#at least its a pretty self contained idea. maybe one day i'll even make it

[machinebeast]

another design that's been in my brain for a project i cant think about rn

[pinesfamilyguidetotheweird]

Looks like I'm not done with the whole Ford taking pills over actual food thing...

Because I just learned the actual number of calories a grown man should be taking per day. And it's not 500 calories. That can actually be pretty dangerous.

No, the actual average for an adult man would be somewhere between 2,000 to 3,000 calories per day! And maybe more for Ford's case, as even thinking can burn calories. Not kidding. Granted, calories burned from just basic brain function wouldn't cause significant weight loss...

I digress.

I've been meaning to bring this up in the other post, but I'll say it here. The largest pill capsule size is called '000' and its typically the size of a US quarter.

If not a bit bigger.

Like, find the nearest US quarter you can find or just make a circle with your pointer finger and thumb to get the idea better. Although, I have pianist hands, so I'm not sure if that would be relevant...

That is one helluva of a pill to swallow. The largest pill capsule I've taken was Valerian root and those capsules were two sizes or three smaller.

Just...the idea of swallowing just one of these things make me wanna gag.

But, I'll use this for my example.

And I'm sticking with capsules because if Ford does prepare the pills himself, then it would most likely be in capsules.

(Do keep in mind that I am no nutrition expert. Take everything I say with a grain of salt.)

So, Ford (at least while he was on the run) would most likely need, let's say 3600 calories per day. To get these calories, let's focus on 3 important essential nutrients: Proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.

Carbohydrates provide 4 calories per gram, protein provides 4 calories per gram, and fat provides 9 calories per gram

Adding up that, we got...17 calories per gram...I think. (obviously, we're leaving out vitamins and minerals, which are essential too, but probably not for calories)

So, the largest 000 capsule pill would contain 1600 milligrams...or 1.6 grams...oof...

Um...okay.

So, 17 calories per gram, yeah? Okay, math time.

17*1.6=27.2

3600/27.2=132.35

...Okay...unless this math is shit, this means Ford has to take about 132 horse (not regular sized) pills if he wants to function like a typical biological organism!!

Sweet Jesus!

Ooooooooooooooooooooh...the thought is making me gag again. Aaah! No joke...

Yeah...yeah...

Artistic licenses can be used at full power here.

Like, maybe Ford found a plant that is essentially like this super-duper, mega multivitamin nutrition farm and it can somehow be compacted into maybe a size 2 or 3 capsule so he can maybe take three pills a day (like three meals a day)...even then...its not enough...

...Imagine a story...where Ford eventually runs out of this 'magic' pill and is just...not having a good time...

Stan, please re-introduce proper food to your malnourished, underweight, and semi self-destructive brother!!

[redshiftsinger]

You're not. That's how I tend to work too, at least for shorts. I get the idea, I write it out, I sit on it overnight and then give it a second pass the next day to make sure I still like it, then I send it off to a beta or just publish it if I'm reasonably confident I haven't left out some important bit of information that exists in my head but will confuse everyone who isn't me.

Not that I write a LOT, but look, I started out writing poetry. I never did "drafts" that weren't pretty close to the finished thing, the biggest editing I've ever done to a poem was when I did one that was a set of self-contained but related/interconnected stanzas and the final editing work was deciding what order to put them in. I don't even know how someone would write a super rough 'first draft' of a poem, unless it's just missing lines in the middle that you'll work out later because you had to skip ahead to get something else down before you forget it.

For long stories I wouldn't say I really "draft" so much as, start with a mashup of a rough and mostly-finished scenes. I just keep adding detail as I work on it. It begins life as a rough outline plus maybe one or two scenes that are written out in detail, then more and more scenes get written as I work on it, and the outline gets fleshed out more as I figure out where the story is really going. It's not a proper "first draft" until the whole outline is converted to either written-out scenes or transitional-cut bits that give relevant plot/character info without dragging on in exposition, basically the final form of the story. And at that point it's really just gonna need going-over to make sure the scene transitions work well, the grammar is consistent and I haven't done too much tense-hopping, and any remaining typos have been wrangled. By the time I have a "first draft", I'm mostly satisfied that I've gotten the story into a readable form! Sometimes it will need some cuts to really become its best possible self, but usually I've already wrangled at least the majority of overwritten fluff down to a good concise form, because overwritten fluff gets in the way of scenes connecting together, and when the next scene in a sequence isn't working, it's usually because I need to go back and rework the last one to aim better at where I want it to go.

I tried doing the nanowrimo-style "word vomit as much as possible and then you'll have a story and you can fix it in editing" method and I ended up having written exactly one "typical" first-draft of a novel. It's exactly what people expect a first draft to be: overwritten, messy, plotlines and worldbuilding get confusing because it ended up going in surprising directions midway through and I never went back to adjust the stuff earlier to make it fit. And I'll probably never finish it because fixing all the problems would, effectively, require a complete rewrite from scratch. So I don't do that anymore, because that method does not work to get me to a point of having a story I feel good about letting anyone else read.

Making my own post because I hate to be a grump on someone else's, but the idea that the first draft is never good and that all the work of writing is editing down all the fluff and crap that you wrote makes me so annoyed.

That's true for some people! And I'm not going to pretend like I never have to cut stuff I've written. But I'm a classic under-writer. Editing for me means mostly "going back and writing out scenes that I referred to happening but didn't depict because the story will be stronger if you see it" (thanks, @invizigothx). I'm not doing a bad job just because I work over my sentences as I write and cut/rework very little afterward, and I can't possibly be the only person who writes this way.

[manonamora-if]

technically, we haven't passed the 6-months mark but whatev'

Since there's been a bit more activity on this page lately (hello new followers!), I thought it be a good time to have a little retrospect on what has happened the past few months and a couple of my thoughts. Also some milestones passed :D

Note: I discuss some stats of the game, out of transparency and to give people one particular view on how IF games are doing.

It's going to be pretty long, since I'll discuss all projects I have at hands, so under the cut!

If you haven't yet played them, you should :P

Status: Completed.

I am publishing this on the day I released MtP, the first version at least, on itch. This was my first ever IF game and my first 'serious' piece of writing in years. The game itself if pretty light-hearted, but I hadn't written anything substantial (aside from uni papers) in a long while...

Since, I've been wanting to write something light-hearted again, though I neither had the time or ideas... maybe one day, lol. It was really a fun project to start out with this medium and program!

This project had been shelved pretty much as soon as it was published, as it was a completed project and self-contained stories. Still, last January, I gave it a neat UI update to make it neater. I also published a tutorial on how to reach all endings [link]! But it is also officially and forever shelved! For real this time.

It is not my most popular project by far -and that's more than fine!-, but it has passed the 2k plays mark a few weeks ago! Which was really neat!

Other neat stats:

18 lovely people rated it, with an average of 4.2/5

it has been added to 122 collections

it had a ration of 2.2 views per play (when I calculated it)

Compared to the last retrospection, it tripled in rating and in collections (ish), but the average stayed the same. It has slightly gotten a better view/play ration (0.01 count).

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

Status: Ongoing/In Beta

Since February, I have been working really hard on this project. I don't think I spent more than a few days away from it, in one form or another, even when my wrists were out of commission. CRWL has seen 2 major story updates and a UI update since the beginning of the year.

I have finally have a clear head/roadmap for the rest of the project and know where I am taking it. It will be a huge project, that will most likely span a few years, looking at my notes and how fast I progress through it. I am dreading a bit how huge it will get, but am also so very excited to see where it goes and how much I will learn from it. I would not be surprised if it crossed the 1M words count at some point, lol -we will pass 100k online in the next update already-.

Speaking of the next update, it should be right around the corner. I know I've been talking about it for weeks now, but the Beta is (or should be) in its last stretch. I have completed all edits/proofreading. All previous bugs have been fixed. The only thing I worry is the formatting, it can get a bit wonky at times. It is frustrating, but I am getting there!

Some neat stats again:

47 lovely people rated it, with an average of 4.7/5

it has been added to 1112 collections

it had a ration of 1.9 views per play (when I calculated it)

Compared to the last retrospection, it doubled in rating and in collections (ish), but the average decreased by 0.2 (got a few haters, lol). It has slightly gotten a better view/play ration (0.1 count).

This is also the only game with a rating on IFDB.

TBH, I'm gonna need a break from it after the update. It's been non-stop this since January...

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

Status: ongoing

If you were following me when this game came out (or in its past updates a few months back), you'd know I made this one in less than 2 weeks for a jam. As proud I was to churn out a functionally working game in this time frame, I was never happy with its result. I was forced to scrap most of the story for time constraints and other neat ideas because I did not know how to implement it.

So, when I got frustrated with CRWL since I re-started the project, I've been switching over to this game and worked on it in the hope to release a better version with a proper fleshed out story and better code. It will be a proper Interactive Novel now :P. It really has been bugging me since last year...

Anyway, the new draft has been going really well with 13 out of 30 scenes written. Each character will have a fleshed out background and story. While there will be little in the character creation side and choice (since the game goes forward as you play a round), I wanted to have the story be as least repetitive as possible. Each round/scene has its own story (or 2) and maybe ending(?)

I am also planning to have a new UI! If I can manage to make it work...

Unsurprisingly, this project never took off (but I hope it will after I finish it, cause I think it is really cool -game within a game type-). We just passed 400 plays! It has been rated 4 times, for an average of 4.3 and added to 38 collections. It has a ratio of 2.9 views per play.

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW (when it updates)

Status: Hiatus

TTTT has been on hiatus almost as soon as I started teasing it. It was intended to be created for the IF Comp of 2022 (but I, like, disappeared for a while). I've always been thinking about this project since, but didn't know how to get back to it. (I wanted to have it out for the Spring Thing, but tbh I was knees deep in CRWL, so yea).

The main problem I had is I pushed myself in a corner by focusing on details rather than the big picture. I have the code ready to go-ish, but the story never took off (because I was too focused on ONE thing). It was so frustrating, I just gave up.

Lately, I've been discussing the project around me, and I got excited to go back to it. It is not a priority at all -I have enough in my hands-, but if I can manage a IF Comp 2022 release, I'd be pretty happy. Otherwise Spring Thing 2023?

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW | Tag

Status: Completed/Hiatus

This one is also a Jam baby. Created in 1 month during January for the @/interact-if game jam, it made me excited to work on a different genre and different setting. I was also on a Sci-fi binge in my reading list then :P

Still, I wasn't happy with the cliffhanger I gave it (you can ready why here). I also wanted to continue the story in some way. I know the big twists and what needs to be revealed. Also the Robot. I heard the players loud and clear, the robot will come back.

BUT I haven't had the time or spoons for it (made me real sad tbh). I have been working on it behind the scenes here and there. There was some UI concept for the codex (with a working design) and a bunch of notes on my desk.

Before I come back to it, I want to have the story structure clear and ready for writing. I don't have it just yet. So for now, it is essentially on hiatus until I am ready to go back to it.

Still, some neat stats for the way:

10 people rated it for an average of 4.3/5

it has been added to 118 collections

it has been played over 1.5k times (yay), for a ration of just less than 2 views per play.

It took off when released and got a few peaks since, but it is not a popular project either. Oh well :P I had fun with it, it's all that matters.

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

Status: Ongoing

Technically The Trials and Tribulations of Edward Haucourt, a Lovecraftian Interactive Fiction (but that's way too long to include in the lil' banner.

Note: I am not writing this project, only coding it. M is taking his time writing it, because this project is for fun and writing is not always fun. I have been trying not to nag him, because it doesn't help.

The story has been mapped on paper by chapters. 2/8 chapters are drafted and 1 is coded (just to see how it looks).

In any case, whatever is written will be uploaded in October 2022. Hopefully the whole game will be done. At worst, I have 2 chapters.

PLAY | INTRO POST | RATE | REVIEW

EDIT: because I posted the unfinished draft like a dummy

Since March, I've become one of the mods of @/interact-if (you probably saw my icon on your feed if you follow that blog, or if you hang out in the discord) and helping out with the events (you should check out the interviews!). It's been exciting to read the different experiences of other authors and be able to share it with so many people. It also meant I taken a bit of a break sharing much over on this page. I should maybe remedy that.

I also have a side blog @manonamora-rb where I reblog stuff that doesn't fit the vibe I want to have on this one. I want to do like I preach by rebloging stuff I like so I usually reblog dump and queue a bunch of stuff there. If I've reblog an old post of yours, it was prob in my likes and I just didn't want to lose it (I've seen a few blogs I follow disappear).

Finally, and I should have added this to the original post. Thank you to everyone who played the games I've made the past year. Thank you to everyone who liked and shared my posts. Thank you to everyone who rated and reviewed and commented on my projects. Thank you to everyone who sent an ask and helped my flesh out some of my concepts further.

Thank you <3

And that's it!

Bye!

[akira-emberheart]

songs I'd like to assign to the glee kids (part I)

Note: I'm pretty well known for making playlists and more playlists, and ever since seeing this post by @cracktastic about assigning, for the 100th episode, the least expected song to the least expected character, I've found myself craving to hear specific characters sing specific songs.

(I've also started another separate list to add on to that post I mentioned, but that will be a post for another day)

So after going through my music library, I came up with a small list of songs for each character that I would love to hear them sing, for various reasons, which i'll do my best to explain.

This got really long really fast, because I like to get into meta and over analyze - I'm also just very passionate about music. For that reason, I'll do 5 songs at a time for a specific character, and I'll be putting a read more.

Also, please be gentle with me - I've watched Glee a year ago, and it's entirely possible I may be missing or confusing scenes and storylines in my head. If I do, let me know!

If you read this and find yourself thinking of songs and scenarios as well, do share them with me! I'm working on actual Spotify Playlists as well.

So let's get into it -

for Kurt Hummel

> Re: Stacks by Bon Iver

"This is not the sound of a new man

or crispy realization

It's the sound of the unlocking and the lift away

Your love will be

Safe with me"

This is probably one of my favorite songs ever, and I first thought about it for Kurt after realising how beautiful his voice would sound in it, because of its crystal clear and poised quality. (I liked it so much I included it in a scene on my fanfic too).

If you don't know Bon Iver, or the history of this song, it's the last track in an album full of more..."depressing" songs. It's also the one that has a throughout tone of hope, of recovery after a hard ordeal, of taking some first steps to a better place.

I imagine it would be a good song for him around the time he meets Blaine - when the Karovsky situation is nearly over, and he starts looking back on his school year - Burt's heart attack, the bullying - and, now with Blaine in his life, and a renewed self confidence, he's finally able to confidently step into a better phase of his life and heal from all he went through.

I see this one being sung in a quiet moment of reflection, when he's alone. Maybe in the choir room, or even outdoors in a nice garden. In my fanfic I wrote it in a different context, in Blaine's room at night, so I guess that works in my head too.

***

> Enchanted by Taylor Swift

"I'm wonderstruck

Blushing all the way home

I'll spend forever wondering if you knew

I was enchanted to meet you"

I'm very fascinated with Kurt's whole storyline in S2 - things start off so rough for him, but when Blaine comes along, and when Kurt is able to grow and shift more and assuming the person he really is, things start looking up. I chose this song for what it promises, and also because I can imagine it in Kurts lower singing register and it seems like a good one for him. Also, yes, I was a kid who owned Speak Now. Sue me.

This song is about first meeting someone very special, and that happens to be the beginning of Klaine. With the almost whispered lyrics, the slowly crescent ambiance and rhythm, it really encapsulates the feeling of everything stopping when you lay eyes in that one special person, and the flooding rush of emotions that happens right after.

Kurt had no idea how much an unsuspecting visit to a rival show coir school would change his life, even less in the midst of the situation he was in. It also seems fitting for Kurt and his early relationship with Blaine because of some specific lyrics ("This is me praying now / This was the very first page / Not where the storyline ends"). Enchanted tells the story of a special first meeting, and hints at something special to come, from the perspective of someone who is awestruck for someone.

Like the one above, this one would fit in early S2, possibly in EP6, after Kurt and Blaine's meeting at Dalton Academy. When he's back home, alone in his room, daydreaming, or when he's back at McKinley in that same afternoon.

***

> Gonna Get Over You by Sara Bareilles

"Oooh, how am I gonna get over you? I'll be alright, just not tonight But someday. Hey, I wish you'd want me to stay I'll be alright, just not tonight"

My main reason for choosing this one is because I think it fits very very well with Kurt's voice, and musical taste - its a very vibrant and poppy song, despite the more depressing theme - a post breakup promise of getting over it.

I first thought of it for S4, soon after the Breakup™, but paying close attention to the lyrics (I do tend to get stuck on just the melody sometimes), it makes more sense to place this on during the S6 Breakup - when Kurt finds out about Blaine dating Karovsky, after deciding he wants Blaine back.

So it's a hard situation for him, as we see from his breakdown in the bathroom (poor Kurt!), and he really has to come to terms with the mistakes he made (and the mistakes they both made as a couple), pick himself up, and move on.

I imagine this one being sung during an outing with Rachel, when she's trying to cheer him up and lift him up a little from his depression. My brain readily produces an image of a sunny street or a shopping mall that the two of them walk through, Kurt with some nice vivid colored clothes, finally being able to smile and ready to perhaps start moving on, or at least ready to start considering he will be okay.

***

> Killer Queen by Queen

"She keeps her Moet et Chandon

In her pretty cabinet

"Let them eat cake", she says

Just like Marie Antoinette"

This song just reminds me of Kurt. It's one of my all time favorites from Queen, and ever since watching Glee, these two are just connected in my mind. Voice wise, Kurt could definitely handle it.

It's apparently about a "high class prostitute"(? Freddie's word's, not mine), but still paints a pretty and dainty picture, and you can almost picture a porcelain faced lady in her best clothes, delicately smoking a cigarette. It also contains words that probably only Kurt can pronounce out of everyone in the glee club.

Many Queen songs were sung on Glee, but I don't think there was ever a Queen episode. For this one, I suggest a headcanon scenario, maybe during S3, when Mr. Shuester decides to have a Queen week - and Kurt isn't known for going with the obvious choices. He wants to be classy, edgy and impressive, and he sings in front of everyone, half in the choir room, half in the auditorium, perhaps with some fancy decoration and dancers behind him.

***

> The Answer by Kodaline

"You might think you found the one

Until your heart gets ripped and torn

Yeah, I used to feel bad, I used to feel like that

I still feel a bit like that"

This is another one that I picked immediately solely based on Kurt's voice - I really do like his voice with just a quiet, discrete instrumental. Looking into it further, I decided it could really work for Kurt's character.

I didn't go very deep into the intended meaning of the song, because it definitely has space for different interpretations. I choose to go with the breakup one. These lyrics here reminded me a little of the S4 breakup storyline - "We all fall down from the highest clouds / to the lowest ground" - makes me think how well Kurt's life was going once he arrived in New York, with the internship, his apartment situation with Rachel, a new and exciting place where he could freely be himself... and then he's completely blindsided by Blaine's cheating. He goes from being ecstatic and excited at Blaine's appearance, looking forward to share with him all the great things he just discovered, when Blaine's confession sends him to a well of despair, doubt and loneliness. The lyrics "You might think you found the one / until your heart gets ripped and torn" - reinforce the whole situation.

I can see him singing this not long after the breakup, on one more sleepless night, maybe walking alone through the streets of New York, or maybe in a montage of his busy daily routine, while he just gets through the day with a whole lot of emptiness weighing on his chest.

[wri0thesley]

Hi Nat your blog always makes me feel better after a draining day and today has been pretty rough for me. What's worse is that I'll probably feel this way all the way till tomorrow, which is my birthday and nobody should ever be feeling down on their birthday. I know this won't be finished in time for tomorrow but can I have a scenario with Kakyoin holding a surprise party for their s/o, who just had a tiring and stressful day? Thank you for being a gift on Earth❤

 You know that it had been you who had asked your boyfriend not to make a big fuss of your birthday, but it had still stung that morning when he’d pressed a kiss to your cheek and told you to have a good day without even mentioning the fact that today was the anniversary of another year of your life on Earth.

It didn’t help that nobody else in your workplace seemed to have remembered it either; that you went from place to place with a greeting and no more. Would it have killed them to remember to say ‘happy birthday’ to you? You weren’t asking to be lavished in presents and cards and treated like you were royalty, but some kind of acknowledgment that you’d made it another year without dying would have been nice.

Alright, so you’d asked Kakyoin not to make a big deal, but that didn’t mean you weren’t expecting anything! He was Kakyoin, for God’s sake - quiet, calm, self-assured, but he always thought about you. He remembered your favourite foods and cooked them for you, picked up things with your favourite animal from the stores, remembered what smells you liked and disliked and always had the right scent of candle burning--

No, it wasn’t too much to expect him to have at least wished you many happy returns, maybe with a kiss and a proclamation of how much he loved you.

It definitely didn’t help that today was proving to be one of the most stressful days you’ve ever had in the office - it was as if suddenly everything was malfunctioning all at once. One printer going down would result in the next two going down, and as soon as they were fixed, everybody’s internet was blinking on and off. Your birthday may well be cursed, you think sourly, as you play a game of Chrome’s dinosaur jump while you wait for the IT people to come and sort it out.

By lunch time, you’re not surprised when you go to the office fridge and find out that someone has taken your sandwich from its Tupperware contained, taken a bite out of it and returned it when they’ve realized their mistake. Sighing, you drop it into the bin and resign yourself to the fact you’re going to go hungry again.

Only five more hours and you can go home to your boyfriend, who, whilst he might have forgotten that today is your birthday, will at least be sympathetic to the fact you’ve had a shitty day. If you’re lucky he might cook for you - Kakyoin’s an incredible cook.

You make it through the hours driven only by hunger to get home and give your boyfriend a hug and pour out all of your woes. You don’t notice the whisper that one of your closest friends in the office gives to another, the look they give you, the giggle that they share as they watch you stumble up and morosely pack your things.

She calls out as you leave;

“Hey! Have a good day!” And you think you might cry with the unfairness of it all. You’d woken up this morning with a semblance of a good mood, looking forward (if not to a day of preferential treatment) to at least being noticed by your colleagues and boyfriend. You had not had a good birthday so far, nope - and you doubted in the seven hours that were actually left of the day things were going to improve.

* * *

“How did you do all this without me realizing?” You ask Kakyoin, gaping around at the immaculately decorated living room. Your house isn’t exactly fit for an ordinary kind of party (it’s too small for that, it’s only you and Kakyoin after all), but your boyfriend hasn’t let that stop him. There are balloons in the corners, a banner proclaiming your name strung up across the ceiling, a coffee table piled high with treats (some of which look as though Kakyoin definitely made himself. They’re going to be delicious), and a mixture of your friends and his friends milling around.

“You’re not very observant, you know,” he chides, putting his arm around your shoulder and pulling you into him. He smells like his cherry-scented body wash and you take a moment to breathe in his scent, enjoy how warm he feels pressed against you. A few hours ago, you were doubting whether Noriaki Kakyoin really loved you. Here, with him so close to you, you can’t believe you ever entertained the thought.

“I told you not to make a big fuss,” you mumble, looking around and seeing that there’s a pile of presents and cards in the corner of your sofa. The top one looks to be hastily wrapped with marine-life wrapping paper - from Jotaro, then.

Kakyoin gives you a fond but exasperated look.

“Yes,” he agrees, “you told me that, and this morning you looked at me like a wounded puppy when I didn’t wish you many happy returns. Just like I knew you would.”

“Am I that obvious?” You ask him, and he throws his head back and laughs and you feel like everything is right with the world. You don’t know what you did to deserve Noriaki Kakyoin in your life, but you’re not going to complain.

“Sometimes, darling,” he says, and he presses a kiss to the top of your head. He pauses. “You’re not angry with me, are you?”

You want to cry from the very idea that Kakyoin’s surprise party could have made you angry. After your day at work, after the sting this morning of feeling like your boyfriend couldn’t care less about you, after everything . . .

“Of course I’m not, Nori,” you say, with your throat dry. “I . . . Thank you. I love you.”

His hand squeezes your shoulder.

“I love you more.”