#I'd have to dig the files up to post them again

[milkman-zahhak]

Shane drawing + written fic to accompany it

WARNING, THIS IS A KINK POST, A FETISH POST. IT WILL CONTAIN FETISH CONTENT, SUCH AS BELLIES FULL OF FOOD AND WHATNOT, CHECK THE TAGS FOR THE WHOLE RUNDOWN.

Hello, enjoy another drawing of Shane based off of some in-game dialogue.

Idk if this is base-game, part of one of the many dialogue mods I have installed, or one of the lines I added into the game's code myself to practice modding and to get used to editing dialogue files. I'd say the latter but I don't remember ever typing this so.. idk. Just assuming it's canon for now lol.

Anyways here's the drawing:

+ a short lame-ass gif attempt

I know it's terrible, I wish I could blur it or something so you could choose whether to see it or not, but oh well. Here's what you're probably all looking for, sorry again if my writing is bad, I haven't proofread it or anything, otherwise I would see what I wrote, and decide not to post it ever! So as usual this is all getting posted RAW and UNCUT!!1! That's why I post both the drawing and the writing- so that if one sucks, maybe the other will impress you and save the poor failure of a post. ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Shane sat back on the worn couch in their cozy farmhouse living room, licking the last bit of greasy residue from his fingers with a satisfied sigh. The empty plate in front of him was a testament to the gluttony that had taken hold of him, scattered with crumbs of one of his favorite snacks, pepper poppers. The farmer always made sure to keep the fridge stocked with them in case Shane got hungry while his husband was too busy to cook for him, since Shane's culinary skill peaked at reheating pre-existing meals in a microwave. Shane usually tries to be a bigger help around the farm when he can, doing what he knows best and caring for all of the animals (mostly the chickens) while his husband tended to the crops and went out foraging. All that hardworking farmer stuff. But today was rainy and stormy, the kind of day Shane liked to spend inside the house. He'd went out to the barn and the coop that morning and made sure the animals were okay, but that was about as much physical activity he had since waking up. Meanwhile, despite Shane's concerns and warnings to him, his husband insisted that he go out and fish in the storm, saying "Certain kinds of fish only come out in this weather, Shane. Besides, the rain means I don't need to water the crops today, I can get other chores done!"

So here he was, sitting on his ass in the house watching TV, the entire stock of pepper poppers he'd saved up for a day like this in front of him, or rather, the remainders of it. He had lost count of how many he had consumed, but it was undoubtedly more than he could handle. A warm, uncomfortable pressure began to build in his stomach, causing it to swell noticeably beneath his shirt. He looked down at his belly, which now protruded like a beach ball, and couldn't help but chuckle softly. The spicy treat had become somewhat of a weakness for him, and his husband knew it all too well.

"Oh, oh wow.. The farmer's gonna be home soon, and I'm such a mess", Shane thought, running a hand over his distended stomach. The heavy sensation of fullness and the audible rumbles signaling an incoming tummy ache were worrying, but he couldn't deny the strange satisfaction that came with it. He shifted his position, attempting to alleviate some of the discomfort, only to feel a loud gurgle reverberate throughout his torso. The sound made him blush, and he glanced around the room, hoping that no one else had heard it before remembering that he was home alone. Even if he wasn't, he had a hunch that his husband wouldn't mind seeing him like this anyways. Another gurgle echoed through his intestines, followed by an unmistakable sensation of gas brewing inside of him. Shane leaned to the side, carefully straining as a short, quick puff rushed out from behind him into his seat. "nhfh.." He grunted, holding back a cough as the scent of digesting pepper poppers lingered in the air.

With a groan, Shane shifted his weight on the couch, the couch creaking underneath him as he tried to sit up straight but ultimately slouched back down, regretting trying to preserve his dignity. His stomach gave another loud growl, followed by a series of smaller rumbles that made him cringe. "Pepper poppers, why do you have to taste so good but hurt me so bad?" Shane muttered to himself, rubbing his belly tenderly.

He knew all too well that they didn't agree with him sometimes. They'd make him feel bloated, gassy, and sometimes even give him heartburn and indigestion depending on how much he decided to pig out, but damn if they weren't worth it. He glanced over at the clock on the wall, realizing that his husband would be home soon.

"I should probably clean up this mess before he gets back", Shane thought, looking at the empty plates and greasy napkins littering the coffee table. He slowly pushed himself off the couch, letting out a small burp as he did so. He paused for a moment, waiting for any more gas to escape before he began to gather up the remnants of his indulgent day. His insides were churning up a storm but nothing else seemed to come out just yet. As he bent over to collect some of the napkins that fell on the floor, another gurgle sounded from his stomach, followed by a sharp pain that made him wince.

"Fuck," Shane cursed under his breath, clutching at his swollen midsection. He straightened up carefully, trying to ignore the discomfort as he made his way to the kitchen. Each step he took sent small tremors through his body, making him hyper-aware of every little movement in his stomach.

When he finally reached the kitchen, he deposited the plate into the sink and napkins in the trash can and took a deep breath, leaning against the counter for support. He couldn't help but feel self-conscious about his bloated appearance. He knew his husband loved him no matter what, but Shane couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed.

At this moment, the doorknob jiggled and he heard the front door creak open. It's as if the universe was reading his mind and taunting him. "Hey honey, I'm back! I caught a bunch of neat fish today! I think we might need more Wild Bait though because…" The farmer's words trailed off as he caught sight of Shane in the kitchen, his eyes drifting downwards onto the poor man's swollen belly. Shane could feel the heat rising to his cheeks as his husband's gaze swept over him, taking in the sight of his distress.

"Shane? Are you alright? You look…" the farmer trailed off, concern evident in his voice.

Shane forced a sheepish smile, taking his hand off of his belly, trying to play it cool despite the discomfort. "Urgh.. Y-Yeah, honey, I'm fine, just… *hic* ate too many pepper poppers…" he admitted, quickly going back to rubbing at his stomach again. He could feel the gas building up inside him, threatening to escape at any moment. He hoped that the farmer wouldn't notice, but the man had always been perceptive.

The farmer's eyes narrowed, and Shane knew that he wasn't fooling him one bit. "How many did you have? I mean, I have a whole chest of ingredients in the shed so I can always make you more, but I really thought this time I'd made you enough." he asked, a hint of amusement lacing his tone.

Shane shrugged noncommittally, not wanting to admit the truth. "You did, you made more than enough, sweetie…" Shane paused to let out a belch, only for it to get caught in his throat, the moment passing uncomfortably. "I just… I wasn't paying attention, and I ate more than enough." he mumbled, looking away. No point in feigning innocence now, not if he wanted any help with his developing bellyache.

The farmer chuckled, crossing the room to stand behind him. He wrapped his arms around Shane's waist, pulling him close so that his back was pressed against the farmer's own body. Shane let out a small squeak of surprise, followed by a louder gurgle from his stomach. The farmer's laughter grew louder at the sound, and Shane couldn't help but join in, despite the embarrassment.

"You know they always do this to you, snack-food is supposed to be eaten in moderation, y'know." the farmer said, kissing the back of Shane's neck.

Shane nodded, wincing slightly as another rumble echoed through the kitchen, the cause of which staying irritatingly trapped inside his stomach "Yeah, I know," he replied. "But I couldn't resist. ugh.. They taste so much better after being microwaved." The farmer's hand slid up to rub circles on Shane's distended belly, "Mmhmm, and I bet it's so easy to just keep eating without even thinking about it when they're all… soft and squishy.."

Shane rolled his eyes, the irony of such a description was not lost on him. The farmer couldn't resist teasing Shane some more, rubbing his hands over the swollen belly and giving it a few gentle pats. Shane's cheeks turned a deeper shade of red as the movement caused more gas bubbles to form and shift. "You're adorable, you look like you're pregnant, haha! " the farmer laughed, his fingers tracing patterns on the taut flesh "Kidding, haha. Swallowing seems to be your strong-suit no matter the situation, huh?"

Shane tried to play it off, swatting at the farmer's hand weakly. "Stop!" he said between giggles and groans, "It's not funny!" But deep down, he knew that his husband's touch was helping him relax, even if it made things worse temporarily. The farmer was always so attentive, always knowing just what to do to make him feel better. And just what to say to get under his skin and make him squirm.

Just then, Shane's stomach gave a particularly loud growl, followed by a deep, low burp, like a warning signal. "*bhrrruurup*… uh, 'scuse me.." The farmer's grin faltered slightly, his eyes flickering to Shane's face as he felt the tension return to his husband's body. "Oooohohooohhhh… " Shane moaned, clutching at his belly "f-fuck, they're really doing a number on me". The gas was building up inside him, pressing against his insides like a balloon ready to burst. He could feel the pressure increasing by the second.

"Come on," the farmer said, taking Shane by the hand and leading him back to the couch, "Let's get you comfortable."

The farmer sat Shane back down on the couch, his belly jiggling slightly from the effort it took to move. He sat down next to him and began rubbing his hand gently over his stomach, trying to ease the discomfort. Shane leaned back, letting out a couple of hiccups. "Fuck, that hurts," he muttered, trying relax himself. The farmer chuckled, his eyes filled with warmth and amusement as he continued to rub circles around Shane's navel. "Relax, dear. You know the drill by now." He was right, Shane had experienced this kind of thing many times before after indulging in his favorite foods. His stomach was just sensitive.

Or maybe his favorite foods being greasy, cheesy pizza, soda, peppers, and spicy pepper poppers was the culprit behind his frequent tummy troubles- but as he's said before, he'd rather die before abstaining from any of those foods.

As the farmer's hands kneaded gently into the surface of Shane's aching belly, they loosened up a few air bubbles that were previously trapped. Shane's gasps and groans were interrupted by airy little burps. "There we go~" the farmer cooed, enjoying the little moans that followed almost every time his husband burped. For as much relief as they brought him in the moment, more gas was building inside of him rapidly as his stomach tried to digest everything. Shane knew this was only the beginning of what was bound to be a long night. The farmer leaned down, pressing his ear against Shane's stomach, listening to the symphony of sounds emanating from within. "Sounds like your stomach's waging a war on you in there." he joked, his breath tickling Shane's skin. Shane groaned in embarrassment, but couldn't help but laugh a little, too. The farmer always knew how to lighten the mood. But as his nimble fingers dug into the sensitive flesh of his lower belly, Shane's laughter turned into moans of both pleasure and discomfort. He couldn't deny that there was something erotic about this situation, even though he knew it shouldn't be. "*hic-uuurp.. uuurp*... ughhh, feels… so tight.." He whined.

Shane flinched as his intestines let out a sickly rumble, he knew his husband could feel and hear it from the outside. "Just let it out, it's gotta happen at some point" the farmer whispered, his hand now firmly kneading Shane's lower stomach. Shane nodded, biting his lip. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and let go. A loud, long fart echoed inside the room, making them both laugh uncontrollably.

The tension dissipated as the gas escaped, and Shane slumped back onto the couch, relieved for a moment "oh fuck, finally.." he sighed. As the minutes passed, Shane's burps became more frequent and less forceful - small puffs of air escaping his lips like a steam engine letting off steam. He shifted on the couch, farting once more. "Buhhhh.. I don't feel good.."

He was a burpy mess. He struggled to speak between them "I'm so *uuurp* bloated" he whined, looking down at himself with disgust. His stomach was round and hard, protruding against his shirt. He felt each gurgle and bubble as his stomach contents churned like a pot of boiling soup- if the soup was made entirely of pepper poppers and grease. He couldn't believe how much he'd eaten - it felt like he'd never be able to move again. *hic…… hic….*

"oh no, f- *hic* fuck.." Shane moaned. each hiccup jostled his already sensitive belly. He put both his hands on the sides of his poor bloated belly, trying to keep it steady while his husband rubbed it. Suddenly, another hiccup shook Shane's frame, only this time it was accompanied by air being forced out after being sucked in by the initial hiccup. His entire body tensed up and he let out a painful groan. "*hic-uuurp* fuck, that h- *hic-uoorrrp* guh… hurts.." The farmer's hand paused mid-rub, looking down at his husband with a mix of concern and arousal "Aw, you poor thing. I can't stop hiccups.. um, just…. Try not to swallow too much air?" Shane whimpered in response "*hic* can't.. help it.. *hic-uuurp* ow… oooohhh.. *hic-uurlp* ow…" "Just hang in there," the farmer reassured him, rubbing his back now. they were both a bit less talkative for a few minutes as Shane groaned in pain. Eventually his hiccups became less frequent, replaced instead by deeper and wetter belches. but the whole ordeal of uncontrollable hiccups still left Shane exhausted. "*buuuuurp* ugggh… so gurgly… *buuuu-ulp* oooh.." Shane managed to say through clenched teeth.

The farmer nodded sympathetically, rubbing Shane's back with slow, comforting circles. He couldn't help but admire the way his husband's belly moved with every burp, the firmness of it beneath his hands. It was fascinating, in a weird sort of way. The farmer moved in closer next to Shane, resuming his gentle massages on his husband's stomach. His hands moved in slow, deliberate circles, trying to coax any remaining gas out gently.

Shane's breathing was deep and labored, his chest rising and falling with each exhale. "ngh… ohhhhh.. *frrrrrt pffffrr-brrpt* ah.." Shane trembled as he felt pressure building near his backside, unable to hold anything back. After a small toot, realizing it was only another fart, Shane actively pushed a little bit, forcing the air out. "Better?" the farmer asked.

The farmer's touch was soothing, his concern evident as he continued to massage Shane's belly. Shane couldn't deny the strange mix of embarrassment and arousal he was feeling - it wasn't everyday someone else got to see him in such a state. But something about his husband's tender massages made him feel cared for and safe. He nodded weakly, a small smile playing on his lips. "Y-yeah.. thank you." He murmured, leaning into the farmer's touch.

The farmer smiled, his thumb pressing against Shane's belly button as he worked his way around the taut surface. The pressure built again, and Shane even try to hold anything in. He let out a long, wet fart, followed almost immediately by a hefty burp. The farmer laughed softly under his breath. "Good boy." He praised, leaning in to plant a kiss on Shane's cheek. Shane's face reddened at the praise, but he couldn't help but feel a spark of arousal at the gentle dominance in his husband's tone. He bit his lip, trying to contain himself as the farmer's hands continued to work their magic. His belly felt a tiny bit lighter now, the gas slowly leaving his body. The farmer's hands moved lower, accidentally brushing against Shane's crotch. He let out a small yelp at the sudden contact, his erection straining against the fabric of his pants almost as much as his belly strained against his waistband.

"Sorry," He mumbled, turning his face away and burying it in his hands. "It's just… you know.. *uuurp* mmph, you.. You're touching me so much.. a-and rubbing me…" he trailed off, unable to finish his sentence. The farmer chuckled again, his hand resting lightly on Shane's hip. "It's okay, sweetheart." He said softly, giving Shane's side a gentle squeeze. "We've been married for years, I know how your body works." He paused, his eyes meeting Shane's briefly before looking away. "And honestly, it's adorable."

The farmer's words sent another wave of heat through Shane, his embarrassment giving way to full-fledged arousal. He shifted slightly, trying to adjust himself without drawing too much attention. But it was no use - every movement seemed to shake his overstuffed belly, reminding him of his predicament. He could feel the farmer's eyes on him, taking in every detail.

"W-why are you looking at me like that?" Shane stammered, trying to sound playful but failing miserably. The farmer's gaze softened as he reached out and cupped Shane's cheek, turning his face towards him. "Because I find you incredibly sexy right now," he admitted, his voice low and husky. Shane's eyes widened in shock before a small smile tugged at his lips. He couldn't believe it - he felt like such a mess, but the farmer found him attractive?

Shane's smile grew wider, a sense of warmth spreading throughout his body. He couldn't believe that his husband found him attractive even in such an unflattering state. He leaned into the touch, nuzzling against the farmer's palm like a content cat. The farmer's thumb traced circles on his cheek as they sat there in silence for a few moments, enjoying the simple intimacy between them.

However, the peace didn't last long. With a loud groan, Shane's stomach protested again, reminding them both that he still had quite a bit of digesting to do. He winced, his hand flying to his belly as it spasmed painfully. The farmer's expression shifted back to concern, his hand moving from Shane's cheek to his stomach to comfort him. "Do you need anything else?" He asked gently. Shane shook his head, biting his lip to stifle another burp. He didn't want to ruin the moment, but he couldn't deny the discomfort he was still in.

"Nah.." He said finally, "Just.. *urp* need to let my belly settle.. whoof…" He took a deep breath, trying to calm his stomach. The farmer nodded, his hand continuing to rub soothing circles on Shane's belly. They sat like that for a while longer, Shane burping and farting helplessly. The farmer secretly hoped that the storm outside would continue through the night and into tomorrow. Not for the fishing opportunities, but because maybe he did need a good rainy day off at home.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

[ut-poppy-askblog]

What's the layout of the omega timeline?

Alright so this question made me dig into my files to see if I could find a thing I was making- a map with at least a generous view of the OT as it is now. And I found it!

So what we see here is a fairly underdetailed map of the OT. And there's also a sideview I used in the Underevent 2022 trailer.

Eventually, I want to provide a full index of all the locations within it, but for now I'll give a brief overview off the top of my head.

The OT in Omega Timeline: Poppy's Story is comprised of three islands:

South Island - The first Island to be built, and the second smallest. This is the closest island with generally speaking the most activity in visitors. The Door area exists around this island. And the door area is ever-changing in amounts of doors (those dots there are doors, but even then, there is probably many than I can realistically draw on). Within exist a handful of landmarks such as the Timeline Plaza, Coofus Garden, and a Lake. Admittedly, I haven't come up with a cool name. Mr. Asgore lives here, notably.

North Island - The youngest of the islands, but no less important. In this island, there exist a few foundational buildings such as the Power Plant, a BIG laboratory facility (which is where people like Fling Ding work at, for instance), and a smaller settlement town (which Fling Ding also lives in).

West Island - The second of the islands, but ostensibly the most populated. This is the island where most of the actual, permanent residents of the Omega Timeline live. It's the largest of the islands, with farmland, a great forest expanse (with a few secret locations within), the Mirror lake, the Colliseum, and the NewHomeTown... Town. That's where people the likes of Fasha, Cadence, and Poppy live.

Oh, and let's not forget the Mountain, which on the outside holds the weather facility (that facilitates clouds and weather to the whole Omega Timeline), and within exists an entire underground subsection of the OT population, with likely its own climates and whatnot. (No barrier keeping people inside the mountain, mind you).

Again, admittedly don't recall having tapped into what cool names could be, but if I remember them, I'll eventually add it in the proper post.

All of the islands have everything a city could need (hospitals, schooling facilities, so on and so forth). And all of the locations in the Omega Timeline are kept in place by walls buit around them. These walls tend to have different colors depending from where you're standing.

I'd imagine it might be more varied than this, but again, these are for roughly demonstrating stuff.

But yeah that's a general look at the layout of the OT.

[roamingtigress]

Sad Puppy, Sad Wet Kitten Poor Dutch went from loving the advanced camera photoshoot in Valentine to unexpectedly getting sad :( Which in turn made me feel a little sad/guilty; here I am a grown-ass woman attached to and feeling emotional about pixels and scripting but here we go. I took him out for a ride with Hosea back to camp . . . Where he got rained on and upset again. Even Hosea wondered why he was upset, my goodness. Once the rain stopped I took them out to the moonshine shack (as there had to be 'shine to make and deliver anyways), he cheered up after coming into Marcel's workshop (!) and had a few swigs of 'shine. I like to give him happiness <3 The coding for this guy seems amazing. It is different than playing my 'legal' vanilla RDO character; in addition to the strange unexpected moments I've pointed out in the previous post, he does have his moods, emotions etc. It's a very cool experience and something I didn't expect; I just thought it was going to be a simple aesthetic change without even the walk (which he has) and unique aiming (that he even has while riding/driving wagons), the boy is keeping me on my feet! And they on Reddit say 'mod menu losers' only push a few buttons here and there 🙃 Nah all I do is load the menu when the game's loading, change the character model to Dutch and then go and do whatever and stuff just unfolds? If I had the capability I'd love to dig around in his file to see what is in there but I enjoy finding out myself. TLDR; quirky complex character is in a different situation but still seemingly complex (and still emotional), in hell of a fun and cool crossover thing Pardon the rambling, just felt the need to share these findings <3

[gstdaisuki]

Part 2: A Discovery with Paul Hutchinson

In the middle of asking some questions via email, Paul discovered the source files for several modules that we had both assumed were lost. This was quite an exciting moment, so I wanted to share it separately.

the previous interview was formatted to remove the interleaved blocks of quoted text. this is presented in a more raw format, as I think that shows the discovery process better.

from anosci, Mar 11, 2024, 7:01PM

I had some more music questions.

The first two X-Men games had 33 and 45 RPM options for all of the music. Do you remember how that made it into the game? Because after hearing your tales of pirate radio and record shop digging, I feel pretty confident that this speed-select design was your idea!

Also, you previously shared the Amiga modules from X-Men 3, before the conversion to Game Gear data. I believe that X-Men 3 was your final Game Gear game. Was the "Amiga -> MIDI data" technique a new process, or did you do that for every preceding Game Gear game?

from Paul Hutchinson, Mar 11, 2024, 8:51PM

Yes, the 33/45 rpm option was my idea. :) Ed liked it. He keeps saying we should do a game together again, "before we die". And he said it should have a retro flavour, and have weird dance music in it. Maybe one day we will do that, I am up for it. (I am considering doing a Pico-8 title at some point here.)

Hmm. I don't think X-Men 3 was the only Amiga to MIDI data music I did. However, I don't remember when the cross-over was. I would have to go back and check over everything. I'll have a quick look and let you know if I actually find out, eh.

from Paul Hutchinson, Mar 11, 2024, 9:12PM

Ok, so I checked the ASM files. X-Men 1-3 all have music derived from Amiga MOD files. There is text denoting the MOD title, and names of the samples which were used in the MOD. If you are interested in more on that I can dig a bit more, and get you those names. They are samples from records I had at the time (Art Of Noise, Linx, etc.). Obviously, the Game Gear instruments were not the same sound.

from anosci, Mar 11, 2024, 10:12PM

I'm curious, at least! I'd love to hear the original MODs but I assume you were only able to find X-Men 3

from Paul Hutchinson, Mar 12, 2024, 9:04AM

Music! …

Ok, this is getting interesting. I see "babybeat" in the list of MODs used in X-Men 1. I found a playlist on YT with 10 tracks. In the menu of the game there are 8 tracks to preview. Track 10 on the playlist is 08 on the menu. Given the heartbeat type sound I hear, that is the most likely candidate for "babybeat". Obviously, since there are 10 tracks in the playlist, and there are 10 references to MOD in the code, all of the tunes in the code were used in the game. Now I am not certain about the connection of this particular tune to "Midnight (Live)" by Orbital. It could be that it is another track that I posted, because I posted quite a few. Hmm. It's what my memory says, but I could be wrong? In any case, it means that "babybeat" as a MOD was transferred from Amiga to PC. There is a chance I have it on the CD from 1999. I just need to find that, again. The MODs do sound quite different from the GG tunes, because it is samples vs sound-chip noises. I just tried to make something that sounded good enough when converted to GG format. There are no samples, for one thing, and the tempo is different. I had made some tunes on my Amiga, and then decided to present them as potential tracks for X-Men 1, and they were accepted (for subsequent X-Men titles I made tracks specifically, as denoted by the titles of the MODs). Normally, Sega would have a musician compose tracks for a game (in MIDI).

In-browser play of X-Men https://archive.org/details/gg_X-Men_1993_Sega Key 1 to start, arrow keys to navigate, and left-CTRL to play tune

Silence = 00

X-Men playlist, 10 tracks, (at 45 RPM?) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUmRxFtMhfI&list=PLw5ZGhvK7sSLqfx4HdldmkLPdFpM3pqFY Track 1 = 01 Track 4 = 02 Track 6 = 03 Track 5 = 04 Track 7 = 05 Track 3 = 06 Track 2 = 07 Track 10 = 08

So, Track 8 and Track 9 (in the playlist) are not playable via the GG menu. Hmm. Title Screen and Ending Theme. Maybe we left off the Ending Theme because it was supposed to be a reward for finishing? Unless you just get it anyway, at Game Over (I do not recall). The Title Screen theme is just there. Oh, well.

In X-Men 1 … ;MOD Title is: renaissancegg Samples = adamski2.raw ;chahihat.raw ;ahh.raw ;drum7 ;19hat ;tr909snare ;bassdeep.raw ;minor4 ;MOD Title is: babybeat Samples = shaker ;animate-bass ;aon-bongo1.raw ;GGbdrum.raw ;AoN-drm3.raw ;moog2 ;drumwack.raw ;SoSbass1.raw ;SoSstring2.raw ;SRdrm2.raw ;CHAhihat.raw ;MOD Title is: outgg Samples = drum7 ;BHbass1.raw ;BHbass2.raw ;cymbal-crash ;chahihat.raw ;crash.raw ;jb-hhmed.raw ;hypnobass.raw ;BHacid1.raw ;BHacid2.raw ;BHacid3.raw ;out_there.raw ;MOD Title is: itchgg Samples = linxvox.raw ;AoN-perc1.raw ;AoN-drm5.raw ;AoN-drm3.raw ;dancer-vox.raw ;dancer-synth1.raw ;scratch.raw ;KRAYScratch.raw ;cymbalong.raw ;hihat1 ;organ.raw ;drumanvil.raw ;MOD Title is: fishgg Samples = Freq5.raw ;crash.raw ;DT4AAdrum2.raw ;DT4AAdrum.raw ;Freq1.raw ;SBpiano2.raw ;cymbalong.raw ;model500-cymop.raw ;futuresnare2 ;wavehi.raw ;N-JOImindflux.raw ;MOD Title is: trouzgg Samples = DT4AAdrum.raw ;hihat1 ;DT4AAbass2.raw ;2U-4.raw ;hihatop1 ;DT4AA6.raw ;zoo7.raw ;where'smytrousers.raw ;zoo8.raw ;ere.raw ;yaseenem.raw ;theretheyare.raw ;MOD Title is: joygg Samples = N-JOImf1.raw ;N-JOI-5.raw ;N-JOIph1.raw ;N-JOI-2.raw ;JBdrum2.raw ;N-JOIrz1.raw ;N-JOIrz2.raw ;N-JOIrz3.raw ;jb-hhmed.raw ;MOD Title is: ramgg Samples = N-JOIph1.raw ;aon-drm5.raw ;model500-cymop.raw ;model500-cymcl.raw ;model500-clap.raw ;drumwack.raw ;2U-6.raw ;hold ;hold (offset tone) ;MOD Title is: turbogg Samples = beep1.raw ;beep2.raw ;beep3.raw ;beep4.raw ;gunshot ;2U-3.raw ;chahihat3.raw ;spliffclap2 ;snare ;stick.raw ;zoo1.raw ;2U-2.raw ;DT4AA6.raw ;MOD Title is: xravegg Samples = EBputv.raw ;JBhitme.raw ;shamen-guitar1.raw ;shamen-guitar2.raw ;SoSbass2.raw ;s&pcots.raw ;mtxpling.raw ;orch.hit ;bassdrum16 ;bassdrum7 ;breaksnareclap ;closehihat ;cymbal-crash ;tap.raw

Naming of samples … Adamski, CHA = Crown Heights Affair, AoN = Art Of Noise, BH = Bassheads, JB = James Brown, Linx (David Grant), KRAYScratch is a sample from "The Krays" film ("Stop all that scratchin', you're making me bloody itch!", "Where's my trousers?" is another sample from same, I think), N-Joi, Model 500, Shamen, SoS = S.O.S. Band, zoo = "Zoo Rave" compilation CD, 2U = 2Unlimited, DT4AA = "Don't Techno For An Answer" compilation CD

Bassheads - Is There Anybody Out There Adamski - NRG Model 500 - Sound Of Stereo

In X-Men 2 … ;MOD Title is: level1b Samples = akaiclosedhh ;bassdrum ;snare1 ;hihat-2ud2 ;808synth.raw ;amaski1.raw ;N-JOIph1.raw ;MOD Title is: level1 Samples = akaiclosedhh ;bassdrum7 ;snare1 ;hihat-2ud2 ;aon-vox6.raw ;amaski1.raw ;N-JOIph1.raw ;MOD Title is: level2 Samples = akaiclosedhh ;bassdrum7 ;snare1 ;hihat-2ud2 ;808synth.raw ;amaski1.raw ;N-JOIph1.raw ;BHacid1.raw ;MOD Title is: level3 Samples = akaiclosedhh ;bassdrum7 ;snare1 ;hihat-2ud2 ;808synth.raw ;amaski1.raw ;N-JOIph1.raw ;BHacid1.raw ;MOD Title is: level4 Samples = akaiclosedhh ;bassdrum ;snare1 ;hihat-2ud2 ;808synth.raw ;amaski1.raw ;N-JOIph1.raw ;BHacid1.raw ;MOD Title is: level5 Samples = akaiclosedhh ;bassdrum7 ;snare1 ;hihat-2ud2 ;808synth.raw ;amaski1.raw ;N-JOIph1.raw ;BHacid1.raw ;MOD Title is: level6 Samples = akaiclosedhh ;bassdrum7 ;snare1 ;hihat-2ud2 ;808synth.raw ;amaski1.raw ;N-JOIph1.raw ;BHacid1.raw ;MOD Title is: level7 Samples = akaiclosedhh ;bassdrum7 ;snare1 ;hihat-2ud2 ;808synth.raw ;amaski1.raw ;N-JOIph1.raw ;BHacid1.raw ;MOD Title is: level8 Samples = akaiclosedhh ;bassdrum7 ;snare1 ;hihat-2ud2 ;808synth.raw ;amaski1.raw ;N-JOIph1.raw ;BHacid1.raw ;MOD Title is: level9 Samples = akaiclosedhh ;bassdrum7 ;snare1 ;hihat-2ud2 ;808synth.raw ;amaski1.raw ;N-JOIph1.raw ;BHacid1.raw ;MOD Title is: level10 Samples = bassdrum28 ;animate-bass ;koto ;closedhi ;hihat-2ud2 ;snare25

In X-Men 3 … ;MOD Title is: x3l1 Samples = akaiclosedhh ;bassdrum7 ;snare1 ;hihat-2ud2 ;BHbass2.raw ;amaski1.raw ;eurostring.raw ;MOD Title is: x3l2 Samples = akaiclosedhh ;bassdrum7 ;snare1 ;hihat-2ud2 ;BHbass2.raw ;amaski1.raw ;eurostring.raw ;MOD Title is: x3l3 Samples = 909.ophi ;hip.snare ;breakdrum ;cymbal1 ;polysynth ;strings6 ;tubestring ;tricky.raw ;MOD Title is: x3l4 Samples = 909.ophi ;hip.snare ;breakdrum ;cymbal1 ;shamen-keys.raw ;tttt-bass1.raw ;goodpling ;inner ;funbass ;MOD Title is: x3l5 Samples = 909.ophi ;hip.snare ;breakdrum ;cymbal1 ;animate-bass ;sequencer ;pizza2 ;N-JOIph1.raw ;tricky.raw ;MOD Title is: x3l6 Samples = 909.ophi ;hip.snare ;breakdrum ;cymbal1 ;bassguitar.funk ;digdug ;exbells ;reflex ;MOD Title is: x3l7 Samples = 909.ophi ;hip.snare ;breakdrum ;cymbal1 ;polysynth ;strings6 ;bell11 ;digdug ;growl2 ;MOD Title is: x3l8 Samples = 909.ophi ;drum7 ;comadrum ;cymbal1 ;comasynth1 ;comasynth2 ;ex800bass ;hitbass ;MOD Title is: x3l9 Samples = 909.ophi ;hip.snare ;breakdrum ;cymbal1 ;dang ;dbassic.raw ;dbassic2.raw ;d-50.res1 ;d-50.res2 ;d-50.res3 ;d-50.res4 ;d-50.res5 ;junob3 ;sequencer ;synth1 ;MOD Title is: x3l10 Samples = 909.ophi ;hip.snare ;breakdrum ;cymbal1 ;koto07 ;bass37 ;Sample10_04 ;perco ;hitbass ;licks ;MOD Title is: x3l11 Samples = hip.snare ;breakdrum ;cymbal1 ;strings3majfl ;sinecz ;shamus ;pling ;tinewave ;synbrass

Probably more info than was necessary, eh. But I learned something! :D

from anosci, Mar 12, 2024, 4:57PM

this is interesting!

First of all, it's rare that game music has titles! They're not quite matched up with the order of the songs in the sound test, but that's still neat to know.

plus it confirms my interpretation that these were rave / dance inspired tunes!

I could believe that 08 in the sound test menu is "babybeat". It has a pretty soft melody, befitting of the title and theme, I think.

This also paints an interesting picture. Tell me if this lines up with your memories:

You had to write the music for Spiderman vs The Kingpin, so you hunkered down and used whatever tools you had.

Then when you learned you had to do the music for X-Men as well, you wanted something easier to work with, 

so you proposed converting the MODs you'd already written.

...and then you stuck with that process for the next two games

>  Unless you just get it anyway, at Game Over (I do not recall).

I checked, and you get the the (presumed?) "babybeat" track at Game Over

from Paul Hutchinson, Mar 12, 2024, 8:41PM

Yes, that's about it, as best as I can remember. I got pretty used to ProTracker.

Yes, at Game Over.

I listened to both tracks to try and compare. It's difficult, because the tempo is very different, the waveforms are very different, and the instruments are totally different. I really need to find that disc, because if I can hear my original MOD it will help clarify if my memory is correct.

from anosci, Mar 13, 2024, 12:31PM

I suppose the obvious follow-up question would be: do you remember how you wrote the tunes for Spiderman vs. The Kingpin?

from Paul Hutchinson, Mar 13, 2024, 3:07PM

Joergen Bech wrote the sound subroutines, we worked together at Inner Prise (I think he is Swedish). I am pretty sure that the music was just composed using those subroutines. As in, just typing it all up, into the assembler file. It was a bit laborious to say the least. There are no other tools to write the music. I looked at the code, and there is no mention of anything other than the code itself. Less than ideal, eh. But then, I am the type of programmer that will convert a C64 loading screen to an Amstrad loading screen, by typing in all the numbers defining each pixel (and getting it right). I did that for Druid (or Druid II, I forget which). Just brute forced it. I got Firebird to provide a print out of all the numbers for the C64 screen, and I converted them myself, and typed in the Amstrad equivalent. I think I got 250 quid for that, it was not fun, but maybe worth the cash, eh.

For Chakan, there was a composer who provided MIDI files. I wrote a conversion program to convert the MIDI into the format that the sound subroutines could use. Much easier, and I did not have to come up with the music myself.

Then for X-Men I added a MOD to MIDI converter, I think. Then ran that through the MIDI to sound subroutine format.

I am looking through the code some more ...

Breaking news ... I just found a bunch of MOD files inside the Sega > TC > Prog folder. OMG! Stand by for those ... (BabyBeat!)

from anosci, Mar 13, 2024, 6:17PM

Typing music straight into an ASM file was shockingly common back then, so I believe it.

> I just found a bunch of MOD files inside the Sega > TC > Prog folder.

!!!!

excitedly but patiently waiting to hear these!

from Paul Hutchinson, Mar 13, 2024, 7:43PM

Hallelujah! :D

Okay, we have the original pre-conversion MOD files for X-Men 1 & 2. They are not the original MOD files. These have been modified to fit the conversion process, in order to get a decent sounding composition on the Game Gear. I have removed some samples from being played, even though they are probably still included in the sample set. I have substituted some samples for others, in order to get a better result. However, you do get a decent idea of how it all worked. This might be as close as we can get, but I will keep looking, eh. I also included some MODs that were in the same folder, but are not mine. A couple from the "Jesus On E's" Amiga demo, as well as the "Coma" demo. Figured you might find them interesting too. I might have borrowed samples from those MODs to make my own.

I have to say I was quite emotional when I saw those MODs in the Turbo-C++ folder. Never expected them to be there this whole time. Hearing "Babybeat" again after all these years. Man. Thanks for getting me to look into all this, I would not have known they were there otherwise. Cheers! :)

3 attachments:

Xmen-Extras.7z

Xmen2MODs.7z

XmenMODs.7z

from anosci, Mar 13, 2024, 9:52PM

I cross-referenced the songs with the titles as they appear in smspower.com (here and here)

X-Men baby    -> Mandripoor fishgg  -> Brood Cave itchgg  -> The Savage Land joygg   -> Boss outgg   -> Morlock Tunnel ramgg   -> Game Over renaiss -> The Hellfire Club trouzgg -> Avalon turbogg -> Ending xravegg -> Title

X-Men 2 level1 -> Arctic level1b-> The Danger Room level2 -> The Hellfire Club level3 -> Genosha level4 -> Avalon level5 -> Egyptian Base Part 1 level6 -> Egyptian Base Part 2 level7 -> Stryfe's Moon Base level8 -> Boss level9 -> Ending level10-> Title

critically speaking, I think most of these start with a solid idea that then gets a bit buried. but it's an amazing piece of context. a lot of the rave timbre was lost in the gamegear conversion. it's amazing to hear it put back, so to speak!

I can see why you fondly remembered babybeat. I think that might be your strongest tune here. that and "OUTGG" (or at least, those two are my favorites)

I love seeing that you got something cool out of my barrage of questions and curiosity, too :)

digging around some more... "JOYGG" is an odd one: the pitch bends didn't transfer to the Game Gear. though I'm not sure my own playback is accurate... there's a lot of out-of-key samples that sound fine after the Game Gear conversion. Strange.

comparing babybeat to orbital's "Midnight (Live)"... the two have a similar push-pull rhythm rhythm in the bass, but I wouldn't call them the same. 

though I could easily imagine the similarities causing a fan of one song to raise their eyebrow at the other. 

from Paul Hutchinson, Mar 14, 2024, 8:26AM

Cool.

Yeah, the "missing link" MODs do not sound as good as either the originals, or the final GG version.

Oh, and I actually wrote a Pro-Tracker to GG format conversion program (DOS), no in-between conversion. I think there was, at some point, a dual set up, but I decided to make it simpler. The dual set up would have been a legacy from when I had to write a MIDI to GG format, for Chakan. I only have the final set of tools in my Turbo-C++ directory, none of the tools I used previously.

I agree with your assessment of the tune similarity. I think at some point I got it into my head they were more similar, and then that just became what I remembered. I am getting older too, so that is a factor. I am only human after all.

from anosci, Mar 14, 2024, 7:02PM

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story, right? ;)

from Paul Hutchinson, Mar 14, 2024, 8:39PM

Well, I am kind of big on telling the truth, tbh. I do acknowledge that I can (and do) get things wrong though. I remember when I was a kid, I swore that the words on a TV advert were "It's full of peppery goodness", when in fact, it was "It's full of Cadbury goodness" (the ad was for Cadbury's Finger of Fudge). I really believed that was what it said, and it did not matter what everyone else said it was. I was honest about my position, I was just completely and totally wrong. :D

[sharkys-failboat-clips]

hey, i'm sharky! welcome to my clip dump. the dedicated blog, anyway. i'm one of failboat's moderators, and i've been in his community for, as of writing this, over 6 years. which is more than a third of my life. which... doesn't really sound like something to be proud of lmao. anyway, i've witnessed a lot of weird and funny moments over that time, and i figured someone oughta make clips of those moments. so that's what i'm doing now! and why you're reading this post!

by the way, this is one of those things where i see other people doing something and i'm like "i wanna do that too!". so don't be surprised if i suddenly stop uploading clips. frankly i'd be shocked if i end up keeping this going for a while lol

submitting clips

look, i have a busy life, what with school and prepping for college, and there's probably MONTHS worth of content to look through. that's why i need YOUR help to find good clips! now, i'm only looking for the best stuff, not just something mildly interesting. i hope you don't mind me being picky. ...then again, i tend to laugh a lot at this guy's content. but anyway!

Here's how you can submit:

the "Submit a clip" button at the top of this blog

under this post via reblogs/replies (you cannot attach video files this way; links are not clickable in replies)

you can TRY sending an ask? i believe in order to send a link with an ask you need to break it up. generally they do not work

eventually i want to have a video on the channel dedicated to submissions. will update on that later

if you post your own clips, please let me know if you're ok with me uploading them! and whether or not you want credit for making the clip

Submissions must include either:

an already clipped video file with a link to the source (be sure it's high quality and shows nothing other than the video itself! i dont want to see video UI or any amount of the rest of the page. just to save me some time lol)

a link to the source with the clip timestamped (either in the post or linked to that spot) and a description of the clip

a link to a clip made using youtube's tool with a description of the clip

you can optionally include a title with your submission but be aware i may not use that title

Clips may be sourced from:

vods on stream storage or unlisted streams (PREFERRED)

videos from the main channel or dinghy (most of these are edited streams, if the moment can be found in a vod use the vod only unless the editing enhances the bit)

videos not on any of failboat's channels but that he appears in

i'd prefer that sources be only from within the past ~5 years. i'd rather not dig up anything too old and potentially cringe-worthy i hope you understand lol

this info is absolutely subject to change. if you have any questions or concerns, please let me know!

Links

The clip channel

My main blog -> @pankomako

[acefaun]

Hi 🙂 don't worry, you didn't offend me in any way. Are you alright? Who was bothering you?

Are you sure? 😓 No way! I have to fix it! I was stressed and panicked and was ready to insult anyone who crossed my path(man maybe I am like Scorpio... That test result was right...). There has to be something you want asap! I have three fics on my priority list right now but I can make something for you!

I just feel super bad for snapping even though it was meant for someone else that I couldn't deal with at the time. 🥺

See, I find it weird when irl people start getting involved in my online life, especially male dudes. And I know at least two male dudes that found my Tumblr so I keep getting antsy about either of them slipping into my inbox.

But I'd like for my Tumblr to be for me and others who enjoy similar things as me. And I promise the two males I'm referring to aren't in our SCM cult. If they were then I might have a different opinion of them slipping into my inbox as anons.

Besides.... 😣 I low-key like to flirt with my Tumblr girlfriends. I couldn't sanely call you my beautifully beloved anon if I thought you were some irl male that I know.

Other than the male issue... I'm okay. I'm actually great! I'm getting a mini Australian shepherd for my birthday in June! She's going to be so fluffy and she's going to be my best friend in the whole world! I'm working really hard right now to save up enough money for the two of us! She's not with me physically but she's already helping alot with my mental health. The intrusive thoughts that used to be like "I wish I didn't exist" even stopped because doggo has been on my mind! I feel like this is going to be a change for the better in my life.

So, I'm trying to deal with the male intruders. And I'll be keeping my anons on again. And I have a finished fic ready to post today! It was finished last week and I forgot about it after my first day of work. 🙃 But I'll post it today after I eat lunch because I have to dig out the file! A Scorpio comfort fic for someone who needs happiness and reassurance. 💖

[timbrrwolfe]

Ok, as promised I'll do a quick list with summaries of each character build I have in mind to at least try in BG3.

Established characters

Rachel from Animorphs

Basically the idea is that she got plucked from the ending of the series (iykyk) and landed on the nautiloid, trading one mind controlling slug enemy for another. I just feel like there's a lot of meat to dig into mashing Animorphs together with the story of BG3. So much so that I considered and dismissed making her playthrough a Dark Urge one, but honestly? I've been reconsidering that lately. We'll see whenever I end up getting around to playing as her. She'll be a Circle of the Moon Druid, natch. But I may also dip a few levels into Barbarian. Just for flavor.

Harry Dresden of Dresden Files

I just finished reading White Knight, and the iteration somewhere among that and Proven Guilty is the one I've put a build together for so far. Which is only really relevant insofar as that he also gets a small multiclass bump for flavor. Iykyk. Again. I actually specifically jotted down the build ideas for him because I wanted to compare it to where he's at by the time the series ends. Obviously a wizard, and if you've read the books you can imagine what kind of spells he'll be using. Lots of fire. Shield. Some Thunderwave here and there. Probably Gust of Wind. I actually might need to skim what I've already read to get refreshed on all the magic he uses. I waffled about the school for a bit but it'll probably end up being Evocation. If not, then Transmutation. Probably. But Evocation's likely where I'll land.

Alex Verus by Benedict Jacka

This one's actually pretty similar to Dresden. Except British. And he's not much for magic outside of his divination magic (so, naturally, he'll be a Divination School Wizard). Which basically means I'll have to figure out spell choices that are within his limited scope of combat. Stuff like Blur/Haste (because he's technically reacting to things seconds in the future, so he's better at dodging), Fog Cloud (as that's a prepared item he keeps on hand), and I don't even know what else off the top of my head. But once I knock out the library books I have out I'll probably be getting back to this series so hopefully that'll help me figure it out.

Zuko from ATLA

Pretty simple. But maybe surprisingly not Monk. Rather, Fighter or even Ranger, for Two Weapon Fighting so ya boy can have his scimitars. And then probably the rest in Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer (this is what I said it was spoken for in my last post). Because of course. Cheating a bit to mention two other builds that are related. I'll likely do a proper Four Elements Monk playthrough as Korra, rather than Aang. And I'm considering trying to do specifically an Airbender build with mostly monk and maybe a level of Wizard to shore up some Airbender-y abilities that aren't present as Monk. Or just make them Githyanki to take advantage of some racial features for the same purpose. Gotta think on it more.

Jedi/Sith from Star Wars

Gonna put these two together as well since I haven't dug too deep into it. But the Jedi build will likely be Fighter/Cleric, or just Paladin. Dueling fighting style, regardless. Sith will likely be similar, except Warlock over Cleric/Paladin. Or just a different flavor of Cleric or Paladin. Again, I'd have to actually take time to flesh it out more and figure it out.

I think that's about it for established characters, off the top of my head. So onto

OCs

Gladiator Pit Wizard

A build I came up with a while back that I don't know if I ever intended to play so much as use for a story that kind of bloomed from it. A couple levels in Fighter, probably more levels in Wizard (Abjuration School, both because the first spell he cast - by accident - was Shield, and because as a battle mage having extra shielding is generally a smart move.) Basically the plan is for him to be fairly tanky while still being able to deal a good amount of damage. Might also be some spice thrown in the build here or there, tied to the story I may or may not ever write. Maybe a dip into a level of another class. Or a cute feat choice. We'll see.

Pseudo Vampire

As far as I know you can't make a vampire in BG3. At least not without mods (which I don't really intend to get into until I'm bored with the vanilla game. Which. Could be a while.) So instead, when I had a dream featuring a vampire that I then wanted to make in the game, I looked into what I could do about it. The answer, it turns out, was a School of Necromancy Wizard. And some levels in Ranger. Either Beastmaster for some familiar summoning, or Gloomstalker for some shadowy stealth shenanigans. Probably the latter, since I can just use Find Familiar anyway unless I want a Wolf or something. And shadowy shenanigans are about the right level of drama for her. Because she's the first evil character I have in mind (an itch that I've had more as I've done my current playthrough). Though her particular brand of evil is more megalomania "I'm the best and the world is my playground and everybody is my toy. And if some toys break, oh well."

Jaded Tiefling

I'm actually not sure what the build is gonna be here. Probably yet another melee + magic multiclass. The idea behind this character is she ran into trouble as a child due to prejudice/fear/hatred based on the fact that she looked like a demon. Nobody came to her aid and nobody helped her. So she had to help herself. Because of that, her mindset is now of the "if you're not strong enough to save yourself, then perish" variety. So she'll likely be another evil one, in that she won't be saving anyone, just looking out for herself. Of course there's a situation very early in the game that is a bit of a dilemma between her credo and her history, so that'll be interesting to sort out with her. Obviously still gotta hash this one out a bunch. She basically came into existence when I was like "Ok but /who/ would I do an evil playthrough with" when the itch started for that.

Bardbarian

He's a Barbarian. He's a Bard. He's a bardbarian. Half-orc whose tribe figured out how to use magic to bolster their martial prowess. He uses a drum and probably sings in some capacity. Also uses a club or some other blunt weapon both to fight and to beat his drum to call up the magic.

The Halberd Soldier

This one is actually a character I made for a campaign that I played about half a session of once many years ago. (I was very bad about getting dragged into a session by my cousin, taking forever to build a character, and then maybe playing one day and then never returning for that campaign). Basically all three of us were soldiers in some army and I don't even remember what the story was supposed to be. So all I have as far as defining characteristics for her are like. Uses polearms Violently protective of other women ... And honestly that's about it. Obviously gonna start her as a fighter, but the goal is to get the Polearm Master feat and maybe pick up some levels in Paladin or something for extra damage. That said she's very much on the backburner until that feat is actually fixed from its current bugged state in BG3 (unless they fixed it in the latest patch, I didn't look too closely).

It Me

Once upon a time I took an inventory to determine what I would be in DnD. Unsurprising, based on the whole Christian upbringing thing (a rocky relationship but still one I hold to) I scored Cleric the most overall. Then some friends also took the inventory. And then we did a one shot. And then another, like a year or two later. I ended up going with Light Domain over Life Domain because it felt a bit more fitting. Also because AoE Fire and Radiant damage. But that one shot was at like level 6, and I also scored pretty high in Druid, with a couple classes tying for third, so I might do a little multiclass if I make this one in BG3

And then there's

The Incredibly Basic Ideas

which is basically just

Storm Surge (Storm Sorc/Cleric nutty lightning damage build)

Transmutation Wizard

Beastmaster Ranger

Some kind of build that's all about shoving enemies around and maybe having setups that do bonus damage from that

Amoral Merc who will basically throw in with the highest bidder, as another flavor of a likely evil playthrough.

Probably a couple monks

Probably a couple bards

and other sort of more generic ideas that I haven't gotten any further than that with.

[therobotmonster]

Okay, that post had thousands of notes and you didn't link to the actual evidence, so I had to go digging:

So, what we've got here is this background:

From their next game which is apparently hollow-knight-esq, and its being said that it's swiped from this:

It's an underground ice cave with generic "tribal" banners.

I mean, they probably took inspiration, the game is a Hollow-Knight alike, after all. At most you could call it an homage. But plagiarism? I don't think it comes within arm's reach of that, not without more points of connection.

I've personally busted on them for not making their designs very distinct, but here's the deal, any time there's an IP lawsuit, more than just the case in question is at state. Precedent is at stake. And that precedent rarely shakes out in favor of the average artist.

If stuff with this level of similarity gets determined to be infringement, lots of homage and parody is suddenly on the chopping block, and a lot of fair use too.

Expys are a long-standing tradition, and because of the inherent stupidity of "Pokemon with guns", they have a strong argument for the intent to parody.

But lets talk about the fakemon situations.

Here we've got Arsox and Flairees, a fakemon from Pokémon Sage.

So we've got fire-ungulates, a wooly ram and what appears to be a goat. A similar critter with a similar element is not enough to draw a connection, nor is a color shcheme, as russet-brown, cream, and orange is a basic fire colorscheme.

The two animals have entirely different distinctive features. Arsox leans heavy on the wool-as-fire thing, and has huge horns. Flairees has a lot of actual fur, and it's distinctive traits are the helmet and the fire mane and tail. Similar foreheads, but again, they might have seen this, they might have come up with it entirely independently.

If I have 20 fan artists the job of doing a fire type sheep or goat pokemon, I bet I'd get at least 2 or 3 that would be similar enough to either of these to raise an eyebrow.

pyroaura98's Mega Delphox is pretty eyebrow raising, at first. But I'm not super into pokemon, don't know much past gen 3, so I looked up actual Delphox.

So.

Delphox is a girl fox with a design that evokes a witch (baggy sleeves, 'skirt', magic wand, the ear-flames are kinda like flowing hair).

I mean, it is possible someone at that japanese game studio saw that particular piece of Mega Delphox art and either intentionally swiped it or did so subconsciously.

None of us were in the room. But it's also entirely possible that two different artists were looking to do a spin on Delphox, one intending to make a Mega form, the other looking to file off serial numbers while keeping it an expy, and came to the same very obvious decisions:

Swap the colors around. Intensify the saturation. Witch her up.

There's only so many ways to make her witchier, and one of those is a giant hat.

However, one of the previous accusations of ripoffery, a fakemon by Pupeh on Twitter/X, and Hangyu, was similarly damning... until it was shown that Hangyu was in a trailer 2 years ago, and Pupeh made theirs in the last year.

Thing is, the process of creativity to create a transformative idea is the exact same one that makes "original" ideas. Both are only slightly divorced from the process of plagiarism. New ideas are the novel assemblage of old ones filtered through our perspective and experience.

If the idea is insufficiently novel compared to the one it's drawn from, it's plagiarism, if it's sufficiently novel we call it transformative, and the less we're aware of the influence, the more original we consider it. And the thing is, we associate certain ideas with each other, and those associations form webs and chains. If you've got two people with similar interests and similar tastes working on similar ideas, they're going to follow similar paths of association.

DC's Swamp Thing and Man-Thing never became a point of legal contention because they were both riffing on the Heap. A whole lot of the franchises you know and love have just as naked lifts as what Palworld's got going.

I'm not here to defend Palworld. I think they flew too close to the sun in several areas. I'm just very concerned that this is not very strong evidence of actual plagiarism, and if that's where the line is, a whole lot of parody, fair use, and homage is on the chopping block.

You don't want the level of protectable concept to be as simple as "fire sheep/goat"

Also, semi-related, why do people keep making pokemon fan games?

You know they're going to get shut down the second Nintendo or the Pokemon company hears about it. Your hard work and loving tribute to their franchise will be turned into lost media because you dared to try and give them free advertising.

Because Nintendo hates the idea of fanworks, and they don't seem to keen on fans in general. They made a guy a debtor for essentially life for selling DRM workarounds (EDIT, see below), they will kill youtube channels for playing hacks of their games, they won't take your tribute in the spirit it is offered.

You should be serial-number-filing your mon, Zelda, mario, and Metroid-likes from day one. It will give you a chance to actually build on your work and let your work survive for longer.

Edit: See, sometimes I have to make a point about fact checking by accidentally misremembering what Nintendo did to Gary Bowser, it's "just" a lifelong debt, not a lifelong prison sentence.

Alright, guess this toy's gonna talk about Palworld, because it's seen Discourse™️ start to crop up about how "supporting the game is immoral because it's stealing designs from Pokemon!"

Now look, this toy's not about to sit here and tell you that all of the monster designs in Palworld are completely original and the game isn't, on some level, a bootleg. Obviously a lot of the designs are bootleg pokemon. That's not the point it wants to get at. The point is that it doesn't really matter.

First of all, nobody is being hurt by Palworld having knockoff pokemon among the ranks of its monsters. Game Freak is not some tiny indie developer struggling to make ends meet having their work unfairly co-opted by a big, bad corporation. Pokemon is, in fact, the largest, most profitable media franchise of all time, and Palworld is an indie game. The reason that something like this would hypothetically be scummy/shitty is if someone were taking someone else's work, changing it slightly, claiming it as their own, and thus depriving the original creator of credit/visibility that they should've had. But that literally can't happen here, because everyone already knows what Pokemon is. So unless it gets found that they're stealing designs from fakemon artists or something (there was one alleged instance, but it seems to have just been a coincidence of two different people having the idea of "what if Chimecho but with big, bulky arms?"), Palworld is hurting nobody through having bootleg designs, so the moral argument against the game falls flat.

With that out of the way, there's a much more interesting topic to discuss here: Why is it that when someone's fangame gets C&D'd, everyone immediately jumps to the creator's support, accurately assessing that our copyright system is broken and primarily serves to hurt independent artists, but the moment a developer makes the changes necessary to make sure their fangame doesn't get hit with a C&D (and to allow them to make money off of it), it's suddenly bad and cringe and unoriginal?

The argument that "Palworld is lazy and unoriginal and therefore bad because the monster designs are too similar to Pokemon's designs" is something that this toy would be willing to hear out if Palworld were a turn-based singles-format RPG with similar systems/overall structure to those found in Pokemon games, but, uh. It isn't. It's a third-person shooter with monster-catching mechanics and, like, Factorio-ass automation and base-building, from what this toy can tell. And it doesn't know if the game is good, as someone who has not played it (or even really seen gameplay of it), but it can absolutely tell you that the game's not lazy.

Sure, they could have done more to make the monster designs feel more unique, and that's absolutely a valid criticism for the game. This toy doesn't want to come across like it's saying otherwise. It just wants people to recognize that that's kind of a nitpick when the game is, on a mechanical and genre level, something completely different from anything any Pokemon game ever has been or ever will be, and that nobody would be complaining about laziness or a lack of originality if this came out as a fangame literally just using actual pokemon. In that reality, people would've been popping off at how high-effort it is, actually. And like, even putting money aside, this game literally could not exist as a fangame. A while back, someone uploaded some videos on Youtube showcasing a fangame they were developing that was an FPS where the enemies were pokemon. They got hit with a C&D and their Youtube account was terminated within a couple days of the videos being uploaded. The game was not monetized, and in fact, never even had a download link, to this toy's recollection. Palworld would have suffered the same exact fate if it wasn't its own IP.

[madchild-dennis]

So it's time I tackle something someone said some weeks ago.

I don't remember the exact words of the tweet nor do I know or remember who said it. But it was basically saying:

"...not to listen to certain things because they're CaMpAiGnInG for their own agenda..."or whatever

I knew it was ABOUT me because God. Plus it was when I decided I didn't care about the government fuckery, because it was a shallow show.

But that post and the other that I directly commented/retweeted was what triggered the tweets that I made that day.

Question though? Isn't it

"Zebras NEVER change their stripes?"

Wouldn't that mean if I was campaigning for ANYTHING it would have been the type of person or I'd do it in a similar/smart way? Wouldn't I be consistent?

I mean why would I go from my 1600+ followers on Instagram or my many FB friends to Twitter? A site that was basically in a identity crisis and had a close knit community. One where not all are welcomed or become popular with ease. Why didn't I try to become viral like COVID on TIKity TOKity? The algorithm makes it easy to do so there. Then WHYYYYY would I go from Twitter, my least amount of followers on any of my social media, to a site I didn't use before and had ABSOLUTELY NONE!?!?!.

THINK!!!!

This is why I say y'all don't think.

You, the government, didn't think when you attack me and noted that I don't give a fuck. Which means if I call out my parents, pastors or more. Why wouldn't I call y'all out TOO. Worst when I said "I WAS THINKING ABOUT IT." Which validated my journey. THEN THAT COMMENT. Like it's quite EASY to see I'm not stupid and have the SKILL to campaign properly if that was my plan. Did you scroll through my IG?

Like pics like these when I was campaigning for something:

I EDITED THEM.

Yes this nobody has SKILLS. So why didn't I post those up to appeal to the masses. Well I did some of those last year. When I started to share the journey on TWITTER. But that was to do my campaigning for MJW/MW when it was just 3 promises and right before I first swore ot of frustration and to make sure to end EVERYTHING. PLUSSS THAT.

Knowing how Christian-base Jamaica is on a whole. I am fucking swearing on the people's internet. I just Swore and ALMOST EVERY POST have fuck or some variant of it since talking about Queen of Jamaica. Why the FUCK if I'm campaigning to Jamaican and say "fuck" &/or leave it up? Please note you won't find any "fuck", or swearing of any form before 2021 in my tweets because I deleted them for Miss World. So why the FUCK would I, if I was, be campaigning with it now? Even in this post. if I know better?

In fact, I know how family values and RESPECT is a big thing in Jamaica. Do you want to talk about my parents? Or what I publicly call them and didn't delete? No? But I thought I was campaigning? Wouldn't I know better to be more respectful even in my anger as SO SO MANY Jamaicans would say, prefer or think. Making it worst how picture perfect & Christian they seem. So I gotta be the problem child not my parents or their beautiful family. Want pics? Check my Instagram: @madchild_dennis for "perfect" family pictures.

Next, if I wanted this from years ago. Wouldn't I push up myself in June 2018 when I attended the Prime Minister's Town Hall in Toronto (Mississauga)? I was there and I was in sash (I don't remember if I was in crown) as Miss Mississauga District World:

Wouldn't I have push up myself and make splash. Or ask a great question or make an amazing suggestions.

Funny story: I was in line to ask the PM a question. But was GLAD when the organizers said they have to cut the questions and make it just pictures. Because I did NOT have a question. Absolutely NOTHING. I tried and hoped by the time I reach the front, I thought of a good one. Then I didn't push for a picture. Even when others crowded the entrance. Trust me I was NOTICABLE. I tend to be. I also saw myself get caught by the camera many time. So dig up that file.

So what were you saying again?

Also WHY THE FUCK would I campaign for something when I KNOW I would be attacked and they would try to kill me for it? I made a tweet thread about that threat from believing and moving in faith. They would have had me in a body bag or locked up in an institution by now, if it was NOT God all along. I said so last month when I was "thinking about it". Right here:

So if I know I'd be in danger just from believing and moving in faith. Wouldn't I KNOW I'd have much more problems if I started campaigning.

Frankly, if you think I, by myself, is trying to get the 2/3 vote in whatever. I don't even know or remember the name or department they work in at parliament, much less to campaign. Bruh I was told I'd need that vote to get the constitution to change such a fundamental thing. A lawyer told me from just telling her what God said. I don't even remember nor care to remember. I didn't even know Jamaica had a constitution before that day. All I knew was that there must be a governing law or something. Plus the civic knowledge I learned in Canada about Canadian parliament. Which I knew was the same as Jamaica's because of British Rule. But did I know the details? NO. Wouldn't that be needed to campaign?

OR why wouldn't I ponder to and campaign for the promises I've been saying from the onset of this journey. Especially, NOW!!! This way I can use the receiving of those promises as validation or prove that it's God and then have that as my campaign base. But wait didn't I not just cuss out 1 for being an asshole. Frankly, I don't even speak about him anymore. I publicly told the pastor to SHUT UP then muted his account. God said that's $100,000,000 USD. Wouldn't that help me campaign (if I was). Or why am I not campaigning or even trying to enter MJW this year. I didn't even know it was happening. Then when I saw pictures or events, all I said was, if they want to do what God says crown me as MJW 2020 without any training or audition, or interviews. Just sash & crown as a special moment/tribute in the upcoming show. Plus this is NOT what God promised and tell me to wait on. He said MW 2021. So, THE audacity. Then I left it as that. I wasn't even so forthright. I could have continued to subtly hint on it. I could have pandered and tried to prove why I should be. Or stop swearing (so unladylike) and post pretty pictures. But wait? That's it. I didn't push it.

Why didn't I?

Like I've said OVER AND OVER AGAIN. God said it so I'm NOT going to try and get ANY of it in my own STRENGTH. Imma let GOD do it. Especially these promises. Like what can I do if I haven't already AND STILL NO DELIVERY. So I leave it to God or He's a liar. (But not yet. We're waiting on the 11 week(s) before we go back down that road.)

In fact, I got so FUCKING frustrated, overwhelm and wanted to spite God/find an out. I decided I'm going to be ME but Unrefined/unfiltered, mean and uncouth. Not like how Queen's or beauty queens are or should be and see what God does or will I be relieved of this journey?

God: Good

Me: what? 🤦🏾‍♀️

God: I rather your authenticity even if it's unrefined. That's what's necessary for this job.

Me: 🤦🏾‍♀️😑 fine. Then they'll see me mine buggars out my nostrils in the car, chariot, donkey-cart or whatever when driving/traveling to my destination. I won't put on a show because OBVIOUSLY I won't even get a break because vacations will still have eyes and opinionated viewers.

God: Good

Me: 😒

Yes. God prefers it as you see it. Plus a simple scroll down my Twitter reveals the uncouthness.

https://twitter.com/Madchild_Dennis/

.

So, all that required was a moment to THINK. JUST SIMPLY THAT, and you would have realized those basic facts. Y'all making me sound like a genius for SIMPLE things. Things I simply took a moment to just think. Nothing spiritual or nothing. If not that, then just read a little and pause for a second. And boom. What you thought was brilliant becomes FOOLISH. It's right in your fucking face.

Or

Maybe your problem is you CANNOT understand why me? Maybe jealous. Or confused on HOW? How a weird, pretty, nobody could be chosen for that? How does she have so much influence? So much that she rattles billionaires (well THE billionaire).

[manyblinkinglights]

also I still haven't had time to try anytauring ray either, but now I have a new (and much easier to model/texture) avatar I'm considering: how would you rig a lapras? I want to have the arms rigged to the front flippers, and my first idea was to just shove the humanoid armature into the ground, but I think vrchat doesn't allow that. I'm also not sure how to find best practice for avatars with very short "arms", since being able to grab stuff is so important. (alsothankyouforquadneck!)

I'd also rig a Lapras as an AnyTaur, with the Humanoid standing up and sharing the viewpoint as normal, because you still need the TrailerHitch system to keep the body level behind you. While the Lapras would go into the floor when you crouched too low, the gains you'd get in its body from being an AnyTaur outweigh this imo, especially from an otherwise very not dynamic and difficult to rig avatar. I'd then just rig all four flippers custom, the hind ones would rotate like your Humanoid toes, and the front ones would disregard being legs and rotate like your Humanoid hands. No wizardry because the thing doesn't "walk", yeah... but the hind body would still capture your Hips rotation (direct + inverse), the long neck I'd add my various modern puppeteering advances to so you could use a gesture to puppet it SUPER nicely and reach out and bop people + switch between it rotating like your Humanoid upper body & the whole thing just curving around based on your Head. If you actually HAVE this Lapras model lmk and I'll post my WIP Advanced AnyTaur files for you--it might be a little much to dig into but the pieces should be there for you to understand the subsystems that permit Lots Of Extra Head And Neck Behaviors, and you can then copy them and implement your own (it's NOT THAT BAD if you're just adding cool tricks to the old baserig's Quadneck system!!!!). All you need to learn to do is use offsets (that you hand-calibrate to unfuck) instead of trying to rotate-like various targets directly. For the Lapras in particular, though... I recommend a hybrid system with an optional Final IK assist. You build this on TOP of the constraint rig, and use offsets to allow the Lapras to switch to it. The purpose is to allow the Lapras' head, on gesture, to actually keep its head ON your hand for picking up props and using them. If the hind fins aren't well-served by rotating like Humanoid toes, you can basically try stuff until something looks good, like trying different constraint weights or switching to Thighs, Head, opposite-side Hand, opposite-side Upperarm, BEND, etc, sky's the limit. Again, the Lapras WILL go into the floor somewhat as you deviate from standing height. But imo it will be worth it; also, my Advanced rig (which I don't recommend you USE until it's done lol, because the setup is totally different in Blender and may trip you up) has onboard optional Worldspacing of fully custom animations and poses, so it could be tweaked at the FX level to worldspace when you stand still and thereby not sink into the floor on you. WOW THIS WAS AN ESSAY. I think you could with some SEVERE tweaking add the worldspacing feature to the Lapras but I'm not sure you're up for it, I'm not sure ~I~ am. Well. Okay. Well. I think you could worldspace it via the TrailerHitch and then if you're on Quadneck for the Lapras I THINK the Quadneck is stuck on the TrailerHitch and not your Hips? So you could worldspace the whole thing via the TrailerHitch maybe...? Like when you stopped moving, and this would keep you from sinking into the floor... Let me know if you're serious about the Lapras, if you've successfully rigged a regular AnyTaur you probably CAN tackle the Lapras, and adding worldspacing to it when VelocityX and VelocityZ are both between -.1 and .1. And you can certainly add a couple extra tricks to its Quadneck to allow hand-and-forearm-based puppeteering, and optional Final IK assist! (Both of these are VERY similar, and rely on the same trick with calibrating offsets as your Sources).

[maxwell-grant]

In light of your latest post - if you had to pick quotations to ascribe to the Shadow the way Al Ewing did for The Immortal Hulk, which do you think would be the most fitting?

Not something I'd given much thought prior, and really I think the quotes depend more on the story proper than the character on their own. But I did some digging around my files, and I think I ended up finding a couple that are not about The Shadow per se, but that I find at least somewhat appropriate to the character or a particular story with him. I’d probably do some more digging to find more varied sources for quotes, but these are the ones that stuck out the most to me as of writing this:

I have seen what no human being has the power of knowing, although they would all be very glad to know—the evil conduct of their neighbors. Had I written a newspaper, how eagerly it would have been read! Instead of which, I wrote directly to the persons themselves, and great alarm arose in all the town I visited. They had so much fear of me, and yet how dearly they loved me - Hans Christian Andersen's "The Shadow"

I want to suppose a certain Shadow, which may go into any place, by sunlight, moonlight, starlight, firelight, candlelight, and be in all homes, and all nooks and corners, and be cognizant of everything, and go everywhere, without the least difficulty… - Charles Dickens' letter to a friend, 1848

Always after a defeat and a respite, the shadow takes another shape and grows again... - J.R.R Tolkien

It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice - Heart of Darkness

Death isn't cruel – merely terribly, terribly good at his job - Terry Pratchett

I sometimes feel that I'm impersonating the dark unconscious of the whole human race. I know this sounds sick, but I love it - Vincent Price

My brain is the key that sets me free - Harry Houdini

Tales and adventures are the shadow truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes and forgotten - Neil Gaiman

Sometimes when I started writing, characters and things came so fast. I didn't understand where they came from or why. It was so fast, it was hard to get them down. It is almost as though time stands still. - Walter Gibson

I live in positives. Time does not mean anything to me. I can be awake and still think I am talking with Houdini. It is all so real to me. - Walter Gibson

She went straight from fast asleep to instant operation on all six cylinders. She never needed to find herself because she always knew who was doing the looking - Terry Pratchett

I have pasts inside me I did not bury properly - Ijeoma Umebinyuo

We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone. - Orson Welles

I think the world is like a great mirror, and reflects our lives just as we ourselves look upon it. - L.Frank Baum

Seven years ago we all went through the flames; and the happiness of some of us since then is, we think, well worth the pain we endured - Dracula

The panther's eyes flicked away from his, and the panther prowled once more around its cage and turned back and met his eyes again. The panther's eyes were huge and inhumanly yellow, filled with their urgent question, which might have been: Who are you?, or What are you going to do? Who he was and what he was going to do were the same thing, Tom realized - Peter Straub’s Mystery

My impression was that of an immense and overwhelming Power opposed to my volition,—that sense of utter inadequacy to cope with a force beyond man's, which one may feel physically in a storm at sea, in a conflagration, or when confronting some terrible wild beast, or rather, perhaps, the shark of the ocean. Opposed to my will was another will, as far superior to its strength as storm, fire, and shark are superior in material force to the force of man - Edward Bulwer-Lytton's "The House and The Brain"

Nothing now was left but the Shadow, and on that my eyes were intently fixed, till again eyes grew out of the Shadow,—malignant, serpent eyes. If you could fancy some mighty serpent transformed into man, preserving in the human lineaments the old serpent type, you would have a better idea of that countenance than long descriptions can convey — and withal a certain ruthless calm, as if from the consciousness of an immense power - Edward Bulwer-Lytton's "The House and The Brain"

If thine is the glory then Mine must be the shame You want it darker We kill the flame -Leonard Cohen's "You Want It Darker"

I am the rain Falling down to cover you Wish me away But I'm here for your own good I am the storm Sent to wake you from your dream Show me your scorn But you'll thank me in the end - Assemblage 23's "I Am The Rain"

Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light - Dylan Thomas

There is no magic. People can't see me, they simply won't allow themselves to do it. Until it's time, of course. - Terry Pratchett

[traegorn]

I vague posted because I didn't want it to seem like a callout, and I didn't feel like getting into a random argument with a stranger I don't follow. Like, it was the post right after my reblog. It's that normal Tumblr thing where you make a post right after your reblog to express the rest of your feelings on a topic without linking it to the original post.

This is a normal, non-hostile thing to do. Because if that post circulates, literally no one will connect it to the original subject. And it doesn't drag shit up that's already settled.

Also - I deliberately didn't respond to your follow up two days ago (that - again - you made after this post) because based on your response I felt like we were just going to get into a semantic argument about what constituted an "abandoned" project that "hasn't been updated." It seemed needlessly nitpicky, I could see where you were coming from, and I had other stuff to do.

So I let you have the last word there. And I thought we were done.

But you're here. Again. In my notes. Having hunted down a post I made prior to your response to me. Digging up an argument I'd literally dropped. Like I know I don't post a lot over the weekends, but you still had to go looking for this post.

So now we're here.

I guess apparently now we get to have the conversation where I disagree with you over the definition of a fucking word.

What we consider an abandoned project and what we don't is complicated. For spectators watching - the original OOo is fully abandoned, and both AOO and LibreOffice are forks of the original project. While it's true that AOO has lost most community support in favor of LibreOffice (and AOO lost almost all of its funding almost a decade ago), there are developers contributing to AOO (even if you could probably count them on one hand). Have I gone through the code myself? No. I'll admit that. But to describe a piece of software that literally just put out a release as fully abandoned seems inaccurate to me. Is it severely under supported for what a project like that needs? Yes. Does that constitute the project being "abandoned?" I personally don't think so.

As long as one person is plugging away, someone's keeping the lights on.

Is LibreOffice better and are you right in recommending it over AOO? Absolutely. And it is what I'd recommend people use too. It has much better support for Microsoft's current file formats, and it's what I have installed on my Macs and Linux machines.

That's it. That's where we disagree. That's what you've decided to dig up.

Also, and I want this to be clear, your choosing to respond to this post after you already got the last word on your post is fuckin' wild my dude. Like you deliberately went out of your way to re-start a fight you had publicly already won.

Great job.

I hate it when people write authoritative posts on this site without checking to make sure they're right first.

And then a big account reblogs it.

And now dumb misinformation is everywhere.

[tribbetherium]

So I've been clearing out my old files and stumbled upon this old scrapped concept I had all the way back since 2017, a seed world project inspired when I first started reading Serina. It was just some random stuff I ended up doing just for fun but I was surprised at all the notes and sketches I'd made of it a long time back, and looking back four years later there may have been quite some really unrealistic evolutionary paths and a rather...pessimistic and kinda misanthropic outlook on sapient species repeatedly evolving and inevitably destroying themselves and the world around them.

But hey, thought it had some interesting ideas so without further ado: "Hamster's Paradise".

The timeline all begins on a suitable, habitable Earth-like planet, orbited by two moons and in a binary system with a yellow sun-like main star and a small orange dwarf that orbited further out and sometimes left nighttime as illuminated as nautical twilight. It was seeded with Earth organisms in preparation to human colonization and all the necessary organisms to maintain a sustainable, habitable biome, with various plants, fungi, decomposers, insect pollinators, marine algae, plankton and the like. However, there were no vertebrate life on the planet save for one test organism introduced to monitor the habitability of the biomes: the Chinese dwarf hamster, Cricetulus griseus.

But for one reason or another, humans never returned to the planet: whether they became extinct, abandoned the project, or managed to colonize another planet, it didn't matter: all that did was that this world was never visited or interfered upon again by human hands. And so, the planet was left to its unlikely colonists: they flourished for the first few million years, experiencing massive boom-and-busts in their population as they repeatedly bred out of control, starved en masse when food dwindled, and the few survivors left to repopulate in the next cycle. Eventually after about 10,000 years the hamsters and the ecosystem began to hit a sustainable equilibrium, and as niches gradually became established, the processes of evolution began to do its work.

The first major epoch of the planet's history would be the Rodentocene Era, where the hamsters, still small but diverse, would begin to diverge into numerous different forms as they came to adopt new lifestyles and occupy new niches. Among these would be running mara-like herbivores, gopher-like burrowers and shrew-like insectivores, while one lineage, evolving longer tails and limbs, would give rise to squirrel-like climbers and jerboa-like hoppers. The biggest creatures at this time would be cavybaras, capybara-sized plains grazers, but throughout the Rodentocene Era, lasting from 1-20 million years post-establishment, none of the rodents would grow particularly large, remaining in small-mammal niches that modern rodents, shrews and lagomorphs would occupy on Earth.

However a world occupied solely by small critters was not to last long, as 20 million years PE the first megafauna began to evolve, occupying bigger and bigger niches. By the 50 million year mark the next epoch, the Therocene Era, was in full swing: large rodents occupying big-mammal niches are widespread throughout all the continents at this point. The cavybaras soon give rise to the buffalo-sized mison and the omnivorous pig-sized bumbaa, the arboreal squirrel-like forms grow into lemur-sized squimians, and aquatic otter and beaver-like species also emerge. The jerboa-like hoppers give rise to the dominant plains grazers of this period: bipedal hoppers resembling macropods, such as the kangaroo-like boingo and its smaller wallaby-sized relative the oingo. Larger predatory forms have also evolved by this point, preying upon their distant relatives: the canid-like hamyena specializing on smaller prey, and the saber-toothed daggarat, which targets larger game such as the mison.

Meanwhile, a different sort of life flourishes in the oceans: in the absence of fish, small swimming krill-like crustaceans evolved into larger aquatic forms, eventually becoming the dominant aquatic lifeforms on the planet: the shrish. The shrish evolve into a diverse array of aquatic species, such as the schooling open-water shrardines, the centipede-like shreel that hunts in coral reefs like a moray, the venomous trilobite-like shringray, the predatory shrark, and a migrating freshwater species, the shralmon, which swims upstream to spawn.

The Therocene Era ends with an ice age that creates large areas of permafrost and tundra, bringing about the Glaciocene Era: 80 million years PE. New forms adapted to the cold develop in the northern continent: a relative of the mison, the rakatusk, grows to elephantine proportions and sprouts a shaggy coat to insulate against the freezing cold, with tusk-like extensions of its incisors serving to dig for food and defend itself from its main predator: the snabre, a lion-sized descendant of the daggarat that fused its upper incisors into a single stabbing blade. Another beast of the ice ages is the lumbering drundle, a nine-foot relative of the boingos and oingos that, having become too heavy to hop, became a plodding bipedal browser, adapting its spine and hips to support such a means of locomotion.

The climate would soon become milder 10 million years later and the icy tundras would shrink, but these cold-clime giants would persist throughout the Glaciocene, and some would later move down to the temperate regions and evolve into new forms. Most notably were descendants of the drundle that would become smaller and nimbler but retain their ancestor's bipedal walking: balanced by horizontal tails and with shorter forelimbs for grasping food, they became the hamstheropods, producing running plains grazers, alpaca-like mountain climbers, and one group of carnivorous predators, the ratptors. The ratptors, however, would be relegated to scavenger and mesopredator status, as the top carnivore niches were filled by the descendants of the hamyena: the carnohams, which sported Thylacoleo-like dentition, with conical stabbing incisors and meat-shearing first molars, and subdivided into two clades, the pack-hunting dog-like gringoes and the stocky, short-legged, strong-jawed bajas.

Other, smaller clades would become widespread in this era. Small, flying ratbats are abundant in the skies, feeding on insects and fruit, the aquatic otter-like species move out to sea and become shrish-eating seal-like phockas, and some of the burrowing gopher-like species become fully subterranean diggers known as horlocks, adapting to the low-oxygen environments underground by having slow metabolisms that lead to them becoming effectively cold-blooded, losing their pelage and converging with naked mole rats.

And then, at the end of the Glaciocene, 95 million years after life was first seeded onto the planet, an intelligent species evolves- a species that may very well represent the worst of the worst that sapience had to offer: the harmsters. Descended from pack-hunting ratptors, they were adaptable fast learners and eventually learned how to fell their prey with tools and weapons. The harshly-competitive environment selected for the smartest, most cunning and fiercest of the lot, and soon the harmsters attained self-awareness and soon began to construct a civilization: a civilization centered on war and violence.

As predators selected for both intelligence and ferocity, the harmsters were mentally geared to be incredibly vicious and cruel, displaying a penchant for genocide, bloodsport and even cannibalism, being promiscous breeders that eagerly feasted upon the weakest of their surplus young in bloody rituals. Though they were able to cooperate with each other to some degree, which aided in their construction of a civilization, their culture revolved around a sense of social darwinism, where the strongest were to rule and the weak were killed and devoured. Their violent ways spurred the rise and fall of numerous kingdoms during their brief reign: they engaged in massive wars between kingdoms with casualties numbering in the millions, breeding at rates expected of rodents and thus churning out legions of expendable troops that aided them in invading each other's territories and plundering their enemies' resources. Some of the kingdoms of the northern continent began enslaving rakatusks and comandeering them as weapons of war, living siege engines that trampled the opponents palaces with ease. This strategy would eventually lead to the rakatusk's extinction, as their already-dwindling populations were dragged into battle where they were felled without mercy.

Such a violent, merciless and brutal species was surely not long to last in this world, as they plundered and slaughtered their way across the northern continent driving many species to extinction in their wake, as the harmsters hunted them for food and sport with as much reckless abandon as they did butchering their own kind. Eventually the harmsters would briefly reach an industrial level of technology-- and unsurprisingly, use their newfound technology to create weapons of mass destruction that they turn against their own species. Too bloodthirsty and barbaric for their own long-term good, the harmsters would eventually bring about their own eradication, a mere 13,000 years ever since the first of them discovered the use of tools and began their bloody empires.

The brief rise and fall of an intelligent species ultimately was inconsequential to the grander scheme of life, and it was not long before geological processes swept away all traces of the harmsters' civilization, to be forgotten in the sands of time. In their absence, life simply began anew, in the Temperocene Era: 100 million years PE, a time of mild climates and new diversity that rebounded in the wake of the extinctions brought by the harmsters. The arboreal squimians diversified into monkey-like frugivores and gliding insectivores, while in the seas the phockas, nearly hunted to extinction by the harmsters, rebounded and became fully-aquatic hwhels, some which evolved multi-crowned teeth for catching small swimming prey, and others developing sieving bristles from modified whiskers to filter out zooplankton and krill from the water. On land, the hamstheropods reclaim the lands once ravaged by the wars of the harmsters, their own kin, and become ornithomimosaur-like runners of the savannah, with one group, the nenks, becoming twelve-foot long-necked browsers.

It was also during this warm and humid clime that one of the strangest lineages of the planet would arise. Descended from the burrowing horlocks, some of these unusual new species returned to the surface to exploit vacant niches, regaining their keen eyesight as they came to live above ground once again. The bristly remnants of their fur coats, no longer needed for insulation, would later evolve into overlapping pangolin-like scales to help protect their exposed hairless skins, and their decreased metabolisms, coupled with a long, fat-storing tail, helped them thrive as ambush hunters of insects in warm climates that needed far less food to survive than a typical rodent, using up less energy. With tough scaly skins, a nearly-cold-blooded metabolism, and sprawling limbs as a remnant of their burrowing ancestry, they became the ratptiles: a diverse clade of superficially lizard-like rodents that eventually diverge into long-bodied, flexible short-legged carnivores known as snerpents, herbivorous slow-moving species called biguanas, and even a clade of hopping stocky-bodied insectivorous toadents, which converged heavily on Earthly frogs save for their independence from water when breeding. Like all mammals, ratptiles gave birth to live young: however, they birthed up to thirty tiny but well-developed infants per litter, which were immediately independent from birth and needed no further parental care, simply being born in numbers great enough to ensure at least some would survive by sheer chance.

(Part 2 to be continued...)

[hychlorions]

aaaa hello, i recently found your blog and fell in love w aa again bc of your retro brushes! if it's alright to ask, what are the other brushes you've used like for your lineless art? the subtle textures and edges are so sweet and i'd love to experiment ^^

Ooh hi !! It's totally fine to ask about my other brushes :D I'm putting this under read more because of how long it got though lmao

Thank you for liking my retro brushes! The ones I uploaded aren't actually all the ones I used in that piece. They're actually missing the textured brush I used to recreate the ink texture that riso printing has. I also had to make these brushes myself, but since I used a texture pack that's been uploaded to csp assets (This one, I used the one called solid-uneven tones, which is actually really good on its own!), I wasn't allowed to upload them without violating the rules on the csp site, but you can get it from my google drive here! I could have just used one brush for all four colors considering there's no halftones, but observe:

On your left, the irregularity you're going for would've been the same on all layers, which creates a lot of blank white spots that might be pleasing for some, but it wasn't what I was going for... plus if you move the layers around it sort of creates a 3d effect that might be cool but also ends up being a bit distracting, so I just duplicated the brushes and set the texture rotation to different angles ^^ In the end it's really up to the look you're going for, though. So feel free to experiment!

I also used this vertical line brush that's super fun to play with. You can see how that looks alone in here (I changed the texture's scale ratio, the actual brush has thicker lines and a wider gap between them):

As for most of my lineless art, I actually only use four brushes!

This, for example, was sketched with a modified colored pencil brush that comes default with csp 1.10.9 which you can find here, since it's gone by the version 10.10 update

if you want the exact modifications I did, (since the default brush comes out super light no matter how hard you press) just go into brush tip > brush density > brush density dynamics and change the settings to these! Or however you see fit. The brush engines in csp are surprisingly easy to get the hang of once you've been doing it for a while

I color with two to three brushes! depending on if i want to put in the extra effort or nah

The main brush i use is the flatman soft from @/frenden's megapack which you can find in this post ! It costs maybe 15 bucks? But I believe it's worth it! It might actually be the only brushpack I'm willing to spend some cash on. You get access to so many brushes + any future updates (aka more brushes) so it's a pretty good deal hihi

For softer edges (like blushes, and the fur on this girl's hoodie wahoo) I use either the colored pencil brush from above or the flatman hard from the aforementioned megapack, depending on the kind of "soft edge" I'm going for. colored pencil brush is for anything fuzzy and the flatman hard is good for blending two colors together!

Last brush is the SU-Cream pencil! You can get it over here. I mostly use this for details, like adding lines and drawing the eyes, nose, mouth... the larger it gets the fuzzier it is, too! So you can just as well use it for soft edges if you don't dig the former two brushes

For adding texture to things, I just use this noise texture and the paper texture from this material catalogue ^^ I don't use them much, but I tend to combine the two, and it ends up looking like this, which I think is p neat:

Lastly, did you know you can import abr files to csp? and that adobe gives photoshop subscribers free access to a ton of brushes? and that I don't believe in the inherent elitism and capitalism and anti-ownership mindset that adobe's subscription service model perpetuates?

Anyway, unrelated, but here's a google drive of all the brushes offered by an unnamed over-charging company that I hate that you may or may not be able to use in programs like krita, csp, and procreate

Have fun!!! I'm sorry this is really long I just like handing out brush recs :3

[fimawari]

Thoughts on the comic and Skully's Identity. [Slight Spoiler Warning? Not really any plot spoilers just details and characters.]

So a lot of people accept that Jay is probably Skully, either surviving or something else. However there's also speculation that it could be Alex, Jessica, or even Seth Wilson, a few thinking about Tim. (Though I would rule him out as the artist drew what he looked like in the Comic on another post) So I raked out every detail I can. Of course it can all just be a stylistic choice but whatever - make of it what you will.

It could just be some new random asshole, but It's a given they know Jessica, so it is very likely to be Jay. He presumed she was gone, unless he watched the last Entry. That would also explain "It's you" sort of "oh shit" moment. Jay was also set on looking for Jessica, so if he did survive, you could assume that would still be one of his motives. Tim wouldn't likely have that "it's you" moment because he knows Jessica is alive. Alex might have that reaction though. I believe he presumed that she was gone.

It also takes two things from Brian and Tim. The hoodie and the plastic mask. So this person has likely seen both of them and came to imitate their appearance.

Coat Buttons

The Jacket appears to have snap on metal buttons. It's typical for this style of jacket (similar to a utility jacket, which would be useful and warm to run all over the goddamn woods at night) to have the buttons placed on top of the left side for a men's jacket. (Of course it could just be any person in a men's styled jacket, but still.)

I picked this out because it's paid attention to very carefully as a detail. Of course that's good for continuity, but I know for filming Marble Hornets they were very careful with detail and hinting at things.

2. Height

They're only seen crouching up to a door with Jessica on the other side, but if they both stood straight, they'd come to be about the same height, which was true for Jay and Jessica in the series.

3. You are broken but you CAN be fixed

This is what the masked figure says to Jessica. Similar to ToTheArks video saying Alex was broken, but couldn't be fixed. That might line up with Jay's motives because he continued to think he could solve the situation. It could be argued he also believed Alex could be saved from the Operator. It it were Alex, it could be his own changed perspective in whatever "form" this is now. That would be quite interesting to see why he would go from wanting to destroy the tapes to actively giving someone the tapes.

4. Not a point but something I noticed.

On the Rosswood bulletin, there is a blurry poster that looks like it could be a "Missing" sign. Who for - I don't know, but it does kind of appear they have glasses, so it could be Alex? This could also just be meaningless background illustration.

In the same frame, Adam also talks about people getting lost in the woods and says, "The Majority of them were recovered safely but," and he stops. That's a pretty cliffhanger "but" there Adam.

Closer inspection of the Rosswood Map shows Rosswood Rd, mentioned in the series, and was supposed to be the road off the usual parking lot they stopped in when meeting up, and an X location to hard to read atm, but it is off the beaten path.

5. In a silly doodle drawing in the comic files, I did notice this poster with a skull on it. It may just be nothing but could also be implying that whoever is in the skull mask died and came back.

Also I appreciate that the soda is Conk.

6. It's Fall about 10 years later after the first incidents in Rosswood began, in the timeline 2019 ish, but that is apparent from the trees outside and the time the comic was created at.

7. Jessica has a "Sarah" in her phone. Could he literally the millions of Sarah's but I'll point it out anyway. But more interesting barely covered is Tim's contact.

8. I was thinking about why their seems to be Blue Lenses in Skully's mask, they're even visible from a distance. Now this is really digging at the bottom of barrel but when Jessica grabs the pipe to defend herself, it's highlighted by red for emphasis. Red and Blue have often been a scheme for duelity and such.

This repeats again in the second title page:

A lot could be discerned from it. Maybe she is Skully, like a second half of her, as one of her nightmares is fighting against herself. May also not mean that and be another symbol of duelity, red vs blue.

I don't think the blue is styling choice because you can quite clearly see eyes in Masky's drawing. I believe there is definitely something covering their eyes - like lenses. Their "fashion choices" are also leaning towards the expensive side I noticed. Unless they just stole it went to a goodwill and got lucky. A utility jacket like that would cost somewhere beyond a $100 unless you're lucky. I'd pay to see a cryptid running around in Gucci in butt-fuck-nowhere Alabama in the middle of the night. Or who knows maybe Alex got some prescription lenses put in that shit.

9. Do I even have to explain the symbolism of a Jay.

10. I can say with good certainty this probably symbolises Jessica's memory of Alex.

11. Some damning evidence, whoever is in the mask has access to the original entry files, not just downloaded YouTube stuff. Jay, Tim, Totheark would likely have access to that. Alex was pretty dead-set on having all the traces deleted, I'd doubt he'd have them all uploaded to a computer.

12. No idea what this might represent besides some metaphor for life being a merry go round, but in the postcard Skully is chilling on a horse lmao. "Stuck in a loop of unhappiness." Ring a bell?

13. Can't attach another photo but the abandoned house Jessica goes to has "Bones" written on it, much like the Hospital did. In the original series they said that graffiti was just there, so maybe they decided to work with it? Who knows maybe it's some kind of new group? Maybe ToTheArk vs "Bones?" You CAN'T be fixed vs You CAN be fixed.

14. I also can't speculate what it exactly means, but it's obvious Skully can talk, not seen previously with the others. Whether out of an inability or just not wanting to. Could be argued it's a person behind the mask by choice, not volition. We also don't really know if Brian chose his path or became that. But he became a masked cryptid after supposedly "dying". We also never see people "die" just assume they have died or are dead and they disappear. Tim implies that it's just feeding off them, physically or mentally. They always die off camera or get fucked off somewhere by the egg head. They appear dead afterwords, with Jay and Brian, but still missing. All of their bodies were taken by the monster and are god knows where in some seperate dimension. This is borderline r/im14andthisisdeep but what is "death" in this series. Does it mean gone permanently or just "gone" ... For an unknown amount of time. People die, but do they stay that way? Or do they die ... In one sense, but not the other, Losing something of themselves from before, and becoming something new. That would awfully explain Brian's behavior after Alex "killed" him. It's also implied there are others apart of ToTheArk that were never shown in the series, suspected to be other members of the original cast who maybe had "died" and come back as someone else. Something broken.

Tim seems to be an outlier. It's presumed he has avoided death, and essentially kept his mentality. But still slips into another form out of his control, usually in response to the monster or the hooded man being near and stealing his pills and shit. Is he between death? Is that why doucheslender follows him? "The one that got away." Istg I don't take drugs.

That was Michael from Vsauce thank you for coming to my Ted talk.