#i have a few original things in my files that i haven't really looked at in a while too

[therulerofallpotatos]

I’m seriously considering setting up something to write original works as a second job online. Idk if I’d get a patreon or make a side blog here or what, but the general idea would be to take requests and set up payments. I don’t know if anyone would be interested and it’s a bit intimidating figuring out the details of setting it up. Ideally, people could send in requests and I’d be able to write something within a reasonable amount of time.

[quasi-normalcy]

Which Star Trek series should you start with?

The Original Series: Advantages: + The one that started it all + Has some sophisticated and socially conscious science fiction that has held up exceptionally well + The lead characters all have really good chemistry and fun to see play off of one another + It's what most people probably think of when you say Star Trek (together with TNG) Disadvantages: - It can feel very dated and kind of sexist, particularly in its treatment of women - The sci-fi and social commentary may have held up, but damn it, the special effects really haven't - When TOS is bad, it's really, really bad.

The Animated Series: Advantages: + Basically just more TOS. Disadvantages: - Basically just more TOS, but substituting extremely cheap animation for bad special effects

The Next Generation: Advantages: + Probably the most popular one at this point + The crew is full of interesting characters and they're fun to spend time with + Just really smart people solving Space Mysteries + Socialist space utopia + Geordi-And-Data! + Lots of cool sci-fi concepts and social commentary + It's what most people probably think of when you say Star Trek (together with TOS) Disadvantages: - Although not in the same way as TOS, it can feel dated at times, particularly in terms of its treatment of women and it's near complete refusal to acknowledge queerness - Without wanting to bias viewer opinion, the first season is widely considered to be pretty bad - The series makes no bones about the fact that the socialist space utopia is better than every other society that has ever existed and will reiterate this point over and over again

Deep Space Nine: Advantages: + The most popular Trek series on Tumblr + Has a complete story arc, as well as arcs for all of its characters, including the extremely minor ones + Plain, simple, Garak. The humble tailor. + Garashir, if you're into that + Seriously has a really sophisticated treatment of things like post-colonial politics, anthropology, worldbuilding, and the horrors of warfare + Just the characters in general + Is the only Star Trek prior to the 2010s to even look meaningfully at queer representation Disadvantages: - Has an absolutely massive inferiority complex with respect to TNG and this drives a few poor writing decisions that seemingly exist just to poke the Socialist Space Utopia in its eye - Introduces a space religion and then just slowly turns it into Christianity with the numbers filed off - Seems to think that sexual harassment is just a quirky eccentricity - There's no women in its writers' room, and frankly it shows

Voyager: Advantages: + Probably the clearest instance of found family in space + Lots of really good episodes + Lots of fun new characters + Strong female role models + "Set a course...for home." Disadvantages: - Continuity? I never knew her! - Probably about 90% of Trek's reputation for technobabble comes from this one series - Even less queerness than TNG. - Only like...3 characters actually get arcs. - The first few seasons lean very hard into bullshit fake "Native American" spiritualism with one of the characters - How do these guys have warp drive but can't find any water?

Enterprise: Advantages: + Chronologically the first series + 90% less technobabble + The only series to plausibly frame our heroes as astronauts...on some kind of...star trek. + Still has probably the best production values of any series + Makes alien cultures of the week feel somehow richer and deeper than other series + Faith of the Heart is good, fuck you. Disadvantages: - Oh my god, the decon scenes - Seriously, if you've ever wondered what a "sexy" series written by a 14 year old boy who's only ever seen a bit of scrambled softcore porn on late-night cable would be like, this is the show for you - Somehow feels more sexist and racist than the show from the '60s - Seriously, the POC characters mostly exist to fill seats on the bridge; the women constantly have to undress themselves - Hellooooo, Bush II-era political analogies - Scott Bakula is a good actor but you wouldn't know it from this series - In season 3, they add a tambourine beat to Faith of the Heart and ruin it

Discovery: Advantages: + Noticed the lack of queer characters in the first 50 years of Star Trek canon and decided to make up for lost time + Seriously, the "Bury Your Gays" tally for this series is like...negative two + Just incredible representation in general + Some really good science fiction plots, particularly in later series + Some really fun, memorable characters + It's still running, so it has an active fandom on Tumblr Disadvantages: - Makes Elon Musk out to be one of the great visionary geniuses of history - Not really representative of Star Trek as a whole - The series swerves wildly in tone because of constant, behind-the-scenes churn in the writers' room - Offputtingly grimdark first season - Let's be honest, none of the season-long arcs have actually had satisfying conclusions - Half the cast feels like it's just there for exposition and to be killed for cheap drama

Picard: Advantages: + Has the best dramatic acting of any Star Trek series by a fair margin + Has the best musical score of any Star Trek series + Introduces a whole crew of fascinating new characters + Introduces all kinds of fascinating transhumanist concepts + AGNES. JURATI. Disadvantages: - You know all of those fascinating new characters that I mentioned? Yeah, it unceremoniously gets rid of all of them to bring back the old TNG gang. - You know that all of those fascinating transhumanist concepts that I mentioned? Yeah, it gets rid of those too so that to give us some generic action - Oh my god, someone teach the set designers to operate a fucking light switch - Grimdark - Nossssstalgia - Each season is basically unrelated to every other season - Depends so heavily on TNG that its final season is basically unwatchable if you haven't already seen a 30-year-old TV series

Lower Decks: Advantages: + It has probably the most efficient storytelling that I've ever seen; seriously, it's incredible how much it can fit into a half hour episode + It has a bunch of delightful, archetypical characters you get to know and love + You like hanging out with these people + The ship is kind of crap and you will learn to love it that way. + Basically a sitcom version of TNG. + Has a big fandom on Tumblr Disadvantages: - The art style is pretty Rick & Morty-ish - It takes most of its first season to really strike a good balance between being a sitcom and being a Star Trek series - The main character, Mariner, is kind of unlikable for the first season or so (she gets better) - Lots of callbacks to other series (though always either incidental or clearly explained) - Given that it's the first Star Trek sitcom, the comedy is honestly kinda the weakest part? Subjective I know.

Prodigy: Advantages: + Absolutely gorgeous to look at; the most visually stunning Star Trek by quite a ways + Lots of fun new characters on a cool ship + Gives you clear on-boarding notes to the Star Trek franchise if you're watching it for the first time + Can be watched on its own, but also works as a direct sequel to Voyager and a prequel to Picard (making both of them retoractively better, in fact) + Kind of like the Clone Wars or Rebels of the Star Trek universe, I guess? + Found family in space! The next generation! + Soon to be running on Netflix, so if you already have a Netflix subscription, you don't need to pay for another service + Written for a younger audience. Not necessarily an advantage, but nice if you happen to like family friendly animation or YA. Disadvantages: - *sigh* You basically need to pirate it. Thanks, Paramount. - Has a second season that we may or may not ever actually get to see even through piracy. Thanks, Paramount. - Isn't airing on the same streaming service as all of the other ones. Thanks, Paramount

Strange New Worlds: Advantages: + Basically what the original series would be if it were released today, rather than 57 years ago; all of the cool, socially consciousness sci-fi adventure, none of the weird 60s sexism + Fun, awesome characters you get to like spending time with right away + Incredible visuals + Nifty sci-fi concepts, mostly without the 90s-style technobabble Disadvantages: - A huge cast with only ten episodes a season, so many of them feel underdeveloped - Unfortunately, a bunch of its characters are younger versions of the characters from The Original Series, and they hog most of the spotlight; and the characters whose futures aren't locked in stone are kind of treated as disposable - In general, it needs to spend less time being a prequel, and more time being its own thing - "What if Starfleet ran into the Xenomorphs from Alien?" "Well, they'd probably kill them." "Okay, let's spend several episodes on this."

[ahgasegotarmy116]

Do it for Him | There's No Escaping Him | Jeon Jungkook

Summary: Jungkook shows what happens when you disrespect him. Pairing: Daughter in law reader x Father in Law Jungkook (Yändere) Word Count: 2.5k Warnings: Sex (I'm too lazy to put in specifics lmao), Explicit language and Yädere relationship a/n: Based off of a few asks so this is the origin story of that dress that Jungkook loves…

Series Masterlist

3 years ago...

"What are you doing here?" I ask holding the door open while balancing my daughter on my hip. "Hi baby how are you?" Jungkook coos and scoops her up out of my arms and ignoring me completely, walking them both over to her room with her babbling to him all the way.

I hate days like this. 

Where he feels like he can just show up unannounced and act as though we're some happy family together when my husband isn't here. "What do you want?" I ask once I've come to the doorway and see Jungkook and my daughter playing around on the floor.

"I just wanted to come over and spend some time with my daughter, and spend some time with her mommy too" he says looking up at me with a devious glint in his eye. "You can spend time with her but you need to leave when you're done" I say and walk off to get some food ready for her.

I go back into her room a bit later and scoop her up off the floor and take her into the kitchen without bothering to take note of Jungkook's protests. "What are you doing?" he asks trailing behind me. "Giving her some food. She eats a snack around this time of day" I say putting her down in her high chair.

"Where's the nanny?" he asks looking around to see if he can spot her anywhere. "I gave her the afternoon off. She'll be back later" I respond and put some cut up pieces of bananas on the tray and she immediately grabs one and puts it in her mouth.

"I thought she didn't like bananas" he says, looking at her with a slightly confused expression. "Babies can try out foods and not like it the first time but then love it the second and at this point she loves bananas" I answer while gazing at her lovingly, fixing the little butterfly clip I put in her hair this morning.

"But I know you didn't just come here to talk about her though so what do you want?" I ask, turning around and facing him, an uninterested expression on my face. "I want you love" he says taking a few steps towards me and grabs ahold of my hand.

"You told me that once she was born you would leave me alone" I say ripping my hand out of his grasp and taking a few steps away from my daughter so she won't hear this conversation. She's only two but you never really know what they'll remember when they grow up.

"I changed my mind" he says following me. "That wasn't part of the deal" I say in a hushed tone, glancing back over to her before bringing my attention back to him. "What deal angel? To my knowledge we haven't written up anything that states I have to abide by any rules" he says playfully. "Jungkook stop, we've already been through this once and it shouldn't have happened in the first place" I say trying to get him to come to his senses.

"Once wasn't enough for me love. There are so many things that I've been wanting to do to you ever since our last time together. I've tried to hold back but I can't anymore" he says trying to come closer but I make sure to maintain a good distance between us which leaves him stopping in his tracks.

"You're going to have to hold back because I'm not yours and you don't get to waltz up into my home and expect me to give into you just because you 'want me'. I never wanted to see you again after what we did but I have to tolerate you to keep up appearances. I'm sorry if I've made you think otherwise but that isn't going to happen again" I finish and make moves to walk back to my daughter.

"You sure about that?" he asks leaving me now halting my movements, knowing what that tone of voice means. "I'm sure my son would hate to come home with the task of having to file for a divorce after being gone for such a long time. Leaving you with absolutely nothing and taking our daughter away from you" he taunts making known that he's trapped me and I can't do anything to defend myself.

"You wouldn't dare" I say turning back around to face him, my eyes prickling with tears, now knowing the true consequence of my actions have only just begun.

"I'll text you the address. Tell the nanny you're going out for the night and you won't be back until tomorrow. Oh, you'll be receiving a package in an hour or so. Wear that" he finishes and goes up to my daughter and coos at her a bit, telling her goodbye and placing a kiss on the top of her head before walking back over to me to kiss me but I turn my face to the side leaving him placing a kiss on my cheek instead.

"See you tonight" he whispers in my ear, his breath fanning over my neck and places a kiss on it before leaving. "Bye angel" he says, his lips still ghosting against is.

"Leave" I say pushing him away but he doesn't budge in the slightest leaving me having to walk away first and going back to check on her.

He chuckles a bit at my reaction and slowly makes his way over toward the door, closing it silently behind him.

"What am I going to do?" I question and watch as my daughter plays around with the leftover food in her tray before picking her up and holding her close while unshed tears start streaming down my face.

~~~~~

Walking into the lobby donning a trench coat to cover up the ridiculous outfit Jungkook had gotten me I walk towards the elevators and press the number for the designated floor, seeing that he's booked the penthouse suite.

As the doors open I walk out and look around to see if I can find him but at first glance it seems as if he's nowhere to be found.

"You're early" he whispers in my ear making me jump and place my hand over my chest.

He brings a glass of wine around for me to grab and I accept it willingly, knowing I'm going to need every bit of it to help keep my anger at bay.

"I figured it was best to not keep you waiting" I say after taking a large gulp of my wine. "Slow down angel, we've got all night" he says refilling my glass nonetheless. "I would prefer if we got whatever you wanted over with as soon as possible" I say, walking around, trying to figure out where a bedroom might be in this place.

"Oh we're not using the bedroom tonight" he says taking hold of my wrist. "What do you mean?" I ask, knowing he has something else in mind but wanting him to voice it so I can mentally prepare myself.

"Why don't you take that coat off for me so I can see how pretty you look" he say and takes a few steps back so he can take in my full form.

I take a deep breath and open it little by little, hating the lust in his eyes that continues to darken with every growing inch of bare skin he sees. 

Dropping the coat and letting it pool around my feet he's left with the sight of me in a scantily clad silk dress that leaves little to the imagination.

"Just as I thought, you're even more gorgeous with the figure you've developed from giving birth to our daughter" he says walking over to me and taking notice of my wider hips and larger breasts. "Just stop talking" I say and decide to close the distance between us and pull him in, hating this waiting game.

He kisses me immediately and sets a faster pace, making me let out a little moan, surprised by the passion he has behind it. He holds my jaw in place and keeps our lips locked leaving me having to push him away to come up for air.

"I've missed this" he says pulling me closer to him, kissing me and walking us over to the kitchen.

He lifts me up and has me sit down on the cold counter making me take in a sharp breath at the contact. "I've been dreaming about fucking you on this counter as soon as you walked in" he growls not bothering to give me a chance to respond and instead opting to run his hand along my upper thigh and brushes his finger against my core.

"You're so obedient showing up here in this dress and now I find out that you have nothing underneath it. Look" he says pulling his fingers away, clearly wet with my arousal. "Seems like your body wants to obey me as well" I glare at him and he decides to stop talking and instead ops to get on his knees and pulls me closer to the edge of the counter.

"I've been wanting to taste you all day and it seems like this pretty little cunt wants the same thing" he says watching as I clench around nothing. He blows on it making me close my legs from the sensation of the cool air but he pulls them apart even wider than they had been before.

"Not so fast pretty. You can't run away from me already when we haven't even started" he taunts and starts to place kisses on my inner thigh, sucking a bit in an effort to leave a mark. "Don't" I say but my breath quickly hitches once he licks a long strip along my center making me automatically grab his hair to keep him close on impulse.

"No marks I know, I couldn't resist. Trust it will fade before he gets back" he says placing a kiss on the small mark he had made before going back in, making my breath hitch. "Lean back a bit" he says, getting me at a better angle so he has more access. "Good girl" he says rubbing his nose against my clit.

I push him closer needing more and he chuckles at my reaction. "Look at you, so needy yet you always swear that you don't want me". Standing up he starts to loosen his belt and take off his slacks bringing me closer to the edge again and runs him finger all along my cunt to gather up some of my arousal and uses it while he pumps himself a few times before trying to put it in. 

"Stop" I say before he has a chance to get any closer. "I'm not having another baby with you" I say looking up at him, waiting to catch his gaze. He takes a deep breath and fishes his wallet out to find a condom and holds it between two fingers. "Happy?" he says and rolls his eyes while opening the packet. 

"I would be happier if I was at home with my daughter instead of here fucking my father in law so no, I'm not happy" I say, voicing my true feelings. "You really shouldn't have said that" he chuckles under his breath before lining himself up and shoving himself inside of me. 

"Fuck!" I groan out, caught off by the burn of not being prepped. "Stop being such a fucking brat and enjoy it angel. No one is watching so there's no need to keep up appearances with me" he says brushing away one of the tears that had fell from the pain. 

"I'm not keeping up appearances with you because I fucking despise you" I say trying to breath through this so I can get my body to loosen up. It's no use though since he decides to pull almost all the way out and shoves back inside me. 

"I thought I told you to watch your mouth. If you want to act like a brat then I can fuck you like a brat. All. Night. Long" he threatens, punctuating every word with a harsh thrust to prove his point. 

I decide not to respond so I can end this pain soon and receive the pleasure he loves to give me since that's the only thing I get out of this. "Staying quiet will do you no good either, you know better than that" he says making soft eye contact with me before kissing me softly, giving me a false sense of security before he starts thrusting into me at a rough pace. 

"You'll speak when spoken to you understand?" he says and pulls me off the counter and wraps my leg around his waist before leaning my back against the wall and fucking at a different angle making me moan out at the intensity. "Yes" I choke out, feeling overwhelmed by the pace of his thrusts and his demeanor that is a new side to him I haven't seen. 

He shows me no mercy that night, fucking me on the table, on the couch, on the coffee table and anywhere else he could possibly think of until my body is spent. 

"You learned your lesson?" he says after pulling out for the last time and dragging his finger up and down my slit, not letting up on the overstimulating. "Yes, fuck. Please stop" I beg through sobs and thankfully he ends this torture that felt never ending. 

"Get some rest Angel, I'll see you again soon" he says after leaving me lying on the ground as that was the last place we finished. 

Once he's all dressed again he takes the room card in between two fingers just like he had done with the condom before and places it on the kitchen counter. "Don't worry about checking out in the morning. I booked the room for two nights so leave whenever you're ready" he finishes and walks out and into the elevator without bothering to give me a second glance. 

After taking a few deep breaths to calm my rapid heart beat I get up and limp over to the bathroom, turning on the shower and sitting with my back facing the stream of hot water pelting against my skin. 

Letting myself fall apart I'm left sobbing and curled up in a ball.' How can he be this cruel? Why can't he just leave me alone? I don't understand why he keeps on doing this to me.' Those are the thoughts that plague my mind as I try to regain some sense of reality.

My reality is a nightmare and there's no way I'm making it out of this dream without hurting everyone. I don't think I'm strong enough to see the look on their faces and I'm not sure if I ever will be. I need to do what's best for my family and at this point with the way he's acting there's no way out...

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[skyfallscotland]

Some updates since the last summary post. I didn't go to the convention on Sunday, but @caitm1 did and she said the workers told her that Rebecca's wrist swelled up from the amount of signatures she was doing (already, one day in!) and she had it taped up.

Rebecca also mentioned last night (Monday) at the second event I attended that she'd had a vestibular migraine just before and couldn't walk in a straight line a few hours ago, so I mean, I felt like I wanted to mention that first because as a chronically ill girlie I know how fucking hard it must be and I don't think a lot of fans appreciate what she does for us and how much she puts her body through.

Her signings this weekend were free and even though we paid for a ticket on Monday night, if you bought the ticket with the pre-signed book, that was at cost. $20 for a signed paperback. So yeah, just...I know it's a business, but she does a lot, ok. Don't be unappreciative of the extra mile.

Now, I recorded both Saturday's panel and Monday night's, I'm trying to figure out how to post it, but no website wants to cooperate with such a big file, so stand by, or like...help if you know tech things 💀

If you haven't seen my post with what we learned from Saturday's, it's here. Below is a summary of what we've learnt since then.

Bombshell alert: @caitm1 tells me that on Sunday, Rebecca said one of her original ideas for the end of Iron Flame was for Violet to become venin and not Xaden. *crickets* let's just take a moment here together... 😨

Honestly, I'm all for it, I low key feel like I would have liked that better, it would have been so good, but alas, we have venin-Xaden now, so we have to deal 🥲

Now, about Monday. A lot of the questions asked and things spoken about were the same as Saturday. The host picked the fan questions she asked and didn't really pick much that was plot or character related. She didn't pick any of mine and yes, I'm still mad about it. WHAT ARE THEIR NAMES

Here's the quotes, questions and tidbits I found interesting:

• Her editor for Fourth Wing and Iron Flame, is the head of Red Tower, so she's the publisher. I did not know this. I don't think I've seen this in practice before? She's also involved with the Amazon series because of this.

• "I'm not afraid of hurting you." That we already knew. 💀

• "Because we knew what had the television series when I was in edits, so we had to write out a synopsis and when I first thought it would be five books, I immediately sent the synopsis to my editor, who, you know, we sent it to Amazon because we needed to tell them; this is the definitive vision for the story. I can tell you, in Onyx Storm, I've already deviated from like...who I thought would pass in that book, as opposed to...I've already deviated some from that."

Sorry, what? Who was meant to die? My money is, as always, on Rhi or Garrick. You know I have thoughts/feelings about that. Look, if I've learned anything this weekend it's that someone important is going to die, a lot of people are going to die, ok? She's very frank about death and the realities of war and if you're worried about your favourite side characters for the next few books, well...you should be.

• She loves writing Ridoc. @yanny-77 no chance to ask about bodoc, sorry! 😂

• On Xaden and people's perception of him: "It's always funny because I always hear...he gets compared to Rhysand a lot? Xaden's like twenty-two at the beginning of Fourth Wing; Rhysand's like what? Five hundred? Ok, twenty-two, so it's very much like—it is a college. It's a college romance and that first love."

• She was surprised at how much people loved Aaric, given how little he's on-page.

• She also defended Dain again 🥳💗 #DainApologistsClub

• She expanded a little more on Jack. So perhaps what she meant on Saturday about his reasons, was simply that his reason will be touched upon in OS, but it's clear. "Jack's motivations are clear-cut, which makes him so easy to write. He's such an example of the hunger for power and what happens when you aren't selected for the power you think you deserve, which is one of the themes of Fourth Wing. So Jack's an easy character, he's straight-on."

• Are there any easter eggs that you put in the first two books that you don't think were caught by fans? "Violet's second signet! I totally thought it was obvious. Um, I did, to the point where my editor was like 'hey, we should probably put a line in here' and I was like dude no, people will catch it." Y'all know my thoughts on that so I'll stay quite over here in my corner.

Someone asked "what is it then?" and she replied, "no, no, no, now we're having fun with this, now."

• The hardest scene for her to write in Fourth Wing was the battle scene, because it was her first fantasy and so her first one. She wrote it and her editor said no, it has to be a little longer than this.

"So that was really hard for me to write, especially because in the moment she loses Liam, she has to get up and go. And I'm used to being able to give my characters this moment to grieve, this moment to take the news, this moment to absorb it and really feel it. And it's hard to get the reader to really feel that emotion when death is coming straight for you. So that was really difficult. And I was crying."

ME TOO, TBH

• If she was to describe Onyx Storm in two Taylor Swift songs, it would be Who's Afraid of Little Old Me? & So It Goes.

• If Empyrean was written in interconnected stand alones, she would have already jumped to Rhi or Imogen.

• Her favourite sections are the epigraphs that she writes above the chapter headings. "It's my most valuable real estate, the fact that you guys skip over them sometimes, I'm like—I'm wicked funny in there, ok?"

• If Violet and Xaden visited Australia, what would they do for fun? "I'd say go visit places they can't catch on fire. I guess they could find a beach." @empyrean-thrones there you go, we're on point! 😂

And that's about it! Happy theorising! 💗

It was a wild weekend, but so worth it. I was in my feelings a lot. I hope you guys get a chance to meet her or hear her speak in person one day, too 🫶

[roxtron]

Day 5: Rabbit, Reclaim

AGJGDFJF FINALLY IT'S DAY 5 SO I CAN POST THIS

For some reason everytime i draw him he looks so young because i'm accidentally overcorrecting since i'm used to drawing older characters. So unfortunately he looks way younger than i meant him to lol, whoops.

But wait there's more- AHAHAHA

While I did initially plan this for GGY week I eventually got the idea to use this as an excuse to draw other GGY designs, soo..

(Not sure why tumblr formatted it that way with 1 of them big but it doesn't matter lol)

I've been wanting to do this for a while, I put the tags of each person next to their design but ofc I'm still gonna tag them in the post itself so you can see their art for yourself if you haven't already. But I enjoyed each of these in their own ways so if you don't mind I think I'm gonna type a bit of text next to them..

@chipistrate This was one of the first I drew out of these, the design was pretty fun to draw but sorry if I messed up a few details, it was a bit difficult lol. The mask and goggles are really fun to draw and they make for a cool design, along with all the glowing blue. (and yes, I tried to subtly include the heelies lol)

@lunzi0 This was the first fursuit one I did lol. I adore the little stars in the design, they personalize it so well and make it really unique. I wanna try this design again since I feel like the other ones show my improvement a bit better, but I hope you can appreciate the effort I put in on my first attempt <3

@carouselrabbit This one was really fun to draw, I absolutely love the eye shape/lashes, it stands out and I always love drawing eyes with a bit of eyeliner lol, the daycare theme legwarmers is a cool nod to the balloon boy arcade machine being connected to them, and was just a fun addition in general lol, I like the style of legwarmers what can I say, fnaf changed my fashion sense a bit. also the subtle paraells to freddy's design is a nice way to connect a bit to gregory himself.

@puhpandas I can't remember if I talked about this design last time I drew it but, overall I'm really happy with how this came out, it's such an indicator of improvement since I started drawing this and I'm glad I was able to draw it better than last time lol. All the patchwork and similarities to Vanny's suit work really well, and the rabbit you chose to base it off of was a good fit, the colors make it a bit more difficult to shade for but i like detail lol, hope you like it too :)

@dykevanny I knew I wanted to do this since I started but I wasn't sure if I'd have time, and I'm glad I did! I hope you don't mind I combined aspects from the first design I saw and the second one you replied to my ask with, I liked the big purple sleeves lol. (I just realized after doing all the shading I forgot to include the oil splatter on his jacket, sorry!) It was definitely a bit difficult due to the head shape being so different but.. fluffy. i love drawing fluff. And the glowing swirl on the goggles, the shape of the ears, I love a lot about this design. :D

I have a hard time with writing compliments but I wanted to get some of those thoughts out, some of the things I like about these designs apply to multiple lol. I adore every one of these designs but I find it hard to put into words what I enjoy about them, hope the original creators are happy with these. <3

I also kept the ggys without as much lighting effects on a separate file, I felt like I should add them since they're a bit brighter lol, makes them look different.

Okay now that I've gotten all that- Sorry this post is so long! I didn't think it'd end up taking up so much space lol. Buut.. working on this drawing and thinking about it and potential context behind it gave me an au idea for it, but I'll put it under the cut since I understand most people probably won't care and just wanna see the drawings lol.

Idk if I'm confident enough to write for it but I'll give a bit of a summary.. I'll keep it under the cut for people who aren't interested and just wanna see the art though lol.

After the main events of SB and Ruin, now that the mimic's been set free, Cassie's taken control of by what's left of Vanny, using her as a new host. But with Cassie being the only human left alive down there, after being reawakened, Dr. Rabbit has nowhere left to go but back to his old host.

Vanessa, Freddy, and Gregory hadn't gone back to the Pizzaplex after ruin, but they were trying to figure out a plan to get Cassie back safely. One night after Freddy and Gregory disappear, Vanessa leaves to go find them. As dangerous as the pizzaplex is, it's her best guess for where they might've gone. She doesn't want to think about what could've happened to them, in denial for the worst case scenario. She tries to keep herself calm by telling herself they probably just left to go back for Cassie, maybe they didn't want her stopping them.. but deep down she knows it can't be that simple. She knows something's off, even if she's not ready to admit it.

When returning to the pizzaplex, she brought along her own V.A.N.N.I. mask, though unlike the one Cassie used, it was clear of the mimic's influence. After all, she was going to need some way to travel through potential blocked routes.

By the time she found Gregory, she'd still been wearing the mask, seeing him down the end of a dark hallway. He looked confused, afraid, his mind was a wreck of conflicting emotions. She started rushing towards him, happy to see him okay, until he finally spoke.

"You need to get out of here."

She stepped back, taking off the mask, only to be faced with the worst case scenario.

It was a wreck, covered in stains and tears, but it was still recognizable. He was wearing that old suit again.

As he waved, she could see Freddy's claws peeking out from the doorway, as the two stepped closer towards her.

So, she did what he told her to do, and started running. She could hear a faint voice coming from the mask, and put it back on before finding somewhere she could hide.

It was his voice again, telling her which way to go.

I guess that was the dramatic way to summarize the main idea behind it, lol. Basically Gregory and Dr. Rabbit work the way Sun and Moon work in Ruin, whichever one is in control in the real world, the other is left behind in the AR world. Or at least that's my interpretation of how they worked, considering Sun was always in mask-on scenes and moon was mask-off. I'm not too sure where the plot might go from there, and maybe I'll consider writing for it, I dunno. I've never wrote fanfic before because I get deadly afraid of writing them out of character lol, but maybe?? I have ideas for scenes and premise and stuff but I don't know if I have the confidence to write it.

But anyway! That was just more of a fun side-idea I came up with while working on this, if you read this far thanks, hope you enjoyed :)

here's some silly little lineless doodles as a reward for making it to the end hehe

now that's what I call an art dump

@ggyweek2024

[britt-kageryuu]

The stream is focused on Donnie showing off his Bo Staff skills, he was tempted to bring out his Tech Bo, but stuck to just turning on an AR overlay that simulates the features of his Tech Bo.

His model is in loose purple pants, a black tank top, his mask tails have studs in Ace colors and a couple space charms, he has on combat boots with purple laces. His tail when seen has a few bands on it that keep shifting colors with the LEDs in the room.

Donnie was taking a break to talk to chat and answer questions as they come in, while Shelldon and River move some stuff for a demonstration Donnie had planned later in the stream.

"Hmm, I see some of you are asking if we Dungeons & Dragons, well many an attempt has been made to play, but like many have faced... Scheduling is D&Ds greatest Boss. So we haven't been able to play. Traditionally Speaking of course!" Donnie with a flourish walks close to the camera with his phone out, "Behold! A custom D&D messenger App!"

The screen of his phone shows a Title Screen that reads 'D&D Chat App. BETA PHASE Vers. 4.10.18.1' with a cycling set of simplified drawings of different class types on smartphones. Donnie taps on the screen and after a few seconds goes to a menu that reads out select session with each 'File' having a start date, a class and level. And a couple have a 'New Message' notification on them.

"This is a game that as you can see is in BETA, it simplifies D&D down, and we do actions over texts, like the online version, but it's condensed to be more basic, and we don't all need to have the app open to play." Donnie says this as he opens a file with new messages, it's apparently one called 'Purple Reptile Club' and it's alerting him to take his turn. "To the others helping with the testing, the big up and downside to this is, that the next actions can take Seconds or Days to complete because it all depends on the others in the game to actually check in and make their move. But this is why it's still more in closed BETA."

He reads over chat as some questions are flying by, taking a drink while looking at what they're saying.

Donnie catches one question to answer, "Yes, I am aware that it loses alot of the story telling elements this way, but you do what you can to accommodate the needs of the Party. Plus if we get a bit lost it's not to hard to Back Read. Though there is a feature to summarize the story so far, but it's still a bit buggy, Red used it the other day, and it gave him the summary for a different game being played be the tech team." Donnie puts his phone down, and goes back to were he was standing originally.

"Now, let's put that talk to the side, and I can show you some newer moves that I learned from my dear Papa." Donnie then uses his Bo to pick up a bucket by the handle on each end. Before calling out to his Robot children to start tossing something.

The next few minutes are filled with Donnie maneuvering the staff with buckets around to catch all the items being thrown at him. With accompanying sounds of the items hitting the inside of the buckets.

The audience was amazed watching him then toss the buckets into the air, and catcha them right before they hit the ground.

All while holding an air of confidence, and a slight smirk on his face.

Some screenshots are taken, and practically traded around on the Discord, and the Fan Forums.

----------------

Masterpost

I don't know if this app idea is an actual thing, but I wanted to come up with why my turtles haven't mentioned D&D if at all. Because they really don't have much free time to actually play, and the App idea sounded like it would work or make sense.

Then just say it's a closed BETA thing. Or something.

[tj-dragonblade]

Fic Talk

Tagged by @seiya-starsniper @dsudis and @valeriianz - thanks! This is a fun new set of questions I haven't seen circulating before!

How many wips do you have currently? …Uhhhhh. Ahaha. Let me go calculate just a minute. Okay. There are 13 wips that are proper individual files with varying probabilities of actually getting finished. There are three additional individual files that are not proper wips, just notes/synopsis of ideas I've had and would like to write. Then there is the original 'Scribs' file that I originally started jotting notes in with ten more 'wips' that may or may not ever be finished, plus three more of the notes/synopsis-level ideas, and a handful of one-line or song-title ideas.

Which one are you finding the hardest to finish? Why do you think that is? Any of the older ones, honestly, entirely for lack of focus. I am hoping to force myself into giving at least one of them the attention it needs for a bingo square. Because when I make myself focus on one, make myself buckle down and work on it, I can usually make it happen. I can do it for Fluffbruary; therefore I can do it elsewhere too. But there is always some new idea coming along that is very distracting and then there's the problem of Which Do I Want to Work On? and getting a burst of idea for this one and then a few lines of inspiration for that one and I wind up with far too much time spent re-reading all of them and, if I'm lucky, adding a line or two to a handful of them.

What does it usually look like when inspiration strikes for you? Obsessively typing away at my phone, frequently (and unfortunately) when I'm meant to be working. Trying to capture as much of the momentum as possible while it's there.

Do you curate playlists for each fic or is your process different? No. I have a couple different playlists of 'Dreamling Vibes' that I will sometimes put on, but nothing really fic specific. But chances are if a song is part of the springboard for the fic, I have put it on repeat at least half the time I was writing. 'Bus Stop' broke into my top 25 most played songs while writing its fic, for the record.

Do you go balls to the wall and write as you go or are you more organised? There is very little about my process that can be called organized. I write whatever's coming to me and make notes about things I wanted to do that I didn't get written out yet so I don't forget the next time I come back to it. It's frequently non-linear. I'm easily distracted by shiny new ideas. I count it a feat worth celebrating when I actually get something finished and posted.

Tagging, no obligation, tag me into your already-existing posts etc: @chaosheadspace @staroftheendless @teejaystumbles @the-apocrypha @kydrogendragon

[emi-maru]

A few weeks ago I switched to Linux and I've got some thoughts

I chose Arch Linux because I had some prior experience with using Ubuntu and Linux Mint on laptops, both for work and for myself.

Gaming is, aside from games that require certain anticheats, extremely easy to set up. Steam just works and I use Heroic as an alternative frontend for the Epic games launch and GOG Galaxy and it runs better than both of them did on windows. I haven't looked into Origin the EA App or Uplay Ubisoft Connect but I know I could play their stuff via Lutris or Bottles.

I locked myself out of my system once because I didn't verify a change I made to my fstab (basically a file where all your drives are listed) and while that's my fault for not verifying, you'd think the os would be able to boot if some drive that's not necessary isn't plugged in. A little help from a mutual helped me fix it.

Gnome is a very meh desktop environment. It's kinda considered the default for Linux and aside from KDE and budgie the only one I'm really familiar with. I had to install a bunch of extensions for it to work the way I wanted and it also comes with a bunch of preinstalled software that I don't need and can't (without fearing I'll break something) get rid of (for example, I use Alacrity but have to keep Gnome Console around).

The theming is so good. I can theme so much stuff it's great. I start up LibreOffice and it picks up the background and accent colour I set, I love it.

I'm getting more comfortable with using the terminal and while I still think that ideally every application should have a GUI, sometimes the terminal is more convenient (like using yay to update my entire system).

When I used Windows I had sporadic crackling sounds that I assumed were the fault of my DAC/AMP but I haven't had them since switching to Linux so I guess this was a Windows issue somehow. I tried so many fixes before that didn't work like checking drivers and firmware, using different usb ports and cables, trying different headphones but to no avail even when I got a completely new pc. Thanks, Windows.

I don't get Flatpak at all. Universal packages are neat but when I installed the Flatpak version of Bottles to run save/mod managers inside the proton prefixes that Steam uses, it suddenly took up almost 5gb. It also for whatever reason couldn't see half the folders even after I gave it access to the entire file system. In the end I went with the AUR version of Bottles which does not have that problem despite being Unofficial™. I just wish that the library/shortcut system worked but I can live with it I guess.

The AUR seemed annoying because it took forever to build packages compared to just installing binaries. The Chaotic AUR is a godsent because it contains a ton of binaries from the AUR. I don't get why people don't recommend it more often.

The only software I really miss from windows is ShareX. Not even because of all the tools like scroll capture, but also for OCR. Watching a vod of a twitch stream and being able to grab links out of the chat on screen is nice. Maybe I'll find an alternative someday, who knows.

I've come to despise a lot of people who think that the way they use Linux is the only good one. A big thing that kept me from switching was that the more I informed myself, the more weird opinionated takes I saw. Being forced to engage with questions such as "Is systemd bloat?", " Is neovim the only good text editor?", "Are tiling window managers universally better?", " Is Canonical literally Satan for having made Snap packages?" and "Is it ok to call this person a slur for using solarized KDE?" makes it so much harder to make a choice you're comfortable with.

I should not have put /home on a different partition or at least made the /root partition bigger. It's fine if I clean the pacman cache regularly but I don't want to look up those commands every few days (I know I can resize the boot partition with a live usb and I will, I'm just lazy rn).

My controller only works correctly when plugged in via usb. If I connect it via Bluetooth, the buttons don't map correctly. This is less of a Linux issue and more of a firmware issue since this is a third party controller that does not support Linux. I'm also aware of Steam having a robust remapping tool so I'll use that if I ever need to.

I have not yet looked into software to map my additional mouse buttons and control my keyboard/mouse rbg. Both of these store their settings on board so there's no need for it right now.

Might add more in the future but these are my thoughts for the first few weeks

[technicallyswagpizza]

BARNACLESS BAY CAW FILES by technicallyswagpizza

"A storm swept through the island, it ravaged for what felt like weeks and it was so fierce it completely erased part of the island! Now there is nothing else left but sand! And it's everywhere! Even in my ears!"

I always liked the idea of a remote farm type island where the folks living there still haven't heard about Gangam Style or paywalled CC, but I felt that the original Barnacle Bay is just too dysfunctional to play. It has good bones and I really wanted to make it work, but after chipping away at it on and off for almost a year I have come to a point that now whenever I open it in CAW I just don't know what to do with it and feel like I should go play in the traffic instead. Maybe I will finish it one day, but since I'm just sitting on these files I figured perhaps someone else wants to give it a go and make it your own. Change it completely, keep it as it is, share it, lock it in your basement, you do what you got to do to tame it.

These are the CAW files only, I have not play tested the world as it is very much work in progress thus there is no point releasing it in the state it is.

CHANGELOG

Standalone world, it will not replace Barnacle Bay.

A good chunk of the map is gone, I also ran the coastal parts of the map through World Machine to make it feel more realistic, thus all the sand everywhere.

Deleted a fair few lots completely.

Emptied majority of the lots, however I left some of the original lots in because I had a plan, but I forgot what it was.

Reduced the amount of spawners, there's at least one or two each rather than 3-5.

Added and removed some roads.

Replaced all the palm trees with Red Oaks from Ambitions exp.

Added shrubs around the fields

// There's not THAT much to do, but things you may want to fix:

Bumpy ridiculous roads (-᷅_-᷄๑)

Sort out the mess I made with the town centre layout

Double check routing, I'm fairly sure I started working on that but it's been so long I can't remember if I finished it completely.

None of the lots have addresses.

Waterfall looks ok in CAW but in game uh, idk. It looks like farts.

What you need: Maybe the original Barnacle Bay? I'm not sure, if you don't have it then the random CAW items/remaining lots that got stuff in them will get replaced by something else. I'm not sure if there are any BB items left though... I did swap the bridge and idk beachy barrier thing with something else. I don't remember which expansion they came from though. I'M REALLY GOOD AT THIS I PROMISE (.﹒︣︿﹒︣.)

DOWNLOAD // MIRROR

Let me know if the CAW files do not work, I don't think I have ever shared my raw CAW projects before so yeah. I included all the terrain paint .dds texture files just in case you want to paint stuff.

[the-pobble-terrarium]

can I get an info dump on how you feel about princess celestia and or twilight

GIGGLES I'm glad to see interest in them !!! (assuming this is AU related)

I haven't fleshed out Twilight's and the Princesses backgrounds very much- mainly because I can't think of anything to change, but compared to in-show Twilight, the rewrite AU one is much more. quiet and threatening if you don't know her well- she's kinda got that thousand yard stare and she's more or less completely non-verbal. Her name also changes in the AU! From Twilight Sparkle to Meteor Strike!

(Here, have some old concept art!)

And as expected, Meteor- the socially awkward barely verbal anxiety horse is NOT happy when she's made a princess on the spot Speaking just off the top of my head, I think it would lead her to resent Celestia a bit for putting something so big on her without even asking, and she might begin to connect with Luna a bit more, sharing how it felt Celestia sort of just. Does stuff without asking- like she knows what’s best always. I think this would accumulate in them confronting Celestia and telling her “hey we know you think this is what's best but it’s actually not. Please ask before you make such big changes.” Celestia takes it hard at first but eventually understands sometimes she needs to take a step back and not assume.

If this where an actual MLP episode, it would probably go something along the lines of Celestia making assumptions on how to help without asking constantly, leading to a LOT of unhappy ponies confronting her on it and Celestia at the end writing what SHE learnt for once- "Sometimes you think you know what's best for somepony, but today I learnt it's important to ask before you make such big assumptions. A good friend always makes sure their friend is comfortable, rather than simply assuming they are."

Speaking of Luna and Celestia! These designs were originally made completely separate as a way to mess around with a "biblically accurate princesses" idea, but I think they could fit really nicely into this AU with a few minor tweaks!

(Sorry for such low quality, I had to pluck them from an old twitter post because I can't find the Sai file I drew them on)

That would also probably mean Meteor would gain "biblically accurate" qualities after her 'graduation' over time... Which would probably make her even freakier looking to outsiders LMAO

I also imagine the process of transformation is VERY painful for the immediate part of the spell (growing wings/a horn), and for the rest it takes time to form. What I mean by that is when a pony is made an alicorn via magic it's pulling magic from their body to form entirely new limbs, nervous systems, shifting magical components to specific parts- which is PAINFUL. And when these limbs are formed, they're small- over time they'll grow, like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis! They've emerged from their cocoon, but it still takes time for them to pump fluids into their wings before they can fly! Which means Meteors wings are more or less useless for a few months...

(“Really? I don’t even get to use these things??”)

[ravenmold]

WIP GAME

Hello! I was tagged very kindly by my friends @auofgoldandfantasies @42donotpanic and @inkforhumanhands

rules: make a new post with the names of all the files in your wip folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have wips

Okay so, I was originally gonna limit this to mattfoggy for obvious reasons (and also because there's enough of them as is) but then I thought.... where's the fun in that? So, behold, a list of wips - some years old, some barely more than a paragraph and a dream - from a mixed bag of fandoms taken straight from my poor laptop's AO3 file.

You get bonus points if you recognise the song lyrics 😂 if you include the song or reference in the hypothetical ask you'll send me, I'll add a lil doodle to my answer. I say this very seriously because I love when people listen to the same music as me 😂

eyes closed against the threat of death

all unquiet things

the future's out to get you

send me sweetly to my doom

Agent Matt (Moochy prompt 78)

on a toujours un truc à faire

semper in fide (always in faith or always loyal)

your gentle winding mind

Retired, Extremely Dangerous

Murphy's fourth law or something (Pom prompt 1)

Well, as I live and breathe

(SPACE PIRATES) those who stare at stars

just don't call me yours

Gravity's Pull

my domestic fix it

Brave au

Atlantis au

baby, bring me home to bed

sound the keening bell

Let's not be friends (stupid)

cuddled up with a heart condemned

Up For Air

mini ideas dumping ground

the trap I set for you

"Ta petite blonde sexy"

you couldn't lose if you tried

i like the way you

drew lotr travelfic convo + ideas

there's no way around it

HOMOPHOBIC MATT

look at me when you walk by (just enough to make me cry)

idk man ....... Pirate au

first of all, these look fake

Pretend

I hate it when that happens

doo wop au boii

Knock

Bagman's Gambit au

idk what to call this (yes that is its name)

taylor swift

To Be Your Home

Until You Break, Until You Yield

Time Loop

baby matt idea

read my mind, but say you didn't

it's always lose-lose

I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin

This feels weirdly personal lmao because there is .... So much of me inside these. I really love a song lyric huh??? 😅 I'm just not gonna think about it. None of them are on the internet because I don't post wips. Most of them probably never will be, but they were fun to dream about in their time. I also have a few wips/ideas not mentioned. Otherwise I'd be here all day and you'd be scrolling to high hell, and I don't want to be directly responsible for someone going to hell. I mean I'm not known for being succinct (case in point) but whatever.

Thank you for the tags, I really enjoyed going through my fics again lmao some of them surprised me. I have one (1) cherik fic in all of these, and I was actually so surprised to find it again and see that it has 2118 words 😂

Who will I tag??? Erm I'm trying to go for people who i haven't seen tagged in these yet, so if this is your second time .... Well, I'm not sorry did you see that three people tagged me??? Yeah. Suck it up 😂

@zekeyboy @foggynelsonsblog @missmoochy @amazing-spiderling and whoever feels like joining us!

[sleepy-hart]

So while working through game concepts and deciding what to work on next, I've been refreshing my Godot skills. Wanting to get back into 3D and prepare for doing more narrative heavy games. Made this demo to learn nathanhoad's excellent Dialogue Manager addon and also test drive Kenney's new Godot platformer kit.

I'm really, really enjoying Dialogue Manager so far and feel it has a tonne of potential. Think it covers a lot of things I've been looking for:

Direct engine integration is super useful, as well as using custom resources to store dialogue. They're also text files so can still use external editor to update

Straightforward syntax, reminds me a lot of ink and yarn. As well it's named node approach feels familiar

Able to access global game variables for conditionals, and having conditional based loops and choices is very straightforward

Also able to call methods directly within dialogue, which is super powerful when combined with signals (showing/hiding coin UI mid conversation, playing sound effect)

Lots of options for random dialogue choices - just used the single line ones for now but in docs have seen they also have option for setting custom probabilities, just ncie to add more flavour

Hyped it has a built in approach for translations (create IDs and reference CSVs) that looks like integrates with Godot's localisation tools - a bit of a future thought but glad it has stuff to help built in

Docs you can mention you can create dialogue resources at runtime. Can imagine this being very useful - an example would be creating a record of all lines seen to replicate Ren-py's "log" feature.

The methods for displaying dialogue are super flexible. At the moment just used their example balloons but looks like it should play nicely to let you build custom GUI - and maybe even multiple forms (e.g. dialogue scenes vs flavour barks in main game world). Think next experiments will focus on this.

There's a few more things I'm keen to learn and see if they're feasible with this - "disabled" choices that still appear but can't be accessed would be nice, also looking at how you can integrate this with an audio system for voice acting - I think they have an example that includes voice acting?

Only thing I'm a bit nervous of is it looks like it can only grab variables from autoload/global scripts, so when putting into actual game will need to take care with save systems and methods for loading choice variables into a choice master global so we aren't keeping too much in memory at once. But if I'm wrong on this assumption, or others have approaches, more than happy to be corrected on this!

Also really enjoying Kenney's 3D platformer kit and it's been fun and . Making the shopkeeper bot was super simple. All the details on the original character model are modelled so just adjusted the face and for changing colours just had to move UV islands for limbs and face to different parts of the pallete textures.

Haven't tried this technique for modelling and texturing before but seen it crop up a few times so will definitely experiment with this in the future. Also might help with optimization - I think most of the materials in the pack refer to this single image texture? By default the pack only has the model glbs and a single colormap png so assuming that's how it's working.

Original plan was to fill in the shop with another pack so there's a few little platform challenges within this, but they all needed collisions adding so might add that in future. But main aim was focusing on the dialogue and think we've got a good approch going forward, and highly recommend the add on for other Godot devs making narrative games!

[skylermadness]

Promotion Preparation (Harold "Happy" Hogan TF/MC)

(Original Date of Upload: January 26, 2024)

Original Description:

Guess I might have a new contender for most obscure TF mood and most random character to write a TF story on. So a few weeks ago I watched the second season of Marvel's What If series. Now, for a long time, I've already had Happy as a mood for myself. As a character he intrigued me in a sort of 'random side character' kind of way, which truthfully has been a frequent way I get interested in characters in general. Honestly the amount of times I fell in love with a supporting cast member while completely disregarding the main character is a lot. This is one of those cases, and watching that episode of What If accentuated that mood towards Happy in ways you cannot even believe. Plus he looks cute in a more animated format! Although he looks cute regardless so that's neither here nor there. I didn't really care for the whole Hulk Blood Injection/Freak segments of his day in the limelight episode, but that's just me being not a big Hulk (and adjacent) guy and nothing personal towards him. If you want something funny I actually haven't watched any of the Iron Man movies in literal years so my worldbuilding for this story is probably mostly inaccurate and screwed. Then there's the fact that this story is in a weird point in the MCU timeline that's likely midway through Phase 2 or so. I did try to make do with what I could remember, alongside with what the MCU Wiki could provide me. Although either way this was just a silly self-indulgent story to fulfill a TF mood that I just couldn't stop obsessing over for a bit. Fun fact: The cover for this story was going to use an image of Happy from the Iron Man films, but the image looked too generic that I felt it would come off as appearing too indistinguishable from being an image of Jon Favreau in a suit. Hence I had to change it to a picture of him from What If to avoid any potential weirdness.

   Daryl had considered himself someone that was inexperienced in his field of study. Especially as someone who was still working on his degree in cybersecurity and was only three years in. Despite that however, he had gotten an internship at Stark Industries roughly a few months ago. Something he wasn't even expecting to achieve since he assumed the level of entry for such a job would be high. Especially since the only branch of the company that was near his college was the central branch. But he’s been coasting along pretty well for the few months he's been working as an intern there.

   That's what he presumed anyway. Then he opened his work email this morning to find that he's been asked to a meeting with one of the CEOs of the industry. Specifically Tony Stark himself…

   That alone was enough to cause Daryl's stress levels to go off the rails. A meeting with a CEO was one thing, but the former industry head? In person? And that wasn't taking into account that the guy was Iron Man, an Avenger. It made his heart rate reach levels that he wasn't quite sure was possible for a human being. And that was a feeling that was maintained for much of the day.

   Now, within the building he's been working at for months, he stands outside the door of one of the rooms in the upper floors of the building. He had usually been delegated to the ground level floors but there seemed to be very little differentiation in how the hallways looked between floors. Consistency and all. Didn't make him any less petrified to knock, though. He just stood there eyeing the wood, terrified as to how this would all go down.

   Was he getting fired? Or worse, had he done something that compromised the company? Maybe he left a firewall open for too long and let someone into their network, or perhaps he accidentally mishandled a crucial file and sent it to someone he shouldn't have. Crap, now he's thinking about all the times he's emailed someone with his work email. What if someone who emailed him before had been posing as an employee and-

   “You do realize I can see you just standing there?” a familiar voice called from the intercom beside the door, startling Daryl out his internal spiral. “The door's unlocked.”

   Daryl stiffened a bit, his body already filling with embarrassment. He stood in silence for another few seconds before lifting up a hand and reaching towards the door’s knob before promptly twisting it. Then, with a gentle push, he opens the office door.

   The office itself seemed to be rather tame, if not rather large. It got plenty of natural light judging by the massive window that made up the room’s back. Seating areas of varying sizes and uses found to the left and right of the room. Meanwhile at the middle back of the office was the main desk for work. And sitting at that desk was Tony Stark himself.

   “Daryl Griffin, was it?” the man inquired.

   “Uh, yeah…” Daryl responded as he started to walk away from the door and towards the desk. Something about his stress combined with the room’s size just made the walkway itself feel longer than it actually was. What was only a few seconds of walking felt like whole minutes. Despite the weird feeling of time disparity though, he reached the desk and took a seat in the chair opposite to Stark’s.

   “Took the casual approach for this meeting, huh?” Tony commented.

   Daryl could feel his own soul shrivel at that remark. He didn't have much time to really switch out to something more formal seeing as this meeting was scheduled less than a half hour after his last class for the day. It resulted in him wearing a T-shirt beneath a fully unbuttoned flannel, alongside a pair of jeans and athletic shoes. “I-I didn't have the time to change really-”

   Stark’s face remained emotionless for a few seconds… and then he smiled. “I'm just messing with ya, kid. I'm just wearing a t-shirt right now!”

   Daryl just nodded, his stress only dissipating a little at the statement.

   “Hm, usually I get the fanboys,” Stark remarked at the silence. “Right to business then. I'm presuming you're wondering why you were called into this meeting?”

   “Y-yeah,” Daryl attempted not to make eye contact. “Look, if I sent anyone anything it was probably because of an email hijack I might not have caught-”

   Tony let out a low laugh. “Kid, this isn't a scolding, nor have we dealt with any email hijackers in a while. Truthfully you've seemed to have been doing well at your job despite this only being an internship position.”

   The praise continued to melt away Daryl’s stress. “What? I- I guess that's something considering I'm only a third year at my college. Although I'm taking it I'm here for more than just praise-”

   “Bingo. Considering how you are, I think it would benefit us both that your position is moved to something more permanent.”

   Daryl paused, gears in his head turning and he tried to comprehend what was just told to him. “I- wait, are you… promoting me to an official job here?”

  ��“Quite more than that actually…” Tony says with a smile. He slid a piece of paper, a contract, across the desk and to Daryl. “You'll be placed as Stark Industries’ new Head of Security.”

   And the stress levels we back up. “H-H-Head of Security!? That can't be right, I’m still in college!!!”

   “Well, it's moreso a gradual position. One that needs some level of prep work, but that'll all be talked about if you agree to the job.”

   Gradual? Prep work?? Daryl was left dumbfounded at the offer. Was his prowess really that good to warrant being the Head of Security for an entire industry!? Something about that just felt so… so… impossible, but…

   The young man couldn't hold himself back from reaching towards the nearest pen. “I'm assuming this is something that'll be in full effect once I get my degree…?”

   “You could say that,” Tony responded. It felt cryptic, like the man was hiding something.

   Daryl didn't dwell on it for too much though. It feels like this was the offer of a lifetime, and in a quite literal manner that he could have this job until retirement. Working with Stark Industries straight out of college… the paychecks he could get from such a high position like Head of Security… It was an offer that was too good to pass up.

   And so Daryl writes his name onto the contract, the young man not even taking a moment to read it through.

   “Didn't even think twice on that, huh?” Stark said with a smirk. He slid back the contract towards him with one hand, and with the other he seemed to slink off the desk and beneath it. “Preparations can be put underway then.”

   Daryl smiled. “May I ask what kind of preparations…? Will I still remain in this internship until I get my degree? Or uh, will I be put in contact with the previous head? Just curious how this will- augh!”

   His questioning is cut short as he feels something cold jab itself into the side of his neck. For a few seconds Daryl’s body seizes up, but he regains control as he quickly lifts up a hand to feel the spot. 

   Pushing his seat back a bit Daryl looked behind him and found a silvery robotic suit reminiscent of Stark’s various Iron Man suits. He knew for a fact that wasn't there before. Furthermore its left hand was in the process of unmorphing from something, and he could see the appearance of a needle or syringe-like object in the mass of shifting metals. “Uhhh, wh-what was that?”

   “Nanite injection,” Stark responded plainly. “Again, part of the preparations for your new position.”

   “I, uh…” a dizziness started to enter Daryl as he turned to look at Tony and speak again. “What preparations needs… that…”

   “Juuuuust give it a bit…” Stark said, idly watching.

   Daryl wanted to respond, but the dizzy spell was making it hard to focus in full. Instead he elected to investigate himself, removing his hand from his neck to see if there was any blood on it. He was quite surprised to find that only a small amount had bled onto his palm. Although that small drop of blood had a tangible mixture of deep red and a dimly glowing blue. And what was even weirder was that his hand seemed to be… different. Changing.

   At first it all seemed to be slight. Something that looked to be a trick of his oncoming daze. Each individual finger seemingly getting slightly longer, slightly thicker. That change in appearance was only getting more prominent in just seconds as their once thin size was replaced with an almost chunkier looking physicality. The same was also being applied to the rest of his hand with it getting stretched out to be larger and more in proportion with his new fingers. The same was applied with its thickness as well which, albeit wasn't the most significant in changes, was fairly noticeable whenever he inspected his hand from the size. 

   A much stranger change was following however. The softness of his hands was quickly appearing to alter, seemingly looking to be getting more aged almost. His palms growing harder and more callused, the back of his hands getting more noticeably weathered. There even seemed to be a few scars etching into his knuckles. 

   “Whuh…?” was the best response Daryl could come up with at the sight. The man also made sure to check his other hand, his brain taking a few moments to fully realize the transformation was happening there as well. His mind was already feeling so fogged up that it was hard to fully comprehend just everything. It practically felt like his brain was on the beginnings of being put on anesthetics.

   That wasn't fully the case though, and if it was he probably wouldn't be feeling a dense heat surging through his arm muscles. Daryl was a rather thin fellow, but it was rapidly getting more tangible that what was injected into him was changing his body type at the most basic level. His arms were swelling up slightly larger, a low musculature steadily layering onto them. It wasn't the most drastic of mass growths as his new muscles were looking to be more equipped for lower level combat than they would be for more strenuous strength-related ordeals. But that didn't stop his biceps and triceps from just barely outlining themselves in the short sleeves of his flannel, evidently proving that no matter what his new size was going to just barely going to be larger than his current one.

   Muscle wasn't the only thing forming however. A layer of softness was lightly layering over them as well. Small amounts of fat formulating and increasing the width of his arms even more. Furthermore on his skin it would seem the amount of arm hair he possessed was increasing as well. Not by an immense amount, but still just enough that it was slightly more visible than usual.

   The ill-fitting feeling of his sleeves persisted as his shoulder muscles developed a bit more. Pressure was forming in his bones as well, the remainder of his shirt already feeling weird on his form as he was in the process of getting wider. His form getting broader and a couple inches being added to him horizontally. All of which was quickly followed by a heat in his core, and a churning in his gut.

   The warmth that coursed through him was a byproduct of yet another deluge of muscle gain. The flatness of Daryl’s chest was quickly superseded and his upper body strength increased as his pectoral muscles grew in size. It still wasn't the most drastic of growths though as his pecs only gently dented into his shirt, but it was still enough to form just a bit of cleavage. Meanwhile at the lower half of his torso his abdominal muscles followed in a similar manner by rapidly rippling forward a little and hardening as well. Even then however his belly had a level of smoothness, his newly developed abs only slightly visible beneath in it.

   But the churning in his stomach remained. The younger man bent forward a bit, slinging a transformed arm around his abdomen and moaned. The haze in his mind didn't fully let him string together a sentence, so in the end all he could sputter out was, “What’re ya… doing to…”

   His belly rumbled, and then the second half of his bodily changes were enacted. Softness formed throughout the entirety of his torso, expanding itself across him and prompting a major gain in weight. His pecs got a bit thicker with a layer of fat, pushing forward even more as they rounded out more. The most prominent change came with his belly however. Fat accumulating at a rapid pace, his stomach swelling forward more and more with each passing second. Just getting larger, rounder, and slightly pushing the hem of his shirt up more and more. Although in the end the gain in size would only result in his shirt moving upwards to a few centimeters above his belly button, it was still a fairly significant growth regardless. Especially since it was followed up by a light tickling spreading across his torso. A sparse amount of hair ran up his midline until it would reach his chest, in which it would then spread into a light dusting of chest fuzz. A few hairs even looked to be graying.

   All Daryl could do was gently squeeze his gut in confusion. His ability to think straight was reaching a point where it was extremely difficult to pull off. He knew something was up but every time he tried to fathom it his train of thought just derailed. And if anything he also felt like he could feel his own mind was starting to get rearranged as well. As if bits and pieces of it were in the process of being removed or altered. But the ramifications of such a thing weren't tangible yet, or at least he thought they weren't. Even if it was seeming like the way his body was looking was getting increasingly familiar. Increasingly his own…?

   His mental haze had left him distracted from the increasing tightness within his pants. His legs were kick-starting their changes with muscle mass forming across them alongside some fat. Much like with his arms the increasing diameter of his legs wasn't the most drastic of bodily changes. His thicker thighs pushed up against the denim of his jeans quite a bit, and the same could be said with his calves that were in the process of swelling with fat. Despite it all though strength coursed through his muscles. A new increase in endurance that the man had not possessed prior to the transformation.

   Concurrent with his leg growth were also the changes happening in his feet. His shoes had quickly started feeling undersized as his feet began their expansion, extending forward while getting thicker and meatier. Pushing against the toecaps were his toes, now becoming chunkier than they had been before. As his heels pressed against the back of his sneakers a hardness formed across his soles as callouses manifested. All while specks of hair poked out from the bridge of his feet. His footwear still was managing to contain his larger appendages, but it was evident that there was still some level of struggling involved between their differing size.

   It was at this point that the changes were also properly reaching the uppermost quarter of the man’s body. His neck was already in the process of widening and he could feel a pressure coursing across his face. “I… a-ahhh…” he moaned out, the sound of his voice seeming to alter just a bit. Seemingly deepening just a smidge with the tone shifting alongside it. 

   “It honestly isn't the easiest thing to find people matching the proper qualifications for the job, especially since…” Stark started explaining just why he was doing this, but Daryl had evidently no ability to fully keep up with the man’s monologue. For a second the man could tune in and hear a statement about trust problems regarding confidential work or the fact that it'd be easier to create your own workers, but everything else fell onto the ears of a man whose mind was feeling like it was being restructured.

   The pressure around his face continued as his skull was in the process of restructuring. While it got larger to fit his new proportions it seemed to lengthen a bit vertically as well, his forehead seeming to get a little larger alongside the area around his chin. All the while his jawline was in the process of reshaping itself, the angling of the sides shifting as the deepest portion of his jaw rounded. It all had caused his head to gain an almost ellipsoidal shape. The slight roundness of it got more prevalent as a bit of submental fat descended a little beneath his chin.

   At the same time his facial features were changing. The shifts weren't the most drastic though: his nose getting a bit wider, rounder, bigger. Eyebrows quickly thinning out while reshaping to a more soft angled, almost S-shaped appearance. Meanwhile his eyes were getting a little bit smaller and his ears pulled back slightly. Fat accumulated around areas of his face, his cheeks in particular, while some slight levels  of aging and weathering started to appear at the edges of his eyes. One of the more prominent changes came with his chin developing some slight pronunciation, a noticeable lump now pushing forward. 

   The last major concurrent change came with his hair. His hairline was evidently receding a bit. There was a certain level of curling that was etching into each follicle on his scalp, all of them lengthening a little as they turned and curved. Although some level of methodical shifts happened in his hair, still remaining slightly short while combing itself back. This quickly resulted in the final appearance of his hair to be fairly well kept and slightly volumed, albeit with small portions sticking out at points.

   He continued to squeeze his stomach while his other hand raised to touch his face. He could only let out a single exhale as he felt his cheeks flush. By this point his brain just felt jumbled to say the least. Mainly in part because, while he couldn't fully comprehend it, the nanites in his system truly were rewriting how his brain operated. How his mind viewed… everything.

   Knowledge was being shuffled and replaced. The requirements for his old cybersecurity job seemingly switched out for decades of new information. Ones needed by a now ex-boxer, ones needed by a bodyguard, ones needed by a head of security for a major corporation. All the memories required for such things, his own past being restructured to fit an identity that was replacing his old one rapidly. For a second he stared at Stark, the man continuing to go off about something, and it caused another spiral of memories to unleash itself upon him as his perspective shifted to seeing the man as more than a boss. A friend.

   Gone were the perceptions of a simple internship, and gone were the youthful twenty-something years of memories. Instead it was reshuffled, rearranged, practically extended as his entire identity was altered beneath the transformative effects of the nanites. As far as he was aware he's been a part of Stark Industries for years. But even then so many blanks remained, so many years still missing. Things that the strange technology would have to deal with as this form remained like this longer. For the time being however, as the foreign feeling of it all faded, the haze started to lift as the new man steadily came to.

   The last major change came with the man’s clothing, the technology within him doing something to shift his attire to fit his form more. All of it was growing a bit to fit his heftier body shape. The hem of his undershirt slipped down and tucking itself into his pants while the sleeves of it extended over his arms until they went a little over his wrist. A plain white color extended across the undershirt as the material shifted into something a bit finer. A split ran down the middle of the shirt as well, buttons manifesting out the material (and already fastened as well). The neckline extended upwards as well points folding out as the shirt became collared, its appearance now exactly that of a dress shirt.

   The patterning on his flannel faded as blotches of black formed across it. The material shifted as well, the softness also becoming more fine and pressed. Multiple buttons were consumed by the changing material while others were changed, repositioned, and gotten a little larger. Especially the ones at the lower half, which had now made its way towards fastening itself around his stomach. The sleeves lengthened to match that of his undershirt, and the hem of the morphing clothing lengthened vertically as well. Some more shifts and folds occured as well with the collar lengthening a bit while a lapel folded out from the split. By this point the flannel had fully become a suit jacket instead.

   The last bits of clothing changes were fairly standard as well. The rough denim of his jeans smoothing over, material shifting to one like that of his suit jacket. That being finely tailored and a deep black coloration to make them more like suit pants. A black leather belt also snaked around his waist with the silver buckle fastening once it was comfortably around him. His shoes were in the process of shifting as well, the urban feel of the sneakers being smoothed out as the cloth became a clean black leather. It all resulted in a formal feel to imprint into his footwear to change them into dress shoes. 

   With all of that done the very last pieces of his attire came with a tie. The object materialized beneath his shirt’s collar and elegantly tied itself around his neck before drifting down and tucking the rest of itself under his jacket. Although it ended up feeling a bit tight around his neck, the man being prompted to lower the hand touching his face in order to properly readjust it. That in itself was a sign he had come to to some degree, the words of Tony Stark’s rambling properly entering his ears.

   “...then again it's not exactly cheap to manufacture these-”

   “I-I'm sorry,” he interrupted, the man still trying to readjust his tie. “I think I blanked about ten minutes ago and didn't even hear any of that.”

   Tony raised a brow, although a slight smirk had seemed to form on his face. “Fine, fine. Happy, what's the last thing you remember?”

   That nickname ignited something within him, within Happy. A brown coloration overtook his irises as he started to respond. “Er- walking in here, I think…” he unhanded his tie and started to raise one up to his neck. “And a pain in my neck.”

   “So nothing!” Tony said, faining exasperation. “You know, while I like to hear myself talk I don't necessarily enjoy having to re-explain ten minutes of work info.”

   “Again, apologies. Truthfully it feels like I've blacked out most of the day anyway. I don't even remember waking up this morning.”

   A momentary silence occurred as Tony seemingly was thinking of something to say in response. “Well they did say you may have some memory lapses ever since you had to start taking those nanite shots after that accident…”

   “What do you…?” Happy raised a brow. He couldn't recall anything about that…

   “See, this is why it's important to have others around you-” Stark got up and went to the other side of the table. He placed a hand on Happy’s shoulder and playfully shook him. “-to help you remember important information like this!”

   “Tony, please.”

   “It's nothing to worry about, bud,” Tony reassured. “We can go on an in-depth discussion on it after work.”

   Happy seemed unconvinced, but let it go. His mind felt way too groggy to deal with much right now. 

   “Fine, fine,” he sat back in his chair. “Let's just get this meeting over with then.”

[sgdlr-asdfghjkl]

Hellooo, sorry to bother you for this and maybe you've already said this but djskjs

Since you are posting all this link click musical content, do you have a weibo account? When you're looking for the content, do you use the app or the website? Cause I don't have an account and I've been looking through it on the browser but I only really find a few posts, meanwhile you seem to have an entire mine 😂 I wonder if there's really a difference or if there's something else I'm unaware of...

I don't wanna miss a single video 😂

But anyways thank you for sharing all the content and the info 🙏🏻❤️

Ayy it's okay, I'm happy to share ^^

No, I don't have a weibo account. I use a website (computer is more optimal for managing files). As for the rest I may have some tips ✨

1. Basic navigating tips (I've learnt it like a lab monkey, by pushing buttons, idk chinese): #音乐剧时光代理人# is the tag for LC musical. 2 last tabs on a left matter the most. The play button is tab with videos, first filter (the orange one) is for most popular, the other is for most recent.

The one below play button, a photo, is for pictures. They show from the most recent ones and I think you can scroll through them freely.

*For more convenient browsing and a chance to find extra photos that weren't properly tagged I recommend visiting profiles that posted the pics.

*second tab, the speech bubble one, is for discussion I think, it's sometimes useful for audience reviews etc.

2. If you don't have an acc weibo limits your access to older videos (message belows tells you to sign in to see more)

So I visit this tab just to check if anything interesting happened in the most recent play.

3. Bilibili doesn't seem to limit your access to older content, so for browsing videos use the #音乐剧时光代理人# on Bilibili. You can google translate the website to figure out the layout options, then go back to chinese ver (you must view original ver for clips to show up) and explore from there.

*Tbh I don't keep up with the videos much bc it's all the encore from different days. If anything big happens I learn about it from the photos, then look for the clips from that particular performance.

4. Check @接着奏乐接着舞Musicals (official profile of the musical's company). They post summary clips and photos from the play as well as cast announcements.

5. Check the actors' weibo accounts. A post where I tag and link to all of main trio actors. THIS IS IMPORTANT (my secret of having 200+ pics of LG & CXS actors). I'll use Cai Qi's acc as an example:

a) Go on their weibo.

b) Copy and paste their weibo tag into the search bar.

c) Look for a post with photos of them (can be from other play, doesn't matter)

d) THIS! We're looking for this diamond-shaped tag symbol 🔍

e) Click it and you're home 😌:

f) (ok I have no idea what IS this diamond tag) BUT it looks like a verified vip account, that not all people can tag. I suspect it's something like 'pay to tag your idol'/'highlight my post to a tagged person' twitter subscription kind of thing idk. Edit: It's a person-specific tag, like #, not direct @. What matters is that it has ALL hardcore stans in one place, posting videos, fancams and photos of that one specific actor in chronological from most recent order. Sadly it also limits non-users to newer posts only.

g) For clips with the actor go to the second tab on the top.

h) Third tab is for images. You can browse through the minatures but won't be able to enlarge them without the acc. So go back to the first tab, scroll, find yourself a batch that you haven't seen before, like here and visit OP's profile. It's the most probable to stumble upon a theatre kid who's already been to the LC musical, so you can find more content on there.

i) Scroll until you find the post with photos, click one of them, and then the highlighted option to access the highest quality image aand there you have it ✨

j) If you scroll and reach a user-only limit without finding the post you saw under the vip tag, there's a roundabout way to this >>

k) Scroll back up, and go to the last tab. It's the image albums tab. Look for the album with the theatre/actor photos. It seems the albums have no recency limit, you can see older posts without weibo acc.

(I feel kinda creepy for digging through people's profiles, but I swear weibo seems public like twitter and I have a tunnel vision to find LC content only)

So that was probably a core difference by the way I look for these things ><' Hopefully I explained it well enough. The biggest disadvanages of this method is you're still able to access only the most recent posts. That's why I made bookmarks to check them everyday.

Another thing is that not all actors in LC musical cast have a well established stan community who would post in the vip tag. They mostly do, but actors like Du Guangyi, Cai Qi, Teng Chunpeng, Zhang Jiahao, Wu Yihan or Wang Minhui tend to overshadow the rest by a sheer amount of fan pictures :'>

Hope it was a comprehensible read, and thanks for asking 💝

[blazehedgehog]

Might seem like a random question - but out of nostalgia I pirated sonic advance 3, and tried 1 and 2 also, cause never played them as a kid - but that made me think

Do most sonic "fans" actually like the "if you lose all lives you gotta replay everything from the start" - because I got to world 4 in both and then died and that made me have zero motivation to ever play them again lol (while I appreciate advance 3 for actually having an overworld and stuff, makes it feel alive, like the "downtime" to me doesnt seem like filler but serves the porpuse off cooling of between the action, rethinking your steps and just give the illusion of it being more than a few levels strung together)

I mean, you are describing a practice that all games used to have, not just Sonic games. Super Mario Wonder, a 2023 release, still has a lives system.

If you mean the game forces you to restart the entire game from level 1 if you get a game over, that means something isn't working right with your copy of the game. Your ROM isn't a clean dump, or you haven't set the emulator up right, or something.

Like I even double checked just now to make sure: I beat Route 99 Acts 1 and 2, and got a game over on Act 3. It did not undo my progress and Acts 1 and 2 remain completed.

Do you by any chance have all of this stored on your desktop? Windows can get REALLY picky about file permissions in certain locations and it might be blocking the emulator from writing the save file.

The fact of the matter is, I don't really like Sonic Advance 3.

Sonic Advance 1 is a charming take on the classic Sonic formula. It's not perfect, and once the honeymoon period of its different art style wears off, the gameplay and themes are honestly pretty generic. But it's fine. It does not offend the senses. It nails the pacing and the feel and that's good enough.

Sonic Advance 2 is a little more its own thing. It's kind of clumsy and can get really frustrating (particularly with the bosses) but it's fast as hell and paves the way for games like Sonic Rush, Sonic Unleashed, and Sonic Generations. Those games would not exist without Sonic Advance 2's baby steps, and it's one of those games that I think is really fun to master. I will play Sonic Advance 2 any day of the week (up until the boss of Ice Paradise Zone. Also don't ask me about SP rings)

The thing about Sonic Advance 1 and 2 is they are kind of reflective of the games they were released nearest to. Sonic Advance 1 was following the pacing of the original Sonic Adventure, by being more of a platformer. Sonic Advance 2 takes after Sonic Adventure 2, by being non-stop balls-to-the-wall high speed action, with a focus on flow and momentum.

Sonic Advance 3 tips its hat to Sonic Heroes, but it feels like it was cobbled together out of scraps they fished out of the garbage for Sonic Advance 1 and 2. It wants to be both slower like Sonic Advance 1 but faster like Sonic Advance 2 at the same time and it can't decide between the two.

It mainly does this with the ring system. The more rings you're holding, the more the game raises your acceleration and overall speed cap. Basically, more rings = faster.

But then Sonic Advance 3 is the absolute worst, out of the whole entire trilogy, for punishing you for going too fast. It constantly puts enemies and spikes in the meanest possible places so you're always running into them by accident. So it's a game of going faster and faster and faster right up until you get caught in a gotcha trap and then you're back to being slow as hell again. And when you're slow in Sonic Advance 3, you're SLOW. You feel so sluggish.

That's on top of what I feel like is generally ugly, sloppy level design. Like I said, levels look like leftovers they didn't think were good enough for the first game, and tile alignment errors are all over the place.

Levels themselves are endlessly criss-crossing mazes that interrupt your flow constantly for stupid button puzzles or breakable walls or whatever. An entire game made up of levels like Carnival Night Act 2 from Sonic 3. I don't mind Carnival Night Act 2 as a one off thing, but I don't need a whole game like that.

I generally try not to acknowledge Sonic Advance 3.

[wyvchard]

Context

You know, being legally dead brings some challenges most people don't usually think about.

It's pretty difficult to deal with, the paperwork. Seeing your loved ones grieve.

But… in the eyes of the law, you're pretty much a nonentity.

You don't exist.

Thankfully, they gave me a new identity… but…

That person's not me. The picture may look like me. But it's not me.

Imagine hearing your name be different, foreign. It's not like getting married where you found a new place to belong in and change your name accordingly. You would have a household to build up with someone. Or being adopted to a new family where you know belong somewhere, to someone or a group. No.

You're practically a stranger in the land you grew up in.

You can't ever acknowledge the fact you relate to those who never left your sleepy hometown or bustling city. But also, you're too frequently moving about to the point you no longer connect to the sights in your eyes when you're racing against the clock. You don't have time for that.

Not when the world could be taken over or destroyed if you mess a few things up.

You're invisible and gone. Nothing. No trace of you. You're a ghost in the world you try so hard to protect.

And what do you get in return?

Just death and a chance you live to the next few days. It's not even certain you'll live to see your next sunrise.

He gave me the keys to my apartment. The old one. Not the one where I was attacked by those robotic hornets.

There's no point to it. It's most likely been leased to someone else. Someone alive.

I have to rely on them in order to make sure I have a place to stay in. They have kept their end of the agreement but…

The sight of my old keys with the faded keychains just sting. The plastic keychain had been stained with tiny scratches, reminding me on how much I loved the place. It was home.

It's merely a reminder that I'm practically a ghost now. A key without a lock to belong to.

I can't even go to people I consider companions, family. I'm dead and it could put them in danger if I come to them. I mean, it would leak some things I would rather keep buried with me.

They really should have given me my stuff back at the van. Then again, it would have been too heavy. And it would tip Zoraxis off that I survived. It was an easy sell for the agency.

But it was not easy for me.

That time I got my ocular implant, things just hit me all at once. I can't even trust them to keep me safe. Robotic hornets nearly stung me to death if I hadn't acted quickly. They didn't even check if they would bring me somewhere safe. What if something went wrong with my vision? There were so many possibilities that could have gotten me killed and I was mostly left alone to deal with it.

They just don't care, do they?

When I put the keys to the door of my original apartment, I took a pause as it entered inside the lock and came back with a satisfying click. They didn't change the locks.

I arrived a winter wonderland of dust when I opened the door, suppressing a cough in case any other person hears. The apartment was abandoned for a long time, maybe since the day I 'died'.

I opened the nearest window and began to clean after I shut the door behind me. Telekinesis is useful in that regard, it's like a second pair of hands to help you. It can help you reach places you normally couldn't without it, like a helper.

But I'm alone in here, no one to talk to or ease the labor. I've been alone ever since I joined them, haven't I?

All I had was a voice in my ear who derides me constantly, mocking at my habits even as I did the job right, as my companion. I appreciate his professionalism towards my silence but...

I'm only someone expendable in his eyes. In the agency's eyes.

They took away my choices to walk away in this life. There's nowhere else to go. They're the only ones who know I still exist and who will shelter me.

Everything was as I left it, the pens I left on the holder where I filed the paperwork after missions, where I wrote my last letters to everyone when I was convinced I was going to die. Yet, it was desolate even after the dust was removed, the ink dried up and no longer able to write-to do its purpose. It's better off disposed of.

Just like me.

I cautiously tried on the radio and heard broadcasts of John Juniper, of people asking if he was coerced into this. They couldn't believe the actor they beloved would do something like this. The static from the breaking radio hazed my mind as several bags of unusable stuff filled up the entrance.

I was shaking when I managed to throw away all of them, fully knowing that they would no longer be useful.

Saying "I'm dead" and trying to accept it seems easy, but not when the proofs of your existence is left abandoned and disposed off right in front of you, reminding you that you're left with nothing.

By the time I managed to arrive to the control point, it had been a week since Juniper's downfall.

I doubt I'd ever see him again, might as well accept that he would probably think I'm dead.

I have to start all over again.

It doesn't matter. You weren't attached to him.

It's just that I have nowhere else to go.

It's time to reestablish communications and accept that I will most likely never see a life away from this one ever again.