#business plan dev

[circusk]

incapable.

[vigilskept]

real quick did we ever get anything in veilguard about the agents of fen’harel? i know we don’t meet any, but was there any info buried in a codex somewhere that anyone’s come across?

[ultimate-fnaf-world]

Sun Jan 19 2025 Dev Log

As it is the new year I have a goal to actially get some progress done on this fangame, I hope to make some progress once a week and report on the progress here. Today was mostly going over what I need to do next (and trying to get myself out of bed).

- Made a to do list that hopefully will keep me focused

- organized character abilities and files to make life easier

- added Oswald, Jack o moon, Carnie freddy, Plush baby, and Lolbit to the character roster

- Made a sprite for Gregory with deisgn notes for future characters

Things I plan to focus on next week:

All Gregory and Cassie's base sprites that turn the direction the player is facing with Gregory walking faster than Cassie and cassie being able to use a special glitch ability.

[crushpunchh]

i dont think ive ever mentioned this project on tumblr but i have this toh visual novel i want to make. like with branching paths and everything. really big undertaking so like dont hold your breath high chance its never happening. considering right now how evil you should be able to get if youre playing as luz.

[monkeydluthy]

Building a React app? Here’s my tried-and-true process:

1️⃣ Start with a clear plan. What’s the app’s purpose? 2️⃣ Visualize the layout with wireframes. 3️⃣ Set up your project files and dependencies. 4️⃣ Code reusable components and handle state effectively. 5️⃣ Test and debug—don’t skip this step! 6️⃣ Deploy your app for the world to enjoy.

📊 Check out the infographic for the full breakdown!

#ReactJS #WebDevProcess #CodingJourney

[picturejasper20]

So, about that scene at the end of the episode with Dev getting angry with Hazel and Peri.

Dev finds out that his father Dale has barely been paying attention to him at all, as he almost never sees him, because Dale has been studying Hazel and trying to find out why the Lost and Founder's festival went wrong. He gets very emotionally devastated by this, seeing that his father has been paying more attention to his friend than him.

He points out that Dale has been studying Cosmo and Wanda yet he can't seem to notice that Dev has his own fairy under the same roof. As the dialogue continues you can feel the jealousy and bitterness from Dev, getting more and more angry as he speaks.

Hazel tries reasoning with Dev and explain to him that Dale is the one that has been doing all this. In the middle of the conversation she accidentally confesses that she made a wish to understand Dev better in ¨A New Dev-elopment¨ but doesn't explain herself well and Dev misunderstands the situation, thinking that Hazel has been faking being his friend all this time.

In this scene Dev is very confused and upset, he seems to be having what would be close to a trauma response and ends up closing himself off. He says that ¨Dimmadones don't make friends¨ (probably something that Dale taught him) and his trust issues get the worse of him, telling Hazel that he can't trust her and insulting her. Hazel leaves sadly, wishing Dev a happy birthday and goes with Cosmo and Wanda.

Later Peri tries cheering Dev up, he asks for the kid if he wants to wish for something, which leads to Dev to cry and lash out at Peri. He gets angry at Peri for not being there when he needed his help earlier when Vicky was making them all miserable and probably for not telling him about this room where Dale has been all this time. He wishes for Peri to leave him alone and Peri, confused and sad, makes the wish, disappearing from Dev's view.

This makes Dev explode and cry as he leaves marks all over Dale's computer, crossing out anything that is related to fairies and Hazel. He stops for a moment to observe the mess he left on the screen and then leaves the room to what would be cry in his room.

The last moment gives the idea that Dev seems to hate anything related to fairies and Hazel now, as he blames them for ¨stealing¨ his father's affection from him. The problem is that he still doesn't fully realize that Dale wouldn't care about him even if he wasn't busy studying Hazel and the fairies magic. But he believes this is all Hazel and her fairies' fault regardless.

What we see here is Dev having what would be his response to how he deals with his own abandonment issues, which is pushing others away when he gets hurt by something or someone. We have seen him have similar reactions before but, in this episode, it is where this reveal really got the worst of him and now he finds himself alone again like he was at the start of the season, along with an huge hate for Hazel and fairies as a whole.

Some have been theorizing that Dev; now being a vunerable position he is angry, confused and, on top of that, isolated again; could be easily manipulated by an anti-fairy in the upcoming episodes and used for evil plans.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Lina Khan’s future is the future of the Democratic Party — and America

On OCTOBER 23 at 7PM, I'll be in DECATUR, presenting my novel THE BEZZLE at EAGLE EYE BOOKS.

On the one hand, the anti-monopoly movement has a future no matter who wins the 2024 election – that's true even if Kamala Harris wins but heeds the calls from billionaire donors to fire Lina Khan and her fellow trustbusters.

In part, that's because US antitrust laws have broad "private rights of action" that allow individuals and companies to sue one another for monopolistic conduct, even if top government officials are turning a blind eye. It's true that from the Reagan era to the Biden era, these private suits were few and far between, and the cases that were brought often died in a federal courtroom. But the past four years has seen a resurgence of antitrust rage that runs from left to right, and from individuals to the C-suites of big companies, driving a wave of private cases that are prevailing in the courts, upending the pro-monopoly precedents that billionaires procured by offering free "continuing education" antitrust training to 40% of the Federal judiciary:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/13/post-bork-era/#manne-down

It's amazing to see the DoJ racking up huge wins against Google's monopolistic conduct, sure, but first blood went to Epic, who won a historic victory over Google in federal court six months before the DoJ's win, which led to the court ordering Google to open up its app store:

https://www.theverge.com/policy/2024/10/7/24243316/epic-google-permanent-injunction-ruling-third-party-stores

Google's 30% App Tax is a giant drag on all kinds of sectors, as is its veto over which software Android users get to see, so Epic's win is going to dramatically alter the situation for all kinds of activities, from beleaguered indie game devs:

https://antiidlereborn.com/news/

To the entire news sector:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/06/save-news-we-must-open-app-stores

Private antitrust cases have attracted some very surprising plaintiffs, like Michael Jordan, whose long policy of apoliticism crumbled once he bought a NASCAR team and lived through the monopoly abuses of sports leagues as an owner, not a player:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/michael-jordan-anti-monopolist

A much weirder and more unlikely antitrust plaintiff than Michael Jordan is Google, the perennial antitrust defendant. Google has brought a complaint against Microsoft in the EU, based on Microsoft's extremely ugly monopolistic cloud business:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-files-complaint-eu-over-microsoft-cloud-practices-2024-09-25/

Google's choice of venue here highlights another reason to think that the antitrust surge will continue irrespective of US politics: antitrust is global. Antitrust fervor has seized governments from the UK to the EU to South Korea to Japan. All of those countries have extremely similar antitrust laws, because they all had their statute books overhauled by US technocrats as part of the Marshall Plan, so they have the same statutory tools as the American trustbusters who dismantled Standard Oil and AT&T, and who are making ready to shatter Google into several competing businesses:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/8/24265832/google-search-antitrust-remedies-framework-android-chrome-play

Antitrust fever has spread to Canada, Australia, and even China, where the Cyberspace Directive bans Chinese tech giants from breaking interoperability to freeze out Chinese startups. Anything that can't go on forever eventually stops, and the cost of 40 years of pro-monopoly can't be ignored. Monopolies make the whole world more brittle, even as the cost of that brittleness mounts. It's hard to pretend monopolies are fine when a single hurricane can wipe out the entire country's supply of IV fluid – again:

https://prospect.org/health/2024-10-11-cant-believe-im-writing-about-iv-fluid-again/

What's more, the conduct of global monopolists is the same in every country where they have taken hold, which means that trustbusters in the EU can use the UK Digital Markets Unit's report on the mobile app market as a roadmap for their enforcement actions against Apple:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/63f61bc0d3bf7f62e8c34a02/Mobile_Ecosystems_Final_Report_amended_2.pdf

And then the South Korean and Japanese trustbusters can translate the court documents from the EU's enforcement action and use them to score victories over Apple in their own courts:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/10/an-injury-to-one/#is-an-injury-to-all

So on the one hand, the trustbusting wave will continue erode the foundations of global monopolies, no matter what happens after this election. But on the other hand, if Harris wins and then fires Biden's top trustbusters to appease her billionaire donors, things are going to get ugly.

A new, excellent long-form Bloomberg article by Josh Eidelson and Max Chafkin gives a sense of the battle raging just below the surface of the Democratic Power, built around a superb interview with Khan herself:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-10-09/lina-khan-on-a-second-ftc-term-ai-price-gouging-data-privacy

The article begins with a litany of tech billionaires who've gone an all-out, public assault on Khan's leadership – billionaires who stand to personally lose hundreds of millions of dollars from her agency's principled, vital antitrust work, but who cloak their objection to Khan in rhetoric about defending the American economy. In public, some of these billionaires are icily polite, but many of them degenerate into frothing, toddler-grade name-calling, like IAB's Barry Diller, who called her a "dope" and Musk lickspittle Jason Calacanis, who called her an all-caps COMMUNIST and a LUNATIC.

The overall vibe from these wreckers? "How dare the FTC do things?!"

And you know, they have a point. For decades, the FTC was – in the quoted words of Tim Wu – "a very hardworking agency that did nothing." This was the period when the FTC targeted low-level scammers while turning a blind eye to the monsters that were devouring the US economy. In part, that was because the FTC had been starved of budget, trapping them in a cycle of racking up easy, largely pointless "wins" against penny-ante grifters to justify their existence, but never to the extent that Congress would apportion them the funds to tackle the really serious cases (if this sounds familiar, it's also the what happened during the long period when the IRS chased middle class taxpayers over minor filing errors, while ignoring the billionaires and giant corporations that engaged in 7- and 8-figure tax scams).

But the FTC wasn't merely underfunded: it was timid. The FTC has extremely broad enforcement and rulemaking powers, which most sat dormant during the neoliberal era:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

The Biden administration didn't merely increase the FTC's funding: in choosing Khan to helm the organization, they brought onboard a skilled technician, who was both well-versed in the extensive but unused powers of the agency and determined to use them:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff

But Khan's didn't just rely on technical chops and resources to begin the de-olicharchification of the US economy: she built a three-legged stool, whose third leg is narrative. Khan's signature is her in-person and remote "listening tours," where workers who've been harmed by corporate power get to tell their stories. Bloomberg recounts the story of Deborah Brantley, who was sexually harassed and threatened by her bosses at Kavasutra North Palm Beach. Brantley's bosses touched her inappropriately and "joked" about drugging her and raping her so she "won’t be such a bitch and then maybe people would like you more."

When Brantley finally quit and took a job bartending at a different business, Kavasutra sued her over her noncompete clause, alleging an "irreparable injury" sustained by having one of their former employees working at another business, seeking damages and fees.

The vast majority of the 30 million American workers who labor under noncompetes are like Brantley, low-waged service workers, especially at fast-food restaurants (so Wendy's franchisees can stop minimum wage cashiers from earning $0.25/hour more flipping burgers at a nearby McDonald's). The donor-class indenturers who defend noncompetes claim that noncompetes are necessary to protect "innovative" businesses from losing their "IP." But of course, the one state where no workers are subject to noncompetes is California, which bans them outright – the state that is also home to Silicon Valley, an IP-heave industry that the same billionaires laud for its innovations.

After that listening tour, Khan's FTC banned noncompetes nationwide:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/25/capri-v-tapestry/#aiming-at-dollars-not-men

Only to have a federal judge in Texas throw out their ban, a move that will see $300b/year transfered from workers to shareholders, and block the formation of 8,500 new US businesses every year:

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/21/g-s1-18376/federal-judge-tosses-ftc-noncompetes-ban

Notwithstanding court victories like Epic v Google and DoJ v Google, America's oligarchs have the courts on their side, thanks to decades of court-packing planned by the Federalist Society and executed by Senate Republicans and Reagan, Bush I, Bush II, and Trump. Khan understands this; she told Bloomberg that she's a "close student" of the tactics Reagan used to transform American society, admiring his effectiveness while hating his results. Like other transformative presidents, good and bad, Reagan had to fight the judiciary and entrenched institutions (as did FDR and Lincoln). Erasing Reagan's legacy is a long-term project, a battle of inches that will involve mustering broad political support for the cause of a freer, more equal America.

Neither Biden nor Khan are responsible for the groundswell of US – and global – movement to euthanize our rentier overlords. This is a moment whose time has come; a fact demonstrated by the tens of thousands of working Americans who filled the FTC's noncompete docket with outraged comments. People understand that corporate looters – not "the economy" or "the forces of history" – are the reason that the businesses where they worked and shopped were destroyed by private equity goons who amassed intergenerational, dynastic fortunes by strip-mining the real economy and leaving behind rubble.

Like the billionaires publicly demanding that Harris fire Khan, private equity bosses can't stop making tone-deaf, guillotine-conjuring pronouncements about their own virtue and the righteousness of their businesses. They don't just want to destroy the world - they want to be praised for it:/p>

"Private equity’s been a great thing for America" -Stephen Pagliuca, co-chairman of Bain Capital;

"We are taught to judge the success of a society by how it deals with the least able, most vulnerable members of that society. Shouldn’t we judge a society by how they treat the most successful? Do we vilify, tax, expropriate and condemn those who have succeeded, or do we celebrate economic success as the engine that propels our society toward greater collective well-being?" -Marc Rowan, CEO of Apollo

"Achieve life-changing money and power," -Sachin Khajuria, former partner at Apollo

Meanwhile, the "buy, strip and flip" model continues to chew its way through America. When PE buys up all the treatment centers for kids with behavioral problems, they hack away at staffing and oversight, turning them into nightmares where kids are routinely abused, raped and murdered:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/they-told-me-it-was-going-be-good-place-allega-tions-n987176

When PE buys up nursing homes, the same thing happens, with elderly residents left to sit in their own excrement and then die:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/12/24/nursing-homes-private-equity-fraud-00132001

Writing in The Guardian, Alex Blasdel lays out the case for private equity as a kind of virus that infects economies, parasitically draining them of not just the capacity to provide goods and services, but also of the ability to govern themselves, as politicians and regulators are captured by the unfathomable sums that PE flushes into the political process:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/oct/10/slash-and-burn-is-private-equity-out-of-control

Now, the average worker who's just lost their job may not understand "divi recaps" or "2-and-20" or "carried interest tax loopholes," but they do understand that something is deeply rotten in the world today.

What happens to that understanding is a matter of politics. The Republicans – firmly affiliated with, and beloved of, the wreckers – have chosen an easy path to capitalizing on the rising rage. All they need to do is convince the public that the system is irredeemably corrupt and that the government can't possibly fix anything (hence Reagan's asinine "joke": "the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help'").

This is a very canny strategy. If you are the party of "governments are intrinsically corrupt and incompetent," then governing corruptly and incompetently proves your point. The GOP strategy is to create a nation of enraged nihilists who don't even imagine that the government could do something to hold their bosses to account – not for labor abuses, not for pollution, not for wage theft or bribery.

The fact that successive neoliberal governments – including Democratic administrations – acted time and again to bear out this hypothesis makes it easy for this kind of nihilism to take hold.

Far-right conspiracies about pharma bosses colluding with corrupt FDA officials to poison us with vaccines for profit owe their success to the lived experience of millions of Americans who lost loved ones to a conspiracy between pharma bosses and corrupt officials to poison us with opioids.

Unhinged beliefs that "they" caused the hurricanes tearing through Florida and Georgia and that Kamala Harris is capping compensation to people who lost their homes are only credible because of murderous Republican fumble during Katrina; and the larcenous collusion of Democrats to help banks steal Americans' homes during the foreclosure crisis, when Obama took Tim Geithner's advice to "foam the runway" with the mortgages of everyday Americans who'd been cheated by their banks:

https://www.salon.com/2014/05/14/this_man_made_millions_suffer_tim_geithners_sorry_legacy_on_housing/

If Harris gives in to billionaire donors and fires Khan and her fellow trustbusters, paving the way for more looting and scamming, the result will be more nihilism, which is to say, more electoral victories for the GOP. The "government can't do anything" party already exists. There are no votes to be gained by billing yourself as the "we also think governments can't do anything" party.

In other words, a world where Khan doesn't run the FTC is a world where antitrust continues to gain ground, but without taking Democrats with it. It's a world where nihilism wins.

There's factions of the Democratic Party who understand this. AOC warned party leaders that, "Anyone goes near Lina Khan and there will be an out and out brawl":

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1844034727935988155

And Bernie Sanders called her "the best FTC Chair in modern history":

https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/1843733298960576652

In other words: Lina Khan as a posse.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/11/democracys-antitrust-paradox/#there-will-be-an-out-and-out-brawl

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

And so the first anniversary of the formation stream series ends and we can remove Hell Creek from the list. I had ideas for an HC piece for nearly a year but only over the last few weeks came this composition really together.

While not being filled with sauropods the HC fauna has still plenty of megafauna and countless small taxa, aquatic and terrestrial. I actually tried to include an underwater section here but the whole composition turned quickly way too busy.

A major source for this piece was the work of the Saurian devs, complemented by the guidance of

Julianne Kiely (for the flora) and Brennon Valdez (for the fauna). Check their work out.

The enormous size chart this time was put together by Montana Rosslyn. Thankfully she didn't have to put together this within a week as we had planned this stream for more than a month in advance.

Last thing I want to share here is the initial sketch which made it click for me. From the beginning the question was how to handle T. rex, sometimes even involving concepts like showing it as a corpse (similar to Allosaurus in the Morrison piece). But I think in the end this pose, just cooling off in shallow water suited it much better. Also to show how integrated into it's own ecosystem this animal was.

Again I have to thank everyone involved in this series so far, it would have been so much more difficult to make this happen without you guys! On to many more!

[spiderb00]

- FAM OUT - DREAM LIFE

The barking of the dogs awakened Sophia from her perfect world. The Filipina was cooking, she loved doing it after a busy day, and with the house to herself, the peace she felt was what she needed to end the day. As soon as she put the platter in the oven, Sophia heard little footsteps running towards where she was, and then she could finally see the little copies of her running around the house.

"MOM!" Bending down to be at the height of the twins, Sophia opened her arms, being greeted by a slight impact when the two four-year-old twins hugged her.

"Mom, Mommy Yn took us to the playground, and let us play a lot of hours." Samantha, the older twin – only for twelve minutes – said, emphasizing her words by moving her hands.

"And then she took us out for ice cream!" Denver, the younger twin said, covering his mouth with his little hands when he realized what he said.

"Dev! You weren't supposed to tell that part!" Sam said, stomping her foot on the floor and making an angry face that looked a lot like Sophia's.

"No, it's okay, my loves. I don't like it when you eat dessert before dinner, but I'll talk to your mom about it. Now go upstairs and I'll go upstairs to give you a bath, you little dirt." Sophia said, tickling the two children, who ran away screaming and running upstairs.

Seeing the twins' rush, you entered the kitchen, two backpacks in your hands and two stuffed monkeys hanging from your shoulders. As much as Sophia thinks it's great to see you in super sexy mom mode, she knows she has to scold you for giving the twins ice cream ahead of time.

"So, are kisses just for them? Or do I have one too?" Leaning in to give your wife a kiss, you missed the aim, making the kiss fall on Sophia's cheek, as she turned her face in the opposite direction.

"Not really, no kisses for mothers who do not comply with the other mother's orders." Sophia said, looking at you with that face you knew well, the one that gave you chills.

Already knowing that the twins would probably have snitched on you, you decided to go for the foolproof plan, puppy eyes. You knew you shouldn't give the twins ice cream, but they were so cute telling you the list of reasons why you should buy them ice cream.

"Baby, I'm sorry. But they were so cute with those little faces, I couldn't resist." You said, grabbing your wife's waist and making her look at you.

"You have to be tougher on them, Yn." Sophia said, putting her hands on the back of your neck.

"Sorry…" You said, kissing the Filipina on the cheek and hoping that would get you out of the punishment.

"All right." Sophia said, still with a warning look on her face. "But next time you don't escape me."

Shaking your head and with a smile on your face, you kissed Sophia. Your lips fitting perfectly and your tongues fighting for the dominance of the kiss. With one swift movement, you picked Sophia in your lap, placing her on the counter. Feeling your kisses on her neck, Sophia moaned lightly, covering her mouth with one hand so as not to make too much noise.

"Sophia." You called, as you went down your kisses around her neck.

"Say it, baby."

"Sophia." Stopping the kisses, Sophia looked into your eyes, only to see the smile on your face, before you whispered again. "Wake up!" Stunned, Sophia woke up in a jump, seeing you standing next to her on the bed. Looking at the clock on the bedside table, Sophia narrowed her eyes, the digital clock reading 02:34 in the morning.

"Baby, we have a problem."

Continues…

Hello guys, are you okay?

as I said, I really miss Fam out, so I decided to release a preview of what's to come.

This kind of happens in one of the chapters of Fam Out, which I'm still going to release, but I wanted to give you this background.

Any idea of what will happen ahead?

Stay safe and drink water

fam out masterlist

Xoxo, spider

[yakityyaku]

As someone whose degree was borderline digital marketing, it baffles me every single time companies like Unity pull this kind of shit.

First of all, it doesn't make sense. I don't know who conceived this moronic fee plan, but it's absolutely absurd. There's a lot of ways to get more money - not that I find any of them particularly favorable, but at least a price increase, sub tiers, etc are somewhat sensible in a functional way.

Beyond that, they don't have any common sense to see how this shit ALWAYS fails. One of two things are going to happen. Either everyone is going to jump ship from Unity (already seeing game devs reporting they'll be pulling their games) and their competitors will overtake them, or they'll have to backpedal.

Obviously, losing most of their business is bad and understandably unwanted for them, but I'm baffled by how few recognize the power of the second consequence.

Even if they reverse the decision, this is a HUGE smear to their reputation. Unity will lose business regardless, but even worse will be the loss of confidence in the company.

Consumers and devs alike are not going to forget this. They will not let it go. Other companies will use this as a talking point for their engines and their assets being superior because they at least respect game devs and gamers. They never tried to charge bullshit fees. They never got shamed back into being user friendly.

Reputation matters. Especially in today's market. Consumers largely do not fuck around anymore with companies who do this, especially when they've been dependable in the past.

It's foolish. It's embarrassing. It's greedy and out of touch. I don't envy their PR team right now.

[empty-movement]

Welcome to Something Eternal: A Website Forum in 2023 wtf lmao

It's 2023, and a single belligerent rich guy destroyed one of the primary focal points of uh...global communication. Tumblr is, shockingly, kinda thriving despite the abuse it gets from its owners, but that I will call the iconic refusal of Tumblr users to let Tumblr get in the way of their using Tumblr. Reddit killed its API, removing the functionality of mobile apps that made it remotely readable (rip rif.) Discord, our current primary hangout, has made countless strange choices lately that indicate it has reached the summit of its usability and functionality, and can only decline from here as changes get made to prepare for shareholders. (NOTE: WROTE THIS POST BEFORE THEIR MOBILE "REDESIGN" LMAO)

The enshittification is intense, and it's coming from every direction. Social media platforms that felt like permanent institutions are instead slowly going to let fall fallow incredible amounts of history, works of art, thought, and fandoms. It kinda sucks!

A couple years ago, I posted about a new plan with a new domain, to focus on the archiving of media content, as I saw that to be the fatal weakness of the current ways the internet and fandoms work. Much has happened since to convince me to alter the direction of those efforts, though not abandon them entirely.

Long story short? We are launching a fucking website forum. In 2023.

If you remember In the Rose Garden, much about Something Eternal will be familiar. But this has been a year in the making, and in many ways it's far more ambitious than IRG was. We have put money on this. The forum is running on the same software major IT and technology businesses use, because I don't want the software to age out of usability within five years. It has an attached gallery system for me to post content to, including the Chiho Saito art collection. It has a profile post system that everyone already on the forum has decided is kinda like mini Twitter? But it is, fundamentally, a website forum, owned and run and moderated by us. We are not web devs. But we have run a website on pure spite and headbutting code for over twenty years, and we have over a decade of experience maintaining social spaces online, both on the OG forum, and on our Discord. Better skilled people with far more time than we have can and will build incredible alternatives to what is collapsing around us. But they're not in the room right now. We are. And you know what? Maybe it's time to return to a clunkier, slower moving, more conversation focused platform.

You're not joining a social media platform with the full polish of dozens of devs and automated moderation. Things might break, and I might need time to fix them. The emojis and such are still a work in progress. Because e-mails no longer route in reasonable normal ways, the sign-up process instead happens within the software, and has to be approved by mods. Design and structure elements may change. Etc. The point being, that the forum isn't finished, but it is at a place where I feel like I can present it to people, and it's people I need to help direct what functions and things will be in this space. You all will shape its norms, its traditions, its options...choices I could try to make now, but really...they're for us to create as a group! But the important stuff? That's there. Now let's drive this baby off the damn lot already!

Come! Join us!!

PS. As always, TERFs and Nazis need not apply.

[sanguinesky-if]

Happy New Year!

No matter how you spent the last one, I wish the new year brings improvement and happiness in every aspect of your life!

While I won't be posting a full dev log this month, I think it's fair to share some updates on my current activities and the development of the story.

Important note: Patreon billing is paused for January and will resume on February 1.

Winter Special Collection

Release date [Patreon]: January 4 Release date [Public]: January 10

A quick note: The short story collection was originally scheduled for release on December 31. However, due to a heavy workload and being unwell, which led to me being sick over the past week, my schedule was delayed, and I wasn't able to prepare all the files for release.

I'm still recovering, but I'm feeling much better than I did last week and plan to catch up with my schedule!

I've also chosen January 10 for the public release because it's my birthday, and I'm intending to break tradition and give a gift on this day instead.

[But actually, I'll be busy celebrating over the weekend, so posting it on a weekday makes more sense.]

The monthly dev log will not be posted in January, as I will be working on the draft for Chapter 3 Pt. 2.

However, it will return to its usual schedule [the 1st of each month] in February.

Thank you for your support and for being here! Wishing you all the best in the year ahead ♥

[imagine-darksiders]

Tired dad Ulthane and his adventures with the Human Distribution System makes me smile so hard

Whoever was on the Darksiders dev team missed a great opportunity to record ambient voice lines between the humans and Ulthane that play whenever you go to the tree.

Some examples off the top of my head.

"Hey. It's... Ulthane, right? I-I'm Mary."

"Pleasure to make yer acquaintance, Lass."

"Ha... Likewise. Um... Listen, I don't think I ever thanked you... for bringing me to this place. And for, you know, saving my life."

[Suddenly bashful] "Ah, no need to thank me. Just... [clears throat] glad I got to you in time..."

"Yeah... Yeah, me too."

------

"Get out of the way, Ulthane."

"Can't do that, younglin'."

"Bullshit. You can't stop me. I have to go, I can't just sit in this tree while he might still be out there somewhere!"

"If I let you leave this tree, you'll die."

"You don't know that!"

"... And what if he turns up while you're gone? Hm? You think he'd want to find you missin'?"

"Don't do that. Don't use him to make me stay. You don't know what he'd want."

"Would he want you riskin' your life tryin' to find him? Or would he want you to be safe?"

".... I... I.... Oh, Sam."

------

"Hey, how did you get on with that list I gave you?"

"Got most of the stuff on it. The pictures were a nice touch, by the way. Made findin' things a wee bit easier."

"Oh! Well... Happy to help.... So. Um..."

[knowing chuckle] "The supplies are with the other rations, up in the hollow."

"Thanks, Ulthane. You're the best."

"Ach, I don't know 'bout that."

"Literally. The. Best."

------

"Hey you! Giant."

"Tiny."

"Oh, very funny. Say, how come you're not out there searching for more survivors?"

"Just got back. Elanya's goin' out in a bit. Someone's gotta stay behind and protect the tree."

"Some of us can stay and watch it! You should be out there looking for people!"

".... We're doin' everything we can, lad."

"I know!... I.... [muffled sob] I know... I just... I miss her."

"... If she's alive out there, we'll find her."

"Yeah.... sure."

-------

"Hey, big guy? You know there's a demon hanging around right outside the door."

"Aye, I'm keepin' an eye on him. But... if you see him causin' any trouble, you come tell me, got it?"

"Heh. Sure."

-----

"Oi, what's that you've got there?"

"Oh! Um... It's... just a radio... I've been tinkering with it... trying to get it to work. Maybe see if there's anyone else out there... Look. I-I know it's silly, but-"

"No, no, it's not, it's... [deep sigh] Listen, if you... need any help with it, makers are pretty handy. Just have to ask, okay?"

"Oh... Okay. Thanks, Ulthane."

-------

"Still no luck with that... wassit called? A radio?"

"Hmm? Oh... Hi Ulthane. No, no luck yet but... that might just be because they're only able to broadcast on a certain frequency for, like, a few minutes at a time right? Saving power or... something? I-I just need to keep searching."

"Well... All right... But don't stay up too late listen' to it again. You look like you didn't catch a wink o' sleep last night."

"Okay, Dad."

-------

"Say, what happened to your radio?"

"... I tossed it."

"Now why'd you do that?"

"I dunno. Figured it'd be more useful to strip it for spare parts.... I wasn't gonna hear anything on there anyway."

"...Y'know, just 'cause you didn't hear anythin', don't mean nobody's out there."

"..... Hey... Ulthane? Do you think we're gonna be okay?"

"Course you're gonna be okay. You've got me at the helm, don't ya? Old Ulthane's got a plan to set you humans back on track... Just have to trust me, eh?"

"We do trust you. And... thanks. I feel better."

"S'what I'm here for."

-------

[If you find 10 survivors]

"Getting a bit busy in here now, isn't it? A lot of new faces."

"Busy? Hmm. If you need me to carve out another chamber for extra space, I can-"

"-No! Ulthane, that's not... It's okay. I wasn't complaining. Busy is good. I prefer busy."

"... Aye, I'm with you there."

-------

[If you find all the survivors]

"I can't believe there's so many of us now! I didn't think this many people would have survived!"

"Mmhm, the Horseman's been busy. S'nice to have a lot of wee ones knockin' about the tree."

"You make us sound like a bunch of children."

[Gentle laugh] "If you knew how old I was, Lad, you'd feel like a bunch of children."

[sulumuns-dootah]

31. 10. Shower - Asmodeus

    ༺☆༻

⟡ Masterlist ⟡ 

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽Helltober '24☾₊‧⁺˖⋆

A/N: Here we are: A much needed shower for our stinky king. I kinda did forget to keep describing the shower, but everything is happening in a shower :D (The prompt for this bonus was decided by YOU through a poll ^^)

Warnings: Since there was a significant amount of people also voting for Consensual Non-con, i decided to include it too - sadly couldn't fit throne fucking in :/, Asmo uses 'bitch' to reffer to reader (I honestly think that's what devs meant to translate 'female' to)

    ༺☆༻

Finally, after a long day of spending time with almost all demons in Hell, you're alone and taking a scorching hot shower. The almost-boiling water droplets fall on your body and help you relax your sore muscles. It was a long day, but it's finally coming to an end.

If you had to guess, you'd say it's somewhere around midnight and you're just about ready to collapse into your bed and fall asleep in whatever position you happen to land. Hopefully the colder air outside your shower wakes you up enough to finish your whole night routine.

Maybe you can stay in the shower for just a little bit...Suddenly a chill runs up your spine and the hair on the back of your neck stands up. Huh..?

You still haven't moved an inch out of the shower and you're already cold?

No, this feels different. Almost like when Foras is around, but you're sure he's currently tending to Leviathan's nightly needs. No, this feels heavier, more overbearing than a noble.

Then... you hear the sound of bare feet and some rustling chains quietly making their way to you, back turned to the room and facing a wall.

Your fight or flight response kicks in and instead your body freezes. Maybe it's even for the best. There's water all over the place and you don't want to hurt yourself.

The intruder is so close and you hold your breath, waiting for anything.

But for the longest time nothing comes. No sound or shift in energy.

“Huhu, I love the smell of your fear, little bitch.” you jump as a mischievous whisper interrupts the agonising silence, followed by a very audible sniff. Your mind immediately jumps to Beelzebub, but the voice is way too different to be him.

The thoughts in your mind are racing, trying to figure out who this demon is, but they're coming up empty. Who is this demon and what does he plan with you?

Suddenly, two large hands find their place on your body with some more metal sounds. One pushes your torso against the tiled wall and the other pulls your hips backwards for you to feel the huge, throbbing dick, ready to impale you.

A cry leaves your lips at the sudden action as well as the sensation of being pushed up against the cold surface. Finally, your fighting response kicks in and you start to try and struggle, but it's to no avail. The unknown demon's grip on you is too strong.

“Haa~, you really know how to make things more exciting, Y/N!” the impressively long length starts being rubbed on your backside. The adrenaline, still coursing through your body makes your legs shake and your knees almost give out on you.

“Mmh~... Your fear feels very much real. Did you forget about our little talk from earlier this month?” the demon chuckles out and his hand moves from your torso to entwine in your hair.

You gasp out. From the slight pain, but also from realisation.

“A-asmo?!”

Now it makes sense. Earlier in the month you've found yourself in Abaddon and met Asmodeus for the first time. You two had a somewhat long conversation about sex, kinks and such. At one point the king of lust asked you if there was something you'd like to try but were too afraid to admit to anyone. After some encouragement, you ended up confessing that consensual rape was something that intrigued you.

You completely forgot about that conversation during your very busy month.

“Ahah... So you do remember!” Asmo doesn't waste any moment and draws a sigil on your lower belly. The lines immediately start burning, until your whole body is heated in different way than it was from your shower.

The demon king keeps rubbing against you, to which now you're more than responsive in your magically aroused state, “A-ah fuck~!”

“Huhuhu, as you wish, my pretty little bitch.” Asmodeus chuckles and swiftly enters your awaiting heat. The sigil working its magic helps you fully take him in without any problem, like you've been already going for a few rounds.

Instantly picking up a fast pace, your walls tighten around him, making your first orgasm approach much faster than you'd even like to.

“So~ how do you like your first dream fulfilled? There's much more to come, huhu!”

Oh. That's right. This was only one of your secret fantasies.

Fuck.

[peachhcs]

clouded in memories

hughes!sister x will smith au (samy + will)

samy & will try soaking up all the time they have left together in the last few weeks of summer before leaving for college.

wc: 2k

i think i’m coming out of the writers slump(yay!) i know this isn’t any of the requests, but i needed to write something that wasn’t requests to get out of the slump and i actually kind of like it :) i feel like i never write the really early moments of samy + will’s relationship, so enjoy! (i promise requests are coming) (p.s. the bedroom pic is what i imagine samy’s room in michigan to look like)

au masterlist

there was one thing will couldn't stop thinking about all practice and that was getting to lay in samy's bed for the rest of the day. he'd been up since 7 for morning practice and by the time 10:30 rolled around, the boy was ready to do nothing for the whole day and luckily, since it was summer, he could do exactly that. the blonde rushed himself out of the rink once he was showered and in clean clothes, not even caring to say goodbye to the other guys because of how eager he was to leave. 

he sent a quick text to his mom so she knew where he was going before pulling up samy's contact. he knew she'd say yes, but he just wanted to make sure it was okay that he came over before he just invited himself. the ringtone rang through his car speakers while will eagerly waited for the girl to pick up so he could pull out of the lot. 

"hi, will. what's up?" her soft voice filled his car. 

"hi, are you busy right now?" the hockey player asked, already sliding into drive and navigating himself out of the lot. 

"no, just packing up some of my room. why?" 

"i'm coming over," will said it more as a statement than a question because he wasn't really planning on asking, he was just making her aware he would be there in less than 29 minutes. 

a little giggle left her lips, "is everything okay?" 

"everything's fine. just wanna see you. lay in your bed. i've been thinking about those two things all morning," he unashamedly admitted because at this point, after endless teasing from the guys, will wasn't afraid to admit when he wanted to see samy and say how much he missed her. 

"oh really?" he could hear the amusement in her tone. 

"mhm. i'm trying to soak up the last few weeks we have together and i also didn't sleep that well last night. i think i sleep better in your bed anyway," will explained a bit and he could hear the smile in samy's voice even though they weren't on facetime. 

"wow, glad my bed can be of service then. hope you don't mind the mess that my room is right now," he could picture her meticulously separating each item into it's own labeled box and it brought a grin to the blonde's lips. 

"how much do you have to go?" 

"like all of my clothes," she cringed. 

"don't worry, we haven't even finished packing the house yet. it looks like a mess too," will chuckled thinking about the disaster his house was right now too. now that dev program was over and there wasn't a need to constantly be in michigan, the smiths were moving back to boston so they'd be closer to will and grace at bc. 

"i'm actually feeling emo that all of you are leaving michigan in a few weeks," the brunette admitted now that her and will were just talking as he got on the highway to ann arbor. 

"don't remind me. i've been choosing not to think about that," anytime the blonde thought about how he wouldn't be in michigan anymore, it made him incredibly sad, so he decided pushing all thoughts of moving out of his head until he couldn't anymore. 

it wasn't even that he was leaving the guys, they were all coming with him to boston. it was the fact that he was leaving samy. she'd been his rock these past two years and will couldn't even fathom the idea of not getting to see her everyday. 

so that's why he wanted to soak up these last few weeks as much as he could. 

"well, my bed will be all ready when you get here. text me when you pull up and i'll come let you in," samy's voice snapped him out of his thoughts again. 

will smiled, "sounds good. i can't wait. see you soon." 

the two hung up and will spent the next 28 minutes on auto pilot driving on the interstate. it happened quite frequently whenever he made the trip down because he's done it so many times that he didn't really need to pay attention. he basically blinked and he was pulling into the hughes's driveway. will grabbed his phone again to tell samy he was there before climbing out and making his way to the front porch. 

the girl was opening the door before he even made it onto the step. will quickly mirrored her excitement as his arms flew around her shoulders into a tight hug. "my bed's all ready for you," the brunette giggled, leading the boy inside. 

"thank god," he kicked his shoes off and didn't waste another second following her upstairs. 

upon entering, will was a bit taken aback with how bare all the walls looked. samy wasn't kidding about packing her room up.  he had to stop in the doorway for a second just taking it in making the girl glance back at him. "you okay?" 

"wow, yeah, sorry. it looks so different in here," the blonde mumbled while his gaze slowly flicked across the room trying to remember what was there before the empty wall. 

"oh yeah, i was taking everyday down today besides the photo wall," the brunette explained and then will's glance went to the corner where two walls met that's been decorated with photos since he knew her. 

he trailed over to it. even though the hockey player has been in samy's room countless of times, he's never fully looked at the wall in detail. there were so many photos lining the space from the floor to the ceiling—will had to crane his neck up to see the ones at the very stop and crouch for the ones at the very bottom. 

"how long have you had this again?" the boy wondered. 

"about a year after we moved here, so like 7 years or something?" samy came up beside him, her arm sliding up his back until it was on his shoulder and she found a place to perch her chin there too. 

"wow. that's a long time. i can't believe some of these were 7 years ago," one of them near the bottom caught will's eye because he was in it. 

him and samy looked awfully young in it, maybe 11 or 12? "this one looks ancient," he laughed and pointed it out to the girl. 

"oh yeah, we were like 12 in that or something. one of the many pictures our moms forced us to take," samy giggled. 

"i kind of miss being that young. we didn't have to care about anything just when practice was, if there was a game, and what was for dinner," will laughed again, turning to press a gentle kiss to samy's forehead. 

"yeah, tell me about it. i miss it. especially after spending the last like three days packing," she drifted away from him and will finally pulled his eyes away from the photo wall to the rest of the room. like he suspected, the younger hughes had piles in different corners with different things to be packed away. in the middle of the room was all of her posters that were once on the wall now waiting to be rolled up. 

"at least you won't be far away from home if you ever needed something," the blonde crawled into samy's bed that's been calling his name since he arrived. she giggled watching her boyfriend curl himself up into the blankets. 

"yeah, that's a plus at least. i'm still sad though because i probably won't ever like really live here ever again, you know?" she went to her posters again, wanting to have them all rolled up before she joined will in her bed. 

"summer?" 

"i mean, yeah, but we'll probably be at the lake house or wherever. i mean i won't be in this room for a long time ever again," the girl elaborated and will understood. 

"i get it. i'm never gonna see that michigan house ever again probably," it was all so bittersweet because on the one hand, they were all getting to pursue their dreams at their dreams schools, but on the other hand, they'd never be in this exact moment or place ever again. 

"did you at least have fun here?" samy changed the subject because if they kept talking about leaving, she'd start crying. 

"obviously i did. best two years of my life honestly," will quickly said and he wasn't lying. the last two years in plymouth was the best time he's ever had because he had everything he could've ever wanted: his girl and his best friends. 

"i can't believe i'm saying this, but i think meeting your friends was the best thing that's happened to me too. they're my rocks," samy chuckled thinking about those 6. she's met a lot of hockey boys between all of her brothers, but she could confidently say that will's class were her favorites. not saying she didn't get along with quinn, jack, and luke's friends, but something about ryan, gabe, vote, fowler, drew, and aram really had her wishing they didn't have to leave for college. 

"i think we can all say the same about you. i don't think i've ever seen them so sad to leave before," the couple shared a laugh. 

"marcie's gonna miss you all too. she said we have to reunite next summer," the other brunette was heading to west coast for college which meant she probably wouldn't be back home until next summer. 

"for sure," a comfortable silence spread across the room while samy finished rolling her last two posters and will just stared at her. it was clear both of them had a lot running through their minds and they could tell how much they just needed a day to slow down and take it all in. 

will reached out to gently tug his girlfriend's arm. she met his little pleading gaze to get into bed with him, a small laugh escaping her lips. "i'm coming, i'm coming." 

he opened his arms for her. as soon as samy got in beside him, it felt like all of the weight that's been weighing will down lifted off his chest. his racing thoughts finally eased and the tension in his muscles quickly dissipated when samy's touch littered his torso. they pretty much melted into one another in the comfort and warmth of the girl's bed. 

"what am i gonna do without you?" the hockey player mumbled into her hair. 

"honestly, i don't know. so much has happened in the last two years that i never thought twice about not seeing you for months on end when we were younger and now i can't imagine not seeing you every day," the brunette admitted softly. her breath tickled the boy's neck, but her words just made him pull her even closer. 

"me neither. you're my rock. how am i supposed to live without my rock?" will hummed sadly. the girl pulled back a bit so she could catch his glance and mustered her best smile for both of their sakes. 

"i guess that means a lot of facetime calls then. be prepared to get sick of me," they chuckled. 

"i could never get sick of you, but gabe might every time he hears your voice," the blonde leaned down again to place another gentle kiss on the bridge of samy's nose. his soft gesture earned a bright blush on her cheeks before burying her head back into his chest so he didn't see. 

the two stayed like that until they both drifted to sleep much like will was intending. ellen came up the stairs a few hours later wondering how her daughter was doing with packing. she knocked, but grew curious when no one responded from the other side. 

"samy?" she knocked again. still no answer. 

the older woman finally pushed the door open. a look of surprise crossed her features when she saw her daughter and will tangled together fast asleep. a small smile replaced the surprise though as she figured will was here when she spotted his car in the driveway. she carefully retreated back down the stairs not wanting to disturb them while also digging her phone out to tell colleen they totally predicted the relationship and their husbands owed them $20.

[katescribblesabit]

What happened to Crocker? What was his reaction when Timmy went missing?

Would be be angry that Timmy had disappeared and doesn’t understand what happened? Did he ever worry about Timmy?

Did he come up with theory, thinking if it had to do something with fairies or something?

Just curious because it had been on my mind for a bit.

Also how would Timmy feel and thinks about AJ and his business? How he founded the business, believe that the fairies are dangerous or something?

What about Vicky? Her reaction about what happened? I know she probably doesn’t care, does she?

Did Wanda and Cosmo tell Timmy how they stood up towards Vicky at Dev’s place during his birthday?

My apologies, not sure if you watched those episodes or not.

You don’t have to draw if you want, just something I was wondering. I don’t know why.

ok here we go! thanks for your concern i am drawing as fast as i can lol

first thing first! i gotta say i don't have everything planned out, im mostly going with the flow. i also never expected people to love this au as much as you guys do, i was mostly planning to do like 2 or 3 posts about it haha. (thank you all btw this is nuts i luve uuu <3)

so Crocker! ok thinking about it, he is most definitely pissed his one lead to fairies is gone. after some time had passed and the police stopped looking for Timmy, he suspected something must have happend with magic and his fairly god parents. so he packed up his fairy detective devices and scooped out the turners house for clues but found nothing. when people asked he replied with being worried about the teenager and looking for him himself since the police stopped. perfect cover to hunt for fairies!

i don't think AJ specifically believes in fairies. i thought it was the supernatural in general, seeing as the galax institution is for everything unnatural. also his reaction to Crocker stealing the Trophy says a lot to, he still thinks his former teacher is crazy for believing in fairy tales. as for how Timmy feels, he's happy for his former friend, since AJ is revolving his work around supernatural science, it makes Timmy feel closer to him.

for Vicky, when she heard about Timmys disappearing she didn't care. Timmy went to live in fairy world when he was 16, so Vicky hadn't babysat him for a while now. they didn't see each other anymore, which Timmy was grateful for. Vicky just moved on to other kids to torture. the police did visit her when going around looking for clues but Vicky is a great liar, so she got away with it again.

Devs birthday story was Peris to tell, and well.. i don't think Peri would tell his big brother that his godchild wished him away.. yeahh so Timmy didn't know Vicky was even there.

no worries! i have watched the entire a new wish! so i am caught up with the new stuff haha