#but when a majority of your art stuff is on your computer then its a struggle to try posting them

[blind0raven]

Hello! Lately I've been fighting to make sure I won't be getting sick (sadly taking a day off cause tomorrow is a busy day for Valentine's day)

However I wanted to update you guys on the 100th Followers Celebration!

We're on the coloring stage for the 1st part and everything is going ok! Grim is"fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine" cats always land on their feet :)... maybe

Anyway! This lil baby will be finished up soon so I can get started on the 2nd part of the Celebration!!!

[physalian]

In Defense of Fanfiction (Or the perfect starting point for your original novel)

Fanfic gets a bad rap pretty much everywhere except Tumblr. It’s misunderstood and misrepresented by its average works, seen as juvenile and cringey, or a banal point of contention between a famous person or piece of media and its fans.

Outside of fanfic that writes about real people, especially smut fics of real people, I support the art wholeheartedly. Fictional characters are one thing, but personally, caricaturing a celebrity’s life for public consumption and writing or drawing them in compromising content without their consent is a little weird. You do you. Don’t like, don’t read, as they say.

Fanfic is the perfect starting point for a few reasons:

It places you in a creative box and forces you to work within those constraints

It does all the worldbuilding and character concepts for you

It lets you write way outside your comfort zone

When published and receiving feedback, it boosts your self-confidence

It's incredibly flexible

It’s practice. All practice is good practice

—

Behold your creative box

When I was little I had no idea the majority of fanfic was shipping fics. I always pictured and looked for canon-divergent alternate universes. Like, what if X happened in this episode instead of Y? What if this character never died?

Fanfic demands you work within someone else’s canon, whether it’s an OC in the canonical world, or the canonical characters in an AU. These are like little bowling bumpers saving you from the gutter, but also keeping you on a straight-ish path toward the pins.

The indecisiveness of too many choices can be too intimidating when you’re first starting out. You want to be a writer but you have no idea where to begin, what genre to pick, what characters you want to chronicle, what themes you want to explore.

Even if it sits on your computer never to see the light of day, you still got those creative juices flowing.

Pre-packaged worldbuilding

Sometimes all we want is to get to the good stuff. Maybe I want to write a story about elemental magicians but Last Airbender already exists and I just want to play in a pre-existing sandbox. So I write some OCs into that world and have a free-for-all.

I don’t have to come up with my own lore, world history, magic system rules and mechanics, politics, geography—any of it. I get to just focus on the characters.

Even if you’re writing an AU, like say a coffee shop AU, you don’t have to think about brand new characters, you can just think “What would M do?” and go from there. The trade-off is your readers will expect canonical characters to behave in-character, but I think it’s worth it.

Stretch beyond your comfort zone!

Do you hate writing action scenes? Go practice with a shonen anime fic. Need work on dialogue? Write some high-fantasy fic, or a courtroom drama. Practice a fistfight by watching fistfights and writing what you see, and do it over and over again until what you read makes you feel like you're watching what’s on screen.

But beyond that—practice genres that you aren’t super familiar with. If you’re new to fantasy, write fantasy fic. Or a mystery novel/show, thriller, comedy, satire, adventure, what have you. The nature of fanfic still gives you those “guardrails” and you can get some brutally honest feedback on how you’re doing.

And, of course, the realm of M-rated romance and smut fics. I haven’t because I think I would die of embarrassment if I tried and I never intend to include sex scenes in my works anyway, but if you do want to, use the internet as your test audience. Post it on a throwaway account if you’re nervous.

Build that self-confidence!

The fandoms I used to write for are super dead, so it’s insane how I still get email notifications that so-and-so liked my fic to this day. Comments are as elusive as ever, but random strangers on the internet telling me they liked my work is a magical reassurance that my writing isn’t actually awful.

Random strangers on the internet are, as we all know, beholden to no moral obligation to be kind to your little avatar face, or be kind to be polite. So a rando taking the time to like my work or even leave a positive comment can feel more honest than one of my friends telling me what they think I want to hear.

I tend to avoid the more present aspects of fandom like online communities, forums, social media, what have you, so I get a delayed and diluted aspect of any given fandom through completed works. Which means, in general, I get to avoid the worst and most toxic aspects of fandom and get to sift through positive feedback and critique.

Even if your fanfic isn’t written with stellar prose, it’s fanfic. We don’t expect Pulitzer-prize winning content. And if your work isn’t up to snuff, people are more likely to just ignore it than put you on blast (at least in my experience, I never got a bad comment or a “flame” in the old FFN days).

Fanfic doesn’t care about the rules of published literature

On the one hand, try not to practice bad habits, but with this point I mean that your layout, punctuation, formatting, paragraph styles, chapter length–all of it is beholden to no rules. I get as annoyed as the next reader with giant blocks of paragraphs, or the double-spacing between pages of single-sentence paragraphs, but if the story’s good enough I might ignore it.

There’s more than just straight narrative fics, though. People write “chat” fics, or long streams of text and group chat conversations. The scene breaks can come super rapidly–I’ve seen fics with a single sentence in between line breaks to show the passage of time. And without the polish of a traditionally published novel, I’ve never seen a purer distillation of author voice in any medium more than fanfic.

All practice is good practice

Even if it’s crack fiction, or a one-off one-shot, or something meant to be lighthearted and straightforward and free from complex worldbuilding and intricate plots. It really helps break writer’s block when you can shift gears and headspaces entirely and you can get relatively instant feedback to keep you motivated.

Beyond that, the “guardrails” help you stay consistent as far as character growth and personality if you struggle with designing rich characters.

The most recent fanfic I wrote was just a couple years ago, for a dead fandom I didn’t think would get any traffic whatsoever. It wasn’t my original works, but the feedback on that fic gave me the kick in the butt I needed to get back into writing more seriously.

—

In short, I support fanfic. I may not be proud of my earliest fics' prose now, but I am proud that they walked so I can now run.

[motherofdragonflies]

The Elevator Game: A Choose Your Own Adventure Fic

Written by: @motherofdragonflies / bexgowen

Art by: @xfancyfranart

Rating: Explicit

Word count: 95,000

Tags/Warnings: Major Character Death, Choose Your Own Adventure Style, Psychological Horror, Canon Divergent, Post 15x03, Case Fic

Summary: 

The game is simple.

Get in an elevator, alone, and follow the rules. If you follow them correctly, the elevator will rise and when the doors open, they will open onto a world that is not your own.

When his brother goes missing after investigating the death of a teenage girl in a hotel in St. Louis, Dean Winchester is dismayed to discover it involved an internet legend called “the Elevator Game”.

He’s even more dismayed when Castiel—who walked away weeks ago and hasn’t been returning Dean’s calls—shows up, also looking for Sam.

Dean doesn’t want to work with Castiel, and Castiel doesn’t seem thrilled about working with him, either. Can they put their differences aside when  they discover that Sam disappeared after playing the Elevator Game? Will Dean and Castiel play the elevator game and travel to the Other World themselves? Will they find Sam before it's too late? 

The choice, dear reader, is yours. You are in control of the story.

But choose wisely, for once you play the Elevator Game, things may never be the same again.

Excerpt:

“Where did Ali hear about the game?” Sam’s voice asked. 

“She, uh, she loved scary stuff. Horror movies, urban legends, that kinda thing. I think she found it on reddit, in one of those scary story subreddits? I don’t know, I don’t…I don’t like that kind of thing. But, um, she was always talking about wanting to try it but you need a tall building and we’d never been anywhere anyway tall enough until…”

“Until that night. Did you tell the police?”

Lilah scoffed. “I told them. They didn’t believe me.”

“Lilah…what do you think happened?”

“I... I think…I think it worked.”

The audio file ended, and Dean sorted through the rest of the papers from the envelope Lilah had given him. The first page was a print out from a true crime subreddit: Dean recognised it as one that Sam checked constantly. His brother had highlighted a post on the page, one consisting of a single line that was posted four days after Alison and the others had disappeared:

Ali Bleaker played the elevator game.

Frowning, Dean turned to the next page and found that it was an article from a website called “The Ghost In My Machine”, titled “The Most Dangerous Games: The Elevator Game Revisited.”

Dean snorted at the title but read on:

"Some people know it as ‘Elevator To Another World’. For others, it’s the ‘Elevator to Hell’... But no matter the name, this peculiar…game, I suppose—although there’s nothing playful about it—it always said to have the same outcome, as long as you follow its rules to a T: By riding an elevator alone, visiting a handful of floors in a particular order as you go, you can transport yourself to another world entirely."

Dean stared at the words on the page.

Another world.

“Jesus, Sam, tell me you didn’t.”

Once upon a time, Dean might have dismissed the claim of ‘another world’ as something out of a science fiction story. But having visited several other worlds, Dean knew that alternate realities, multiverses—whatever you wanted to call them— were real. He doubted that something as simple as riding an elevator could take you to another world, but the idea wasn’t as far-fetched as he once would have believed it to be.

Snatching up his computer, Dean quickly pulled up the phone tracking site that he’d bookmarked and searched for the location of Sam’s phone. 

He was not at all surprised when the map showed Sam’s phone was at The Millennium Hotel, where Alison Bleaker had died.

Going up at @deancashorrorfest this October!

[salted-anime-takes]

Sword Art Online (S1 & S2; dropped after that)

Author: Reki Kawahara, originally light novels

Studio: A-1 Pictures

Genres (Listed by MAL): Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Romance (vomits), Love Polygon (kills you)

Premiered: Summer 2012

Anime vs. Manga?: You couldn't pay me less than $100 to consume additional content to this series. I'd also need a large margarita.

Salted Genres: stereotypical teen boy fantasy, loser cardboard male mc, harem of women too good for him, jesus christ they had a torture dungeon for main girl in S2 by some grown man obsessed with her???, jesus FUCKING christ they gave Kirito a cousin who is into him but reasoned it off not being totally blood related, why did we let this series get so popular

Major Trigger Warnings: that weird sex dungeon thing in S2, almost incest, shitty writing, shitty love polygon garbage

Can I Watch It Around My Parents?: Just don't watch it. The cultural context isn't worth it. Do yourself a favor and stop thinking isekai will be family friendly when the main audience is incels.

Artstyle: That moe-esque style without any personality and makes all the main characters look 12, and many side characters look ridiculously older.

Personal Review: I will never forgive SAO for kicking off the isekai genre in anime so hard. Fuck yourself, Kirito. Every other anime lead in isekai is just you. Fuck this garbage pile for the isekai boom. Fuck my life

Context: This is the real reason you're here, aside from the scathing remarks you've probably heard a billion times. Why the fuck is this show even relevant? Let's go back to the early 2010s, before half of tumblr could pretend to read. (This is mostly from the Western perspective, so please add anything else happening in the world with this wild popularity jump, because I'd LOVE to hear additional takes.) Several factors were going on. Firstly, Netflix was finally a full streaming service, and most people were starting to subscribe. You didn't have to hope it was on Toonami or go to whatever sketchy websites had anime illegally available (and get every virus known to computer-kind) to get your fix anymore. Well... for a small starting selection. Secondly, while the isekai genre was already a fully developed thing, it hadn't broken into the majority Western anime viewership circles, which barely ventured outside of Toonami at the time. Then along came SAO. Netflix got the rights to the entire first season, and suddenly, it was not only insanely accessible but also something most Western fans had never seen before. You die in the game, you die in real life?! Incredible!!! (Sorry Tron, you weren't high fantasy enough for this crowd.) Thirdly, gaming was finally mainstream, and watching streamers was a new norm. The timing couldn't have been better for its release. And what with the insane levels of ignorance and assumptions most Western anime watchers had at the time of anime tropes, most red flags discussed were merely looked over. We let too much slide in the early 2010s, and SAO was one of the biggest culprits. Fourthly, if you needed a gateway anime? SAO didn't require any sort of understanding of Japanese culture to get, which appealed to a lot of people who didn't want to think outside their box, as was the early 2010s. Despite it all, SAO was easy merchandise. Hot Topic (apologies for the American chain drop) was venturing into nerd culture and including some nice trinkets for the little nerds that hung out with their goth besties, and anime merch- including SAO- was some of the first big hits. After that? It's history. I don't know if anyone who still claims to like SAO actually is banking on nostalgia or just never gained tastes beyond a lameass horny 15 year old boy, but that boom it created gave so many light novel writers the ticket they needed to get isekai as a major genre in today's seasonal anime lineup.

Favorite Character: Asuna deserved better you motherfuckers. She actually did stuff until you get thrown into the most unnecessary slice of life arc where they begin the Sexualization. S2 cour 2 they gave her a genuinely interesting opportunity to be a lead, AND Kirito wasn't there. Still not worth watching.

Fandom: you couldn't pay me ANYTHING to check this.

[enchantedanimal]

first off: i saw your mothman coaster art and it's very cool :D

second off: you mentioned it was for a class you're taking? is that part of like a larger major for attraction design? i have a family member who has always been interested in that kind of thing and i didn't know there was something like that out there!

Tysm!!

In short: Yes, it's what I'm studying! People's reactions when I tell them are so funny bc no one has heard of it

As for a better explanation, I'll try my best to keep it from being horribly lengthy but its kinda complicated rn so bear with me (I also do not mind answering more questions about it if I know the answer)

So, my major is technically called Computer Graphics Technology/CGT, which is a digital design based major that has multiple things you can choose to concentrate in, kinda like a major within a major! I chose to concentrate in Themed Attraction Design (sometimes I just say that I'm majoring in that bc CGT tends to go over people's heads more), which is unique from the other concentrations in that it has a minor and a certificate if you don't want to take the whole CGT major. You also don't have to be into illustration/concept art- that's the role I've fallen into, but just in my group for this project we also have modelers, story writers, engineers, graphic designers, etc! They'll push you but let you work to your strengths.

I chose IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis) bc it's one of the very few colleges that offer it! However like I said things are weird rn bc IUPUI is splitting itself into the two separate colleges after this semester (we're literally going through an academic divorce ✌️😞) so I'm on a teach-out plan of study which is likely different than students starting fall 24' since it'll be under Purdue Polytechnic and yada yada all that fun and confusing stuff. With the many changes, Purdue should still be keeping TAD as an option.

BUT ANYWAYS from my experience so far it's really interesting! You get a good amount of exposure to the themed attraction industry, such as yearly trips down to Florida for the IAAPA convention, WDW (we took some Imagination campus classes), and Universal in November (I went last year, it was really fun), as well as getting to listen and talk to industry professionals such as imagineers and ppl at universal creative (as well as museums, zoos, etc). It's definitely unique and going to theme parks with the excuse that it's for education is a bonus lol

[dastardlydandelion]

a 2024 update

i keep circling back to the idea of deleting my tumblr. i’m not as active as I once was, my schedule changed (and workload intensified) in the time i began this blog to where i am now. the AI is really freaking me out but that’s not just a tumblr problem, (it’s everywhere 😱) so much less of a factor in my contemplation because i know i can't avoid it.

i’m also not the same as i was three years ago and euuugh, some of my early stuff makes me cringe so hard i want to delete just to distance myself from it!!! but like, evolution and change are just natural in the process of existing as a human being. in another three years, i’ll be even more different (albeit my pre-frontal cortex will remain fully developed so the changes will potentially be less pronounced). soo what am i gonna do, reset every three years like a robot getting a new computer chip??

this is going to get longer than i expected, so explanation continues under the cut:

nah. i may not be as active as i used to be and my opinions/interests may have shifted/evolved, but still, so many of my friends are here and there’s all this cool art, and gifsets, and what have you.

since this was and remains mainly a fandom blog, i’ll briefly summarize my major attitude shifts regarding fandom:

on the yellowjackets front, a significant decrease in hostility toward one travis martinez. like…okay I still don’t love that ben sent travis out alone hunting with nat after he pointed a gun! at her fucking face! and I still don’t love the portion of fandumb that straight up ignores that travis pointed a gun at natalie’s face, and yes it was kind of frustrating that the male characters in general got so much screen time in a show that’s supposed to be about female characters but like. none of that is travis the character’s fault— actually ykw, that’s one of my problems generally that i noticed, that i want to grow from— i keep letting fandumb (and content burnout) influence my perception of and response to characters/plot lines/ships rather than organically formulating my interpretations separate from that influence. i mean fandumb generally, not just YJ. blah blah blah, anyway, i apologize, travis martinez. you had to eat your baby brother. you sank your teeth into his freshly carved out raw heart. i want to both examine you from a more organic angle going forward and hug you now.

okay, okay, i was gonna break down my notable shifts in opinion by fandom, but going off of the aforementioned pattern that i have, maybe i should...no, no, let's keep going by fandom, i have that problem in *every* fandom, so.

ST! I FINALLY WATCHED IT. holy cannoli, okay, @lucdarling and @foxgirlontherun are buds that i remember telling for sure, but i know for sure i didn't tell all of my ST pals so i'll touch on that. watched it over the holidays with my grandma, who had been trying to get me to watch for some time and i finally caved.

1.) we get more glimpses of the demogorgon in the first season than i ever gave it credit for. myself of...however many years ago was just too damn impatient waiting to see the whole damn monster. we get a claw here, a growl there, a moving shadow, etc. its introduction was actually well done, so. years-ago me, you were WRONG. WRONG, I TELL YOU, WRONG.

2.) eleven does not have pyrokinesis. i knew she was telepathic (to a degree) and telekinetic, but for some reason, in the past i *also* believed she could set things on fire with her mind. i just thought she used that power less because fire is so destructive. well...now i know she doesn't have pyrokinesis at all!

3.) the byers do NOT live in a trailer. this i did actually learn before watching the show, i learned in 2022 when a bud sent me like, a pic of their lego byers house and i was like, oh. neat. that's not a trailer. 🙃 so that i did become aware before watching, but seeing it onscreen reminded me that i knew.

4.) billy has more canon depth than i had given him credit for, previously having just watched scenes for fic-reference out of context. i apologize, billiam (i don't attribute a shred of that depth to the duffballs, but that's a different rant). i think since i entered the fandom side of things long before watching, i got certain portions of fanon and canon confused. also-- much like with travis and some other examples i'm going to get into-- i let too much fandumb influence my response to him + impression of his role in canon.

5.) steve is nowhere nearly as irritating in canon as i thought he was. the things that i find irritating about steve are-- once again, see above examples --not really anything that has to do with the character himself! i'm sorry, steve!

on that note, sorry hairygrove friends!! i love you guys and it's been a gift getting to know each of you over the last few years, but i was pretty damn mean to steve sometimes! i should've been nicer to steve...and maybe bill, for that matter, but i mean, i'd written so much from his POV i think it goes without saying that i've always had affection for the latter, even if i probably should've given him more credit for canon characterization and been less presumptuous.

obviously having seen the show, i have more developed thoughts on ST overall, but i think those are just...the main differentiations between opinions formulated in the early days of this blog versus where i'm at now. friends of mine who watch ST, if you want to talk about it, i'm happy to! but please DM me personally and don't send asks about it. i don't want to answer asks because those get posted on the main blog. on the main blog the algorithm reads what's posted and sends you suggestions accordingly.

certain parts of ST S4VOL2 make me *extremely* uncomfortable. i scroll past gifs, art, edits, etc, of those parts on occasion already since i have so many ST friends and the algorithm suggests related content. and it's fine...but i don't want to give the algorithm more reasons to show me even more things that make me uncomfortable, you know what i mean?

guess that's it for ST.

so let's revisit the scream franchise!

might as well go ahead and get the biggest change out of the way: i no longer hate dewey riley!

good lord, for years i was just the stabbiest damn crab at that character. 🦀🔪 opinion officially evolved, evolved BIG time. i was once so irritated with dewey i straight up celebrated when he got killed off . the glee at his demise pushed the ghostface that killed him right up to the top of my ranking.

BOOOOOOOOO. BOOOOOOOOO ME.

...okay. i. i'm sorry, dewey.

once again, here goes me with this pattern that i need to stop. me raising up my hackles at fandumb and components of the character that are not *the* character. i don't like the hero cop trope. i don't. the copaganda of it all...but. a character's mere status of falling into a category of trope or cliche shouldn't discourage thorough examination of them, their personalities, role in the story, or other traits. that's a very small way to interact with fiction, isn't it? i've since moved on from that knee-jerk dismissal.

i also was also a huge flipping grinch when it came to romance for a long ass time (will touch on this later) and so much of dewey's story is about the romance between him and gale. which is...actually a pretty solid romantic storyline, i realize after multiple earnest re-watches of the franchises. dewey has a solid arc! gale has a solid arc! their romance has a solid arc! should not have complained about this nearly as much as i did. maybe it's because of the chemistry between the performers, but all their banter throughout the movies that i once rolled my eyes at...it...it works! okay, it works, they made it work.

i no longer rejoice that dewey is killed off (albeit the scene itself is still pretty freaking cool). amber definitely *isn't* my ghostfave. she's NOT at the bottom of my list but NOT at the top. actually-- wait, no, that can wait, i'm not done with dewey yet...or am i, do i have anything else to say about dewey?

okay, he's not my favorite character, but. he's a classic and he's lovable and i won't fight it anymore because of petty irritations or my personal issues with a trope that in no way makes up the whole of his character.

since we're on scream, whoa, GHOSTFACE RANKING HAS EVOLVED 11/10!

yes, oh, that is so much different than where it was when i started this blog! also very different after recency bias + initial script + the dewey kill scene undeservedly shot amber to the top of my ranking in early 2022.

i'm not going to detail my ranking in this post. that could easily be its own post with its own thorough dissections of which ghostface takes which slot and why. but i will bring up another scream character whose opinion of mine has greatly changed over time: richie kirsch.

i was so irritated by this guy before. couldn't stand him! and you guessed it, for the wrong reasons! i was put off by a lot of the outpouring of the horny focus on him in fandom. not shaming anybody for their preferences by the way! look, i have my own villain crushes (see beth, who is at the top of my ranking again although we'll save the details for another day). it's just...it was kind of frustrating back then to want to gush about the carpenter sisters and mostly find myself surrounded by risque white male centered content instead. i hope that's understandable. so i got burned out on richie content and dismissed the whole character. i was also VERY put off by radio silence's interpretation of their ghostface duo in 2022 but that's a different conversation and again, not richie the character's fault.

richie is funny! okay, he's funny, yes, the "boner pills" line is still irritating, but now...now when i re-watch 5cream i can appreciate him more and the humor of richie *mostly* lands for me! i also think scream VI made me appreciate richie more, because his family is so underdeveloped and wayne's actor made...choices with that performance. but again, that's something i would get into more if i were to detail the evolution of my ghostface ranking.

i think that's it for the major changes in my scream feelings...what other fandoms...

okay, cobra kai? how have my opinions evolved there?

ykw, that one might be mostly the same. the show got worse. it got so bad. it's so bad now, it just bums me out. the one thing i truly wanted from that show was for tory nichols to get the screentime she deserved and for the show to deliver on her hidden depths alluded to the first three seasons. my wish was granted in sheer monkey paw fashion, because they finally did that and pretty much the rest of the show went to shit, go figure. 💩

um...hmm...SHIPPING.

oh, okay, shipping. yeah, let's talk about that. not fandom specific, just um. okay, at the time i started this blog i was never what the kids call 'antis' in that i have some moral beef with fan content of fictional characters falling in love or doing sex things. no, no, that's pretty silly. BUT what i was, was a huge grinch!!! just the mention of romance made me scrunch my face. wouldn't read/write/engage with any shippy things beyond some extremely particular F/F content.

as someone who prefers F/F because it's what i relate to, i know at some point i was just burned out on everything fandom being so heavily M/M focused and everything canon being so heavily F/M focused. i also have feelings about the way M/F is portrayed in canon media due to misogynistic tropes and storylines. but even where F/F was concerned, i was so picky. picky as a damn porcupine.

i believe a combination of things has finally let me to loosen up when it comes to shipping and romance in general.

1.) limiting my engagement with it, allowing me to recover from the burnout.

2.) getting over personal romantic issues IRL that tainted my engagement in fictional romance.

3.) YELLOWJACKETS. i have many complaints with s2 but nevertheless, YJ has given us so many complex, rich female characters with interesting dynamics. and the exploration of those dynamics is abundant, varied, and so thoughtfully explored in YJ fandom that i am hooked! i feel more invested in expanding my F/F pool and i feel less overrun by the greater amount of M/M and M/F content because these fascinating characters and the earnest effort fandom puts into depicting multilayered relationships between them just...evens the playing field, i guess, if we're gonna make a soccer pun. ⚽️

4.) watching romances + romantic subplots with women behind the camera. turns out, the less misogyny involved, the more genuinely i can enjoy an M/F ship. go figure, huh.

anyway, i'm not such a stab crab about romance anymore. i know i have many fandom friends who *are* interested in shipping and i apologize if i was ever cramping your style or bringing you down when i would express my disgruntlement. i hope you can forgive me, i promise to be less of a grinch now. 💚

🦀🔪 fandom opinions that have not changed:

1.) THE BLACK PHONE. waited a year, paid $30 to watch ethan hawke put plates on the floor for an hour! NO! i want a refund!!! WASTED POTENTIAL. GONNA HOLD THIS GRUDGE FOREVER.

2.) the CAOS finale was absolutely disgusting! it was never a great show, sarah rees brennan who wrote the tie-in novels should've been in charge of the screenplay, imo. the novels did so much, so much better, but i digress...mediocre show or not, that fourth season took bad to a whole new level. 🤢

3.) ALEX SAXON CANNOT ACT. i appreciate nancy drew (2019) presenting to me F/M ships (namely fanson) i could actually get into because of the way the dynamics were written but the nace obsessions baffles me when the acting in MTV scream was oscar-worthy compared to this man's sheer lack of ability to emote.

...unless....unless the editors of the show hated alex saxon and only used edits they knew were bad in the finalized episodes in order to sabotage his career going forward. but i have no proof, it's just a possible conspiracy theory. 🤔

non-fandom relevant blog thoughts:

i love interacting with my friends, building connections, and admiring the creativity people put out into the world in various forms. i want to be more focused on that, online and offline, than negativity. i also don't want my apprehension surrounding AI to prevent me from engaging with the digital world and the wonderful human people i've gotten to know through it.

i want to think about nature more than the things that make me so angry, so beyond my control. i want to share animal facts and pictures of forests and funnily shaped rocks. i want to spend more time making people laugh than spiraling into personal insecurities...i don't think my blog was ever a *particularly* negative place, but oh boy, i could certainly be a crab with TWO knives...

there's plenty to be afraid of and be angry about with the expansion of AI and its grip on the digital world. i guess the whole purpose of this post was just to express 'these are the things that have changed and my priorities have also changed.' with that, i really want to focus more on creative things, fun things, funny things, and share more joy than anything else.

there's only so much time. i want to spend the bulk of it cherishing the connections we make, more than anything else.

[alltimefail-sims]

I’m the simmer which EA account got banned.

Yes the only exception is that it’s because of the cc. Because all my sims have a lot of cc. I’m very sad I spent a lot of time creating them….

So, if I'm understanding correctly, you can still go into your game and play, but you just can't post sims on the gallery? Or are you completely locked out of your EA account and can't even play your game at all?

Read More ↓

I'm happy to help! Usually they send a warning before outright banning, did you receive any warnings to your EA account prior to being banned? You can login into your EA account online and look under "MY BAN HISTORY." This should tell you when you were banned and give you the option to dispute the ban. Here's a Reddit thread I found while looking into your problem that shows some screenshots that illustrate what I'm talking about.

That's why I personally don't upload anything that isn't "Vanilla" to the gallery if I can help it. There have been some issues in the past with inappropriate and outright racist content, and the gallery has undergone major changes in the last couple months in an attempt to avoid this. My guess is that whatever filter/algorithm they're using to find inappropriate content might have a harder time with sims that use a lot of custom content, and it might be more privy to flagging those, unfortunately. It sucks, but it's the sims team lol. They are bad at fixing problems, but very good at making them. The gallery has always had its issues and, especially if you're using cc, it can be very unreliable IMO. That's why if you're creating sims with the intent/hopes to share them, I really recommend making a Simblr and sharing your sims on here by uploading them to a free host like Google Drive, Mediafire, Patreon, OneDrive, etc. Like I said, I'm happy to create a tutorial for that if you're curious! I'm not tech savvy, but I upload sims on here all the time and haven't had any issues with my methods - it's not as complicated as you'd think once you get the hang of it, and you don't run into issues that come from the gallery.

and YES, absolutely just save your unfinished sims to your library. I have 5 copies of "Vatores - In Progress" in my library right now lmao because I know this game is always playing around in the worst way and I don't want to lose my sims or my progress. I only ever save sims and builds that use CC to my personal library, never on the gallery, and then I use Tray Importer to grab their tray files and cc to share them. It's actually easy-peasy!

You are not stupid! I totally get your thought process with the spawning. That is a pain and there's no perfect solution to that other than just deleting the unfinished townie if they happen to generate in your game.

SUPER IMPORTANT QUESTION: you still have your game installed and therefore have access to your Sims 4 folder, right? If so, you can back up your tray and saves that way you don't lose anything.

I'm using a Windows computer, so I'm sorry if you're using a MAC... I don't know much about their Operating System. For me I can do this by simply copying both folders and storing them in a folder on my desktop, but you can even use a separate flash drive if you prefer.

I go to Documents -> Electronic Arts -> The Sims 4. You use mods, so you're probably very familiar with this but here's a screenshot just in case:

The two folders I have highlighted - saves and tray - you should keep backups of before you update your game, put new mods in your game, etc. because if something gets corrupted, you'll always be able to save the important stuff if you have to uninstall your game, move to a new PC, and etc.

That's what my folder looks like on my desktop - the last copy I made of my tray and saves was on October 17th.

That's the inside of the folder.

Important note while we are here: you can also delete anything inside the cachestr folder (but not the folder itself), anything inside the onlinethumbnailcache folder (but not the folder itself), the avatarcache.package file, and the localthumbcache.package file. Especially do this after removing any mods or cc from your game!

If you can still go into your game and access your sims in the gallery at any capacity, you should go ahead and save your favorite sims to your library. You can do this by going into CAS, adding them to a new household, and saving them like I showed you in the last post. Save your game and then, if you haven't backed everything up before, I would recommend doing that.

If you can't access your gallery at all any more, with the exception of your library, but some of the sims/households you liked have spawned in your game, you can also add them to your library by editing their household from the neighborhood bin. Just open them in CAS and save them to your library the same way you would a totally new sim. This way, even if you may not be able to access everything you've uploaded to the gallery, you might still be able to salvage some sims this way.

Also, if you made a family in CAS and then moved them into a house right after, good news - a copy of them is already saved in your library! So there's definitely some hope?

Lastly, I believe this was also you:

I don't know what mod this could be, but I've seen people complaining about this issue in the past. I've never personally ran into this issue, but it's likely a script mod. Hard to say: I don't know what cc and mods you have in your game. You might just need to clean out your mods and CC folder until your find the culprit (50/50 method). If you don't have everything organized into subfolders, this would be the perfect opportunity to do that. I'll do some digging though, I'm sorry I can't be more helpeful with this.

Please don't feel stupid or feel bad for asking for help. I'm happy to help you as much as I can. That's what I'm here for! I had to learn a lot of this on my own, so if I can help someone else, that makes me happy! Hopefully there is something in here that works out for you. I'll be sending good luck your way!! 🖤

[satoshi-mochida]

Dungeon Travelers: To Heart 2 in Another World for PC launches February 14, 2024

Gematsu Source

Dungeon RPG Dungeon Travelers: To Heart 2 in Another World will launch for PC via Steam and Johren on February 14, 2024 for $19.99, publishers Shiravune and DMM Games, and developer AQUAPLUS announced. It will support English, Japanese, and Traditional Chinese language support.

Here is an overview of the game, via Shiravune:

About

Recruit a huge cast of friends from four different base classes that branch into over a dozen variations, and always build the best party for the job! Explore one long, twisting dungeon that only gets more perilous the further you go, with plenty of optional quests and side areas to unlock! The original Dungeon Travelers game takes place in a separate world from the others, drawing characters instead from the fan-beloved world of the PlayStation 2 anime classic To Heart 2.

Prepare at the Guild – Whenever you stop for a respite from exploring, you can identify your new gear, reequip and restructure your team, or even upgrade your characters’ classes along branching paths!

Explore the Dungeon – The Auto-Map function will fill in the grid with each step, letting you know where you are and where you’ve been. Be careful, though! Don’t try to go too far at once…

Battle and Collect Monsters – The deeper you delve into the dungeon, the more dangerous the monsters will become. You’ll need tactics to counter each new threat—and what better way to get to know your foes than by weakening them and sealing them into your book for study?

Strategize and Win – With every battle you’ll amass more gold, EXP, and items. It’s up to you whether to press on, or to head back outside to power up for later!

Story

When I awoke, there was fantasy stuff everywhere… What kind of adventure could be in store? And will there be any way home when it’s all said and done?! It all started after class in the student council room. Takaaki and all his friends had been gathered to test some unquestionably suspicious if not downright dangerous game—or “full-body immersive RPG experience,” in the words of its inimitable creator Ma-ryan. The play-test was only questionably voluntary. The game started to launch. A bright flash filled the room… When Takaaki opened his eyes, he was somewhere he didn’t recognize. His friends Konomi and Tamaki were kitted out in full fantasy gear, and when he looked more closely, he realized he was too. Were they in the game? Forget that—how would they get out? Only one lead presented itself. “In the depths of the dungeon located nearby, there lives the god who created this world…” But who could it be? In search of more clues and hopefully some answers, the party set out into the dungeon…

Characters

Konomi Yuzuhara (voiced by Yurina Hase) – Takaaki’s childhood friend, one year younger, who lives next door. She’s fond of fortune-telling and food and has a dog named Genjimaru. Likes to look after people but isn’t much good at it.

Tamaki Kousaka (voiced by Shizuka Ito) – One year older than Takaaki and Konomi, she was always the boss of their motley crew. The heiress of an old family, skilled at cooking, cleaning, martial arts, and academia. Her hobbies include antiques collecting and historical dramas. Very bad with dogs.

Manaka Komaki (voiced by Noriko Rikimaru) – Takaaki’s classmate and class president. Formerly the class vice president. As a big snacker, she’s turned a certain storage area into a secret tea room. She isn’t very assertive, but has been friends with Yuma since middle school.

Karin Sasamori (voiced by Saki Nakajima) – A girl who loves paranormal phenomena… and also egg sandwiches. Blessed with boundless curiosity and energy, but doesn’t look before she leaps. The founder and fearless leader of the Mystery Club. Join today!

Sango Himeyuri (voiced by Sayori Ishizuka) – Ruri Himeyuri’s older twin sister. One year under Takaaki. A genius at computers and a major fan of red bean butter bread. Lives at her own pace, doing what she wants, when she wants.

Ruri Himeyuri (voiced by Konami Yoshida) – Sango Himeyuri’s younger twin sister. One year under Takaaki. Emotional and unacademic, she practices jealousy and stubbornness as art forms. On the other hand, she’s good at housework, and loves Sango more than anyone.

Yuma Tonami (voiced by Hitomi Nabatame) – A girl who sees everything as a contest: You can win or lose, and she wants to win. She’s constantly challenging Takaaki, but almost never comes out on top. She must have been born under an unlucky star. Most things she does backfire.

Lucy Maria Misora (voiced by Rio Natsuki) – A space alien from Planet Luu, the third planet orbiting 47 Ursae Majoris… or is she? She’s certainly an odd girl, with her own language and the power to get drunk on soda. Attends classes only when she feels like it, but no one seems to mind.

Yuki Kusakabe (voiced by Rina Sato) – An old classmate of Takaaki’s who thinks everything “seems like fate.” Never seen without the fancy notebook that she seems to carry everywhere. Likes black tea, though it burns her tongue. Seems to be primarily nocturnal?

Sasara Kusugawa (voiced by Ryoko Ono) – The student council president, formerly the vice president under Ma-ryan. Afflicted by a strange condition that causes her body to reject food made with love. An unabashed aficionado of soft and slimy animals.

Ma-ryan (voiced by Ema Kogure) – Real name: Unknown. Age: 14 forever in her heart. Moonlights as a voice actress. Even post-graduation, she comes and goes in the student council office like she owns the place. The definition of a troublemaker. Full of mischief and mysteries.

Harumi Kouno (voiced by Kotomi Yamakawa) – A girl who transferred in one day and started calling Takaaki “Darling.” Her true name is HMX-17b Milfa, and she was previously in the body of a teddy bear. She’s always arguing with her little sister Silfa.

HMX-17c Silfa (voiced by Harumi Sakurai) – The youngest of the three maid sisters has a distinctive speech impediment. With a phobia of human interaction, she hides in a cardboard box when she’s upset. The maid uniform she always wears comes courtesy of Yuji.

Chie Yoshioka (voiced by Kaori Ota) – Konomi’s close friend, nicknamed Yocchi. She’s known Konomi since middle school and Michiru Yamada since kindergarten. Bright and cheerful—and also weird and kind of nosy, but a good person at heart.

Michiru Yamada (voiced by Akira Kasahara) – Konomi’s close friend, nicknamed Charu. She’s known Konomi since middle school and Chie Yoshioka since kindergarten. Normally collected and wryly witty, but her family’s work is weighing on her lately.

Ikuno Komaki (voiced by Chiro Kanzaki) – Manaka Komaki’s little sister. She normally uses a wheelchair. Always worried about her sister’s trusting nature, she’s keeping a close eye on Takaaki, whom her sister is fond of. Cynical and often bitingly sarcastic.

Nanako (voiced by Kayo Sakata) – An innocent girl who loves Takaaki, or “Takky,” like a big brother. She’s also more of a go-getter than you might expect: in the past, she’s roped Takaaki and others into a quest to find a magic user.

Haruka Yuzuhara (voiced by Chieko Honda) – Konomi’s mother, and a sort of second mother-figure to Takaaki. She looks and acts considerably younger than she is and has a wealth of hobbies. Specialties: Killer Curry, thorough discipline, and loving her husband.

HMX-17a Ilfa (voiced by Emiko Hagiwara) – A maid robot whom Milfa and Silfa can call their big sister. Specially equipped by Sango with software that gives her a people-loving heart. Normally she seems sweet and demure, but don’t make her angry!

[dausy]

Anybody else have the most unorganized filing system on their computer? It drives me crazy but also the attempt to organize drives me crazy. Mainly what happened on mine is back when my computer was misbehaving ages ago I ended up trying to move files over to a different section of the computer and ended up with a lot of duplicates.

But I had to reedit and reorganize a large chunk of my print files and its taken the majority of the morning. Primarily the smaller illustrations that were in my 4x6 sketchbooks. Making those print-able when I didn't do it the first time because I didn't think anybody'd want those as prints...well now I'm just mad at myself. I only also got some stuff uploaded to inkblot and I'm still toying with signing up for furaffinity. I am honestly sick of staring at my art.

I also had to take a test for the Board of Nursing in Texas. Which I was also not happy about. I've been having issues with my compact license so now I'm just becoming a Texas citizen (ew). They did issue me a temporary Texas license but its still ew.

I did get a few scrub caps in the mail so now I don't have to wear ugly bouffants anymore. I have zero idea what happened to my old ones. I know where they were in the previous house. No idea what happened to them or my other dog backpack.

We went on a 5 mile hike yesterday and thankfully before we moved I had put one of the dog backpacks (to literally carry my dog in, not a dog designed backpack, its a dog carrier) in the trunk of my car. I kinda wanted to bring the other one (thats missing) because it transforms into an actual backpack (to carry my things if the dog wants to walk). The dog enjoyed the 2 mile walk up but didn't feel like walking down so we ended up carrying her. I learned. Get a dog backpack. Saves you some frustration (though maybe not your back).

Other things that are happening. Theres a formal ceremony I'm supposed to go to with my husband on Friday and I'm new at my job and told them about the ceremony and took Friday off. Apparently in classic military fashion they may move the ceremony to another day. Love it. Also, apparently theres a military ball in March? so now I'm trying to find a formal dress to wear. Husband is supposed to leave for the entirety of February for work. I also got another job offer but for 10$/hr less than what I'm getting paid at the job I did accept so I declined it.

But I think I'm done with all my other stressors in life at the moment? All my certs and licensures are up to date. I'm working. When my husbands gone I guess I'll be spending it doing art and God of War.

[hopethelordswilllive]

"this is an unhealthy hope"

full warning for those who know me and those who dont, this written piece talks about heavy subjects personal to me and probably maladaptive thinking.

a few nights a go i had a disturbingly vivid dream. this happens often more than i would like, but right now i just need to put it somewhere.

the dream starts with facts, that i am as i was the night it happened. then it brings something absurd to the reality. these types of dreams for me at least, are very hard to become lucid. the absurdity it brings into the world is that technology has come up with something that was unnamed in the dream but well known for its purpose. a program you could be nominated for that allowed you to see into another version of your life.

i was nominated. but you could bring moral supports like friends and family up to about six to join you to comfort you, interact with the other version, and general moral supports.

i had brought my boyfriend and a few friends from school to join me. most expect to see themselves if they went to a different school, studied a different major, made different friends. something only slightly different from their life. in the dream as i watched it unfold i knew only one thing was going to happen for me.

heres how it went;

me and my friends arrive at the office where the program is being held. we check in at the desk where they promptly bring us all to a room which is pure white aside from a desk, computer, and chair. the far wall being a misty reflection of ourselves. this wall assumably is where you'd get to see the other version. one thing is on the computer. an interactable map layout of the other version's room. i sit in the chair and start scrolling around to get a feel of how their life is. they seem happy. content. i note this verbally to my friends while they critique it looks like a more cleaned up version of my depression room. though, that isnt my room. i dont recognize what house that is. i do not say that part out loud. again, and again, and again, things are missing in this room. stuff i dont recognize, art pieces i havent made. clothes i havent bought. i brush it off, easy to do when you understand how choices can be different depending what point in time they were made. thats what i say to myself in my dream at least. one thing i cant seem to find, my giant pink dumbo octopus plushie. i say nothing to the group. but i keep searching, thinking, maybe its somewhere else in the house that i supposedly could have lived in. but i know thats wrong.

for context, my giant pink dumbo octopus plushie isnt actually mine. and if the rightful owner of it could say anything in the matter, it would never have been in my possession to begin with.

my dream knows this. and the realization finally becomes too much. i start crying, to the shock of my group. to them, they dont know the importance of that plushie. they assume, maybe, i was attached to it as a child and perhaps it was destroyed in the other version. my boyfriend, alerted by my sudden burst of emotion, consoles me. though up until this point he wasnt really paying attention. he looks on the computer to see what could have had me this reaction, to find nothing. through laboured weeps i manage to push out the plushies name," burzum",

named after the music project by varg vikernes. this genre of music is not mine. i dont listen to norweigan black metal. i dont know who mayhem is, or who euronymous or pelle is. i only know someone who does. did. someone who is not here.

at first, my boyfriend searches on the map of my other version's room. assuming the same as i did, "maybe hes in the living room, maybe hes being washed, maybe hes at my house". at this point my friends are getting worried. they dont know. i keep saying to myself. and then the realization hits my boyfriend as well, he knows. he knows what this means. he starts crying.

a cool feature of this technology is that you can chat with the other version. though, everything is tightly knit in a way that needs full consent of both parties. the paperwork you do before going in properly is access to a digital relay of your room. thats how you are introduced to the idea of what the other version's life is like. everything after that uses a request method in order to proceed. my mind likes to bring in the "what if?" questions a lot in my dreams. while grieving a loved one i see the other side. my dream version of me, stuck in the world as it is now is not met face to face with the other version. i however am. it felt like i left my body and peeked over the wall. and he was there.

the other version and him had been lazily looking around my crowded room. poking fun at the fact i was still living at home. searching more, they found it. they saw burzum cramped into the wall and the bed where i sleep. to put it obviously, they were weirded out. making up scenarios of how he got there. maybe we started dating for real and burzum got caught up in the breakup? but that would also mean he probably broke up with the person who bought burzum for him. but you know what. i feel bad when the other version had found the altar. items of importance that otherwise would have not been in my possession. it slowly started to click. the other version could only look at him endearingly. but he didnt understand yet.

i knew. we knew. on the other side of that wall was a reality neither of us wanted to face. one of grief, and one of hope. did it matter? he typed on the computer requesting to see eachother face to face. a reason only known to me, it was denied. then the other version requested the same, this time it went through as a valid entry. now covering the screen of 'me as i am now' computer, a request to "lift the veil" as it was called. my boyfriend reaches to answer yes. knowing me, i simply could not let myself see that. the first i had moved from my fetal position on the chair was a confident 'dont' type of grab. "we need to leave" . through my dream seeing eyes, the request was denied. not by the other party but by the whatever company was holding this program.

"other party has resigned from program. you can no longer interact through the whatever program. other party has given consent to view lifestyle, social media, electronic history, medical history, achievements, and whatever is left."

this means that 'me as i am now' left the building without making further appointments to visit or interact with the other version. though as a lesson gave permission to view how their life is. they wont know if the other version looks at any of it. they will never go back there again. they remind themselves that the program is a two way full consent technology.

the hope here is that the other version, along with "him" will see how their lives could have been changed forever. that maybe "he" will think twice. this is an unhealthy hope.

[dan-drest]

T hink about how easy it is to make people believe conspiracy theories, context and fact checking make most of them fall apart but it takes more time and energy to verify what your being told than it takes for you to make stuff up that sound right on the surface.Now we have programs that can make stuff up really fast. I remember seeing something about an AI generated news article a few years ago, or that viral image of the pope in a puffer jacket. We are at the stage where “AI art” is still pretty easy to spot when you look, but you do have to look and it’s so much easier to flood an online space with generated images than it is to go through each one and identify if it is AI or not. Our tools for spotting AI also have to keep up with the current level of AI.

Go search up the blurry pictures that make people genuinely believe in the lock ness monster or big-foot or extra-terrestrials. Those people want it to be big foot so badly they won’t care how blurry or obviously fake it is, it is now evidence for their belief. Now lets have some troll generate a photorealistic picture of big foot, for no more reason than they can. They had generative AI cook it up so they know it’s not real but if our big foot beleivers wont question a blurry picture of a guy in a suit why would they question an image that looks like a photo and has had all credit and context removed?

That's my big issue with generative AI, it destroys credit and context, the things needed to take apart false narratives and also the major issue artists have with companies stealing their art to train their machines on.

I’m assuming you could train a generative AI using only legally procured data, public domain or free use images but they didn’t and that’s the part that people using the service and calling themselves AI artists either don’t understand or don’t care about. It’s not like the computers went looking to do it either, human beings made the decision to steal images to train their computers, hence the slow and expensive legal battles going on.

To finish this hopefully coherent train of thought; There are more insidious things than big foot. Conspirational thinking (the ways people convince themselves and others in a fictional conspiracy) is often used harmfully. Anti-vaxxers, Q anon, white supremacists and people who use the word woke all have their big foot.

*finally got my thoughts down after seeing a comment and had to make this post as it wouldnt fit in a comment*

for context, its from a post talking about generative AI images.

[addgg-taylor]

I Was Wrong About AI

It's a morning like most others. I wake up and lay in bed for about half an hour, scrolling through my phone to check my emails, Discord, Telegram, FurAffinity, and Tumblr. I don't have the Tumblr app though, and FurAffinity doesn't have an app, so I open up Chrome. There, you get a feed of news tailored to you by Google based on your interests. That's when I see it; AI has invaded the creative space in a game I was interested in playing, The Finals. The creators received approval to use an AI announcer in their game. While AI might be usable to lend more authentic (procedurally generated) responses than scripted audio bites from a real actor, that's a job lost. It's just one, yes, but that's what I needed to finally start noticing what was really happening.

Since I clicked an article on AI, more AI controversy started rolling in (of course). This issue wasn't limited to one game; it was far more widespread than I thought, and I was about to be hit with a right hook from tech news hell. Soon, if you're a Windows user, you won't be able to avoid AI in your daily life. There will be a dedicated key on your keyboard for it, and eventually, dedicated hardware in new computers for it. Not only is this bloatware a lot of folks (like myself) aren't interested in, but it's not the kind that can just be turned off (or potentially removed by some Windows variant); it'll be an integral part of your computer, and even if you remove the AI entirely, you'll have still paid for the tech to be put into your device.

It's at this point that the stuff hit the fan for me, and I start digging deeper. The creators of ChatGPT being legally challenged for allowing free access to paid content. Bing forcing you to engage with Copilot when you scroll up too far. Google injecting AI into its YouTube app. Hollywood folks considering AI movie scripts as a serious solution to the writer's strike. Several major AI art controversies in recent months. Creators I used royalty free music from using AI in their music. It made me look back and realize that I was wrong.

I originally stood as a devil's advocate for AI. "If it accidentally scraped up content it wasn't supposed to, could it really be blamed when it was told not to?" "Is it really stealing art from people who don't want their art used?" "If I use it for personal projects and have no intention of calling the generated work mine, is it a big deal?" These are actual questions I raised, and in retrospect, I was just ignoring red flags. Now, two years after I started supporting AI, I'm against it.

Why Are You Posting This Here Instead Of Your Main?

Normally I'd keep controversy to my main, taytay-the-gaybertooth, but this is actually related to the TCG scene. It's actually been rocked by a few AI controversies over the past couple of years, and my MTG Fan projects have used AI in the past. These fan works will no longer use AI.

We can't do much as average citizens to push back against AI besides just not using it, and even then there's only so much we can do. We can't just stop using our phones, computers, and for some, even their internet and tvs to oppose companies using AI. Small companies can't afford to replace all their Windows machines with Macs, and even if they could, there's parity problems they'll inevitably encounter. Shareholders will keep pushing for AI because it's a buzzword, it's sensational, and technology will always be cheaper in the long run than humans. However, we can do something, and even if it's something tiny, a lot of tiny things can add up to be overwhelming. Even if the message falls on deaf ears and ignorant minds, we can still send a message.

[brighteyesredfire]

SUPERGIANT ROUNDUP BASTION / TRANSISTOR / PYRE / HADES

compiling thoughts on games ive played. i may go back and edit these over time bc i like to ramble and maybe ill have a thought later about things to add. woo

🌟 BASTION (2011) | 10/10 4 million stars

THE game of all time. i think i bought and played this when the indie humble bundle (one of the first of its kind) slapped it together with limbo, psychonauts, amnesia and sword and sorcery (i have the art jen zee drew to advertise that on my wall still).

remarkable then and now for being a game i replayed like a madman and loved soooooo muuuuuuuuuch its ridiculous. the art direction will always be very impactful on me i think, jen zee i love ur stuff 4ever <3333333 the music is also still incredible, spike in a rail is iconic as ever, and logan cunningham's voice will always hit perfectly on the ears as rucks. this game was also the first major fandom i was in on this site and it could fit inside one tinychat lol, i have retained alot of the friendships i made from it back then, its an experience i can never untie from the actual game.

ive always liked isometric smash and whack games, most likely due to this games influence on me, but it was also just... one of the first big games i loved as a budding tween, so almost everything about i think with fondess, im recalling how the upgrade areas looked like rn and its making me smile. i made an askblog about a character from this game, we made a physical fanbook that got handed to devs at a con (i think the vid of them reacting to it is now lost to time) its deep bro its deep in my bones.

/ spoilers from here /

bastion's story i still also enjoy as dour as it is, and the choice at the end, between continuing the cycle of apocalyptic doom or build a new future with the remains, its still interesting to me. relive the past before it goes wrong and experience the fresh pain over and over or move on with grave of genocide ringing in your ears and the cunt of an old man on the same floating rock with you. augh!

🌟 TRANSISTOR (2014) | 6/10 stars it is a game and i think that's great

played this game front to back full the day it came out on my mothers computer and cried like a bitch at the end while liveblogging it. to this day i remember the combat being too much for my stupid little brain to comprehend and would get my ass beat constantly but the jen zee art and sword boyfriend and my loyalty to SG kept the brain alive.

MAYBE it would less of a pain in the ass for me to play now but the plotting out before you enforce the combo hurt my brain. i dont think ahead okay. ow. ow.

As with all SG games the art was incredible though they drew from really interesting influences for a sci fi take, and this ost with the addition of a bunch more vocal tracks (due to red being a singer) is sooo good. i have a version of the album of the glitched out versions of the songs ripped from the gameplay, delicious nyam nyam.

/ spoilers from here /

the story is like a traditional tragedy and the first showing of some great supergiant #buryyourgays but i still cry like a baby listening to paper boats so FML !!!!!!!!! i think that song affects me more than setting sail / coming home from bastion actually at this point (time to go find the orchestra pax vid and loop it)

🌟 PYRE (2017) | 9/10 starsies supergiant youve done it again

i liked pyre like 10 steps more than transistor its not even funny 😂 the world has a more fantasy leaning bent... the ensemble cast too.... and the gameplay i love this gameplay i will play ghost spirit basketball all fucking dayyyyyyyyyy also this is alot closer to a visnov than the rest of their games, between the sports parts, this is also probably why i really like it, who doesn't love it when their choices matter and little guys talk to them. visnovs are great.

/ spoilers from here /

i also just favour weirdo fantasy > over weirdo sci fi this is pure personal taste lmao. the environments were fun, the conceit of the game was interesting too. making the choice of who to liberate not only be a factor based on who you like and the story but ALSO the gameplay bc you no longer get to play them.... i remember i kept hedwyn around bc i liked him as a character and also bc he was the all rounder class but i did let him go before the end bc i wanted to give him that chance despite never seeing him again... that sort of experience with a character i love is rareeee, ive not had anything like it since. is it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all..............wohah.............

i also just love the fake language they came up with for people talking, reading being a big deal here also.... so much about this games worldbuilding i loved it i loved it. i think my only issues would be the amount of forced het in the endings people can get lmao I DONT NEED EVERYONE TO GET HAPPILY STRAIGHT MARRIED SG LMFAO.

🌟 HADES (2020) | 10/10 starsies supergiant youve done it again

i have played this game for 250+ hours and 100 of those were during the entire time it was in early access the brain disease real alive and killing me to this day.

genius of SG i think to stretch their storytelling out to be way longer by putting into a rougelike its such a fun idea and it works so well bc of how finely tuned their gameplay always is. they incentivize the right things and the feel is addictive, you wanna get to the characters bc they're always the best part but the gameplay on the way is like butter, ENDLESS GRIND ENDLESS GRIND. GAME YOU PLAY UNTIL YOU DIE

/ spoilers from here /

i like that this story ended up being a dumb greek family drama, i dont have many more thoughts about that aspect though honestly bc i dont really care about greek gods as a setting and i always enjoy SG's original ideas and worlds alot more behehe. their remixes are no doubt fun though.

there's something to be said about the violent catharsis of being killed over and over to leave family i think, im sure i could write some metaphor here about having to confront hatred in loved ones over a choice about yourself actually just feels like dying over and over (im a poet) especially when you still live with them.

i think i actually for real cried the first time zag met his mother like the music and the va, it was all so tragic and sad, i dont think anything else really met that emotional high for me. i was almost surprised later on how happily the game resolves lol but i dont have any qualms with stories about fucked up families actually fixing their problems, hope for the future or something.. ! not all blood ties have to be burned to cinders, its a nice thing.

thanatos is my girlboss boyfriend also i cannnnnoooooootttttt believe they made him a tsundere sadboy who acts like you broke up with him MINUTE ONE OF MEETING THE MAN IN THE FUCKING GAME WHAT IS WRRRRONG WITYH YOUUUU SG YOU SICK FUCKS. i actually puked in my mouth everytime they talked and i was explicitly seeking it out. god of death and god of blood (life) can you go fuck yourselves ACTUALLY.

thank you for letting me bang him and meg at the same time sg also is making up for their lgbt transgressions if only a bit with this one may the next game be gayer. lovewins or something.

[jupitercl0uds-art]

hi im @jupitercl0uds and welcome to my art blog!!!!!!! my pronouns are they/them/xe/xem and you can find more about my personal stuff on my main >:D

i do not reblog others' art on this blog, all the posts on here are mine (including reblogs; those are from my alt accounts). art is tagged #art and text posts are tagged #not art (even if they're about art). i DO reblog art, however only on other blogs.

i also take requests and in the future, maybe even commissions!

i draw a lot of mario (mostly waluigi) and sonic fanart, but i also have OCs and stuff!!!

hope you like my blog ^^

FAQ (PLEASE read before giving an ask, the questions are super massive and bold so you dont have to do much reading to find your answer!):

'What programs do you use?'

for the majority of my stuff, whether it be illustration or animation, i mostly use krita!!! i highly recommend krita if you have a computer and tablet, its free, open source and has loads of great tools!!!! apparently tho, it doesnt always work on mac :((( im on windows (when i use krita) so i dont know if this issue is still big or not. still tho, highly recommend!!!

it has animation capabilities, too, but if you want to export it as anything but a png sequence youre gonna need 7-zip

alternatively, i occasionally use opentoonz, but i sometimes avoid it when its too complicated

i also like to use flipaclip and ibis paint from time to time!!! this is mostly when im on chromebook/phone ^^ these used to be my main 2 programs and i still love ibis so definitely recommend!!!!

occasionally i use ms paint or kleki, but i usually tag it as such

if i ever post any music or video editing stuff, then i use a whole load of programs for that so idk

'What hardware do you use?'

i usually use my laptop/chromebook and xp pen deco mini tablet!!! on some older posts, i've actually used my old deco fun L tablet, but that's broken now lol (not actually an appropriate use of 'lol' i unironically mourned that tablet). i recommend both, but generally, unless you want a bigger/cheaper tablet, go for the regular deco instead of the deco fun if you're doing art ^^

sometimes i use my phone and my finger tho!!! or one of those cheap styluses from time to time lol!!!!

'What traditional art supplies do you use?'

loads. at the moment, i mostly stick to daler rowney stuff, except for watercolours. i like to use koh-i-noor brilliant watercolours. they are, as they say, very very brilliant, in both ways. they arent all weird and powdery and VERY saturated!!!! they look quite generic but theyre literally so good, particularly for the cold colours - that being said, the black kinda sucks. the fineliners i use are uni pin fine liners and i HIGHLY recommend!!! everyone says 'buy microns' but i prefer them to microns. something about them idk. i also like to use tombow ABT markers for watercolours sometimes, particularly seeing as the koh-i-noors dont have a pink pigment.

for the links: i did buy the majority of my products in physical shops, but i tried to find a good online equivalent NOT on amazon.

[ohdudedhesflirting]

First off, congratulations on almost getting through your exams (or finishing it depending on when you read this!) 🥳

Also don’t worry about replying. Just reply when you feel like (or don’t if you don’t want to!). I take a bit to reply too 😬

First off, thank you for the kind words 🫶

Yeah, software development makes my brain hurt mostly because of the unrealistic deadlines and expectations. Imagine asking nine doctors to pull out a baby from a lady who’s one month pregnant. It's like ?????. Personally, I try to speak up about it (saying it's just not realistic) BUUTTT I'm typically the most junior in my team and though everyone secretly agrees with me, they just try to get it done by the deadline. Yeah, that didn't make sense but I hope you're getting the jist of what I'm trying to say. It's what I hate about when I first entered the field as a full-timer (they protect you from this kind of stuff as an intern).

“Having a brain fully developed is a flex.” 

LMAO. This made me laugh sooo much. You’re so funny 🥰

How long does one coding exercise generally takes ? Like 2/3 hours at least ? Depending on how hard it is ?

I’m not sure if you’re asking for one question or the entire challenges so I’ll answer both. In my experience, it depends on the question asked lolol. There were times I was able finish three problems in twelve minutes and there were times I couldn’t even finish one question. The timed ones usually only give you 1-2 hour(s) because intensity you know? 

The last exercise I did took me around six to seven hours. It wasn’t like a typical coding challenge but you had to explain a project you built entirely by yourself on a technical level and then they basically asked you how you would build a X system (ex/ "How would you build Twitter?", "How would you build a hotel reservation system?"). There wasn’t any word limit or time limit and I figured it was better to put more (it's the safer option). I figured it would also be useful for future interviews since a lot of times they ask you to explain a project you’ve worked on or how you would build X system.

AHHH and you’re a double major? Dang. If you don’t mind asking, what’s the second major? 

As always, take care of yourself 🍵

🤙 anon

Hii darling !

I took my last exam this morning (I actually saw your message just before but I wasn't in the right headspace to reply to it lol). Thank you for your kind words it truly means a lot to me 💛

I guess like every space of work always overwork and expect crazy deadlines... I'm sorry you have so much pressure to complete assignment in such a short time !

I'm also really proud for trying to speak up about it and try to make a space for discussion. It truly must no be the easiest as the youngest

Also I totally get the idea of complaining but still making it in time lol I totally understand !

I cant even imagine how hard it must be to sit in front of computer and work seven hours on something as complicated as what you are doing.. you have all my respect fr.

Knowing the time you need for each type of task is actually very good and very professional. It's always to have that information just in case they ask you in an interview. It shows your professionalism.

Yeah I did a double major for 2 years ! Here completing the major takes 3 years and you have to validate each year.

I did law and art history. Most people in my promo wanna be auctioneers. (Its the reason why this double major was created lol) But I personnaly don't wanna be an auctioneer and I hate law lol its making me feel really bad mentally wise.

We have this opportunity for our 3rd year to continue (and suffer even more), or drop one and validating the first major and lets say you take another year to validate the other. So you have two majors in 4 years instead of 6 which is good.

But I wouldn't do law anymore if I pass and I just would study art history !

(It's complicated lol)

Take care of yourself as well. Have some good sleep/ Hope you had a good sleep <3