#decided not to put this behind a paywall after all

[plague-of-insomnia]

Vatican Miracle Examiner Vocab: Chapter 1

100+ vocab terms from Ch 1, Vol 1 of the 5-part manga series.

Mostly Catholic terms in Japanese and unique usage related to the series.

This list is not exhaustive. I focused on terms that would be unfamiliar (or unfamiliar as used in this series), and/or directly relate to Catholic terminology in Japanese.

I list part of speech, pronunciation, and simple definitions. I have not included additional of these if they are not relevant to this series.

Character names will have titles where applicable and those will be in brackets to minimize confusion; titles will be listed under general vocab as well.

At the end of the list I’ll have a few sources for some of the more obscure terms in case you want to read more or get better context.

As of now I have things listed in the order in which they appear, roughly, in the manga.

Note: This will be a long post since it’s the first chapter in the series and 31 pages long.

~#~

Character Names/Places

Note: I’ve chosen to spell names close to the katakana spellings; keep in mind some may be transcribed with slightly different spellings (like Joseph instead of Josef).

平賀•ヨゼフ•庚 [神父] - Hiraga, Josef Kou [Father], Franciscan order

ロベルト•ニコラス[神父] - Roberto, Nicholas [Father], Franciscan order

良太 - Ryota (Josef’s younger brother)

サウロ[大司教] - Saul [Archbishop] , Franciscan order

ニコラス[枢機卿] - Nicholas [Cardinal], secretary of the Dicastery for the Causes of the Saints (also potentially the head of the miracle examiners), also known as “the prefect (of the Curia)” in English

ドンナ•ドロレス - Donna Dolores, a nun from St Rosario Church

[大天使]ミカエル - [Archangel] Michael

[聖]ペテ - [Saint] Peter

パウロ[大司教] - [Archbishop] Paul, Dominican order

アントニウス[神父] - [Father] Antonius

セントロザリオ教会 - St Rosario Church, a church in South America where Josef & Roberto are sent to investigate

バチカソ市国 - Vatican City, the City state of the Vatican

Other Vocab

奇跡、きせき (n; の adj) miracle

常識、じょうしき (n) common sense, common knowledge, common practice

科学、かがく (n) science

説明、せつめい (n, する v; trans v) explanation, account, caption, legend, description

不可思議、ふかしぎ (な adj; n; yojijukugo) mystery, miracle, something inexplicable, unfathomable

現象、げんしょう (n) phenomenon

神、かみ (n) God, divinity

御業、みわざ (n) the works (of the gods)

真偽、しんぎ (n) veracity, authenticity

確かめる、たしかめる (Ichidan v; trans v) to ascertain, to check, to make sure

神父、しんぷ (n) Catholic priest [Note: this is the term used when speaking to someone , like “Father” So-and-So, as opposed to a general word for priest, 司祭, which you don’t use when speaking TO someone but rather about them.]

害、がい (n) evil influence

礼服、れいふく (n) cassock, vestments, etc

暗号、あんごう (n; のadj) code, cipher, password

解読、かいどく (n; するv; trans v) deciphering, decoding

聖年、せいねん (n) holy year, jubilee [see additional notes below]

大聖年、だいせいねん (n) the Great Jubilee (of 2000)

聖堂、せいどう (n) church

バチカン (n) (the) Vatican

市国、しこく (n) city state (as in the Vatican)

宗教、しゅつきょう (n) religion, faith

ブラザー(n) brother (as in, a monk or priest)

天使、てんし (n;のadj) Angel

悪魔、あくま (n) devil, demon, the Devil (Satan)

骨肉腫、こつにくしゅ (n) osteosarcoma

治療費、ちりょうひ (n) cost of medical treatment

ルルドの泉、いすみ (n) Fountain of Lourdes, aka home of “Lourdes Water” in France

奇跡調査官、きせきちょうさかん (n) miracle examiner

調査、ちょうさ (n; するv; trans v) investigation, examination

聖痕現象、スティグマータ (n) stigmata (phenomenon)

未知、みち (のadj; n) the unknown

知れる、しれる (ichidan v; intrans v) to become known; to be discovered; to be known; to be understood

舞い込む、まいこむ (godan v む ending; intrans v) to happen unexpectedly

大司教、だいしきょう (n) archbishop

キリスト (n) (Jesus) Christ

聖書、せいしょ (n) Bible, scriptures, holy writ

黙示録、もくしろく (n) book of revelation; the apocalypse

悪魔が書いた魔法書 - literally, “magic writing written by the devil” [see additional notes below]

古文書、こもんじょ (n) historical document, ancient manuscripts

断片、だんぺん (n) fragment

読む、よむ (godan v, む ending; trans v) to decipher, to read, to recite (a sutra, prayer)

原文、げんぶん (n) original text

会、かい (n; n suffix) meeting, assembly, conference, clerical order

イエズス会 (n) society of Jesus, aka Jesuit order

ドミニコ会 (n) Dominican order

フランシスコ会 (n) Franciscan order (which Josef and Roberto belong to)

派閥 (n; のadj) faction; used in the manga as in orders of priests

破門、��もん (n; するv; のadj) excommunication

枢機卿、すうききょう (n) Cardinal (title)

執行部、しっこうぶ (n) leadership (for example, the Roman Curia, that is the administration of the Vatican)

列聖、れっせい (n; するv) canonization (of a Saint)

列聖省長官、れっせいしょうちょうかん (n) literally, “canonization ministry secretary”; I believe this is intended to refer to the Secretary/Director of the Dicastery of the Causes of Saints; a position in the Vatican overseeing things related to canonization [see additional notes]

祈り、いのり (n) prayer

申請書、しんせいしょ(n) Written application

申請、 しんせい (n; する v; trans v) application, petition, request

教会、しょうかい (n) church, congregation

修道女、しゅうどうじょ (n) nun

大天使、だいてんし (n) archangel

神の子、かみのこ (n) son of God (Jesus Christ); child of God (Christian)

処女懐胎、しょじょかいたい (n) virgin birth, such as Mary with Jesus (immaculate conception)

受胎、じゅたい (n; するv; intrans v) conception

聖母、せいぼ (n) Virgin Mary; holy mother

カソリック (n) Catholic, Catholicism, Catholic Church [note there are a couple diff katakana spellings of this word, but this one is used in VME]

受肉、じゅにく(n) (Christ’s) incarnation (as Jesus of Nazareth)

降臨、こうりん (n; するv) descent to earth (of a god); advent; epiphany

罪、つみ (n; なadj; のadj) sin

永遠、えいえん (n; なadj) eternity; immortality

贖う、あがなう (godan v, う ending; trans v) to atone for

最後の審判、さいごのしんぱん (n) judgment day; final judgment (religious sense)

聖、せい (n) Saint (may also be written with katakana, as in 「セント」, like “St Rosario’s Church”

ローム (n) Rome

司教、しきょう (n) bishop (catholic)

代理人、だいりにん (n) proxy, representative

存在意義、ぞんざいいぎ (n) raison d'être, reason for existing

冒涜、ぼうとく (n; するv) blasphemy, sacrilege, desecration

主、しゅ (n) the Lord (God)

カルト (n) cult

教徒、しょうと (n) believer, adherent

法王、ほうおう (n) Pope; aka ローム法王

司祭、しさい (n; のadj) a priest [do not confuse with 神父, the title of “Father”]

大罪、たいざい、(n) mortal sin, grave sin

契約、けいやく (n; するv; trans v) covenant, contract, pact [as in a deal with the devil]

最高責任者、さいこうせきにんしゃ (n) chief executive [such as, of the Vatican Bank]

教皇庁、きょうこうちょう(n) the Curia, the administration of the Vatican

地位、ちい (n) position, such as within the Vatican hierarchy, or in line to be a papal candidate

潜り込む、 もぐりこみ (Godan v, む ending; intrans v) to go undercover, to infiltrate

マリア (n) (the Virgin) Mary [sometimes seen as 聖母マリア]

聖母子 (n) Virgin and Child, Mary & Baby Jesus

全知全能、ぜんちぜんのう (n; のadj; yojijukugo) omnipotence and omniscient, all powerful and all knowing

救世主、きゅうせいしゅ (n) savior, the messiah, Jesus Christ (the messiah, savior)

背徳、はいとく (n) immorality, corruption, lapse of virtue

堕落、だらく (n; するv) depravity, degradation, corruption

偶像、ぐうぞう (n) idol, image, statue

天罰、てんぼつ (n) divine punishment, wrath of God, judgment of heaven

主よ、しゅよ (なadj; n) Lord, head (of a group)

信仰、しんこう (n;するv; trans v) (religious) faith, belief

印、しるし (n) a sign

聖所、せいじゅ (n) sanctuary, inner sanctum

邪悪、じゃあく (なadj;n) wicked, evil

~#~

Additional Notes

Holy year, 聖年 ; Great Jubilee, 大聖年

“Devil’s book,” 悪魔が書いた魔法書

I did a lot of searching trying to figure out what book, specifically, was meant here, and came up with 2 possibilities:

the Gigas Codex, ギガス写本 or 悪魔の聖書, a book that is not held by the Vatican but was supposedly written with magical assistance from Satan himself;

the Grand Grimoire, 大奥義書 or 大いなる教書, not written by Satan but that is held by the Vatican.

It’s possibly intended to be vague, but the exact phrasing here is different than used for either of these actual books and I couldn’t find any other possible real option. Note the anime does call a book “the devil’s book” and describe it as a “Bible written by the devil” but it doesn’t seem to really be a reference to Gigas, so maybe it’s intended to be a fictional book inspired by these real texts for the purposes of the story.

Secretary of Dicastery of the Causes of Saints - 列聖省長官

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dicastery_for_the_Causes_of_Saints

~#~

As always, I’m human and make mistakes. If you find anything feel free to let me know.

[megapocalypse]

AU where Shen Yuan plays a PIDW otome spin-off game where you date all the male characters and he decides to give it a shot because he heard Luo Binghe's characterization was really good in it. He's a hardcore LBH fanboy and he can't pass this chance up, but it's one of those games in which you need to unlock guys by finishing the first few and because LBH is the protagonist he's not only locked behind another character but he's also paywalled and his route is extremely difficult.

Shen Yuan ends up spending 100+ hours into this game and trying to explore all the routes and side quests, he's gotten almost all the secret endings for every guy and he's maxed the dlc characters.

LQG - One of the first love interests. You meet him when you find him poisoned, you protect him from a three headed snake monster and he's deeply indebted to you.

MQF - Unlocked via LQG's route, you get him when your MC has to take LQG to get healed.

GYX - He helps you on a mission to Bailu Forest, only romancable once you unlock the Huan Hua area.

YQY - Unlocked after you complete the good routes of all the romancable peak lords of CQM. His good ending is extremely hard to get.

ZHL - Unlockable after you romance GYX, he's a dlc character.

TLJ - Also a dlc character, you can romance him once you've completed every character's route.

SJ - Arguably the hardest romance route, almost all options lead to the bad ending and you really have to be specific with which routes you choose for your New Game + playthrough. Not to mention he has a secret ending that's even harder to unlock.

Now Shen Yuan has FINALLY gotten to LBH, you meet him through SJ's route as a white lotus disciple, but you have to romance SJ and TLJ before you can romance him. In his bad ending he kills you for siding with CQM, the neutral ending you become part of the harem. You can only unlock the good ending by unlocking SJ's secret ending. The good ending you get an option to tell LBH your feelings, it's an experimental game mechanic where you can literally type out a response. Some people may shit post on this section, but SY puts down his real and genuine thoughts out towards LBH. LBH then asks SY to promise him that they would stay together forever, and SY chooses the yes option.

Okay so new game plus time, SY got through all the endings now he needs to replay to get the super uper duper ng+ secret endings, so he plays the game normally just speeding through with the first love interest, Liu Qingge; but as he's on the rank 7 love confession scene, the game suddenly crashes and he has to reboot the game. His save file got erased so he just plays again normally, but for some reason it keeps veering him towards Luo Binghe's route, when he meets him during Jinlan City...

Every time he tries to get the other routes his save file crashes, or it would just go right to Luo Binghe's route. He looks it up on the Internet to see how to fix the bug... Nobody else is having this problem.

So he just decides to keep going with the Luo Binghe route again since he liked it so much, and he gets back to the true ending where he promises Binghe he'll stay with him forever. But then, suddenly there's an error message on the screen saying "System Reboot: initializing" and when it fully loads it says "Welcome User 002, to Proud Immortal Demon Way". And then the power cuts out, Shen Yuan is a little startled and confused until he feels an electric jolt. He falls limply to the ground, and wakes up in a new world.

A pop up screen shows up in front of him

Select your Name

________ ________

It's the PIDW start up screen.

.

Okay my brain is fuzzed but basically SY gets doki doki fucked and transmigrates into the game. Luo Binghe is a yandere who keeps trying to mess with the system, maybe he kills a few guys just to be silly 😜. Yada yada that's all I got.

[derinwrites]

Do you have any advice for writing in a web serial format?

Let’s look at this in two sections – the business part, and the actual writing part.

The Business Part

1. Consistency. Consistency in updates. Have a schedule and STICK TO IT.

If your schedule is too hectic and starts affecting your health or otherwise adversely affecting your life, change the schedule; update less often. Don’t update in spurts and then randomly stop. The audience will far more easily tolerate a slow schedule than an inconsistent one; an inconsistent one will lose many readers. You’re not Andrew Hussie and you can’t get away with that bullshit.

There may be times where you need to take a hiatus due to some emergency, life event, or health condition. This is fine – your wellbeing is more important than your story. But you need to be up-front with your audience about this; tell them you’re taking a hiatus and tell them exactly how long it’s going to be. If you can, you should tell them in advance (this isn’t possible for things like a car accident, but is very possible if you’re planning to, say, move house in a month). If you’re taking too many hiatuses, then it’s better to slow down your schedule and update less often. Audiences prefer fast and consistent, but if they have to choose, slow is better than inconsistent.

The #1 helper to consistency is having a big buffer – that is, have several weeks’ worth of unpublished chapters. The length of your buffer is personal taste, but I like to keep mine as long as possible so that if there’s some problem that stops me from writing for several weeks, it won’t upset the schedule. It keeps my stress down to know that I have that leeway. Other writers prefer to only write a week or two ahead, though, so different things work for different people.

2. Decide on your monetisation system early and prioritise it.

The most popular and most effective method for monetising a web serial seems to be the patronage method, which is the one I use. You set up a patreon, ko-fi, or whatever sponsorship system you prefer, and offer rewards to those who support you. Having their names in a credit list and getting access to advance chapters are very common rewards. Some people also lock access to their discord behind a paywall, or offer extra stories or let supporters name story characters.

This model is not the only way to make money from web serials. Some people make money via advertising, or selling merchandise, or use the web serial itself to advertise stories that they sell. You can of course use several revenue streams – you can have both a patreon/ko-fi and run ads on your website (I don’t because I hate ads, but you can), or start selling merch related to your story once there’s a demand for it. Many web serial authors (including myself) sell their completed works as books. But the important thing here is that one of these systems will be your main system, and you need to know what it is and behave accordingly. If you run ads AND have a patreon, are you more focused on ad revenue or patreon revenue? You’re going to have to put your time and attention into one of them over the other. You’re going to have to make decisions that will help one and harm the other. So know in advance which one is most important to you.

You don’t have to monetise your story at all, of course. Plenty of people write fiction on the internet for free every day with no thought to making an income at all. But if you’re serious about this, I would recommend monetising it, because that makes a better and more consistent product. The reason I’m still able to keep writing these year after year is that my supporters pay my mortgage; without Patreon and ko-fi, I’d have to get a different job, and wouldn’t have time or energy to write consistently. Also, the reason I can write and update even when I don’t feel like it, and the reason I always push to make my stories as good as possible even when I’m not interested, is because I owe it to my supporters who are paying me real actual money to read my work. If I didn’t owe my readers anything, none of these stories would ever get finished, because writing is only fun about half of the time.

3. Don’t expect to be able to turn this into a career.

This advice sounds silly coming from me, who has through sheer luck, as well as the generosity and passion of my readers, somehow turned this into a career. But I need to emphasise that that luck is not typical. Most web serial writers will not be able to support themselves solely with their writing. It can make a good side hustle, but if your primary goal is “low barrier to entry work-from-home career where I don’t have to answer to a boss and can support myself comfortably,” then web serial writing is usually all of those things except the last one. There’s no harm in trying to turn this into a career – I did it, as have many other web serial authors – but don’t expect that result, is all I’m saying.

Still, if you can do it, it does have a lot of advantages.

4. Don’t expect to make money fast.

I remember when I finally started making an entire $100/month on Patreon. It was a fantastic day.

It was when I’d been writing web serials for four years.

5. Your most valuable resource is your readership.

Your readership will grow and gather momentum over time. The best business decisions you can make are those that grow your readership and allow your readers to participate in community, even if you have to give up opportunities to make money to do it.

A good example of this is discord. Some people have private discords that only their patrons can access; while this is a useful anti-spam and anti-harassment tool, I don’t recommend doing this if you don’t have a major spam or harassment problem. Some people will pay for discord access, yes, so you might get a handful of extra dollars per month that way – however, you will also get a far less active discord. When it comes to readers, population density is critically important; the more activity, the more people talking about your work together (or talking about anything and bonding with each other), the better. Plenty of people have joined my free discord just because it was there and only read my stories after seeing people talk about them there. Then they go and get their friends to read the stories. Enthusiastic readers are inherently valuable, and the best thing you can do is give them the resources they need to talk to each other and share their interest.

This principle applies to a lot of things. I have a lot of free stories on my website that aren’t the usual web serials, and more than once I’ve considered whether they should be paywalled. The answer I always land on is ‘no’; I couldn’t tell you how many readers have been roped into my web serials because they liked Copy <|> Paste, or The Void Princess, or Drops of Blood. These readers may or may not then become monetary supporters, but even the ones who don’t will increase activity and discussion about the stories, have fun and tell jokes in the discord, and may even produce fanart. A thriving community is always going to be more valuable to you than a few extra dollars; make sure to support them accordingly.

Your readership will start very small. In terms of marketing, this is your hardest time. A big readership does the majority of the marketing for you, but when you’re on your own, it takes a lot to convince anyone to give your stories a shot. It helps if you have an existing readership to leverage, which is what I did – I’d been writing Animorphs fanfiction on AO3 for years, and many of my first readers followed me over from there. If you have such a community that already has faith in your writing, leverage it. If you don’t, you can gain one my writing in a place where people go to read stories similar to your work, such as an appropriate subreddit, or a web serial site like Royal Road or Scribblehub. You are looking to gain as high a number of enthusiastic, engaged readers as possible.

And now, the fun part – the actual craft!

The Writing Part

1. Always remember that you are writing for two audiences

A web serial author has to keep two audiences in mind; the serial readers, and the bingers. You are writing a story that needs to be fun and engaging when read very slowly, at the pace of whatever your update schedule is, but that also needs to be interesting when read all at once.

This is not an easy task.

It’s something I fucked up pretty significantly with Curse Words, which was my first attempt at this. Curse Words has a lot of complicated political stuff happening throughout pretty much the whole story, as well as a complex save-the-world plot that’s reliant on a lot of secrets, mysteries and extremely speculative information. With so many wheels spinning, I decided to make the protagonist not particularly smart and move him very slowly through the plot to make sure that the reader would be able to keep up.

This was a mistake.

‘Pretty slow and simple’ at a novel reader’s pace is torturous at a web serial pace. Readers got a full week to discuss the mysteries and implications of each chapter with each other, doing the detective work of ten chapters between each one. The frustration with Kayden’s slow pace was clear, and he came across as an outright idiot rather than an average teen. Personally, I think this lesson was one of the biggest reasons for the difference in quality between Curse Words and Time to Orbit. Don’t slow down for your audience; they’re already slowed down by your update schedule.

At the same time, though, you don’t want to move so fast that you lose the bingers. You can��t assume that your readers will have time between chapters, or that they will discuss each chapter with other readers, or that they will go back over previous chapters looking for clues. Interested people reading update by update will do this, but bingers absolutely will not. So you still need to make sure that everything is comprehensible on a binge read with no backchecking or outside investigation.

My advice on this matter is to move as fast as possible, but take care to make sure that readers are reminded of everything important a few chapters before it comes into play. That way, both audiences can keep up. If you have to make a decision, it’s best to favour your update readers; they’re your most active community. They’re doing the up-to-date discussion, and probably doing the most word-of-mouth and fanart, although binge readers will do that too (I have plenty of dedicated readers who wait five or six weeks to binge a bunch of chapters on purpose, just because that’s their preferred reading style, and they’re still very engaged). But if you plan to publish your story later as a complete work, you also need to keep in mind how it’s going to read as a binge – and also, new readers will binge the earlier chapters of your story to catch up to the current one, so make sure it’s a good experience for them or they won’t get a chance to become update readers.

Two audiences. Mind your pacing and information reveals accordingly.

2. Chapter length

The general rule of web serials is that the more often you update, the shorter your chapters should be. The generally agreed ‘sweet spot’ is 1-1.5k words, 3 times a week, but this depends heavily on individual style. I update once or twice a week (depending on what stories I’ve got going) and try to keep my chapters between 2 and 2.5k words. If you update once a month, your sweet spot is probably about 10k words.

Don’t hold religiously to what other people tell you the ideal word count is – this will vary drastically with genre and personal style – but it’s best to try to stay fairly consistent. It’s not always possible to stay exactly on target because the best break points between chapters will vary (I’ve got 1.8k chapters and 3.5k chapters), but readers like to be able to predict about how long an update will be and they like it to not vary too wildly too often. As with choosing your update schedule, choosing your chapter length will depend on what suits your personal schedule, and what suits the story you’re writing.

“The shorter the chapter, the more frequent the updates” is a good rule for attracting the widest audience. Short, infrequent chapters will have a lot of readers losing interest between updates; long, frequent ones will have a lot of readers feeling overwhelmed. But the most important thing is finding something that you can consistently output year after year (remember, it took me 4 years to make $100/month; this is a long game).

3. It’s a TV show, not a movie

This advice is less useful in our age of Marvel movie franchises and made-to-binge Netflix series, so pretend I’m talking to you in the year 2010 or earlier. If a novel is a movie, a web serial is a TV show. What I mean by that is that a novel is shaped primarily as a complete experience, whereas a web serial is shaped as a chapter-by-chapter experience.

It’s best, in both cases, to have a well structures and paced story that is made of well structured and paced chapters. But sometimes you have to choose between the structure or a chapter and the structure of the story as a whole; making one better will cheapen the other. When you’re writing a novel, you should choose the structure of the whole, but when you’re writing a web serial, you should choose the structure of the chapter. Web serial readers will prefer a chained series of excellent chapters, over a beautiful story of chapters with mediocre individual structure.

In fact, whether you want a structure to the overall story at all is personal taste. My stories have strong overall structure and move towards a planned conclusion because that’s how I prefer to write (and it also makes the story bingeable, since it’s basically a novel being released really slowly), but plenty of web serials out there have no real planned ending and will wander about for years and years in no obviously consistent direction, occasionally throwing in a big twist or major change to freshen things up. These would make absolutely horrible novels, but make very popular web serials. Whether you write like me or like them, the rule is the same – the experience of each individual chapter takes priority.

Come to think of it, this might be why people call my stories “ADHD crack”…

4. Okay, so how do I structure a good chapter?

I generally try to do three things in every chapter.

- Hit the ground running

- Give them something new

- End on an open question

Hit the ground running – Unless it’s the very first chapter of the story, you don’t have to be coy getting into the action. Open the chapter as if it’s the middle of the chapter; start at full momentum. Catch the high point of the last chapter before it falls. It your last chapter ended with “We checked the fingerprints on the candlestick. It’s Colonel Mustard.” then you can start this one with “But he was in the library at the time!”, you don’t need to recap or slow down or anything.

Give them something new – Every chapter should give the reader at least one thing to talk and think about. A new choice, some new information, a shift in perspective, whatever. People are reading these updates one at a time so it is vital that they feel like they got something out of the experience. A chapter in which nothing is learned will make readers feel like their time was wasted, and they have all the time until next update to reflect on that.

This is also true of a novel, but it’s much more critical in a web serial. A novel with nothing chapters in it is just frustratingly slow-paced; a web serial with nothing chapters in it leaves the reader feeling cheated for long stretches of time.

The thing to talk about doesn’t necessarily have to be a big plot reveal or major advancement. An incredibly cute scene, or sad scene, or funny scene will work just as well. But you have to give them SOMETHING. If you’re giving them nothing, consider cutting the chapter entirely and integrating any important foreshadowing or whatever into the next chapter.

One major hurdle of mine with this rule is recap chapters. If you’re writing a very complex plot over a long period of time, you need ways to occasionally take stock and make sure everyone is on the same page and nobody’s forgotten or misinterpreted anything important. This information can be recapped or conveyed in the middle of an action sequence or something, but I personally find that putting other stuff in the scene makes it too distracting and therefore less effective. I like to literally just sit the heroes down in a room and have them go, “okay, we’re spinning a lot of threads at once right now; what do we know, what are we trying to figure out, and what are our next steps?” This is the literary equivalent of the save point or room full of health packs right before a boss battle. Game designers don’t put that room there to be nice; they do it so that they know exactly how much health you’re going to have going into the battle, and can structure it accordingly.

You can make these chapters entertaining with character banter, but you can’t really introduce new threads to talk about, except possibly as a twist right at the end. Introducing new information mid-recap distracts from the recap and makes it pointless. You might have something similar in your stories, chapters that are essential but don’t give the reader anything new to work with.

My advice for these is to just bite the bullet on this one. Release the chapter with nothing new to talk about. You can get away with doing this occasionally, if the chapter has a clear purpose (I get a lot of readers tell me that they appreciate my recap chapters). Readers who get nothing out of the chapter will shrug and talk about older stuff instead, so long as you only do this occasionally. But a chapter with no new information has a cost in opportunity and in reader patience, so only pay it if the chapter’s worth it.

End on an open question– End the chapter with a reason for the reader to come back. You want them to think about the story afterward and be eager to read the next chapter when it comes out. Adhering to this principle is probably why I have such a reputation for cliffhangers, although truth be told I don’t use nearly as many actual cliffhangers as people say, I just try to end by opening a question. By that I mean, the audience should always end a chapter asking a question, which can be something that will span dozens of chapters (“How can Colonel Mustard’s fignerprints be on the candlestick? Is he being framed? Does this mean that the candlestick was in the library and isn’t even the murder weapon?”) or span a single paragraph (“How will the narrator react to learning that Colonel Mustard lied about never touchign the candlestick?”) This could be the emotional height of a scene, or the point at which new information recontextualises everything. It could be the moment where the stakes are raised or an important assumption turns out to be false. Anything that makes the audience eager to learn what happens next will do.

There should always be at least one open question in your story, more if it’s thematically appropriate. You know how mmorpgs and crafting games and suchlike keep you playing for hours and hours by making sure you’re always near the end of an activity – keep playing til you reach the next level, oh but now we’re nearly at the end of this quest so we should complete that, oh but now we’re just 20 gold short of being able to buy that cool new armour so we should just… same trick. Readers should always have at least one ‘quest’, an open question that they’re following, and should always be close to an answer.

You don’t have to dramatically introduce an entirely new question each time; you can end a chapter by reminding the reader of an existing open question. I tend to be a fan of the Big Dramatic Reveal On The Last Line method (cliffhanger reputation), but you don’t have to do it that way. Indeed, it’s a good idea not to do it that way every single time, lest you get stuck in a rut; every chapter ending doesn’t have to be incredibly tense and snappy. Somebody mentioning that they wish they knew how they could get enough food to make it through the winter before a full paragraph of cuddling and falling asleep in their mother’s arms works just as well.

5. It will help if your story is good, but it isn’t required.

You don’t have to be very good at writing to do this.

It helps to be good at writing, of course, and I assume that since you’re asking me for tips, you’re the sort of person who wants to be as good at writing as you can. But there is some true hack garbage out there doing absolute numbers in the web serial circuit. I try not to harp on about this too much because Curse Words fans get really upset at me when I do, but I think most of us can agree that Curse Words kind of sucks. And that just sucks in an ‘author is still learning how to do this’ kind of way; there’s much worse writing, real bullshit Ready Player One-level writing, trucking along out there brilliantly.

The point I’m trying to make here is that this isn’t an industry where there’s any value in hesitating and wringing your hands and asking yourself if you’re a good enough writer to do it yet. You are. You can just start writing a web serial right now and so long as you consistently update, you’re probably already above average for the market. And your first one probably will suck (mine did), but it’ll teach you how to make a better one. I think that Time to Orbit: Unknown is passably okay, and it absolutely would not be passably okay if I hadn’t written Curse Words first. Just go for it. Try to write a quality story if you can, but if you can’t, it’s honestly not that big of a deal. What matters, truly matters, is that you are committed to improving your craft. And that means actually practicing your craft. Which means writing some chapters and setting up a release schedule.

Good luck.

[electricwhims]

Canon Event Pose Pack

Today's posepack is actually a very old one! From earlier in the year! I decided to revisit it when a friend of mine asked for poses like these. I was like: "Hey, maybe they'll be useful after all! I couldn't be bothered to add all in ones, sorry, but at least they're out now! It's of two sims, one is thinking too hard and one is crying too hard to notice the other is coming and they BUMP into each other. Hence the title.

TELEPORTER SHENANIGANS

For pose 1, the teleporters are separate, but facing each other, that way you can decide how far away you want them to be. The rest are in one teleporter.

If you have any issues, please let me know!

Includes: -2 Single Poses, 4 Couple Poses, (And sorry! No all-in-ones because it is old!)

What You Need: -Andrew’s Pose Player -Teleport Any Sim, -This Planner/Notebook Accessory by @mel-bennett

TOU: -Do not reupload -Do not put these poses behind a paywall -Do not edit my poses. You may add extra poses to the pack for personal use ONLY, but do NOT distribute them without asking. IF THESE TOUs ARE VIOLATED I WILL BLOCK YOU ON ALL PLATFORMS

If you use them, please tag me on here or on Instagram @electric.whims Not a requirement, but I do want to see! !

@ts4-poses

DOWNLOADS: SIMSFILESHARE (Free, No adfly)

[yaut-jaknowit]

Okay but now I started thinking on how would an argument with Gawtin go? Also, glad to be back to pester you💪

An Argument with Gawtin

Pairing: Gawtin (Female Yautja) x GN!Reader

Word Count: 1247 (Couldn't help it)

Summary: Like dominos falling in line, things build up until the dam can't handle it. The stress, the cracks. The two of you are a tornado, feeding off of each other.

Author Note: I decided to do this a little different than I usual do this. I have off feelings about angst, like arguments and you might see it here. To be honest, Gawtin doesn't get anger often, rarely at all. Thank you Kissmyaft! I love it when you come to give me phenomenal ideas such as this!

P.s. I decided to create a Kofi since I believe my page has grown to a reasonable amount. If you want tip or buy me a coffee, you're more than welcome to. If you don't want to, that's okay! I make my content free because I know the frustrations when the good shit is hidden behind paywalls. My Kofi link is on my Masterlist page

Masterlist

Ao3

Part 2

Honestly, Gawtin and Reader don’t fight very often. Some disagreements, of course. Some miscommunications. We are talking about two different species, cultures.

But Gawtin doesn’t like to feed into anger. She, like most other females, are cooler minded than their male counterparts. They know how to discuss their issues than result to straight violence. Fights do break out when no one can’t come to an agreement. Nothing that could kill the other though.

When an argument happens, it’s when both are at end of their lines. Gawtin is stressed out from Qui’oky or something with the village. She brings it home with her unfortunately.

Reader has had some trouble still adapting to the new planet or being homesick or worrying over Gawtin. That sets off Gawtin even more. The two of them feeding on each other’s energy.

Reader wants to be left alone, unsure if someone around will help them. In the heat of the moment, words are exchanged. Unfortunately.

Gawtin, no matter how enraged she ever becomes will never, ever, hit you. Yes, for Yautjas, fighting and violence is normal. But you aren’t Yautja. You are weaker than her. It’s just fact. She’s okay with that.

“Can you just fuck off already?” you snapped when Gawtin entered your art room. The door had slid back to reveal the hulking green form that made up Gawtin. Her purple eyes pinned on you sitting at your desk, trying to distract yourself.

Like two demons feeding on each other, you consumed the other’s energy. Like a tornado starting to form or even a hurricane. She had arrived home, pissed off. Someone had gotten under her skin and caused her to be a raging bitch currently. As her wonderful mate, you wanted nothing more to rid her of this unease.

But she just threw it all back in your face.

Qui’oky was set down for a cranky nap in Gawtin’s room. Poor thing sounded tired from missing a nap from this morning. He kept fussing for a bit. Since you knew Gawtin wasn’t wanting to speak with you when she dismissed you harshly, you just went to hide away in your art room. The safe haven that she had gifted to you once she took notice of your skill of wielding a pencil.

A gruff scoff met your ears. You huffed with a roll of your eyes but kept your sight on the blank page before you. It felt not only was that taunting you but Gawtin too. She had to come in here after dismissing you. Didn’t just say she didn’t want you around her and to go away? Dismissed like a measly pet.

“All you do is whine,” she grunted back at you. You head whipped up, back still towards the Yautja. Your nostrils flared in an attempt not to spin around give a piece of your mind. All the shit she’s made you put up with from the first day you met her in that damn forest. For all that you cared for, you could’ve just left her to bleed out! Or let the fucking soldiers take her!

Instantly, you felt regret at the thought and tried to calm yourself down. That didn’t stop the need to cry rise up inside of you.

“Well, you ruined fucking everything in my normal life,” you returned fire, hand grasping the pencil. The wood groaned at the pressure. Your knuckles turning white.

Another scoff. Soft, pitter-patter of feet glided across the floor until the beast was hovering behind you. Her blazing heat boring down on your hunched over form. “Ruined? I’ve given you everything as my mate. How have I ruined ‘everything’?”

A massive palm was placed on the small open space on the desk. This allowed her to bend her body more over you, blanketing you in her shadow. The pencil creaked again. “By taking me here! I don’t belong here. You took me from everything. My home. My family. My friends.”

“I think you are misremembering things, ooman. It was your choice to come with me. You saved me, I could not kill you after I owe you my life and Qui’oky. Why are you so angry?” she growled, nails digging into the wood of your table. That seemed to tick you off more. She was destroying your things.

“I have a right to be angry! You ruined everything. My life is forever stuck here because of you. I’ll die here, on a planet so far from home,” you bite out then finally whipped around in your chair to face her. Gawtin did not move. She stayed sturdy like an oak tree. You bumped into her only to be knocked against your table. It was the only thing holding you up. That didn’t stop you from glaring the Yautja right in the eye and baring your teeth. Something you learned from your time in her culture.

Her mandibles bristled at the sight. A growl starting deep in her chest as she glared down at your unwavering form. “Then, go back. Leave. Go back. Go back home.” That last word was spat out with such disgust, spit hitting your face.

Realization smacked you harder, harder than anyone or thing could. Words said in the heat of the moment but she was telling you to leave. This wasn’t your home, not in her eyes. And that hurt. You felt the way your chest tightened and twisted like a serrated knife lodged there. Tears, hot and burning pooled in your eyes, throat threatening to close up.

Gawtin grunted and leaned down so close her mandibles barely brushed against your cheeks. “Are you going to cry now?” she mocked with a look of distain on her alien face. When you took a deep breath in to cool your nerves, your breath hitched, catching on the lump building in your throat. By god, you were on the verge of breaking down right in front of her.

Something you refused to do. You steeled your nerves, stood up, shoulders back, and got impossibly closer to her face. An act she wasn’t expecting. “Get out.” She raised her gem-studded brow. “Get out!” you shouted at Gawtin, full force. This was your area, your space, your safe haven in this fucked up world you’ve been brought to. Somewhere to go.

Chittering cries echoed out in the hall. Shit. Your breath hitched. Qui’oky had been awoken by your yelling. Guilt dripped into your veins at the sound of his crying. Gawtin huffed that ended in a throaty growl before standing up and marching out of the room.

Once the door slid closed behind her, your whole body nearly went completely lax. Anger still simmered beneath your skin. Yet, sorrow followed in its wake. You bowed your head to calm yourself before plopping down in your seat. The chair squeaking at the new weight. You hated arguing. With her of all people too.

In your hand, you let the pencil go. It’s now shattered pieces falling onto the wooden table. You groaned and placed your head in your hands, fretting over how to fix this.

Hot, fresh tears wettened the wood underneath you. ‘Go back home.’ You flinched as Gawtin’s words echoed back at you in the silence of your room. Qui’oky’s voice barely coming through the door. You clutched your hair at the thought of her not wanting you anymore. Had you just ruined everything?

Heh, it wasn’t her that ruined everything. No. You just did that.

[siyabsimmer]

‘Happy Vibes Art’ – CC painting

‘5 days of Christmas 2023’ – Day 4

Hello, everyone!

Guess what? – It’s another recolour! After first try was successful, I decided to try some more. I thought of what kind of funny art would me or my characters put in their homes, and here’s what came to mind!

It’s a BGC painting with a black frame and 11 swatches of different art/motivational pics/whatever you wanna call them.

All the credit for the art itself goes to the original creators, I simply found it on Pinterest.

TOU:

Do not reupload my content.

Do not claim as your own.

Do not put behind a paywall

Download (sfs) - link

Download (Boosty) – link

@alwaysfreecc

[ghostflowerhotpotch]

...

Okay, before I give my two cents about this subject, let me give the info of what is actually going on in this article, because it is behind a paywall and I somebody needs to show what it is actually saying in it.

So, that is what it says, it doesn't put who say this is information, how did they get it, or anything, this is what it puts.

Take that as you will, I will now give my opinion below this.

I know I just say that there is no really realiable source here, that is just says "this is what I heard," and all that.

However...I could believe it, because it makes a lot of sense.

I don't know how many of you actually read the article, in regards of the exploitation of the animators, but it wasn't the only thing they talked about.

Another thing mentioned how was how they were months with the animators doing nothing because they keep changing their ideas, how even when they gave them work, a lot of scenes got scrapped after they were finished, because they decided to go in another direction.

Across the Spider-verse went through A LOT of revisions, until the very end.

You can see it in how the art book has an entire section dedicated to a scene we never see in the movie. How the design of margo (both there and in her Funko-pop,) is completely different.

There is also mentions about how originally, Across the Spider-verse was going to have Earth 42 Miles be more involved, in a more "prince and the pauper," kind of situation, from what I remember.

Besides, this happens A LOT in movies, like a lot. I own multiple art books, and the "we originally had this idea, but we scrapped and went with this instead," isn't uncommon.

There are people saying this situation is due to Phil, because of what I mentioned earlier. But let me remind you there is no confirmation of that; they mention Sony, something else could be going on.

Anyways, those are my thoughts; we can't be really sure until we have more official info, but if you ask me, sounds likely.

[agena87]

Sim dump: The Nevarez family

I still haven't finished the house I started when Lovestruck was released (1 - 2), BUT I have finished the family that's supposed to go with it. And since I'm an impatient arse, I decided to post the household first.

So, here are Vinnie and Marcos, a married couple of archaeologists, with their adopted children Antonio and Ellie, and Vinnie's eccentric father, Rafael.

DOWNLOAD - Mediafire (no ads!)

TOU:

Do not re-upload

Do not claim as yours

Do not put behind any kind of paywall

Do not change skin tones, genders/pronouns or body types (you can make the teen/adults vanilla-height, if you don't like to play with height difference, though - I know it can be annoying for like, romantic interactions and such)

Tag me if you use them (I wanna see!)

Have fun!

More pics & info under the cut

both Vinnie and Marcos are archaeologists (I would have set it like that in-game, but it's not an available career for some idiotic reason, so they are set as unemployed...).

Vinnie's a nickname, his real name is Vicente (but you do you, that's just a piece of headcanon)

Antonio is non-binary and asexual; they're also only interested in men, romantically. They're 17yo.

Antonio is also disabled and has a prosthetic leg. They sometimes have to use crutches.

Rafael was a marine biologist and is now retired. He spends his days playing bowling, going on dates, and looking after his grandchildren when their fathers are away on expeditions.

Ellie loves craft and is quite skilled at knitting and needlepoint for a girl this young (she's 11).

hobby-wise, the others are into fitness and fishing (Vinnie), painting (Marcos), video games and cooking (Antonio), and bowling (Rafael), among other things.

as the only girl in the family (and as the "baby"), Ellie is spoiled by everyone.

Traits and aspirations:

Vinnie: archaeology scholar - loves outdoors, romantic, active

Marcos: archaeology scholar - family-oriented, creative, romantically reserved

Antonio: goal-oriented - lovebug, geek

Ellie: creative genius - creative

Rafael: successful lineage - wise, lovebug, family-oriented

Everyone has skills, likes, dislikes, and turn-ons/offs (well, except Ellie for those last ones, obviously).

What no one has is outfits other than in the everyday category (they all wear BG robes in all the other categories, do as you want there - they have accessories though, like eyelashes, nails, piercings or glasses)

(background of pics is @vyxated's new CAS background replacement, which is super cute!)

[dominimoonbeam]

Audio Script - M4A - First Tattoo

I wrote this a while ago and would love to put it out there for audio artist to pick up if they're interested but I'm not really sure how to go about that, so we'll start here! <3

I wrote this M4A but if you want to change any of the pronouns you're of course welcome to.

Please give me credit if you decide to record this script, and a link so I can listen too! And, you know, don't put it behind a paywall. But if you want to pay me to make you your own scripts, you're welcome to contact me. <3 <3

Audio artists be warned, I seem to make a lot of background sound notes. Good luck, brave creators! I believe in your sound magic!

2 voiced characters with no interaction. Second speaker is the main character.

tags: confession of sorts, idiots in love, tattoo shop

First Tattoo

by Domini Moonbeam aka Clover Down

[fade in ambient music, muffled voices, the hum of tattoo machines]

You nervous?

Don’t be! I got this. You’re in good hands.

[paper rustle]

This is a great design. You did this yourself?

No? A friend?

Huh… You know this artwork style looks a lot like—

Yeah. You’re a friend of theirs? Roommates? They don’t usually do work like this unless they’re the one putting down the ink…

Alright. I’m just going to transfer this to tracing paper to put on you. Hang tight for a minute.

[curtain]

[waiting]

[muffled other voice] What the fuck? Who’s using my art?

[curtain thrown back]

[second voice, MC, surprised to see the listener and not some stranger stealing their art] Oh… [relief] Roomie. Shit, I thought someone stole my work… You… Wait…

What the hell are you doing here?

No.

You were going to let that jerk tattoo you?

I’m your fucking roommate! We’ve been best friends forever and you finally want to get a tattoo and you went to them?

No, they’re not bad. That’s not the point!

No, it’s really not.

If anyone was going to tattoo you, it should have been me.

[chair sound, sitting down and scooting closer, voice lower]

You didn’t even tell me you wanted to get a tattoo.

A whim? Yeah right. You don’t do anything on a whim.

[paper sound] This isn’t a small tattoo.

What the hell were you going to say when I saw it?

What do you mean I wouldn’t see it?

Oh. I mean… yeah I guess I don’t usually see that part of you…

Wait! You were going to let that bastard work on your side and hip?

Yes, now they’re a bastard.

Because they were going to have you basically stripped down on their table with their hands all over you and my art… my…

Wait… You were getting my art tattooed on you.

[laughs] So what? Are you joking?

I remember drawing this for you…

Yes, I do. I drew this for your birthday that first year we met, right after I moved in.

I didn’t know it was your birthday until that afternoon, so I just drew you something… [awestruck] You really kept this.

That was years ago.

You were really going to get my work tattooed on you?

[listener getting up]

No, hang on. You don’t need to bolt.

[smiling] And where are you even going? We live together.

[listener sitting back down]

Don’t pout. I can’t believe you were trying to get someone else to tattoo my art on you at my own shop.

[laughs] Yeah, yeah, I did say they were the only good artists in town…

Seriously though, why didn’t you just ask me? You know I would have done it in a heartbeat, right?

Of course, I would! I’ve been dropping hints about tattooing you since we met!

[paper sound] I can draw you something new, if you want. Anything you want.

Why not?

Are you…blushing?

Okay. Obviously, I’m just seeing things then.

…Special? [paper sounds, looking at it again] It’s special to you…

[pause]

Do you want me to do it then?

Yeah, of course, I mean it.

I mean, if you really don’t want me to…then I can send them back in.

[huffs a laugh] Yeah, the bastard… I would let them do my art if that’s what you really want. But I’d rather do it myself.

Because it’s mine. Because you’re… You.

Okay? [smiling] Okay. Great.

[putting on gloves] Show me where you want it.

Don’t get shy now…

[clothing rustling as listener takes off their shirt]

[sighs]

What? Nothing. Which side did you want it on?

[touching skin] Here? Down… Okay, stand up and push your pants down your hips.

Yeah, there. I need to clean the area first.

[spray. wiping. laughs] Yeah, it’s cold. Hang on.

[paper sounds. peeling the paper off] Okay, the stencil is on.

Take a look in the mirror real quick and make sure you like the placement.

Yeah?

Great. [pats the padded table] On your side, facing me.

[listener getting settled]

You’re going to be okay. Deep breaths.

[fiddling with equipment]

Okay, I’m going to start with the outline. This isn’t going to feel great, but you can take it.

That being said…if you need a break just let me know, okay? No shame in tapping out.

…Why are you blushing?

No reason… okay.

[machine hum]

Don’t move.

[starts working. background sounds and machine sounds for a bit]

What?

Oh. No, it’s my day off. I don’t have anyone else waiting or anything.

And don’t think I failed to notice how you plotted to come in when I wasn’t here.

Yes, plotted.

Don’t try to change the subject.

I came in because I still had some boring shit to get done after I skipped out early the other night.

[laughs] Yeah, I guess you could say I cut out for a hot date. I was taking you to that movie you had to see on opening night.

Yeah, that shut you up…

Oh, you wouldn’t call that a date?

What the hell would you call it? I picked you up…

Yes, we do live together. That did make it easier.

I bought you dinner.

Popcorn counts when the bucket is bigger than your head.

[machine and background sound stretch while speaker thinks and works]

So…why this one?

This sketch. Why did you decide to get this tattooed?

[laughs a little, focused on the work] Yeah, I did say people usually get something meaningful to them.

You…wanted it to be permanent?

[working]

You know I’m permanent, right?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy you want the tattoo. I’m fucking thrilled to put my art on you, and I would gladly give you a dozen more, but you know you don’t need to have something permanent from me, right?

Yeah… People leave. But I’m not going to leave you.

No. You know I don’t say things I don’t mean.

I’m not going anywhere.

[another stretch of machine sounds and background sounds]

Do you mind if I add some freehand or do you want it exactly like the image?

Yeah?

Cool.

You know this is going to take a couple sessions, right?

[laughs] Yeah, some people could sit for the whole thing at once, but you can only sit still for so long.

No, I know you, you only sit this still when you’re scared or flirting…

[realization] And I know you’re not scared of me…

Hm? I’m not saying anything.

But you did hang on to this drawing for three years.

[getting serious] Roomie…

[surprise when listener starts to move] No, seriously, don’t move.

[another pause while the machine hums/background]

[soft spoken] You have no idea what it means to me to put this on you.

Yeah, I’ve done a lot of tattoos, but this is you.

The idea of my work on your skin? Permanently?

That you wanted me permanently with you…

That’s what you’re saying, right?

[happy sigh] Yeah. Yeah, I want that too.

You know, I’d say we need to work on your communication skills but this kind of works for me… Just, you know, don’t ask other people to do the tattooing, next time?

[laughs] No, you’re right, I’m not usually the jealous type but this is different. I wouldn’t trust anyone else to do it.

Because.

Because… It’s you.

Now, hold still or I’m going to screw up your first tattoo.

[laylajeffany]

Hi, I've never wrote or asked before ever so this is my first time. Anyway, I'm about eight chapters into Chaos for the Fly. I cannot put into words very well with how good your writing is. I have read a lot of fanfiction over the years on various platforms. I have never been so enamoured with a piece of fiction before and I just have to say it feels like I'm reading the script for the second season of Wednesday. I wouldn't be surprised if you came at us like "Hey! I'm actually a producer and just spoiled the whole script" (kidding). However, I'd love to give you some money or as they say "Buy me a coffee". I cannot be reading this for free, it's just too high quality. -Cali

This is a very sweet message, thank you very much. 🤭 I am not a producer or a writer on the show. If that were the case I would demand it be a hell of a lot longer, eight episode seasons just don't do it for me. (idk if you can tell eight chapters in but I have a problem with telling long stories lmfao)

Unfortunately, I’ve mentioned on this blog before - I cannot accept money for writing fanfic. It’s actually illegal. If you see people accepting money from fan works through ko-fi, having chapters locked behind paywalls, or charging commission, that’s their funeral if MGM ever decides to go after fan creators (unlikely, but hey I like my life the way it is), and at the risk of everyone who writes for the community. 

Fanfiction has notoriously been a gray and ambiguous legal issue over the years. I have been writing fic for 21 years and remember having to put my “DISCLAIMER - AUTHOR DOES NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO YU-GI-OH! PLEASE DON’T SUE ME” on my little updates when I was a teenager lol. Anne Rice got us all fucked up on fanfic dot net in the early ‘00s. 

I loved @alternateaccount 's idea of donating to AO3 instead if you want to give me money. We wouldn’t have a place to publish good works without them!

Thank you very much for your interest in my writing though! I do appreciate it and the kind message! Much love back to you! 🥰

[snderist]

hey guys! after pondering for a while and debating with one of my moots lol, i've decided to get back to uploading sim dumps! this time a little different. i'll be taking personal requests. you can request a sim made fully vanilla (no cc) or a sim with cc! if you do choose to request a vanilla sim, i can create a sim for you based off the packs you own! here's an example on how to request a sim from me :)

if you're requesting a sim, i'd like you to obviously have full control over your sim's background. please send your requests only through my ask box!! make sure to include these things: age, gender, species, race, ethnicity, traits, aspiration, style/aesthetic, likes & dislikes (you can choose them yourself as well as the traits but if you'd like to save time, i'd suggest you include it in your request). also remember to include other preferences, such as if you want a vanilla sim, a sim with tattoos/piercings, their body shape, weight, hair color, etc. be as creative as possible and i'll handle the rest! put the date you'd like your sim to be published to you, and you're done! ** please note i will only make one everyday outfit for sim dumps, all other outfit slots will be empty so your sim might be naked in other fits lols **

DON'T:

-claim or upload as your own (even in the gallery)

-place my sims behind a paywall

-share or upload cc files ** please respect the tou of the cc creators' items that were used with these sims **

-request or upload a sim for any gameplay submissons

DO:

-tag me if you post your sim / a sim made from my sim dumps

-share your sim's backstory with me (i love hearing about the stories you make for your sims)

-use your sim in legacy challenges (i 100% don't mind if you decide to use a sim i made for you in a legacy challenge, just please respect the first rule in the 'dont' section!!)

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that's it and that's all! follow me for updates, and make sure to check back for dumps!

~ mucho besos, ana <3

[fancoloredglasses]

Over the Edge (Well, THAT escalated quickly!)

[All images are owned by DC Comics and Warner Bros-Discovery. I hope I’m too small-fry to sue…]

[Thanks to Batgirlspain for the inspiration]

I originally wanted to review this episode of New Batman Adventures for Halloween, but I think most of you will agree that what I went with instead worked better (though a number have commented that I may have been a bit too harsh. However, I stand by my opinion!) So now, instead of a few days before Halloween, this review will be out a few days after the Day of the Dead, which I think is more appropriate.

If you would like to watch the episode, it’s available on Max or behind your favorite paywall.

We open with Batman and Robin on the run from…

Wait, the GCPD is after Batman (and using deadly force)? AND they know who he is?!  What the fucking fuck?!

One of the officers throws a grenade (what police department lets its officers carry grenades?!) at them, nearly blowing Robin to bits! The Dynamic Duo run for the Batmobile, but…

They have RPGs as well? Why aren’t they using this sort of ordinance on Bane or Killer Croc?!

The officer blows up the Batmobile, cutting off the Caped Crusaders’ escape.

Batman buys some time by using his trophies against Gordon and his men.

Namely, the giant penny.

Then, another avenue of escape is cut off by Detective Montoya, but they jump off the ledge toward the water below and into the waiting Batboat. Gordon is about to fire on them when…

…Alfred joins the struggle. He’s quickly subdued, but bought enough time for the Batboat to clear the Batcave. However, they’re not in the clear yet as…

Once again, the cops have an RPG handy to blow up the Batboat (someone please explain why Gordon’s been just sitting on these), but misses. Just as they’re about to fire another volley…

...Nightwing joins the fray and draws their fire. He then fires mini torpedoes at the Police boat’s engine, disabling it as the Dynamic Duo and Former Boy Wonder make their escape.

But why is the GCPD going all out to take down Batman? And how does Gordon know who Batman is? We’ll let Batman explain…

(Thanks to FLYBOY727)

OK, while I understand Gordon being upset about Batman being responsible for putting Barbara in harm’s way, that’s a HUGE step from blaming him yo being her murderer (after all, Scarecrow was the one who knocked her off of the building)! Personally, I think Bullock was salivating at the chance to take down the Bat and planted the seed in Gordon’s head.

But that still doesn’t explain how Gordon knows who Batman is!

For that, let’s fast forward a bit in this flashback to Wayne Manor where Bruce gets a phone call from Gordon.

OK, THAT explain it, though are you telling me the future Oracle wouldn’t have encrypted her computers out the wazoo?

As Gordon hangs up, Bruce sees the GCPD drive up, including a battering ram tank! (Seriously, if Gordon had access to all of this, then WHY is Gotham’s criminal element allowed to run rampant?!) Bruce and Tim retreat to the Batcave, which brings us to where we came in.

(Thanks to Tim Bengsch)

Yeah, you’d think Dick would realize that Gordon is capable of putting two and two together.

Now on his own, Batman ponders his next move (I hear Star City’s nice this time of year)

Meanwhile in Gordon’s office, Mayor Hill tries to get Gordon to stand down.

Since the public knows about Barbara’s connection to Batman…

Hill demands Gordon’s resignation.

Meanwhile, on Tabloid TV…

The assembled villains are suing Bruce Wayne for $1 billion!

...under the advice of the Dini-verse's version of Johnny Cochran.

Meanwhile, Gordon has to decide if he quietly resigns or fights the legal system.

With the clock ticking, Gordon goes to Blackgate Prison.

The convict in the shadows agrees to Gordon’s plan.

(Thanks to The World's Finest)

Oh, don’t tell me this was an “it’s all a dream” episode?!

I guess it was!

Turns out Batgirl got a lungful of the Scarecrow’s fear gas and it surfaced her worst fears in her mind.

Barbara decides that, to keep that nightmare scenario from happening, she would come clean to her father (though not reveal the rest of the Bat Family’s secrets)

That night, Barbara invites her father to dinner…and a talk.

Barbara tries to stammer out what she has to say, but is interrupted by Gordon.

So it is implied that Gordon might already know about Barbara…and possibly the others.

And with that, we fade out and credits roll

[hanaberin]

🎉BIG ANNOUNCEMENT ALERT!🎉

I am here to announce that I have launched a PATREON !

As many of you know, I’ve been quite busy with commission work (my main source of income), which has left me little time to create personal pieces, especially the Zelda art we all enjoy. After a lot of thought, I’ve decided to launch a Patreon!

I was hesitant at first, since I wasn’t sure about putting my work behind a paywall, but I’ve found a solution that feels fair for everyone. Here, you’ll get one-month early access to my drawings and speedpaints, plus exclusive content like pages from my Zelink comic, along with polls and art requests focused on Zelda!

BTW currently, the Patreon already has this month's Zelink illustration and speedpaint up ^_^)

By supporting me there, you are helping me carve out time to create more of the Zelda illustrations you enjoy, even when commissions are closed. Your support means the world to me, whether through commissions, follows, or just cheering me on.

THOUGH, FEEL NO PRESSURE TO JOIN, but if you're interested, I’d love to have you there ^^ !!!

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you over on my PATREON !!

[dryonsenpai]

Hey, I’m that anon from before. After spending all my hardly earned keys trying to get Lucifer (Selfie) and, of course, failing miserably because their drop rates are insanely bad, I uninstalled the game. Really, I had enough of it. I can’t obtain new red keys because all of my characters are maxed out and I won’t spend hours playing Panty Party to get just one or two of them. Then, since there’s no way for me to get the cards for the character I like the most without paying lots of money for it, there was nothing for me to do in the game anymore. And I won’t even start on the Belphegor banner. 5% chances of getting him and his artifact, but around 4,4% for the artifact and 0,6% for the character? What the hell? Really, all of this nonsense made me lose interest in the game as a whole, and I don’t even care anymore. They said the Summer version of all the kings is coming soon, and, even if Lucifer is on it, I don’t care anymore and don’t doubt they will still manage to squeeze money into it. Whatever. Sorry for my manner of expressing myself over this, but this is so frustrating. If they had started like this, it would be fine by me, but they are slowly changing the game and taking away all the free farming things. Even a whale I follow on X has commented that the new red keys deals were absurd, so you can see how overboard and greedy they’re being. I don’t even doubt them putting the new H-scenes behind a paywall in the future as well, since it’s something people actually look for. It is a really good game, with beautiful art and captivating characters, but the company is truly making it not worth the players’ time anymore. Well… That’s it for me, I guess. Again, sorry for intruding like this again in your inbox, and I hope that you can manage to get Lucifer (Selfie) and that you have a good day, too!

I'm so sorry you couldn't get Lucifer selfie after all of those tries, I'm sorry for everyone who couldn't get him :c (I did get him but it took a whopping 700 red keys & a lot of object dupes, but I got bloodshed Levi too)

What you say is completely understandable and it's true that they're being absolutely greedy & it's nonsense to keep supporting PB, now I'm only there cuz I want Michael but I doubt that I'll be able to get him with only 3k+ seals but I'll try

Maybe if they change back & make things not paywalled & a more f2p friendly game then people will come back, but they're now telling us to, pretty much, f off. But as you say, they'll probably be even greedier & paywall h-scenes

Thank you for expressing yourself & your feelings through this ask box, I encourage anyone who wants to express themselves to do so here, so don't worry about spamming my ask box cuz that's why I enabled anon asks for. Have a nice day! ^v^

And again, I'm sorry you decided to quit, but it's best for you to not waste your time on a lost cause

[gothicprep]

i saw a prompt on twitter asking for unpopular opinions about the sims franchise. i switch between the sims 3 and the sims 4 when i decide to play one of the games, and i feel like i have more room to talk than someone who hasn't dusted off the former in a decade.

the first is that imo people have rose colored nostalgia glasses on with the hotel management feature that was introduced in island paradise. the challenge is basically clearing a checklist for hiring enough employees, maximally upgrading the "hotel tower" object, buying each kind of buffet table and setting the quality to high, and putting enough gym equipment in the common areas. after that, the place becomes passive income for the most part.

the "hotel tower" is a pre-made object that you can't customize with the create-a-style tool, and it comes in three styles – a tapered, miami-esque resort skyscraper, a spanish mission-style villa thing, and a set of coastal american beach town cabanas. each tower object only comes in three swatches, and it's very limiting if building is your thing and you don't just want to buy and renovate one of the existing resort lots in isla paradiso. there's also a weird glitch where there will be trash thrown onto inaccessible parts of the common area buildings (the roof) and you need to use the move objects cheat to clean that up.

another note on that: you can't buy an army of bonehildas in lieu of maintenance staff. so much for cross-pack compatibility.

the second one is that the mixology skill in ts3 is paywalled behind late night, but all the worlds have bars. they aren't real bars, they're generic lot types that have a magic bullet blender-esque contraption and no service. the only thing sims can make at those bars is something called a "quick drink", which looks like diluted tide detergent. every time i open a new ts3 save, i need to manually go into each bar/pub/club/venue lot, and manually replace the smoothie of death object with a functional service bar. same thing with coffee shops and the university life paywall, but ts4 also paywalls coffee shops and espresso art isn't a skill anywhere, so i guess we're even. somewhat.

i love the sims 3 or else i wouldn't revisit it, but you've all forgotten who she really is...

[greenshi]

alright tell me about YOUR current favorite guy now

I AM FINALLY DOING THIS i have been. so distracted lmaooo. BUT I decided to do the guy in my icon, fifth member of weezer and best FE character, Python <3. He may not be the Number One guy in my brain right this moment, but that spot and most after it are all taken by OCs, so. We're doing him instead. Also because of this tag because I think you'd like this guy jort

ANYWAY, Python. My guy. He's a character from Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, a recruitable archer early on in Alm's route.

Now, in Echoes, the class discrepancy between nobles and commoners is a prominent theme, especially in Alm's route. This is something that comes up in a lot of FE games, unsurprisingly, seeing as princes and thieves fight together side by side. And the games (at least those I've played, which is only FEA-FE3H. I know.) tend to handwave a lot of the more unsavory points of that topic. A lot of the time, conversations or supports that delve into that topic end in "yeah, being poor and starving sucks, but you know what also sucks? Being royalty! It's really hard :[" which, like, yeah, it is, but also one party here has the means to help the other, but is choosing not to instead say how their life sucks too, actually. Idk, these conversations always rubbed me in the wrong way a bit.

ALL THAT BEING SAID, Python is a commoner. And he doesnt buy any of that "being rich is hard too guys :[" shit for a Second. In his support with Clive (a nobleman knight who's opinion on the whole situation is "well some people have to be poor so I can be rich") he straight up tells him that his ideas on how society should be run are wrong and that his view on common people are condescending at best.

Python doesn't fight for honor or any sense of duty, he fights for his paycheck and his childhood friend who does feel that duty, Forsyth. Even if he and Forsyth disagree on many things, there's a mutual respect between the two, an understanding of their station, and a small rivalry between how to best navigate said station. Forsyth encourages Python to get out there, try things, put some effort into life. But Python just, doesn't see much of a point. But it's not for any depressive reason, or even straight apathy. Python just prioritizes rest and relaxation. He doesn't live to work, he has no dream job (which Forsyth takes as having no dream at all, not that Python would disagree), he just wants to enjoy his life; sleeping in the sun, having a few drinks, spending time with friends, and sharing stories and gossip.

Speaking of friends and gossip, I'm going to drop my favorite support of his, maybe even my favorite support in the whole game (even though its locked behind a dlc map like seriously what was up with this games dlc why is a support between two base game units behind a paywall-)

Going from this support, and the fact that neither of them have romantic endings, (Lukas' even saying he 'never wanted for companionship') this is a pretty clear attempt by FE at writing two aroace (or at least just aro) characters. And, idk, I think its really special. Neither are framed as missing out or needing another to be happy, the conversation is to the point and respectful, and they are both allowed to be full characters beyond this detail of their lives.

And that's a common thread through Python's character that I admire. In any other story, the character that had no want for big dreams, constant improvement, or romance would be framed as an empty person, someone deeply unhappy without anything to strive for. But, even as the other characters try and impose that narrative onto Python, that's never actually the case. He is happy as he is, doing just enough to be as comfortable as he can, taking rests and shortcuts all along the way. He will not sell his time more than he must, he will not work harder than he has to, he will not allow those who push themselves to breaking for those above them to guilt him into doing the same. He has nothing to prove, nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, the one time he could push himself, in his bad ending after Forsyth dies, *THAT* is when he is empty and miserable, fighting like his friend once did until his early, untimely death.

Python is just such a breath of fresh air. He was the one in my brain telling me say no to my boss long before Chilchuck, he is a character that not even FE has been able to write like that again (even when writing for him specifically, like his Heroes characterization is so off and bad augh). He is one of the very few canonically aro characters I can find, and I'm proud to have him napping in my icon for the foreseeable future.