#I needed these as reference but I figured I'd upload them too

[mynonsenseistingling]

Rayfield Caliburn

[sideshowsnob]

Sims 3 animated bedding tutorial

I've been working on this tutorial for quite a while now, and i figured i'd upload it for those who need an in-depth explanation on how to assign bones to beds so they animate properly However, i must note that i do NOT know how to assign 'bits' to beds, therefore that part of the tutorial is missing... You may be able to accomplish this if you try following Gruesim's tutorial found here, but it is not included in mine [the bit is the piece that stretches to cover the inside of the bedding]

Also, you will need Gruesim's bed mesh references here

You can download the .doc version of this tutorial here Sideshow_Snob functional bed tutorial [TS3]

tutorial below -->

Programs you will need: TSRW (i like to use the old version/portable) Milkshape 1.8 Blender (im using 2.7 but you can use any version) Meshtoolkit

-To start, let’s find a good bed to convert. Try to find something that has the blanket, pillow, and mattress textures all on one image, so you don’t have to re-map it. Try and pick a bed where the design isn’t too complicated, if it’s your first conversion.

-This is an example of a good bed to convert. The textures are all in one image, the polycount is only 2k so we don’t even have to decimate it, and it has a good blanket and pillow mesh.

Step One: [Exporting the mesh and textures in sims4studio]

-Open the bed you chose, and import it into sims4studio. Export the mesh, and all the textures into a folder. I usually name my texture files (1,2,3) and so on.

Step Two: [References to use]

-This is extremely important. Open TSRW and clone this specific bed

-Use either the single or double version. I’m using bed single modern, since I'm converting a single bed.

-Go ahead and export this bed as a .obj file in the mesh tab, as we need it as a reference to use in blender. Leave this for later, we’ll come back to it when we import our finished mesh.

Step Three: [Separating the mesh in blender]

-Open the .blend file you got from exporting your mesh. We are now going to separate the bed into multiple pieces (pillow, blanket, mattress, bed frame) and fit them to be the same size as the EA Bed.

-Separate your mesh by shift clicking verts, and pressing shift+ to select the entire piece. If shift+ doesn’t select the entire thing, you’ll have to select them all by hand. Separate your selected piece, by pressing P

-After your done, your mesh should be separated like this:

Mattress

Bed Frame

Pillows (i usually separate both of them if its a double bed)

Blanket

Step Four: [Shaping the mesh in blender]

-These shortcuts are going to be very important for this part.

Shift S → x (scales on the x axis) Shift S → y (scales on the y axis) Shift S → z (scales on the z axis)

-Go ahead and move the pieces of your mesh around until they closely align the EA Bed, so it animates properly

-This is what my finished mesh looks like

-Once your mesh parts are close to the EA counterparts, go ahead and export each piece separately.

-Be sure to give them the correct names (blanket, pillow, bedframe, mattress), so that you don’t get confused later. I usually save the .blend file as well, in case I want to make edits later, which you will probably have to do if something happens after you assign your bones.

Step Five: [Renaming files to the correct groups]

-This is where things unfortunately get a little bit tricky

-We’re going to be going both milkshape and Meshtoolkit quite a bit

-Import the .obj files from your bed, one, by one so we can rename them. They need to be renamed ‘group_base’ so we can assign bones.

-Export all files you rename with the same name, except add “merged” onto the end, and export them as a .wso file. The bedframe bones are going to be assigned when we import all the finished bones into milkshape, so you can export it as 'merged' but we aren't going to be using meshtoolkit for that one.

Step Six: [Assigning bones with meshtoolkit]

-make sure you have frankie’s EA bed mesh references

-Open meshtoolkit → Auto Tools for WSO, and uncheck interpolation, and make sure you have it set to ‘replace all bone assignments’

-WSO mesh to modify: your merged file

-Reference mesh: The EA reference of the same kind (IE, blanket)

-When it prompts you to save the file, save it over the existing ‘blanketmerged’ file.

-Once you’ve assigned the bones to the blanket, pillow, and mattress, import them all into milkshape.

-Side Note-

This is important, you will NOT have to merge all your groups if you are doing this for a DOUBLE bed. only merge all the groups if you are assigning bones for a single bed. For double beds keep the groups separate like how they are in the TSRW reference mesh!

-Go ahead and select everything, press the ‘regroup’ button in the mesh tab, and then rename it back to ‘group base’

-do this for everything EXCEPT the bed frame. we will be assigning the bed frame by hand.

Step 7: assigning the bed frame bones

-Since you've got your bed pieces all grouped together and renamed group_base, go ahead and import your bed frame file.

-Go ahead and 'hide' your bedding in the groups tab so we can only see the bed frame mesh. go ahead and search for the specific bone labeled "0xCD68F001" in the joints tab. once you have found it, go to the model tab and click "select". 'alt shift right click' to select all the verts of your bed frame mesh. go back to the joints tab and click assign. your bed frame bones have now been assigned.

go ahead and "regroup" the bedframe and bedding as one group.

Import your mesh into the tsrw project we made earlier, import your textures and you should be finished.

[finished product]

If you have an questions, or suggestions please don't hesitate to ask. I hope this tutorial was helpful ^_^

[bamber344]

Birds Of A Feather

prev/next

masterlist

time for birb :)

got this one done quickly as I'd already written like a thousand words of it before i started writing that Viv chapter, so the groundwork was already laid

usually i would upload this in the morning (for me) but rn i can't be bothered to deal with all the faffing about so you're getting it now. wahoo yippee ect ect

side note, project genesis document is now at 100 pages including the taglist and all of my rambling notes, so that's pretty cool.

enjoy!

CWs: general violence, cigarette use, gun violence, knife violence. just a whole lot of action typical violence really.

Birds Of A Feather

The woman sighed, looking out over the city as the wind whipped through her hair. She brought the cigarette up to her lips and took a long drag, admiring the pink and orange sky coloured by the slowly setting sun. Say what you would about Tombguard; it was truly a beautiful place, if you knew where to look. Granted, the woman had never actually been outside of the city, so she didn’t have much frame of reference. Still, after spending the first nine months of her existence locked in an underground prison, the sight of any space big enough to spread her wings in was enough to bring a tear to her eye.

Things weren’t perfect, though. She was never completely safe from Andreas’ pursuit, and that wasn’t helped by the fact that she was actively antagonising him. Still, he’d be hunting her even if she didn’t fuck him over at every possible opportunity, so it was justified. That dickhead deserved everything she threw at him.

A dark figure flickered across the rooftop of the building opposite. The woman sighed again, taking one last puff to finish her cigarette and shaking her wings out. She didn’t want to have to do this, but it was the only way to keep herself and Hex safe. There was no doubt in her mind that Andreas had already told Jordyn to kill her on sight, even before she made a mess of the first assassination attempt. In an ideal world, they could leave each other alone and Jordyn could go on her merry, naïve way being ordered around by her ‘father,’ but that just wasn’t reality. It was kill or be killed, and the woman refused to let Andreas continue to have a hold on her life. Jordyn had to die for the two of them to live.

She cracked her neck and double-checked that her pistols were fully loaded before re-holstering them on her hips. She made sure her knives were secured against her thighs. The target was in sight. She pulled the mask over her face and stomped her cigarette out on the floor.

“Sorry, little sister. I’m not gonna miss this time.”

With that, she flapped her wings and took flight.

—

Something was wrong.

The afternoon was calm, and up until a few minutes ago, I’d been enjoying my time relaxing on the rooftops as the end to my patrol grew closer. As per usual, I’d been lounging on the edge of a building, watching all the people and traffic go by, but when I got up to make my way back to the facility, I was immediately hit with the sensation that something wasn’t right. The hairs on the back of my neck rose, and I had to resist the urge to look over my shoulder as I ran from building to building.

I knew that feeling all too well. I was being watched.

I slowed down, landing on a rooftop and surveying my surroundings. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and as far as I could see, there wasn’t anyone around that was paying any attention to me. That didn’t mean I was safe, though. For all I knew, this was another one of the Godling’s attempts to get in my head. The pain that would usually accompany that hadn’t hit yet, but still. I needed to be on my guard, just in case. 

A memory flashed through my mind; one of discarded feathers, and a suspect flying away after shooting me down.

I looked up.

All I could make out was a beak-shaped mask before my instincts kicked in and I flung myself backwards, out of the way of the hammer kick coming straight for my head. It cracked the concrete as it made contact with the floor.

I fell into a roll before hopping back to my feet, dropping into a fighting stance as I analysed my opponent. Based on their figure, they were most likely a woman, dressed in a tank top and some baggy combat pants, along with a heavy-looking pair of boots. Her arms were thick with corded muscle, her tan skin nicked with countless tiny scars. A large pair of black wings flared out behind her back, spread to show off their intimidatingly huge wingspan. Behind her bird-like mask, dark, thick hair cascaded down over her shoulders. She was about the same height as me, with a similar build, and based on the way that she dropped into an identical stance to my own, she knew how to use it. This would be no easy fight.

Kill the black-winged one on sight should you see it.

Father’s months-old command pierced through my mind like an arrow. Whoever this woman was, he wanted her dead, and I had a duty to see that order through. After all, she shot me. It was completely justified. She had to die.

A large part of my mind protested against the thought, but I pushed it down. I knew Father was watching. I couldn’t fail him again. I wouldn’t fail him again. Better to get it done quickly.

I whipped my hand forward, and a spike of shadow extended from the seams of my armour, heading straight for the gap between the woman’s fourth and fifth rib. It would be over for her in an instant. Painless, for the most part. It was better this way. My gut clenched as time seemed to move in slow motion, waiting for the countdown towards the woman’s demise to hit zero.

All of a sudden, she was moving, quicker than I could possibly have anticipated. She deftly stepped to the side, dodging the spike by millimetres, and flapped her wings, using the upward force to lift herself into a frontflip over my head. I spun as she landed and ducked my head to dodge another kick. The woman pirouetted as she backed up, pulling combat knives from the straps around her thighs. There was a single moment of tense stillness before she came at me again, stabbing and spinning back and forth with those knives aimed right for the unprotected spots of my armour like she knew exactly where they all were.

She had me on the ropes, backing up as I dodged this way and that, deflecting knives with my shadows when they came too close. I was far too focused on staying out of the way of her attacks to even think about focusing the darkness in my armour into any sort of attack. Maybe if it was nighttime, and I had shadows all around me to call on, I could put her down. As it was, I’d just have to do without the full use of my power. 

I grabbed her wrist as she came in for another attack and twisted, pulling her over my shoulder and aiming to slam her onto the ground. She was surprisingly heavy at first, but that quickly changed as a rush of wind hit my ears and the woman’s weight shifted behind my back. She moved with my throw, twisting in the air as she came back into view and wrapping her legs around my neck. Her movement stopped as she hit the ground with her other hand, and suddenly I felt myself lift off the ground as the woman pulled a reversal, throwing me over herself and slamming me onto the concrete with enough force to rattle my bones even through all of my armour. 

In my daze, I could just about make out the woman flipping back onto her feet and rounding on me once again. Something glinted in the light of the setting sun, and my instincts kicked back in just in time to roll out of the way of the knife coming straight for my face.

It snapped as it hit the ground where my head had just been, and the woman’s fist followed through hard enough to leave another cracked dent in the concrete. Just what was this woman made of?!

I threw myself back onto my feet and conjured a whip of shadow before she could get close enough to stop me. She lifted herself, discarding the now-useless hilt as she settled back into her stance. Her head cocked to the side, and my stomach dropped as my own voice came out from behind her mask.

“Well shit, Jordyn. I thought you’d be a pushover, but you’re not half bad. Still not as good as me, though.”

My shadows flared in alarm. “How do you know my name?”

The woman didn’t reply. Instead, her arm disappeared, moving faster than I could process, and reappeared with a pistol. She pulled the trigger once, twice, three times, and I stumbled back as each shot hit me in the chestplate and knocked more and more air out of my lungs. My shadow whip turned to dust as my concentration dropped from the sudden attack.

The woman didn’t waste her opportunity, flapping her wings to kick herself off and charging at me. She spun, and the last reserves of oxygen were expelled from my body as her steel-toed boot hit my side with the force of a train. 

The hit sent me flying, flipping head over heels in the air as I flew over the edge of the building we were on and onto the roof of another. I landed in a sprawling roll, desperately trying to regain control of my body and my lungs while fighting through the pain of a few definitely broken ribs. Eventually, I managed to jab a spike of shadow in the ground to stop my momentum and centre myself. I tensed my abs, sucking in as much breath as I could as I got back to my feet. There was no time to process, though. She was coming at me again.

All I caught as I looked up was a flash of wings before something hit me in the face and I was sent flying again; this time, with a brand new scrape in the viewscreen of my visor. I refused to let the hit stun me again, forcing my body into a flip that landed me back on my feet. She wasn’t the only one with a good core.

I quickly glanced around, trying to ascertain where she went. She wasn’t hard to find now that I knew where to look; swooping through the sky, gliding her way around for another hit. She lined herself up and began her dive, speeding towards me faster and faster; one knife in hand. She wasn’t going to get the drop on me again, though.

I stanced up, amassing my shadows beneath my armour, fortifying my body as she came closer and closer. This might be the only chance I had left to get out of this. I had to time it right.

There.

I dropped and spun right at the moment of impact, sending my boot launching up into her gut like a piston, powered artificially by my shadows and strengthened by her own speed. Darkness shot out of my armour as I made contact, following the hit through with dozens of tiny blades that cut into her stomach and pierced through her skin.

The woman let out a gagging cry as she flew away, crashing into the side of a building with a burst of feathers and falling into the alley between. Relief washed over me. It had worked; for now, I was safe. 

I knew better than to think it was over just like that. The woman was far too strong and clearly far too hell-bent on my death to be turned off just from one attack. I got lucky with that one; there was no way I’d be able to land a hit like that two times in a row, and it was becoming obvious that, as things were, I was outmatched. What I needed was a plan.

I turned to the west, looking at the setting sun. Its light was the only reason I wasn’t able to unleash the full strength of my power. Even if I ducked into an alley, the woman would probably have no trouble corralling me back onto a street, directly in the sunlight. What I needed was the complete darkness of night. I needed time. I turned to the east and I ran.

Adrenaline still coursed through my bloodstream, providing me with the strength needed to ignore my pain as I jumped from rooftop to rooftop, pulling myself along with shadowy tendrils where necessary. Only a few more minutes until sunset. I could make it.

Sure enough, I heard the beating of the woman’s wings against the air behind me, steadily growing closer. I knew my counterattack wouldn’t hold her back for long, but I was hoping to get a full minute out of it, at least. Oh well, there was nothing for it. I’d just have to evade her until the sun went down. Easier said than done, but I would manage. I had to.

More gunshots cracked off behind me. The impact against my back threatened to throw me off balance, but I stabilised, spinning mid-sprint and flinging spears of shadow at her to hopefully keep her at bay. I could hear her swooping back and forth and I zig-zagged in turn, trying to keep my movements unpredictable.

The hair at the back of my neck rose and I instinctively dove to the ground - just in time for the woman to blur through the space I’d just been in, crashing onto the rooftop just in front of me. We both jumped to our feet, but I was just a millisecond behind her, and she used that time to launch a powerful roundhouse kick right into my cheekbone.

My head whipped to the side, and everything around me suddenly clicked into high focus. The scratch in my vision was gone. I could feel the cool air on my face and in my sweat-soaked hair. The sounds of the city became loud and sharp; no longer muted by my helmet’s audio processors.

Oh, that was it. My helmet just came off.

Time seemed to move in slow motion as I watched it spiral through the air, flying over the edge of the building and falling into the alleyway, disappearing from sight. Father was going to be so mad with me. 

Time sped back up and suddenly I was moving; flying across the rooftop as the hit knocked me off my feet. I landed in a sprawling heap, tumbling over myself before managing to roll onto my back, staring up at the sky. My vision spun as pain throbbed through my skull, and my neck angrily protested any attempt to turn my head and spit out the bloody taste of whatever had come loose in my mouth. By the feel of it, it was probably a tooth.

The woman appeared in my line of sight before I could recover, planting one boot on my chest and aiming her pistol straight at my face. My heart leapt into my throat.

She wheezed, clutching at her bloody abdomen with her other hand. “That… was a nice fuckin’ hit you got earlier. You’re pretty good, Jordyn.” She straightened out, putting her finger on the trigger. “I’m sorry it’s come to this, little sis.”

“W-wait!” I pleaded. All I needed were a few more moments. This wasn’t the end. “Wait, please… Who… who are you?”

The woman hesitated. A few tense seconds passed, and she shrugged. “Yeah, why not. That’s the big question, isn’t it? Who am I? I asked myself that a lot when I was in your shoes. All you need to know is that I’m someone that daddy dearest doesn’t like very much. Though, I’m sure you already knew that.”

“B-but…”

“Who are you, Jordyn? Can you answer that? If you can, maybe your story won’t have to end here.”

That… that was a trick, right? She clearly already knew my name. If I gave her the obvious answer of ‘Jordyn de Vygon,’ I was gonna get shot. No, she was looking for something else. I racked my brains, searching for some sort of clue.

“I’m sorry it’s come to this, little sis.”

“-daddy dearest-”

“Madeline Holmes, will you marry me?”

“Are… Are you me?”

I swallowed, praying to god my hunch was right. “I… I’m y-your sister. A superhero. I-I’m M-Madeline Holmes’... wife…?”

Silence reigned over the rooftop. The woman cocked her head to the side. “Huh. What gave you that idea?”

Not immediately dead. That was a good sign. “You… you called me ‘little sis,’ and… I had a dream, wh-where I was proposing to her.”

“Hmm. You’re not totally hopeless, I guess. Still, you’re a little confused. I’ll give you a hint: you’re not Madeline Holmes’ wife. I’ve had that dream, too.”

I frowned, trying to ignore the twinge of disappointment in my gut. “Then… I was right about the sister thing?”

“Smart cookie. Say hello to your big sister. You can call me Maggie.” 

This was all way too much to take in. Was this woman serious?! “B-but, if you’re my sister, why are you trying to kill me?!”

Maggie sighed. “I don’t want to, honestly. But I gotta prioritise number one, and Andreas would have sent you after me sooner or later, regardless of what I did. So long as you were just a mindless soldier following his every command, it was safer to just put you down. Now that we’ve had the chance to chat, though… I can see that you’re not totally under his thumb. You’re asking questions, you’re thinking for yourself a bit, instead of following blindly along with whatever he tells you. I might still have to kill you - we’ll see - but it’s a promising start.”

My head felt like it was about to explode. “S-so… You know who I am? Who I really am – the person I was before my injury?”

Maggie slumped. “See, and then you go and say shit like that, and you have me worrying again.”

“Wh-what do you mean?”

“I wish I could tell you the truth, Jordie. I really, really do. You don’t deserve to live in ignorance, stuck under that bastard’s grip. But, if I tell you now, things are gonna go tits up faster than I can flap my wings, and I sure as shit don’t have the resources to help you when it does. You gotta figure it out for yourself. I’m sorry.”

…What? So, after everything, she just wasn’t going to tell me anything? I was this close to finally having some answers about myself, and she was just gonna keep them to herself?! Frustrated tears prickled in my eyes. “B-but, but why?! I don’t understand! Why can’t you tell me?!”

“I just told you why, dumbass. I get that you’re desperate for some answers, but that’s the best I can do for now. You want my advice? Don’t stop asking questions. Don’t take anything at face value. Andreas is gonna try every trick in the book to make you feel like you’re too stupid to understand anything, so why even bother wondering? Don’t let him. You’re smart, Jordyn. You’ve shown me that in this conversation, and during our fight. I know you can figure this out, just like I did.”

Maggie finally lowered her pistol, holstering it as she looked out over the city. The sound of police sirens echoed through the air, steadily getting louder. “I’ve stayed out too long,” she said. She looked back to me. “I’ll let you go this time, Jordyn. But if you come after me again, I won’t hesitate to blow a hole in your head, sister or not. Good luck.”

Her wings flexed, extending out to their full length. I realised she was about to fly away.

“Wait! What am I going to tell Father? He’s ordered me to kill you, I can’t just ignore that! He’ll… he’ll punish me.”

“Yeah, that’s a tough one. For today, the best you can tell him is the truth. I kicked your ass, and got away. If he’s in a generous mood, he’ll let you off. I can’t promise that, though. As for if he orders you after me again? Maybe that would be a good time to question why he wants you to kill your own sister so badly. Don’t actually ask him that, though. God, he’d whip you bloody for that. Just… think about it. See you later, Jordyn.”

With a gust of wind and a quick, painful burst of pressure from the boot on my chest, she was gone, disappearing into the night sky.

Oh. I’d totally forgotten. I was meant to be buying time until sunset so I could muster up the shadows for a surprise attack. Oops. In the wake of everything Maggie was saying, it just slipped my mind. I couldn’t say I was particularly upset about that, though. I had a feeling that that conversation had been more valuable than I could currently comprehend.

The sirens grew louder and I continued to lay there, contemplating what I’d learned as the pain from my injuries steadily intensified in the comedown from the adrenaline of the fight. I… had a sister. Why hadn’t Father told me about her? What else wasn’t Father telling me about? Why were things so clearly fraught between my two only family members? And why did Maggie’s voice sound exactly like mine?

The swelling from my throbbing cheek was starting to spread up to my eye, forcing it shut. Worried, I reached up and gently poked it. It felt about as good as could be expected, from a kick that knocked out a tooth and took my helmet right off my head; in that doing that really, really hurt. Ow.

I gingerly sat up, trying not to move my neck too much. Speaking of my helmet, I needed to find it, and quickly. The police would no doubt be here soon, come to investigate the gunshots, and I couldn’t let any of them catch sight of my face.

It was slow, painstaking work getting myself down from the rooftop into the alleyway, but I managed. Thankfully, my helmet stood out pretty obviously against all of the trash and junk, and I was able to retrieve it with relative ease. As soon as I put it on, Father’s voice rang through my ears. Hearing from him filled me with relief, but Maggie’s words still sat heavily in the back of my mind.

“Seven, what’s your status? Did you complete your mission?”

I swallowed thickly, trying to sum up the courage to lie. “I-I… I’m sorry, Father. I failed. She got away.”

Silence stretched on for a long, tense moment. Finally, Father spoke again. “Return to the facility at once. We will discuss this more once your injuries have been seen to.”

I nervously bit my lip. “Yes, sir.”

I could already tell. Father was not in a generous mood.

—

“Three cracked ribs, a fractured cheekbone, a missing tooth, and a nasty case of whiplash,” the medic said, reading off my diagnosis. “It was good that you kept the tooth in your mouth. We can probably find someone to stick it back in, but as for the rest of your injuries, the best I can suggest is taking it easy.”

Taking it easy sounded nice, but I seriously doubted Father was going to let me take another break so soon after my last one. Sure enough, his frown immediately deepened.

“You’re dismissed,” he said to the medic. They nodded their head and left without another word. Father turned to me.

“You’ve disappointed me today, Seven. All you needed to do was follow one simple order, but clearly I expected too much from you. It’s obvious that you’ve been neglecting your combat training. From now on you will be doing double training shifts every day, as well as double patrols for the next two weeks. Oh, and forget about getting your tooth back. Maybe I will reconsider once you’ve done something to earn it.”

With that, he turned and followed the medic out. I sighed, looking up at the ceiling, running my tongue along my teeth and feeling the gap in between my upper molars. Having to work double patrols through my injuries definitely sucked, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. I could survive that.

I tried to turn my head as I got up from the examination table, but a lance of pain shot through my neck and down my back. I gasped, returning to my previous position as gently as I could. 

Okay, maybe this was a problem.

Double combat training every day with my neck like this?!

…Fuck. Maybe it would have been better if Maggie had just pulled the trigger.

—

Maggie landed heavily on the fire escape outside of her apartment, clutching her abdomen. Adrenaline had made it a bit easier to ignore during the conversation, but now that things had calmed down, the real damage that Jordyn’s kick had inflicted upon her was becoming clear. Every breath felt like needles stabbing into her ribs.

She lifted her shirt to check the damage. Aside from the absolutely gnarly bruise, the kick had somehow also left her with multiple bleeding lacerations. The little soldier was crafty with her shadows, that was for sure. One thing was clear, though: she needed stitches. Ugh, her favourite.

She shook out her wings, trying to work off the spare anxiety, and opened the window, slipping inside.

Diego was sitting on the couch when she entered. He turned to her, a conflicted but relieved expression on his face as he looked her up and down.

“So… Did you do it?”

Maggie shook her head. “Nah. I almost did, but…” She sighed. “Seeing her scared face looking up at me like that, it… reminded me too much of Hex, on that day back in the facility. I decided to give her a chance.”

Diego’s face relaxed into a smile. “I’m proud of you. You did the right thing.” He stood up, walking over and planting a soft kiss on her lips, one that she happily returned.

She pulled out of the kiss, resting her forehead on his shoulder instead, enjoying the warmth of his arms wrapped around her. “I wish I could believe that. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see how it pans out. Where’s Hex?”

“In her room, playing Minecraft on my laptop. She’s been waiting for you to come back.”

Maggie closed her eyes. “I’ll go say hi later. Right now, I should probably focus on patching myself up.”

“You want my help?”

“After what happened last time, I think I’ll just do it myself.”

“Fair.”

Taglist: @steelandblood @sapphicwhump @urnumber1star @alsolucakairomi @idkwhattodowiththisaltiamsorry

@iamheretohurt @anoyedartist @dontyoubleedoutonme @seastarblue @lettherebepain

@bacillusinfection

Bird lady! Maggie! Yay! honestly up until writing this chapter her name was gonna be 'Fila' but i wasn't loving that so i decided to change it. Her full name is Magpie btw :)

listening to the yakuza soundtrack is quite motivating when it comes to writing fight scenes I've found. makes the imagery play out in my head like a QTE or something. It's great :)

Anyway, thanks for reading! Let me know what you thought in a comment or reblog, it's super appreciated! also let me know if you'd like to be added or removed from the taglist :)

see you guys next time for another Steve'o chapter. Ciao!

[pretensesoup]

How to Publish a Book, pt 2

Q: I'd like to do a print book too, not just an ebook. A: Do you realize that if you do a print book, your mom is going to read it? And the book has sex in there? Like, explicit gay sex? Like it says the word "cock" right there on the page.

Q: Yeah, she's like 77, she knows that sex exists. I've made my peace with this. A: All right, here we go. Publish on Demand books in some number of easy-ish steps.

There are a bunch of options for POD publishing now. IngramSpark, KDP, Draft2Digital, Lulu, etc. Other websites like Barnes & Noble will let you set up paperback publishing but outsource the actual printing to IngramSpark (IS). I think a bunch of these services do. IS is also slightly better if you want to have bookstores sell your book, have it in libraries, etc., because most bookstores won't order from Amazon, for obvious reasons. For Dionysus in Wisconsin, I've done both IS and Amazon, letting IS distribute to anywhere that isn't the Zon.

OH, IS allows preorders for paperbacks while the Zon doesn't.

First, you're going to need to write and edit the book. We went over this in pt. 1. Please refer there if you have any questions on this step. Okay, here is the exhaustive list of what to do once you're ready.

1. Decide what size the physical book should be. Look around your house at books in your genre and select the size that is most pleasing to you. This is called the trim size.

2. If you uploaded your text into a typesetting program like Atticus, tell it your trim size, preferred typeface size, line spacing, and margins and have it spit out a pdf. Otherwise, set Word up with those specifications. KDP has a helpful site where you can calculate the correct inner margins for your number of pages, while I think somehow IS just requires a .5" or .625" margin for all sizes (this doesn't make sense; I assume you just have to fix it after seeing a proof?). The book's gonna be exactly the same, so just do the same thing in both places.

Okay, one thing I couldn't find any guidance on is what size to make the typeface and line spacing. I wound up going with 11 pt typeface and 1.4 spacing. I figured this out by printing out the first page of my book, cutting it out at the correct size (5"x8") and comparing it to pages in similar books until I found one that looked readable and pretty. Anything from 10-12 is probably fine, also 1.1-1.4 spacing, but keep in mind that small/densely spaced typefaces will make your text look more intimidating. Someone on Mastodon said 1.5 spacing looks like a student paper, which I also agree with.

There are loads of websites that detail what typefaces to use for what types of books. "Look at your genre and try to match" is reasonable advice here too.

3. You need not just a cover, but a spine and a back cover. Books are three dimensional objects!

If you hire an artist, they should just be able to provide a wrap-around cover that is appropriate dimensions (again, KDP and IS both have templates), but if you're doing it yourself, I suggest laying out the entire cover on one large sheet of paper/canvas and doing your art like that rather than trying to photoshop together various pieces, unless you are really, really good at color leveling etc. You're gonna want to make sure that you have at least 300 dpi. Make sure you use open access typefaces or that you have rights to use them, ditto for any images you collage into stuff.

GIMP is a great free photoshop alternative. ImageMagick is a free image manipulation program that is incredibly powerful. I had to use ImageMagick to flip my cover file into CMYK and create a PDF. The command you want is this:

magick "inputfile.png" -colorspace sRGB -colorspace CMYK "outputfile.pdf"

4. Submitting your file for stuff: copyright here, LCCN (Library of Congress Control Number) here. Neither of these is obligatory, but both are cool in their own way. LCCN is a way for Library of Congress to pre-catalog your data (creating a stub record in OCLC) so that if a library acquires your book, it's easier for them to get it on the shelf. You need to submit your request for this PRIOR TO THE MONTH OF PUBLICATION. However, you don't need a final manuscript to submit, just a summary of the book. Also, note that you can only retroactively submit your MS for copyright registration for THREE MONTHS after publication, so decide now if you want it. And yes, everything you write in the US is automatically copyrighted, but having a certificate to prove it is nice in a court battle. Also also, you WILL want a finished copy of the text to submit when you make this request, or else you will have to submit two printed copies. By MAIL. So you have to GO OUT OF YOUR HOUSE TO THE POST OFFICE. UGH. (Technically, you are requested to send in a print copy for the LCCN program too. I don't think that's obligatory, but am I gonna pass up a chance to have my book fully cataloged by LOC? Fuck no.)

5. OKAY, assuming you got everything done, now you need an ISBN.

Do you really? Kind of. If you're only publishing on KDP, they'll give you a free one. But you can't reuse it if you try to also publish on IS. The reverse is also true. Technically, the entity that assigns the ISBN is the publisher, so this makes Amazon/IS the publisher of your book. Also, it makes editions slightly weird (technically, it's supposed to be one ISBN per edition). ANYWAY, in the US you buy ISBNs through Bowkers. Don't let them sell you barcodes or any of that garbage. Just buy your ISBN(s).

Sometimes, people report putting in information in KDP and then having the ISBN rejected as "in use" when inputting it into IS, so do this next part all at once. First, assign your ISBN to your book in the Bowkers database. Then assign it to your book at IS and save as draft. Then assign it to your book at KDP and save as draft.

One other note. If you have set up a business to be your press name (mine is Winnowing Fan Press, because the main character's name is Ulysses and I am a GIANT NERD), that will be set up as your publishing house in Bowkers. You won't have an imprint unless you specify one. (An imprint is like a special line of books, so Harlequin has a "digital-first" imprint called Carina Press that specializes in LGBT+ romance, because why would you publish LGBT+ romance in paperback first, ugh.) BUT Amazon will ask what the imprint is for your ISBN and it will be THE NAME OF THE PUBLISHING HOUSE. Why is Amazon using the term differently from everyone else? I DON'T KNOW. JUST GO WITH IT.

6. Upload all your files. Look at the previewers/e-proofs to make sure everything looks okay. Panic and reupload them five times with minute changes.

7. Set a price.

For real at this point I hope you're done making changes, because you suddenly have at least three versions across two different sites to update if you suddenly decide to add a credit for your author photo or something. (cough)

How to set a price the easy way: look at other similar books in your genre (your comps) and just set your book to that price (hopefully you aren't losing money that way).

8. You can order a physical proof at this stage. But if you want author copies, you're going to have to publish your book, meaning it becomes publicly available. I think that if you get through the KDP screens and hit "publish book," it goes live. So...save it as a draft; don't hit the go button until you're ready. IS meanwhile lets you make it available for preorder.

Deadlines: Try to get everything done and uploaded by five days before your planned publication date.

@tryxyhijinks I think that's everything. Wow, I'm tired now.

[fourseasonsfigs]

Wenzhou Set 1 (Handcrafted)

Following up yesterday's Dong Fang Yuechu, we have this little Wenzhou set by this same, extremely talented artist.

If you think I can't get enough of this artist's hand-crafted figs, you'd be right! I have more on their way to me even now, including, yes, Wenzhou set 2.

If you haven't read yesterday's post, or if you haven't read this previous post where I talked about Mid-Autumn, Snow Mountain Edition, then you should know I bought this fig set from a fan artist on Xianyu that designs and creates Word of Honor / Junzhe figures. This set are made-to-order figs, meaning that she has this style up in her store and will make it when ordered. She says that she needs a few days to create the fig, but I've noticed that everything I've ever bought from her has shipped immediately, in-stock or otherwise.

These figs arrived wrapped in plastic wrap and cushioned with a bit of polyfill. I did have the warehouse wrap these in air column bubble wrap, since I don't trust something this small and delicate to anything else. Since it's just polyclay, it seems to be pretty resistant to breaking, but crushing damage would absolutely destroy it.

Unlike yesterday's fig, I gave these a nice dusting with my untrustworthy but still useful feather duster, and then brushed the travel lint off with a clean makeup brush. I did pretty well, although I did notice during upload of the pics that a few pieces of grass from the green grass base made their way onto the figs. It's just so hard to see - these figs very small, and my close up vision is not as good as it used to be.

How small you say? Tiny. So small! I'd say a little over half the size of a normal fig, not counting the bases. Here to illustrate relative fig sizes is our Ghost Valley Master. Thank you for your service!

I fell in love with this set immediately. Their faces are so, so cute!

The level of detail is all the more impressive for being so small.

Oh their faces. Just too adorable!

Hmm the detail on these pics are not astounding. The light I took them in wasn't great. I'll take some close ups too so you can actually see all the wonderful detail.

I really like how she did all the hair detail and of course both of their hair ornaments. I particularly love whenever fig makers replicate this particular hair tie of A-Xu's. It's so great!

The little poses with the hands are just so cute. We can't see much of A-Xu's face here since his bangs cover it up, but we can see Lao Wen smiling away!

Why not smile? He's walking along with his favorite person in the jianghu! Who also looks very sweet and happy! I just love them.

Swapping sides so you can get a better view! Alright, let's finish up the two up and down sides so we can get to the details.

Hehe, not too much to see here, although I'll note they look just as cute from this angle.

There we go! Onto the details. I'm going to bring these figs downstairs and see if I can't get some better light somehow.

Well I'll tell you what, the better light did an exceptional job of showing me where I hadn't dusted all the lint off! My goodness. I went back and cleaned it up, but ignore any stray bits. Hopefully this gives you a good amount of detail of his beautiful waist ornament and the painted detail on his robes.

His hairpin is so beautiful I had to show you a picture of it. Just for something like this, can you imagine how long it took to make? To keep referring back to the costume to make sure it was perfect in every detail? Just incredible.

He's so beautiful I just wish my photographic (and dusting!) skills were up to the task. I see my camera decided to focus on his lovely costume instead of his expressive eyes, but hopefully this is at least a little bit better than the further away ones.

Yes, A-Xu, you're perfect, and you've never done anything wrong in your entire life. No I will not be taking any other opinions from the jianghu, thank you!

His hair tie is perfect. I really like how she modeled his hair here, it's lovely. You can see the details and beautiful lines of his robe here - even the sleeves are so artfully done.

Just so delightful. I'm so happy with these figs! I can promise you when the next set arrives, they too will jump to the head of the fig-posting line.

Material: PVC modeling clay

Fig Count: 357

Scene Count: 24

Rating: Just two zhiji out for a stroll on a beautiful day!

[link back to Master Fig Index for more posts]

[caandlelit]

how did you decide what days to write lawnchair for? like why some days and not others?

thats a fantastic question and thankyou for asking it

see there wasnt actually anything that made me choose specific dates over the others, that all fell into place AFTER the moment in writing when id realized this fic was going to deal with all of summer. i'd originally started this as a very basic 'They start to kiss during the time period when it's soooo hot,' and then as the scenes accumulated i figured out i'd need almost a full summer vacation for this story, not just a short ambiguous period of time bc a scene would happen, maybe make reference to other activities, so i'd need to account for those, also VERY ANNOYING BUT HELPFUL just very IMPORTANT was oikawa tooru's "no seijoh volleyball practice on monday's bc we all deserve a day off" schtick. it was important to ME. it was like okay they can do THIS on a monday but the other thing was also monday, so i guess i need another week.

which got confusing! so i found out the typical japanese summer break duration. it tends to be july 20th to the end of august, according to every source i found. now i had a timeline!

so when id figured that out i just made this

every time i had a new scene and i needed to fit it in with everything else i had, and also so i cld make coherent sense of everything id written instead of just having it in my head. it's my best friend. its gotten me through a lot. dont look at it too closely if u dont want update spoilers but if u want to know exactly what dates i'll upload, those r the ones marked 'DAY X.' ive also cleaned it so u cant see what the notes said. i left my colors in as a little hehe moment.

so the dates of each chapter, they are basically a scene i wrote, and then ensured it fit along the 2012 calender, as well as making sense with the other scenes.

since the douglas adams chapter is out i can admit that after i'd had enough scenes, i decided the 'forty odd days' of summer break can be a nice round forty two. which it somehow was, magically. a lot of things just kinda fell into place for me, or i kicked and screamed until they made sense. ideally i wldve done something with day THREE, aka july 23rd. one of two matsuhana days in a month u know. 2 and 3. but that didnt happen bc of stuff i'd already written, like 'nothing happened on the next day,' or 'lets just do nothing,' and other matsuhanaisms. i hate them bro!

in the end it was just. day 1 day 2 day all the way till 42, bc that was the amount of days we have in the break, fit along the calender from july 21st to august and the very lucky extra weekend. bc schools not gonna start on a SATURDAY! lol!

the blue block will all be uploaded the same day, red block will be uploaded with day 34, and while counting i'd realized if i juuust put day 42 and what comes next all in one chapter. we would have 23 chapters. alhumdulilah and ameen.

have a good tuesday and see you on ao3 for day SEVEN!

[therainbowgorilla]

I wouldn't consider myself "moderate" in any way, but I do suppose that that might depend on how that is defined outside of the US? Since the US is apparently wack when it comes to political party definitions compared to a lot of the rest of the world or smthn, if that makes sense.

Politically, I see myself as a leftist. Now, my ideal is definitely some form of communism (I haven't really figured out if it's any specific form of it), but getting there where I live within my lifetime seems like too big a goal at once. In order to get to the point where the next generations may reach that future, I believe the first step should be something we believe might could reasonably be achieved or get quite near to within our lifetimes. A step at a time sort of thing.

I have no real hopes as of yet that the US will achieve any form of communism within my lifetime. Even if we attempted to throw some form of revolution, I doubt it would result in communism. I mean, the government literally has all kinds of things that could literally kill uprisers in their tracks. I think such a revolution would risk a massacre. We've seen how the police and military have no qualms against killing people who disagree with them.

So to get more to the point, my ideal is communism, but my practical goal is... I believe the term is democratic socialist? There's so many political terms that I get confused, but basically if you've ever watched Hannah&Jake (who used to run "The Bible Reloaded") or ActualJake (Jake's own account), those two are good references for what politics I believe in.

Whilst I wouldn't mind being educated more on your worldview and the different types of communism, anarchism, and how those two could work together, my ADHD does make articles hard to read. If you have any recommendations in audiobook or youtuber forms though, I'd definitely consider it.

... A Special Interest, you say? Well you've come to just the right fuckin place!

Occasionally, I run a "show" on my twitch (I guess it'd technically be sorta like a video podcast?) where fellow ND people come on, and for as long as they want they can infodump and rant their hearts out to me about their special interests, hyperfixations, passions, etc. Some guests do powerpoints, some just write themselves an outline to follow, some show me physical stuff if they want (like the "3D Printing" guest who showed me their prints), or it could be just a free form talk, or really whatever you want! It doesn't particularly matter.

The show typically runs up to (but doesn't have to be) 4 hours per show, but I welcome repeat guests!

You have to have a mic, but you do not have to have a camera on if you don't want to (I don't show my face myself).

I'm trying to edit the previous "episodes" to upload to youtube, it's just taking forever since they're long lol

But they're a lot of fun to do!

And trust me, it's not annoying to me to hear others infodump. It's the point of the show! I looooove hearing people passionately talk about shit! Their enthusiasm tends to rub off on me, so it can be a ton of fun to me!

Episodes I've had so far: History of Opera (part 0, lost episode), 3D Printing, History of Opera 2:Electric Boogaloo (a 2-part remake with much more info), and a type of Vision Disability (I forget the name of the specific one)!

The way it works is through Discord call usually, but I'm also fine with Zoom, Skype, Hangouts, etc!

I've got plenty of free time coming up the next few weeks on any day during the afternoon/evening/night EST, so if you're interested in guesting, lmk! If you need a later date than that tho I'm sure we can work something out! If you have a discord lmk and I'll send u my discord name so we can talk there!

I think I learn a lot better with someone directly telling me about it, so this could be really educational!

if any minors are following me

always make sure to start forging parents' signatures on the first day of class. that way, your teachers won't know that you've been forging signatures for the rest of the year

[sigh-the-kraken]

"You can review your profile and boards and remove any other content that may go against our Community Guidelines or local law. If we discover more content that violates our terms and conditions or the law, we may take additional action on your account, such as deactivating it."

I'm only saving pins and have not posted a single pin on Pinterest, but Pinterest is warning about deactivating my account if they find too many content violations for my saved pins.

The same violation letter this is from says "a human determined that content on Pinterest violated policy and automated systems helped expand that decision to enforce against machine-identified matching Pins like yours", which means a human sets the parameters and Ai scans through Pinterest going "well this is in violation of the parameter."

As far as I'm concerned, none of my saved pins are violating guidelines; I don't have anything that I'd be like "hmm, I don't think I could get this in a PG13 movie".

However, thus far, I have 4 violations (3 denied appeal, 1 appealed) this year. 3 of them are bases (which are all on my other pinterest post) and 1 is a muscular chest (no boobs) that I'm fairly certain never gets below the waist (so there's no genitals involved) and the person in the photo is clearly posing for the photo (so it's not been uploaded as "revenge porn" or something of that nature).

Of course, I think all of these pins are within guidelines (because they're art reference materials, which are allowed in the guidelines), but Pinterest doesn't agree with me.

So, how am I supposed to figure out what pins I need to download and remove from my saves to reduce the risk of being iced for pins that I saved (but didn't upload) to Pinterest?

Is it all art bases (drawn, not actual humans)? Based on the current violations, I should be purging bases with boobs and more risque poses (i.e. one character pinning another down, a characters tied up/chained up), but it's not marking all art bases with those things as violations. Otherwise, I'd have more violations. It's mostly marking charts that are showing how to draw bodies, like the butt one I got appealed and the pink one that was denied appeal.

Any pin that has a naked chest in it? It's not marking every pin with a naked chest as a violation (otherwise I'd have more violations), so it has to be something else in the pin that has caused the violation, but I can't see the pin to figure that out.

Am I going to have to remove cosplayers that wearing cat suits or who are posing more suggestively?

Am I going to have to remove all human (especially ones wearing skin-colored spandex) who are modeling for art references? Even if they're not posed suggestively? How do I figure out what is suggestive even?

What about pictures of a clothed individual being touched (non-sexually) by multiple hands?

I have a chart that tells me the signs and symptoms of strangulation for writing purposes. Does that need to go because it is showing the aftermath of violence? Is it fetishistic?

Do the yoga charts that have hot muscular women in gym clothes showing off their abs and thighs at the top of the instruction guide need to go?

If I can see cleavage but no nipples, does it need to go?

Do I need to get rid of anything that looks remotely erotic or like someone could make it erotic? Like is two characters with their pelvises pressed together while fully clothed a problem for Pinterest? A group of people cuddling together on a couch? Someone gripping another person's chin and forcing eye contact? You can make anything erotic if you're determined enough.

What I'm saying is the point of Pinterest is to have somewhere to store references without having to download them to your limited hard drive, but Pinterest is going to make me have to evaluate every pin I save like "are they going to mark this as a violation?" and download probably a pretty good amount of them because the parameters are unclear and their Ai is marking things that are not sexy as sexy.

[herbwicc]

The Witchy Apps I Use:

Seen a few of these posts so I figured I'd share as well! I use these for reference mostly, and personally prefer to do my practice irl. All are free!

Labyrinthos- this is a tarot app mostly, though it also has some astronomy info. I wouldn't recommend it if you're just starting with tarot, because the descriptions are over simplified and lacking. It does have a "learn" feature that can help you memorize/learn the basics though and for that it's pretty good! I use this to save tarot spread layouts that I use with my cards irl. It let's you create your own custom spreads and save them.

Co-Star- an astronomy/horoscope app. I love it because it does your birth chart for you in an easy to understand format and you can go back and reference it quick if you need it! But the descriptions of what everything in the chart means is also lacking and waay oversimplified here too, and none of the "aspects" are included. It'll do "daily horoscopes" but it won't have info on why/how it concluded that information based on your birth chart.

Moon phase calendar- a must for me! Always gotta know what the moon is doin. It has a lot of detail, including the percentage of visibility and rise/set times.

Make it rain- rain/thunderstorm sounds for meditation and practice

PictureThis- this is my favorite free plant identification app, and I'm pretty picky lol

Herbs dictionary- this is purely scientific information on an insane number of herbs, with medical uses as well. No magical uses listed. Again, this is for quick reference!!. If I'M personally using an herb for medicinal purposes it's because I'm familiar with it and know which are safe for me, don't just use whatever random herb some phone app says may help... Be safe.

Herbalist Grimoire- I think this one has about 70 herbs? And their magical correspondences. I love it for quick reference! It also explains how to use herbs (like making tinctures, oils, satchets, etc), a glossary of medical terms related to herbs, basics on how to grow herbs, and a brief history of herbs in witchcraft.

LunaDiary- a password protected night-mode diary with adjustable font and formatting and calming music. I use it for note taking, spells, ideas, some of which later goes into my grimoire. It has a back-up feature that uploads it to my Google drive. Plus the more notes you make, the more lunar phases and stars you get in the home page, so that's cute.

The occult library- exactly what it sounds like, it's got different witchcraft related books you can read for free.

Play Books- the basic Google play book app, I go to the android play store and download free books of interest related to my craft and philosophies I follow and read them here.

Improve intuition (called "intuition test" in the playstore for some reason tho)- this one has several choice-related activities that challenge your intuition skills! Big recommend.

Respire- a meditation app with different breathing exercises. I'm not a fan of hearing someone talk me through a guided meditation, so following a breathing exercise works much better for me. You can close your eyes and it'll make a ding sound to let you know when to breathe in, hold, and breathe out.

Down dog- an AMAZING free yoga app! It has restorative yoga, hatha, quick flow, and sun salutations in the free version. With different music genre to choose from that plays what seems like a genre radio. You can adjust the difficulty level, speed, and length. The instructors are great at guiding and the video to follow is aesthetically nice and it's all very easy to understand. Truly can't recommend this one enough.

I'm hoping to find an app that has a sheet to fill out for saving spells, like it would be great if it has the day/time, lunar phase, title, intent, tools, instructions, and outcomes to fill out. If you know of one, please let me know!

[katyspersonal]

These are really interesting thoughts, and a really interesting topic! I want to add my interpretation too here! I think Yharnam basically went the course from oligarchy associated with Cainhurst (not quite standard monarchy per say) to theocracy (after destruction of Cainhurst and during Healing Church flourishing if you can even call it that) to anarchy (when we meet Emilia/Amelia who seems to have 0 authority and be isolated from citizens resenting the Church for doing nothing, and everyone just fends for themselves).

As for religion and Willem. From what we know from Alfred and description, there are odds that Willem became a religious figure only after Byrgenwerth's discoveries and founding of the Healing Church. So he was the first (and the last) Pope.

(From retranslation document by Last Protagonist ( x ))

Also, Fantomette, not to downvote your uploads, but Willem was not called 'provost' in Japanese original script! Instead, he is consistently referred to as 学長 (gakuchō), that means head of a school/university:

You might recognise many of them, as well as the fact that localisation bounces between 'Master' and 'Provost' in these sentences consistently! All the mentions of 'headmaster' here are 学長, and I haven't found him mentioned as provost or another religious figure in the original script.

However, there is a different way to refer to Willem found throughout the script - 先生 (sensei), that means teacher!

I need to mention though that I likewise am not on board with the 'Laurence founded Healing Church after he left Byrgenwerth and banned it' interpretations, and I already brought many evidences for that. But yes we need to be honest - the Japanese script does NOT spare us an extra evidence here! Lore calls him master of the studying place (Byrgenwerth), and his underlings refer to him as a teacher. Interestingly, Gehrman too! (omg they were classmates!!!!)

Still, not only Willem looks extremely Pope-inspired, but also Research Hall pursued eyes and arcane, not blood ministration, and the Choir (a section of Healing Church that STILL does this rather than the blood) is inspired by him! I'd say it is a situation where the education would belong to the local religion institution! So, Willem is still a headmaster of the university first and the religious leader second. He'd be more of eminence grise that dropped general principles, but is still too busy with his own place, so it is Laurence that is an ACTUAL public leader and authority (bishop, localised as vicar). Besides, merging education and religion works quite well - Byrgenwerth digs into secrets of the dungeons and arcane, basically, it studies ancient Gods and the divine secrets left from them and ancient civilisations! Byrgenwerth straight up researches the very BASICS of Healing Church's goals and principles! Another reason why I think that "proclaiming Byrgenwerth forbidden" was not a start of the Healing Church, but a conflict of interests and a political action, since Laurence said 'blood > brain'.

So, what does it have to do with theocracy? THAT'S WHAT:

This is my next deepest resentment towards localisation team after ruining Gehrman's whole career - they localised 'skull of a saint' as 'sage's hair', so we missed a bit that Healing Church used to crown their saints! I think 'was sacrificed for the research' implies that the Church sacrificed the bodies of their deceased saints instead of properly burying them just so they could send more tomb prospectors down there for them bloody secrets of Pthumerians.... if not KILLED them as sacrificial lambs. And maybe they even were happy to be martyrs for the research and "progress". :^)

I think it'd make the most sense if they started wearing the crowns after Cainhurst was gone, as the new authority that replaced them, and maybe additionally as a way to honor Logarius that we all know they simped for.

So, in the end, Healing Church WAS the authority in charge of Yharnam... until it wasn't, because we can see that the current hunter chief (Cleric Beast of the bridge) became a beast, and Emilia is just isolated and prays, and people speak rather bitterly about Healing Church here and there. The biggest evidence is the dark alley where you find Arianna's place - this is where you hear "haha yeah bless the damn church for its service -_- /s" and also find black church garb on the corpse in the nook (how much you want to bet people here murdered the person?). The anarchy Yharnam descended into is definitely not formal since Emilia still has her status, and some people still honor the Healing Church (the 'bless us with blood' door NPCs) and work there (Adella, Alfred). Church is in charge 'in documents', but as far as the facts go, people no longer count on it and no longer respect it, and some former staff turn on it (Gascoigne, Henriett).

I hope this helped a bit! If someone knows more specific terms to describe the systems I am referring to, let me know!

was the church always in charge of yharnam or was there like a mayor and then laurence came along and did something...?

[mrs-tsunderemeitantei]

Wakasa Rumi Theory Series: Part 2 of 3

Hello lovelies! This is my second part of my Wakasa Rumi Theory that will go over my thoughts about Haneda Koji's murder and his dying message.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Just for reference, I already covered the first three points in Part 1 and the ones in bold are the ones I'm covering in this post:

Why I think she's Asaca.

Her probable relationship to Haneda Koji.

How she became Amanda's bodyguard.

What might have happened on the day of Haneda Koji's murder.

How Haneda Koji's dying message directly refers to RUM as his killer.

Why Wakasa went on a hiatus for 17 years since the murder.

Reason behind Haibara liking Wakasa.

With that out of the way, happy reading 😁💛.

4. What might have happened on the day of Haneda Koji's murder.

So based on the blog that uploaded, we know that two people were killed in each of their own hotel rooms; Haneda Koji and Amanda Hughes (an investor who holds powerful connections to the FBI and CIA). While Haneda Koji showed bruises and signs of struggle against his assailant, the actual cause of his death was unclear, as well as with Amanda Hughes. (In reality, the cause of his death is because of APTX-4869 and the same can be assumed for Amanda). Both rooms were left in a total mess with crockery and glass broken as well as taps left running in the bathroom. Amanda was a huge fan of Haneda Koji and happened to visit him in his room the day of the murder before they were killed. Also on the same day, her bodyguard whom she called 'Asaca' disappeared and she is the main suspect of the murders. Interestingly, something else went missing from the crime scene which was Haneda Koji's Watchtower Bishop (a shogi piece he deemed as his lucky charm). His family is convinced he would never parted without the shogi piece and whoever has it must be the murderer.

All these accusations point to Wakasa because not only has she disappeared for 17 years and her identity is shrouded in mystery, but she also has the exact shogi piece that went missing from the crime scene...So, what exactly happened?

Based on the fact that only Haneda Koji's body was bruised, I'd say he put up a fight after witnessing Amanda's death. The likelihood that he used the taps in her bathroom to cut the mirror before fleeing to his room where he was then finished off is very possible. Why? The case similar to 17 years ago foreshadowed it.

I'm guessing when Amanda was murdered, Wakasa was probably out for whatever reason and upon her return, she saw Amanda's state. She then walked in and saw Haneda's body. The reason why I'm convinced she discovered their bodies and did not happen to be there when they died was her reaction in Chapter 1032 to blood and her obvious knowledge about how bodies do not necessarily smell until days later after their death. This could very well imply she lived through this before, which is why she is so knowledgeable of the topic. And smelling blood, reminded her of when she found Haneda dead in his room.

She then noticed the cut up mirror with one part of it looking like a shogi piece. As she picked it up, RUM returned to clean up and they ended up struggling in a fight before she managed to escape. The reason why I think Wakasa was in a physical fight with RUM was how triggered she seemed when she saw him leave the school after his delivery. The way she looked at him with such apprehension, it shows as if she were remembering their interaction before.

She would turn out to be RUM's mistake. He couldn't finish her off and not only did he leave a loose end, but she also ran away with a crucial part of Haneda Koji's dying message, leaving RUM unable to fully destroy the crime scene. Also RUM is clearly aware of its significance to Haneda Koji's dying message. Especially after he not-so-subtly mentioned it to Conan in Chapter 1057.

The final thing in relation to this part of the theory is Wakasa's flashback of Haneda Koji in the Collecting Edible Wild Plants Chapter. Why was she calling him a fool? It made a lot of sense when I found out the actual meaning of the proverb Haneda Koji said in her flashback.

The proverb he said is 'with a watchtower bishop there must be a brilliant move'. This proverb translates to the Bishop should stay at a distance while aiming at the opponent's camp rather than approaching them directly. Now that we know the actual meaning of the proverb, Wakasa's words make more sense. She guessed that he probably underestimated RUM and approached him rather than escaping him. Hence why Wakasa refers to him as a foolish person because in the end he got himself killed. Not because she thinks he's a fool and she managed to kill him. Again, a classic on Gosho's part to frame innocent characters as threatening and dangerous when the truth is she is just extremely upset over his death. Her collapse to the ground shows just how much Haneda meant to her. If anything, she probably like Rei, feels guilty she couldn't save him in time, which is why the memory of him is so triggering to her.

Phew, finally done with the fourth point 😂 There really was so much to unpack there. Anyways, I hope it made sense...

5. How Haneda Koji's dying message directly refers to RUM as his killer.

Now that it has been confirmed that RUM is Wakita, I'll be showing how Haneda Koji's dying message refers to "RUM", aka Carasuma's number 2.

The key to solving the message lies in the broken mirror and linking it to the shogi piece. Akai and Yusaku already solved the true meaning behind the broken mirror. The remaining pieces on the mirror had the letter PTON. These letters are not needed and the letters that do matter are the scattered ones from the original 'PUT ON MASCARA'. If we remove PTON we are left with U MASCARA which was then rearranged to CARASUMA. However, one letter in particular was cut out in the form of a shogi piece. If we write 'CARASUMA' with the shogi piece border around the letter U, it will seem as if it is hinting to another message within CARASUMA. That would form a word: UMA. UMA translates to Dragon Horse and is the promoted version of the Watchtower Bishop (the shogi piece held by Haneda Koji). (Promoted in shogi means to simply flip the original shogi piece to use its 'levelled-up' power...It's the same piece not two separate shogi pieces). Therefore, if we flip Haneda Koji's shogi piece, it will show UMA which is the more powerful form of the Watchtower bishop.

Anyways, what is the significance of UMA and how does it relate to anything? Well, Uma in shogi is the second strongest shogi piece. The strongest shogi piece is Dragon King (Ryū). Based on this we can assume this is the dying message. UMA of Carasuma (second strongest / number 2 aka RUM) of Carasuma killed me. This might seem too far-fetched but there was too much coincidence when I found out about Uma's strength as a shogi piece that it made sense to me to think that Haneda Koji's dying message points straight to RUM. However, I'm not sure how Haneda Koji figured out that RUM is Carasuma's number 2 in the first place. Maybe it was during his struggle against him before his death or maybe he overheard Amanda before her death talk about it, but so far this is what i came up with.

I hope you guys enjoyed this part of my theory. The final points will be addressed in Part 3 (linked here) so have fun 😁💛

(In cased you missed the first post, this is the link for Part 1)!

[annikathewitch]

Idk, I’m bored, thought I’d make one of those posts ppl pin at the top of their blogs

Hello! This is the main blog of the paluimbel system. We're a median, monoconscious, mixed-origins plural system of uhhh... too many people for individual introductions to make much sense. The name Fencer works for all of us, and we generally don't care that much about pronouns, but would prefer if you use they/it when referring to our system as a whole.

Feel free to ask us as many questions as you want about systemhood/plurality! We like sharing our experiences.

What is a plural system?

(EDIT: I've just had like 15 new people follow me for the tumblr poll conlang thing, so I thought I'd put links related to that somewhere easy to access. Masterpost/Intro is here.

Currently Active Polls: On hiatus for a bit due to exam season T-T)

My current hyperfixation is hermitcraft but also pokemon. Linguistics and conlanging are basically permanent special interests but we don't always post about them.

Oh and here’s this, just to be safe, because I’ve seen too many posts accidentally come true. Not putting any more DNIs, because I don’t wanna spend ages trying to list every possible group of shitty people. If I don’t like what you’re doing, I’ll just block you.

Some fics I’ve written under the cut, just in case you’re interested.

The Adventure of the Sphinx’s Riddle

Complete. ACD Johnlock, pre-relationship, mutual pining. It’s basically a Percy Jackson au, set in the same time period as canon Holmes. Most of the fic is Holmes figuring out that he’s a demigod.

The Adventure of the Buried River

Complete. The sequel to The Adventure of the Sphinx’s Riddle. I plan to write a third part and turn it into a trilogy, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

‘Till All That Remains is the Arms of the Angels

Complete. Eternal Duo enemies to queer platonic partners slowburn for the teen titans au. Each chapter is probably gonna be really short, just a scene or two. It’s kinda inspired by that one episode of Good Omens that’s mostly just a bunch of scenes of Aziraphale and Crowley throughout history, showing the development of their relationship. I put any necessary context in the author’s notes, so you don’t really need to know anything about the ttau for this to make sense.

TTAU Season 1

Technically a series, not an individual fic. It’s kinda an intro to the above mentioned teen titans au, set up like episodes of a tv show. Currently Includes:

Pilot- There’s a breakout at Essempei City Prison and the Titans (Sam, Ponk, Bad, Puffy, and Ant) must work with the Syndicate (Techno, Niki, and Phil) to prevent all of the city’s most dangerous prisoners from getting out.

Who Am I That I Should Get to Hold You?

Incomplete. Flower Husbands angst with a happy ending. It’s another TTAU fic, but like with ‘Till All That Remains is the Arms of the Angels, you shouldn’t need any background knowledge on the ttau to understand the fic. Basically, 3rd life happened in the ttau, but it was a simulation and everyone got returned to their bodies safe and sound after they died. Everyone except Jimmy and Scott, who, because of a glitch in the simulation, ended up actually dying. Scott’s scientist coworkers managed to upload his consciousness to a computer before his body died; Jimmy wasn’t so lucky. So now Jimmy’s dead, and Scott’s basically immortal. This should be the end, right? Wrong. There is always hope, they just have to find it.

[an-asuryampasya]

voyant my beloved, why?

[ID: A similar image as in the previous reblog, except with noticeably fewer cities marked. end ID]

now the tool description did explicitly say that this is preliminary version and states in bolded, capital letters to not trust the data because there's still a lot of limitations, etc. etc.

but the difference between these two images is that in one case I uploaded the content of all ten fics as a single doc, while in the second case I uploaded each fic as a separate document in the same corpus. Ideally, voyant should be picking up the same cities from both. I can't find any option to uncheck which parts of the corpus it uses, so presumably that means it should've treated the corpus in exactly the same way as the single doc mhmm what am I missing here.

also! I was thinking about what would make the tool more convenient, and for one, it would be the ability to pick up more than just cities. Now, sure, if I say "somewhere in Asia", that's too vague for the software to pin on a map like this. But at the same time, simply discarding all non-city names means it also ignore more specific descriptions like "the southern tip of India", which is pretty specific. mayhaps instead, voyant could still identify all regions, whether more specific or less specific than cities, and flag them for the user to pin manually based on available context?

Actually, I think flagging things for the user to manually sort could be useful in more ways too - if there's a name shared by multiple cities, voyant currently picks one to pin them all to. This made all the Londons mentioned in Sandman fics to be marked in USA, which, y'know, kinda glaringly wrong. I'd have found more useful if Voyant listed out all the cities it identified that could refer to multiple locations, and allowed me to pick from among them. Rather than the current set up, where I have to click on each circle individually to see the city name, check if there are other cities with that name, and then figure out which one to map it to based on the context. Ideally this would also list out cases in which the city name might be something other than a city (i.e., to use Voyant's own examples, Paris Hilton or Bishop of Canterbury) so the user can sort those too, without having to wade through every city mentioned, but I imagine that would be significantly harder to figure out. So I'd settle for a list of the names that the user can scroll through to check if they need to.

Also, it treats all instances of a name as one city. So if I had a book on cities and I were trying to see which places it deals with, I'd ideally like to separate out instances of London, USA and London, UK. I can't do that here; when I shift one pin, all instances of that name are moved as well. Same with deletions! I may want to delete certain references to Glasgow - perhaps all mentions of Glasgow in a particular chapter, but keep the other references. I can't do that here, and it matters, since the number of times a city is mentioned changes the size of the circle.

And finally, the ability to add things! If Voyant can't understand "somewhere along the eastern border of Japan", but I know what it's referring to, or if a city is referred to by an archaic name I want to manually input, I don't seem to be able to? Idk if I'm missing something or the dreamscape option simply refuses to allow manual additions, but that would be useful.

Oh, additionally, most of these options for users to manipulate it should probably be added as menus, or separate tabs that can be opened if necessary to sort through which city to pick among many that share the same name, or non-city-regions that were identified and can be pinned to a specific location if needed (or ignored). Making them pop-ups that the user HAS to deal with would likely make the whole tool unusable in the case of a large text with a lot of such names.

And! Just remembered, the links. It seems to link every city with the ones mentioned before and after it, but mhmm that's less useful in the case of a corpus I think. But there are filters so I can colour those from different docs in different ways. But still, sometimes it doesn't make sense to connect two cities mentioned some five chapters away from each other, or in the next document altogether. Except it might be useful in some cases too, so I'm really not sure what would be better here.

anyway, it's still a very fun tool to play around with. and it has animations that highlight every link! I turned them off while taking the screenshots, but ye. and the map style and projection can be changed too, so there's a lot that can be messed around with that I still haven't explored.

man, this fandom is obsessed with dream’s eyes.

[I uploaded the top 10 Sandman (TV 2022) fics (sorted by kudos, as of 21/11/22, and yes the date format means I’m not American) onto Voyant Tools because I missed working with Voyant. Then I looked at the most frequently occurring words in all 10 fics combined,  and removed the terms which were names or generic words (specifically, ‘just’ and ‘like’). And turns out, the most frequently occurring word then is ‘eyes’.]

[image ID: A list of three terms in decreasing order of their count. The words in order are ‘eyes’ occurring 623 times, ‘hand’ appearing 573 times, and ‘time’ appearing 543 times. end ID]

as always, find all the voyant corpora I make and a very basic how-to-explore-the-page-thing here

[billiejean485]

Karmiro Kiss

https://www.deviantart.com/billiejean485/art/Karmiro-Kiss-800793669

(Text from DA:)

First of all, I'd like to state something: I don't usually upload art such as this often or at all, and I rarely even show it to anyone. Reason? Been bullied a hell of a lot for it in younger years, so I learned to keep things like these to myself. However, I am pretty sure the Karmiro fans would appreciate it, and I am having a really hard time finding artwork devoted to this ship myself (kudos to Iamaddictedtocoffee and KenKic4Ever - you guys are IMO the best I could find), and I honestly wanted to contribute.

Second thing I wanted to mention is that - although the show itself made me a huge Karmiro fan, this particular piece/sketch came as an inspiration from reading Arctimon's fics. My God - for the past 6 years I've been having a really hard time finding quality fanfics (I got older, and my standards became very high), and their in particular are among those rare that make me cling to it like an idiot, rereading it until I know it by heart (still in the process of achieving that btw XD). I haven't left a review yet, but, I can say here that that level of quality English, original ideas and great imagination is not something that you just stumble upon in the fan fiction world easily. I'm blown away. Still am. Still haven't read everything, so I won't drop that mentioned review yet. But, Arctimon, if you're reading this - you have my huge support, and I'm a really big fan.

Now on to the rant on the art aspect of this sketch.

I don't have much experience in drawing a kiss, and still learning to do that. What killed me even more here is just the position (that I probably didn't even figure out well) of the two - if you have that steamy kiss where both sides try to pull each other into it, and a couple with height differences between a girl and a boy such as Hiro and Karmi, everything gets complicated. The arm position is probably off (because yours truly was lazy enough not to reference anything). I hope at least I got their faces right - I haven't drawn either of the two enough for practice. Oh, and Karmi's hair was ridiculously difficult for me; it should be simple, but nope.

Ah, yes, and the Baymax sketch in the bg - the body probably should have been a bit bigger, but 'anatomy' wise I think it's okay. I just placed him in the wrong spot. And I have a feeling that it made perspective make no sense (he's speechless, btw XD).

Okay, and two last things.

I love the fact that Hiro is the shorter one in this relationship and is probably standing on his toes somewhat here, while Karmi has to bend down and/or pull him up. It's so relatable and heart-warming. :D I remember how all that went in those years of life (14~16). Wish we'll manage to see him grow, but who knows. Also, depends what Disney plans for the sequel of the movie, if they're even planning it (it got them an Oscar, so chances are high).

But one thing that saddens me in that is that - for most characters that appear in TV shows that are based on the movie there is like a rule that they don't appear in the movie's sequel. Which brings me to the second thing.

Even though I ship them with all my heart, I see little possibilities for these two to become something more than friends (there is more chance for that happening with Hiro and Megan, although the whole Karmutie stuff has led us on to believe otherwise up until she showed up). It seems as though Hiro and Karmi's relationship was made only to reach some "good friends" climax and that that's the whole point of it. Even Karmi's crush on hero-Hiro looks more like something that came as a product of her loneliness rather than actual need for a romantic interest in her life (I think she'd be a lot more invested in her relationship with 'Captain Cutie' if this wasn't the case). And when you take into account that this is a show aimed at kids... it all makes sense. Kids don't like romantic stuff, nor do they need it. But what do they need? Learning more about friendship, especially with that girl or boy they tend to fight a lot and don't get along well. It's a perfect reason to make you think that that there will never be anything more in this relationship. But it gets on our older fans' nerves because - naturally, the characters are not kids, they're teens. Things function differently here. I mean, okay - Karmi and Hiro may not be each other's type (debatable) in the end, but you can't tell me they don't care for each other at it's base, and that they will learn to get their rivalry out of the way to make a clear path for that. And when that happens, everything's possible.

But coming back to the first thing I brought up - the characters from the TV show rarely, if ever, make it to the sequel of the movie. Which means, whatever happens with these two, they will probably split up. It's saddening, and I wish things would change there. Hey, seeing Karmi in the sequel would make who knows how many of us happy. And not just her - bunch of other characters too. Or at least give them an honorable mention.

It's because TV shows get made for kids that nothing from it gets transferred to the sequel of the movie, which gets made for audiences of all ages. If there's something I wish would change, it's that - having TV shows dumbed down for kids. And with that I mean - seeing characters a lot older act like they're children. What the heck is that teaching the little kids? That reality will never be like they saw it on TV?

Kudos, and a really big KUDOS to the shows that are tackling this particular thing. It's good and it's healthy. If you wanna make something for kids, make it really appropriate for kids. Don't tug on the nerves of us older people, because - whatever the world says, there will always be those older ones that watch cartoons, ages ranging from older teens to who knows how old. We don't like watching those dumbed down things, no matter how profitable it is for you, content-makers, to target it only for kids, who will get you the most money. Yeah, it's harder to make such stuff, we know, but it's not impossible. At least show a little effort.

But, concerning that, I can't complain on BH6's TV show anymore. The second season was fantastic so far, and those 'dumbed-down' elements were reduced to the bare minimum. I just hope it stays that way.

... Well, this was a whole lot that came out of me just because of posting one silly fangirl drawing. XD Hope some of you actually managed to read this.... Too bad all of this is going to get dumped in the Scraps' section (please make a Sketch section, DA!), like most of my uploads do.

I live and breathe sketches. lol

Oh well - thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. XD I'm really done this time.

[frogsandfries]

Three million years later

I finally figured out Amazon KDP.

I have finally figured out how big my pages need to be to fit my desired format.

I want to scream. I want to throw something.

But hey.

Guess what.

Now that I've figured it out, and it only took me making like seven different versions-- only one of those being a beautiful, fully realized, carefully assembled version-- and uploading them like thirty different times to get them from my tablet to Amazon.................... all I have to do........ is keep this tablet until hell freezes over. Or until I finish my graphic novel.

Given that I can only keep a tablet alive for about five to seven years, I better get motivated.

I mean, I guess now that I know, and as long as I remember. HAH!! Me remember something that I need to remember!! The only reason I remember how to make dolls is, I made so many of them. I can barely remember how many stitches an ATC is!!!!

I guess I could just write it down and hope that I remember that I wrote it down, at least:

For your reference, the trick to KDP, at least right now, is that if your PDF is too big for your chosen format, KDP defaults to the lower right hand corner. Your best bet is to use a page with a relatively visible grid and literally notate the size of the page in your grid. Luckily right now, the app I'm building my PDFs in offers a page background that is gridded.

Totally, completely unrelated, gaawwwwd I want to make a new doll soooooooo bad!!!!! It's like, right now, if you handed me anything with THC (even yes, a doobie), and a couple pounds of even paper clay, home made play-dough (the brand name stuff got weird since I was a kid, man), model magic..........I think I'd chose the clay. And I can't tell you--it's been like a year since the last time I got properly baked. I miss feeling relaxed, I miss feeling all the physical pain in my body just lift away.

I never really understood how much pain I carry in my body all day, because it's just there, that's just how my body feels, I have more important things to do and deal with. I miss feeling so good-- my approximately seven month old cat keeps putting his paw on my wrist while we're both laying here. Ohp, he just got up and left lol