#given desktop wallpaper

[xitsensunmoon]

Can we get a random fact about either (or both!) of the vampire boys? :3

I'll give you a couple :]

They both have a different name but don't use it anymore.

They do chores for the donor reader as they're living in their house rent free😭 The donor didn't realise it at first but then noticed that their house is suspiciously clean all the time.

They both tried knitting and crocheting but the thread gets caught in the joints of their fingers and it frustrates them to a point of giving up<//3(they enjoy to watch the reader do it though :])

Sun would love to draw and Moon would love to play hide and seek if given the opportunity. (The opportunity is not given💔)

They share a room and often sleep together, to find some sense of comfort at the end of the day, even if they fought beforehand. Naptime must be quiet.

Moon can sing but never does. Sun sometimes reads poetry. They both enjoy reading in general.

Donor reader needed to create a separate windows account for them because they kept? Somehow? Guessing their password? and peek into their personal files. Boys' personal account gave them a sense of owning something which saved the donor's nerves for a while, as Sun and Moon spent time organising and decorating the desktop and arguing over the wallpaper choice.

[charonyx]

Malleus...Malleus my love....

I want to run my hands over his hair and scales if he's alright with it. He always looks so cute yet elegant and dashing and literally any synonym to those words describe him perfectly.

Once the HD version drops he's immediately gonna be my desktop wallpaper oml

100% one of my favorite Malleus cards. People have mentioned the veil which makes him look etheral and other-worldly but his side bangs are so scrumptious as well. Not to mention the tiny peek of his scales which I ADORE.

His tilted head which is similar to his gargoyle club groovy when looking at gargoyles but this time he's looking more at US and that makes me ckdkxiebifirifbdlwnaozkbc.

Inviting gaze and posture to just go under the veil with him where he'll whisk us away to a wonderland. Sir I'm already in love with you, have been for years. And now you keep on dragging me deeper and deeper? I'll accept cause it's you but damn.

And of course, the flowers in the foreground just adding on to the fact that we just stumble into him outside in a snow covered landscape with bits of life blooming around. Cause that's what he is. At least, a part of him. Even born in a hopeless world with many deaths happening while he was trying to live and the world trying to kill him, he still blooms and has life. The love of others has given him life and even as he may seem cold and aloof yet intricately pretty like the snow around him, he's got so much love, curiosity and just the essence of LIFE in him.

And his low ponytail argh. I can go on and on admiring him, who he is and everything but I'll leave it here.

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to everyone! Hope whoever reads this can have a wonderful time of day/afternoon/night!

I'll just be here sighing for this man

[fawnim]

"Hold me, please. It's all I want."

hai !! have some pining husbands to ruin your day 😙💗 You can get the full version of this artwork as your desktop wallpaper through my kofi shop (FOR FREE!).

I'm eternally grateful to this fandom and all the help they've given me throughout the most difficult time of my life — please consider this as a small token of my gratitude. 💗

If you'd like to support me, help me continue making art and taking commissions, please consider buying me a kofi! I am currently saving up to buy a new tablet before my current one gives up on me. (info here!) I also have one more slot left for commissions before I close up for september/back-to-uni. Please check it out! 💗

[oblivionbladetd]

To be real on my argument before I cut myself off to celebrate my Lily hater mega milestone. Lily what depresses me is that you used your wife's personal struggles as a way to fill dead air in a stream regardless of her apparent consent. To put it in a flowery overblown way, just because you have mikleelas written consent to disembowel her with your teeth infront of a crowd of screaming preschoolers, that doesn't mean it's not fucked up.

This is why we keep comparing her to Chris-Chan. This is within spitting distance of what ruined her life, serial oversharing. We have a play by play of Lily's life completely of her own volition, and we are getting a complete picture of Mikaila's... also from Lily. Regardless of if any of the parties involved care or not, it's information the public doesn't need and shouldn't have. I'm glad that Morch is fine with everybody knowing she lives in a hoarder home while her parents drain her funds maliciously, but I can't help but think of how much the general public shouldn't be privy to it, sympathetic ears or otherwise. That's why I keep saying Lorch could have the playbook we use against her as her desktop wallpaper, and she'd never be able to glean a single word of it. I'm not worried about mikaila and deeply apologize to anybody who got that impression cause morch can rot with her wife, it's that Lorch can't read the writing on the fucking wall.

I think I know Lily better than most people that I actually know IRL simply by half paying attention to this tag, entirely because Lily divulges far too much despite every single sign being held at convenient eye level that she absolutely shouldn't. It's why I have said that we aren't stalkers. Nobody digs that deep for all the dirt we have. At some point in time, you have given it to us completely willingly, Lily. You're just mad you can't take it back after the fact while we're here.

[sing-it-togetherzine]

F.A.Q*

I never participated in a zine before, what exactly are you expecting a “finished piece” to look like?

For artists, it depends on the artist and their style. For some it may mean fully rendered figures and backgrounds. For others it may mean a simpler background and colors. Everyone is going to have a different definition of “finished”. You want it to be presentable and nice to look at, not something you threw together without much thought. Try to think of what movie posters might look like, or phone/desktop wallpapers.

For authors, you can either contribute a poem or a micro short story under 180 words. Your story should be edited at least once for spelling and grammar errors. Your story should be self-contained, a.k.a. a one-shot, with a beginning, middle, and resolution. There will be beta-readers available in a specific channel on discord, so if you need help and don’t want to ask anyone directly, you could always shoot a message there and someone will know to help.

If you’re not sure what your “best example” work is, you can include a link to your blog/online portfolio (wherever you post) and we’ll take a look.

What do you mean a “light in the darkness”? Can you explain the theme a little more?

When we say “light in the darkness” we are in part referring to the True Colors scene in Trolls 1 (hence the title). It was a moment of hopelessness that became one of community, love, and resilience. We are asking for contributors to show (or tell) us scenes where the characters find courage to overcome pain and hardship. How did they overcome this problem? Why did they? Did they take action or focus on finding joy in little things? This theme is a little more specific yet abstract because there are many ways to answer these questions. If you have any further questions or want to run your idea by us please let us know!

If I’m a merch artist, does my work have to follow the theme too?

No, since things like keychains, phone wallpapers, and stickers usually are relatively small spaces we’re not expecting merch art to follow the theme. You can if you like but it’s not required.

What if I want to change my idea partway through the creation period?

If you get partway through your piece and decide on changing it to something totally new, please notify the mods first. Given that there are 3 months to work on your piece this will likely be allowed but you will have less time to finish it. To avoid this, we recommend really thinking over your idea early on, and if problems do arise you can use the #wip-feedback channel to get help.

Can I change from writing to art or art to writing after the creation period started?

Unfortunately, once you are accepted as either an author or artist, you are locked into that position. If you are someone who likes to make both art and fanfic, please take your time in deciding what you would like to focus on for the zine and apply at a later date.

How should I format my canvas/file so it’s print-ready?

First, make sure your canvas is set to the right color profile and size. Use CMYK instead of the standard RGB. The colors will look a little duller on-screen, but will be a more accurate representation of what the physical page will look like.

For size, the finished zine will be 5x7 inches, or 1575x2175 pixels, however you will need to set your canvas size to 5.25x7.25 inches (an extra .125 or 1/8 inch all around) to include bleed, or area on 3 of 4 sides that is likely to be trimmed off in the printing process. You will want to make sure nothing too important in your design is along the edge/in the bleed area or it could get cut off! The 4th side will be where the page is bound into the book, this is called the “gutter” and is hard to see details right up to the edge. This also applies to artists doing a 2-page spread, only instead of being cut off the edge, keep in mind that anything in the middle/gutter will be hard to see. We will make sure to have a template available so all our page artists can see an example of what to expect. In general just keep important details away from the edge and you’ll be fine! Lastly, make sure your file is set to a MINIMUM of 300 dpi (dots per inch). Lower dpi’s make images look blurry or pixelated.

Once you have a finished design, you want to make sure to save it as a PNG file before submitting. You can submit your file either via sharing a Google Docs link, sending through email, or sending through DM on Discord to the appropriate mod.

Can I sign/watermark my art before I submit?

Yes, you are welcome to sign your artwork anyway you normally do (if you do). However all creators will be listed on a credits page with their name and page(s) of their work, so you don’t have to worry about unsigned artwork not being credited. If you do decide to sign your artwork, we simply ask that you do so in a way that doesn’t interfere with the overall presentation. For example, a signature that is too big, a signature that blocks an excessive amount of details, or a watermark pattern that makes the image difficult to understand.

Do I have to use my real name for the credits page? What if I just want to use my online handle?

We will never ask for sensitive information, and that may mean the real or full name for some people. All we ask is some way to credit you. This can be your first name only, a nickname, or an online handle from any of your accounts (i.e. Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter/X, etc.). We will also include the primary account name/address for any creator who wishes to include one. For example, a piece could be credited like: Jane Doe, Jane, JD, Jbug, jbug @ tumblr, or any other combination. This goes the same for fanfic authors, although you will also be credited under the title of your fic.

Are alternate universe settings (AUs) allowed?

Alternate universes are absolutely allowed! However we do ask our creators to be mindful of how much the average viewer may know about them and work accordingly. For example, an au that needs a lot of explanation and previous knowledge may be a bit confusing, but more simple or self-explanatory aus (like human-aus or role-swap aus) should be fine.

Are original characters (OCs) allowed?

We ask that creators focus on canon characters in their piece, but ocs are allowed to be included. OCs are welcome as side characters, as in a fanfic, or in backgrounds of artworks for example. This is to avoid confusion for anyone who may view the zine but isn’t familiar with the multitude of fan-created characters.

*This list will be updated as necessary

[phenixa]

Happy pride - a Ienzo OS

He never really understood the thing with romance. Nor why people felt the need to have sex. He could clearly live on researches and clear water -not love and clear water, thank you very much- but why did people found him strange for living like this ?

Another thing that Ienzo never really understood was the thing that people had to meddle with the lives of others. He was pretty fine with being alone in his little corner of the worlds, working on his data. He didn't feel the need for romance and -kingdom hearts forbid- sex. His friends and his family were already enough, he didn't need more.

-You're sure you don't need someone Ienzo ? It must be lonely with the other apprentices.. -I swear, Sora, I'm fine. Perfectly fine, and no, I don't need someone else in my life. I already have too many friends to count. -But loving someone is great ! Look, you see how much I love Riku and Kairi ! And that's so great, you should try.

Ienzo sighed. Sora didn't know when to leave things be. And as cute as his will to help anyone and everyone in every situation of their lives, the teenager clearly wasn't aware how troublesome he could be. Troublesome and dense. He clearly didn't understand the meaning behind Ienzo's words, and even if the young adult was to explicit them, he's pretty sure Sora still wouldn't understand.

To be honest, Ienzo had figured it out pretty early in his life. Having people like you raising you was a great help in discovering oneself. And with Even around him, Ienzo never once though that he was the strange one. But he knew that not everyone felt -or rather don't feel- like him regarding love and romance, he had the example of Aeleus, this hopeless romantic that he was, taught him that the grand majority of people in the worlds felt romantic attraction, and that Even and him were a part of a minority that not everyone could and would understand.

He liked the day when he was able to put a word on that. Even looked at him as if he had completely gone mad. He said that, he couldn't be entirely sure, that he was too young to be sure of that. That it took him -oh the great researcher that Even was- years to understand that, let alone put a word on it.

-Maybe when I grow older it won't be the case, but right now that what I feel like.

And ten or so years later, he still felt the same, still felt like romance wasn't for him. He discovered that sex repulsed him during his time as a nobody -what a thing to grow up surrounded by horny people ! Ienzo discovered that the only relationships he craved were the one with his family and friends. Sitting in the lab with Even, Ienzo looked at the computer screen in front of him. A small flag had been added to the desktop wallpaper, the orange and blue lines looking like a sunset on the beach greeted him every time he closed the window he was on. Even had given him the idea to have this little sunset flag with him in the lab. That it would be a subtle way to tell people -and he meant people like Sora- to stop bothering him. A subtle way to tell the world, those who would come into the lab, how proud of who he was. And like that, Ienzo and Even shared another small thing.

Everything was fine.

[xox-l0v3l1-l1y4-xox]

Y'ALL, LOOK WHAT CAME IN A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO!!! :3

It might not look like much, but...

☆(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ* MAGICAL TRANSFORMATION!

As you can see, the box is actually a collector's box with 4 CDs + a bonus case with a few alternative covers!! ((o(*>ω<*)o)) The included CDs are the Persona 3 Original Soundtrack, the Persona 3 FES Original Soundtrack, Burn My Dread -Reincarnation Persona 3- and the Persona 4 Original Soundtrack! This collector's box was limited to Amazon and Sony Music Shop in Japan, so it's a rare item! Ever since discovering it, I had been stalking it on Surugaya and lost a previous chance... When I got that e-mail a month ago, I started tapping at the speed of light to make sure I would get it this time (and I did uwu)! This is the Amazon version of the box; the Sony Music Shop version is a black box with white letters. I would have been okay with either one, but this was the one I preferred!! ＼(^o^)／

The other two CDs, which I bought separately, are Persona 3 Original Desktop Accessory (an enhanced CD that, in addition to two music tracks, has wallpapers, a screensaver, and a few voice clips for most of the characters in the game and was given out as a pre-order bonus for Persona 3 in Japan) and the Persona 3 Portable Original Soundtrack! I've already messed around with Persona 3 Original Desktop Accessory, and let me tell you, it is a PAIN IN THE ASS on Windows 10! (•ˋ _ ˊ•) I guess I should have expected as much from a 2006 CD meant to run on the Japanese version of Windows XP, but all I could get copied was the two tracks and most, not all of the voice clips. The wallpapers just straight up refused to copy. I went as far as to download a Windows XP virtual machine... only for the CD to not even be recognized by the VM??? So, I— gracefully— give the fuck up.

I won't be sharing these CDs because, except for Persona 3 Original Desktop Accessory, they are by no means hard to get (or just download elsewhere xD). If you don't want to deal with importing, they're on Amazon, CDJapan, eBay, the English Suruga-ya website, and Goods Republic, among others. If you're familiar with importing, these CDs pop up on any Japanese website you can get CDs from. They're not doujin, and DEFINITELY not in any danger of being lost.

THAT SAID, I'M SO HAPPYYYYY!!! ^^ Gonna go rip the tracks from the rest of the CDs now!

[tiny-tf-faces]

Hey actually any of you, feel free to ask me what my desktop wallpaper is at any given time and I'll show you

[beekeeperspicnic]

Beekeeper's Picnic Stretch Goals!

£6000 - New Print

Hopefully you've been enjoying the beautiful cover art for the game be amazing Sherlockian artist @gooolabatooo - whose dreamy paintings fit so well with the tone of this game and I feel complement the in-game artwork so well! I've put a few more examples of their work above, and you can also find them on Instagram

At £6000 I'd like to commission some more Beekeeper's Picnic specific artwork which will be given to all backers either to print, or to use as a desktop/phone wallpaper.

(If you've got any ideas for what Beekeeper's Picnic specific thing illustration you'd like to see, feel free to let me know on this post! I have thoughts but I am open to ideas :D)  

£7500 - Dress-Up Tilda

I'm ridiculously excited about the cut-out dressup dolls which come with the Creative Crafter tier and above, but I'm aware that between Sherlock Watson and Mycroft, we really only have a bunch of old men! (Although, this is Tumblr, so...)

STILL

If we reach £7500, I will add Sherlock's young neighbour Tilda, showcasing her trendy 1920s wardrobe lovingly made for her by her Aunt Violet. Advanced warning though, she's probably covered most of her dresses in mud in her endless quest to document the world's flora and fauna. 

At time of writing we're only £500 away from that first stretch goal!

Back the campaign here!

[magebunkshelf]

A few small tweaks for anyone like me who's sticking with Windows 10 to make things feel a little less flat, it inherited that design from Win8 and it was boring on day 1.

It's not much but it's nice! Thread below with a few summaries! (messily ported from a bsky thread x.x)

Improved cursors by Posy! These are some of the best - Windows' default cursors are awful.

As terrible as Win11 is, the new design language is way better than Win10's, and it's a shame Win10X was never released. I use a bunch of icons from 11 and 10X (there are downloads for them all over the place), so for instance that isn't Win11's Paint on the taskbar, that's just Paint .net with a custom icon! There are also some custom icons in the same style made by people on places like DeviantArt.

Some system icons can be changed by IconPackager, it's paid but I did everything in the 30 day trial. My Desktop icon reverted after a Windows update but eh

The taskbar tweaks are Start11 for the taskbar blur, centered icons & Start menu & orb. It's paid; Classic Shell does mostly similar and is free, but different Start menus and no centered taskbar

I also use 7+ Taskbar Tweaker to ungroup programs, min/max with the scrollwheel, and space-out the tray

The widgets in the top left are Rainmeter. The temperature & network widget was customised messily from someone's public script - the temp widget needs another program called Core Temp to run.

The lil desktop Mitch is by @heyitsbumblebee!! there was space on my taskbar & he's so cute!

x.x errata - putting a png on your taskbar CAN be done with Rainmeter, but I think this was actually a custom taskbar texture under Start11 come to think of it

ANYWAY XD

Wanna remove something stubborn like Edge, or Copilot showed up? * Geek Uninstaller Want to use the same mouse & kb on two different computers? * Synergy Animated wallpaper? * Wallpaper Engine Play windowed games with integer scaling? * Lossless Scaling Own the games you buy? * GoG

Why are there two Firefoxes? The first one is Floorp, Firefox fork with Workspaces, just with a custom Firefox icon.

The second is regular Firefox's Private Browsing exe, which I use for searching (I use Startpage over Goog) cos otherwise I never end up closing the tabs. Just ditch Edge!

Xbox controllers work pretty much as-is with most games if you wire them. PS controllers use DS4Windows. I've given up with Bluetooth, just stick a cable in, far more reliable.

Anyway hope this thread of niche QoL stuff helped someone! ^ ^ Win10is still solid, just pretty it up a bit!

[fujomod3r]

Thoughts on Fashion Dreamer

Fashion Dreamer is the latest title from syn Sophia, and sort of spiritual sequel to their previous series Style Savvy (Style Boutique in Europe and わがままファシオン / Wagamama Fashion in Japan). The premise of the game is to become a fashion influencer or muse in a virtual world called Eve. This is done by collecting/copying clothing items from other muses (both pre-set NPCs and player created muses encountered via online features) or by unlocking clothing patterns to craft your own items. These items can then be used to create outfits known as Lookits for yourself and other muses. Some muses request specific conditions such as certain colours, styles or items to complement a particular article of clothing. Completing these requests rewards the player with more currencies to unlock and craft more items. Creating lookits and using the rewards to unlock items to create more lookits forms the central loop of the gameplay. Progress, or perhaps more nebulously, your 'success' as an influencer is tracked by how many 'likes' your lookits receive and how many 'followers' you accrue. In reality these are only virtual scores and not related to the online/social features at all.

It's by no means a perfect game, and I want to share my thoughts on what its shortcomings are, but what really prompted me to write this is looking back on the reaction to the announcement trailer. When the game was first announced during a Nintendo Direct, commenters instantly brushed it off as trite and uninteresting, many demanding it be skipped to show off more Mario or just any other game with a more 'masculine' appeal. Similarly, many streamers and youtubers reacting to the Direct mocked or derided the game for seemingly no other reason than it being 'feminine' coded or "for girls" which is extremely disheartening to see. Before the trailer had even shown any gameplay, thousands of commenters had already declared the game worthless. I'm perfectly capable of just dealing with this anti-feminine attitude, but imagine how comments and reactions like these affect the many thousands if not millions of players who are interested in this kind of game? Players with 'feminine' tastes, interests and hobbies deserve to be catered to as much as any other player. It really sometimes feels like some people never mentally matured past 8 years old, recoiling in horror from 'girly' things as an immature assertion of their own masculinity.

I don't expect all players are going enjoy something like Fashion Dreamer. I just like to imagine the world is wide enough for games like it to exist and not be mocked or dismissed outright as though they're intrinsically less worthy than other types of game. Being marketed primarily at people with 'feminine' coded interests isn't inherently a bad thing and it's truly saddening to see how easily people fall into this immature way of thinking.

With that said, Fashion Dreamer isn't perfect!! Far from it. To put it bluntly, the game currently lacks features and activities outside of creating outfits and taking photos. Previous games in the series had narrative arcs for different characters, shopping and restocking, decorating your apartment / boutique as well as activities like going to music concerts. While Fashion Dreamer allows the player to walk around Eve at their leisure, it lacks detail that would make it feel more alive. The differently themed virtual worlds or Cocoons all have the same small set of activities (that is, a photo booth, a makeup stand and gacha machines) and a collection of more or less random NPCs, meaning they end up feeling like different desktop wallpapers rather than different places. The narrative of becoming a fashion influencer is potentially a very interesting topic for exploration, especially given how relevant social media has become in the fashion world. There is also the potential for an exploration of how social media facilitates communication, expression and friendship, whilst at the same time discussing the negative impacts social media can have on people. As it stands, the game feels empty and lacks the charm of its predecessors.

Gone are the unique clothing brands of Style Savvy, with their specialisation in particular styles or items. Every item in Fashion Dreamer either comes from a single generic default brand, or is created by players. Whilst the ability for players to create their own brand is interesting, this too ultimately feels quite shallow. With all items being drawn from the same pool and with limited options for colours (and basically none for customisation such as rolling up sleeves, opening/closing outerwear etc) there's not really much incentive to 'follow' or even collect items from another player's brand. Especially since you can usually unlock the item for yourself with a bit of effort anyway. Creating your own 'brand' in this way is far less rewarding or sasitfying than creating, customising and stocking your boutique store was in the previous games. Some remnants of that feature are present in vestigial form in Fashion Dreamer, namely a custom showroom where players can display furniture, decorations and fashion items, but there's never any reason to visit your own showroom, much less those of other players. You enter the room, spend 15 seconds admiring different colour variants of the same items you have, mutter 'nice' to yourself then leave. It's unfulfilling to say the least.

It's bad enough that the clothing and brands lack personality, but the characters themselves also seem completely dessicated and one-dimensional. Where previous games had characters with distinct personalities and corresponding tastes, the NPC muses in Fashion Dreamer have much less to say and no strong preferences. Their single sentence barks don't give them much flavour and really only serve to remind you of what their 'gimmick' or 'thing' is supposed to be ("I like surfing! Surf's up! Cowabunga! Can't wait to hit the waves man!!"). Their requests for Lookits don't seem unique to their personalities (the surfer dude has asked me twice for formal suits without even trying to lampshade this by explaining why), and so far I've yet to have any muse object to an outfit or item I selected for them. Again, a comparison to Style Savvy highlights what is absent here. In Style Savvy, goth characters would balk at bright colours, characters preoccupied with elegance and sophistication would turn their nose up at distressed denims or graphic printed t-shirts. It's not as though these personalities were particularly deep, but their preferences had to be taken into consideration when recommending or selling items. Requests from muses in Fashion Dreamer on the other hand seem to be essentially random. Building a rapport with customers by talking with them or meeting them out in the town in Style Savvy felt rewarding as it let you learn more about their personality, and so better tailor your fashion recommendations to suit them. The muses of Fashion Dreamer simply repeat the same barks at every level of friendship and have much less to say about themselves or their lives making them and the world they inhabit feel much more shallow.

While Fashion Dreamer does away with having to worry about money limiting your creativity, it instead replaces one currency with 4. Instead of using money from sales to restock your store, the player must now accrue 'likes', 'keys', 'gacha tickets' and 'coins' which are used to craft clothing, unlock new designs or purchase room decorations and single-use photo props (don't ask why the VR flower evaporates after a single VR photo, it just does). The conceit of being in virtual world evaporates quickly and seems to serve mainly to hand-wave away the various abstracted elements of the game world such as the ability to instantly copy outfits and change on the spot. Grinding for these 4 abstract resources feels far less rewarding than seeing the revenue of your Boutique store increase, allowing you to buy flashier styles and splurge on store decorations.

Again I feel the need to stress that this change in focus from running a high-street boutique to being a fashion blogger in the Matrix isn't necessarily bad, but it doesn't do anything interesting with this theme, serving mainly to provide a poor simulacrum of social media 'number go up' dopamine hits. Gaining 'followers' on Fashion Dreamer isn't a reward for effort, it's literally just a numbers game since almost every action in the game rewards you with followers (which is perhaps more realistic than I'm giving it credit for). The actual social features of the game are simplistic but cute, allowing players to 'follow' one another and create or request Lookits for each other based on their multiple-choice answers to 5 simple questions (or totally ignoring that and dressing them like a Splatoon character). However it all feels quite shallow since you never interact directly with other players and so don't get to enjoy show off your unique look.

Finally, while Fashion Dreamer allows you to now create a masculine avatar (an option sorely lacking in the previous games which simply assumed the player to be a girl), the range of fashion options for masculine body types seems a lot smaller than the feminine options. It also doesn't allow masculine muses to wear feminine clothing (shoes, hats and earrings are all considered unisex, but all other clothing items are locked to a single gender) and vice versa. It's a shame to fall down here because the game has clearly made steps to be more inclusive, with a wider variety of options for skin tone, hairstyle and a 2nd gender (Ghee whizz! How come your mom lets you have two genders?). Further, the range of body shapes is still extremely lacking, with a selection of ~10 slim bodies of different heights. Overall, the game shows a real lack of interest in exploring the world of fashion, and nowhere is that more obvious than its lazy emulation of typical body/beauty standards we see everywhere else.

I know I've probably come across really harsh and critical here, but it's only out of a frustration at seeing what a strong basis there is for a game here. The character models and animations are great, and there aren't enough games that provide players like myself with the ability to indulge in playing dress-up for its own sake. Ultimately, I do want to see this game or others like it succeed because I loved Style Savvy and want developers to continue making games that dare to be unapologetically feminine in what they're about and who they're appealing to. I'm just disappointed overall in the lack of polish this particular game has. It honestly feels unfinished which is why I want to hold back from being too harsh.

Do I think this game is worth buying? Not really at the RRP, but if you're interested in some extremely light and somewhat mindless entertainment theorycrafting fits and taking a few cute digital selfies, just be warned that you won't get much else out of it. The soundtrack will start to grate on you as well, so make sure to line up a playlist of your own.

[notalakelurk]

NixOS Rice Journey

I've always considered myself something of a minimalist when it comes to function over form and beauty within simplicity, but there comes a time in every Linux user's life when they must rice.

Now, firstly, I want to acknowledge that @kfithen's recent ricing journey is like, 50% of the reason I went through with this (\shrug/ he had a good idea, what can I say?!). To be fair, the other 50% is the control and understanding that a good rice gives a person over their computer and environment. I want to know how everything works, and I want to be the person who makes it all come together really well.

I'm not really the type for flashy things or eye-catching rices / eye-candy (I've been using only I3wm for almost the entirety of my Linux history), so I want my rice to take a more subtle, simple approach. I use NixOS because I want my system to stay with me forever and only do what it needs to. I want to spend years optimizing everything I use until my OS reaches its minimal state. In the same way, I want my rice to display the elegant simplicity of nothing extra. I want some basic utilities and visuals that look nice, but aren't distracting.

Most of all, I want my rice to embody my own spirit, or at least what I strive to be. I want to put work into making something that does everything it needs to without encroaching on others. Ideally, I will be able to look at this every day for the rest of my life and it will help me feel secure in myself.

All that said, here's what I've done so far:

Migrated from X11 to Wayland

Switched to greetd and tuigreet for my displaymanager

Switched from I3wm to Sway

Setup Waybar to tell me what I need to know

Setup a custom desktop wallpaper (as opposed to the default Xfce wallpaper or Sway grey)

Setup vifm to view and manage my filesystem

Setup ivm, foot, mpv, etc. to replace xfce-given programs

Upgraded from NixOS 23.11 to 24.05

[Image ID: A (16:9) screenshot of my desktop. There are no windows open. The wallpaper prominently features a modified Nix logo in the center, taking up a little over a third of the vertical space. The logo has been modified so that each of the six "arms" corresponds to a stripe in the trans-nonbinary-flag; the top-right corresponds to the blue stripe at the top of the flag and the arms continue down the flag in a clockwise motion (i.e. blue, pink, yellow, white, purple, black). The background of the wallpaper is a dark grey that is light enough for the black arm to be visible. At the bottom of the screenshot is a Waybar status bar. On the left it shows (left to right) the sway workspaces, workspace name, and scratchpad; on the right it shows (left to right) the system volume (with wireplumber), the keyboard layout, the free space on the root partition, the memory and sway information of the system, the local ip address and wifi-connection strength of the system, the core usage of the system, and the current time and date of the system. The bar is styled with the default styles (for now). \End ID]

[Image ID: Another desktop screenshot. This one shows three windows open with the Sway window manager/compositor. One window, containing my home-manager configuration open in neovim (using the slate colorscheme), is the result of a horizontal split and lies on the left half of the screen. The right half of the screen is vertically split into two windows. The top displays an unstyled vifm, and the bottom displays the output of neofetch. The inner gaps of the windows are set to 10 in sway and there are no other gap configurations. \End ID]

So far, I've been focusing mostly on getting my system working again (leaving xfce completely left a big mark on my system, previously I was using Thunar and a billion other things I took for granted). I'm going through another terminal-based-stuff craze so I'm trying to do more and more stuff through cli and tui applications (flameshot -> shotman, xfce-img-viewer -> imv, xfce-video-player -> mpv, thunar -> vifm).

The only thing I've done cosmetically so far is the background. I wanted to get something that wouldn't clutter my screen if I ever implement transparency, so I didn't want to do anything too complicated. (I'll admit, my first thoughts were Homestuck, Lackadaisy, trains, etc., but those were way to complicated (save for some of the Homestuck stuff, that was good, I just didn't super vibe with anything)). I'm really happy with how it turned out though (the Nix logo is great for customization)! I think the trans-nonbinary-flag colors look great here and fit the vibe sickly. Also, it's Pride Month, so how could I not have something queer on my screen all the time?!?!?! (Well, besides Linux, and NixOS especially, that's queer already, lol).

This post is getting a bit long, so I'll quit my yappin' and end it off with a little summary of what I hope to do next:

Get some sort of transparency (what's the use in having that beautiful wallpaper if you can't see it, plus the background has a low enough complexity that transparency will actually work well)

Set some standards for theming/colors and put them in place (right now my Waybar and vifm especially just don't look right) (this one is going to require a lot of work, but there are also a lot of people who do this amazingly; plus, I've got some colors to work with already :), I really like the the "slate" vim theme and those trans-nonbinary colors are a great start as well, particularly that purple!)

MOAR TERMINAL (maybe try again with steam-tui, risk discord-tui, and re-examine links/lynx) (plus this really helps with fileviewer in vifm)

Try out nix-flakes (I really need to figure out what these things are, they sound right up my alley!)

Setup backups of my system / get all my configs into nix (the few that aren't already there) (I have some suspicion that nix-flakes might help with this)

Learn more (there's always more to learn!)

Welp, that's about it for now! See ya :3

[bleachbleachbleach]

9/15 - 9/21/24

I am still working in all the same Renji 11 scenes as last week, having finished none and studiously continued to avoid the 0.5 scene. The closing Renji+Rukia scene somehow now also includes more Kensei and Hisagi and Rose than I'd anticipated, which kind of!! makes me want to drop Renji off a cliff!!!

But I'm getting fairly adept at taking very un-meditative snatches of time and just working with that--like, set a timer, 10 minutes, go. I STILL WOULD LIKE LONGER BLOCKS OF TIME, DON'T GET ME WRONG. I'd also love not to work 7 days a week, but reality being what it is, training myself to write in these 10-minute sprints is the next-best-thing that I need to be able to do. I've been doing them for a bunch of random things (in an attempt to combat simply never doing them, ever) and ending my days with a bunch of 10-minute sprints, but usually they're things that are much less intensive/experiential than writing.

For context, I have a spreadsheet with 5 goal categories for the week (3 work, 2 personal). Within these, there are three achievement tiers--a bare minimum goal (usually defined by time spent), a realistic goal, and a reach goal. (Blue = time attempted but not met; green = achieved; yellow = no attempt.) Below these there's a life/chore/fun bank split into weekly/monthly/quarterly/semi-annual tasks, which is where the 10-minute sprints originated. So it's like, 10 minutes on scheduling! Meal planning! Banking! Vacuuming! Tidying! Dishes! Reading! Reading fanfic! Tumblr!

My writing goals for this week went like this:

The blue fills are successful 10ish-minute sprints that I probably wouldn't have bothered to try if I hadn't successfully practiced them easier things. Victories!! Even if technically that is a picture of me not meeting my minimum goal 4 out of 6 days, I still feel pretty good about that, and about how the writing is going, process-wise.

To facilitate the 10-minute writing sprints, I've also just kind of given up and am writing fanfic on my work computer now, lol. And while I've never really been an effective user of the multiple-desktops feature, I do think it helps get me quickly into fanfic mode. I'm a big fan of these random default trees I picked out for the wallpaper, because the perspective shift/aerial view really makes me feel like I've flown away from work and am now someplace distinctly separate (somewhere in the Forests of Rukongai):

idk guys I just really like these random default trees <3 I love feeling like opening my fanfic doc is like swooping down into them. 🥺🥺

My goal for next week is to keep my streak of daily 10-minute sprints minimum, and ideally actually meet my stated minimum goal every day, instead. There's a decent chance this will be possible because as far as I know I don't have any extraneous obligations beyond the usual, except for Thursday. Could I finish Renji 11? Let's goooooo!

[thequimmqueen]

Guess what? Quinn x Timm hcs!

Because these two still mean the world to me, and I think it was necessary given all the (meme) Breakup posts more recently.

Now, I gotta warn ya, these are more or less self indulgent, but what can you do when you got so little to base yourself upon?

anyways, enjoy :>

-In the past, Timm and Quinn would often go to each other’s places to review legal papers together, or simply hang out. They mostly hanged out at Quinn’s place since it’s more spacious than his apartment. When they became friends again post-bakeria they gradually started doing that again, with Quinn being the one inviting him first, and he accepts, despite feeling a little nervous.

-When Timm started visiting again, Quinn’s cats were happy to see him. He doesn’t get why they like him so much, but Quinn finds the scene of him being surrounded by the kittens to be adorable. 

-In the past, they would also call each other since very early in the morning, and wouldn’t stop talking till both got to the firm, where they would continue to have hour-long chats. It could be about anything; work, hobbies, interests. it didn’t matter, they just enjoyed talking to each other.  Nowadays, they aren’t able to do it as many hours as they used to, obviously due to the different schedules they have now. But in some evenings they would have phone calls that lasted hours until midnight. 

-In the past, Timm and Quinn were rather comfortable with hand-holding or wrapping their arm around the other. They were just good friends back then, but you could often see them walking together with their arms intertwined like married couples.  Also, whenever they were handling a stressful case Quinn would always feel a little more confident after a gentle hand squeeze from him. He was something of her emotional support in those moments.

-Timm liked to pull harmless pranks on Quinn, like changing her computer’s desktop wallpaper to some funny cat meme. Quinn would say he’s ridiculous, but her smile was obvious. Nowadays, she is also able to pull pranks on him, which surprises him, but also makes him proud.

-Timm sometimes does beauty treatments that Mindy suggests him to use along with Quinn. They could be watching the most gruesome thriller or the most cheesy romcom, and they would have those face masks with cucumbers in their eyes as Timm has one of Quinn’s cats in his lap and she leans on his shoulder with the TV remote.  Altough Quinn does take care of her appearence, she was surprised Timm wanted to do this with her, but doesn’t complain. They decided they would do this more often on the weekends. something like a relaxation session after the difficult weeks.

-At some point in her youth, Quinn liked videogames, but didn’t have the money to spend on them, so she only ever had like one or two games on one simple console. As now she has a succesful career that pays good she’s able to get more, but doesn’t know what kinda games suit her, so she trusts in Timm to reccomend her some good ones. Timm suggests that puzzle or mystery solving games might be her thing, but also gets her Animal Crossing or a farming sim.

-On the topic of Videogames, Timm would teach her how to use the newer consoles, and would generally play chill games in CO-OP. But once they started with games a little more complex, somehow Quinn got really good at winning against him in competitive modes. 

-At first, Quinn wasn’t comfortable with PDA since she didn’t want others to know of her intimacy with Timm, but given most of the Bakeria customers know them well, and Timm can’t help but smooch her when he sees her come in, she got used to it. Now she even flirts with him with silly pick-up lines!

-On the topic of that, Timm is an absolute sucker when Quinn flirts back. His heart skips a bit and he’s got the most dorky smile when she begins calling him cute names or sends kisses his way.

-You cannot tell me their friends don’t make a big deal out of them finally dating! When Timm popped the question and she said yes, the first thing their friends did when they found out was make a party. Because god knows how long they took to get to this point!

-By the time cluckeria happens, Quinn and Timm have been dating for a rather long time, so they now feel able to advice other couples. For one example, when NuCoop was still open they decided to check it even if both were loyal to papa (mostly for curiosity) and when they saw Gabitha and NuMarcus argue, they mistook them for a couple & Timm was the first to calm them down and suggest to talk things out. (Look who’s talking, eh?)

Obviously Marcus and Gabitha were embarassed and clarified they didn’t have anything like that, but Quinn found it rather humorous.

-Quinn and Timm, as I’ve mentioned before, go often to thrift stores to find anything 70′s or Clockwork-themed. Whether it be clothing from the era, an accesory, a table decor, a clock with a funny shape, a clock engine.. they liked it all! In their days off, Quinn and Timm dedicate their time to finding the coolest stuff together. and when they go solo, they always take pics to see if the other would like it to get it for them.

-At home they are rather lovey-dovey! Seeing as they can be in peace and privacy, Quinn doesn’t hold back on her affection for Timm, and he’s always happy about it.

-Their favorite seasons are Autumn and Winter, for the reason that they can cuddle in a warm bed while it’s raining or snowing outside. It’s also close to the time they finally resolved things and became a couple, so it’s anniversary time as well!

-Be sure that they have date nights! they may not be able to have them all the time, but when they do it’s always a blast. At first they made it very romantic, having dinner and going to nice places, but as they spend 1 or 2 years as a couple,date nights are also dedicated to relax together at home or go watch new movies at the teather. No matter if they’re dressing formally or casually, what matters is that both want to have fun together.

-Quinn starts to take dance classes with Timm, not only to show she cares for his hobbies and wanting to do them with him, but also cause she admits she needs to lose weight :’)

-Quinn helps Timm with his curriculum to apply to other dance-related places, and she even saves any ads or job signs that could be of use for him.

-Timm can sometimes be a little jealous but it’s obviously not to the point of toxicity. When he wasn’t official with Quinn, he used to think Jojo liked her too. Jojo. The man that dates Papa. Imagine that!

-There would be times, late at night, where Timm can’t sleep due to his memories of being kidnapped by Radley. Quinn notices right away when he’s not sleeping, seeing as he snores. So she would often get up, get him some tea and pretzels, and let him tell her about them, and rant if he needs to.

-Quinn sometimes demands attention in the same way a cat would, which Timm finds absolutely precious.

-For their date nights, sometimes they go to Hugo’s club. Quinn would let Timm choose a cool outfit for her, as she doesn’t really know of fashion, and they would go out to hit the dance floor together.

-Sometimes, Quinn and Timm remember they aren’t married. Since they are already very comfy and domestic, it’s easy to forget..

-Timm gets little outfits and toys for Quinn’s cats, and she takes pictures with all of them.

-They defenitely tease each other affectionately, Timm would be the one who does it mostly early on, but Quinn also gets to do her fair share of teasing. Oh Timm loves it when she does this little confident grin, he finds it really attractive.

-Despite being so stoic, Quinn always takes the time to remind Timm she loves him, and Timm finds it rather sweet that even when she struggles to be affectionate, she puts a lot of effort into their relationship.

Oof, Okay! those are a lot! and I can’t remember many more at the moment. Hope you enjoyed!

[doorplays]

Door Reviews: Hypnospace Outlaw (2019)

Sometimes I find myself wanting to return to the past. In the face of a lot of troubles today, the past, by comparison, is wonderful. The climate was cooler, everything was more affordable, and the problems don’t seem as big as today. And most of all, the past is just… familiar. It’s set in stone. We know what happens, so we can relive it at will, with our own memories. Nothing can hurt us beyond how much the past already did. It’s no wonder people are fond of nostalgia.

Tendershoot harnessed that nostalgia for something rather specific: late-90’s internet culture. They’ve crafted something that is very reminiscent of the days where everyone can make their own site and make their own rules, a time before Facebook was solidified as the de facto social network. And what they’ve made, I found very charming! So: let’s review Hypnospace Outlaw!

What’s it about? In an alternate universe, Hypnospace has replaced the internet as the nascent technology that brings people together. You have enlisted as a sort of volunteer moderator for the company who made this space: Merchantsoft.  You enforce their rules and note down offenses ranging from copyright infringement to extralegal commerce. It sounds boring, but at its heart Hypnospace Outlaw is an investigation game where you try and find the content that you should be removing by going through Hypnospace, bouncing from one page to another, experiencing the rich worldbuilding along the way.

STYLE (Gameplay, Graphics, Music)

Starting this game I instantly remember one thing: the Windows 98 era. You go on your computer, boot it up, turn on your internet, hear that modem sound, then visit various websites. Exploring all the websites has that funny vibe because a lot of them look so ridiculous yet still looks like it wouldn’t look out of place in the late 90’s! The style is just perfect and I find it so charming and endearing.

Gameplay revolves around you exploring sites relevant to the cases given to you by your handler. You will be given access to certain zones, each with a certain number of websites you can access from there. You have to inspect the websites to see which one of them breaks the rules of Merchantsoft, embodied by the acronym CHIME: Copyright Infringement, Harrassment, Illegal Activity, Malicious Software, and Extralegal Commerce. When a site element (text, picture, or hyperlink) falls under these categories, you will then report them to your handler and mark them as Violation Points.

Each penalty you mark gives you HypnoCoin, which you can use to buy various things. You can use them to buy wallpapers, songs, stickers, and other things you can use to decorate your Hypnospace desktop. And there are a LOT of these you can discover, ranging from silly wallpapers from hotdog companies to vaporwave-esque songs by underground artists.

The cases that you have to solve are of decent difficulty all in all. Solving them reminded me of Her Story (2015) by Sam Barlow. I made use of the in-game search functionality a fair bit, and had to root through a lot of sites to understand what I had to do next. They were fun to solve!

There’s music in most of the pages and a lot of them have different vibes. All in all, they definitely fit with the so-bad-it’s-good vibe they’re going for. Have you ever had music playing in your Friendster page or whatever social media you had back then when you were a teen? Well, that’s the vibe. Some are so over the top, some are just funny, and some are plain good.

All in all, this game’s style is perfect for what it’s going for. It really brought me back to the days of Windows 98, and all that I associate with it. It’s funny and charming! I love it a lot.

SUBSTANCE (Story, Characters, Impact)

I had a false start with this game. I understood that I ended up being a sort of moderator for Hypnospace. But I wasn’t quite prepared for what it entailed. And let me tell you, penalizing old people for small mistakes they don’t quite understand felt really bad, so bad that I stopped playing this game the first time I played it…

I picked it up again this month though, and I pushed on, and I was very much rewarded for it discovering all these in-game websites. Most of them are shitty webpages, but the fact that each one was made by a person in the game made it feel more real. Like, of course it’ll be shitty, most of these people don’t really know how to do graphic design! And there’s also the physical limitations of the hardware!

There’s the overarching story, which is pretty good, but there’s also the small stories you see browsing Hypnospace. A lady running for community leader, a widowed biker who just wants friends, some geeks just trying to protect their space, a religious child who loves this world’s version of Pokemon, there’s a lot to see!

It’s a strange mix of mocking yet earnest. It plays up the shittiness of websites of the past and puts a lot of care into how personal they can be for the people making them. The people feel real. The world felt real. I found myself getting amused at the antics played out, and caring for the highs and lows of everyone.

After I finished this game, I really had to pause and just… digest everything. I think I will remember this game for a while.

VERDICT

Y2K may have let me down, but this game has not. If you are looking to relive the nostalgia of late 90’s internet, play this game. If you’re looking for at least a decent investigation game, play this game. If you are looking for something very unique, play this game!! It’s charming, funny, and earnest. I am very fond of it and wholeheartedly recommend it.

Door Rates Hypnospace Outlaw: 4.5/5!

[bl00dline]

33, 1, and 99!

thanks for the ask! sorry i forgot to answer this

what images do you have set for your desktop/cell phone wallpapers?

phone wallpapers

computer wallpaper 😭😭

yes i may have a bit of a hyperfixation on depeche mode

33. do you think flowers or candy are a better way to apologize?

depends on what you're apologizing for. i love both flowers and candy so i'd be happy to receive either, but being given something like that wouldn't remedy an issue and depending on how serious it is could be quite patronizing. i think ultimately the best way to apologize in most cases is to take action and learn from your mistake

99. do you believe in love at first sight?

not really. obviously you can be attracted to someone at first sight or get a good vibe from them, but first impressions can always be wrong and i think it takes more than just seeing someone to truly love them

thanks again!