#i have so many screenshots and i been itching to post

[guardian-sims]

I have been preparing my game for the last two months for when i began making story post about my legacy gameplay again. Until I'm finished, i decided ill be posting my progress and some gameplay stuff under the carter extras tag in the mean time.

[kingkatsuki]

— when he almost gets caught

Masterlist.

Bakugou is a bit of a creep in this one, but I promise it’s just because he’s so obsessed with reader okay?

Warnings: 18+, dubconish, pervy photographs, male masturbation.

Pairing: Bakugou Katsuki x f!reader.

Word Count: 1.5k.

One of the first things Bakugou did once he started to like you was search for your social media profiles. He knew he shouldn’t have done it, that it was wrong. As your boss he should’ve granted you the privacy that you deserve in your personal life, a side of you that he really had no right to see. But this is what you do to him, he just can’t seem to help himself around you. And your internet footprint wasn’t exactly Fort Knox. 

With a few clicks Bakugou could easily access your entire social media footprint, no passwords or accounts required to satiate the itch of missing you when he’s in his large studio apartment late at night, painfully alone. After discovering your extremely public Instagram (he’d have to talk to you about internet security, any pervert could find them!) he’d spent hours scrolling through and admiring each photograph of you. Trying to ignore the ache in his chest whenever he’d see you a little too close to one of your friends, clicking into their profiles to ensure you weren’t actually dating them.

Bakugou had given himself a heart attack on more than one occassion when he thought he’d accidentally double clicked one of your photos to like it, or followed you by mistake. Something he’d foolishly done before, and something he did not want to repeat. One morning he’d been so tired after a grueling night patrol, collapsing into his bed at four in the morning he’d accidentally done the unthinkable and liked his favourite photograph of you. Feeling so lethargic, his fingers had double tapped the screen instead of pinched to enlarge it. Quickly unliking it as he tried to reason with himself that you wouldn’t see it. Not wanting to seem like the shameless creep he was acting like, stalking his employees like this.

But it did leave him wondering sometimes whether you’d mind if he followed you on your social media. You didn’t seem to mind his company, and you’d given him your personal phone number to talk to him about work matters so you couldn’t have been that adverse to it… But there was no way he’d be asking you, instead he was content to scroll through and get these little insights to your life, enjoying the aesthetic food photographs or the scenic ones he probably would have made fun of anyone else for posting— but it was different when it was you, because he loves everything about you.

Bakugou had an entire album in his cellphone dedicated to you now, screenshots of his favourite photographs from your social media so he could shamelessly admire you without the fear of an accidental follow. Pictures that he would be ashamed to admit to anyone that he’d spent many nights fucking his fist to the sight of. It didn’t matter that the pictures were sweet and innocent, it didn’t make him want you any less. The thought of what lay beneath the cosy sweaters and tight jeans had his mind reeling, the curiosity sending a rush of blood direct to his throbbing cock.

But these photographs weren’t enough, not when there are plenty of other eyes that get to admire them whenever and wherever they want. There’s something personal about having photographs of the people you love that are for your eyes only, photos that no one else gets to see.

Oh, Bakugou definitely knew it was wrong. But is it really his fault when you’re so damn beautiful?

It was early one afternoon when he took the chance to get his own candid photograph of you, the office floor deserted for lunch besides the both of you as you stood facing the copier. Bakugou was about to tell you that he was heading out on his patrol and that he probably wouldn’t be back in the office tonight. But that’s the exact moment that the printer decided to jam, a frustrated groan spilled from your lips as you hit the side of the machine roughly.

Bakugou couldn’t help but smirk at your reaction, sending your frustration a mile away as he took a step closer to come to your aid— but that’s when it happened.

You bent over to pull the small drawer out of the side of the machine, peering into the drawer as the fabric of your skirt began to stretch around your ass. Revealing more of your gorgeous thighs as he stopped dead in his tracks to revel at the sight of you.

“Stupid fucking report,” You growled as you began to tug at the papers that were stuck inside the machine, only causing your ass to shake as Bakugou had to bite back a groan.

Bakugou’s cock began to throb beneath his hero suit as he took the opportunity, ignoring the little voice at the back of his head that told him not to do it— aiming his phone camera towards you as he snapped a few photographs of your ass in quick succession.

He should’ve walked over to help you after that, but he couldn’t bring himself to approach you when his cock was painfully hard beneath his pants. Instead turning on booted heels as he made his way back towards his office, his phone clutched tight to his chest.

He was no better than Denki, no better than Mineta as he unlocked the phone to take a look at his bounty. Turning his screens brightness up as high as it would go as he zoomed in on the perfect curve of your ass. Groaning at the way the slit at the back of your pencil skirt rode up so he could see your bare thighs where your stockings ended, trying to see whether there was the print of a panty line against the material as he tried to guess what underwear lay beneath. But the fact that Bakugou couldn’t even see a line only had him speculating even more, wondering exactly what style of panties you were wearing, if you were even wearing any at all.

And god, now the thought of you completely bare inside his office, working so innocently beside him, had his head racing and his cock begging for attention. Palming himself with a soft groan as he pictured sliding the fabric of your skirt up your thighs himself to find out, calloused fingers warm against your skin as you spread those gorgeous thighs for him.

Bakugou couldn’t help it, forgetting about his patrol as he unbuckled his utility belt. Sitting himself down in his plush desk chair as he tugged his pants down just enough to free his aching cock. The head already an angry pink colour as pre oozed from the slit, his thumb smoothing over it to smear the moisture along his length as he hissed sharply through his teeth. Picturing you bent over in the same position as in the photograph across the width of his desk. Giving him the perfect position to slide his throbbing cock inside your tight, wet cunt as he wrapped his fist around his girth tightly. A feeble attempt at mimicking how you’d feel wrapped around him as he began to lazily stroke his cock, sitting back in his chair as half-lidded eyes gazed down at the photograph on his phone.

The photograph that was all for him, for his eyes only.

Gnawing on his lower lip to bite back a groan as he swiped his thumb across his leaky slit, his chest heaving as he continued to think of the most debauched positions with you. Feeling himself edging closer and closer to his release before there was a swift knock on the door.

Bakugou scrambled to fix himself, his phone now laying flat on his desk as he tugged his pants back up over his hips, sliding forward in his chair to hide his throbbing cock beneath the desk as you stepped inside the office. The sultry scent of your perfume immediately wafting into the air and making it difficult to think, his length twitched in response as you continued closer. Laying the hundred page report down onto his desk with a bright smile.

“‘m sorry it took so long, Dynamight.” You murmured sheepishly, “I had some problems with the copier.”

I know, Bakugou was already thinking of a hundred new ways to jam the copier just to have you like that again all for himself.

“S’fine.” Bakugou muttered, trying to push his depraved thoughts to the side, all too aware of his problem beneath the desk.

“Oh, are you heading out on your patrol now?” You surmised as you noticed his outfit, “I’m not keeping you, am I?”

“Nah,” He shook his head, trying to play it cool as though he wasn’t touching himself to an illicit picture of you seconds earlier, “Gonna head out now.”

“Well stay safe, and wrap up warm. I heard there might be snow tonight.”

“I’ll be fine,” Bakugou scoffed, but inside his heart was performing somersaults at the idea that you cared about him.

“I know, I just know you hate the cold.” You smiled as you turned to leave the room, and of course you had to sway that perfect fucking ass again. Bakugou tried to look anywhere else, but his eyes were completely transfixed, biting back a moan of pleasure as you finally shut the door. Leaving him completely alone in his office, late for patrol, with a raging hard on.

If you hadn’t of been so quick to dismiss your Instagram notifications one drunken night after work, as you’d climbed into your bed at four in the morning. Fighting with your charger as you tried to jab it into the port at the base of your phone, you would’ve noticed one of the banners that showed up said “DynamightOfficial liked your photo.”

[imsailorpluto]

So I've finally finished Bloodhounds (+ ahjussi collection)

...and I have no idea where to start and what to say and how to feel.

No, wait, please hear me out.

It was b l o o d y and at parts a very difficult watch, as it has lots of explicit fighting scenes, which look extremely realistic and cruel. So cruel that I had to close my eyes and not watch, I even skipped many & i'm not sorry. However, there are also parts so heartwarming that it makes you forget about all the crimes and gore for a moment. So, it's up to you to decide if it's worth the struggle. Since the violence could be a bit too much for many, let's just say I do and don't recommend this one at the same time. Personally, one of things I greatly enjoyed is the subtle comic tone of Gun-woo's and Woo-jin's interactions with each other and their characters which represent people doing sports professionally so well, the purity of their hearts and lack of malice in everything they do, since they truly do live for the sports. Then there are two absolutely powerful and skillful young women, Hyeong-ju and Da-min, playing such important roles in the entire series, each of them individually contributing so much to the entire plan of bringing the bad guys down and saving what could still be saved. And also, one of the most enjoyable parts were definitely the bonds that came out of these newly formed friendships. Younger acting crew did an amazing job. In comparison to the older and experienced ahjussi crew (I'll get to them in a bit), they've got some serious talent. It must have been a huge undertake for both Woo Do-hwan and Lee Sang-yi to live up to the expectations of the entire team behind this drama. And they did it. They absolutelly slayed.

If you still haven't watched this drama, trust me when I say these two cinnamon rolls will instantly win your heart right at the beginning of the first episode. They're like the most perfect two besties you'd want to be besties with too. And yeah, you'll suffer thru all the horrors just to see them win the biggest battle of their lives. Gosh, every time I tried typing something coherent about them it just ended up being lots of crying shaking throwing up. They're the best, ok? And this is best I can do. ╥﹏╥

And while our marine boys scratched so many itches around this platform, I have to mention the absolute gentlemen that starred in this series and swept me off my feet *deepest sigh ever*

So many great actors took part in Bloodhounds, it's hard to believe my own eyes at times. Whoever was in charge of the casting did a killer job. I couldn't even take the bad guys seriously because they're freakishly handsome. Well, at least not until Kim Myung-gil brutally ended my favourite ahjussi trio damn you ep 6

What started as an obsession over two young marine guys and their bromance ended up as a hole in my heart over downfall of three middle aged criminals men and a will to trade all the money and gold bars for their lives. And more importantly, a huge appreciation for Korean actors over the age of 40.

No, let's be real. They're handsome and talented and great at their job and deserve all the love and support. With that in mind... here's a tiny screenshot dump because it would be a shame not to post it:

And I want to be normal about them and move on in peace but *internal screams* I've already mentioned Lee Hae-young in one of my earlier posts, addressing my obsession with the character he portrays, the sushi restaurant owner Hwang Yang-jung. And I know many people are obsessed with him too. But no one is speaking up. Which is silly. And tbh I really thought there would be more gifs of him and other men but...there's close to none? Can we talk about how fine this man is? How fine this whole ahjussi crew is? Can we... can we just acknowledge they sliced us all in tiniest pieces possible and burned us all till we turned into charcoal? Can we make a mess of kdrama side of tumblr by excessively posting about them? Pretty please?

It's true, I came for the boys, but stayed for these men. I'm not even joking when I say kdrama has me in a chokehold again, but this time for a whole new reason. Dropping everything just to watch series and movies these guys took part in sounds like the best idea at the moment. I even forgot about the new releases I started watching, which makes me laugh at myself, but... it is what it is. At some point, a girl just has to obsess over her favourite ahjussi, and that's okay.

[joelhappyhil]

It's been a month and a half, here's a update for DAWN before the new year.

(This was taken from an update on my Kickstarter)

Hello everyone, and happy holidays!

I'd first like to give an apology for the lack of substantial updates, especially regarding DAWN's progress after the Kickstarter's end. I've shown many small updates on my Twitter and Discord but felt it would be annoying to send out emails for each of those teasers. I've created this post as a bulk progress update before I release a major update to the playtesting material (more on that later).

Art

I would like to share the thing that's taken most of my time and funding since the Kickstarter ended: the ordering and use of new art for the book.

This is only some of the work that's been done so far, but since this art is meant to represent player options, I felt it was good to show you all these as examples of what's been completed, as I assume most of those reading will be looking to play the game as players.

Playtests

I've been spending a lot of time on balancing the game, with combat tests being hosted on my Discord every week. These have resulted in a lot of reworks and changes to the mechanics that will be apparent if you read the version that was publicly available during the Kickstarter's run. Here’s some examples of reworked Techniques (renamed from Power's since the KS) and new ones that have been well received by testers.

Design and Copy Editing

You may have noticed from these screenshots, but I've also taken a try at reformatting the game to better reinforce the comic book look, with new fonts and improvements to the page layouts, while better managing the negative space.

I feel I've made a lot of progress and I'm getting closer to the final pdf, but there’s  still quite a bit of quality checking that needs to be done. (The GM parts of the book especially).

I'll be aiming to release a Final playtest document on my Itch sometime before or around the new year. It'll be the most complete version so far, but will still be missing a lot of art  fluff text, and short stories I plan to add at the head of each chapter. As the name implies, this should be the last freely available version I release before 1.0, where I'll start working on the physical layout for printing and start on the supplements funded in the KS.

Conclusion

If you got this far I'd like to thank you. I've spent quite a few years on this project and never thought I'd be able to get this much funding for it, or for any of my books, really. To show my appreciation, here's the current book cover for that final playtest document. I'm not sure if it'll be the same when the update comes out, but I felt like some of you might enjoy seeing its current version.

Again, thank you all so much, I'll be updating you again when this stuff becomes available.

- Joel Happyhil

[youredreamingofroo]

Long winded rant of me talking about NSB, doing a new series, storytelling and whatever else I talked about under the cut, feel free to read it's just me rambling, I don't really care if ppl read it or not it's VERY long 😭

I've been painfully itching to start a new series, I know I'm doing NSB rn, and I do plan to at least finish the normal NSB legacy (up to Gen 9), although I might finish or take a break at around Gen 5 or 6, just because I don't wanna lose motivation and also because it takes A LOT to make some of these posts (for example, the last NSB post... took a lot out of me), and I'm only on Gen 2, almost Gen 3 rn, and I was originally planning to do all 30 or 40 Gens in the updated ver of NSB, which def doesn't seem like it'll be happening right now, because at the current rate at which I post, and how fast things in my game move, Sims 6 will be out before I even finish Gen 30 😭😭

Anyways, I don't know what the series would be about, if I were to do a new series, it would definitely be a lot more story based, if not completely story based, I don't know if I'd do/include gameplay, but I really wanna dive into more storytelling and setting up scenes, I'm not a film or theatre kid by any means, and I really don't know much about writing and setting up scenes and stuff, to be honest, i don't even know how I storytell, I guess it's just regurgitated content molded to shape the statue of my story if that makes sense lmao, I guess it's also the art of using so many fucking metaphors and similes that doing something like comparing love to drowning in a cold ocean comes sorta easy to me? I'm not grammatically inclined and don't know a lot about punctuation, my teachers all kinda gave up on me in English class, so all of my writing is basically self taught, which I guess is the case for a lot of things I do- I feel like starting a new series would help me learn how to write better, even though it seems like a lot of ppl love my writing, I still feel like I could improve so much and do so much better. I already have a couple ideas in mind for a new series, I don't think I'll say much rn just in case I decide to make them a series, but as for right now, I've got plans for Gen 3 NSB (aka Calico), and if I were to start a new series, I would not stop playing NSB, but due to how I function and shit, I would have to put NSB on hiatus, I kind of have a hard time doing two stories at once, hence why Sharkie's story got put on hiatus, because it was too stressful for me to double up, especially with how often I post (at least 3 or 4 times a week), I would like to go back and play Sharkies story and share her story up to this point where I last played her, her story is a lot more gameplay centered (for example, I am more inclined to make a blender scene for NSB, then Sharkie, for Sharkie, I'd do stuff like go to the bar and see how it plays out and take screenshots and just edit those) which I like more, but that's not to say I don't enjoy NSB, because I equally LOVE storytelling as I do gameplay.

While writing this, I did think of something I could do, which would be posting NSB every other week (so one week I do Sharkie or some other series and then the next week I do NSB, then a diff series, so on so forth), the only problem is that usually when I get an idea, and I finish that idea, I like to post it asap, I'm not good at scheduling posts lmao, but it might be worth it if people want to see another series (that is if anyone is still reading up to this point lol), I'd like to channel my storytelling into a more story based save/story, but idk! I'm just kinda doing my thing rn and I'm at a point where i wanna do something different. I especially wanna start doing more in blender, it just takes fucking forever to do some of the stuff I wanna do, and some of it means learning new stuff which is thrice as hard and takes thrice as long compared to normal posing and stuff 😭

[grimmshollow]

Hello! The Palestinian Relief Bundle looks super cool and I'm delighted to see it up :) That said, is there any direct confirmation through PCRF that this is going through them? Or some other confirmation of legitimacy (maybe through itch.io itself)? I'm sure this is legitimate (can't imagine that many game devs contributing otherwise), but I'd like to boost this in a large server, so I want to be able to answer any questions about it.

Thanks for putting this together. By the looks of it, y'all are already making a big difference, which is awesome.

Sure. Evidence under read more (long post).

The PCRF has an account on itch.io: https://pcrf.itch.io/ When creating a bundle on itch, you can configure how the revenue is split. Here's a screenshot of the bundle's settings on my side where the PCRF's itch.io account is set to 100%.

About direct confirmation: I have been talking back and forth with itch.io's support and a contact from the PCRF via an email chain to setup the bundle, though I don't think I can share that as it may disclose the name / personal details of my contact.

Hope that helps - let me know if you have any more questions.

[aliquistis]

New Skyrim playthrough starting with Irem at-Tavani who is a Redguard monster-hunting alchemist from Skaven. I love her but this post is actually bc my new favorite follower is also her husband,

Val Serano

I am being so serious right now, go play this mod.

Gushing about Val and more screenshots under the cut

So the thing I really like about Val as a follower is that he is here for the journey. He does of course have a fully fleshed-out story and personal quests but what I really love is I don't feel like I'm dragging him along to help me with my adventures, he's coming along bc he wants to be in on the adventure too (and, more importantly, the pay out,) I don't know if this feeling is an amalgam of how many lines he has (he has SO many lines reacting to quests) or his personality (relic hunter, knowledge seeker, arcane trickster on the lookout for that next big find that'll have us rolling in septims) but he doesn't just feel like a 'follower', he feels like a companion. The only other custom voiced follower I've really gotten that feeling with has been Lucien, and with how good that mod is I think that's a compliment that speaks for itself.

His personal quests are also really good and work so well with Elder Scrolls lore. I don't want to get into details bc spoilers but seriously, it's good food.

And all that is an aside from the romance, which is also excellent. I'm not roleplaying Irem as ace but I do love seeing some good middle-of-the-road options for ace people like myself who are not sex-averse and love a good fade-to-black. When I first started playing the mod I kept thinking to myself that Val reminded me of characters like Han Solo or Atton Rand (if Atton was way more charming and the writers didn't use him as a punching bag) The whole flirty reformed pirate with a heart of gold thing is ridiculously up my alley. The mod encourages roleplaying and has three paths to romance -- I went with the bickering-to-lovers path because I love a Pride and Prejudice plot and it fits Irem's character.

While your path is locked in at a certain point, you still get dialogue options, which is nice for the relationship I imagine with these two: one which starts contentious and softens over time. An issue I've had with other video game romances is that it treats one selected trait as your whole character (when they even give you the option to roleplay at all). I love that this doesn't see you being a sarcastic bitch 20 times and decide your whole personality is sarcastic bitch. I have layers ok sometimes I'm a sarcastic bitch who cries at the end of tangled

So yeah. The writing is great. The voice acting is great. The thought put into the character and the world-building is incredible. The romance is easily the best I've played in Skyrim (which. ok. low bar but the compliment stands.) tbh I only downloaded him originally because I had a skyrim itch and the Kaidan Revoiced mod isn't out yet, but I have been simply Floored.

Anyways mostly I am writing this because hurricane Milton knocked my home on its ass for a week and a half and I had a lot of electronic-less time to philosophize about how far modding has come and to write fanfiction. But also I'm just banging pots on my small corner of the internet to bring more attention to this excellent piece of work.

the fanfiction bit isn't a joke does anyone know how mod authors feel about cvf fanfic it feels weird to me like I'm playing with someone elses toys--

[autumnslance]

Writing To Yourself

(Mileage may vary, I'm not your mom nor your teacher--unless you're working for a specific state healthcare service, anyway.)

That's how you garden. Tend the plot. Plant a million seeds, reap a thousand blooms. The rest? Compost for the next crop. -@biot08 / @driftward

During a Discord convo, I thought about why so many fandom writers catch “writer’s block”, and some of it goes back to self-care and taking in new media, getting inspiration and knowledge, covered in this post. But much of it?

People think everything they create has to be publishable for others’ consumption. That is Not True. Too often we don't want to write things just for the sake of writing them, falling into the trap of thinking it needs to be perfectly polished and shared, but No It Really Doesn't.

Folks talk about “writing for oneself” but in terms of posting finished pieces of the kinds they want to see. If everything feels like it “has to be” publishable, it can start to put too much pressure on oneself. And then there’s your block, especially if the type to worry about how others Perceive you and your art.

Try simply writing anything and deciding later if it's something you want to share. I have pieces I wrote cuz my brain suddenly said it wanted to, but that writing isn't posted anywhere. Usually it’s random lines; out of context sentences, scenes, or bits of dialogue. Sometimes just incoherent character rambling. Ideas for situations and what ifs. Misspelled, typos, not grammatical, redundant wording, passive voice, bad POV, too many adverbs, not enough active verbs, not enough description, too much description, etc. All in notebooks or doc files. I’ve shared the (now out-dated) deep nests of my WIPs folders and the multiple, unfinished, unpolished pieces within them. Most will never be completed nor seen by the public. 

For instance, I've a random smut fic of a Highlander Warrior of Light and the popular antagonist of Shadowbringers. I'm not usually a villain liker, but one day it hit my brain, so I wrote it. I have notes and outlines for the rest of their story and how it plays out, though I'll probably never write more. I scratched the writing itch, stretched some skills, considered things from a different angle, and now it sits in drafts (I did post a couple decent-ish smut lines to my private Twitter once).

Mostly, it's practice. Even if it's junk and janky.

“But I have (professionally) published X or Y…”

Still gotta exercise the writing muscles! Still gotta scrawl off something utterly unusable now and again for the heck of it!

All those random lines, descriptions, scenes, rambles? Maybe I'll use them someday. I wrote them down to feel the pen in my hand or keys clacking under my fingers, to see the words pop onto the page or screen, to play with word choice, sentence structures, and “how would they say that?” For my own satisfaction, no one else’s.

When I get bored or stuck, or need a screenshot or writing prompt response, I might poke at those lines, pages, rambles, and see if they hit now or spin off to something else. They often don’t. But sometimes they help inform other things I do post to the public later. Even if that’s just a Question of the Day prompt response on Twitter.

(That also counts as writing and creating btw; you’re still coming up with something to share about your characters and I think that’s very creative of you.)

If the mood strikes, write. Even if it's just a vague idea--especially if it's any bits of dialogue or description, if it's something you think that you actually do want to write when off work or out of bed or whatever.

Even if you never post it anywhere public. Even if it never gets out of crummy first draft, unfinished pages form. It might feel like pulling teeth and look rough, especially if it’s been awhile.

But still write it. No one else has to know or see. Not until you want them to.

Maybe parts of it will inform something you do finish later. Maybe two years from now another prompt will hit just right and you’ll dig out that draft and finish it for posting. Maybe you’ll cannibalize aspects of it for an entirely different piece. Maybe you’ll even use it in a few more years to see how far you’ve come as a writer.

In many cases? That's how you actually keep writer's block away. Keeping ideas around to steal from yourself, letting yourself write nonsense, unpublishable bits and pieces, maybe even whole pages, just for the heck of it, if writing is something one enjoys and wants to stick with as a hobby (or professionally). If you don’t enjoy writing for fun? Don’t force it; do little character prompts and blurbs as they feel right, and find the ways to share creativity that work for you.

And seriously, don’t forget to take in new media, experiences, and information. This is How You Lose the Time War got me writing on an original story I shelved last autumn. The stories aren't at all alike! But seeing new words in new ways helped shake something loose in my brain. So try to make some time for that, too.

Write to yourself, not for others’ consumption. Public posting is great for validation and encouragement, for when we feel the urge to share due to pride or just wanting to gush about our faves. But also let yourself remember why you liked creating worlds, making up stuff about your characters, and writing at all to begin with, without the pressure of public posting. Give yourself some grace, and let it all be messy, unhinged, misspelled, ungrammatical, incomplete, and make no narrative sense.

Write to yourself, for yourself. Then let the rest follow.

[hollowmend]

Fetch Re;Quest Dev Log #1 - 11/15/2023

Welcome to the first official dev log for Fetch Re;Quest! This one is probably loooong overdue, haha...

It's a Sequel

I've been trying to make a sequel to my NaNoRenO game, Fetch Quest, literally since it came out. In fact, if you get the creator's commentary from itch, you'll see I was very confident that I'd be able to get something for it ready to go in just a few short months...

That was four and half years ago 😅 But after many false starts, I finally managed to get something going.

What's It About?

(Side note, I've been using Feniks' Easy Ren'Py GUI template a lot lately, and its a lifesaver. Check it out if you're a fellow dev!)

Hey! I think this might be the first real screenshot I've posted of the game! Isn't Flora's bedroom cute?

Anyway! Fetch Re;Quest picks up directly after the upcoming Fetch Quest Remaster's new "True Ending".

After their one-shot TTRPG session ends, Flora finds herself wrestling with a problem. She has a crush on her coworker and would like to ask him out, but she's a little nervous.

So what does she do? Procrastinate, of course!

Flora sets a one week challenge for herself to grind up her stats in preparation for the final battle- Asking the object of her affection out on a date.

Luckily, she and her coworkers Connor, Todd, and Dan all have the week off. Flora decides to use the various board, card, and video games she and her friends play as a way to mentally level up.

The Stats

That's right, the game is a (light!) stat raiser. Each day, the gang decide between four games to play, each of which are tied to one of Flora's imaginary stats. Each game has its own scenes and helps Flora build up her confidence.

Techno-opolis is a 4X civilization building boardgame that increases Flora's "Acumen".

Of Fiends and Fangs is a social deduction card game about werewolves, vampires, villagers and betrayal that increases Flora's "Charm".

Clockwork Mercenaries is a steampunk monster hunting game that forces Flora to get "Gud".

and Deathpocolypse 2 is a janky ghost hunting game that increases Flora's "Moxie".

But be careful... Flora is easily distracted, and getting too into a game could lead to her completely forgetting about her original mission.

So Who's the Crush?

It's Dan.

Much to my surprise, the tired, snarky GM of the first game was very popular. I got a lot of comments lamenting the fact that he wasn't one of the love interests.

So here he is, the sole LI of Fetch Re;Quest! Sorry to any Connor or Todd lovers. It's Danny's time to shine.

New Characters

Connor and Todd will be prominently featured, but Fetch Re;Quest will also introduce a handful of new characters as well! Here's a sneak peek of about half the new cast:

Nona, Teddie, and David (pronounced Dah-veed) are members of the band Cats Eat Bats! There is one more member named TJ not pictured, but you've already met him, so...

Flora sets herself the daunting task of asking Dan out during their concert at the end of the week, but they show up here and there throughout the entire game. They're especially involved if you play a lot of Deathpocolypse 2!

What's Next?

A large portion of the game is already written and I've started commissioning the assets I'm not making myself. Things are really starting to roll now!

Right now I'm working on finishing the script and making the sprites. Hopefully that means there will be more visual things to show off soon.

Until Next Time

Hopefully these dev logs are at the very least interesting! If there's anything in particular you want to know about the game, feel free to send me an ask.

[canmom]

Speaking of spaceflight, I've been playing this game called Space Engineers that was on sale recently.

It's a sandbox game combining voxel mining with a grid-based vehicle/basebuilding game. The physics can be pretty finicky to put it mildly, but they've accomplished some crazy impressive technical stuff - procedural voxel terrain on the scale of actual planets. We spawned 'close together' which means kilometres of mountainous terrain.

For the voxels it uses smoothed marching cubes, and I think is doing something clever with octrees under the hood given how low detail transitions into high detail terrain. Since my current work involves working with those same algorithms I'm pretty blown away by how smoothly it runs. And all this with solid multiplayer netcode physics! I've been able to host a game with three players at 1440p ultrawide, with a rock-solid 120fps. I'd love to find some technical articles on how they made it.

Here's some stuff I've made in survival mode:

My little mountain base, soon to expand into another module. Mining all the silica for that glass took forever but it's worth it for pretty windows.

The Mk. 7 Extractivist. Good at getting itself stuck in holes in the ground.

Mk.2 Scootabooter, prototype of a flying scout vehicle. Design had to be revised several times, but I don't have a good screenshot of the final version.

The really big stuff is yet to come. But the 6DOF flight mechanics are fun, there's a good variety of models to play around with, and the vehicle physics are interesting if rather finicky.

Ultimately it's a 'make your own fun' sort of game - there's something of a progression of things you can build, to mine more, to build more, etc., but the 'challenge' comes in making the contraptions you build actually work.

It's honestly a bit of a dangerous timesink of a game for me, scratching way too many itches at once, so I'm trying to limit how much I play it. But here I go posting about it instead...

[jtl07]

jt (finally) watches warrior nun - s1 e5 & e6

All right, I'm just going to combine my thoughts for episodes 5 and 6, and again, going to focus on Beatrice because I have some frustrations with these two episodes as a whole (for some thoughts, see my e5 rewrite; still working on the e6 rewrite) - I can see what they’re trying to do and I appreciate it but ... that's a different post.

Anyway. Let’s talk about Beatrice! The thing that sticks with me in these two episodes are just how angry she’s become - yes, it’s wrapped up in this cool exterior and that seemingly angelic smile but she is just itching to fight - and she does a bit, here.

(Side note: Beatrice is kinda like Ava in that regard, actually - how quick they are to throw down. The difference is that Beatrice a) knows what she’s doing when she fights and b) has been conditioned, trained to think analytically, strategically. Not to say that Ava can’t or doesn’t learn - Bea just has more experience)

The key scene in episode 5 is that brilliant conversation with Duretti. But I think part of what makes that scene brilliant is how it contrasts with her scene with Vincent previous to this. With Vincent, Beatrice allows herself to be uncertain, to question, trusts Vincent to give her an honest answer. (Again, brilliant writing in terms of setting up Vincent’s betrayal - it’s only when you look closely that you see how he’s playing everyone) In fact, one thing that I couldn't help but notice: she fidgets with her hands during the conversation. For someone usually so outwardly confident, she allows herself to just be a young woman seeking advice with Vincent.

Then we have Beatrice with Duretti. From the jump, Beatrice is distant - she even tries to dismiss herself at the start, after loading the shield into the transport. But she unfortunately isn't able to escape. She stays distant as Duretti tries to build rapport - "You've read my dossier" as if implying 'anyone can do that, I know what you're doing.' She even puts literal arm's distance between them:

Contrast this with her scene with Vincent, where she allows herself to bend - it's not a lot, but it's there:

And then Duretti does his spiel. I just want to give KTY all of the props for putting so many layers into how she stays so chilly in the face of his compliments, not to mention her delivery. The simple, “Turmoil, sir?” is just so great:

(I wish I knew how to make gifs lol, but this captures her suspicious face good enough)

Also one thing I didn't notice before about her "to God" line is how much of a threat it is:

And all these layers is what makes me love this whole conversation. The first time I watched this properly, my thought was, "oh snap, this is not a smart play" - because Beatrice has essentially shown her hand here. Even though it’s coated in the language of a believer, both she and Duretti know what she's really saying.

But after watching it again (because I kept missing the timing for my screenshots lol), I realized that this is Beatrice also playing Duretti for information - or rather confirmation. Remember that right before this scene, she was questioning Vincent about the whole change of direction under Duretti. And here, she's getting him to tell her what he wants of her, what his intentions are.

And she gets what she wants - she gets him to be "forthright" with her, and it riles her way up. It reminded me a lot of episode 4 where she calls out Lilith in the middle of the mission. My thoughts there were that her anger is being fueled by fear - and I think that’s the same in this scene with Duretti. Loyalty seems to be the trigger - which makes sense given her background. She found her purpose in the OCS, has given her life to the OCS. And now this man presumes to take control of it? And have her swear fealty to him? No wonder Beatrice is so riled up: he’s threatening what she sees is her way of life - her very existence.

And so in the face of that, she essentially goes over his head, jumps the chain of command so to speak, puts her loyalty in God. It’s both a thinly veiled “f you” to Duretti and a genuine expression of Beatrice’s faith, but also I think it’s a look again into how Beatrice sees herself. That all she has is her service, that her allegiance, and her salvation, lies in Him. I think that’s brilliant in the face of what she ends up going through, especially in s2, how she learns to serve herself, to find salvation in life (and Ava).

Now regarding episode 6, I know Beatrice is only present at the end of the episode to pick up Mary but it’s a curious thing - because while Mary tells Ava that she’s safe here, that the OCS doesn’t know she’s there, when Mary gets picked up, Mary doesn’t try to get Ava to hide or anything. Which makes me wonder: Did Mary do that because she knew Beatrice wouldn’t say anything? I don’t believe that she would do something like that without thinking of Ava’s safety.

We also don’t get any conversation on camera of Mary telling Beatrice to keep Ava’s location a secret - from the way their exchange goes, it gives the impression that there wasn’t much talk during that ride back to Cat’s Cradle. There’s an intensity to Beatrice in this scene that's palapable (which is hella impressive on KTY’s part given that she had only seconds on screen) - I mean, her face when she’s looking at, I’m assuming, Ava in the side mirror:

It’s hard to know what she’s thinking here, and when she speaks to Mary too. The terseness of her words, the shortness of it - “She coming?” isn’t even a proper sentence, now that I think about it. While she trusts Mary, there’s an anger there, but it makes me wonder, is it directed at Ava? At herself? At the whole situation? I also wonder if Beatrice even knows about Lilith at this point - and if she does, is that also a layer in this delivery?

It’s intriguing and sets up very well the fact that the relationship between Beatrice and Ava is very much hard won, that there's many things they have to build together yknow?

Anyway, lmk what y'all think, otherwise, very much looking forward to episode 7!

[theemporium]

ajsdfhsjf i read ur blog like the morning paper and there are so many thots this morning, i am Thinking, spinning my lil yarn.

1. LL and max + smaus i agree w the consensus. they're fun and i'm nosey and it scratches my chronically online gotta be nosey itch lmaoo

2. to the anon who suggest charlando trophy husbands i hope ur pillow is cool on both sides when u sleep. just the other night i was thinking about an au where one of the boyfies are trying to keep the fact that they are rich and loaded from the reader bc they're scared of being used but it turns out reader is ALSO rich and loaded and they find out and they're all like so u mean we could have just been supporting each other the whole time? tragic. anyways charlando fits perfectly, they've got the right amount of braincells to have a Spiderman moment

3. lestappen interview my BELOVED 😭😭😭 they were so cute and smiley in that. they did it for the girlies fr. anyways makes me thinks of werewolves lestappen x werewolf reader, it's giving puppy energy. she watches that interview and is like SCREENSHOT !!!! SCREENSHOT!!! her camera roll is full, she has pictures of the two of them as wolves looking exactly the same. also it'd be funny if she posted a lil pam spot the difference meme of her boys in the interview and of them as wolves and everyone is just wondering how she found a picture of two dogs that are so lestappen coded

3b. honestly with any of the boys i can imagine them being such hams for the camera when they know that reader is watching. they're putting on a show for her and her only

-🌠

GAHSSBSBSBSBSB I LOVE THAT FOR YOU

1. I think I’ll be continuing the max+little leclerc world😌I might wait until the weekend passes just in case anything juicy happens that I can put into the fic, ya know?

2. charlando just fit the role of trophy husbands SO WELL!! but also it’s just the way that these two are the most attractive on the grid, thus everyone claiming that they are these young and wild bachelors, meanwhile they are head over heels for their girl and absolute heart eyes😭it’s just so sweet and I adore them

3. BUT SHE IS ME!! I WAS TAKING SCREENSHOTS TOO!! WE ARE ONE IN THE SAME!! no but it would actually warm her heart so much to see her boys being all cute and wholesome in interviews🥹the rest of the world definitely just think the wolves are her pets tho and nobody says differently. and they constantly ask for max and charles to have photos with the wolves but they are always like, “sorry, max is a cat person and charles is scared of big dogs!”

[pumpkin-spike18]

✨Weekly Progress 2024 #22-23✨

#22 would've come out last week if I didn't forget my planner when I packed for traveling.

Weekly Progress #22

Updated tumblr tags

Thumbnailed, sketched, refined sketched, lined, and finished [fan project #2] illustration

Submitted forms for [fan projects]

Made work plans for P-M and SFB

Basic o2a2 outline

Fixed SYVNH bug

Generated sprite pieces for P-M and SFB

Fleshed out o2a2 outline

Weekly Progress #23

Coded P-M sprites

Updated itch page images

Made new BWBOK schedule

Copied P-M script into Renpy

Scripted P-M s1-s3

Answered BWBOK comments

Drafted [fan project] posts

Designed P-M GUI

Wrote 100+ words for SFB

A Sky of Falling Birds

As I mentioned before, SFB is my next big project, which I plan to submit for BAF VN Jam. That's... 7/1.

It's okay, I still got... 20 days.

There's a lot of work left to do and not much to show off at the moment.

Pre-Make

Or Pre 🕰 Make (P-M), I haven't completely decided on how to advertise the title yet. It's a "small" project that I came up with back in 2020 and still haven't finished. I thought I'd dedicate a few days' time to it and see how far I'd get. There's still a bit of work to do, but much of it is done.

The art's quite old and the story telling was the original test I did for SYVNH's looping mechanism so it won't be anything novel. The screenshot above is from this game. If he looks a little familiar, don't worry. That's not your imagination.

The Beauty Which Only Beast Knows

My other big focus for this month, we're hoping to finish it for Otome Jam... which also ends 7/1. I've a loose schedule for achieving that, but the team's health is the top priority so we're playing it by ear. It may take a little longer to finish up.

Other!

O2A2: Because I couldn't sit still!! I started planning for O2A2 2024! It'll be another entry into the kill series, but I hope to include some point and click elements to it. Last year I finished 9 VN projects, something I don't want to do again-- but!! I don't want to only finish one project this year!! I've been skipping and fomo-ing all the jams in the first half of the year. Well, no more! I'm going to get some work done this summer!!

Fan Projects: I don't think I need to keep my involvement in fan projects a secret anymore! I took part in the D. Gray Man 20th Anniversary Project, which we actually started work on late last year! I also took part in the Narumitsu Big Bang 2024 event, which... also started work late last year 🤔 Huh, I was really busy back then. Maybe that'll teach me to sign up for too many fan events... (😂 no ofc not!)

Misc: I finished some tedious updating work that I promised myself to do a while back. I'll admit I make my blog easiest for me to navigate, first and foremost. But if there's something that's bothering you, or have an idea to make navigation better, feel free to let me know through an ask! I also updated all of my itch io pages' images. They were originally linked from discord, which changed its policy and broke all direct image links. Thankfully, I had everything labeled in a private server so I could easily retrieve and reupload to update the pages. Yes, I should've done that long ago. And I'm sorry I just... didn't;;

[laikaflash]

Jeez, go easy on her, man! Seong Mi-na and her dad duke it out in the penultimate Soul Edge comic. (It’s the very last one in the Soul Edge Fanbook, but details details.) This was one I was itching to finish for the second half of it alone, which will be explained at the end of this post. As always, click for less blur and my dumb captions.

Title: Seong Mi-na: As the Family Quarrel Goes On...? Volume

Page 1

Vertical panel: Seong Mi-na. Born November 3. Age: 16. Blood type: A.

She’s looking for “Soul Edge, the Sword of Salvation” in order to protect her homeland.

Panel 1

Today she’s going to search for Soul Edge for sure...

Panel 2

Han-myeong: “Hey, Mi-na. Where’re you going?”

Mi-na: (GULP)

Panel 3

Mi-na: “Ah, Father... I thought I’d go look for Soul Edge for the sake of our country.”

Han-myeong: “Oh, right, right!”

Panel 4

Han-myeong: “I’ve told you, you can’t make such a dangerous journey!”

SFX: (Fuming)

Panel 5

Han-myeong (off-panel): “First of all...”

Mi-na: (Sigh)

Page 2

Panel 1

Han-myeong: “Your skills still leave a lot to be desired.”

SFX: (Gami gami: scowling.) (Kudo kudo kudo kudo: rant rant rant rant.)

Arrow: Having her ears talked off.*

Panel 2

Han-myeong: “Seriously, will you listen?!”

SFX: (THWACK)

Mi-na: (Groan)

Panel 3

Mi-na: “That hurt!”

SFX: (BAM)

Panel 4

Han-myeong: “How dare you defy your father!”

SFX: (WHAM)

Panel 5

This family quarrel went on for three days straight...

Mi-na: “What?! You stubborn old man!”

Han-myeong: “That’s enough out of you!”

Panel 6

Han-myeong: “You’ve defeated me. Go on.”

SFX: (Wheeze, wheeze)

Mi-na: “Thank you, Father.”

SFX: (Pant, pant)

Hwang: “Hey! I found Soul Edge!”

*Untranslatable pun. By itself, the line can be literally read as: “Her ears are completely callused”; i.e. she’s been told this so many times that’s she’s sick of it. The octopodes are there because the words for “callus” (胼胝) and “octopus” (蛸) are homophones: tako (タコ). The ears are octopi-ed, if you will.

One reason that I screenshot these comics is that the logo and vertical panels at the start are almost always separate images, which doesn’t work well with the Tumblr picture format. The first half of this one is technically two images (see source) which, if downloaded and posted, would appear split vertically in two. It looks seamless on the webpage, but here you’d see a gutter cutting off the end of Mi-na’s ponytail on the left. (The first part of the Taki comic is also formatted this way.) Also, the title is typically just text on the webpage itself, but that, too, is part of the image proper. Though the way I put these together here makes this distinction moot.

You made it this far! Get ye to the Masterpost for the rest! This is will be wrapped up with the Li Long comic, hopefully by next weekend.

[gaycey-sketchit]

I saw your post looking for help getting out of Tennessee. Do you have a plan or a job to support yourself with once you leave? I’d like to help someone in need, but knowing your plan and goals would make me feel better about giving a stranger money.

Understandable! Unfortunately my original plan fell through very recently (as in literally a week ago), and I'm still trying to regroup. I do fully intend to secure a job I can transfer from and get that sorted out once I'm not dealing with so much here--I'll most likely be joining my boyfriend in Colorado, so I'll be looking for a little apartment there when the time comes.

I don't know which version of the post you saw, but my main priority right now is trying to get my medical bills covered. I've been struggling to get a lot of issues diagnosed and my parents haven't exactly been very helpful there. (I can post a screenshot if necessary.) Once I've gotten that taken care of, it's travel expenses and a financial safety net.

I understand the wariness with how many scams go around here, but I don't want to doxx myself so I'm reluctant to get into too much detail. Feel free to refrain if you're not comfortable with it--I'm mostly closeted, and my parents are unreliable (putting it mildly) but not actively malicious, so I'm not in immediate danger. As much as I'm itching to get out of here, it's going to take patience no matter what and I can tough it out.

[josiebelladonna]

“tumblr is the only place to be anymore, it won’t ever die”

oh, yeah? you can’t post hardcore stuff on here anymore and heaven help you if you’re a sex worker who got fucked over by the nsfw ban. bots are everywhere. you post art and you’ll get 3 notes if you’re lucky—if you get upwards of a thousand, 900 of them will be likes guaranteed. you post fanfic on here and it’ll be buried in that monster tag. everything is either memes or nonsense. this place fucking SUCKS now if you’re an artist, like i’m surprised i’m seeing people tell those who jumped ship from reddit that reblogs are lifeblood here because artists are lucky to be reblogged even a couple of times on here anymore. this place is dead if you’re any kind of creative person.

“everyone is faceless on tumblr, there’s no brands or celebrities here”

okay, first of all, what’s your definition of a celebrity? the kardashians? okay, now what if i said that someone with a thousand followers is a celebrity? if they’re known amongst a thousand people i’d say they’re well known, which is what “celebrity” means. next, you guys need to stop it with this “brand = evil” thing, because you know what’s a brand? nat geo. prismacolor. copic usa. scientific american. you can’t get news on here. you guys screenshot from brands on twitter all the time anyway with accounts like “funny-tweets” and what have you, like shit or get off the pot. besides, i follow artists, musicians, art stuff, nat geo, and a few friends on there, stuff i have been itching for on here and stuff i couldn’t get on twitter for years. and the “everyone is faceless” thing is nonsense if you’ve been on here longer than 5 years.

“tumblr is the only place where content creators can be”

lol, no. like i said, unless you are pre-established somewhere else, forget it on here. the tags are a mess, everything looks exactly the same with absolutely no room for anything unique or innovative, and there are so many bells and whistles to this place now that it’s quite literally two bad updates away from being virtually unusable. all of you are like “think twice”, yeah, well, i’m gonna think twice before i listen to you jerks. (by the way, right out the gate over on threads, people made it known that they’re fed up with the whole “influencer” thing. wolf van halen made fun of it. several artists i follow made fun of it. we loathe it as much as anyone else. so, please. get off your high horse.)

“tumblr doesn’t scrape your data”

the hell it does. did you know that if you live in california, they actually give you the option “do not sell my information” on here? that’s right, they make it optional. oh, and the ads on here are an eyesore. i thought they were kind of funny at first but they make scrolling impossible and they’re the most ridiculous things i’ve ever seen (and apparently adblock is starting to give some leeway on this)

“how do you work threads”

it’s actually really easy to figure out, almost too easy. now, if you follow someone new, you get the accounts they follow in your feed (which i think is weird, but i actually get the logic because they might follow something you’ll like), but if you hide it or straight up ignore it, you won’t see it again. there’s no hashtags on there, either (at least not at the moment), which… i kind of like? hashtags are so abused at this point—looking at you, tumblr—that it’s rather relieving to not see that. so, if you see something you like, you “repost” it (which is like retweeting or reblogging). you guys hate something that uses a mechanism that was once tumblr’s lifeblood and has taken a back seat to the goddamn like button. i… have no words.

“threads isn’t available in the eu, it’s probably full of privacy issues”

okay, two things. number one: when you sign up for it, you are immediately given the option for a public account or a private account. of course, that doesn’t really do much to keep you away from zuckerberg’s reddened eyes (as those of us who have been around facebook will tell you), but all of us who signed up on wednesday were well aware of what we’re getting into with it. we were all like “this is good*” * meaning “for now that is”. it’s so fucking obvious that you don’t need to state it and put words in our mouths (how did we exactly come to this conclusion, anyway? that “not available to europe = privacy out the window”? i’m not in the eu, so help me out here) number two: and i cannot emphasize this more, USE YOUR HEAD. i looked into it immediately after i saw the announcement a couple of months ago and came to the conclusion that i probably needed it. it’s meant to accompany instagram, too—hence why you need an ig to get it and why you need to delete your instagram to rid of it; which tells me the bad reaction to this on here has been a major case of knee-jerk reactions without reading into it first. i’ve been in need of a place like that, a place that’s sort of twitter-ish but is a more user-friendly (and it is! it took me three days to gain 20 followers on threads; twitter, it took me a month; tumblr, it took me two months). if i was a sex worker, i wouldn’t touch the place with a ten-foot pole (and i sure as fuck wouldn’t link my personal facebook to my business instagram, like… i stopped doing that in 2012 with facebook and twitter because i thought it looked bad. really, who does that, especially if you’re a sex worker?) people on here are utterly abysmal when it comes to critical thinking and the fact so many on here are bitching about this tells me no one thought it out and instead ironically took the cowards’ way out. and this is a corollary of that but… if you got nothing to hide, stop worrying about this. really. some of you going all lecture-y about this probably don’t remember the patriot act after 9/11, how we had our privacy invaded with wire-tapping and checking the mail. hell, roe v. wade, at its core, was about a right to privacy. we all have a right to privacy, but violations of it have been going on for decades and truly getting it back has been such a tall order that it’s nearly impossible. plus, all of you saying that it’s an invasion of privacy will always make me laugh because you guys are the same generation letting technology rule your lives and letting a harebrained app like tiktok completely destroy your brain, heart, and attention span, like it’s so ironic.

and just like with american elections, it really comes down to the lesser of two evils. i don’t like zuck or elon, but i’ll take the former because at least i know what i’m getting myself into there; elon has just destroyed everything in his wake to the point of no return (so weird to think that in 2018, i thought he was going to save us all, too). but i promise if you’re in north america, and if you have your location turned off on the instagram app in settings, you’ll be fine.