#disclaimer: i may have missed some players here and there

[veilkeeper]

thoughts on the astarion-halsin polymance

i know some people dont like the halsin polymance specifically if the PC's other partner is astarion but. i want to talk about it. because i think maybe a lot of people have come to conclusions without seeing the scenes in question for themselves. so let me give a different perspective.

disclaimers: *i know a lot of people ship/hc this polymance as a triad, but for the purposes of this post i'm talking specifically about the "hinge" dynamic we see in-game thx. **also i got the halsin romance trigger before completing astarion's personal quest, so this post is talking about that perspective, and all quotes are from those conversations. ***i respect people who dont play this route. you're allowed to play this game however you want. the purpose of this post is to discuss the canon, in-game text and how it supports the astarion-halsin polymance as a viable and healthy path for these relationships, with nuance and respect to astarion's personal issues. this is not meant to convert anyone, but it is meant to clarify and provide additional context that i feel is largely missing from a lot of discussions about how the polymance is "bad", unilaterally.

let's start with halsin, because i think he's the easier perspective to tease out here, given that he really leaves nothing to the imagination. he's incredibly earnest and open, and will happily describe his perspective on non-monogamy right out the gate. as he says...

The wolf mates for life, but the bear roams free and partners as its instinct dictates. I need to stay true to my nature, and you to yours.

now, to get ahead of potential backlash here... if you haven't spent a lot of time with halsin, particularly if you've never flirted with him, that line may imply that he's a "player". he is not. given the context of the PCs interactions with him up to this point (and how he treats the relationship after, if you confirm the romance), halsin is deeply devoted, and has really strong feelings for the PC. it's really sweet, i highly recommend romancing him, either as a polymance or solo.

what he's describing here is a perspective of cultural non-monogamy. that he believes his feelings are not diminished by having multiple relationships at the same time, and he expects that if the PC agrees to a relationship with him that they will respect his freedom to pursue others when/if such feelings arise, just as he will respect the PC's freedom to continue and/or pursue other relationships as well. it's a really succinct and frankly unexpectedly respectful negotiation of the terms of a polyam relationship.

and that respect is evident from the get go. if you've never seen this conversation, it basically opens with him saying "hey, i have these feelings about you, i was wondering if you maybe felt the same," and if the PC says that they do, he immediately acknowledges the existing relationship and tells the PC that they can't move forward without consent. and you cant; speaking to halsin again just has him ask the PC if they've spoken to their other partner yet. at every turn, halsin is incredibly respectful of the PCs other partner, he never diminishes that relationship, nor does he expect the PC to ever place him above that relationship. he even says:

Indeed, I am but one of your lovers. You and I should seek happiness, wherever it lies. You are all I want, but I will not hoard you to myself.

he makes it very clear from the get-go that he has no designs on the PC's other relationship and that he is more than happy to take whatever they want to give him.

which leads me to my overarching point: astarion is consenting to this dynamic specifically because the other person in question is halsin.

and we know this for a few reasons. first, because.... mechanically in game, he's the only person you can romance at the same time as astarion. while astarion mentions at various points that he is fine with "arrangements", generally speaking, every other potential romance partner results in a "you have to choose one of us" conversation. the reason astarion gives for why the PC has to choose varies, i believe, but since i don't have the dialogue on hand (i have been faithful as hell in my playthrough) i won't speculate about those conversations.

however, we also know that astarion is consenting to an arrangement with halsin specifically because of this line:

The druid is unique. He has a lot of experience with this type of arrangement. Thus, I'm sure it would be quite a harmless affair.

which is interesting, isn't it? hold onto this one, we'll circle back to it later. and then of course, the other line we need to discuss from astarion here is the famously controversial...

It's not because… you know… we haven't… in a while?

so this is where i get into the potentially controversial take that i have, because it's more nuanced than arguments i've seen on either side of the pro-/anti- polymance debate. but basically i think that astarion is... insecure. shocker, i know. but unlike some takes i've seen, i dont think this means he can't consent to a polyam relationship, i think it means that he has certain Conditions related to it, that he has decided have been met. and i think those conditions are as follows:

the PC's interest in halsin is not borne out of any deficiency of astarion's.

this is why he asks the famous question. he's insecure, and making sure that the PC's interest in halsin is not because astarion is failing to "satisfy" them, that it's not because he isn't enough. astarion has a lot of self-worth issues that he tries really hard to hide, and i think it would be easy for him to think that the PC starting another relationship could be a result of him being... insufficient.

for people who have never been in a polyam relationship, this is a thing. this is an important thing, and making sure all of your partners feel that they're valued and "enough" is an important part of navigating these relationships. astarion does the right thing here, by expressing his insecurity and asking for reassurance. and when the PC gives it to him, the relief is evident and he gives consent to the dynamic immediately. not because he's been coerced, but because he's been reassured.

PC: Gods, I don't want you to think that for a moment. Astarion: I know I was being foolish. But thank you for saying it.

the second condition is:

that he is still a priority

this is pretty self explanatory but since it's sort of the clincher for my whole argument here, i do have to say the quiet part out loud. i dont think what astarion wants or needs is to be the PC's only partner. he talks about "arrangements" on multiple occasions, i dont think he has a problem with sharing. what i do think he wants is to be the PC's primary partner. what he's consenting to, in my view, is hierarchical polyamory, to use the proper term. as in, the PC can fool around with whoever they want, even have feelings for other people, so long as they always come back to astarion. he needs to feel like he is secure and valued above others as he values them above others. he needs to feel like the PC isn't going anywhere.

and that's why he consents to an arrangement with halsin, but no one else. because all of the other romance options, the origin companions, would want to be equal with astarion, they would want non-hierarchical polyamory. halsin, on the other hand, is all about taking what can be given and having a more fluid understanding of relationships. he doesn't care if he's #1, he cares that the PC cares about him, right now. no formal definitions or obligations required.

that's what astarion means when he says "the druid is unique." that's what he means when he says "he has a lot of experience with this type of arrangement." that's what he means when he says it will be a "harmless affair." because he knows halsin is never going to try to take the PC away from him. he knows halsin isn't going to be a threat to him and his status with his partner. and that's why he's comfortable saying yes, even though he says no to every other possible arrangement.

it's not because he was coerced. it's not because he doesn't know how to say no. it's because he feels safe. and that's what we want.

some additional notes while i'm here...

on jealousy: a lot of people hc astarion as the jealous type, as perhaps a little possessive, and i am also one of those people. it makes sense; he's a guy who hasn't had anything in 200 years, and the PC is the first person he's cared about like this. i can definitely see him being a little possessive and prone to jealousy. but stepping outside of the realm of fiction, jealous/possessive feelings are often the result of insecurity and in real relationships should absolutely not be used as a tool to control the behaviour of another partner. and, crucially, jealous/possessive feelings are a thing to be talked about and worked through, not tip-toed around. the presence of those feelings does not automatically mean that a polyamorous relationship is impossible, it just means there's another thing to talk about, and by astarion consenting to the PC having another relationship, he's pretty clearly saying he's willing to talk through those feelings and work on them.

on the ability to consent: i know that astarion doesn't talk about his feelings enough. but i truly dont think that this is a case of astarion saying yes when he means no. astarion can say no, even in high pressure situations he wasn't expecting. he says no to the astral-touched tadpole (rather firmly, i might add), he says no to sleeping with the drow twins, etc. the scene that most people use as proof that astarion cannot consent happens in a much different emotional context, with a lot of direct coercion, and is followed by astarion taking back personal control and dumping the PC. that is not what happens in this scene, when astarion is consenting to a polyamorous relationship. there is no coercion (in fact the PC can explicitly say "i wouldn't even consider it if it bothered you", and astarion expected the conversation, so he would have been able to prepare his thoughts and feelings ahead of time. at no point does he say no or even imply he's not okay with an arrangement with halsin.

on timing: ive seen some people say that they would be more okay with the astarion-halsin polymance if all of this was not be happening right now. i agree with that. ideally, astarion would have more time to adjust to his relationship before it was opened up at all. but because this is a video game, everything is happening during the events of the game. and because this is a video game, the events of the game are high pressure and wild and everything is happening all at once. i don't blame people who elongate the timeline in fan content, or who turn down halsin because they think its "too soon." thats actually very explicitly something halsin says when he initially propositions the player - that he hopes it isn't "too soon." however, astarion still consents (see point above), and relationships barely ever have good timing. one could argue that even the solomance with astarion does not have good timing, when considering astarion's trauma and recovery. so. we make do. and i think it would be... a disservice? to what is (in my opinion) really good polyam writing to just say "actually it's all terrible and icky because there's a lot going on right now" and dismiss it out of hand.

.......................and i think that's everything. thank you for joining me on this very long (oops) deep dive into this. a double thank you for reading all the way through if you don't like the astarion-halsin polymance. i hope i gave you a different perspective, even if i didn't change your mind. love ya <3

[drakorn]

Rewriting Veilguard Part 1 - The World State

Disclaimer: I don't hate the game, I actually think it's quite great given the development hell Bioware went through in those 10 years. This is more of a hypothetical universe where there was less of that behind the scenes drama. Just a fun writing exercise.

Expanding Veilguard's World State Editor

Like many of us, I was disappointed with the total amount of choices carrying over from past games being only three, one of which dealt with romance, two with decisions made in the Trespasser DLC, and all of them being from Inquisition. This already set the precedent that we shouldn’t really be expecting the game to be as connected to our unique Thedas as we have come to be used to from previous titles—no more uniquely flavoured codex entries, no more small but sweet cameos here and there that make the world itself feel like a larger place that we had helped shape.

Given The Veilguard’s very troubled production history of multiple delays, staff layoffs, and all-around restarts of the entire project, it is honestly a surprise that we even got three choices, so credit where credit is due. They made with what they had. But what if The Veilguard had this vision from the start? What if there wasn’t any of this meddling? What if Bioware simply had more time and control? What if they could truly let us import the World State this game deserved?

Now, for this hypothetical rewritten playthrough, I’m going off from the fact that the Dragon Age Keep will not be used; I actually found it a neat idea to tick my three choices in the character creator, and it would have probably been better had Inquisition done something similar. Why do I think that? Because it means we are not running into any dangers of servers potentially shutting down, leaving us trapped in the canon we happened to have imported last. Converting the Keep into an offline editor was a good idea, but unfortunately not executed nearly enough as, let’s face it, we all expected. So we’re gonna have some fun for Veilguard.

Disclaimer: I’m going to refer to the game’s title as Veilguard from now on, not “the” Veilguard. I really don’t like the change of having a “the” in a series of otherwise one-word, or one-number, titles.

Of course, we have to be realistic about this. It is virtually impossible to implement every single decision from across all three games, and those that can be implanted can’t alter the main plot too much. Certainly, we like to imagine and picture things, but let’s approach this from an actually doable point of view.

Right, so imagine you just finalised your Rook, and then get a screen titled “Past Adventures”. Not just “The Inquisition”. And it would take up the entire screen instead of being shoved somewhere in the corner of the final CC page, which many people missed. I could have missed it too, had I not known beforehand that it was going to be there!

It would say something akin to “You can customise the protagonists and several events from the games Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age II, and Dragon Age: Inquisition. These choices will have both major and minor effects on the plot of Veilguard. If this is your first Dragon Age title, you would be advised to skip this section for now, as you may otherwise risk getting overwhelmed. A default World State has been pre-generated for the game.”

Why did I add this disclaimer? Because it would show us, right from the get-go, that we respect both new and old players. If you’re a new player, feel free to skip this part as it won’t matter to you anyway and, quite frankly, you wouldn’t want to spend an eternity in the character creator doing things you might not even be familiar with. But if you’re a returning player or someone who has read up on recaps and watched countless lore videos, come on right in, we’ve got you covered, don’t worry! We know how much time you spent meticulously crafting your World State for Inquisition, so join us and customise to your heart’s content.

If you choose to not skip ahead (honestly the only time I would click “skip” on that shit is if I was a new player), you will be presented with three tarot cards, one shows the griffon, the Grey Warden symbol, one shows Kirkwall’s heraldry, and one shows the Inquisition’s banner. Here’s your previous three games. And now we get to customise them a little. The little gremlin in me would be quite gleefully rubbing his hands at this prospect.

Past Adventures: The Blight

We open the first slide and are immediately hit with a crimson screen and an ambient reprise of several of Inon Zur’s themes from DAO. I loved this part in the game, when you click to customise your Inquisitor and are immediately hit with “Calling the Inquisition”. Really great stuff for early emotions. Now let’s actually customise things.

The Hero of Ferelden

I do not expect us to actually be able to recreate the Warden in the flesh, but I believe they should be at least brought up in conversation or mentioned in codex entries and letters. Here are the things we get to customise about them specifically:

The Hero: Here, we get to tick the race, gender, class, and background for our Warden. Again, no character creator, just fancy tarot cards. But guess what? That would already be more than enough for what we can do. At least we know the game acknowledges their continued existence.

The Warden’s fate: Did the Hero of Ferelden perform the ultimate sacrifice?

Romance: Who did your Warden romance, if at all?

The Companions

Now that our Warden is set, we jump over to DAO’s companions. Each companion has their own little mini-section. The first few questions will always be “Did you even recruit them? And if so, did they survive? If so, were you on good terms or not?” These questions, depending on the answers, will immediately lock or open the more specific ones. Which are, as follows:

Did the Warden have Morrigan perform the Dark Ritual?

What is Alistair’s ultimate fate?

Was Sten reunited with his sword?

What happened to Loghain?

What happened to Marjorlaine?

The Battle of Ostagar

What happened to the prisoner at Ostagar?

The Arl of Redcliffe

What is Connor’s fate?

Is Isolde alive?

Did you help Bevin and return his sword?

The Urn of Sacred Ashes

What happened to the Urn?

The Nature of the Beast

How was the situation between the Dalish and the werewolves resolved?

A Paragon of Her Kind

What happened to the Anvil of the Void?

Who rules Orzammar?

Did the Warden help Brother Burkel create a Chantry in Orzammar?

Did the Warden prove the Legion of the Dead was connected to a noble house?

Did Orta join the Assembly?

Warden’s Keep

What happened to Sophia and Avernus?

Denerim

Did the Warden complete Slim Couldry’s crime wave?

Who rules Ferelden?

Who killed Urthemiel?

Awakening

What happened to Nathaniel?

What happened to the Architect?

What happened to Vigil’s Keep and Amaranthine?

As you can see, I have not included all the choices, just the ones I think can be carried over in both realistic and interesting manners. Not all of them will heavily feature in the game; in fact, many of them are for flavour and codex entries only, but there is still merit in those. We know there is a whole lot of stuff happening in the South thanks to the letters the Inquisitor regales us with. So let’s put some world-state uniqueness to those letters. But in this rewrite, some of these choices will, in fact, feature in a more substantial manner.

And that’s Dragon Age: Origins done! Moving on to the next one!

Past Adventures: The Tale of the Champion

When we enter this screen, the CC assumes Kirkwall’s orangey-yellow tone and we get a reprisal of the key DA2 themes by Inon Zur, the most prominent one being, of course, Hawke’s family theme. This one is not going to be as big as DAO, but there are a few important factors nevertheless, especially concerning possible deaths and survivals.

The Champion of Kirkwall

Unlike the Hero of Ferelden, Hawke will actually be customisable in this one. Because no matter whether or not they were sent to the Fade or Weisshaupt, there is always the potential for them to still be alive. So, here are the choices regarding Hawke:

The Champion: Here you can customise Hawke’s gender, class, and personality.

Who did Hawke romance, if at all?

The Party

Pretty much every companion’s card, aside from a few, will have the questions “Did you recruit them?”, “Are they still alive?”, and “Were they friend or rival to Hawke?” at the forefront. Most of it is gonna be flavour, but it’s still my flavour, dammit!

What happened to Bethany or Carver?

What happened to Isabela and the Tome of Koslun?

What happened to Fenris and Danarius?

What happened to Merrill, her eluvian, and Clan Sabrae?

What happened to Bartrand?

What happened to Anders when the Chantry exploded?

Did Hawke approve of Anders' actions?

Did Aveline marry Donnic?

The Tale of the Champion

Did Hawke protect the Bone Pit from all its dangers?

What happened to Feynriel?

Did Hawke let Zevran go?

Did Nathaniel survive?

Did Hawke side with the mages or the templars?

Fewer choices are carrying over here compared to DAO, but many of the events that occurred in DA2 are only relevant to Kirkwall’s immediate fate, which is already resolved by the time of DAI. Many of these will be flavour again, but some of them, I’m not going to say which, will definitely have a bigger impact.

Right, we’re done with DA2, let’s move on to the last one!

Past Adventures: The Inquisition

And here we get to the big one, the game that most directly impacts much of DAV’s story. We click on the last page and get the green shades and DAI’s ambience themes, a beautiful reprisal of Trevor Morris’ great hits. I would like to once again reiterate how emotional the CC music made me feel here when I was playing the game. Let us now customise our choices.

The Inquisitor

While the Hero of Ferelden will be a background figure in letters and codex entries, and Hawke more of a minor character with a significant role, the Inquisitor will have a much larger presence. Just how large, you’ll find out soon. But for now, let’s customise them:

The Inquisitor: Here you can customise your Inquisitor’s race, gender, class, and specialisation. Their personality as well, for while it wasn’t as apparent as with Hawke, the Inquisitor does still have a distinct range of dialogue choices. You can still be diplomatic, lighthearted, or even rough.

Who did the Inquisitor romance, if at all?

The Inner Circle

As with the other companion sections, pretty much all slides here will feature the “Did you actually recruit them?”, “Are they still around?”, and “Are you friends or not?” questions. Alongside a few specific ones that will definitely have more of an impact here.

Did Dorian resolve the issue with his father?

What happened to Blackwall?

Did the Iron Bull remain loyal to the Qun?

Did Cassandra rebuild the Seekers of Truth?

Did Cassandra discover the book of secrets and what did she do with it?

What happened to Harmond?

Which path did Cole choose?

What happened to Solas’ friend?

Did Varric track down the red lyrium source?

Did the Inquisitor give Vivienne the heart of a snow wyvern?

How was Cullen’s lyrium dilemma resolved?

How did the Inquisitor help Josephine resolve her family’s fortunes?

Was Leliana hardened or softened?

The Path of the Inquisitor

Did the Inquisitor embrace or denounce their title of Herald of Andraste?

Did the Inquisition side with the mages or the templars?

What was the general principle upon which the Inquisition was founded?

Who rules Orlais?

Who stayed behind in the Fade?

What happened to the Grey Wardens after Adamant Fortress?

What happened to Samson or Calpernia?

Who drank from the Well of Sorrows?

Did the Inquisitor respect the rituals at the Temple of Mythal?

Who became Divine Victoria?

The Inquisition’s Influence

Did the Inquisitor ally with the Hinterland cultists?

Was the rift in Crestwood closed?

Was Caer Bronach captured?

Did the Inquisitor make a deal with Imshael?

Was Suledin Keep captured?

Was Griffon Wing Keep captured?

Was Sutherland’s company formed?

What tone did the Inquisitor’s judgments take?

Jaws of Hakkon

Did the Inquisitor learn Ameridan’s fate?

Was Hakkon slain?

Did the Inquisitor share the truth about Ameridan?

The Descent

Did the Inquisitor stop the earthquakes from destroying the Deep Roads?

Trespasser

What is the ultimate fate of the Inquisition?

What is the Inquisitor’s final goal regarding Solas?

Again, this looks like a lot, and it is, but bear in mind that a lot of these will only have minor impacts on the story in the form of cameos and codex entries. However, there are several major DAI choices that will have significant impact.

For our hypothetical rewrite, I shall not list every single choice I made for my imaginary playthrough. Instead, I shall reveal them as we go along so as not to clutter the space too much. And it’s a bit more fun this way.

And that’s the World State editor finally done! I believe all of these choices are able to feature in some capacity, be it big or small. But no matter if it’s a big world-changing consequence or simple flavour texts and cameos, it will still be our Thedas, our own unique version of it that we helped shape.

Now that the past is dealt with, let’s look at the present. Next time we’ll talk about Rook, the six factions, and why a DAO-style origin story selection would have not only been beneficial but very doable.

Rewriting Veilguard Part 2 - The Shadow Dragons

[grimeerie]

CELLBIT'S GAME,ENIGMA OF FEAR HAS JUST LANCHED THE FREE DEMO!

ENIGMA OF FEAR'S DEMO HAS JUST ARRIVED ON STEAM! It's available both in English and Spanish! The full game will be coming out 28 of November,so i'll be talking a little about the game on this post (if any non-Ordem fan could reblog this and help spread the word,i would deeply appreciate it! Please help these brazilian projects become more known!!!!) SOME DISCLAIMERS HERE!!! : The demo is still facing a lot of bugs and other optimization issues,however Cellbit and Dumativa have confirmed they're working to fix all these issues,and they also listen to fan feedback in their discord! WARNINGS!!: There are moments with flashing white lights later in game,as well as sudden changing camera angles.

So you may be wondering: "Do i need to watch Ordem Paranormal in order to play this game?" and the answer is : No! Cellbit confirmed this game can be enjoyed even if you never watched Ordem! There will be many dialogues explaining the world and characters,especially by Samuel and Agatha! There may be a few references then and there,but that will not take your enjoyment or prevent you from understanding the story! Though if anyone does not know what Ordem Paranormal,here's a brief explanation:

What is Ordem Paranormal?

Ordem Paranormal is a survival horror,mystery TTRPG,created by youtuber/streamer Cellbit,the main campaign takes place in Brazil,where the organization Ordo Realitas help fight the threat of the Paranormal on our world.It's first season was livestreamed on 29 of February,2020,and now the main campaign has 4 seasons,and 3 spin-offs! Those who follow the QSMP may know the Quarentena spinoff,where some QSMP youtubers/streamers joined as players!

For those non-brazilians who wish to get into Ordem,the first and second season are fully translated,and as of now, the EP 6 and EP 7 of the third season,Desconjuração has come out! (Everyone please give a big warm thanks to our dear team Equipe T for their wonderful translations! They've worked very hard to help bring Ordem to outside knowledge!) NOW with that done,let's talk about the game!

What is Enigma of Fear?

Enigma of Fear is a mystery and investigation horror game,mixing 3D graphics and pixel art,developed by Dumativa and Cellbit.

You play as Mia,a paranormal detective searching for her missing father Sir Verissimo,the leader of the Ordo Realitas,a secret organization of paranormal investigators.

After dissapearing leaving only a letter,you find a lead to where he went,and along with your precious dog buddy Lupi,and other agents Agatha and Samuel,you all go to the Perimeter,a place that doesn't exist. In this game you will be able to :

1 - Explore a open-world map,with five different regions

2 - Solve many challenging mysteries with a variety of enigmas involving immersive documents,recorders,special locks with unique logic,echos of the past,etc.

3-An immersive inspection and investigation system that will make you feel like a real detective analyzing complex clues to tie together the secrets of the story! 4-Interact with NPCs: Talk to Samuel and Agatha on saferoom's radios to discover clues and information! You can also hug Lupi while in a saferoom! Isn't that just sweet? ❤️

Hope i managed to interest you to give this beauty a chance! Remember,the God of Fear is watching.

[snaccpopstudios]

Long time, no see, Tumblr!

Hello Everyone! It’s been a while, and we’re so sorry about the silence on our blog! But we have some big, important updates to share with you all. The entire team has been extremely busy with both personal, real-life responsibilities and with game production! On top of this, we have also had a big change in management and production, so we’ve been getting a handle on that at the same time.

I’ll start this by stating that I’m Tobias (he/him), the new social media and community manager, and I’ll be bringing this update to you all! And, all Patreon links provided (minus the ones near the end) are public posts, so you don’t need to be subscribed to a tier to view them, but you still need to be 18+! Now, this goes a bit back, so get a warm drink and get comfy to read this big post because if you haven’t been on the Twitter or Patreon, you’ve missed quite a lot (which is on us entirely! We’re sorry again!) In September 2023, we released a few screenshots on our Patreon showing off some script revisions for the demo of “Something’s Wrong with Sunny Day Jack.” (read them + the update more in detail here!: https://www.patreon.com/posts/sunny-day-jack-90099502) As stated in that post, “A lot of grammatical errors, run-on sentences, etc.. are also being combed out in favor of: - Content that foreshadows future events in the game - Content that is easier to read - And content that more clearly portrays the rules, lore, and restrictions of the supernatural/horror elements in this world

Additionally, more content in general, will be added. Not a substantial amount, but enough to flesh out scenes and make things make more sense now that the world/game has been almost completely outlined.” This post was met with a lot of confusion, as SDJ fans mentioned that they feared the game was being toned down from its original concept. And while our re-writes do actively remove dialogue that unintentionally may be perceived as dubious consent or pressuring the player into sexual/romantic choices, there are no intentions to remove yandere/horror content! We cleared this all up in another Patreon post; a small QnA (here’s that one, again, more in detail!: https://www.patreon.com/posts/q-yandere-is-to-91034309). 

You may be saying “But Tobias! On the Kickstarter, it said there was soft, dubious consent!” And yes, that is true. However, as stated in the 2nd link provided, Our publisher at the time, Project Enso, originally put that warning up. Sauce (they/them) was not happy with that, but PE properly explained that people who were uncomfortable with the infamous "No Route" hadn't had that warning, and thus felt surprised.

This twitter post was the beginning of Sauce’s quest to remove that warning. (https://x.com/SunnyDayJack/status/1560782320533118976?s=20)

[Disclaimer: PE had nothing to do with the writing of the content. They just had to do what was safest!]

Now, you may have noticed that at the beginning of this post, I mentioned a big change in management. In a post made on Patreon in late October 2023, we got introduced to our new Director, Biscuit (she/her)! She’s previously made devlogs on the Patreon, but she’s since been made the Head of Operations for SnaccPop! These are big and important posts, so I really recommend reading them (as well as the previous posts I’ve linked) in their entirety on the Patreon! - Status Update: New leadership, steps moving forward, future of SnaccPop: https://www.patreon.com/posts/status-update-of-91558879 - Q&A: Project Enso departure, AphroDesia, Deadlines and more: https://www.patreon.com/posts/q-project-enso-91850042

But the main points of these two posts above are, 

Sauce will no longer be taking a management role at SnaccPop anymore. Instead, they will take a much necessary backstep to focus solely on creating art and supporting the studio through their continuous work.

The studio has Biscuit as its front-facing figure, but she will be helped out by Perrie (she/her, our current Voice Acting director), Nana (she/her, our current Art director), and other individuals who are key to keeping the content going smoothly at a decent pace. 

SWWSDJ is no longer being released as a full game in November 2024, and is now having Episodic Releases! (Acts 1, 2, 3, and 4)

The Patreon rewards will remain entirely the same. Sauce, as it has been said before, will keep working with us all the way!

Some of you may be wondering what happened with Project Enso and why we parted ways with them, you can read their parting message here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/official-from-92484578

We want to say thank you to Project Enso for all the great work they did for us, however, we believe this decision is the best next step forward to make Sunny Day Jack as best of a game as it can be.

Now, onto some fun stuff! Speed round!

An AphroDesia Game?! The customer is always right! But that doesn't mean that they're necessarily pleasant to deal with…   Available to our $10+ Patreon supporters, you can play a demo of the upcoming mini dating-sim featuring our beloved cutie-pie, TMon, called “ConciUrges.” Featuring 4 endings, two of which are NSFW!

Bachelor of the Month is back! We’re introducing our new icy, and first plus-sized bachelor for the month of December, Jacob Frost (who’s voice has yet to be revealed, but his look has been!) He’s draped out in front of a cozy fireplace, waiting for you to get to know him for $5+~

Another SDJ Demo? You betcha! We understand that there's been lots and lots of content for Sunny Day Jack, and that includes multiple demos that we've released in the past. However, we want to release one last demo. One that includes our new artstyle and script changes that reflect our ideology much more clearly so there aren't any doubts as we move into the future. The release date is TBD!

WE'RE HIRING!! Are you an 18+ NSFW writer and/or an audio engineer? Then you're the person(s) for us! Apply for the position(s) on the Patreon post or the Twitter post!  THE POSISTION IS ONLY FOR THOSE 18+. PROOF OF AGE WILL BE REQUIRED.

Project: DramaBoy As stated in the above linked posts in #5 (more in detail on the Patreon link!) We’re starting up a new project, Project: DramaBoy! As an explanation to non-paying patrons who may have missed our upload of our first teaser (Impish BF Surprises You on Christmas),  we'll be looking to release (hopefully) weekly NSFW and SFW POV Boyfriend audios! Sometimes they'll include characters you know and love-- such as Jambee or Sunny Day Jack. However-- sometimes, they'll include interesting beta concepts voiced by the same VAs from our mainstay projects! Read all about it and see the SLIVER of the list of BFs we’re planning to bring you at https://www.patreon.com/posts/project-dramaboy-94652067 (available to read for free!)

That's all for this update! We know it's lengthy and long overdue, so thank you for your continued support and for taking the time to read! ^_^

[feuillesss]

I'm new at this so please can you read the personality of jungwon enhypen

Enhypen Jungwon Personality

***DISCLAIMER***

I do not know these idols personally! This is just my interpretation of the cards that I pulled, please take this reading with a grain of salt. For entertainment purposes only.

( day/month/year - 9/11/24 )

Jungwon's Personality

Personality: ( 9ow/3pent/Magician/Aos,Qoc,6worev/9pentrev/5swo/Kniofswo/ )

I have a lot to say about him lmao, he's very complex, let's get into it. Jungwon shows a lot of resilience in the face of struggles, even if he's going through a difficult time, he'll still give 100% effort. Even when he gets knocked down, he's not one to give up, it would take a lot to get rid of him lol. There's a lot of determination here, and he seems quite guarded and suspicious of other people. This may come from tough past periods in his life, and it's made him stronger and more willing to fight for what he wants. Jungwon is a team player, he likes working with a team and has great teamwork skills, which makes sense since he's the leader. He's someone who thrives when he's working and feels deeply connected to his job. Communication is a strong suit here, and he has a lot of pride in his group. Jungwon is extremely driven and more intelligent than people may think, very charismatic. Yeah, in almost all of these cards is determination, he does not play about getting the job done lol and he will not give up. He's very logical and brings clarity to situations, someone who would be a mediator in arguments. Someone who values their head over their heart when making decisions. With the Queen of cups, Jungwon is very compassionate and in tune with other people's feelings, he's a very sensitive and loving person, someone that people would go to to express their feelings. He struggles with adapting to changes, struggles to let go of the past. I'm also getting stagnation here which is interesting since I also got that in my Jake reading. It's possible Enhypen as a group is going through a frustrating period where they feel they aren't going as fast as they would like to, and being held back and restricted. They feel like they aren't progressing. Yeah, he seems very guarded, may have difficulties opening up to and trusting other people. He's not feeling fulfilled, generally speaking, he might be someone who spends a lot of money, materialistic. Tbh he might be a bit confrontational and I'm getting a bit of a smug vibe here. He's very ambitious and wants to win no matter the cost, extremely competitive to the point where it might not be healthy. With the knight of swords, he is witty, decisive, and prone to being impulsive with his decisions. Honestly, I don't think people give him enough credit for how smart he is, logically and emotionally. Definitely more intelligent than how people perceive him.

I asked for some negative traits as I believe it's important to remember that idols are also people, complex people and are not perfect. ( 8swrev/knightpent/justice/kingpent/kiofcups/sun )

Jungwon is his own biggest critic, he's very tough on himself and might have some self-deprecating thoughts at times. Again, I'm getting that he's still living in the past and misses those periods. I got knight of pentacles which is interesting because it signifies hard work, I'm going to interpret this as Jungwon working too hard, pushing himself too far. He might focus too much on the logical side of things and end up ignoring or disregarding other people's feelings and emotions. Can be passive-aggressive, like would pretend it didn't bother him but make subtle jabs. He does seem materialistic, has a strong value for money and material wealth. I definitely think he's not as positive or bubbly off-camera, which isn't necessarily a bad thing depending on how you see it. There's definitely a lot of his personality that isn't shown, nothing too crazy, just the 'non idol like' part.

[sagesolsticewrites]

Brady's Smash Wagon

Your boyfriend (Captain John Brady) takes you (his Red Cross girlfriend) to see his Flying Fortress. Shenanigans ensue 👀

a/n: in light of my recent induction into the Ladies Who Brady™️ club, I present... this <3 enjoy, y'all!

Warnings: mature content (oral (f receiving), fingering, semi-public sex (sorta?? like they’re outside but there’s literally no one else around), praise kink if you squint), an addition to the fandom’s John-Brady-says-grace-before-giving-head universe, definitely a few historical & military inaccuracies 

Word count: 2k

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction based off the portrayal by the actors in the Apple TV+ series. I hold nothing but respect for the real life individuals referenced within.

Masterlist

For all the awful things the war had brought you, being a Red Cross girl wasn’t all that bad. Handing out coffee and doughnuts to the men, giving them a friendly face before they went up, giving them a taste of home or simply someone to talk to about missing wives and girlfriends and families back home— it all brought you a sense of happiness, helping the boys in your small way. 

It also helped that you got a chance to have some fun yourself.

Take tonight, for instance. Your friends had dragged you to one of the parties the 100th Bomb Group officers were throwing and you were having the time of your life twirling around the dance floor with your girls.

Rosie Rosenthal even took you for a spin on the floor, twirling and dancing circles around you effortlessly, the fast-paced songs he preferred leaving you breathless and dizzy and overwhelmingly happy.

Your eyes couldn’t help being drawn towards the band as the night continued, however. A certain saxophone player had had his eyes on you all night, and a little thrill ran up your spine every time you met his gaze, a flirtatious smile playing on your lips as you saw something flash in his pretty blue eyes.

Rosie stepped off to the side as the band started up a slower tune. Suddenly the saxophonist was gone, instrument left neatly in its case next to his chair, and John Brady was standing in front of you, smiling.

“Well, what’s a pretty girl like you doing here all alone?”

You shrug, attempting to hide the smile that longs to stretch across your face, “Waiting for a certain someone to ask me to dance, I suppose.”

He hums, eyebrow arching.

“In that case, may I have this dance until he shows up?”

You break, giggling as you allow your boyfriend to sweep you into his arms and onto the dance floor.

“You look gorgeous, honey,” John says softly, eyes raking over your figure.

“What, this old thing?” You laugh, deeply aware that he’d seen you in this simple blue dress a thousand times before, softening as you see the sincerity in his gaze, “Thank you, John.”

He simply pulls you in for a sweet kiss, thumb gently stroking your cheek as he pulls away.

“Can I show you something?” He murmurs, quickly assuring you, “We don’t have to go right now, we’ll stay for as many dances as you want, sweetheart, but… there’s something I want you to see.”

The earnest look in his eyes has you eagerly nodding, “I’d love that. And to be honest, I’m a little worn out from Rosie and the girls,” you add with a laugh, “So if you want to head out now, that’s fine by me.”

He agrees happily, arm winding tighter around your waist to pull you close, his nose brushing yours as the song comes to a close.

“Come on,” he whispers, his eyes lighting up as he guides you out of the club towards the hardstands.

“What— John, where are we going?” You hiss, though you can’t help a grin at how excited he seems.

“I’m gonna show you the other love of my life,” he says simply, pressing a quick kiss to your cheek as he tugs you along.

John’s jacket draped over your shoulders, you approach the hardstands. It’s strange, seeing the forts without the bustling ground crew and flight crews surrounding them, but Brady looks perfectly at ease as he guides you towards one fort in particular.

“Skipper,” you say, squinting to read the name painted on the side.

“That’s the name she came with,” he says from his place beside you, looking up at the fort with what you can only describe as pride, “But the boys have taken to calling her, uh… ‘Brady’s Crash Wagon’.”

In the dim moonlight, you can barely make out a faint dusting of pink working its way up to his ears.

“I feel like there’s a story there,” you grin.

“Several, actually,” he says, and launches into the story of the crash landing over the mountains of Wyoming during a training mission that led to the new fort they received being given the new name. 

“And then— I think pretty much everyone’s heard this one—” he laughs sheepishly, “on our way in from Greenland our landing gear froze and we ended up having to belly in. She was in pretty bad shape after that,” he nods to the fort, “the fellas and I took a train to get here while she was getting fixed up.”

“I can see why they went with that instead of Skipper, in that case,” you grin, leaning against him, “It suits her.”

He knocks subtly on the side of the plane, the metal ringing softly into the night.

“She says thank you.”

Your giggles are smothered by his lips landing on yours, pulling you close as he smiles into the kiss. Your arms wind around his neck as the kiss quickly becomes heated, sighing into his mouth as he turns to press you gently up against his fort.

“J-John,” you gasp, feeling the cool metal at your back, “Are you sure—?”

“Who’s gonna see us, honey?” He murmurs against you as his lips migrate down your neck, leaving a delicious trail of heat over your skin.

That was true, you were under the cover of darkness, not to mention none of the ground crews were arou—

Your logical list of reasons why this wouldn’t be the most awful thing to do is quickly interrupted by the more primal part of your brain that utterly melts at the thought of him taking you up against the 60-thousand-something pound fort— his fort.

This, you can admit to yourself, is likely due to his lips migrating further south, the warmth of his mouth proving a stark contrast to the cool metal at your back. His teeth graze delicately against the hollow of your throat, making you shiver in a way that has absolutely nothing to do with the cool night air as his hands firmly grip your waist, holding you still.

Your hands fly to grip his hair, desperate for something to ground you. He keeps going, though, and you can’t help but let out a soft gasp as you feel his lips move further down, dragging over your clothes.

The two of you have done this a fair few times, but you swear nothing on Earth will ever prepare you for the sight of Captain John Brady sinking to his knees in front of you, hair mussed from the way your fingers raked through it, pupils blown wide.

“John,” you moan softly as his lips drag down to the hem of your skirt, wasting no time in hitching it up your hips, his pretty fingers tracing along the waistband of your underwear.

“Saw you staring at me at the party, pretty girl,” he murmurs against your skin, “You couldn’t take your eyes off me, could you?”

You shake your head, a soft whimper all you can manage in reply.

You feel him smirk against your thigh, knowing exactly what kept your eyes on him while the band was playing.

“So which did you want first, honey? My mouth or my fingers?”

You clamp down on your lip to hold back a moan as said fingers drag gently over the quickly dampening fabric covering your core. He knew how enraptured you were watching his fingers fly over the keys of his instrument, and he knew how to put those skills to use in… other ways.

“If you don’t choose, I’m gonna have to choose for you, sweetheart,” he murmurs, tracing gentle circles over your underwear.

“Don’t— don’t care,” you manage to gasp through the fog in your brain, “Just want you, Johnny, please—”

“Alright, honey, I gotcha,” he softly assures you, brushing soft kisses along your thigh as he pulls your underwear to the side, dragging his fingers through your damp folds.

Blazing blue eyes meet yours as he slowly, slowly inserts a finger, your bottom lip clamped desperately between your teeth in an attempt to stifle your moans.

In what seems like no time at all, he’s slipping in a second finger, then a third, crooking his fingers just so to hit that spot that he knows has you seeing stars every time he touches it.

Your muffled moans grow louder and louder, his fingers moving faster and faster as you reach your peak.

“C’mon, sweetheart, let go for me,” he murmurs between kisses as he works his way up your thigh, “It’s just us, just me, you can let go, honey—”

Suddenly his mouth clamps over your clit, and you’re tumbling over the edge with a muffled cry of his name, your knees going weak as your orgasm crashes over you like a tidal wave.

You think you can feel him… whispering something against your skin? as you come down from your high, and when you open your eyes you’re greeted with a sight that has heat pooling in your core all over again: John’s fingers in his mouth, a groan escaping him as he cleans them of your release.

“Fuck,” he groans, meeting your eyes once more as he brushes a series of kisses to the inside of your thigh, slowly but surely working his way back up to your core, “Think you can give me one more, pretty girl?”

You’ve only just gotten your breath back by the time he’s reached the spot where your leg meets your hip, but your frantic nodding is a more than satisfactory answer for him, even as a soft whimper of “please, Johnny” escapes you.

He wastes no time in licking a stripe through your folds, your hands flying to grip his hair as he buries his tongue inside you.

You throw your head back with a gasp, your eyes fluttering shut as his thumb comes up to circle your clit.

“Johnny—”

“Look at me, honey—” he murmurs against you, the vibrations making you tighten your grip on his pretty brown locks as your knees go weak once more, “fuck— keep those pretty eyes open, look at me— good girl.”

He knows what the growl of those last two words will do to you, never mind the sight of his darkened blue eyes looking up at you from between your legs, and you find yourself tumbling over the edge once more as your gazes lock.

Your legs tremble as he mumbles praises against you, effortlessly guiding you through your orgasm and eagerly lapping up your release.

“Oh my— Johnny,” is all you can manage as you come back to yourself, leaning fully on his fort to take some of the weight off your shaky legs.

He grins, standing to kiss his way back up your neck and pulling you in for a tender kiss. You moan, tasting yourself on his tongue.

“Was that alright, sweetheart?” He murmurs against your lips, pulling away momentarily to scan your face carefully.

“It was perfect, honey.” You grin, brushing a kiss to the corner of his mouth, “But what about you?”

The pink tinge returns to his cheeks, spreading up to his ears as he mumbles, “I, uh… I got carried away, sweetheart. I’m alright.”

It takes you a moment, but then: “Oh. Oh.” You giggle, winding your arms around his neck as you pull him flush against you for a kiss.

“Next time, then.” You murmur against his lips, noses brushing as you break apart.

“Next time,” John breathes, grinning, “But until then, can I walk you back to the barracks?”

“I’d love that.”

You scoop up his jacket from where it had fallen from your shoulders during your little escapade and dust it off, John helping you look somewhat presentable as you attempt to brush the wrinkles out of your skirt and fix your hair. Eventually, the two of you are strolling over to the little huts where the Red Cross girls are housed, his arm and his jacket draped over your shoulders, looking for all the world like a respectable Army couple. 

He bids you goodnight with a sweet kiss, and you slip back into your hut on slightly wobbly legs, with a grin that refuses to fade even as you climb into your bunk to join your roommates in sleep.

[live-emotion]

I'm new here! What's the best LP option to use for this new event? (Reiji and Otoya) I'm still stuck gaining 500 points for 1 time play with 2 LP, i want to gain more points...

Welcome!! Apologies in advance for the long reply!

Generally, the most efficient LP usage is 2 LP. For both 1 and 2 LP, you get the same rate of event points rewards (10x for 1 LP, and 20x for 2 LP) but past that the higher you use, you get diminishing returns for event points and general reward drops. 3-5 LP are still pretty good, but not as efficient. 3 LP gives 29x, 4 LP gives 38x, and 5 LP gives 46x.

Of all the options, 10 LP is the least efficient with returns of only 75x. Having said that, of course if you only have time to play one or two songs, then using 5 or 10 LP is better than not playing at all.

Disclaimer that I may be missing some tips since I myself havent been playing 100% efficiently either, but heres some extra tips:

Emotional Pieces / Team composition Tips:

Use pieces with an event bonus skill on all of your teams regardless of attribute.

Level up and idolise pieces with an event bonus as much as you can whenever you get another copy of them. In this case its the racing gacha Eiichi and Kira, and the event Reiji and Otoya. You can 'idolise' pieces by filling out the top line of their Piece Board and reading all of their story.

Guest Tips:

Choose guests with the highest event skill bonus for live shows. You can see the percentage they boost event points by in pink above their right title. Eg. 'ライブで盛られるイベントポイントを40％アップ' meaning it 'raises the received event points by 40%.’

You can reset guests using the 'ゲスト更新' button in the top left when choosing a guest to find the best one. Its a bit tedious, but getting a 40, 60, or higher percentage bonus every time really adds up.

Use your event bonus (glowstick) items to raise event points when you use guests with the super high event bonus skills. I saw an Eiichi with 100% bonus yesterday which was awesome.

Live Tips:

Make sure you're playing the event songs.

It seems best to play on the highest difficulty that you can most consistently full combo. Getting an S combo on normal is likely better than getting a C combo on expert.

Skip tickets used to be not worth much, but after some changes they now give only slightly less than playing manually so they're much more valuable. Thanks to @blueesnow for the comparison!

Only use auto if you can't play yourself and don't want to use skip tickets. If you are auto-ing a song, auto it on expert to get more points (I think).

If you lose your combo you can always exit a song by pressing the button in the top right corner, then pressing left button, then the right button to confirm. You don't lose any LP or items spent on the song. Especially useful if you've used a lot of LP or an event bonus item and don't want it to go to waste.

Play the song that you get the most event points for. In this event, Song Letter generally will give the highest amount of event points. You could also: a. Play a song with the same attribute as applicable pieces with event bonus skill. There are pieces with event bonus for each attribute this time. Playing the two Fresh (yellow) event songs will up the chance of seeing a high event bonus Eiichi guest (plus 80% or plus 100% event points). *I'm unsure how much/if the attribute of the guest bonus skill affects event points gained. b. Play the shortest song to save time.

Other Tips:

Use items marked with a pink speech bubble that reads 日限定 before they expire daily at midnight Japan time.

There are event missions for clearing each event song 3 and 5 times. These missions can be cleared by using 0 LP. They reward LP Charges and Event Bonus items. The LP Charges must be used the day that you claim them from the missions screen, so you may want to wait to claim them until you're sure you have time to use them.

Set pieces with event bonus skill your guest helpers in Menu>Player Detail>ゲスト設定>Pick one per attribute using the 変更する button. This doesn't help you, but its common courtesy since they will be your guest helpers for other players.

If you have time, it may be wise to wait until later in the event to use your event bonus (glowstick) items. By that point you'll have higher leveled event cards to use in your teams, and there'll be more guest players with high event bonus skills.

Follow guests you see with high event bonus skills so theyre more likely (?) to show up as a guest for live shows.

[ivys-thick-juicy-thighs]

Sleep Token Lore part 2

From the pov of someone deeply interested in psychology and a survivor of narcissistic abuse.

Warnings: self h*rm, su!c!de, narcissistic abuse.

Disclaimer: my idea of what all of it means is less in the esoteric direction and based more on my opinions of some of Vessel’s personal experiences. I’m basing all of this on lyrical content, the evolution of his masks, how he behaves on stage, and my own personal experience. I will not mention any of his previous work or related individuals. I will keep this as neutral as possible out of respect for all of their privacy.

Read part one here

But first some bonus points going off the previous post.

Let me know if you’d like me to go into an analysis of every song and share my thoughts on the lyrics one by one. Writing this one was very fun.

Rain: “I know, I know, I am what I am, The mouth of the wolf, the eyes of the lamb…” One example of Vessel having been an equal player in the toxic relationship. He’s saying he may look innocent but he played his part in it too. “I’m coiled up like a venomous serpent…” this I feel is the best example of the thought process behind his current mask. The spikes at his chin remind me a lot of fangs. This to me really speaks volumes of how he sees himself. He does not want people to grow intimate with him simply because he believes he’s dangerous. He most likely believes that the failure of this relationship was his fault. Exactly how the narcissist would want it, and would have spun it.

Dark Signs: “And I miss the man I was the moment we left off…And I hate who I have become, every time I wake up.” One example of him both being changed by this relationship, and also growing to hate himself because of this relationship. “And if you saw the marks on my dashboard, The new scars that I didn't ask for, And would you call asking for answers? Tear my arms off…” an example of the “ending his life” thoughts. This song also is the first time we see the metaphor of a car crash. I’ll go into this more in its own post later.

Higher: “You are taking your time, You are killing me slow, And I know we instigate, Go back and forth, Lacerate…” an example of both of them playing a part in the toxic back and forth. I also can’t decide if this song was written from Vessel’s perspective or the narcissist’s perspective. The entirety of the second verse feels like it’s written from a pov that isn’t Vessel’s. This person is saying to him that they are the ones granting him a favour “I am giving you more than the debt that I owe”(despite all of the obvious abuse) and that he forgets that. This verse also shows the isolation I mentioned in my previous post. “Because I am a danger and you're a long way from home, You are one among many but you're now on your own…”

TMBTE: “But I'll take a pound of your flesh 'fore you take a piece of my paystub…” as someone pointed out in my previous post, this line most likely means that the person he was in a relationship with, he also worked with and they took a bunch of his money too. This lines up perfectly with my entire theory as financial abuse is also extremely common in these kinds of relationships. Narcissists always want to have control over your finances and a lot of the time will drain your accounts so you’re even more dependent on them. “And I don't know what's got its teeth in me, But I'm about to bite back in anger, No amount of self-sought fury, Will bring back the glory of innocence…” another example of him having turned into the more argumentative type during this time, and his realization of how he’d changed.

Give: this entire song aside from the very last stanza I feel is written from the other person’s perspective. The bridge in particular shows that the other person is admitting (but not apologizing) that they are mistreating Vessel. “In this open warfare, I won't fight fair, No, I won't fight fair, And in your waking moments, I will be there…” this person also wants Vessel to give them his “darkest impulses,” to show his anger, lust, fears, etc. so that they can flip the script and use them as ammunition. Ultimately, they are telling him to continue to give in to their mind games over and over again.

Bloodsport: I have an unconventional idea of what this song is about. I think the person he’s talking about in this is actually himself. I think this is maybe a reference to self h*rm. “I made loving you a blood sport, I can’t win. So let’s play…”

Now back to Vessel’s journey:

7. Learning to love himself again: on the album TMBTE, we watch the slow realization of the reality of the relationship. Particularly starting in Granite. “Sulphur on your breath, granite in my chest…” we all know that sulphur stinks horribly, so the narcissist in this case was likely being particularly toxic (and saying some nasty shit) and it marked the tipping point for Vessel. It’s the moment the blinders are removed, and he sees them for what they really are. Who they really are. We see the break down of his mentality of giving this person everything he can and everything they want from him. This is shown in Aqua Regia, the title referring to the only chemical solution able to dissolve gold, the golden walls that he would put up to bring them home again. Moving on to Vore, this is when he becomes completely engrossed in reviewing the events of the relationship. “Swallowed whole” by it even. All of the highs and lows, the back forth, the mind games, the loss of his identity, etc. etc. He has the realization of what has actually happened, and he is filled with a sort of bittersweet rage.

8. Continued: in Ascensionism, we really see this. “You’re gonna watch me ascend, And I know what you want from me, You want the same as me, My redemption, eternal ascension, Setting me free, So I'll take what I want then leave” He’s saying to his abuser “you took me so low, to the bottom of the ocean, and now you’re gonna watch me as I leave you behind. I don’t deserve this.” This song also has a really cool call back to Dark Signs “Diamonds in the trees, pentagrams in the night sky…” “And where we met, there must have been dark signs, Omens in your skies…” Moving on to Are You Really ok?, this is when someone around him sees the broken and empty state he’s in. I think this person is someone who has known him for a very long time, possibly a family member. They were there when he made that attempt on his life (Atlantic), and they’re hoping that this time doesn’t go that far again. This person wants to help him but they know that he has to get himself through this on his own. “And I, I cannot fix your wounds this time, But I, I don't believe you when you tell me you are fine, Please don't hurt yourself again, Just please don't hurt yourself again…”

9. Continued: in The Apparition, Vessel expresses frustration that the narcissist always puts on a fake persona, and fear that even though they torture him, they’ll leave him. Stockholm syndrome, anyone?“Why are you never real? Whenever you appear, You leave me with that grace, I am trembling with fear, But I know that you will disappear…” The only time he can find any relief from the torture he endures in his waking moments is when he’s dreaming. However, the narcissist has even managed to work their way into his dreams to torment him there. He still clings to this person though, “Just let me go or take me with you…” I think this is also him giving them an ultimatum. “You either get all of me, or none of me” kind of thing. It’s evident that the person is displeased with this boundary that he’s set. They leave him alone for a time, most likely giving him the silent treatment.

10. Continued: moving on to DYWTYLM, this is when he has that all important conversation with himself. He asks himself all of these questions, basically trying to figure out who he is. This is also the point where all of the references to jaws, teeth, and eating all start to make a lot more sense. “And there is something eating me alive, I don't know what it is…” the thing that’s eating him alive is the narcissist. All of the back and forth, the ups and downs, the torture and toxicity, the dissolving of gold, all of these have resulted in him being stripped of all that he once was. They left him as nothing but bones. On a different note, I also feel like the reflection flickers between himself and the narcissist, and he’s asking both of them these questions. “And I've tried so hard to fix it all but nothing seems to help, But I cannot hope to give you what I cannot give myself…” He’s saying to both himself and the other person that no matter how hard he tries, he can’t love them if he doesn’t love himself at least the same amount. Ironically, this admittance is an act of self love.

11. Continued: in Rain, we get an interesting development. In the previous song he says that his “reflection won’t smile back at him the way he thinks it should.” And in the first verse of Rain, he tells us that he’s finally able to smile at himself. “But I finally think I can say, That the vicious cycle was over, The moment you smiled at me…” I think this song is written from himself to himself, but in a different manner than DYWTYLM. It’s from the future version of himself to the past version. “For so long, I have waited, So long that I almost became, Just a stoic statue, fit for nobody, And I don't wanna get in your way…” I think this also explains the figures in the visualizers for this album. They symbolize the different stages of development, and the different versions of him and the narcissist throughout the end of their relationship.

12. Continued: returning to TMBTE, this is when the silent treatment ends and the whole thing is brought to a cataclysmic, disastrous end. There’s a lot of rage in this song. While we don’t get to hear about the actual break up, we’re invited to watch starting “Just two days since the mainframe went down…” In those two days he is inundated with phone calls from a bunch of people that he knows take the narcissist’s side. They sympathize with him, but it’s fake. Those two days also feel cold and lifeless “Room feels like a meat freezer, I dangle in like cold cuts…” We also get a call all the way back to Bloodsport. In fact, the lyrics of Bloodsport almost mirror the lyrics of TMBTE. “I want to choke up chunks of my own sins…” “I spit blood when I wake up, Sink porcelain stained, choking up brain matter and make-up…” Making this choice to walk away from something he clearly wanted to work out, is very painful for him, but if he wants to move on with his life and maybe find real happiness later, he has to do this. No matter the pain, no matter the cost. He feels like in order to purge himself of “his sins,” he has rid himself of entire pieces of his brain. Also, feels like he’s putting on an act, hence the make-up.

13. Finally, Euclid: I have a bit of an unconventional idea of Euclid too. I think he’s singing to the past version of himself. The entire second verse, he is replaying the whole course of events over in his mind watching them play out on the ceiling “As I see the past on an empty ceiling, I play along with the life signs anyway, But hope to god you don't know this feeling…” The lines that follow this, I feel, show him looking at both himself and at the narcissist. “Yet in reverse you are all my symmetry, A parallel I would lay my life on…” both the old version of him (before the relationship and during it) and the narcissist themselves are complete opposites of who he is now. But like all things in life, we are always defined by our opposites. We only know that something is broken if we’ve seen it when it’s whole. “So if your wings won't find you heaven, I will bring it down like an ancient bygone, Call me when you have the time, I just need to leave this part of me behind…” The old version of him is who has the wings. That old version is now dead and he needs to leave it behind. He officially knows he must move on.

14. Euclid, final thoughts: from this point on, the song falls into what feels like a cacophony of memories playing over each other. They echo back through the time of the relationship, hitting all the most important moments. It finally ends with the memory of their first night together.

Now to examine the addition and roles of II, III, and IV.

First and foremost, Vessel likely asked them to join because they are (obviously very) talented musicians. However, he probably chose them because they also understood and respected the emotional depth and nuance of his music. As for why they’re called vessels and what they are vessels of? Simplest answer: pain. They all have most likely experienced similar things. The thing with creative people is that we are not likely to ask someone else to join ranks with us on a project if they don’t view their art the same way we see ours. So unfortunately, the other three have probably felt similarly or (I hope not) still do.

In the next post, because this one was very long, I want to go into some bonus theories that I have. These ones are much more abstract and not so much based on lyrics.

[sleepyconfusedpotato]

Just finished grinding Assassin's Creed Mirage! WOOHOO! ୧⁠(⁠ ⁠ಠ⁠ ⁠Д⁠ ⁠ಠ⁠ ⁠)⁠୨

I think it's a deffo wonderful game and a refreshment after the RPG trilogy (it does have RPG elements to it, but still), and it also have some things that are lacking. It reminds me of the good 'ol days, but deffo not on par with the good 'ol days.

Here're some of my thoughts and reviews!

🕌 Sleepy's Assassin's Creed Mirage Review 🗡️

(Spoiler Warning ⚠️ Including the ending ⚠️)

Disclaimer, this is just my personal opinion. You may agree and disagree. I’m just gonna talk a lot because I LOVE Assassin’s Creed with all my heart. Here goes.

VISUALS

(+) Basim Ibn Ishaq, the handsome man that you are… HOLY SHIT (yes I’m adding him as the first plus point of this game what of it). Man's fine AF. 

(+) Baghdad’s really beautiful, nuff said. The color palette is PERFECT - displays the warmth of the atmosphere really well, but also just enough greens and many starking hues of flowers. 

(+) The waters and environment textures are CRISPY.  The detailed patterns on the clothes, the engravings and the state of the arts is really cool. I haven’t really looked a lot into the 800’ Baghdad arts, but I can see lots of good details and art styles. SHOUT OUT TO THE ARTISTS!!

GAMEPLAY - Now here’s what I have a lot to comment on.

(+) Stealth -> I think they did quite good with the stealth. One of the many complaints that I saw on the previous RPG trilogy games was the fact that the main characters/players had no reason to be stealthy, because they can just barge in and defeat the enemies easily. Ubi has marketed the game to be more stealth focused and intentionally made Basim a less of a fighter (make sense, since he came from a thief background, unlike Bayek, Kassandra, and Eivor who are actual trained warriors since they’re kids). However, this brings me to the first lacking point.

(-) Combat -> The combat feels janky. I feel like I’m really fucked up in combat situations if I don’t upgrade my sword and dagger. Like I get it, Basim is not meant to be much of a fighter, but in the beginning parts (or… even the middle parts of the game, let’s be real), I feel like combat is HELL. I forgot the Youtuber who said it, but he said something along the lines of “I’m an assassin, I want to feel like an assassin and want to feel like a badass and can take down many enemies with ease.” And that actually rings true with me. When I’m in combat and countless soldiers are fighting or following me (and I don’t have the smoke bomb with the forgetting effect), I’m most certainly FUCKED. 

(+) The fighting style is cool though, it's stylish and the finishing moves are sick af. It could deffo use some work. 

(-+) Parkour/Movements - It’s alright. It’s most certainly better than the previous RPG trilogy, but it’s definitely not Unity or Syndicate. Sometimes Basim can do something that I didn’t want and I’ve lost count on how many times I got caught and died just from a mis-movement. I literally don’t understand why they don’t use the Unity parkours and combat styles. Unity’s parkour is smooth, swift, and stylish. It feels GOOD. 

(+) Stealing - I’m a loot goblin in games, and believe me, I think I’ve spent like hours just stealing from the entire population of Baghdad that by the end of the game I’m probably richer than the Taxmaster and the whole entire Abbasid Caliphate. It’s fun, it’s easy, but it can sometimes be hard enough to miss. I just hope there’s more variety/difficulty in the stealings in different places – Like maybe in the Round City the diamond thingy is much smaller, or in like for stealing merchants (who has particular fashion/silhouette or have wallets/pouches with different colors) can be harder to steal from but have more rewards and money. 

(-+) Map - OKAY. I love the fact that Mirage has a significantly smaller map than that of Odyssey and Valhalla. It’s focused and it’s much more centered. HOWEVER. For a game this caliber, and with this good of a graphic? It’s much too small and it’s too divided between two parts. Hear me out – The graphics are really cool, but I feel like the map is too divided between – either a densely populated city, or just barren lands of desert. I think the map could be much much bigger with much more collectibles and much more variety in the terrains. Like, for example in Black Flag (The S tier game. Argue with a wall), there’re more than one major city, while in Mirage the map is so very centered (Yes I get it it’s the Round City), but I’d love it if there’s another major city that we can travel to, like Damascus, for instace. + I love the Tales of Baghdad. MORE TALES OF BAGHDAD PLEASE. 

STORY - nOW THIS… I never liked the stories post - Origins and here's why : 

(-) LET 👏 THE ACTORS 👏 DO 👏 MOTION 👏 CAPTURE 👏 - My biggest complaint for the RPG game styles is always about the facial and motion animation. The cutscenes feel DEAD. The eyes are DEAD. I almost can't feel anything. Ubi is rich af, why not use facial capturing? AC3 was the first AC game to use motion capture, and holy shit… it's one of my fave games. Yes. All games, not only AC series. The emotion in their faces, the gestures, the small glances, the little movements - they all decide every character's personality. The reason why I love every AC since AC3-ACOrigins is because the actors pour all their voices, faces, even body movements into the interactions between characters, because they make the stories feel alive. Let the actors be actors. I can rant more but this is already a long post so I'll stop. MOTION 👏 CAPTURE 👏.

(+) I love Basim's origin story. Dude's a 17 year old street thief who got a bit over his head and ended up becoming a fugitive because he killed the fucking caliph himself. That was crazy HAHAHAH anyway even though I think the beginning felt a bit rushed I love it. I just wish they could milk it more.

(+) I love the side characters! Especially Ali (I think he's hot 👉👈 and he's the absolute freedom fighter). Anyway, even though they don’t really do much, they all feel alive and do lots of things (except Roshan prolly HAHAHAH but there's a reason I guess)

(+) Roshan. Mentor and reminds me of Al-Mualim. I particularly love the fact that after all that wise words throughout the game, she literally threatened Basim if he actually went to the underground temple. And when she showed up covered in blood??? And THE TWIST AT THE END??? "Roshan bint La-Ahad". SHE'S ALTAIR'S ANCESTOR. THAT FUCKING SHOCKED ME YOOOO. She's just amazing. 

(-) Pacing - I feel like this is because they’re speeding things up (which is a good thing), the pacing is pretty standard in the beginning, but the ending is a bit too high of a rollercoaster mount. The ending went from 0-100 real quick. I feel like we need a more of a climbing storyline. This is why I kind of don’t agree with the ‘centering’ storyline instead of a linear story. Centering styles of story has no climb in the intensity, and because of that we can’t feel the character developments because he’s supposed to stay the same even though we’ve killed like 3 bosses already. And then when all the underlings are dead, finally the boss racks up Basim’s curiosity super duper high that it becomes too sudden.

(-) Weak Villains - The villains since Origins are always hidden and unknown, unlike the previous games where the Templars are literally KNOWN by the people. I want more villains like Haytham tbh, where he literally doesn’t care about the precusor sites and only wants stability in his reign as a Grandmaster. Or if the villains do care about the Pieces of Eden or have a prior interest of the First Civ, at least let them have an actual personality and character, let them be a menace and a threat since the beginning of the game instead of being the NPC’s we kill to finish the game. Let them challenge our beliefs as an Assassin/Hidden Ones. Let the villains actually have an impact to the main storyline. Imagine in the end Basim and Qabiha really went to the underground temple together, and got confronted by Roshan. That’s where the conflict in Basim climaxed! Imagine the emotion! The drama~! 

(+) How the stories interlinked with Valhalla. Basim is a sage, and host of Loki who sought revenge to Odin (who wronged him). So I don't think Basim nor Loki are evil per se. They're just gray. Now the stories aren't just about Templars vs Assassin, it's more focused towards the First Civilization. It's a bit hard to keep up but it's nothing a bit of reading/looking up some lore videos wouldn't solve.

MISC

We need more outfits! The outfits are far too few for us to choose from! 

Wonderful and mystifying music. Nuff said. Brendan Angelides and Layth Sidiq nailed it. One Republic and Mishaal Tamer’s “Mirage” in on repeat on my Spotify right now.

I love gear chests hunting and all the collectibles. I just wish the map is bigger and there’re more collectibles T_T I’M A LOOT GOBLIN OKAY.

I learn history of Baghdad LFG. I play largely for the stories and not the gameplays, so if there’s a codex entry or any new historical sites I always read it. Learning history doesn’t hurt! 

How I can really relate to the real world. I live in Indonesia where 90% of the people is Muslim (I’m a Christian), so when I here familiar words like Alhamdullilah, Assalam’ualaikum and Wa’alaikumsalam, or see the people praying, the Adzan sounds throughout the city, the people praying towards the Ka’bah, it kinda feels like home! Just hope that they add more funny shit to it though, like “Yaallah Basim! Istighfar!” Or “WALLAHI.” Or more Arabic sayings so we can immerse more to the world.

MAKE BASIM DO THE 5 PRAYERS (maybe when we pass time or after a big mission we come back to him finishing a prayer).

FINAL VERDICT - 7.8/10 -> It’s a focused game, and it really did come back to some of the original elements of AC before the RPG trilogy. It’s not too long and casuals can play it without feeling like we have to grind like Odyssey or Valhalla. Deffo would recommend playing it!

Once again, BRING BACK MOTION CAPTURE ‼️‼️‼️🗣️🗣️

If you did play it gimme some thoughts in the comments! Thank you for reading! (⁠人⁠*⁠´⁠∀⁠｀⁠)⁠｡⁠*ﾟ⁠+

[mylittleponyoh]

Homecoming Pose Pack by MylittleponyOh

Hello Simmers ✨ !

This pose pack tells a short story about homecoming, surprise, people we have missed, love, enthusiasm. I hope you'll like it as much as I do !

Anecdote : I had this pose pack in mind before creating my first CC. I needed a big backpack because of this story I wanted to tell.

What you’ll need for this pose pack to work properly :

💜 The Teleport Any Sim Mod

💜 The Pose Player

💜 My Traveler's Backpack for the first 4 poses

Disclaimer : Knowing how clothes works in the sims 4, some clipping/weird shadows may occur.

Download here (SFS)

Do not modify, reupload and claim as your own.

Base Game Compatible

Thumbnails in the Pose Player for all the poses

If you use my poses and you post it on your socials, I’ll be pleased to see what it looks like with your sims, so tag me 🫰🏽

This pose pack has 7 solo poses and 4 duo poses

The duo poses work with two teleporter on top of the other.

Click here to check out all my previous Pose Packs !

Thanks 💜 ✨

[alicepao13]

Hudson and Rex Episodes

It has come to my attention that Hudson and Rex episodes are not easily accessible to a lot of people, despite it being broadcasted in many countries. I was looking for a place to archive the episodes myself in good quality as a backup but up until recently, the 1080p rips were huge so it was an impossible feat. I finally found some mkv ones that are not as ginormous as the others, and I'd like to share them with the fandom.

Disclaimer: I did not do these rips or the transcoding. I haven't checked the episodes one by one to see if there are any faults with them, just a few as random tests, I also watched a few, and they were all good, subtitles were working and in sync, etc.

What you need to know before downloading:

The files are in mkv format and Mega, the host I've uploaded them on, does NOT have a player to play MKVs online. The links are for downloading, or alternatively transferring to your own Mega account, not for online streaming.

The video codec is HEVC, which is why the size of the episodes is not huge. That might affect some older computers which may not have this codec, though. Read about HEVC here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Efficiency_Video_Coding and if it's missing, you can add the HEVC codec.

Same goes for your tv if you choose to play them in one (although you probably can't add the codec there). I generally recommend downloading one episode as a test. If it plays in your device, they all should play in that device.

Most of the files have forced English subtitles on them. I am unfamiliar with forced subtitles in general. You may have trouble removing them on a tv, maybe. I've tested them only using VLC on my computer and they can appear and disappear just fine when I choose so like normal subs do. Forced subtitles are not hard-coded subtitles.

Episodes S01E01 - S06E06 were all transcoded by one team as it was a pack, the rest by another, as the first pack was uploaded during this winter hiatus and there was no other upload by the first team for the rest. I only see small differences between the episodes, not worthy of a mention. I've kept the original file names, so you will know when the teams change if you're interested in that (team name is the last input on the title of the file).

The size of all the episodes in total is around 92GB. When you go to download them, each file will also display the size of it.

How to download (skip this if you've downloaded from Mega before):

Even if you have set your browser to ask you where to download the file, Mega will download the file you requested entirely before asking you were to save it. It's how their cloud service works. You don't need to download anything else to get these files, just right-click a file and click Download, and then Standard Download when the submenu opens. You do not need to download the Mega Desktop App, unless you want to download the entire folder at once as a ZIP file. I don't know how many concurrent downloads a free user gets on Mega, or limitations regarding the GBs per day on free users.

Mega suggests users download using Chrome or a Chromium based browser, however downloading the files one by one should work in any browser.

If you have a download manager, just load these folders in it and it will do the job better than your browser.

If you attempt this with a smartphone, then I highly suggest you download the Mega mobile app. I don't think the files will download to your phone otherwise.

Links:

These lead to each season's folder of episodes. Only copy the link below, do not copy the season identifier at the start of each line. Make sure you copy the entire link especially the S4 one which apparently continues in a second line.

S1: https://mega.nz/folder/1ZMTlbpY#DqS2V2KKgeajbINzx8c6Pg

S2: https://mega.nz/folder/kZE1yTTC#p29HrvXgahGXW-0rlzx77Q

S3: https://mega.nz/folder/0Bt3gBJL#hcX7tjU1GScmprTc0nkc0w

S4: https://mega.nz/folder/UQFD3SZZ#nbGJeLzH2IHLVpVFyK750A

S5: https://mega.nz/folder/ARkzUQbS#eS1Yy11x_DEPg3T2bD5ozw

S6: https://mega.nz/folder/lBUFnBwb#WszZvKLzfpRKVvuz5B78Nw

Other information:

I'll try to keep the links up as long as I can but I suggest keeping your own copies. Mega does not offer that amount of space for free, so this is a paid cloud service. I'm not looking for anyone to participate on the upkeep but there might be a day when these links will be taken down for any number of reasons. Personally, I don't trust the cloud. Keep local copies of anything you don't want to lose.

If these are reported, I will not be reuploading them and I assume that reporting may also take down my account with them so I will probably also not be able to be a paying customer of their service either way. So, keep the sharing of the links within the fandom. I will not tag this post, but I highly encourage reblogging it to spread the info.

I suggest that anyone who wants to share this with a lot of people should make their own cloud backup. The purpose of me uploading these links is, ironically, not piracy. The purpose is to make the episodes easily accessible to fans.

I will not upload these in other cloud services, if anyone wants to go upload these in google drive, for example, I'm not willing to risk it but of course, anyone else willing to do it is welcome to.

If anyone has questions or concerns, I'll be glad to answer them. Not everyone is familiar with hosting sites, but this is easier than a torrent. I'm sure I've forgotten things which to me may seem simple.

[badsassitude]

The Boyfriend: Watching Anxious Attachment in Action (Deep Dive Part 2/3)

These guys are living rent free in my head right now. I thought it might be interesting to look at some of the interactions on the show through the attachment theory lens… which means I will be liberally discussing Shun’s thoughts and feelings from the anxious attachment perspective as if I actually know what he's thinking. Disclaimer: This is a whole lot of speculation and interpretation. Since this is an analysis of a show with real people and not characters, I want to make it clear that I may be full of crap. The lived experience of real world Shun may be nothing like my interpretation of him from the show.

So here we go.... just why did he do that? The anxious attachment explanation!

In episode 2 Shun directly said he was afraid and wasn’t ready yet when talking to Ryota about his growing feelings for Dai. He said he wanted Dai to show him “it can only be me” and, in my interpretation, he needs that assurance of Dai’s feelings in order to allow himself to be vulnerable. Also notable in this conversation is his comment “I can’t help but wonder what he likes about me,” - as someone who’s parents abandoned him, he may believe didn’t even love him, it would be normal to question if he is worthy of love. Let's be real, he clearly has some self-esteem issues as evidenced by his belief that no one would write a letter to him (ep 1) and multiple comments he has made about himself throughout the first 6 episodes.

In that same conversation with Ryota (ep 2), Shun describes Dai as “sincere and kind.” He seems genuine and hopeful when he says that. Unfortunately, Shun also has a history of bad experiences and being hurt by “player types.” Seeing the pictures on Dai’s phone (ep 2) was a big trigger for Shun – both clearly reminding him of painful past experiences, and also starting that internal narrative if his own doubts and insecurities.  Suddenly Dai had something in common with people Shun has known in the past, and seemingly with at least one in particular who clearly hurt Shun badly.  It’s not unreasonable that Shun would start questioning his own judgment given that they haven't known each other long. It would be normal given his past experiences for him to question if Dai is really sincere in his feelings, or is he a player? 

The seeds of uncertainty were sewn, and now the dance of push and pull in anxious attachment really picks up.  This isn’t a low stakes gamble for Shun. He knows how badly he has been hurt in the past. He is at a decision point: ending things before they begin and miss out on the possibility of what could be, or take the risk and if it doesn’t work out face the pain.   

I think Shun is TRYING to trust Dai, that he wants to trust Dai, and is genuinely starting to like Dai. I think he is also afraid to let himself like Dai because he doesn’t feel secure, and he doesn’t want to fall for someone who may not be sincere and ultimately hurts him. I think the date in episode 3 is Shun’s effort to be more vulnerable. But he’s uncertain. In his mind he has room to doubt Dai’s sincerity, since he may be a player. He is uncertain he is worth loving (given his parents, never having been adopted, and his past relationships), so while he wants to be loved, he also has a hard time believing someone can/does love him. Shun doesn’t know what Dai actually likes about him - and here Dai is on the date telling Shun how important he is to Dai. I can practically hear the thoughts “I want to trust you, I don’t know if I can trust you. If I let you in, you might hurt me. You say I’m important to you, but what do you even like about me? How can I believe I am important to you?”

I think Shun is terrified, and after the date that fear and doubt spirals.  He tells himself all the reasons it won’t work. He pushes Dai away in an effort to protect himself. Meanwhile, he is clearly looking distressed and upset about how Dai will feel when Shun didn’t put him down for an overnight date (ep 4). I think this really reinforces that his behavior is about his fear, and wanting to protect himself, not about Dai. In fact for me, if Shun didn't like Dai, I don't think he would have been bothered or uncomfortable about not selecting Dai for the date.

Shun sets a boundary with Dai, communicates he just wants to be friends - that’s safer after all. Decision made, the risk is too big and it’s better to play it safe.  I’m sure he absolutely meant that…. And in his every day life that might have actually been the end of Shun and Dai.  But this isn’t their normal life, they are living in the Green Room together, and Shun doesn’t actually want to just be friends.  He’s afraid of being hurt so he’s put up wall, all the while deep down he’s hoping Dai will find some way to reassure him.  

With the continued close contact that comes with participating in the show, and the illusion of safety that comes with having set the friends boundary, Shun keeps engaging Dai.  Dai, who right now to me feels like the bestest best boy EVER, demonstrated the most amazing response to a boundary setting ever.  He accepted it, even if it was painful, and respected it.  He backed off – but he didn’t punish Shun or ignore him, instead he continued to engage in a friendly way and tried to let Shun lead.  Poor Dai during this time is understandably confused and frustrated at the mixed signals he’s getting. There is an irony in that by backing off but remaining engaged, Dai has now hit that sweet spot for Shun, where Shun is not feeling overwhelmed or anxious by Dai’s pursuit.  Shun seems to be feeling more and more comfortable, and he starts letting down his guard and getting closer to Dai. This allows his feelings to grow, and he starts showing that classic push/pull behavior that is so common with anxious attachment.  

The biggest problem in all of this is the lack of clear and effective communication about all of this heavy stuff.  It's not intentional at all.  Remember where this started?  Emotions are messy.  Discomfort is HARD to navigate, and sometimes we aren’t even clear with ourselves about our own complex thoughts and feelings and wants and needs.  I think Shun wanted to set and hold that boundary with Dai on a more conscious level – but I think deep down he is also that tentatively hopeful little boy wanting to be loved, but expecting to be hurt.  

Shun builds walls to protect himself, and grieves when he sits inside them alone. This is also a self-fulfilling prophecy, as being alone inside his walls acts as proof that he is not worth loving and that no one will love him, because the walls keep them out.  He couldn’t communicate anything other than what he did – which was the boundary, because the other stuff is either too deeply unconscious, or too vulnerable.

Dai, on the flip side, can’t know what Shun isn’t saying (and may not even be fully aware of).  He’s doing his best to dance to Shun’s tune and receiving different responses.  Shun wants to be reassured, but there is no real way for Dai to reassure him. It is impossible to connect with someone without being vulnerable, and being vulnerable means we can get hurt. That right there is Shun’s kryptonite in episodes 4-6. 

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

[grantmentis]

2024 IIHF Women’s World Championships Season Wrap Up

All of our women’s worlds tournaments have finished, so here is a short summary of each tournament, who got promoted/relegated, and top performers.

As a quick disclaimer: how they do best players of each tournament tends to be a little different for each one, some have MVPs and some don’t, idk why

Championship / Top Division

Final standings

Canada (Gold)

USA (silver)

Finland (Bronze)

Czechia

Switzerland

Germany

Sweden

Japan

China (relegated)

Denmark (relegated)

Tournament MVP: Laila Edwards (USA)

Top goaltender: Sandra Abstreiter (Germany)

Top defender: Renata Fast (Canada)

All star team: Sanni Ahola (Finland), Renata fast (Canada), Caroline Harvey (USA), Laila Edwards (USA), Natalie Mlynkova (Czechia), Alex carpenter (USA)

Tournament summary: this is gonna be my longest short summary as this is the tournament I have the most coverage of.

We finally have USA and Canada at the best versions of themselves again, solid coaching for both, a mix of youth and vets, for the most part all healthy, making for a great gold medal game.

Germany is the biggest positive surprise this tournament. They went from ninth in 2022 to eighth in 2021 to sixth this year, that’s pretty big gains, abstreiter had a phenomenal tournament with the best save percentage despite one of the heaviest workloads, but I was also really impressed by the team defense. Both Welcke twins, Jobst-Smith, Franziska Feldmeier were huge this tournament.

China may have gotten relegated but I think this tournament was still a success for them, considering the significant roster changes they experienced, they were still able to hang with most of the group B teams. Jiahui Zhan was phenomenal in goal and kept them in games, which is such a big part of these tournaments. They don’t have the star power on offense yet, but what they do have is a program that is committed to funding the national team and providing a lot of centralization time to create a cohesive team, and that environment will start creating elite scorers in time.

Finland bounced back after being hammered with injuries last year, Ahola firmly has won the crease, and Nelli Laitinen solidified her capabilities as a top pair defender. Czechia saw a breakout tournament from Natalie Mlynkova that carried them to a fourth place finish even when the rest of their offense was struggling. Switzerland has been able to fill a Phoebe Stänz shaped hole in their lineup with Ivana Wey. Denmark struggled hard without Jakobsen, and shows clear signs of a federation neglecting their program and losing their players - they barely responded to Jakobsen’s retirement, and were the only national team not to secure some kind of way to watch for those in Denmark. Japan disappointed this tournament, and will need to find an elite goaltender if they hope to be in the top division again. Sweden didn’t have a lot of things go their way this tournament, but youth talent in goal scoring was a bright spot for them. They are an undeniably deep team if they can get it all clicking at the same time.

Division IA

Norway - promoted

Hungary - promoted

France

Austria

Netherlands

South Korea - relegated

Best goaltender: Ena Nystrøm (Norway)

Best defender: Annika Fazokas (Austria)

Best forward: Estelle Duvin (France)

Summary; For the first time since 1997, Norway has been promoted to the top division! Despite not having the offense other teams had, they only conceded six goals all tournament and only one was at even strength. They relied heavily on their young core like Emma Bergesen and Millie Rose Sirium to lead the way. Hungary was able to earn promotion despite missing Fanni Garát-Gasparics, and only scoring nine goals all tournament. They played near flawless defense, only allowing 91 shots against in 5 games (averaging around 18 against per game) and being perfect on the PK. France had arguably the best first line in this tournament, Estelle duvin - Chloe aurard - Clara rozier can hang with anyone, but was shut down by Hungary in the final game to lose the chance at promotion.

Austria had a WILD tournament, no one scored more than them, but they also had uncharacteristically struggling goaltending performance from the Luggin sisters who have been pretty consistently solid in international tournaments. Not much to worry about long term there, it happens in short samples, but tough break when offense was so good. More of the same for the Netherlands, who are looking for their next wave of young players to help propel this team, but Kayleigh Hammers continues to prove herself as a special talent. Lastly, South Korea was in the IA tournament for the first time, has a lot of work to do before they can be a mainstay here but this is the first step and is valuable experience

Division IB

Final rankings

Slovakia

Latvia

Italy

Great Britain

Slovenia

Poland

MVP: Karina Silajane (Latvia)

Top forward: Janka Hlinka (Slovakia)

Top defender: Laura Lobis (Italy)

Top goaltender: Pia Dukaric (Slovenia)

Short summary: Slovakia returns to division IA after slipping for a few years and being relegated last year. They were a clear step above most of the other competition in this tournament, especially defensively, but we are seeing the gap shrink. Pia Dukaric for Slovenia may be the most underrated goaltender in the world; she faced 308 shots this tournament in 5 games (about 61 per game) and only conceded 15 goals in that span. Slovenia would 100% be relegated without her. Latvia is playing in division IB for the first time since 2019 and had a funny tournament - they weren’t at the top of anything in team stats, but they were good enough at everything to be a very complete team and Karina Silajane was phenomenal in big moments.

Italy also impressed, though some frustration is probably there that they’ve finished in the same spot for the third year straight, they’re undoubtedly a better team than they were three years ago. Italy is the only team to beat Slovakia in this tournament, and were one of the best teams in terms of limiting shots against. Laura Lobis and Natalie Mattivi are a very legit first pair, and Martina Fedel is an elite goaltender. They don’t have a top goal scorer right now, but that may be coming in Matilde Fantin, who was not able to play this tournament due to injury. Poland fell hard this tournament going from second place last year to being relegated. Part of this is an shaky performance in net from Martyna Sass, who was great at the club level and usually solid in goal, but she played way more games than she normally does this year and may have been overtaxed at the end. She was not bad but Poland heavily relies on goaltenders to steal games. The other, bigger part is the offense completely disappearing - they only scored six goals, which will not get it done in any tournament. Finally, Great Britain was a confusing team this tournament, but despite offensive woes avoided relegation by keeping games close and pulling out wins versus Italy and Slovenia. They only scored six goals in the tournament and two were against the best goaltender in the tournament, which is how hockey is sometimes.

Division IIA

Final rankings

Kazakhstan - promoted

Spain

Mexico

Taiwan

Iceland

Belgium - relegated

Top goalkeeper: Arina Chshyokolova (Kazakhstan)

Top defender: Bridget O’Hare (Spain)

Top forward: Alexandra Shegay (Kazakhstan)

Summary: Kazakhstan was relegated last year and not looking to stay in this division for long. A solid u25 core has continued to show promise for them. Spain has really created a nice core for themselves with Vega Munoz, Bridget O’Hare, Alba Gonzalo, Claudia Castellanos, and Sofia Scilipoti - they dominated most teams but came up just short against Kazakhstan in the final game. That said, I’d wager a promotion is in their near future. Mexico continues to finish in third in this tournament as they have for a few years, with a lot of players born 2000 or later making up the roster, but we have to give 39 year old Claudia Tellez her flowers - it’s been a decade since she started playing at Worlds and still is putting up over a points game while also coaching the u18 team. Just a total legend. Mexican Goaltender Monica Renteria also had the best save percentage of the tournament at age 36, having also been on the initial women’s worlds team Mexico with Claudia a decade ago.

Taiwan could not score, but they did have an elite goalie tandem of Ai Chung and Tzu-Ting Hsu (Beauts fans, you may remember her from the 2019-2020 season, also goes by Tiffany Hsu) that kept them in games. Yun-Chu Huang was responsible for 5 of the teams 8 goals. Iceland continues to stagnate, but 19 year old defender Katrín Björnsdóttir was extremely impressive this tournament. Belgium was outmatched in their first chance at this division and was relegated, but has a few promising young players that may incident they’ll be back soon

Division IIB

Final standings

North Korea - Promoted

Australia

Hong Kong

New Zealand

Turkey

South Africa - relegated

Top goalkeeper: Erva Kanat (Turkey)

Top defender; Matilda Pethrick (Australia)

Top forward: Jong Su-hyon (North Korea)

Summary: we haven’t seen North Korea at the international stage since before the pandemic and didn’t really know what to expect in their return and then they came back and just dominated this tournament. North Korea and Australia were a clear step above the rest of the competitors, and North Korea ultimately got the promotion in a shootout goal by Hyang Jang. Keira Mok of Hong Kong was another goaltender with a stellar performance, and Nikki Sharp was great for Australia in terms of forwards. South Africa’s relegation comes as no surprise, as they’d been trending down for a few years.

Division IIIA

Final rankings

Ukraine - promotion

Romania

Lithuania

Serbia

Croatia

Bulgaria - relegation

Top Goaltender: Vilte Belicenkaite (Lithuania)

Top Defender: Diana Stolar (Croatia)

Top forward: Valeria Manchak (Ukraine)

Summary: a lot of these programs are very new to the women’s worlds circuit, with teams like Lithuania only competing in this capacity since 2019, Ukraine in 2019, or Serbia since 2021 (though they may have competed in other tournaments / formats). There’s a significant number of U18 players playing in this tournament because of that. Romania and Serbia were the most improved team from last year, Romania going from fourth to second and Serbia going from division B to finishing fourth.

Division IIIB

As Israel should not have been allowed to participate in this tournament due to the genocide they are carrying out, and I will not be acknowledging their participation or any of their players as a result.

Final rankings:

1. Thailand

2. Estonia

4. Singapore

5. Bosnia and Herzegovina

Top goaltender: Sofia Salamatina (Estonia)

Top forward: Apichaya Kosanunt

Summary; Thailand wins gold in its debut! What a fantastic start to women’s worlds for them, as they won every game and scored 20 goals while only ever giving up one. Strong defense meant they only saw 59 shots all tournament. Singapore also made their Women’s Worlds debut and got their first tournament win and saw Tiffany Ong score three goals.

[simmerika]

🎄CHRISTMASTHETIC🎄 HOLIDAYS 2023 POSEPACK (FREE!)

Merry Crisis! I created this posepack because I was missing creating and I wanted to celebrate the holiday with you all! Please enjoy this free posepack that I created (and released) live on Twitch! This posepack contains 6 poses (5 really, 1 has an alternate sitting position) with some accessories and one without, all for you to take those aesthetically-pleasing photos of your Sims at Christmastime! NOTE: for pose #5, place the teleporter anywhere you want around the tree, it can go anywhere! You may need TOOL for those teeny adjustments or you can just play around with teleporters, but I didn't want you all to have to use a specific tree or anything. Enjoy your holiday season my loves, however you celebrate! ❤️

DOWNLOAD HERE (PATREON, FREE!)

You will need:

Teleporter Mod

Pose Player

Mug (mesh can be found HERE)

Mistletoe 

Candy cane heart 

Disclaimer: I try to make my poses while taking into consideration Sims' different body shapes/types. However, it is nearly impossible to make poses fit every Sim ever made, so you may experience gapping or clipping based on their body type and/or clothing.

SimmErika TOU:

✨ Do not reupload on ANY website

✨ Do not claim as your own

✨ Do not change the package files

✨ Please give credit when using the poses (@simmerika AND #simmerikaposes on IG: so I can thank you and hype up your posts)

✨ Use of my poses is allowed for blender renders, but please do not alter the poses.

✨ Violation of these TOU will result in a permanent ban from my Patreon, Instagram, tumblr, etc.

[the-muppet-joker-archive]

—INACTIVE as of July 16, 2024—

—Intro Post!—

Hello, you can call me MJ Archivist, or MJA (they/it/any neopronouns). (My pronouns.page) (My main: @evanthetrashpanda)

This blog is dedicated as an archive of all posts/reblogs that @the-muppet-joker (also called “MJ” or “KJ” on occasion) has made on tumblr & tiktok to date.

@the-muppet-joker's currently pinned post

@the-muppet-joker's previously pinned post

The date and time stamps (all timestamps will be in Pacific Time — US & Canada), a screenshot of what was under the keep reading (if there was one), and a screenshot of tags that the-muppet-joker used (if there were any) will be included on all posts.

While I am posting as much/often as I can, it may take some time for me to catch up to posting the current content because there's a lot.

I would say I'm happy to be here, but I'll have to bleach my eyes because of all of this.

For a current list of my archive tagging system, I have it posted here:

If you would like to check out fellow archive/curator blogs of the-muppet-joker, and/or all other current players in the Muppetverse, I have them posted here:

Disclaimers:

I am currently only up to May 16, 2024 - 8:58am / 08:58 (Pacific Time — US & Canada) when it comes to archiving posts. As this account is currently inactive, I do not plan on archiving more for the foreseeable future.

Most screenshots currently do not have any ALT text added. I'm adding it to previous posts as fast as I can.

I may on occasion accidentally miss posts, keep readings, @the-muppet-joker tags, or forget to add my own tags. If I do so, please let me know so that I can fix my mistake. (Send the post my way via message, or ping me in the comments of the post so I know exactly which post you are talking about please!)

There is a period of time where @the-muppet-joker was making and then immediately deleting posts, I unfortunately do not have these posts archived, but @themuppetarchives does have some of these posts archived. (Check here for those posts)

My main blog is @evanthetrashpanda. Please do not get it involved in any of this.

I neither want/plan to be part of the story, all I plan to do is preserve what currently exists for others to see in the future.

This blog is not in competition with, has no affiliation with, nor has any problems with other @the-muppet-joker archive blogs. We are all simply archiving posts that @the-muppet-joker has made.

I, the person who runs this blog, have absolutely no direct connection to @the-muppet-joker.

Last Edited: August 28, 2024 — 4:50pm / 16:50 (Pacific Time — US & Canada) Reason: Adding my main blog

[exyrpf]

ok sure zellweger is cute but is he any good?

IS HE ANY GOOD! oh you are definitely going to regret asking that question anon.

sit down i have to educate you and this WILL be lengthy and WILL include way too much information because i can't like something normally. many sources will be sited. so buckle up, buttercup.

(disclaimer, i realise this is all junior hockey stats and "that's not the nhl!" i don't care, we can have this conversation again in a couple years.) ANYWAY

olen zellweger! olen freaking zellweger!

start with the basics: 5'9", 180 pound left shooting defenseman currently playing for the kamloops blazers in the WHL. he was chosen 34th overall by the anaheim ducks in 2021 and he compares his game to samuel girard.

another one of those "hm if he was bigger he would have been drafted higher" defensemen.

"okay but why do you keep calling him the saviour of the anaheim ducks?"

1) it's a joke

2) is it really?

3) click below and find out!

hello to everyone that clicked, this is going to be lengthy!

real quick, his card from last year, for those who like stats:

he's no longer playing for everett and this is last year's, as stated, but i am ALWAYS ready to talk about zelly's playing.

first:

not necessary but this answer is nothing if it's not self indulgent.

also, when reading these, remember he missed a month for world juniors.

fun WHL stats to note for the stats folks:

zelly has the second highest shots on goal total this year, out of any player regardless of position. oh, you may ask, who is he second to? well, happy to answer! he's second only to connor bedard.

he has the most shots on goal on the power play out of all players in the whl, though, regardless of position.

he has the highest points per game % of any dman in the WHL (last time i checked...it's about 1.5?) and among all players with 15+ games he's still top ten.

in 13 games with the blazers he has 23 points.

"that's just the WHL" well, he also just won back to back gold at world juniors, so there's that! while getting named a top dman and player and being one of the top scoring dmen in world juniors history.

but say you aren't a stats folk. say you want analysis of his skating and shooting and various other aspects of his actual play. i can give you that! oh, also, some video, just for the heck of it.

he is literally always in motion. if he's on the ice, he's skating and making plays. i've never watched a kamloops game and been unable to tell if olen was on the ice, because if he is, you'll know.

his zone entries are as good as any forwards - he's often called a 'one man zone entry machine', which is well earned. his ability to transition through the zones with ease is insane. (i'm nothing if not a provider of video links few will click on)(this goal is good though, so i would rec clicking this)

his compete level is insane as well and he just - never stops. he's always involved, in every zone. he's extremely talented defensively and he's so solid and strong.

his passing is fantastic (with video proof, of course)(one in team canada colours, sure, why not) and his stick handling is disgusting. like his hands? filthy. (as always, video proof ) he has a great shot (here) (here) (here) and, like i mentioned, he has a lot of those.

and his skating oh my god. do you want poetry, anon? his crossovers and edgework...well here's a video or two if you want to truly appreciate his skating. maybe another for fun.

some fun videos to really hammer home my point.

so, anon, yes he is cute, but most definitely he is good at hockey.

also his body looks like this

so that's fun. not the point and if u want my feelings about him as a person you'll have to ask that separately.