#I'm just so excited to make mods for myself again!

[aesfocus]

Tonight for the first time in long time I made mods just for me. :)

Nail mod has been restarted. (using Shas's nails as a base, will not be uploaded anywhere just personal)

I ported 6+ underwear sets from DAZ to skyrim tonight too.

[ask-spiderpool]

Hey mod, are you okay? It’s been a while since you posted (no judgement!) and I just wanted to see if something was wrong. Love you and I hope you stay strong🫶🏼

Bless you anon! I appreciate you checking in! I don't post a lot of personal updates here, but I have been going through the wringer lately... hough.

Lately I've been battling with anxiety, you know, same as everyone. It's kind of made things that I used to enjoy kind of stressful for me. Everything becomes stressful for me. Even not having things to stress about makes me stressed. I'm at my most Peter Parkeriest, in the worst sort of a way.

I thought it was a brain thing – that it was all in my head. I have a new, stressful job, and a stressful living situation, and some family issues I'm dealing with. It'll pass. So I kind of tried to power through, until my body shut down on me last year. And as it turns out, when I got checked out by the doc, it's not just a brain thing. I have a tumor (her name is Lamar, and she's benign, buuut...) she's producing 5x the normal amount of stress hormone in my body. The doctors think it's insane. I think it's hilarious. I feel like it's some kind of joke.

I've been battling this ridiculous chronic stress for years, thinking it was all in my head, but actually, biologically, I'm an overflowing reservoir of stress, and it's something that can be measured in my bloodstream. And it's been going on for years!

So, lately I've been devoting a lot of time to forcing myself to relax. Doctors orders. I can't get stressed about things. Every day I have to effectively diffuse a bomb. And the bomb is me. I'm so pumped up with involuntary stress, and I have to devote my time to keeping it at a manageable level. And so there are a lot of backflips I have to do to keep myself human right now, and not turn into a bomb.

See... posting to the blog doesn't exactly calm me down. It makes me anxious, most of the time. So I've been telling myself it's okay. Only post when you feel good. You have enough things to worry about, and the blog can't be one another thing to worry about. It can only be for fun. If it doesn't feel like fun, don't do it.

I need to do a million little calming activities to function. The blog used to calm me. But it doesn't, anymore. I still love it, and I still have so many scripts I'm excited to do, but... I just have to be patient with myself, right now. I can't bug my head over something that can wait. It can wait. Right now isn't the time. My health is the most important thing. I can't get that back, if I lose it.

Right now I'm about keeping my head above water. Keeping calm. Doing meditative things, that aren't necessarily productive... (trust me, I am SO upset about not being productive. I miss it a lot) but they force me to take it slow and force me to not worry. I'm learning the banjo (she calms me), and I spend a lot more time in nature, having staring contests with ducks and pigeons, and befriending beetles and bugs.

I'm a very positive person, and I know I'll make it through, and I love myself for all the effort I'm making to keep myself from breaking. Because I know if I didn't force myself to calm down, I could snap like an elastic band. I – I don't want to break, like I did last year. I need to be good to myself. And relaxing is an effort. It takes a lot for me. And certain calming routines work for a little while, and then stop working, and I need to make the effort all over again to find something new. It's kind of insane how much time I need to calm back down again. I remember, once upon a time, it being baseline.

Luckily there's a surgical solution, so hopefully I'll be normal again soon, and there won't be any more bees buzzing in my brain!

I hope you'll all be patient with me! And hopefully I'll make it out alive and stronger than ever, soon.

[sculkapologist]

I finally finished a NEW CUSTOM MAP ART!!! "Visitor," a portrait of an enderman, is extra exciting because it's my first full-palette map painting, meaning I used block height to access all the highlight and shadow colours available!! More on the full process under the cut, but the short version of what this means is:

ITS A VERY COMPLICATED CONSTRUCTION. I created the art, then planned and built this manually, without any mods or schematics for construction. Huge props again to everyone else in the server for helping me gather all the materials to make this absurd thing possible!!!

This was the original art I made for it! I'm a huge fan of the "compressed" look of the vanilla paintings, so I've been starting with a large image and shrinking it down, though there were a lot of pixel tweaks to get it to read well. After shrinking it to 16x32 (for an art made of two maps), I convert it to a limited palette that I've set up to match the colours minecraft actually has available:

The map palette is actually tremendously limited, so figuring out a painting that will still look good with that constraint is a challenge in and of itself!

Anyway, the way minecraft maps work, a block that is Taller than the block to the north of it shows up with a slightly lighter colour, and a block that is Lower than the block north of it shows up on the map with a slightly darker colour. So when making a key for this one, I marked all the squares with a little arrow if it's the lighter or darker version:

Each "pixel" here is a full stack of blocks on the mapped area: 64 blocks, 8 rows of 8. In order to achieve the affect of every block in a given pixel being taller or shorter than the block to the north of it, dark and light shades need to staircase either up or down. Because staircasing downwards in survival sounds even worse than this madness, I did some planning to make sure each of the "downwards" staircases would touch the ground, so I could simply staircase up from south to north instead. This involved figuring out how many up and down movements were in each individual column and planning out 32 little layouts:

It's worth noting that if you look up minecraft map art on Youtube, most of what you'll find is either, the simple realisation that placing blocks allows you to make custom map art, or an explanation of how to use a generator that will let you plug in any picture and then produce a schematic for you. It's very cool that these exist, but I wanted to do full palette art myself, without an auto-generated schematic, and at the time THERE JUST WEREN'T ANY TUTORIALS FOR HOW TO DO ALL THIS?? Now, having the experience of finagling all this, i think perhaps the reason is that this is a mad undertaking.

ANYWAY: PROGRESS SHOTS!!

I actually love how the staircases look..... its like some kind of modern sculpture

Fewer shots of the second half since I did it on call with friends; the last screenshot is one Thren took of me activating the new locked map to use for the gallery.

Once these paintings are done, I lock the finished maps, make copies, and stock them in the art gallery so other friends on our server can also put these paintings in their homes! It's a lot of work, but really rewarding to see my art decorating various buildings around the server. ;u;

I have one more custom full-palette painting I've done the art for and gathered all materials for; I still need to do the full key and plan staircasing for it before I can start, but HOPEFULLY if my resolve doesn't waver there'll be at least one more of these!!

[emskisims2]

3t2 traits: autonomous dance kiss & kiss up arm for great kisser only

Hi! This is the third part of my series of small trait mods, and I'm super excited about this one for two reasons: there were so few mods for the great kisser trait, AND this is the first mod I actually made myself from the scratch!!

(Okay I exaggerated a little about making everything myself, this mod is in two parts: one for the dance kiss interaction, and one for the kiss up arm. For the dance kiss one, I used this mod by Cyjon as a base and just added the trait check, and the up arm one I made all myself. I used the Cyjons mod as an example to get it work right tho.)

Anyways, this mod disables said two autonomous maxis kissing interactions for everyone except sims with the great kisser trait. Only the sim who initiates the interaction has to have the correct trait.

The interactions are still available for all in the pie menu. Also, if you use ACR, those autonomous interactions are still available for all sims. So this mod might not do much, but in my game at least married couples are usually all over each other with the maxis interactions, so maybe there will be a difference :)

Download (SFS):

Kiss - Dance

Kiss - Up Arm

Enjoy! And report back any issues please :)

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

Conflicts

This will conflict with other mods that affect the autonomy of these interactions.

Credits

Cyjon for the mod I used as a base and as an example, and hexagonical-bipyramid for the traits project :) and again all of you who have given love for my previous creations <3

[factual-fantasy]

27 Asks! Thank you! :}} ✏️

@unpopularartist14

I don't ever number my panels or strive for a specific number- the only limitation I keep in mind is keeping the comic under 30 canvases. But that's only because of Tumblr's stupid new image limit. Before that crapdate I would make a comic with as many canvases/panels as I wanted.

And idk what you mean by overwhelming- I put between 1-6 drawings on one canvas, it just depends on the comic and what i need from that scene :0

Also idk what a comic chapter is- and I don't believe myself to be the best with dialogue 😅 I just slap comics together and keep adjusting it until it feels right..

Sorry, I'm sure these were not helpful answers. I never claimed to be good at explaining how I do things. Plus I'm in a pretty bad headspace so I'm sure that's not helping me..😓

I'm self taught, so its hard to explain how I learned anything or to teach it to others- "I just.. do it." "I just change it until it feels right." "I just draw it. How?.. idk I just.. draw it..?"

I hope you can find another artist to help you. Unless the questions get very specific- I'm afraid I can offer no better answers. <:(

@ayliminum

Ngl, I have no idea when I'm gonna open it again. My server has gotten enough members that if it gets any bigger, I'm gonna need a mod to help me monitor it. But I don't have anyone I trust/feel comfortable enough/know well enough- to add as a mod. And considering how horrible my mental and physical health has been.. I haven't wanted to even deal with it anyways.

Right now my server is manageable at its size. So I just closed it off to new members and put "get a server mod/reopen the server" on the list of millions of things I need to do once I crawl out of this health deteriorating pit.💀

AWWWW!!! WORGI!! COLF!!💞💞

@h31fd3ad

No way XDDD

@cicutagreninja

For Bonnie, he is an animatronic designed to handle small groups at a time and have 1 on 1 interactions. But in the case where Freddy is decommissioned, he takes Freddy's place as the star. So he constantly has huge crowds swarming all around him..

As a result, Bonnie is basically constantly overwhelmed. And any second that he has to himself, he just goes completely stone faced and quiet. Kind of to mentally take a break and recharge from all the interactions..

As for Foxy, he always looks so solemn in that AU because his heart just aches for his friends.. He misses Chica and Freddy.. He can see how horrible Bonnie, Roxy and Monty are feeling.. he wishes he could help them all.. but there's nothing he can do...

@neo-metalscottic

AAAAAA Thank you! :DDD I wonder how long it'll take me to get to 30K.. 🤔

Also as for terraria- I haven't fought any of the bosses on my own and I'm sure I haven't seen all the biomes 💀 But so far I like the jungle biome and the wall of flesh is a cool concept :00

I'm glad to hear you've liked my Octonauts stuff! :)) As for what attacked Calico Jack, it was supposed to be a sea monster that could be mistaken for a gator :0

I also had no back story in mind for how he got the scar on his eye <:0 and idk if he'd be willing to share the story.. it depends on how he got it! <:/

Aww.. poor Emmet.. man. I am not looking forward to experiencing that myself.

@holly-opal

I've seen the movie trailer for it! Beyond that I know nothing about it <:0

@sussyhahag

Its more of a reverse egg yolk, but I see what you mean! XDD

@captain-skyler1987

My week has been rough.😔funny picture though XD

(Referencing this post)

WAHGG THANK YOU!! :DDD

Also thankfully no- if Wally ever got close to being that tired he'd sit down somewhere. Maybe even accidentally take a nap-

@pink088

Idk if its supposed to hurt after the initial piercing- make sure you're taking care of the holes! <:0

(Referencing this post)

AAAA YES ITS EXCITING AND A LITTLE STRESSFUL! XDD

@ask-observer-ron

@cat7890

I haven't been feeling well, my health it pretty bad.. but thank you! I'm glad to hear you like my artwork! :)))

@beryl-shade

I haven't seen it, is it good? :0 Perhaps I should watch 8-Bitryans video on it..🤔

@birodactyloftheblog

WAAHHGHGH THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! :DDD

Maybe someday! :00

@enbydemirainbowbigfoot

No need to apologize! I take it as a big compliment! Thank you! :)))

@wolfie-777

Aw! Cute wolf! :)

Ugh.. that's always such a shame to hear.. but hey thanks for telling me 👍

@antikittysocial

Aw,, that's so sad.. <:( poor Shellington..

@briandraws

My head is more of a liquid. If you took a hair dryer to it I'd go splat XDD

I imagine the mama Emboar got pregnant and then the father dipped. Just like real boar fathers do 💀

I've never heard of it.. is that a show about the Daycare attendant..? :0

I do not know what that is.. sorry! <:(

(Referencing this post)

<XD It was certainly a show. I should go back and watch the whole thing in order sometime-

[bard-of-spiders]

My Personal Wyll Mod List

Because he might be Larian's least favourite Origin Character, but at least someone gives him love. And this one needs sections (note: this is made by someone who only plays on PC, doesn't know if there's a console version and please remember to read descriptions and instructions.)

Cosmetics

Okay, there are a lot of options for Wyll restyling (and good ones at that!) but this is the list of mods I personally use! At it's core it changes his hair and starting equipment with add-ons for skin textures, camp oufit, Duke Ravengard...

And has compatability patches with many of the other major Wyll rework mods though Wyll's Devil form sadly seems to be a little spotty still so I'm less keen to sugest it until I try it in game again since I'm seeing some say it's back to good (Also the portrait add-on)

(Also Wyll's Devil Form could be here, I just need to confirm it being functional in patch 7 to give a larger rec. I do in spirit though)

Wyll's Bloodstone Eye

It has a few other options, but just makes the eye out of bloodstone as stated in dialouge.

THE DIALOUGE AND SCENE CHANGES TIME

I know Larian said they finally fixed the 'You got something to say' and 'Well Met' issue but I'll belive that when I'm paid to play without mods and see it myself since they've said they've fixed his greetings many times, and the 'Well Met' one as the only time it was any different.

....Changes dialouge forcing me to be harsher to him than I'd ever went to be.

He already has such a slow burn with no act 1 scene at all...Must there be a persuasion roll....

This one literally just changes a camera angle.

SOMETIMES SCENES EXIST THAT JUST END UP IN THE VOID BECAUSE OF BUGS THIS IS ONE OF THEM! Let Wyll be his fanboy self. He's so excited when he hears Jaheria even mention Minsc!

This is a whole additional scene. I think the first fanmade scene once that was possible.

[pinkyjulien]

This might be the only occasion to talk about it, and It's no secret that her and I stopped talking more than ~1year ago, so here we go

Some of my personal experience with Zwei and her modding gatekeeping / monopol

For some reasons, my guts told me to screencap our very last conversation, right before she blocks me and wipe our DMs, and looking back now I'm glad I did

▶ You can find the conversation here

Please read the post for more context:

Important to note that live in Europe, meaning my timezone is CET

Zwei and I weren't up at the same time

Back in September 2022, a Drama happened in the Modding Server

This is the only screenshot I have of the drama, provided by a friend, I have since left that server (you should be able to find it with the search option tho)

Anec, the guy who can be seen on the screenshot, and who initially asked about the glowing eyes in the server, shared this imgur album with Zwei DMs as well back in 2022

I was asleep when it all happened, waking up to Zwei accusing me in DMs of being involved in it

The day before, a fellow modder asked me if they could make a mod similar to my old Player Replacer that would involve Photomode, asking me for help on the matter too; I gave them the greenlight and told me to ask NoraLee, as I do not have much knowledge on Photomode itself

So when I saw Zwei's DMs I assumed it was about this encounter, but I quickly understood that it wasn't the case

I later went to NoraLee's DMs to ask them what that whole "glowing eyes" stuff was all about, and thankfully got more context (and confirmation that Zwei was once again trying to gatekeep mods ideas)

That's about it for the whole context on the last convo I had with her

Now I want to mention some details and explain a lil bit more, especially about the Scenerids bit here

For the lil story, Scenerids animation were something I always wanted to figure out, way back in 2021 even

When I was still in AMM, we were making progress on the matter with the help of a fellow modder; the goal was always to make them, and the knowledge, public

One day, Zwei asked me in DMs about Scenerids Animations, and where I was with my digging; She wanted to share the knowledge with Deceptious, a new guy (at the time) who was making all kind of cool mods, if there was one guy that could find how to grab them, it was him

Excited, I told her all I knew back then

She also told me that Deceptious was doing streams in the Modding Server and that I should come by and check what he does

So I did, I jumped into his next stream, and yeah the guy was impressive with his method. In the stream chat, I asked him about Scenerids animations, we chatted a bit more and he seemed interested, said something along the lines of "it shouldn't be too complicated" - I went to bed after his stream ended

Next morning, I woke up to Deceptious sharing videos of Zwei's V, in the modding server, doing Alt's animations from her romance scene in the middle of Tom's Diner; he had it figured out during the night

So I went to his DMs, asking him how he did it, and got a somewhat cold reply; not unexpected, nothing to overthink at the time. I asked Zwei as well- I wanted to know, and to me it seemed only ""fair"" considering I ""helped"" with the whole thing

It all spiraled from there; Zwei would told me the "secret" ONLY if I kept the knowledge to myself. I somehow got involved in a ""modding ring"" involving Zwei, SilverEz (can't remember his full name, the owner of the Modding Server) and Deceptious

Zwei and I would extract the animations from the Scenerids files; She would work with SilverEz to release them for PMU, and I would release them as AMM packs

At first, I had to wait until Zwei's packs were published to publish my own mods; nobody would keep me updated on WHEN they would hit live, so I had to rush my own modpages to release them for AMM simultaneously

It was a lot of unecessary stress. One day, I asked SilverEz directly if I could just release the packs as I was making them? And he told me something along the lines of "Yes, of course, it's your mods you do whatever"

I was so confused- I thought he said he wanted me to wait until the PMU releases? But no, it was just Zwei's lies/manipulations/whatever

(Important to know that everything was going on by her, I was sending her the files, and she would share knowledge with me from Deceptious and SilverEz if needed)

Anyway, the scenerids stuff happened in October 2022, but that's when I started to be even more cautious of her. It wasn't the first time something rubbed me wrong, of course not, multiple instances happened on a lot of different things, but I do not want to share it publicly since I do not have any screenshots to prove it

Going back to the "Glowing Eyes" drama, which happened in September 2022

As said at the begining of the post, this was our last conversation, both in DMs and in public. I noticed a mood shift following the next weeks in the Modding Sever; most of the people here were either her friends or fanboys

Zwei and I were ignoring each others, but I quickly noticed Deceptious was also ignoring me

I decided to confront him in DMs about it, that's when I noticed he wiped all of his DMs

That's something we all know now that Zwei does a lot- so it had to be her, somehow telling him to wipe his DMs with me

I felt my blood go cold; Deceptious was someone I looked up to, his knowledge was really impressive and I wish I could've learned more modding from him somehow, but anyway

Seeing this, I rushed to Zwei's DMs to tell her to basically fuck off, to stop draging others into her bullshit- and that's when I noticed I was blocked, I couldn't send anything, but most importantly, her DMs were slowly being deleted

Now, I should've done a quick back up of everything, there's a lot of script that exist to extract full logs or to wipe them out. I didn't know about such scripts back then

I decided to ask around for the script she uses, called "Undiscord", wanting to give her a taste of her own medicine

So I was sitting here, watching her bulk delete her dms, as I was bulk deleting my own. Yes, it looks really fucking dumb and cringe lmao

And that's about it, really, that's how it all went down

▶ Pre-Shooting random questions

❓ Why did you compared her to Wing

Wingdeer is another person who is known to harass others for doing similar "Inversed Cross" makeup and cyberware, it happened a couple of times now. Zwei never liked her, despite modeling a lot of her mods; I thought comparing her to Wing would snap her out of her bullshit

❓ Isn't it hypocrite of you to say you're against gatekeeping?

"Gatekeeping" is when someone actively harass others for liking/doing/having something that they like/do/have, like Zwei (with hair color/makeup/rockergirl style) and Wingdeer (with reversed cross mods) for example I never harassed anyone, all I ever did was blocking people People taking a block as a personal attack is not my problem, and shouldn't be turned into general fandom drama

[generation-simmer]

👋 Coming back....

Hi everybody! 💖It's been a while since I have been active on any sims platform. My sims burnout was long, but I believe very needed. I have some good and also some bad news.

The good news: I am coming back! I will even tell you a secret, I have played TS4 for a while now again, just for myself and really started to enjoy it again. Also the new EP (Lovestruck) makes me really excited to play and I can't wait to get my hands on it.

The bad news: I will be leaving my Lewis Legacy and my posts will be different from before. This has several reasons and is mainly why I got the burnout in the first place.

After a year of sharing my gameplay I noticed I was more busy setting the scenes, finding the perfect picture angle and writing dialogue than actually playing the game. And eventho I really love this process, I'm just getting older and have less time to spend on playing games, let alone creating complex stories. A while ago I started a new save to just play and I knew instantly I still love this game, but.... I just want to play it. So that's what I did in the past month.

But I notice now: I miss chatting with you guys and I miss sharing my own content! I just want it to be less work and actually spend more time on playing.

The reason for leaving my Lewis Legacy is because first of all, I just need a fresh start. I also have finally managed to delete 80% of my mods and CC and that is never good for an old save. The save file of that family is also old and I'm sure For Rent broke some things in it. And the main reason is because I will not write any dialogue anymore for my posts and I think it would be weird continuing that legacy in a very different style.

So what now? I will start playing with a new family and just share important pictures from time to time, without dialogue. I also want to focus on building & creating sims and start writing short articles with my tips for gameplay.

I want to thank everyone that loved and enjoyed reading my Lewis Legacy. You guys are the best. I hope you will still enjoy my new content too and I wish we can still be moots. ❤️

[thedragonagebigbang]

Bang Creator Interview: Tumblr: @AmmoniteFlesh  |  AO3: AmmoniteFlesh

The Collaboration period has begun! In these quiet months before works are due, we want to foster a sense of excitement, camaraderie, and celebration among our participants. To that end, all participants were given the option of a formal interview by our mod, Dema, or an informal “ask-game” survey. We hope you enjoy getting to know our phenomenal creators as much as we have!

Top Eight People Having An Absolutely Soul-Destroying Time in This City: number four will KILL you!

Faust and Dema discuss The Bog, the power of deadlines, and Ghila “So, So Blighted” Mahariel

Dema: We're well into the writing and collaboration period now; how's it going? Are you excited? Are you in The Bog?

Faust: Oh my god, I am extremely in the Bog.

Dema: Any particular monsters in that Bog with you? 

Faust: Well, I'm only just coming out of a massive writing slump that sucked away a lot of my ability to work on anything. But while I'm not nearly as far ahead as I would like to be, I've always worked best at the last minute (unfortunately lol). I feel confident that I can finish. The fic itself I'm actually feeling really good about! I like what I'm doing, I have like 90% of it in bullet points, there are some moments I'm SUPER proud of. It's coming together - I just wish it was doing so a touch more quickly! 

Dema: Oh, are you me? (LOL I really really empathize) 

Faust: Honestly, I'm in awe of anyone who doesn't work this way lmao

Dema: Same. What helped you emerge from your writing slump?

Faust: I'm not sure! Going easy on myself helped - sometimes you really just need to let the batteries recharge. Plus my artist sent some absolutely BANGER sketches and was just generally very complimentary about my writing, which is always nice. Also, just... lowering the standards I set for myself. Writing is also kind of my day job, so it's sometimes difficult to remind myself that this is the Fun Writing that does not need to be perfect. 

Dema: Yeah, perfect really is the enemy of good. I'm so glad you gave yourself some grace and are back on the horse! What is your ideal writing environment? Do you have any rituals around it?

Faust: I love writing in a cafe, if I've got headphones to cancel out the noise. It just feels so indulgent? Here I am, getting my work done over a hot chocolate, people-watching – makes me feel very artsy lmao. I'm trying to get better at bringing more of that energy home, though, because I cannot afford to write at a cafe every day. 😅 Usually I do two pages of journalling first, to get all the noise out of my brain so I can focus. Then it's pomodoros all the way!

Dema: I also love cafe writing! And the pomodoro method, for sure. How long do you usually write in one go? Or is it varying a lot?

Faust: It varies a lot - sometimes I only manage one 25-minute burst and then I get distracted. Other times I go for several hours. The reason I decided to do the Big Bang in the first place was that having a deadline makes me waaaaay better at actually sitting down and getting words on the page - that external structure is so, so helpful.

Dema: I agree! Are you pretty used to writing longer-form fic like this, or is the Big Bang stretching your wordcount?

Faust: Yes and no? I have my extremely in-progress longfic, which is currently sitting at about 25k words, but that's literally it. I've worked on long-form stuff a ton, but actually completed very little of it - again, because I struggle a bit without external structure. I've cheated my way into feeling more comfortable with my DABB fic by writing something that's kind of a long-form piece and kind of a collection of shorter pieces. This nefarious plan to make me less intimidated by the prospect is working great so far! 

Dema: Is your longfic a DA fic?

Faust:  It is! It's an Origins retelling featuring my Mahariel, Ghila - who is extraordinarily Blighted and just generally does not have a good time. It's actually the first DA fic I ever wrote and the first fic for anything that I published, so it's very very close to my heart.

Dema: Can you tell me more about Ghila?

Faust: I AM ALWAYS READY TO INFODUMP ABOUT MY GIRL/AMBIGUOUSLY GENDERED ENTITY! Ghila was the result of me looking at how Mahariel has to travel all the way from the Brecilian Forest to Ostagar while Tainted and going 'oh, you should by WAY more fucked up by this'. She almost dies of the Blight, gets saved by the Joining in the nick of time, continues dying of the Blight but more slowly, until Avernus is finally able to stabilise it. She then steadily gets more and more Darkspawn-like, unlocking some cool spooky powers along the way.

She's also just so, so full of love - and full of rage for how the Dalish have been mistreated. Her opinion of the world is very cynical, but she does her best to make it better anyway. A lot of her arc is about trying to find a way to exist and survive in a world that hates her - both because of her Dalish-ness and because of her newfound monstrosity. And she does get there in the end, but it's a long and bitter road. I have so many feelings about it.

Dema: I am adding immediately to cart, haha! She and your fic sound super interesting. 

Faust: Thank youuuuuu 🥰 I'm Love Her

Dema: Is Origins your favorite installment of the franchise, then?

Faust: It's my favourite to write fic for! Favourite full stop is probably DA2 - I just love the characters, the small setting, the tight scope of it. But Origins has a lot more missed opportunities and loose ends imo, just by dint of having more going on, so I find it much easier to dive into and play with! 

Dema: In our last minutes, you may have seen that I'm titling these interview posts with a click-bait title 😂

Faust: Oooooooh

I'm gonna go with Top Eight People Having An Absolutely Soul-Destroying Time in This City: number four will KILL you!

Dema: L O L amazing! 

Faust: why thank you 😄

Dema: And it has been delightful interviewing you, thank you for taking the time! I hope you have a fantastically productive writing week.

Faust: No worries!!! It was super fun, thank you for doing these.

[carbuncle-paws]

I'm ok guys! I just burnt out on writing and have been taking a break from it to recover :3 there are some big upcoming changes about to happen in my life that I'm a little stressed about, but it's nothing bad (I'm moving in with my boyfriend/best friend finally after like 6 years of mostly long distance which is incredible, I'm so excited! But also a little terrified of somehow messing things up even though he's proven a million times through both words and actions that he's not the type to up and lose interest over something petty. I just kind of don't like myself and am worried about not being a perfect roommate or partner like I feel he deserves. I'm ranting now. You can tell I was cheated on once can't you lol NOT BY HIM BTW I'd die of shock if he ever did that. But like, can maybe understand why I might have some self esteem issues I'm still trying to get over hahaha Ok I need to stop talking about that now, seriously.)

ANYWAYS as you can tell, I'm doing just fine <3 I've actually been spending some time making stardew valley mods as a side hobby during this time! You'll probably stumble across my mods if you're a fan of big birds ;3 kweh, kweh...

I only ask if you DO find that account and subsequent accounts linked in the bio there, that you please keep the connection between them and carbuncle_paws a secret. Carbuncle_paws is my NSFW account/userhandle, and since my SFW accounts have a lot of minors following (for my art, nothing I post there is even remotely suggestive), I hope you can understand and respect why I would want to shield them from somehow find me drawing/writing/interacting with adult content.

Also I have a few unanswered asks related to the fanfic that I'm holding off on replying to for now, since I want to be in the right writing headspace again to give those the proper responses they deserve, but rest assured that I DID receive and see them!

I think that about covers everything for now! Thank you for reading this guys, I hope you've all been doing well!

[mariequitecontrary]

2024 TF Reverse Mini Bang Memories Part 1

With the @tf-bigbang discord server closing today, I thought I'd share just a few of my favorite memories during my first community fandom event :)

Not to be dramatic, but this event changed the trajectory of my part in the transformers community for the better. It felt like I was at a 4 month long summer camp! I had so much fun talking to everyone and making so many precious, precious friends that I truly hope to stay in touch with.

So buckle in and grab some boba or your preferred drink of choice, because this is going to be long and sentimental.

A Welcoming Start

I joined at the beginning of April, due to someone reposting the Big Bang's twitter post about how writers were still welcome to join. I thought, "Only 5k word requirement over the course of a few months? Yeah sure. I can do that." Little did I know I'd actually committed to writing a fic almost 5 times that length

The vibes in the discord server started out with a bang (heh). Everyone was immediately kind and welcoming to one another. It was an immediate safe space to be excited, let loose and show our freak XD I loved how ferally affectionate we were with bringing new friends into the fold.

A sketch by @nepetacataria-art perfectly shows this I think XD

The Support and Love Shared

The sheer amount of love, comradery, and support shared with one another was astounding. Almost 200 writers and artists shared tips and tricks and offered advice and encouragement to each other! It was unreal and I learned so much. It truly encouraged me to improve in my craft and even inspired me to want to learn how to draw again!

Oh, and the RECS everyone shared!!! Everyone shared so many fics and art pieces that I am now obsessed with! I have been blessed with a LOT of quality, amazing content that I never would have seen otherwise! My tbr list grew from large to neverending haha <3

Teasing the Artists Before Match Ups

I'm ngl, I had WAY too much fun once the sketches were released to the writers and the secret-authors-corner channel was made. We all OBSESSED over all of the art and fangirled over each one! But we also talked, and talked, and talked. And dropping out of context messages into the public channels for the artists to see was too much fun!

Talking Transformers

IT WAS THE BEST THING EVEERRRRRR!!!!! WOWOWOWOWOW! I loved raving about characters and lore, both canon and fanon! Even when I wasn't a part of the conversation, just lurking and reading what people talked about whether it was AUs, comics, shows, character breakdowns, brainstorming ideas...it was all so cool and so fun. Everyone is so creative and thinking about the sheer amount of fun we all had makes me tear up.

Like, SO MANY plot bunnies were made with everyone! Myself included! Sometimes people would just say a random ass thing and then five others would hop on, riffing against each other and developing that little idea into something concrete and so so JUICY.

Two out of many MANY conversations that I personally loved were the video games x transformers ideas and talking tentacles and transformers in the nsfw channel XD

Writers Panicking, As We Do

It was all in fun, but it was very entertaining and validating to be in a space where we can all stress about our writing, our fics, and approaching deadlines.

The mods clearly enjoyed adding endless fuel to the fire and (lovingly) watched us all scream and run around in a fiery chaotic panic over every little thing.

Streaming

I didn't get to join many, but it was always so cool watching artists draw! I also had a lot of fun streaming Hades 2 with a few friends with it was first released :)

Team 0 - A King Julien Starscream Fic

It all started when Writer's Choice Period began...and the example inspired many of us writers to obsess over this...I'll let the screenshots tell you XD

A King Julien Starscream fic just WORKS and you can't tell me otherwise! @mendely's sketch REALLY sold it to me as a thing that's GOTTA happen.

Madagascar AU FTW

AND THEN THE MODS MADE IT A THING THING

@useless19's king julienscream puppet owns my soul and their little vid is possibly the finest piece of silent cinema I've ever watched in my entire life. I was ENRAPTURED.

@sxpaiscia's art KILLS ME. PUTS MY HEART IN A CHOKEHOLD. Julienscream lives in my head rent free and 50% of it is imagined with their art in mind.

The sad end to the story is...the Team 0's fic wasn't completed within the time requirements to be posted with the rest of the Mini Bang's fics :( Do we still plan on continuing and finishing it? HELL YEAH WE ARE!

To Be Continued...

Did you know that there is a limit to the amount of images you can share in one post? SMH.

Link to Part 2!

[gloomyclauds]

Hello! I love your videos and am so excited to start the new challenge you made myself! I was just wondering if you are ever going to upload again? No pressure, I just really enjoy your content and have even been binging it lately, lol. Also, are you ever going to make an updated mod list? Hope you are having a good day and can't wait to see what you post next! ❤️

Hi! The feedback I'm getting from the challenge has been super positive so far and it makes me so happy 💗🤗 Thank you so much!

I think if I were to come back, it would be to update my mod list, and only that. And I've been trying to update it, it's just that by the time I get it done, a new pack is announced, or there's an update 😩 Maybe it's just lack of time, but it feels like we're getting a lot more game updates now and I can't keep up. (At this point I feel like I'm just gonna share a link to my updated mod list on my resources page and call it done)

Ever since I got this job, 5 years ago, it has been a constant struggle to find free time. It got worse last year, when I started working 6 days a week, but now that my mom is not doing well and needs my help, it's impossible. I have almost no free time, and the time I have I use it to catch up on my sleep. I don't have a life anymore.

And it sucks, cause I really enjoyed recording videos, editing, making thumbnails,... but it takes up too much time, and as long as I'm stuck in this infernal schedule, I can't be consistent with my content, and my channel will never grow. I can't bear to let people down anymore ☹️

[dieselpvnk]

Why don’t you like your least favorite campaign in rw?

Spearmaster is just. I dont like it so bad. Most of this is btw not objective critisism but just stuff I personally don't like for reasons varying from pretty valid to plain stupid.

there' just way too many moments that I find frustrating and not fun. Sure, you could say skill issue and that I should just get better at the game, but

I did this with chaos + enemy randomizer, I make myself suffer in this game for fun and Spearmaster just hits different. (also yes I'm just taking a chance to bring up this screenshot again because I kinda slayed)

random, but this is the only time I get to mention I was so excited at the start of the campaign, just to get upset upon realizing cool new starting region is just Outskirts, the first few rooms made me hope for a mix of Shaded, Drianage and Superstructure kinda region. I guess seeing what's behind the Surv/Monk starting pipe is cool, but I hoped for something different. Also sad you can't go back there.

The mechanic is nice ig, I like killing things, holding two spears is cool ig, but tbh, a pebbles and a spear is even more effective in most situations. The way Spearmaster gets food is pretty cool and very unique, but I do miss munching on corpses. Not having a stomach slot isn't a big deal, until you remember Spearmaster has a bunch of unique lore pearls bc nobody else has access to pre-collapse Moon. Imo it's much much worse than the story pearl.

Speaking of, the story pearl. It's whatever, don't care, prior to Spearmaster I played Hunter bringing both the pearl and the neuron to Moon and it was much more difficult, as Spearmaster I just used a passage. What IS a problem tho, is having to go between iterators back and forth. I wanted to know what Pebbles was talking about, so I went to Moon first, then I had to go to Pebbles to get top surgery, then I had to go back to Moon again to give her the pearl, and then I had to go to Sky Islands, which is also going past Pebbles through the Precipice.

The spawns are brutal, which is not an issue itself, I liked Artificer's camapaign a lot. The issue id that it feels "bullshit" brutal instesd of "challenging" brutal.

The regions are also not something I enjoy. Past Garbage Wastes? Better as Artificer with brief acid immunity and awesome mobility [and high threat level to compensate]. The only really good part is build-a-ladder room. Waterfront facility? It's whatever, and again better as Artificer because I can make shortcuts myself, as a little treat. any wall is scaleable and gap is crossable [unverified information], the Precipice is bad. Tight jumps, no shelters, missing a jump.is very punishing and a lot of threats on top of that. Yes I know you can bring a grappleworm, but I hate them so I'm not doing that. Moon's Underhang? Struts, I believe. Also very fucking bad, just. she has an awful infestation she should get it checked out. The only and only thing that made me get get that awya from me mod and remove spiders. Also it's hard to navigate and it doesn't have enough shelters to compensate. Moon's superstructure? I don't like superstructure regions because zero-g is the worst mechanic every concieved for rain world. also getting food from neurons is annoying. I know I don't have to I can just go through Superstructure in one cycle. but I still hate it.

The lore? Don't give a shit honestly, I was kinda hyped for the broadcasts but then I just didn't care, I was just hoping I can skip them faster. I don't care about iterator drama stfu!!!! Like it's cool and all. in theory. but in reality I really just ended up not caring at all. Call me a fake fan but I wish they just weren't in there or there was a lot less.

Spearmaster is a lot more enjoyable if you disregard the camapign and do whatever. But at that point I'd rather play slugcats I enjoy more anyway. No dual-wield and no unlimited spears isn't a deal breaker

[delta-orionis]

Tuesday Again No Problem 9/3/24

I missed last week so this Tuesdaypost will cover two weeks! Again! Oops!

Listening

One of the podcasts I listen to did an interview with a social media expert who actually took the time to track down the source of all of those horrible AI slop posts that have completely taken over Facebook. It was very interesting (and kinda bleak about the trajectory of the modern internet, ngl).

On another note.... I'm kind of ashamed to admit it, but I dipped back into some of my old Vocaloid playlists for the first time in literal years and I'm enjoying it a lot. I even discovered some new artists.

Cringe is dead, etc etc.

Watching

This was a big "re-listening to old favorite video essays" week for me. I won't list them all here otherwise these Tuesdayposts would become very repetitive. But it was a lot of Jenny Nicholson.

Playing

I finally got around to downloading the Random Buff mod for Rain World and holy shit this thing is ridiculous. I almost immediately got a bunch of ridiculously overpowered buff cards and have spent several hours zooming around in Survivor's campaign causing chaos.

I recently got cards for infinite underwater breath, as well as swim speed and maneuverability upgrades, so I made a beeline for Submerged Superstructure. I'm enjoying speeding around there. I also got several cards that buff spear damage, and I managed to kill a Leviathan by throwing spears at it. (A lot of spears, to be fair, but I did manage it eventually!)

In addition, this mod is causing my game to crash in new and exciting ways. Some of the debuffs in particular are really pushing my poor laptop to its limits. At least I'm having fun.

Making

TSAC will not leave my brain and I'm making it everyone else's problem.

I posted a new ask blog answer. I also made a random exposition post where I experimented with writing pearl dialogue (paired with some art).

Relatedly, I'm working on a Perchance generator to randomly generate Rain World Ancient names. I'm pretty happy with it so far. I'd like to work out some of the bugs before I make it publicly available, but at least for myself it's making writing about the Ancients much easier.

I'd like to try expanding on my OC's worldbuilding through expository pearl dialogue, primarily in the form of conversations between random Ancients who lived in TSAC's city. I'm trying to think about what opinions people of different social classes/backgrounds would have about their iterator (and also have TSAC make some remarks reacting to those opinions, haha).

I've said it before, but I find it extremely funny that the cure for my years-long artblock/writer's block seems to be becoming hopelessly obsessed with my own OC. (I started a new antidepressant earlier this year and I'm willing to bet that it also has something to do with it, but it's much funnier if I just say that TSAC cured my depression)

----

The summer schedule at work is officially over!! I survived!!! Time will tell if I am going to experience any delayed symptoms of burnout like I have in previous years, but for now I feel mostly fine!!!

In other news also related to OC brainrot, someone made a fucking 3D model of TSAC??? I'm still reeling over this. I'm so honored that people like my OC enough to render them in 3D. I've reblogged the post about it already but I'm using this as an opportunity to make you look at it again.

See you next week, if I remember!! My schedule is all weird now that summer is over!!! It will take me a bit to adjust, I think.

[morelikeravenbore]

do you have any other mcs / ocs besides Aura?

HELLO THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ASKING ME ABOUT THE THING THAT MAKES MY BRAIN GO EHAUAHAGSAJAKAUAZG

I have a bunch of OC's in my original works, but in the HL fandom? Nope! Aura is my one and only loml most precious girl. Before I understood how mods worked, I did make a Slytherin girlie in game so I could flail over "CaN I HeLp YoU??" (hehehehehehe) but I just didn't vibe with her tbh and she was quietly deleted never to be seen again lol.

Honestly, Aurélie is sooo special to me and I'm really proud of the way she's developed as a character. She's the first oc I've ever had the courage to share with other people, but the way she's been received is one of the greatest achievements of my life. I dunno, that might sound dumb considering she's a just fanfic oc, but through her, I've made friends all over the world, reconnected with my passion for writing, and even deepened my understanding of myself.

Creating her is one of the best things I've ever done, and that's why I'm so excited about everyone else's MC's because I understand how special and important it is to bring life to something that was once just a li'l seed in your mind.

ANYWAY whoa this got way sappier than I intended, but thank you for the question and I hope you have an amazing day/night/life/everything ✨🦋

Obligatory piccies:

[quinnkdev]

Just wanted to say, I'm looking forward to when you write about why you stopped using RPG Maker 2003! It sounds like a very interesting read to me, as I myself eventually want to write about why I keep crawling back to it, ha! (It's mostly how it comes with the most out of the box compared to later RPGMs, whose scripting capabilities are useless if one doesn't feel up to learning the code... at that point I may as well start coding from scratch, which is exactly the path you seem to have taken, fittingly enough! It's not satisfying to try and master an RPG engine when know I can't do anything remotely cool with it without learning something completely different.. I boil it down to 'you can't make Yume Nikki with newer RPGM default tools', but I definitely want to expand more on the thought) I haven't had the time or energy to try any of your games yet, but I'm p sure we used to be in a Discord server together, and looking over periodically and seeing how much progress you've made has been really cool, so I'm excited to get around to trying them! Someday I too want to learn a proper coding language and move away from RPG Maker, but until then it gets the job done for me (especially with the recent Maniacs Patch mod that greatly expands what it can do).

Wishing you luck on your current project in the meantime!!

hey, i had this lying around in my inbox for entirely too long - and for that i apologise, i wasnt really sure who you were until i followed a context-cue from your blog to your art-stuff just now. good to have heard from you again, and no hard feelings :,)

rm2k3 is decidedly a development space that makes sense. hell, on the side, i am currently making a small game in it again with a friend (no ETA yet). something nice about a path of less resistence towards something neat youve been thinking about.

the maniacs patch is definitely something i took note of out of the corner of my eye (and in watching riggy2k3's streams on occasion), but having released two games in the engine on steam, i kind of dont think that i can take it on board as the future of my commercial game efforts.

as much as it hurts to admit, i cant think of game development as my fun art anymore - i have to sell the things i make in it now, and rm2k3 games arent very well equipped for that. they dont interlock well with steam, meaning you can't give players achievements or even let them take screenshots through the platform (something a lot of them are VERY unhappy about). that, and tons of QOL problems (one time, somebody refunded a game of mine because it was "too small, hard to see" - rather than realising there was a way to fullscreen it).

regarding yume nikki likes in newer rpg maker versions - i mean, id say "swollen to bursting until i am disappearing on purpose" by december 7th does an admirable job of being one made in rpg maker mv! but of course that one uses tons of plug-ins.

bottom line: programming isnt desperately needed if you primarily like making games for the fun of it (and seeing that you predominantly make fanworks, id wager thats your main objective! good! :] ). if you need to earn a living (like... me :( ) then you may have to bite the bullet.