

In the grand scheme of things, motion is not just a characteristic of the universe—it’s a fundamental ingredient. As Gomez eloquently puts it, motion shows that "the universe is alive—not in the sense of being conscious, but things are happening." Chemical and physical reactions drive the cosmic machinery, and at the heart of it all is motion, the most basic form of energy.

This never-ending movement reminds us that the universe is an active, dynamic place, constantly evolving and shifting. And while we may not be able to see all the forces at play, the dance of the cosmos continues, driven by the invisible threads of gravity, dark matter, and angular momentum.

Originally published on https://www-moneycontrol-com

COMING UP!!

(Wednesday, September 11th, 2024)

"WHAT HAPPENS IF WE MOVE AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT????"

[vikenticomeshome]

Great God Grove: Patience's New Relationship:

Minor spoilers for the speed dating section of Hobbyhoo below the read-more. Proceed at your own risk.

Godpoke, the mostly blank slate of a player character, is tasked with being the Matchmaker at the Soul Cricket bar's speed dating night. They match the three candidates, and then they are given one final task by the owner of the bar, Patience.

She loves to tell stories about all sorts of mundane things, which can last multiple hours. She has worn out the patience of humans and gods alike. She believes that she is the ultimate challenge in match-making.

The solution to this puzzle is to take some words from Styella:

"It jewst makes me smile to spend time with yew"

Sometimes words played back by the Godpoke are seen as coming from the original speaker. Good examples are speech from the Gods. In other cases, like this one, words played back by the Godpoke are seen as coming directly from the Godpoke. It is left ambiguous as to if they can speak with their own voice, or if they are mute.

Patience takes these words to heart and immediately falls for Godpoke. But, did Godpoke really mean what they said? Or did they just say what they needed to say in order to get the romantic light bulb and proceed with the story?

Of course, Godpoke is the player character. For the most part, their personality is determined by the player. With characters like this, we have one major way to determine a canon personality. We look at the options that they don't have. These are the things that the canon Godpoke would not do.

For example, Godpoke doesn't beat up the gate guard to leave Hobeyhoo early. The gate guard is refusing to do his job and open the gate to BuzzHuzz because "Oh partner mine" has been boring lately. Dude, the apocalypse is imminent, and I need to get to the Spire. Get over it. Also, while they bonk Da Bizzyboys on the head in self-defense, they don't go further than necessary. They don't pull out a Big Iron or anything like that. They also don't suck up the animal barricades, like Kondle's pigs or Cara's birds, to clear the way, even though Megapon is capable of doing it. They also don't just stral the romantic bulb. They talk things out instead.

None of that confirms whether they were being genuine with Patience though. Godpoke can just hurl insults, bad advice, or lies with Megapon after all. There's probably no way to confirm it either way. So, I'm just going to assume that they meant it.

So, what does a relationship between Godpoke and Patience look like? Well, Godpoke still has their work traveling all over the Grove for mail delivery and resolving people's commujication problems. Patience still runs her Soul Cricket bar.

And when they spend quality time together, Patience has her long stories about all sorts of mundane things. The key word here is "mundane". If Patience has a problem, she gets to the point. She didn't tell a four hour story when she needed Godpoke's help as a matchmaker, after all. But, if Patience wants to tell Godpoke about all of the dogs who went past the bar that day, then she can drone on for hours.

I think these stories would be quite soothing. The Godpoke isnt facing an apocalypse, transporting large loads of mail, or struggling to find just the right words from one person to resolve another person's problem. All they have to do is get out of their work clothes, get into something more comfortable, snuggle up to Patience's chest, and listen to her talk. Megapon doesn't even need to come into it, since they wouldnt need to grab strategic lines. I also think that Godpoke would find her voice very soothing as the stories start to blend together, especially with their head in that position

After a long day, it is likely that Godpoke would fall asleep during Patience's stories. Now, would Patience be upset over this? I don't think so. Her problem was that people would get sick of her long stories and push her away. But then, Godpoke stuck around to listen and cuddle. I think she would really love the idea that Godpoke found her voice so soothing and relaxing that they fell asleep in her arms.

And then, she adds in some physical affection, while never missing a beat in her stories. She gives them forehead kisses, scratches their back right between their shoulder blades, kneads their hands and feet, gives them light tickles, etc. It's all about finding what kinds of affection Godpoke enjoys receiving. She manages to find several of their weaknesses. And then, her evening stories become a game. How quickly can the combination of her soothing voice and her probing those weak points melt Godpoke's brain and send them to sleep? Meanwhile, Godpoke tries to stay awake as long as possible. They also try to give some physical affection in return to help Patience relax, which she absolutely loves.

However, it gets to the point where Patience's voice is near-hypnotic ASMR for Godpoke. They tend to lose the game, and it isn't even close. They both get a lot out of it. Patience gets to cuddle and tell her companion stories. She gets to watch Godpoke slowly turn to mush under her hands and voice. And Godpoke gets plenty of soothing affection, followed by the deepest, most restful, sleep.

[vintagerpg]

The 1989 NES version of Shadowgate is one of my favorite videogames of that era. It’s a point-and-click dungeon crawl, and is perfect in a lot of ways. For the most part, it lacks the skewed logic of many point-and-click games, though its approach to magic can be tricksy in a way I appreciate. The monsters are interesting, but there is no real combat, it’s all just puzzles in a different form, and they must all be solved if you have any chance of defeating the Warlock Lord and stopping the raising of Behemoth. And boy does the game oozes atmosphere. Thanks to the timer of your torches burning out and the genuinely unsettling soundtrack, the game feels like it has real stakes, real danger.

I knew the NES version was a port/rework of an earlier computer game developed initially for Mac, but it wasn’t until last summer I saw the cover for it. I don’t know why I assumed it would have the same somewhat silly looking gargoyle as the NES release. It didn’t. This cover is so much coooooler. Having fiddled with emulations of the original, I do think the NES version is better — though slightly higher res, the Mac version is black and white and lacks the soundtrack, which is a key component of the game’s success.

Couple funny things. Until I bought the computer version (this one is actually for Atari computers), I didn’t realized that Déjà Vu and Uninvited preceded Shadowgate (the NES ports started with Shadowgate, then Uninvited, then finally Déjà Vu). And I only just learned as I prepared to write this that when SSI closed up in 1994, it was acquired by Mindscape, which had published Shadowgate. There’s no meaningful connection between Shadowgate and the Gold Box games beyond that purchase, but it tingled the back of my brain in a funny way.

[tobiasdrake]

Sometimes I see the way media handles female characters and I'm just like, "Oh my god, that's so cool. I don't even want you to change that. I just want you to notice how cool that is. Why aren't you doing something with this amazing thing you wrote? It's so fucking cool."

When I seize control of the Castlevania franchise in a bloody coup, the first thing I'm doing is giving this woman her due.

So. Like. The plot of Castlevania is that the Belmont clan is a long family bloodline of vampire hunters who slay a variety of monsters and routinely kill Dracula every time he shows up. The key to their success is the powerful weapon Vampire Killer, an ultra-sanctified super-weapon that cuts the undead to ribbons so hard the crucifix gets jealous.

(Actually, no, crucifix is OP in Castlevania if used well, but I digress.)

Point is, Castlevania once went into detail about the origins of the Vampire Killer. And its origin was this woman. Sara Trantoul, a young woman afflicted with vampirism who decided that, instead of becoming a vampire, she was going to do some alchemy shit to transmute her very soul into the holiest goddamn weapon in the history of sacred artifacts that lethally fucks up every vampire it comes into contact with.

This woman is to the Belmont bloodline what Raava is to the Avatar. What Fi is to the Master Sword. The key to their ability to slay monsters and fight Dracula comes from a teenage alchemist's undying, eternal determination to get his ass. (Well, to get the ass of the vampire whose powers he stole but same deal really.)

In the games, she basically stops being a factor after the one that introduced her. She's a footnote in the canon of Castlevania, far less important than the whip.

But. Like. Her soul is literally in the whip. I've always imagined Sara as, like, the spirit guide and mentor figure and advisor and shit to every Belmont. Like when the whip is officially passed down, your first challenge is to take it and commune with Sara for the first time, the way the Avatar communes with their past lives.

And then she's with the Belmont in spirit. She knows everything. Can name all of the various creatures they might fight. Encyclopedic understanding of the lore. Trades barbs with Death, who (along with Dracula) is one of the few creatures that can see her. Friendly banters with Alucard about her latest Belmont.

Even if your parents were slaughtered as a child and it was all they could do to get you to safety and there's nobody to teach you how to be a Belmont, as long as you have The Whip, there's still Sara.

This character has so much potential to be such a cool piece of the narrative puzzle. It's already there. All she needs is presence.

[definitelynotshouting]

just read thru ur hunger au loredoc and now am going to read the fic…. LOVE the worldbuilding, aaaahhhh……

a couple of curious questions now though!

do ender dragons serve any specific purpose/have connections within the ecosystem at large, or are they just kinda like… internal organs for servers as Entities?

is there any particular way that game updates manifest, or is it sort of a presumption that they were there “the whole time”? and if the former, where are the updates coming from? 👁️👁️

and last! are there any servers outside of those connected to grian‘s specific arc that you have had any interesting thoughts about? ie empires, new life, vault hunters, dsmp, origins, mianite, etc

This has been sitting in my inbox for MONTHS but i finally have some brainpower to answer it so!!! Firstly i really hope you ended up enjoying the fic if youve gotten around to reading it :]] and im really glad you like all the worldbuilding and lore!! These are such great questions so im gonna try my best to do them justice >:]]

So i only recently puzzled this out with the Ender Dragon's role in the overall universe's ecosystem, but to explain it i need to go on a bit of a tangent. So if youve been through my loredoc, then you probably already know that Players are what drive the creation of server worlds-- ive likened this before to the protective shell of an egg, surrounding a Spawned Player to shield it from the inhospitable environment of the in-between. For the purposes of this analogy, we'll say a server is like the eggshell, while the Player inside it is the chick growing within. Once a Player has developed enough, gone through the majority of their progression advancements, the universe will direct them to one last task-- kill the Ender Dragon. This is the egg-tooth, what will essentially hatch the Player so they can emerge from their shell and enter the universe at large (aka join and discover other servers, mingle with other Players, etc etc).

The way Ender Dragons function in servers is that they essentially lock travel to and from them-- while the dragon is alive, nothing comes in, and nothing comes out. Once killed, the return gateway at the center island is opened up to the overworld-- but thats not the only function it has. Return gateways can actually serve as a portal to other open servers!! Players can adjust the server address via their comm, and spawn in at a completely different location than the server they just left. This is how basic intra-server travel occurs!!

Relatedly, Hypixel is what i consider a "hub" server-- aka a large, traffic-heavy server that acts as a bridge point for Players hopping between distant worlds. The distance between two servers is a very distinct factor in how easy it is to travel between them, and after a certain point, you cant hop directly across that gap without needing to use a hub server as a bridge. Its sorta like a rest stop during long road trips, if you look at it sideways. Because of this Hypixel is very touristy in my mind and hosts a lot of constant entertainment for Players who stop there on their way to another destination!!!

(an additional fun little fact for you: when MCC isnt hosting its monthly tournament, it acts as a hub server as well!! Noxcrew are in charge of upkeeping its maintenance :] )

For servers other than those already mentioned, ive definitely had some thoughts about empires and dsmp. Most of them boil down to the fact that 90% of what Players do is basically LARP 😂😂😂 so Empires??? Entirely LARPing. These guys are living their best lives just making shit up and my gods are they having fun with it. My thoughts on DSMP are actually on a similar note, with one key difference: i think it started out as pure LARPing, and then everyone just got a little... too into it, per se. Like huge case of "got too invested and now theres actual emotional stakes here in what was supposed to be a silly play-pretend conflict" and then things just started spiraling out of control. I havent put a WHOLE ton of thought into it beyond that tho

As for updates, my thoughts are a bit complex-- for things that arent mobs (aka structures), im operating more on the basis of "theyve always been there"-- but for mobs themselves, i think the process is sorta akin to randomized and rapid evolution. New mobs arent uniformly pushed out into server worlds-- i think they just sometimes appear, and then gradually more and more Players begin to encounter them; sorta like randomized rollouts, in a way. Newer worlds are more likely to host newer mobs, while older ones may not see them soon or even at all, depending on where theyre at in their own life cycles. Smth ive also been thinking a lot about lately which i promise is vaguely related to this is that Player-kept information isnt centralized!! They dont really have the internet like we do, so any news about new mobs showing up in vanilla worlds has to be spread purely by word-of-mouth

I hope these answered your questions well!! Thank you for being so patient with me while i cooked :]]❤️

[maybe-im-dark]

🔍 X-Men Origins: Wolverine & X Men 2 - The Cold Manipulation of William Stryker 🔍

Okay, let’s talk about the absolute MASTER of manipulation in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X Men 2—William Stryker. If you thought this man was just another “mad scientist” villain, buckle up, because we’re about to dive into the layers of how twisted, manipulative, and downright delusional this guy really is.

1. The Ultimate Manipulator: Twisting Truth and Emotion

When Logan confronts Stryker about Kayla's death, we see the FULL extent of Stryker's manipulative skills. He doesn’t miss a beat—looks Logan dead in the eye and says, “I didn’t know it was Victor. I swear on my son’s life.” And for a second, you almost believe him, don’t you? Because he’s just that convincing. But let’s be real: it’s a complete LIE, and what makes it so twisted is that Stryker knows EXACTLY how to push Logan’s buttons.

The thing is, swearing on his son’s life means absolutely nothing to him. Why? Because he HATES his son. In the comics and movies, Stryker’s son is a mutant, and that’s a source of shame and rage for him. He despises mutants with every fiber of his being, even when it's his own flesh and blood. So, in that moment, when he swears on his son’s life, it’s not a gesture of sincerity—it’s an act of cruelty. He knows it’ll manipulate Logan into believing him, and that’s all that matters. Stryker doesn’t care about truth; he cares about control.

Key Point: Stryker’s willingness to use even the most personal aspects of his life as tools for manipulation shows how far he’ll go to get what he wants. He’ll twist any truth, exploit any emotion, just to keep people dancing to his tune.

2. Logan as the Ultimate Experiment

The moment where Logan gets the adamantium injection is the perfect example of how little Stryker values him as a person. When Logan’s heart and brain activity stop, there’s this brief moment where Stryker looks devastated—like he’s just lost something precious. But let’s be clear: he’s not mourning Logan’s death; he’s mourning the failure of his experiment. Stryker isn’t sad that Logan might be gone; he’s ANGRY that his weapon didn’t work. That’s what Logan has always been to him—an experiment, a tool, a weapon.

This man never cared about Logan’s humanity. He never saw him as a person with feelings, memories, or dreams. To Stryker, Logan was just another piece of the puzzle, another project to perfect. And the moment it seemed like that project had failed, Stryker wasn’t heartbroken—he was infuriated. That’s why he doesn’t even flinch when Logan starts to regain consciousness. There’s no relief, no joy, just the cold, calculating realization that his weapon might still be functional.

Key Point: Stryker’s reaction to Logan’s apparent death reveals his true feelings—Logan is nothing more than a tool, a means to an end. There’s no empathy, no connection, just cold, hard science.

3. Stryker’s Fantasy of Being a Hero

Here’s where Stryker’s delusion gets next level. He lives in this fantasy world where he genuinely believes he’s working with mutants to make the world a better place. But let’s be real—Stryker hates mutants. He despises them, fears them, and wants to control them. But instead of facing that reality, he convinces himself that he’s the “good guy,” that he’s fighting the “good fight” to protect humanity from the mutant “threat.”

It’s the ultimate form of cognitive dissonance. He’s not building weapons to protect humanity—he’s building weapons because he wants CONTROL. He wants to be the one who decides how history is written, who the heroes and villains are, and who gets to hold the power. And the most terrifying part? He actually believes his own lies. He’s convinced himself that he’s a hero, that his actions are justified, even as he tortures, manipulates, and murders.

Stryker isn’t just a villain—he’s a man who’s so deeply trapped in his own delusions that he can’t see the monster he’s become. He thinks he’s “saving the world,” but in reality, he’s only saving himself, saving his ego, and building a legacy on the bones of the people he’s destroyed.

Key Point: Stryker’s need to be seen as a hero blinds him to the reality of his actions. He isn’t fighting for a better world; he’s fighting to create a world where he’s in control, where he’s the savior, even if it means becoming the very monster he claims to be fighting.

4. The Warped Sense of Control

Stryker’s obsession with controlling the war against mutants isn’t about “protecting humanity”; it’s about rewriting history to cast himself as the hero. Every lie, every manipulation, every betrayal is just another step toward cementing his own power. He doesn’t care about right or wrong—he cares about winning. And that’s what makes him so dangerous. It’s not that he doesn’t understand that what he’s doing is wrong; it’s that he doesn’t care, as long as it means he gets to write the ending of the story.

5. “Only I Understand You, Logan” – The Offer to Join Him Again

In X2: X-Men United, Stryker tries to tempt Logan to join him once more, saying, “You were always an animal, Logan. I just gave you claws.” And there it is—the classic manipulation. He preys on Logan’s fear, his sense of not belonging, and tries to convince him that only he understands him, that only Stryker can help him find his place in a world that sees him as a monster.

But let’s be clear: if Logan had accepted Stryker’s offer, it wouldn’t have been a partnership. It would’ve been enslavement. Stryker would have used Logan’s power, his rage, his pain, and twisted it into something monstrous. He would’ve used Logan to kill his own friends, likely through mind control, and then basked in watching Logan spiral into guilt and self-hatred once he snapped out of it. Because that’s what Stryker does—he takes the broken pieces of people and molds them into weapons of his own making.

Key Point: Stryker’s offer to Logan isn’t about understanding him—it’s about owning him. It’s about taking Logan’s pain and using it as fuel to further his own twisted agenda. And the worst part? He’s so damn good at making you believe that he’s the only one who truly gets you.

When he looks at Logan, he doesn’t see a man—he sees a weapon. When he looks at mutants, he doesn’t see people—he sees threats to be eliminated or tools to be used. And that’s why he’ll never be the hero he pretends to be. Because a hero fights for people. A hero values life. And Stryker? Stryker only values power.

---

TL;DR: William Stryker is the ultimate manipulator, using lies, emotional exploitation, and self-delusion to control everyone around him. He doesn’t care about mutants; he doesn’t care about making the world a better place. All he cares about is control, power, and rewriting history to make himself the hero. He sees Logan not as a person but as a weapon, and his disappointment at Logan’s apparent death is the purest reflection of that. Stryker will always be trapped in his own fantasy, unable to see that he’s the real villain in his story.

[rallamajoop]

Did Ethan play the piano?

There are a bunch of little hints scattered through these games about Ethan's character. He seems to have a love for the retro ‒ at least, his drawer is full of jazz CDs and he drives a 1971 Dodge Challenger. As Rose notes, he's clearly a wine drinker. And he may have played he piano.

I don't want to overstate the hints RE7&8 give us on that last part. Resident Evil is, after all, a universe where apparently being able to bang out a full sonata at a moment's notice is just a basic life skill for anyone who might want to infiltrate a suspicious facility (though just jamming a few bars of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star may also do in a pinch).

There's a piano in the Winters' home, but then, maybe Mia's the one who plays, or maybe the BSAA set them up in an already-furnished house ‒ who knows? You can't actually interact with it as Ethan, nor does Rose comment on it. But Rose does wonder out loud if her Dad played any instruments (after he jokes about whether baby Rose banging her spoon to the Miss D. record suggests she's going to grow up to be a musician) ‒ and that at least primes you to notice that piano, if you hadn't already.

There are also two different pianos you can interact with in the Baker property ‒ one in the guest room, which will slam shut if Ethan reaches for the keys, and a second in Lucas' room that merely prompts the message 'it's broken'.

It's not until Dimitrescu's castle that Ethan himself finally gets to make like all those other Resi heros, and bash out a quick solo to open a mini door in the piano, in which you'll find a key that will open another door... look, you've heard this one before.

There's an argument to be had whether any of the puzzle solutions in a video game like RE should be taken as truly diegetic. But if nothing else, this does at least suggest Ethan can read sheet music. Here's the asset for the sheet, by the way (and again with the bit you actually play highlighted). You can hear someone play the full song ("Sogno" ‒ which means 'Dream' in Italian ‒ by Francesco Paolo Tosti) here.

There's even a version with lyrics, though I doubt they necessarily meant much to whoever picked this piece for the game: more likely it was chosen for being a song with a very simple treble clef (so the player doesn't have to do too much work to solve the 'puzzle') but a much more complicated bass (so it still sounds sophisticated when played). Regardless, you can hear it sung here.

There's also one other little clue that might suggest that someone in the Winters' household has some real musical leanings: one of the CDs you can find in that drawer is titled 'Jazz Standard Theory'. Which sounds a lot more like an instructional CD than easy listening (though they're certainly not winning any prizes for those other titles).

Actually, while we're talking Ethan's CD collection, here's the asset for that Miss D & the Pallboys CD too! Surprisingly, it has a back as well, suggesting that at some point you might have been able to pick it up and examine it. The text is all pretty illegible, however.

(I've talked before about the theory that 'Miss D' is actually Lady Dimitrescu, but if you want the short version ‒ given that she's not from the village and is 'descended from a fallen noble', this one's surprisingly plausible!)

Hilariously, a love for jazz might just be one thing Ethan has in common with the Bakers, given you can find some records lying around the rec room upstairs.

Mind you, even RE2R managed to work a jazz festival flyer into this one puzzle solution...

Does someone in the team at Capcom have a thing for Jazz? Evidence is starting to stack up...

But getting back to our original topic, does Ethan play the piano? You can make a case either way, as the game never tells us explicitly. But there's enough here to point that way that I'd like to think he does, anyhow.

Which only makes the implications of this so much more tragic.

[insane-control-room]

Some things are meant to be remembered; for the right reasons.

i've posted this review on steam, but i think that i want to say it here, too.

Here is my review of the 'promotional' material (according to steam) Secrets of the Machine

What I liked: the art appeared to be a true return to form; the style had its original charm with updated lighting techniques and slightly better optimization than previous games in the Bendy series. The audio design was also nice, with good ambiance and nice composition.

And now, the jank.

The game handles reasonably well; but it is clearly slapdashed together and is missing important components. There is no starting menu. There are no loading screens; and it is very jarring. There are no options in the game menu - you cannot minimize the game, you cannot brighten the game, you cannot make the game run any better on your computer, and it is incredibly laggy. If you have a potato laptop? Nah, get out. No game for you. There are no subtitles that you can enable, and voices are very muffled. Additionally, the game is very dark, and as mentioned, you cannot adjust that in the settings of the game, nor in steam settings. You have to do so from your computer.

Controls are extremely janky, as you cannot run, you cannot jump, and there is no indication for interaction with any objects. There are no control settings for remapping, and you cannot even see which keys do what.

Puzzles are boring and confusing; with no guidance. There were no hints, no rhyme or reason. There was more puzzle in the BATIM chapter 1 demo release. This thing is very confusing, especially when you cannot see anything at all. You will spend a long time walking back and forth between two rooms, wondering how you can progress, because you've done everything you could: you smashed cutouts; you hit targets; you opened and closed hands; you found posters for future games, but nothing that could move forward the one you were playing at the time. If you look at the community page, you will see that most people simply spent their time clicking on the soup can dispenser to see how many cans they could get.

If you have epilepsy, nah get out. Oh? I didn't mention the flashing lights? Well the developers did not either. Not only did they not mention the flashing lights, not in the game nor in steam, but they included TWO car crashes without warning - one audio based, and another that was directed at players. This is not only rude, but it is dangerous. Warnings exist so that people can make educated choices whether or not to interact with content that may be sensitive to them. Warn people appropriately. This 'game' did not take any measure to protect its players. There are many instances of sudden loud noises, flashing lights, and jarring location switches (not to mention the car crashes).

The story was lacking, and has nothing to do with the puzzles that a player is faced with. It feels like three disjointed tracks, and none of them align, all of them crashing together in a discordant, unsatisfying, confusing mess. It brought in more new characters that had nothing to do with the original story nor interested players, and had content that went against previously established material. It was (as you can tell, from a writer's perspective) a bad story.

It was less of a demo, less of a playable trailer, more like a tech demo with a few morsels for fans to pick apart and wish there was more of, wish there was more effort put into, wish there was more love and care for them, the players who arguably were the foundation of this game. There were teasers for games that, honestly, lacked the soul that the very first game had, and here's a point to prove it: there was an easter egg that if you clicked something 414 times (very funny.) it would rise in the air and then fall down without further ado. In the game files, the name for that sound effect? Sting. Yeah. It did. Games are a collaborative work; between the creators and the players. Blatant disregard and flippancy towards half of the collaboration is not acceptable behavior. This is a development team that mocks those who once loved them most, those who poured over their coding and carefully crafted world to marvel at what they had made, and coaxed in others with the rich promise of a delightful story that anyone could engage with on any level. The spite the creators have shown for the individuals who, essentially, had given rise to their stature in the first place, is painful.

Finally, by the time that I got a chance to sit down and actually play the game- I personally could not. The developers, by constantly updating a clearly unfinished game, had made their final update - that of a wood board blocking the actual place where gameplay takes place. You cannot go to any of the places shown in the screenshots, because the game is locked on the opening area. I've seen many people complaining of it; hoping that they can play the game.

Now, in the fashion we've seen common of JDS, they have rescinded their terrible design choice - but without notifying players that it is now possible to play the game; without telling players that this was purposeful; without telling players anything aside from a big old screw you. It is entirely possible that the only reason they put the game back into a playable state was the torrent of negative reviews that spawned after their. interesting. choice. regardless, those who care about their playerbase would have informed those who complained that it was a temporary gesture for storytelling reasons. They, however, did not, and there are a multitude of reviews marking the game as unplayable.

No matter what, the bottom line is this: This is not okay.

I'm not sure how much more eloquently I can put the fact that I'm heartbroken. This game, unlike any other, shows how much scorn that a developer can have for their own fans and playerbase. I am glad that there are people who enjoyed it, but I wonder - what did you really like about it?

Is it the memories?

[sunshine-jesse]

In defense of Andrew Graves: A character arc in one sentence

HEY! I rewrote this essay and fleshed it out a lot. I'm keeping the original here for posterity, but the new version renders this one completely obsolete. Find it here!

I've focused a lot on Ashley in my past writings. She's my favorite character in the story (and depending on how episode 3 pans out, maybe ever) and I'm pretty mortified by how some parts of the fandom have reacted towards her, so I pretty much made it my life's mission to push back against that. From highlighting the ways Andrew mistreats her, to coming up with justifications for her behavior that aren't just being a manipulative bitch, I really wanted to prove that a more favorable picture of her could be painted than most were willing to.

But in doing so, I've left Andrew in the dust.

In highlighting his flaws and the ways he mistreats Ashley, I think I've implied a level of intentionality to his actions that I don't believe he has. Most of his worst actions are spur of the moment, or caused by a fundamental conflict that exists between his desires and his idea of the way things should be. That doesn't excuse them, obviously! But they do reveal interesting things about his character and how it develops over the course of the game. He starts out as a doormat, but eventually settles on either his bitterness or a sense of calmness and acceptance, both over Ashley.

But what exactly causes this change?

There's plenty of reason to believe that he was slowly evolving before the story took place, but within the context of the work itself, I believe there are two points where he can no longer ignore the changes that have happened to this point, both of which are in the first chapter: The killing of the warden and the 302 lady. In the first case, he was forced to do it to protect Ashley in a way he hadn't done before, or depending on how you look at it, since the death of Nina. But the intentionality was the key point here. After this point, he calls Ashley Leyley, which may or may not seem important at this point, but it's something I'll draw attention to later, so keep that in mind.

Next is the killing of the 302 lady, which is the much, much bigger point. We don't learn much about it until later on- as at first he just gives an excuse about the nail gun that doesn't line up with what we see on the map- but during the dream, it's revealed it was a calculated, intentional killing that he did to make sure there was no evidence left behind, and because Ashley (supposedly) would've wanted him to do it anyway. I say supposedly because Ashley herself doesn't seem to ever want Andrew to kill for her past Nina's death, because he only ever kills for her to defend one or both of them. If you want more evidence that violence for violence's sake isn't something she wants, look at this part in the final dream:

A knife isn't what opens the door, despite it being placed on the ground in that very map. While it seems obvious that the knife (violence) would be the key to solving the puzzle, it's put there explicitly to show you that it isn't. It's not what she wants; what she wants is a flower.

So, why is this important? Why am I centering Ashley- again- when this essay is supposed to be about Andrew?

Because I think it's important to point out the discrepancy between what he thinks Ashley wants, and what she really wants. When Ashley starts to grill Andrew over the killing of the 302 lady, he gets mad. Very mad. Ashley sees it as pointless, as him covering his own ass, but he genuinely did it for her sake, because he thought that's what she wanted, and that it'd make her happy. But what makes her happy isn't violence- or any similarly extreme action for that matter- it's attention and validation. Something he's always reluctant to give her, despite the fact that he always chose her over the alternatives. But despite making that choice, it's always empty and meaningless, because in Ashley's mind, he never did it for her sake.

And hoo boy, does he not like it being framed like this.

But is she wrong, though? He WAS the one who chopped up the Warden, and he WAS the one who chose to kill the 302 lady. Violence is his job, it's all he knows. He has to do it to take care of Leyley, right? To protect her? To keep her happy? Then why doesn't he ever acknowledge it? Why does he never admit that he did it for her sake, to keep her happy?

Because he doesn't know what he sees her as.

In his unique dream sequence, he sees two versions of Ashley; the child version of her- Leyley- and the adult version of her- Ashley. And the differences in the ways he interacts with the two of them are stunning. Leyley is an obstinate, annoying child. She's the one he NEEDS to take care of, and he hates that. He hates Leyley for what she did for his childhood. He hates that he needs to provide for her. He has the option of trying to kill her, even, over something as small as a candle!

But in the room with all the murders, the gilded cage, he sees Ashley as an adult. This version of Ashley is stuck in a closet that he himself has to open- and to choose to see. Their interactions are calm and friendly. She teases him a bit, sure, but she's still helpful, and they have fun together. He doesn't need her, and she doesn't need him. He needed Leyley- needed the candle- but here, there are other limbs strewn about for him to take. And, crucially, he doesn't even have the option to kill this Ashley for one of the limbs.

And during the choking scene, he lets her go the moment she acknowledges that he doesn't need her anymore.

What he really wants is Ashley for Ashley's sake. Not for what she can provide him. He doesn't even need her for sleep, he just wants her. But Ashley has trouble acknowledging this, because he's never before shown that WANT. Only a NEED. She keeps trying to find ways to make him need her, because she's never seen what his desire for her is really like. She's only ever seen him desiring someone else, someone other than her. She's only ever seen him as Andy, because she's never truly seen Andrew, only the violence he can inflict on others. Andrew, meanwhile is arguably further along in the realization of their relationship, because he can see and acknowledge both sides of Ashley.

He can see Leyley, the needy, bratty child who always needs his attention, that he needs to provide for. The one he hates and wants to get rid of. The one he kills for to protect. And he can see Ashley, the one who engages in friendly and cute banter with him. Who comforts and shows him physical affection. The one he loves. The one he kills for to make happy.

He just can't choose which one he wants to see. Every outside influence- from his parents, to Julia, to Nina- makes him see her as Leyley. Ashley herself makes him see her as Leyley too, whenever she brings up all the things he did for her, and calls him Andy, his child self, instead of Andrew, his current self. And as long as he sees that child, he feels like one too, and can never give Ashley anything that comes from the heart.

But he really, really wants to see Ashley as an adult. He wants to take pride in her, how much she's grown, and how driven and competent she really is.

But god damn, does that bitch ever make it hard.

But in the end, it's him who has to make the choice how to see her. Ashley can only see what she's shown, but Andrew can choose.

And in the basement scene, he makes that choice.

If Ashley refuses to leave him alone with their parents, that's it. In one of the most critical and important moments of his life, she couldn't give him the space needed to make up his own mind. She couldn't treat him as an adult. She couldn't see him as Andrew. If she does give him that choice, she chooses to acknowledge that Andrew is an adult who can be trusted to make his own decisions, even though she (perhaps foolishly) believes that this choice lines up with her own interests. And frankly it does either way, but in accepting their mom's offer, her chooses to see her as Leyley once and for all. He chooses not to reciprocate what Ashley showed him. He does it because he needs to, not because he wants to. Because it's his duty, not his desire.

But if he WANTS to?

That respect becomes mutual.

In choosing to treat each other like adults, to treat their relationship as one of desire rather than need, Andy starts to die. From that point on, their relationship becomes a lot more friendly, lighthearted, and playful. They ironically start acting more like children, but to quote CS Lewis:

"Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence."

He's not ashamed of being playful with Ashley, or showing affection towards her. He's grown up. He finally sees her, and himself, as an adult- although he still doesn't show that in full until much later on (more or that later). But in Decay, he still sees her as a child, and to an extent, probably himself. Let's compare the ways in which he reacts to being called Andy. In Decay, he lashes out at Ashley and gets angry, even threatening her. But in Questionable Burial, he calmly says that Andy is dead and doesn't need Ashley's comfort, but still tries to reassure her that she's still needed. He's not ashamed of or hostile towards their prior dynamic, because he's grown past it. He still recognizes Ashley's need to feel needed, but he still RECOGNIZES it, where he was hostile towards it before.

It's a display of respect towards her feelings.

This interaction doesn't happen in the Sane ending, however. He doesn't play games with her and is just a lot less fun to be around all together. Why is that? Because he still hasn't yet shaken viewing Ashley as Leyley there. He still views her as a burden, as someone who needs taking care of. He's calmly accepted that, too, mind you, but he lacks respect for her because she's still a child, in his mind. But in Questionable?

The vision did more than just make him extremely embarrassed and lay his deepest desires bare. It forced him to recognize Ashley as an adult. When choosing between "Never" and "Never say never," if Never is chosen, the burden of thought is lifted off of him. But if Ashley chooses "Never say never!", he has to reckon with the fact that Ashley is an adult, someone who can consent to those kinds of things. Someone who MIGHT. Someone who has agency, and can make her own decisions. And more importantly… someone who can trust him to make his own.

Whether he desires sex or not is secondary; he's always had those feelings and has always been ashamed of it. But now that the part of him where that shame came from is dead and buried, there's no childish impulse to grow up. There's no attachment to the hate and bitterness he had before. Look at what he worries about when he picks up that she's uncertain or confused about who he is now:

This is the one sentence I was referring to in the title.

It's her feelings.

He wants to be fun to be around. He wants to make Ashley happy. He loves her, and not as a romantic interest or even as a sibling. He loves her independent of all that baggage.

He loves her as a person.

In learning to respect Ashley, our boy has finally grown up. But there's a certain intimacy to being hurt by someone else that Ashley isn't getting in this ending, and now she has to reckon with that. And that's really, really hard to do when you're so used to being hurt.

Especially when you're no longer around someone who wants to kill the part of you that needs nurturing the most.