#I am actually not sure if I am able to use the new editing-thing on tumblr from my laptop? :/

[quitedisastrous]

my mom told me i almost got diagnosed with autism as a kid (she says i wasn't officially diagnosed because the diagnosis wouldn't have been useful so i guess my symptoms were so on the fence that they didn't push for it) which. like i'm 100% sure i have autism but holy mackerel. she couldn't have told me this as a kid???? it's a good thing i'm both logical and oblivious so i didn't spend too much time thinking "something is wrong with me. what the fuck is wrong with me" but like. what the fuck?

[power-handmaiden]

Chuck Tingle interview

OK, here is the FINAL 2024 Tingles My Butt post, which I've been pretty hyped for. I still kind of can't believe this. While I was figuring out how I'd move on from 2024, @drchucktingle generously offered to answer some questions of mine to commemorate the end of my tingler project! Here they are!

-Considering that your process for tinglers is just to write it out and not stress about proofreading and editing, was it weird for you to see someone decide to go back, examine, and contemplate every single tingler published in the past decade?

the whole dang project was really wonderful for me, for exactly the reason you have just said. tinglers are very STREAM OF CONSCIOUS and only edited with one quick pass so while i think this adds to their honesty and rawness it also means that my time with them is limited. really watching someone go back through them at this depth was like reading a diary that i have not opened for many years, and it jumps around through time in a very beautiful way. it was very moving

-I love tingler character names. I personally admire how many great ones you come up with. (I never know what to name my ttrpg characters.) You just come up with all these great names that seemingly spring from nowhere, how do you do it?

DANG great question cant believe i have not been asked this before but yes there is a type of name that shows up in the tingleverse that is unusual and has a certain feeling and cadence that is very specific. if i am trotting along with sweet barbara and there is a name of a product or a place or something that has this tone we will say ‘oh thats a tingleverse name.’ the reason i wanted to do this in the books was as a very subtle way of saying these stories exist on a timeline that is RIGHT next to ours, so in some ways it is exactly the same as our world but there are these little cultural differences with things like chocolate milk and spaghetti and then with the names. you will have buckaroos like justin and sarah trotting along next to buckaroos named corb torbins-quill or borto lart.

-So, as a reader, reading from 2014 to now, old tinglers and new tinglers feel different to me. I believe you when you say tinglers have always been sincere, but they feel MORE sincere than they used to be. Like, I feel like there was some self-consciousness and irony in some of the early tinglers that you've since let go of and embraced the Chuck Tingle voice more. I don't know, am I imagining this, or does this square with your tingler writing journey? If it does, what has that process been like for you?

i think you are absolutely correct. the intention with tinglers was always to be a place for me to express myself with complete sincerity, but the practical way of HOW to trot like this took a bit of an evolution to arrive at. in other words i knew the basics, but actually refining the best way to express yourself and perform your art takes time. maybe in the same way goin back and watching season one of a tv show can feel very different from season three, even though they are part of the same expression. 

similar thing happened with in my chuck PRESENTATION as well, where my main focus was to stay anonymous so the metaphors i used to talk about my life were still true but laid on much thicker. even my attire was a large gi so that you would not even be able to see my shape, which has obviously changed now because i wear suits these days. all of this was a process of starting in a place i knew was important to me and then peeling off the parts that were not helping the message or expression over time

-Is there anything you could tell us about the significance of Borson Reems? I feel like he's more than just another Buck Trungle/Chuck Tangle/etc but I'm not sure what exactly...

yes borson reems is god. not that i believe in GOD in the way that most buckaroos talk about god (i am agnostic) but within the tingleverse, borson reems is an avatar for the creator of that world. technically i am borson reems, because i am writing the books. the question is: are we all the gods of our own little worlds that we create? i do not know, but when i look around at my buds and the joy and love they bring to various timelines they sure seem like gods to me

-A lot of no-sex tinglers (especially ones that aren't romance-focused) vary in terms of plot and structure a lot more than erotic tinglers. Is your writing process for these stories any different?

same process actually, but the sex scenes in tinglers are about 1500 to 2000 words long, and total tingler length is 4000 words which means if you are not including that portion you are going to have to come up with some creative way to fill that space in the story and a new axis for story to turn on. so the variety comes from me getting creative and trying out different axis points

-In "Not Pounded By My Book "Pounded In The Butt By My Non-Fungible Tingler That Is Literally This NFT" Because Of The Current Catastrophic Environmental And Ethical Impact" there are references to an earlier draft of the story that was never released because you ended up disagreeing with the message. Are there any other tinglers that never got finished and/or published, if you'd be willing to talk about any of them?

oh this is a VERY good question. the story of the NFT tingler is that when buckaroos were first talkin on nfts online and nobody really knew what they were, my first thoughts were just ‘oh this is interesting what the heck is this?’ this is my way with most CURRENT EVENTS. and i thought ‘this would be an interesting tingler, i suppose maybe i should make the tingler an ACTUAL nft’. this was in VERY early days so i did not really even understand what an nft was (neither did 99 percent of buckaroos yet honestly). so i looked into it just enough to actually MAKE a nft tingler that was a real nft and put it out. lasted for about thirty seconds before buckaroos were messaging saying ‘oh this is bad chuck you should look into what this is’ and i DID look into it and thought’ oh yeah this is terrible nevermind’. i took down the original and thought ‘well THIS is what art is all about. this is where i thrive in a world of moving living art that is in communication with itself’. so i dove into the research and actually started to understand NFTS and then i repurposed the story into a strongly anti-nft tingler and put that on out instead.

as far as OTHER tinglers that kind of move and breathe and live like this, in communication with the audience, GAY T-REX LAW FIRM is another very good example. that one i wrote early on and i think it was kind of in the model of something like fifty shade of grey, where issues of kink and consent and communication are not really handled well. i think at the time it came out the story was okay, but as time went on it always kind of bothered me and finally i thought ‘i love art that exists in the REAL WORLD and changes and evolves, so lets rewrite that story and fix some of these mistakes.’ honestly it is something i wish more artists would be open to. its okay to let something hold strong against a changing timeline, but it is also okay to explore what its like to take the notes that time gives us

-This one is about Chuck Tingle that exists in deeper layers of the Tingleverse that operate on tingler logic: what does the location inside his/your butt look like?

probably a nice mid-century modern home up in laurel canyon neighborhood of los angeles. kind of quiet and small like a cabin but also very cozy, like the kind of place where you would put on a crosby stills nash and young record on vinyl and gaze out into the woods for a while then walk down the hill for dinner at a little cafe where you spot some actor from a 60s tv show also having dinner in the corner booth. this basically sounds like the start of a tingler and in that tingler i will say the actor would be a bigfoot.

-OK this one is very self-indulgent but if you could help settle this frequent point of discussion I have with my wife- where do the following fit in the Tingleverse bigfoot/dinosaur/unicorn/living object(/human/does not apply?) taxonomy?

-a ghost of a regular human

-a regular human vampire

-a human/fish mermaid

-a sentient winged horse

-a sentient centipede large enough to wrap around a mountain several times (she is handsome)

alright lets trot through these. a GHOST is not one of the four tingle types so you can have a ghost racecar or a ghost unicorn or a ghost bigfoot. ghosts are outside of the four types and do not have a classification

a VAMPIRE is also outside of the four types. so you can have a vampire bigfoot or, of course, a vampire night bus. does not strictly fall into any of the four main categories

MERMAIDS are technically a long lost species of unicorn I DONT MAKE THE RULES I JUST EXPLAIN THEM. this makes the MERMOPED tingler a little confusing but i had to pick a category and that one went into living object. now that i mention it possibly the only tingler that is technically a double category of unicorn/living object.

WINGED HORSE is easy, thats a pegasus which is a species of unicorn just like a mermaid

a SENTIENT CENTIPEDE LARGE ENOUGH TO WRAP AROUND A MOUNTAIN is an ancient creature, therefore dinosaur tingler

-My other self-indulgent question: do you have a favorite bug? (Or second-favorite if you count Mothman as a bug)

i love finding spiders in the house and giving them a pet because they are doing a good job livin their lives doin their thing. close second would be a pretty ladybug

-Any thoughts on what tinglers will be like in 2025? Do you expect to be writing a lot of political tinglers again, like post-2016?

honestly i really do not like writing specifically political tinglers anymore, and the amount that i write has gradually dropped over time (i think ALL tinglers are political but in a different way). so honestly i think i will write a few political tinglers but not many. my hypothesis on this is that my HORROR NOVELS are very very political and so maybe i get a lot of these ideas out of my system that way now. when it comes to tinglers i just wanna explore my OWN mind and heart and butt more

THANK YOU for these wonderful questions and thank you for your tingler-a-day project it was so moving and powerful. what a treat it was an honor to be a part of something so beautiful. THIS PROVES LOVE IS REAL

[j3lly-fish]

☽ Halo Horns Set ☾

I am beyond nervous to post this but... here we go... my very first mesh! I actually didn't intend to have that orb at first, so it was an added plus LOL. Would like to thank @/gloomiegalaxie and @/azeterna for helping me through the process and being so patient with me! I hope to make a lot more of this, as I slowly become more and more comfortable with blender.

THESE HORNS ARE BIG, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SEE ALL OF IT IN CAS AND I AM SORRY LMAO (lower cas poses may save you here)

Swatches under the cut!

Additional info:

All LODS

New Mesh

Polys: 2400 (Orb is 480)

Disallowed for Random (At least im 99% sure I fixed that)

Discover University mentioned because brow rings are only in that pack, but I was told this wouldn't be an issue. Just slapping the warning IN CASE

Known issues: Both items use the hat texture slot, so things like hats will definitely conflict. If you can't find some of my cc in your game, its likely you'll need CAS Unlocks for it (like occult detail slots)

TOU: Recolors and mesh editing is allowed, but please just link back to my original mesh! ♡

✦ DOWNLOAD (SFS) ✦ | ✦ DOWNLOAD (PATREON) ✦

Dividers by anitalenia

[thebramblewood]

As storytellers, realism and continuity are important to us, and they're sometimes hard to achieve within the confines of the game. I’m personally a big fan of posing Sims in open doorways, and unless you want to be limited to the CC options that exist, you’re stuck having to make some poor Sim walk in and out and pausing at just the right moment for the desired effect. But it’s actually very easy to edit a door in Blender to make your own open version!

I initially learned about "posing" objects from surelysims' Wicked Whims posing tutorial, which I highly recommend as a whole. However, it might be a little overwhelming to learn a whole new posing system for the sake of a screenshot or two, which is where this tutorial is meant to come in. Some of my explanations might seem overly simplistic, but I wanted it to be approachable even for beginners. I am far from an authority on using Blender or making CC, and I'm sure there are flaws in this process or easier ways to achieve certain things, but it works well enough for my purposes and I hope it will work for yours too. 💗

Now, onto the tutorial...

Figure out what door or gate you want to create an open version of. If it’s from the vanilla game, all you need to do is make note of its name. If it’s CC, find the package in your mods folder, make a copy, and paste it into My Documents > Sims 4 Studio > Mods. This will allow you to find it in S4S in the next step!

Open S4S. On the main screen, make sure “Standalone Recolor” is checked under the “Object” button, then click the button.

A new window should pop up (if it’s your first time doing this, it may take a while to load). At first, it will show every single object in the game. If you know the name of the object you’re looking for, you can use the search bar to find it. You can also use the filtering options to narrow the selection down by category, game pack, and whether it’s vanilla or custom content. Here, I’ve filtered the search to only base game doors. Once I find the door I want to adjust, I click on it and hit “Next.”

This will pop up a window prompting you to save a new file. Place it somewhere you know you’ll be able to find it easily later and name it accordingly. This file will ultimately contain your mesh edit, so you don’t want to lose it! I suggest placing it in a dedicated folder, on your desktop, or in your Mods folder directly.

On the next screen, you’ll be looking at the contents of the package itself. For this tutorial, you don’t need to worry about grabbing anything but the mesh. Click on the “Meshes” tab and then “Export Mesh.” You’ll again be prompted to save.

Open the mesh file you just saved in Blender. (If the view is funky to start, I recommend hitting 1 on your keyboard’s number pad to get a forward-facing view.) [It should also be noted I’m using Blender 3.6, so my screenshots and the location of certain settings may be different than in earlier or newer versions.]

You’ll see that there are actually multiple meshes involved (and the number can vary from object to object). Right now, we’re only concerned with the “rig.” If you’re familiar with posing, you’ll know that all Sims have a rig that is used to move different parts of their bodies around. Objects also have a rig, and objects that can open will have “bones” that control their moving parts. So click on “rig” and then change “Object Mode” in the bottom corner to “Pose Mode.”

Now, if you hit A on the keyboard, it will select all bones and you can see where they’re located. As far as I can tell, all doors have two bones that control their swinging movement. They both do essentially the same thing. I tend to stick with the top bone, which is called something like “bind_doorSwing.”

Pro-tip: If you’re having trouble seeing or selecting the rig's bones, you can change the view on the right side of the screen to “dope sheet.” Then when you save the position of the bones, just like when posing a Sim, by selecting all with A then clicking I and selecting “Location & Rotation,” the list of available bones will pop up there.

Rotate the door open using this bone or bones, if it’s a double door. On double doors, I recommend rotating each side individually rather than trying to rotate them together, as you may get unexpected results. You can use the R+Z combo on the keyboard to limit the direction of movement. (You can also use this in combo with numbers to swing them more precisely. For example, if you want a 45 degree swing, you can press R+Z+45.) Specifying the Z axis allows you to only swing the doors open and closed while restricting their movement in other directions.

Once you’ve got the doors swung open to where you want them, hit A to select all bones, then hit I and select “Location & Rotation” to save the position. (If you’re a poser, this maneuver is already familiar to you - and you know how important it is! If you skip it, the new position won’t save and the doors will revert back to closed.)

That’s it! You don’t have to do anything else to the mesh. Save your file in Blender. If you want to keep it separate from the original door mesh, save as instead and name it something different. (This is why you may want a dedicated folder, since the number of files does add up!)

Reopen the package you made earlier in S4S (or simply return to it if you’ve kept it open). From the same place you exported the mesh, you will now import the edited mesh. Hit “Import Mesh,” navigate to your edited Blender file, and you should now see your edited door replace the original. Since it’s the same mesh, all the swatches will still work perfectly with it.

You’ll notice that you’ve only replaced the “LOD 0 (High)” version of the mesh. When you click the drop-down menu, you’ll see that there are also medium and low detail versions, as well as shadow meshes at all levels of detail. If you’re only making an object for personal use, you don’t have to worry too much about LODs. You can probably just import the same mesh into LOD 1 and LOD 2 and be fine (so long as your computer isn't a potato). And if this is just for you, I honestly wouldn't even touch the shadow LODs.

The only other thing you might do is go back to the “Catalog” tab and alter the object name so you can find it easily in the game catalog. You can also edit the description, price, etc. if you so desire. Hit “Save.”

Test in game! If the package isn’t already in your Mods folder, move it there. As long as you didn’t mess with any of the tags, it should still be in the door section of build mode and work perfectly as a functional door. The door swinging animation will look different, and you could probably get rid of it if you wanted, but that’s above my current skill level and I don’t think it’s really necessary for our purposes. If all you need is an open version of a very specific door for storytelling purposes, it gets the job done.

(First screenshot: doors swung open as intended, second screenshot: doors swinging in the opposite direction as they’re walked through)

These steps can also potentially be used to create open versions of other in-game objects like gates, books, chests/boxes, etc. I’m only just beginning to experiment with minor mesh edits, but once you get the hang of it they can often be faster and easier than trying to line up the best circumstances to get the perfect shot in-game. I might make more tutorials for small edits like this that help with storytelling realism and continuity in the future!

[sweetestcaptainhughes]

ring camera chronicles - Nico Hischier

Word Count - 1700

Requested - Yes

Author's Note - Even if someone requests it I think this will be my last ring camera type fic. I am someone who hates reusing ideas for different players, and it was really hard to come up with 7 original ideas for Nico. But anyway enjoy and thank you for reading.

Warnings - none

Summary - Seven times that Nico's and your ring camera caught cute 'mundane' moments between you both.

Masterlist

Being Nico’s girlfriend naturally meant that you sort of organized lunches with the other wags and tried to keep up to date with them. At first you hated it because you weren’t an influencer, you had a normal job and being a planner wasn’t part of the job. But after a while you did become close friends with a few of the girls including Jack’s girlfriend. Who was now sitting across from you as she updated all of you on her latest mess with having a ring camera. All about how she didn’t want Jack to catch her having all these packages so you went to sneak them in, and got Nico and Luke to help her. Only to find out in the moment that she actually used Jack’s card and he really didn’t seem to care. The entire table was crying in laughter, especially when you mentioned that Nico was still a little salty about it 2 weeks later. Luke’s girlfriend went on to say how much she loves having her ring and how it catches so many cute mundane moments that people tend to forget about, plus it was fun to mess with her boyfriend. Deciding in that moment that you also wanted a ring doorbell to be able to mess with Nico, all you had to do was convince Nico. 

Once you got home you shyly mentioned to Nico, “ hey Neeks I was thinking why don’t we get a ring camera?” He doesn’t even look up from playing with your puppy and says “okay.” 

“Wait really?” The shock is clear in your voice. 

Still playing tug-a-war with the rope toy and currently losing, he answers “ yeah if you want plus it makes sense I mean I have one at home for our other flat it makes sense to have one for here. Especially since we are out of the country for 3 months a year.” 

“Wait, there is a camera for your place in Swittsland?” Generally shocked that you somehow didn’t know this information. 

“Yes. Did you think I didn’t have cameras if I only lived there 3 months a year? Anyway I’ll order some tomorrow.” As he gets up, and kisses you on the head before he goes to the bedroom to get ready for the gym, leaving a hyper puppy who wants to play and a shocked girlfriend behind. 

1.) One last thing

It’s something neither you nor Nico even realized that you did. But when it came to those roadies that he would leave the apartment for, rather than you drive him to the airport. Somehow whether it was 5 in the morning or 5 in the afternoon, you always would run out the apartment and almost tackle him for one last hug before he would leave. Snuggling your head into his chest. He would snuggle into the crown of your neck and you would whisper something about having safe travels and good luck. It didn’t matter if the roadie was for a weekend or two weeks you always ran out of the apartment calling after Nico saying “one last thing” before you tackled him for your hug. Once you got a ring camera you noticed and you asked your videographer friend to edit all the clips together so you and Nico could keep it and watch it back.

2.) I”ll always got you

“Baby, are you sure you wanna wear those shoes?” Nico asks as you both get ready to leave to meet the rest of the team and their significant others done the street at the local bar. 

“Yeah, why aren’t they cute?” as you check your outfit one last time doing a twirl in the mirror that’s in your little makeshift foyer of your apartment. 

“I’m not saying your new shoes aren’t cute, they just aren’t broken in and I don’t want your feet to hurt later.” He admits coming and wrapping his arms around you. 

“But their sneakers.” you whine. 

“Yes sneakers meant for fashion” he argues. 

“Says the man who wears Jordans when he goes hiking.” To which he gives you a knowing look and you don’t want to get into the fact he’s “built differently as a European.” Even if it’s 100 percent true because that evaluation ain’t meant for the weak even in the cities. 

“I’ll be fine.” you whisper as you both exit the apartment. He jokingly looks at the ring camera and says “you got that right she will be fine.” 

Now a few hours later, the ring camera picks up you guys coming home and you were in fact being carried by Nico at this point. A very sweaty and out of breath Nico. In your tipsy state all you could do is laugh as you attempted to unlock the door, at Nico literally hands on knees trying to catch his breath. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be a professional athletic Neeks.” 

“Professional athlete does not mean I should carry a very tipsy girl who wouldn’t stop shifting her weight almost a whole kilometer home and not be out of breath.” he counters and all you can do is chuckle finally getting the door unlocked. Nico looks directly at the camera and says “I just wanna state for the people, that she was in fact NOT FINE with those shoes.” 

“Neeks what people only we have access to the footage.” you giggle.

He rolls his eyes and although you’re not sure what he said you know he cursed at you in Swiss German under his breath as you both stumbled into your apartment.

3.) Baby it’s here!

Nico came up from the mailroom with a giant package in his hands. He's so excited he rings the doorbell even though he knows your at work because the care package finally arrived. 

“BABY IT’S HERE!” not caring how loud he sounded to his neighbors. “Ooo I am so excited I know she set some of my favorite Swiss chocolate and other candy too.” Nico had the biggest smile on his face, you swear when you watched it back on your break he looked more excited then a toddler waking up on Christmas morning to see what Santa left him. 

Deciding to text him to tell him not to eat too much before dinner even though you know there is really no point because, when it came to candy from home and Nico he will always eat as much as his sister is willing to send in one sitting

4.) Are you alright?

Nico gets a notification while he is away on a roadie for “movement in front of camera.” Since he was already dressed and ready for practice he decided to check the notification. He noticed it was you coming home at an earlier time than normal and you didn’t look good. Immediately he’s Facetiming you in the locker room, making sure you have everything you need and even doing a Doordash CVS order to your apartment with a bunch of different flavors of gatorade and Mucinex. Nico has his full pout because he is very worried about his girlfriend who is getting sick and the fact that he is 2000 miles away. 

5.) You didn’t see that

 After being exhausted after a long day of work and running a bunch of errands. The last thing you wanted to do was make multiple trips down the elevator to the parking garage to get all the groceries, your work bag, your lunch box and purse. Of course as soon as you pass the mailroom you see that you received a few Amazon packages. Again deciding one trip was better than multiple you somehow balance the boxes and make your way to the elevator. But of course as soon as you get to the front door as you're trying to reach for your keys to unlock the door everything tumbles. Without even thinking you deadpan to the camera   “ you didn’t see that.” But then you wince because of course you hear Nico’s loud laugh through the ring microphone. Of course in that exact moment he decided to check to make sure you got home okay since he knows you have anxiety driving at night when the roads are icy. 

6.) Shhhh will you some people are sleeping!

After coming home around 2 AM due to a delayed plane because of bad weather he finally comes home from his weekend roadie. Of course the ring camera starts to record as soon as it detects motion, recording how slow Nico is being trying to sneak into the apartment. But of course he somehow forgot about your 10 month Bernese Mountain puppy who starts barking at the top of his lungs. Running to attack Nico because he was so happy that “dad was home.” Of course the camera caught everything including Nico cursing in German for his failed attempts. But then he’s picking up your very big puppy trying to get him to quiet down because “hey don’t you know its 2 AM, your mama trying to sleep bubs.” . The next morning when you see a new notification on your phone from ring and you see Nico trying his hardest to be quiet you can’t help but chuckle and your chest swell a little at how sweet Nico was trying to be and how adorable he always is with your guys puppy. 

7.) Give me my puppy update

Everyday when he’s away on a roadie he demands to see an update on how much your little 20 lb Bernese Mountain puppy has grown on his way back in from his morning walk. He loves it when he’s actually able to catch the update in real time and talking through the camera catching how confused and excited the little puppy is because he hears dad’s voice but doesn’t see him. After a while attempting to pick up the very big puppy becomes such a struggle. It becomes Nico’s favorite part of his day watching you try to pick up the little rascal because he really only likes it when Nico picks him up. He loves hearing you complain to the dog that you are picking him up to show him to Nico. But every single time all the puppy does is schrick in refusal and you huff finally giving up. After 3 days in a row when your dog was around 10 months of that same pattern you told Nico that he’s going to have to settle on videos because fighting this dog to participate everyday in your daily vlogs was taking longer than it actually was to stand in front of the doorbell.

[landososcar]

packing it up ; LN4

— pairing(s) ; college hockey player!lando x figure skater!reader

— summary; in which lando's transfer to a new school not only brings him a new team, classes, and friends, but a girl who will change his life forever.

— warnings; not edited, i'm not american, im also not a figure skater so there's probs plenty of inaccuracies lolll

chapter one — prev … next

⸝⸝ ʚ 𖥔❆ ! ⌗ °•˚❆ ˖⋆*ೃ ༄

“did you hear about the new hockey guy getting transferred? oscar was saying he’s like the best college player in the country” lily and i never really talked about hockey unless her boyfriend and his friends were around, yet here we are. the mention of the sport easily piqued my interest and my eyebrows raised as i wiped down the bench-top that separated my best friend and i.

“why would the best in the country get transferred here… of all places?” my question sounded like a dig at our schools team, and whilst that may have been my underlying intention, it was true. our school hadn’t won anything to do with team sports in decades, and we weren’t about to start winning again anytime soon.

she pulled her phone out of her pocket whilst muttering something about showing me the new guy because he’s starting when break finishes. “i don’t understand — why’s this so last minute? school goes back in three days?”.

she shook her head at my question before explaining that “it’s not actually last minute, they’ve been planning the transfer for a couple months but oscar forgets to tell me important things like this”. it made sense but now i didn’t understand why this was considered important to lily.

the confused look on my face must have prompted her to continue talking because she gasped and squealed “oh! i didn’t tell you - he’s gonna be oscar’s new roommate! the two boys have already planned to go out for dinner the first night after his transfer so they can get to know each other a little better” as the words were leaving her mouth she turned her phone towards me.

the screen was lit up by an instagram account and before i got a proper look, lily stated: “his name is lando! he’s cute isn’t he?”. my hands grabbed her phone to focus more on the photos he’s posted — many hockey related, but more importantly, a couple of shirtless ones.

lily calling him cute was an understatement; i’m pretty sure that he’s the most beautiful man i’ve ever seen in my life. i shook myself out of the trans i was in — yes he’s adorable, but lily would never let me live this down. lily can’t know how cute i think this man i’ve never met is. lily can’t know that i want to steal her boyfriend’s new room mate.

but i either overestimated my ability to hide the growing crush or i underestimated my best friend’s ability to see straight through me. she squealed! she actually squealed and gasped and pointed her manicured finger at me — simultaneously! “oh i am so setting you two up, you think he’s fine- oh my god i need to tell oscar he will definitely help me set yo-“.

“you are not telling oscar a thing!!” i whisper shouted, although it seemed pointless as the few left over people in the cafe had already given us harsh looks due to lily’s squealing after her ‘groundbreaking discovery’. if oscar knew, he’d tell lando, and i would never be able to come face-to-face with the new boy if he knew.

lily scoffed at my objection but i kept talking before she was able to try and make up a story about why telling her boyfriend would be a good idea, “as if lando would even car. he doesn’t know who i am and he’s the best college hockey player in the country so he definitely wouldn’t care about me when there’s probably thousands of girls begging for his attention.”

the eyes staring into my soul narrowed and i could tell she wasn’t happy with something that i said. “okay, but you’re different,” she continued before i could argue about how insane she sounded, “firstly, you’re the hottest girl in the countr— do not shake your head at me, i will slap you— secondly, i don’t care if he’s got hundreds of girls begging for him because he obviously doesn’t care about them-“

“so why would he care about me?-“

“thirdly, i have something those girls do not— my boyfriend, aka, an in!”

“you’re insane”

“and you’re coming to dinner with us tomorrow night after he has moved his stuff into oscar’s room!” the legs of her chair were scraping against the floor and before i could protest, the girl was flying out the door of my workplace, “i love you!”

she had to be kidding. i couldn’t go to dinner with him, i can already see me making an absolute fool out of myself.

⸝⸝ ʚ 𖥔❆ ! ⌗ °•˚❆ ˖⋆*ೃ ༄

it was hard to focus on the way my skates slid along the ice when all i could think about was this dinner i was being dragged to. i don’t know where we’re going and therefore, don’t know what to wear, not to mention i have to face oscar when i was absolutely certain lily had told him every detail of our conversation from yesterday. normally, skating helps distract me but it wasn’t helping at all today.

my attention was grabbed however, when the bulky doors to the school’s skating arena clicked open. i spun and turned to look at who walked in but heard his voice before i could see him.

“i figured i’d find you in here” jax, my skating partner’s voice echoed around the mostly empty building.

jax and i have been skating together since we started middle school. eventually, he got a scholarship for silverbrook university and we decided i had to do everything i could to join him at our now shared school. if i hadn’t gotten into silverbrook, jax and i would have had to find new skating partners, which would have basically resulted in us starting from scratch with new people.

skating in pairs takes an awful lot of trust and chemistry — i need to be able to completely rely on jax’s ability to fling me in the air and catch me before i go crashing to the slippery surface beneath us. and i do, which is why jax and i are such a good skating duo.

and while i’d trust him to throw me ten feet into the air, i wouldn’t trust him with my lactose intolerance. that probably sounds stupid but jax and i know each other on the ice — if someone asked me what his middle name was, i wouldn’t be able to tell them.

i consider jax my friend but i don’t think i’d go out for dinner with him. “hey jax! are you coming for a skate?”

i noticed jax’s usual smile slightly falter and i could tell something was off. the boy was known around campus for the smile that practically never left his face — well, that and the fact he’s the best figure skater in the state. before i could ask him if something was wrong, he blurted out words that almost sent me ass up from where i was standing on the ice.

“i’m going solo — maria and i thought it would be good for me to step away from duo skating for the next season”.

saying i was upset that my skating partner and our coach was ditching me would be an understatement. but the worst part is that i heard the words ‘next season’ come out of his mouth. next season, as in the season that started with the school year. next season, as in the season that had competitions beginning in three weeks.

“you’re fucking with me, jax,” the thoughts racing through my mind made it impossible to say coherent sentences to the man in front of me. “jax, you’re ditching me and taking our coach! what the fuck am i supposed to do? am i supposed to just find a spare figure skating coach and partner off the street? you guys have completely fucked me over! i can’t believe this.”

the words poured out of my mouth before i could stop them and i couldn’t find it in myself to regret them. there was nothing i could do to save myself from the predicament that two of the people i trusted the most in this world had put me in.

i got off of the ice and put my blade guards on as quickly as possible before storming directly past him. i had to regulate my breathing so i didn’t have a panic attack right there in the locker rooms. i grabbed my phone out of my bag and went to message lily but stopped myself.

i couldn’t tell her how much of a hole i had been pushed into. especially not when she was probably at oscar’s house, helping the new star skater move in.

⸝⸝ ʚ 𖥔❆ ! ⌗ °•˚❆ ˖⋆*ೃ ༄

it should be made known that i have the tendency to be late to things, no matter their importance. so, when i texted lily that i was going to be a couple minutes late to dinner, her quick response of ‘okie dokie x’, showed that she expected nothing more from me.

as i stepped into the restaurant, my nerves tangled with the lingering emotions of the day. it felt like my confidence had been shattered on the ice earlier, but i plastered on a smile, determined not to let it show. my focus was on getting through dinner before begging lily to spend the night at our dorm rather than her boyfriend’s so we could debrief.

“look who’s finally here!” lily's voice rang out as her eyes found me, her smile as bright as ever. i smiled at her apologetically but her face didn’t show anything but a smile for even a split second.

i walked over, exchanging quick hugs with lily and oscar before turning to face lando. up close, he was even more attractive—his bright smile and confident posture radiated an easy charm. when he pulled me into a hug, his warmth caught me off guard.

“it’s so nice to meet you,” i said, my voice betraying a little of my nervousness.

as an overthinker, i’d spent all day worrying about how awkward this dinner was going to be but as his arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me into a hug, i’d never felt more comfortable meeting someone.

“yeah, you too!” he replied with a grin that seemed to light up his entire face. he smelled faintly of fresh cologne, and i scolded myself for noticing.

as we all sat down, the conversation flowed easily. lando fit seamlessly into the dynamic, his easy banter with oscar balancing out lily’s usual exuberance. i tried to relax, though my mind still wandered to the mess jax and maria had left me with.

“so, y/n,” oscar said as he passed me a menu, “lily and i were telling lando about your figure skating.”

at the mention of skating, i felt lily’s eyes snap toward me. my stomach twisted, but i forced a smile. “yeah, i’ve been skating for a while now.”

“she’s amazing,” lily cut in enthusiastically. “you should see her perform; she’s unreal.”

“wow,” lando said, looking genuinely interested. “what kind of skating do you do? like competitions?”

“pairs skating,” i replied, trying to keep my voice even. “competitions mostly. it’s... a lot of work.” i let out a breathy chuckle, trying to stop my voice from breaking – doing anything to stop myself from breaking down in front of my friends and the new boy i’ve just met. there was a pause as i took a sip of water, and i saw lily’s brows furrow slightly, sensing something was off.

oscar, oblivious to the uneasiness in my voice, nodded appreciatively. “lando you should come watch her next comp; lily and i go to as many as we can – you can join us!” lando nodded eagerly but stopped when lily cut her boyfriend off.

“–is everything okay, y/n/n?” she could tell something was off at the moment, and as much as i didn’t want to burden oscar and lando with my new skating drama, the way she asked made it impossible to brush off.

i hesitated, but under the weight of their collective stares, the words tumbled out. “jax decided to go solo. and maria’s going with him. he only just told me this morning.” i let out a heavy sigh and it was clear that neither of the boys knew what to say in the moment.

lily, however, refused to stay silent and gasped. “what? that’s insane! with the season starting so soon? what are you supposed to do?”

i shrugged, my gaze fixed on the table. “i don’t know. figure it out, i guess.”

“that’s a jerk move,” lando said, his voice tinged with anger. “to leave you hanging like that? who does that? especially with the season so close.” i sent him a grateful smile and he continued talking, “i’m assuming the season starts at the same time as the hockey season, yeah? that’s like three weeks away… what a dick move!”

i glanced at him, surprised by the intensity in his tone. his expression was sincere, his brows furrowed as if he genuinely cared. “thank you, lando,” i murmured, “it’s fine though, i’ll just have to make it work”.

“you’ll figure it out, y/n,” lily said, her voice firm. “you’re too good not to.”

i nodded, appreciative of her faith in me, though i couldn’t quite share it. the rest of the dinner passed in lighter conversation, but i couldn’t shake the warmth of lando’s defense or the nagging question of what i was supposed to do next.

lilyzneimer added to their story!

⸝⸝ ʚ 𖥔❆ ! ⌗ °•˚❆ ˖⋆*ೃ ༄

[gummilutt]

It's been a while but I am back with another creation! I am very excited to share this with you, because it builds upon the work of a much beloved modding duo and I love being able to contribute to work by others in the community :) If you are a user of Sun&Moon's Loads O' Laundry, have you ever found yourself wishing that your Sims would have to do laundry if they wanted access to clean clothes? I love giving my Sims chores to do, I have to do them so they do too. And in this case of laundry, I wanted their hard work to mean something by actually needing the clean laundry for something. So I created an add-on to the original, that gives dressers a clean laundry count! Now your Sims use of them is limited, and they require restocking with clean batches of laundry to be usable.

This mod is meaningless without Loads O' Laundry, which recently got an update that you can read more about here. However, the two mods are entirely separate, mine is an add-on that alters dressers. The overlap is that it uses the clean laundry pile object from Loads O' Laundry.

What the mod does - Dressers now have a clean laundry count visible to you (except some CC, see more info below) - Dressers are given a default clean laundry count of 10. Easily changed in BCON if you want a different number. Your Sims dressers will start out with this amount, both those already placed and newly purchased ones. - When your Sim uses the dresser to change their clothes, outfit change count reduces by 1 - When clean laundry count hits 0, the menu option to change clothes disappears. Your Sim has no laundry in it, so they can't change their clothes! Does not affect dressers on community lots. - All dressers (except some CC, see more info below) gain access to a new put away laundry menu, with a custom interaction to take clean laundry piles in inventory and add them to the dresser to stock up outfit changes. Available to children, teens, adults and elders.

Here is a little video showing off how it works and looks :)

Unfortunately this mod has some conflicts, and I apologize in advance for the fact that this makes downloading it a little confusing for users. I have made compatible versions so you can use it with these mods, but you'll need to figure out which version you need based on what you use. The two conflicts I am aware of is Inteen, and PregnancyWearAnyOutfit. Update: Originally conflicted with Picknmix's Specific Clothing Racks, but I have now added compatibility with that mod in all versions, just make sure mine loads last and both will be okay.

There may be other conflicts I am unaware of. Please note this mod edits text strings, which means you'll need HCDU+ to check for conflicts I may have missed. The original HCDU does not scan for text string conflicts so it might miss some. Please let me know if you find any, so I can update the information :) Now, on to the links!

If you do not use Inteen or PregnancyWearAnyOutfit, download the regular version

If you use Inteen, but not PregnancyWearAnyOutfit, download inteen compatible version here (my mod must load last!)

If you use PregnancyWearAnyOutfit, but not Inteen, download PregnancyWearAnyOutfit compatible version here (my mod must load last!)

If you use both Inteen and PregnancyWearAnyOutfit, download the version compatible with both here (my mod must load last!)

In addition, I have a second version that I made specifically for ChocolateCitySim (whom you'll find streaming Sims 2 every sunday on her twitch channel) that allows Sims to change to their pyjamas and underwear even if their dresser is empty, as a sort of "I'm out of some clothes but not others"-thing. I have not made conflict-compatible versions because it's confusing enough as is, but if you'd like the idea of this version you can get it here. Can't be used with PregWearAnyOutfit, load order will not help, you either get my mod or theirs. Can't be used with Picknmix's Specific Clothing Racks, the menu's will look weird and laundry counter will act wonky. Can be used with Inteen if loading after, though your teens will lose the ability to do romantic interactions in AL closets.

Other conflicts: JellyMeduza has their own version of this mod which offers compatibility with some mods that I do not, so if you have a conflict that isn't covered here, I would check out their post and see if perhaps it is one of the mods they added compatibility for. There are some other minor differences in functionality, but the general gist is the same :)

If you'd like some place your Sim can always change their clothes, in case of emergency, I recommend my edited towel racks that allow your Sims to change to everyday, formal and pyjamas.

Compatibility with CC dressers Unfortunately, depending on how the dresser was made, some CC ones will not be compatible with this. Depending on how much it conflicts, some may give you 10 uses before they become unusable, others will immediately be unusable. Most likely to happen in older CC, made back when it was commonplace to move pie menus to private levels. But fortunately, regular dressers with no custom functionality added are very easy to fix. I have written down instructions that you can grab here, and I also made a video tutorial here. I am very brain foggy so it might not be the clearest I've done, but hopefully it is enough to help you figure out how to do this to any dressers you use that aren't compatible. If you really can't and you desperately want to use both, assuming I am in decent shape health-wise I can help you fix it.

Please note that this method should not be applied to dressers with custom funcionality, such as the Numenor/MaryLou object that lets you buy clothes at home. Their original is unimpacted by my mod, it won't pick up on the mod but they retain their prior functionality. HugeLunatic's 4t2 versions based on Numenors were incompatible, but HL was kind enough to update her files so that there is no longer an issue. If you use her gorgeous wall-mounted dresser racks from GoS, please re-download the files. I'm not aware of any other custom functionality dressers, but if they exist they are likely to be incompatible as well. I am not making a tutorial on how to fix them as it would depend so much on how they are made, so if you have one, please let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Recommendation: There is a weird game error that is triggered by some mods, I don't know why but I know Laundry Mod is one of them (because I myself got it, and I know others that have as well after getting it). It occurred to me that some of you might end up getting that mod because of my add-on, and I realized I should preemptively address it. The error happens in the Community Lot Populator, and is of the type "Index passed to Manage Inventory out of bounds." The in-game behavior (if testing cheats is off) is that no customers show up on owned businesses. Fortunately, Chris Hatch has a mod posted in a random comment on MTS that will fix it. You'll find it here.

Credits: @sunmoon-starfactory for the original Loads O' Laundry creation that this mod builds upon, some of the code in this is repurposed from the original creation's hamper mechanics, so thank you for both the idea, the reason to make it and parts of the code :) Fireflower also kindly provided dutch translations for the new strings. @kashmiresims for testing and feedback, finding parts I had missed including, as well as hyping up the creation on her twitch streams under the name of Rachums. @picknmixsims because he teaches me so many things and a lot of what I make today is using things I learned through his help answering questions. He often helps me when I run into problems, and I lose track of which creations he directly helped so he gets a shout-out always! @nikkasimms for the awesome posed I used in the thumbnail, love your poseboxes! Rachums and picknmix were also kind enough to assist me a little with the videos, splicing stuff I couldn't myself :) Thanks guys!

[wings-of-ink]

Checking in - Author Updates - Quick Poll

Hello all! I hope you are all doing well!

I wanted to check-in. I don't have a ton to say on development, just wanted to keep you in the loop on where I am at personally since it tends to affect production speed. I also have a question for you at the bottom.

As I've posted about before, this year has brought about some challenges for me. There aren't a ton of good developments on that front, and my job is being...difficult. The (technical) good news is that I am still employed, but some days I wish I weren't. (I'd much rather be writing IFs, lol.) There is still uncertainty about the future of my job because it is at the mercy of the whims of my government. But what is more pressing currently is that my employer has opted to treat its employees worse (let me tell you, this is a feat because they've never really treated us well), by making our lives and jobs harder. I've made some "worst-case scenario" plans to prepare, so I'm just getting by one day at a time. Oh...and I also have needed to work overtime again, so that's another time suck there. Ugh. In May, I'm taking a couple days of off for me to rest.

In more recent news, I am doing physical therapy...yippy! In recent months I have struggled with my right shoulder. I assumed it was one of those "you're in your late 30s" pains, and I just dealt with it. Don't do that, by the way. I have a very bad habit of just doing with little regard for pain and discomfort. But, it got difficult to hug without pain, and nothing messes with my huggin'. We really don't know what is wrong with my shoulder/arm, but I'm doing virtual (oooh shiny) PT (not the Silent Hill variety) to hopefully correct the issue. If I don't see results, I will need expensive tests and scans. No worries currently, though, I don't think this will slow me down much at all. I can still write and I don't experience any discomfort when I do.

I'm also still working on a coding class, which is self-paced, but I'm sticking to a lesson schedule to make sure I get it done. I would really love to be able to make improvements of my own to GC or even make my own Twine Template someday.

So, in more fun development news, Chapter 6 is growing steadily. And so is Chapter 5, technically. If you missed it, check out this Tumblr ask where I talk a bit about that. The ask and answer contain some slight spoilers for Ch 5 & 6, but nothing too specific.

Chapter 5 is up by a bit over 1500 words, if you're curious, and Chapter 6 is up to over 69k words. I am wrapping up a big moment for Zahn, which might be a bit heavy. After that, there's a more fun moment, which will present a few coding challenges for me, but I'm looking forward to it. *rubs hands together like housefly*

Finally, I have a question for subscribers or those who may want to sub in the future. I find myself wondering what else to post about at times. Especially when I have inordinately busy weeks, I just can't think of things that you may want to see other than peeks at the chapter. I sincerely wish I had more time to add more projects. I have so many ideas kicking around in my head...

So, I was wondering if you were interested in seeing things other than God-Cursed that I have worked on. These would be things that may or may not become much of anything later, so I wasn't sure if there would be much pull to see them (or if it would just be a cruel tease, lol). I have an incomplete IF that I did to help me learn Twine a couple of years ago. I used it to just get acquainted because I am very much a hands-on learner. It's a humorous and simple story (loosely) based on an actual time in my personal life. I have debated about finishing it. I have a couple of others as well where I was playing with a story idea to see how it felt. I also have a complete romance novel which I am slowly editing for publication.

Patreon, Ko-fi links if you want them.

So that's all for me. If anything big happens, I will let you know! ^_^

Take care, everyone!

~Lunan

[ravenstargames]

✦ LOST IN LIMBO DEVLOG #17 | 04.01.2025

March has flown by! This month has been plagued with irl work, but I'm personally really happy with the progress we've made! I'm currently sick as I write this because my body always decides it's funny to get sick when my workload gets the worst; my cat has kicked me out of the bed so he can have it all to himself, and here I am! On an important note, we'll be sharing a roadmap soon with our plans for the Extended Demo release. We are still aiming for a June release, but with Raquel getting a full-time job, there are some changes that have been done to the workflow and workload of the team—more on that along with our roadmap, coming in a few days, hopefully :^)

Now let's jump into March's devlog! 💜

This month Raquel has managed to pull off two expression sets, Raeya and Envy's, and I've coded them accordingly! Now while taking the screenshots I've noticed a few things that need tweaking, but nothing major. Here you have a beautifully blushing Raeya because she deserves some love! 💜

Remember that the Layered Image Tool we use is made by the amazing, ever kind-hearted Feniks!! 💜

Also this dude.

(Maybe this gif looks like a**; it shouldn't, but pre-edit readers beware of the possibility of it happening)

(Update: The gif looked lika a**)

Airyn started working on the next background, the first you'll see in two different times of day! I'm really excited to see it finished. Sadly, we're saving the preview of those for our Kickstarter folks, so I'm afraid the public will have to wait a bit more to see them :^)

She has also polished the background you see above, which some of you might recognize from the early days! There's a bit more storytelling going on, and the lightning has been modified to better represent early morning. She's also fixed some objects, added more, and overall enhanced the River's kitchen!

Here on the writing department we (meaning I) are almost at 70k words. That's more than 20k words of extra content! Which is great!

I still am not finished. There's a whole scene for Ara left to write, a few choices to tweak, and the new prologue ending, which will lead you to the route selection. I'm also trying to implement choices people have been asking for while keeping them organic and make them work. The "I want to kill myself" choice is one of them, haha.

I want to finish everything this month so Allie can take a look at the script during May and fix my Spanish oopsies.

We have patchnotes now! We mentioned this two devlogs ago, but here's the real deal. Thanks again to Feniks who helped me figure out the code; whenever the demo (and in the future, the whole game) updates, you'll get a pop-up notification with the changes. You'll also be able to access the patch notes via a new, sparkly button added to our previous ones! :^)

Also, I programmed our Kickstarter backers' special thanks! This was three or four days of me writing these by hand because it was more comfortable than CTRL+C and CTRL+Ving. Don't ask me why, I just felt way better doing it that way! There were some folks who opted out of having their name displayed, and they get a special thank-you too if you scroll down! :^)

Our composer, Tomás, has been working on our soundtrack; for the Extended Prologue we needed two tracks and they. are. done.

Not absolutely completed as Tomás wants to check them again and actually produce the high quality, finished version, but they are sooooooo cute. Agh. Tomás is working so hard and we love the tracks so much :`)! As I'm writing this, he sent another track, haha. He's the absolute best, so please make sure to support him and his work if you can!

Also, I have been fighting with our manufacturer for some reasons (more on that on our Kickstarter update, as this concerns them the most), but everything should be alright as of now. Hopefully we'll have the definitive proof of our pins after the changes we requested!

As for our irl whereabouts, this month has been specially hard on me due to my PhD courses beginning all at once, but I'm managing! I also have had to write three papers (I'm still writing two of them) with my colleague (and friend!) with a very tight deadline, so I'm dedicating most of my time to that.

On a lighter note, this month I have been taken off my OCD meds! After a year and a half of therapy and meds, I'm finally ready to tackle things without the help of medication, which is as scary as it is exciting. I'm not quitting therapy, though! Not until I'm ready.

Raquel is also getting used to her full-time job, which she's thankfully enjoying! Things are still hectic for her as her day is basically cut in half, but she's confident with a little more time she'll be able to juggle everything efficiently. As a team, we have already talked about what this means for LiL and for Ravenstar, so more on that on our upcoming roadmap :^)

And that's it! Phew! Can't believe I've managed to pull this devlog off in a day. If there's more typos than usual, then you know why, haha. Now I've got to tackle the Kickstarter version, which includes more stuff and our merch update, so I'm off to work on that!

I hope you have enjoyed this devlog, and as always, thank you so much for your support, your kindness, and your patience. It means the world!

Let's talk soon! 💜

[magnetokisser]

ALL I CAN SAY IS I'M SORRY. (1/2)

request: hii! could you do a fic of mark grayson x reader? If you’ve watched s3 ep2, could you do where instead of mark having the earpiece hurting him, it was the reader? i wanna know how he’d react to that, maybe cecil done it since he’d know it would hurt mark emotionally more rather than doing it to mark himself.

a/n: im sorry i took so long to answer this! I was waiting until the final episode came out to binge everything, but then i kept getting tiktoks of the episodes and decided to ensue pain and agony a week earlier. I hope this fits what you had in mind! anyway this might be a two part idk! edit: I literally stayed up till 2:00 am to watch episode 8 and oh my god every season past this one is about to be actually like a punch in the gut. anyway this isn't exactly story line accurate but hey </3

summary: donald was cecil’s number one. you were his number two. you had known cecil stedman since you were a kid, well before he took title of president of the GDA. you had known no life outside of the GDA until you met mark grayson, aka invincible; but you hadn’t known him for long enough to question cecil’s word.

warnings: mark goes through more pain and agony, reader takes a resemblance to dc’s black canary, NOT PROOFREAD, cecil is ever so sneaky. cecil being a manipulative dih 🥀, reader is sheltered and oblivious. mark is kinda mean but reader is also selfish. probably will have a part two, mentions and descriptions of violence.

word count:1k~

the stone cold walls of the pentagon never comforted you, no matter how long you lived there. from the secret experiments to the constant world-threatening events, the building was never quiet. and whenever it was quiet.. you didn’t like it. it was unsettling, like something was always on the verge of blowing up, or something. but all of that changed when omni-man’s son got powers, and when omni-man caused the death of thousands during his attempt to get invincible to join his side. to make matters worse, cecil know that omni-man was lying from the moment he landed on this planet. he never did anything about him, and the citizens of chicago paid the price.

after that fateful day, your world tipped on it’s side. so, you started spending more time with invincible. not as a superhero, since cecil used what left of his power to forbid it, but as people. you enjoyed the time you spent with him, but you were sure you enjoyed him more. he was kind, more caring than anyone you had ever met (possibly aside from atom eve), and he liked you for you– not because you could scream louder than the highest frequency. 

so when angstrom levy attacked mark and his family, snapping debbie’s arm in two and hurting his baby brother, you could see a darkness in mark start to spread. it was amplified by the fact his father had a new family on an unknown planet as well. cecil was hiding things from mark, and while you knew, you didn’t know if you’d ever be able to talk to him about it. both in fear of losing his friendship, and losing everything you knew in the pentagon. so when cecil had called you into the white room telling you that the pentagon was under attack, you obeyed him like a dog.

“what’s going on?” you asked, standing behind him with furrowed brows. something about the older man was off; like he was scared. “invincible has gone rogue. he’s killed by guards, and i’m not sure if he’s going to kill me next.” he replied, his face hardening. this made you frown. 

“kill you?” you repeated, glancing between the ‘door’ to the white room and cecil. invincible? kill someone? it sounded wrong– it didn’t sound like mark at all. but you hadn’t talked to him in months, and the last you heard, he had killed angstrom levy.. but he hurt his family. you didn’t think killing him was entirely necessary, but if you had family, you’d be just as angry as mark was, too. 

“yes.” the older man turned to look at you, his face just as cold as ever. “wait for my signal. invincible isn’t in his right mind, and he’s here to attack me. attack us. when you see him, scream. scream as loud as you can.” he said, taking a few steps back and disappearing. you frowned in confusion. he never told you anything, just expected you to sit when told. 

for a few moments, there was silence. you looked around and sighed, unease settling in your nerves. suddenly, you could hear a loud racket in the hallway. grunting, crashes, and the noise was slowly getting closer. surely cecil was just lying, right? this was either a test or he was completely misreading mark. he wouldn't kill cecil, no matter how much he disliked the older man.

just as you were going to ask cecil to call whatever was going on off, mark– no, invincible burst into the room. though he was wearing his goggles, you could tell his eyes were on you. his shoulders were slightly hunched, and his breathing was ragged. he was angry, hurt– betrayed. “mark..?” you called out, taking a step towards him. “where is he?” he looked around, his breath coming out in short and loud gasps. “cecil? i can’t let you see him.” you shook your head, your lips curling into a small frown. 

“you’re protecting him?!” he exclaimed, his hands balling into fists. “if you would tell me what was going on, i’d tell you why! he hasn’t told me anything either!” you threw your hands out, feeling attacked. there was very clearly something wrong with mark, be it emotionally, physically, or mentally. “bullshit! you knew d.a. sinclair wasn’t in jail! you knew he was here, with cecil and you protecting him!” he pointed at you, causing you to look away for a moment. this, unfortunately, was true. you didn’t agree with it at all, but your own selfishness stopped you from letting anybody know. you fell silent following his accusation.

he scoffed, shaking his head as he took another step towards you. “you’re protecting a murderer, and someone who only wants to protect himself,” he growled. “show me where cecil is, and i’ll think about forgiving you.” 

luckily, or maybe unluckily, cecil stepped in for you. his hands were behind his back, and his gaze bore into mark. “there’s no need for that, mark.” he sighed. on command, about 5 reanimen appeared, surrounding mark. without giving him a chance to talk, mark ripped the reanimen to shreds. it was a scary resemblance to his father. “why would you even need these things?! d.a. sinclair and darkwing need to go to jail. they’re murderers!” he exclaimed, turning towards cecil covered in blood. 

“i need them for protection, mark.” cecil spoke, keeping up a calm front as more reanimen appeared. mark continued to fight them, and while they were doing damage, he was still taking them out. “protection from what?!” he asked, punching one of the reanimen out of the way. cecil frowned, his eyes narrowing as mark took another step towards him. 

“you, mark. i need them as protection from you.” 

mark paused and went still for a moment before his face contorted in anger once more. before you could register it, mark flew towards cecil, his hand wrapping around the older man’s throat. you knew he wasn’t trying to prove his point, but he was trying to deny it in the worst way possible. cecil looked towards you as he gasped for air, shaking his head. 

“mark..” you murmured, slowly making your way towards the two. mark looked at you, his grip on cecil loosening for a moment. “i’m sorry.” you whispered, sighing softly. you took a step back and screamed, letting out a supersonic call. mark dropped to the ground and writhed in pain, curling up into a ball. “that, mark, was y/n’s specialty. paired with your earpiece that’s too far into your brain to reach and a copy of the call that monster you fought, her scream can amplify that by tenfold.” he said, watching as mark got up. you didn’t think it would hurt him. you just assumed that he was literally invincible. but there was nothing you could say now. 

“you.. what?” mark stammered. cecil pressed a button, or something, and the void that was the white room disappeared, showing an army of reanimen. you looked around, feeling a mix of fear and shock. the two men kept talking as you looked around, not knowing what to think. this was getting to be too much for you. just as you tuned back into the conversation, mark tried to fly off, and cecil pressed a button to turn on the frequency. “cecil..” you frowned, talking a step towards him. 

“no, y/n. he needs to learn that his ego won’t get him anywhere. he could turn into his father any moment, and we– the entire planet would be defenseless.” he said, turning it off as he turned to you. “that doesn’t mean you have to hurt him! he hasn’t hurt anybody!” you exclaimed, throwing your arms out. 

while the two of you were arguing, mark made his escape. he left the white room and flew through the ceiling of the pentagon, cecil telling donald to tail mark and take him down before he was out of range. if there was one, at least. you were left standing in the white room with reanimen surrounding you, not knowing what to do. if cecil didn't trust mark, did he trust you? he already had his engineering team create earplugs that would block out your scream if needed, so were you really in the same boat as them, or were you in the same boat as mark.

stumbling out of the room, you made your way through the halls of the pentagon. there were two things you needed to do. get out of here, and find mark so you could apologize. maybe it was time you let go of cecil, anyway.

[wei-ying-kexing-apologist]

Random QL Superlatives: 2024 Edition

Well I see @lurkingshan started the trend, so I better hop on

Most Heartbreaking Use of Weather: Let Free the Curse of Taekwondo

gif by @my-rose-tinted-glasses

I am going to be honest. Korea really fucking came for my throat with multiple shows that wielded weather as a weapon against my emotional state. But Hwang Da Seul absolutely wins the award for destruction of my very soul via snow. I swear to god every time it snowed in this fucking show I was losing my mind over the scene that played out before me. First it was doorways that crushed me (shout out to To My Star 2), and now it’s three snowflakes on Do Hoe’s cheek. 

Most Emotionally Charged Inanimate Object: Ossan no Pantsu ga Nandatte Ii Janai ka (aka No One Cares for an Old Man’s Underwear)

gif by @avorbl

Not a BL but one of the most important stories involving queerness of the year imo. When Makoto went back to that store to buy that wallet for Kakeru I kid you not I spontaneously erupted into tears. This was not the first nor the last time that this show made me bawl like a hungry newborn, but it for sure was one of the best indicators that Makoto was not only beginning to accept, but internalize and reshape his worldview to be more loving and accepting of difference. 

Most Realistic Fight Between a Lawyer and Henchmen: Doku Koi: Doku Mo Sugireba Koi to Naru (aka Love is Like a Poison)

gif by @conscbgb

Step aside Matthew Murdock! There’s a new lawyer in town and he absolutely cannot fight for shit! Honestly an iconic moment in this show to see Shiba Ryo take an offensive stance and then immediately get his ass beat in to the ground because he’s a fucking lawyer, not a goddamn superhero. Also it gives Haruta a wonderful little opportunity to show off his skills and to save his loser boyfriend who loves him. 

Most Important Hand Flex Since Pride and Prejudice (2005): The Trainee 

gif by @namtanlovesfilm

HELLO! I THINK WE MOVED PAST JANE’S DESK GRAB A LITTLE TOO QUICKLY! Seriously, not only was it a great hand scene in general (which you know I live for) but it was also a quick and easy way to demonstrate 1) Jane has feelings for Ryan and is trying to hold back and 2) Jane understands the inherent power imbalance between him as an AD and Ryan’s boss and Ryan as an intern. Zero points for Judy.  

Best Creepy Smile: Dead Friend Forever

gif by @lilitblaukatz

HI HELLO I’M ALREADY YELLING AGAIN! BARCODE! BARCODE TINNASIT! As disappointed as I was with the way DFF ended, I was blown out of the fucking water by Barcode’s performance as Non. From KinnPorsche to here that boy has grown astronomically as both an actor and singer, and I’m really proud of him. He had to navigate a lot of different emotional centers with some incredibly terrible things happening to his character. He was able to make Non extremely sympathetic and also creepy as hell! Be On Cloud lost out big time with Barcode leaving the company. 

Best Use of a Dildo: Knock Knock Boys

gif by @pharawee

Honestly for all the BLs that include sex, we rarely get the acknowledgement that sex toys exist, much less the actual usage of said sex toys. I loved that Almond visited a sex shop, purchased a dildo, and that we got to watch a scene of him attempting to use it. This show was honestly the biggest surprise of the year for me in terms of enjoyment. I wasn’t even really interested in this show but love Seng and wanted to support his work and then this was absolutely delightful and honestly Almond and Latte stole the show for me. Good job boys!

Best Distinction Between Reality and Fiction: BL Drama no Shuen ni Narimashta: Crank Up Hen! (aka I Became the Main Role of a BL Drama)

gif by @itagakimizuki

Full offense to a particular corner of fan culture, the way that the boundaries between real life and fiction have been known to blend when it comes to emotional bonds between fans and famous people can be very toxic and genuinely dangerous to the health and safety of everyone involved. It is difficult for me to think of a show that made me laugh as hard, as loudly, or as often as I Became the Main Role of a BL Drama did, and yet it included one of the most innocuous but brilliant lines of the year when Akafuji realized that his feelings for Aoyanagi were Real and that he could not have those feelings and continue to think of himself as Aoyanagi’s fan. Iconic. 

Best Use of Subtle Foreshadowing: Love for Love’s Sake 

gif by @my-rose-tinted-glasses

Shout out to the sound of water, shout out to some of the opening visuals, shout out to red rimmed eyes, and video game malfunctions that increased as time went on, and shout out to Tae Myung Ha being absolutely drenched after running through the school. Not only were the performances commendable throughout but the story itself was phenomenally supported by hair and makeup, sound, and special effects. I beg you all never to forget the importance of those that work behind the scenes, because goddamn did so much of this show suddenly get darker with context.  

Best Backing Track to Hear Over My Tears: Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna (aka She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat)

Kasuga sitting alone in the darkness of her own car, calling her father and officially, permanently severing ties with her father because she has found her strength thanks to the people she currently has in her life was such a highlight of this year. And of course they really drive the stake through my heart by lifting that entire scene up by having Kasuga walk out of the lonely dark and into warm companionship with fucking ‘Chosen Family’ by Rina Sawayama and Elton John playing in the background. WHAT A PERFECT SONG CHOICE! I am about to cry just thinking about it. Also, I definitely totally did not pause in the middle of typing up this post just to rewatch that scene…I don’t know what you’re talking about….

Best Use of Catholicism: Marahuyo Project 

God. This show struck an incredible number of layers when it gave us Archie. The way his grief and his fear and his internalized homophobia caused him to say and do some truly vile, harmful shit to the queer kids on the island was so heartbreaking and real. I have not really gotten the image of Archie’s neck where he’s been scratching at the rosary out of my fucking head since I watched it. This show was beautiful, and brilliant, and full of light and life, and pain, and it included an intersex character which is only the second of the 180+ shows I’ve watched out of Thailand, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and the Phillipines to have done so. 

Best Use of Internal Screaming: Cherry Magic Thailand

gif by @zhouxiangs

(AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH)

Best 'Mark Me Down as Scared and Horny' Face: Unknown

Wei Qian was not prepared for the fact that sending Zhi Yuan to the United States only made Zhi Yuan stronger. I want to acknowledge that this show had a chokehold on me almost all the way through the end for being rather heavy, but that I was especially impressed with Modi's performance as Wei Qian. And it must be said that the look of panic in his eyes when Zhi Yuan feeds him the congee is comedy gold.

Gayest Little Run: Love in the Big City

(could not find any gifs of Go Yeong running in the park so please enjoy this lovely gif by @taeminie )

Again this is not a BL but the way my tumblr community has engaged with this book and this show is one of my favorite parts of the entire year and this is still a really important piece of queer media. I really hope Nam Yoon Su wins all the fucking awards for his performance as Go Yeong. He breathed so much life and texture into that character and it was a joy to watch him take this wonderfully difficult and complicated character on such a beautiful emotional journey. Also he fully committed to the gay little run and that alone is award worthy. 

__ Shout out to all the thoughtful, intentional, and beautiful queer shows that got made this year. Please tag me in other superlatives if they get made, I want to see what people loved or connected to in the show offerings this year. Love you, family <3

@bengiyo asked to be tagged in superlatives.

[kanmom51]

Are you sure? 1st trailer

Well well well.

1st trailer for our most anticipated show of the year just landed.

We got a super wholesome, what looks to be chaos filled trailer, with what has most likely become a full on continuous banter between those two of "are you sure?".🤣

39 seconds trailer and so much to break down. And to take it all in you have to watch it time after time after time, every time noticing something new. Can you imagine what we'll be going through when the actual show comes out? Lmao. This is going to be absolute torture for the cult (already creating an alternate reality where Tae was there, and even showed up in the trailer - the umbrella shot). I might even feel sorry for them. Nope. I really don't.🤣

Ok, so let's start to break this down. What did we get?

They both look so happy. This is them. Together. Freedom looks so good on them. Can you imagine? Being able to travel just the two of them, experience the things they love.

For JM it's travelling and sight seeing, for JK it's being with JM and the experiences, not to mention the randomness of it:

(And while they didn't go to 130911 - funny how the 13-10 and 9-1 are there, eh? - they got to do the random part of it, as much as their circumstances allowed it).

All with minimum interference from staff and fans that might recognize them. Freedom to do this just the two of them, all in the guise of work. This show, you have to understand, gave them a once in a lifetime opportunity to do this out in the open without all those unnecessary questions that would follow otherwise. This gives them the option to be together, be themselves, without having to cross that line that they still might want to, but have the choice of deciding if and when that will happen.

And we will see that in the editing. What we are allowed to see and what we aren't allowed to see (out of hours and hours of footage not to mention the hours and hours that weren't filmed). Just how far they will go. And that is also why I am positive that the two were fully involved in the editing of the show, them giving the final word.

This here:

It's not for nothing that JM brings this up. This is how they felt. Especially there and then. July 2023. In CT. Following a grueling year. With JK's full on promotions and crazy stressful schedule to come. Feeling free in the moment is what they felt indeed.

Can you even imagine how they were feeling during their Japan trip?😭😭

Let's unfold a little more of what this trailer gave us.

We got JK's JM smile. You just cannot fake it.

We already recognize it.

And talking about faking it, another blow for all the antis. Cry, scream, have a tantrum. None of them will change the FACT that both JK and JM wanted this and were having the time of their lives.

The way JK looks in the mirror to check out his bae.💜

Check on/check out same same. He wanted to see that cute ass face JM was making, cause no one loves cutie goofy dorky JM as much as JK does. NO ONE!!! Fight me on this!!

But it's not a one timer. As mentioned JK is smiling all of the time. They both are so happy, and it makes me happy to see how happy they were.

We have a sunset 'date'.

They do like those.

Golden hour and all.

And the moon gazing too. I wonder if we will be getting that as well...

*Side note - that moment is such an underrated oh so very intimate moment.

And talking about dates and romance and intimacy, this moment here:

Although the trailer is very innocent, just two bros on trips together having fun together, especially to those that don't know JM and JK, those that are unaware of just how close those two are, those that haven't seen RB or Hickeygate or Melon 2018 or even watched JK's 2023 lives. Those that just don't see. This moment here is anything but a 'bro' moment. Sorry. It just ain't.

Watching the clouds. Drawing the clouds.

We have them sharing a hat. Nothing new them sharing clothes and accessories.

We also got the black and white couple once again.

Is this one more of those Jikook in their own world moments?

And this moment here:

This is so Jikook. In the rain. Messing around. Can't wait to see this in context.

This is but a drop in the sea of what we will be getting.

And just before I wrap things up, let's get back to my fave word -

Choices.

It was definitely a choice to have both SGMB and SNTY as sound tracks to this 39 second teaser.

Using 2 songs for such a short trailer. Basically bookending (again?) the trailer with those two songs.

Using their 2 songs, not surprising.

Using those specific 2 songs, well, that was a choice indeed.

Crazy thoughts incoming, so feel free to skip.

But having SGMB at the start - a song about confessing your love and being open about your love for each other - even more so playing during those not so 'bro' moments on the yacht (sunset and cloud watching together), and then playing SNTY at the end - the song about fighting for your love, not letting those that don't approve of it separate you, weathering through hardships - seeing them still together and giggly and happy, they have overcome it, they are committed and happy.

This is going to be friggin amazing, and I just cannot wait for it.

[zexapher]

Vacuan Nights, Like Vacuan Days

They’re just so great together! I’d love for Jaune and Weiss to get a little downtime in Vacuo to live out a moment like this. They really deserve it, and I’d love to see Jaune’s guitar make a reappearance.

The comic here was inspired by u/Silverstar1243’s excellent piece of art, A Serenade Under the Moonlight. Send some love to them on their twitter, commission some art if you’re willing and able, they’ve made some great stuff.

You folks may have noticed I threw in a couple of references for those in the know; the Golden Oreos behind Yang (double stuffed, I might add) for the trio’s ship, Weiss liking it rough for Mallobaude’s great fic, and of course I made a whole theme around the Arabian Nights Disney song. A song, along with its Aladdin compatriots, which I spent the better part of a day finding covers for just to listen to on repeat while I worked.

This one’s now officially my longest comic project, with 14 panels, two over the past record since I added the White Knight kiss at the end. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Not sure I’d say it was more difficult than my Vanity of Vanities post, but for this one I actually knew how to use my editing software going into it (at least somewhat).

Put a lot of work into this one, been working on it on and off since February. Took a few breaks for vacation, to make my memorial post for Rooster Teeth, and another five meme edits or so, but I came back around to it. First half was pretty easy, relatively minor edits inserting characters into scenes and so on. The second half with Jaune and Weiss was tougher though, with color correcting, merging poses, redrawing features, drawing Jaune’s entire head to fix some lighting issues, etc. Really like how the edit to make Jaune strum his guitar turned out.

The time it took to make the whole comic got me down a little, until I did a bit of math. Including my side projects since starting this, all the scripting and editing and all, I’ve been pumping out a panel every two days. That seems pretty good to me, that kind of accomplishment makes me a little proud of myself.

Really need to get around to watching the second part of the Justice League Crossover movies. It’s got a few Vacuo scenes that might make things a little more authentic instead of me just using Saphron���s house and pretending it’s a suite in Vacuo. I do love taking yet more character stills from Jaune and friends experiencing deep trauma and turning it into something positive, been making that a bit of a personal habit. And I’ve got to say, the background for Jaune and Weiss’ scene is really beautiful, pulled it from when Sun and Neptune hear Ruby’s message about Salem. That’s just a really good shot all on its own, I even saved a copy for my computer’s wallpaper after editing out the two.

Posting a big RWBY White Knight edit, watching not one but two RWBY Beyond episodes, and all on the trail of the news that RWBY’s found partners that they’re negotiating with and that the creative team is expected to stay on. And I'm sipping bubble tea. Life is good.

Anyway, pardon the long write up. I’m invested in this one, and am quite pleased with how the comic turned out. I hope you all get a kick out of it as well!

[shima-draws]

Tell us about the AU! I know you want to!!

WAUGHHH. AGHHH. OKAY. OKAY SO. I've been watching one of my favorite content creators play through the DLC. Early on in the playthrough he was tossing around theories and said "Maybe KIERAN is Ogerpon??" and that gave me a BRILLIANT THOUGHT.

Ogerpon Kieran AU.......

I've already thought of a very long and complex backstory for this LOL but to simplify it. Before the ogre and its human companion came to Kitakami, said companion was actually living a very happy life with his child. However, they were caught up in the midst of a great war that ended up taking the child's life. The man was so overcome with grief that it summoned a great being (I'm thinking Xerneas), who blessed his dead child with new life. And that child was reborn as Ogerpon!! So kinda like how children who get lost in the woods and die are reborn as Phantump.

Fast forward to many many years later. A long chain of events leads to Carmine's grandfather's...father (so, her great-grandpa?) meeting Ogerpon and vowing to make it a new mask, a mystical and powerful mask that could grant wishes. Sadly, Carmine's great-grandpa wasn't able to complete the mask before he died. This project was eventually picked up by Carmine's father (and I have a whole other thing about him but I'm not gonna get into it right now lol). Carmine's father forms a very close bond with Ogerpon as he continues to gather materials to finish the wish mask. He expresses his desire for Ogerpon to finally be able to walk among the villagers with its name cleared, and for Ogerpon to meet his only daughter. He leaves for a journey to find the last material for the mask...and never returns 😔

Carmine's grandfather has a whole complex about the wish mask, but after seeing both his father and his son dedicate so much time and care into completing it, he takes the last material, imbued with the hopes and dreams of his family, and finally finishes the mask. When he presents it to Ogerpon, Ogerpon dons the mask and its wish is granted...it becomes human :") So it becomes Kieran, basically!! Kieran's wish was to be able to say thank you to all of the generations of mask makers that had helped him, and. To be part of their family 🥺 What he doesn't know is that his wish to be human stems from the fact that he already was human, once. But he doesn't remember his life before he was reborn as a Pokemon.

So, Carmine's grandfather happily accepts Kieran and his desire, and takes him home to live with him and Carmine. Note that Kieran is probably around 5-6 at the time, so he's BABY. And Carmine is only about a year or two older. She isn't sure what to think about suddenly getting a new brother, but she's happy to have someone to boss around lmao.

And once a year, during the festival of masks, Kieran lets his facade fall and wanders around as Ogerpon again. Just to keep in touch with his roots haha

So obviously with Kieran being Ogerpon the events of the DLC will play out differently than canon. Kieran slyly compliments the ogre in front of the player and mentions that maybe it's just misunderstood. He's been trying for a while to change the villagers' minds about what happened to him and the Loyal Three all those years ago, but it hasn't been going...too well lol. So when the player shows up, and things start to shift, Kieran gets really excited bc he realizes he finally might be able to clear his name :")

Is this AU silly and dumb as hell? Yes. Does it not really make sense with canon and is full of plot holes? Yes. Am I brainrotting over it anyway? Also yes.

Take a little edit I did of Kieran's official art to fit what I had in mind for the AU ;) I wanted to draw it but I'm at work rn lmao RIP

ALSO LITTLE DOODLE OF THE BOY

ALSO bc of Ogerpon's original gender Kieran probably goes by he/they pronouns in the AU

[blindrapture]

In 2011, I started writing a thing, on a whim. In 2013, I finished it. A lot of people seemed to love it? Then over the next decade, I put a lot of work into expanding and editing it, with plans for a complete physical book release that didn't happen. Well, here it is again. As an internet novel. A finished novel, this time.

I will start posting the story on May 21st, 2024. May 22nd will be a day of rest. And then, from May 23rd until October 21st, every day will see a new chapter-- a new log. ("F-Five months?? How long is this novel?" Oh yeah, good point. That won't actually get us to the end. There may be another eight, ten days of chapters afterwards. It is important, however, to emphasize the May 21 - October 21 model.)

I will make sure to put the bulk of the contents under "Read More" breaks, so each log won't clutter your browsing experience.

The logs will have art in them. Not as much as in the original draft, but there will still be some. As of May 1st, I expect art by Rappu, RealaChao, Wiratomkinder, and Vis.

I plan on supplementing the logs with the occasional post talking about the making and intention of the story. I dunno, it's gonna be a five-month distribution period, I'm gonna get antsy during that and am gonna want to ramble. That'll be separate content, though.

And when the story is fully and completely posted on tumblr, I will release the full novel on my Website, where I like to keep the rest of my creations. Both the tumblr novel and the Website novel will be free reading, forever. I reserve the right to try again at a paid physical edition afterwards.

So! That's it. Rapture is coming. OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING is coming.

Trigger Warnings: Sex, Gods, and Rock & Roll. (violence. some swear words. teenage angst, cringe. death. insects. surrealism. symbolism. unpredictability of what will be explained and what won't. sexual acts with dubious consent-- you will be able to skip that part. religious iconography. and so much prog rock.)

Get ready for it.

[pioussoup]

ILLITERATE MINERS?!!?!!

heyyyyy so y'know in the opening scene isn't it INTERESTING that Orion Pax ONLY takes the audiovisual chips??? Like he barely looked at the datapads and even then it didn't seemed like he was reading titles just looking between for the chips. EVEN THOUGH HE KNOWS HE HAS TO BE SNEAKY AND QUIET???? sure maybe MAYBE the flying droid is like a new addition but STILL.

Why go for the ONE material that would be so harddd to be stealthy in? He also has watched like apparently 90% of the fucking chips already.

If you say it's because hes in low light. Hes a miner bot that can spot the lasers. Yes he uses a headlight but like c'mon he got to have SOME stronger nightvision-thats-not-outright-nightvision. (just realised; he knows to be sneaky enough to NOT activate his headlight even when it could help look around. So he's not being stupid he KNOWS what hes doing.)

'Maybe he's read all of them?' in the history section? with a 50 cycles timeframe (however the fuck long is that supposed to be LMAO)? thats he quite most likely is online for a fraction of. Even if he was one of the first generations of cogless bots to be miners (doubt) there would STILL need to be time taken for him to be 'fuck it im just gonna break in the archives.' plus he also had to find the section in the first place. Sentinel definitelyyy placed/moved it in a hard to find & reach area even for bots with legal access and cogs. Orion Pax is many things but for TFO he aint clearing that section in time (TFP might though lol).

'It's to set a fast paced opening and provide a suitable setting for exposition without having to resort to narration. Also avoids overwhelming the possible new fans audience with walls of Cybetronian of the bat' Correct

'He chose the fastest option' Well I mean he could just ctrl + F 'Matrix of Leadership'. No but really he could try to speed read as best he could. Or like. steal 'em. I mean just look at the state of it. WHY is some chips just stacked besides horizontally stacked datapads (when every other shelf has the vertically placed). No separate holder?? that can clearly indicate what the chips are + what they include neatly?? Alpha Trion weeps from beneath the boulders and its not for his fellow Primes I tell ya'. But yeah if he can be sneak in & sneak out (again hes not dumb dumb just reckless BUT get him locked in and he can totally do it. He didn't cause the intial cave-in after all) he could totally steal a couple pads and have some time to go through (he does it all in times in fanfics!) before getting caught. Actually they (& by extension Senti) probably wouldn't care, its ALL heavily edited and curated after all.

'He could navigate the map' as a miner he definitely needs some good practical skills, navigation being one of 'em. Also like as I far as I saw there were hardly words; just coordinates and stuff (okay i am negative in geography and tech so this section might sound stupid but STILL HEAR ME OUT). They kinda NEED to be number literate but do they really need to be reading?

I have thoughts on TFO caste system (specifically uh how the fuck could it come to be, what exactly are the cogged doing for those not in on it because there were definitely more of those in the know [its not Darkwing], where the fuck are the new cogless coming from, how did a cogless become a DOCTOR FOR COGGEDS???) but wouldn't it make sense for Sentinel to take even their ability to read while he's at it? It's trouble enough to keep the cogged in belief while keeping up the Archive no need for snoopy miners to get a chance to spot any discrepancies.

'Doctor Ratchet' He's usually characterized as an older mech so maybe the earlier cogless gens still could read shrugs. I mean Sentinel could very be going through a learning process lmao a fraction being able to read is probably small fry especially considering the no doubt short lifecycle cogless miners can have. Hell its likely that most of the older gens are kapoosh (possible character motivation for Ratchet to go doctor nyeah? nnyeahh?).

And yeah I fully believe Orion to be more a recent cogless gen. Not NEW NEW and while I hc'ed it is so, he doesn't have to be the youngest. He knows his way through Iacon (from sneaking in to the archives to the hidden pathways), has a sure enough skill and confidence to mining, knows the protocol just doesn't follow it lmao. But he also has the energy to strive for something more, something better. I'm not saying old peeps cant be active but not once does Pax ever seem defeated by the system or relents at ALL, even when it would save his hide. If he WAS an older gen his opposition would be tinged with just a bit spite of exaperation I feel like. Like it would be 'I'm too old for this, they deserve better than this' kind of rebel while movie I see more as 'WE can be more than this, there IS more to US' which I feel like is an energy more to younger gens ya get me?

(ALSO COUGH I KNOW I KNOW ITS A BLUNDER AND COST SAVING BUT! BUT!! D-16 BEING LIKE IDK TIER 6 OR WHATEVER WHEN HE FIRST MET ORION!! IM JUST SAYING HE WOULD JUST BE DUMB AND SAY "WHATS A MINING". NOT EVEN FOR DPAX REASONS HE'S A FANBOYY. A FANBOYYYYY THATS PASTING A WHOLE ASS POSTER WHEN AS A COGLESS MINER HE DOESNT HAVE MUCH!!!!! ON THE ONE AND ONLY BERTH THAT HE EVER COULD HAVE!!THAT MECH IS FUMBLING ALL HIS SOCIAL INTERACTIONS!! ACTUALLY JUST THE FACT THAT HE HAS A WHOLE ASS POSTER OF MEGATRONUS PRIME KINDA INDICATES THAT HE'S PROBABLYY OLDER THAN ORION PAX BY HOWEVER MUCH.EVEN IF NOT ALL COGLESS IMMEDIATELY GO INTO MINING GETTING A POSTER! IS VERY HARD! EVEN FOR PEEPS WITH NON-SLAVE WAGES & HOURS. LIKE ORION PAX IS ALREADY HANDLING EQUIPMENT HE MIGHT NOT HAVE MUCH SHIT FOR HIS SLAB LMAO ALREADY DONE MOVING IN.)

So anyways this was a long way to say that the Autobot government is run by a mech who can't read. OR if the matrix literates the guy well he just made someone who maybbee at best might have some lower grade level reading skill as COMMANDER. AND ALSO HAS TO DEAL WITH A NATIONWIDE LITERACY CRISIS. I guess he could just make a literacy package file and Apple Drop it or some shit lolololol.

On the flipside the Decepticons are lead by someone who can't read and DOESN'T have a deus ex machina to give him literacy sooo. Soundwave is going to be in a loooongggg ride LMAO.

Edit: "I've read all about you [Elite High Guard] in the Archives" OKAY OKAY OKAY I MIGHT BE SPITBALLING BUT MAYBE MAYBEEEE HE STILL MEANT 'went through every audiobook with & without visuals' or like he read all the baby books about the HG. I mean despite them being possibly the second next famous celebrities after the Primes; Sentinel makes sure to AVOID MENTIONING them AT ALL. Iacon 5000 only commemorated the Primes but the HG? Pshawww who gives a shit except that yellow one who's conveniently already in the literal dumps.

Okay but really they were definitelyyy worth a mention. (cough especially since Skyfire exists cough unless this is a TFA sorta instance where it's a completely different fucking mech cough oohh noo guess we will never know unless TF2 happens wink wink winkwonkwiwkhwkiwsjsk)

I've mentioned Sentinel absolutely curating the Archives and I'm just saying maybee out of spite and because unlike the Primes he can totally go with it; the only thing left/accessible about the HG is baby books. I mean sure the only hate we've seen him directly channel is towards the Primes BUT THAT'S IT!! Though he spouts making the truth as he wishes of it he STILL has to praise the Primes and shit even after the Betrayal. Not even he can erase or even twist their influence.

But the HG? Oh maybe he doesn't particularly hate them beyond being a nuisance to his plans but it's still an outlet. Of course he still can't demean even them in any public away but he can certainly diminishes them. Besides it would definitely grind Screamer's gears when he realises his only legacy in Iacon is fucking sparkling stories that still focuses more on the Primes LMAO.

Plus B-127 is DEFINITELY the kind of mech to go crazy about these cool ass warriors from a kids book. I'm not super into infantalizing TFO Bee but he is still a mech of whimsy & fantasy. Also sneeze maybe it was someone's gift to him whether out of mockery or genuine generosity but however it was the stories were the one of the few things if not the only thing that followed him down in the dumpsters. Or salvageable trashed datapads happened to be of the HG greatest stories and shit that too.

(also yes I am a 'B-127 is one of the older generation of cogless if not the first' truther and I will DIE ON THAT HILL)

Oreon Pix also managing to read all the baby stories on the HG can still work; even his entire generation was illiterate he would definitely try his darnedest to read SOMETHING and would at least achieve youngling level lol. I know I know I've been using his case for this entirety but bear with me. Ori is probably self aware of his low skill or at the very least had taken a peek at the datapads and realise he don't understand a goddamn thing (it's the history section). Knowing he don't got much time per intrusion he bit the bullet and risked it with the chips since he was going to get caught at some point might as well have gotten some progress.