#everything else is pretty limited quantity..

[gachahugs]

Shop is open!

[practically-an-x-man]

i think the only reason i use spotify so much is that 1. i need transportable music for when I'm at classes or whatever and 2. it's so hard to find physical media for the bands i like

Harley Poe CDs are rare as hell and no vinyl

Aim and Ignite by Fun. was like 300 bucks on vinyl before it got re-released (i do have it now)

Counterfeit. has CDs I think but no vinyl

Amazing Devil doesn't have either as far as I know

I have one Ice Nine Kills vinyl but haven't seen much for their earlier albums

Our Last Night has some CDs but only of their original works (which are great but I love their covers too)

[supremefloof]

Episode 5!!!

spoilers below!! a lot of cool info as always this episode :D

LMAO his mom literally has the dead mom haircut

one braid to the side and everything

Can somebody keep track of the "years after commission" thing? it's probably lore important but I don't like math and i can't be bothered

The Lin Ling lookalike is called Pomelo? what's his name in the cn ver i watched with subtitles

WHY did some shady guy want to kidnap him???

watch the twist be that Xia Qing and Shang Chao are like cousins or something and they're after Pomelo to get to him?

Yang Cheng is actually really talented! he's a good actor, self-taught engineer, pretty athletic too.

like DAYUM he was biking really really fast??? and willing to jump off of overpasses and shit with no regard to his own well-being just to save somebody else

...huh that's probably trauma isn't it...

as somebody who has lived in America I was thinking during the chase scene that yk this is not set in the US because if some random slow ass van hit two cars in an intersection for no reason and then tried to run off at bicycle speed in the USA then Yang Cheng would have had BACKUP

YC's combat prowess as just Some Guy without a single point of Trust Value proves to me that without Nice's powers, Lin Ling has abnormally cooked technique. like sweetie. we love you but what is this. God Eye is up there

Again, the power of Trust Value! it only takes 1 person! but that has me really really thinking about exactly how this works.

my running explanation -> to add a point to someone's Trust Value, you need to be a fan/supporter of that person. Most likely this is not as simple as saying "huh that guy's pretty cool" but instead very intentional.

maybe there's a limit to how many people you can be a fan of?

Yang Cheng has a trauma derived habit of Goobing himself (see below) and also has no parents, who are probably normally someone's easiest source of Trust.

This along with the vicious cycle of people with low Trust being treated worse is why his number is at 0. He isn't hated! He has a role in society and people who like him (and would even invite him out!). But none of his connections are deep enough, and he doesn't believe in himself.

Survivors guilt...

more on Trust- it also seems like although most people have some amount of Trust Value, it really really matters what that Trust is for.

eg. the reason society isn't overflowing with op powers from parents telling their 3 year olds that they have the powers of a god is the importance of quantity?

meanwhile the reason Yang Cheng was able to get powers is because somebody truly, genuinely believed they were E-Soul, not just a "hero" or that they could "do it". probably most people with some amount of Trust have people believing that they are good people or just generally liking them.

it does kind of seem like credit score... wonder if it's harder to sign leases on apartments and that kind of thing depending on Trust

for normal people this actually feels pretty poignant! like heroes have the crazy drawbacks, but if most people just have normal lives along with a handful of Trust Value Points, then this also feels like taking further the concept of "we are the product of the most important people in our life".

How does this guy become the Moon Murderer??

some miscellaneous notes:

can somebody find all the little background details? I didn't spot X in this episode's background because he doesn't exist as X yet! but if he is, then holy shit we have some theory crafting to do.

does the NO 8 refer to a person? can somebody translate the words idk what it says

this city has a pretty robust cleanup system! streets are very clean from what I can see, no littering posters in the alleys, very little graffiti (is that purple one dragon boy related?), GlobalGarbage trashbins for landfill and recycling (distributed by city?)... just show me high-speed rail and maybe the Trust Value System IS worth it!!

[etheririi]

Ok! So I'm finally doing another lore drop! This one is gonna be long and have quite a bit of new information, so buckle up. (I'll be addressing that one ancient ask I sent you that you brought up on my recent art dump)

So, point by point, we have:

The Eternals: Now this bit is complicated and potentially bullshit, but I also had a lot of fun with it. As a disclaimer, this was inspired by real world concepts like dark matter but also definitely completely bullshit from a scientific standpoint (Not only because its shoved together with weird magic bullshit but also because it canonically doesn't take place in a universe with the same physics as earth). Anyway, without further ado, the Eternals: Physical Matter, Ether, and Ethereal Energy. For reference, this is not the only way they are described, but this is what the gods of the universe refer to them as. I personally often refer to them in a couple ways that better describe how they interact with each other. Physical Matter = Reality, Ether = Actualization, Ethereal Energy = Potential. It's kind of complicated to explain but I'll attempt to break it down.

(The definitions I use for those words: Reality - "the state or quality of having existence or substance." Actualization - "the process of bringing something into existence" Potential - "having or showing the capacity to become or develop into something in the future")

Physical Matter = This is probably the simplest one. It is pretty literally physical matter, and In the real world it can be compared to normal (aka baryonic) matter which is just matter that isn't dark matter. It is what most people would refer to as the 'real' world, even though everything else is also real stuff that exists in canon. It composes the planet where The Offlands takes place.

Ether = Ether, or as the people of The Offlands call it, Magic, is far more complicated. Ether has a couple unique traits that are important: First, it has mass. That is to say, it is affected by gravity and has it's own gravitational field. In terms of how it moves (when not influenced by the second trait), it can be loosely compared to Dark Matter. To sum up, while it has mass and is affected by gravity, it can move through Physical Matter as if it were intangible. Anyway, the second trait: It has a degree of sentience. It isn't sentient in the way that humans are, with fully fleshed out thoughts and such, but closer to how I imagine something between a jellyfish and a bug would think. More complex than a jellyfish, in that it can have preferences and feelings to a degree, but less complex than a bug in that it could never really approximate something close to a society like ants have. As for what Ether does and how it works, I'll jump back to that after I've explained Ethereal Energy.

Ethereal Energy: Ethereal Energy is probably the most complicated of the three, but to simplify it into one phrase: It is just pure, potent infinite possibilities. Ethereal Energy is 'energy' containing these infinite possibilities that permeates the universe. It's most unique quality is that these infinite possibilities are not all spread equally throughout it. (You can think of it kind of like this: Ethereal energy is like a bowl containing these infinite possibilities. Because there is an infinite quantity of Ethereal Energy, the bowl is infinitely big. So, this infinitely big bowl is filled possibilities (which are also infinite because they fill the whole infinite bowl). Rather than thinking of these infinite possibilities being like water that fills the bowl (where the infinite possibilities are combined and all overlapping) think of each possibility like an m&m. It's a bowl filled with infinite m&ms and each m&m is a possibility. So like, in practice if you called on some of these infinite possibilities by scooping out some m&ms you would only have the colors you managed to scoop, instead of just a limited quantity to choose from of infinite options. This is super hard to explain btw.) Anyway, these possibilities are all things that properly exist inside of this energy, they just cant affect Physical Matter in any capacity without an outside force.

That leads us back to Ether. Ether is the bridge between Physical Matter and Ethereal Energy. Essentially, it's function is being able to take possibilities stored inside of Ethereal Energy and use them to affect the Physical world. Basically it makes the possibilities real. I'll expand on this more in 'how magic works'.

Anyway! That's enough rambling about concepts that to me seem almost impossible to explain (which is most of the time fine for my purposes because they would never actually be fully explicitly explained like this to the audience if I ever made all this into actual media). Onto the next bullet point:

The creation of gods:

This one I'm super excited about. Gods are not immaterial, all powerful beings in this universe. They are instead a combination of Physical Matter, Ether, and Ethereal Energy. How are these things combined, you ask? Black holes!!!

Gravity is the only thing that can affect all of these things at the same time, and black holes are the pinnacle of that. (While energy doesn't have a gravitational field in the way matter does, gravity can affect it because it warps space, yada yada, boring physics stuff. Don't ask me to explain this in a way that makes sense. I am not an expert on physics I just have access to google.)

Basically what happens is when a black hole is formed, it sucks in all three of the Eternals into the singularity of the black hole, where a god is then formed from the three giving them a physical form (Physical Matter), sentience (Ether), access to a bunch of possibilities (Ethereal Energy) and the power to use that to affect Physical Matter (also Ether).

Gods have a few unique traits that humans do not, such as: They can see Ether, and Ethereal Energy (which includes the possibilities inside), they can interact with the possibilities inside of Ethereal Energy (which means they can see and interact with entire worlds that exist inside of Ethereal Energy that theoretically could be possible but don't exist in any world that is Physical Matter), and they don't necessarily need to have a body. They have physical matter, but it is initially just an infinitely dense point where the entire god exists inside of, but they can use the abilities they have through Ether to give themselves bodies, and move from the place where they were 'conceived'.

(Also to note, being able to use Ether and being able to interact with Ethereal Energy is different. Ether is usually the middle man that makes interaction with Ethereal Energy possible, but just being able to interact with it on your own is cutting out the middle man. Also, interacting with Ethereal Energy doesn't affect Physical Matter at all. You cant use it to give magic-like affects in the physical world, you're only interacting with the worlds that exist inside of it. Only using Ether can cause Ethereal Energy to affect Physical Matter.)

Anyway, onto the next point!

The creation of humans:

Humans are what happened when gods descended onto the planet of The Offlands and then decided to stay there and procreate. Gods would stay gods after descending, although they would gradually lose power. The reason why they would be less powerful after descending is not that they lose the ability to use Ether, however, as they're literally partially made of it, and instead it's that they will gradually lose the presence of the Ether that decided to stick around them all the time. (Keep in mind that Ether is sentient. Ether often loves gods, but the more time the god spends on a place like the world of The Offlands, some of the Ether that just swarms them all the time will leave, meaning that the only Ether that the god will have access to once its gone is the stuff in their literal physical bodies and the stuff they manage to scrounge up from their environment. They can get power back by going back to live in their black hole, but sometimes they can't get back to their black hole if they're lacking enough power.)

Humans are the distant offspring of these gods that descended. Typically, if a human clan is very close with their history or know anything about a god they're descended from, they'll kind of think of them as some sort of mythical ancestor (which is pretty much correct). However, most humans though have completely forgotten about the gods as anything other than myths, and many shrines (which are actually communication conduits between gods that are in their black hole or somewhere else in the universe and humans, although that function has largely been forgotten (assuming it's a real shrine, which was one made by the god in question themself and holds a little piece of them)) lay neglected.

In terms of powers, humans can occasionally see Ether (if they aren't too far away from their god in the family tree), although its rare, but no humans can see Ethereal Energy. If a human were to gain the power to see Ethereal Energy they would pretty much be counted as a god at that point (Wink Wink). That is in terms of vision though, in terms of use, a fairly large amount of humans can use Ether (just can't see it), although, again, no humans can directly interact with Ethereal Energy.

As for who can use Ether, there are two main factors that determine it: 1) The closer you are to the god in the family tree, the more likely you are to be able to use it, 2) How much the Ether personally likes you. If it likes you, it'll swarm around you a bunch and if it is around you like that for long enough you kind of start to soak it up.

Also, there is a lot of human history on The Offlands, and the majority of Humans know basically none of it. Many humans don't believe in gods, almost none know about the shrines and what they mean, there's very very little knowledge about Ether and Ethereal Energy and how they work, and there's just a lot of actual history between humans and other humans that the majority of the modern population knows absolutely nothing about.

(Also, some gods still do roam the earth, and some still descend but that is much much rarer and it was already super rare.)

I think(?) that's all about that bit but I might be wrong. Either way, onto the next point!

What magic is and how it works (Note - I use Ether and magic in this section basically interchangeably):

I basically already told you most of this, but I have a few points to add. First: Magic is just what humans call the effects of Ether. They don't know it's a 'substance' (I'm using that term kinda loosely), and they don't really know how it works. They also don't know it's sentient. (There are a few exceptions to these rules, usually when they have strong connections to a god) Anyway, Second: sometimes people have access to a lot of different types of magic, sometimes people only have access to one kind. It depends on what kind of Ether likes them, and sometimes what their god was composed of. Third: Ether, as a general rule of thumb hates the people in the tower, which is why is isn't very often that the people of the tower will gain it.

Next point!

Why the 'two halves of the world' aka the one where The Offlands takes place and the one where Far Off takes place don't really interact:

Now, you've at this point seen me reference entire worlds that actually exist inside of Ethereal Energy. While The Offlands world is made of Physical Matter, Far Off takes place on one of those worlds that exist in Ethereal Energy. The real special part though is that the two worlds are exactly the same size and perfectly overlap (except for the main land forms, which is to say, in the Far Off world, if you boated to where The Offlands takes place, it would be all ocean and you would just circle back to the main continent/landmass, and vice versa). The reason why it's relevant that they overlap is that if you can interact with both Physical Matter and Ethereal Energy (aka you're a god) it functions basically as one world. So gods can be found on both sides! It also means if you were a potential human that gained the ability to interact with Ethereal Energy, you could potentially cross to the other side of the world that wasn't supposed to have anything but ocean and find a whole different world (wink wink).

ANYWAY. That took me quite literally four hours to type out (and it was from around midnight to four am) so I should probably go to sleep. I'm sure you'll have questions, so fire away! Hope you enjoy my hard earned word vomit. Have fun!!

ALRIGHT NEW LORE DROP!!!!

 I had saved a draft last night but for some reason it got… deleted. It was kind of heart breaking but here I am, typing it all out again from memory

(I need to make sure I always type my answer in a separate place from here on)

ALRIGHT THIS IS ALSO LONG SO— BEAR WITH ME!!

Btw it took me a while to respond as I was jotting this down in the lore notebook so… yeah! Finally getting to answer this!!

First of all, I really love the concept of the Eternals!!! The concept of Physical Matter, Ether and Ethereal Energy is so cool! I love how it creates things, consists of things and just.. Exists

I also love the use of the word Ethereal. It’s a huge part of my online name and whenever I see the word I just feel like smiling (‘Ethereal’ is also a part of all the ‘worlds/universes’ in my head so it was nice to see it in here too)

Secondly, creation of gods and humans!! That’s a huge piece of information right there and it’s so cool?? Like interaction of certain forces between the Eternals creating them!!

And then the connection between The Offlands and Far Off!! I just had a somewhat funny scenario of this pop into my head- but idk if it’s canon compliant considering some of the questions haha

FINALLY, SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU!! + some warnings before you read them

They're uh… kind of long and might consist of some things you might not have explored yet, so feel free to ignore now and answer later!

I might have understood somethings wrong too since I’m kind of constantly thinking as I type this and twisted some words/understanding 

Also some consist of me just rambling

Just realized I may be throwing around the word Ether too much and its probably all jumbled up now

I may have also mistaken that the formation of a world is the same as the formation of a god..

1: Can Ether also be considered a form of gravity? As it pulls possibilities from the Ethereal Energy into the Physical Matter or Physical World?  Cause like.. gravity/black holes are what brings gods into the world, and Ether brings possibilities into the Physical Matter/Physical World. It’s also like the only thing that can cause Ethereal Energy to affect Physical Matter

2: What form is the god in the natural way? Spiritual or Physical? Are they immaterial (spiritual) in nature and physical if they decide to take a form? Would they kind of be like the Aeon IX from HSR if they did not take a ‘human’ form? Since THEY are formless, shapeless and consume everything in their orbit.. (I added a picture at the end of the post!)

Oh wait.. What if since they are kind of a black hole.. Consuming any manifestations of a world would increase their power.. Since they would kind of be consuming parts of Ether or like … Physical Matter? Since its mass, and a blackhole consuming it would increase mass of the black hole.. And I think its could increase the gravitational fields? I’m not a science expert or a science enthusiast so I’m kind of clue less if what I’m saying is even making sense

3: Do humans exist only because of these gods? Is there no other way for them to exist outside of being the offspring of gods? OH!! Is there any story on how they came to be? Like.. how did a god decide to take a ‘human’ form? (Since the origin of gods is black hole + they are formless, how did they come to take the exact form of a human?)

It’d be kind of funny if one of the worlds in the Ethereal Energy has actual humans without being a descendent of a god and the gods were just like- ‘I NEED to look like them.’ And that world was… our world! (Or some random world??)

4: Oh!! How are animals existing in the world? Since humans are descendents of gods, how do animals come to be? I actually have two theories for this!

1) There are gods that decide to take the form of animals and they create animal species.

2) Animals are actually manifestations of Ether. With this there could also be potential for some kind of spirit animals?? (Also wait I have a thought! I’m assuming Asier is a relative of a god, since he can use some magic/ether to manipulate water/weather to a certain extent. If animals are manifestations of Ether, that could be one of the reasons why they like each other so much!! It can be a subconscious thing, not any active interaction of Ether/magic…)

5: Adding on to the previous- how would nature be created? Is that something Ether is kind of programmed to do? Like.. default settings when a world is created?? (If the animal thing is not the way I theorized, maybe it’s also a part of the default settings?)

6: Adding on to question 2. I have these questions every time I see any god character!

Can they be killed, or are they kind of immortal? This kind of comes from the fact that since they’re literally Ether and they gradually lose it if they continue to stay on a world.. Like maybe a human could kill them? Or maybe they just perish after they lose Ether?

7: This one’s not really a question, more of a what if or just a thought.. Yk that one law in Chemistry (?) ‘Mass can neither be created nor destroyed’.. Since Ether is kind of like mass… And it cannot be created nor destroyed.. What if death of a god leads to the birth of another god.. Or maybe like a human dying in one world can get reincarnated in another world (Maybe they are relative of one of the gods or humans might be having a teeny tiny bit of Ether without any ability to manipulate it) This would like.. Be so cool in like alternative dimensions (This kind of concept about mass & alternative dimensions is there in one of my ocs world.. So it’s just me connecting random thoughts together haha) 

8: Kind of an extension of question 3 here.. So humans are descendents of gods. I’m assuming that if there are multiple races in a world, are there multiple species too? Like vampires.. And any others? Like maybe they’re just deciding to be a lil silly and decide to make some shifts in settings of the default human.  (Or umm. Vampires cause they really want to try drinking blood. Or it’s just a bout of cuteness aggression to something and they’re like.. I love this so much it’s so cute I really want to drink its blood!!!)

9: In the last paragraph, is it a reference to SoN?? I think I’m imagining it and making connections at random after blabbering here quite a bit I think that the greatest possibility is that it is just referencing the connections between The Offlands and Far Off

10: Wait hold on.. Did Seraph like.. Take Asier & Callum from the world in The Offlands to Far Off? Or Kohara was the one.. since she helped them escape from the Tower. (Do Asier & Callum even exist in Far Off?)

11: Based on the Aysel-Seraph connection, is Seraph a descendent of Aysel?!

12: ‘It depends on what kind of Ether likes them, and sometimes what their god was composed of.’ Is Ether based on the elements?

______

That’s all for now.. I think I’m still internalizing and understanding the last bit of the ask so most of these questions are related to the creation of gods and humans.. Also these questions were all I remembered and thought of

There’s also a lot in here so I really hope I’m not overwhelming you with these! As I mentioned before the questions, you don’t have to answer them all in one go!!

Anyways,, I really loved reading this! There was so much new stuff and it was just really cool overall. I’m not able to find adjectives here— I think I’ve exhausted my vocabulary after doing some school work and re-writing this

The Aeon IX:

[spinningbuster98]

Metroid Zero Mission Ending: The anti climactic second ending

The act of getting everything in the game is at the same time both the best of the post Super games...and also the worst in some ways

On the one hand,because the game allows for so much sequence breaking, it’s very possible to obtain almost every item in the game before you’re outside the final boss room, in fact you can absolutely 100% clear Brinstar and Ridley’s Lair on your first go. This means that you’ll have way fewer items to collect during this time when compared to the liked of Fusion and Dread

...on the OTHER hand however...

See the thing that I like about the final loop in both Fusion and Dread is that it follows a certain sense of flow, with you being encouraged to run through each area in a clockwise or counter clockwise order, only to then naturally end up pretty much right outside the final boss’ room once you’re finished. Essentially, if you were to draw a line of the ideal path you take you’d draw roughly a circle with some jagged edges. Moreover a positive of having quite a few items to collect is that you’re constantly feeling like you’re making progress on your trip and you’re not just backtracking with nothing else to do

In Fusion every Sector is also connected to the Main Deck, which is where you’ll have to go to at the end, so even at its worst you’ll waste no time retracing your steps, though it’s better to finish with the secret lab in Sector 6

Dread is even better, both because it’s an inherently faster game with more movement options and because every area at the end gets interlinked through Teleportals, so you should always be able to go where you want to pretty fast

With Zero Mission though? If you were to draw a line of the path you’re forced to take it would roughly look like one giant U-turn with edges that constantly retrace their own steps

From the moment you get the Power Bombs right at the end of the Pirate Mothership you have to do a GIGANTING amount of backtracking just to get back to Crateria, which is the only area connected to it. From there you must first make a short trip through Tourian’s ruins, then get back to Crateria, go to Brinstar, go to Kraid’s Lair that’s close to there just to get one measily missile tank, preferably use the secret access to Norfair to get the nearby expansions, get back to Kraid’s Lair, back to Brinstar, back to Crateria, clean it of its last few items, get back to Chozodia, get those last few items there and then finally make your way ALLLLLLL the way back to where you started all of this journey.

Does this sound even remotely fluid to you? You’re effectively spending more time just backtracking through old areas (some of which you’ve JUST gone through) than you are collecting items, which is even further exacerbated by the little quantity of them: you really are going back to Kraid’s Lair and Norfair just for 3-4 items and that’s it, it’s backtrack time again

Chozodia/the Pirate Mothership is the worst because it’s very big but also very cramped, being pretty much just one looooong serpentine road that you have to traverse linearily each time.

The act of actually looking for those extra items is mostly better than Fusion though still with some issues. Zero Mission is overall less obtuse when it comes to hiding its items, with more cases of there being at least some visual cues to draw your attention, though there are still some secrets that require you to use Power Bombs to discover (like fake walls), which sucks like in Fusion except it’s worse here because you get Power Bombs at the very end of the game and they are extremely limited in number and very hard to restock

This last one actually goes for both Zero Mission AND Fusion: completing these games 100% is borderline impossible for a complete newbie because....they don’t teach you how to use the Shinespark, or the Wall Jump for that matter!

The latter is optional, but you’re not completing those pesky Shinespark puzzles without knowing the technique, yet neither game informs you about it (not even their manuals), so unless you look it up on the internet or have played Super before you’re stuck. Say what you will about Super’s method of brute forcing the knowledge onto you by locking you in some rooms until you learned the moves, it TAUGHT them to you. And Dread just straight up tells you how to perform it in the item description, less creative but gets straight to the point

Your reward for getting everything, aside from more Samus pinups, is a Mecha Ridley fight that’s actually difficult. NGL it’s not half bad like this....but it’s still so anticlimactic!

The final boss is supposed to be the main villain of the game, or at least the final narrative, BIG challange. Here we already beat the main villain an hour ago, this thing is here pretty much just because we need to fight something. At least Fusion had you fight the SA-X near the end, with the Omega being more like a glorified setpiece and obstacle during the countdown. This just feels off

That’s pretty much my big gripe with Zero Mission: at its best it’s a great amalgamation of what made Super so fun, combined with the improvements made by Fusion and with the choice of being more handholdy or not.

Unfortunately the game kinda peaks at its midway point, after which you’re kinda left with an epilogue that start’s off pretty interesting but quickly becomes meandering and middling. It’s like the game starts with such a strong energy and sense of fun, only for it to peter out towards the end, and it’s so disappointing. its first half is some of the best Metroid gameplay in the series, but its second half, while not bad, just feels like going through the motions to me

I still like the game, but ngl over the years it has gone down my list a little bit, especially in light of Dread offering a far meatier and far more consistent experience

[2af-afterdark]

Oof, it's been a hot minute since I've sent you an ask... Sorry 'bout that and also for not sending you any New Year's wishes, irl stuff kept me pretty busy lately. I hope you had fun celebrating! <3

...Admittedly, part of the reason for my absence was that I've also been feeling unpleasantly drained by the Nightmare Pass missions, on top of everything else. I feel a little bad about pretty much coming here and complaining, but I'd like to hear your opinion since you have the Pass activated and I'm f2p, so I wonder how our experiences differ.

I feel like the rewards are.. lackluster, in all honesty. The yellow keys are nice, the frame is pretty... And that's about it. Aside from a small bonus of getting some gems after completing the daily missions, there's really not much to look forward to. It feels like there's far too much effort required and not enough rewards.

Not to mention the missions themselves. God, the missions. I hate the way they work with a passion. The fact that you need to log in daily is fine, the fact that you need to grind a bit is also fine... But then there's shit like "claim a likeability reward" which I'd love to do, except I only have one left over from Andrealphus and still half a Pass to get through. I remember you writing that it feels like being punished for unlocking content, and I completely agree. That's exactly how it feels. I am not going to waste all of my red keys in an attempt to get a new L-grade card since I have all S-grade devils maxed out already.

And speaking of wasting red keys! The "special draw" missions also leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. I remember making those single-pulls while sighing deeply because, well, it just doesn't feel like all of the resources I'm consuming are going to be compensated. I spend Solomon's tears, both types of keys, a lot of energy (in-game and irl) and most of the time I get... A few boxes of randomised jellies? That I can get extremely easily through other means? At least make them select-type like the ones in event shops, damn it!

Basically, I'm salty and kind of sad. I love the game dearly, but I think I'm going to give up on the Nightmare Pass. Once I hit a likeability reward mission that I cannot complete, I'm out. The frame is pretty, but getting one from an event shop is going to be way easier and less stress-inducing. I don't want to burn myself out (any more than I already did) by trying to complete it.

So sorry for such a long rant, I ended up getting a bit carried away... I'm really interested in how the effort/reward ratio feels like with a purchased Pass. I'm not really active in the fandom (I pretty much only follow you and the official acc, lol) so I haven't seen people speak about it yet. Hopefully, at least some people have a better time with that hell of an event.

— 💛

So, I used my premium pass from the pre-order rewards on the Nightmare Pass so I could study the way it works from a p2p perspective. I must say, the reward you get in p2p are much better. I received many yellow and red keys, Solomon's Tears, Puddings, Books, Coins, etc. I had unlimited auto-fights in the nightmare dungeon so I can grind coins for the shop easily. Over all, the amount of rewards you get may justify the $60 price tag IF you can afford it and you want the card at the end. Also, this assumes they do this within limited quantities. Like, I would say once every few months at most. Maybe very 2-3 months at most. Still sucks you can only get the card if you're willing to pay out the nose for the rewards. I did look at the f2p rewards and... yeah, not worth it. That is a lot of grinding for very little payoff. I was getting 2-4 reward every day because I was getting the rewards for every tier so it felt more worthwhile.

Also, yeah. I have been playing the game less since the Nightmare Pass started because I was afraid of locking myself out of future requirements for the missions. I had trouble with likability (something I usually max out within 2-3 days of getting a new unit), I was afraid to level up characters and their skills, I wasn't promoting anyone, I wasn't doing anything because I was so afraid I would screw myself by playing the game.

That's why I think Nightmare Pass kind of sucks the most. I felt like I was being punished for having played the game up until this point. Some missions were, as you said, fine. Any missions involving pleasing someone in the Secret Club were fine (not the unholy board because some of those I had maxed out already and it was pain to advance them more). Any missions where I had to fight were good. That I can always do. But missions that have finite end points are terrible (there is a max number of levels characters can have, a max amount of promotions I can do, only so far I can go on an unholy board, likability stops at 100%, characters can only evolve 5 times before they are maxed). Those missions suck because I can screw myself by actually having invested the time into the game before the Nightmare Pass is even out. It actually sucked to basically stop playing this game because I was afraid to play and screw myself out of getting Gabriel.

And the missions are kind of sucky too. Because each stage only unlocks after the previous one is completed, it's hard to know what is coming up and easy to screw yourself. Not everyone has 20ST available multiple times. Not everyone hoards their keys to do the multiple draws over and over again. And having 25 stages that can only be unlocked once daily rather than continuously (since the one mission on each day is to login) it means that if you miss a few days, you are screwed. You can pay to unlock the path with Nightmare Coins, but that assumes you have enough (and each reward gets more expensive as you go).

Overall, Nightmare Pass feels like the kind of event that is aimed toward people who dedicate time to the game to complete the rewards, but those same people can easily get screwed if they put in all that effort too early. The nightmare Pass isn't terrible, but it definitely needs some tweaking. It's the kind of event I would only continue in the future if I really want the card/haven't invested so much I screw myself. Honestly, it feels like the kind of event you finish and only debate purchasing the other rewards after you see how far you've managed to get to see if you can justify the expense.

Also, never feel like you can't rant to me. I rant all the time. Goodness knows I rant all the time... I don't do it because I hate the game. It's me trying to point out issues for others and because I want to see things changed for the better.

[mentalisttraceur-software]

C Preprocessor: Forcing More Scans

The basic idea of how the C preprocessor works is that it scans the token list for macros to expand, and after every expansion, it re-scans the result to see if anything else needs to be expanded.

Many of the more advanced C preprocessor tricks rely on this either implicitly, or explicitly force extra scans. Here's a simple brute force example of the latter:

#define SCAN1(...) __VA_ARGS__ #define SCAN4(...) SCAN1(SCAN1(SCAN1(SCAN1(__VA_ARGS__)))) #define SCAN16(...) SCAN4(SCAN4(SCAN4(SCAN4(__VA_ARGS__)))) #define SCAN64(...) SCAN16(SCAN16(SCAN16(SCAN16(__VA_ARGS__)))) #define SCAN256(...) SCAN64(SCAN64(SCAN64(SCAN64(__VA_ARGS__))))

If the preprocessor just sees "FOO", it will look for a macro named "FOO" and if so, it will replace it and then resume scanning from the beginning of the replacement - "re-scanning" the result of expanding FOO.

If it sees "SCAN1(FOO)", it will first try to expand FOO. Let's say FOO is a macro, so it's expanded and rescanned. So far the same. Then it will try to expand "SCAN1" with the result of expanding (and re-scanning) FOO. And then it will rescan everything starting from the result of replacing SCAN1, which includes the already replaced and re-scanned result of FOO. So it adds one more scan over the result of FOO.

Now what happens if the preprocessor sees SCAN1(SCAN1(FOO))? Well, it will try to expand the argument list of the outer SCAN1, which requires expanding the argument list of the inner SCAN1, so it expands FOO, and again if FOO was a macro then the result is rescanned, then it expands the inner SCAN1, then it resumes scanning from the start of the result of the inner SCAN1, then finally it expands the outer SCAN1, and again it resumes scanning from where the result of the outer SCAN1 starts.

So "SCAN256(X())" will force the preprocessor to scan and try expanding the result of "X()" 256 extra times.

To be clear, that's not enough by itself to recursively expand macros - if X() expands to "... X() ...", there is a separate protection involved that prevents the "X" token from expanding again, because it was the result of expanding a macro with the same name. (Online this is sometimes referred to as "X" being "painted blue", but I've never seen that terminology in the C standards themselves.) But forcing extra scans is part of how we trick the preprocessor into doing "recursive" macros, and the number of scans is what sets the upper limit on how many times our "recursive" macros can expand.

Personally, I dislike forcing more scans than needed, and I don't like being capped to some number of scans. Throwing a hard-coded "large enough" quantity at a problem where the actual need is variable is pretty crude engineering. But this is the simplest technique to get started with, and it's the best we have if we want to keep C-style argument list syntax, because the only way to automatically get just the number of scans needed also forces changing calls from "MY_MACRO(foo, bar, qux)" to "MY_MACRO((foo)(bar)(qux))".

[sensoryloss]

if you’re an artist and want to make decent money from it, you should make a 10,000 piece NFT collection and release it for free.

you make money every time one of them gets minted, and you make money every time one gets sold. you focus on the revenue from things being minted by advertising the living fuck out of it, and then focus on secondary sales post-mint by advertising the living fuck out of it. you do it for free because “FREE” is a pricetag you still get paid on without creating a barrier for people to cross to support your work or speculate on its value, which also negates the stress of putting a price on something if you’re that way (I am) and the subsequent waiting game of hoping it even gets a mint, eventually bending and setting a different price (free). when you force the market to accept a price the market will reject it, whereas if you allow the market to decide the price for itself (with help) it can sometimes decide it’s pretty valuable, and the entire time you’re collecting on it.

“10,000 is a lot,” yeah it is a lot. That’s why you streamline some things with AI tools already built to help facilitate it. Think of it as every layer of every photoshop/fl studio/paint/ink/etc project you’ve ever worked on thrown into a pile and scattered to reconstruct a new image or sound or story and using those layers at random in varying quantities. obviously if you do a lot, that might not work, but in this case, you focus on a uniform idea with maybe 5 to 10 to 20 to 50 unique creatures/characters with unique items/attributes and hit the randomize button with whatever parameters you give it. Some might look like shit, they all might look like shit, but artists are notorious for producing utter shit from time to time (always) and then building off of it or reworking it into something that isn’t shitty, perhaps even good. using ai does not mean you don’t have to put in work still, it just makes it so you don’t spend a buttfuck ton of time putting in the work only to find it doesn’t work and having to start over or totally scrapping the idea and giving up, or repeating the same thing until you do, or until you get it right. iteration is your responsibility.

this is particularly interesting for multifaceted artists, because you can build your community around one or several of your projects despite the difference in medium, or even try to make everything a functioning piece of a larger thing. ownership grants access, discounts, privileges, opportunities, kinship, etc., you make it work how you want it to and support the people supporting you, and you’re allowing outside speculators to inject more value into it which obviously further rewards everyone. you bought my NFT (fantasy character) so I’m giving you early access at a discount to the unique story it comes from, and later on, having these means you can use this character to actually play that storyline in the upcoming game, and you get the soundtrack my band is working on for free for holding them and being in the community. extrapolate. there’s a lot of directions you can go with it, or you can keep it simple and make a nice collection and never stop promoting it, maybe eventually you’ll want to expand, maybe you don’t really know how, or you have an idea but aren’t personally capable of applying it, maybe you build a team, maybe you all build together and make something incredible from your idea, maybe you’re a team member contributing to someone else’s idea. the point is you can make it work, no matter what you’re working on; this is a system to tokenize ideas and intellectual properties so creators can monetize themselves solo and also happens to connect you to people who enjoy what you do.

the limits on what’s possible are up to you to define, and up to you to cash in on. think hard.

[visohyenadraws]

I’ve been playing Ys VI Ark of Napishtim lately, I thought I was above playing niche games but oh well, and I Love it

It’s not perfect ofc at times it can be a bit cryptic in that you advance the story by going back and forth like a yo-yo hoping this character will say something else now, and the levelling is Brutal if you’re even one bit under level you can’t do anything, but I literally love everything else about this game and I can’t put it down.

But one aspect I wanna point out in particular is the game’s simplicity, and I mean it in the best possible way.

This is a very straightforward game: it’s open ended but the areas aren’t too huge, there’s NPCs to talk to but it’s not too many to overwhelm you, there’s not a Huge enemy variety, and there’s relatively few items and upgrades that you can get, and by the way games have conditioned us all of this may sound bad, I remember when “linear” was basically a slur, but trust me. It’s fucking Peak.

All of the things I mentioned sound like limitations, but really they took full advantage of the “quality over quantity” principle; the map is sized enough to not make traversal too long and not to make you lost especially early on without a map, and when you’re sick of one area bam, new area just like that.

The NPCs are enough to be memorable, sure there’s some filler ones, but there’s just enough for you to check them all out and interact, this is basically the only game in recent memory where I really speak to Everyone because why not? It’s not that many in each area.

Each area has about three enemy types (ground, flying and poison) and yeah you get the idea by now.

Even in length this is a pretty short game, it’s listed at 12 1/2 hours on Howlongtobeat, and 20 hours if you go for 100%. In 20 hours you could maybe speedrun whats considered a brief JRPG, for some perspective.

I want to bring all of this up because I honestly find it deeply inspiring.

I don’t have much experience with game development, but I have RPGMaker and I one day hope to make my own game with it, an RPG ala Hylics set in my own universe.

Thing is, my biggest inspirations are games like Fallout New Vegas, Disco Elysium, Vampire Bloodlines, Fear and Hunger 2, these are all RICH games that are FAT with substantial content in terms of story writing and quest lines, and I want to do something like that but well, it’s like going to play at the Olympics when you just started thinking about working out, and even when I try scaling back plans it can still be a lot in my planning process and I fear about leaving some stuff out.

But with Ys? This game has taught me that no, it’s ok to keep it dead simple and still make a fun and engaging game, sure I won’t even think about comparing the story with the aforementioned, but it still has a lot of charm and character, especially visually but that’s another story.

Bottom line is, I’ve felt insecure about my game ideas being too ambitious and that it was my only way to make a good game, only for Ys to put that claim to rest

[yupuffin]

Friendly opinion, if you don't mind! If you do, feel free to delete :) Your list seems a bit biased. Star Rail is objectively easier to grind for than Genshin, there's no local specialties to look for, every material you need is farmable through assignments except for Stagnant Shadows drops, and everything is all around faster to acquire because the fuel refills faster than Genshin's resin.

And this is with no mention of the fuel limit being what you get in 24h in Star Rail and the game saves up your reserve fuel beyond that, whereas Genshin forces you to spend resin at least twice a day if you don't want to max out. Also no mention of Star Rail's auto-battle feature that allows you to let the game grind for you while you do something else if you don't actually enjoy the grind. The Gacha system is the same for characters but night and day for weapons/Light Cones, with Genshin giving a 33% chance to get the 5* weapon you want and needing to lose twice before you're guaranteed, while Star Rail gives a 75% chance to get the 5* Light Cone you want and you're immediately guaranteed if you lose once. Also, no mention of the free standard 5* character of your choice after 300 standard warps in Star Rail?

I love both games, not trying to dunk on Genshin, just saying your Genshin bias is showing haha. Star Rail is objectively easier to enjoy casually than Genshin. If you don't see it after playing for a few weeks, you may burn out on it very fast :(

Genshin never made me grind for a week straight to beat any of the bosses. 😭

Also fair point about the banners, I have never once pulled on a weapon banner in either game, nor do I regularly wish on the standard banner aside from when I happen to obtain spare wishes, so in all honesty I don't pay as much attention to those. Pretty sure that even with how long I've been playing Genshin I haven't even hit 300 standard pulls in that game.🤷‍♂️ So there are definitely people out there who are more experts on how the banners work than I am. 😆

As for the part about resin/fuel regeneration, I think that's pretty subjective depending on someone's play style. Playing for just a few minutes in the morning and the evening on Genshin works pretty well for me. Star Rail takes significantly more time and attention for me precisely because of the faster regeneration, plus the cap being higher and the excess being saved; and then on top of that, with there being domains that cost less fuel to begin with (there is nothing you can do in Genshin that costs only 10 resin), at least by my experience, by sheer quantity, the number of domains and challenges I have to do is significantly higher. Again, this is just based on my personal routine and what works well for me. Mileage may vary.

I haven't used the auto-battle function, if only because I've had issues with wildly varying difficulty depending on the challenge. Some domains I can do with my eyes closed (figuratively); others I have to be very calculating and specific with the timing of my skills and bursts so my characters don't die, and I don't trust the decisions to be made automatically.

I really think there are so many aspects of these games that have no inherent good/bad value and whether it's easier or more difficult or less or more appealing or whatever is based entirely on personal preferences -- which is, again, why I formatted the post as a bulleted list instead of saying "Genshin is better because this, Star Rail is better because that." And I say this as someone who's had conversations with friends where I've said things like "I liked x video game for y and z reasons" and said friend would respond "Funny, those are the exact same reasons I disliked it." 😆I can think of an equal number of people who believe Star Rail is the better game and others who think Genshin is the better game, for a wide range of reasons that can be ostensibly mutually exclusive.

If someone wanted to put together like. a community-sourced project with a comprehensive list of all of the in-depth similarities and differences between the games, rather than a for-fun project developed by one person out of curiosity, they probably could come up with something pretty exhaustive and objective. I'm gathering based on this ask that there'd probably be some disagreements along the way depending on who prefers which game. 🤣

[ageofkarme]

This was probably the first time Karme thought about himself and his own power. He wasn't emulating another witch or even channeling threads through one of his tools, he only focused on externalizing his magic and how he'd look doing so. With his eyes closed the shadows of his mind created a clear image, but once he opened them he could feel the clarity slip away. Now Karme was anxiously anticipating the sculpture Polaris would make, but he supposed that was part of creating art. Karme could whip up a statue in his likeness very easily, but no one would pay a small fortune for it. Whatever Polaris would make would surely be top tier and now he had Karme invested in the end product.

Wait a minute… Did he just experience Polaris' magic? Elvhen talents were so cool! He wasn't sure on the details which meant he'd have loads of questions to ask. And Karme needed to ask them so badly that he started bouncing on the balls of his feet the moment Polaris created space between them. Questions were about to outpour from his tongue, but the need to defend his fixation overrode everything. "It's not a scythe, it's a death scythe. Big and scary looking, with lots of blades and it can fly around too! It's super sharp and will turn stuff into minced meat and—" Well, Polaris was the artist and Karme wasn't the one paying him. If there'd be no death scythe then there'd be no death scythe. "Fine, whatever," Karme said, pouting. But only for a moment because Polaris distracted him again.

"I can sit still … maybe. How long is 'very long'?" he asks as he slips the smithing apron on again, ready to get to work and … oh no he was supposed to be packing. Karme completely forgot. Oh well, inspiration was striking once again. Packing could wait. "That one's actually pretty interesting. I got the idea for it on a recent trip with my boys. We're all best friends now, boys for life, a pretty tight knit group of guys. It was used for something bad, but I was trying to create a smaller version to at least harness the concept. Concentrating larger quantities of magic and distilling it into another source could be a useful thing to have. I don't know, that one may be a dud, at least at that size. The machine I tried to copy was much larger than that."

A golden orb inlaid into engraved golden braces. The archway Karme wanted to attach it to needed to be sturdy but also incapable of conducting magic or else some may leak out. And Karme hadn't even begun to figure a way to continuously stream magic into the orb while adhering to those constraints. It was an interesting piece of technology, but purely theoretical at this stage. "I think I may have to take it apart and repurpose its components, but that is fine. Perfectly imperfect, right? I'm not afraid of failure because failure can lead to discovery. But … even I have limits," he says with a small bout of laughter. "Actually, I've been doing some reading on sound based technologies. I ventured away for other endeavors, but I want to try some out. I figured I could use these parts to make a really cool bell or something. Figuring out how to enchant sound itself would be a huge magical breakthrough, don't you think?" Antsy to try and few things and wanting to show off for Polaris some, Karme reached into his key ring and pulled out Electra's, excitedly waving it around as it began to glow he said, "It's your time to shine little sister. Let's show Polaris how good of a team we are!" The little orb came out whirring, ready to get to work. "She's my favorite helper, so hopefully you two can get along. She's shy though, so don't try to upstage her," Karme says in a whisper tone, chuckling a bit as he did. Electra made quick work of removing the engraved bands from the large orb, walking up to Polaris to offer them. "Just kidding! She's not sentient, but she's the best at rapid deconstruction and repairs anyway."

The work piqued Polaris's interest. Confetti canons didn't much interest him and the witches of this age were a far cry from the magi that he'd known years prior. There was almost a purity to what was at work here, the other's power stemmed from a flame that burned within his breast and an earnest desire to improve based on what he could create or manipulate using the materials around him. "Then I'm in good company."

The breath of fire and subtle kiss of flames carried an echo from the past; bodies like steel and the pull of smoke and memories. "Vulcan is fitting." Polaris cleared his throat as he finished putting the notion onto the slab at the back of his thoughts. It was the features that he felt most necessary to appreciate, he'd spend some significant time on the witch's head. The flames would be difficult but details were where the elvhen thrived; fine and delicate work could temper the most stubborn steel.

"No scythe necessary." Polaris reeled the vision back as he removed himself from the Apprentice's immediate space as he undid the few buttons on his jacket before slipping it off his shoulder. The sculptor's hands made deff work at his cuffs, rolling them to the elbow as he offered the apron back to Karme so the witch could get back to work and Polaris could get a closer look. "Now, if you're comfortable with an observer - a temporary assistant - it would help me get a clearer picture." A soft, muted hum as he looked about the forge before his deeply perceptive gaze returned to the Olympian. "I get the sense you don't enjoy sitting still for very long." Polaris could be fluid when he needed to be.

"The purpose of these?" Polaris lifted another contraption that sat in two pieces on the table, jacket strewn about somewhere, Karme wasn't the first person that he'd encountered on the continent who enjoyed tinkering and inventing. There was a spark to this work and perhaps within the ego itself that made the image come alive.

[mazeinthemiroh]

heyyy! can i request a stray kids reaction to their s/o asking for their fashion advice :((( i want their style so bad. thanks in advance!

stray kids reactions to their s/o asking for fashion advice

genre: general

word count: 0.7k

warnings: none

pls like and reblog if you enjoy! feel free to request anything <3

bangchan

well chan's fashion is literally "wear anything black and you're all set." his whole wardrobe is pitch black like there's no colour in there. because of this, he thinks his opinion of fashion to be quite limited. but in reality, it isn't all that bad. he does have a bias towards comfier clothes on himself, but he observes what looks better on others. so he will get you to try on a couple of different styles or colours of clothes for him and tell you what he thinks looks better on you.

lee know

like chan, minho prefers comfier clothes on himself. so he will set you up with some really nice casual clothes really easily. as for the nicer, more formal clothing, he can help there too! obviously, because he is an idol, he has to work with a lot of different styles. he will get you to try on styles you might not even have considered before. will make you do a whole catwalk for him and everything. takes helping you seriously but also has to have his fun!

changbin

now he would probably laugh if you asked him for fashion advice. not because he's not fashionable! only he feels that his expertise lies in other areas. nevertheless, if you want his help, who is he to deny his services? changbin ends up just spoiling you and buying you tons of clothes to try on no matter how much you object. "the only fashion advice i have is take all the clothes you possibly can!" man focuses on quality and quantity.

hyunjin

he knows which colours go with what. he just knows when something looks off; it's the artist in him. so, with that being said, he will make you try on every shade of colour until he figures out what matches your skin tone. your favourite colour is purple? he's getting you to try on lilac, indigo, lavender, magenta, everything under the sun. if you ask for his fashion advice, he's not gonna give you halfhearted comments. oh no, he's committed to that role.

han

hannie slays in every outfit. he is blessed with a perfect face, so whether he is wearing a simple fit or a stylish suit, he's looking fly af either way. consequently, he doesn't give fashion too much thought. so when you ask him for fashion advice, he pretty much says to experiment! there's no harm in thinking outside the box and adding things to your outfit to make certain aspects stand out. he encourages all that creativity.

felix

felix is so excited that you want his advice. he loves helping people in any way he can and he appreciates that you care about his opinion. he will list clothes off the top of his head that he thinks look good and flattering on your unique figure. he will offer to go shopping and get you to try on clothes for him so you can both see what suits you. will always compliment you as well as point you in the right direction.

seungmin

seungmin encourages you to be comfortable with everything else. he usually dresses in cute and comfy clothes himself. he's very boyfriend material, isn't he? he doesn't believe that you should be uncomfortable just because an outfit is stylish and trendy. he wants you to be happy and comfortable in the choices you make in your clothes, and he would never pressure you to wear anything you don't want to wear just because it looks fancy.

jeongin

this fashion king? he has all the tips. you know he dresses very well, so going to him for advice doesn't come as a surprise to him. but what he mainly focuses on is helping you find your own unique sense of style. he's not just going to dress you up in his style and call it a day. he appreciates that people have different types of looks that they're going for, and he wants to help you figure out how you can express yourself through your clothing!

[messier-47]

How the Space-Time Jutsu could have worked

In this essay I will-

SHARE how YOUR FAVORITE Naruto character could possible be able to go FORWARD or BACKWARD in time using BASTARDIZED SCIENCE! :D

Look, look, i have a casual make-up-break-up relationship with physics so while I may know the bitch I can't give you the deets, ya feel me? So either take everything I say with a grain of salt or say "fuck it" and run with it at full speed.

Okay, the Time Space jutsu I'm pretty sure canonically is a backwards summoning jutsu which means that the summonee can summon themselves and doesn't need to be summoned by a secondary party. pretty nifty.

Not cool enough for me. I need the Space Time jutsu to break the laws of physics.

Sadly, this theory DOES NOT BREAK THE LAWS OF PHYSICS but uses the Laws to support it's claim. (this theory would realistically vaporize the human body but we're talking about Naruto here and we all know that Death is just a concept to polite step around)

Okay so: Time Travel

Time is a linear force that can either speed up or slow down but it can never go backwards. However to prove something exists is to slow down time to catch the subject moving from point A to point B what the fuck does that mean? It means that if you cannot see that something is moving from Point A to Point B, then does it really exist? Yes, you just have to speed up time or slow it down. That means that TIME is the quantity that proves that everything existed within a space.

However the human eye can only see things at X amount of speed. For now I'll say 60fps cause that's what most video games are going for. The human eye can see things easily at 60fps and HD is probably 300 fps. But we are still limited by time. Things going FASTER that 300fps CANNOT be seen moving from point A to point B

The Sharingan is a dojutsu that let's the human eye see at 600fps

Which means to the Uchiha time slows down cause they're intaking much more information than the average human being.

Now we talked a bit about how Space and Time hold each other's hands in order for an object to be proven to exist

how the fuck does it turn into time travel?

Time travel would mean that you as an object/subject move faster than the human eye, moving faster than the sharingan to get from Point A to Point B

that's it. that's all it is. in it's most simplest terms, it doesn't mean that you go at light speed or break dimensions you're just simply moving faster than the human eye could register that you moved at all

Here's how you break time

Now in physics there's this big fancy rule called "Conservation of Mass" which states: nothing is made new. you break H2O down to it's atoms you now have gas but it's not brand new atoms; it's 2 atoms of Hydrogen and 1 atom of Oxygen. everything within the solar system is used, reused, and recycled over and over again because it's atomic componets never cease to exist.

which means that In The Beginning, all matter existed, it just hasn't transmuted into something more

but how do you transmute?

Energy

the Big fucking Bang set the universe of fire and we're the grimy little worms that frolic in the ashes

Okay, but that would mean that there are two definable objects in the world: atoms and energy. and Energy, as the Law of Conservation of Mass says, CANNOT BE MADE. it comes from somewhere else. "An object at rest stays at rest unless an outside force acts upon it" energy is TRANSFERABLE it is FELT and can be CALCULATED but energy isn't an atom. it's not on our periodic table. So what the fuck is it?

Energy is a wave

You know Radiowaves? Microwaves? the spectrum of light? the waves of radiation currently giving people skin cancer? that's all just energy being felt, being seen, being measured and IT's ALL RIGHT THERE! However the Law of Conservation still exists: nothing new can be created

then that means that all the energy of the universe existed well before the Big Bang

How does this translate into timetravel?

Space-Time jutsu is just "How to get from point A to Point B so fast that the human eye can't prove that I traveled?" but Time travel is slightly different and it's how everyone in Naruto is able to go back in time in all those fanfictions

It's simple: In a fantasy world where souls can be reincarnated and bodies can withstand tremendous amounts of power (looking at you jinchuuriki) it's possible for a human body to become energy

Cool right? Now here's what's cooler: Energy existed always. The same energy it took for a butterfly to flap it's wings could be the same bit of energy that whips up a tornado. The same energy for 23 men to stab Julius Caesar could be the same energy that makes a tree grow.

But how do you prove energy? Do you have to slow down or speed up time? especially if it's a "Wave" like I said?

here's the thing: Energy exists OUTSIDE OF FUCKING TIME SO IF YOU'RE A BODY OF PURE ENERGY YOU COULD SKIP THROUGH TIME cause if all energy existed always and all energy exists outside the dimensions of time that means TIME IS YOUR BITCH

Space-Time Jutsu? it's the simplest for of how to get from Point A to Point B

but the potential at your very fingertips is being able to jump around time because you exist as a conscious wave length of energy

Okay done ranting I'm going to bed just wanted to share cause its too freakin cool not to hold it all in hope y'all understood

[wfagamerants]

As I mentioned from the start, while this blog won’t be entirely Mario/DK/Yoshi/Wario focused, this particular universe will be the main thing I like talking about, so I figured it would be fun to look back on everything Marioverse that has happened this year and give a opinion on it.

Gonna go step by step and then give a final opinion on the year as a whole. Compared to the Paper Mario essay, this isn’t gonna be analytical in nature, just some quick thoughts on everything wahoo.

Mario Kart Tour

This year actually did offer me a surprising amount of things I like. Petey returning as a driver, the Dr. Mario stuff and Wario’s Shipyard are all stuff I would love to see in a regular Mario Kart. That is also a key word though.

I don’t play Tour and this year hasn’t convinced me to do so either. Compared to what other mobile games like Fire Emblem Heroes, Sonic Forces Speed Battle or Puyo Puyo Quest do, I simply don’t find Tour’s content impressive. Games like these tend to offer a huge amount of content from their franchises’ history to entice you and to me, are a compensation for putting up with mobile game annoyances.

Tour offers more than average for a Mario spin-off, but that’s not enough for me to give into checking out a mobile game and while I do like a lot of alts, it’s flooded so much with alts of the same characters again and again, that I wouldn’t have fun going for that. I like Mario, but one of his dozens of alts could have gone to DK or Wario or Waluigi and I would be a bit more intrigued. Variety is the spice of life and GACHA temptations (I know the GACHA is gone).

Also, quite a number of Daisy alts this year, but no Classic Daisy. I am not pleased.

Wario Cup

Get It Together’s Wario Cup ran for most of the year, concluding around the time of the game’s first anniversary.

The concept of an online competitive leaderboard mode is genuinely brilliant and something I hope comes back in future games. There were plenty of pretty chill Cups that were fun to go for the highest rank for and it had a lot of cool ideas for unique challenges. While it didn’t compensate for a proper online multiplayer, Wario Cup at it’s best was a great addition.

That said, there were also a number of bad Cups and I can’t lie, those were nasty. Putting the most limited characters into the worst kind of situations for them, with little room for error, just doesn’t make for a fun experience and instead turned into an exercise in frustration.

The first 9-Volt, Kat and Ana Cup was so bad it even made me reconsider my opinion on the character gimmick. That did go away when I replayed the regular stages and never had the same issues, but it does bring forth the worst case scenarios of how character balancing is handled in this game.

On the whole I still went out of Wario Cup more positive than not and GiT remains my new favorite WarioWare, but the mode does really show off things that future games need to address.

Wario’s 30th Anniversary

Nintendo didn’t acknowledge it.

Didn’t expect anything else, would have just been cool to be proven wrong.

Mario Kart Booster Course Pass

To put that one simply: I feel like I got precisely what I paid for.

The tracks do feel cheap, but the price and quantity make me perfectly comfortable to consider these tracks a bonus, ala’ the Super Mario Kart tracks in Super Circuit. Getting to experience some of these Tour exclusive tracks and remakes is something I genuinely get a kick out of, even if they could be presented in a nicer way and used the anti-gravity more.

While Wave 2 and 3 have the better selection on the whole and the Custom Item option is a surprisingly big addition to suddenly drop, Wave 1 still has my personal biggest highlight in Ninja Hideaway. This is one Tour track I always wanted to try and I am amazed by how good it is, like you could tell me it was made for a normal Mario Kart from the start and I’d believe it.

In the end though, this is still Mario Kart 8. Still a phenomenal game and I am enjoying the new stuff, but I have also been playing this game since it released on the Wii U, so my revisits aren’t that long-lived. 

Mario Strikers Battle League

I feel comfortable talking about this game now, but if the next update changes my opinions in any way, I’ll do a quick follow-up.

BL is a bit of an unfortunate case, I really can’t say I don’t like the game, because so much about it does land for me.

- The core gameplay is fun, even more so in multiplayer. I do miss some of the insanity of Charged, but at the same time, that never felt entirely intentional to me.

- The animation work is still fantastic and full of character. Sucks that there is only three post-goal animations per character and two of them you will see a ton, but it does make up for that with the huge amount of animation work elsewhere, especially in-field.

- The music’s good. It still has a visual identity. I like the Gear system (not so much grinding for coins). The updates are making the roster slowly come together. The online is….as functional as Nintendo Online can be for now, that all checks out.

That stuff is all good, but it is held back by an aspect I was really worried about, the update practice.

I’m not kidding when I say the game at launch felt incomplete and even now it still doesn’t feel like it’s all there. Strikers was never the most content dense series, in fact, BL still beats out the first game in content quantity, but even then you get this constant sense something is missing.

In particular, I dearly hope a stage hazard toggle will get added next update. Stadium gimmicks really helped Charged’s staying power, by changing how to play in each of them. Be it a muddy field that makes you slide like crazy or Thwomps that threaten to crush the players.

BL just has nothing like that and it also leads to the gimmick of combining two stadium halves feeling undercooked and unfinished. It could lead to a lot of crazy combinations, if each half had its own hazards, but as it is now, it’s only purpose is to show off how you made your half look in the Strikers Club.

BL is still getting at least one more update, possibly more, given the timeline only listed them as updates for 2022 specifically and I hope those add something substantial. The game needs it.

(Hey, the new update was announced an hour after I posted this!....they didn’t do anything big and it’s the last one. Sucks.)

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope

This one was oddly the one where I had to collect my thoughts the most, despite my opinion being the most straight forward.

On the whole, I have a hard time telling which of the two games I prefer. Sparks of Hope to me manages to carry on every strength of the original save for one little thing and it makes for a great experience.

Between the cartoony, charming presentation, the music and general personality of the game, everything has been left intact how I liked it in the first game. I was also happy to see what kind of gameplay possibilities the free movement, instead of using tiles, enables. I was skeptical, but was won over as early as the tutorial.

The game in those areas really does nothing  but expand. Far more freedom with what team to build. The overworld gameplay has been greatly expanded upon. More interacting with NPCs. More mechanics. Actual involvement of Mario mooks in battles. All this stuff is wonderful and I was surprised by how much this game genuinely scratched my itch for new Mario RPG content.

The one thing about the game I am bit lukewarm on is, possibly ironically, the Mario content.

There is stuff there for sure, I mentioned Mario mooks now taking art in battles. Yah also got Sparks and a Spoiler character we all saw coming. Bowser being playable now is of course also a delight, then again I have no issue with how anyone in the game is portrayed.

Thing is, at many points, it feels like the Mario stuff takes a backseat, especially compared to the first game.

- The Toad and Toadette escort missions are gone, with both only making minor appearances now.

- All the Spark Hunters are Rabbids and all the important NPCs you meet are Rabbids.

- You don’t get stuff like Rabbid Kong, Bwario or Bwaluigi here. Yoshi and Jr are also MIA.

- None of the stuff from the Season Pass is headlined by a Mario character, unlike the first game, which had a Donkey Kong campaign. The new antagonist for the second part of the Pass is also another Rabbid.

- You have 5 playable Rabbids and only 4 playable Mario characters. I was genuinely a bit shocked that SPOILER wasn’t unlockable in any way shape or form.

Don’t get me wrong, everything that’s here is fantastic and I enjoyed myself all the way through. The Rabbids are still the best they have ever been and I really love them now and the Rayman(!) announcement is one of the most hype things for me in quite some time. All this is great, I just feel this crossover is on the uneven side and that feeling gradually snuck up on me.

Time will tell what the Season Pass holds in full. It does promise more characters in plural, so I strongly assume SPOILER is being saved for that.

Mario Movie

After a long time of not knowing what to expect, we finally got a look at the movie and yeah, it’s gooooood.

It’s visually stunning, the characters are great, the DK love is insane and it is so purely, proudly, Mario.

I have more to say on this one, but I am saving it for another write-up I got planned.

On the whole, a solid year even with ‘’only’’ two new games released. The Mario movie and Sparks of Hope do a lot of heavy lifting here, but there was a lot for me to enjoy.

The one main thing I feel was missing was highlight on the multiplayer spin-off front, so to speak. The Mario Kart stuff is nice to have, but not mind blowing and Strikers is a highlight in many areas, that just doesn’t come fully together, because of its content problems.

I am disappointed by the lack of Mario Party DLC. I like Superstars, but it has things about it (eh minigame selection, lack of minigame modes, tiny roster, etc) that DLC would do a lot to fix. Ideally the game was testing ground and they are working on a new game already, that builds on Superstars’ reception. With how the game relies on old content and 52 of the minigames were already in Top 100, it does feel like it was made for that kind of purpose.

That aside, I do feel this was a fine year for Mario, now I’m just curious what’s next. The well of established and recurring series is running dry. Maybe Baseball is next? Maybe something new? How about that rumored Donkey Kong game? Wario Land anyone?

Time will tell.

[flecks-of-stardust]

i’ve been looking at so much information about eyes today wow wow

i’ll keep it short because it’s 2:20 am here and i’m tired, but i need to put it somewhere before i forget, and also to share the idea.

i’m sure the idea that wyrms are snake analogous isn’t exactly a new concept. seems pretty fitting anyhow. snakes are, as far as my research has told me, typically dichromatic. they cannot see red. they are able to sense infrared radiation through nonvisual means, but they cannot see red.

neither can spiders. some spider species can see red in limited quantities, but i doubt any of the species that can are ones i want to use in my worldbuilding. so spiders can’t see red, snakes can’t see red, hornet can’t see red. and neither can the vessels. most of the bugs can’t actually, because typically insects can’t see red either. and a good many crustaceans can’t as well, so quirrel also can’t see red.

so in this world devoid of all things red, but often with glimpses into the ultraviolet, color conventions are probably pretty different. but the thing i want to focus on is that when you only see blue and green, blue looks much, much prettier than everything else in the color spectrum. it’s much brighter and sharper and bolder, and it really catches your attention.

so hornet should have a blue cloak. i rest my case.

[nim-lock]

Art Career Tips, 2021 Edition

Here’s an edited version of my 2019 answered ask, because... this feels relevant. 

It is a problem of capitalism that folks equate their income as a judgement of their value as people; and let me preface. You are worth so much. You have inherent value in this world. Your income is not a judgement on who you are (plenty of billionaires are actively making the world worse). LARPing self-confidence will go a long way to helping you get paid more for your work, because clients will believe that you know what you are doing, and are a professional. 

& real quick—my own background is that I’ve been living off my art since 2018. I went to art school (Pratt Institute). I work in a publishing/educational materials sphere, and a quarter of my income is my shop. Not all of this information may apply to you, so it is up to you to look through everything with a critical eye, and spot pick what is relevant. 

So there are multiple ways of getting income as an artist; 

Working freelance or full-time on projects

Selling your stuff on a shop

Licensing (charging other companies to use your designs)

This post primarily covers the freelance part; if you’re interested in the other bits there is absolutely info out there on the internet. 

IF you are just starting (skip to next section if not applicable) dream big, draw often (practice helps you get better/more efficient), do your best to take "a bad piece” lightly. You’re gonna RNG this shit. At some point your rate of “good” works will get higher. Watch tutorial videos & read books. A base understanding of “the rules”; anatomy, perspective, composition, color helps you know what the rules are to break them. This adds sophistication to your work. One way you can learn this stuff is by doing “studies”—you’re picking apart things from life, or things other people have done, to see what works, and how it works. 

Trying to turn your interests into a viable career means that you are now a SMALL BUSINESS; it really helps to learn some basic marketing, graphic design, figure out how to write polite customer service emails; etc. You can learn some of this by looking it up, or taking skillshare (not sponsored) classes by qualified folks. Eventually some people may get agents to take care of this for them—however, I do recommend y’all get a basic understanding of what it takes to do it on your own, just so you can know if your agent is doing a good job. 

Making sure your portfolio fits the work you want to get

Here is a beginner portfolio post. 

Research the field you’d like to get into. The amount people work, the time commitment, the process of making the thing, the companies & people who work for them. 

Create work that could fit in to the industry you’re breaking into. For example, if you want to do book cover illustration, you draw a bunch of mockup book covers, that can either be stuff you make up, or redesigns of existing books. If you’re not 100% sure what sort of work is needed for the industry, loop back into the portfolios of artists in a similar line of work as whatever you’re interested in, and analyze the things they have in common. If something looks to be a common project (like a sequence of action images for storyboard artists), then it’s probably something useful for the job. 

CLIENTS HIRE BASED ON HOW WELL THEY THINK YOUR WORK FITS WHAT THEY WANT. If they’re hiring for picture books, they’re gonna want to see picture book art in your portfolio, otherwise they may not want to risk hiring you. Doesn’t have to be 100% the project, but stuff similar enough. If you aren’t hired, it doesn’t mean your work is bad, it just wasn’t the right fit for that specific client. 

If you have many interests, make a different section of your portfolio for each!

Making sure you’re relevant 

Have a social media that’s a little more public-facing, and follow people in the career field you’re interested in. Fellow artists, art directors, editors, social media managers; whoever. Post on your own schedule. 

Interact with their posts every so often, in a non-creepy way. 

If you’ve made any contacts, great! Email these artists, art directors, editors, former professors, etc occasional updates on your work to stay in touch AND make sure that they think about you every so often.

Show up to general art events every once in a while! If you keep showing up to ones in your area (when... not dying from a sneeze is a thing), folks will eventually start to remember you. 

Industry events & conferences can be pricey, so attend/save up for what makes sense for you. Industry meetups are important for networking in person! In addition to meeting people with hiring power, you also connect with your peers in the community. Always bring a portfolio & hand out business cards like candy. 

Active job hunting

Apply to job postings online.

If interested in working with specific people at specific companies, you could send an email “I’d love to work with you, here’s my portfolio/relevant experience”, even if they aren’t actively looking for new hires. Be concise, and include a link to your work AND attached images so the person reading the email can get a quick preview before clicking for more. 

Twitter job postings can be pretty underpaid! Get a copy of the Graphic Artists’ Guild Handbook Pricing & Ethical Guidelines to know your rate. I once had a twitter post job listing email me back saying that other illustrators were charging less, and I quote, “primarily because they’re less experienced and looking for their first commission”. This was not okay! For reference, this was a 64-illustration book. The industry rate of a children’s book (~36 pages) is $10k+, and this company’s budget was apparently $1k. For all of it. 

Congrats you got a job! Now what?

Ask for like, 10% more than they initially offer and see if they say yes. If they do, great! If not, and the price is still OK, great! Often company budgets are slightly higher than they first tell you, and if you get this extra secret money, all the better for you. 

Make sure you sign a contract and the terms aren’t terrible (re: GO GET THE  Graphic Artists’ Guild Handbook Pricing & Ethical Guidelines) 

Be pleasant and easy to work with (Think ‘do no harm but take no shit’)

Communicate with them as much as needed! If something’s going to be late, tell them as soon as you know so they aren’t left wondering or worse, reaching out to ask what’s up. 

And if all goes well, they’ll contact you about more jobs down the line, or refer you to other folks who may need an artist, etc. 

Quick note about online shops/licensing and why they’re so good

It’s work that you do once, that you continuously make money off of. Different products do well in different situations (conventions vs. online, and then further, based on how you market/the specific groups you are marketing to), so products that may not do well initially may get a surge later on. 

Start with things that have low minimum order quantity and are relatively cheap to produce, like prints and stickers. 

If you are not breaking even, go back to some of the earlier portions of this and think about how you could tweak things as a small business. Ease of access is also very important with this; for example, if you only take orders through direct messages, that immediately shuts off all customers who don’t like talking to strangers. 

Quick resource that you could look through; it’s the spreadsheet of project organizing that I made a while back 

Licensing is when people pay you for the right to use your work on stuff they need to make, like textbooks or greeting cards. This is generally work you’ve already made that they are paying the right to use for a specified time or limited run of products. This is great because you’ve already done the work. I am not the expert on this. Go find someone else’s info.

“I am not physically capable of working much”/ “I need to pay the bills”

Guess who got a hand injury Sept 2020 that messed me up that entire month! I had a couple jobs going at the time that I was terrified of losing, but they were quite understanding when I told them I needed to heal. So:  Express your needs as early as you know you need them. Also do lots of stretches and rest your hands whenever you feel anything off; this will save your health later. Like, the potential of a couple months of no income was preferable over losing use of my hands for the rest of my life.

This continues to apply if you have any other life situation. Ask for extra time. Ask for clarification. If you tell people ahead of time, folks are often quite understanding. Know how much you are capable of working and do your best not to overdo it. (I am.. bad at this)

Do what MAKES SENSE for your situation. If doing art currently earns you less money than organizing spreadsheets, then do that for now, and whenever you have the energy, break down some of the tips above into actionable tiny chunks, and slowly work at em. 

The original ask I got in 2019 mentioned ‘knowing you’re not good enough yet’. Most artists experience imposter syndrome & self-doubt—the important thing is to do your best, and if anything, attempt to channel the confidence of a mediocre white man. If he can apply to this job/charge hella money for Not Much, then so can you! 

Check out this Art Director tumblr for more advice!

Danichuatico’s Literary Agent guide

Kikidoodle’s Shop Shipping Tutorial

Best of luck!

–

Once again disclaimer this post is just the ramblings of a man procrastinating on other things that need to be done. I’ve Long Posted my own post so that it turns into mush in my brain if I try to read it, but I wrote this so I should know this content. If you got down here, congrats. Here’s a shrimp drawing.

Yee Ha. 

My reference post tag My tip jar