#i had a few things about these sprites to fix but i think they look pretty good now :-)

[emissary-of-dog]

okauuyyy. creature feature

[steamberrystudio]

07/07/2024 Tumblr Devlog

Hallo everyone!  Time for the tumblr update! Whii~iich I think I may have skipped a couple - it looks like I did that annoying thing where I wrote up an update and *forgot to post it*. 

Sorry about that! 

So what have I been doing lately? Well. Lemme tell ya.

I wrote 23,000 words this week, for one. I am ded. ┗( T﹏T )┛

But let's jump into the details because in the most recent update I see, I was still revising chapter 10.

Summary:

Finished revising, proofreading, and formatting chapter 10

Revised Asher ending sequence

Revised Daaz ending sequence

Finished drafting Kav's endings sequence

Finished drafting Noel's ending sequence

Finished drafting Raif's endings sequence

Worked on a ton of UI changes and improvements

Worked on some sprite tweaks

Received some new BG art!

Writing:

So as you can see, lots of writing progress since my last update. 

I finished revising chapter 10 and coding it. It turned out to be 88,000 words coded.

I revised and formatted Asher and Daaz's ending sequences into the game. Those two were already drafted and just needed to be cleaned up and put into Renpy.

The remaining four character still needed to be drafted but I had paused to revise the entire script so I could make some necessary plot fixes before I tried to draft the remaining endings. 

With that done, I've moved into finishing up the draft.

Currently I have Kav, Noel, and Raif drafted and Yren in progress.

And that will be all the main game content complete!

The current un-coded word count amount is 625,000 words. 💪

Art:

So I have completed some CG work since my last update but the main thing I've been working on art-wise is UI updates and changes. 

A lot of small changes to the general aesthetic as well as implementing a lot of small additions I've been contemplating for a while as QoL improvements.

Such as a little indicator that shows when you are in a "character branch" and things like that.

I've also made a few small tweaks to some of the sprites - mostly just making their expressions a little more dramatic since they were reading a bit flat to me. And, of course, adding new outfits. Always new outfits. LoL

And of course, new BGs from both artists.

Background are around 76% complete currently.

Other Stuff:

I guess UI goes in here too since in addition to the "art" aspect, there's the implementation aspect as well.

Once you change the look of something that has to be coded in, of course. 

I ended up deciding that I want to experiment with moving the sprites around a bit more - mostly moving them a bit closer and then further away depending on the scene, what's happening, and how many characters are on screen in a given moment.

There are several benefits to this including keeping the screen from being static for long periods but also, there are a couple of characters that the player will really benefit from being able to see their faces up close (mostly Raif and Yren).

So yeah - in addition to redesigning some of the screens, I have also been implementing those changes bit by bit.

The game definitely looks quite different now. I recently saw a playthrough of the current prototype that's on Itch and was astonished because I forgot how it looked when it was first released. Ha ha. It's gone through a lot of changes. 

Noel no longer matches the ceiling, for one! Amazing.

Upcoming Weeks:

I will be working on finishing up Yren's ending sequence and hope to get that done in the upcoming week - which means another heavy writing week. 

As I've said elsewhere, I have been calling them "ending sequences" but in reality this is the last three chapters of each route which is about 20,000 words total for each character. I have about 3000 words of Yren's done and I'm actually only shooting for about 15,000 for the rough draft because I invariable add dialogue and variations when I edit, which means I have to undershoot the draft so I don't overshoot the word count during revision.

So yeah, I'll be completing Yren's final three chapters, then revising Kav, Noel, Raif, and Yren and formatting them into the game, which will give me the "final" word count for the project.

And then I will be "done" with the writing (in quotes because...you're never done with the writing until it releases. LoL

I should definitely be done with drafting and revising by my next update here but I can't really say what I'll be working on by that point. Probably...UI and CGs. Not sure.

We'll find out in the future I suppose! See you then!

[johnnieguilbertsgirlfriend]

jealous? (smut) part 1

Part 1 --- Part 2 --- Part 3 (part 2 and 3 are on my wattpad @willpoulterswife)

word count: 1.2k - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - fluff, eventual smut

*beep beep beep* your alarm went off at 8:30 am. needing time to get ready, you sighed as you got up to start the morning. it would be your first day working as an intern for a game-developing company named Tuckersoft. being pretty new to this area as you had just moved, your place was in good condition. wanting to make a good first impression, you took a shower, did your hair and changed into a nice outfit, and applied light makeup. feeling good, you walk out of your apartment, turning up the music in your earbuds, only to see a blonde man, no older than 25, fidgeting with the door handle that presumably led to his apartment. thinking nothing of it, you head into the lift and out of the building. the crisp and semi-cold air hit you as you stepped outside, being glad it wasn't hot otherwise you might've melted. conveniently, the office you would be working at was only a few blocks down, so you could walk to it. "This it it." you whisper to yourself. taking out your earbuds and slightly fixing up your hair.

when you walk in you are greeted by Mr.Thakur, your boss. you two had spoken before when he was doing your interview to see if you were fit for the position. (good thing you were) "Hello y/n, it's a pleasure to see you again! Please, come into my office." together you discussed the workload for today which, to your disappointment, was only sorting through papers. while in your head you thought it was a little dumb, you didn't show it on your face and agreed. "Now follow me," Thakur said, "There are a few people I would like you to meet." he introduced you to almost everyone on the floor since you would be working with some of them often. taking a stop at the last cubicle, he said "And finally we have Colin."

you recognized the man's face from your apartment building, but didn't mention it. you were hesitant to greet him as he looked far in the zone, but Thakur tapped his shoulder and he pulled of his headphones. "Hello, I'm y/n." you said, giving a warm and gentle smile. you see it in his face that the man seemed to have remember you as well, saying "I'm Colin, yeah?" shaking your handing and then pushing his glasses up. "Ah no need to be cold Colin. Come on, show her what you've been working on!" Thakur said cheerfully. he's told you about the boy before, saying how he was his star employee. you took his word for it, but were still interested in him. the blonde started up the game and said "This is my latest, it's called Nohzdyve." playing a little through the game, there seemed to have been a glitch. "Buffer error." you quietly blurted out, but just enough for them to hear and they both look at you. awkwardly, you try to revive yourself in the situation "The sprites have overrun the video game memory..." your cheeks turning to light pink. "How did you know that?" Colin asks. Then, Thakur turns to Colin giving him a hearty pat on the back "Looks like you've got some company" he states, chuckling afterwards. "Anyways, you two will be working together. For now, y/n will be helping sort your papers and may be able to help you out if you get stuck on something, have fun." he places some of Colin's papers onto your desk and grins, walking away. you turn to look at Colin and after a few seconds he looks back at you saying, "Well, let's start."

as you were working together, you and Colin seemed to get along naturally, without having to force anything. (almost as if you two had met before...) being Colin's temporary assistant is not what you had in mind, but you didn't mind it at all. the conversations between you two were effortless and it seemed like you were both interested in the other. the two of you enjoyed each other's presence. actually, you found him quite handsome and the way he focused while coding games made you focus on him and not the papers. "Y/N," Colin said, snapping you out of your bubble. "It's lunch break, wanna grab a drink?" you nod your head and stand up, flustered that he caught you staring. honestly, you didn't even have an appetite, you just wanted to be around him. he felt the same way.

walking through the small city, talking about anything and everything. you were glad you had him as a colleague. both of you find a coffee shop not far away from the office building. Colin greets the barista, "I'll have a (idfk any drinks be fr). What do you want love?" he says, turning to you. "I," you take a second to think "I'll get the (insert ur drink here) please." grabbing your card out of the wallet, you tap him on the shoulder and attempt to give it to him. he pushes the card away with his finger, "It's alright, pretty girls don't pay." Colin says while taking his card out. you thank him for being so polite and a rose color appears on your face again. he smirks and takes the two coffees, handing one to you. a bench outside attracts your attention and you sit down and pat the spot beside you. Colin starts the conversation,

"So what made you choose here? We live in the same apartment and I've never seen you before, meaning you're new." this definitely meant he saw you walk out. you respond with, "We'll I've heard of Tuckersoft and happened to like video games, and coding." he quips back, "You like coding? I could've sworn you like sorting papers." you found it really funny and started to laughed. being a more serious type of guy, Colin rarely laughs, but your laugh made him laugh, and he found that cute. "No, you're right, I really like being your personal assistant." coming out more flirtatious than you intended it to be, he returned the gesture "Oh yeah? Prove it to me darling."

more weeks go by since that interaction and your "friendship" grew. Thakur had gotten rid of the "papers" job and had put you and Colin to work on games together. being put next to him almost all day, staying up late with him, making flirty remarks towards one another, you would be lying if you said you didn't have a crush on him. Colin gestures for you to come over to him. "What's up Col?"

"Can't seem to find the mistake here, could you help?" you reply with a small mhm. wanting there to be more between you, and feeling bold today, you sit right on his lap. Colin's eyebrows raise but he would be lying if he said he hated it, because he loved it. unconsciously, you move a little bit and it makes Colin's breath hitch slightly, biting his lip a bit. he takes both hands and places them on your hips, making sure you're stable. you fix his error within a couple of minutes, "All done." you say innocently, getting up, making sure to move a little more, and returning to your side of the desk.

this full story is on my wattpad!!! <3 (link on blog)

[cyandreamz]

✧Miles Edgeworth sketches✧

Today I was in the city for a few hours and spent about half that time time drawing in my sketchbook and this is the first page I did :D

For this page I decided to draw a bunch of Edgeworth's (and a cat as a warm up) because not only is he my favourite AA character (like 80% of the fanbase lol) but also, because I hate the anime trope of characters having the exact same hairstyle from childhood to adulthood! So I wanted to try drawing the three main era's of Miles with slightly different versions of his hairstyle while trying to keep the iconic parts.

(rest of commentary has minor spoilers for AA1-5)

I enjoy the hairstyle results as I think the shorter bangs for YA Miles makes him look more bratty which fits his fanon nickname and, I've seen a few of people draw Chiefworth with a ponytail and I love that concept so much cuz, not only does it look cool af but, it also has him tie in with Simon Blackquill's design a bit which I like for DD plot reasons. So I stole the design >:-)

I also changed some minor things about Chiefworth design that I personally disliked, such as making the gold buttons sliver (it matches his hair better and, distance his design away from his young design/Manfred which I prefer personally) and his glasses to be full rimed (as a glasses wearer I hate his canon glasses! that man probably gotta rub his lenses clean multiple times a day! Also the full rimed look matches his late Father :D).

Lastly, I played around with making him look more tired/aged as he got older, this does seem to be canonish as Bratworth looks more open eyed (at least his HD trilogy sprite does) and in DD Phoenix does think to himself about Chiefworth having stronger frown lines.

I think both adult Edgeworth and Chiefworth ended up look a bit older than his canon age but I don't mind that as the man is such a workaholic and, had nightmares for a good chunk of his life so I buy him ageing faster than average physically, the faces still don't look as nice as I hoped but hopefully drawing more Miles will help fix the jankyness I see but can't quite describe lol.

[five-rivers]

School Bus in the Ghost Zone

AO3

@jackdaw-sprite @dekalko-mania

.

Vivid green mists and clouds swirled together in the distance, providing a backdrop for free-floating purple doors and spidery knotworks of impossible architecture.  A few tiny, gleaming lights might have been far-off island-cities, anglers, spectral stars, or other, stranger things.  Nearer by, occasionally obscuring these sights, was a junkyard's worth of derelict cars.

Danny had seen scenery like this before.  On occasion, he had even admired it.  Vistas like this one were stunning, powerful, alien.  They sparked wonder and curiosity.  They sang to his soul that they were home.  Or, at least, his core seemed to think that.  

At the moment, he was feeling none of that.  The principal emotions he was currently experiencing were exasperation, annoyance, and horror.  But, then, he'd never viewed the Ghost Zone through the dingy window of a school bus before, either, so that might have something to do with it.  The panicking students might have also contributed.  

Another person might have been wondering what cosmic entity they had annoyed for something like this to happen to them.  Mr. Lancer certainly was, judging by his hunched posture and the trembling of the hands over his face.  Danny, however, kept a running list of the godlike beings he had angered, and considered himself an expert on the subject.  In his experience, they tended to be more upfront about their intentions.  

This was just bad luck.  

Which meant that Danny was instead mentally asking why his luck was this bad, and, more to the point, if there was a way to fix it. 

"Hey, Danny," said Tucker, nudging Danny's elbow with his own, "are you just about done disassociating?  Because I think Dash is about to go Lord of the Flies on Mikey and Ricky.  Or maybe it's the other way around.  It's kind of hard to tell."

"Yeah," said Danny.  "Is that the one with the cannibalism?" 

Tucker shrugged.  "It wouldn't surprise me."

"Right.  Okay.  This is fine.  I can deal with this."

"I mean," said Sam, leaning over from the other bench with a sort of pinched look on her face, "I think you're the only one who can."

"Gee, thanks, Sam."

Tucker gave him an awkward thumbs up.  "You've got this.  Hopefully soon.  Before there's a murder."

Danny nodded and crawled out over Tucker into the aisle.  The whole Lord of the Flies thing was an exaggeration, but it was getting to be a mess.  

"Hey!" he shouted.  "Hey!" he repeated, putting a little ghostly emphasis into it this time.  "Do you want to keep freaking out, or do you want to go home?"

"There's no going anywhere!" said Dash, waving his hands in a broad gesture that stopped just shy of backhanding both Kwan and Dale.  "The bus is floating in nothing!  There's nowhere to go!  The second we step out, we'll drop!"

"And we're out of fuel!" wailed the bus driver, Mr. Kennedy. 

"Why are we out of–?  Actually, that doesn't matter.  First off, gravity doesn't exist in the Zone unless you think it does.  Or unless someone else is thinking it does for you."

"Which isn't relevant right now!" interjected Sam. 

"Yeah. That gets complicated.  Point is, if you left the bus, you'd float.  Like the bus is."

A soft ohh rose up from the other students.  

"Mr. Fenton," said Mr. Lancer, "are you suggesting we leave the bus and try to travel across the Zone?"

"No, we don't have to leave the bus," said Danny.  He really didn't want to attempt to give his classmates the 'how to fly in the Ghost Zone while human one-oh-one' lecture.  Which he didn't have.  Because he'd never had to do anything like that.  

"What do you mean?"

"Well, there are, like, twenty people here.  If we expect it to go hard enough, it'll go."

"Are you serious?" asked Mr. Lancer. 

"Yeah.  Why wouldn't I be?"

"But there's no gas!" repeated Mr. Kennedy. 

"We were driving just fine half an hour ago!" snapped Star.  "What happened to it?  Don't tell us you've just been putting your foot down all this time!"

Mr. Kennedy moaned.  

"Hey, be nice to him!" said Hannah.  "He only just moved here, so he's probably more used to stuff like aliens."

"Oh, god, are there aliens, too?"

"No," said Danny.  "No, there are not."  Not in Amity Park, anyway.  

"There are psychics, though."

"No," repeated Danny.  He'd thank her very much not to spread the 'psychic bladder' rumor to yet another person. "Sam, can I have one of your spare folders?"

"Sure," said Sam, rummaging in her backpack for a moment before offering up an empty blue paper folder.  "This one okay?"

"Perfect," said Danny.  He walked to the front of the bus, scooting sideways past the people who just felt the need to block the aisle even though they had plenty of room in their seats.  He opened up the folder and placed it down over the dashboard.  “There.  Now the gas doesn’t matter.”

“It kind of does.”

“No, it doesn’t.”  He turned back to the rest of the bus, hands on his hips.  “So, here’s what’s going to happen, we’re going to make the bus go.”  He looked at the driver.  “And you’ll steer us.  And we’ll be able to get wherever we want to go.”

“And,” said the bus driver, “we’ll go where?”

Danny twisted to look out the bus windshield and pointed at a spindly limb of the architecture conglomerate. “There.”

“Why there?” asked Mr. Lancer.  

“Looks like the best place to get directions.”

“What?” exploded Dash.  “You don’t know where we are?  He doesn’t even know where we are?  Why are we letting him tell us where to go?”

“Well, Dash,” said Danny, very much put in mind of a similar conversation he’d had with him the previous year, when Youngblood and Ember had kidnapped every adult in town, “have you been here before?  Has anyone?  Has anyone else even been in the Ghost Zone?  And, no, the time the whole city was transplanted doesn’t count.  No?  No one?  Just me, Sam, and Tucker?”  He was sort of wondering why Valerie wasn’t speaking up during any of this, but that was a problem for later.  “Great.  So.  Despite having been in the Ghost Zone before, I haven’t been in this particular part.  I haven’t even been to every part of the state.  This is an entire dimension.  That shouldn’t be all that surprising.  But, the Fenton Portal is kind of a big thing.  I should be able to get directions to it without any trouble.”

There was silence.  

“What?” said Danny.  “What did I say?”

“What’s the Fenton Portal?” asked Star.  

“It’s, well, you know,” said Danny, rubbing the back of his neck.  “The portal my parents built.  I know, it’s an embarrassing name, but that’s how they name all their stuff.”  And it wasn’t even the most embarrassing name.  

“And when did this happen?”

“Ages ago,” said Danny.  “Summer before freshman year.  Shouldn’t this be, like, common knowledge?  That’s when the ghosts started showing up, after all.”

More silence.  

“Did… did you guys not know about the portal?”

“Are you saying your stupid parents are the reason ghosts started showing up in the first place?” demanded Ricky, leaning over the seat in front of him, fingers gripping the cheap green vinyl like he wanted to tear into someone’s throat, preferably Danny’s.  

“Uh,” said Danny, now understanding the danger he was in.  “I don’t know…?”

“Let’s just focus on getting home for now,” said Sam.  “You can sue the Fentons for reckless endangerment or whatever later.”

Danny glared at her.  Sure, that was helpful for now, but later?  Later, it would be a problem.  

Mr. Lancer cleared his throat.  “Mr. Fenton, how do we expect this bus to move?”

“You just… do it.  I mean, come on, it’s a vehicle.  An automobile.  Whatever.  It’s supposed to move.  That’s it’s whole thing.  It’s not like you’re expecting it to fly or anything.”

“We kind of are, though,” said Hannah.  

“Hush, you.  We’re powering this through vibes.”

“This is just like the Magic School Bus,” said Mikey, excitedly.  

“Yeah, sure, whatever floats your bus.  Just… Close your eyes and expect to move.”

Danny walked back down the rows of seats.  Where had Valerie been sitting?  Ah, there she was, staring out the window, hands clenched in her lap.  Did she have some kind of Zone-related trauma Danny didn’t know about?  It wasn’t like he knew everything she got up to as Red Huntress…  He tried, but he just had too many of his own problems to be constantly on guard for hers.

“Valerie?” he said, not too loudly, not wanting to startle her.  

She turned her head towards him ever so slowly.  At the center of each of her pupils was a tiny, glowing, red triangle.

Valerie, Danny realized, hadn’t been in the Zone since Technus replaced the suit she got from Vlad with something a little more… integrated.  

This was a problem.  

“Uh,” he said, “you okay?”

“I don’t know,” she said, her hand absently tugging on her scarf.  

“Okay,” said Danny.  “Okay, um.  Are you experiencing any weird urges?  Or is it, like, too much sensory input?  Or something else?”

“Sensory.”

“Cool, cool,” said Danny.  “It’s…  Can you…”  He lowered his voice.  “Can you turn, like, the input on your suit down?”

“I don’t– How do you know about that?”

The air was filled with the sizzling tension of Valerie preparing to call her suit.  Or something.  Danny didn’t think she’d attack him while he was Fenton - they might be exes, but Danny suspected she missed him in the more conventional sense, and not the marksmanship sense - but who knew what else she’d do while under the influence of… whatever this was.  

“Cool,” he said, backing away.  “Well, you just work on that.”  The bus lurched underfoot.  

“Just like the Magic School Bus!”

“I’m going to go up front and direct things,” he said.  He looked at Sam and Tucker and tried to make significant eye contact with them.  Shouting out that there was something wrong with Valerie felt like a jerk move, so friendship telepathy it was!

He didn’t think it worked.  

“Mr. Fenton,” said Mr. Lancer, getting Danny’s attention, “I don’t mean to cast doubt on your judgment, but…  Why do you believe we can find directions there?  I don’t see any signs of life.”

“Well, you wouldn’t.  It’s the Ghost Zone.  Get it?”

Mr. Lancer stared blankly at him.  

“Man, tough audience.”  He shrugged.  “I guess I don’t know that anyone is there.  But we can just keep going until we do find someone.  It’s more polite than opening doors.”

“Polite…?”

“Yeah, I mean, each door leads to a lair, but that’s, like, someone’s private, personal space.  Other people aren’t supposed to go in without permission.  Ghosts get really touchy about it.”

“What Danny means is that he almost got his head bitten off by an angry toddler,” said Tucker.  

“They were definitely bigger than a toddler,” said Danny.  “But, yeah, we’re not exactly capable of fighting, so… polite is the way to go.”

“I see,” said Mr. Lancer.  “I don’t suppose you have any of your parents’ weapons with you?”

“Mr. Lancer, we were going to the courthouse.  You told us there was a metal detector and that we shouldn’t even bring pocket knives.”

“Yes,” said Mr. Lancer, and behind his eyes Danny could see every time his parents had disregarded such simple rules.  Loudly.  Repeatedly.  “Well.  I had to ask.”

“I have a pocket knife!” said Dale.  

“Iliad and Odyssey, I’m getting too old for this stuff.”

Danny considered patting Mr. Lancer on the shoulder, but decided against it.  “So,” he said, “I’m just going to go back to my seat until we get there.  Yep.”  He shuffled back and crawled back across Tucker to huddle next to the window.  

“Okay, how screwed are we, do you think?” asked Tucker.  

“I don’t know,” said Danny, quietly, “but I really don’t recognize anything around here.  As long as we can get to somewhere I know in a reasonable amount of time, it should be fine, but…”  He shrugged.  “Infinite Realms.  There are no guarantees.”  He raised his hands.  “I’m not a miracle worker, here.”

“Great,” said Tucker.  “At least we came with food.  We can leave the cannibal episode for later.”

“I still don’t think that book had any actual cannibalism in it.”

“I think that none of the three of us managed to read that stupid book,” said Danny.  

“Mr. Lancer is literally like ten feet away.”

“I think he has bigger problems.”

The bus slowly moved through the floating car graveyard, occasionally bumping into one of them when the bus driver misjudged the distance.  Ever so gradually, it pulled up to the side of the architect’s nightmare.  

“Okay, Fentonio, now what?”

Danny had sort of hoped a ghost might come out to investigate.  They hadn’t.  In fact, the place seemed as deserted as the floating junkyard.  Which meant that Danny now faced an uncomfortable choice.  He could get out and go look for someone, leaving everyone else in the bus without his protection.  He could recommend that everyone get out and they could go look for someone together, which would basically be an open invitation for chaos.  He could just tell the driver to go somewhere else.  

The little lights that could be cities, or stars, or anglers twinkled at him.  

Ugh.  None of these were good decisions.  

“Hey,” said Sam, “beep the horn.”

Or they could do that.

“What?” asked the driver, startled.

“We don’t really want to go out there,” explained Sam.  “Which means we need someone to come here.  If there is anyone.”

“Yeah,” agreed Danny.  “Do that.”

The driver pressed the horn tentatively.  They all watched the structures intently for any sign of movement.

Something knocked on the opposite window.  Everyone startled badly, rushing away from the unexpected noise.  

“Hi, there!” said a ghost in a bathrobe.  A plastic duck rested on their head and they held a loofah on a stick like a scepter.  “Are you fellas lost or something?”

Danny rushed over to the other side and pulled down the window.  “Hi, yeah, we are, a bit.  Do you mind giving us directions?”

“Sure!  I know this place pretty well.  My lair’s just right over there.  Trying for the perfect bath, you know?”

Danny nodded solemnly.  “Baths are important.  But, uh, do you know where the Fenton Portal is from here?  The permanent portal to the material plane?”

“Can’t say I know where that is from here.  Never been all that much interest to me.”

“How about Elysium?  The Far Frozen?  Hunter’s Blind?  The Time Locked Lands?”

“Woah, woah, kiddo, I can only answer so fast.”  The ghost rubbed his chin.  “I got some medicinal soaps from the Far Frozen that one time; it’s not too far away from here.  Gonna take a moment to really remember, but while I’m thinking, can I ask: why are you up against this old bulldozer job if you’re wanting to get to the Far Frozen?”

“Thanks,” said Danny, relieved, “we were hoping someone could help us in there–” he jerked his head back towards the building mass, “--but I guess not, huh?”

“Oh, no one lives there,” said the ghost.  “It’s full of tarantulas.”

“Tarantulas!” shrieked Paulina.  

“Don’t worry about it, they’re probably harmless.”

“These ones’re pretty venomous, actually.  And huge.”

“The directions, please.”

“Alright, alright.  You young whippersnappers, always rushing around like you were still alive.  Alright, then.  First, you want to follow the Star of the Solemnity.”  He pointed at one of the points of light.  “After a while, you should see the Arson’s Arcade.  Big place.  It’s on fire.  Hard to miss, even if it isn't on the direct line to the Star of the Solemnity.  From there, you can follow the Burning Road to Dis–”

“Isn’t that also on fire?”

“Sure is.  Leastwise, it’s hot there.  Dis is within spitting distance to the Brass City.  From there, you drop through the Steam Curtain to the Boiling Sea.  Triple Point is somewhere around there, and that’ll take you to the Lands of Ice, right enough.  Far Frozen is in there, somewhere.”

“You call that close?” asked Hannah.  “That’s like… at least five different places.”

“Yeah,” said Danny, “maybe, but now I know where we are, and I can get there faster.”

“Oh, no, kiddo.  Shortcuts are never worth it.”

“It’s not a shortcut.  Besides, I don’t think that any of us would, like, survive going through the steam curtain.”

“Ah, cold cores then, huh?  I’ve always preferred warm water myself.”

The problem was more that the Steam Curtain was supposed to be scalding, and all of Danny’s classmates were made of flesh.

(No word on Mr. Lancer, who was occasionally rumored to be a literature-loving robot, or perhaps a vampire.)

“Yeah, something like that.  Thank you so much for your directions, they really helped.”  It was doubtful that the word ‘help’ was a trigger for the ghost like it was for Danny, but he hoped he got the meaning across regardless.  

The ghost’s face crinkled.  “No problemo!  I needed some time to plan out my next bath, anyway.  Good luck getting where you want to go!”  The ghost flew away in the general direction of their lair.  

“Well, they were nice,” said Danny.  

“That’s great, kid,” said Mr. Kennedy, his hands gripped around the wheel so tight that all of his knuckles were completely bloodless.  “Now where do we go?”

Danny pointed left, almost ninety degrees from the Star of Solemnity.  The ectoplasmic mists were ever so slightly grayer in that direction.  “That way.”  

“Why, what’s over there?” asked Star.  

“Casper High.  Probably.”  His mental map of the Ghost Zone was very good, at this point.  It wasn’t perfect.  

“You think the school got sucked in, too?” Dash said, mockingly.  “We were miles away.”

“Yeah, I know.  But the school has an ectoplasmic mirror because of all the deaths back in the fifties.”

“It’s true,” said Tucker.  “There were a whole lot of deaths back in the fifties.  Kind of scary.  I think I would have just closed the school.”  He tapped his lower lip.  “In retrospect, though, the way they keep the school open no matter what ghosts throw at it.”

Star frowned.  “What if you’re wrong?”

“Then we’ll probably notice before we get there, and we can try the ‘set ourselves on fire’ route.”

“I think we can do without that,” said Mr. Lancer.  “Mr. Kennedy, would you–”

“I’m going, I’m going,” said Mr. Kennedy.  They began to putter forward.  

For the first hour or so of the journey, things were quiet.  But the nature of the Time Locked Lands meant that even their outer fringes tended to be well-populated.  Ghosts were, after all, the kind of person to whom living in the past appealed the most.  

Even more unfortunately, some of those ghosts were people Danny knew.  

“Oh my gosh,” said Hannah, pointing out the window, “is that Ember?  I love her music!”

“Fans?”  Ember smirked, the expression clear even from this distance.  “I don’t mind if I do.”

She struck a chord and the bus vibrated.  

“Go faster!” shouted Danny, even as half the students started to chant Ember’s name.  “Go faster!”

“I can’t!” sobbed Mr. Kennedy.  

Danny put his hand against the side of the bus and extended his ghostly aura as far as he could without transforming.  He’d done things like this before, with the ecto-skeleton and the thermos, pushing enough of his will into technology to make it do what he wanted.  

The bus sped up.  But not enough.  

“Taking me on a tour?  Alright, cool bus, let’s see about a different tune!” 

A wave of chilled air passed over Danny, and the other students yelped and squeaked as the metal parts of the bus became painfully cold.  The one thing Danny, as an ice core, could counter…  He might have been impervious to it, but the others weren’t.  

“What now?” yelled the bus driver.  “Engines don’t work when it’s this cold!”

Danny thought about yelling at him that the engine didn’t matter, they weren’t even using it, but decided that would probably be counterproductive.  

“Valerie!” said Danny.  He hated throwing her under the bus (hopefully not literally) but one of the two of them literally had secret government organizations trying to kidnap him to dissect him, and it wasn’t her.  If she couldn’t do it, then he’d act.  “Do something!”

For a second, he thought she didn’t hear him, too entranced by whatever her suit was doing with the ectoplasm, but then red and black circuits pulsed into being all over her body and suddenly there were guns.  A lot of guns.  

“Ah,” squeaked Danny, thoroughly intimidated.  

Valerie fired through the bus windshield, shattering it into a thousand tiny pieces and blowing Ember far into the distance.  

That was the plus side.  On the minus side, the bus no longer had a front.  

“This is okay,” said Danny as Valerie sat down heavily.  “This is okay.  Valerie, are you okay?”

“Fine,” she said.  “I’m… fine.  What… Oh my gosh…”

“Miss Gray,” said Mr. Lancer, “I thought no one had any weapons…”

“Well,” said Valerie, recovering some of her usual sharpness.  “It’s not like I advertise that I’m–”

“Red Huntress!” gushed Mikey.  “That’s so cool!”

“That’s not my name,” said Valerie.  

“It’s not?” asked Mikey.  

“It’s not?” asked Danny.  

“I’m not a superhero,” said Valerie.  “I’m a ghost hunter.  I don’t have a code name.  That’s stupid.”

“Code names aren’t stupid,” said Danny and Mikey together. 

From the expression on Valerie’s face, Danny thought she must be wondering why she’d ever dated him.  

But that wasn’t important right now.

“Okay,” he said.  “Okay, we’ve got rid of her.  No more name chanting.”

“But E–”

Sam slapped her hand over Hannah’s mouth.  “No,” she said.  

“So, we can just keep going.”

“The front of the bus is gone.”

“Mr. Kennedy, we’re flying.”

“But it’s gone.”

“We weren’t using the engine anyway!  You were out of gas!”

This, of course, caused a commotion.  

“Listen, do your best to believe we can go,” begged Danny.  “Please.”

With that, they limped forward.  Slowly.  Painfully.  

But even at that speed, Sidney Poindexter’s version of Casper High loomed into view, as black and white as ever.  

The bus creaked to a stop.  And then the wheels fell off.  

“Come on,” said Danny, desperately.  “Just a little bit further.  Please.”

It did not go further.  

“The wheels are gone,” said Paulina.  “It can’t go without wheels.”

“We weren’t using them,” argued Danny, futilely.  “We’re floating.”

It didn’t work.  Which left the next option.  

“We’re going to have to fly there, then,” he said.  

This did not go over well.  Danny ignored the protests like they ignored his logic.  

“So, Sam and Tucker, can you get the lunches and stuff from the storage underneath?  Everyone else, grab your own stuff.  Uh… Val?  Can you use your hoverboard?”

“Huh?” asked Valerie, blankly.  

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

Valerie slowly passed a hand over her face.  

“I think…” she trailed off.  

“Can you, I don’t know, shut the suit off or anything?  Or maybe there’s a Ghost Zone mode?”

“No,” said Valerie.  “I just need to… calibrate.”

That sounded like a lie, but Danny wasn’t sure how far he should press.  “Okay, then.  So.  Here’s what’s going to happen…”  He trailed off, not actually sure what would happen.

Making plans was hard.  

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” he tried again, “Sam and Tucker and I are going to…”

“We could try pulling the bus,” said Tucker, “or pushing it.”

“We’re already doing that.  We can’t compete with this many Debbie doubters.”

“Isn’t that Debbie downers?”

“I can make it alliterate however I want.”

“You actually used that word correctly,” said Lancer.  “Oh, Elements of Style, we’re really in it now…”

“Can we… ferry them over, maybe?” suggested Sam.  “One by one?”

“Or maybe we can get everyone to hold hands and we can make a human chain,” said Tucker.  “Pull everyone across.”

Star cleared her throat.  “Is no one going to mention the creepy monochrome Casper High?”

“Oh, yeah,” said Danny, “that’s where Poindexter hangs out.  Sidney Poindexter, you know?”

Hannah perked up.  “You mean the school cryptid?”

“He’s a ghost.”

“Evidence suggests–”

“He’s a ghost,” repeated Danny, more forcefully.  “Please.  I think I like the human chain better.”  If they got attacked, Danny could push intangibility through the line in a pinch.  “I’ll go first, since I’m the best flier, Sam, you’ve got the end, Tucker…”

“I’ll stabilize people stepping off,” said Tucker.  

“Great,” said Danny, walking to the ragged front end of the bus and stepping off.  He floated easily, comfortably.  “See?  Easy.  Perfectly safe.  Val, you want to come next?”

“No,” said Val.  “I think I need to just… Sit here, for a little while.”

“Okay, cool,” said Danny.  “Paulina?”

Sam glared at him.  Hard.  

“Ugh.  Fine.  You would make an excuse to hold my hand.”

Danny blushed.  “If you don’t want to… Uh… Mikey?”

Mikey shook his head vigorously.  

“I will go,” said Mr. Lancer.  He stepped up to the edge.  “This is what a teacher does, this is what a teacher does, this is what a teacher does, they go before their students.  This is what a teacher does, they go before their students.  This is fine.  This is what a teacher does–”

Danny grabbed Mr. Lancer’s elbow and pulled him off.  He linked Mr. Lancer’s elbow with his, so neither of them would float off unexpectedly.  

“Okay,” he said, “so… Who’s next?”

Very slowly, and with a lot of cajoling, the rest of them lined up until they were a single line of people stretching into the green.  They didn’t even get halfway to the school.  

“Now what, Fengenius.”

“How do you come up with those amazing nicknames, Dash?” asked Danny.  

“It’s my idea anyway,” said Tucker, who had wound up between Sam and Valerie, who was still looking off.  “Danny’s going to pull us forward.”

“Yep,” said Danny.  “Just think light thoughts, or whatever.”

Again, slowly, because Danny wasn’t sure how hard some of his classmates could hold on, they drifted towards the school.  However, unlike the bus, Danny did get there without his wheels falling off.  He didn’t even misplace his shoes.  

“We made it,” said Mikey, making a show of kissing the ground.  

“Now what?” asked Ricky.  

“Now,” said Danny, “we see if we can get across here.”  He walked up to the doors.  

“Is that safe?” asked Mr. Lancer.  “This isn’t the real Casper High, after all.”

“It’s real enough,” said Danny.  “Just… try not to look like the kind of kid who gets bullied.”

Dash and the other jocks puffed out their chests while Paulina applied a fresh layer of makeup.  Problem was, to the shades that resided here, they were all weak and unfashionable.  Heck, even Sidney could beat Dash into the ground.  Speaking of which…

“Try not to look like bullies, either,” Danny added.  “In fact, try and fly under the radar.”

“Maybe we could wait outside,” said Star.  

“Uh, in the open?” asked Danny.  “Inside, at least we’re in a lair.  Ember won’t attack us there.”

Probably.  He didn’t know how Ember and Sidney got along.  

Sidney’s Casper High looked a lot like the real one.  Obviously.  Same layout, same crappy lockers, same weird paneling on the walls…  It was easier to pick out the differences, like the light fixtures and the handles on the doors.  Even the smell was the same.  Mostly.  It was just a little smokier, a little more citrusy.  

It must have been during classes, because the halls were empty.  Faint murmurs of sound came from behind classroom doors.  

“Hey!  You’re supposed to be in– Oh!  It’s you, Ph–”

“Fenton, yeah, I know,” said Danny, rubbing the back of his neck and desperately hoping that Sidney got the hint.  

Sidney fidgeted with his hall monitor badge for a second before his hands dropped back to his sides. “What are you all doing here?” He asked.  

“We fell through a natural portal and got stranded,” said Danny.  “I was wondering, hoping, really, that you might have something that can take us back to Amity?”

Poindexter shook his head.  “Sorry,” he said, “that mirror was about it, unless you want to try, well…  I don’t think you would.  It’s kind of long.”

“I don’t know,” said Danny, “I think we might try anything, if it was reliable.”

“Eh, I guess it’s up to you, but sometimes you can get across if you stay in my locker for as long as, you know, I was.”

“You mean when you…”

“Crossed over that first time, yeah.”

“Yeah, okay.  We’re not doing that.”

“Didn’t think so.”

“What are you two nerds talking about?” asked Dash.  

“Death, mostly,” said Danny.  “Please put two and two together.  Please.”  He turned back to Sidney.  “Do you know of any way we could get passage either to the Fenton Portal or the Far Frozen, then?”

“Maybe?” said Sidney.  He shrugged.  “I’m not really connected, though.”

“I know,” said Danny, “but I can work out things to pay people with, after.  I keep my promises.”

“Okay,” said Sidney.  “Er, we’re about to have our lunch period, so maybe the rest of you go to the cafeteria, while I show Ph–”

“Fenton.”

“While I show Fenton the dovecote.”

“The what now?”

“The dovecote.  For the carrier pigeons?”

Tucker’s mouth was hanging open.  “What century are you from?  Who uses carrier pigeons?”

“Phones don’t work in the Time Locked Lands!  You have to make do!”

There was a loud, ringing sound, and, yep, even the bells were the same.  

… When was the last time Casper High had been updated?  At all?  Yikes.  

A mass of teenaged shades poured from the classrooms along with harried looking teachers.  

“Just follow them,” said Sidney.  “They’ll steer you right.  Come on, Danny!”

Sidney pulled him away.  

“They will be safe, right?” asked Danny.  

“I think so,” said Sidney.  “Everything here has been a lot more peaceful since, well, you know.  You haven’t been here since then, I guess.”

“Yeah,” said Danny.  Funny thing about trauma is that generally you didn’t want to return to where it had happened.  Danny was bullied.  Sidney had been tormented.  “Didn’t think I’d be welcome, I guess.”

Sidney’s eyebrows went up.  “No welcome?  When you defeated the worst bully of all?  When you sealed away Pariah Dark?  Of course you’re welcome!”

“Thanks,” said Danny.  They came out onto one of the school roofs.  Perched on in a corner was a rectangle of color.  The dovecote.  It was a wooden box a few meters on each side, painted powder blue with gold and green trimmings.  

Danny had suspicions.  

“Did you… Get this from Dora?” he asked.  

Sometimes, with all the weird skin colors, it was hard to tell when a ghost was blushing.  Sidney, though, was definitely blushing.  A lot.  

“Uh,” said Danny, not ready for his guess to return anything but vehement denial.  “Good… for you?  Congratulations?”

“It’s not like that!  She’s just really nice.  And she likes the dances the school puts on now and again.”  He flew over to the dovecote, still blushing furiously.  “But these are from her kingdom, so if I tie one on, it should get to her in just an hour or so.”  He smiled.  “Better than snail mail, right?”

“Yeah,” said Danny, giving Sidney a thumbs up.  “And you’re okay with us just being here?”

“Sure!” said Sidney.  “You’ve got to go to classes and all, though.”

Danny blinked.  “Is that a joke?”

It was not a joke.  Especially not three and a half hours later when they all stumbled out into the courtyard.  

“Well,” said Danny kneeling in preparation for laying down and pretending the world didn’t exist, “to be fair to us, all of these people have had fifty years to refine this stuff.”

“I want revenge,” said Hannah.  “How do you get revenge on a ghost?”

“You don’t,” said Danny, not wanting to give her any ideas.  

Then, something blocked out the meager light from one of the television-static-like strips in the sky.  Overhead was a huge, pumpkin-like carriage pulled by scaly, draconic-looking horses.  The door swung open, and a set of stairs that went from the door to the carriage to the ground - a distance of over two stories - unfolded.  Princess Dora flew out and down the stairs, not touching them even once.  

“Oh, Sam,” she said, throwing out her arms.  “When I heard you were stranded, I just had to come.”  She hugged Sam.  Sam, gingerly, hugged her back.  

“How are you doing, Dora?” asked Sam as Danny forced himself to get back up on his feet.  

“Oh, marvelously.  We’ve finally gotten the plumbing to work again since our last course correction put us back in the Time Locked Lands.”  She shook her head.  “I can’t understand why my brother wanted to stay there, stay in that time.  Oh, I know it was for the sake of his power, but, truly, modern things make everything so much more convenient.  And how are you, Sir Daniel, Sir Tucker?”

“We’re good,” said Danny.  

“Yeah, except for being stranded.”

“There is that.  Can you help?”

Dora surveyed the other teenagers.  “I believe so,” she said.  She looked back up at her carriage, then at the students again, clearly comparing sizes. “I’ll have word sent back for two more carriages, then I can take you to the outskirts of the Far Frozen.”

“Not directly to their village?” asked Danny.  

Dora shook her head sadly.  “No, no.  I’m a hot core.  I wouldn’t do well in the Far Frozen, not any more than you would do well in Dis or the Burning Lands.”

“Sure wouldn’t,” said Danny.  “Would you believe, someone tried to give us directions through there?”

Dora shook her head.  “I’m sure they meant well.  Now, where is Sidney?”

“He said something about chess club?”

“Oh, excellent.  We can finish our game from last time.  It shouldn’t be long until the next carriages come, though, so prepare yourselves.”  She floated back up towards the carriage.  

“Uh,” said Hannah, “who was that?”

“Princess Dora,” said Danny.  “You remember the time we had a beauty pageant at the school?  And the organizers turned out to be ghosts?  Kidnapped Sam?  That whole thing?”

“Vaguely.”

“Well,” said Sam, “Dora’s brother, who we shall not name, was basically forcing her to run that thing.  But while I was kidnapped, we bonded, and talked a little about gender equality and praxis.  That kind of thing.  Then she deposed her brother.”

“Yeah,” said Hannah with a little fist pump.  “Feminism.”

“We helped,” said Tucker.  “We helped a lot.  Did you hear how Danny and I were called sir?  We’re knights.”

“Technically.”

“All knights are technically knights.”

“Our position is more ceremonial,” clarified Danny.  “A lot more ceremonial.”

“Still knighted.  Still knights.”

“So am I,” said Sam.  “What’s your point?”

“I don’t know that he has one.”

“We helped!  That’s my point!”

Danny shrugged.  “It’s okay if she likes Sam better, really.”

“And she’s dating Poindexter?” asked Dash.  “When she’s a princess?”

“Yeah, I guess.  It’s not, like, official as far as I know.  But they like each other.”

After that, well.  They were still experiencing massive mental fatigue from Sidney’s classes.  No one spoke for a long time.  

“Don’t your parents think ghosts are mindless or something?” asked Paulina.  “Why is their math so hard if they’re mindless?”

“They’re not mindless, that’s how,” said Danny.  “Really simple, that.”

“But the ones we get in Amity–”

“Are the people looking for trouble, usually.  You wouldn’t say Phantom is mindless, would you?”

Valerie, who had been lying quietly on the grass, shot straight up.  “You never told me how you knew I was ghost hunting,” she said, accusatorily.  

“Your first suit didn’t disguise your voice,” said Danny.  “Plus, whenever you were after Phantom, you yelled at him about how he ruined your life.  Which was why you started dating Tucker that one time.  Because you thought Phantom ruined your life, I mean.”

“Which I was totally okay with, by the way,” said Tucker, shooting her two thumbs up.  “If you ever change your mind about that breakup, I’m still here and still fine.”

“I’ll pass.”

“So… are you feeling better?”

Valerie shrugged.  “I’m… getting used to it,” she said.  Which wasn’t really an answer.  She laid back down.

If they didn’t get home soon, Danny would have to push it.  But not yet.  

Dora came back out before too long, a faint flush in her cheeks.  “Alright,” she said, clapping her hands together, “I can take you to your portal, now.  If you will follow me.”  She returned to the stairs, and the class followed.  

They were apprehensive about going up them, and Danny didn’t blame them.  They didn’t seem terribly stable.  But they should know by now that the laws of physics here were different than they were at home.  If the flying bus didn’t clue them in and all.  

But Danny, Sam, and Tucker didn’t have any such hesitation, and they started up almost at once.  

Which made it all the more awkward to get down when Valerie tipped over and started convulsing.  

“Stay back, everyone!” said Mr. Lancer, who knelt and turned Valerie on her side.  He pulled her scarf off, revealing angry red and black lines creeping up her neck.  “Mr. Baxter, give me your jacket.”

Dash stripped it off of himself without objection and tossed it over.  Mr. Lancer folded it and put it under her head.

“Does she have fits often?” asked Dora, one hand over her mouth.

“No,” said Mr. Lancer, “she doesn’t.” 

“Sam,” said Danny, “I think Casper High had a nurse back then.  Do you think–”

“I’m on it,” said Sam, who took off running.  

“Um,” said Danny.  “We might have to– Um.  Dora, which is closer, Technus’s lair or the Far Frozen?”

“Mr. Fenton–”

“The Far Frozen have doctors who can treat humans, and Technus is the one who gave her that tech.  One of them will probably be able to help.”

Because he could no longer be sure that just getting back to the real world would fix this.  Also, if anyone saw this, the secret government agencies might decide to dissect Valerie after all.  

Danny was a horrible friend and a horrible hero.  No wonder Valerie broke up with him.  Even if that was sort of unrelated.  

“Danny!” shouted Sam, jumping down the steps two at a time.  An elderly ghost trailed behind her.  

“Oh, dear,” said the ghost, passing Sam.  “Oh, dear.  We can’t really do much for seizures.  How long has this been going on?”

“Only… maybe three minutes,” said Mr. Lancer.  He wiped sweat away from his face.  “Or– Shorter?  I don’t know, I haven’t been keeping track.”

“That’s fine, dear,” said the elderly ghost.  “Like I said, there’s not much to do about seizures… But she should get to a doctor soon, if this is her first one.”

Before too long, Valerie started to still, the shaking slowing, then stopping.  

“Miss Gray?  Valerie?  Can you hear me?”

“Uhghh,” said Valerie.  “Hnmn.”

“Valerie,” said Mr. Lancer, “you just had a seizure.  Please, can you hear me?”

Valerie opened eyes that glowed faintly red.  “I c’n hear you,” she said.  She sat up, slowly, and rubbed her eyes.  

“How do you feel?”

Valerie blinked slowly at the ground and didn’t respond.

“Valerie?”

“Hm?”

“How do you feel?”

“... Bad,” said Valerie after a long moment.  

“Alright, dear,” said the nurse.  “How about you and I get you a change of clothes and your friends and teacher talk about how to get to a doctor.”

“I’ll go with you,” said Sam.  

“Me, too,” said Star.

“Dora,” said Danny, “do you know where they are, compared to here?”

“I– Yes.  Yes.  I do.  Technus is closer, I believe, although I’ve only seen his lair once and he’s often away…  We can go there, first, and then the Far Frozen.  I can even send a messenger to alert them.  One moment.”  She flew away, to where the carriage’s drivers rested.  

“Okay,” said Danny.  “We’ll have to help Valerie get in the carriage, but–”

“Mr. Fenton, forgive me, but shouldn’t we return to Amity Park?  The doctors there might not know much about ghostly diseases, but they are human doctors.  Wouldn’t it be better?”

“You remember the ghost bug?” asked Danny.  “Remember what happened then, what happened after.  Except it’s just one person who can be disappeared and there’s no cure in sight.  You know what I mean?”

Mr. Lancer covered his face with his hands.  

“She has to be better before we go back.”

“Alright,” said Mr. Lancer.  “We’ll go see this Technus and these Far Frozen people, but… we can’t stay long.”

“Right,” said Danny.  There was, after all, everyone else to think of.  And ectoplasm wasn’t exactly nutritious for humans.  “Of course.”

“I’ve sent the message,” said Dora as she returned.  “Hopefully, they will meet us at Technus’s lair, or when we are on our way.”

Valerie and the others came back out.  Valerie was walking slowly, dressed in a gray blouse and greyer skirt.  They helped her up the stairs into the carriage, and she promptly fell asleep.  

Danny worried.  

Danny worried as they flew through the green to Technus’s lair.  He worried as they parked in front of it.  He worried as Technus, frowning and wearing a bathrobe - what was it with ghosts and baths today? - opened his door and came out.  

Then he acted.  

“Hey!” he shouted, leaning out of the carriage door.  “Your stupid suit is making my friend sick!  You’d better be able to fix it!”

“Your friend?  The shouty girl?”

“Valerie!”

“Yes, yes,” said Technus.  “Valerie Gray!  Shouldn’t you two be dating?  I put a lot of work into that!”

“We broke up,” said Danny.  “Fix.  It.  Or.  Else.”

Technus cackled.  “Oh, you crack me up, ghost child.  Your threats are so tiny and cute.”

“I will end you!”

Technus continued to chortle.  “I’ll look at your little friend.  Just a friend, hm?  Maybe you’ll get back together?”  His bathrobe liquified and turned into his usual long white coat.  “Move aside, move aside.  Hm.  That’s interesting.”

“What is?” asked Danny.  He gazed at Valerie nervously.  She was awake, now… but she hadn’t responded to anything.  Not even Technus picking up her arm and dropping it.  

“Programming I didn’t put there!  I did decide to make it adaptive, but this is really extraordinary.”

“Can you fix it?” asked Danny.

“The technology?  Of course!  Am I not Technus, master of all things electronic and beeping!  And this is electronic!  And beeping!  But you should bring the girl to your icy friends afterward anyway.  I’m not great at bodies.”

“Great,” said Danny, relaxing for the first time since Valerie collapsed.  “You fix it, then.”  He collapsed into the nearest seat.

“Uh, Danny?” asked Mikey.

“Yeah?”

“Isn’t this one of the guys Phantom fights all the time?”

“Yeah?  So what?”

“You were threatening him?”

“So?”

“Hush, children!  You’re harshing my vibrations!”

“Don’t question it,” said Danny.  

“Yeah, Danny obviously works for the CIA,” said Hannah.  “Get with the program.”

“Never insult me like that again,” said Danny.  

“CHILDREN, I AM WORKING!”

They fell quiet.  

“There,” said Technus after another several minutes passed.  “That should do it.  It had adjusted to a lower ectoplasm setting, and when you moved to the Zone, one of the filter breaks was overloaded and burned out.”

“Is that it?”

“There were a few other things, but they were no match for I, Technus!”

“Why isn’t she waking up, then?” asked Lancer.  

Technus shrugged.  “Beats me.  That part isn’t electronic.  Or beeping.  I don’t do chemical reactions.”

That was, Danny knew, a blatant lie.  What Technus didn’t do was biology, which was fair enough, honestly.

“Well, thanks,” said Danny.  “But we should go, now.”

“Does this mean you won’t chase me down when–”

“Goodbye, Technus.”

Technus slunk out.

“Mr. Fenton,” said Mr. Lancer, “dare I ask why you would chase down a ghost.”

“No,” said Danny.  

“No?”

“No.”  He got up and sat down between Sam and Tucker.  They both gave him incredulous looks.  He shrugged at them.  He’d panicked.  ‘No’ was the best he could come up with.  Sue him.  This was stressful.  

Dora rapped on the wall between the carriage interior and the drivers, and they were off again.  

“How long is it to this ‘Far Frozen?’” asked Mr. Lancer.  

“A few hours from here, I believe,” said Dora, “but distances can be treacherous here.”

“Is it cold there?” asked Mikey.  

“Oh, yes.  It’s the coldest place I’ve ever been to.  But don’t worry.  They have an outpost on one of their satellite islands.  It’s quite comfortable there.”

“I didn’t know that,” said Danny.  

“Yes, well, it’s my understanding that you and your friends generally fly directly to Iceheart.”

Although everyone’s attention had already been focused on him and Dora, it now sharpened greatly.  He sunk down in his seat and focused on not turning invisible.  

“You three,” said Mr. Lancer, “how often have you been here.”

“Again,” mumbled Danny, “the portal is in the basement.  And there was the time I was kidnapped…”

“The multiple times you were kidnapped,” corrected Sam, hurriedly.  

“And the time Sam was kidnapped,” added Tucker.  “I avoided being kidnapped.”

“No, you didn’t,” said Danny.  

“I thought we agreed that time didn’t count.”

“No, we didn’t.”

“We did.”

Before they could get into a sufficiently distracting ‘yes we did’ versus ‘no we didn’t’ argument, Mr. Lancer intervened.  

“Do your parents know about this?”

“We’re teenagers, Mr. Lancer,” said Sam.  “We don’t tell our parents anything.”

“Besides, my parents think all ghosts are evil.”  Danny shrugged.  “I don’t want them to try and hunt down my kidnappers and shoot people like Dora instead.”

“But Dora… Kidnapped Miss Manson.”

“We’re friends, now,” said Sam.  “We got over it ages ago.”

“Sam is my very best and very first friend,” said Dora.  “We correspond frequently.”

“Ah,” said Mr. Lancer.  

“And even Technus isn’t that bad.  The catfishing aside.”

“Do I even want to know?”

“Probably not.  He plays Doomed, too, you know.”

“Hello the carriage!” called a voice from outside.  

“That must be the Far Frozen, coming to meet us,” said Dora.  

“Great,” said Danny, opening the door.  Sure enough, one of the Far Frozen’s high-tech skimmers was pulling up alongside the carriage as they slowed down.  The skimmer pulled a large trailer with a red cross, a rod of Asclepius and other symbols of healthcare emblazoned on its side.  “Thank goodness.”

“Are those… yetis?” asked Mr. Lancer faintly.  

“Yes!” said Hannah.  “I knew bigfoot was real!”

… Danny decided to let her have that one.  

“They’re some of the best doctors in the Zone,” said Danny.  “They helped me before, too, when I was hurt.”

“Mr. Fenton, I’m becoming more and more concerned about what you get up to outside of school.”

“Sorry,” said Danny.  “But it’s Amity Park.  I’m sure everyone has some scary stories to tell.”

“Not like that, we don’t,” said Ricky.”

“Yeah, but you don’t have the hell-portal in your basement,” said Tucker.  “That changes things!”

There was various muttering, mostly on the theme that the portal shouldn’t exist and Danny’s parents were crazy.  They weren’t exactly wrong.  

The two Far Frozen doctors approached the carriage, and Danny saw, happily, that Frostbite was one of them.  He waved.  

“It is good to see you, young one,” said Frostbite. “I understand you have a patient?”  He stooped down to peer in through the door.  “Can you send them out?”

It took more maneuvering than it probably should have to get Valerie to the door, but they eventually did, and Frostbite had her lie down on a floating stretcher, which they pushed over to the ambulance-cart.  

Danny followed, hopping over and hoping none of his classmates would do the same.  He was close enough, here, to help if something went wrong, but he’d probably be able to talk to Frostbite a little more freely if it was just him and Valerie.  

“This is not something we see very often,” said Frostbite as he scanned Valerie with a wand-like object.  

“You know what it is, then?”

“Yes,” said Frostbite, gravely.  “It is an affliction of warlocks, sorcerers, and other similar sorts.  Too much ectoplasm all at once.”

“What about everyone else?” asked Danny.  “They’re all here, and it’s hard to get more ectoplasm than this.”  He waved his hands at the Zone.  

“As long as they are not consuming it, they should be fine.  If your friend here acclimated herself to the amount of ectoplasm more gradually, she, too, would be unharmed.  But it appears that the ‘suit’ as Princess Dorathea called it in her dispatch to us, was somewhat designed to absorb ectoplasm to power itself.”

“That… sounds like it should be right.  Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Not at the moment.  We have a solution to the issue, although it may take some time for it to take effect.  In the meantime, we can keep heading towards the Far Frozen.”

“Okay,” said Danny.  “Should I stay here, or…?”

“Either would be fine, great one.”

“Right,” said Danny.  He glanced down at Valerie’s blank face and then away.  “Maybe I’ll sit on the skimmer.”  That sounded like a good compromise.  

Sam and Tucker joined him a minute later, followed shortly thereafter by Dora.  

“Lancer keeps muttering to himself about whether or not to call the police when we get back,” said Sam.  

“Well,” said Danny, “I guess they do need to do something about the bus.  You don’t think Mr. Kennedy will get into trouble for it, do you?”

“No,” said Sam, “I’m more worried about you.  And the portal.”

“I can always use Vlad’s if ours gets shut down,” said Danny.  “If it can be shut down.”  He shrugged.  “It… probably should have been shut down right away.  It’s not exactly safe, and… maybe fewer ghosts will come through.”

“I don’t know,” said Tucker.  “It’s mostly natural portals, these days.”

“Yeah, but maybe they’ll think twice about getting stranded if our portal isn’t there as a backup plan.  Right, Dora?”

“It’s possible,” said Dora, “but in my experience, beings like the ones you must often deal with rarely care about consequences.”  She shrugged daintily.  “My brother, for example.”

“Valerie will be okay, right?” asked Sam.  

“Yeah,” said Danny.  “That’s what Frostbite said.  She just ate too much ectoplasm.”

“What, does her suit absorb it or something?” 

“Apparently.”

They watched the zone-scape go by.  It grew colder.  

“I wonder if they have any extra coats,” said Tucker, shivering.  

“I’m sure they do,” said Dora.  “Let’s see.  On my last visit…”  She started to poke around the hatches on the skimmer’s deck.  “Ah!  Here!”  She handed Tucker a garment.  

“Is this okay to take?” asked Tucker.  

“It’s in your size,” pointed out Dora.  

“Good point,” said Tucker.  No one in the Far Frozen was Tucker’s size, after all.

“Is there enough for everyone?” asked Danny, going over to help Dora.  

“If there isn’t, I do have a few sets of cold gear stored under each carriage, just in case.  The Far Frozen’s work is much superior, however.”

Shortly after they distributed the coats, the Far Frozen started to come into view.  First, as a pale lavender smear against the green backdrop, and then as a stunning sculpture of sweeping curls of ice, all natural… or imitation natural.  There were a few, Danny knew, that had been hollowed out or made larger to serve as watchtowers and other defenses.  

After all, for ghosts, the war against Pariah Dark had not been that long ago.  

But they did not go directly to the large, glacial island, but to a smaller, rockier one with a stone tower built on it.  The skimmer docked at the very top, and more yetis poured out of the inside, carrying various supplies.  

“It shouldn’t be much longer until your friend is awake and mobile,” said Frostbite.  “I would like to keep her for observation, but we have little in the way of human food at the moment, and I would not like to afflict your other companions with malnutrition.”  He paused.  “I believe we do have hot chocolate, however.  Would you like some?”

“I would like some, if they do not,” said Dora, shivering.  

Frostbite looked at her with some concern.  “We can start a fire downstairs.”

“No, that’s quite alright,” said Dora.  “After all, you and your people are working to preserve a life.  I will not sacrifice your comfort for my own.”

“Speaking of comfort, I should probably let the others know we aren’t getting eaten or anything.”

He did.  It went about as well as could be expected, which meant that people either didn’t believe him, cast doubt on his experience, and subtly implied that his parents should be in jail.  Or not so subtly.  

Okay, it wasn’t that bad, but he was tired.  He was allowed to exaggerate.  

“So, anyway,” said Danny, “all we have to do now is wait.  Frostbite said Valerie should be good to go, soon, and then Dora will take us back.  No more detours.”

“You seem awfully sure of that.”

“Dora can turn into a dragon. There aren’t a lot of people who would attack her.”

Of course, everyone wanted to know about that.  

“Mr. Fenton,” said Mr. Lancer, a few minutes later, “distractions are all very well and good, but you can’t run from reasonable questions forever.”

“I’m not trying to,” said Danny, who was very much trying to.  

He was full of lies today!  Who would have thought?

“Yeah, you’re just trying to make excuses for your stupid crazy parents who brought all the ghosts to Amity!”

“Hey!  They didn’t bring all the ghosts!  Spectra was already around!”

“That’s… that’s true,” said Mr. Lancer, “her application had been in for a while…”

“So, there.  Y’all’d’ve been killed by Spectra if it weren’t for my parents.  So, there.”

“What– What was that word you just used?” asked Mr. Lancer. 

“There?”

Mr. Lancer gazed at him with despair.  

“What?” asked Danny, looking at Sam and Tucker.  “What’d I say?”

“I think it was the southernism that got through.  From your aunt, you know.”  Tucker shrugged.  “Y’all’d’ve.”

“Arkansas isn’t in the south.”

“It totally is.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Is.”

“It’s in the south,” said Mr. Lancer.  “I’m going to lie down for a while, I think.”

Mr. Lancer did, in fact, lie down.  

“He reminds me of one of my tutors,” said Dora, pleasantly.  “He had to retire.  UIcers.”

“Cool,” said Danny.  

It was only a couple hours later that Frostbite stuck his head in the carriage door.  

“Young one,” he said.  

They were working hard not to slip and call Danny Phantom or great one.  He appreciated that.  

“Your young friend, Miss Gray, is awake and aware.  If you would help her over, I think that would be for the best.  She’s mentioned a hoverboard, but I think that using any of her enhancements would be detrimental at this point in time.”

Danny jumped up and followed Frostbite out of the carriage, crossing the gap between the carriage and the skimmer in a single bound.  Which might have been showing off just a little.  But he was allowed.  He then hopped off the skimmer into the ambulance trailer.  

“Hi, Valerie,” he said.  “You’re feeling better?”

She was, at least, sitting up, although her shoulders were hunched and she looked very much like she wanted to fight off Frostbite and the other doctor.  

“I guess,” she said.  Then she turned a truly toxic glare on him.  “You.  You’re Phantom.”

“Uh, nooooooo?” said Danny.  

“Oh my gosh, you are.  You suck at lying.”

“No I don’t!”

Valerie stared at him with the same sort of despair as Mr. Lancer.  

“Anyway,” said Danny, “I’m here to bring you back to the carriage.”

“I can’t believe you outed me when you could have fought off Ember at any time.”

“Well, maybe I don’t want to be dissected.”

“I don’t want to be dissected either.”

“You probably would have passed out anyway,” said Danny.  “That seizure was going to happen, Ember or not.”

“You don’t know that.”

Frostbite cleared his throat.  “It probably was.  But it is my understanding that the two of you want to return home?”

“Yeah,” said Danny.  “Come on, Val, I’ll carry you across, back to the carriage.  It’ll be like that time Skulker kidnapped us.”

“You mean, when you overshadowed me.”

“Uh,” said Danny, sweating.  “Before that.  I carried you before that, right?”

“If you drop me,” said Valerie, “I will shoot you.”

“Noted.”

Danny did not drop Valerie.  On the other hand, he did get a lot of weird looks when they came back in.  Especially from the jocks.  

… Was there something on Danny’s arms?  No?

“Thanks, Frostbite,” said Danny.  “I really owe you one.”  He kind of owed the yetis five thousand or so, but who was counting?  Not him.  

“It’s nothing, young one.  After all, you have helped us in ways we cannot repay so easily.”

There was some muttering among Danny’s classmates that he would probably have to address at some point, but that was a problem for future him.  Hopefully, far future him.  Because screw that guy.  Danny had met him, and he was a real jerk.  

“I think we all feel that way,” said Dora.  “Will I be seeing you at the regional meeting, Chief Frostbite?”

“Most likely, Princess Dorathea.  Good day, to all of you.”

“Regional meeting?” asked Sam.  

“There was a great deal of argument about what to call it,” said Dora, “but it is the regular meeting of the various heads of state of this region.  It’s something new we’re trying.”

“That sounds great,” said Sam.  “Is it like the UN, or…?”

Danny tuned them out as he sat down and leaned his head back against the carriage wall.  Finally.  They were going home for real.  This had been a long day.  

The next thing Danny knew, Tucker was shaking him awake.  “Huh?” said Danny, eloquently.  

“This’s our stop,” said Tucker.  “Come on, let’s get out.”

Danny looked around.  “No one else is getting out.”

“They want you to jump into the spinny vortex of death first.”

“Oh.  Joy,” said Danny.  He got up, stretched, cracked his spine really well, and walked to the door.  “Dora, I really can’t thank you enough for this.”

“Silly,” said Dora.  “Sir Daniel, I meant what I said when you were talking to Chief Frostbite.  The three of you have done a lot for us.”

More muttering from the class.  Then Paulina stepped forward.  

“What did you even do that all of these ghosts like you?”

“It was the feminism!” said Hannah.  “Didn’t you listen?”

“I don’t think he brought feminism to the giant ice monsters.  Why is it that you suddenly stop being suspicious about things as soon as they aren’t– aren’t crazy conspiracy theories?”  She stomped her foot a little.  

Danny cleared his throat.  “Actually, the feminism thing was Sam.  Not me.”

“So why do they like you?”

“My sparkling personality,” said Danny.  

“No, that’s actually me,” said Tucker.  “And as wonderful as this has been, I kind of want to have my feet on solid ground again.  See you, Dora!”  Tucker leaped out the door and through the portal.  

“Yeah, that’s a plan,” said Danny, also jumping through.  

“You know,” said Tucker, as Danny hopped a little, trying to keep his feet underneath him, “I’m kind of surprised that, after everything, your parents still don’t have a reliable door on this thing.”

“Shut up and don’t give anyone any more ideas.”

One by one, the rest of Danny’s classmates came through the portal, until they were all standing in the lab, staring at the mess dazedly.  

“Oh, good,” said Mr. Lancer, the last one through.  “We’re back.  Frankenstein, Mr. Fenton, is this really your basement?”

“The one and only!” lied Danny cheerfully.  He was not up to explaining the Fenton Stockades.  

“It looks like a disaster waiting to happen.”

“Waiting?” asked Danny, right before cursing his inability to let a quip lie.  He was tired.  Sue him.  

Mr. Lancer stared at him.  Danny stared back.  

“I’m calling an ambulance for Miss Gray,” he said, “and then CPS for Mr. Fenton.”

[loremaster]

BOBA AU - CHAPTER 1 EXTRAS

I had actually drawn a few more things than could fit within the 30-image-per-post limit. Here are the ones that didn't make the cut, with commentary!

(tw: mild animal abuse, n*zi mention, suggestive themes)

Zilch's animal companions. I named Carmina Burana and Tortellini, Gucci and Bosch were named by my friends - though Bosch was supposed to be called Hieronymus, it just didn't fit on the nametag lol

I wanted to illustrate some examples of Zilch casually mistreating/neglecting the animals but this was as far as I got. I don't think he would be a full on animal abuser, just... the type of person who likes having a bunch of pets to show off but doesn't really think about properly caring for them. He likes the aesthetics of animals much more than the logistics.

This was gonna be the chapter cover and I forgot. Oops.

This was just practice drawing the church characters from their sprites.

Zilch: I must say, it's an unexpected pleasure to run into another kindred spirit around here. I'm Zilch~

This scene was actually cut deliberately. I drew it before I decided exactly what the Nun's issue with Zilch would be and then once I did, I felt like it didn't fit anymore. Zilch is still excited to see someone else with ears and tail like him, but in the final version, he's a lot more derisive about it.

I imagine the Nun is, like, an actual animal-human hybrid whereas Zilch is a furry with a wallet that can afford bioengineered bodymods. (One day, my friends... one day...)

Zilch being flippant and Halara being dismissive/tsundere. Couldn't really find a place to put it but I still like the drawing - even if I did accidentally give Zilch human ears.

By the way, you might notice Zilch hasn't been wearing his cap. There are two reasons. One is to show off that his ears aren't actually connected to it. If I had the time to go back and redraw the prologue with him wearing it - so Halara's "holy fuck" reaction makes more sense here - I would. (Not really worth trying to fix though, not until the rest of the story is done.)

But the other reason is that upon looking closer at Zilch's original design, I thought it was a little too evocative of Nazi imagery and wasn't really comfortable with it. It's not really the same style of hat, sure, but combined with the swastikas in his eyes??? yeah no way is that not intentional. (I redesigned his eye symbols to be catlike slit pupils instead.)

I get he (or, the hitman, I guess) is supposed to be a villain, and a minor one, in the original game... but here I'm gonna flesh him out a bit more. So I guess in that sense the removal of the hat symbolizes his growth as a character beyond his terrible awful fascist upbringing lol (more on that in the Gumshoe Gabs soon)

If I were making this an actual game it would be fun to have Yuma get a fun little added gameplay element of using Zilch's Forte like he does with Halara's. He gets some little animal friends!!!

I imagined Zilch would ask to be carried, but Halara won't do it without getting paid an exorbitant amount. And then Zilch forks over the cash on the spot. Yuma screams internally. If he had that the whole time why were they even trying to negotiate over the coat???!? Why does he still have his own debt to pay if Zilch could just cover the whole thing up front????

Halara has to pretend not to be enthusiastic about this opportunity.

Shinigami is... there, I guess.

Martina my wife driving around her little parasite of a boyfriend. Ms Electro please call me

Was originally gonna have Seth say that out loud but then I remembered he doesn't want to lose his job. (It's okay, he loses it anyway.)

(Also yes this is pre-Vivia-DLC.)

And then the mystery is solved!

Zilch feels indebted to Halara for saving him from the Nail Man, and wants to follow their example, turn it around, treat his animals better... his act of goodwill here is extremely performative, though. But, hey, everyone's gotta start somewhere!

Ultimately I cut this scene after coming up with the cat bed idea. (Was very tempted to have Halara cruelly taking the coat from the boy, but just decided to skip it instead.)

So Zilch kinda idolizes Halara now... which is fine... but then the morning after he really lets his simp flag fly.

Congrats on your furry boyfriend, I guess?????

A doodle from the margins of this comic way back when.... which finally has a place to belong! \o/

Zilch's fursona. His "zursona," if you will.

Thanks again for reading! I love everyone's comments in the tags and I'm so glad you all like my version of Zilch especially. Excited to develop him some more in future chapters >:)

[tsams-simps-and-co-corner]

FLIRTY Mechanic Reader making very bad passes/pick-up lines at their crush and doubling down even worse when they succeed/fail! Requesting for:

-Ekleipsis

-Lord Eclipse

-Mono

-Solar

Should’ve know the first request on here would be about the Eclipses lol. But TY SM for requesting!! I don’t really consider AGAB as gender but I see what you meant, anyways

Eclipse x Flirty (but bad at it) Fem!Reader

💥Ekleipsis🌑

•“Can you take me to the hospital? I just broke my leg falling for you.” •*slow turn* •You know, having one of Fazbear’s mechanics be on his side was just fine this very second. •After a few seconds of unbroken eye contact, you went at it again but somehow worse. •He reminds himself to play nice with his cru cover. •“I’m going to check if Lunar is playing in traffic. Don’t follow me.” •You laugh a bit as he walks off. •Why does he have to reciprocate your stupid fucking feelings?

🌟Lord Eclipse💥

•Lord is used to people literally worshiping him. He’s used songs of praise and prayers. He’s used to reverence and revere. •All things the phase, “If you were a Transformer you'd be Optimus Fine” is not. •If any of his servants where nearby, they would have been absolutely horrified by your words and what their consequences would be. •However, he just gave you an unamused look, hoping that it would end it. •Instead you doubled down. •How did it get worse then “Optimus Fine?” •He supposes this is his own fault, as he always let you get away with more then anyone else. •But he grits his teeth and bares your onslaught of terrible pick up lines. •He can’t be too mad at the only person who repeating the same words of worship he’s heard for over a thousand years and treats him like an actual friend.

🔧Solar🔥

•You two were fixing up some stuff around the Plex and trying to make small talk. •Until you hit your coworker with “I'm not so good at holding conversations… is it OK if I hold your hand instead?” •His stunned silence made his fans speeding fans for obvious. •“… That was terrible…” •He looked away, obviously a lil flustered by your stupid pickup line. •You were surprised that it actually worked, when a truly evil idea crossed your mind. •You followed it up with even worse lines to see of they worked. •And they did. •Solar could decide if he wanted to confess to you or shrivel up and die. •“If I hold you hand after this will you stop?” •He said it in a playful and annoyed tone. •Your turn to be flustered. •“… Sure…” •Mission accomplished(…?)

🌙Mono☀️

•“Do you drink a lot of Sprite? Because you look so-da-licious!” •Now where’s Lunar when you need him? •He just wanted have this body checked after coming back from death (again) and you pull this. •He had hoped ignoring it would have stopped, but you just kept going as if you thought he didn’t hear you the first time. •And even worse somehow. •Why do you do this? •Why do you think this will work? •Why do you think he’d be a good partner? He’s not the original or he’s not any better then him. •But as weird as you were, it was nice having someone around. •So he let you have your fun as you checked him. •You didn’t find anything wrong, the one thing out of the ordinary were his fans going on overtime, but he shut down any attempts to look into it

[echoing--stars]

Hey Stars! I adore your writing❤️

For a prompt how about Time and Warriors, reunion/trust? I can’t stop thinking about Wars realizing that the Little Link he fought the war with grew up to be Time,,, I feel like it’s bittersweet for both of them 🥲❤️

Aww, thank you! I'm so glad that you've been enjoying my little fics!

I'm going to apologize right away that this got real angsty/whumpy in the first part. (It made me sad enough that it took me two days to write XD ). I promise it gets better though! There's implied major injuries that aren't described in detail, and some descriptions of blood. But he gets better!

When thinking about Time being a part of the WoE, I've had this idea of Warriors wanting to make Sprite (the name I use for Time in the WoE in this) proud, and Sprite wanting to grow up to be like Warriors. But neither of them realize this at the time.

(If you read this and would like to request a short snippet, see this post!)

Time patted Warriors’ cheek, trying to get his attention and keep him awake. His breathing was all too shallow and broken up by the occasional cough, which left blood dribbling from the corner of his lips. Warriors’ head lolled to the side, but Time put his other hand on Warriors’ cheek to hold him steady. “Captain, you need to stay awake. Just a little longer, okay? The others are on their way.” Warriors mumbled something, but Time couldn’t make out what he was trying to say. Time swallowed, tamping down the urge to look behind him. Instead, he kept his focus on Warriors, who now had tears welling up in the corners of his eyes. “Do.. do you…” “Hush, save your strength.” Warriors head tipped back, and he looked up to the sky. Time wasn’t sure what exactly he was seeing. The tears dripping down his face mixed with the blood coming from the corner of his lips. Time wished he could wipe it away, make the pain go away. “...think… I… made him proud?” “Captain.” Time brushed the hair away from Warriors’ forehead. His eyes fluttered. “You’ve done amazing things, you’ve done so much good. Anyone would be proud.” Warriors lips tipped up in a crooked smile, but he coughed on his next breath. “That’s all I… wanted. He left before… I could never…” Warriors struggled to get the words out between wheezing breaths. Time glanced over his shoulder. He could no longer hear the sounds of the battle. The others should come looking any moment now. “Who?” But Warriors eyes had fallen shut. Time tapped on his cheek, and Warriors eyelids fluttered again. “Link, come on. Stay awake. Help is coming.” The promise felt hollow, even if he knew the others would be looking for them. “S…s…prite.” Time froze. He hadn’t heard that name in years. Decades, even. Warriors went limp, and Time barely managed to stop him from falling over. He cursed, and wrapped his arms around Warriors shoulders and underneath his knees. It was dangerous to move him, but at this point, he couldn’t wait for the others to find them. Time hurried in the direction he’d last heard the others in. It was only a minute or so later when he heard a shout and then the sound of the others coming towards them. Sky was already opening a bottle with a fairy by the time Time kneeled and set Warriors back on the ground. The fairy circled around Warriors, and immediately color returned to his face and his breathing evened out. He remained unconscious, but that was to be expected. Even magical healing took a lot of energy, so he would likely sleep for a while.

___

They decided to camp out for a few days. Everyone could use the rest, especially Warriors, after the last battle. Time waited a while before catching Warriors alone. “Captain?” Warriors looked up from where he was fixing a tear in one of his tunics. He gestured to the space beside him, and Time sat down. Time had debated on how to start this conversation, but in the end, he decided to just go for it. “Do you remember what happened after you were injured?” Warriors paused his work, and then set it aside with a sigh. “Not much.” “You mentioned a… Sprite?” Warriors’ face fell, and he tapped on his thigh. Time thought he recognized the pattern as one of the few songs the captain knew on the ocarina back in the war. He finally glanced over at Time, barely meeting his eyes. “He was another hero I fought alongside in the war. He was my little brother, and way too young to be there. I… He was sent home before I could say goodbye.” Time’s heart clenched. It had been so long since he’d stepped back through the portal after the War of Eras. When Lana had told him there was no time to say goodbye. Warriors — Link, at that time — had been recovering in the medic’s tent, slipping in and out of consciousness after suffering injuries in his final battle with Ganon. Time had never gotten to say goodbye either. He blinked slowly, then reached for his bag. He wasn’t sure if Warriors would believe him if he just told him the truth. But he had enough proof in his bag. “Link, I’m sorry I never told you this before.” He grabbed the first mask from his bag. “I thought… well, I don’t really know what I was thinking.” He passed the keaton mask over to Warriors. Warriors held it gingerly. Time couldn’t read the expression on his face. “When I was sent home, only minutes had passed in my original time. For the longest time, I told myself it was a dream. I didn’t believe it, not really. But it was easier that way.” Next, he pulled out the Ocarina of Time. The actual relic, though it no longer held the blessing of the Goddess of Time. “I… I know I was a brat. I know I caused trouble. But I need you to know that you are a huge part of who I am today. I was too old for the body I was in, but even still, I knew that when I grew up, I wanted to be just like you. You were my hero, Link. You still are.” When Warriors looked up, there were tears streaming down his face. For a moment, Time thought he’d done something wrong, but then Warriors set the mask and ocarina down as carefully as he’d held them and leaned over to wrap his arms around Time. Time pulled him closer until Warriors nearly fell over, and they both laughed, but neither moved to pull away. “You grew up to be a far better man than I’ve ever been, Sprite.” “Don’t talk like that, Link. I’m so, so proud of you.”

[ellraiser]

Mudborne - Devlog #02

Hey everyone! Been awhile since I opened up Tumblr to write something - I've been trying not to add the pressure to make myself post every single month, as half the time I don't have much to say and the other half making it something I HAVE to do prevents it from being something I WANT to do But it's been a little while of working on Mudborne stuff in between all the final APICO update stuff, and I wanted to share where I've got to so far with your new fav frog game

Back To The Drawing Board

So if you haven't already seen, one of the main things I'm doing with Mudborne is updating the style and the art. The gamejam version was made in a week, and a lot of that was shameless art rips of APICO with some reskins - which was still cute but after working in the APICO "style" for nearly 5 years now I wanted something different. For that I'd already played with a few ideas:

The game is set in a pond, so I wanted it to be mostly water. This meant thinking about what the landmass or even buildings would be like - I've always found the land style I did for APICO really weird as it's severe top-down but all the sprites are like sortof side view? So I wanted to work with that in mind and have the land match that perspective more. I also really liked the idea of the stone slabs as the land instead of dirt, as it had a nicer overall vibe and helped the mud stand out from the "dirt" of the early ideas. I also wanted to have lots of plants and nature stuff that wasn't necessarily interacted with but added to the overall scene. One thing I really hated with APICO is it relied on the trees/shrubs for balance of the overall palette, so this time I wanted enough flora scattered across the waters to make it look pretty all the time not just before the player has a killing spree with their axe. What I ended up settling on after a few weeks was this:

As you can see it's mostly water, with some large stone slabs to act as "land" and break it up, and lots of green. I wanted a consistent darker outline for anything you can interact with, which then let me have a lot of "background" flora and scenery.

The stone slabs also felt like a perfect place for buildings - I'd tried an attempt at a few building designs, but overally didn't really like how they fit in with the world

Having the stone slabs as the buildings felt more natural and the little extra details of grates and drains and windows I think helps sell it more as lived in. Also by having a fixed "size" of the blocks in tiles, I could match that for the inside so all the spaces matched up when going in and out (and also means I'd be able to show "hidden" rooms while inside that give you a clue to how to get into them)

To finish it off, I worked on the menu designs to see how the UI would fit in - there's some similarities to APICO's basic UI style but I changed the colors a bit and added more space around all the elements. I also wanted some clearer slot stuff, so like mushrooms and their powder/magic mud to have a small icon for the mushroom, buckets to have a liquid icon - I'd made a few sprites in APICO that were far too similar, so I wanted to avoid that this time round.

I also wanted to keep the main UI as minimal as possible, just some indicators, a current quest log, and then the tooltips if hovering something - this means I've got some flexibility later to add some more stuff. Once I got this coded up I'd tweak a few things, including the design of the titular mud itself, but overall things pretty much match those final concept arts above.

===

Lost In A Dream

With that done I wanted to work on the next main part of the design - the dream world. In the gamejam when you dream you visit the big frog god and they tell you your progress, but what I actually want is a whole dream world that acts as an "opposite" to the waking world.

With APICO I always felt like the gameplay was fun but the NPCs and story and exploration was pretty non-existant. In Mudborne I wanted to expand that, have a similar "maths for fun" genetic puzzle to work on as the core game but then have a much richer world to explore.

With the dream world I could have things change between the worlds - new doors and rooms appearing, broken bridges now fixed, stone lilypads disappearing. By using the big froggy pools the player can switch between the two, and access new areas they couldn't before, along with new frogs or mushrooms or NPCs. This ends up with a sort of APICO x Metroidvania in a way, you find different mushrooms, create new frogs, and based on the frog genetics you can "unlock" these gates to get to new areas - some part of the main story, others optional to learn more about the secrets of the world, but the different frogs will gate your progress and exploration. It also gives me a lot of scope to do fun things with the differences between the two worlds, whether thats trees turning into jellyfish that float around, or NPCs being different and saying/selling different things.

It also has some importance within the story itself so I think it should end up as a nice mix of fun gameplay, cool vibes, and a nice story to tell.

===

Something Old Something New

With the overworld itself I'd done a lot of changes, looking at the gamejam you can see just how much differs, not just colors but the world objects too.

Some of the items I still liked, like the mushroom designs or the basic tools, some I think make for a fun "nod" to APICO, (like the frogspawn being the honeycomb sprite but modified), with the objects themselves though I wanted to try and match that new "perspective" shared by the stone buildings and the trees.

I also wanted to start using some more colors and have things less flat, so it was nice to finally move away from a lot of the stuff I'd drawn for APICO. When it came to the menus though, I still think the rough style of menus worked really well - it's been battle tested and I know what worked and didn't, but the UI has always been pretty solid. The main changes I did was update the spacing between elements to give the slots + UI inside menus more space, and then I wanted to change some of the border/header styles slightly and have the tiny lilypad icon in there too. To start with I just fleshed out a bunch of the machines I had in the gamejam plus a few extra ones (also yes thats a slightly different shade of brown to APICO, you have good eyes!)

I really liked some of the menus have these sort of "mini" interfaces inside that showed a bit more of what is going on in the overworld, so wanted to lean into that a bit with some of the other machines. I also still liked the idea of having some mechanism stuff - for APICO players I appreciate it's lost the charm, but anyone new to Mudborne thats never heard of ol' bee game can still appreciate it!

===

Maths For Fun

As I started implementing the mechanics some of the menus changed a bit - for the current "vertical slice" I'm making for pitches, the main machines I needed were: - Spawner (frog+frog = frogspawn) - Grinder (mushroom = powders) - Cauldron (mud+powders = magic mud) - Nursery (magic mud + frogspawn = tadpole) - Feeder (tadpole + bugs = frogs) - Bed (skip ahead time)

The main differences to the gamejam version is the extra step with mushrooms (so that you don't have to find + pick as many mushrooms as you'll get multiple powders from one), the cauldron accepting up to 3 powders that can be the same or different (so one magic mud can have 3 buffs), and the nursery having multiple layers (so you could do 3 different genetic changes or use a +1 mushroom 3 times for a +3 in one step) The nursery change is the most important here, as being able to do 3 buffs at the same time is important as it's part of the genetic puzzle I'll explain later - but it also removes some grindyness, instead of needing to do 3 cycles for a 4 trait to become a 7 trait using a +1 mushroom, you can do just 1.

The feeder expands the process to include bugs you find to feed the tadpoles - once they grow they'll appear in the overworld as actual frogs again to catch, but this time they might be some new species depending on the genetic modifications you made with the mud. I'm still playing with what the different bugs might do or how which bugs are decided as needed, but I think it gives me a lot of room to play with from a mechanics standpoint. The final "new" machine I needed was the actual teleportation pools - these would have the genetic "lock" that you need to make a frog to match.

The puzzle starts off simple enough, get a frog that matches the 7 traits the pool requires. Putting a frog in the pool starts the little coloured lines to "move" from left to right, stopping if the number the frog has doesn't match whats needed. Once you have a frog with all numbers matching, all the dots can join up, and the pool unlocks to be used to travel between worlds.

"That's easy" I hear you say, and yes! To start with this is easy enough, sure you might need to combine different mushrooms to counter certain modifications you don't want, but you can cycle frogs as much as you want to keep modifying until you get there. However this is me making a game so obviously I need to then show you something that makes you cry - which is when I introduce the concept of ancestors to the genetic locks

Instead of just looking at the traits of the frog, it also looks at the traits of the frog of the previous generation, and maybe even the generation before that! So starting from the first "column" you need to jump to the next one in a single frog cycle, using the right mushrooms to modify the numbers in one leap (ha). 

You then might need to do that again (and again) until you have a frog that has each previous generation matching whats expected. There'll be some tools to help you "predict" this, as well as lots of different mushrooms you'll find as you explore that do different things, +1, -1, *2 AND -1 etc. Planning this out is a nightmare as you can imagine...

Also having 7 traits each with 7 values means a lot of combinations (823543?!?), which means I can "hide" a lot of frogs to be discovered. For example go scroll back up and look at the "finished" concept art without UI for both the waking and dream world - notice that piller on the left? By travelling to the dream you can get the missing numbers that give you a trait "key" you could make to find a new frog.

In this way there can be a bunch of frogs you have to find to progress through the pools to new areas, some frogs you can get through experimenting (what if I do 777777?) and some found through clues in the world. 

===

What Next?

So right now I've planned out all the mechanics and I've been starting to implement them into a prototype of sorts (in my new favourite engine LÖVE) to make sure it all feels fun and has the right vibe, so lots of little bugs/critters roaming around, a cute day/night cycle, weather etc

I'm trying to spend more time on little details and effects in the world, all very small stuff but all adds up without the player realising, reflections or pollen or subtle movement. 

The goal is to then finish that as a vertical slice I can use to pitch to publishers, cos although APICO did well that was a couple years ago now, and outside of this final update I essentially have no releases until Mudborne is done so money is pretty tight :')

While doing that, I'll be continuing on with the game, starting with the first "training" area that will essentially become the demo. My plan is to release the demo later this year showing that first area, while I continue finishing the game to release in 2025 - right now the demo on Steam is still the gamejam version, which while it has some of the vibes it's not the full concept of what I want Mudborne to be, so I'd like to get that updated to really show people what they can have to look forward to.

I have a lot of the full game mapped out now, in terms of the story, areas, npc, general mechanics etc. I'm also literally mapping it out, each area on some graph paper, so will be interesting to see how closely I follow this for the demo + full game, esp. as I've already changed the houses (and is a nice analogue break for my poor eyes)

===

As I mentioned at the start, having to force a devlog every month didn't work great for me, I'd rather do larger devlogs now and again to catch you all up with what I've been doing over a couple of months otherwise it feels like I'm scraping the barrel some months when I've been busy on other stuff. I do share the odd video + sketch in Discord now and again, so if you want to come chat about it I'd love to see you there, but I'm committing to do devlogs when I can so you can keep up with everything <3 ~ Ell

[aspaceformbf]

Stardew Boyfriend Mod Ideas Yet Again!

Apparently there are mods where you can marry other characters in Stardew Valley.. so it IS possible!

I know i wrote some fics detailing what yb would be like as a stardew companion, but they are a bit too detailed and might not be easy to turn into a mod.

I think the gojo mod just adds the heart events and marriage stuff. YB is already in love with you so I like the idea that each heart event is actually YOU liking and trusting him more, like a reverse dating sim.

Fic 1

Fic 2

Or check the #stardew tag

---

If You're Married to Someone Else

Him killing off characters you're dating or married to might be a lot of programming so maybe just dialogue of him being sad and going

"I would get rid of them if i could.."

If he has 6 of your hearts or above he would be like

"i'm the better option, we both know that..."

Actually.. there might be an easier way to go about this..

What if the NPC you married resets to zero hearts a few days after marriage? They still exist in the game and do their usual routines but the option to date them is locked.

---

After marriage, yb goes silent for a while or says stuff like

"they don't deserve you.."

"they stole you from me.."

"I will fix this, don't worry.."

And then boom, you're unmarried.

Thing is you can still date and marry other characters, just not the one that yb has already "taken care of"

The cycle just continues if you keep trying that.. you marry.. you get unmarried, and eventually more and more NPCs get locked off dating until there's only him left

---

YB "Taking Care" of Your Spouses

One day you wake up and your partner is not there. You walk out of the house and there's a dialogue saying

"Where did they go?"

You are still "married" when you check your status

---

If you find your married partner where they usually are at 0 zero hearts and talk to them, you will get an extra dialogue/monologue going

"Why are they acting like they don't know me?"

You can keep talking to them and they just give their usual dialogues and you get extra monologues like

"Is this some kind of prank? Knock it off!" "What are you doing here? Come home.." "Stop acting so cold.." "What's going on??"

If you don't bump into them and end the day, when you go to bed you will get a monologue saying

"That's weird.. I didn't see them today.."

If you bump into yb

"I had to do this"

"They are out of the way now.. you will understand soon enough"

---

By the third day, your monologues escalate to stuff like

"So we're really over huh.." "This isn't funny anymore.. if you don't come home soon, we are done"

If you talk to yb by the second day, he will tell you that you're not married anymore and that you and him can "continue loving each other"

After five days your status goes back to unmarried, your ex reverts to 0 hearts and you can date other characters (yb) now

If you try to give them a bouquet again at 8 hearts, you get dialogue like

"They don't seem interested" "They turned it down" "I'm not going through this again"

---

Other Mod Features

Sometimes the day starts with his sprite next to your bed. He runs off as you wake up.

You get gifts from him in the mailbox.

He gives you common items like forages or berries or fish sometimes when you talk to him. The chances of him giving you flowers are pretty high.

After starting a game with him, you receive two roses in your mailbox. He approaches you with a bouquet. He tries to hug you but your character doesn't know him and steps away.

He looks stunned

"..."

His confusion changes to a smiling sprite

"Oh I get it. I need to earn your affection! Don't worry love, I will prove my love to you!"

---

Q : High Value Items

What if he gives you high value items every other day.. or maybe once a week, so people can't exploit it? 

Imagine if he gives you a gold tool or something hard to get early on if you're lucky enough

---

I'm not sure if he would give you tools above your current progress level, I mean it's something to consider since he would do it if he could. It would  screw up the pacing of the game though.

Tumblr lore states he is stable financially but he's not FILTHY rich so.. I like to think of him leveling with you. His gifts start off relatively simple and not like.. game breaking.

So expensive and powerful tools could be something he gives you once you reach a certain level or milestone.

Maybe a dialogue option where you can let him know what kind of gifts you prefer? Or something that toggles if he would give you something WAY above your current level?

---

Q : Existing Children

What if I already have a child with the npc, does the child get dismissed?

---

Maybe you can't get a child with anyone other than yb in this mod. When you apply to adopt, the adoption process gets delayed or you find that none of the adoption agencies are responding to you?

---

Q : i already have a kid with maru tho

---

Probably need a new save file I guess. Or.. 

One way to do this without really breaking the game is if the kid disappears when you add the mod to your existing save file.

You receive a letter in the mailbox reassuring you that your kid is safe. Yeah he kidnaps the child.

Or the kid just stays with you and you're a single parent after he "deals" with your current marriage partner.

---

Q : the kid could be scared of him

---

Does the kid have much dialogue in the game? Game wise the kid just disappears and reappears after you marry him.

If there's dialogue involved, it could be a game breaking event where they just act as if yb has been their dad the whole time.

[zombeebunnie]

Game development Trembling Essence update:

Hello guys and welcome new followers, hope you're all having a great spooky month so far! :] Updates about the game might be shorter and/or a bit scattered around this month so I can't guarantee they'll be weekly. :]

As far as routing goes I can confidently say one of them is about 95% done as it transitions into Day 4! I had to go through and redo one section that's a fairly strong pivotal point within the game that can branch differently.

In the old version there was only one way it could go with varying dialog. When my play tester went through this section, the writing came off kind of wonky when I herd it being read back to me.

I remade the situation again and now you'll have three varying responses for it into Day 4! There were a few fixes towards CG transitions and glitches I just happen to come across, for some reason a certain trigger kept making the player go to a decision that wasn't chosen. It took a while to finally fix but I have no idea what was causing this issue. :,]

Also in mini happy news, I found one of the files I had been looking for! It was the backdoor CG that I couldn't find for months. It was used as a temporary placeholder until I redrew it but now that I have it again I touched up a few things with it and added different day/night settings to it. Now I just have to go through everything and place it around. Here's a before and after! :]

Also one of the CG's I did came out nicely and I didn't need a reference for it, I am very happy that I've been improving my art over time! Yay! :]

Lastly, I went through some of the choices within the beginning of the cabin part and added his sprite around a bit more as a quality of life change! At first I was kind of going for "off-screen" realism but sometimes you were left just looking at a empty room for a while so I went and adjusted him to continue being on screen unless he'd realistically wouldn't be (For example, the wording explaining that he went into another room, etc.).

I think that just about covers everything so far! Thank you guys for all your continued support and thoughtful messages. Hope you all continue having a good happy spooky month! >:]

[semitransparent-glob]

if you were to redesign the sdr2 cast what would u do

hehehe idk if i would go for a total redesign for a lot of the charas bc i really like a lot of the designs in dr2, especially ppl like ibuki, kazuichi, and gundham. :^)

I think the biggest thing i would change would be that I would give half the girls pants, and do a complete redesign of akane's outfit to actually fit her character. She would wear something sporty and comfortable, something she can move in, but maybe not branded sportswear. Like maybe a loose tshirt and some gym shorts. I think she doesnt care about fashion and would pretty much wear whatever she can get that is the most comfortable and least restrictive.

Peko would be another that gets pants, for a similar reason. And i think chiaki would wear sweatpants. AND i don't like how fitting chiaki's sweater is. I wish it was looser and more cozy looking.

I've seen a lot of great mikan redesigns that make her actually look like a nurse, but medical stuff bothers me a bit so i haven't really thought about how I would mess with her design much. I think it would be cool if she wore some custom scrubs.

Idk if messing with body types counts as redesigning but ofc i would fix the weird anatomy with the imposter and teruteru. And plenty of the other charas are too skinny but that's getting more into just my headcanons lol.

I think hajime could benefit a lot from some design changes, namely adding a few points of interest that aren't his tie. But I understand that his design is meant to be plain and unassuming, but if I had the choice I would add small details that imply he's an alt kid wannabe who is restricted by strict parents and a rigid school dress code. Like he paints his nails but his parents won't let him get piercings so he has to settle for clip on earrings and he loses them constantly.

last thing i would do i think is change nagito's shoes to look less ridiculous

but yeah that's pretty much it because i like a lot of the dr2 designs as they are. 🤔 the sprites and art for that game is prob my fav in the series. sdr2 has some vibrancy to the color choices that add a lot that thh and v3 are lacking sometimes.

[steamberrystudio]

31/12/2023 Devlog

Hey everyone! Time for the bi-weekly tumblr update for Steamberry stuff! Except I skipped one because I can't remember why.

I half-wrote it but I think I just wasn't feeling up to finishing and posting.

I haven't been doing extremely well health-wise lately but still powering through.

Summary

Finished writing Chapter 5.5 (the new chapter in WSC)

Finished editing Chapters 6, 7, and 8 of Asher's path

Finished all the profiles for the GS lore book

Have started wrapping up the "side stories" and additional content for the GS lore book

Ramble

Okay so in my last update I was in the middle of editing chapter 5 and was nearly to the start of chapter six in editing Asher's route. I finished up chapter 5...

At that point when I was looking ahead, I started feeling like I wanted to add in a transition scene to move between Chapter 5 and Chapter 6.

As I started plotting out this scene, one of my ideas took on a life of its own and I realised that it might be better to interject a new, fleshed out story incident that would allow me to slow the pacing as well as flesh out the setting and universe a little more. This incident would also let me tie into some earlier events and connect them to something that occurs in chapter 6, also foreshadowing the chapter 6 incident.

Ultimately, this became too much to call a "scene" and I decided to branch it off into a supplementary chapter (IE a chapter a bit shorter than the others and meant to be released along with another chapter.)

Then that chapter ended up being 30,000 words.

So that happened.

After finishing that I went on to finish editing chapters 6, 7, and 8. I am currently on chapter 9. I only have a few more chapters before I'm finished editing Asher's path. As always, during my edits, one of the main things I do is flesh things out.

So obviously the word count has grown from that (and, you know, the 30k extra chapter I invented).

Currently the word count is 468,000 words.

Other Stuff:

I have received several new BGs and a new BG sketch. BGs are continuing to come in at a fairly steady pace.

I now have all the BGs for The Ophelia and the artists are working on other locations finally. OwO

I've also been, here and there, doing small tweaks to the sprites, small additions and fixes.

Gilded Shadows:

As I mentioned, I finally got through all the character profiles. There are so many more characters than I remembered in this game.

Then I got halfway through and realised that I forgot five. And had to insert them, which...meant rearranging pages, which is a pain in the butt. However, that is now complete.

What I'm working on now is finishing up some of the short stories and drabbles I have planned or partially written out and getting them into the lore book. 

As well as gathering any other content. The lore book is currently about 350 pages. And I am really hoping to wrap it up soon.

Upcoming Weeks:

Next couple of weeks I will be trying to wrap up the lore book and wrap up editing Asher's Path.

When I finish editing Asher's path I'll be moving on to finish drafting the end sequences for the four remaining characters. I'm starting to have an idea of where the word count is going to end up but will have a better idea for sure when Asher's edit is complete.

I have written over 100,000 words since mid-August, just plugging away and trying to hit at least 1000 words a day.

I hit my year end word count goal of 466,000 words for When Stars Collide but unfortunately did not finish the draft because the draft has grown in size.

But I am really hoping to finish it early next year so we can fully move into phase 2 of When Stars Collide.

I am also hoping to get the final KS stuff resolved for Gilded Shadows early next year as well (the lore book, art book, and some residual art and stuff).

For now, I shall just keep plucking away at it until it's all done.

And that is all for now. I will see you all next year.

[caffeiiine]

hi hi i didnt realize i cant like rb or answer anything answered privately which makes sense cuz its meant tobe private but its a lilinconvenient noq that i think about it but anyway answering stuff about the rewrite!!

the idea that angie can accurately replicate handwriting is so good to me ouagh, i wantee to add something where kokichi's signature was different on angie's note than the actual note for evidence reasons but idk if i ever put that in the doc

okok the wuestions now (i do not remember a lot of these things befause of this having been made 2+ years ago BhbBDFIJGBRJK)

- "how did miu not burn the whole jacket?" - i imagine a leon situation. most of it burned, but a part of it fell out of whatever machine miu made to burn the jacket and she just never picked it up (in part bc she didn't feel like it, in part bc she's dual masterminds with kirumi in this world)

- "why did she wear her jacket if she were trying to frame kokichi?" - yeh no i did not think that through FBHEBIJABFUIA i think me from two years ago just wanted an obvious difference to a character that at first wasnt very suspicious but later was like holy shit ur the mruderer AND HERES THE EVIDENCE sorry i have monster im very shaky so im not fixing typos i hope u can read these BEAUIBDFIUDSFBU

- "miu + angie alliance? :3" - in retrospect i so should have done something with that cuz i lowkey love that idea BUAOHAOJHEAJO

- "[...] if there was a rivalry between your s/i and angie bc of the similarish talents" - never thought about it but absolutely i think yes

- "what was the point of the torture post-mortem?" - angie wanted to make it seem like kokichi had dragged my s/i into his lab and tried to get him to help with some plan but my s/i refused (mightve been my reasoning?) and got to the point he tortured him to try to get assistance or something, angie just wanted it to seem like kokichi had tortured my s/i for some reason (cuz atp they all think kokichi is mega cruel mega heartless ygwim)

with a lot of the above questions i came up with this entire chapter within the span of like... a day home alone on a day off i had from school so i never really changed anything after i came up atih it? and i had reasonings for things i just never wrote them doqn properly and was like rambling to myself out loud ot think that day) (my dogs probably thought i was crazy) (i am crazy)

onto commentary comments :3

YESSS KAEDE IS ALIVE!!!! i wanted her and shuichi to both live in this so i made it happen :3 along with them i think kokichi is the only other of the remaining 5 after chapter 6 that would be alive (kirumi's influence, miu's inventions, they caused Despair and Hell snd whatever yadda yadda i tried making it work and i never really fleshed it out)

ENHABHAJDGBIHA YES ANGIE REPLICATING HANDWRITING HS MY HEART BECAUSE I JUST. i feel like shes really good at replicating styles? like art styles, s the ultimate artist yk, so i feel like she could replicate handwriting pretty well too

BAJHAUAHAJ I QANTED TO MAKE HER HVE SOME REALLY OBVIOUS THING WRONG BUT LIKE TRY TO EXCUSE IT OUT OF TRIAL. i made a few crazy angie sprites actually ebcause i wanted to hold on

crazy angies i made cuz i wanted to do that trial insanely ^ i mightve actually made these before i came up with this idea and then i qas like "WHAT IF ANGIE NO COAT AND NO ONE SUSPECTS ANYTHING UNTIL ITS TRIAL EVIDENCE" idk i had no reasoning to make her go to th etrial qithout her coat other than i wasnt cery good at thinking of incriminating evidence

i cannot actually think of a way to reply to the thing aoubt angie assuming and backing it up with atua + that whole paragraph (it is 12:12 in the morning rn as i type this) but hard agree with everything u say there

ALSO YES ANGIE REALIZING "ATUA" FAILED HER AND LOSING HER MIND OVER THAT ACTUALLY!!! YES!!!

u can like copy paste the format for the trial stuff if u want to btw!! with this i tried to make sure i did a lot of looking into what info i needed (i had an "evidence" tab too but i forgot what i was gonna put there so i left it blank + couldve been the truth bullets or smth! maybe the detailed descriptions for them??? idk) but anyway u can copy paste the actual format itself and leave maybe a few things in each thing to dtermine what exactly it is that you can put there idk idk its 12:15 im struggling BSHBSFDHIHA

ALSO YES HRUTAL MURDER, i didnt realize until i read through it again that it is a very brutal murder + generally brutal case and i put a lot of lements in there but i was very over the top 2-3 years ago so i blame that. id do better now if i could erase my memory of making this case and redo it

also ur welcome for accurate dearh times i think i had to actually look up "does a stab to the back of the neck kill you instantly" i htink the fbi has me on their watchlist now because of that alone BFRUIHRUIAHUIHAGHAH

alos yes i Can read tags on privately answered posts, i watned kokichi angst back then so i thought the best way to do that was to make him fall in love with me adn the n kill myself off BSJAHAUHAHHA, alos probably because i would have died immediately in a killing game so i gave myself the benefit of the doubt for it and made myself live for an extra 4 chapters than i probably would actually live

oookay sorry this rotted in my inbox i now have a spare 30 mins to type this 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

OHHKAY OKAY i was thinking that i was thinking it might be a leon thing or similar to that

AH GOT YAHT👍👍 adding on a little i think it’d be silly if she early on in the trial somebody asked her about her coat and she was like “oh, i lost it!” and everyone brushed it off until later a bunch of things come to light and then its like idk insert reaction i can’t think of anything😞😞

ALSO ALSO if we can fit it in somehow we should use miu + angie alliance, only thing now is would miu hang on until the end in order to not get herself tied up in the aftermath? or would she throw angie under the bus the minute things are turning out bad for her kinda like nagito and teruteru? except she definitely wouldn’t be as nonchalant about things as he was, she’d probably be taking everything as an attack against herself and being super defensive. but at the same time, she also has a super weak will and crumples very easy so at that point she might be more focused on minimizing her position as much as possible? idk im rambling <3

and also that’s so real i have several old aus i made on like testing days and stuff that i just never got around to fleshing out <3 and when i looked back on them they just. SUCKED. so i didn’t do anything with them. not saying yours sucked btw just saying mine sucked [like they were HORRENDOUS. trust.]🫂🫂

off topic i love saimatsu so much <3 anyways the kirumi + miu mastermind thing reminds me of hiyoko and ibuki tbh [LOVE them + that pairing] super super off topic once but me and my friend made a crackship once with ibuki + miu and that just reminded me of it mxnxnd

THATS SO REAL AND TRUE IM STEALING THAT HC

WOOO ANGIE SPRITES!!!! she so deserved to be a killer in the main game idc what anyone says

THE ATUA THING IS A DETAIL ID LIKE TO INCLDIE IN OUR REWRITE BTW <33 OPINIONS ON THAT

YAAY i’ve got the general format in my head for whenever i decide to actually sit down and make the doc since i’ve been procrastinating on that so hard😞

this is so off topic but i feel like you were a theater kid at one point, i barley meet people that are very expressive like you and 9 time out of 10 they are/have been theater kids :3

THATS SO SILLY THOUGH, if im being completely realistic id be the first one gone just bc im stupid😞 and id probably complain about people killing in ways that were stupid to me, id be lucky to get to chapter 2 i think unless i was in some position of power nxbdhdb s/i’s are silly and funny

[darklight-owl]

I'm finally free from The Horrors so I'll take the time to write all my impressions from the new trailer. Tldr:

NWOS LOOKS REALLY GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!

This is gonna be a long post I've been thinking about that trailer all day

Like. Fr. The Vision pretty much cleared any doubt in my mind I had about this game. It's made with so much love and passion and just oozes charm and creativity just like Layton games we know and love. Also Steam Bison might be my favorite town yet. You're telling me these mfs have mechanical animals for HOUSES? THAT'S. SO. COOL.

SPEAKING OF STEAM BISON WE HAVE MORE LORE ON IT. It's a relatively new town created by some inventor person called Eggmuffin (who I will get into later because I am really excited to talk about Eggmuffin.)

The music is SOOOO NICE. Is it just me or is there more guitar and brass than in other games? (I'm not good at telling brass instruments apart... is that a trumpet?) I like the combo a lot, it's very lonely but soothing :3

The gameplay largely looks the same (which I'm kinda grateful for, if it aint broke don't fix it lol) except the cute little "in party" sprites seem to have been replaced by the characters standing in the foreground. I don't mind the change, it works well with the switch's single screen. Also it lends way to some really quality memes.

Also there's puzzles in the overworld now!! WHICH IS SOMETHING I'VE WANTED IN LAYTON SINCE THE START🥳

Clearly this is a decision made solely to appeal to ME. Which is understandable since I am the lead writer for this game. Sorry for keeping it a secret so long, my boss wanted to announce my involvement in the Vision but decided against it last minute since I keep leaking stuff on Discord.

Ok enough memeing LET'S TALK EGGMUFFIN. They haven't been shown yet only mentioned by name. While the subtitles refer to them with he/him pronouns it might be a translation thing since from what little japanese I know everyone referred to them with gender neutrality. I'M REALLY HOPING SHE ISN'T A DUDE. (I use whatever pronouns i feel like for Eggmuffin she is a blank slate rn) it would be SO cool to have some enby or woman representation!!! Also you can BET YOUR ASS I'M DRAWING THEM SHE'S SHOWING UP IN THE VILLAIN FLORA AU

FINALLY THE VISUALS

THE PUZZLE SOLVING ANIMATION. IT'S SO. CUTE.

LAYTON HAS VISIBLE TEETH ON HIS MODEL. HIS MOUTH IS NOW 3D AND HE CAN EAT SOLID FOODS.

LOOK AT MY SON BOY. HE CROSS-EYED.

ALSO IS IT JUST ME OR DID HIS VOICE CRACK A FEW TIMES??? THAT'S SO CUTE. MY BOY IS GROWING UP I'M NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING.

Anyway I'm gonna go draw Eggmuffin as a milf now. See ya.

[smolghostbot]

GT July: Intimidate (1)

Can We Stop And Rewind?

Decided to do two entries today, both snippets from Patchwork Melody: Spring, Patch and Melody's first meeting story. This is the lower-intensity one, the other (posting in a bit) is very whump.

Context: Melody has brought Patch inside to help them with a sprained arm, but they both have very different ideas of what's going on.

Word Count: 800

Character bios in my pinned post

CWs for accidental ableism (discussed and apologized for) and mentions of kidnapping (a genuine misunderstanding). Also some swearing on Mel's part but if that bothers you this is not the blog for you.

========

Suddenly, their giant captor stood up and walked away. The sprite instantly became terrified. Were they getting something to punish them for their silence? Were they finally dropping the nice facade?

Eventually, the human came back to the table with a large book. Placing it down gently, so as not to scare the tiny creature with a loud thump, they began to flip through the book.

"Okay… pointed ears say an elf, but your ears aren't really very… elven. Maybe you're a mousefolk? But you have no tail… or if you do, it's a tiny one hidden under that little robe of yours… I did find you outside of my house, and your outfit looks a bit ragged… uh, no offense, of course. Maybe you're a brownie? I have some milk in the fridge, would that get you to talk?"

They could only look at the human with a confused look. What was she going on about?

"... No wings, so you probably aren't a fairy… unless you lost your wings. Did you ever have wings, little thing?"

The confused sprite only shook their head in a slow "no".

"OK… well, I probably… uh… should have gone for something more professional than a D&D guidebook… I think I still have my old college textbooks around here somewhere… gods knows those things are way too expensive to chuck…"

The human left, and took several more books off the shelf after a few minutes of looking around. She flipped through each book, taking what felt like forever, muttering to herself as she went.

"We're miles from the nearest forest… you clearly aren't invisible… Definitely don't look human… Those clothes don't look at all suitable for living in water… it's… maybe technically nighttime? But you weren't leaving a gift… unless… you were actually planting seeds! Is this backpack full of seeds?"

The small sprite instantly went into a panic as the human looked over to their backpack, frantically shaking their head in a no, and praying that the human didn't try to dig into the bag. They already had to fix it up after… the last human they met. Luckily, this human seems to have had no plans on that and continued digging through the books, becoming more frustrated over time.

Eventually, they seem to have hit their limit, and threw their head back in agitation before speaking in a more aggressive tone than they had previously. "Ugh! Why won't you just say anything!?"

-

Melody noticed a knocking noise on the plastic container her little "guest" was in, and saw the mysterious little thing clearly trying to get her attention. As she looked over at him, she saw him frantically motioning with his hands over his neck, in an X shape. His mouth was moving, as if speaking in an exaggerated way, as if to make it easier for her to see that no sound was coming out of his mouth. He clearly looked scared, probably threatened by her voice raising. Her eyes lit up in both realization and embarrassment.

"Oh my gods. You aren't just being silent to be difficult… you can't actually speak, can you?" As he nodded a yes, Mel lowered her head into her hands in shame.

"Shit, I'm such a dick. That's what your little hand motions were, oh my gods you were signing! My dumb ass was sitting here thinking you were trying to cast spells or something, ugh, I'm such an idiot! Maybe not everything about this situation is silly and fantastical, Mel, maybe he's just mute and you're being insensitive like always."

Their head raised and their face shifted into a goofy expression as they began to cheer with a clearly sarcastic voice, "Yeah Mel, yeah, woo, get upset at a mute guy for not speaking, like a COMPLETE ASSHOLE, hell yeah, casual ableism, woo!!"

The human hung her head in embarrassment again before continuing to berate herself, putting her head in her hands.

"Ugh… I swear, I didn't know, if I had known I would never… I'm not some, like, prick, I swear. Oh my gods, I'm so stupid. Way to make a first impression, at least I know you can't hex me or whatever because I would be so cursed right now for sure."

If the sprite could communicate at the moment, and wasn't still terrified of this human, they'd have some strong words about how kidnapping is also not a good first impression. However, they have no intent on insulting their captor, despite the clear look of regret already on the human's face. They remain still, waiting for the human to compose themself.