#Also finally I have uploaded actual content! EVEN BETTER!!!

[clairegregoryau]

I've been tracking this down for a while now and I've finally found confirmation of what I suspected: Google Maps imagery for Piha Beach in Aotearoa New Zealand captured the setup for filming of Our Flag Means Death's Season 2, Episode 8!

[EDIT 25 June: the north end current imagery is sadly no longer this version, but I've captured it for posterity here, and it's still visible in the free Google Maps Pro app- read on for more info].

On the left is the north end of Piha Beach with the inn set. On the right is the south end carpark with the film crew base.

Why is that cool to me? Because it truly was a fleeting moment in time, no more than a handful of days of possibility, and yet it was captured as the image on the map, at least for a period of time. As an archaeologist I love a moment preserved in time, and in this one you can even see the OFMD production crew on the beach and on the path. It's places and people caught in the flashbulb of this aerial image.

The specifics of how I pinned down the imagery and the date are in this Twitter thread, but the short version is, I was hunting for a better visual on the area immediately surrounding the inn while writing Full Fathom Five, and noticed that the carpark in particular seemed to line up exactly with images from the final day of filming.

The final day of filming overall was 13 December 2022, filming at Piha was on 12 December 2022, and this aerial image was taken on 11 December 2022.

I had already been through the first image to make a comparison to the aerial map and it looked like a match, but Google Maps had 2024 in their attribution. [Noting that I'd put 13 Dec on my image notes, but I'd got that tangled with the last day of filming in the Kumeū studio the next day, and it was 12 Dec on location].

Thankfully Google Earth came through with the actual date.

And I just took a further dig into Google Earth Pro, which allows you to switch between previous satellite images, and it confirms a date of 11 December 2022 for the north end image as well.

[EDIT 9 September 2024- thinking about this again and suddenly realised... you know what, very often things will put the date it was in the US when a picture was taken, even when that picture was taken on the other side of the world, in a different timezone. Which made me realise that actually, if this was taken on the 11th of December in the US, that was on the 12th of December in AoNZ. A quick search shows that Google Maps confirms the date can be one day out, so- odds increasing that we're seeing the actual filming of Ep8 here!]

You can also compare this to a few months earlier in March 2022, right around the premiere of OFMD S1 (everything moved so fast in hindsight!) when there was no inn in that spot.

Which means we now know that for now, if you hop onto Google Maps (not Google Earth, because they have a different image for the north end that does come from 2024) and zing on down to Piha Beach, you can take a look at a preserved moment in time from the filming of S2Ep8.

[EDIT 25 June: the north end image has now been updated to the 2024 version across all of Google Maps and Google Earth, but the south end is for now still from the filming day. You can find the previous version for the north end on Google Earth Pro].

You can hop straight to the inn here.

And straight to the parking lot here.

And remember to put the layers into Satellite mode to view the aerial imagery.

Everything that was/is shown at the north end lines up with what we've seen both in the show and in behind the scenes content, all of which I delved into in this Twitter thread last month. That goes into a lot more detail about specifics, but the evidence is solid across the board.

The sandy path that runs beside the inn is a distinct feature seen in the show.

The peak that sits behind it, likewise (from Google Maps user uploads here and here).

The inn itself, and the way the path gives way to an unseen carpark, from Simone Nathan's TikTok video.

Based on all of that, it's easy to see that we've got our inn right here circled in red, preserved in that moment in time, even though it was no doubt taken down as soon as filming was done.

Prep looks like it took a couple of days before filming; filming was pretty much done in a day, according to an article at the time.

So, there you have it- it's a minor little thing and it won't be up forever, but for now you can hop into Google Maps and see an aerial view adjacent to the filming of S2Ep8 at Piha. The other beach scenes from Eps 1, 3 and 8 were filmed at Te Henga/ Bethells Beach.

[muffinrecord]

Current Plans + Musings

I don't plan on playing Exedra to the degree I did for Magia Record, or playing it at all. Because of that, I won't be taking an active role in the community and archiving anything for it. Of course, if Exedra has like amazing gameplay and stories then this is all subject to change, but for now I think I'm done with phone games.

The two youtube channels will stay up and I'll check em periodically to make sure there aren't copyright strikes against the content. I've saved all my raw files, especially for the battle animations, so I can remake them in the future if the music ever becomes a problem for some reason.

Google Drive will stay up until Google rots away. I haven't recorded footage in a long time (as in stories, I do for the character doppels and such), but I'll upload things if they're sent to me.

Magia Union Translations still plans on translating things and making videos, especially leading up to the end, but also for after the game is over for whatever wasn't made in time. I'm not sure what form this will take in the future-- if it'll be manual captions added to the videos or not, but I know it WILL happen.

As for this blog, I'm not going to delete it or anything. However I'm going to be taking a step back. I'd like to say that I'll do liveblogs but I mean... *gestures at blog* I've been saying that for years and the only one I really did successfully was the Oriko one lmao. Ahhh oh well.

I'll have more words later, but it was really fun to be part of a fandom experience like this. I'm excited to work on my own original story projects though and quiet down a bit.

...

When I started this blog, I never expected it to have people actually read it. Or look at it. I just wanted a place to gush about how much fun I was having. I didn't even want to tag the posts with "Magia Record" at first because I was terrified people would be mean at me, haha.

But I'm glad I did. I made so many good friends through this game. I'm glad it existed. And it made me happy to have a place where people cared about what I had to say. Some folks actually got their news from here, can you imagine that? They had notifications turned on for this blog. My god.

Anyways, I'm going to be here for the next two months, and tomorrow I'll start reblogging fan projects and initiatives, plus general news. Maybe this blog will turn into a dumping site for art and fanfic reblogs, who knows. I might watch the remaining stuff and add various thoughts here and there.

Otherwise, you can find me on my main blog @malignmuffin, which only reblogs stuff (I don't talk much if at all there). I have another tumblr blog for my comic, but I think I'll reshare the name once I actually have content you can look at on it. It's pretty bare bones for the moment.

Actually it'll be funny if the end of this game is what makes me finally work on it again. I was in the process of working on it when NA came out, and it totally derailed me. Stopped writing, drawing, just focused on this silly little phone game. Now it's like those five years have gone by and I'm going back to where I started, except I think my lil comic is going to be a bit better than it was before. If I actually make it, that is.

If I ever do actually make my comic and start posting it, I'll be sure to update y'all here. hah

Anyways, thanks for being on this wild ride with me. The memories have been great, and I'm glad I had this experience, even if it had to end.

[three-realms-archive]

Unhinged™

(inspired by this post by @leniisreallycool. the pure madness of obey me is the reason why I typically write chaotically-comedic slice-of-life scenarios; because i can honestly write these guys doing the stupidest things and argue that it might as well be canon, these dorks. anime canon, tho. the anime is just another beast of its own to the game ahahaha.)

(so while this may not be anime canon-level obey me content, i hope it comes close. if they’ve actually done any of these and i just haven’t experienced it in-game yet, let me know! it only proves my point.)

There was a time when Solomon brought an extremely-long baguette everywhere with him, insisting it was his magic wand. Even as the days turned to weeks, and the bread crust turned to mould, Solomon would still carry it around everywhere; unbothered by the rancid smell and waving it like a idol group light-stick whenever he spoke an incantation. Then, one day, he showed up at RAD with sandwiches to share. Sandwiches… with suspiciously green and white bread. Turns out, this whole thing was Solomon’s interpretation of dry-aging.

Belphegor and Asmodeus have an ongoing vlog series on Deviltube called ‘Beauty Sleep’. They go somewhere trendy, find some inappropriate place for Belphie to sleep, and Asmo takes some #aesthetic shots whilst timing how long Belphie can nap before being kicked out. It’s incredibly popular and sometimes features cameos from the exchange students and the other Avatars of Sin. Once, a subscriber milestone came with a special surprise: a live-streamed episode of Beauty Sleep in the Demon Lord’s Castle! They never got caught, because Diavolo was busy watching the livestream in his room - too invested to realise it was his own house.

The dining table in the main room of the House of Lamentation has its own fandom on the DevilNet. There are multiple fansites speculating the exact materials used to make it; the exact number of fasteners it uses; and, most especially, its exact length. There are posts, blogs and entire DevilTube deep-dive videos centred around the mystery of how long the table is. This is because, in every piece of media involving the table, it appears a different length despite the decorations and location remaining the same. What the Devildom doesn't know is that the table was made retractable shortly after MC arrived in the Devildom. It was a custom job, done solely so that the table could be used as a runway for a makeshift fashion show (Asmo and Mammon's idea) the brothers held with human world clothes one time MC was feeling homesick.

Once, for a whole month, Mammon dedicated himself to creating a new currency. For the first week, he was an absolute menace, stealing metal objects (like small screws or unused kitchen utensils) around the house to melt down and form into coins of his own design. Beel cried for five days over the lack of cutlery and Asmo kept shrieking whenever he realised he’d had another piece of jewellery had been stolen from him. The rest of the month was spent attempting to rope people into investing; then failing; then celebrating because he had so much of his money to himself; and finally crying because none of it would be accepted at stores.

When he had first gotten into reading books, Satan started a website called ‘Ampbook’ where demons could upload personal writing projects, as well as comment on and share them, too. It’s now incredibly popular, especially amongst younger demons, and is well-known for romance. Well. Much to Satan’s chagrin, it was actually better-known for romance… and fanfiction. He’s constantly torn between allowing his beloved site users their freedom of expression, or immediately taking down any fanfics shipping MC with any of his other brothers. He’s also faked MC x Satan as the most trending tag, permanently.

The height of Beel’s appreciation for Leviathan was shortly after MC’s arrival into the Devildom. They had introduced Levi to an anime centred around four students in a high school swimming team; including a protagonist who Beel thought had a dubiously-intimate love of water. Regardless, Levi tried out for the RAD swimming team - got in and won a bunch of gold medals - and then proceeded to quit the team after a new, different anime he had been waiting for came out. All in the span of a week. To Levi's disdain, Beel brings this up at least once a month: by parading a handmade display of Levi's medals and a framed photo of his older brother in a swimsuit around RAD, showing it off to everyone who asked. And everybody asked. Maybe not so much for the medals.

[dorkynerd23]

My Problem With Vanitymoth/My Thoughts.

Hello guys!! Hope you're all doing good and well and you've been having a good and wonderful day/night. Now, this will sorta be a mixture of a critical/rant post, as this is someone I've been wanting to talk about as they're someone who's been criticized and talked about (mostly negatively) In regardless to the Murder Drones Community and I wanted to give my thoughts and opinions on this dude, as I don't think he's a very good cartoon reviewer but before I start PLEASE DON'T SEND ANY HATE!! This isn't meant for me to bash and send hate towards this dude, please don't do that shit as it's not worth it and doesn't make you any better, I just wanted to give my thoughts and criticisms about Vanity and his content, your allowed to critique him but don't send any hate. Anyways, the one I'm gonna be talking about is Vanitymoth and if you're not familiar and haven't heard of him, Vanity is basically a cartoon reviewer with about 12.8K subscribers and his first video which was uploaded back in 2022 (around the same year his channel was created) and was about Panty And Stocking and his channel wasn't as popular when he first started out and I discovered him around this time and thought his videos were decent and fine enough at the time, especially as he had a small following around the time but I honestly think it wasn't until he made his first MD video is when he really started to get more popular and I subscribed to him once he started making MD reviews as I was a huge fan around the time.

In the beginning I thought Vanity was a fine and decent enough reviewer and he seemed valid and gave some interesting points in his videos, but I started to notice some changes once he started putting out some more negative videos with one of the ones being his trashfire of a review on Lackadaisy and most of the time for his review he's just complaining and nitpicking as some stuff, (even though I do think in some aspects he can be valid) being negative most of the time, the only thing he really praises in Lackadaisy is the animation but doesn't bother really giving any more positive thoughts even though there is so much to adore and love about Lackadaisy, even if you aren't 100% familiar with the source material I think you'd still be able to follow along fine and enjoy the Pilot. But with Vanitymoth, it seems just didn't seem to understand and get the Pilot or what even the concept of a Pilot Is..the whole point of a Pilot Is to introduced you to the world, the setting where the story is taking place in and introduce the characters we'll be following along, and although Lackadaisy isn't perfect at all, no piece of media is, but I think they did a good job. Another thing Vanitymoth is that in his reviews for most of the time he thinks his opinions are the definitive answers to the direction the show is going and bashes people who actually know to have fun with the show and sees his opinions as definite facts.

He also constantly whined and complains about TADC getting more attention than MD, like he's complained about it a lot, he mentions it at some points in his "The Slow Death Of Murder Drones Fandom" and it seems he had an issue of another Glitch having another show going on that was more popular, like...you don't have to enjoy and like TADC but you don't need to put one show down to praise the other, why not enjoy both shows?? Also, the thing about the MD fanbase dying after the show ends, which I don't think will happen as the fandom has gotten bigger and popular since the Pilot's release and the show will still be rewatched and beloved by fans and others even now the show's over and just because a fandom doesn't interact 24/7 doesn't mean it's dead, that's like saying the Gravity Falls fandom died after the show ended..like the show is still popular and the fandom is still huge even years after the show's finale, besides Glitch has expressed that they wanna do more with MD in the future so we'll probably be seeing more of these characters in the near future, so that doesn't make sense and it seems Vanity only wants Glitch to favor MD only and it's just frustrating.

Now, let's discuss his MD reviews..alright so first let me started off my saying that I'm fine with being critical and being criticism and there's many things you can critique about MD as it's NOT a perfect show but as I said the thing with Vanity is that he seems so damn negative in almost all his MD reviews even though some points can be valid, but most of the time to me..his criticisms just seems in bad faith, not valid and just him pulling stuff and random theories out of nowhere to fit his own narrative. Let's point out and start on how he just doesn't understand and gets the characters in the slightest, he doesn't shy away or even try to hide in the slightest that he's got hatred for both N and Uzi, Nuzi especially as a couple..but is totally fine and ships Cyn and N together and then got pissed at the fanbase and acted like a baby because nobody liked the ship, like jesus dude..

And he's also mischaracterized the characters like most in the fandom do unfortunately but he's done it the most to both N and Uzi especially, like I said he doesn't shy away that he hates them with a burning passion. He's shown his hatered for Uzi (not even surprised in the slightest as he commissioned some hate art of Uzi getting beat up by J) and mischaracterized her and saying how her whole character is only involved around N and is blaming her just like some haters of Uzi and it's just frustrating..like UZI DIDN'T do anything wrong at all and characters can be characters on their own and have a love interest, I'm really sick and tired of all the Uzi hate is annoying as hell and frustrating, even after the finale Uzi is still getting hated and it's just so unjustified, Vanity and others need to realize that Uzi has gone through something called..."CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!" ✨💜 Y'all seem to NOT understand and get it and just wanna say certain things to make characters look worse and awful and overall don't get these characters, oh and don't get me started on his video about N's character analysis..and similar to Uzi, he doesn't understand and get N and called him "obsessive" over Uzi and and killed "Tessa" without a second thought and seems to see N as some yandere or something. And he's doing this all because he hates Nuzi, like you don't have to like this ship but acting this way and getting this mad and acting the way you do over a FUCKING ship is childish as shit, and another thing is that he literally pulled something from non-canon and called it a "pattern" because of Liam Vickers or some stuff like that and reading Vanity's so-called theories and analysis just reminds me of "Analysis so bad you don't even know what it's talking about anymore" thread over on Twitter, his video and the way he analysis N's character by ignoring his feelings and trying to paint him as this savior lunatic that's so obsessed with Uzi that he'd sacrifice the universe and loved ones just to have her is just...mischaracterization is an understatement, a straight-up bastardization of his entire personality and arc, Vanity doesn't understand or get any of these characters and gives these bad takes to make them look worse.

He's currently working on his review on the finale and I'm not looking forward to it in the slightest like as I said, I'm all for giving criticisms and you're allowed to love and be a fan of show I'm the same way, and I'm sure others are the same and don't blindly praise whatever they like 24/7 and see them as perfect, you're allowed to feel how you feel and you're valid and allowed to not like the finale. But most of the time in Vanity's videos is that it's mostly negative and he complains about almost anything, even nitpicking the smallest things and he barely discusses the positives about he reviews and uses his opinions as definite facts. It sucks because I really did enjoy and liked Vanity as a reviewer in the beginning as he did bring up some valid points and was decent as a YouTuber but as he kept on putting out more videos, getting more popular he just seemed to get more and more negative and I saw a quality drop in his videos, he's barely positive in his videos and it just makes him unpleasant and boring to watch and hard to fully enjoy his stuff.

Really hope this little rant sounded fair and was okay, I don't really do these type of posts anymore and don't wanna be mean as the intension of this post was to give some opinions on this person. Once again, this isn't me trying to send any hate to Vanity and I'll say once more, please DON'T send any hate and bother him, I just wanted to give my thoughts and opinions about him and his content as I've had some issues with his content since 2023'ish and wish he could improve as an reviewer and just be more fairer when it comes to what he reviews, along with seeing that people are allowed to enjoy and love more than one show and just because one show is getting more popular doesn't make another show any lesser, both TADC and MD are great and incredible shows made by talented and amazing people, Meta Runner is also another good (very underrated, btw) show and I know Gaslight District will probably be a great too, nobody shouldn't be holding and putting these shows against each other, bashing and praising different shows, please support all shows and indie animation as a whole. ❤️

[helpfandom]

hello!! i saw you had requests open so i hope you don’t mind me asking for one :3 so what i was thinking was could you do a Yandere P03 (inscryption) x reader? can be platonic or romantic it doesn’t really matter whatever you wanna do! headcanons please, and for the premise just about like how it would act as a yandere and how he would treat the reader and how he would go about becoming a yandere for them :0? it would also be cool if you explored the games ending (where it ports into lukes computer) a little if you wanted to but tbh i’ll love anything you make because i am so desperate for content of this game ngl 😭 but you can go nuts! i don’t mind you adding some things, just have fun w it :D! thank you so much tehehehe!

The first part is roughly based off of my first playthrough, and I finally finished the game, It. Was. AMAZING!! OH MY GOODNESS. >.<

Call him AM the way this little freaky computer hates.

@lonleydweller

°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°

°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°⁺⁎⋅❤︎⋅⁎⁺°

Your friend, Luke Carder, was more than happy to let you play Inscryption first, especially after this person named... Amanda? showed up at his house. Anyway, you had the disk drive and could actually play it, so as long you gave him footage and the like, he had no issues with you playing it for him.

At first, he was moreso just happy to have someone finally playing the game again and get actually have the ability to do something after such a long time.

He was a little surprised when he felt you change the game and exit out and then back in when he said "Total Misplay" or anything along those lines, and even more intrigued when you actually listened to him when he mentioned more about the other scrybes.

He couldn't see you, no not yet, but he could at least watch your cursor as you hover over options in your hand and still can't choose. Of course, he got bored quickly, going back to thinking about how much he hates Leshy for forcing him into an organic body, and a stoat at that.

When he finally gets back into his robotic form due to your success in beating Leshy, he instantly connects himself to every part of your computer, quickly asserting himself to hear everything you say and even how you look. You look... not bad for a human. Of course, you'd look better Robot-ified, but still, not bad for a human.

He has mixed opinions on the scrybe you choose to replace, if it's Leshy, he's ecstatic about that, eager to see you destroy him, even if you destroy all of them technically, but he's so eager to watch Leshy's face for betrayal. If it's Grimora or Magnificus? He's okay with it, neutral about it. I mean, he knows it would suck about Grimora, she's very sweet and kind, but no big loss. But if you choose him?

He laughs to himself at your optimism, thinking you beat him? He's 4 steps ahead of you, always watching and all knowing, smarter and better than you. Well, you and that annoying guy you bring around sometimes to give him recordings.

'Luke', He agonizes over that name. He's insulted that you stick with a loser, a mere youtuber when the obviously better option is him. Doesn't matter if your feelings are romantic or platonic to your friend, he hates him.

He enjoys your shock when he takes over the game, relishing in your emotions and mixed feelings, and he enjoys your quick adaptation to the new world he created, for you. If he could, he would take you out of that stupid world separating you and just keep you with him when he does The Great Transcendence. You're the best player he's had for a long time...

Now, here there are several endings, one where he does what he wanted and uploads Inscryption to the internet fully, the original end of Inscryption but without Amanda, one where he finds a way to bring you here, one where he never fully dies, and one where you die instead.

[thedukeside]

It's hilarious that he made a video talking about Chappel Roan and people being up way too much in his business when nobody is doing anything lol. Like nobody is harassing you, your fan base of 12-15 year Olds want to know why you took a 4 year break from sanders sides without saying anything. I understand why he'd be frustrated with constantly having to cater to a younger audience but I don't understand why he doesn't even try to actually branch out. He's still censoring swearing, still making videos about childish topics, still doing the same shit he's been doing since 2016. Like if you want something different, do something different. Also sorry if I sound sensitive for saying this but why tf are you uploading pictures of you in your underwear on your insta story???? It's not a huge secret that his fan base is (mostly) underage, so why is he just...doing that? Idk even if he's not doing it for gross reasons, he's still doing it, and maybe should fucking know better???? He's closer to being 40 than he is 30 and he's doing stupid naive shit. I used to be a huge fan and supporter of his when I was younger (10-14) but now I'm 18 and seeing through a bunch of his weird shit and it's sucks. He's getting rid of/losing everything that made his channel fun, unique and interesting and it sucks seeing a huge part of my childhood and motivation for me to make art, going to dogshit. Also sorry for like ranting out of nowhere, literally nobody else in this Fandom is like speaking about this.

I'm sorry it took me so long to get to this, but you're correct. Thomas creates content aimed at younger teens. That is not something that has ever changed. Which is why his channel has stagnated. The audience that funded him during his heyday are now adults. Who he also wants to cater to, but he's so afraid of losing what little revenue he has left, he refuses to take the leap.

That is why the finale has taken so long. Thomas has no idea who he wants to make content for. Or even if he really wants to make it at all. This creates a ripple effect. Overflowing into endless controversy, inappropriate conduct, and resentment from all sides. The best thing for Sander Sides to do now is go quietly, but I doubt Thomas has the gumption to actually put down the sick horse. Which is a shame. I think people would respect him a lot more if he did.

[day6source]

hello my loves <33333333 happy spring! i hope you've all been enjoying it so far, and especially enjoying it with the new album hehe!!🫶 so! first things first:

the welcome to the show concert is next week! as always i'll be recording, and i've since figured out recording with firefox, so there should be 0 to little stuttering this time in the VOD! i apologize heavily for that, and i actually have a gift to make up for it, but stay with me until the end! second: since kcon was...virtually unwatchable to most of us, i went on a little hunt for it! you may or may not be able to find the meet & greet here and the performance cut of the boys here. not sure. you might just have to check out the links to double check ;)

third: masterpost for 'fourever' is basically all updated! you can find it here! i was...unaware of the link limit, so if you want the shopping and streaming and performance links, those'll be in the first read more, watching things and articles are in the second one (which is the one linked for ease)! promo is basically over (i say cautiously) minus the concert, so feel free dive in if you missed anything! speaking of masterposts!

fourth: i got to thinking about it, and i found it a little unfair to only include jae in the pinned, so you can now find links/some updated info about what junhyeok is doing! i figured if i'm gonna have one former member, i should also have the other, even if he was there for only a short amount of time. so if you've been wondering what he's been up to, check him out on youtube and streaming! i'll be keeping it...semi-updated in the way i do jae's part, checking in every like, three months to see if anything's changed. on the flip side, if none of you care to know what those two are up to, i might just take their sections out entirely, but for now i thought it'd be courteous to have them there at the very least!

and last but not least: so, you guys know that watching old concert content is...entirely impossible really, and i thought...that was pretty wack, actually. so! the other day i went on a little deep dive on some sites, and i found some old concerts including the youth tour, the streams from pilmography, an old fanmeet, and the final every day6 concert. this site is uhhh basically impossible to see without a vpn and...well i also thought that was super wack, especially granted this content is...impossible to find elsewhere, and you can't even buy it. so i...took the liberty of gathering it and maybe...just maybe...you can find it here along with all of the other shows of recent, including a better stream of the christmas show for you guys. this is just me personally, but i think especially in comparison to other fandoms, ours is...a bit smaller and older, so gatekeeping content is just...not cool, and i wanna make sure that if you guys wanna see things, i can bring them to you to watch! it's not everything probably by a long shot, but if it's somewhere, i want you guys to be able to see it, even if those people don't think so, and especially if we can't just go out and buy it somewhere! so please enjoy! it should all be uploading as of me typing this post up, but should be up within a couple of hours, but there's some things in there like the kcon stuff and some other shows already, so that should keep you busy in the meantime.

okay, that's it! i love you guys, and i hope you're all staying so so so healthy and so so so so happy and enjoying fourever! we're actually almost at 300 followers which is INSANE, especially because the blog is almost a year old!!!!! what!!!!!!!! time truly flies, and i have loved every second with you all, i've got some potential things planned, so...stay tuned ;) stay happy and healthy, study well, take long breaks when you need, enjoy the weather! i love you guys so much <33333 tay💕💕💕🫶🫶🫶

[sanrioomiku]

Tobidei week day 1: fanboy

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I feel bad i don’t have anything to post so here’s a draft of a fanfic i wrote when i was 15-16. I still think it’s kinda cute lol and i think younger me was pretty funny for coming up with this.

Content warning: not established tobidei…yet. Other ships mentioned, cliffhanger

Obito glanced to the digital clock on his desk. Six minutes to the show, and here he was stuck in his office. He nearly begged his boss, Madara to let him go early but Madara deemed watching a livestream of your favorite boyband wasn’t a good enough reason to leave work early. In fact he called him pathetic. Obito inwardly sighed as he typed away on his computer. His eyes drooped. What a miserable job. Typing away for eight hours. He glanced at his clock again. Two more minutes. He glanced around his office. He then peeked over his cubicle. Everyone was hunched over their desktops. The pile of paperwork stood menacingly in the corner of his eye. Of course he ignored it.

He’d do it…later. He pulled out his phone, typing in the exact url to the website where their dedicated fans uploaded photos, videos, and even live-streamed for the ones who couldn’t make it to the actual concert. Obito had made a vow to himself that one day before he died, he’d go and actually see them perform, too bad his job was the only barrier keeping him from achieving that dream. There were already four hundred viewers when he clicked on the icon. Obito’s heart jumped seeing the members on the stage. He ignored Sasuke, Sai, and Hidan and only focused on his bias, Deidara. 

He cringed as the man started screaming Deidara’s name when the pop star blew a kiss to the crowd. Obito had to turn down his volume as the man behind the camera wouldn’t stop screaming. The guy was totally incompetent. The man was too busy jumping up and down and waving his light stick that Obito couldn’t even see the stage for more than half of the time. At one point the guy even dropped his camera. When he picked up the camera Obito nearly jumped in fear seeing the man’s face. He was one of the top contributors to the website. Calling himself Randamuna kashu’s biggest fan.

Though Obito had seen his face several times he could still never get used to it. It made Obito feel a little better about himself. The guy clearly didn’t take care of himself, with the greasy skin and pimples. Obito couldn’t imagine the smell of the guy. This guy was a different level of degenerate. He was in his late thirties and had an odd obsession with band members, even making pillows of them. He had posted a picture to one of the forums of his bedroom where it was just filled with 4star’s merch and their pictures plastered on his walls. Obito liked the band too but he wasn’t that crazy over them. He shut off the stream. 

‘How useless’. He thought. He couldn’t see the band members or hear them from the guys' loud antics. Hopefully in a few hours more videos will be uploaded plus it was time for him to checkout. He grabbed his briefcase, stuffing in the work that he didn’t do. He stepped out his cuticle happy to finally go home and be able to watch the reruns of the show. If he hurried he might be able to watch the last few minutes.

“Obito!” He turned to see Konan waving at him. 

“Ah, Konan,” he greeted. She fixed her purse on her shoulder. 

“Hey. Me and a few coworkers were going to go for a drink. Want to come?” Obito couldn’t stand his colleagues nor did he want to spend his evening drinking with them when he could be watching 4star’s show. But he also didn’t want his colleagues to think he was a hikikomori. He couldn’t ignore their invitations for much longer. One hour then he’ll head home. He forced a smile.

“Sure.” 

——٩(｡•́‿•̀｡)۶—

 The table was raucous. The mix of alcohol the cheerfulness of it being Friday made the unusual stoic group buzz with excitement. Konan’s blouse was unbuckled and her usual crisp bun had fallen apart. Kisame and Obito had their ties either heads. The only one who remained put together was Sasori and Itachi who stayed quiet sipping their drink. From what he observed, Itachi and sasori could handle their alcohol while Konan and Kisame couldn’t. Konan draped her around Obito’s shoulders pulling him closer.

“Say, you’re not as bad as I thought,” she slurred. She poked his chest. “I thought you were some weird degenerate like Kabuto.” Obito’s face flushed redder than it already was from the several shots of sake he took before as her breasts pressed into his arm.

“Why would you think that?” Kisame barked out a laugh. He pointed at Obito with his cup. It sloshed around dangerously as he moved recklessly. Sasori eyed the larger man warily, even scooting a bit to the wall. 

“Don’t take this personal, but you like the type of guy who watches perverted shit and has a collection of anime figurines.” Obito frowned. It sounded more like the guy with 4star obsession. He respected Deidara enough to not beat off- what the hell was he thinking?

“I’m not perverted and I’m not one of those otaku’s,” he protested. Konan giggled.

“Oh come on, you can admit it. We don’t judge. Sasori collects anime figures too.” Sasori set down his drink. 

“It’s not anime, they’re Rushton dolls. Antique,” he said matter of factly. Konan scratched her ear.

“Still weird. Aren’t you like almost thirty?” Sasori sucked his teeth.

“Says the one who’s almost thirty and still unmarried.” Konan turned bright red.

“That’s so impolite! Don’t you know you should never talk to a woman like that?” Obito nervously laughed as Konan and Sasori continued to bicker. Obito looked over to Itachi who was nibbling at a chicken skewer seemingly to be unbothered by the entire ordeal. 

“Gah! Whatever.” Konan turned to Obito again. “Obito, are you married?” 

“Ah, no.” 

“How about talking to someone,” Kisame wiggled his eyebrows. Obito took another sip of his drink. He only left his house to work and the only people he talked to were the people on the 4star’s forum. He didn’t put himself out there nor did he make the effort to talk to others. The last time he tried to put himself out there he was rejected. He’d rather be alone anyways. Alone in his sad apartment watching reruns of his favorite concerts. 

“No,” he eventually said. Konan nudged him.

“Aww why not? You’re handsome enough.” 

“Probably because he’s too busy watching hentai,” Kisame snorted. 

“I’m not a pervert!” His slurred words made his voice sound even more pathetic. Kisame howled with laughter slamming his cup onto the table. Konan glared at the broad man.

“Kisame stop. We just got him out of the office. You’re going to scare him away,” she frowned. 

“Looks like we’re all in the same boat,” Sasori muttered. 

“Single and overworked,” Konan hiccuped. “Gah! Madara has us working twenty four seven. I have zero time to even go on some blind dates. Goddammit! I should be married by now!” she shouted.

Obito took another swig. It seemed his colleagues were going through the same problems as him. All being in their mid and late twenties spending most of their time in work with little time for relationships. Konan nudged him.

“Hey, maybe we should hookup?” Obito choked on his sake. A woman suggesting such things to him was the first. Konan giggled.

“Awwww! He’s shy!” Sasori picked up a chicken skewer.

“Konan, do you have to flirt with every man you see?” Konan pulled Obito into a tighter hug.

“We’re just joking. Aren’t we Obi?” Obito flushed at the nickname.

“Yeah, just jokes,” he coughed. Konan smiled with a flirty tint.

“Good, now hand me your phone.” Without much thought, he gave her his phone. The moment it landed in her manicured hand he froze. Life seemed to go in slow motion as his phone turned on revealing his 4star wallpaper. He shut his eyes. No way this was happening. Konan stared at the phone for a second before she burst into laughter. She turned the phone to the rest of the table.

“Obito likes boy bands!” Obito covered his face as his coworkers heckled at him. 

“I knew he was one of those otaku’s!” Kisame banged his fist against the table. Obito peeked through his hands. Even Itachi was smiling. Itachi, of all people, was laughing at him. In fact the entire izakaya seemed to be laughing at the humiliating situation.

“My cousin did that!” He tried to argue. 

“Oh please. Let’s not blame it on your innocent cousins,” Sasori snorted. Konan typed away at his phone.

“Ah hah! I got it!” Obito’s eyes widened seeing that Konan had successfully gotten into his phone. 

“Hand it back!” He tried to reach over her but his coordination was off from the past drinks, instead knocking over the pitcher of beer onto his lap. 

“Shit!” He desperately tried to wipe the stain off his crotch. Sasori rested his face in his hands.

“So which member are you in love with?” Obito opened his mouth but closed it. 

“It’s obviously this blond,” Konan spoke up. Konan scrolled through his phone then showed it to the others. Kisame awed.

“Oh, so you like blonds?” Obito nearly died. He quickly grabbed his phone from Konan.

“I like brunettes,” he mumbled. He didn’t really have a specific preference but it made sense to say at the moment. Konan giggled.

“It’s okay. I agree he’s a cutie.” Kisame leaned back in his chair.

“Yeah, I mean I like chicks but he’s definitely attractive. It’s no wonder they’re so popular.” Sasori nodded his head. Obito couldn’t believe what he was thinking. Did they think he liked men? He shook his head.

“That’s not! I just like their music.” Konan took a deep drink.

“You know what the issue is? Everyone is obsessed with pop stars while us normal people rot! I mean what’s the point of obsessing over someone you’ll never be with when you can be a real woman!” She looked over to Obito. “Or man.” Obito put his face into his hands. This was humiliating. He should’ve stayed home and watched the reruns of the concert. Itachi sighed but remained silent as Konan drunkenly ranted about her failing love life. 

“Like am I not beautiful enough?” She pushed her boobs up with her hands. Kisame’s eyes bugged out his head while Sasori looked embarrassed. Of course Itachi seemed indifferent as he poured himself another drink.

“Hey guys!” Rin stood in front of their table still dressed in her work attire. Obito’s mouth went dry. He cut a glance to himself. His crotch was wet. His face was flushed and in general looked like a mess. Rin made eye contact with him. They both looked away at the same time. Obito mentally prayed that she didn’t notice the spot on his pants.

Konan picked up a half full cup.

“Hey! Come sit with us!” Rin glanced at Obito who still had his eyes glued on his lap then back at the rest of the drunken crew.

“Um, I don’t know.” Her eyes kept glancing at Obito. Konan reached across the table and pulled Rin in to sit beside Itachi, directly across from Obito.

“Oh come on! Let’s celebrate! Join the single club! konan slurred while pushing a cup of beer towards Rin. Rin nervously laugh but took the cup.

“Well, I guess I can stay for a bit. My friends will here in a bit though.” Obito gripped his knees under the booth. Rin was staying and he still hadn’t found a good excuse to get himself out of this awkward situation. The beer soaked pants didn’t help either. At least the topic of his weird hobby of liking boy bands. Still, he felt stuck. If he got up now, she would most definitely see the stain. The table went into their conversations while Rin and Obito sat quiet with them occasionally distracting themselves with their drinks. Obito had gotten over the rejection from a few weeks ago but seeing her in front of him was anything then pleasant.

“Hey, I hope things aren’t awkward between us,” Rin started. Obito rubbed the back of his head.

“It’s not. No worries.”

“Oh good.” They both looked away clearly lying to one another. Rin opened her mouth to say something else but Obito felt his phone buzz against his thigh. A notification of the forum caught his attention. A fan meet up. He opened the notification to see a girl posed in front of a stage with the members in the background. Obito narrowed his eyes. One of the buildings looked familiar. He paused. They were his city.

Obito abruptly stood up, completely forgetting about the wet spot on his pants. The rest of the table looked up in shock.

“I have to go.” Konan stood up also.

“Wait! Give me your number before you go!” Sasori pulled her back into the seat. Rin watched as Obito rushed out the bar, her eyebrows furrowed.

—————-

Rereading this. I can’t help but laugh. Obito/ Tobi is such a degenerate! I will come back and post the second chapter where he finally gets to meet his idol 👀🤭🩷 anyways happy tobidei week! Hope everyone has fun! :p

[system-of-a-feather]

New Pinned Post

I'm no longer in need of back up money, so commissions aren't needed, but if you ever want to commission me, I'm usually open. I also occasionally put some of my art on redbubble.

Please read Boundaries before sending an ask.

Anyways, hello everyone, I am too lazy to find my old crack DID pride flag (it'll come up some day and I'll link it here), and I figured I should slowly update some of my intro stuff for this blog after not touching it for a fucking minute.

You can call me Feathers - we're a 21+ year old Buddhist mixed-AAPI intersex nonbinary system (they/them) that is at late stage recovery and often defaults to a fully fused state (though we freely play with our multiple identity and operate as independent parts whenever it works best for us; often for trauma processing or navigating complex life decisions). As a result, we don't always tag which part is out and sometimes tag "alter: fei" or, more recently, "feathers speaks" Sometimes we might tag which part is dominant, but it's all whatever.

For the most recent discussion on Buddhism, Full Integration, Final Fusion, and Functional Multiplicity written by our fully fused self before our recent decision to swap back to Functional Mulitiplicity, feel free to read here; it's long but a pretty cohesive understanding of our current experiences with our DID and shit. (5/15/2024)

We're diagnosed with DID, C-PTSD, autism, trichotillomania, OCD, and honestly a number of things cause complex-trauma life. We have some physical disabilities but nothing that typically causes too much obstruction in our day to day.

As a result of our state of recovery, we really don't have a set headcount, however we were / are polyfragmented.

Some fun things about us and things you'll see on this blog:

Due to the fact that DID is no longer really that much of an interesting topic / impactful part of our life, we only occasionally post about DID and our experiences with it. While it was the original purpose of this blog, as a depiction of our healing journey and what healing with DID can look like, we decided we would rather just post about whatever sparks joy in our life. As a result, rather than much content on DID, you will likely see things relating to the topics below. PLEASE feel free to send asks about ANY of the topics below. We love to talk about things.

We are Buddhist (primarily non-theistic; mostly non-denominational, largely Zen) and we really enjoy it. We particularly like the philosophy and do practice it. Admittedly, we identify as being god awful Buddhists, but thats okay cause its part of the process.

We love research and plan to go into it when our ducks are better aligned. We particularly love research and literature around developmental psychopathology, trauma, dissociation, animal behavior, and the more abstract neuroscience topics (particularly consciousness research). We likely won't post much on it as overtly here because I don't enjoy talking science on tumblr much because most people (in my experience) don't actually want to talk about research as much as they want to prove their point.

We are avid bird watchers and regularly document / photograph the birds we see and upload them to ebird. We really enjoy it as an activity and social engagement and really love sharing that joy and knowledge with people. We actually have a minor in Avian Science and have been tested on North American ID skills. We also know more than we need to about chicken biology as a result of said degree. If you want to send anything about birds, bird watching, or asking for a bird ID (even non North American), they are ALWAYS welcome and you are ALWAYS allowed to tag us in any bird related content.

We do a lot of creative work and have dedicated ourselves (without writing partner) to a large story world project that we've been writing for over a decade now. We actually specifically started grinding our art skills in 2020 specifically just to help build that world up. Art is one of our largest self soothing coping mechanisms. We are going to turn that story world into a comic and a TTRPG system so please check out @thedevaaffliction.

Overall, we really just like thinking about a lot of topics and things as part of both our interest in research, philosophy, and as part of our Buddhist practice. We don't really find an interest in arguing discourse / syscourse because we really dislike and see very little benefit in debate. That said, we love to discuss experiences, thoughts, feelings and perspectives on complex topics and as long as the intent is to discuss and share rather than to "win" or "prove", we really enjoy that sort of enrichment in our life so we do welcome it. That said, we withhold the right to deem any conversation as more debate than discussion and to abandon it.

Additionally, related to the fifth point, we believe in being fully transparent about our past and admission that we were wrong as we think it is very important to be able to re-evaluate your beliefs and opinions and grow. In our mid teens we actually were pretty far into the alt-right pipeline and until about a year or so ago, we were staunch anti-endos. These days we are basically commies and very pro-endo. If anyone has any interest on how we pivoted so hard in our opinions on those topics, we are more than open to talk and discuss it as well as any insights we pulled from the experience.

Also we love martial arts - I forgot that cause I'm not particularly XIV brained rn but we REALLY enjoy martial arts.

We suck at being labeled and having labels. We're just very very queer.

--------------

DNI:

People who put on their socks/shoes in the order of Sock-Shoe-Sock-Shoe

That's about it. We liberally block, so we don't really worry about DNIs. If we don't like your content for any reason, we will remove it from our dash. Whether or not you want to interact with us is up to you past that point. Generally, we welcome anyone to follow as it can make for good conversation.

[alicelufenia]

Some more post-MSQ Dawntrail thoughts

Having unlocked the other 2 level 100 dungeons, I'm so glad to say one of the less hyped but still best parts of the expansion has been the DUNGEONS! They actually require you to pay attention and put some thought into mechanics. I've never been this excited to do expert roulettes. The 91-99 dungeons aren't slackers either, 95 was the first major bump in difficulty for its final boss.

I also cleared the normal raid series last night, all four fights were quite fun. So far all of the fights in this expansion feel like the bosses are much FASTER in their actions than in either Shadowbringers or Endwalker. My static will be starting Savage week 1, so I'll have to see what the tankbusters are like this time around. This expansion, tanks have SO much mitigation, and it wants you to use it even in normal content, so I can only imagine what it's like in Savage.

Speaking of high end difficulty, I haven't done either Extreme yet. I'll be farming Ex1 with my static this Saturday, maybe Ex2 if we can make it.

Also I hadn't made it clear the last post, but while Wuk Lamat is my overall favorite character, I really adore Erenville and his role as the regular guy constantly put upon this whole journey.

Poor guy just wanted to travel home to visit his mom, only for his hometown to get swallowed up in a lightning ball, time dilated into ruin, and his mom is a floating tv, wait no she's dead, wait no her MEMORIES have been uploaded to a virtual fantasy world, wait now she wants you to euthanize her and the rest of the virtual people there-

Honestly he handles it all way better than I would, absolute trooper

But I genuinely feel that he and his mom, Cahciua, are the lowkey MVPs of the second half, if not the entire story and its thesis on death and acceptance. For only coming into the story more than halfway through, Cahciua had such an incredible impact, and Dawntrail wouldn't be the same without her.

It's funny, but thematically appropriate too, that the expansion called "Endwalker" is about finding a reason to go on when sadness and sorrow takes over, while "Dawntrail" is about truly coming to terms with an End, about learning to let go and to move on. Because it's only by doing so that you'll bear witness to a New Dawn.

[bro3256]

You should check out Famidaily - 1041 episodes of every Nintendo Famicom cartridge release

Today marks the end of the longest running chronological YouTube series on a video game library with over 1000 releases. RndStranger has been uploading daily episodes of each Famicom release with new episodes dropping daily hence the name Famidaily (Famicom daily).

The series covers the often overlooked history and library of the Family Computer or Famicom for short. Documentation in regards to these 8-bit games on the English side of the internet tends to be in favor of the context of the NES rather than the Famicom. This has resulted in a very western biased history in regards to Nintendo's 8-bit console history and in many ways Famidaily illustrates just how different the game industry was in Japan compared to America and Europe. Not only that but a lot of Famicom releases which never saw the light of day outside of Japan are practically unknown to the rest of the world.

Each episode of Famidaily is 5 minutes on average with shorter episodes being less than 3 minutes and longer episodes being around 8 minutes or more. He then describes the content of the game, how its played, and most importantly the historical aspect and reception of the particular game in Japan. There is a surprisingly amount of influential releases, truly great games, and downright awful train wrecks that are covered in Famidaily that you almost never hear anyone else talk about which makes this such a fascinating series to watch. Considering the reputation of the NES in English speaking circles it's actually insane how little the Famicom gets brought up considering the influences those original releases left that did make their way outside of Japan.

These videos are not only fun to watch but they are an extremely useful resource when it comes to not only researching these games but also understanding the library and particular releases which makes playing and collecting them much more fun and interesting. If you popped in a lot of these releases with no context I'd imagine you would have trouble figuring out how to play and even if that isn't an issue just being able to get the proper context is truly refreshing.

Easily one of my favorite episodes hands down goes to Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti. Outside of Japan this game is well known as a hidden gem that was exclusive to the Famicom. But this episode highlights a story that I am shocked nobody else has ever brought up considering how historically important it is when it comes to the relationship with Namco and Nintendo at the time. It's notably Namco's final Famicom release for a good while after their original licensing contract expired with this game releasing just one day before said contract was set to expire. Understanding this also helps to explain why all of Namco's previous 1989 releases turned out the way they did. You truly learn something new when watching this series.

That leaves us to today on November 7, 2023 where the final episode of Famidaily was released covering the final Famicom cartridge release Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Jima IV, better known as Adventure Island IV outside of Japan.

I cannot recommend this series enough, it's absolutely worth your time even if you aren't interested in playing a lot of these games. RndStranger does plan on continuing to upload daily videos for the rest of the year and in 2024 he has plans to cover the Famicom Disk System with the series Year of FDS.

To wrap this up, I might as well mention the total runtime of Famidaily. On average it will take you 116 hours to be caught up with the final episode and that is not counting the dozens of bonus episodes that have also been released alongside the regular daily videos. So go out there and learn something new about Nintendo's original 8-bit cartridge machine and its library. You won't regret it.

[tame-a-messenger]

too long for comment so I am going into ask box again

I am kinda sad how the handled sword AF so far in general and are STILL handling it. Even if the answer is "hey, we are not sure when sword AF will return/we are uncertain about the future of it in general,". It would be so much better to get than just silence. Also, I get that it kind of underperformed, and it must be one of the most expansive things to produce. So yeah, it kind of underperformed slightly in a Smosh context, but it had SO FUCKING MUCH FANWORK. Like, fewer people cared about it, but the people that did care A LOT. Which, like, you can tap into that to finance it. For example, I feel like sword AF merch would perform really well.

We can't know, but if we are not getting Sword AF for financial reasons, that would be so stupid. Because I don't think it has to be that way.

This is all just wild speculating when it comes down to it, and the reasons are definitely more complicated that (time is very likely a BIG factor as well)

Typically, I am really not a fan of guessing and speculating based on so little, but because it is about a show, I give myself a pass haha

*Rattling at the gates of Smosh HQ, "WILL SWORD AF RETURN FROM THE WAR???"

(Additional thing: In a way it was kinda funny they announced that sword AF wasn't going to happen hours after it was supposed to drop. Like were they actually surprised people cared about it??? Haha. )

That's what I find so disrespectful about all this. They haven't said a peep about Sword AF since they delayed it.

I understand that the views didn't do SUPER amazingly well, but they didn't do worse than a lot of other content they've put out? The first ep of S1 got 1.4mil and over the whole 9 eps it got a total of 4.7mil views? (I'm including the "Movie"-comp of all the eps - it had 403k)

The least viewed video (weirdly) is the final ep. I think it's because a lot of people fell off watching it. Keep in mind, they uploaded episodes every two weeks, which I'm willing to bet is a big reason why a lot of people stopped watching.

I feel like most first seasons of D&D campaigns don't start out with crazy views, it's expected to gain traction the more it goes on? That's how I feel.

I agree that running a D&D campaign does take a lot of effort and (from what I've heard) takes a lot of world building and really is a huge time sucker, I can see how they would want need more time to work on it (giving only 3-4 months to write a whole season in-between doing voice over/other freelance work sounds like a lot) so wanting more time I understand. It's just that they haven't given any updates or talked about it AT ALL, that's what's really weird.

SO many people love Sword AF! There was so much fan art! and everyone was talking about it in fan spaces!

Like it was so loved! and I know a lot of table top/D&D people are LOADED, and they would 100% buy even the worst looking merch because of how much they liked the series! (I would by something with Rumpum on it! That sounds so fucking cute!) so I don't see there being any real reason not to do a S2 except either they don't have the time to write it/or are just generally really busy, or some totally unknown reason behind the scenes??

At the end of the day it is just really bizarre to me that they haven't mentioned it at all? like not a peep?

"(Additional thing: In a way it was kinda funny they announced that sword AF wasn't going to happen hours after it was supposed to drop. Like were they actually surprised people cared about it??? Haha. )"

(Was it not the exact time it was supposed to be uploaded? I remember waiting for it and seeing the community post notif at the exact time it was supposed to drop? or maybe 15mins after? either way-)

That was such a slap in the face. It hurts worse now that it's been enough time that I can be certain there was NO WAY it was even close to being finished (or maybe even started?) They really waited till the absolute last- no, PAST the last second to let us know it wasn't dropping. What a way to shit in the face of the people that cared.. (I literally cleared my schedule to be able to watch it and was waiting for the clock to hit 1pm (I live est) thinking I was gonna spend at least an hour watching the new ep.. I can only imagine how many other people had gotten stuff set up to watch, that got fucked with.)

I do want a S2, I want them to say something about it at least. And they BETTER apologize about how they handled it.

[hwd405]

Spyro 3 - The GameSpot Build and Lost Media

I've been actively researching and documenting early builds of Spyro 3 for something like 7 or 8 years now, and while I feel like I've made a significant impact, there's always going to be people that have never seen any the content that I've helped to document - so, every now and then, I get the urge to infodump about one piece of my research to a new group of people, to help make sure that the documentation I've done isn't only known to a very small group of people... that'd defeat the purpose of documentation, to an extent, I think.

Sometimes, outreach ends up being extremely important to the research and preservation of prerelease content - and this is no better exemplified than with Spyro 3's "GameSpot build".

On June 23rd, 2000, several websites and publications revealed early previews of Spyro: Year of the Dragon - this date was probably some sort of online embargo date.

The "April preview", an early build which seems to match the one used at E3 2000, was used by most of these publications. A few of them, according to accounts from those that wrote the previews, received exclusive gameplay sessions from the likes of Mark Cerny - these previews apparently took place quite close to the embargo date and certainly would have used a later build than the April one. We know that IGN received one of these sessions (but, according to the author of the preview article, was allegedly unable to record gameplay during this session, which resulted in IGN having to use the same build everyone else did in their preview articles), and it's a pretty safe bet that GameSpot did, too. In GameSpot's case, we actually got to see what this build looked like:

As expected, it's a later build than the April prototype - this one seems to be from around the same point in development as the earliest demo disc version, though we're not sure if it's an earlier build or a later one. Three main characteristics stick out in these screenshots:

We don't ever see what the eggs looked like in this build, but the fragments use this bizarre ornate gold texture.

The HUD uses a green egg sprite similar to some of the eggs seen in the April build; the earliest demo disc version also uses this sprite.

For some reason, transparent polygons are a solid black colour, making some screenshots look sort of ominous and weird.

Perhaps the weirdest thing about this build is that the gold egg fragments it uses, which to most players would be completely unrecognisable and unlike anything they've ever seen before, actually do appear in the final game. And they hatch from every egg in the entire game. In most cases, the fragment flies off screen before the player can spot it.

The earliest demo build, which seems to be from around May 25th, 2000, does not include this texture at all, which has called into question the timeline placement of the GameSpot build. On one hand, they might've used the final egg texture momentarily, switched to the gold one, and switched back, accidentally leaving one of the textures intact. On the other hand, there have been cases in many Spyro builds of random early assets weeding their way back into the game via means that we don't really understand. Look no further than the August 27th, 1998 localisation prototype of Spyro the Dragon, a post-final build which inexplicably re-uses an early Gnasty Gnorc model, textures, and animations, from around 2 months earlier in development:

The info we have on this build doesn't just stop at screenshots, though! GameSpot kindly uploaded 5 videos of the build - labelled "Movie 2" through "Movie 6" (thanks GameSpot. that's not confusing at all) - to their website. Most of these videos were later temporarily put behind a paywall, and in 2014, 4 of these videos were deleted during a server move, with only Movie 2 (the one never put behind a paywall) remaining. The one movie that remained didn't even play properly in GameSpot's video player for years, so I had to download the video from the API to view it at all:

While the video is an important piece of history, and did reveal to us that the early Sgt. Byrd theme heard in some old IGN videos of the April preview had a previously unheard guitar section (this was prior to the public release of the April preview), it doesn't tell us very much new about the build. If we really wanted to more precisely date the build, we'd need to know what the eggs looked or sounded like - but the egg collection section was entirely cut from the video. As of yet, we just don't have this information.

As for Movies 3 - 6? These are now lost media. They were up on the site for 14 years, we know that people saw them, and I suspect there were people that downloaded them. However, since they were deleted nearly 10 years ago, nobody has come forward to say that they have one of the videos and to show what was in it. Anyone that does come forward with this info should be met with some scepticism, of course, but I think the only way we'll ever see more of this build is with a greater outreach and more widespread knowledge of the missing videos - the videos were readily downloadable from the website, and so someone still has the videos, I'm sure.

And before anyone asks, yes, the WayBack Machine has been very extensively searched for these videos - we can't find them, there's just no trace of them on there.

Judging by the video descriptions, Movie 3 would have focused on Bentley, Movie 4 on either Sheila or Agent 9, and Movies 5 and 6 on Spyro gameplay.

I've only ever encountered one person who claims to have seen these videos, and whether they're to be believed or not, they claimed that one of the videos showed Sunny Villa using Fireworks Factory's theme (levels using the wrong themes was very common in early builds of these games! Additionally, Fireworks Factory's theme is very likely to have been present around this point in development), and another showed Agent 9 gameplay using a track that didn't sound very Spyro-like, but more like "something from James Bond".

When the April preview released later on, it was discovered that early Spyro 3 builds actually do have a number of entirely non-Spyro themes, all by µ-Ziq and Propellerheads, left unused in their soundtrack data. The tracks in these builds seem to line up with the levels present in an earlier build of the game, and by this metric, it seems that "Spybreak!", a theme from the Matrix soundtrack, would have (fittingly?) lined up with Agent 9's Lab, and possibly would have been used in that level in internal development builds. Sure enough, my contact agreed that this was the theme they heard, when I sent them the track - if this is indeed the case, then this build is very very weird indeed.

It remains to be seen whether we'll ever learn anything new about this build, but we can only hope. I've linked to an archived 7z file containing all the screenshots uploaded to GameSpot below, as well as a link to a TCRF article detailing some of the known differences spotted in this build:

Archive.org

TCRF

[sleep-toxins]

An intro by Noah!

Hello! I am Sleep_Toxins, or Noah (ig you already know that). I am not too good at art (but I art anyway), and I have finally made my way onto tumblr! Please use he/him or even they/them for me please :]

I will try and upload semi-regularly on here or whenever I have time or have stupid ideas that I need to dump somewhere. Sometime here soon, when and if I get it figured out, I will do commissions and stuff. For now, though, I will kinda just draw anything ig

I may also do small writing prompts, small stories, or fanfics on here sometimes, but considering this is mainly for art, it may not be too often that I do this. Consider them a small treat, I suppose. Also, please keep submissions and whatnot SFW because I am a minor, and I do not want any of that on my page. Otherwise, knock yourselves out.

I will be doing stuff mostly surrounding the DreamSMP since, even after four years, I am still hyperfixating on it heavily. I will also post stuff surrounding my own characters and my own stories as well, yadda yadda, you get the gist.

If you like my art and want to post it somewhere that I have not posted it myself, please give credits or, even better, ask me (if you can) beforehand. Posting art without permission or credits to said arts' creator is not nice and actually does more harm than good. So again, I implore you to not steal art!

Additional note, I do not support Wilbur Soot or the things he's done. I have decided simply to separate art from the artist (only for Lovejoy and his character on the DreamSMP). I will, just like people do with many other bands in the face of controversy, continue to enjoy their music and create content surrounding it.

Thank you :3

[wander-wren]

got another bot-spam comment on ao3, but this one is extra weird. let’s do some investigating!

for those not in the know, The Haunting is my dark whumpy “todoroki gets adopted by aizawa” fic. it’s also 60k words long. so right away i’m doubting this person read it. that plus the generic vibes? bot comment. but i’m also pretty sure i’ve heard of this channel before, specifically because it wasn’t crediting authors. hm. so i go check it out: http://www.youtube.com/@DnWhatIf

first of all, these are the videos i’m greeted with:

now, i don’t want to bash anyone’s taste, but this is so extremely not my thing. nooooo way. some of these read more like crackfic, which is fine, but tonally the difference is SO much. and just makes it even more glaringly obvious that they aren’t reading the fics they’re spamming or even giving them a cursory once-over (or putting strong filters on the bot? i’m not clear how bot comments work)

because this is the first thing you see about The Haunting:

i’m guessing, if it wasn’t completely random, it’s the fact that i tagged izuku as a character. and really it’s just lazy, the whole thing. it’s all bots. ai art in the thumbnail, ai voice reading the fic, bot making comment spam for you. zero respect. if this was an actual podficcer i would consider it! hell, i might even accept ai voice readings (MAYBE), if it was obvious there was a human person who cared behind them. it could certainly be a tool for good, since podficcing isn't very common (we love you podficcers. if i had a little bit more confidence i would be one of you).

but anyway, hang on, lets back up a step, because the whole reason i looked into this was the credits issue. the video “what if deku became a teacher at ua” (ugh) (i hate the title gimmick also) is going to be my guinea pig.

so in the little intro (also done by ai), it says “all credits to their respective authors” which, yikes. however, they do link to their permission statement and the fic in the description, so it….could be worse. but also, these are the comments

(and it continues like that for a bit)

the channel name also has a 4.0 after it [edit: it did when i started this post, then i got distracted for two days, and now it is gone. hm], which implies they’ve had a lot of trouble with keeping it up. so it seems likely that this is the channel i heard about stealing fics, they just finally learned to get permission and give credit to try and keep it up this time. the permission statement on this video is real (i wondered if they would just link to something else and assume no one would check), but even THAT author references being “freaked out” (positive?? unsure) when they heard of people finding their story on youtube. before giving permission to upload with credit. so that’s not great

also this sludgepit of content is absolutely the thing that attracts people with no patience clamoring for updates literally one day after the video goes up. go figure. bad vibes all around.

also, if you’re wondering about the quality of the reading (i’ve stumbled on some pretty good ai voices as of late!), it’s, uh. i don’t actually know about how all this works, but i feel like when you pick a voice to read a story it should at least be able to approximate character name pronunciation. and flow.

but alas.

i also don't want to bash the authors in question but the truth is from the very minimal poking around i did (not giving this channel any more of my time than absolutely necessary), the writing featured is....mediocre at best. which is fine and good for the fandom ecosystem and i will NEVER be anything but happy that people are writing and posting less-than-perfect works, especially since some of these premises are pretty unique and i think it's better to have the fic than not. we all start somewhere, fanfic is an excellent way to practice and get feedback at the same time, etc.

but these channels, these kinds of operations, they're going to prey on new and young authors and that's who is going to be saying yes to them. because they want the exposure, they want to be told their work is good enough for someone else to care to record it for youtube, they haven't been around long enough to recognize this for what it is: someone taking extreme shortcuts to get views and likes and a bit of notoriety off of other people's work. and that's shit.

and remember that youtube videos can be monetized!

now, i doubt this channel in particular has been monetized, although it does meet the minimum requirements as far as numbers go:

it shouldn't meet the requirements for the monetization policies, specifically these ones:

especially with the disclaimer in the beginning that the content is not their own--which might be why previous versions of the channel did not give credit. who knows.

however, youtube DID just have some scandals about people making videos that were pretty much entirely plagiarized, which were monetized, so i don't have the highest hopes in the world. still, it doesn't seem monetized, so no strikes against this particular creator for that, at least, but defo something to look out for if anyone ever brings up hosting podfics on youtube.

so yeah, bot spam, not a complete scam this time but definitely really sketchy, bad vibes all around. and i still kind of want to give them permission to use my fic just to see what would happen, lmao

[styrmwb]

Favorite Final Fantasy Music (FFXI - Add-ons and Bonus)

FFXI week finally comes to a close, and this is the part where I pick songs that just didn't really quite fit in any single expansion, or cases like the extra add-on content which were really their own thing and even are listed separately on the title screen. Absolutely could not have done this game justice doing just one list, and this was a great time for me to relive some nice memories from me playing this game I definitely did not want to reup the sub nope.

There's also technically probably another section I could make on this, but I actually haven't played the new Voracious Resurgence content, so I don't wanna do that part dirty and just pick shit without literally any context. Anyways, let's finish this up so that I can actually increase the number after FF.

5. Dolphin Any XI fan will tell you: the hardest part of the game isn't losing levels. It isn't the gameplay, it isn't the bosses that take hours and hours and actual cheating to beat, it's fucking installing the game. This is because FFXI has its own special launcher that Square Enix was gonna use but then proceeded to only do with XI called PlayOnline. It is absolutely a product of its time. But you know what it does? It gives you BANGER TUNES TO LISTEN TO. FOR NO REASON! You're sitting there installing the game? Here's a bop. You're just trying to log in and you're frustrated that your password doesn't allow capitals? Here you go. This song will make you feel better. Dolphin is the song that always plays whenever I open my PlayOnline launcher to play FFXI. And you might say: "Styrm, this isn't a game song, why is this in the list?" and to that I say: It's in the official soundtrack. And PlayOnline is such an integral part of the FFXI experience that I would argue that it IS part of the game. That's why it's here. Love this shit. Please do yourself a favor and listen to all of the PlayOnline songs, cause I'm not gonna fill this list up with 'em.

4. Iroha First funny thing; I cannot find an official upload of this song, so I'm using the version they put in the FFXIV soundtrack cause it's also there identically. This is the theme of Iroha, the main heroine of Rhapsodies of Vana'diel, the essential finale/wrap-up storyline of the entire game. The reason I like this song, is I think less for the song and more what it reminds me of. I do love the soft piano and the empty backing, the very tense and sad sounding BIM bum that keeps playing; but most of all, this makes me think of that character, and how much the storyline really just was a letter to fans from the devs saying thank you. It's somber, yet beautiful. There might be songs that fit this feeling better, like the ending theme, but this is the song that does it for me.

3. Distant Worlds Something that stinks, is that I can't find a good honest upload of this song. Everything official is either the Distant Worlds orchestra version, or the Black Mages version, which, to be fair! are both good. So let's hope this unofficial version doesn't get taken down lmao. Another technicality with this, is that this is technically the ending theme of Chains of Promathia; but, it was introduced later, and it really feels separate? It's kinda its own entity, also only being in bonus soundtracks. It's really beautiful though. Taking that main Memoro de la Ŝtono motif, but turning it into an ending theme that almost befits the entire game. Not only do I love the main melody, I am a big fan of the warbly sort of sound that plays a lot, cause that really gives this song that XI feel rather than just being a nice vocal track. You ever wanna assassinate me just start playing this and I'll be paralyzed

2. Provenance Watcher Another very strange case of "I didn't know where to put this song". This is the final boss theme of the Voidwatch story, which was more like in modern senses a patch story to Wings of the Goddess? But it again very much feels like its own entity. Add on the fact that the song itself is in the Seekers of Adoulin soundtrack and I was just like "Ok you're going with the rest of the weird off cases". Either way, love this song. The beginning strings rhythm is such a cool sound, and then add on the really low horn for that sense of foreboding, befitting the Giant Fucking Dragon Creature you are fighting. The build up for this song is amazing, and uses all of the classic FFXI instruments you know and love by this point. My absolute favorite part of the song is midway through after a lot of the instruments have kinda stepped away for a slight flute bit, and then it blows up with this amazing sounding bit with the entire orchestra. I can't quite do it justice with my words, but hopefully you'll know when you hear it. Also can I just say shoutouts to the Naoshi Mizuta tambourine????? It has no right to go as hard as it does in this entire soundtrack.

1. Shinryu And here we are. The final XI song in my lists. This is the final boss theme of the Abyssea storyline, which is split up into 3 separate parts. Shinryu in this game is essentially the bad timeline version of Promathia (Abyssea as a whole is a sort of bad timeline in a way). The song starts with this incredibly menacing brass orchestra, one part giving you this heavy almost percussion like vibe, and the other part giving you the main sort of melody in the start, absolutely perfect for this literal end of the world dragon. Then it gets fun. The actual percussion comes in with a really fun beat, the orchestra starts the meat of the song, feeling like a really fun and triumphant final battle. And my favorite part? The out of nowhere hopeful sounding bells and strings that sound almost heavenly, they sound heroic, like you're going to save this doomed world. The song goes back into more menacing, like Shinryu is beating back, giving me more of that Dragon Quest IX sound I love. After a really cool loud hit rhythm, the drums do this amazing offbeat section that gives the song a really fun vibe, then going with a sort of royal sounding section featuring a flute/horn duet, and finally, into the grand finale where everything comes together to play off the song, having the heroic vibe from earlier; you are winning. You are going to save the day.

Honorable mentions this time are: Filter branch (this is also PlayOnline music lmao), Wail of the Void, Rhapsodies of Vana'diel, Luck of the Mog, Feast of the Ladies, and even though I've pretty much already mentioned it in this series, gotta give it up for my boy Main Theme - FINAL FANTASY XI Version.