#and also like the first thing i did after downloading the game was to see if anything would happen if i played a whole arcade round

[madonnamadeofasphalt]

EA & Bioware honestly did an incredible job at killing any enthusiasm I had for a new Dragon Age. Fucking hell, man, I've played the first two games so much I could probably go through them with closed eyes and still pick all the right dialogue options to get My Exact Personally Canonized Plot. And the only reason I didn't do the same thing with DA:I is because it was made after EA completely gave up on optimizing their shit so the fucking thing takes up like a billion terabytes of disc space and takes 10 hours to download and install. I honestly think it's the best-written cRPG franchise to ever have a budget that doesn't involve a list of Kickstarter backers or getting an eccentric Estonian billionaire fixated on the project. And the gameplay is also there, I don't really care about that part.

Then they proceeded to fire all the talent that made me love those first three games, and scratch and restart the production twice, and be suspiciously cagey with any details or gameplay footage for a fucking decade, so my hype consistently went down and down. And yet I still managed to hold out some hope that somehow, by some miracle, it wouldn't fucking suck.

I kept that hope until the trailer dropped. You know the one. The one where we see a bearded Varric. This, I think, was the exact moment when I lost any desire to play fucking Veilguard.

Like, first of all, Varric being there at all is already an issue. Leave the man alone. His presence was already kinda forced in DA:I. And after DA:I and Tresspasser, his story couldn't be more finished if he got killed, eaten, shitted out, condemned to hell, redeemed by divine sacrifice, bathed for eternity in the everlasting light. There is no point to Varric anymore. Whatever arc they've given him in Veilguard, and I don't even give a shit enough to read the spoilers before writing this post, it has no business existing. Fuck you. The only reason he's there is because he's a recognizable IP, and when you're a certain kind of soulless corporate moron, you think there's nothing more important than putting a recognizable IP in whatever new bullshit you're trying to peddle. Maybe if you didn't fire every decent writer in your trash fucking company, you'd have someone to tell you about the importance of Ending The Fucking Story When The Story Fucking Ends.

But that's not even the core of the problem. Beard? they gave Varric a Beard? Varric I fucking hate everything that's even tangentially connected to dwarven culture with a passion which is why I've made a point to shave my beard all my life to spite anyone who gives a fuck about it Tethras? beard? you gave him a beard? He changed so much offscreen in the goddamn timeskip between these two games that he got a motherfucking berd? fucshhfdbeard? feadsgfsvarricafgfdh BEARD? yyousftoiuslyhhabevarricasgsfucningbeardandthivkimgosabedineditit?beard????

PS. (edit after finding out spoilers) I've gone to TV Tropes to read up on Varric's role in DATV after writing this (just in case I'm wrong and dumb, and there's actually a deeply compelling narrative reason for his presence), and, well, this shit is cheaper than I thought. And more importantly, just as I thought, there appears to be no justification for the beard beyond "adding a beard is a cliche way to show that a bunch of time has passed, and we didn't care enough to think this shit through". I'm fucking tired, man.

PPS. (edit after reading the rest of big spoilers) This is so much worse than I could even begin to suspect. This is worse than the final season of Game of Thrones. This is the final season of Game of Thrones if they straight-up fired GRRM, burned his notes and hired a showrunner who's only read a one-page summary of the first six seasons. This is fucking depressing, man. I'm genuinely fucking sad. So many subplots that were started over the course of these three games, that were clearly going somewhere, scrapped in favour of a simplistic good vs. evil story that would get rejected by fucking CD-Projekt in 2007 for being too basic. All because the artists who poured their hearts and souls into this bullshit franchise got thrown out like trash by its "owners". Morrigan's kid, the Well of Sorrows, all the implied complexities of Tevinter politics, the Crows, the Old Gods, Andraste. All went to shit. Death to capitalism.

[spookberry]

Fruit Ninja Sona

[rqbossman]

I found out about tma from my friend because he asked me to make an edit of michael distortion and got into it a few months later. I LOVE TMA. I mostly listened to the whole thing three times when I was mostly offline because I have the 200 episodes downloaded on YouTube and now I'm finding out that there's some stuff I missed, there's bloopers, q&a and I was in the wiki because i wanted to see how many times the admiral was mentioned and theres one what the ghost episode? IM GOING INSANE. I love tma. I think it's rotting my brain... it's everywhere, it's in my veins. I need to know everything but when I try to search these things up on YouTube it only shows me rusty quill gaming which I will be watching later but where do I find the other stuff where is the best place to listen to tma and find every extra lore even if it's just the tiniest squeeze of lore? I need to know y'all really did an amazing job with tma, I don't think I'm ever going to get tired of listening to it. I need to relisten to it before hell— I mean... School starts again. Lord save us for another year of merciless torture. Also I was trying to type this fast and forgot to say hi. hi Mr Alex, I hope you're having an amazing day/night when you see this. I promise to listen to all the podcasts rusty quill has after I learn every little squeeze of tma lore. Where is the best place to listen to and learn every little squeeze of information of all of rusty quill podcasts? (I absolutely did not install Tumblr just to ask this what do you mean 😓😓😓)

Lovely to hear from you and thankyou for the kind words. To list good locations for TMA Lore: 1) The podcast feed is obviously first port of call and includes some bonus materials between seasons 2) Our Patreon has an absolutely enormous amount of content in there now and I believe it should at this point be organised into collections so you can just look up TMA and it's all there for you (although that is behind a paywall) 2) Any video QNA's/events etc. not included in the main feed should be on our twitch channel. 3) Rustyquill.com has various links dotted around that have snippets too 4) The fan wiki is a very strong resource. Like any wiki there is the odd error here or there but for the most part its astonishingly accurate and detailed. 5) Special mention to whoever keeps our TV Tropes pages up to date. It was when I saw a proper entry for The Magnus Archives on that site that I actually started to call myself a "proper" writer.

[moonrise0111]

Karasuno on a plane

Headcanons

Daichi: is definitely a total pro at putting the bags in the overhead bin. If he sees anyone struggle for a millisecond, he's taking their bag and putting it up for them. He'd spend an hour ensuring all the bags were secure up there so nothing could possibly be damaged if the flight attendants didn't ask him to sit down.

Suga: is a perfect passenger for SURE. He has the utmost respect for the flight attendants and what they have to deal with, and he does his absolute best not to cause problems and to help alleviate any issues that may arise. He also doesn't mind or complain when annoying kids are on the flight. If there are any kids around him, he's definitely making silly faces and trying to entertain them as best he can to give their parent(s) a break.

Asahi: had a fear of flying since he was young, so he self-medicates and sleeps through the entire thing. He usually has to bring someone with him so they can wake him up after they land. He learned from that one time he flew by himself and ended up being woken up by a very concerned flight attendant who was afraid he died and in the commotion of him waking up, he spilled his water all over his pants. He’s still embarrassed from that day.

Nishinoya: is Asahi’s confirmed travel guide and personal alarm clock. He’s also a very light packer so he usually only has one bag for all of his things. Since Asahi is asleep for most of the flight he tries his best to entertain himself quietly (or as quietly as he’s going to get) for the bulk of the flight.

Tanaka: watches movies and laughs way too loud. I mean WAY too loud. He has to be asked to quiet down by the flight attendants. He also likes to play the mind numbing games that you can play on airplane mode. He’s on level 1467 of some sorting game.

Ennoshita: is extremely terrified of turbulence. He pays all of his attention to the safety demonstration and reads the safety booklet several times. He’s perfectly fine unless things get shaky.

Kinoshita: usually sleeps for most of the ride. The lull of the plane relaxes him and he’s out before the plane takes off. He doesn’t really bother anyone but his throat always hurts after he wakes up because he ends up breathing in a lot of dry air with his mouth open.

Narita: sits down with a good book and reads the entire flight. He’s read a 700 page book in one flight. Kinoshita was next to him and fell asleep around page 14 and woke up 650 pages later. He did it the first time because he forgot a bookmark. He regretted it after because he had nothing for the layover or the second flight.

Kageyama: is not very good with airport directions, so he usually barely makes the flight, if at all. He tries to be unproblematic and fails miserably. They never have any of the drinks he asks for and he simply cannot figure out how to work the small tv if he has one. He also hates when the vent is blowing on him and never remembers to download any music or movies to his phone. He also forgets his headphones.

Hinata: can NOT sit still. He’s the guy that is always walking up and down the aisle just to move his legs. The flight attendants have to keep asking him to sit down and he feels awful for inconveniencing them. He also talks to anyone willing throughout the flight. By the end of the flight he’s told at least three people his entire life story. He tries his best to figure out when people are done talking to him.

Tsukishima: spends about 70% of any flight he’s on trying his best to not throttle the small child that somehow ALWAYS ends up sitting next to him. The other 30% is him convincing himself that opening the doors and jumping off the plane just to avoid the screaming is a bad idea. He has his noise canceling headphones in at all times with music full blast but the wailing child never fails to break right through it. Murder is wrong Kei.

Yamaguchi: is the literal pro of airport snacks. His family is pretty well off so they went on far trips enough that Tadashi could determine where all the BEST snacks were in a bunch of airports. He always tries to get there early so he can bring snacks with him off the plane for his friends or family or whoever he’s visiting.

Yachi: somehow manages to convince herself the plane is going to go down and that these are her last moments. Plane rides are a bit of a draining experience for her. She also spills her drink either on herself or someone else every single time. She’s doing her best.

Kiyoko: watches movies and shows to pass the time. She usually goes for silly movies that will make her laugh quietly to herself. Her go to movie is Mamma Mia and go to show is ATLA.

Ukai: gets drunk on the plane. Enough said.

Takeda: has fallen asleep on the people next to him on several occasions. He’s mortified when he wakes up and apologizes profusely. But no matter what pillow he tries around his neck he seems to simply gravitate to the living being that just wants to make it through this flight unbothered.

[olomaya]

Shhh!! It's a Library (mod)

27 Sept Update: Found a better shushing sound so I replaced with that. Also added ITUNs for the non computer interactions. Thanks to @cs2te for the Brazilian Portuguese translation! Redownload (if you want these updates) at the link below.

(Note: This mod uses the Ticket Machine animations for the kiosk. If you don't have it, you can download it here. Honestly, it's not that important and without it, your Sim will just stand in front of the machine for a second, that's it)

I'm officially in my Streets era. I'm building out all the community lots in my town so you're going to be seeing a lot of community/town related stuff from me for the next few months. My Sims are trying to be outside!

First up! This is a small library mod that allows you to search for books at the library using this gorgeous kiosk object from @aroundthesims. If the book is in the library, it tells you where they are by panning the camera to the bookshelf that has the book and putting a blue outline around it for 10 Sim minutes. Pretty simple. 

Features:

Browse Catalog… pulls up all books in the library

Search by… Category | Title | Author - pulls up any book that matches your search entry

Request a Book to Order -  allows you to add more books to the library. 

You can only order the types of books that are allowed in community libraries so no books that are destroyed after you finish reading them (e.g. recipes, song compositions) and no academic textbooks.

You can order written books, including articles, as well as books from other worlds (e.g. Shang Simla, etc) though for the latter, there is a §35 “overseas shipping cost” added to order these books. 

Once you order a book, the mod will check whether the library has enough money to purchase it and then place the order. 

Ordered books are added to the library at 8am the next day and you’ll receive a notification that the books have been added.

Library Funding

In order to pay for the books ordered, library kiosks have a budget. Every kiosk, upon creation, comes with a §250 budget.

The library budget is the total amount of funds in all kiosks on the lot. Costs are deducted from individual kiosks even if that specific kiosk doesn't have enough money for the book so long as the library budget has enough money.

Support your Local Library

Sims can donate books (up to 3 books at a time) to the library using the book donation bin. The bin must be placed on the library lot (either outside or inside) and you need to have books in your inventory. Your Sim will get 500 Lifetime Happiness points for every book donated. (this is related to another mod that I’m working on. More on that at a later date!)

There is also a computer interaction that lets you donate money to the library. Sims that donate §2500 or more will get a 4-hour charitable moodlet. Donations are added to the library budget.

Finally, Bookworms and Proper Sims can shush other Sims at the library. Once shushed, all Sims in the same room doing social interactions or playing music instruments will stop. (You'll find, like in real life, people quickly go back to doing what they're doing so it's kind of useless but it was a low lift so I kept it in). If someone can think of a good "shushing" sound from the game, let me know!

Credits/Thanks: Both credit and huge thanks go to @aroundthesims for creating this beautiful library set and the kiosk which I used as the main object. I did recategorize it to Misc Electronics instead of Sculptures. If you already have it in your game, you may need to remove it or you can just change the script to “Sims3.Gameplay.Objects.olomaya.LibraryStuff.Kiosk”.  The donation bin is from Sketchfab created by TheLatestShit (that’s their name, thank you TLS!) and can be found in Misc Storage.

Read through everything below the cut before downloading please! Important instructions below!

Important things to note:

The kiosk must be placed on a counter. If it’s not, your sim will reset because they can only interact with it if it’s on a counter. If you are having issues with resetting, place it on an EA-made counter to confirm it’s not this issue first before you reach out for support. You can use OSMP counters provided they are cloned from a counter and place the kiosk on there and put it wherever you want (like I’ve done in my photo. the kiosk is actually on an OSMP counter, not the white table).

Pulling up the entire library catalog, depending on how many books you have on the lot, can take a few (or several) seconds. Or maybe it won’t, I play on a brick laptop so it does for me

Keyword searches are case sensitive so “raymundo” yields no results, but “Raymundo” will bring up the 85 copies of that 🤬 book that your library probably has

The search will only check books that are in bookshelves, it will ignore library books that have been taken out of the bookshelf and are being read or lying around.

Book requests and financial donations can only be made at public libraries and not privately-owned libraries. So if a Sim in your town owns the lot, these options won’t come up (it should be the owners’ responsibility to buy books). You can still donate books though.

You can have multiple kiosks on the lot. If you delete a kiosk, its funds (if it has any) will be transferred to any of the other kiosks on the lot so you don’t lose the money. 

There is a debug interaction on the kiosk that allows you to check the library budget.

You can order one book at a time but there’s no limit to how many you can do in a day but once the books are delivered the next morning, the mod will check whether the library has enough money and will only order the books there is money for

Download HERE | alt: HERE

@simstifulccfinds @kpccfinds @katsujiiccfinds @pis3update @wanderingsimsfinds

[themissinghand]

Mind if I could have a SAGAU request? So the player is burnt out from the game. Like completely. Some characters find a way to your desktop and ask "Why haven't you entered Teyvat lately?" After explaining that you still like/love them, they are disappointed but understandable. Problem is, they can't go back until you launch the game. So the characters sort of become desktop buddies (Showing my age aren't I?) and perhaps helping you out in the various other games the player would play or just vibing as you surf the web, make arr, write stories, etc. As for the characters... Aether and Paimon at least, though adding Kazuha, Yanfei, Freminet, Bennett, Fischl, Childe, and Collei would be cute too.

Genshin Impact Desktop Buddies

Summary: In which your favourite Genshin characters miss you. 

Or now you have them as your desktop buddies until Genshin Impact is fixed.

Pairings: Aether & Paimon, Kazuha, Yanfei, Childe and Fischl x Neutral! Reader! 

Note: Desktop buddies are ancient now lol, but honestly such a cool thing to have back then. Hope you enjoy! 

Warning: None, just fluffy goodness. 

★・・・・・・★

You’re tired. Like really tired. 

Grinding for artifacts, ascension and weapon materials has worn you out. That includes your wallet too.

They were worth it, no doubt about that, but staring at a screen all day every day could tire anyone out. 

And yea, you need sleep. 

For the first time in a long time, you decided to shut down the game, and take at least a few day break. 

It’s not like it would make a big difference right? 

Little did you know, it most definitely would. 

Just a few days later, not only did your laptop started acting weird to the point where you thought of buying a new one, Genshin also disappeared from your desktop. 

Before you knew it, you see little figures that look oddly familiar on your screen…

“Why haven’t you entered Teyvat lately?”

Aether & Paimon

The player spun around, eyes widening at the sight of Aether and Paimon now out of the game, and...hopping around on your screen.

"Aether? Paimon? How... how are you here?".

Aether stepped forward. 

"Our Creator, we've missed you. The others are worried. Why haven't you been to Teyvat?"

You sighed, has it already been a couple of days? Also, since when were you their creator? 

"I'm just a little tired-” There was a dramatic gasp from Paimon.

“Tired of us? Aether! Our Creator is tired of us!” 

“No! I mean, I still love Teyvat and all of you, but I needed a break and I will go back soon." You quickly responded with reassurance, which luckily appeased the floating companion. 

Paimon floated closer, which was like a weird zoom on her face, her eyes softening with understanding. 

"We get it, but... we can't go back to Teyvat until you' launch' the game." She says robotically, but appeared confused right after.

“Ah, okay. Give me a minute.” 

When you tried to download the game via the Genshin website, it stated that there was a website maintenance. 

“Creator! What is happening? The world is changing!” While you were frustrated, Aether and Paimon were jumping and flying everywhere around your screen, exploring how tabs open and following your mouse as you click and hover.

Their curiosity made you smile, and you slowly explain how everything works slowly as with each passing second, they marvel at how advanced your world is. 

“No wonder you’re our Creator!” 

“What’s this!?” Before you knew it, you pulled up multiple websites, and the one you landed on was Disney+.

“Do you want to watch a movie?” 

“What’s that?” Aether asked, curious, followed by Paimon’s cute little head tilt.

(You wished you could just squeeze those cute little cheeks-)

“It’s like telling a story, but you get to see it unfold right before you. Here.” You pull up ‘My Little Mermaid’ and they jump seeing the video move, with everyone inside move. 

“Woah…it’s like another world!” 

Aether seemed to marvel over it, and for a moment, he wondered, maybe, you could traverse worlds too. 

Seeing the stars in their eyes made you feel guilty, as if another misunderstanding arose, but you let them be, as their cute little figures sat down and watched the movie. 

You too, watched it with them, and for the first time in a while, you didn’t feel lonely. 

Throughout the movie, you patted them on the head with your mouse, which the two seemed to like very much. 

(And yes, you did pinch those cute little cheeks)

Kazuha 

“I’m glad that you didn’t abandon us, Your Highness.” 

Never in your wildest dreams did you expect to see THE Canadian Aether, Kazuha, on your screen, bowing respectfully to you.

“Let me know if I can help you in any way. Although my form is…not in the most helpful form, I will do my best.” 

You held back a giggle when you saw a shy little Kazuha looking at himself and then at you shyly, and you really wanted to tease him, but you chose not to. 

Instead, you pull up your incomplete art project. 

Might as well since you can’t download Genshin now and might have to wait for a few days.

“Actually Kazuha, I was hoping you could help me finish my art.” He immediately perked up, a serious expression overtook his shy one.

“Of course, Your Highness, let me know what you want to draw and I can help you!”

“Great! I’m trying to draw a handsome and cute man, he has platinum blond hair…” Slowly, you list one by one, the characteristics of the person you want to draw. 

Kazuha learns fast. Soon, he was able to figure out how your art platform worked. 

At first, he hesitated, and didn’t want to interrupt your drawing, but slowly, he learned to add in his thoughts and feedback, and guided your mouse to smooth out the lines, and perfect the colouring.

“He has red eyes…” 

Calming and soothing, his voice made you feel at peace, just like how you would hang out with him at the top of a mountain somewhere and listening to the game music. 

But this time, he was a little closer, where he felt more real albeit still in your screen. 

“Your Highness…isn’t this…me?” His little cheeks was dusted with pink as he quickly covered it with his hands. 

“It is you.” 

“But why…”

“Because you’re one of my favourites, Kazuha.” 

It was all it took for him to become shy again, and he began to cough awkwardly as if to mask his embarrassment. 

“Thank you…Your Highness.”

Yanfei

“Phew! We were so scared that you left us Your Eminence! But…I suppose we can’t do anything until you open up Teyvat again, until then, let me know if I can help you!” 

Yanfei's cheerful voice made you smile as you leaned against your palm. 

Then she turned around, as if taking in her surroundings before looking back at you. 

“Your Eminence, if I may, may I help you organize your…space?”  You blink, and that was when you notice the amount of files littered across the desktop screen, and you realized that from Yanfei’s view, it must’ve been very unorganized.

“Sure.” 

Yanfei brightens at your acceptance, and hopped a little to show her excitement. 

“Okay! I’m good at this, so leave it to me! Just follow my lead.” 

You were gonna clean up your PC eventually, though you did not expect it would be today. 

Either way, Yanfei was like a referee and a police, asking questions but also making sure everything was organized correctly. 

In a way, Yanfei felt like a Mom asking her child to clean her room.

Even so, it was so cute to see her marching everywhere like a soldier and asking you to organize it in a neat manner.

“Okay, next, let’s organize this folder!” 

“Okay-” Before you knew it, you immediately hit backspace. 

“Your Eminence…who was that-”

“Let’s move on.” But Yanfei stared at that folder with an intense stare. Did she see it? 

With a little nudge and push with your mouse, Yanfei eventually moved on, but she constantly had a smile on her lips. 

It was you cosplaying as her for an event. 

Yanfei would be sure to tell her friends back home. 

Childe

“Well, I’m happy to hear that, Your Highness! But…what were you doing? Away from Teyvat?”

Childe’s smile was a little bit menacing to look at, so you pull up what you were doing before to distract him.

And it did, surprisingly. 

“What is this?”

“It’s a game called Valorant.” 

You start the game, and once you get prepared, he too was locked in. 

With each attack and maneuver, Childe slowly became hyped up by your skill and admired it. 

“Your Highness! Why didn’t you tell me before?!” He became to gush, albeit trying to remain civil as he looked between you and your character in game. 

“Again.” In the end, he asked (begged) for another show. 

This time, you changed your agent to someone else, and once again, showed how skilled you are even in melee, which Childe initially advised against. 

But you blew his expectations away. 

“Your Highness, can I duel you?” 

You blink, before you laugh jokingly, but you knew in real life, Childe would absolutely crush you.

But you leave him be, and instead start another game. 

Honestly, Childe would be a great hype man. 

Fischl

“Ah, of course! How the stars seem to be against us this time…regardless! With me, Fischl von Luftschloss Narfidort here, there is nothing you need to worry about!” 

As expected, Fischl is quite the actor and storyteller as she spews on about how she faced something similar before, something just as interstellar as this. 

You don’t mind it, after all, if you did, you wouldn’t have Fischl on your team the entire time would you? 

Fischl deserves more love is what you find in the fandom, and while she may be annoying at times, you found her passion admirable, and even a little sad when you think this is her way of happiness. 

So you respected that, and listened as she rambled on, and moved as if she was on the stage. 

Perhaps…she would do good on stage with Furina in Fontaine. 

“Fischl, I do need your help on something.” You asked when she finally finished, and she straightened herself with grace as expected from the Prinzessin der Verurteilung. 

“I need your help with my stories. I want you to create elaborate and dramatic narratives for everyone to love.” She froze for a moment, but her grin immediately hid her surprise. 

“Why of course, I would be delighted. Allow me!” With just a few seconds to think, she immediately began her storytelling. 

With her little graceful steps and hops, she almost dances away, but she doesn’t stop sharing her fantasy story full of magic, fate, and stars. 

It was hard to keep up, but you didn’t want to disappoint her, so you did your best to type her word by word. 

Luckily, she seemed to slow down to match your pace, as if the two of you were a duet with the piano and violin. 

When she stops, you end off the story with a dramatic click, and you match her prideful smile. 

Truly, Fischl is a character not everyone can handle, but that’s alright.

After all, you love her for who she is, and maybe, Fischl appreciated that more than anything else.

[utopya-cc]

Preview) Passionate Gifts| Functinal Designer Bag

Hi everyone. I hope you are all doing well! I have some exciting things to share and show you🤩!

✨This is one of the most exciting updates that I have made. There is more to it than what you saw in the preview video. The video covers just the animation; there are a lot of other features!

Basically, the update will have a whole new mod! So please Try to read the full post. Don't skip to the download page; there are some important things to know before Downloading it and using it,

The New Animation:

Let's start with the animations. This interaction has multiple animations that they may play each time you perform it. (just some small cute variation to the main animation)

One major new thing with this interaction is that it's staring from the back. Your sims will come from the back to give the gifts.

The Pros are: I think it looks great, I think coming from the back adds to The intimacy and surprise element of giving gifts, But the Cons are the game interactions are all face to face, so doing it like this isn't the best and the smoothest way to do it,

The New Designer Bag Gift:

The Designer Bag will cost your sim $1500 Simoleons ( I think it's well worth it; more on it later in this post!). The new interaction is located in the passionate gift pie menu under the romance category, with its own Custom Icons.

There are 12 in total swatches/brands that you can get. I will show you some of them now and let you explore the others.

I first planned to make it into a one-box gift, and then you can change the swatch by build buy, but it was a little bit inconvenience for the gameplay, and I didn't like it that much,

So I had to push it a little bit further, and thankfully, I did manage to figure out how to add all of them (it was one of the main reasons that extended the release date),

So now, every time you give the gift, your sims may give and receive one of 12 different Designer Bags. Each bag has its own Package Box, and the gift will change depending on each swatch. So, basically, there are twelve new gifts in this update.

You can still change the swatch by build-buy, but I think it is more fun to let your sim choose. I have also added a small mechanic to lower the chance of giving Duplicate swatches if you already have that bag in your sim inventory.

(I just want to mention that I added a surprise animation when they see the prize tag! It's just a small detail that I thought it would look cute 👇) 

The Interaction Outcome:

After performing the interaction, your sim will receive the Designer Bag and its own custom Package Box. Also, your sim will receive some Buffs and moodlets for both the target and the actor,

As I said, each bag Has its own custom package box. You can sell it for 20§ or decorate your house with it. It can also work as a pedestal for your bag. I have added a slot to it so you can put stuff on it:

The Fully Functional Bag:

Now, let's start with some more exciting stuff. The bag is fully functional🤩! You can wear it and rename it. It is also live draggable, so you can live-drag it whenever you want, and it comes with its own inventory.

First of all, how do you wear it? You can easily do that from your sim inventory! Just click on it and click on (Wear). You can wear it with any outfit you like!!

It will be shown in the queued interaction on the left side of the running interactions. You can remove it by canceling the interaction.

While you are wearing it, you can't access the bag; you have to remove it first, and then you can access it or live drag it.

By wearing the bag, your sim will get a confident Buff.

Also, wearing the bag will slow the decay of some of your sim needs. My idea behind that is that wearing a bag makes youre sim more organized and less likely to get tired.The modifiers aren't that crazy; I think with them, it's just more fun to remember to wear it before going on a walk or to the coffee shop.

I have also added some buffs to other sims around you. For example, they may be amazed by seeing your sim wearing a Designer brand, and your partner may feel flirty if they see your sim wearing their gift.

The bag is Live draggable; you can drag it anywhere you want and open it. Each bag will have its own separate inventory, which can store almost anything and help organize your sim's inventory better.

The bag will be fully functional. I am planning on some existing features for it, and I will post some sneak peeks soon, so keep an eye out for that.

There are twelve Bags for your sim to have. I mean, I can imagine that Wealthy Sims will have at least two or three bags, so I have added the (add-to favorites options); you can do that while the bag is on your Sims inventory, so you can keep track of youre favorite used bag while carrying multiple ones for your different Outfits. And you can also rename them!

Of course, you can also collect all of them just to fill and decorate your Sims' closet. So, I have kept the option of buying it from Build Buy. Most of the bag's features will work, minus some gift-related ones.

To access the bag inventory, You have to place or live-drag it first; you can't open it from the inventory.

Showering or sleeping will remove the bag automatically. (I am blacklisting the interaction where youre sim removes the bag by hand, so if I have missed something, let me know)

The sim who receives the Designer Bag Gift Will automatically be the owner Of that Bag,

DOWNLOAD:

[ssentimentals]

a pleasant surprise {lee chan}

pairing: dino x fem!reader

prompt: 'is that my shirt?' + 'i love it when you moan my name' (this work is part of my 1k event, go check out other works of mine here)

warnings: nsfw (minors, this work is a no-no for you), blowjob, whipped channie, unprotected sex (which is also a no-no but this time for everyone), a tiiiiny bit of dirty talking

chan doesn't find stereotypical 'sexy' things enticing at all. low cleveage, clothes that hug one's body like a second skin, high heels, red lips - all those attributes don't provoke anything in him; he doesn't have anything against them, they just don't affect him in any way. there are other things that excite him and have blood rushing south - you and anything about you, for example. he used to have some views on what is pretty and sexy before but after your appereance in his life, all those criterias changed drasticallly and took a shape of you in a way that is a bit embarrassing to admit. hair color that he finds pretty? exactly like yours. style he prefers on girls? the way you dress. what he looks for in a girl? everything that you have and nothing else. 'don't wait up for me, i'll stay the night,' he says loudly to his roommate.

jeonghan snorts unattractively. 'when you haven't? stop pushing your lovey-dovey relationship right into my face and get out of here.'

chan grins. he knows there's no bite in those words and turns around, sending his roommate a wink. 'don't choke on your jealousy while i'm gone.'

'brat!' jeonghan throws a pillow at him and dino easily ducks, making hannie smile. he may tease him a lot, but in reality he's very happy for his friend. 'get your stupid face out of here!'

'already gone!'

chan never understood this game some people play of acting cold. holding yourself back, not replying as soon as you saw the message, getting late to the dates... all of it doesn't make sense to him. chan's enthusiasm towards you is not subtle at all and he never tried to hold himself back. why would he? he's always happy to see you, always rushes to see you, always eager to reply and meet up. that's why he's practically running to your place, breath coming in short puffs as he speeds up at his maximum. casual and chill nights with you are his favorite and memory of your warm body plastered to his makes him smile widely. he sprints to your room and bangs loudly, taking few seconds to catch his breath.

'coming!' you open up, staring at him with a wide grin. 'that was fast, did you run here?'

'i'm always running to you,' he replies cheekily, loving how even after so many months his words still bring blush on your cheeks. 'and-'

chan freezes. he didn't notice at first, but now when you step back and walk towards your bed, he can see very well what you're wearing and his brain shuts off for a second. yes, chan doesn't find a lot of stereotypically sexy things enticing at all, but this? you wearing this? that's the top on his sexy things list. he closes the door automatically and doesn't move away from his place, following your moving figure with his eyes hungrily.

'i think we can continue watching that anime or if not, i downloaded several movies-' you turn, frowning at his unmoved state. 'channie? why are you still standing there?'

'is that my shirt?' he rasps out, suddenly having trouble swallowing.

you quickly look yourself up and down, shrugging. 'oh yeah, i found it in the closet. it's a bit big on me, but that's fine.'

in chan's humble opinion simple 'that's fine' doesn't cover it. his t-shirt which is voersied even on him reaches right up to the middle of your thighs and it does things to him that he's ashamed to admit. familiar heat coils in the pit of his stomach and he swallows dryly, pulling his phone out of his pocket and dropping it on the table nearby. you wearing his clothes is a plesant surprise, the one that makes his heart beat a little bit faster and his hands itch with desire to touch.

'channie?' you call, confused. 'is everything-'

'please tell me you're not wearing anything underneath,' he interrupts. 'please.'

'i-' you gasp when he suddenly crosses the distance between you two in a blink of an eye. 'um, there is-'

he doesn't let you finish. chan is not known for being a patient person in general and how can he stay patient right now, when you're looking the way you do right in front of him? his hands are on you in instant, reverently feeling up your legs, groaning like he's in pain when he realizes that you're not wearing any shorts. your silky skin makes him salivate in a really unattractive and maybe even concerning way and he licks his lips, staring down at you with lust blown eyes. 'this is such a nice surprise,' he mutters, pushing you towards the bed. 'the best outfit. you should always greet me looking like that.'

you laugh at this and he softens instantly, looking up at you. your laugh is one of his favorite sounds, it makes his heart skip a beat every single time when he hears. that probably isn't very healthy, but chan doesn't care when it comes to you; you make his heart perform acrobatics in his chest and he doesn't even blink, will gladly rip it open for you to see so you'd know what you do to him.

'what's gotten into you, my god,' you laugh as he throws you onto the bed. 'chan!'

he grins when at your loud squeak as he pounces on you, settling his body on top of yours. you struggle, obviously finding it hard to breathe, but chan just lays motionless, grinning at your futile attempts of escaping. 'you've gotten into me,' he replies hotly, finding your mouth with his. 'all's your fault.'

kissing you is like coming up for air when you've been underwater for way too long. it feels like taking that very first breath of air, filling your lungs with it and realizing that you're saved. chan kisses you with all he has every time, never holds back, fueled by idea that if this might be the last kiss then you'll know how much he loved you. he gives it all for you, to you and you respond to it in such a majestic way that it knocks all the breath out of him. your body is his favorite instrument and he knows what to touch and how to do it to make your head cloud with pleasure. he uses it to his advantage, loves watching you turn into a writhing mess under him.

'feels good,' you breathe out when he finally tugs away his t-shirt from you, grasping your breasts.

'yeah?' chan grins, leaning in to lick a fat stripe on your collarbones. 'wanna make you feel even better.'

chan is a pleaser. he likes making you feel good, better than good. he likes hearing your moans, likes knowing that he's the reason of them. likes playing with your breasts and biting lightly on your nipples to make you groan loudly. likes when you first your hands into his hair and tug, when he gets a bit too harsh with his bite marks. likes when you pointedly try to push his head downwards, always shy to speak up and tell exactly what you want. when your chest is covered in tiny marks almost everywhere, only then chan relents, leaning back to admire his work. exquisite. he is so, so in love.

'channie,' you whine, pushing your legs together in a subtle way of asking for attention there.

'hm? you want something?' he asks, fully leaning back and taking a hold of your knees. 'something in particular?' he pushes your knees to the sides, easily fitting himself between your legs. 'what is it?'

you huff in annoyance and try to glare at him, but your hair is a mess and your lips are shiny and swollen from kisses and you look fucked out so your glare is very ineffective in that state. chan chuckles and gets out of the bed to stand right next to it and pointedly reaches for his belt, quickly opening it. 'i think it's your time to work a little, baby.'

chan is a pleaser but he's not selfless. he will die a happy man if he dies with your lips wrapped around his cock. still glaring at him, you quickly switch positions, crawling on bed till you get on the edge, your face right next to the place he wants to have it the most. 'don't glare, baby,' chan admonishes gently, pushing zipper of his jeans down. 'i know you want it. don't you want it?'

your butt cutely wriggles and you lick your lips, making him chuckle. he is so, so weak for you. but good thing is that you are so, so weak for him too. 'say that you want it,' chan mutters, stepping closer and getting rid of his jeans. 'cmon baby, don't lie to yourself.'

your hands push his underwear down and chan hisses when you immediately wrap your hand around his shaft. 'i want it,' you breathe out, looking up at him in a way that makes his dick even harder.

'go ahead then.'

it's a really hard mission not to come from the first three strokes. just like he knows what you like, you also know how to make him buckle his hips helplessly. your nails digging into his skin, your hot mouth wrapped around him - chan grunts with an effort of not fucking up into your mouth. you look sinful like this, so sexy that it makes his head spin; he grabs your hair in order to stay focused. your head bobs enthusiastically, you create your own rhythm and chan groans, knowing how you like when he's vocal about his pleasure. 'just like that,' his fingers automatically pull your hair into a ponytail, tugging. 'doing so good, i'll fuck you so good afterwards, baby.'

your answering moans revebrates around your throat and he shivers from additional stimilus, bucking his hips. this action makes you choke and you pull back, his hands immediately on your face, caressig your cheeks in apologizing manner. 'sorry, sorry,' chan says, quickly checking if you're okay. 'all good?'

you nod, wiping away spit from your chin. your hand reaches out to stroke him and chan groans, when you look up and lick your lips. 'all good,' you say, smirking. 'if i knew wearing your clothes would get you like this, i-'

'you'd be the death of me,' chan finishes and tugs your hair harshly. 'lay back on the bed.'

chan is a weak man. if he were stronger then at the sight of you naked he would have taken his time to worship your body, but... chan is a weak man and he has no patience. his fingers find your heat in seconds and he tries to slow down, he really does, but one finger becomes two way too quickly even if you're not complaining.

'chan, oh my god,' your back arches as he thrusts up two fingers in a pace that is too quick.

'i love it when you moan my name,' chan whispers into your skin, lavishing your breasts with his attention. 'can you take more?'

chan prays you agree because he feels like he might burst any second now; when you nod, his sigh of relief is almost palpable as he adds third finger, reveling in your wetness and your loud whimpers. he likes how vocal you are, how you don't shy away from pleasure, how you seek for it in the most erotic ways when your head is on the cloud nine. your body moves along with his fingers, wants them deeper and he curses at the lewd image it makes, moving a little downwards.

'i'll fuck you so good,' he promises - babbles, really. 'you've been so good to me, i-'

his words die out as he bottoms out, flesh to flesh. it's always heaven to be locked with you in this way, to feel your warmth all around him. he always has to take few seconds to calm down, to find his footing, to relish in this feeling before he moves. your hips start moving, calling out for him and he is not that strong to resist your call. sometimes chan is in the mood to draw it out, to be slow and tease you until you're crying, but today is not that day. his patience snapped long time ago and he instantly sets a punishing pace that makes you choke on your moans. grabbing at the pillow desperately, it takes you few moments to start moving along with him, bringing you both to pleasure much faster. his grip on your hips is bruising and when chan moves his fingers to grab the back of your thighs and change the angle, you squeak, almost biting your tongue in the process.

'good?' chan asks, concentrating all his strength in holding your legs up higher. 'like this is good?'

'yes, yes, so good, chan,' you drool a little, succumbing to the pleasure fully. 'so fucking good.'

chan only groans at that, snapping his hips harder. he can hold off for you, but it's hard when you're so wet and warm, when your body is so honest in letting him know how exactly he makes you feel. chan prides himself in this, how he can make you crazy with it, how he gets to be the one who sees you like this. it's a privelege more than anything and he will never take it for granted.

'close,' you manage to croak out, gasping for breath.

chan nods in acknowledgement and doubles his effort, losing his rhythm in favor of bringing you to the peak closer. sweat runs down his face and he huffs, falling on his hands. your legs wrap tight aroudn him instantly as his mouth latches on yours, swallowing all your sounds eagerly. 'so pretty for me,' chan whispers into your mouth, looking at you with hearts in his eyes. 'always so good, cmon, you can come baby, i know you want to, don't hold it.'

there's something about his whispers that makes you cry, shaking with pleasure. he sucks hickeys on your neck while you get off from your high. little shocks run through your body and you turn your head, bumping noses with him. 'channie,' you call, wrapping your arms around his shoulders.

you sound so satisfied that chan grins. 'can i?' he asks and at your nod, he uses your body to chase his own high. it doesn't take him long to pull out and spill all over your stomach, groaning. 'fucking hell.'

your chuckle makes him smile and he flops next to you, kissing you senseless. he knows you're about to get whiny and bratty at the sticky semen on your stomach, so he quickly stands up, searching for anything to wipe it off with. 'let's just go to the shower,' you call, reaching out of him. 'i demand to be carried.'

chan can't even pretend that he doesn't like it. he can't even for a second keep the barrier of a stoic and cool guy when he's with you. not when he turns into a poodle, not when he's ready to give you everything you ask for. he easily lifts you up, smiles warmyl at your giggles and carries you to the shower, kissing your forehead. 'i'm so leaving my hoodie here,' he says, carefully putting you down. 'greet me in it next time?'

a/n: it's funny how i try to make chan gentle and make it more like love making and not fucking and then my fingers live their own life and he ends up the way he did here :D - nini

tagging @prpldahy

[lynk-zee]

Hii hope you’re having a wonderful day and congrats on the 100+ subs! Here is another request if you’d like to take it, if not it’s okay! It’s about how the LaD boys would be if the roles switched, like now we’re here smiling and our wallets suffering but what if it had to be their wallets suffering? (I want revenge for my wallet and need to see what kind of f2p in suffering or Forced2Pay kind of player they would be) if we were the otome character, and at first when I thought about this Zayne doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d play but I’m pretty sure he’d play because of a patient insisting or sum, Xavier and Rafayel are more likely to end up playing otome so I don’t think it’s difficult to think of them playing this kind of game.

Role Reversal

Zayne wasn’t interested in something as childish as an otome game. His co-workers always gushed over the characters in the break room, but he never paid any mind to it. Until he caught a glimpse of your character in the nurses phone. And my, were you breathtaking!

He’d try to deny these thoughts. You weren’t real—you were a character! It’s silly to want to see your face more and hear your voice. After mulling over it, he downloaded the otome game just to see what the big deal was about, and boy! The game had him in a chokehold!

You were just so pretty…He went red every time your character talked to him. When it came to the poke and touch interaction feature, he had to put his phone down from how flustered he got! You were his favorite, naturally, and he wasn’t interested in any other character in the game.

Would he spend money on the game? A little. Zayne knows it’s a little ridiculous to empty his wallets for an extra feature. But ten dollars for a banner every once in a while isn’t so bad…right?

Rafayel had a commission based on your character and thought it was ridiculous. Usually he would flat out say no to commissions because he believed his art sold itself, but this was a long time patron to his art gallery, so he had to oblige. He looked up your character to use as a reference and was absolutely stunned. Hummana-whaaaaaat? When did video game graphics get so good? You were so beautiful! And looked so real! He felt his heart pound while he looked at you.

So, he downloaded the game to see what it was all about. When your character greeted him for the first time, he fell in love.

Would totally spend money on banners and events— take all his money and give him more content of you! His art starts to resemble unrequited love— that of a merman in love with someone on land, worlds apart separated by the clear surface of the water, representing how he feels being separated from you by the phone screen. Is he being dramatic, yes. But he’s an (Y/n) stan. They all are.

Xavier came across your game through an ad on social media. At first he wasn’t exactly interested, scrolling through his feed for something to entertain him before work, until he saw the ad for your character. It was like he was on auto-pilot— his thumb moved to the download button and bam! You were on his phone.

Despite you being a fictional character, he felt shy interacting with you. Choosing the answers that made him sound cool, making decisions that didn’t look stupid. He was especially protective of you during the combat feature, fingers flying across the phone screen to destroy every monster and made sure you never got hurt.

When it came to spending money, he was a little hesitant. I mean, he has better things to spend his money on. But then your beach day banner came out and Xavier gave the app all of his money. He also may have spent a little more than necessary on your sexy Halloween costume during one of the events.

[fluorynn]

〴 📘 — AU!𝙃𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣!𝙇𝙤’𝙖𝙠 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙤𝙣𝙨

𝚝𝚊𝚐𝚜 : @jioohyo @bambithewriter @rivatar @sunofpandora @xylianasblog @ikeyniofthetayrangi @plantgirliewholovespandora @jakesullyfatjuicypeen @pandoranbean @literallynpbody

𝚍𝚒𝚟𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚋𝚢 : @cafekitsune !!!

Subject that human!Lo’ak doesn’t like ?

MATH. ANY type – algebra, geometry, calculus, precalculus – human!Lo’ak might be shit at it

Or rather, people THINK he’s not very good at it — geometry, algebra, calculus, precalculus, anything math related — and he even believes that he is not good at it because he just lets others’ opinions get to him

It isn’t precisely that he doesn’t like the subject - it just has too many numbers, strategies, and – letters???

I’m sure he’s the type to think once he sees letters involved in an equation that he will be very, very dubious and not at all try to solve it.

“Why can’t you just let numbers have their own category and leave the fucking alphabet out of it bro-”

HOWEVER, if he does try, he comprehend and is actually very good at it.

Very smart, just people think him to not be “Neteyam smart” that it pisses him off, drains him, then he doesn’t give a shit in trying anymore

Leave the poor guy alone though, he tries his best and is VERY INTELLIGENT.

… I see Lo’ak being into video games — try tearing the guy away from a game console.

Human!Lo’ak is that guy during gaming nights—loud, animated, and absolutely relentless. He’ll trash-talk like there’s no tomorrow, but he’s the first to cheer everyone up if they lose.

From COD to Minecraft and Fortnite and NBA2k24 and Roblox and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

it is freaking WAR when the entire family plays Mario Kart.

Just imagine that. Paint the picture, folks.

Don’t want to? Fine, I’ll more than gladly paint it.

I think while Neytiri thinks and finds video games to be stupid, she overhears Lo’ak saying she just sucks and is scared to lose.

It may be war with the entire family playing, but it is scorching HELL when she’s playing only against him.

Even Jake sheds a sweat, and he’s already out of the round.

Kiri, who didn’t really want to play to begin with, actually perks up a bit while sitting on the sofa, even cheering and siding with her mom

Tuk would be that one person who doesn’t know who to cheer for so she’s cheering for them all —

Best believe momma Neytiri is gonna beat the shit out that game though.

And a rolling on the floor while sobbing Lo’ak too after savoring her victory.

Jake is so proud to call her his wife akakkssklksls

Oh, and COD, call of duty, is definitely his father-son bonding time with Jake. They’re a badass duo when playing a match— it’s like the one of the rare times that they’re on the same page and Jake’s giving him compliments back to back—

Prides himself with all them compliments, even rubs it in Neteyam’s face who would just smirk and roll his eyes but let his little brother have his enjoyment

Human!Lo’ak probably teaches Tuk how to play video games —

While he’s doing his own thing she probably goes into his room and plays on his computer or X-box.

Tuk will definitely get him to play other games like Stumble Guys or download apps on his phone that he pretends not to like but secretly plays them on his own.

tuk : “hey how did I get 1st on the leaderboard??”

She’s not complaining tho —

Also, plays Roblox a LOT with Tuk, Kiri, and if Neteyam is not busy with his own thing, even him.

Group chat between the Sullys, Spider, Ao’nung, Tsireya, and Rotxo.

When they all play roblox, it gets wild.

Human!Lo’ak definitely gets banned for a week from the dumb shit he be saying with Ao’nung — even sometimes Neteyam.

“Mom, you’ll never believe why Lo’ak got banned from [👠HEELS baddies]”

“Kiri, shut up! — ”

One time invited Tsireya to play rainbow friends with Tuk

Tsireya would be sobbing as to why her crush / boyfriend and his little sister play such things —

Human!Lo’ak is intelligent— VERY intelligent but like … chooses not to use that intelligence quite often and wounds up in trouble?

Definitely let’s intrusive thoughts take over.

He’s washing the dishes, holds a spoon, stares at it for awhile before putting it under the water when already knowing it’s gonna create a whole frigging waterfall.

Human!Lo’ak is very goofy — this very natural charm that’s almost so ridiculous?

But, human!Lo’ak has the best sense of humor, naturally funny — can make one laugh with anything.

If he heard someone try to crack a joke that’s not exactly funny, he pats them in the back and just gives them a small smile and laugh. “Bro— you tried.”

Acknowledges the joke though, because he know how it feels to be in awkward situations and how it feels to go by ignored.

And if he heard someone make a joke that makes someone uncomfortable or is just something mean and stupid, he looks at them with a ‘wtf’ stare, or looks at them as if they’re high and tells them to shut up.

Definitely had an Xxxtencion phase, a Captain Underpants phase, a Dog Man phase, and a Rocket Raccoon phase.

Human!Lo’ak tries and pretty much is caught up with the latest rap music — he vibes to it.

Give this guy some Afrobeats — he thinks he’s the shit

Human!Lo’ak would be randomly bursting to song in Neteyam’s perplexed face or Kiri’s annoyed face while Tuk sings along with him and makes the identical face Lo’ak makes.

I’m certain human!Lo’ak discreetly listens to K-Pop.

Kiri and Tsireya — even Rotxo gets him into it.

“What’re you guys even listening to? This is so lame.”

Meanwhile, his AirPod is blasting ‘Cherry bomb’ by NCT 127 —

Oh my gosh, Kiri would be listening to “House of Cards (Full Length Edition)” in her room and Lo’ak could come in to ask her some random ass shit while the main part of the song is playing, and he could be getting into some body rolls to go along with the song’s rhythm.

Meanwhile, Kiri’s just sobbing in the corner because of the meaning behind the song — (iykyk)

Very much The Neighbourhood and Chase Atlantic coded.

Even Bryson Tiller — he can vibe to SZA too.

Definitely yells the lyrics to her SOS album — especially Open Arms to Tsireya as he holds her face in hands, singing Travis Scott’s part to her.

Meanwhile poor cutie is just confused but is allowing him to express himself in however way he needs to, lmao

Sprinkles of Bruno Mars and Coldplay. Ali Gatie, Arctic Monkeys and MANESKIN too in his taste of music ( just my opinion —)

Human!Lo’ak loves snacks and always seems to have a stash of chips, candy, or homemade treats. He’s also the one who combines weird flavors (“Trust me, it’s good!”) and gets surprisingly defensive about his food experiments.

I also feel he can be one of those guys that can eat 5 cheese burgers, yet also remains shockingly toned and fit?

While going to the gym is somewhat a priority for him, he might skip leg day here and there. ( regrets it tho, Kiri could make fun of his skinny legs. Even Neytiri tries to feed him more.)

Human!Lo’ak enjoys adventure. Growing up close to the land (thanks to Jake and Neytiri’s influence), he has a deep respect for the outdoors.

I think while he enjoys his video games and playing sports ( see him doing basketball and baseball. Would even try soccer ) he likes departing from that for a bit and wants to go exploring.

Wether it be around the neighborhood, a random Walmart, the park, forest, hiking

He has a hobby for photography has a secondhand camera that he takes everywhere, snapping candid photos of his adventures, friends, and the moments that matter to him.

His photos are raw and authentic, capturing life in a way that reflects his love for the untamed.

He’s the type to go to the park and walk with siblings ( spider included ), friends, and while you’re down the path you’re supposed to be following, and if there’s a deep forest to the side he’d definitely be the one to suggest — more so already be doing — to go down there and check out if there’s anything interesting.

He hears a branch break? He’d either be, “nope, why’d you make me do this” or, he’d hold it together and tease the others if their scared when he’s the one secretly crapping himself —

Sensitive.

Human!Lo’ak is definitely sensitive, but chooses to mask the hurt with something harsh or very, very teasing when it’s actually a jab of an insult.

Human!Lo’ak has a loud laugh and loves making others smile with his antics, but he sometimes uses humor as a shield for his insecurities.

He hides the fact that he feels like he doesn’t quite fit in anywhere.

Human!Lo’ak might cry when he’s angry or very frustrated. The browns of his eyes become more clear and their shape more prominent — he looks so much like Neytiri when this occurs.

When human!Lo’ak is alone and he trips over air, he definitely laughs to himself and gives himself a face smack.

Human!Lo’ak’s room is a chaotic blend of random posters, discarded clothes, and half-finished DIY projects. Despite the mess, there’s an undeniable charm to it—it feels alive and uniquely his.

Eats cereal out of the box and drinks milk out of carton — Neytiri smacks him for it while getting Jake to scold him ( even though it’s Jake that taught him how to do that when he was little and ever since has always done it —)

Human!Lo’ak wears the necklaces Tuk makes for him — pretending he doesn’t like them and makes the excuse that they don’t go with his fit, but, he still wears it because why would he not?

At some point him along with the rest of his siblings, including his parents, have matching jewelry because of Tuk

Human!Lo’ak has a phase where he wears Kiri’s old magnetic earrings before she got her ears pierced because he was too scared to get his own pierced.

Eventually he goes and gets them pierced with Kiri who’s getting, like her fourth piercing on her ears —

Human!Lo’ak messes with Kiri just for fun, but he likes hanging out with her — won’t admit it to her of course , but if anyone else bothers her, he’ll beat their behind — no matter if they’re 10 times bigger than him.

Definitely gets introduced to customizing his shit because of Kiri.

From his sneakers to his backpack, Lo’ak loves personalizing his belongings with graffiti-style art, stickers, or patches. Everything he owns reflects his bold and creative personality.

Human!Lo’ak sings at least one of Taylor Swift or Britney Spears’ songs very randomly — or if he hears Tuk singing a Disney song, he’d get into character and dramatically sing along — even if he hears Kiri softly singing to herself, he’d do the same too.

Gets into character, gets a little sassy and does these hand waves.

( kiri definitely records Lo’ak without him noticing and later on sends it to the gc they have with their other friends)

Oh my gosh I’m sure him and Spider had the idea to start a band and join the army, including Neteyam when they were between 7–10

Neytiri, despite thinking Spider might be some kind of bad influence on her kids, allows this — she even records them ‘performing’ when they’re just really banging shit and singing God knows what —

They look so goofy when they try playing soldiers, they’re wearing Jake’s and Quaritch’s old clothes that’s too big for them, but it’s adorable

Human!Lo’ak looks very happy, jumping over Neteyam’s back as his big brother smiles largely and freely, while Spider’s head is hooked beneath Neteyam’s arm with a two-front teeth gone smile, and Kiri’s in the back using the camouflage gear as a way to blend and connect with nature —

Human!Lo’ak is not used to physical touch.

He somewhat shrinks away from it, unless it is from someone he is 100 percent comfortable with.

Physical touch is not a major thing I think is included in his family. Unless it’s something grand.

HOWEVER, I do think when it’s an s/o, he’d like the idea of them being around.

Not entirely PDA, but he would have their arms ‘accidentally’ bump into one another while walking side by side, or s/o catches on, and just lets their arms touch at all times.

100 percent a hopeless romantic.

Human!Lo’ak has a soft spot for love stories, even if he’d never admit it.

He’s the type to scribble cheesy lines in his notebooks and go all-out for someone he cares about, like creating a mixtape or planning a starlit picnic.

Human!Lo’ak was definitely dropped by Jake as a child, so many fucking times to the point where Neytiri did not allow Jake to grab him.

Neytiri dropped him once too though— that was Lo’ak’s fault for squirming too much though, Jake never let her hear the end of it whenever Tuk was born and she was hesitant to let him hold her.

Human!Lo’ak fell off the bed a lot during his nap times as a toddler

Definitely almost accidentally always bangs his head against something 😭

At this point, do not be surprised if he’s in the state of memory loss

Human!Lo’ak definitely let’s put a random screech of anger after doing something that’s so frustrating for a long time

Human!Lo’ak is a magnet to stray animals — they’re practically drawn to his energy.

He’s the type to bring home stray dogs or befriend the random raccoon that keeps raiding the trash.

His family often rolls their eyes, but most definitely find the whole thing amusing.

Tuk goes to school and flexes that her brother is King of Animals —

Neytiri ensures her kids remain connected to their heritage, and human!Lo’ak appreciates it more than he lets on.

He wears small tokens or bracelets that symbolize his culture and finds solace in its traditions, even when he feels out of place.

Human!Lo’ak dreams big, even if he doesn’t know how.

Lo’ak often talks about grand ideas—traveling the world, building a better future, or making a name for himself.

He doesn’t always have a plan, but his enthusiasm is infectious.

[darckxlady]

could you please do a tutorial of your game of thrones 'so much for stardust' gifs where it has the ripped paper textures? it's so pretty, and i'd like to learn how to do one with just the texture in the middle and two gifs on either side, like half and half and just having a rip in the middle. it's so cool how you did a gif in the middle though so i wanted to ask as well! all of them are so cool looking. you are extremely talented. if you don't want to though i understand :) thank you

TORN PAPER EFFECT + BLENDING TUTORIAL

thank you so much for your sweet words, dearest anon and i'm sorry it took so long to answer but it's here now so i'll try my best to explain <3 disclamer: this is the first tutorial i ever made, it's very screenshot heavy and it assumes the basic knowledge of ps and gifmaking. if there's something you don't understand, don't hesitate to ask <3 so, let's get to it!

1. PREPARING THE BASE As you can see in this shot there's a lot of space between Rhaenyra and Alicent and that makes it perfect for the ripped paper overlay without hiding much of the base gif. So the first thing i did was to crop it like this:

Also you want to make sure that the highlighted box (delete cropped pixels) is unchecked! After taking the usual steps for the animation (creating frames from layers, reversing the frames, setting frame delay) you continue with the video timeline and convert your frames into a smart object. psa: if you don't have the motivation or the time to play around with coloring here are some psds i recommend: 1, 2; as for the sharpening i think this one is the best.

now that you have your smart object sharpened and colored what you want to do next is drag it to the end of the canvas and duplicate it. after that you move the copy on the other end like the original and make sure it's under the coloring layers, like this:

After that you have to create layer masks (the highlighted icon above) for both smart object and the copy and change the blending option of the copy to screen or lighten (whatever looks best!). So this is how it looks now:

pls ignore that there are no layer masks on the smart objects i just added them after changing the blending rip </3 Now, as you see both gifs are like fighting eachother for their rightful place on the canvas. (fgfgfdf) To fix that you have to use a soft round brush to delete the parts you don't want. (feel free to play around with the brush however you want to get the result you want!) Here's my result:

2. THE OVERLAY

Now for the both gifs you want to use for the ripped paper effect you pretty much apply the same steps as the ones you did with the gifs for the base. Here are the two gifs i chose:

Before blending both gifs however you want to create a clipping mask for each of the smart objects coloring layers, like this:

And now you're ready to blend both gifs together! You choose the group with one of the gifs and change the blending again to screen or lighten and place the said group on top of the other. So this is how it looks now:

optional: if you feel like the base gif doesn't pop out enough you can always add a gradient map on one of both gifs and play around with the opacity and the color you think fits best.

Then you add a layer mask on the overlay gif group and again play around with the brush to delete what you don't want. So this is the final result:

ps - don't repeat my mistake by placing the group with the layer mask under the other group. it should be on top and the blending option should be lighten or screen.

After blending both gifs together, you're ready to place them on the base. So first thing you want to do first is place both groups of each gif in one single group together. Then you duplicate the said group in the psd of the base gif and create a layer mask. This is how it should looks:

Now, in order to create the ripped paper effect, you'll have to download a ripped paper brush pack. This is the one i use. After loading the brushes in ps (if you don't know how here is explained) you're ready to begin! Change the size and angle however you'd like to make it look how you want. And if you want you can move the overlay gif by choosing both groups in case you aren't happy with the adjustment. This is how it looks like so far:

We're almost done! Now you have to find a paper texture, (i got mine from google) place it between both groups of your gifs and create a layer mask, like so:

What you have to do here is pretty much the same thing you did with the overlay gifs. Still, make sure there's enough space for the text you want to write in. However, if you think that the space isn't enough you can just delete a bit more of the overlay gifs. Here's mine:

3. THE TEXT

You're finally ready to type out the text you want! If you're having troubles with choosing the right font and size, here are my text settings:

You can always play around with the angle and if your text is too small, zoom in so you can place it just how you like it. And since i'm a bit lazy to deal with it later, i choose to add the highlight color while it's still zoomed. You just have to add an layer above the text and use a soft round brush with opacity from 70-75% and flow from 15-18%.

For the repeated text you want to make sure you create a big space for writing so it can contain the whole space of the torn paper. Also, write where the text will be seen only and use the tab button to skip the space where the gif is. This is how it looks:

Once you're done with writing the repeated text, you want to select all the character layers and the highlight layer and move them under the overlay gif and on top of the paper, like this:

With the layers still selected and in order to contain the text within the paper the last thing you want to do is create a clipping mask. And that's It. You're done! This is the final result:

[sgdlr-asdfghjkl]

Link Click Musical update 180 🌟🌟🌟

(LC-mu postcard project🎉 + summary of BilibiliWorld videos: musical actors meeting VAs trio and Wang Minhui's vlog ✨)

Hello! This will be quite unusual update, since I want to report about our fan project. But also, to make up for my inactivity, I bring lots of tasty treats for you >:3

Links in replies: meeting of LC donghua voice actors trio and LC musical trio at BilibiliWorld event, Wang Minhui's vlog from there, 1h+ livestream from the entire LC musical segment + google drive link where you can download the postcard illustrations and print it for yourself 😘

OKAY 🏃‍♂️✨

LC-mu postcard project summary

A fellow lc musical enjoyer friend, Vale (@/_Setsuna_iro_ on twt & @/setsuna_cos on ig, follow her for great cosplays!) reached out, said she'll be visiting China and considers going to see the play. So OF COURSE I got hyped up about it 😤

I wanted to arrange a postcard for her to give away after the performance (like we did with Elara for 100th performance). To let the actors and Chinese audience know we appreciate the musical ^^ There was no better person to ask for help than a legend, an icon, a master of musical-inspired LC fanarts @wrathyforest 🙇‍♂️💖

🤲BEHOLD🤲

So Forest drew this amazing✨ illustration 🙇‍♂️ (and yes, you can download it and print it too!). I only suggested some details like adding XiaoJuan pig squishie and Zhang Jiahao eating a chicken leg (from 100th special encore).

As for my contribution I did the design on a back (based on the official lyrics book style) and the lil actor doodles. I collected the 42 names of countries from the international LC musical fans. And handled the communication and logistics between all of us ><

Props to Vale for translating the note to Chinese 🙏 the actors and audience got it in Chinese, but you can read it and print in in English ^^ And thanks to @elaraqwqfor all the practical advice about the theatre etiquette and navigation haha 🙏

When time agent Vale rests (and no longer struggles with Chinese firewall ><") I'll try to share more info from her about the musical itself. For now have photos our spy took >:3

That's the Shanghai Great World, an amusement centre building where the Time Theatre is located. We rarely think outside the 'microvawe oven' of lc musical set, so I think it's interesting to see ;>

A photo wall with the cast behind the scenes and guests (can you spot director Haolin? ehee). And a fascinating (to me at least) corner where the audience can leave all the fanmade freebies. Like merch celebrating actor's birthdays or performance milestones. The fans go out of their way and make all sorts of things to share, like badges, facemasks with prints, keychains, acrylic stands, prints, stickers, I even saw cookies with chibi actors printed on them ><

I personally find this part of fan culture around the Chinese musical theatre really heartwarming and inspiring ^^ Maybe bc culture around theatre in my country feels very posh and stuck up, snobbish even. So I have lots of love and respect to Chinese theatre fans for making their passion feel welcoming and simply fun 🌟

Again, huge thanks to all my lovely LC friends, Forest, Vale and Elara for making this project possible 😘💙💛

MOVING ON 🏃‍♂️✨

Link Click Musical panel on BilibiliWorld 2024 convention

For context, this convention is huge (esp when you remember Bilibili is like Chinese ver of youtube, twitch, netflix, crunchyroll and webtoon at once). Li Haolin had his panel there, as well as donghua VAs (that's how they managed to meet, VAs had their panel on same day musical actors came for rehearsal).

So there is an entire 1h+ video from the panel with LC-mu 'representative lineup' Deng Xianling, Cai Qi and Wang Minhui. I'll link it, you can watch it. It's all in Chinese ofc but it's still fun, bc they do lots of games focused on singing songs that you should be able to recognise by now ;>

A summary of the panel:

1st game: they each get the first lines their characters sing in the play and have to fill out the blank lyrics

then they do slightly extended ver of 'You can forget about it' ('sofa song')

2nd game: they get a line from a lc musical song to sing, each actor with different twist; dxl has to do a dialect version, cq does the singing to a different melody, and wmh does the 'translation accent' (not sure what it is, I'm guessing it's changing the accentuation on words?)

3rd game: is blindfold basketball with third person directing the one that's shooting, so a cooperation game ^^'

4th game: they listen to the music and when it stops they have to sing the next lines (this part was GREAT bc we get crumbs from main plot songs AND we get to hear actors sing a capella AND there is a banger part where wmh and cq sing in unison 😔👌)

5th game: doing 'Dive back in time' tutting at varied speed (it's funny & impressive how they switch from 2x speed to 0.5x without an issue)

and I lost a count (this video is long and in chinese, forgive me) but by the end, there is also a part where each actor has to say something in character, they chose from categories: A) Exclusive video for waking up - cq, B) Exclusive video to put you to sleep -wmh, C) 'Mood Tips' Video - dxl :> (Lu Guang got very in character, short line, don't get excited)

OKAY NEXT 🏃‍♂️✨✨

Voice Actors encounter (Li Shimeng, Su Shangqing, Yang Tianxiang) summary

All credit goes to my Chinese friend Yksim (@/treeshu3426 on twt) for translating and summarising the entire video to me 🙏🙇‍♂️💖

Video has 2 main parts: voice actors giving tips about delivering lines and musical actors teaching them to sing songs. Yang Tianxiang first suggest that musical actors teach vocal actors how to sing. He asks how to sing "我只能预测十二个小时" ('I can only predict 12 hours...', a part from M01 'Time Travel', the first song). Wmh and cq sing it but ytx finds it too hard to follow, gives up and says sth like 'aigh maybe we should start from voice acting' ><. So they first give wmh and cq some tips about how to say lines.

Wang Minhui shares that the producer of LC musical (I'm guessing it was Chen Xiaoyi 🙏) sent him a video compilation of canon Lu Guang calling cxs idiot, childish etc. (as learning material). And he asked ytx to say some for him XDD which the other delivers 👌

Li Shimeng gives Qiao Ling performance. She first acted how to scold cxs and then how to comfort him 🥺 Everyone compliments her, she's great orz

After that ytx seems to be answering wmh's question how to say lines. He said: 'We have to relax our throats. It is also like singing. You have to make yourself comfortable. You don't have to pursue to make your voice very like my voice. I think we are two different Lu Guangs. ' (meaning the range, because wmh's voice is very high pitch comparing to ytx's voice)

Yang Tianxiang asks Su Shangqing for his input and ssq says: 'You can make it natural and like in daily life. Actually voice acting allows you to express a variety of precise emotions within a very limited range of ups and downs. It will be harder than no limits. 其实会比你可以完全释放手脚难 (this sentence translates weirdly so have a transcript) After you get hold of the character's main characteristics, you can relax and do what you want to express.'

Then is time for a singing part. Cai Qi sings a bit from 'Words can't convey the love' for ssq. Which ssq says is too hard >< ytx says 'But this song fits you.'

Wang Minhui sings a crumb of main plot song called 'Broken time' (fully translated by Micha here 💙) It's a very hard and high pitch big song full of emotions that happens after a quarrel with cxs. Yang Tianxiang is impressed ><

VA's strongest soldier enters the ring after ytx says: 'I think Li Shimeng is the best singer among three of us.' So Cai Qi teaches lsm some QL's lines from the beginning of 'You can forget about it' (QL starts it in main plot ver). She repeats after him and sounds wonderful ✨💅

And finally, Deng Xianling arrives from the other musical's rehearsal (on weibo she 'cries' she had to buy wmh a drink as an apology for being late ><'). Her voice is beautiful nevertheless. She sings the same part that cq started teaching ;>

Then they take photos together and say goodbyes 🥰

WHICH IS A PERFECT SEGWAY 🏃‍♂️✨✨✨

This one I deciphered myself by google translating subtitles. But please watch it yourself! It's adorable even if you don't speak Chinese

Wang Minhui's vlog from BilibiliWorld

You may think he'd do sth short, similar to Cai Qi's vlog from the event, but no. Not the yapperton3000, Kamen Rider enjoyer, mister I-watch-more-anime-than-Niebo (I just adore this guy, ok? and you will too. Now.)

Nah, he will give us a tour 😎✨

It starts with him saying he's going on a rehearsal, then a short compilation from that day where they practiced and met VAs. As you can see he and ytx exchanged contact info :>

After teasing dxl for being late it's fast forward to next day, the day of their performance. He beelines straight to the artist/merch area 🙇‍♂️ He points at almost every alley and says stuff like:

'Take a look at the Honkai Star Railway theme area! Sorry but I don't play hehe' 'Jian Wang 3 theme area, I used to play. I remember when I got into the trap, brought in at my university, my college friends were playing.' *points at a fancy dress at some sort of haute couture cosplay booth* 'Guo Hongxu would look good in this' (ghx commented the vid with a photo of himself swinging an axe with 'Where are you? I brought you a gift 🙂')

Then he comes home 😌 The Link Click themed alley 💙💛

He looks at Lu Guang merch which is-😭💗 *clenches my heart* and talks how he's excited to wear lg's wig already.

⬆ Interesting thing about these shiguang cutouts, that cn friends Bō🐼 and Yksim pointed out, is that they are a signposts promoting a Chengguang/程光 ship specific event. Recently there was a separate exhibition/fan event focused on uh, you know, top!cxs x bottom!lg, (not necessarily explicit but very much about the romantic coupling) and they had a booth LC alley in BilibiliWorld too.

And no, it's impossible he's clueless about it. You'll see he knows his donghua&anime + they had huge signs with ship name and friends tell me he must've walked past all the doujins. And he goes there twice 🙇‍♂️ Like, do with this knowlegde whatever you want, I'm just describing what happened (personally I'd say: BASEDBASEDBASED-)

*performance time* he gets his makeup and hair done and goes on stage, it's a short compilation from backstage.

HE GOES BACK TO THE CUTOUTS orz... the stylist fixes his hair sprout when he's standing between lg and cxs ;w; while wmh praises his producer for agreeing to work overtime to help him film the vlog 🙏

it cuts to him riding to the different area, he says:

'Now I am going to this one from "Link Click", the booth of the original work. Although today in fact, strictly speaking, I'm not a cosplayer.' 'Because I think we should respect how everyone just generates electricity for love to this level of detail' (I think he means cosplayers, but not sure, it translates wack) 'I think I am still wearing a makeup look for a musical stage actor who (just) came here.' 'This experience is very unforgettable for me, so I hope to use the last bit of time, the moment before hitting the board, to go get one for myself. Including myself, Wang Minhui as a stage actor. I can take two sets of photos. I think it's also a good memory, so I set off!' (it may be confusing, but I think he's talking about using the opportunity of being on a convention in the stage makeup, to take some phots for himself, while humbly acknowledging it's not a cosplay)

(we're halfway in the video, save me, I love him but he talks so much ಥ_ಥ)

He enters the official LC venue (that earlier, was more fanmade stuff/merch alley) and talks about how exciting it is that he can blend in ;w; so he walks around, saying:

'I am so happy!' but then catches himself and says 'Ah, but I shouldn't laugh' (to stay in LG's character 😭) *points at Neo Aurora LG cutout (one with harness)* 'Can you make me a set of clothes like this next time at our theater?' (caption tags the Encore Musicals theatre) *points at a writing board and reads one of fan messages* 'Li Haolin, no more knives!' 💀 and 'No matter the past, don't question the future' motto *proudly high-fives himself* *points at Li twins cutouts* 'Last time I drew a blind box I got Li Tianchen, I have both (?or two idk) of them.' 'So happy. The kind of faint (faint feeling? or faintness? idk) It just came out of here *points at his chest* Happy but I don’t know why I’m so happy! (pls he's so sweet)

Then he points towards the Bilibili Comics venue and namedrops lots of shows he's watching/reading:

'There's a Bilibili comics app, the app that accompanies me on many nights, I recently finished reading Demon Slayer', he also mentions watching Blue Lock and Wind Breaker.

Moving on to individual anime series booths:

*points at Kaitou from Detective Conan* 'I especially liked that character as a kid, so cool/handsome' He sees Solo Leveling booth from a distance and is proud of himself for remembering the name of the show, so much so he takes a picture :'> ''Dungeon Meshi', I've been following for past 2 days (?). At first I thought it was a gourmet show, at that time I liked to order takeout. I feel like it still has quite a story to it.' *sees a mecha animatronic* 'Wow it's moving!' (everybody stfu, he's experiencing a childlike wonder) 'I usually open Bilibili when I have nothing to do', then he mentions watching Freiren, Kaiju no.8 and says that after reading all the Demon Slayer he wants to watch it now.

Post-credits scene: He looks on a stage, says 'Give me a mask and I'll sign up' and then the camera zooms out to show what I think is a group of men doing an otome-themed performance dance (like Tears of Themis/Love and Deepspace type of game idk which exactly ><) 🙇‍♂️🙇‍♂️🙇‍♂️ that's all

To accompany you on this overwhelming wall of text, I give you Cai Qi overwhelmed by the wonders of BilibiliWorld 😇 he was going through it, but had the audacity to later say 'I was a little nervous, Wang Minhui is nearly drowning the mic (from sweating nervously)' under the video with VAs. Brat.

Housekeeping notes: I hope this update makes up for the long inactivity and I hope it lasts you for a while 🙏 I still struggle with my workload and it sucks, so I won't be coming back here any time soon (for 1,5 months at least) sorry ><

But I am still active on twt and discord and I check tumblr inbox regularly if you ever need help with research 💪

There is an increase of LC fans interested in the play (after the zhb and tcp almost-kiss ><') So I am currently gathering questions from newbies to later create the LC Musical FAQs 🌟 If you have ANY questions regarding LC musical, specific actors, the general Chinese musical fandom culture, navigating Chinese social media, anything I could help with, PLEASE reach out to me via inbox, DMs, curiouscat (I linked it on my twt @/niebo_sgdlr), twt DMs or discord. It will help tremendously to create a beginner friendly guide, bc at this point I'm too deep in the rabbit hole and too busy to explain everything to everyone individually🙏💖

Look at this historical event of Wang Minhui getting the postcard and telling Vale she looks better than Cai Qi 😇 Please give love to all the friends I mentioned in the post and have a lovely day, bye bye!

Niebo out 🏃‍♂️✨✨✨✨

[moonswolfie]

Thawing out an icy heart

An AU where our omi is an ice skater anyone?😭 (someone said that they like this format in my reblogs so here i am)

@melonnmiru just tagging you since i thought it would be the right thing to do

also suuuper random but I downloaded neko atsume again after YEARS, it feels weird to actually understand what the title means because I've known that game since I was like 6😭

Ice skater!Sakusa who dutifully attends practice after school and even stays late sometimes to be extra sure he's practiced a jump well enough

Ice skater!Sakusa who often gets crushed on by fangirls only for the crush to fizzle out as soon as they attempt talking to him because they're put off by his personality

Ice skater!Sakusa who's preformance keeps getting reccomended to you on Youtube so you eventually give up and watch it

Ice skater!Sakusa who you're entranced by and suddenly want to know more about

Ice skater!Sakusa who you recognise as a boy in your class from the two moles on his forehead the next day

Ice skater!Sakusa who sighs when he sees you (yet another admirer) watching him from afar since he finds them to be bothersome

Ice skater!Sakusa who you keep wanting to approach in order to compliment his preformance but always get scared off by his scary looking scowl

Ice skater!Sakusa who ends up being paired with you for a class project, giving you a perfect segue to get to know him and giving him a (seemingly) annoying fan to deal with for a month

Ice skater!Sakusa who is very pleasantly surprised by the amount of knowledge you have on ice skating once you start talkingb(you totally did not do tons of research just so you can impress him)

Ice skater!Sakusa who gets wary of you because you're suspiciously fun to talk to, even if it's something that doesn't personally interest him

Ice skater!Sakusa who you cement your feelings for during the project and keep talking to even after the project is done

Ice skater!Sakusa who is oddly distracted by thoughts of you at practice, so much so that he misses a jump he usually always gets and his coach becomes worried for him

Ice skater!Sakusa who desperately wants to deny that he's falling for you since relationships are a hassle for him (and he's got routines to practice for his tournament, no time for dates😤)

Ice skater!Sakusa who freaks out internally (and blushes externally) when you show up to his practice unnanounced one day, which doesn't go unnoticed by his coach

Ice skater!Sakusa who gets handed the theme of "first love" for his free program with no negotiation allowed

Ice skater!Sakusa who mentions attending a tournament soon and is not surprised at all when you invite yourself to it with an annoyingly adorable smile

Ice skater!Sakusa who practices the free program vigorously as always but the coach laments that "he looks like he's supressing feelings of first love and not expressing them" and that makes him go red for just a second

Ice skater!Sakusa who sees you waving to him in the crowd as he skates onto the ice on the day of the tournament

Ice skater!Sakusa who didn't really plan on it, but his feelings for you started showing themselves through his preformance, the coach smiling to himself when he noticed

Ice skater!Sakusa who finally decides to admit to himself then and there that he's in love with you and finally understands what the coach meant with "you have to express love". He dedicates his heart, his soul, his every move in this preformance to you and only you

Ice skater!Sakusa who ends the preformance, booming applause echoing through the stadium and roses from fangirls falling onto the ice, but at this moment, your cheers were the only ones which mattered to him

Ice skater!Sakusa who acts like he usually does after, listening to you talk about how much you loved the preformance with a small smile under his mask as if he didn't just make a passionate confession through ice skating

Ice skater!Sakusa who can't help but wonder if his coach picked the theme "first love" on purpouse...

[mage-ical-character-person]

Architect Sanctuaries and Storage.

So! I feel like we don’t talk about the Sanctuary caches from Subnautica enough as it relates to Below Zero.

Like. First of all, Al-An, where are you going, your people are here. You’re not gonna check to see if anyone else is trapped in a sanctuary with failing power like you were? Granted, I think the Sanctuaries in The Crater are probably Hooked up to the Alien Thermal Plant so they’ll be fine as long as the lava zone continues to be hot. Probably why Ryley wasn’t getting any alien distress signals. But the threat of Kharaa has more or less passed, and these Architects were part of Al-An’s research team, you’d think he’d do something.

It’s recommended to put them in a compatible medium as soon as possible, you said it yourself get down there and fabricate more bodies!

Also. On the “factory reset” point. I feel the need to point a couple things out.

First of all, in the Dunes Cache, you can download this from the alien terminal

(Side note this entry specifically is so revealing about Architect society and stuff. PLUS entire other Architect character like I have so many thoughts. Might get its own post at some point I dunno)

It seems like they were storing the memories like… separately from the individual. They were probably also backed up on the network if Al-An’s comments in the whole “How do humans cope with the loss of memories” conversation are anything to go by.

I think the memories just end up feeling less like something the Architect actually experienced personally and more like something they heard about. Like they lose some personal connection to the events.

but still. I think if the Architect’s technology had a flaw like that they’d be working to fix it. And that leads me to a theory on why the Sanctuaries in the first game are so different to Sanctuary Zero where we find Al-An.

I think that with Kharaa meaning Sanctuary sites more vital than probably ever, improving the technology behind them would’ve probably been a priority. I think Sanctuary Zero is perhaps some sort of prototype for improved Sanctuary technology. Sanctuary Zero is bigger, despite storing only one Architect, while the Sanctuary Caches in the first game are implied to store multiple. It’s got this big bulky Architect Containment Cube to put Al-An in, and the PDA makes a point of noting that whoever’s stored inside is able to remain fully conscious with “whole brain emulation” something we don’t seem to see in the first game’s Sanctuaries.

I think the Network decided to stick Al-An in this instead of a normal Sanctuary both because they needed to test it anyway, and after what he did it’s possible they didn’t really care if it went wrong and he was lost in the process. If it did work, he’d have to continue to carry that emotional weight even if he got a new body, and he’d be forced to be awake, thinking about what he’d done in the thousand years before then. I think the Network would’ve found that to be an apt punishment, without it being only for punishment’s sake, but also part of Sanctuary research. More efficient that way.

[anim-ttrpgs]

I was interviewed on Storyteller Conclave!

You’ve probably seen several posts on here about how I’m going to be on Storyteller Conclave talking about Eureka. If you haven’t, you’re going to, because there’s still some in the queue and I’m not going to remove them.

But, that happened, and it was a great time! You can listen to the episode here, here, here, or here!

I wasn’t on my A-game the whole time unfortunately, I had some mic trouble for about the first 20 minutes, along with some other distractions on my end that kept me from focusing early on, but luckily I had team member @ashweather to support me and help me out.

If you can bear with the rocky start, there’s a lot of good insight into the design of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy in this podcast, and a lot of it goes into stuff that we haven’t really covered on this blog, especially the themes.

We talk about the realistic and simulationist nature of Eureka and how this serves its gameplay and themes, we talk about how it takes inspiration from John Woo films such as Hard Boiled, its pretty unique approach to the concept of HP, how it approaches and flips the concept of "winning", and its deeply character-driven nature.

Of course we also talk about Eureka's unique and awesome rules for investigative gameplay, and how it improves upon games that did investigative gameplay before it. How it trusts the players' intellect, but also won't leave them totally twisting in the wind after a bad roll or two!

My favorite thing we talked about, near the end of the show, was Eureka’s approach to monsters, disability, and its sympathy towards “bad people.” I’m actually going to be writing a whole essay on this topic hopefully before the Kickstarter ends on May 10th, but you can get a really good gist of it just from listening to this episode of the podcast.

Oh and on that subject, the hosts, two veteran Vampire: The Masquerade players, said in the show that in many ways, Eureka does vampires better than VTM. Like, wow, that’s high praise..

Here’s a reminder also that Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is kickstarting from right now until May 10th, 2024. Back it and get yourself a copy plus custom artwork or the chance to get your blood sucked by vampires as an entry on the random victim tables for playable monster PCs! With every stretch goal we meet, the game gets better and better. Tons of beautiful new artwork, new options for gameplay, and even two entirely new playable Monsters could be added to the book, so visit the Kickstarter and secure your copy today!

If you want to try before you buy, you can download a free demo of the prerelease version from our website or our itch.io page!

If you’re interested in a more updated and improved version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy than the free demo you got from our website, subscribe to our Patreon where we frequently roll our new updates for the prerelease version!

You can also support us on Ko-fi, or by checking out our merchandise!

Join our TTRPG Book Club At the time of writng this, Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is the current game being played in the book club, and anyone who wants to participate in discussion, but can’t afford to make a contribution, will be given the most updated prerelease version for free! Plus it’s just a great place to discuss and play new TTRPGs you might not be able to otherwise!

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[rainofaugustsith]

Feeling feels about the SWTOR "If you didn't log in, you're losing your name" bullshit. One thing, giving this only about a year's grace period is pretty sus IMHO especially when one considers the amount of disasters happening, longterm illness, deployments, wars, etc. happening. I feel like they should have given this a grace period of a bit longer.

Am I going to play SWTOR again? Not incredibly likely given that the way the story has gone since 6.0 - the Alliance Commander being reverted to a faction lackey with all progress completely lost - does not sit well with me. One of the reasons I have mostly fallen out of love with Star Wars is that unlike the first three OG films, it seems like a fucking hamster wheel nobody ever escapes. For millennia after millennia, the same exact bullshit, or variations thereof, with a very stark, narrow and dogmatic worldview and "this side evil! This side good" simplistic perspective that is entirely grating. They never learn. They never move on. Any of them. One of the reasons I loved SWTOR up through KOTET is that it seemed like they escaped that hamster wheel, that there were broadened perspectives and "gee, it looks like there are good and evil people everywhere in the galaxy, and maybe we shouldn't write off entire planets and spiritual expressions as evil, and how can we build bridges to go beyond what we have now?" sentiments and stories. And then they did the traitor arc and oops, here we are again on the same treadmill. Having said that I poured so many hours into Viri, and so many into my other alts there, and built up such a world for them, and spent so many hundreds of dollars on years of subscription, that their names mean something to me. I also worry that since I have the Rain Plays SWTOR page, which still does get read and referenced, that if someone sees a character running around with one of my names that does awful shit it will reverb back on me by name association. ...which is why I'm downloading a 51GB game so I can log in for two minutes to save Viri's names. I haven't even played since 7.0 drops so I assume I'm going to find her abilities bar gutted and also have to pick fighting styles for her (I don't give a damn; all my Jedi are getting the Sith equivalents and all my Sith are just getting whatever is the other DPS in their own home class). Ah well. Just dropping in to say hi, putting Viri and Lana back in their house if needed (the Alderaan stronghold has a tendency to not leave people where you put them) and dropping out again. But I feel like it might be nice to say hi to these two for a few minutes. This is where I left them.