#but im all about pcs and androids

[citrus-sours]

i want a new drawing tablet, pls commission me now

[rui-drawsbox]

hmm im curious. whats olba about :0?

Oh anon you have no idea of what you just asked-- let me get my teacher costume

AHEM

OLBA or Our Life: Beginnings & Always it's a visual novel where you can play the perfect life you never got and cry about how much you wanted it after you finish it :DD (available on Steam for pc and Itch.io for both pc/mac and android!)

You play as-- well, you (or not, you choose)! You can choose your name, last name, pronouns, appearance, personality, hobbies, everything except your family, but you wouldn't like to change them for anything after you meet them.

You start the game as an innocent 8 years old kid that meets a random guy that tells you that he just moved across the street, he also tells you about his son: Cove! who has the same age as you. This guy tries to bribe you with 20 dollars, you can accept or refuse (or run! i like that option), either way you end up in a poppy hill behind your house and find the so famous Cove! He tells (cry) you that his parents just divorced and that he miss his mom ( :c ), you can comfort him or not, but you two still will be found by both of your families and have to go home.

That's the prologue! Gameplay aspect: it consists in 3 Steps of your life: 8, 13 and 18 years old! Each Step comes with 5 Moments, where you can spend time with (mainly) cove, if you're playing the base game. Talking about base game! You can complete it in around 5 hours (that's what took me the first time i think), and it comes with a 4th Step that work as an epilogue!

There are 6 paid DLC's (and a free one that is a name pack), 3 are other 15 moments for the first 3 Steps, 1 is a wedding dlc for our lovely Cove <3 (we'll get to him in no time), and the last 2 are extra content for two characters you'll meet in your very first playthough: Derek in Step 2 and Baxter in Step 3 (you should know this one very well if you follow me lmao), each with 5 moments extra for their assigned Step and their own Step 4 where you can follow and give proper closure to their stories!

I'll try to not ramble a lot because it's something you just need to experience yourself to get it but-- i will introduce you to the love interests! (or friendship interests, you don't need to crush on anyone to have a great time)

Cove Holden! Our lovely neighbor that we see almost everyday for like 10 years! You could also call him the second main character after you, since you learn more about him and his family during all the game. He's an introvert and ocean nerd (in the cutest way possible), depending on your choices you can shape his personality/style and become best buddies, the sweetest couple or just remain neighbours that never really got along. (you'll learn to love him, platonic or not, trust me)

Another perk of the game is that no matter what you do there's not "wrong or right" (unless you feel bad for the characters, like me), your actions does have consequences but there's nothing like a "bad ending/good ending", after all it's just your life, it goes on no matter what! Unless you want to reach a specific scene you found online you'll never have to use a guide for anything.

Derek Suarez! A caring guy! mabye a little too much, he's the oldest brother of 3 and that shaped him in a way that he always feels responsible of everything😔. During his storyline you'll help him to learn how to relax and lean on other people :D!

Baxter Ward! A monochromatic gentleman, mischievous as a cat and emotionally repressed like a pressure cooker <3. Struggles a lot with making deep conections and being emotionally vulnerable, you can imagine about what goes his storyline lol.

He's my favorite, if you haven't noticed. He has that infuriating charm that only someone that unironically says "Hallelujah" has. A very dramatic route, he's a very dramatic guy, you should see how he texts in step 3 aghsdas.

Also! all the side characters are super likeable, from your family to the baker of that bakery that is metioned a few times!

ANYWAYS, in conclusion: this is a very relaxing game! If you like visual novels you should definitely give it a try, the amount of replayability this game has is insane. My recommendations for when you play are:

Try the base game first! If you like it you can buy the moments dlcs (theyre only 3$ each!), mabye the wedding dlc after that (if you want to marry cove that is, this one is 2$ btw), Derek's dlc and Baxter's dlc (5$ each) for last. Those are pretty much the release order but i that's also the order i enjoy the most!

(play this game at least 2 times trying different choices/personality, the differences are ughhhh/pos)

When you're playing for the first time you should play the moments left to right. On later playthroughs you should change the order to find new dialogues! theyre small things but omg theyre so fun

Have fun! do whatever you want, i literally said there's no bad or good ending, take advantage of it and be as foward or shy as you want, be a little shit or a literal angel! That is your life we're talking about.

[employee052]

OKOKOK HERES THE AU IDEA

ive been revisiting Detroit Become Human bc of my partner playing it recently, as well as me reading some connor x readers that gave me this idea directly, plus adding in some other games that i feel like could fit, i had this idea:

(its not refined atm n hella rough draft so please ignore shit that doesnt make sense)

[CW DEATH]

The Narrator is an experimental Android named VA427 "Virgil", made as the ultimate assistant and sent to work at some office building

He follows the boss around, doing tasks given by them and walking around the office helping the boss manage it while they stay in their office

This is how he meets Stanley, an employee who is usually reserved around everyone except for Virgil.

He takes a liking to Virgil, signing to him and having chats whenever he passes by, and Virgil loves it.

The two grow close. Virgil likes Stanley because he treats him with respect and listens to him, Stanley likes Virgil because he's not judgmental and can understand sign language

However, as their friendship grows, the boss begins to assign more work to all his employees, causing most of them to be overworked with a few accidents involving people passing out on the job

Stanley is no exception, he stays late and does every task asked of him, Virgil is worried but keeps doing it since thats his task, however this is when he starts to deviate.

He starts questioning things during his time working, and realises his attatchment to Stanley

Stanley falls over one day at the office after staying overtime for a month straight for 3 additional hours.

Virgil runs in to help him as everyone else walks around him like its not a problem. Stanley dies shortly after in the office.

Virgil goes to call 911 when the boss stops him, telling him that its not neccessary and to dump his body in the basement.

if the police found out about the treatment of their employees, they could be sued, so the boss has elected to hiding the bodies and covering up their deaths.

Virgils furious, mourning the loss of his friend taken too early and the only person who treated him nicely. But the boss doesnt budge

they throw Virgil and Stanley into the basement together. Locking them in with a pile of dead bodies and all items that other dead employees used.

He goes to find a few spare computers and manages to find a way to hook himself and stanley up to it.

Connected to the PC, stanley's body and mind is uploaded. However, its not fully, since stanley was dead for a while before being uploaded, it only retains a few memories. primarily that of being in an office, and having a wife and an apartment, but not having the exact memory of who or what they looked like.

Virgil creates a VR world for stanley to live in. at first he had attempted to create sprawling stories for him just as stanley told him in past conversations, but Virgil hasnt really explored the outside all too much given he lives at the office.

He shifts the VR world so its centered around the office. He cant tell stanley he's dead either, so he acts as though hes simply playing a video game.

the next few years/decades are just the narrator falling deeper into the role of making stories for stanley and getting too into the video game idea. releasing the game offically however with stanleys consciousness only on his PC in the basement of the office.

during these years, is where im combining some aspects from portal blue sky and half life.

while virgil falls into the role of the narrator and is in the basement of this office with stanleys decayed body, the black mesa incident happens.

aliens come in, vorts n shit, and then the combine come in and take over. virgil doesnt ever see this bc hes safe in the basement.

decades pass by, then after a long while, an explorer wanders into the ruins of the old office building

they eventually find the basement and the narrators body hooked up to the computer and stanleys skeleton beside him

this explorer would take the keyboard and begin playing the game, until virgil, now the narrator, realises that its not stanley

however, so much time has passed and so little of stanley was saved that hes simply a dead man walking, an echo of a dead man, a memory

after a long time where the explorer and the narrator talk, the narrator agrees to end the vr simulation, he keeps it in his memory banks, but he agrees to not fully trap himself in the simulation to keep stanley going. hes gonna lay him to rest

getting up, the narrator finds his body to be alien to him, hes forgotten that he even had a physical form, and through the years of being put on sleep mode to allocate all processing power to the vr world, his bodys also decayed a bit

the synthetic hair doesnt grow, but begins to fade in its colour

his eyes dont work as well considering theyve been on standby mode, they still work, but theres a permanent blur to him that means he needs glasses

the synthetic skin on his face and hands only begin to sag and wrinkle

the parts of his body that dont have synthetic skin and are exposed from the rips in his clothing have rusted, the office building's basement being almost like the skip button where a break in the roof causes some water and plants and animals to enter and eat away at his body. making it rusty and making him slower to move

the explorer and the narrator leave the building, and take refuge in a small town of other survivors quite similar to eaden in blue sky, where the explorer lives

during the narrators stay here, he struggles to move past stanley, being focused and obsessed with him for decades before being brought out of it.

and here comes the whole reason why i got this au idea:

the narrator goes back to the vr simulation with stanley and the office, and shifts it.

what was once an office becomes a refurbished memory zone. with a desk for him to write in whenever the explorer sleeps and a place for him to calm down when tough things happen. its the closest he can get to a mind palace

however, hes not alone in here, he makes a small area for stanley to live in, he will never leave him and his mind, but hes moved on, hes past that grief.

he visits stanley in this new mindscape of his from time to time, to give an update, to just remember him, but he moves on.

the rest of the au would just be the narrator learning to take control of his life again, trusting the explorer and becoming more integrated with the townsfolk, managing his rusty body, and re-exploring his old hobbies that he forgot about.

ik i already posted the designs, but with this context, heres virgil and the narrators form before and after the parable

[apple-orchards-writings]

Masterlist

(WIP i am not cataloguing everything im sorry)

I'm only going to put what I judge are the somewhat important bits, the rest is in the tags

Kylar the Loner:

Cult leader kylar : #cult leader kylar

the first post

marriage ritual

with a squeamish darling, or a darling terrified of blood (his remedy for that)

sitting on his lap during petitions

snooping around and finding out about sydney, kylar hiding things

not coping with your mortality, you falling sick, a bad timeline of sorts

asking him to wear a condom, asking him to not cum inside, oops he did anyways, when you're pregnant

cockwarming him in a cult meeting

asking him to degrade you

Angel darling, to a fallen darling, adding sydney into the mix, does kylar truly love angel darling ?

the wraith in all that, telling kylar you prefer the wraith

condescending kylar

kylsyd spouses, matching jewelry with syd, fun times with the hubbies, sydney's first days awake, his thoughts and feelings, parents

darling feeling betrayed over sydney being here

no braincell darling

darling that's immune to his mind manipulation

the cult doctrines, how the ranks work, the cult's name

kylar watching you sleep (companion to these interactions: 1 2)

somno <3 reverse

running away to the temple, faking your death, the aftermath

finding kylar's secret stash

a sacrifice

Kylar hcs, another batch

Android Kylar hcs

Catboy Kylar

Rich kid Kylar with bodyguard darling

watching hentai with kylar

tutor kylar ? ig ?

Kylar touching you on the bus

Angel Kylar and Sydney

making kylar some plushies

Naga Kylar with its tag #naga kylar

there's also #self aware kylar

Whitney the Bully: (this is where @propertyofwhitney67 is featured a lotttt)

Whitney helping you dye your hair (with madrian)

Catboy Whitney thoughts with madrian

Self aware Whitney with madrian again (lmao they're everywhere)

More self aware Whitney (and Kylar)

Whitney taking care of sick PC and vice versa (madrian once again)

Whitney and Kylar see you on the bus

MISC:

Thoughts on sheep hybrid PC and the pack

School LI's pokemon teams :)

[visitor64]

I can 3D model, NOW HES REAL!!!! :D (ART/OC DUMP PART 2.5?)

(Okay, what the heck- I SWEAR I posted this already!!! But I guess I forgot or smth lol)

(This was originally going to be posted yesterday, so some information might be outdated)

Wow, I have been posting a lot lately… maybe I might post ART/OC DUMP PART 3 after this?

WHO KNOWS!!

I know, that’s what

And I say…

Hmmmm…. Let me think…

No.

Nah im jokin

…

OR AM I-

Oh wait, I’m getting off topic lol

This blog… post… thing- is going to be about 3D models I made

(These aren’t actually ALL the 3D models I’ve made, I’ve made a lot more, but they’re VERY VERY OLD, like 3 years ago I’m pretty sure, so if you guys wanna see those then uuhhh idk comment down below shajnsajjxhwjnx)

(Uhhhhh I was gonna put more information here but uhhh like and subscribe to join the fortnite vbucks give awa-)

(Oh yeah, also, I made these models with Tinkercad, it’s on IOS and PC, idk if it’s on android though)

Okey, first we have Visitor!!!! Who is in stupid dumb heads art style and flat for some reason lol

I swear, it was SO HARD to get the ears to look right, and they still kinda don’t!!! There’s still like a SLIVER of whatever there, Idk why they just don’t wanna cooperate with me 😭😭😭

And then there’s this.

I don’t even know-

I half hate it and half like it

Oh, and I forgot the little triangle things-

BUT WAIT! There’s more!!

There are two more models I made

They’re pretty old, but oh well!

first we have sys… again-

I still love this model

And that definitely isn’t because it’s a model of a character I like in their original form kinda sorta idk!!!! No way!!!! That’s total madness… MARIO MADNE-

There was another one, but I hate it so much that I don’t even wanna show it.

So thats it

Oh, wait, I almost forgot!! There’s also this.

I guess this is kinda an ART/OC DUMP, but it’s actually just a ART DUMP

Let’s just say this is a ART/OC DUMP PART 2.5 lol

Uhhhhh the end lmao

hahaha lol the end mario mad-

[goof320]

random goof ramble omg,,,

i hope whatever the valve deckard is is its Good and the same price as psvr2?? but i also dont care about new vr,, i only want valve deckard or new valve vr headset or whatever because it means they'll come out with a new game at the same time

half life alyx was *so* good and i dont think there's been a vr game to come close to how good it was and still is 2ish years later. i think half life 3 coming out with their new, not super expensive (~$500 please valve) headset would probably bend over and spank the other 5 billion standalone vr headsets coming out. half life 3 should *not* be only vr, fucking Obviously, but if it didnt have native vr support id be pretty upset because holy shit the end scene of hl:a ***you were HOLDING the fucking crowbar*** i need that for a 10-15 hour long campaign

valve,,, if yoy use tumblr,,, please.,.,.,.. youd make so much money hl3 wouldn't even have to come with the headset it could be $70 and youd be PRINTING money for the rest of time PLEASEEEE

also, it'd be really cool for a new valve game that's not a tech demo,,, i dont think hl:a was a tech demo for vr, but it.. kind of was? a really really good tech demo, but they probably wouldn't have made a spinoff half-life game if not for New Cool Technology. im pretty sure all of the recent valve games have been glorified tech demos. which i like them!! they're fun!!!! i adore hl:a and aperature desk job. and their vr game with the minigames is cute. the aperature game with the hand robots is cute, too. im probably missing one but all of them have been cute fun lil games.

hl3 tho,, new full valve game not just for a specific new tech thing? wooh.,.,. works on their new (and old) vr thing, steam deck, and a normal pc? Wooh,,,,, money printer right there.

more deckard rant... i hope to got its not a standalone.

maybe a standalone that doesn't play games.. hear me out wait hold on

valve doesnt like splitting up steam im pretty sure. if it was standalone, itd run on the xr2, an ARM chip, whereas all of steamvr is x86 because fucking duh yeah its for computers. i don't think valve is gonna have that thing running proton and like.. box86 or whatever. itd be TERRIBLE!! and theres no way in fresh hell they're putting the steam deck chip in there, or any other x86 thing, because it'd SUCK!!!!!! but if it was like... xr2 without steam. you can stream from your desktop, play those games wirelessly (or with displayport pls valve) or just look at your monitor in vr and browse the internet Whatever. i do wonder if a valve standalone with ARM would run linux ARM or android... knowing valve i bet it'd be linux. something thatd be SO fucking cool is- ok hear me out again this is a long one

steamvr home is cool... it sucks right now because valve hasn't done anything with it forever, and it just tanks your computer the second it starts, and there's.. not much to do BUT WHAT IF there was... what if it was like.. steam home (corny idc) and-

hello. i just spent 10 minutes describing neosvr. i deleted all that because i realized, i want valve to buy neosvr and put it in steam. just, right in the client. the whole thing. share media with ur friends, have a home world u can do Whatever the Fuck you want with and custom avatars and whatever you Want. neosvr is in a weird spot and if valve just fucking swallowed them whole and rebranded it as a Steam Home thing id ascend into the 6th dimension. neosvr is so fucking cool.... it makes me very sad though because again its in a weird spot and im sure they'll figure it out but Eeeeee,,,

anyway as i was saying... neos but in steam .. u start ur Valve Deckard or whatever its called.. new shiny vr ... and you sign into your steam account and ur put into steamvr+neos. its some new home lobby, there's a desktop sitting somewhere that you can boot up and its just fucking. linux arm with kde. because that'd be insane. or u could set it up to stream your big beefy desktop (maybe a vr headset modeled sitting next to it u can physically put onto your head to turn on the streaming as long as ur pc is accessible on the network). but also you could go outside or maybe just open a menu and go into whatever public world and do social vr things and neosvr things. please. itd be so cool,,, all the deckard could run would be steam home 2.0 and game streaming but itd be So Cool.... kind of a tough sell to people without computers untill vr cloud streaming becomes viable but i think people with computers (already valve's main demographic lol) may consider it.

[n-x-black]

sm caveats :

idk anything abt what im doing ive never built an app before and only modded one literally today

idk if this is against tumblr tos and also dont care but if u do then . look at that

idk if this will work on any device . idk if it worked for Me , idk if it will work for u

idk if this Works i just havent seen live at all today, but also even before i did this i never had to snooze it - it just showed up and removed itself from my home bar randomly anyway, and was extremely infrequent on my dash besides , which is why im not 100 percent sure it did anything . im like 70 percent sure but also im usually wrong about things

i just wanna infodump abt this becus it was fun and cool

anyway this is um . how to remove tumblr live (maybe . unclear . not promised)

u will need :

android device . have tumblr installed

back up anything and everything on ur device , esp stuff ud die over losing . and back it up again . nothing should break at all rly , but if it does , i warned u

install luckypatcher and follow all the directions and whatever . if u dont want to install apks like this or trust it at all , ur journey ends here . if smth on ur phone breaks - it didnt on mine and shouldnt - be prepared 2 take responsibility 4 that . (its like messing with control panel or CMD on a pc, if ur not sure what ur doing or dont know how to fix it if something breaks or arent prepared 2 just deal with it , then dont start in the first place . u should always keep a backup of ur data anyway tho tbh , modding or not . factory resetting fixes most issues )

gather ur will 2 take responsibility for whether this is a win or a loss

preparation complete

once ur done with that , heres where we get into murky territory because i was literally just fucking around . u should see a list of ur apps when alls said and done - search tumblr and tap it . i think what removed tumblr live was "apk with changed permissions and activities", but what i did was : apk with multi patch > check "remove ads" "support patch for inapp and lvl emulation" and "apk with changed permissions and activities" > rebuild the app .

on the next screen, uncheck "remove links" and "offline patch"

u can ignore this if u want , i wasnt able to like use this to trick tumblr into thinking i paid , but maybe u can idk

heres where the juicy shit is . i literally disabled anything that had "ad" in it, but i believe the meat of the tumblr live stuff is anything with "io.wondrous" or "live" in it . i also disabled a whole bunch of other stuff like the shops - only the links at the top of the settings menu are still there for me, but they dont go anywhere . idk how to disable ui elememts like that </3 figuring it out

heres all the stuff i disabled . no hiccups with the regular like-reblog-view-blog cycle , ofc the stuff disabled here doesnt work . tumblr butchered the quality of the long sc, just save it n look at it in ur gallery

anyway once uve disabled all that and whatever else looked fishy or whatever, "rebuild the app" . wait for it to finish .

choose uninstall and reinstall . old tumblr byebye

thats abt it . i did a whole bunch of weird tapping around idr but this should be what did it . if it removed live for u cool !! if it didnt im sosorry </3 jfjfjdjdj

[kathinkapng]

hi- congrats on releasing the you & me update as well as potions for you! i'll combine my feedback for both games in this ask:) (hopefully it doesn't get cut off😭)

i love the voice casting for you and me so much!! it's exactly how i imagined the girls to sound---i especially liked the voice acting for atia (the way her voice conveyed the total shock and confusion in atia's "my dear girl, i don't think you're thinking straight right now" line made me laugh 😭)

for potions for you, i love how it reminds me of those diner games where you have to serve the customers before their patience runs out<3 it's pretty easy to navigate around the little potion shop and remember the items needed for the potions, but challenging enough that the gameplay doesn't get boring:D

misaki and mere are SO cute. goodness 😭 it's clear that they come from two very different cultural backgrounds, but despite this, they make an effort to understand and support one another even if they don't really get it. it's sweet:")

there's some hints to deeper lore (senerithian pantheon, tasogare's shrine, etc.) which i'm interested in if you end up diving deeper into it. mostly because i'm curious why misa seems to hate vis so much 😭

(and on a note unrelated to misa and mere, bel is so ❤️ hehekfhklhlk prebtty)

i playtested on mobile (android, both on chrome and duckduckgo, using the itchio web player) and here are some issues i found:

1.) for good job and you and me, none of their voicelines play, but the bgm is fine (note: this isn't an issue on pc)

2.) the bgm for potions for you doesn't play for the entire game

3.) during the tutorial, if you get the necessary components to make healing potion I but make a failed potion instead, you can no longer access the shelves where the refreshing tonic and sunherb are:") i can send a gameplay recording if it helps:")

that's all!

Thank you sm for this feedback???? 😭💖💖 It absolutely made my day <33333

My answer is going to be even longer, because.... I just love rambling lmao (im sorry x'D)

Bugs:

The audio not playing on the web-version is an itch.io-problem, I think?? For me, itchio also tends to take a ton of time to load images as well - so maybe it's the same for the voicelines???

I'll recheck the bgm for p4u later, but good to know! I think it played for me when I tried it, but better be safe than sorry lol

And feel free to send me a recording!! I thiiink I know what you mean (because I removed this for the herbs), but I'm not sure x'D

You & Me:

I'm soooo glad you think so, ahhhh!!!! Choosing their VAs has been a biiit difficult, because a) there were so many submissions omg and b) there was a good amount of ppl who gave Atia a sexy mommy-voice fhdjhhfkdkksfkssi (They did sound v good tho... It just wasn't giving Atia)

I'm so glad that Sunny and Skylar auditioned, because their depictions just make my heart melt 💖💖💖 (Also the straight-line still makes me giggle hehe)

Potions For You:

These diner games were one of the inspos for this game - my co-writer Celi rly likes them!!! (and I lowkey made this game for her lol) I'm glad you enjoyed the gameplay since I'm kinda unsure about it - so it's pretty reassuring to hear feedback for it ☺️💖

Also ahhh, yeah that's their relationship in a nutshell!!! The main conflict in the later game will kinda come from them trying to compromise a bit too much for each other - but alas, I don't wanna spoil too much x3

Also, since the game prolly won't be updated in a hot minute... I'll drop some lore/info down below - it might be kiiinda spoilery, but not too much in a way that it'd take away from the game imo <3

Basically, they live on a continent called Senerith with ~5-6 regions. Their current pantheon consists of five gods (one of them is dead though)

Tasogare (Misaki's goddess) has the Twillight domain - and that includes the twilight of life (aka she guides mortals into the afterlife/knows the secret of death, which is why her followers are v secretive about her)

Viz is the god of springs (and the spring of knowledge) and Mere's god. It's said that he sent Mere (who was the high priestess/mayor of the town) visions of the future that were so powerful (and painful) that it left golden scars her body.

I don't have a better pic for her scars on hand rn, but yeah 💖 Basically, Misa hates Viz because Viz is Mere's biggest hater 💖💖💖

Also, hehehe.... Agreed, Bel has one of my fav designs ever!!! As one last pic in here, I'm dropping my fav Beleth drawing from last year, hehe

[kuiperblog]

The term of art here is "datamoshing."

Whoops, looks like someone needs to update their VLC codecs!

That being said, datamoshing leans "weird" more often than it leans "horror." It's more cool than creepy, more unpredictable than unsettling.

You thought it was an accident, a video glitch I did it on purpose though, it's nothing You don’t have bad Internet, I’m just datamoshing - Yung Jake

There's no doubt that digital delivery and access to better tools have made it easier to deliver high fidelity and consistent experiences. In certain ways, things have never been more polished than they are right now. In other ways, things have never been less polished than they are right now.

The signals are digital, but the world of user-generated content means that anyone can create, and the fact that so much online video is livestreamed means there is endless opportunities for what streamers often describe as "scuff," the technical glitches and other issues that interfere with a smooth livestreaming experience.

The experience of "someone accidentally wore a shirt that's the same shade as the greenscreen" used to be something you would only experience on your local weather channel. Now, there are thousands of livestreamers learning in real time which clothes and accessories aren't compatible with their streaming setup.

There are countless ways things can go wrong. Maybe you wanted to reduce the opacity of your overlay, but you accidently click on the wrong layer before you start dragging the opacity slider in OBS. Or...whatever chroma key weirdness caused this to happen:

"My OBS is haunted" is a phrase that I've heard uttered by numerous streamers as they try to diagnose the source of a lingering and persistent audio glitch or "phantom layer" that doesn't seem to go away despite their attempts to locate and delete it.

Some VTubers and VRchat streamers have full body tracking, which leaves all sorts of opportunities for scuff. If someone ever needs to remove their VR headset to walk over to the PC and trouble-shoot something, you get to see how VRchat handles things when it detects that 1) your head is on the floor, 2) has an abnormal orientation, and 3) is displaced several feet from the devices that are tracking your limb movement.

But, perhaps more than anything, the digital era carries with it the constant threat that the danger might be real.

It's one thing to watch a livestream where a ghostly apparition appears in the background. It's another thing to see law enforcement arrive, fully capable of lethal force, because of a prank call they received.

This is one of the things that struck me about digital found footage movies like Searching (2018). The idea that the flashing IM window might contain a message from some villain trying to victimize a teenager isn't something that exists purely in the realm of fantasy.

In the analog era, there was a difference in delivery medium between the horrors of the world and the horrors of the screen. If you received a letter from a kidnapper, that would come on a piece of paper that appeared on your mailbox. Your TV screen could show you a picture of a letter from a kidnapper, but there's a difference between looking at a grainy picture of a letter on your CRT television set and holding a printed threat.

This isn't a pipe, just a picture of one.

But when you watch Searching (2018) on your laptop, you're seeing the virtual interface of the movie rendered on the exact same surface where you see your own emails, video chats, and photo library. It's a genre of movie that would be less immersive if you watched it in a theater.

Adjacently, there's the genre of "phone games where entire game is presented through a diegetic phone screen."

Vampire: The Masquerade – We Eat Blood (2017) got pulled from app stores awhile ago, but the Android APK is still floating around on the internet for those who know where to look.

Perhaps the scariest moment in We Eat Blood came when the game's graphical presentation bamboozled me for an instant into believing that my phone's screen was cracked. The transition from analog to digital media has robbed us of some horrors, but presented us with new ones.

I really feel like VHS is peak spooky vibes, and worry that the current era of audiovisual perfection won't leave much for future generations to get creeped out by. Glitches have become rare enough that they're not a shorthand for degradation and decay. Where's the shorthand for corruption and defilement that you get from VHS scanlines? Where's the existential horror you get from random bits of different scenes that have been recorded over and linger only as a handful of sloppy frames? (And I will say that phonographs and records are also very spooky, with scratches and skipping and other signs and portents that something evil is lingering in the air. But VHS is peak.)

[smownan]

My iphones battery got fried and wont charge anymore so i bought myself a refurbished android which im using right now and im making it needlessly complicated because im getting my iphone fixed anyway so i can retrieve all my contacts and photos and then sell it to recoup some money which like why did i even buy a new phone in the first place and the answer is customization + PC compatibility + on-the-go emulators + rejecting the apple aesthetic cult. so tell me why i started getting sad about the emojis...

[legojacques]

Jack at the Apple Store because he dropped it (nursey bumped into him) and bitty is the overly happy (yet exhausted) Apple Store employee that helps him (it's not ... bc I'm stuck at the Apple Store,,,, what?)

Jack had been putting off getting his phone fixed. His excuse was that he was too busy, and for the most part, it was true. Between practices, games, and away trips, he couldn’t really afford the time to get his phone fixed. Besides, the phone was working just fine, cracks or no cracks.

He was at the mall one afternoon, however, picking up a last -minute birthday gift for his mother when he had time to kill and decided to stop into the Apple store.

One of the employees with bright eyes and even brighter smile greeted him. Jack’s eyes lingered momentarily on his face before reading “Eric” on the name tag. Eric was friendly, but not to the point of fawning over Jack, which meant that Eric either didn’t recognize Jack or he just didn’t care who Jack was.

“My phone is broken,” Jack explained.

Eric’s fingers were cool when they delicately brushed across Jack’s palm when he took the phone. He held it up and studied it briefly. “It’s just the screen,” Eric said. Then, with a sincere grin, he said, “I can fix that.”

Transfixed, Jack could only nod.

Jack had expected them to ask him to leave the phone and pick it up another day. In fact, he had counted on it because he would give him an excuse to be back, but Eric had insisted that he wasn’t too busy at the moment and that he could fix Jack’s phone right there.

“All done,” Eric announced some time later. Jack hadn’t been paying attention how long he’d been standing there. He’d been too focused on the way Eric’s nimble fingers had dismantled the phone before putting it all back together again.

“That’s great. Uh, thanks,” he said as he accepted the phone back.

“No problem,” Eric replied with another smile that made something inside of Jack flutter.

—

A week later, Jack was at the Apple store again.

“Hi! You’re back,” Eric said in surprise. “What can I help you with?”

Jack sheepishly held up his phone. “I accidently dropped my phone again.”

It wasn’t a complete lie, but it was more like Jack had dropped his phone repeatedly, and when that hadn’t yield the results he wanted, he’d gone outside to drop it repeatedly on concrete.

“Oh, wow,” Eric said with a laugh, probably because he thought Jack was the clumsiest person ever. “Let’s have a look at that.”

Jack tried not to stare too intently, but it was hard when Eric’s expression furrowed into a determined frown as he looked over the phone. “It looks worse than it actually is,” he finally said, his usual sunny demeanor sliding back on his face.

“You can fix it?” Jack asked hopefully.

“I can fix it,” Eric grinned.

It took him longer to repair it this time, but probably because Jack had taken extra care to demolish it. Frankly, it was a surprise that all it needed was a new screen.

“I would also probably recommend a case,” Eric said afterwards.

“Do you have any suggestions?”

“Well, there are these,” he said as he led Jack to a wall of them. He pulled one off the of the display shelf. “This one,” he said confidently.

“Yeah?”

“It’ll keep your phone safe,” Eric promised. “You won’t have to make the extra trip in again.”

Well, that wasn’t what Jack wanted at all.

—

“So, remind me again why we’re here?” Poots asked in genuine confusion when they pulled up to the mall.

“Because,” Jack said, scrambling for an answer. “I need help picking out a new computer.”

“Well, okay,” Poots said, still not convinced. “Just don’t ask me anything about Apple products. I have a PC.”

Well, that was too bad for Poots, but he was the only person Jack could really bully into coming with him. Tater did not know the definition of subtle, Thirdy would have laughed at him, and Snowy would have posted everything to the group chat within minutes of walking in the store.

“I’ll buy you lunch,” Jack conceded and that seemed to mollify Poots for the time being.

“Hi,” Eric greeted when they walked in. There was a brief moment when he seemed thrown off by Poots’ presence, but he was smiling when he looked back at Jack again. “How can I help you today?”

“Um, my buddy was actually looking for a Macbook and I thought of you. Well, like not of you first, but I thought, uh, you could help him.” Jack could feel himself growing warm, but Eric’s grin only widened.

Poots, who had gone over to check out the displays, happened to wander back into earshot. “What? No, I’m not–”

“Your sister’s birthday is coming up!” Jack practically shouted at him in panic.

Luckily, Poots was easily distracted. “Yeah? So?”

“So, don’t you want to get her something nice. She’s graduating at the end of this year, isn’t she?”

“Yeah,” Poots admitted slowly. “I didn’t know you were listening when I was talking about my sister.” He slapped Jack on the shoulder. “Aw, you do care.”

Jack wasn’t paying attention to anything Eric was saying about different laptop models and the advantages of each one. He was too distracted by Eric’s animated expressions and the way he enthusiastically talked with his whole body. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one either.

Poots ended up purchasing a Macbook with all the accessories (case, wireless mouse, decal, extended warranty). Later, on the drive home, Jack noticed that Poots still had that goofy smile on his face that had been there ever since they walked out of the Apple store.

“Eric was so hot,” Poots sighed dreamily.

It took Jack everything to not push Poots out of the car.

—

“Lunch,” Tater insisted one day after practice. “Come with me,” he said to Jack.

“Oh, sweet! Where are we going big guy?” Snowy asked from his stall.

“No,” Tater said. “Not you. Just Jack.”

Snowy exaggerated his kicked-puppy expression that made the guys in the room laugh, but Tater was firm. Jack let Tater drive because he’d insisted it was surprise, but it wasn’t long before Jack started to recognize his surroundings.

“What? How did you–” Jack spluttered when Tater pulled into the parking lot of the mall.

“Poots tell Snowy who tell Guy who tell Marty who tell Dupuis who tell Crosby who tell Geno who tell me.”

“Crosby knows!?” Jack exclaimed. He dropped his head in his hands in mortification and cursed vehemently. Stupid, gossipy hockey players.

“I know you not say nice things right now,” Tater said serenely, “Even if you say in French.”

Jack replied with more under-breath swears.

“Come on, Jack. Is not so bad,” Tater reassured with a cluck. “Besides, need new phone.”

In the Apple store, Eric was nowhere to be seen. “Oh, thank god,” Jack muttered. “He’s not here. Can we go?”

“Excuse me,” Tater said, snagging one of the other employees. “We look for Eric? He here?”

“Bitty’s on his lunch break right now, actually,” the girl replied. “Is there anything I can help you with?”

“No,” Jack jumped in. “No, thank you. That’s all we need.” He started dragging Tater out of the store.

Jack thought he’d been saved. He all but ran out, trying to get out of there as fast as possible. He glanced back briefly to see if Tater was still following him or if he’d gotten distracted. Not watching where he was going, Jack collided with someone.

“I’m so–” he started, but stopped when he realized it was Eric.

“Jack,” Eric exclaimed. “Hi! What are you doing here?”

“I’m, um.” Jack made some vague hand gesture. “You know.”

“Oh, right,” he replied eyes. “You weren’t, uh, looking for me at the Apple store, by chance, were you?”

“I–” Jack’s brain stalled. On one hand, yes, he was looking for Eric, but on the other hand, he also wasn’t ready to reveal that information.

“Hi! You Eric? I am Alexei, but everyone call Tater!”

“Oh, hi!” Eric gave an awkward wave.

“Yes, good, you are here. We look for you because is very sad, Eric. Jack lost something.”

Eric’s eyes immediately softened as he looked back at Jack. “I can help you. What did you lose?”

“Jack lost his number,” Tater said smoothly. “Now, he want yours.”

“Tater!” Jack yelled in disbelief as he calculated how much trouble he’d really be in if he murdered his teammate on the spot.

Tater seemed unperturbed by this and smirked at Jack before punching him lightly on the arm and left. Jack turned back to Eric who seemed hesitant for a moment, but then took a step forward. “So, you need a number, huh?”

“I am so sorry for that,” Jack started. “Tater doesn’t know–”

“You could have just asked.”

“Wh-what?”

“For my number. You could have asked. I’m here to help, after all,” Eric said with a spark of mirth in his brown eyes. “Can I have your hand?”

Wordlessly, Jack offered it to him. Eric took a pen out of his back pocket and started writing on Jack’s skin. “Don’t lose this,” he said teasingly when he was done. “And, I get off of work at 5.”

As he walked away, Jack stared down at the numbers, memorizing them. A smile bloomed over his face, and not even the knowledge that Tater was going to be insufferable for weeks was enough to dim that.

—

Thanks for reading! More of my writing here!

[dexaroth]

im gonna get such an adrenaline high when my international order arrives (its a tilt-sensitive graphics tablet) ooeooeooe

[amongussexgif]

clone wars ahsoka is real af from you actually

nobody is gonna know who anybody except Adam and Amy fucking are so im adding breif descs of the other three under a cut

This is Ahsera. She's regarded by almost every other character (except Lanz, who looks up to her) as suicidal and crazy because of her want to die in battle. Throughout her questline, she helps the party free her colony from the lifecycle of the Flame Clock (explaining xeno lore is hard, cut me break for not being able to elaborate on flame clocks), and eventually kind-of sort-of agrees to be more careful with her life, an agreement made in the form of a pact with Eunie that if one of them dies, the other will immediately kill themself. Them's gay.

This is Daia. She's cringe. Instead of elaborating, I'm gonna tell you to go play Ridgeside Village. It's free, as long as you already have Stardew. There's an Android version for non-PC users

This lil guy is Redcap, take a guess on what he's named after. He's a riekling that was sold as a slave to a witch after his tribe was captured by a pirate. After you free him from the witch, he'll inssist you take him back home, where you find his boar, Bigpig, but no other rieklings. You then go kill pirates to free his tribe from them. When asked if he wants to stay with them, he'll decline because he now sees the player as family. He's my beautiful ugly son and I need you all to know about him.

post a poll with five favorite characters and let others decide which is their favorite

tagged by @schrodingersbabe !! thank you :3

i'm gonna tag @yaffles-world @medeaspring @schrodingers-catgirl @dragoncatlilly and whoever else wants to do it :)

[bagofbonesmp3]

how i (personally) pirate things. this is by no means a great extensive perfect guide, ill just give you the process of how i go about it. and if you’re in a country where they monitor your internet usage, consider getting a good vpn! always helps. also if anyone wants to add their personal resources, PLEASE DO!!! you’re encouraged to do so!!!

not much to do with the pirating itself, but i download most of the stuff i watch/read/listen. sometimes websites get deleted and links go bad, but files are forever! consider getting a usb/external disk for your stuff. it was one of my first investments as an adult. got a 1 TB disk 5 years ago and im not even halfway through filling it. so most of the sites listed here are for downloads. sorry if you prefer streaming stuff.

in the same subject, get VLC media player. it’s a great media player that works with a bunch of file formats AND you can add subtitle/cc files for the stuff you watch. more on that later.

and for the love of fucking god GET MOZILLA. i swear to God, if you only use chrome it will change your browsing experience. it's just a better experience, no tracking, uses less space, has a bunch of useful add ons to help with browsing security. for a search engine i use startpage. it's just Google without blocking pages and tracking. life-changing

to the actual pirating. first step if you want to WATCH stuff:

AND also, keep in mind that if you can’t find something here, i suggest you go to a non-google browser, and simply type out what you want + “watch/download free”. of course you should get an ad block (i recommend ublock) and learn how to recognized fake links, but that’s just practise. most of the time you’ll find a random website that has what you’re looking for.

torrent:

- for movies, i usually turn to yts/yify movies. this is the latinamerican site but im sure it’s available almost everywhere. quite good catalogue, not that complete, but yknow. its good. any time you download a torrent file, make sure the file is .torrent, and that the thing you’re downloading is in the right format (mp4, mp3, mkv, etc. don’t open.exe files from places that aren’t trustworthy lol)

- torrent is IN MY OPINION one of the best ways to download media in general. i use it mostly for movies, tv shows and games. my go to torrent client is deluge because it doesn’t use much space and it’s fairly easy to use. here’s a tutorial, for you to learn how to use it. not difficult at all

- for subtitles /ccs, i go to yts-subs. bunch of subtitles in all languages. or simply check out opensubtitles, my oldest friend

- for tv shows it gets tricky, because i had a website i used before but its gone now :( so i turned to limetorrents. you can find it if you search for it. has a bunch of other stuff but i only use it when i have nowhere to turn to lmao. but upadates quite quickly, so. just make sure the uploader seems constant and trustworthy, which you can check in their profile.

non torrent stuff:

- for pc games: igggames hasn’t failed me yet. they update their links quite often

- for books: z-library (latine link, but just look it up! should show up). and my recent ally, vk. you should all love vk. vk is my fucking best friend. just look up [book name] + vk and it should show up.

- for audiobooks: vk! my good friend. i’d suggest you make an account and then check out this profile. or simply google [book] +  audiobook + vk. something will pop up. audio files can only be streamed on the website, but fear not, there is also mobilism, which also has some other content, though i use it mostly for audiobooks. you’ll have to make an account but thats fine. you can download the files in there.

- for anime: i don’t watch a lot of anime tbh, but you can find subtitled anime here

- for premium apps: here’s my trusty spotify premium link. but mobilism has links for android and ios  apps as well! i have a friend who uses it and says the links check out, so!

- for music: how old are you? just download stuff from youtube with a youtube to mp3 converted. jeez.

im surely missing a website, so maybe i’ll add something later, but this is pretty much it! thanks for watching.

[gamerbearmira]

i'm watching bee and puppycat and now im thinking about a mira and puppycat au where she gets puppycat as a "gift" (he wouldn't take no stuff from anyone) and her going to jobs (she would cry for monty) and trying not to die like wit the creepy lady(imagine if her fam found that out). i dont know who joins on her adventures. Don't know what her room looks like but now im just the giant hands. Oh, what if mira ends up losing body parts like bee and having to repair them (oh the angst) sorry 4 all

That would be so cute 😭 They’re all trying to figure out what Puppycat is saying and. No one can understand him. I haven’t seen the new B&PC, only the YouTube version. I don’t think Mirabel be a robot. Android???? Not sure what Bee is 🗿 anyway, she would go on a ton of mission though, and probably get pesos for it. Her room might be similar, with the giant hands, but I think it might have more stuff as well. Gotta rewatch the show tbh 👹👹

[strangetorpedos]

in an ideal world a starstruck odyssey would’ve looked like this (keep in mind i have Not watched the last ~4 episodes so that’s where i’m coming at this from):

-gnosis either Is The Plot or doesn’t exist. i think if gnosis is the plot it becomes about Well, We Don’t Want Them In Charge Of This But What Does It Mean If We Are. and like about gnosis’ autonomy and how we deal with something this powerful but that can very easily be put in the wrong hands. WAIT actually as i’m typing this im getting very watchman from bahumia vibes and i think that it could’ve been very interesting to explore it in a more in-depth way than they did in naddpod

-literally change all of skip/norman’s story. okay actually i think it’s like. fine. for the pcs to still be like “we love skip & hate norman” bc that feels really true to life/the messiness of people! but there should’ve been pushback from brennan as the person “controlling” the narrative & there should’ve been more internal conflict from zac once skip was more intelligent (i feel like he started to do this but brennan kinda just hand waved & said “it’s fine” which is part of the problem)

-going off of that, that could’ve been a really good way to tie in sidney’s story as well! i think having her want to like. find an android body for skip to live in could’ve been SO interesting and tie in really well into her whole “keeper of souls” thing. i also think sidney consistently had the best scenes this season (finding out she’s the keeper of souls, the junkmother) & i feel like this would’ve added to it

-would’ve loved to explore more of what it meant to be a clone from barry syx. i feel like it would’ve been really cool to see more of how he was coping with essentially his whole identity being stripped away from him when barry nyne killed the rest of the barrys and i feel like we didn’t get enough of that

-more interpersonal stakes. all of the stakes felt very external this season and it meant that we didn’t really focus on the characters as people and - more importantly - their connections with each other/with others. i think zortch is actually a really good example of this: zortch was physically present for most of the season but what did they actually do? cook? it would’ve been cool if anyone tried to make any sort of connection with them at all

-give gunnie & riva more connections to plot besides “debt” and “pleasure putty.” give them a REASON to be here! give them a narrative arc! and no gunnie’s debt getting essentially hand waved away doesn’t count. they are both such interesting characters that i feel like never got a chance to get beyond surface level