#and like. i remember so many websites like that. even some games that played with the concept

[dyketennant]

oh i can already tell i’m about to have some really unpopular opinions about the edge of sleep tv show

[yousaytomato]

Tumblr really is one of the last defenders of the: "ooopsy wooooopsy~ looks wike we had a wittle accident 👉👈🥺" style of error message

[ay-chuu]

DISCOVER. L, I, M, P, Say it.

!! (Self aware bsd boys)

WARNING! Obsessive behaviour in some and angst.

A/N: Sorry for any grammer mistake i made!!

Self aware!Dazai, Chuuya, Jouno, Fyodor, Ranpo, Sigma x Gn! Reader

You really was the most airheaded human, in Dazai's eyes. Because he learned everything about you in just few weeks, while you only knew him as a popular 2d... character? Dazai knew he didnt thought himself as a human but being a non human in different world with a canon fact hurted him. He's not gonna even talking about the... writer version himself in your life. He just wanted something really clearly over his life and it was YOU. You, who made him self aware by mistake. You who made him fell for someone really. You, who made him want to live for a little longer to know you...

"Cute." Chuuya thought. You were really looking cute trying to sew a plush version of him while looking at the manga's colored page to match his features. He hated it when you closed the page tho. Yes he could always try to put himself that is connected with his... other self's but manga was the easiest one since he was origannly from here. He wondered. What would you look like in here too? Would you have powers? Would you meet him? Would you be... his love interest? Well he was never gonna know the truth. The only truth that he know was he was falling- no. Already fallen in love with you.

Jouno hated how stupid and complicated this situation was. And he hated how he couldn't do anything, even a simple thing for you. He hated how pathetic this... no he was. He fallen for you, who was a REAL different version of human. Who was in another reality. He knew that you didn't even knew what you did to him. In your eyes, he was just a character that you enjoyed... reading. Ah he guessed that life was giving him a punishment because of his brutal actions for others. How brutal....

You really wondered that if your pc got a virus or something. Because everytime you try to search or write something there was a thing that made you remember fyodor. Like when you try to an essay for your study, your computer would always write "fyodor" that any word that starts with f. Or when you opened a website you would always see fyodor's manga version. But you thought you just freaked out because... what kind of virus would do that right? Wrong. You were wrong for thinking you were wrong. Fyodor, who hacked all of your system would always make you remember who loves you most. He wanted to engrave himself into your subconscious. Because one day, when he finds a way to bring you into his universe, you would not lose your way to find him...

Ranpo had always thought he was smart. Or rather, it was like that in the past... Because ever since he met you, he saw himself as the smallest-brained person in the world. No matter how hard he tries, no matter how many times he reaches different thoughts, he couldn't reach you. While you could always reach him with a single page turn or google, he barely understood that you were from another universe... At first he thought you were just one of the games of Poe's books. He wished you were. Maybe if you were, he would never have fallen in love with you so hard...

Sigma was so surprised when he was able to discover you for the first time. But more than being surprised, he felt very close to you. Because you... were like a different universe version of him. He was born from a book. For him, you were a book that born in a different universe and watching him. The day you read the story about him and smiled because you felt close to him, he realized that he was in love with you. But if there was one part that wasn't surprising at all for him, it was that he couldn't reach you. Ah, because it wasn't just people playing with him all his life. His life was the biggest user playing with him. After all, It didnt change the fact ... he was really just a written person. In any reality.

[jamiepaige]

Constant Companions Closeup #7: AGGRANDICIZE

(also on spotify!)

There's no other way to intro this song - TAKE IT AWAY, TIKTOK VOICE

---

It's a hot and muggy night in Texas, mid-July of 2022.

In my dream, I am somewhere else entirely - A room in the city of Chicago, nestled somewhere high up amongst a countless number of high-rises, aesthetically somewhere between an upscale apartment, an art gallery, and a concert hall. Wide-open windows reveal the landscape of glass and steel spires, light bouncing between reflective surfaces indiscriminately and ultimately making it into the space I'd found myself in.

A good few souls were gathered here, many in suits holding notepads and handheld recorders, others in the flamboyantly-casual wear you might expect from a rock star invited to a press event. A song was playing at modest volume over an unseen sound system, an achingly familiar arrangement steadily ticking away at mid-tempo, drums striking with exacting precision upon each downbeat.

I held in my hand a phone, open to a familiar looking website. I don't recall most the actual words - it was a dream, there likely weren't any - but I recall it in broad strokes, with one specific detail, so I'll do my best to recreate the experience below.

i don't know if any of these shapes actually mean anything i just scribbled things down because i remember there being a row of Something there

"Some might bemoan this newest foray into glossy, baroque art pop as being simply a cheap Kate Bush impersonation," our dream reviewer wrote. "For Jamie, though, I believe she'd take this as a compliment."

And yes, I would. That's the kind of artist you're grateful to be mentioned in the same breath as! That being said, like, huh? That's not even how you spell aggrandize. What?

I woke up with a singular mission.

---

In this day and age, "being a star" is a strangely democratized concept. Everyone is a celebrity, with a brand image to maintain and an audience to cater to and a compelling story arc to be followed. Fandom manifests in all its beautiful and nightmarish aspects even in amounts of tens of people.

Maybe it's my boomer dadrock-loving parents, or my childhood obsession with the game Rock Band, or some chemical imbalance, or simply some toxic nostalgia manifest, but part of me couldn't help but crave it.

I wanted it to be true!! The romantic idea of the musician, touring nonstop in beatup vans across entire continents, pouring their heart out on stage and in recording booths, seeing their name up in lights and embossed in gilded vinyl records, finding constant companionship secondhand. Obviously, reality is so much messier than that, but honestly, it's a dream I've never really been able to let go of - being a star.

I shouldn't have to tell you how out of touch with reality that ideal is. That doesn't stop the dreams from coming.

The subject Aggrandicize is written for, that the lyrics are addressed to, is fame itself. To be wanted, to be dissected, to be bleached and recycled ad infinitum, to be subject to the churning violent machine of fame; To be forever just out of sight, to lack the luck, to bleed and bleed and bleed until you're nothing and not even get a single inch closer to that goal because it's impossible and it's not even what you want. Doesn't it sound like paradise? To tower over reality itself, a redwood tree amongst bushes and ferns? To take this image and stretch, to grow so big gravity revolves around you? To be more brand than body? To be a star?

I don't need that. I don't want that, even if I think I do. Maybe I want to want you to want me, but it is an ideal destined to rot me from the inside out and drain me for every ounce of blood. I just want to make music! And honestly, the path I've gone down has proven that I can have my cake and eat it, too - Playing live at Digital Stars earlier this year was one of the most gratifying and fulfilling experiences I've ever had in my life. I can make better memories by following where my art takes me, memories without 'fame' and 'fortune', memories of light and connection and getting in a room with a bunch of people who know the lyrics and singing my fucking heart out alongside them.

...

Basically, I own a TikTok account, but it'll be a cold day in hell before I ever use it.

---

This song, like many others I've written, was created primarily through assembling a bunch of piecemeal ideas I'd amassed over a couple years of demos. In particular, it borrows a lot from On Fire, a song I wrote for a song jam hosted by Fourth Strike Records back in 2021! I couldn't really tell you why, but I just keep returning to this song over and over - first with Encore, and now with this... Thankfully, I think I've exhausted this font of ideas at this point.

Aggrandicize, somewhat fittingly, is also the song that gave me the most technical trouble on this entire release - I think I genuinely went back and reworked the mix some fifty-odd times before finally giving up and just sending it as-is. I'm still somewhat unhappy with the final result, but hey, the only difference between a work-in-progress and a finished piece is what you call it, I guess.

This is another song I've had a lot of MV ideas for, and that may very well still see a video if I decide to go that route! There's a couple concepts that I've floated, including possibly an animated/animatic type video, but the original concept was to do a whole shitload of fake brainrot tiktoks and film them playing off a phone synced up to the music. That idea never took off, mostly because I couldn't bring myself to do all that, but there's exactly one remnant I'd like to share.

That's it for today!! If you have any questions, I'll gladly answer them below, but otherwise, I'll be back tomorrow to talk about women who love other women with Liaison!

[joaofelix70]

A CRESCENT LOVE, AN EPHEMERAL PASSION | joão félix sequeira.

summary: you and joão spent all the summer together. you even met his friends and brother. could this be the beginning of a crescent love or just an ephemeral passion? his friendship with his ex would ruin everything between the two of you?

author's notes: after the win against luxemburgo, where portugal national team set the record of goals, his ex just posted "mysterious" pics with floki, his dog. joão was also there, almost hidden, actually. we all know she always does it, never assuming anything maturely, but instigating the frustration of the fans who care about him and to make every gossip website and tv show talk about it, just like a teenager who wants attention would act. basically, this inspired me. i really don't hate anyone, by the way. even thought influencers who don't spread any impactful content and nepobabies with no talent and only standard beauty annoys me, i can't lie.

warnings: bad language (of course it's joão saying the words), chaotically humorous almost all the time, but also involving sadness and angst. implicit sex reference, i guess? maybe?

what do you feel when you hear my name? shame? embarrassment?

does your brain even bring you any sign or memory involving me?

do you ever think about me?

are your moments with her comparable to ours?

can we talk? can we communicate?

is it my fault? do you miss me?

your head was drunk for the whirlwinds of questions that piled up and get bigger, like waves. they seemed to be drowning you. the glowing light and peace of your woody brown gaze gives you triggers. his smile remains embedded, in your heart, an eternal home. the numbness and wrapping of his lips, every inch of his tanned skin and firm muscles being appreciated and admired by you. his hair was shiny, soft and full by the salty waters of the european beaches: always caressed for you. his laughs at you giving him the most silly and lazy hairstyles, with you pretending to be a professional who was filming your customer to tiktok.

“do that pose! yes, your hand against your face! now, give me that playboy eye. just like that! you’re doing amazing, sweetie!”

when you get carried away in the game ‘who am i?’ and tried so hard doing the mimes, jumping excitedly and demonstrating your animation in a loud tone, before covering your own mouth and feigning naturalness, just to repeat the same instant acts.

when you made joão watch your random dances as soon as you won at uno and he’d tell how hilarious you were. when you cooked your regional foods and desserts for félix, his brother who’s hugo, alex — the photographer — diogo from the movemind channel and all of his friends. when he used to hold your face, rest his touch on your waist and thighs. tracing his fingerprints across your scalp, reveling in the ethereal smell of your hair, laying his lips against your entire face and stature, exalting you completely: from your ears, neck, collarbone, belly, legs and even your feet. being a gentleman, joão opened the car door for you, he intertwined the hands of you both in every single opportunity and helped you eat: having the cutlery for you to open your mouth and giving you support with the napkin. when you did his goal celebration. when the two of you invented a handshake, along with various inside jokes. for example, when joão posted many videos of him swimming and playing in the ocean.

“hey, flounder! ‘the little mermaid’? i loved it!”

“why am i not your ariel, tho?”

“why you didn’t say you’d prefer to be eric of the real life?”

“give me some respect, i’m the protagonist of this shit!”

“slay, king!”

you remember singing the songs that played in his car in the most chaotic way, using his hand as a microphone and taking the opportunity to kiss all over it and his fancy bracelets. you offered him affection biting his skin and enjoyed acting like his personal masseuse. you called him ‘my prince of portugal’.

“please, don’t become a stranger.” your last words, face to face. the intensity of the summer weeks of vacation, which were already ending, consuming you.

“you know i’d never do that. look, you’re such a unique person, and even though we’re gonna go back to our busy routines, i still wanna keep you in my life. i still wanna be that close to you.” joão declared and they both found comfort in each other’s arms. his perfume granted the beg leave and penetrated your lungs, giving you life. you felt like you shouldn’t let it go, but there was nothing else to accomplish. you were single, so was he. you ask yourself if everything would be different. maybe if you had tried your lips once again: asking him to give a chance to them, to have more. to not leave what you went through, together, in the box of forgotten memories. would that really suffice, though?

"it's obvious that you’d choose the blonde influencer with light eyes, slender body and member of a rich family. the one who was with a formula 1 racer days before she went to meet you. before you just disappear from my life, without saying anything. the one that doesn't show an ounce of authenticity and, of course, affective responsibility. who am i in comparison to her?! right, joão?" your voice flashed the disparity of fragility and indignation, trembling hands clutching the phone.

“y/n, listen to me. you’d never understand it, okay? you’re not inside this relationship, me and her are. you’re seeing it from the outside, just like everyone else. yeah, she was hanging out and making out with other people. so was i with you. but then, some things changed.” john seemed to be busy. echoes of other people's voices ran through the call.

“nothing has happened between us since the vacation, joão. what doesn’t make sense because i thought you were liking me. i only think about you!” you vented out and received silence. his answers tried to become existent and complete. he stammered, the audible sound of his familiar backwards cap being pulled off and his honey-colored hair being rubbed against his own fingerprints.

“do you think i don’t like you? holy shit, y/n. i even thought we could have so much more. a future together and everything. i think about you and i swear in the name of my family, and i already said that they mean the fucking world to me. the thing is: there’s something that still keep me going back to her. i don’t know if it’s because i’m with her since i was younger, but…”

“joão, this is emotional dependence. i’m sorry to tell you this, however, it’s necessary. i care about you. you’re so internally and externally beautiful, precious, successful and talented. you deserve better!” you interrupted him, stepping back and forth.

“y/n, i love her. when i looked at you…”

“she’s all that you see, right?”

“hm… yeah…” félix found himself in a bind. paralyzed, he remained without an answer for a while. the coldness of the material of his gold necklace touches his tongue: a way to combat the nervousness that generates the gnawed nails.

“my toxic behavior wants to help and fix you so badly, but i know i can’t get more involved than that. i’m not the one for you.” the words reproduced by yourself reinforced the fragmentation of your heart.

“j, baby… are you coming or not? i’m waiting for you, floki is waiting for his dad!” you heard that female voice call to him and realized the way that just this factor made his breathing destabilize.

“i think this is officially the end of whatever we had, joão. goodbye!” your voice was unstable and he realized it: sharp as deep, transparent and suffocating waters.

“i wish you the best, y/n. i apologize for not being what you expected, what you needed, and…”

“caralho, joão! que merda! (holy fuck, joão! what the hell?). come on, give me your phone!” the girl began to rant. her heels against the floor were exclamatory. she was running out of patience.

the call is over. again, you were superimposed on the ocean of blazing tears. you tried to convince yourself that everything went the way it was supposed to be.

but was it for real?

[trifargo]

Persona 5 Kitchenette (Cooking)

is a P5 game idea i came up with... instead of the main PT, the stars here are the auxiliary phantom thieves instead (and joker): akechi, sumire, sophia, zenkichi, and toshiro. this came be because i'm annoyed at how zenkichi (and sophia) are not in P5T, so i thought "you know what, because i am complaining about the lack of P5S guys in P5T, and the royal trio fans complain about the lack of P5R guys in P5S, what if i merge the left out folks in a game. world peace???"

it's basically cooking mama, but a bit more elaborate. the game will be split in 3 parts: shopping, teaching, and cooking. more below (VERY LONG)

storyline

winter holiday is coming up. joker and the gang plans another reunion in leblanc. but then, joker remembers something: the team was bigger, sometimes. there are some of the PT comrades that have yet to chat and meet with them, or even with each of them. so he decided to whip up a surprise: he'll invite not only the main PT, but also the auxiliaries, to meet with each other and the main team.

so joker invited the auxiliary gang ahead of the D-Day. and to make the smaller mini reunion more fun, he decides to do a cooking lesson with them, and they have to cook this on the real reunion day - for the main PT gang.

for the mini reunion, they'll be cooking in sojiro's house, instead of leblanc because of course, leblanc will be filled by customers, duh! they'll have some chats - the awkward one, funny one, annoying one... some character developments and look deeper on the ideals and meanings from the journeys each aux members have gone through. exploring the possible paralels in each characters, contrasts, and what they have been doing while they're off the game.

gameplay

the game is basially visual novel with minigames. it has 2 modes:

story mode: follows the story above. the story itself won't be long, probably like... 3 hours? 5? i dunno. it will play like P5T format: gameplay - dialogue - repeat. i personally find this format to be monotonous to enjoy, so the break sections (the one with menus) will probably allow you to walk around the house and outside? still, all you can do here is talk, so probably there'll be reward for talking. maybe bonuses to ease your next minigame. the character you'll be playing as is scripted.

free mode: you can cook whatever you want in here. it's off from the main story, so treat it like an "what if" (like joker's wedding scenarios in P5T). you can cook whatever you want - there are even new recipes in this mode! complete all the recipes perfectly to achieve platinum. you can pick anyone you'd like to play as (though they determine the kind of minigame you'll be playing, being shopping/teaching/cooking - except joker, he can play all these three).

meanwhile, the game parts are as below. these aren't super fixed or anything, could be changed.

shopping: you'll be playing as sophia. retaining her role in PT as a vendor, your job is to shop the items joker is asking you. joker will give you some items to buy. each item are bought by playing 2 minigames: maze and "find the difference".

maze: sophia has to find the right website to buy the item... by donig code blocks, because she's an AI. code it right, so sophia won't get lost among the sea of websites... the most monotonous one i guess, as there isn't many varieties to it...

find the difference: joker wants these items precise, so you gotta pick the right shop and item based on joker's note. plays like papers, please!, where there are details you can inspect deeper to match and make sure you get the right one (like fake customer reviews, for example)

2. teaching: you'll be playing as sumire and toshiro. each of them will do 1 recipe (so 2 recipes in total). they can cook well, so joker would like you to teach akechi and zenkichi how! teaching is kinda half-half on cooking and "pick the right one" game.

cooking: your job is to prepare the ingredients. these are too advanced for those bad cooks, so hopefully this will ease their process (like preparing fish from the bones, or whole chicken).

"pick the right one": basically making sure those bad cooks do the instructions properly (example, placing the right step to do in the progress bar in stirring process), with a timer.

3. cooking: you'll be playing as akechi and zenkichi. each of them will do 1 recipe (so 2 recipes in total). they're confirmed to be bad at cooking, so joker wants them to learn cooking better... for akechi so he can stop buying take outs, and for zenkichi so he can cook for akane better. this one is full cooking a la cooking mama, so their mingame depends on the recipe they're cooking.

for the mini reunion, you'll be playing shopping and teaching. sophia will shop the ingredients for both mini reunion and reunion day, while sumire and toshiro will teach you how to cook in mini reunion day. in the real reunion day, you'll be playing cooking only.

i was thinking to pair sumire-zenkichi and toshiro-akechi, because pairing sumire-akechi will probably develop less new things from them, as they've met in P5R. but i'm sure that developing new things isn't everything - i think akechi-sumire is a lacking connection in the royal trio triangle, and i'm sure this game will also be about getting new interactions from the established character dynamics. so probably, first half of the teaching/cooking section will be sumire-zenkichi and toshiro-akechi, while the second half is the opposite (or you can swap the order). so you get all.

as for morgana (because morgana is always next to joker), he'll be there as emotional support commentary cat during the gameplay. sophia can also be one during teaching/cooking.

as for the recipes, some will be taken from joker's kitchen in P5S. the ultimate recipes, leblanc coffee and curry, will only be unlockable in free play.

costume

i approached this one with functionality & "what would atlus do", even when i don't know what people wear at winter!!! otherwise, i'd take joker's glasses off and all that... though i believe i can be better at the color picks - i don't think atlus does color coding that much, judging the costume variants in the game. everyone who has long hairs will be tied, because like futaba said:

joker: i observed that his wardrobe is mostly plain, no pattern or peculiar detail. so i gave him shirt with not too much decor other than the buttons and black lines on end, and jeans to make it homey, but still kinda formal for guest visits. joker's appron is the appron he use in leblanc. nothing fancy behind it...

akechi: i noticed a running joke about akechi and plaid patterns when i was doing scramble zine and ya. all his wardrobe has that. so i gave him yellow plaid outer. he sorta has earthy color and his party color is brown. but his pants are already beige, so it's... yellow. his appron is kinda fancy, but still clean sleek. has metallic accents (pocket pins and harness) to give a bit boldness to it, vibing his loki side. i came up that shido facilitated him the appron if he wants to cook himself, but too bad he doesn't know that akechi can't cook...

sumire: she starts to feel more comfortable living as sumire again, so she wears the glasses back. i left her hairstyle as is, as it has lore. her fit is mostly opposite of kasumi, being more modest. color is from the violet dress she bought with joker in 3rd semester. her appron is... this wasn't really the plan (i think of picture printed appron), but i can't come up with a design yet!!! so i think she'd just have normal appron, but with patterns. kinda looks aunty/mom vibes... i think of the tora shirt she picked with joker. it's pretty mom/aunty vibes and sumire wasn't actually sure when she picked that, but i think she eventually developed a slight interest in those kind of patterns. i'm still considering to change the design, though... not 100% fixed.

sophia: she's a unique case, as her role/game is not cook, but shopper! so she becomes a delivery girl. ichinose came up with her look. so i gave her delivery jacket. her design is the most difficult, as i don't usually like drawing overdecorated anime fits, and how sophia is meant to evoke friendliness according to soejima & kanda, plus keeping her minimalistic aesthetics. then i combined the details it with puffer jackets, while making sure it's not overdecorated and making it as similar as sophia's original shilouette. IMO it became a bit too playful, as i slapped colors that are not in her original design. the blue green red accent is taken from sophia's shop UI. treat it like sophia's shop employee jacket! her footwear is a bit taller and is a shoe now. she's travelling the net, so...

zenkichi: the adults are tricky. they still wear the suit, so i could only change the shirt and tie. zenkichi's design is pretty normal common, even his design uniqueness is logical: when people's shirt button are usually similar colored to the shirt, his is a peculiar black. so i gave him pocket with black lining... he'll mostly be off suit, so there's no problem with suit obscuring pocket. his tie is also off. his appron is new. but because he doesn't know much cooking, he bought an overkill appron, AKA a barista appron with many pockets...

toshiro: i'm not really sure what is his job after P5T... but i assume he still wears suit around. so he wears a pale purple shirt. his tie is still purple, but grid pattern. he doesn't wear gloves anymore too, of course. i don't know toshiro's icon. we need to think that... his appron is plain, simple, and functional. the best that works with his housechores, something he excels at.

bonus contents

i'm thinking of a DLC with another character that have big impact to the story, but also too out of the picture to come back: maruki. i haven't decided how it will be like though. for now, i'm thinking either of these:

a separate day in the story, where you just cook with maruki. no shopping section in this DLC, just cooking and teaching. they both will teach a recipe to each other, and talk a bit more about how's maruki been doing.

a dream section or something? comes down to whether i can come up with a reason to summon the other PT auxes to this story. basically, besides maruki, you can invite 1 more guy from the list of PT auxes to cook with him. so each character will have their own storyline. more on this option:

sumire will be about reflecting their past relationship and how things are now, akechi about 2/2 (but pretending they don't meet, so it fits both who do the akechi and normal versions) and probably shido ties, toshiro and zenkichi about what happened to them in 3rd semester and how they feel when they found out, and sophia about learning maruki's heart research.

i assume toshiro is immune to maruki's influence in a way for now, because erina was born to protect him from godly influence... or maybe because salmael has taken place? i dunno. could be he's not immune either though, if erina's meant to only protect from salmael and not maruki.

[theresattrpgforthat]

games without sheets (like no need to write anything down)

THEME: Games Without Character Sheets.

Hello there, I’ve got a bit of a range here for games. Some are solo, some are lighthearted, and some are good for contemplative conversations.

Oh Maker, by Kienna Shaw.

You are an android, an artificial intelligence. Made, not born. Your Creator, your programming, and the world you occupy will vary, as will the scenes you play. But the question remains the same. To find its answer is the game…

Oh Maker is a Descended From the Queen card-based game of communal story-telling, designed by Kienna Shaw (@KiennaS) and Jason Cutrone (@JustJasonPls). 

In it, 3 or more players take on the role of androids who, through their own unique experiences and exploits, will come to confront their very nature. Select from 10 distinct Creators, those who gave the group form and function, and their respective worlds - or generate your very own - and utilize the various prompts provided to collectively explore the question of consciousness, and maybe even find some answers.

For The Queen is a card game that introduced a new way of playing story games, and has plenty of hacks that use the same style of answering prompts to tell different kinds of stories. Many of these games expect you to start as characters with very clear goals or beliefs, but as you move through the prompts, your characters may experience doubts, or a change of heart. As a result, the end of the game is often something you cannot predict. The bulk of the experience involves pulling cards from a deck and answering the questions involved, although if you play online the game might come with alternative options. If you like the idea of this gameplay but you want to see what is out there besides a game about androids, you might want to check the Games section of the For The Queen website.

Games To Play While Falling Asleep, by Meguey Baker.

As an adult, falling asleep is hard sometimes. Our worries are the same, but wider in reach. And if we have a sleeping partner, letting them sleep if they can is a gift of loving kindness. So, sometimes, I play these games to fall asleep.

You can’t write anything down if you’re trying to sleep, so games that are meant to take place where you don’t have access to pen or paper are a possible good fit for you. I know there are some other solo games out there on Itch, but this is the one that first came to mind, and it looks like it’s a collection, so if one game doesn’t fit your fancy, another one might!

A Long Night in the Mech Bay, by Nested Games.

A 2 Player Tabletop Roleplaying Game about Relationships Reforged in Conflict

In an ever shifting war that has spread to the entire Merseus System, the Roran Federation's Ace Pilot has barely escaped from their life from a recent incident. Sadly, there is no time to rest for the pilot or their mechanic. This Mech needs to be ready to fight tomorrow and no one else is available to help. It’s going to be a long night.

I think that you could play this game without writing anything down, as long as you are able to remember the 4 truths established at the beginning of the game; truths that define your characters and their relationship to each-other. The game leads you through three mini-games; two Reveries and one Testing the Waters.

You play with a number of some kind of token, whether that be poker chips or coins or buttons. Each Reverie consists of a number of questions the characters will ask each-other, causing emotional wounds or repairing broken pieces of the relationship. Testing the Waters involves narrating how the last interaction between the Mechanic and the Pilot plays out. I think this game could end in a positive or negative light, depending on how you decide to answer each-other’s questions. If you want a game that navigates the intimacy of a relationship where a life hangs in the balance, this might be your game.

Bad Moon, by Adira Slattery.

THE MOON IS BIG THE MOON GLOWS YOU ARE BELOW SHE IS UP HIGH THE MOON HAS RISEN IN THE SKY AND THE MOON HAS PISSED YOU OFF TIME TO STOP LETTING HER GET AWAY WITH IT

In this game, you will yell at the Moon because you love her and you have no other options left. She must understand how she has hurt you. You will be heard. The Moon must hear you. She must…

This is a two-player game of catharsis, with one player listening, and the other venting their feelings. The supplicant should read through the introduction of the game and create a problem that The Moon is responsible for. They are expected to work though the problem in it’s entirety - how it started, why the Moon is involved, and why you love her so much and how that love has made the problem worse. At the very end of the game, the Moon will respond - and her response will end the game.

Clown Helsing, by Planarian.

Clowns. We've all seen them… riding their unicycles, blowing up balloons at parties, piling in garish hordes from tiny cars, waddling around in bulbous red shoes, passed out in a dumpster stinking of booze and regret. For what do these martyrs of mirth sacrifice themselves? The answer is they do it for us. Not just to fill our need for laughter and merriment, but because they defy the doom of mankind! Clowns are man's only salvation against… Vampires.

Clown Helsing is incredibly simple, although I should clarify that it is a game where only the players don’t need to write anything down. The GM might have to make a few notes about the vampires that the group is facing off against, although these should mostly be jot notes, not anything extensive. Players simply have to remember three things about their clown: the clown’s name, their clown’s style, and their clown’s niche party trick. All of your encounters take place using rounds of rock-paper-scissors, which lends to a fast-paced, goofy kind of game.

You Also Might Consider...

DIY Identity (An Odd Bijou), by S. Kaiya J.

[farasen]

DWK Iceberg

Tried to make it as full as I can, but there could be stuff that I'm missing or simply can't remember, but I hope it's good enough

I think first two layers are clear: the sky is for general information that most people expect to see when finding this media, and the top is for those who watched the series. I think I should break down some points in the rest.

Layer 3

Book version of s1. That's all it is. It has a map and character descriptions, but nothing interesting beside that.

Level 2.0 books. Haven't read them, so I can't tell what's happening there. I'm not sure if it's even based off the animated series, I think it bases on the original books, but it uses the series characters designs.

Markus' mother, Raban's aunt. In s1e5 you can see Markus' mother, Tamara. Raban's aunt is mentioned in s2e4, she lives in Höchstadt.

Surnames. Only a few characters have canon surnames in the series, the rest are taken from books and movies.

Layer 4

Map. From the book that I've mentioned in layer 3.

Beta designs. Honestly, I have no idea what that is and where it came from. I assume it's old designs, but I'm not sure.

Absence of s1e10 in Finnish dub. I heard it was banned due to depiction of cruel bullying.

Spanish Deniz. So they've changed his name to Rico Perez in eng version and now many Russians and probably English viewers who don't know about the original think he has spanish roots instead of turkish.

Layer 5

Marlon without dredlocks. There's merch where Marlon is depicted with loose hair.

Nerv and others in lvl 2 books. They're litteraly on the cover. Also would like to mention a different cover for that book that I've found.

Arabic intro. Nothing special, you just get to see this lil thing at the beginning.

April. A girl from lvl 2 books that seems to be Marlon's love interest or something???

Layer 6

Conny had alcoholism. A theory about the reason why Jojo ended up in a orphanage. It appears to be canon in the books, as far as I know.

Surnames. Natasha's surname comes from the 6th film I think, there was a niece of Mickey with that surname.

The holy apple vodka. A local meme in Russian community from, like, 2019 or 2020 I guess.

Censorship. You can see the full clip here.

Shimeji Leon. This guy.

Layer 7

Weird implications. It's just... The Mayer thing.

Franz is Jojo's dad. I mean look at them.

Refences to serial killers. In s1e10 you can see doorbells with the names of some serial killers/rapists, cult leaders and tyrants. Why would they put that in a kids show? Idk

Deleted animation meme. ''Untrust us'' meme based off Benz' dark AU and created by her as well.

Layer 8

Here assembled things I think very few people know about or seen??? Even I don't know what are some of those.

The play. No Idea what this is, but maybe a play of some kind...

DWK website. Or a game?? Idk, I just found this pic like 5 years ago or so.

Deleted tributes. Clips that I've made at the age of 11, inspired by those mlp slideshows and posted it on YouTube. You never gonna see it tho.

Mettaton Markus. Yeah, that happened.

Leon/Sailor Moon. Oh, deviantart, thank you for having people that do these edits.

[wilted-astraea]

Happy OCD Awareness Week!!

Second Week of October ( October 13th-20th, 2024 )

I don't see enough posts on this website about this awareness week, so I just wanted to come on here and talk a bit about the condition, the reality of having OCD, debunking myths, explaining how OCD functions in the brain, etc..

Firstly, let's get through the basics!

What is OCD?

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is a chronic, long-lasting mental health disorder that is primarily made up of two major components — obsessions and compulsions. People with this condition experience repetitive, unwanted, and often horrifying intrusive thoughts (obsessions) that lead to repetitive or ritualistic behaviors known as compulsions. Compulsions are performed in order to alleviate the anxiety and distress that are brought up by obsessions and serve as a way to neutralize or get rid of them.

Intrusive thoughts (obsessions) don't always come in the form of a random 'what if' thought. They can show up as urges, mental images, commands, ideas, and even physical sensations.

Compulsions are typically depicted as physical acts such as hand washing and cleaning or organizing. Did you know OCD compulsions can also be mental? Some people with OCD, such as myself, experience what is known as Pure-O. This is a subtype where the person has mental compulsions that are invisible and can't be observed by others. Examples of mental compulsions are counting, mental reviewing, compulsive praying, and more!

Understanding OCD starts with understanding the cycle!

What are Intrusive Thoughts, and Where Do They Come From?

If you've been on the internet a lot, you may have come across the term "intrusive thoughts." Unfortunately, like many other mental health terms, it has been widely misused on platforms such as Tiktok and revised to mean something that it does not — often getting confused for impulsive thoughts.

Intrusive thoughts are defined as unwanted, involuntary thoughts, images, or ideas that pop up in the mind and are often taboo and/or terrifying. One important thing to note is that they are "ego-dystonic," meaning that they are opposite to a person's true character, beliefs, and desires. This is what makes them so distressing and confusing for folks with OCD and other disorders.

But where do they come from exactly? Some researchers believe that intrusive thoughts are misinterpreted warning signals from the brain. Our brain projects these thoughts and images to warn us about potential dangers so that we can avoid these hypothetical situations and be prepared. (ex: standing on the side of a tall bridge and getting a random thought of jumping off) Similarly to why we experience feelings of anxiety. However, if you live with OCD or other conditions such as PTSD, this system is in overdrive and no longer functions properly.

The Reality of OCD

OCD is one of the most misunderstood and trivialized mental health conditions in the world. Many cultures have a very idealistic view of the disorder, often reducing it down to a personality quirk and has even been seen as a "beneficial" disorder to have. This could not be further from the truth and the reality of living with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is much more grim and scary. Living with this condition looks like so many things for so many people, so lets play a game!

(DISCLAIMER: If this is triggering for you, don't participate!!!) Imagine your worst fears. Think about how horrified you would be if those fears came true. If they have come true, remember how you felt in that moment.

Now imagine living with a brain that involuntarily forces you to think about those fears and gives you the false signal that they might come true if you don't do something to prevent it. Imagine doing something to prevent that fear from happening, but all it did is reinforce those fears even stronger, and now you're trapped thinking about them for what feels like an eternity.

THIS IS OCD!

A person living with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder will spend at least an hour or more performing compulsions in response to these obsessions. Onlookers might see us performing a compulsion and not understand why we're doing them. What you see on the outside is VERY different from what's going on in the inside. WE DO NOT ENJOY OUR COMPULSIONS, OR OUR OBSESSIONS!!!

Although obsessions don't always have to be centered around fear. Obsessions present in an infinite number of ways and look very different for each individual.

Common OCD Subtypes:

Contamination OCD, Harm OCD, Pedophilia OCD, Relationship OCD, Sexual Orientation OCD, Religious (Scrupulosity) OCD, Magical Thinking OCD, Suicidal OCD, and much more!

These obsessions can latch onto any part of you or your life. They can attack your fears, values, morals, identity/self-concept, relationships, and even trauma.

The Role of DOUBT

Did you know OCD has a nickname? It's known as the "doubting disorder." This is because doubt is a hallmark symptom of OCD and plays a huge role in the way OCD presents. When you have this disorder, you're unable to trust your own reality and you lack confidence in your attention, memory and perceptions. While most people can have an intrusive thought and brush it off, a person with OCD will experience a cognitive distortion where we apply meaning to these thoughts. "What does this thought mean?" "What does it say about me?" "What does it say about the future?" which forms an obsession and causes intense feelings of anxiety, distress and dread. We are unable to handle the uncertainty of these thoughts and what it says about reality. Therefore, we perform compulsions.

If you ask a person with OCD what it's like. You'll often hear it depicted as an evil entity hijacking our brains, having two brains, or being in an abusive relationship with your own brain.

In my experience, it really is similar to being in an abusive relationship with your brain. OCD comes into your life and gives you a false sense of security. It wants you to believe that it's there to keep you safe. But OCD is like a leech. It gets fuel off of your compulsions and uses that fuel to strike you with more obsessions while simultaneously gaslighting you and making you believe that you're crazy for having these thoughts. It convinces you that you need to keep performing compulsions because "it keeps you safe" when, in reality, compulsions reinforce our cycle. Compulsions may help you temporarily. But, what actually happens is that you're teaching your brain that the obsession was, in fact, a real threat and performing that compulsion actually protected you. This makes you more likely to perform that compulsion again when the obsession resurfaces because your brain is tricked into thinking it's a safe mechanism.

When we re-experience our obsessions, they may even multiply overtime. I'm going to give a personal example!!

In 2022, I experienced a severe Relationship OCD episode where I was plagued with fears of a person abandoning me. The initial obsession was "im afraid of this person leaving me" and after performing a compulsion, it then went from that thought to "what if I hurt him and he abandons me?" and then to "what if he finds somebody better and replaces me, which means he'll abandon me!!!!!" So every new intrusive thought can be traced back to the initial obsession — the fear of abandonment. Every compulsion performed keeps you more and more stuck.

Debunking Myths and Misconceptions

Myth #1: OCD is about being overly clean and organized.

While obsessions with cleanliness and symmetry do exist, this stereotype oversimplifies these behaviors and fails to recognize the deeper issues that cause these ritualistic actions. The act of cleaning things excessively or rearranging items is often dumbed down to a preference, when the reality is that the person is trying to reduce their anxiety stemming from unsettling obsessions.

Myth #2: OCD is just a personality quirk

This often coincides with the first one. A personality quirk is something that is taken lightly, but this is a mental ILLNESS. We cannot simply control these obsessions and compulsions, even though a majority of us are aware of the irrational and excessive nature of them. We do not enjoy them and they cause impairment, affecting multiple areas of our lives.

Although the exact cause of OCD is unknown, it's thought to be a combination of factors such as genetics, brain structure, and environmental factors such as chronic stress or traumatic life events.

Myth #3: Everyone is "A little OCD"

OCD is often used as an adjective to describe certain traits or behaviors such as being clean and organized. This language is highly dismissive of those living with the actual condition and paints an inaccurate picture of the disorder, more palatable for the general public to "relate to"

YOU DO NOT HAVE OCD JUST FOR HAVING A PREFERENCE FOR CLEANLINESS. IF YOU LIKE IT, IT'S NOT OCD!!!!!

OCD is a more complex condition than the general public makes it look. Reminder that the OCD brain is physically structured differently. It is a neurobiological disorder.

Myth #4: OCD is rare

According to the International OCD Foundation, 1 in 40 adults have it, or will develop it. 1 in 100 children and teens have the condition, which is about the same number of autistic youth worldwide. This may only account for those with an official diagnosis. Many go undiagnosed for years due to harmful misconceptions and stigma.

Myth #5: OCD isn't treatable

OCD isn't curable, but it can be treated with a combination of medication and therapy. ERP therapy is the golden standard treatment for OCD, but some may benefit from other forms of therapy. Antidepressants, or SSRIs, are also used.

Myth #6: Compulsions can only be physical

As discussed before, there is a subtype called "Pure-O OCD" or "Pure OCD" this name can be misleading because it implies that there are only obsessions, but people with this subtype experience mental compulsions. This type of OCD is harder to detect and people often don't realize they're performing mental compulsions because they feel more "automatic" and are seen as normal to the person performing the compulsions.

There are more misconceptions, but I'll leave it there!!!

Let's Talk Stigma!

While the stereotypes applied to OCD often leave the condition to be trivialized and not taken as seriously as other mental health conditions, it can be just as demonized.

In recent years, we've seen a surge of people opening up about their OCD-related intrusive thoughts/obsessions, only to be met with scrutiny from others who don't understand what intrusive thoughts are.

Intrusive thoughts are wrongfully understood as "hidden desires" that a person is trying to suppress. This idea perpetually paints a person struggling with intrusive thoughts as a "dangerous" person who needs to be avoided and locked away. Thought crimes do not exist, but our thoughts are often viewed as criminal if they are not socially acceptable. This can inadvertently worsen a person's OCD symptoms and cause more unnecessary reactions to thoughts that aren't based in reality. For example, highly stigmatized subtypes such as Pedophilia OCD involve intrusive thoughts about children that the sufferer does NOT align with. If they did, they wouldn't feel the need to perform compulsions. They wouldn't experience such intense anxiety and distress as a result. The real them doesn't want to hurt children. The real them may value the children in their lives (like a family member) but living with OCD means that it can ATTACK YOUR VALUES. OCD IS A GASLIGHTER!

This leads me into the ever exhausting topic of *sigh* Tiktok trends! If you've been around, you've probably seen the phrase "I let the intrusive thoughts win"

This trend is very damaging for OCD sufferers and has inadvertently added to the stigma and misconceptions around the disorder. Not only is the term 'intrusive thought' being widely misused across the internet to mean something that it doesn't, but the phrase itself is an oxymoron.

Users who participate in this trend often confuse an intrusive thought with an impulsive thought. They'll come across a thought such as "I should dye my hair pink" and get on social media with pink hair, claiming that they "let the intrusive thought win" when they actually acted on an impulse, an IMPULSIVE thought. This is harmful for those living with intrusive thoughts because it incites the idea that people dealing with an intrusive thought may act on those thoughts. So whenever a person comes on social media and decides to open up about their OCD-related intrusive thoughts, they're met with backlash from people who claim that those aren't intrusive thoughts, when they in fact ARE. People have conflated these two types of thoughts, leading to further misunderstandings of intrusive thoughts and OCD as a whole.

Additionally, this phrase doesn't make sense. It's an oxymoron, meaning that it directly contradicts itself.

Little PSA to those reading:

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS LETTING AN INTRUSIVE THOUGHT WIN. IF IT "WINS" IT WAS NEVER AN INTRUSIVE THOUGHT, IT WAS AN IMPULSE!!!

A person living with intrusive thoughts are the least likely to act on them, the opposite of an impulse. We are terrified of them. We do not entertain them.

Closing Off

If this post resonates with you and you're suspecting that you or somebody you love might be dealing with OCD, please try and book an appointment with a mental health professional who can diagnose you. I will link some resources below to help you get started!!

Living with OCD can look different for everybody, as it is a very individualistic disorder, but it can be extremely debilitating. The World Health Organization (WHO) has ranked OCD among one of the top 10 most disabling conditions worldwide, of any kind. Yet, OCD still remains one of the most misunderstood and trivialized mental illnesses. It's a much more complex disorder than people realize and can be easily confused with other conditions. I do support research-based self diagnosis, but if you're going to, please keep in mind that OCD is more than experiencing an intrusive thought. There is a diagnostic criteria that must be met.

OCD isn't cute, funny, or quirky. It's not a benefit to those who have it. It should be taken just as seriously as other mental disorders, but unfortunately, it's not. Statistics show that people living with OCD are 10x more likely to die by suicide and more struggle with ideation due to the velocity of obsessions. Many people with OCD report feeling incredibly lonely, as obsessions and compulsions take up many hours of their day and cause them to stay stuck in their heads, unable to connect to the world around them. So if you or somebody you love is struggling with OCD, just know that there is help out there for you. You're never alone, and remember: YOU ARE NOT YOUR THOUGHTS!!

List of Resources Here!

[not-the-conversation-starter]

The Death Of A Website.

tl;dr click source to see an AU of my blog.

As many of you may not have heard, Cohost has gone read only. The website infamous for "Zero Discoverability" and its users "Not Being Funny." Servers will close down at the end of 2024, if not earlier, being backed up on the Internet Archive before that. Since their user counts were still low after 2 years (about half of all sign ups ever were from people evacuating twitter, which then didn't know how to use the site so most left almost immediately. Kind of hilarious) they didn't feel like anymore money bleeding OR the fact that a staff of only four people being on call 24/7 was worth it anymore.

However,

the people who DID use the site loved it. And they did some genuinely cool things on it, far cooler than anything I ever saw even in the glory days of Tumblr. You know, like Finn and Jake hi-fiving between 2 posts. Stuff like a playable maze, or a fully navigable 3d room you move around in with your mouse entirely within a post. They really did some cool stuff.

There were also a ton of really talented people, people like the composer Lena Raine(Celeste/Minecraft) who loved the site because you could just. Actually talk to people on it! Without an algorithm to boost their posts, the only people who saw it were genuinely looking for it.

Also some of them were just good posters, we did get Pikmin 18 billion and eleven from Cohost after all.

The point is, I think if anyone outside of Cohost actually knew what was being done on Cohost, it would of succeeded. There would of been enough active users for them to invest more. If I knew about all of this I would of been there way more!

But rather than just you blindly believing me, I decided to spend (almost) every hour I would of on Tumblr, on Cohost instead. Clicking that link, or the source, or the link on the source above in the tl;dr, will take you to my Cohost blog. At least while it's still read-only.

You should check it out. I reblogged a lot, but the first page or 2 (every 20 posts, I kept trying to stop but I got sentimental and reblogged more) is pretty much just people's last posts. I'd say give it 3 pages to see if you're interested or not in exploring more of what the website has to offer.

If you've ever wondered what people would post on a dying website,

If you ever wondered what some of the best posts people were making on Cohost that got shared again in its last dying moments were,

If you want some reference for what inside jokes would look like to an outsider,

If you're just bored and need something to scroll through,

if you ever wondered what I would of reblogged on that website if I remembered my password easily enough to log back in easily...

You could think of my blog as a small encapsulation of a small website. There's only 60 pages, including the ones from before the announcement from me just rarely using the site!

I reblogged all kinds of posts. Goodbyes, sarcastic hellos, mourning, long speeches about the spirit of Cohost set to sad music, nothing burgers, inside jokes I didn't understand, The New Garfield, posts I flat out didn't read past the title because they were too long and I just wanted to move on really there's a lot of posts to archive, CSS crimes, stuff I found funny, "Where to find me" and webrings and website posts for people I never knew, Love Honk, reviews for movies and games I never intend to play or watch, 88x31 buttons, music recommendations and history, entire games, signing up for RSS feeds, asks and answers related to other stuff I didn't share on accident, regular memes, Intern Secretary Eggbug, a post that's just an image hosted off-site so it'll update even after readonly, and so on.

(Nothing overtly NSFW. Tag search still works if you want that)

One that I, personally, am sad is gone. That I'm glad I got to see at least in its dying days. That I genuinely hope someone makes another attempt at creating.

[anim-ttrpgs]

The Old Character Sheet, Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy

This isn’t really any new information about Eureka, in fact it’s something very old, but take a look at how far the game has come in the 3-ish years it’s been in development!

This is the old character sheet, from some time around late 2021, and I’m just going to copy-paste some designer commentary from a discussion about it in the A.N.I.M. Patreon Discord server.

“Haunt: What would eventually become the Composure system. I genuinely don't remember how it worked at the beginning but I remember it being rather clumsy. We eventually wanted to include the concept of different phenomena having different modifiers for each investigator, which would eventually become Tiers of Fear.

Obsession: An extremely early mechanic that would quickly vanish when, in the first campaign, it was clear it was too situational to track or use. The idea was that, the farther along to their goal an investigator got, the higher the bonus they could get from their Obsession, which could be applied when the investigator takes a very risky action to forward their goal. As you can tell, this was all very vague. This would eventually be replaced the much clearer Truth system.

Legal changed to Paperwork, just fit more situations better.

History skill: Too broad, so it was taken out. A good example of a write-in skill though, if given a specific area of history.

Rumors: Some sort of "word on the street" skill, but [sirobvious] raised a great point that that should just come from investigators using Personal Skills on NPCs to get that word themselves.

Weird -> ||Blacked Out Skill||

Improv: Honestly very difficult to describe, I think it was a Jackie Chan like thing of using various items around, but it was obviously too vague to use.

A lot of these changes came from [sirobvious joining the team], so big kudos to him!”

Another big change that came more recently was splitting the HP into Superficial and Penetrative, making the way that characters take damage in the kind of grounded, modern noir stories that Eureka is meant to tell a bit more realistic. Just having one type of HP works in most other TTRPGs, particularly ones where deadly weapons are going to be in play more often than not, but Eureka sees a lot of fistfighting.

You can take a look at the latest version of the character sheet in this post.

Check out our Kickstarter page for the best accumulation of info on what Eureka: investigative Urban Fantasy even is! The Kickstarter campaign launches April 10th 2024!

Check out our Patreon to get the whole prerelease rulebook + multiple adventure modules and pieces of short fiction for a subscription of only $5!

If you wanna try before you buy, check out our website for more information on Eureka as well as a download link to the free demo version!

Interested in actually playing this game, and many others, with the developers? Check out A.N.I.M.'s TTRPG Book Club, a club of nearly 100 members at the time of writing this where we regularly nominate, vote on, and then play indie TTRPGs! At the time of writing this, we are playing Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, and sign-ups are closed for actually playing it, but you can still join in to pick up a PDF club copy of the rulebook to read and follow along with discussion, and sit in on and observe sessions! There is no schedule obligation for joining this club, as we keep things very flexible by assigning multiple GMs with different timeslots each round, to try and accomodate everyone! This round, we had over thirty people sign up, and were able to fit in all but one! Here is the invite link! See you there!

[prince-liest]

Can u explain like I’m 5 what homestuck is? Google is not being very helpful and I think the best person to ask is someone familiar with the.. game? Web comic? How did u get into it?

Homestuck is a webcomic that started out as a "choose your own adventure" forum game where people could vote on what the main character should do next, and eventually was turned into a proper author-written story with a multimedia experience (because being on the web allowed some "pages" to be things like animated videos or Flash games, etc). The most famous example is probably [S] Cascade, which is a 14 minute long Flash animation that plays at the end of Act V and upon release crashed not only the website and its forums, but also megaupload, Newgrounds, Livestream, and even fucking Twitter due to how many people were trying to watch and stream it.

Homestuck is about a boy named John Egbert and his three friends that, on his birthday, receive and play a video game that ends the world—and subsequently challenges them to create a new one. It's incredibly long, emotional, and the cast of characters is very large with a lot of time travel, multiple dimensions, and (my favorite) aliens, so this description is very much just the initial premise, but explaining more than that right off the bat is an exercise in sadomasochism, I think. That said, I think the pacing at which the story expands is appropriate.

And I discovered Homestuck in either 2010 or possibly 2011! It's been a while. I vaguely recall a friend introducing me to it, but I don't remember who.

If you do decide to get into Homestuck, I recommend the Homestuck Complete Collection, which has included all of the old dead links/jokes, gif animations, videos, and flash games that were in the original, many of which have been dead on the actual mspaintadventures website that Homestuck was originally on for a long time.

[yuwumeniji]

Luxiem & Pickup Lines

WARNING: Please remember that I am writing about Luxiem based on their characters online and not of the people behind their vtuber avatars, thank you!

EXTRA NOTES: i just want them flustered over the cheesiest pick up lines i found on the internet lmao

GENERAL

established relationships (reader x luxiem)

both luxiem and the reader are streamers here - the reader plays along with their respective chats flirts with the boys

the reader is the one telling the boy a pick-up line

i literally got these off of one of those top (insert number here) websites lmao

you can 100% pull bitches this way (trust me)

MORE UNDER THE CUT

⊰᯽⊱┈───── ✧ ─────┈⊰᯽⊱

IKE EVELAND

"Can you touch my hand? I want to tell my friends that I've been touched by an angel"

Ike "rejection" eveland surprisingly gets flustered over your pick-up line

he genuinely does not expect you of all people to also play along with his chat who often spams him with ring emojis

to many, he's like an impregnable wall - quick to hit you back with a blunt quip, but not this time....

he SPUTTERS the second he heard you finish that line (you totally did not read it off of one of those sites on google... not at all)

" i- you- y-y-you??" "WAIT Y/N COULD YOU REPEAT THAT ONE MORE TIME"

he's smiling, he's giggling, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, my crops are growing and my skin is clear

he spends the rest of the stream asking you to tell him another pick-up line whenever there was a chance. he found it enjoyable that you find these funny enough to share with him

LUCA KANESHIRO

"I've lost my teddy bear! Could I sleep with you instead?"

i think the pick-up line went over his head a little bit

like, he went "oh, where'd you put it last?" before someone in his chat tells him that it was a pick up line

then it's just silence

did you completely break the impassable mafia boss? did you manage to fluster him?

but nope, he goes back to his usual POOOOG self

behind the camera, he's as red as a cherry tomato - boy did he not expect a pick-up line like this to come from you!

actually, it was very noticable that the pick-up line flustered him

he was speaking quickly, his gestures were wild and you could even hear how big the smile on his face was

he'll definitely send you a cringey couple tiktok later after stream with a "us lmao <3" after it

MYSTA RIAS

"Are those spacepants? because your ass looks out of this world!"

oh he knows he has a nice ass

he thinks the pick-up line was terrible but hearing it come from you made the whole thing feel romantic (in some way)

but hearing this from you? he's as red as a tomato (i can't think of anything else that's red... skull emoji..)

the pick-up line definitely flustered him to the point where he had to take like a 10 minute break from the game both of you were playing together.

"CHAT. LISTEN TO ME, THEY NEVER SAY STUFF LIKE THAT!"

he's sputtering too and then he goes on a whole tangent about how cringe the pick-up line was

he spends the rest of the stream together talking excitedly - he feels a little energized knowing that you like him enough to tell him such a cringe pick-up line

SHU YAMINO

"Hey, is your name Wi-fi? Because I'm feelin' a connection between you and I"

"THAT IS SO CRINGE" (cue the giggling)

he shouted??? fr???? real????

this is the loudest shu had been on a stream, and not only did it surprise his viewers, but also himself

he couldn't hold back on his laughter because he could tell that you totally searched that up on your phone while he was brb from the stream

you can see the 10 minute giggly shu compilations made from this stream alone now (tskr)

he's actually laughing so hard to the point he's gasping for air - that's when you know you definitely flustered him

he also searches for one because he wants to see you get flustered as well

you guys spend the rest of the stream telling each other cringey pick-up lines to see who could out-cringe the other

VOX AKUMA

"You know what you'd look beautiful in? My arms."

normally, vox is used to flirty comments but hearing you say that out of the blue really shocked him

like you could visibly see his shock - mid sentence he just went "-oop", followed by :0

you could really hear the windows crashing noise the second he heard you utter that line

"Y/N, could you.... could you repeat that one more time"

he's in shambles,he's crying, he even got his little "tskr" comment ready to be added to YOUR chat

he goes back to normal the moment you switch the subject, but you better believe that he starts singing your praises - in how you got better at flirting and how he's wrapped around your finger etc.

he's literally just some funny guy, c'mon

[tetrakys]

Are we all secretly Argentinian? A brief history of VPN in Beemoov's fandom

Once upon a time, when only High School Life and maybe Eldarya TO were out, players were able to choose their own bank when making a purchase on the games websites. Some banks were extremely cheap compared to others, the cheapest of all being Argentina. This from the perspective of people living in other countries. As an example:

2800 Gold coins were worth 39€ or 49$ or 400 ARS 400 ARS were the equivalent of 27$ in 2016.

So, clearly, anyone given the chance would spend less with such a big discount. And the chance was indeed given, since it was easy to just select another country's bank on the website.

Fast-forward a few years, the option to choose a bank was removed, and people could only use the bank associated to the country they were connecting from. It didn’t take much time for people to realise that it was enough to change IP via a VPN to make the games think you were connecting from Argentina and still access its bank. Additionally, Argentinian's currency was getting more and more devaluated in time and prices were never really adjusted at the bank. So, those 2800 Gold which were worth 400ARS or 27$ in 2016, were now worth 11$ in 2019.

This VPN trick has been around for years now. Not all players were aware of course, and not everyone was comfortable in using a VPN or able to. But still, quite a lot of people were doing so. Some of them even made a business out of it, recharging other people's accounts using a VPN and taking a fee for their "service".

Fast-forward again, to 2022. The VPN trick escalated, the secret was not that much of a secret anymore, especially because people were freely talking about it everywhere, Discord, Facebook, all social media really, even TikTok videos were made explaining how to do it. Very simply, too many people were using it. Consequently, Beemoov worked on it and managed to remove Argentina's bank from most VPNs for people playing from Europe and North America. (NOT South America, as I vaguely remember it was mentioned that they were trying to protect the Argentinians living in nearby countries). This led to a crazy uproar, mostly from the biggest fandom affected, the French one. People were leaving tons of messages on all socials demanding the reinstatement of Argentina, and also sending curses and death threats to Beemoov employees. The most recurrent message was of people outraged that the company had blocked VPNs without telling their players and demanding dialogue and compromise. On the other hand, Beemoov replied that VPNs were never a functionality of the games, and they don't need to discuss it with players.

Approximate translation of Beemoov's official reply (neither French nor English are my mother tongues so feel free to double check):

"Goodmorning. The use of VPN isn't a functionality offered by the game, just like it isn't normal use of the game to circumvent the base tariffs. Thus it's normal and logic that the company would put a stop at this technique. (Without having to communicate it since it's not a functionality of the game that we are retiring or modifying, but the exploitation of a fallacy.) The tariffs that each country pays are established according to their buying power. Of the 2 euros payment that can be done by the players via VPN Argentina, the company only earns a few cents. And with just a few cents it's clearly impossible to cover the costs of the episodes production and business costs in general, pay our employees, and create new content for our players. Under these conditions, it's certain that the company would eventually go bankrupt. (Like many of you wish, but us not that much.) To give you a less abstract example, it's as if someone would accept to see their salary of 1329 euros (minimum wage, for example) drop to 44 euros. Do you think this person would be able to live without any problem? We are sorry if our base tariffs are not convenient for you and we understand that they are not accessible to all of our players, but these are what allow the company to survive and to make new content. Of course like in all free-to-play games you are not obliged to pay and you always have the possibility of playing for free (and this is thanks to the players who pay the normal price)."

Fast forward again to this year, August 2023. The economic crisis in Argentina has led to high inflation and 22% devaluation of currency. All businesses have had to up their prices, including Beemoov. Those 2800 gold coins that used to be worth 400 ARS ~ 27$ in 2016, and then 11$ in 2019? Are now worth 1.14$. Beemoov has had to up the prices and now these are costed at 6,800 ARS (or 19.43$), an increment of 17 times its original value (but still less than the 2016 dollar equivalent).

Consequently, we have seen now the rest of the fandom, the part that hadn't been affected one year ago, going ballistic. And the same kind of threats and complaints that were posted last year by the European fandom are now posted by the American fandom. One would assume that only the Argentinians are complaining, rightfully so, since they are the ones directly affected. But actually most of the complaints come from people living elsewhere who were either using VPNs for their own benefit or created a business out of it.

(these are from 4 different people I found with just a 5 minutes search, we really live in a capitalist dream lmao)

Additionally, people have been upset about the company's reply. This message has been circulating in several social media, and people wonder if it's true or fake.

I don't know who originally posted so I can't say if it's true or not. (Personally I tend to believe it is.)

(Using Google translate here because I don't know a word of Portuguese, so please correct me if this is wrong.)

"To be fair, Latin America is far from our biggest customer, but that's not the point. Beemoov was forced to take action after numerous abuses by players (and in particular 80% of purchases from Brazil) using VPNs to connect to Argentina and take advantage of this country's poor financial situation to buy APs and other in-game currencies. The few players currently residing in Argentina are unfortunately affected by the situation and we are very sorry, but we could not remain inactive in the face of a fraud of this magnitude that puts the company's sustainability at risk (payment of employees, office rent, work equipment, taxes, creation of new content, etc... Each of these must be paid in euros following the French currency - as we are located in France)."

People have been particularly offended by that "LATAM isn't our biggest customer" which isn't hate, it's a fact. Despite the LATAM fandom being big (second only to France by number of players), the currencies of all the countries involved are worth less than euros, and that's why it can't be the biggest client, it's just math.

Some math below for who is interested, but feel free to skip: For example 1300 gold are costed 200 in mexican pesos which is 10.7 euros. Similarly this same amount of gold is 30BRL in Brazil, which translates to 1.6 euros. Compared, 1300 gold in France are costed 19 euros. (On top of these there are also bank fees and currency exchange fees). This means that, if no one were using VPN, it would take two mexican players for Beemoov to earn the same amount as they earn from a French player. And even more, 12 Brazillian players to pay what they get from one single French player. (Again, I'm not considering bank fees, so these numbers should actually be higher). Of course this is just an example on one single purchase. It's not representative of the whole bank. But with some very hacky math, approximately I think that LATAM doesn't contribute to more than a quarter of Beemoov's revenue (and keep in mind that for the past year LATAM could use Argentina VPN and Europe couldn't). Of course, again, this is veeeery approximate, but I remember Brazil wasn't included in Uncoven, so I think that if they are cutting another bank in the future it might be that one. This is not the case for New Gen of course since we know Brazillian is one of the languages included.

So, where are we now?

VPNs are still being used of course, not Argentina but other countries (mostly Brazil, Turkey, and a few others). I don't think there's any stopping VPNs for good in the old games, but I'm pretty confident the company might've found a way for New Gen.

What do I think of all this?

These up here are facts. Now my personal opinion is that things aren't that black and white. I totally agree with the fact that the company has expenses and needs to pay salaries of their employees etc etc. At the same time it's also true that for whatever business when a product is faulty prices are lowered. Eldarya ANE has not the same quality as the other games, prices should reflect that but they don't. Similarly, some episodes are released very bugged, and people have to replay 3, 4, 5 times to get the illustration they would've been able to get in one playthrough and should be compensated for that. In Moonlight Lovers there was a crazy bug for more than a year, me and the friends I made guides with had to replay each episode at least 5-8 times. I don't even want to try to estimate the amount of money I wasted on that game otherwise I would curl in a ball and cry. The company should've provided compensation to us and all the players who played Moonlight Lovers during that year, but they didn't. So when episodes are bugged and people have to replay many times I see VPNs as morally justified.

But bugs asides, the point is that if VPNs were used only a few times, and only by those players who really would not be able to play otherwise, then nothing would've happened. But as always, when something is abused the "authorities" try to put a stop to it. (Because really it's crazy that a middle-class European via VPN spends only a few cents on each episode and then expects to see more content. This isn't only fraud against the company, but also disrespectful toward the players who pay full price and allow the games to keep existing.)

However, I want to end this post with a positive message, if anyone made it this far it's earned. During my deep dive in the fandom to write this post, I saw that the trolls, the haters, the death and violence threats against Beemoov workers or other players, the wishes to see the company go bankrupt and everyone left without a job, all these came from Europeans and Americans alike. Seeing all these curses and threats in english, french, spanish, brazillian portuguese etc warmed my heart. There is no racism when it comes to hate, humanity sucks everywhere 💕

[seventeenlovesthree]

Since most Digimon asks you get are about relationships (romantic or otherwise), I was thinking about asking something different: according to you, what's Top 5 (or Top 10 if you feel like it) creepiest Digimon? I was just randomly thinking about this a while back and I'm curious if we can agree on some ^^

To be completely honest with you, I have a very hard time to remember the "Digidex" so to speak. If you ask me about any Pokémon, I'll give you an answer immediately, but once it comes to Digimon, everything that wasn't part of the first 4-5 seasons of the anime, plus the movies, plus Tri, the reboot and Ghost Game is usually giving me a very hard time memorizing. Soooo my selection will be very limited and also relies on me checking up several websites, so, here we go...

5th place: Wendigomon. It managed to scare the heck out of me back when I watched The Digimon Movie for the first time - and it did around 20 years later again when I played Digimon Survive. Big, big shout-out.

4th place: Sephirotmon. I was very, very uncomfortable when it appeared in Frontier and that hasn't changed to this day.

3rd place: VenomVamdemon (Undead). The original version that was in Adventure was already creepy on so many levels (I still remember the scene where its... Brain-tentacles were coming through???), but the stageplay version had a whole different level of creepiness about itself. For everyone who hasn't watched it yet, I don't want to spoil, but all I want to say is... Poor Taichi.

2nd place: Ordinemon. I still cannot believe Tri went there, with all the sexualization and the EVA and Madoka references there, I was thoroughly creeped out by it. The picture below doesn't even do it justice...

1st place: Abbadomon. That thing REALLY gave me these "Oh my God, and this is why Digimon is NOT (just) for kids" vibes all over again when it appeared in the reboot. Shivers. I also feel very similarly about the entire Algomon line - and aesthetic-wise, they also remind me of the Parasimon from the second Tamers movie as well as Armageddomon from Diablomon Strikes Back, so they receive honourable mentions right here.

[1n-bl0om]

even more ethan x chad hcs

(nothing suggestive)

turned into mindy + anika friend group hcs at some point

- ethan definitely tells people to kay why ess when playing video games and chad tells him to stop before they get swatted

- chad: no!! he did nothing wrong!

ethan: *has committed many felonies*

- ethan sends those memes that are like “the pipe bomb i put under your bed”

- chad and ethan were smoking buddies before anything. they would sit and get high and talk about whatever came to mind. those are the rare moments where ethan opened up about his actual life

- ethan takes photos for the school website and catalog. more than half of the memory are photos of chad

- mindy and anika join in on their smoke seshes

- chad is like an animal magnet. at least once a day a random little animal will come up to chad and let him pet them

- chad likes the pitter patter of rain, he finds it soothing

- ethan makes chad watch horror movies over and over again. chad makes ethan rewatch back to the future with him almost every day

- ethan uses his cover as a dork to do things he actually enjoys without quinn judging him

- ethan is afraid of butterflies and chad thinks it’s hilarious

- mindy interrogated ethan the first week of knowing him. she tried to conduct a background check

- ethan loves star wars. he’ll rant to chad for hours about it while chad cannot follow at all

- mindy got ethan a star wars lego set. chad watched him build it as they talked. then chad stepped on a lego and got mad at ethan so he banished him from their shared room, forcing ethan to sleep on the couch

- after mindy gave them the rules for their franchise, chad went over the notes he took with ethan to make sure he understood

- ethan and chad go on 3am bodega runs when they are high. it consists of them laughing all the way there, getting lost, laughing some more, and going back to the dorms. they almost never make it to the bodega

- mindy goes on a horror rant when she’s high, chad is always hungry and giggly, anika is borderline asleep, and ethan is clingy and also giggly

- they have those “remember when?” conversations that leave each other laughing so hard their stomach hurts

- chad and ethan: *kissing*

mindy: *to anika* i hate gay people

- chad was hesitant to receive a roommate but when he met ethan, his mind changed

- because chad works out he cooks his own food for a meal plan. he often prepares extra for ethan to eat too. he’ll make him lunch to take to class so that he won’t starve

- ethan is banned from the stove for leaving boiling water on for too long (and forgetting about it) that it evaporated

- ethan is put on dicing duty when they cook because “he has amazing knife skills,” as chad likes to say

- ethan has chad model for him as a part of his photography class. or more like chad volunteers and ethan won’t let the opportunity pass up

!! bonus !!

the twins are just silly little guys. i love them sm

an interview with jasmin savoy brown (mindy)

the interviewer is in bold

interview