#and then the website as a whole was hacked or something | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mutable-manifestation · 2 months ago

Text

Ghost Chirps AU Part 5

Part 1 & 2

Part 3

Part 4

***

While “Jason” (i.e. Alfred with an empty jet that Jason will meet up with later in order to “arrive” in Amity) hops a private jet, Red Hood is busy searching the Fenton home from top to bottom.

The local police move slowly, and by the time they arrive Jack and Maddie Fenton are both tied up and disarmed in their living room under heavy guard.

They hadn’t been restrained immediately, Batman talking him into giving them a chance to implicate themselves first.

Hood let him take the lead, but he didn’t even get a chance to ask a question, being cut off at the first indication he might want to talk about their “work.” Less than 60 seconds in, and the pair had outright confessed to violating the meta protection acts - and in tedious detail.

The questioning didn’t suffer any from them being tied up.

Far from the mulish silence or crocodile-tear laden denial of most criminals, they instead doubled down, insisting that nothing they had done was illegal, then jumping to the assumption that they were “possessed” - and boy had it been a nasty surprise when the whole house came alive trying to attack them with a quick verbal command.

Well, trying to attack Hood. And only him, for some reason.

One laser also freed the Fentons, who turned out to have even more weapons built into their suits.

Somehow.

Despite them being skintight.

That had been a pain, but Red Robin was able to hack the system using one of the couples’ own devices while Hood dodged - and kept the stray fire away from the others - leaving everyone else to recapture the pair. A blessedly simple task once they found out the lasers would splash harmlessly off of their armor (save for a gross film of green goop left wherever they grazed).

They take turns knocking each unconscious to change them in order to properly disarm them - Batman and Nightwing taking Jack first, followed by Orphan and Spoiler dealing with Maddie.

The only non-weapon laden clothing they own turns out to be pajamas.

This is around when the police show up, looking hesitant.

They, too, cite the “Anti-Ecto Acts.”

Oracle had debriefed them on the supposed Acts and “Ghost Investigation Ward” on their short drive over. Both were utterly bogus - the Acts had never even been proposed, let alone been approved as law, and the so-called “GIW” had no ties to the government.

The Fentons had been furious and denied the information intensely when told, but the cops mostly just looked relieved.

Apparently there’d been a lot of property damage by the GIW and Fentons both that had supposedly been dismissed under the Acts as “necessary in the pursuit of ecto-scum.”

For the Fentons, half of this damage was in the form of broken fire hydrants, cracked sidewalks, and totaled cars - they’d never been good drivers, before, the cops disclosed, but they’d become even more negligent since the ghosts began appearing, to the point they had to have a news segment warning when they would be on the road.

The lack of fatalities thus far had been nothing short of a miracle, they claimed.

“Of course there haven’t been any fatalities!” Mrs Fenton defends. “Our work is to protect people from those things, not make more! Officers, listen to reason-” Hood snorts disdainfully -”The Red Hood is clearly a ghost! All our systems targeted him the moment they came online - and they only target ecto-entities. He’s clearly taken these heroes under his sway - why else would they be working with a murderer!? You have to do something before he starts up his killing here in Amity!”

The officers look at him a bit hesitantly, but Batman is unmoved and gives the cover story Hood had outlined back in the alley.

Any concerns the locals have are quickly assuaged.

But for the whole explanation, Jason is trying not to shake even as he falls apart in place.

Their little website called them ghost-hunters, making it pretty clear what “ecto-entities” meant.

Their system supposedly only targets ecto-entities.

The system had only targeted him.

The system only targets ghosts.

Jason had died.

A lot of his family members had died, too, granted.

But Jason was the only one who seemed to come back wrong - anger sticking in his throat and never quite fading, an inclination towards violence even when he wasn’t angry well beyond what he’d ever felt before, and a sea of other emotions (that he would never acknowledge aloud) and triggers for those emotions that he always struggled to make heads or tails of.

He doesn’t have the meta gene. He knows that. He knew that.

He just assumed that the test missed it, because he knows he doesn’t know magic - the All Blades being the only exception - and he couldn’t think of another explanation at the time.

But he came back wrong.

And as he stands there, he wonders if he came back at all, mind on Solomon Grundy.

Wonders if he isn’t just some ghost, wandering around possessing his own corpse.

He jolts, as the thought strikes him: what about Danny?

If he’s a ghost and chirping is a ghost thing then what about his KID!?

Absently, he notes that Bruce has started interrogating the cops on what they meant by “ghost attacks.”

He ignores the discussion, hustling for the door in the kitchen down to the lab.

He slams and locks the door behind him - in Red Robin’s face - as he descends, making a b-line for the computer he’d seen when the Fentons had dragged them all down there to start bragging about their crimes.

The only thing Oracle could get out of the whole building was things that were openly available online; direct connections were impossible.

Opening up the screen, he gets to cracking.

Going for the surface level files first, it turns out he doesn’t even need so much as a password to find what he wants.

One of the video game sub-files has an unrelated file in it: ghost notes.

There are plenty of other notes, of course, but he’d only been skimming to start, looking for anything hidden.

The Fenton parents were too open to bother, of course, with plenty of more obvious files strewn haphazardly across the home screen, but it’s always better to check. That there is a hidden file means it was likely made by either Danny or Jazz.

And it’s a treasure trove.

Sub-files for rogues, allies, conditional allies, and “halfas” were what greeted him.

The last being the only term he didn’t recognize, he clicked.

6 files: Clones, Danny, Dani, Dan, Vlad, and Red Hood.

He clicks his own file.

What greets him is a picture of himself 4 days ago, looking just to the left of the lens in an alley that he distinctly remembers searching for the kid in.

Just below is text.

~~~

??? Name: Red Hood

Species: probably a halfa

Status: Nnnneutral? I think? I know, I know, heads in bags. But Valerie tries to kill me all the time! And we’re allies sometimes! Hood- uh- looked for me? Okay I guess I can’t really judge this yet but please read the first met section before you judge please you guys?

First met: Aug 17, 2005, was in Gotham to bother Batman, stopped to think a bit on some fire escape - decide on the first prank yknow - but then my ghost sense went off. It felt like a halfa so I thought “oh cool, must be Dani” so I chirped, but then Red Hood - who was chasing some guy down an alley at the time - froze and looked around. I dropped visibility and chirped again and yeah, he definitely heard it. Humans can’t so he’s definitely a halfa - no glow so he can’t be a full ghost and it felt nothing like an overshadowing.

Ended up following Hood around the rest of week - forgot to prank Batman, damn - and playing hide-and-seek with the chirps. It was really funny. But he very obviously doesn’t know he’s a halfa. But the guy is, like, scary levels of smart, so I’m sure he’ll figure it out on his own now that the chirp thing made it clear that something is up. Hopefully.

I figure I can go back in winter break - he should have it figured out and let his emotions process enough by then to at least hear me out when I explain the AEA and GIW and everything, then it won’t matter so much if he can, like, track me by voice or something if I talk since we’ll have MAD by then.

Despite his reputation, the people living in his haunt seem to love the guy. I can see why. On top of the whole smart he’s actually really nice to people he’s not shooting in the knees (which only even happened one time in the week I was there? It was actually pretty relaxing - most quiet week I’ve had since the portal opened THANK YOU TUCKER for hacking the portal hatch to be inoperable for a week).

Where was I? Oh yeah, he’s actually surprisingly nice to people? So like, I think he’ll probably hear me out if I go back and be polite? I hope. Hate to leave the guy in the dark and him end up on the GIWs dissection table for “lots and lots of painful experiments.”

Not that those guys could even catch the Box Ghost. But uh, Hood doesn’t seem to have powers either? Or if he does he doesn’t know about them I don’t think - he only used the chirp the whole time I was their - not even to cheat with moving around.

Seriously. That guy's acrobatics could make Freakshow’s contortionist green - er, red??? - with envy. Actually wait, aren’t contortionists and acrobats different things?

SAM NOTE: help^?

Powers:

~~~

Jason leans back, breathing deeply.

“Not a full ghost,” “not 'overshadowed'” - a term that sounds likke some kind of cousin to possesision - “definitely a halfa,” “humans can’t hear chirps.”

Halfa.

Half.

Ghost.

Half Ghost.

It should sound absurd - you can’t be half alive and half dead.

But Jason has seen the Lazarus pits, has met Solomon Grundy, has met aliens and bullshit magic and can pull magical swords out of his own damn chest.

Half alive. Half dead.

Hopefully not just a fancy way to say possessing his own corpse.

He doesn’t have time to deal with every file - he’ll “confiscate” one of their USBs with a copy of everything for himself before leaving the rest to Batman & co, of course, minus the halfa files (a small part of him wants to shove his condition in Bruce’s face and demand he kill the clown again even though he knows it’s a futile hope, but the rest - the same part that snapped and denied and refused to say he was a meta less that a day ago now - cannot stomach the thought of even more rejection. Of a Bruce that believes he’s a monster. Of a Bruce that mourns him even while he’s right there. Or at least, more than he already does.) - but while the files copy he take the time to look at Danny’s.

The image has two people, Danny Fenton on one side and a version of the kid in a black hazmat suit with white hair, tanned skin, and painfully familiar green eyes. And floating.

~~~

Human Name: Danny Fenton

Ghost Name: Danny Phantom

Species: Halfa (half-human, half ghost)

~~~

It’s the section after that that makes Jason’s breath catch in his throat.

~~~

Death: The Portal Accident

So like, there was no audio (thank GOD I do not want to hear myself screaming) so. Details: When the portal didn’t work when they plugged it in mom and dad left for fudge, Jazz went to try and talk them into a more realistic career choice than ghosts. Sam and Tucker came over and Sam dared me to climb in and check it out - it was broken anyway so no harm. Except it wasn’t broken, just that my parents put the on button inside. Which I caught myself on when I tripped on a wire.

Anyway, electrocution!

(T - Danny for the love of god be more serious, the cheerful tone is creepy)

(D - Hey! I’m the one who died! Shouldn’t I at least get to write my own epitaph)

(S - …Danny this is not an epitaph. You don’t even HAVE a grave)

(D - wow way to rub it in Sam)

(T - yeah Sam)

(S - ugh! Whatever, just stop with the chatting in official files)

(T - “official”)

(S - Tucker.)

(T - shutting up now)

Electrocution! I got zapped to death, but the ectoplasm from the portal was also opening up on top of me and a lot got bonded to me I guess (S - probably because of the electricity with how you ended up with some of Vortex' powers for a little while) at the same time said electricity was reviving me? - probably getting my heart beating again or something, I was a little busy screaming to pay attention (T - yeah okay we're going to Nasty Burger after this. And playing Doomed) - not that it would’ve mattered without the ghostification preventing me from melting me all the way to death.

Status: Me!

Powers:

Chirps! (ghost echolocation of some kind! humans can't hear em - halfas can, of course, in either form)

Form Change (really Sam? This barely counts)

Human form

Ghost form (no need to breathe)

Flight (last clock speed 210mph) (T - and climbing. Dang dude)

Invisibility (S - don’t forget shareable.) (Shareable. sigh)

Intangibility (Shareable)

Ecto Rays (eyes & hands) (T - and butt) (D - dude! I’m deleting that. Tucker why can't I delete it. TUCKER) (T - bow down in awe of my ksill) (S - ksill) (D - ksill) (T - yeah okay it’s permanent now) (D - aw man!)

Ghost Sense (S - why do we never test your range?) (D - no need? They always make themselves obvious or are being sneaky specifically to annoy me so *shrug*) (S - I still think we should test it)

Power Absorption (that time with Vortex’s weather powers)

Cryokinesis (Wayyyyy to much ice. NOT testing max output on that) (T - yeah frozen city was enough, let’s not cause an ice age. Tech needs some cool but too much is still bad and I just upgraded Patricia)

Ghostly Wail (cone of destruction, very exhausting - always at max output. Not to be used)

GHOST FORM ONLY (but really just never)

Cartoon Body (D - what???) (S - Freakshow literally turned you into a puddle and you just turned back and were fine. I don’t know what else to call that) (D - okay fair. but:)

GHOST FORM ONLY

Physical Enhancement (better strength, speed, stamina, durability, reflexes, balance, etc much better than human) (T - why does this look like dnd knockoff stats haha)

GHOST FORM ONLY (S - obviously mr last place in PE)

Resistances (pretty solid on the overshadowing, avoided being taken in by Ember until targeted, didn’t get turned to stone during the Medusa thing) (S - which was pure luck! Be careful!)

Ecto Electricity (ghost stinger, but I really don’t think this counts Sam. I mean I just. Make my ecto zappy. But it’s still just ecto) (S - so is your ICE and you don’t just call that "just cold ecto") (D - fine, but it feels overly specific) (S - maybe writing it all down will make you stop. Forgetting. POWERS!) (D - come on Sam that was a lucky hit! I was distracted! And it turned out fine!) (S - Fenton…) (D - oop okay doing fire now)

Ecto Fire (made Dash’s shoes melty that one time by make the ecto hot) (T - really needs more testing)

Tech possession (chasing Technus into computers, not very tested)

Ghost form only, i guess?

Overshadowing (control people, copy their voice, invade dreams - the control one erases the person’s memory so they don’t know they were overshadowed just lost time. I hate Walker. SO much) (T - rip Danny’s reputation, you’ll be missed)

Probably ghost form only

Duplication (T - That’s optimistic) (D - I’M WORKING ON IT OKAY!?) (S - pretty sure it just falls under cartoon body until you can actually separate) (D - :( betrayal)

Probably ghost form only

More? (D - ugh I hope not) (T - hey don’t say that, maybe you’ll get a power to make the JL give a crap about Amity) (D - honestly I’m getting pretty close to letting Boxy loose in Gotham) (S - Danny, don’t stoop to their level!) (D - it's only box ghost!) (T - I mean he has a point)

~~~

Jason changes his mind, seeing the commentary, and deletes the entire hidden file from the computer as soon as his copy is made. He can go over everything and bring any important info to Bruce separately, the bat’s can just chew on the parents’ files for now.

Once the original files are thoroughly and irretrievably removed he pockets his shiny new USB, makes a second one with all the official files, and heads back up and out - carelessly brushing past a thoroughly irate Red Robin with a pair of firemen and broken jaws of life. And not a scratch on the door; impressive - just in time to get Oracle’s text that he’s got 2 hours and 16 minutes to be at the location on his HUD so he can “arrive” to Amity.

And a fresh set of civilian clothes will be waiting in the plane, Alfred as reliable as ever.

“Files,” he says, tossing the safe USB to Batman and interrupting his interrogation of the police officer.

He catches it effortlessly of course, but the officer stops paying attention to him to jolt at Hood’s reappearance - even outside of Gotham his reputation is fierce.

“I sent a copy to myself. I’ll review them and give you an overview, but other than that consider this the end of my involvement in this little shitshow,” he says, continuing smoothly to the door. “I’m heading back to Gotham.”

Now, he has a little over two hours before Jason Todd needs to arrive in Amity Park. He only needs to lay hands on a laptop that he can isolate from Babs’ influence and he should be able to review the Halfa files in full before he "lands" - after he figures out just why the kid has a grudge against the JL.

#The defenses only attacked jason because the others are liminal #But not quite liminal enough for the Fenton House to pick up on #He’s the only one who died and had it really *stick* thus why he’s the only halfa #Sure the others died but they were all revived fully #Death left a stain #Not a chain #Jason has one foot in the grave #The others bat’s just have some graveyard dirt smudged on their pants cuffs #I can keep going with the metaphors #lol #Anyway #Their contamination is. Like. not worse than the average person living on the opposite side of the city as the Fentons #(which is a lot compared to everyone else in the whole world #but not much in terms of “will the house shoot me”#Fenton ghost detecting devices aren’t that precise yet)#The “files” aren’t super professional because like. They’re 14.#It’s organized sure but it’s not gonna be scientific paper levels (& they’d feel uncomfy making it too scientific sounding)#There’s powers missing on purpose (not thinking of thing as a power. All 3 forgot about it. Etc)#So why did the JL ignore Amity you ask?#Info blackout #One does not simply ignore the Meta Protection Acts and pretend to be a gov’t agency without taking precautions #Everything out of Amity Park is sanitized as hell. (ha #and doesn’t that just fit the GIW clean-obsession)#“But Mutable!” I hear you cry “What about Undergrowth & Vortex!”#I don’t remember Undergrowth’s radius of effect but I’m saying my AU he was Amity-only and the GIW set up a blockade to intimidate witnesse #Same deal with Pariah town-knapping the place (GIW base was JUST out of the town-knapping radius. Lucky them)#As for Vortex #the storms themselves made it impossible to track anything through normal means #(ie no cams caught Sam & Tucker’s jet taunting Vortex except some people with cells on the street. But wind killed all the audio)#So as far as the world is concerned there was a freak storm and it went away

227 notes · View notes

mellowwillowy · 1 year ago

Text

"Oh..." Your boyfriend secretly checked your scorecard before you did and was greeted with a line of miserable A until his eyes landed on a B. This would surely take a taxing toll on your mind.

"Hmm..."

He started to hum, what should he do? Hack through the website and change the inputted number for you? What if the scoring system was filed through physical form too?

I really hope you would just shrug it off and say your classic 'It had happened, what more could I do?' instead of stressing yourself with it.

Blue pinched the bridge of his nose, eyes squinted shut as he tried to find a solution for this. Your scholarship is at stake, edged to the despairing ending. But there might be chances that your scholarship was only a one-semester thing and this could ease the burden on your mind.

Hacking through the website system is not a problem but ensuring that your score is true to the one inputted online is the real problem here. Bribery would work but should he risk it all? Should he really taint something so pristine, something so you?

Jaw clenched tightly, the urge to throw the mouse across the room is increasing. Why must the professor go through such trouble to give you a ridiculous grade? The unreasonable one here is her and not you.

"God... dammit-!" With a flick of his wrist, the mouse shattered into pieces as it hit the ground. "This fucking pebble-like old hag, why must you trouble me with this bullshit." He cursed under his breath as though he was the one unbenefited from this instance, face darkened while his blue eyes glinted in fury.

Upon a moment of silence, Blue decided to save you from this headache. He started to work on his PC again, this time to hack through the website and change your supposed score into an A.

"Whatever, not a thing that I can't manage. I suppose a visit with a wrapped gun would work or whatever, maybe a wrapped nail-packed lunch... or just poisonous flower..." His mumblings were mostly drowned with the clackings of the keyboard, "or maybe just a branded bag... or something better."

Something of his forte.

"Maybe some fresh blackmail material... or perhaps, debt."

---

"Woahhh~! Look, Blue! Look! I aced it all! A whole A!"

Blue laughed at your excitement as he easily lifted you up and twirled you around, "Guess this call for a celebration? What about a trip to your favorite diner and bust all their menu?"

You urged him to drop you down before you hop excitedly, "Yes! Let's get them now!"

Chuckling to himself, he thought to himself, Today is our good day so I shouldn't bother myself with that old hag just yet. Maybe tomorrow, or the day after. Any day but today.

"Let's fill this tummy with its expected reward, come." He held you by your hand toward the front door.

#Blue the Boyfriend #LIfE Project #Yandere x Reader #x GN Reader #Yandere Scenarios #Yandere Imagines #Yandere OC #Yandere x You #You bet this is a vent post

1K notes · View notes

modmad · 9 months ago

Note

Hey Mod, I don't know what's going on that hurt you, I feel like I missed something that's happened, but I can tell from what I did see that it didn't just hurt you, but scared you and made you feel a Lot of doubt. I've also seen a lot of messages pouring in with support, and I want to share mine.

I have hypermobile type EDS, fibromyalgia, and a whole bucket's worth of faulty wiring in my brain. And I've always had stories to tell but I never felt I was good enough to share them. If it's because I can't focus enough to get through nanowrimo, or because I can't manage the focus and time towards drawing as a hobby, or the fact that an excessive amount of either for me leads to my hands wanting to shut down. But you? You *inspire* me. Your stories, all the ones I've seen, read, experienced in some way or another, they're so good. And you're open and honest with your fans about your own health, and of course, we support you and always would rather you rest and feel as best you can, instead of pushing out something and working yourself too hard. But all of this is to say that. I think I would have given up on my own stories if I hadn't found you and yours.

I hope whatever is going on sorts itself out, I hope you're able to keep telling your stories. At your own pace, in your own way. I think you deserve to be happy. If there's anything we (your fans, especially those of us too awkward to come off anon, whoops,) can do, to help in some way? Even if it's silly videos or cute cat pictures or whatever it is that could just help you smile. We're here. We love you.

woof. I woke up to so many messages I can't even read them all in one go I'm getting too emotional- I do feel I owe an explanation so I'll explain what happened under the cut but all you guys need to know is I'm okay, I got through it, I love you, and you're so important to me and I'm so grateful for all the messages that have asked me to stay.

tw for suicidal thoughts and all that

yeah so I have the bad morning of all mornings: was introduced to the fact there's this one character (Mr Puzzles) on a very popular youtube that. resembles RGB. incredibly strongly. like. I don't want to link to it just look if you want to. Anyway at the time I thought it had just dropped (seems to have been around for 6 months actually), and having commented on it I immediately got an inbox full of hate mail.

My website, meanwhile, had locked both me and my web designer out of it, and- already in a bad state of mind- I went into full on panic/paranoid spiral of 'they have hacked it, and they are going to delete any proof that I was here before them.' This of course wasn't true, and we have since recalimed control of the site (don't know what happened there but hey. it's fine???? haha. ha.)

On top of this my father has terminal cancer of the pancreas, which is horrible for everyone already but it means that- at some point this year- I am going to be the only person with an active income in my house. I am disabled, do not make a lot of money, and the cost of living is skyrocketing. Combine that with months of Despair at the world right now, with the multiple wars, genocide, corruption and AI and the loss of control any of us have over our IP or lives and I just decided it was time to end it all.

I somehow remembered this was a bad idea to act on immediately (hard during a period of entirely irrational thought) and instead went for a very long walk, crossed the bridge I could have jumped off and during that I came out of the worst of it. I then came back home to so much love online I felt deeply ashamed for ever contemplating it, and I cried a lot. My nose is still puffy and now my feet hurt! lmao

Anyway. Yeah. There's your context. I am not going to stop hoping, making, or living. I am prone to moments of weakness and this was one of the worst of them and I am still here, thanks in a large part to all of you. I might need you in the future to defend me against this, or people who take our ideas, but I hope you know that I will do the same for you. We need each other, and to be there for you I need to be here at all.

also fuck Mr Puzzles

#context for mod's little (massive) mental breakdown yesterday #you don't need to read it but I felt folks are due an explanation #tw suicide #ask to tag #mental health is wow!!!! a thing

261 notes · View notes

dr-spencer-reids-queen · 5 months ago

Text

Risky Business: Part Two

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.2k

Summary: The repercussions of being in prison finally take a toll on you. You're yelling at everyone, short and curt, and you're in a constant state of wanting to cry. Will this bitter cycle ever end?

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Season Five Masterlist

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them.

Spencer and Derek went to check out Ryan Krouse's house to get a feel of who he was before he died. He was the one who died in the hospital after being treated. Like with Trish, there were no secret hiding places or drug paraphernalia. There are pictures of Ryan and his girlfriend, Shaunna in his room that give off a look of happiness. According to his parents, Ryan never dated Trish or even knew of her. The only time they met was at the hospital.

Ryan got good grades and he got a recommendation letter from the football coach to play varsity next year. Derek wanted to take his laptop for evidence but Ryan didn't have one. His father didn't want him to be online without supervision, so Derek will settle for the network IP address instead. Penelope can get into it from where she is.

You get back to the station and meet up with everyone else. You hand Trish's laptop to Penelope who immediately goes through it. You stand off to the side and watch as everyone engages in the case. You'll help if needed but you don't have the energy to be as involved as they are. You're so lucky to have someone like Hotch. Anyone else would have suspended you.

"Hey, you ready to delve into Trish's online world?"

"If by ready you mean extremely capable and even more reluctant, then yes." she hacks into the computer. "That's weird. There's nothing here."

"Nothing useful?"

"Nothing at all. There's no root directory or operating system. The registry appears to be blank."

"Why would she have an empty computer set up?"

"I did not say empty, I said appears to be blank. I'm gonna need a little while." She does something different and immediately unlocks what is hidden. "I got it! It was just a basic Trojan Horse. It just hid the directories and didn't erase them. Oh, God."

"What is it?"

You look up and see Derek and Spencer walk into the police station. Penelope pulls up a website that she frequented a lot.

"She was on a choking game site the night she died. It looks like it's a game kids play where they choke themselves to get a buzz, to get high."

"They call it the good kids' high," Spencer says. "You get lightheaded and a sense of euphoria even though no actual drugs are involved. It's something kids in high school play."

"Did Ryan have a computer?"

"Not in his room."

"What about a gaming system?" Pen asks and Derek nods. "Teenagers will find a way to get online."

"I have the IP address."

Penelope uses it to get into the system where she finds the exact same website Trish went to.

"Bingo. Ryan was on the same site on the same night. I don't think it's suicide." She continues to type. "Hang on, this is a text-to-voice icon. Let's see what happens."

She clicks on it and a computer-animated voice starts to speak.

"Come on, try it. We all do it. I dare you."

"I dare you? Someone was orchestrating this, purposely getting the kids to choke themselves."

"Make sure you close the door. Tomorrow's the big night. We're all gonna play the game."

"There's a whole subculture around this game. They make up names for it and do it at parties. Someone is daring these kids in this area to play the game," Penelope says and looks into the website more. "It's a contest, and there are rules. 'Come on, Evans High, this is the big one. Garfield edged out Casper High last week. You gonna let them diss us?'"

"Diss? That sounds like a kid. Who else would pit schools against each other?"

"Reckless teenage competition," Rossi scoffs.

"The school that logs the most high times this Friday wins. Get your friends on board. Practice makes the high last longer. Gotta do it alone, video it with your webcam, and upload it to the site for it to count," Penelope reads.

"Friday? That's tomorrow."

"Doing it alone requires ligatures. He's basically encouraging them to play the deadliest form of the game with no one there to revive them."

"Garcia, shut this site down," Hotch says.

"Sir, I can totally do that but I don't think you want me to."

"Why?"

"Right now this site is our only way to track the unsub. If I cut into it, he'll know we're watching him, in which case he'll shut it down. He'll write a simple change in code and bring it back up in a more covert fashion. Plus, there's no telling how many servers it's replicated on, anyway."

"You're right," he sighs. "We're ready to give the profile."

You've been writing in your notebook just like your therapist has suggested but nothing is happening. Maybe your own fear is clinging to theirs. Maybe your fear doesn't want to be alone so it brings you down with it. How can you possibly hope to overcome this if you can't even get away from your fear?

"We believe the unsub responsible for these deaths may be a teenager," Derek begins the profile. "He's a loner and doesn't participate in team sports or group activities. He's withdrawn with very low self-esteem."

"His only form of pure interaction is online. He engages in activities that draw attention to himself yet isolate him from his peers. Parents and teachers should watch out for the warning signs--bloodshot eyes, marks on their necks, severe headaches, and disorientation."

"In real life, he considers himself a loser. In cyberspace, he can pull strings. It makes him feel powerful."

"Does this kid know that other kids are dying because of him?" an officer asks.

"Could be. He's choking himself and daring others to do it, so we're most likely looking at reckless homicides here."

"If you see anything that's unusual or suspicious, just call the sheriff's department and we will try to direct you as best we can. Thank you," JJ finishes.

The police will appeal to the public but you, Derek, and Spencer are going to a school to appeal to the kids. Hotch and Emily are at another school, and Rossi and a few officers are at another. The classroom you're in has students who look like they want to be anywhere but here. They aren't paying attention, and some of them are even on their phones and giggling.

"Two different mechanisms--strangulation and hyperventilation--create the same effect: oxygen deprivation in the brain."

A phone beeps and a student tries to hold his laughter.

"Hey, kid. Not a good idea. Let me see it." Derek snatches the phone from the kid and reads his text out loud. "What planet is this dude from? He doesn't want us to win the contest."

"I think the accurate statement would be, 'he doesn't want us to participate in the contest at all.'" He walks to the empty desk in the room and points to it. "This was Ryan's desk, right? This is where Ryan sat? You guys remember Ryan, right? He played football and took Shaunna to Prom. I'm assuming that some of you were probably even friends with Ryan.

"He wanted to win the contest, too, but the way Ryan choked himself, he cut off all the oxygen to his brain. That sent a distress signal to his heart, slowing it down. Then his brain, in an effort to preserve itself, shut off all non-essential bodily functions. His arms gave out. His legs gave out. That means he couldn't loosen the tie around his neck, at which point panic set in.

"In Ryan's case, it escalated to cardiac arrest, which means that his heart stopped. Brain damage began, and within four minutes, he was completely and totally brain-dead. He died scared and probably in a lot of pain, unable to stop what he thought he had complete control of. All because he wanted to participate in what I consider to be a pretty lame game. So, I mean, your text is actually completely accurate. I don't want you to win the contest because I don't want you to play the game."

Every single student is looking at Spencer in silence but they aren't connecting to what he's saying. He gave them technical talk they're not interested in so you have to step it up. You shouldn't be talking to these kids in your condition but you think they need someone like you to make this real for them.

"This isn't a game. This your life," you snap. "Do you want to grow up? Get out of this school? Make a life for yourself? See the world and enjoy it? Well, you won't because you'll be dead due to a dumbass decision you made."

"Okay, that's enough," Derek says.

"No, they're not listening! They're teenagers. They think they're right. They think they can do whatever they want and bad things won't happen to them. They'll play this game because they want to be cool." You turn to the students. "Do you want to know what's cool? Graduating. Getting a job you love. Making money. Starting a family. Guess what? You won't be able to do that because you will kill yourselves, and everything you've worked for will be for nothing. You will be gone and eventually forgotten."

That seems to instill fear in some of them. There are a few that don't care what you're saying but you're not sure what else you can say to get them to realize the gravity of the situation.

"You all believe this shit?" a young goth boy in the back speaks up.

"You don't? Why don't you come up here and tell us what you think?"

"Whatever."

The boy gets up and looks like he is going to go up and talk when he takes off running out of the classroom like a guilty man.

"Hey! Hey! Come here!"

Derek immediately chases off after him followed by Spencer. You stay in the classroom and look at everyone there.

"Listen, I'm not your parent. I can't tell you what to do, but I can tell you what your life will look like if you decide to play this game. You might be fine afterward or you might be dead, but the second that you are born, you start to affect everyone around you. What if your best friend played and then died? How would you feel? How do you think they'd feel if you died? Your parents? Siblings?

"You get one life. If you make one mistake, that's it. There are no do-overs. Do you really want to be the person who died too young? Who died because of a game? Games are supposed to be fun, not deadly. You're old enough to know what death is but young enough to not have to be around it. Just something to think about the next time you wrap something around your neck."

If that doesn't get to them, you don't know what will. You leave the classroom and finally join Derek and Spencer's side who has the young goth kid pinned to the ground. Well, Derek does.

"Stop fighting. Stop it!"

"Let me go!"

They wait until he is calm to talk to him.

"Why did you run?"

"Morgan, look at his neck," Spencer says.

Derek reaches for the choker the kid has on but he freaks and struggles against him.

"Don't touch that!"

"Hey, what did I say? Relax."

The kid must realize he can't do anything against Morgan so he has no choice but to let him pull down his choker. There are ligature marks around his neck varying in different colors.

"Different colors mean different stages of healing," you say.

"You've been doing this to yourself for a long time, haven't you? There's no telling how much his brain has suffered," Dean sighs.

Derek has no choice but to take the kid to the hospital to get checked out. Rhonda is the only one who meets you there since the rest of the team is still at the other schools.

"Dr. Reid," she says when you get there. "Do you think it's him?"

"He's a pretty likely candidate."

A man walks in and you are floored by the energy you feel. It's not a good one. There's something evil about him. You don't like him at all.

"Hi, I'm Wilson Summers. The school called and said my son was injured," he says to a nurse.

"Will," Rhonda says and waves him over.

"Do you know him?" you ask.

"Professionally. He works for the fire department."

"You don't say."

"Sheriff, hi.

You cross your arms and watch him with a careful eye.

"Is my son all right, doctor?" he asks Spencer.

"I'm not that type of doctor. We're with the FBI."

"FBI?"

You sense panic in his body language but he tries to play it off.

"Your son, Christopher, has been choking himself," you put bluntly. "Did you know the kids that have died recently?"

"You're talking about the suicides?"

"They're not suicides. It's a game that kids his age tend to play where they force themselves to pass out for the buzz that it gives them. Do you know anything about that?" He narrows his eyes at you, not liking what you're implying. "How long has Christopher been dressing in the gothic fashion?"

"A while. He's been having a rough time."

"Why's that?"

"His mother died a few years ago, and he's been wearing black ever since."

"Does Christopher spend a lot of time on the computer?" Rhonda asks.

"Just about every waking hour. Why?"

"We think your son may have created a website encouraging kids to compete in this choking contest. Let me ask you again, do you know something about that?" you ask.

"I don't like what you're implying, Agent."

"I'm not implying anything."

"Dad."

Christopher is wheeled in on a wheelchair with Derek by his side.

"Hey, buddy."

"Take him inside," Derek says to the doctor. "Your son needs to go in for some tests."

"Will, when he's done, we're gonna need to talk to him down in my office."

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

#spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid fic #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid fluff #spencer reid angst #criminal minds #criminal minds fic #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds fanfic #criminal minds fluff #criminal minds angst #criminal minds series rewrite #criminal minds seaosn 5

28 notes · View notes

aiscapades · 10 days ago

Text

putting this under a cut bc i'm going off the rails (this turned into me x you fanfic) ?? happy new year

gonna take this moment to appreciate tumblr (and all of you). this is a fucking hell site and it always has been, but i've been here since 2012 and it's the only social media i actually use anymore.

my writing instagram account that i used extensively during nanowrimo 2022 was hacked and i had to fight this person for control over it (i lost my art account like this in 2018). but it's all mine again :) all my posts about my gay cowboys and me finally being proud of my writing (after giving it up for years) and all the cute stories i posted abt my characters (the only time i've ever talked like that abt my ocs on the internet) REMAIN ALL MINE !!!

AND YOU KNOW WHAT?

if i want to mention nasty gay sex and tell the hacker to eat butt and die I WILL! i won't be censored. even a story i posted got a popup warning me about the language. saying bitch is a fucking internet crime now???? mark zuckerberg's internet is fucking BLEAK y'all.

this is so baffling to me. how do people live like this??? i stopped using ig years ago (rip my photography hobby!) because it just kept getting worse and worse. tumblr is infamous for never really meeting its users' expectations but at least i can say luigi should be freed without a quirky lil popup message asking "are you sure??? you could get in trouble!!!" mark zuckerberg you are an actual ai lizard robot abomination and you are ruining humanity and our planet. i would skin you in an instant. no hesitation no remorse. you would become a human skin rug and i would stand on you with muddy boots and remark about how you don't fit the space very well then let my 3 pit bull mutts piss all over you. then i'd piss on you too. the things i would do to elon musk (and others) would actually get me banned off tumblr and i think that says enough.

i love this stupid ass website because at least i can be a person here and not be gaslit or brainrotted by an algorithm. i can share whatever media i'm currently obsessed with and see other people obsessing over it too and forge actual community and friendships. i may be alone every day irl but at least y'all think i'm worth interacting with (🩷). this is an unhinged rant about how much i hate rich people who are ruining all of our lives BUT IT'S ALSO an appreciation post for every single person who has ever even looked at me here.

i'm in love with you platonically and we're kissing platonically on the mouth or on the cheeks and forehead or whatever. i'm open to whatever if it's with you. you are everything bright and beautiful to me. i take your hands in mine (no bandages) and run my thumbs along your knuckles. i read your tags and it made me laugh out loud. i don't know why that shit post about the ts cast's eye colors has 300 notes and i'm worried for all of you but also that's hilarious and i appreciate the love. it's really cool that you draw and post fanart for all of us to fawn over. i admire you. i take your wrists now and pull you in for a hug. my boobs are big and i smell like aluminum-free deodorant but there's love in the way i hold you gently, and i hope you remember that feeling when you're sad. i would wait outside while you robbed a bank and be the best damn getaway driver even though i don't have my license. i would dig a footer with my bare hands then construct my own mud blocks to give you shelter when we finally run away from it all and find a nice spot out in the woods. the sun is warm on your skin and butterflies keep thinking you're a pretty flower. your ais fanart made me horny. also your leander fanart. and that was honestly unexpected but it happened! i ain't a liar. some of you i view as gods (in like a totally normal average way) and i hope you don't notice how my whole being trembles when you say something to me. i would sacrifice my firstborn for you if pregnancy didn't scare me. i hope you like the mark zuckerberg rug i put in our sitting room (in our shack in the woods where we escape everything bad). i know you said you prefer cozy minimalism but i want our feet to stay warm and i hope his glassy eyes don't scare you too much. if they do, i'll just hold you tighter :) you're safe with me. thank you for being you and sharing your interests with the rest of us. i hope you have a wonderful new year.

#i wrote this all an hour ago & now i've been informed i'm spending news years totally by myself so #everybody huddle around we're all gonna smooch at midnight #(please i am so sad)#not ts

14 notes · View notes

accidental-memory · 28 days ago

Text

As we head into winter and face the terrors of being alive for these Interesting Times, I thought I'd bring up a couple of things that I have brought up in the past that help me through the real bad days. So, here's a couple of --

EXTREMELY FRIENDLY VIDEO GAMES

Alba: A Wildlife Adventure

This game came out basically right when my partner and I hit a severe depressive episode in the worst part of the pandemic and in the dead of winter. One of those things that I couldn't play without smiling the entire time. It's very bright and colorful. The character you play will just decide that she wants to skip instead of run for a moment. Almost everything in the game you're doing involves photographing birds! You're on a beautiful island!! You're opposing a capitalist with the power of nature advocacy!!! YOU HAVE A BOOK THAT PLAYS BIRD CALLS AT YOU!! It's cheap and part of its profits go to charity!!!!! The only things that I would mark against it are: the text messages that come up are way too tiny, and the pigeon's sound effect is way too loud.

Dropsy: A Point-and-Click Hugventure

Dropsy is a very peculiar game. You play a strange clown who is blamed for a fatal accidental fire at a carnival, and you go around the game world basically just... making people's lives better, often in very small ways, and building trust back with the community. As with any point-and-click adventure, there are a couple moments where you might want to go to a hint manual cuz the quest isn't conveyed very well, but I thought the vast bulk of the game avoided that kind of thing, and very little "moon logic" either. There's a couple scary dream sequences, but overall the game is very positive and extremely charming.

Eastshade

A very pleasant and pretty game where you go around a community of anthropomorphic animals, making friends, mending relationships, and earning your keep by making paintings of the scenery. It's got a couple of bugs, but it's a very small indie dev team.

The Frog Detective series

A series of three very short detective stories full of good humor and interesting characters!

An open world exploration game where you run around a community trying to get your older sister to play a game you two used to play together. You meet a whole bunch of other animal friends along the way, and they all come together to try to create the fantasy world you're envisioning. It's very charming, and it's particularly good if you like games that have you doing a lot of collecting and exploring.

The Longing

Hey so not to get heavy on you or anything but just for a moment: this game holds a really special place in my heart. Ironically, given its setting, this game gave me the will to get through one of the darkest headspaces I've ever found myself in. While it was released the same year as Alba, I didn't play it until two years later, in the dead of winter, just as with Alba.

It's a mostly-idle game, where you set your little shade character on a task, he slowly walks to it, and then he slowly does it. The game claims it takes 400 real-time days, which it can, but you'll generally take about a third of that (still over a hundred days!) to finish it as there are ways to speed up the way the game tracks time. Time passes even when the game is off.

But lemme tell ya. If you have ADHD, like I do, this game is like... a hack to get past your distractability and still get things done in your life. Important things, simple things. Things like the dishes, or the laundry, or cooking food. Because, you see... You set your guy to do a task, and then once you're satisfied that he's gonna actually get to the task and do it, you find reason to get up and do something yourself. Cuz now, see, haha, you're multitasking!

I own both of the plush Shade dolls that have come out. They mean a lot to me.

A Short Hike

I think most people know about this game, actually, but it's still a charming and fun romp up a mountain to make an important phone call, meeting interesting folks along the way and playing little minigames!

Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley

Likewise I think most people are aware of this game! I haven't gotten very far into it myself, but I would like to say there's one thing I don't like about the game thus far, and it has to do with the primary mechanic. You play your harmonica.... and it sounds SO BAD!! It just abruptly and jarringly doots and squeaks its way over the soundtrack, which is by Sigur Ros, one of my all-time favorite bands! OTHERWISE very cute and charming! Based on the popular animated series!!

Super Lesbian Animal RPG

I probably never would have heard about this game if someone I follow hadn't started obsessively posting about it while they were playing it. It's really good! It's really queer! It's really pleasant and affirming! The character designs are great! It's a FF/Dragon's Quest style turn-based RPG made in RPG Maker and it doesn't even require any grinding exclamation point! (Or at least I didn't do any grinding when I played, and I didn't have any problems getting through it)

A couple of special mentions

These are games that I think I would recommend, but I haven't actually gotten to play them yet so I don't know if they really fit what this list is about:

En Garde!

Firewatch

Little Kitty Big City

Spookware

Stray

And a few games that.. I dunno, I really love them and they make me happy but I don't think they quite fit the bill for this list weirdly, and they're mostly multiplayer, whatever, here they are:

Battleblock Theater

Chroma Squad

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime

Mount Your Friends

Mount Your Friends 3D: A Hard Man is Good to Climb

Nidhogg

#games #video games #depression #seasonal affective disorder #adhd

9 notes · View notes

oennpellmell · 2 months ago

Text

Receiving s*xtorsion mail when you are asexual is hilarious

Recently my information fell into a fishing listing. It is annoying because for almost 20 years I managed to keep my professional email out of this type of list (usually it is my trash mail I use to register on site). But sadly last winter, I ordered with my regular email (which was stupid) some engraved bells for my winter tradition. The company I usually used for this couldn't deliver so I found another.... Annnnd the site was a scam. Despite me double checking if it was legit. I only saw the cracks after I passed my order. The "company" was registered in the USA, but when I received the confirmation suddenly I had the info of a Chinese company. Nothing happens for a month then the moment my package "arrived" at the Chinese boarder, I received notification that my credit card had been hacked, which got immediately picked on by my bank. So no damage. Sadly, since that scam didn't bring anything else from me, it seems they moved onto a different tactic, or another group of scammers bought my info, because, for the past 6 months, I have been receiving sextorsion emails. You know the one that start with the info they managed to get on you in the header to make it sound real then tells you to take a deep breath because everything will be fine if you follow the procedure. After they usually explain that you have clicked on a naughty website that downloaded a virus on your computer and remotely activated your webcam to record you visiting other bad websites (they usually followed with a "you know which one" to make you panic if indeed you feel bad about something or make you paranoid of what could be actually pinned on you even if you have done nothing wrong. It is just a mental manipulation) and have tones of videos of you doing things in your bedroom which they compliments as a proof that they have seen it. After they call you a pathetic human being and if you don't want your bad actions to be revealed to your love ones, you need to give them x amount of bitcoins. I guess it would stress your regular Joe to receive that (and seeing the number of people online that freak-out to the copy and past version of what I received, it does do wonder on our lizard brain), but in my case, it couldn't make me laugh harder because.... I am asexual. I am really not into this. At all. If the FBI had a direct view of my online activities, it would be as exiting as the mating life of a panda. So I know this is a bait to make me panic, but it falls flat as a pancake with me, because if indeed they had anything on me, it would be me sitting in front of my computer working or reading or playing Stardew Valley.... Unless Stardew Valley is the thing I should be ashamed of? Not to mentioned that my webcam is disconnected on regular basis, I only connected it when need to have a video chat or do a stream. True, sometimes I do forget to disconnect it but uh.... It would still be just video of me, looking a screen with a resting bitch face for hours. I guess it could be described as pathetic in a way, to quote them. But seeing that my Youtube has hours of me doing the exact same thing during my streams... I am pretty sure the whole world is already aware of my activities at this point. I am really tempted to reply to them to please not send my parents a video of me drinking coffee while watching The Click, or to tell them that I couldn't care less because their info are inaccurate anyway, to pick on their pride a bit, but I won't do it since it would give them proof that at least my email is active. It does pissed me off that my email that I managed to protect for so long fell into a listing.... but at least, I get to snicker when they are "hey we know what you did" and every time I am "Oh yeah... you right, I restarted my day on Stardew because I messed up a quest... such a bad girl."

#sextorsion #scam alert #asexuality

10 notes · View notes

berrypass-de-murdler · 3 months ago

Text

2 - 28 Banking on Murder

Me getting too excited when I get to write an episode with my babi chonkers in it

Anyway Irratino changes his outfit every book, and I've just settled on his Spurdle design :3 lemme know what you think!

DON'T READ THE EPISODES WITHOUT READING THE BOOKS!!

Logico and Irratino are chilling back home.

IRRATINO: Yearly million! LOGICO: What? IRRATINO: Every year, the Institute holds its million-dollar giveaway to anyone who can prove the occult! I’m withdrawing it now, then we can pick it up and hold the contest!

Logico rolls his eye. Irratino has a stupid amount of money. Goat Lord clicks around on the bank website and gets a pop-up.

IRRATINO: Service denied? Wh- SENDING ASSISTANCE?

He immediately gets a phone call.

PERSON: Fucked-up stuff is going on in your bank account, Mr. Inspector. I demand to speak to you! LOGICO: Oh, who’s that. IRRATINO: Uh… haheheh! Uh… LOGICO: Being rich causing… ⋆˚｡⁺⋆issues?~

Irratino does the biggest sheepish grin. They have to go to the bank right now. When they get there, the person who called Irratino is dead.

IRRATINO: Oh, thank god! Ha ha!

Logico glares at him.

IRRATINO: I mean yeah. Murder time.

Chalk, Mango, and Emerald are wandering, being some of the richest people alive. Wonder what they’re here for?

EMERALD: I can tell you what I’m here for. LOGICO: Murder? EMERALD: N- LOGICO: Then I’m not interested.

It seems Mango is occupied printing fake money (with mustaches on the presidents!). He is snickering to himself as he watches the bills fly.

LOGICO: Feeling mature, I see. MANGO: EW, Logico. Go do something else, like solve a MURDER. LOGICO: That’s what I AM DOING. IRRATINO: Do you know who I’m supposed to talk to about the money thing? CHALK: [‘I don’t know’-adjacent llama sound]

Everything in the bank is so shiny, because banks are made out of money! Emerald is distracted by every detail, and Logico catches him hanging upside-down from a chandelier.

LOGICO: Excuse me? EMERALD: [wraaack?] LOGICO: Are you trying to steal crystals from the chandelier? EMERALD: No!

He flies around in a frenzy, whacking Logico in the face. Gico decides to lie.

LOGICO: If you tell me the truth about what you saw, I’ll pretend I never saw you. EMERALD: You would do that… for me? All right… I saw a laptop under ownership of one that people tend to call… CHONKERS. CHALK: [scream] [nervous laugh] Hi!

Irratino gets a lightbulb idea!

IRRATINO: Logico! I just realized something obvious! LOGICO: Hooray. IRRATINO: We can hack into the security footage, and see who did it! LOGICO: Can’t I solve it myself?

Unfortunately, there’s only footage from the vaults. Chalk is inside!

LOGICO: The bastard! Doesn’t he have enough money?

But no, he’s playing around on his laptop. There are some video game sound effects.

GAME: OBJECTION!!

Chalk giggles and claps. I don’t think he’s interested in what’s in the vault. When shown the footage, he cries.

CHALK: I just wanted a place to play my game… where no one would judge me.

Logico sighs. The only one who retains a guilty conscience is… the mango!

MANGO: That’s correct! LOGICO: You see, Irratino, there is no other way! IRRATINO: Pfft. I knew that in my gut the whole time. LOGICO: Sure you did. IRRATINO: Doesn’t matter, there’s no doubt about it - Mango is peeled! MANGO: EW! Are you saying I deserve to be SKINNED? CHALK: Irratino, that’s horrible! EMERALD: Even if he did this murder, there is nothing warranting that language! LOGICO: Yes, even I think that’s a bit- IRRATINO: All RIGHT I’m SORRY!!! Jesus. MANGO: For the glory of God, murder is permissible! LOGICO: What religion do you even follow??

The end!

nfjnjvkgfdkgbg my llama boi i can't

also to my UK pals BOOK 4 IS OUTTTTTTT I still gotta wait lol

US release date for the board game has changed from Oct 1 to 'soon' hhhhhhhhhh

The power of Goat Lord compels you!

See you next time murdlers!

#murdle #cartoonmurdleverse

11 notes · View notes

hath-e · 19 days ago

Text

Something completely out of left field:

SD Gundam Battle Alliance, or probably best Gundam PC game that you can *legally* get.

(Img source is the games cover from the Bandai Website)

I'm not a game reviewer so take what I say with a grain of salt, and as much as I love the game I don't want to claim that it's perfect.

The premise:

You're playing as someone called the "Commander" running some tests on GM's during Operation Odessa, unfortunately during the test you and you're squad called the Gatheroad Squadron got thrown into something the G Universe. And now it is your job to fix it.

The story isn't anything to write home about, but it's certainly a good background for the gameplay. And it facilitates a whole bunch of interactions between characters who otherwise couldn't.

The game might be all about using chibi-fied Mobile Suits to wreck other chibi-fied Mobile suits and getting paid for it. But to me the standout gimmick is that I can put Sulleta Mercury and Char Aznable on my team and have them bicker a bit, sure not everyone gets unique interactions but what there is is great.

The Gameplay:

The gameplay is really simple, it's a hack-n-slash, you explore some decently sized maps, collect some chests and most importantly use your chosen MS to absolutely wreck some stuff.

Throughout the game you're taken into some different moments in all of Gundam, but something is just not right, like when Ramba Ral attacked the White Base but he's replaced by Mika in the Barbatos, or how Io Fleming joins you during the Battle of Solomon and helps you kill Lok Kujan. Those are just a few of those moments because the game is completely filled with those.

But onto the actual gameplay, you get to choose between a lot of Gundam's, Ace MS's and a few grunts, they're divided into the three classes:

All-Rounders, the class that's good at close and long ranges, the Xi Gundam for example.

Sharpshooters, excelling at long range, like the Aerial.

In-fighters, the melee units, think units like Barbatos.

And you're goal is to beat the missions in a given time (it's usually long) while listening to the team waffle with the characters taking part in the mission. No dub but it's not too bad but if you struggle with reading quickly it might be a problem.

The resident Char clone:

Hermes Mercury and his dope Gundam Latreia, I won't talk too much about him to avoid spoilers but his boss fights are probably the hardest thing the game has to offer.

The aesthetic:

All the Mobile Suits and maps are build around the SD aesthetic but it still looks really good and the mecha have a good amount of detail. Outside of the actual gameplay the game takes on this visual novel thing where you sometimes respond but it's mostly the crew giving you exposition.

All in all it's one of my favorite games I've played ever, even if it's a bit dlc heavy.

8/10 genuinely recommend any Gundam fan play it.

#mobile suit gundam #gundam #sd gundam #gundam battle alliance #sd gundam battle alliance

7 notes · View notes

themonsterthing · 11 months ago

Text

Millenial Art Musing

Gather round, younglings, I’m about to tell a story about ye olde days. *rocker creaks*

My first and most beloved art form, the art that made me who I am, that made me as good as I am at what I do, is dead, is gone, is unreachable.

That might sound dramatic, but I mean that literally. My art form does not, can not, exist anymore. And that's a good thing, because of what it says about accessibility.

I was listening to one of my favourite ever albums when I had this realization today, Johnny Hollow’s 2003 self titled symphonic goth masterpiece. How I found this album was because they had an amazing website. No, really. Amazing. It was a flash masterpiece, where bugs crawled across the screen, different sound clips echoed over different sections, and you unlocked hidden tracks if you answered riddles. It was an artistic triumph. I do believe it won awards.

To modern internet users, that sounds absurd. But I was a web designer back in the days of hard coding, of fixed resolution design, of the surety that everyone was looking at your work from a very similar setup. I got out of web design when it become about scalability, when content management systems were becoming the new norm. Flash hasn’t existed in years, as a design form.

HTML is still the bones of the internet, but it has grown wings and learned to fly. This is good. My art form was not about making things as useable as possible - it was about individual design. Oh what, you have trouble reading 8px Courier in low-contrast color tones? Oh well! It’s art.

The internet should be for everyone, and what I was designing was not that. Yes, it was beautiful, but it was definitely art, not for conveying useful information or accessing tools. Would it be cool if I could make that kind of art again? As pure art? Yes. But there would be no way to make that happen, unless you did something scalable but artistic for the eight million ways people access the internet now. Which is not possible, so maybe if you could control every aspect of the way it was consumed. Which is not possible. Maybe I could do it as an art exhibit, where people came and sat on computers and clicked through incredibly slow pages on 56k to the humming of the computer fan. Ah, the old days.

I am who I am because of my first art. I became a programmer to make Sailor Moon websites, back in the days of Geocities and Angelfire. I learned whole other languages, could speak them fluently, still know common hex codes. (People ask my favorite colour, and I always say French Grey. But really it’s #E6E6E6.)

It is a bizarre and beautiful world to have come from. I miss the camaraderie of the my fellow web designers, those of us trading CSS hacks and joking about the best font style. One person with a credit card who owned a domain and hosted all their buddies, the joy of ridiculous subdomain names.

I am delighted by what the internet has become. But oh, the olden days.

</ramble>

#web design #millenial culture #early days #internet #thoughts and such #blog #personal

37 notes · View notes

t0talbra1nd3ath · 7 months ago

Note

Facts about Efren? 🙏 (I’m fixating on him at a concerning rate rn)

IVE BEEN WITING FOR THIS QUESTIONNN

Efren Lore + Fun Facts

(May contain some mild spoilers)

I think out of all of the DBM characters Efren has the most mild lore.

He's Filipino, but he was born and grew up in USA. His full name is Danilo Efren Dagohoy (yes he goes by his middle name). He doesn't really know any language other than English, though his parents did try to teach him Tagalog and he did take Spanish in high school.

His family is overall very average: middle class, suburban white picket fence house, church on Sundays, etc. He has 4 siblings - one older brother, and three younger siblings - two sister and a toddler brother.

Despite the pretty average upbringing he was always the black sheep of the family. He was always the biggest out of the five siblings, being born the weight of 8 pounds and 11 ounces. He was a chubby kid, though during puberty he started to grow really tall and with a bit of regular exercise he developed an impressive muscle mass.

He was always freakishly strong and completely unaware of it. In kindergarten and primary school he would get in trouble for accidentally hurting other kids and breaking toys. This self control issue really came to a boiling point when he accidentally killed the neighbours cat while playing with it. After that incident most of the kids his age in the area weren't allowed to talk to him. In middle school he became more of a loner and that stays true even to this day.

He still lives in a suburban-ish area. There aren't any houses near by but there is a road that joggers frequent near by.

Efren works from home as a cyber security guy for a whole array of websites ranging from sketchy to full on illegal. On top of being naturally strong he also has a talent for IT. In high school he would make simple viruses and hack into random websites for shits and giggles. That is actually how he got his job - he broke into one of those sketchy websites and after being tracked down on suspicions of being a fed he was offered to either work for them or perish (lol).

Efren has a very skewed sense of empathy. He doesn't feel much for people, you could confess your undying love to him or shoot yourself in the head in front of him and he wouldn't care either way. On the other hand he has insane levels of empathy towards animals, even the "gross ones" like bugs, snakes, arachnids, etc. He gets genuinely mad if someone kills a spider.

Other than a skewed sense of empathy Efren also has a very odd aggression response. His emotional response to being mad never results in impulsive physical or verbal aggression (yes ik in-game it's not really shown, I'll have to rewrite a few sections). But what does illicit impulsive physical aggression in Efren is something cute. That is the primary reason he won't get an actual pet cat, even though he desperately wants one, he is terrified of hurting it.

Ok now for a rapid-fire-round-up of small fun facts:

Efren hates beer! His favourite alcoholic drinks are a vodka-redbull and a banana daiquiri.

Efren is a massive nerd, he grew up spending all his free time playing video games and nowadays since his schedule is pretty lax he spends a large amount of his time watching anime and playing FPS shooters.

Efren has a two pet tarantulas named Tarantino and Tammy (they are both female).

Ok this turned out much longer than expected, sorry for the info dump Q_Q

Let me know if any on y'all are interested in lore on Isra and Hawk!! (I'm holding off on Orion lore since it would be a major spoiler for the full game)

#death by mixer #asks

15 notes · View notes

rhyselinn · 1 year ago

Text

In Defense of Toby Fox’s Halloween Hack

Twitter is all in a tizzy about the Halloween Hack as of late. The apparent reason for this is because the Halloween Hack uses a word commonly used as a homophobic slur, not taking into account that the hack was created in 2008 (when the internet was a different place) and that 2008 was 14+ years ago (and people are known to grow and change over this time). There appears to be some amount of discussion over whether Toby Fox should be “cancelled” for this.

I’ve seen a fair bit of banter from both sides on this, but what I haven’t seen people on the internet talk about is the CONTEXT of the game in which this word is used. And while I don’t spend a lot of time talking about HH due to Toby’s stated embarrassment when people draw attention to it, if the internet’s gonna go dig up old drama for some reason, then by golly, I’m going to go dig up my old love for this game.

So if you want to come take a wild ride through some internet history and literary analysis, then go buckle your seatbelt and click the Readmore.

(content warning: discussion of homophobic slurs)

A quick bit about me: I am an adult on the internet, and I fall into the original Halloween Hack (hereafter abbreviated as HH)’s target demographic: teenagers who existed on Starmen.net, an Earthbound fan website, in 2008. I am also a current admin for Starmen.net, which puts me in a good position to comment on the history and culture of the site as a whole, and how that ties into the reception of HH.

Starmen.net has a long and rich tradition of events called Funfests, in which the site staff run a combination art/writing/music/etc contest for the site members, usually coalescing around a theme such as “Earthbound”, or sometimes “Winter” or “Halloween”. These events offer prizes such as forum avatar/rank privileges, and historically they sometimes even offered physical prizes. The 2008 Halloween funfest had an entire website made for it, which you can view here. Toby Fox submitted HH to this 2008 Halloween Funfest under the internet handle Radiation.

This is the context of HH: a passion project made by a teenager for a fan website full of other teenagers/twenty-somethings. If you go to a high school science fair, you could rightfully lambast every project for being undeserving of a Nobel Prize, but that’s not why we host high school science fairs OR Starmen.net Funfests. These events are an opportunity for teens to show what they are capable of and receive commendation from both their peers and a panel of judges selected specifically for this age demographic and venue.

For perspective, here’s what one of the hosts of the 2008 Funfest had to say about HH:

“Radiation nearly outclassed himself with this effort of skill labour and love. What a lot of fun. Despite getting repeatedly killed in the sewers this was one thoroughly enjoyabe hack. I Think I’ll go and play it again!”

HH won an award in the 2008 funfest-- a #1 in the “Most Effort” category. For some perspective, few people on Starmen.net go to the lengths of creating an entire game for a Funfest (and HH has a playtime of roughly 5-6 hours!). Of those who do, most of the resulting games are consistent with the output you would expect from a teenage userbase, since it’s not fair to expect teenagers to produce professional-quality work. That said, I can say with confidence that HH is a standout in the areas of both effort and quality.

Another thing that needs to be said of HH is that it is not a standalone game made in today’s modern game engines-- it is a hack of a preexisting game. Earthbound's codebase is notoriously complicated, and a lot of the tools that modern Earthbound hackers use to make their jobs easier (eg Coilsnake, Ebmused) didn’t exist in 2008. Toby had to do a lot of manual coding grunt-work to make HH, up to and including manually typing hexadecimal values into his computer in order to compose Megalovania. (Source: Toby wrote a really in-depth post about the process he used to make HH way back when, which I’m referring to here, but it’s unfortunately been deleted since then.)

I can imagine a hypothetical objection at this point: “ok but high effort homophobia is still homophobia”. In this post, I am also going to argue that Toby’s usage of this word can be considered artistic merit when taken in context, but you’ll have to bear with me for a bit while I explain that context. I’ll also talk about some of the cool and neat things this game does along the way because I think they’re worth talking about.

HH is, at its core, a derivative fan work of the video game Earthbound. And while I love Earthbound deeply, I also recognize that it’s a cult classic that not everyone has played. So while I encourage people to play the game I love deeply, I’ll also sum up a few relevant plot beats here so folks can understand the source material HH draws from:

--Ness, a thirteen year-old boy, meets a creature named Buzz Buzz from ten years in the future who tells him that an alien named Giygas has destroyed the world (direct quote: “All is devastation”). As such, Ness and his friends must save the world.

--One of Ness’s friends is a shy boy named Jeff with a penchant for shooting bottle rockets at enemies

--Jeff’s dad is an odd character named Dr. Andonuts. Dr. Andonuts is a reclusive scientist who lives in a snowy region called Winters who sent his son off to boarding school at a very young age. Andonuts’s lab includes no other signs of life, certainly not any indications of a wife/Jeff’s mother. Andonuts ends his conversation with Jeff by saying “Let’s get together in another ten years or so.”

--Towards the end of the game, Dr. Andonuts uses a device he created called a Phase Distorter to send Ness and his friends to the venue for the final battle. This is very clearly telegraphed as a one-way trip, as the kids’ brains are described in text as needing to be transplanted into robots to get there, but the kids go along with it anyway because the world is at stake.

--The kids go on to fight the final boss in a spectacle that words can’t do justice to here. All I’ll say is that after a long-fought battle, in the grace of an unexplained Deus Ex Machina, the souls of the four kids are impossibly returned to their bodies so they can enjoy their happy ending.

These are all canonical events that happen in the base game of Earthbound. Earthbound’s sequel, Mother 3, was released in 2006, two years prior to HH, although the English fan translation wasn’t released until around the time of the 2008 funfest, interestingly enough. Mother 3 does develop Dr. Andonuts’s canonical character somewhat, but I won’t discuss it in further detail here other than to say it mostly re-emphasizes his odd, solitary nature and his overly cavalier attitude towards his science experiments.

It’s also worth noting that in an oddball game like Earthbound, there are a lot of weird and funny idiosyncrasies to theorize on. There are pencil-shaped statues that block your way, which need to be removed with a device called a “pencil eraser.” Ness and his friends fight robots, aliens, and Krakens, but they also fight handbag-wielding ladies and walking mushrooms. Dr. Andonuts’s character oddities, while strange, fit nicely into the evenly distributed mesh of oddities that comprise Earthbound’s world.

Derivative works, particularly fan works, exist in conversation with the source material. They answer questions posed by the source, interpolate details left out of the original, and otherwise build on the world of the original in a collaborative way. This conversation sometimes happens in a one-on-one manner, between fan and original creator, but it also happens in conjunction with the fan community as a whole. When a theory takes traction, it will begin to appear in more and more fan works, growing in popularity and notoriety until it is “accepted” as the most common interpretation of canon’s strange idiosyncrasies. Newer or more fringe theories are less likely to be taken as a “default” interpretation, but they are more likely to be taken as “fresh” or “interesting” until/unless they, too, begin to gain traction.

HH exists in a few conversations: one with the source material, one with the fan community of Starmen.net (and the broader Earthbound community as a whole, although there was much more overlap between the two back in 2008), and one with Starmen.net’s Funfest culture. In order for HH to be well received by the Funfest judges, it would need to be aware of the community sensibilities as well as push the boundaries of the fan conversation with Earthbound as a whole-- a careful balancing act of being both interesting but also recognizable.

So, the fundamental fan question that HH tries to answer is “why is Dr. Andonuts LIKE THAT?”

This is an absolutely fair question, and Toby was certainly not the first to ask it, although his answer in the form of HH is one of the most high profile now.

HH is set in the world of Earthbound a few months after the final boss fight in autumn, but one where Ness and his friends did not magically return after their one-way trip to the final boss. Word has it that Dr. Andonuts has turned evil and must be defeated. On its surface, this is standard fare for a throwaway plot for a Funfest submission, but the magic of HH is that it does not treat this premise as a throwaway plot. It sets out to earnestly discuss why this happened by delving into Andonuts’s psyche.

Coming back to the idea of derivative works existing in conversation with the source material and interpolating unexplained details: Earthbound does not explain why Dr. Andonuts lives in solitude, nor does it give any hint as to the identity of Jeff’s mother. It also gives no indication as to why Andonuts didn’t seem to have bonded well with his son other than the handwavey explanation that Andonuts is just “like that”. HH initially poses the question of “why did Andonuts turn evil”, but leaves the reader to puzzle that out while battling monsters in Earthbound’s RPG engine.

At first, Toby offers a partial explanation: in HH, Dr. Andonuts is portrayed as feeling immense guilt at having sent his son into what he perceived as a death trap. (quote from the game: “The world is dead, and I’ve become senile with guilt and rage.” He also says stuff like “what’s the point in living without them”.) As such, he turned evil and created zombies to storm the world of Winters, causing a surge in refugees and desperate survivors. This is why the main character was sent to kill him.

(image transcription: a picture of a menu with the text “What do you do!?” followed with a single option: “Kill him”)

But in order to see the depth of this explanation, the true answer to the question “why is Dr. Andonuts LIKE THIS”, the player must hit “B” to cancel out of a menu at the correct moment, something Earthbound players tend to learn by habit from closing the equipment menu so many times, but never used as a plot-relevant mechanic in the base game. HH takes this subconscious muscle memory and turns it into a mechanic gating off half the game if you don’t “spare” the enemy, a precursor to the “spare” mechanic that would debut seven years later in Undertale.

When the player does this, they enter Dr. Andonuts’s “Magicant,” a dream-construct representing his inner psyche, with his hopes and dreams and fears all laid bare. The main character is tasked with finding Dr. Andonuts’s lost Courage. In the base game, Ness enters his own Magicant, so this feels familiar to a veteran player, but it also gives Toby the chance to more closely examine Dr. Andonuts’s character than he otherwise might be able to do.

Over the course of the rest of the game in Dr. Andonuts’s Magicant, the player continues to control the main character, a bounty hunter named Varik, but the NPCs in the game often mistakenly treat Varik as Andonuts. The dialogue we see from these NPCs reflects memories from Andonuts’s own life. We see a lot more characters try to make connections with Dr. Andonuts (”hey don’t you want to play baseball instead of doing math?”), but these are apparently rebuffed througout Andonuts’s life. One NPC guarding the entrance to the path leading to this lost Courage advises “Be careful. Be yourself.” We see memories of Dr. Andonuts’s presumed wife/Jeff’s mom, who is an OC Toby created for this work to answer the questions posed by canon.

Varik is tasked with fighting three “demons” behind three doors, where each demon is said to be stronger than the next. Since this segment takes place inside Andonuts’s mind, these are unsubtly implied to be Andonuts’s inner demons. The second and third doors represent Andonuts’s relationship with his son and his guilt over getting people killed; the first door is relevant to this post, so I’ll talk about it in more detail.

Inside the first door, Varik sees Andonuts’s memories of something called “Remember Me,” who despite being faced in a battle, is friendly and affectionate and causes no damage apart from being “hard to think about.” This enemy has a stock overworld sprite of a male NPC from the base game.

(image transcript: a smiling purple sprite in an Earthbound-style battle. The text box says “The Remember Me? was a little hard to think about again”)

At the end of this map, we see a cutscene in which it’s implied that Dr. Andonuts felt disconnected from his wife, perceiving her as an incessant insect. She says things like “Lately, you’ve been acting kind of... disinterested in me. Is there something wrong with me?” She asks if Dr. Andonuts has been hiding something from her, which triggers the following battle:

(image description: an Earthbound-esque battle against three enemies, each a sprite depicting a closeup of a man’s muscular body: a bicep, a chest, and a swimsuit-clothed groin area)

All three of these enemies are named NO. The music that plays in the background is deliberately unsettling, and their battle moves consist mostly of “flexing in a masculine way”, “slapping their buddies in a masculine fashion”, and “being hard to think about again”. After three turns, these enemies deliver a series of un-dodgeable moves that kill the player before it’s possible to defeat them, ending the game. The only way to proceed in the game is to select the Flee option in the menu.

To summarize the themes being presented here, Dr. Andonuts is gay and repressed his homosexuality to try to preserve his relationship with his wife due to his lack of courage. From a game design and literary merit standpoint, this NO battle is actually a really poignant way of portraying Andonuts’s mindset and all of the fears that kept him in the closet, portraying men’s bodies as an enemy that he must fight, or in failing to do so, must run from. Remember that Earthbound takes place in 199X-- none of the 1990′s were known for being especially tolerant of gay men, nor was 2008 when Toby made this hack; 2008 was the same year that California passed a bill intended to ban gay marriage. In another since-deleted web page, Toby said that one of his motivations for creating HH was “the lack of non-stereotypical, major homosexual characters in media”. With that in mind, this is a surprisingly sensitive portrayal of the pains of repressing one’s sexuality, especially from a teenager.

Toby also portrays some complexity in Andonuts’s relationship with his son Jeff, making the case that Andonuts helped Jeff in his fight against Giygas as a way of living vicariously through him to feel like less of a monster. From this standpoint, it’s easy to see that Andonuts’s abrasive language might be a defense mechanism for his own self esteem issues, calling others monsters to deflect from the fact he sees HIMSELF as a monster.

(image transcription: a screenshot of the main character fighting Andonuts from the end of the game. The text in the textbox from Andonuts says “you idiots. look at your decaying, frostbitten bodies”)

(and just as a side note, I think the reminiscence of this dialogue to Flowey’s dialogue in Undertale is funny and interesting)

Dr. Andonuts says the following: "If I can't live with myself, why should anybody else? Ergo, nobody will live. Then, everybody will understand all the pain I went through. When everyone understands me... They'll cherish me so." This isn’t the expression of a healthy mind, but it is a portrayal of someone who’s experiencing some serious pain. I’d also argue that it’s a nuanced and sympathetic portrayal of a character who is clearly in a crisis.

Another Andonuts quote: “you’re going to kill me, because that’s what a hero does. he has to kill that monster, right? even in this form, i am shaking with fear. i don’t want to die. leave me alone”

The second-to-last fight in the game is against an enemy called Id. In Freudian psychology, the Id is the representation of one’s most base desires, in contrast to the Superego who restrains a person from operating on these desires. The game up until this point does a good job at portraying Dr. Andonuts’s Superego-centric repression strategies, so getting to see his underlying base desires directly is a novel development. The enemy Id consistently reiterates a desire to be left alone and for the main character to not kill it. At the end, it apologizes for not being much of a fight. Only then does Varik fight Dr. Andonuts proper, and without the Id, all that’s left is the Superego-fueled repression, labeled in-game as “hatred”.

Andonuts’s villain monologue starts as such: “I know what this feeling is. It’s hatred for the person who came so far just to destroy an old man. My mind is gone. All that is left is pure hatred.

YOU SEE THIS BURNING, BLOODY UNIVERSE. YOU SEE THIS ULTIMATE, UNLIMITED POWER? Varik. I HAVE FUCKING HAD IT WITH YOUR SHIT. you little fuckers are going to have your bodies ripped in half. i’ll shove your asses so far down your throats that when you crap, you’ll sing fucking beethoven.”

This monologue is the precursor to the infamous line:

(image transcript: a screenshot from the final battle, in which Andonuts says the words “tl;dr: eat shit, faggots”)

As established earlier, this is a line uttered by a gay character who is in a tremendous amount of pain, which would make it an act of slur reclamation. We could argue about whether Toby Fox is in a position to justify this usage, but I refuse to have that conversation because I don’t think real life queer people should have to out themselves in order to justify the art they make. Whether Toby Fox is actually queer or not is, I would argue, immaterial to the story he’s trying to tell here, which is nuanced in a way that a homophobe would be unlikely to write.

We can also have the conversation of whether this word choice is a good decision or not-- and there are, I would argue, a lot of parts of this game that a storyteller with more experience and maturity would have handled better. There are some parts that come across heavy-handed and needlessly edgy, and there are parts that could have been handled with more grace. We can discuss whether “bury our gays” stories were stale by 2008, or whether stories of queer pain had fallen out of vogue for stories of queer joy. But again, this is a work made by a 16-year old, and being needlessly critical of a fangame made by a teenager for a community of predominantly teenagers feels needlessly meanspirited. Just because the game has been unforeseeably thrust into the public light like this doesn’t mean we need to eviscerate it from a 2023 lens. It’s not fair to Toby Fox, neither the original 16-year old creator nor the adult celebrity today.

So I’m not going to do that. What I am going to say is that a queer reading of this work would indicate that this word usage may very well have been a decision made with artistic intent, and a death-of-the-author reading of this work might indicate that this word has artistic merit anyways. If a gay character sees gayness as bad and uses a slur associated with gayness to demean his opponent, that does fundamentally say something about this character, and in this case it reinforces the existing themes that Toby had put in place. I wouldn’t recommend people in 2023 take this approach in storytelling lightly, but I can see and appreciate the spirit in which the game and this word choice appear to have been made.

In the end, Varik does defeat Dr. Andonuts and kill him.

(image transcript: Varik standing above the machine containing Dr. Andonuts’s dead body, not depicted onscreen. The text box reads “You feel a little like this situation could have been avoided.”)

This is one of the last text boxes of the game, and I think it’s a good ending note for this work-- saying that queer lives do NOT need to go this way, that we do not need to bury our gays, that this genuine pain that Dr. Andonuts experienced is not an inevitability.

In conclusion, I do love Halloween Hack for what it is, imperfections and all. It was very clearly a labor of love made by a very earnest and well-meaning teen, and a lot of the things that would later go on to make Undertale so popular are present in their nascent forms here. HH has some genuinely interesting things to say about Earthbound, from both a plot and a character standpoint, and it’s clearly a good-faith attempt at grappling with queer and psychological subject matter. If people on the internet were to engage sincerely with it rather than judging it (and its creator) based on one out-of-context screenshot, I think they might find a diamond-in-the-rough that still manages to be an absolute gem of a fangame.

#earthbound #halloween hack #undertale #toby fox #tw slurs

74 notes · View notes

tearsinthemist · 11 months ago

Text

Want to learn something new

Want to learn something new in 2022??

Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)

40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)

Excellent basic crochet video series

Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)

Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)

How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)

Another drawing character faces video

Literally my favorite art pose hack

Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??

Introduction to flying small aircrafts

French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding

Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)

Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)

Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)

Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:

Calculus 1 (full semester class)

Learn basic statistics (free textbook)

Introduction to college physics (free textbook)

Introduction to accounting (free textbook)

Learn a language:

Ancient Greek

Latin

Spanish

German

Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)

French

Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)

Jan 2, 2023

Want to learn something new in 2023??

Cooking with flavor bootcamp (used what I learned in this a LOT this year)

Beekeeping 101

Learn Interior Design from the British Academy of Interior Design (free to audit course - just choose the free option when you register)

Video on learning to read music that actually helped me??

How to use and sew with a sewing machine

How to ride a bike (listen. some of us never learned, and that's okay.)

How to cornrow-braid hair (I have it on good authority that this video is a godsend for doing your baby niece's black hair)

Making mead at home (I actually did this last summer and it was SO good)

How to garden

Basics of snowboarding (proceed with caution)

How to draw for people who (think they) suck at art (I know this website looks like a 2003 monstrosity, but the tutorials are excellent)

Pixel art for beginners so you can make the next great indie game

Go (back) to school

Introduction to Astronomy (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Principals of Economics (high school course - free textbook w/ practice problems)

Introduction to philosophy (free college course)

Computer science basics (full-semester Harvard course free online)

Learn a language

Japanese for Dummies (link fix from 2022)

Ukrainian

Portuguese (Brazil)

American Sign Language (as somebody who works with Deaf people professionally, I also strongly advise you to read up on Deaf/HoH culture and history!)

Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified)

Quenya (LOTR fantasy elf language)

Dec 26, 2023

Want to learn something new in 2024??

Beginner-oriented video on how to sail

This guy has so many videos on baking different types of bread. SO very many.

Coding in Python - one of the most flexible and adaptable high-level programming languages out there - explained through projects making video games

Learn to swim! (for adult learners. I don’t care if you live in Kansas or Mali or wherever. LEARN TO SWIM.)

Learn how quantum mechanics works. Then read some more about it

[Learn about quantum mechanics again, but in a more advanced engineering/mathematics class. Then read more about the math and physics of it]

Poetry Handbook, by Mary Oliver

Something I learned this year: how to sew a quilt (Here’s a very easy beginning pattern that looks amazing and can be done with pre-cut fabric!)

How to hit the ball in softball

Tutorial video on what is under the hood of most (gas) cars + weird engine sounds and what they mean

Full beginner mechanics technical training, if you want to go more in depth

Playlist on how car engine physics work if you want to go ultra in depth

Lecture series on architecture design through study of buildings

How (American income) taxes & tax law work (choose “audit course” at checkout for free class)

Pickleball for beginners (so you can finally join your neighbor/friend/distant cousin who is always insisting you join their team)

+ Para-Pickleball for beginners (for mobility aid users!)

School is so much more fun when there’s no tests:

American Law - Contracts

Shakespeare’s Life and Plays

Fairy Tales: Meanings, Messages, and Morals

Modern Poetry

World History [Part 1, Part 2]

Learn a language:

Arabic + Resource Guide compiled from Reddit (includes info on different dialects)

Chinese (Cantonese) (audio)

Urdu (frequently recommended course on Reddit) + Resource Guide

Yucatec Maya

25 notes · View notes