#a few of my cc is totally broken

[radioactivedotcom]

I’ve reinstalled the sims (in a totally legal manner wdym)

[changingplumbob]

Today started off fabulously by which I mean not at all good with a 5 point something earthquake at 5am. Nothing broken, just a few small things moved a bit but it was loud. So of course me being the totally davoid of any anxiety person that I am, kidding, point is I did not get back to sleep properly. Been exhausted all day which is why I'm even shower than normal to respond to comments or messages because my brain has trouble fathoming up much comment beyond, what your said is true.

A Party to Die For. The masquerade prompt was one of my favorites to do because I had an idea in my head and found the perfect cc to help me accomplish it. So here's my tiny moment of yes I am very proud of making that.

SimSulani. I use so many of their poses and had no idea they stole them. I've now removed them from my game and any cas challenges to cover this month that use her poses repeat that. It leaves me in a bit of a bind because she's where I got most of my group poses that included younger family members. If you have pose creators that you know do family poses (adults with infants, toddlers or kids) please let me know as I need to replenish my stocks.

I feel like there was something else... Oh yes, toddler Coraline! Enjoy her because she ages up to a kid in two real life weeks. I'm at a part in my SBL gameplay where she has started off me having four days in a row of birthdays. So some will be barren because I do not have the desire to do four parties in a row.

[rainbowcarousels]

I'm going to need your thoughts Sephiroth for the character asks 🥹🖤3 <3 <3

Sexuality Headcanon: Gay. So gay. Did I mention he's gay? I mean I think there is some potential wiggle room with Aerith but that's because her balls are bigger than his.

Gender Headcanon: I think in practice from an outsider POV, more agender than anything else. Gender is not really something that he thinks of and interacts with other than his discomfort with how he gets portrayed in the media. That said, I think if you asked him, he would say CIS male because that's how he self identifies so I'll respect that and say CIS male.

A ship I have with said character: Have I mentioned Genseph to you lately? No? Then I must be dead. Like I love AGSZC, I do, and even more than that, I love AGS in general because I believe they balance each other out but I could happily ship Genesis/Sephiroth on it's own maerits, but I can't see Sephiroth/Angeal on it's own. It's not a notp or anything, it just doesn't work in terms of balance for me. Genesia and Sephiroth fire and ice in balance and it just works. They push and pull at each other, both literally and metaphorically, and what they say and what their body says are sometimes in total contrast which fascinates me. Genesis is quite literally the choatic colour for a monochromatic world and Sephiroth needs that chaos to find himself so he doesn't get the desire for human smores.

A BROTP I have with said character: It's a toss up. I would say Aerith because that same feral energy comes from her (family trait clearly) but they both also have this shared experience of being former Shinra lab kiddos and her enthusiasm is only rivalled by Zack's. I feel like Sephiroth always needs someone to just grab him and move instead of asking him to come along and Aerith does that. That said, professionally, I'm fond of him and Tseng interacting. Like they have so much to deal with between choatic red heads and Heidegger being a few fries short of a moogle meal at his job, let them bond.

A NOTP I have with said character: Vincent. I can't ship something where 'that's not how your mum used to do it' is a response that could be canonically correct.

A random headcanon: Understands so much more than he's given credit for. I love to write roboseph as much as the next person, but I feel like he leans into it in a very Captain Holt type way and it's become part of his sense of humour to fuck with people by pretending he doesn't understand something or that he's not understanding their meaning till they get annoyed and let him be or call him on it. This is helped along by being so deadpan that it's almost impossible to know when he's being serious. He is a study in microexpressions and few people understand them.

General Opinion over said character: I think one of the things that throws me about Sephiroth is when people can't see CC era Sephiroth being the same guy as OG/AC era Sephiroth, but for me, this is one of the things that drew me to him as a character. That he is someone who got broken into pieces and is picking them up, emulating people, trying to rebuild a sense of self but clinging onto this belief that he's special because he's always been special. Like this is a person who is horribly broken in a lot of ways and one day, I want to write AC era and give him an arc with that but I think my main opinion of him is that I love that he's got all of these facets of his character.

He is the kid looking for validation and family from TFS, he is still the awkward dude from CC, he is the person who lost everything and chose to just get a meteor and start over and he's someone who is afraid of losing whatever he has of himself left. Like he contains multitudes, he's a fascinating character made all the more fascinating by the more normal things about him.

[sparkiekong]

If one were to stop updating the game, would it be prudent to move to permanent offline mode?

Also.. I understand that in doing something like never updating again... that mods will move forward and eventually become broken. Meaning I'd have to either get rid of ones that no longer worked or keep the old versions that work and just maintain my own cc and/or use bgc cc.

I'll be honest, I don't like the new direction this game is taking and I'm uninterested in buying anything new. I'd been thinking about not buying anything more because of the in game cart and adverts.

This new update further confirms my decision of no longer buying these game updates. This latest update is a primer for in-game purchase models. I've seen this happen too many times in games now to be optimistic about it.

I'm going to keep posting screens and stuff for now, but I'm losing the will to do it.

bit of rant under the cut - feel free to skip. I'm just venting...

This is how it starts... and this is how the game will go completely gacha.

1. Game starts adverts on front page

2. Game then gets adverts in game 

3. Game adds a "nifty" - in game menu where you can do things in game for free points to buy things. "It's totally free and you don't have to buy anything! All you need to do is login!!" 

4. Game let's that happen for a few months to get us used to it and then we stop complaining about it or lose the desire to fight them about it... either way in game store is not going away...neither are the adverts.

5. Game adds in some things that are really hard to get points up for but are really cool to make you want to buy extra coins to speed up the process.

6. Game adds in game purchases for coins because everything you do for free is just a coin or two less than what you need to get the coolest item and you'll always have to buy twice as much as what is needed because it'll be a "deal" to get more points. Which then will continue your new gacha habit because you'll still be a few coins shy next month.

Welcome to your new Gacha... you didn't see it happen. By the time you figure it out, you will have already bought into the in game purchases.

No thanks. I'm done. This is exactly the wrong direction for me to enjoy this game. The ads are for sure not going away now and they're only going to get worse. It's a shame because I really enjoyed Sims 4... it was a good avenue (A little stressful at times because of mods being broken each update) for inspiring my writing. I'm highly disappointed in this direction.

I don't know if I want to keep doing story driven screening simblr stuff anymore. I want to keep telling the story of Cat and the gang, but these new changes are sapping my will to continue using the sims as an avenue for story-telling. I'm not sure what that means for me yet... but when I know you'll know.

The least these shady gaming companies could do is be up front about in game purchases instead of this underhanded bs where they sneak it in.

Fuck, even tumblr has this gacha model on it... "Ad-free 5 bucks" "badges in the store you want to look cool right?"

[legacyshenanigans]

A rant about my sims mods lmao. Feel free to scroll if you don't wanna read my rambling haha

One of my mods is causing an issue, I mean, it's not totally game breaking I suppose, more just very annoying and I wanna fix it.

I've tried removing "main mods" one by one and testing (Wicked whims, MCCC, Basemental drugs ect.) and none of those are causing the issue. So it must be a piece of CC I have (clothes, hair, furniture ect.) Issue is I have over 5000 CC mods in my game 😅 and theres no fuckin way I'm going through EACH ONE to try and figure out which one is fucking up.

I've gone into my game, and weeded out the CC that appears to be broken in CAS atleast, There was only a few, but I still seem to be having the issue 😮‍💨🤔

I don't know what else to do, other than remove EVERYTHING, and just add folders back, one by one until I see the issue again, that way, I will know which folder is causing the problem. But each folder has HUNDREDS of individual cc pieces in them 😅 so THEN I'd have to try and go through each CC piece in that folder..Which I CANNOT BE BOTHERED doing 😅😅😅

Urgh.

This is the issue in the pics below, as you can see the panel of things that you click on are all fucked up. (Soz for the bad pics haha, took them on my phone)

I mean, I know what I'm clicking on despite that fact it's all fuckin weird, because I play the sims a lot haha. But it's just REALLY aesthetically unappealing to me and it's BUGGING me like crazy. 🤣

[trybones]

hi! i absolutely love your tattoos, they're some of my favorite cc ever. however, your scorpio tattoos appear to be broken on me? the individual swatches cover my sim in red and white squares - like what happens when you don't have a mesh for an item. i've tried redownloading a few times and even looked at the item on s4s to see if there was like an easy fix for this but couldn't come up with anything. all of your other tattoos work fine in my game. i was wondering if you could take a look into this problem and see if there was a way to fix it? i am playing on a mac, idk if that can have something to do with this glitch. i just looove the scorpio tattoos so much and i really would like to use the individual swatches as well. if its too much work though, i totally understand! thank you regardless 🥰

thank you so much, i'm glad you like them! let me go through and take a look~ i've been slowly updating my old tattoo sets to have new icons, index order and thumbs so i may have simple unpacked one incorrectly or goofed up the masc frame. i'll update/fix it and then edit the posts/reblog it here when i've finished! ♥ sorry about that!

[thebramblewood]

hi, i've been following your blog and your story for quite a while! i stumbled upon your blog after going on a deep dive looking for cc for my game haha 😅 i'm completely hooked, i look for new updates almost everyday and i read them like the morning newspaper lmao. i'm sorry i had been too shy to interact with your posts but i promise i will start doing it more often. 💝

i have to say, i tried reading the story from the start to the latest update but i think some of the links are broken so i'm missing a few posts. i can send you the link where it breaks for me via DM if you want!

P.S. i like caleb a little too much, i see him and i'm like "i can fix him" 😔💓

Oh my gosh, this has to be one of the loveliest message I've ever received! It means the world to me that you're so eagerly anticipating updates. 🥹 I totally get what you mean about being shy. There are times when I'm still too intimidated to interact with certain blogs! But I would love to see you around more. Getting everyone's reactions is by far my favorite part of posting. ❤️

What you said about Caleb is exactly why he's become such a big part of the story, hehe. He's my precious little angel baby, and I love torturing him for the angst of it all, but I also want to save him. I mean, how can you deny that sad puppy dog face of his? 😭

And, yes, please let me know about any broken links you've found! I had to go back and update a lot of them when I changed usernames, so it's possible some got mixed up in the process.

[mangobubbletea7]

Anyone else feel like their ability to trust is being slowly eroded every time some shit about a CC comes out? I totally understand the argument of saying that you obviously don’t know these people and feeling emotions over what happens in their lives is unhealthy, but like I also feel like it’s totally against human nature to just never care about the people who’ve they’ve spent hours with (obviously in this situation it’s one-sidedly but I feel like monkey-brain doesn’t exactly know that and that’s how you get parasociaiality) and who makes entertaining art that you care about. You should obviously always make sure to regulate that attachment and view situations unbiasedly and to make sure your behavior is never bad (like expecting things or friendship from them for your support), but I feel like it would be impossible to just never care. And 95% of teens and young adults use YouTube, the solution can’t be to just always stay away from content because movies and books and songs are “content” too and I’d argue YouTube videos and twitch streams fit into the genre of art and you can’t just stop consuming art you would be miserable that’d be so bad for your brain (I’ll have to double check that 95% statistic but I write a paper on youth tech use a few weeks ago so I’m pretty sure I remember that.)

But like every time something happens with someone I watch, especially for the creators I care more about but even for creators I just watched here and there and had a good opinion of or the creators who I’d never watched, it just feels like every time my opinion of humanity just gets the tiniest bit worse.

On one hand this is a good thing, I mean back in like the 80’s musicians and singers would go so far as to full on marry underaged girls and there wasn’t a vocal backlash against it that was enough to make a difference in their careers after. Their songs are still played on the radio. I talked to my mom about it during the Andrew Callaghan situation and she said that it just simply wasn’t discussed in most circles, no one criticized it in the general population.

So I mean I’m very glad our standards have gone up as a society, but also idk is this healthy either? To keep having trust that you had absolutely no idea was there broken time and time again to different degrees and to see it happening in other communities and it just truly cements in “wow bad behavior is just so so so much more common in our society than I’d thought, like who in my real life is like that and I have no idea?” I don’t know what you can even do to really prevent that because I just feel bad every time this happens regardless of how parasocial I feel like I am to that creator because I guess it’s just a reminder that bad behavior is so normalized. Just stings man

[madebyliza]

Hi! To say I am obsessed with your work is an understatement!! Unfortunately I am having trouble downloading your links. I either get a URL not found error or my computer rejects the file and says it's a virus and won't allow me to open the sims until I delete it from my mods folder. I cannot find you on any other website, help! Thank you

Hi Anon, first of all: oh my god what compliments! This totally made my day, thank you! <3 

And I’m so sorry you’re having problems! I’m not sure I completely understand the root of the problem, though...

- If you mean you’re having trouble downloading the files to my builds/interiors/recolours (so in SimsFileShare), send me a PM. I checked my links and for me they seem to work, so I’m assuming that if this is giving you problems, it might have something to do with your browser/settings/computer. If you want, I can send you some temporary WeTransfer links with the files, so you can download them straight to your computer. Just let me know which ones :)

- If you mean you’re having trouble downloading mods/cc that I’ve included in the cc lists, I’m afraid I can’t help with that. If the links to other creator’s creations are down, it’s either because they’ve retired or have taken them down.

- If it’s about the transfer of the (build/interior) files: make sure to read the installation guide, also included in all my downloads. Custom content should go in the mods folder, tray files, well, in the tray folder.

- Lastly, if it’s actual custom content / mods that are giving you problems, this will probably be because the cc is outdated or broken or doesn’t work with any of the new patches / updates EA brings out. This gives you two options: download S4Studio if you haven’t already and do some batch fixes. I don’t know what any of the latest batch fixes have been since I haven’t opened my game in a few months, but what this does is fix cc that breaks due to certain updates in the game (like fix dishwasher slots or whatever) - which can be handy if creators don’t update their old custom content to work with newer versions of the game. Other than that: clean out your mods. It sucks, but sometimes the cc just won’t work so you’ll have to root out which particular item is causing trouble.

I hope this helps, if not, feel free to send me a PM or another ask :)

[jodilin65]

SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 1990 Last night I was over to Andy’s for a few hours watching TV and listening to tapes, and I’ve finally finished all my editing!! I edited all those phone calls with us crossing people, and with Fran and Nervous arguing, amongst a lot of other shit. I’m also gonna continue to work on the funny edits. What I mean by the “funny edits,” is when I take either one word or a quick sentence that’s funny, such as Nervo swearing or getting Nervous. Or Andy, Fran or myself saying something funny, and taping it over and over a few times so it sounds like a broken record. It’s totally hilarious. I don’t think I ever wrote about this before.

Currently, I have someone on the phone, who’s been on now for well over an hour, of course, not saying anything, so I’ve played them the edits and other shit over the phone. I wonder if they’re still listening or if they fell asleep.

TUESDAY, MARCH 27, 1990 I’ll try to write as much as I can about happy things, but right now I don’t feel too cool. I’m lonely, I guess, and the usual battle with smoking is driving me crazy. I feel I’ll never be able to quit, and my asthma and constant congestion are a nightmare! It’s really scaring me. Oh well. Whatever’s meant to be will be no matter what I do or don’t do.

Saturday I get paid and I’m swamped with fucking bills! There are things I need and want that I’ll never be able to get for a very long time.

Yes, I really do want to move to CT and get the fuck outa this city, but I’ll miss my friends and neighbors.

I had a really good session today with Martha. I’m starting to feel more comfortable with her, although I still miss Trisha. Martha sure is one hell of an attractive lady.

MONDAY, MARCH 26, 1990 Yesterday I slept all day and woke up at 9:00 last night. When I awoke I saw that Jai was back so we talked a while then walked up to Lil’ Peach on Belmont, came back, talked a little more, then Jai went to bed.

Last night I knocked on Steve’s door, but I guess he was asleep. Earlier he had sounded as though he was upset about something.

Andy and I made phone calls last night till 3:00, and I’m staying up till after therapy.

I never did write about what happened with me and Kacey, or about this girl Stacey.

Well, I didn’t fuck Kacey over and she never fucked me over, but we got scared off of one another cuz we’re so used to being alone, and I guess Kacey wasn’t quite ready and her feelings weren’t that strong for me. I definitely know, though, it was more than just sexual, but I also know she never quite got over this girl Angie that she was with for 4 years.

I also think it was God once again having me dumped by one of the decent ones cuz love just wasn’t meant to be for me. Never has been, never will be. I will never, and I repeat never, get involved again cuz it’s just not worth it and I do like to be alone 80% of the time.

I’ll write about Stacey later.

Later…

I am now at CC. I have 20 more minutes till I see Martha.

Linda S just walked by, and I get so embarrassed every time she does cuz of the phone calls I made to her about a year ago. I don’t know if I wrote about it, but I called and hit on her. At first, she didn’t know who the hell I was, but then she recognized my voice.

I’m starting to get pretty tired. I just want to go home and climb into bed, but first I’m gonna call Stacey and have a word with her, and eventually, I’ll write about her. I also have to call John, too.

SATURDAY, MARCH 24, 1990 Right now I am on the phone with Andy making prank phone calls.

Last night I was over at Steve’s and finally fell asleep at 7:30. Then at noon, there was a car accident on Locust St. No one was hurt, but I never went back to sleep so I went down to the store and hung out for about 3 hours and played cards with Louis.

Before I went to the store I talked to John who just got back from Daytona Beach and sounded in a great mood and revived. He needed that vacation.

I’m gonna go listen to music then try to get some sleep. I’m just totally exhausted. Andy’s still gonna be up all night making calls so I told him he could leave them on my machine. He’s got 30 minutes’ worth of tape. He’ll have a field day.

FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 1990 After I came back from grocery shopping with Andy, I ate dinner and went across to Steve’s and gave him some tips on all kinds of stuff such as hair, makeup and nails, and even filed and buffed his nails which he really liked. Then we showed each other pictures from photo albums.

In a little over 21 hours, I’ve had about 5 cigarettes and he’s had maybe 3. I’m really not craving one that bad either, and those 5 that I had were 98% psychological. I think my mind is smart enough and strong enough now to hopefully get up the willpower cuz my lungs and nose are worsening by the day and as time goes on you get madder and madder at feeling so lousy. And then there’s my singing to worry about too, and saving money, gaining weight, and getting a better complexion and blood circulation. It’s amazing how much time it’s been taking too, to realize my price for smoking and that it’s no joke anymore when one day your lungs say, “I can’t take this anymore! Quit!” But then again, I’m not surprised, as it took me years to wean my way off the Navane. Years ago, I never thought I could stop cutting my wrists or that I’d ever make so many personal strides, except for my temper. The only thing I know that can never be is a loving relationship with a woman. As for a baby, I don’t know yet. I do hope so, but that’ll probably never happen either.

THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 1990 I woke up right before my show, watched that, took a shower and went out with Andy for a little while.

John R, this undercover cop I know, who’s also a security guard at Mercy Hospital where we met, is back from vacation. He left a message on my machine yesterday afternoon before I woke up. I’ve known him for a little more than 3 years.

One day I was at the little variety store down the end of Locust, and the guy there, Louis, who’s super nice and lots of fun to work with, hired me. I’ve only worked about 3 days so far cuz I’m waiting for him to leave so I can take over his hours managing the store alone. So basically, those 3 days I worked were just to get me familiar with the store which is very tiny.

Gloria’s in the hospital with a broken vertebrate cuz a huge truck rammed her tour bus in the rear on a snowy road in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I guess she was on her way to Syracuse, New York. That poor girl. I love her so much and I feel so bad for her. I mean, this woman has so much class and is so respected that it doesn’t seem fair. Emilio got a head injury and Nayib broke his collarbone but they’ve been released from the hospital. Gloria’s received tons of phone calls and cards and flowers and I heard that President Bush came to see her.

Later…

In about 20 minutes me and Andy are going grocery shopping at Super Stop & Shop on Boston Rd.

Steve called from work which was so sweet of him. Last night we had a great conversation and we’re both trying to quit smoking together. Since 7:30 yesterday morning, he’s had one which he said made him feel so dizzy he put it out, and since 7:30 yesterday morning I’ve had two and they made me feel like shit so we’re both gonna keep trying to just take one day at a time. Steve said he’s gonna quit regardless of people smoking in front of him.

Steve is a pretty positive and supportive person who doesn’t try to knock down people’s self-esteem.

Earlier I fed George, Jai’s cat. Jai’s in Virginia visiting Jenny. He’ll be back Sunday. Jai and Jenny are also the sweetest people.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 1990 It’s been 40 days since I’ve written, and I know I should write every day to keep updated and so I don’t forget anything, whether it’s important or not. If I write on a daily basis I can write not only the important things but also little details too. And the little details may not seem so important now, but someday, after a long time has gone by and I look back on this stuff, I may see things differently.

I am working now down the street at a little variety store/Laundromat called Rub-a-Dub. Of course, it’s in the daytime and it’s under the table at $3.50 an hour, but shit pay’s better than no pay. I wasn’t working today but I stopped in to get some candy bars and some “Lucy’s,” which is when you buy just 3 cigarettes.

Also, I left this journal last Monday in Martha’s office, so I stopped in to pick it up (I wonder how much of this she read). Martha looked great.

Andy drove me today and he had errands to do too, such as stopping at welfare for an hour, then cashing his check.

I’m gonna drop off to sleep, but first I have to go set the VCR for Unsolved Mysteries.

[garudabluffs]

Ticketmaster cancels Taylor Swift general sale ticket sales set for Friday                     NOV.17,2022

Surging demand overwhelmed a presale of tickets for the 2023 tour, and Ticketmaster said there wasn’t enough tickets left for the general public. Many fans have expressed outrage at the tour rollout.

“Tickets have been reselling for as much as $28,000, Reuters reported.”

READ MORE https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/11/17/taylor-swift-ticketmaster-presale/

Comments 714 

"...resulting in 3.5 billion total system requests” — four-times its previous web traffic peak."So almost half the earth's population tried to buy Swift tickets?

‘He said that a competitor promoted (?)) Swift’s show and chose Ticketmaster to sell the tickets because “we are, in reality, the largest and most effective ticket seller in the world.” '  Ummm, isn't that what a monopoly is?” Reply:”No, there are other ticketing companies they just don't have capacity to sell 2.5 million tickets.”

FYI - the Taylor Swift tour is not being promoted by Live Nation.  Her promoter is Louis Messina, whose company is owned by AEG.  AEG is Live Nation's largest competitor, and has their own ticketing company (AXS.com).

“Ticketmaster is the only DIRECT 1ST PARTY ticket sales company which makes it a monopoly.  Their connection with/to LIVE Nation which bought up and continues to buy up most of the venues which after purchase only sells tickets through Ticketmaster makes it a monopoly. Unless tickets are sold directly by a venue ( and there are very few that still do) any ticket selling company other than Ticketmaster is a scalper ticket seller who is using algorithms to get the best seats and who in turn jacks up the prices to make a profit. Only way to resolve it is to STOP selling tickets online. Make people provide ID in person to buy the tickets and to show the same ID for the same tickets at show time.

Eric Church tried to play venues not connected to TM or LN he found it  was impossible. Eddie Vedder and others tried yrs ago to stop the sale involving TM & LN and no one listened then.Hopefully this TS ticket mess will bust open the scam that is TM! “

“The venues have an exclusive contract with Ticketmaster. If you want to have a concert at a large venue, you must use Ticketmaster.”

“Taylor Swift is a well curated marketing initiative in which PR teams, publicists and make up artists seem to play a bigger role than music.”

“The company is the one who sold to the bots. I joined the verified fan list the minute it opened and was placed on a waiting list. The company is known for scalping it's own tickets and it's a problem when all of the large shows less than 10% are actually made available to fans. Now they are also using the dynamic pricing, when a Bruce Springsteen show the cheapest ticket was $5000 it's a monopoly that needs broken up. Tickets were being listed for $35,000 for this show and the company charges ridiculous fee's twice for every ticket. Anyone who thinks that she was the one getting all of this money is a fool.”

“I was lucky to get tickets during the verified fan and Capital One pre-sales, but d*mn, that dynamic pricing is brutal!  Floor and pit seats in Chicago were like $500+!  The nosebleed seats were going for $109!  I get to spend the next year paying off my CC now for our tickets :/  Most of the decent seats are way too pricey for the average fan..... “

BAN  THE  BOTS “The president of Ticketmaster just said on CBS Evening News that they knew their queue was full of bots not just legitimate individuals and did and apparently do nothing to filter them out.  This is where the super massive secondary market of tickets comes from.  Authorized scalpers and price gougers should be ILLEGAL ! “

“ Bollocks.Most of the tickets were dumped onto Stubhub by TM (owned by TM) with the artist’s approval. She takes a cut off the upsell. Happens all the time.” Nonsense. StubHub is not owned by Ticketmaster.

Tix were $119 each...so $55 in fees on a $238 purchase.  Ridiculous.

“What we were trying to say was: this could get worse if someone doesn’t fight it now,” Vedder told me in 2009, just as Live Nation and Ticketmaster were set to merge. “And apparently it looks like we predicted the future.” (Independent, 2019)

[turnaboutfix]

Heyo! I know you didn't invite a response with this post so I'm going to reply as someone who enjoys your blog very much along with enjoying SoJ! Not trying to persuade anyone, folks are allowed to not want to play or even dislike a game. I just wanted to toss in my thoughts! SoJ Spoilers below, obviously.

So full disclosure, I don't think SoJ is some masterpiece and I probably wouldn't have played it if it wasn't for the promise of Maya post-trilogy, but I did enjoy it the most out of AA4-6 (I really love Maya ok).

I do recommend watching the prologue at the very least (sub | dub --the sub and dub have different things happening with the dialogue, which I'll address, so I highly recommend the sub). Tbh if you really don't care about the lore of SoJ, I say you can just skip to the parts with the WAA gang and Maya, cuz those are the fun parts.

Anyway, Maya is in Khura'in for the purposes of training for her role as Master of the Kurain Channeling Technique back home. Khura'in is where Spirit Channeling and her ancestors ultimately came from, and it's required to train there before she can be the head of the village and the master. She has been training there for 2 years, so before the events of AA4.

One day, she and Phoenix have a phone call. If you watch the Japanese prologue, Maya and Phoenix are talking about how Maya is almost done with her training and their plans when Maya goes back home. In the English dub, Maya talks about wanting Phoenix to visit her in Khura'in specifically before she's done. I stick to the Japanese dialogue, personally, because this makes no sense her her to almost be done with her training in Khura'in and then have her ask Phoenix to visit her.

However, in the middle of the call, Maya gets attacked and her phone gets destroyed. Phoenix is rightfully worried about her, so he goes straight to the airport to hop on next flight to Khura'in.

More under the cut! (plus a bonus at the end!)

Unbeknownst to Phoenix, Nahyuta saves Maya from her attacker. Maya then sees her broken phone on the floor.

It's important to point out that, like the phone call, Maya says different things depending on whether you're watching it in Japanese or in English.

In Japanese she says "Ahh! Naruhodo-kun, I wonder if you're going to come..." which seems to imply to me that she has a hunch that Phoenix heard what went down and is going to fly over to her out of worry. (The CC of the video I linked earlier says "Nick'll be on his way!" so it has similar implications.)

If you watched it in English, she says "Ahh! And all I wanted was for Nick to come visit!" Which has totally different vibes, and again, it makes no sense for her to want him to visit her when she's almost done with her training, so I prefer the Japanese dialogue.

Anyway, the game doesn't mention this going down explicitly (the prologue isn't even in the game???), and just opens up with Phoenix showing up in Khura'in. I suspect it's why people don't consider the prologue canon. I have a pretty simple head canon that remedies this disconnect--so the way I see it, it's still canon. I normally don't enjoy offering head canons to solve an oddity in canon out of principle, but this fandom is no stranger to having head canons adding to the lore of games (AA4 I'm looking at you).

In 6-1, Phoenix says this to Ahlbi Ur'gaid after Ahlbi tells him that Maya can't see him for a few days.

Phoenix: Yeah. When I called her from the airport, she said she was still training up in the mountains. I told her I'd wait for her here. Either way, I was glad to hear she's in good spirits.

We don't get more details from that phone call, but I don't think it's unreasonable for Maya to get a hold of another phone and and call Phoenix during his long flight, and tell him right away that she's okay. However, Phoenix is already on the plane, he may as well visit her while he's there, but obviously Maya is still pretty busy so she still can't see him right away.

With regards to "everything that can go wrong went wrong" Khura'in is in the middle of a revolution and the legal system is messed up. When Phoenix thinks he can flex his skills as a Defense Attorney when Ahlbi's in trouble with the law--because of course he can't help himself--he's met with ways of doing things that aren't like they're done back in (Japan)ifornia at all.

But to put a cap on this, I feel like it's worth playing SoJ at least once for the sake of judging the game for yourself (or don't, I don't judge). Yeah, it's not amazing, the lore is pretty funky, but there are quite a few wonderful moments, such as Phoenix and Maya reuniting after time skip, Maya meeting Apollo, and Blackquill being Athena's assistant for a trial, to name a few of my favorites. Maybe you'll dislike it as much as you thought you would? Maybe you dislike it more? Maybe... less?

Here's the promised bonus, which is Phoenix and Maya's first meeting, and it makes feel all the things.

Idk about you guys, but he had to have not seen her for a while to get that kind of reaction. Ouch, my heart. Oof. Someone call an ambulance.

I hope this was at least a fun read for you cool peeps! xoxo

i haven't played spirit of justice and i don't really plan to but from what i understand of the snippets of transcripts i've read i think the main premise is just "phoenix goes to visit maya (who is in another country for some fucking reason) and everything that can go wrong goes wrong"

[wild-pixel]

LIFE UPDATE & EDIT

Heyy everyone! I hope you are all doing well. I am just popping on here to give you all an update on where I have been the past few months. Now, If I am being completely honest, life has gotten pretty crazy and busy to the point where I have NO motivation to create custom content or edit pics etc. Therefore, it's causing me to not have anything to post. I started a new job which has consumed a lot of my free time as it isn't a job that stops when you walk out of the office.

I commissioned an amazing new CC preview back in November and I haven't touched it yet lmao. I really want to start posting custom content again, however, I don't want to post stuff that I haven't really put heaps of effort in to perfect it. This is something I have done in the past. Therefore, apologies for posting shite quality content as I know I am capable of producing amazing content. I just need my spark back. Once it is back, I will be posting some amazing content, don't worry.

COVID in Australia is shite at the moment, so I think I will have LOADS of free time in the next couple months if we shut shop. This meaning I can get creating and start posting some A+ content for you!

I will also be changing my icon and freshening up my theme too! Whether that's changing it or updating the current one.

Now, with my old content...I am stuck on what to do with it. My cc posts are a mess. I have some hairs that are amazing and I love and then there are others that have broken players' games lmao. SOO, when I have some free time, I will be creating a downloads page with cc pieces that I think are worth keeping. I will be updating them with the new swatches, my new preview "style" if that's the name; along with fixing the meshes, the textures if they aren't the best. Everything else I will be RETIRING. These retired pieces will not have a T.O.U. so you can do whatever you want with them. I couldn't give a s**t lmao.

So, sorry to anyone who has asked me to update a certain hair, at this stage, if it isn't a newer hair it will not be updated unless I had heaps of requests to have it updated. These ones will be added but will most likely be totally re-meshed.

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading and I cannot wait to get posting again when my spark comes back. Thank you to those who have stuck around, you are real ones!

Talk soon,

Wild-Pixel

[kumaradosha]

I’m seeing a whole lot of bad takes and ignorance of past/present content and lack of critical thinking or ability to understand character motives regarding this most recent Dream SMP lore. So please, allow me to lay down some facts, some sense, and also some speculation of my own. This’ll be really rambly, because I’m tired, and I want to say a lot. Rewatching ALL the streaming perspectives now, my thoughts start here:

Considering Sam doesn’t want to enter the cell to dirty his hands himself, he clearly has some aversion or moral qualms about torturing prisoners, but Quackity has convinced him to go along with it. Quackity spends a lot of time before he goes into the cell repeatedly making sure Sam won’t have a change of heart and intervene, which indicates Sam probably has some misgivings. Quackity feels he has to remind Sam that this is for the greater good and to stand back and let him do his thing and that this will probably be the last time. These are all reassurances and instructions that would not be necessary if Sam were known to be totally cool with it all already.

Sam believes the stringent measures Dream put in place for the prison are just desserts for him to suffer, but Techno doesn’t deserve the same cruelty, because Techno didn’t enact those rules. And that’s why Techno gets baked potatoes from Sam, and Dream doesn’t. Sam clearly believes this harsh treatment is justified, because Dream was going to do it to someone else. He thinks he’s being just. Of course, allowing the torture, though not his idea and not really comfortable to him, was still crossing a line, considering physical torture was not something Dream did to his victims (and besides, there’s the argument that not everything a criminal has done is morally correct to be done to the prisoner regardless). That, he was convinced, was for the greater good, to get the revive book. Quackity manipulated him; he thinks he’s doing what’s best, but no, of course that doesn’t make him right or his hands clean.

Sam wanted the dog dead because it’s a security risk, especially with Quackity entering the cell with two other people. He killed it later for the exact same reason. Y’all act like nobody else has ever killed an animal in Minecraft RP; get it together. Is Sapnap also evil? Tommy? He killed his own cat. Random animals are not treated with the gravity you guys are giving them; it makes no sense to call out this one time.

When Techno raised the point that he would be fine if Quackity killed him, because Dream could just bring him back, Dream countered with his warning that Techno doesn’t want to experience death, judging by how messed up it made Tommy. What motive would he have to argue that, aside from actually caring about Techno’s well-being? If Dream was only thinking of himself, he would benefit from Techno being willing to die and be brought back to life by him, giving him an easy reason not to give the resurrection knowledge to Quackity. I honestly can’t think of a reason he would argue other than the fact that he doesn’t want Techno to die even temporarily or experience death--that he cares. Interesting...

Dream hiding in the escape tunnel to make it look like he disappeared too was 5,000 IQ, but he didn’t do it just to be silly or smart. Quackity literally threatened to kill Dream when he came back. Dream HAD to pretend to disappear, because he was legitimately in fear for his life. You saw how terrified he was when Sam found him, how he just immediately begged him not to tell Quackity. He was afraid Quackity would come back and kill him before Techno managed to come back and break him out. He believed that would be his fate and had to make a last ditch attempt to avoid that outcome.

Phil confirmed on stream that the blueprints Techno was led to via coordinates are for the prison. Not Tubbo’s missing nuke, like I’ve seen speculated.

“Steve is your polar bear” was written on stream during the “Prison Podcast” Technoblade lore. This is not a mystery. Dream said he wrote it down when Techno started talking about Steve rescuing them.

If Sam doesn’t approve of Quackity killing Dream, why doesn’t he just tell Quackity Dream is still in the prison but not allow Quackity in anymore? Quackity needs Sam to lead him inside, to let him in. Since when did he have any power against Sam to force him to let him in? I don’t understand why Sam has to keep it a secret just to keep Dream alive. Just don’t let Quackity into the prison anymore. Clearly it was a bad idea, since all these security risks happened while Quackity was getting a free pass to not follow the rules of the prison.

Dream casually walking in the way of Sam’s pickaxe to disrupt his swing once Sam almost had the bell broken gets me every time.

The rapport between c!Dream and c!Sam in prison fascinates me. Clearly Dream is much bolder with Sam than Quackity and still seems to trust his sense of duty to a degree. Sam is also more malleable, convinceable, his fatal flaw being actually listening and talking to Dream, even after it clearly messes with him psychologically. He let Quackity manipulate him, too, and he compromises too much. That might seem weird to say, considering the harsh conditions he has Dream in, but. He does give in to a few things.

I’m wondering if Dream wanted to go to the courtyard hoping it was less secure and easier for Techno to break him out of.

Sam has no reason to lie and gaslight about Dream being the one to suggest raw potatoes and sealing up the courtyard. That’s not in his character to do. So clearly Dream suggested these things. In fact, we have proof. Search for the clip of Dream revealing a teaser for future lore, with him telling Sam the hole in the courtyard ceiling for the light is a security flaw. He straight up says that. Update yourselves. Furthermore, are the recordings we have of Dream suggesting nicer features for the prison even lore? Are they in-character, or was it cc!Dream and Sam making plans? I’m genuinely asking, because I don’t remember/am not sure. In any case, clearly the plans changed at some point, and they were Dream’s idea.

Dream said he didn’t realize how bad it was until after he experienced it. This could very well be a lie. However, it could also be a wake-up call. We just don’t know. Dream clearly possesses low empathy, and every person at some point doesn’t fully realize how poorly another being can feel in a bad situation. Sometimes it actually does take experiencing it yourself to realize how it feels. People can do cruel things to others before the empathy fully clicks. It is possible that Dream really does only now understand how harsh his plans were. Unfortunately, it’s just as likely he doesn’t care and is pretending to, because he has a history of acting, lying, and manipulating. We just do not know, and I think that’s part of the fun, the speculation. Note that none of this is excusing what he’s done; that bores me. I just like understanding characters and their psychology and motives.

Sam is ASKING if Dream had this prison built for Tommy. He is suspicious that that is the case. Dream did not TELL him this, because OBVIOUSLY Sam would have absolutely nothing to do with building a prison he knew Dream meant for Tommy. So no, Sam thought it was for something else. And guess what? It was. Back during the disc war finale stream, Dream told Tommy and Tubbo that the prison was originally intended for someone else (maybe multiple people, the number was not specified), but that he changed his mind and would now put Tommy in it (ha ha punny). Tubbo asked who it was originally intended for, and Dream wouldn’t tell him, preferred to keep it a mystery. Dream had zero reason to say this if it weren’t true. In fact, it would have been more impactful to pretend (or admit) he intended it for Tommy all along. Think of the horror, or even the betrayal finding out Sam, his friend, helped make it. So yes, there is every indication that it is the truth--Dream meant the prison for someone else at first.

And Dream didn’t argue with Sam’s accusations, because why WOULD he? If he didn’t tell Tubbo who it was for, he wouldn’t tell Sam now. Plus, he wouldn’t want to argue with Sam, make him more heated and less sympathetic, and risk him deciding to tell Quackity Dream was there after all. Dream has no reason to speak up. Let Sam think what he wants. Dream’s silence does not mean confirmation. This is not a new thing with him. He keeps things mysterious, and there is a lot about his planning and mindset he does not disclose.

Now, whether Dream made the prison harsher before or after he decided he wanted Tommy in it is up for speculation. We don’t know that timeline.

Anyway, Sam’s speech about Dream getting what he deserves is really delicious. All these people out here mocking Dream fans for Dream still being in prison (like Techno’s not imminently coming to break him out, hello?) and being told off by Sam, yet plenty of us are enjoying it, too, like?? Bruh, what kind of Mary-Sue-touting asshole likes characters who are flawless who never go through strife? Can’t be me. I love watching my favs through triumph AND despair, so this is all just a win for me, thanks.

It is possible to sympathize with a bastard who is highly flawed and wrong AND to understand his motivations without justifying his actions AND to realize he deserves punishment (though to what degree I don’t care to argue). All the black and white morality and taking one extreme stance of “this character is perfect!” OR “this character is wholly evil and only ever does things to be sadistic!” and polarizing the community is cringe, yo. You need to calm down. Enjoy the ride or like...get off?

Anyway, Dream is my favorite, Techno is my second favorite, I adore Sam, I really enjoy Quackity, and the SMP wouldn’t be the same without Tommy. So much love for all of this creative work and its creators. I’m having a blast.

[chrono-the-babe]

What are your thoughts on if chrono trigger got a pixel HD remake, so it was in the style of the new live a live remake, or octopath traveler/triangle strategy?

Hey! Thanks for the question >:)

Going to be totally up front with you, I've only heard of octopath traveler via the release on switch, and didn't know live a live or triangle strategy until I tried to quickly look up what they were for this haha. I watched a few reviews/demos for all of these, but please feel free to expand upon or correct anything I've misunderstood!

After watching a comparison video for live a live, on initial view that's pretty gorgeous. If ct were to get the same treatment, it could be really beautiful! I gotta say tho, totally nitpicky, but I don't think I'm a fan of having 'realistic' elements like the sand and water right against the pixel textures.. I'd be interested to see what those elements would look like with the same pixel style - I just feel that they stand out a bit too much and clash with the style that they're going for in the rest of the environments. Tho I say that with a pinch of salt (or grain of sand haha) cause I'm only watching videos and not playing the game myself. Honestly, as long as it's not the 'HD' pixel art that the steam port had, that smoothed the pixels and ruined it all by creating seam rips in backgrounds that were seamless in the og, it can't be THAT bad.

In regards to the battle system.. I think I'm less inclined to have it changed - or at least, if they DO change it in a potential remake, there needs to be the option from the get-go to have the original battle system in place. The way that ct battle is already built is simple to learn and fun to master (at least until you've maxed everyone out to 999, then you barely have to think about it until lavos :p) and the first play through is paced really well in regards to how strong you are in battle. I'm not a fan of the cc battle system and I'd feel like I've had my ass kicked to the moons if the ct battle was adapted to reflect that more... Ct battle as it is should generally stay untouched because it's already well crafted.

I don't know if you've heard of the fan sequels crimson echoes/flames of eternity, I tried to complete ce a year or two ago; but because they had changed the battle system/lvl points to make it 'harder,' it was completely broken, and not in the players favour. I have a few things to say about ce, but they're not all nice lol so I'll leave it there - but that's part of the reason why I feel it's best to NOT mess with the battle system as a whole. I don't know how adding more things to think about in battle would help, and I worry that it'll break that battle progression that's paced well and easy to understand if you're a newbie/don't care about the battle system.

However, when I was 'researching,' I did see that there were parts of the battle in octopath traveler that kind of looked timed? I'm not sure if you've played paper mario 64, but in battles there's a slight timing element and it made me wonder if it was similar to that? In paper mario, if you press the action button just right while you land your attack, you get an increased chance for critical hit/double jump ect, I feel that maaaaaybe if a slight time based thing that was lenient like that was introduced to battle (or maybe was an expansion to battle in the way accessories like the rage band are?) that it could be fun without feeling hostile!

I also looked into triangle strategy a bit, but the battle looked more like chess meets turn based rpg battle to me... I don't think having an actual grid to fight across like that would work in ct's favour. I know an aspect that might appeal to that format would be the proximity to counter attack, but to suddenly have a battle grid would (in my opinion) take away the charm of the 'real time battle' that ct had, and I don't think it's needed as the party can move to attack whatever enemy they like via selection, and the enemies often move around the screen anyway in ct as is. Adding a board might become a redundant hassle... To bring up paper mario again lol, in the most recent game, origami king, the battles all take place on a circle arena that you turn, literally turn based battle. It gets old real quick and isn't very fun, when the more traditional rpg battle style of previous games worked perfectly fine.

Another example that might help illustrate my concerns with adding too many things to the battle system would be Mario kart 8. It's a decent kart game, but the system for both weight class and the body/wheel/paraglider kart build is INSANE and I hate it tbh. It's Mario kart, I just wanna race, and being forced to build a kart that majorly impacts the way in which you drive sucks ass. And they took out wheelies for motorbikes where the point :'''( I don't wanna have to think about whether I need to build something with inside or outside turning and consider if my heavy character is a light-heavy or heavy-heavy, that detracts from what I came to play and makes it a lot of screens to pass through before I can actually start racing. There also isn't any clear indicators for these weird stats you gotta consider, so you might just try to build a kart that seems balanced and start racing and then find you've fucked yourself over as soon as you start to drift. To me, that is a classic instance of hostile game design - it's only there for the people that REALLY care and is completely overwhelming and useless to players who don't care. If ct were to have things like job classes or battle grids or anything else added... My main concern is ruining the balance that's already in ct, but the other big concern I have is this ^^ I don't want layers upon layers of convoluted and potentially poorly explained systems to be crammed in cause it worked for other games. Ct is it's own game, and what works really well in octopath or triangle strategy might be nothing but a detriment outside of those games.

To tl;dr, I think that the HD Pixel style of these games would be awesome to see a ct remaster in (with perhaps a few tweaks) and I think the battle system should be left alone, perhaps with only minor qol tweaks to modernize it.

Thank you so much for the question, and please feel free to expand upon or correct anything I've misunderstood!

[13elmst]

hanbi:

( … ) "yeah, in the drawer," she speaks, voice hoarse nonetheless. there's a movement of her chin towards her desk. there's plethora of papers scattered around, broken makeup, scattered jewerly.  "you look like someone killed you last night and brought you back. or — like you saw a ghost. you —" asking the obvious, she knows; but the memory of the shadow creeps up behind her, just like that. "are you okay?"

in her head, everything is fine. bae sumi is a vibrant city girl living in a luxury apartment in the heart of seoul with her cool wine aunt. her mildly grating anomaly dictates that she’s got a spot of bad luck, which means she’s starting small fires whenever she bothers herself to cook or getting coughed on by the sickest, most contagious man in the room—nothing too dreadful, if you think about it—so she sticks the patch on the way one would take aspirin for a killer headache, and goes about her day.

in her head, everything is fine. and lies are easy to believe when they’re contrasted against the sinister truth. how sumi has a family—a mother, a father, siblings—who want nothing to do with her, and so she’s involuntarily shipped off to her estranged aunt who they say is just like her, despite her begging and crying and gripping deathly onto the hem of their trousers. how bad luck is code for demonic shadow that follows her around, that breaks bones and shatters glass and tears through wood, so sumi starts fires and burns things on purpose like it somehow drives the monsters away.

point being: sumi doesn’t intend to lie to hanbi. the girl’s an endearing fire starter who’s just a little politically misguided—in sumi’s opinion anyway, t4d supporter that she is—and sumi doesn’t doubt that hanbi knows better than to judge. but sumi doesn’t want hanbi to know in the way that she’s trying to deceive herself, and an added loose end in a tangle of already loose ends renders the whole lie increasingly hard to believe, fantastical as it is. so there’s this way in which she freezes in her frenzied search, fingers halting mid-air as she veers her head ever so slightly to the left, as if to catch hanbi’s expression through the corner of her eye. she stops herself, of course, tries to play it cool and brings her gaze slowly back to the contents in the drawer. “i’m fine,” short. stunted. there, a glimpse of biofirm’s logo. sumi pulls the box quickly out and peels the backing paper off the adhesive end of the patch, and replaces it on the back of her neck. a pause and she pivots, manages a contrastingly peppy, “oh my god, i’m totally fine!” paired with a smile. “i think we just had, like, the craziest night,” she diverts, brings hanbi’s thoughts towards the party and importantly, away from the moment in her bedroom, “do you remember that wild fight between gangcheori’s captain and sanghyun? or that conversation you had with wooseok? i didn’t even know you knew him like that, but i caught a few people looking so i dragged you away.”

“i mean— i love a cc gossip more than anyone, but isn’t he… t4d?” the implication of hanbi’s political stance hangs in the air. sumi pauses, glances at hanbi’s injured arm, and winces. sumi doesn’t intend to lie to hanbi, and more urgently, she knows that a good friend would check up on the injury that she’d inflicted. but more than that, sumi isn’t ready to accept the truth. so she leans her back against the closed drawer, crosses her arms, and manages a distracting, “god… what was in that punch?”