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lushrue · 9 days ago

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frozen hearts pt. 9

had to inject a little bit of angst in here, it was a little too happy :) we also get to meet our villains! i'm hoping that my workload will be a bit lighter next semester so that i can update this story more consistently! thanks for hanging in there, comment if you want to be added to the taglist!

cw: shoulder injury, hospital/emergency room,

price caught his breath as he skated to the center of the face-off circle. it was the middle of the second period, his team down by 2. they were all skating their asses off, pushing themselves to the limit of what they could do. simon had never hit harder, kyle and johnny were practically blurs on the ice. nearly every pass was successful, they were staying on their feet, and they’d managed to control the puck well all period. the Shadows were tough, though.

john knew they would be. he’d been preparing for this game all season, watching and rewatching tapes to study their playbook. they had some talented men, but the real weapon was their team captain, graves. he played dirty, unafraid to take a few penalties to rattle his opponents. he was aggressive as a defenseman, willing to lay it all on the line to keep his centers and wingers moving down the ice. his stats were impressive, more game-winning goals than anyone else in the league. still, Specgru had prepared. at least, john thought they had.

he found himself face to face with graves, a wolfish grin on his face as he lowered his stick onto the ice. “wish i could say i was impressed,” graves taunted, staring price down. “don’t run a very tight ship, do you, cap’n?” john growled low in his chest. he wasn’t usually hot-headed on the ice, preferring to stay cool and let the others fight it out when it got too much. something about graves just got under his skin. the snark, the attitude, the cockiness of the young captain grated on his nerves like nails on a chalkboard. “easy to win games when your coach pays off the refs,” price grumbled in reply. the referee shot them both a warning look, hesitating with the puck held in the air.

they stared each other down, gazes hard and set. with so much on the line for both teams, it was impossible to avoid the tension building. a win for Specgru would send them shooting up the leaderboard, guaranteeing them a spot in the playoffs. for the Shadows, it would earn them the top seed in the division, a nearly impossible feat for a team only established a few years ago. finally, the puck hit the ice, and they scrambled for control.

the rubber slid into a Shadow’s waiting stick, everyone skating into Specgru territory. price cursed under his breath, barking orders across the ice to johnny and kyle. “cut ‘im off! johnny’s open!” he called to kyle, who tried and failed to make a steal. as the puck slid closer to Simon, he swung his stick out to try and catch it, but came up short. price found himself shoulder-to-shoulder with graves as they both took up position in the center of Specgru’s zone. “fuckin’ pitiful performance tonight,” graves said, giving price a shove. “pitiful. that’s a big word for you Americans, isn’t it?” price quipped back, skating forward to try and take control again.

graves followed close behind, toeing the line between permissible plays and penalties. he let his stick swing towards price’s skates, but not enough to trip. he shoved and elbowed, but not hard enough to be roughing. it was frustrating price, his temper reaching a boiling point. his heart thundered in his ears, his muscles ached from how hard he was pushing himself. he’d been on the ice for nearly three minutes of play time straight. he could hear laswell shifting lines around on the bench, trying to accommodate. she’d tried calling out to him, cursing at him to “get his ass off the ice,” but he didn’t care. not when he’d put the weight of his team’s victory on his shoulders and his alone.

he tried for another steal and failed, cursing loudly as he let the momentum carry him around the curve of the rink. he glanced up into the stands as he skated by, his eyes finding you. your brows were furrowed, a slight frown on your lips. he hated to see you like that, all nervous looking and upset. he had to win, if only to wipe that frown off your face. as much as he hated to admit it, he’d become quite attached to you. he didn’t like catching feelings. it made him vulnerable, gave him something to lose and someone to disappoint. he wouldn’t disappoint you this time, though.

in the time it took him to shift his focus from you back to the game, he’d gotten himself up against the boards. that was all the opportunity that graves needed to throw his whole weight against price, slamming him up against the plexiglass. the first thing he felt was a blinding pain in his shoulder. it shot across the top of his chest and down his arm, setting his fingers tingling. something felt wrong, but he couldn’t quite place it. not while the pain was so sharp. he yelped, hitting the ice hard as graves skated away. his heartbeat pounded in his ears, the shrill chirp of the whistle muffled by the adrenaline. curling in on himself as he slid along the wall, he fought to get to his knees. he was sure that frown on your lips would be deeper if he didn’t get up. he had to get up.

a glove wrapped around his bicep, helping to pull him to his feet. with his good hand, he reached across himself, holding his arm in place. moving it hurt. moving anything hurt. slowly, a voice permeated the ringing in his ears, breaking through the haze. “john! are you solid?” kyle called, his grip on john’s arm tightening. all he got was a groan in response, price’s chest heaving as his face scrunched up. he finally raised his head, finding you in the stands again. you were on your feet, hands over your mouth in shock. he wanted to tell you he was alright, run his fingers through your soft hair and hold your head to his chest. anything to make that frightened look in your eyes disappear.

kyle helped him over to the bench, leaving him in the hands of the athletic trainer. the countless questions faded to the background as john saw you start moving his way.

sitting in the emergency department with john had to be one of the worst things you had ever done.

you’d always hated hospitals. they smelled sterile, the sting of disinfectant harsh in your nose. it made you think of illness, death, injury. nothing good ever smelled like a hospital. the room you sat in was bright white, fluorescent lights making your eyes ache and head pound. a dislocated shoulder, that’s what the doctor had said. it certainly didn’t look right, john’s arm hanging at an awkward angle at his side. the athletic trainer hadn’t had the equipment to safely push it back into place, so off to the hospital you two had gone.

you sat in the extra chair by john’s bedside, pulling up your group chat with all of the boys. kyle had chased the both of you back to the locker room, making you promise to keep them all updated. honestly, you weren’t sure how any of them were still playing. it seemed like your messages were getting read instantly. john huffed, the sheets on the hospital bed rustling as he shifted. you were on your feet in an instant, phone discarded on the chair behind you. he held up his good hand, shaking his head. “‘m alright,” he said, tongue heavy in his mouth. they’d given him some pretty strong painkillers while he waited for a doctor to free up.

you still hovered by his side, helping him adjust the pillow under his head. pity made your eyes water as he winced. you couldn’t imagine the kind of pain he was in. “i’m sure the doctor’s coming soon,” you said, trying your best to be comforting. you weren’t always the best in a crisis, but you had held your own so far. john nodded, relaxing as much as he could on the stiff mattress. the two of you were silent for a long moment, just listening to each other breathe and relishing in the knowledge that, for now, everything was okay.

“had worse,” john said, breaking the quiet. you looked down at him, taking a seat at the edge of the hospital bed. “yeah?” you prompt, and he nods. “my first rookie game. got a bit overzealous, wanted to prove myself to the recruits in the stands. ended up in a fight with a guy twice my size and got a broken cheekbone for my troubles. not to mention the black eye and crooked nose.” you hiss, shaking your head to rid yourself of the image. your cheek pulsed with imaginary pain and your hand raised to rub it. “worst I’ve ever done is break an ankle,” you replied. john hums, shrugging his good shoulder. “still painful.” you nod, folding your hands in your lap.

your phone buzzed again on the hospital seat, reminding you of what you’d been doing before you got up. the chat was lighting up, asking for updates. you grabbed your phone and smiled down at it before raising it to show john. “the boys are worried about you.” he smiled softly in response, laying his hand on your thigh. an idea sparked in your mind, opening your camera and flipping it to selfie mode. “proof of life,” you said simply, which earned a chuckle from john. he raised his good arm with a thumbs up and you smile, snapping the photo. you lower your phone, thumbs tapping away at the keyboard.

“[image]”

“Still waiting on the doctor, but pain meds are keeping him in good spirits :)”

your phone vibrated again almost instantly, kyle sending a simple thumbs up. he’d been the most nervous of all of them, hands shaking as he passed john off to you. you weren't sure if it was anger or anxiety. maybe a bit of both. none of them seemed particularly at ease. simon was the next to reply. you read his text, an unattractive snort coming from your nose.

“tell him to bring some of those meds home for all of us to enjoy”

you shared the replies with john, reading each one out to him. his cheeks flushed with each one, the reminder of how much his boys cared for him making him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. he knew he was loved, but sometimes it took something like this to remind him just how much.

the final score was 5-3, Specgru taking the win. john’s injury had lit a fire under the whole team. they’d played like they never had before, skating harder and faster and making riskier plays. it all paid off, the team moving up multiple spots in the division ranking from this match alone. kyle hadn’t left the ice without spitting at graves’ skates, icy glares shot his way from each of the men. they all hated playing the Shadows, but now it was personal.

none of them even bothered to shower; it was a miracle they even took off their pads and gear before rushing out of the rink. simon was given the keys, simply for the fact that they wanted to get there faster. simon wasn’t known for being the safest driver, but he was more willing to run some red lights and blow some stop signs to get to his destination a minute sooner.

the drive to the hospital was silent, all three of them buzzing with tension. kyle was bouncing his leg in the passenger seat, a hand occasionally coming up to rake through his curls. he’d been there when john went down, had seen the pain in his eyes, knew how bad it was. johnny sat in the backseat, picking at the seam of his jeans. even the pop tune playing on the radio wasn’t enough to raise his spirits. simon’s knuckles were white around the steering wheel, mind fixed on getting to john as soon as possible. he’d seen john injured before, but it always felt worse when he couldn’t be there.

you nearly jumped out of your skin when johnny busted in the room, glancing up from the feed you’d been scrolling on your phone. you hadn’t expected them to be there so soon. john was laying in the hospital bed, his injured arm in a sling and eyes peacefully shut. everyone’s expressions tightened at the sight, simon moving on instinct to john’s side. kyle and johnny bore holes into you with their gaze, silently demanding an update. “he’s fine,” you said, raising your hands like you were placating an aggressive animal. “just sleeping. they gave him some pretty strong pain meds after they set his shoulder.”

everyone seemed to relax, a collective sigh easing the tension in the room. simon pulled a chair up to john’s bedside, taking his hand and stroking his thumb over his knuckles. they’d told you before that simon and john had been the original two, but you’d never really gotten to see their devotion to each other. it was heartwarming to see the usually stoic simon so warm and caring. johnny came over and gave you a hug, his chin resting on your shoulder. you didn’t hesitate to hug him back, giving him the comfort he no doubt craved. you thought you might have even felt his breath hitch in an aborted sob. “thanks for takin’ care of our cap’n,” he said softly, pulling back to press a kiss to your cheek. you feel your face heat up, a soft smile curving your lips. “anything for him,” you reply. “anything for all of you.”

the boys quickly settled in the hospital room, pulling in chairs and situating themselves with an unobstructed view of john. you smiled softly, wondering to yourself if john knew just how much he was loved. it certainly wasn’t a common thing to have your hospital room full for just a dislocated shoulder. before them, you weren’t sure that anyone besides your mother would’ve come to stand watch at your bedside.

“how was the game?” you asked, trying to break the worried silence that had fallen over the room. kyle spoke up, seemingly as desperate for a distraction as you were. “we won it,” he said simply, his eyes still trained on john. “made sure Graves spent more time in the penalty box than he did on the ice.” johnny scoffed, tapping a bruise on his cheek. “one of the Shadows got a couple hits off on me, but he got worse than he gave.” you smiled, shaking your head at johnny. with him, you didn’t doubt it. johnny was particularly ruthless in a tussle, both with his tongue and his fists.

“what is the deal with those Shadow guys?” you leaned forward on your knees, your back starting to ache from the uncomfortable chair. simon scoffed, crossing his arms over his broad chest. “bastards, tha’s wha’ they are,” he said bitterly, his jaw tight under the surgical mask he wore. johnny reached over, laying a hand on simon’s bicep to steady him. the Shadows were a sore spot for them, especially after the events of today’s game. “they’re our rivals,” Kyle explained. “but they’re a bit more than that. there’s some…bad blood there, been there a while.”

you cocked your head to the side, curiosity brimming. you’d noticed the tension before the game had even started. everyone seemed antsy on the bench; john was the most tense of all of them, but it clearly wasn’t a normal match. “got an asshole of a coach over there. shepherd,” johnny said, fire brimming in his bright blue eyes. “nasty bastard. doesn’t play fair.” “he chose graves as team cap’n ‘cause he plays dirty,” simon chimed in. “doesn’t care about hurtin’ anyone, just wants to win.”

you shook your head in disbelief, your own anger starting to build at the explanation. you’d seen what being overly competitive could do to a sport, especially to the teammates. an athlete who only wanted to win could be an asset, but it could be dangerous if it got out of hand. graves seemed to be one of those athletes where it had gone too far. “how has he not gotten penalized for it? surely this isn’t the first time he’s hurt someone else like this.” johnny shook his head, his grip on simon’s bicep tightening. “got all the refs in ‘is pocket. shepherd pays ‘em out to make sure ‘is men dinnae get a penalty.”

you knew how that felt. when you were younger, a fresh face on the competition scene, there were allegations that someone in your division was paying off judges. it was a horribly-kept secret; the skater bragged about it in the locker room and always managed to get top marks, no matter how bad their program was. still, when their family had all the money, nobody seemed to bother raising a stink. “at least you kicked their ass,” you said, trying your best to sound motivating. kyle smiled a bit, his gaze admiring. “yeah, pretty. we kicked their ass.”

after what felt like hours, the charge nurse gave john his discharge paperwork and care instructions, releasing him into the capable hands of all his partners. it took all four of them to get John to the car as high as he was. compliments were given freely and he made an attempt to get into more than one pair of pants before they’d even gotten to the parking lot. you begrudgingly split ways with them, offering assistance if they needed it before returning to your own car.

daily updates came through the group chat, selfies of the boys helping john with his daily routines and pictures of him trying to cook or write with his left hand. what was almost better were the texts from john himself. they’d been bad before, but now that he was typing with his non-dominant hand, it was downright comical. john would text an indecipherable string of letters, followed by a translation from one of the others once they’d figured out what john was trying to say. besides this, life went on as normal, except for one thing. you hadn’t had your last date.

john had planned an evening for the two of you at the apartment they all shared, complete with a homemade dinner and a rom-com. with the injury, though, you assumed it was all on hold. you’d seen through photos that he couldn’t exactly cook at the moment and you doubted that he wanted company while he was in pain. when the night of the date arrived, you settled yourself on the sofa with a glass of wine and your latest romance novel, content to ride the night out with your vibrator. you’d barely gotten cozy before your phone began to ring, buzzing insistently at your hip. glancing at the screen, you saw John’s name pop up on the caller ID.

“john? is everything alright?” you answered quickly, fearing the worst. maybe he was alone and needed help. maybe he’d reinjured his arm. “everything is most certainly not alright, dove,” he answered. you bolted up from the sofa, dashing for your nearest pair of slip-on shoes. “what’s wrong? what happened?” you ask quickly, fumbling for your car keys on the entry table. worst-case scenarios flooded through your mind, anxiety curling bitterly in your stomach. he chuckled on the other side of the phone, which stopped you in your tracks. “what’s wrong is that you’re late for our date.”

your brow furrows in confusion, pausing in your frantic rush to get out the door. the date? “but your arm-” “i couldn’t care less about my arm right now. i asked a pretty thing on a date and they’re standing me up.” your cheeks warm with embarrassment, sheepishly grabbing your purse from the hook. he didn’t sound angry, but you supposed he had every right to be. “sorry, i, uh…i thought we’d reschedule or something. but i should’ve asked. i’ll be right over.” john hummed, almost amused. “take your time, pet. we’ve got the whole night.”

without a second thought, you hung up the phone, heading out your front door. no need to keep him waiting any longer than he already had.

taglist: @cadotoast @jupiternighties @hxnneydew @kaoyamamegami @lolly145 @linaangel @bestbookfriends @callsignang3l @livingoutsidethetardis @msecho19 @aylitgirl @vvs-dlxodyd @bollzinurmouth @rafaelacallinybbay @namgification @cameron1-1-1 @kee-0-kee @klerns-birdie

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idrellegames · 7 months ago

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hi there! sorry if you've gotten a similar ask before. do you write wayfarer directly into twine or do you keep it in a separate doc? do you just have really clearly labeled sections in a word doc or something or is there a specific program you use to keep track of every story path? basically, with something as expansive and w/ as many routes as wayfarer, how do you keep all your writing organized?

I have answered this before, but I can't seem to find my posts on the subject (you may want to peruse my coding in twine tag, the masterpost has a bunch of different resources for this kind of thing!).

But in short, no, I do not write Wayfarer directly into Twine. This could functionally work for a very small game, but I would still advise against it as Twine doesn't really work as a word processor. You can't proof-read in it.

My process has three main steps:

Outlining

Writing

Coding

Compiling

Outside of my big beat chart (which spans the whole game), I break each episode down into their own outlines, and then break the routes of each episode down into their own outlines. Sometimes specific sections end up with their own outlines too. My system probably doesn't make much sense to anyone other than me, but as long as I know what the divisions are, then it's all good.

I write in MS Word. Each episode has its own folder (sometimes with subfolders) and every section of the game gets its own document.

Here's the main folders, each episode goes into its own thing.

This is an subfolder for Episode 1, specifically Route B.

Within my word documents themselves, I use a colour-coding system for separating out branches and sections. This is extremely useful for writing dialogue loops, like this:

I also add in any coding notes (variables, true/false states, stat checks) while I am writing so I know what I need to do when I sit down to code 4+ months later. I usually throw a X or XX on choices after I have written them as a note to myself that I have finished it (this is just personal shorthand - X means I've done the pass version of a check, XX means I've done the pass and fail states).

I use about 8-10 colours in my documents; I have a set of MS Word macros set up so I can easily switch between them.

I share my word documents with my editor via OneDrive, which makes it easy for her to got through and proofread.

I use MS Word because I've been using it to write since the 2000s and it's what I prefer to use. I have also been writing professionally for over a decade now, so I have systems and strategies in place that work for me that I've developed for myself over time. But if you're new to writing and you're looking for a word processor that can also help you with outlining and keeping your story straight, something like Scrivener may be helpful.

One the text is ready to be coded, it's a lot of copy/pasting from Word into Twine. When I'm coding I will typically be running multiple programs at once:

MS Word

MS Excel (for my variable sheets)

Twine

Notepad++ (which has some regularly used code stored in it; I also use it to edit CSS and Javascript, as well as any really code-heavy sections since it's easier to do that in Notepad++ than it is in the Twine editor)

Notepad (just the regular version - I use it for writing notes to myself while I'm coding)

a web browser to launch tests in as I code

Once I am done coding and I have tested things, it's time to compile. The Twine editor can only handle so many passages and text in one file (around 500-700 passages before you hit massive lag), so I break Wayfarer into multiple story files. Having multiple story files also makes it really easy for me to cross-reference events (if I need to grab a passage title to reference it later) because I don't have to look through one big file. If I know the event happens in Episode 2's first scene, then I know I need to open Chapter_2.1.

My Twine library looks like this at the moment:

I am using an old version of the editor (with an up-to-date version of SugarCube) since I didn't like the new one. I don't necessarily recommend using the Twine editor when you can easily make your game with Twee extensions in Visual Studio Code and have better support and functionality, but this is what I like and it really comes down to personal preference.

But because everything is in separate files, I have to merge them altogether. I have Tweego installed on my PC; it's run through the command prompt and outputs multiple story files into one HTML file. I've talked about this process here and here.

And that's basically it! I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all solution to keeping track of your IF. You need to figure out what works for you, based on your writing and outlining habits, how big your story is, and how much you intend to keep track of.

Hope this helps!

#wayfarer #wayfarer if #coding in twine #twine #twine game #interactive fiction #interactive novel #answered

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floatingcatacombs · 25 days ago

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UFO 50 Abducted Me For 159.2 Hours

12 Days of Aniblogging 2024, Day 4

I love video games...

UFO 50 may love video games more than me, though. It’s a preposterously ambitious compilation of fifty small-to-medium-scale games, developed and published by Mossmouth, which here refers to Spelunky creator Derek Yu and like five of his buddies.

These are retro-styled games, with three or four asterisks apiece on ‘retro’ and ‘styled’. The overall aesthetic approximates the eight-bit period, with a limited color palette and sequenced music, but things get tricky after that. There’s deliberate anachronisms everywhere, with a heavy focus on genres and mechanics popularized far after the NES era. There’s games in this collection that take elements from real-time strategy, 4X, deckbuilders, tower defense, platform fighters, and even immersive sims. The evolutionary lineage of games influencing other games is practically flipped on its head here! The Steam page for UFO 50 describes this as “a familiar 8-bit aesthetic with new ideas and modern game design”, which I think is a frankly bad way to describe the means by which these games constantly astound and surprise by playing with our expectations. It's the kind of collection where you boot up some shit titled "Waldorf's Journey" expecting a dinky little mascot platformer, and after twenty minutes of calibrating walrus trajectories you're forced to contend with the fact that Waldorf's Journey has imprinted itself into your very soul.

Only a few of the games in this collection are straightforward pastiches of popular NES genres – there’s a beat ‘em up, a space shooter, some arcadey sports titles, and a Bubble Bobble, but that’s about it. Everything else is either a novel idea or working within far more advanced genre mishmashes. The panicked unit reorganizing of Attactics, the death-based puzzle platforming of Mortol, the glorious Fire Emblem and Pogs mashup that is Lords of Diskonia - even when liberally borrowing from other games, it’s really creative stuff! I loved all the times when my initial assumptions of how the game would play ended up completely wrong. You may think Rock On! Island is a tower defense game, but there’s a secondary aspect of creating chicken-immolating factories to get more resources that practically supersedes the tower defense aspect in later levels.

Of course, these are the Spelunky guys, so procedural generation and roguelike elements feature heavily in more than a few of these games. That’s the biggest jump in plausibility – more than half of the games in this collection could hypothetically run on the NES with enough tweaks, but anything with enough randomness fundamentally could not. If you hate procgen with a burning passion then a fifth of the collection will probably be out of reach for you, but there’s plenty of bespoke design to go around as well.

UFO 50, as a collection of a defunct fictional company's game catalogue, conjures up the feeling of playing old games without the manual or a copy of Nintendo Power to help you out. For younger players it might invoke the times you tried to emulate NES games to see what all the older gamers were always going on about, devoid of the original context. There’s a real willingness on the part of UFO 50 to just drop you in and have you figure out the controls and strategy yourself. Because of this approach, the first ten minutes of any given game are often the roughest! That’s a wild trust fall on the developer's part, asking someone to stick through the period of confusion and frustration so that they can watch those emotions bloom into understanding, then competency, then joy. These “dude trust me” design moments are everywhere.

It doesn’t always work. Caramel Caramel has a straight-up backwards difficulty curve, Star Waspir has way too much going on on top of demanding shmup literacy in advance, and Porgy plus Divers are both extremely divisive for their slow and punishing starts, which definitely made me lose interest. But sometimes the difficulty and hostility actively draw you in, in a way that easier or more tutorialized games would not have. Rakshasa is a short but extremely difficult platformer inspired by Ghosts N’ Goblins that I just kept chipping away at in between trying out games. Rail Heist seems simple at first but is chock-full of emergent systems that let you truly rip the levels open if you think outside the box, something which is actively encouraged by the optional clear conditions. Onion Delivery is Crazy Taxi with tank controls and random events to make driving even more stressful. It's hell on earth and I love it for that. Mortol 2 also has very open-ended design, with each new run of 99 lives and one-hit deaths forcing you to rethink and optimize your approach until you find a way through its winding map.

The fifty games here are organized in chronological release date, with the “earlier” games being far simpler and often less polished than the later ones, even if their quality usually still shines through with gameplay. This is a bold move on Yu’s part. The first game in the collection, Barbuta, is a cryptic La Mulana-like with cheesy traps, clunky movement, and a truly painful learning curve. It is what the true game design freaks out there refer to as “kino”. I’m not on their level yet, but there is plenty in this collection for me to enjoy. Generally, I’ve found Eirik Suhrke’s contributions to be the most personally compelling to me on a gameplay level. Mooncat is an absolutely sublime platformer that forces you to relearn movement from first principles with controls that cannot possibly be described in text format. Campanella is a delightful little obstacle course of a game, and I had a fun time hunting for secrets in it. Warptank is a solid puzzle platformer, Pingolf is easily my favorite multiplayer game in the collection, and I’ve already praised Onion Delivery and Rakshasa. Surhke has a knack for fiendish little games where the difficulty comes across as more of a punchline than anything else. They’re bursting with character through the gameplay alone. I felt the drive to rise up to almost every one of his contributions, which is similar to how I feel about my favorite indie game developer, sylvie. I hereby award Eirik Surhke the UFO 50 Game Design Pervert Award. Who would’ve known that the Spelunky composer was as good of a designer as the Spelunky guy himself, if not more?

play mooncat. I am not fucking around

UFO 50 also has quite the elaborate metapuzzle, which is only really worth investigating once you’ve become familiar with the whole game library. It’s a good’n, though. The puzzle hunt unlocks a secret 51st game snuck into the collection by a disgruntled employee, chronicling the late days of the company with an atmosphere that feels hollow and downright wrong. The vibe is RPG Maker horror more than anything else, which is a cool and unexpected pull for this kind of compilation. Through Miasma Tower, the small team process that created UFO 50 is mythologized and problematized, with the fictional company UFO Soft undergoing serious financial and cultural problems, as well as implied fraud, cults, and even a missing person investigation. It was an incredible privilege for Derek Yu and company to be able to pour all of their time and skill into creating a game collection of this caliber without the pressure of money or deadlines due to the success of Spelunky, and Miasma Tower is something of a reckoning about that. Very happy it’s here.

UFO 50 isn’t for everyone. You have to be a fan of either retro games or indie games, ideally both. You have to have an open mind for getting your shit kicked in by both mechanical difficulty and initial game obtuseness. You need to be able to look past the deliberate anachronisms and learn to roll with the mechanical surprises that each game has to offer. But if you’re a weirdo like me, then maybe you’ll also sink a hell of a lot of time into superclearing more than two-thirds of the collection. If nothing else, it’s an amazing value proposition!

#12 days of anime #UFO 50

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cityof2morrow · 1 year ago

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NetworkMAT: Streets of 2morrow

Published: 7-21-2023 | Updated: 9-28-2023

SUMMARY The Network Materials (NetworkMAT) (Simmons, 2023) series includes assets for building modern road networks in Sims 2. Use these items to enhance your city’s streets, walkways, highways, skyways, bridges, and so on.

Streets of 2morrow (Simmons, 2022-2023) adds intricate, modern road networks to your game with a look inspired by SimCity: Cities of Tomorrow (EA, 2013). It includes winter-ready road replacements, 40+ road overlays, and 130+ modular floor tiles. The road defaults contain no visible grass/dirt, so they’ll work with all terrains. Road overlays come with several recolors for a variety of projects, including bike lanes and narrow roads.

DETAILS Requires ALL EPs/SPs. Blue, gold, white, and A/B tiles should be used together respectively. There are left- and top-aligned versions to maintain the hex pattern across all tiles. Some corner tile seams will be visible - this is a default game quirk - but they’re hardly noticeable when used with other tiles.

No new driveway recolors are included. To create matching driveways, combine the floor tiles with invisible driveway/extension objects such as these by RoddyAeixo (2006).

When in lot view, the neighborhood roads at the edges of the lot appear darker. This is another default quirk, but they match perfectly in hood view.

Since there are no grass/dirt medians, you’ll need to move the mailbox, trashcan, and/or phone booth at least two tiles from the front of the lot.

ITEMS Cost: §9-11 | Floors > Misc and Deco > Misc

130+ Floor Tiles (create crosswalks, gutters, divisions, zones, alt. lanes, etc.). DOWNLOAD (includes collection file) from SFS | from MEGA

Road Defaults (2-way straight, 2-way turn, 3-way stop, 4-way stop, cul-de-sac) – winter-ready, for all terrains. DOWNLOAD from SFS | from MEGA

40+ Road Overlays (2-way straight, 2-way turn, 3-way stop, 4-way stop, cul-de-sac) – winter-ready, conforms to sloped terrain. DOWNLOAD from SFS | from MEGA

CREDITS Thanks: Help with “white edges of sorrows and doom” (@catherinetcjd), @lordcrumps. Sources: Hex Pattern (Savoretti, 2019), Road Overlay (Wedingo, 2017; CuriousB, 2012), SimCity: Cities of Tomorrow (EA/Maxis, 2013), Snow (NNNNatali, 2007), Terrain Default Replacements Ver 1.0 (@peppermint-ginger, 2017), Ultimate Road Default Replacement (@tvickiesims, 2021).

#ts2cc #sims2cc #ts2downloads #co2networkmat

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uenodivision · 2 months ago

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Hypnosis Mic Shuffle Team, Vol. 4 (Cont.)

Team Iolite (Nerd Roulette)

Joey "Joker" Kurusu (Team Captain)

Kaoru "Arachne" Shinozaki

Shian "Ready or Not" Meizono

Issey "MC N1K3" Nishizawa

Fly Far (Joker Solo)

youtube

Azure Rising (Arachne Solo)

youtube

First Step Forward (Ready or Not Solo)

youtube

Rap Game (MC N1K3 Solo)

youtube

Team Neon Blue (Future Forward)

Eiji "MC Mogul" Noguchi (Team Captain)

Maki "Professor Z-3" Umemoto

Nikki "1-Up" Yoshie

Rashaad "Straight Up" Young

Future Unbound (MC Mogul Solo)

youtube

My Life (In Tokyo) (Professor Z-3 Solo)

youtube

Escape the Real (1-Up Solo)

youtube

Live Your Life (Straight Up Solo)

youtube

@kanazawa-division @edogawa-division @akihabara-division03 @aichi-division @ginza-division @suginami-division @akihabaradivision @okinawa-division

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bigbuxbolds · 6 months ago

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2024 MLB Season Charts (All Star Break)

Ever want a nice visualization of every team's current position in the standings? Ever wonder about how many notable streaks every team has so far this season? Ever think to yourself, "just how bad could the 2024 White Sox really be?"

Then these charts are for you!

In my spare time (man have I had so much spare time), I've been working on compiling every MLB team's wins and losses into individual charts, because sometimes just numbers isn't enough to really grasp how a season is going. And, as special treat inspired by the Twins' 12 game winning streak, I also highlighted every notable streak. A notable streak here is defined as a streak of 4 or more games, winning or losing. Streaks of 3 games or less will not be highlighted. Each team's longest streak will also be noted.

(Note that I'm only one guy, so there may be some mistakes. If the mistakes are large enough, I'll try to fix them.)

These charts will only be including the start of the regular season up to the All Star Break. I hope to keep them all updated as the season goes on and chart the entire season for every team, but we'll see how life goes.

For now, here are the current charts. Since there are 30 MLB teams, I've split the charts into several posts based on each division and went into detail about some trends I noticed with each team season so far.

AL Central

AL East

AL West

NL East

NL Central

NL West

And for those who want an MLB-wide summary, look no further than below the cut!

First, current best and worst teams:

This probably doesn't come as much of a surprise. The Phillies currently have the best record, being 28 games above .500. Meanwhile, the White Sox have the worst record and are 44 games below .500. Ouch.

Team with the most notable streaks:

The White Sox win this category with a whole 11 notable streaks, including the one they're on now. However, with only one of those a winning streak, they prove that the title of most streaks doesn't necessarily mean best record.

Runner-ups include the Yankees (9), Marlins (8), and the Rockies (8).

Team with the least notable streaks:

The Reds only have 3 notable streaks with just one being a losing streak. Though with that streak being an 8 game losing streak, it certainly can't be ignored.

Runner-ups: Guardians (4), Rays (4), Blue Jays (4), Cardinals (4), and Pirates (4).

Team with the most notable winning streaks:

The Yankees get this title, as 7 of their 9 notable streaks are winning ones. In fact, before the end of June, all they had were notable winning streaks. It's only in the past few weeks that they got their first notable losing streaks.

Runner-ups: Royals (5), Orioles (5), Red Sox (5), Mariners (5), Phillies (5), Braves (5), Brewers (5), Dodgers (5).

Team with most notable losing streaks:

The White Sox have a whopping 10 notable losing streaks. Of course, you've seen this chart already, so not much else to add here.

Runner-ups: Marlins (7) and Rockies (7).

Team with longest winning streak:

Now for the streak that helped inspire this whole thing. The Twins of course have the longest winning streak so far this season with 12 straight wins. Good times, good times.

Runner-ups: Guardians (9), Royals (8), and Yankees (8).

Team with longest losing streak:

Yup, you knew it, so here we are again. The White Sox had a whole 14 game losing streak this season, and it sticks out like a giant red sore thumb on their chart.

Runner-ups: Athletics (9), Marlins (9), and Reds (8).

Teams with no notable losing streaks:

We actually have three teams who currently do not have a notable losing streak. Extra points go to the Phillies and Brewers who have five notable winning streaks to the Guardians' four.

A team's chart I just had to point out:

The Mariners get an extra special shout out for having 7 notable streaks and all of them being just four games long, the minimum to be counted as a notable streak. Funny stuff.

And some last stats:

Every team has at least one notable winning streak, even the White Sox! Yay for all of us!

The average amount of notable streaks per team is 6.13 streaks.

The average amount of notable winning streaks per team is 3.2 streaks.

The average length of the longest streak per team is 6.9 games.

Join me at the end of the season when I (maybe) do the full 2024 season!

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weeb-polls-with-pip · 1 year ago

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Autistic Anime Boys Prelims - Propaganda Division - Group 4

Propaganda:

Natsuki -

"He has a flat affect, especially towards the start of the series, and a strong special interest in fishing. He does not get along with Haru and Yuki at first because he doesn't think they are taking fishing seriously, but after seeing Yuki's drive to improve and growing appreciation for his interest, he warms up to them and develops, what seems to be, the first close friendships he 's had. As the boys learn to fish, he is the source of most of the very specific fishing knowledge in the series, and after the show is finished we see that he has moved overseas to continue pursuing his special interest."

Luca -

*okay I screwed up, this submission didn't have propaganda. It WAS marked 'yes' for propaganda use though, which is where the confusion came from. At this point I'm too tired to move the bracket around though, so Luca's just gonna stay here.

Adrian -

"Not a full time boy (but a boy nonetheless, bigender icon fr) but working autism overtime."

Rui -

"aside from being an adorable piano genius with the voice of an angel? he grew up sheltered and doesn't have a lot of physical stamina but he does his best to become an idol (rescuing his own black kitten along the way) and is officially considered the most cat-like in his unit. he will eat your pudding. also he grows up! he used to be like fifteen and now he's 26?!"

Hikaru -

"He's shown to have difficulty emoting since childhood. In a particular episode, a mother comes to him to alter her child's brain and remove the parts of him that make him difficult to handle. It is heavily implied that the things she wants removed is autism and Hikaru is more upset about this than most other things in the series but seems to understand that acceptance for people like him and the kid is few and far between. He also says things that could be considered rude when it comes to situations where people ask him to alter who they are as people, such as when a friend asks him to change her sexuality so that she's straight and doesn't have to suffer heartbreak anymore."

Rei -

"AUTISTIC ICON!!!!! just like. look at him. look at that one face he makes all the time. it's hard for me to name specific examples other than the obvious fixation on shoji and like general lack of social skills because i haven't gone through the whole thing in so long but there's soooo much there. i might be talking out of my ass but it's also like? such a sensorily focused story (both the anime and manga). he could even be considered a sports anime boy if you just believed ❤️ or something ‼️"

Vayne -

"Relies on his pet cat for social cues, because the cat is better at them. The saddest, most gentle boy to ever wield a cat-sword-gauntlet. Absolutely listens to all of his friends' infodumps with infinite love and interest. Completely oblivious to how everyone in his workshop adores him by the end of the game."

Ganta -

"he has insomnia (frequently comorbid with autism). once he gains an interest in astrophotography it becomes a special interest very quickly. he's sweet and kind but also gets annoyed easily and he rides a bike and works at an arcade and wants to be a nurse and he loves his girlfriend isaki so so much"

Aoi -

"He has a very devoted special interest in the idol Takada-chan, which he frequently imagines in fights and other situations… the moment someone (Itadori) expresses equal interest in something he is passionate about, he immediately declares them besties and brothers and creates a whole elaborate shared history for them that doesn’t actually exist. He’s not really interested in connecting with people who don’t share his interests. He’s seen as somewhat strange and eccentric. Though in the present he is respected because of his strength as a sorcerer, as a child he was very isolated."

Ray -

"Due to his extremely strong memory, Ray is forced to grow up faster than his best friends and gives himself up as a lost cause in hopes of saving them. He is very sharp and smart but has massive blind spots when it comes to trusting and considering others."

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mystic-poison · 3 months ago

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✞SELFSHIPTOBER✞

Day 1: Confession

~✞~ ~✞~ ~✞~ ~✞~

Characters: Rosho, Rei, Sasara, and Poison (me)

Relationship: Poly

~✞~ ~✞~ ~✞~ ~✞~

"Is Posion joining us tonight?"

"Highly doubt it. They had some night event at work that ended at 11."

"11? The party went that long?"

"I stopped questioning it when they did."

Rosho stood in the kitchen of his apartment, cracking open a few more beers as he listened to his division mates, Sasara and Rei, talked about their friend Poison. He had almost forgotten they had a night event at work tonight. There's been so many back to back, the nights just started to blend in with each other. He couldn't see how they did it; dealing with loud and sometimes downright rude guest all day, than hosting a party til midnight, standing for hours on their feet, just to do it all over again the next day. No wonder their caffeine intact is so bad.

"You think we should of picked them up from work?" Rosho grabbed the cans of beer for the three of them and walked back to the living room. "It's kinda late to be driving around"

"I tried offering a ride. They declined all five times. Something about needing to pick up mail from their grandma's house" Rei shrugged, grabbing a beer from Rosho.

Rosho raised a brow. "Mail? At 11pm?"

Rei just shrugged again.

"Sounds like Poison activities. I bet it's another plushie" Sasara chuckled.

"Still. That seems a bit late to be picking up mail. Even if it is a plushie" Rosho knew how much Poison loved plsuhies. That was a known fact. But he also knew they wouldn't risk waking up their grandma just to get a package.

Rosho sighed and decided not to think about it. As long as Poison got home safe, he didn't seem to mind the fact they weren't having drinks and game night with them. Once a month the 4 of them would gather at Rosho's apartment and play board games and have a few drinks. It was Poison's idea after all. It was a fun little activity they all did together. It kept their minds off their own jobs and stressful lives. It always lead with Sasara, Rei and Chibi crashing on Rosho's floor but it was part of the fun. He didn't seem to mind. It's was a good way to spend a Saturday night than drinking alone.

It was almost midnight when the men's game of BlackJack came to pause. A knock on the door snapped them out their slightly tispy state.

"It's 11:30pm, who could be at my door this late?" Rosho stood to his feet, his body feeling light but heavy all at the same time. He got his thoughts together before walking to his door and cracking it open slightly to see who it was, only to open the door wider when he realized it was Posion. "Oh, it's you Poison. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be home?"

Posion stood at the door, their same tired look painted on their face. A can of Monster in their left hand and three gift bags in the other, all different colors; black, green and purple.

"I was... but you know. I was in the area and just want to stop by and say hi" Poison smiled awkwardly, their fingertips tapping on the side of the can.

"Oh. I see, well you can come in. Rei and Sasara are still he-"

"No!"

Rosho raised a brow again. He seemed to sober up a bit seeing how jumpy and awkward Posion was being. It wasn't the caffeine, that was for sure.

"No?" The purple haired teacher stood up straight. "Are you alright? How many cans of Monster have you had today?"

"Not important." That meant Posion had more than 2. How they were still standing was beyond him.

"So.. if you don't wanna come in and say hi, why are you here?" Rosho asked. He took the can of Monster away, setting it on the small table near his door where his keys were.

"Uhm..."

Poison stood there, chewing on the bottom of their lip. Their foot tapped against the ground as their grip on the handles of the gift bags tighten. They could feel their heart beat in their chest, not only from the caffeine but also from the nerves they were feeling.

'Was this a good idea? Should I wait? Maybe I should of just mailed it to them. What if they did this is silly? What if they think it's stupid? What if they don't think the same!?' Their thoughts were all over the place. They were so intune with their thoughts, Posion didn't even notice that Rei and Sasara had joined Rosho at the door.

"Hello? Earth to Poison" Sasara gently tapped Poison in the head with his fan, snapped them back into reality. "There you are. So what's up? You're standing their like a deer in headlights"

"Was the event that bad?" Rei asked with a smirk.

Poison frozen again for a split second, seeing all three of them stand in front of them. They took a deep breath before shoving the gift bags into the men's hands.

"Here! Don't open til you get inside! Bye!"

"Wait, Poison!"

Poison had ran off before Rosho could stop them. The men watched their caffeine addict friend run all the way back to their car and quickly drive away.

The three men all looked at each other before back at the bags they were given that was color correlated to their hair. Rei couldn't help with smirk and chuckled before walking back inside.

"You heard them, let's open these things. It's heavy, it has to be good" Rei said.

"What was that all about?" Rosho asked as he closed his door.

"Maybe the caffeine and lack of sleep finally caught up to them." Sasara joked.

Rosho rolled his eyes. He definitely knew it wasn't the caffiene. At least not fully.

Sasara and Rosho joined Rei back in the living room and sat down at the table. They pushed cards off to the side before placing their bags on the table. They stared at them for a while, wondering what was in them that made Poison so nervous.

"Well, these aren't going to open themsevles!" Sasara smiled as he opened his bag and gasped. Inside was treats piled up to the top. From his favorite chips to the specific gum he liked to chew. "Look at all this!"

Rosho and Rei looked into Sasara's bag and saw all the goodies inside. They shrugged before opening their bags as well, seeing similar items.

"This is a lot of snacks and sweets. Do they expect us to eat all of this?" Rosho asked. He was grateful for the gift, but even he knew this would take him months to finish.

"There's more." Rei took out gift cards to his favorite restaurants and a can of small bottle of his favorite whiskey. "Christmas is months away and it feels like a miracle"

Sasara dug deeper into his bag "Hey! I got a new notebook to write all my jokes down. And a new pen. This brand is expensive.. how much did they pay for all this?"

Rosho took out a box that held a pair of headphones. "These are almost $50 headphones. What in the world.."

The three were extremely grateful for what Poison got for them but they were confused on why. Poison always gave them little gifts but this was, alot.

They soon got to the bottom of the bag. Their eyebrows all raised as they took out a small envelope and a plushie of them. It was clear it was hand-made by the weird stitching and their button eyes being slightly off.

"Aww, these are cute!" Sasara smiled.

"In a creepy way, yes." Rei added. "Mines have two different size eyes"

Rosho looked at the plush doll of him. He looked at the fake glasses it wore and how they had to be stitched to the face for them to stay up. He picked uo the envelope and opened it. He read it, his eyes widening before he burst into laughter.

"Huh? What's so funny?" Sasara asked.

Rei and Sasara watch Rosho laugh as he clenched the folded paper in his hand. They shared a look before opening their respective letters. The two snickered before bursting into laughter as well.

All three letters read;

'I like you! Like, really like you! I'm not good with words but I like you like how you like each other! I want to be apart of whatever you three have going on!

Please and thank you,

- Poison'

The three couldn't stop laughing. They knew Poison was being 100% serious. But they way they wrote the letter was hysterical to them. They could tell Poison wrote this using different color markers and pens. Little hearts scattered the page alongside stickers that match their personality quite well.

"They're an idiot." Rei sighed.

"But we love them either way" Sasara leaned his head against his plushies head.

Rosho sighed, calming down from laughing so much. He looked at the note, the bag of goodies and the plushie before smiling. The three took out their phones and messages Poison, they'll them they liked them too. They waited for a reply, seeing that Poison read the messages and quickly went back offline. They could imagine Poison's cute face as they probably cried and hid under their blanket from embarrassment.

~✞~ ~✞~ ~✞~ ~✞~

Selfshiptober promotes creator

Day 1 completed! This was exactly really fun to do and I can't wait to do more. This will almost be posted on my @twisted-mind-fuck blog

- Poison ✞

#selfship imagines #imagine f/o #imagine your f/o #self shipping community #self insert community #self ship #yumeship #selfshiptober #selfshiptober 2024 #rei amayado #rosho tsutsujimori #sasara nurude #hypmic rosho #hypmic sasara #hypmic rei #hypnosis mic #poison makes #poc writer

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adobe-outdesign · 2 years ago

Note

May I request a Xerneas/Yveltal review ? Those two are among my favourite "game mascot" legendaries (too bad that X and Y weren't really interested in building a plot that would have done them justice)... Alternatively, I was thinking about the Talonflame line. (I've also been in quite a Spheal mood as of late, yet I couldn't find a review of the line on your blog, which feels a little odd, I must say...)

Xerneas is pretty neat looking, and my personal preference between these two. Conceptually, it represents life itself—kind of an abstract theme, but they did a good job getting the point across. It also arguably takes some influence from the deer that fed on Yggdrasil, what with it up and turning into a tree now and again (with the antlers becoming branches, which is a nice touch).

I like how it's kind of a deer, but also has a lot of uncharacteristic elements, like a canine-ish tail, pointed feet that remind me of Arceus a bit, and antlers that bleed right into the head without a clear division between the two. It gives it a very powerful, somewhat unearthly look that's befitting of a creature representing life itself.

Visually, the multi-colored antlers are the focus point of the design and stand out nicely. The light yellow accents on the body also create a sense of upward flow that's also reflected in its blue collar, antler shape, and tail. While the antlers are somewhat complicated, they're not hard to read; beyond that, the design is pleasantly simple and clean.

My only nitpick is that it has these random colored speckles on its back that don't add anything and kind of take away from the antlers. They're not even present in its neutral mode either, making them feel all the more like an afterthought.

Speaking of which, it also has a neutral mode. I like it when legendaries don't have a bunch of different forms, so it's nice that it's the exact same design, just with slightly simplified antlers and a different accent color. The active form looks better—the yellow compliments the blue much better than this more monotone look does—but it does get across a "inactive" feeling well enough.

There's also Yveltal, which integrates its letter considerably better than Xerneas does. The tail-hand thing it has is pretty cool, and the intense red-and-black color scheme certainly makes it look ominous and like a creature that Literally Kills Everything when it dies.

My only issue with its design, and the reason I like Xerneas a bit more, is that it feels a bit too busy and visually messy—it takes a while to figure out what's actually going on with it. This is because its vein-like markings don't really break the body apart, and actually make the design more busy instead.

This is especially apparent in the head, as while the chest line suggests it should go straight up under the chin, it suddenly reappears past the mane in a different spot, and then gets lost among four (4) pairs of black horns. It's not too bad, especially when it's posed more like the above screenshot, but it does cause the details to get a bit lost. Other than that, however, it's pretty solid.

(Actually, come to think of it, Yveltal looks better in like literally any other pose that isn't the one in the official art. I think it's both of a combo of it looking more bird-like and its head reading clearer when it's not right against the wings).

Anyway, overall, these two are good legendaries—they're not too overly complex in concept, they don't have 200 forms, they're not overworked and overly busy, etc. They're just powerful, cool looking creatures that convey their themes nicely.

#you guys can send in requests for talonflame or spheal but I'm not doing them all in one ask this is long enough as is #xerneas #yveltal #pokemon #pokemon reviews

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hollowtones · 2 years ago

Note

what were your thoughts on Age of Calamity? I saw a bunch of ppl hating on it recently and it was weird bc i had found myself REALLY liking it and felt as if the general consensus was that it was a fun game

I don't tend to put much stock into "a bunch of people are all suddenly saying they like / dislike some piece of media". I think it's fair to assume people are going to have diverse opinions on anything at any given time forever, and sometimes people's thoughts change over time, and sometimes people feel like talking about it & sometimes they don't.

Anyways, I liked it. I think Musou games are inherently kinda divisive. You either like the gameplay formula or you straight up hate it. I'm the Musou Enjoyer, & I think it's one of the stronger entries in the franchise. Do I like it better than the original "Hyrule Warriors"? Hard to say! That's some really damn big shoes to fill. "Hyrule Warriors" was fuckin phenomenal. One of the peaks of the series, IMO (up there with "Samurai Warriors 4-II" and "One Piece Pirate Warriors 3"). "Age of Calamity" is definitely close, though. Real fun spins on the formula. Lotsa fun and diverse movesets for the characters, which is one of the things you hope for in these games. Frankly they coulda met just that bar and it would've been at least okay in my book. Surprisingly big roster!! I never checked out the DLC stuff but I'm glad Purah and Robbie got to be playable characters. Their designs in this were real fun.

I don't really go into a Musou game expecting much out of the story, especially if it's a licensed spin-off thing. I thought its writing was fine, though. It was a cute "what if" scenario, and I liked that characters from "Breath of the Wild" got more of a spotlight, had more room to breathe, got to be characters. I thought their writing & interactions were fun. It's the sorta thing I wish we got more of in "Breath of the Wild", though IDK how that could have fit into the original game without it being a different game entirely. I felt pretty "whatever" about the original characters, but that's how I felt about the original "Hyrule Warriors" too, haha. (I did like Li'l Baby Eggs, though.)

The overall plot was... fine. You go into it expecting "well this is just a retelling of the past, we know how this ends", and then they do their fun twist, and everything after that is Fine. It's Okay. The thing that really gets me into the writing of a Zelda game is the atmosphere of the world, and that's not something you're going to get out of the "beat up 30000 bokoblins with your friends" game. And, again, I don't expect anything writing-wise in a Musou game to wow me, considering how it's usually "here's broad strokes about the setting this is based on, now here's justification for you to get into fights". I thought it was fine, and it didn't detract from the bits I really liked (the character interactions & the mechanics).

There's a buncha stuff I never ended up unlocking or finishing in the game. (I finished the big main storyline, but that tends to be, like... a quarter of what these games have to offer. I'm pulling that number out of my ass, haha.) I'll go back to it some day. IDK if I'd want to stream it again, but it might be fun to slot in at some point when Puzz and I hit up the other Zelda games.

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sirfrogsworth · 2 years ago

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The number of items you qualify for determines which circle of Hell you will end up in.

Here is a handy guide to see who you will be partying with in The Inferno.

First Circle: Limbo or "Heaven Lite."

Were you a decent person but forgot to get baptized? Welcome to Meh-ven. Not quite as good as Heaven, but you still get to live in a neat castle.

Second Circle: Lust or "Too horny for Heaven."

This circle is for those who banged their way through life. You are punished by being blown violently back and forth by strong winds, preventing you from finding peace and rest.

So, basically Chicago.

Third Circle: Gluttony or "You should have ordered a salad instead of that Bloomin' Onion."

I'm pretty sure this is the fat shaming Hell. You are overseen by a giant worm monster named Cerberus and placed into a large slushie machine. You must lie in frozen slush for eternity thinking about all of those hot dog eating contests you won.

Fourth Circle: Greed or "What? I gave $20 to the Red Cross every year!"

You are overseen by Pluto, the dog of Mickey Mouse. Or maybe the demoted dwarf planet. I honestly did not do enough research to be sure. Circle 4 is divided into people who spent too much and people who hoarded too much. They must push giant boulders at each other in a game of eternal rock jousting.

Fifth Circle: Anger or...

The angry must join a fight club and brawl each other atop the River Styx.

The grumpy must gurgle beneath the pugilists--submerged forever in that same river.

Sixth Circle: Heresy or "Ya know, I'm pretty sure the Earth revolves around the Sun. Hey, why is this priest placing me in shackles? It's just science, bro!"

Did you go against the Church? Well, for that they just straight up set you on fire. Not the most creative damnation, but I'm sure all of the flaming souls look neat from a spectator's point of view.

Seventh Circle: Violence or "Apparently, these things are all the same amount of bad... murder, suicide, and booty sex."

This circle is divided into three other circles. Which means there are 12 total circles. Which is confusing, but whatever.

In sub-circle 7a, you have the murderers. They are submerged in a river of blood that is also on fire.

Is blood flammable? Did Dante even try to set blood on fire before writing this? I'm thinking, no. YOU ARE TESTING MY SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF, DANTE.

In sub-circle 7b, you have people who have taken their own life. These folks are turned into shrubbery. Once in your final shrub form, this handsome harpy gal slowly eats you for eternity.

In sub-circle 7c, you have all of the anal fornicators. If you ever stuck it in a butt or had it stuck in your butt, you get to spend your afterlife in a desert of burning sand. And it is raining. So it is one of those rare rainy deserts I guess. Oh, but the rain is on fire.

WHY ARE SO MANY NON-FLAMMABLE THINGS ON FIRE, DANTE?

Eighth Circle: Fraud or "Is fraud really worse than murder?"

I'm going to be straight with you.

The eighth circle is a hot mess.

I'm pretty sure Dante was getting tired of creating new circles for every bad person, so he made a catchall for the villains that didn't quite fit into the previous circles and sub-circles. Instead of creating 10 sub-circles for the 8th circle, he decided to just throw everyone into their own hell ditch. These ditches are called Bolgias.

And now a Top Ten List from the home office in Wahoo, Nebraska.

Top ten types of people stuck in an eternal Bolgia ditch in the 8th circle of hell.

10. Falsifiers such as counterfeiters and wellness gurus. 9. Divisive individuals such as Fox News pundits and Chris Pratt. 8. Advisors such as self help authors and life coaches. 7. Thieves such as whoever created overdraft fees. 6. Hypocrites such as rich Pro-Lifers who have paid for several abortions for their mistresses. 5. Corrupt politicians such as (the list exceeded this post's maximum word count). 4. Wizards!

3. People who purchase pardons like pretty much anyone associated with Donald Trump. 2. Flatterers such as pick up artists and old ladies who tell me I am handsome in the grocery store. 1. Seducers such as people who have cake and want sex and are like, "Would you like some tasty cake in exchange for sex?"

Look, seduction is in the eye of the beholder and all I'm saying is cake would probably work on me.

Circle Nine: Treachery or "You were my brother, Anakin! I loved you!"

Okay, so the 9th circle has 4 rounds.

Which sound an awful lot like circles.

Which brings us to 16 circles in the 9 circles of Hell.

I'm wondering if Dante named the book before he wrote it and everything was done with permanent ink so he couldn't change it.

The 9th circle has 4 frozen circles rounds, each dedicated to notorious traitors. Like a tribute to their epic level of sinfulness.

First up you have the Cain round. He was the first person to ever have a little brother and no one told him you can't just kill the little shit. People in the Cain round are encased up to the base of the neck, so they can still look around and stuff.

The second round is dedicated to Antenor. He was a Trojan. In reality, he negotiated peace with the Greeks. In myth, he opened the city gates and let the Greeks in so they could murder everyone. He was spared because he painted his house with panther blood.

"Panther Blood... 60% of the time it works *every* time." --Antenor

People here are encased to the top of the neck, so they are looking one direction forever.

Coming in round three we have Ptolemy. He didn't care much for his father-in-law, Simon Maccabaeus. So he invited Simon and his sons to a fancy banquet and Red Wedding'd the shit out of them. Ptolemy rounders are encased face-up in the ice just below eye level. That way, whenever they cry for being damned, their tears will freeze over. Over time those frozen tears create an ice visor that takes away the ability to weep ever again. And I'm guessing everything is real blurry too.

Round four is dedicated to the most infamous betrayer of all time. That's right, my favorite character in JC Superstar... Judas Iscariot.

youtube

Judas rounders are completely encased in ice. Permanently frozen and immobile with their bodies in every conceivable distorted and twisted position. Chances are, they have too much Heaven on their minds.

And in the very center of the nine-ish 16 circles of Hell, you have Satan himself. The fallen angel, Lucifer.

The story, as I like to imagine it, goes like this...

Lucifer was shooting the shit with the other angels and was all, "I could probably take God, right? He's not so tough."

And since a utopian existence is actually pretty boring and without drama, the other angels responded, "Absolutely! You've been working out and look totally jacked. You got this, dude." All while trying to hold in their laughter.

ANGEL PRANKS!

Lucifer then challenges God and gets instantly Thanos snap'd into a frozen lake. Lucifer sulks for all eternity wondering why those other angels told him he could whip God's metaphorical noncorporeal ass.

Satan is depicted as a hideous three-headed beast frozen up to his waist. He has six bat-like wings that flap and create a chilling breeze that keeps the ice frozen. Literally a hell of his own making. In each of Lucifer's mouths is a famous traitor being forever gnawed. History's most famous collective stabbers, Brutus and Cassius are being chewed in the left and right heads. And Judas is stuck in the viscous center maw while getting the world's worst backscratch from Satan's claws.

But wait, it gets racist!

Each devil head is a different color... Red for Europeans. Yellow for Asians. And black for Africans.

Dante, you little shit.

Alright folks, it is time to add up your totals. Which circle or sub-circle of Hell are you going to party in for eternity?

I'll do mine.

I am slightly homo for Chris Evans when he uses his biceps to curl a helicopter. I want him to hug me because I think he probably smells nice.

I do consider myself a feminist because I watched too many woke Disney films and I was indoctrinated by public schools.

I once ran out of RAM because I had too many tabs open in Chrome. I'm not sure if that qualifies me as a "porn freak" but I'm going to count it.

I smoked pot twice. The first time it made me feel like my head was full of bees and then I passed out for 12 hours. The second time I only inhaled once... and my head filled with bees and I passed out for 12 hours. Counting it.

When I was 18 my church's youth counselor matter-of-factly stated that my best friend was going to Hell. I thought, "That's silly, he's just a theater nerd who wore a floofy shirt and a Phantom of the Opera cape to school on multiple occasions. He's harmless and religion is dumb." So a big check for atheist.

I idolize my bestie Katrina because she is very good a puns. Is that worthy of idolization? Probably not. But I stand by it regardless.

And as far as masturbation goes... again, I ran out of RAM for having too many tabs open in Chrome.

I think I qualify for the seventh circle of Hell. I think I am going to engage in some mild thuggery so I can hang out in 7b as a nice shrub getting eaten by a harpy.

I realize there are only 12 options and 16 possible circles. So I have decided you may use a yoga pants multiplier.

1x if they are too tight but you went through tremendous effort to put them on so you are just going with it. 1x if they were acquired from an MLM mom on Facebook. 1x if they make that booty pop. 1x if they contain a pattern with as many non-complimentary colors as possible.

Welp. I put way too much effort into this.

I guess I'll see you all in Hell!

#long post

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drunkenskunk · 7 months ago

Text

Meanwhile, in the Tuera Dossier...

I'm satisfied with the next file I want to put in the Tuera Dossier. I was initially going to redact it, dirty up the images, make them all look like they were scanned by an ancient government photocopier built in the 70's... and maybe I will later.

But for the moment, enjoy these scans of printed pages that I'm going to put in a physical folder lmao

Transcript (of the transcript) below the break.

RADIO TRANSMISSIONS AND INTERCOM

Compiled chat log from OpCent Black Box

DICE01: Special Agent White, Operation Command DICE02: Special Agent Huntington, Operation Vice Command Obelisk: Technical Specialist Kirk, Mission Control Wolf: Infantry elements Rhino: Armored vehicle element Vulture04: Helo Air Weapons Team

DICE02: Look, I know what you're trying to do. Just tell me honestly, alright? Is the intel on this op good?

DICE01: The intel is good.

DICE02: ...are we sure? The last thing any of us wants is a repeat of last time.

DICE01: Last time our division wasn't involved. That shitshow was entirely the fault of those mentals in the Arcane Division. They thought they could overpower her in a straight fight, and they paid the price for it. We've been tracking her signature for the last six subjective months. Based on her movements so far, this is the most likely location where she's going to strike next. And besides, thanks to those idiots and their fuck up, we now know how to nullify her energy projection.

DICE02: I hope you're right.

Obelisk: Agents! I've just received the signal from the ground teams. They're entering the area of operations and are almost ready to begin.

DICE01: Excellent. Patch us in. Game faces, people. It's time to go to work.

[click]

Obelisk: Ground team leader, this is Obelisk. How copy? Over.

Wolf 6: Obelisk, this is Wolf Six Actual. Solid copy. Company has reached the AO. Standing by. Over.

Obelisk: Sat-Recon Overseer is currently tracking vitals and positions of the ground team. Requesting verbal confirmation. Over.

Wolf 6: Copy that. All callsigns, sound off!

Wolf 1: Six, this is one-zero. Standing by.

Wolf 2: Six Actual, Two-zero. Standing by.

Wolf 3: Three-zero here. Ready to rock.

Wolf 4: Six, this is four-zero. In position and sanding by.

Rhino: Six Actual, Rhino. Foxtrot-victor-four-two-zero-one in position. Sixty four – that is six-four – HEAT rounds readied for the hundred and twenty milimeter.

Vulture04: Vulture is on station above the AO and standing by. Adhesive cannon loaded and ready to provide air cover.

Wolf 6: Wolf Six copies all. Obelisk, all callsigns ready and in position. Over.

Obelisk: Roger that. Commence operation. Secure the exterior of the target building and set up roadblock checkpoints to prevent civilian interference. Out.

Wolf 6: Alright you apes, you heard 'em! Fan out and secure the area! MOVE!

[click]

DICE01: And now, we wait.

DICE02: Did they really need to bring all that hardware? I mean, if we really can nullify her powers, it just... seems like it might be overkill.

DICE01: Overkill is underrated. Besides, you know what mercs are like. They're probably just looking to bump up their operational costs, so they can bill us more after all is said and done.

DICE02: Don't they prefer the term “private military contractors,” or something?

DICE01: Only when trying to avoid international regulations.

[click]

Wolf 3: Obelisk, this is Wolf three-zero. How copy? Over.

Obelisk: Wolf three-zero, your signal is weak. Try switching to the backup channel, try again.

Wolf 3: Obelisk, this is Wolf three-zero. How you read me now?

Obelisk: Obelisk has you loud and clear, three-zero. Send your traffic.

Wolf 3: Obelisk, we are currently setting up roadblock checkpoints, but some of the civvies are getting nosy. We have three – that's zero-three – foot-mobiles approaching from a charlie victor. Interrogative: do we have permission to engage? Over.

Obelisk: Negative, three-zero. Lethal force is only authorized as a last resort. Maintain an aggressive posture, but only engage if they attempt to cross your perimeter. We'll be tracking with Overseer.

Wolf 3: Copy that, Obelisk. These guys are – whoa! HEY!

[muffled gunfire]

DICE02: What the hell?

Obelisk: Wolf three-zero, do you read? Gimmie a SITREP. Over.

[muffled gunfire]

Obelisk: Wolf three-zero, respond! What the fuck is going on?

Wolf 3: Obelisk, we're... uh... we're status green over here. Three tangos down. One of them went for a concealed sidearm. Had to grease 'em. Over.

Obelisk: ...solid copy, Wolf three-zero. Recommit to the mission. Overseer indicates you have less than five mikes before target is in the AO. How copy? Over.

Wolf 3: Three-zero copies. We're oscar-mike. Out.

[click]

DICE02: Where in the hell did you find these clowns?

DICE01: Hey, don't blame me. Impact Security Solutions came highly recommended. It'll be messy, sure, but if they're even half as good as I've been told, they'll get the job done.

DICE02: Bullshit. Why are we even relying on these fucking mercs anyway? We should be using our own forces for an operation like this.

DICE01: You know damn well why we can't. Protocol demands the use of locals in operations wherever possible, to minimize an excessive dimensional footprint and to prevent further timeline contamination. You don't like it? Take it up with The Director.

DICE02: …hmph.

DICE01: Yeah, that's what I thought.

DICE02: Don't give me that.

DICE01: Hey, look on the bright side. This'll all be over soon.

[beep-beep]

Obelisk: Agents, it looks like Overseer is reporting a large energy spike in the AO.

DICE01: … wait, is that-

DICE02: She's early.

DICE01: Fuck.

[click]

Wolf 6: Obelisk, this is Wolf Six Actual. How copy? Over.

Obelisk: Wolf Six, Obelisk reads you. Go ahead.

Wolf 6: Obelisk, my teams are all reporting in. Perimeter of the AO is secure, ahead of schedule. Break. However, I've got marksman units with eyes on the target building. There's some kind of, uh... disturbance on the top floor. I can see it, too. Interrogative: is this what we're waiting for? Over.

Obelisk: Wolf Six, Obelisk. Can you describe the disturbance? We need confirmation before we can proceed. Over.

Wolf 6: Roger that, Obelisk. Uh... looks like some flashing lights, and fast moving shadows. Definitely signs of a struggle. And, uh... hang on... is that... oh yeah, that's definitely some blood on the window. Looks like someone is gettin' carved up real bad in there.

Obelisk: Wolf Six, affirmative. Overseer confirms: target is now in the AO. Say again: target is now in the AO. Stay frosty, and do NOT underestimate her, under ANY circumstances. Over.

Wolf 6: Copy that, Obelisk. Wolf Six Actual out. Ramirez! Get those heavy floods in position!

[click]

Obelisk: Obelisk to Vulture. What's your status? Over.

Vulture04: This is Vulture. Currently maintaining position above the AO. Ready for tasking.

Obelisk: Vulture, the target is now confirmed in the AO. Soon as she's in sight, you are cleared to engage with the adhesive cannon. Be advised: the target's hands must be immobilized before she can be subdued and brought in. Do not hesitate to fire, I say again, do NOT hesitate to fire. Do you copy? Over.

Vulture04: Copy that, Obelisk. We'll make sure the bitch stays put. Vulture out.

[click]

DICE02: Can we increase the gain on the image from Overseer?

Obelisk: What? Why?

DICE01: Just be patient.

DICE02: You be patient. We can see that she's in the building, but we can't tell exactly where yet. For all we know, she could-

[click]

Wolf 1: Sir! Got a return on the motion tracker! Looks like our Tango is approaching the entrance!

Wolf 6: Roger that. All squads, eyes front! Ramirez, hit the floods!

[clunk]

Wolf 6: Obelisk, Wolf Six Actual. Engagement imminent. Over.

Obelisk: Copy that, Wolf Six. Stay frosty.

DICE01: Here we go.

Wolf 1: Contact front!

Wolf 6: Light her up!

Vulture04: Target in sight. Shot.

[thud]

Vulture04: Good hit. Reloading.

Wolf 6: Vulture, repeat! She's still up!

Vulture04: Roger. Firing.

[thud]

Vulture04: It's shot.

Wolf 6: Repeat! Hit her again!

Vulture04: This should stop her.

[thud]

Vulture04: Reloading.

Wolf 6: Okay, okay, I think that last one got her. Good hits on all. Obelisk, Target is immobilized. Moving in to subdue. Over.

Obelisk: Roger that. Bring her in. Out

Wolf 6: Wolf Two! Move up, on me! Ramirez, get those restraints ready!

[click]

DICE01: There, you see? You were worried for nothing.

DICE02: Hmph.

[click]

Wolf6: Alright, make it easy on yourself and stop your struggling. You come quietly, and we won't have to hurt you.

[???]: I'm sorry, I think you're confused. What do you think is happening?

Wolf 6: Give up the act. That adhesive you're stuck in has already hardened. You won't be able to pull your hands free, so we know you can't do any of that mystical hocus-pocus shit. So like I said: stop struggling and cooperate.

[???]: Oh, I see. You think I need to snap my fingers to cast my spells, don't you?

Wolf 6: What ar-

[intense feedback]

Wolf 2: WHAT THE FUCK!

Wolf 1: HOLY SHIT! OPEN FIRE!

[gunfire]

DICE01: What the fuck?

DICE02: Oh no. No no no no!

[indistinct shouting]

[gunfire]

Rhino: Engaging!

[thud]

[muffled explosion]

[gunfire, indistinct shouting]

DICE02: SITREP! Now!

[feedback]

Rhino: Traverse right! Fire!

[thud]

[muffled explosion]

Rhino: Reverse! Back us up now!

[gunfire]

Obelisk: Wolf Six Actual, this is Obelisk. Do you read?

[gunfire, indistinct shouting]

Wolf 1: Fall back! Fall back now!

Obelisk: Wolf Six Actual, respond!

Wolf 1: Obelisk, this is –

[feedback]

Wolf 1: FUCK! Wolf Six is KIA! Say again, Wolf Six is... he... he just exploded, man!

Wolf 4: Contact left! Contact left!

[gunfire]

[click]

Vulture04: Obelisk, this is Vulture. Uh... things are, uh, looking kinda' bad down there. We cleared for the heavier ordnance?

DICE02: Get them out of there! Get them out NOW!

Obelisk: Negative, Vulture. Mission is a failure. Exfil is now your top priority.

Vulture04: Roger that, Obelisk. Exiting the – wait. What is -

[feedback]

[stall warning]

Vulture04: Obelisk, I've got a problem. She hit us with... some... kind of... uh, I dunno what, my controls are unresponsive.

[altitude warning]

Vulture04: Mayday, mayday, mayday. We're going dow-

[static]

[muffled explosion]

Wolf 2: Fuck! Look out!

[feedback]

[gunfire]

Wolf 4: Fuck sake! Fall back! Jackson, rocket launcher!

[gunfire, indistinct shouting]

Rhino: What are you waiting for? She's RIGHT THERE! Hit her aga-

[feedback]

[muffled explosion]

Wolf 3: Where are the fucking snipers?

[gunfire]

DICE02: Oh my god, they're... they're dropping like flies!

[indistinct screams]

DICE01: Fucking hell...

[gunfire]

Wolf 4: Quick, get out of the open!

[feedback]

Wolf 4: In here! Go, go, go!

[muffled gunfire]

[thud]

[footsteps]

Wolf 4: [whispering] Obelisk, do - do you copy?

Obelisk: We're reading you. Go ahead.

Wolf 4: [whispering] Uh, this is... fuck... this is, uh, Wolf Four Echo Four Juliett. Wolf Four Actual is KIA. There... there's only three of us left, I think. How copy? Over.

Obelisk: Solid copy, Wolf Four. Confirm your current position.

Wolf 4: [whispering] We're, uh, holed up in a building, uh, two blocks south of one of the barricades.

Obelisk: Understood. Mission is a wash. All air and armor support in the AO is down. Displace to a more secure location outside of the AO, and await further instructions. Out.

Wolf 4: [whispering] I don't -

[crash]

Wolf 4: FUCK! Fall back!

[gunfire]

[feedback]

[indistinct screams]

[gunfire stops]

DICE01: Fuck.

Obelisk: Uh... Agents, it looks like... uh... Overseer is reporting, uh, no more life signs.

DICE02: Oh my god... they're all dead...

[echoing footsteps]

DICE01: Wait, what is...

[???]: I must say, I don't know if I should be disappointed or insulted. Did you really think these idiot jarheads with their little toy pop-guns could bring me down? After everything else you tried? I sent every single one of your pet sorcerers back in bodybags the last time, so why did you think this would work? I suppose it doesn't matter, now. I was willing to ignore you after the last time, thinking that your... organization... would be smart enough to get the message, and leave me alone. But that's no longer an option. I hope you're prepared. Because you've sown the wind. Now reap the whirlwind. I'll be seeing you soon.

[feedback]

Obelisk: I, uh, think she's... gone. Overseer has lost track of the energy signature.

DICE01: Fuck me.

DICE02: The Director needs to know about this. We have no choice.

[END OF TRANSCRIPTION]

#Tuera Ashama #D.I.C.E.#Directorate of Intelligence for Continuity Enforcement #my oc #my writing

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mysticsparklewings · 3 months ago

Text

Obscutober 2024 Day 14: Octonary 8️⃣

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Octonary (adj.)

relating to or based on the number eight; consisting of eight; in sets of eight

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Yet more evidence I did not arrange the prompt list as carefully as I could have. 😅

BIG missed opportunity to make this the word for Day 8, or at the very least Day 16 (because multiples of 8, etc.)

Oh well! 🤷‍♀️

Click the "Keep Reading" and we'll talk a little more about my thoughts/process for the art...and some frustration caused by the posting mishap I got started with today. 🙃

⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

----------

You were going to get a nice, properly typed description for this piece today, but then Google Chrome decided it hates me and crashed with no warning whatsoever and DeviantArt's new Studio Submission Portal has the exact same STUPID fatal flaw that kept me using the Sta.sh Editor to get art submissions ready for years instead of the standard submission portal—It either can't or won't reliably auto-save as you type. 🤬🤬🤬🤬 [Context: I start typing out these long descriptions on dA first since that's been my primary posting place for years and I'm used to their font, formatting, and emoticons; And only semi-recently I started copy & pasting them over here on Tumblr, which is why this rant is still relevant here.]

Just when I had about warmed up to the "Studio," here I am FURIOUS all over again that DeviantArt, in all their infinite wisdom and updates no one asked for, STILL cannot be bothered to program freaking auto-save into the submission portal AND they took away the ability edit text in Sta.sh so you don't even have an on-site alternative option that will auto-save anymore.

I'm so mad. I'm SO mad. At the core I'm not even that mad specifically about the content I lost today, but the everything else it represents and is conceptually tied into. And I so don't have time to really get into that right now because I have to re-do something for this description other than just being angry because I have other things to do today and this has already set my schedule back badly enough as it is.

Allow me one more moment to scream in frustration:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARARARARRARARAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Alright. Now then.

You get a very basic bullet point list actually about the art because that's all I think I can manage through my ire at the moment:

This prompt, much like Day 11 serves as more evidence that I didn't curate the list as carefully as I could have. There was very much a missed opportunity to make this the word for Day 8, or maybe at least 16 or 24 since those are multiples of 8.

I opted to keep things simple for the mandala. Not as simple as just using the "8" shape over an over because I thought that would be too limiting and boring. I Googled "Octonary" to see if anything visually helpful would come up and found this webpage talking about "Octonary" paths that the Knight piece might take in a Chess game.

After starting with a big Octagon as a base, I took inspiration from the diagrams on that webpage to fill the space. I started with a big 4-point division from one of the diagrams that resembles the iron cross, but ended up modifying the lines into more of an 8-point star shape because the 4-point divison wasn't working for me with all the other 8-based motifs.

And I did still use a fair bit of those 8-based shapes to try and bring in some more softness since the Chess-inspired bits were all very straight and angular.

In general I tried to work in 8's where possible, but there were some things that slipped through that I'm purposefully not going to call specific attention to beyond this sentence acknowledging they exist.

More interesting that the mandala itself is probably the color scheme. How do you make a color scheme based on the number 8? 🤔 Traditionally, that would've been more difficult to answer. But digitally, I was able to take advantage of hex codes. I specifically looked up colors that only use the number 8 and/or 0 and started with those, and then at the very end added in two light grays that also add B and E because I needed some additional lightness I just wasn't getting with the 8's and 0's alone.

More specifically, if you're curious, my exact color palette was:

#888888 - Base medium grey for the whole thing

#000888 - dark blue

#800008 - darkish red

#080808 - near-black

#888000 - dull "gold"

#B8B8B8 - lighter grey

#E8E8E8 - lightest grey

I did toy with #088888 (teal-ish) and #800080 (dark fuchsia-y), but after reviewing my options for what I might use as a song pairing on Instagram (remember I mentioned that being a unique challenge with these on Day 12), they felt a little too at odds with the color scheme made by the others.

I do think the dark blue made this color scheme come out a little more similar to previous days that I really wanted, but by the time I realized that I could not be bothered going back to change it, so it is what it is.

If the coloring looks a little funny otherwise, I tried to add the colors still using just figure-8 shapes and then blending/blurring the splotches out to get better coverage. Probably kind of pointless and uncessary considering how the final product looks, but I couldn't help myself.

I don't think this is the strongest piece of the month by a long shot, but as I've said before they can't all be super complex or amazing. [And for the record, I thought that before the lost-description mishap.] In any case, I like my solution to the color scheme "problem" and there are still some good ideas/motifs within the mandala, even if the whole package maybe didn't come together as nicely as it could have.

...I think that's everything I wanted to mention. It's hard to tell after being so thoroughly derailed from my original thought-flow. 😠

But that's at least all I can think of at the moment, so I should probably leave this here and get on with cross-posting. Cross-posting is normally my least favorite part of the process and starting off with such a bag experience trying to get this far does not feel like a good omen for how that's going to go.

Wish me luck and happier thoughts, Sparklers—I'm going to need a lot of both. 😤

----------

See the Prompt List

Obscutober Concept Inspired by nikolas_tower

----------

⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

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