#i've updated the dates on the previous post and will make a second one for july

[whyissupernaturaltrending]

it's trending again, any idea why?

just a sign of a healthy tumblr ecosystem

[coelpts]

alright, guess we're complaining now.

[Image ID: First image: A cropped screenshot of Tumblr's Friday, May 26th, 2023 changelog which reads, "On web, clicking anywhere in a post’s header now opens that post. Previously, you had to click specifically on the blog name."

Second image: A cropped screenshot of Tumblr's Tuesday, May 30th, 2023 changelog which reads, "To clarify a point made in last Friday’s post: on web, clicking the reblogged-from blog name in a reblog’s post header now takes you to that blog, not their reblog. Clicking in the empty space in the post’s header, and in the header of each reblog trail item, now takes you to that specific post in the blog view popup. This is one of a series of updates we’re making to the reblog consumption experience across all platforms, to make it more intuitive and consistent, especially for new users." End ID.]

Tumblr, this change is bad. A lot of other people have already shared their own complaints for this new and awful system, but it's time for me to properly throw my hat in the ring instead of at-ing you directly due to user error. Whoops.

[UPDATE 6/11/2023] HORRIBLE NEWS, EVERYONE! This change has hit mobile. There is no longer any way to access the previous version of a post except through theme reblog chaining on desktop. I've added some extra fun comments both as an edit to this post and as a reblog so nobody misses out.

All my complaints are in the read more because this got LONG.

TL;DR- This change breaks a major signifier used across the site, removes post functionality only to replace it with redundant blog links, and completely destroys a primary mode of social interaction that's been used on Tumblr for over a decade. Here's the Tumblr Staff support link so you can give feedback on how bad this change is.

Part One: Signifiers and Consistency

This is my biggest point, so it will be a bit of a doozy. Strap in.

This change is about making Tumblr operation 'intuitive and consistent' by unifying behavior between like-designed parts of the site. Now on the face that's not a bad reason to do things, and making sure users are able to intuit what a button does based on its properties is good design. I'll give an example:

Hearts symbolize the 'Like' function on Tumblr. The heart button on a post adds it to your Likes, the Likes option on your account is accompanied by that same heart, and Likes show up in post notes with that heart. This heart, then, becomes a consistent and reliable signifier. If you see a heart button on Tumblr, then whatever it's attached to probably has something to do with Likes.

So, back to the change. This change relates to the signifier of the 'Tumblr blog url link'. The idea is thus- on other parts of the site, such as the Search tab on mobile and on a blog in the dashboard tray, you will see related or similar blog suggestions like these:

[Image ID: First image: A cropped screenshot of Tumblr's Getting Started help page. It shows an example blog with the 'Blogs like this one' tray visible, populated with four example blogs.

Second image: A second cropped screenshot of Tumblr's Getting Started help page. It shows an example of the Search page on mobile with the 'Check out these blogs' feature highlighted, where two example blog cards are shown. End ID.]

These suggestions are Tumblr blog urls paired with their icon and a little bit of their blog, either the title or some recent posts of theirs. If you click on that url title, the link follows through to that blog. So there's the signifier: click on the url, go to the blog.

But now we have a bit of a snag. What about these?

[Image ID: A cropped reblog screenshot. The crop shows the Tumblr urls of the reblogger @coelpts and reblogged @coelpts-artchives with the reblog symbol between them, the rebloggers icon, and the date that this reblog was posted. End ID.]

Well, these LOOK like Tumblr blog url links. They're styled in the same way. In fact, the reblogger even has a blog icon next to it! So all signs point to these url links pointing directly to a Tumblr blog if clicked on. After this change, that's exactly what they do- so, like, no problem, right?

But, hold on. There's another signifier here! These aren't JUST Tumblr blog url links! This is…

[Image ID: First image: The former image of a cropped reblog screenshot, focused on the urls and reblog icon.

Second image: The Tumblr reblog icon. End ID.]

Our good friend, the Reblog button! That's another classic Tumblr signifier, and it sits right next to the Like button I pontificated about. Reblogs are an integral part of Tumblr, and on top of every single reblogged post you will see that icon. And would you look at that- it's even the same color as the second url link!

Those url links that established the 'url link' signifier that we talked about before, in the search page and on the dashboard tray, aren't attached to any posts. But this url is, and the reblog symbol is right next to it. The reblog signifier modifies the url link signifier. This link should go to the reblog from this user. Right? Because it is a reblog FROM that url link- so that's where it should go! And that's where it used to go, before this update.

[EDIT] I came back to fix some typos I noticed but while I was away I tested mobile to see if this change hit the app yet. It has not, but what I saw instead confirmed the above point- on mobile, selecting the reblogged's url ALSO highlights the reblog icon next to it! These two signifiers are connected, and should be read together.

By changing the url links to be more 'consistent' with other url links across the site, a major signifier that keeps the site together has been broken entirely. What should lead to a reblog- something that is clearly shown through use of a recognizable, consistent symbol- no longer does.

Part Two: Redundant Redundancy

Okay, so that's not all this change does. It also adds a brand new functionality to the post header- the white space is now clickable and serves as a replacement for the original 'to this post' link on the reblogger's side of things. These headers also generate for anyone who adds to the post, and you can click through OP too.

[Image ID: The cropped reblog screenshot from before, but with the word 'Clickable!' written in purple in the blank space above the date. End ID.]

This is also part of that design unity thing; on mobile tapping anywhere on the post header takes you to the post, and you can only tap on the blog url of the person the reblogger reblogged from. That makes sense, since on mobile you're maneuvering your fingers on a small screen and tapping a tiny url next to another tiny url is bound to cause problems.

I don't necessarily have a problem with this on the base of it. I have opinions about mobile and desktop parity that aren't really important here, but it does nicely showcase an issue I DO have- most of the changes made to reblogged posts are completely redundant and unnecessary.

---

[UPDATE] This change has hit mobile now, and it's added a fun new complaint about desktop-mobile parity that is now very suddenly a problem; the headers generated from reblogs with content don't have any responsive feedback for tapping them on mobile. OPs does, but any old Joes doesn't. This is not true on desktop, where on-hover a post header will change color; on mobile they stay completely white and plain with no on-tap color change. On top of that, the new headers are actually harder to see on mobile! There's no clear way to actually see where the header starts and the post continues! Tapping a header was deeply confusing because I got no confirmation I did anything of value until I was wisked away to a post- there's no signifier on mobile that this is a thing you can press.

This is what I was talking about in regards to desktop and mobile parity that wasn't important at the time- what's good for mobile isn't always good for desktop and vice versa. Having a post header be tappable on mobile instead of op's url link, where you have less fine motor control and there's a lot of small buttons clustered together, makes sense; but making all post headers into buttons on desktop isn't a good idea because they aren't 'buttons' and it's very hard to make it clear they are. I mentioned signifiers above and that applies to this change- there just aren't enough signs that show these are all buttons now and where they go. The fact that they're completely unresponsive on mobile really is the cherry on top, because you do not KNOW it's a button unless you tap it accidentally or already know from desktop that all headers link to reblogged posts. The design has been made more confusing; what was a functional affordance on mobile has been applied to desktop without limits or concern, making the original mobile affordance more confusing and producing a poor signifier.

Alright, that's enough from future me. Let's get back to the original post, about how this change that introduces a bad signifier is also redundant.

---

First of all, it's not like clicking the link url just threw you into a post abyss when you clicked it. Clicking through to a reblog…still took you to that blog, both on mobile and on desktop. On mobile all you need to look through the blog proper is to pull down and refresh; on desktop it's even easier, because following a link pulls up the dashboard tray for that blog with the blogs url immediately below their icon.

[Image ID: A screenshot of the previously cropped reblog, now shown on the blog @coelpts. The post is on the left, and the user info card is on the right. End ID.]

This change then removes one step to get to the front of a blogs page, and puts the original longer path on the new clickable header. They go to the same place, the first is just exactly one click faster. You could do the exact same thing by clicking the user icon instead.

But wait! We can get even more redundant! You know what else is standard Tumblr functionality on desktop? The hover card!

[Image ID: A screenshot of the previously cropped reblog, now showing the card for @coelpts-artchives below the icon. It has the blog title and description alongside three popular posts. A purple arrow points to it from the url. End ID.]

If you hover over any url link for about a second, a card for that blog will pop up. This tray lets you follow a blog, send asks, report them, check their popular posts and do a bunch of stuff straight from the dashboard. It also takes you directly to their blog if you click the url link on the card itself! That's right, there was already a way to go directly to the blog the previous user reblogged from! And every single blog url link does this, too- not just on post headers, but even in the text of a post itself.

So before this change, you had five ways of interacting on a post:

Click the reblogger's url > Reblogger's post.

Click the reblogged's url > Reblogged's post.

Click the reblogger's icon > Reblogger's blog.

Hover on the reblogger's url > Reblogger's blog.

Hover on the reblogged's url > Reblogged's blog.

One of these is redundant, but that's fine- it's just how url links work, and it's better that all urls can do that. Signifiers, we talked about this. But every other link goes to a different place, including the previous version of the post.

After this change, there's six, with changes in bold:

Click the reblogger's url > Reblogger's blog.

Click the reblogged's url > Reblogged's blog.

Click the reblogger's icon > Reblogger's blog.

Hover on the reblogger's url > Reblogger's blog.

Hover on the reblogged's url > Reblogged's blog.

Click the white space header next to a user > User's post.

We now have three ways of getting to the blog of the person who reblogged this post, two ways to get to the blog of the person they reblogged from, ONE way to get to the post, and ONLY if someone added to it!

This change removes functionality and replaces it with needless redundancy. As I said near the top of this section, we could already get to the blog through a reblog link- so all this does is remove getting to previous post iterations.

Part Three: Broken Chains

And hey, let's talk about previous post iterations. Y'know, something that's super important on Tumblr? Different versions of a post float around the site for years- some have been around for a decade or more. And some are only available for one post.

As I'm sure everyone knows, unless a group of tags are peer reviewed and added to the body of the post itself or are appended to the next reblog in the chain, they only exist on that version of the post. This means every iteration of a post is functionally unique, and long before we were given the ability to check the tags on a reblog directly, the only way you could check the tags for a post was by checking every iteration. This practice still exists today with 'prev tags'- users still find it useful to gesture to a previous version of a post and show what other people were thinking or add their own thoughts.

Remember the new redundant links? All that means you can't get to a previous version of a post anymore. Those tags are functionally lost now, unless you dig through that persons blog or through all the notes of a specific post. Sure that may not be a problem for a post with 300 notes or so- but what about 27,000? What about a post that was reblogged three weeks ago? If you're trying to wrangle Tumblr's dodgy search function on the blog itself, what if the post has no text to search for, or if the blog has it's search function turned off? Any post tagged with prev tags now directs to literally nothing. Anyone arguing or conversing in the tags is now speaking at air to everyone else.

There is still one way to trace reblogs. You can access the blog itself- not the dashboard tray, but the actual url.tumblr.com blog- by using a hidden link in the meatball menu off the side of the post.

[Image ID: A screenshot of the previously cropped reblog, now showing the meatballs menu accessed. The first option, showing the date of the reblog, is highlighted. A purple arrow points to this option from the meatballs menu icon and a circle is drawn around it. End ID.]

From there, you can track a post backwards through proper blogs. The reblogged posts will have a 'via Blog' note on them, and you can follow that trail all the way up a chain.

…Unless someone doesn't have a theme enabled. Without a theme, a user won't have a url.tumblr.com domain and it will redirect to the dashboard tray, breaking the chain. And, as of an older update, blogs by default do not have themes enabled- so any and all new users suddenly roadblock this process. Oops.

All of this means that what was once a convenient social aspect of Tumblr has been completely severed with little to no alternative. Trying to wade through hundreds upon hundreds of notes to find the one you're looking for is tedious, time consuming, and potentially impossible if the post is large enough.

Finale: What Now?

Right, so- this sucks. I didn't even go into how this makes it tough to find and block cr/pt/t/rfs if a post passes into their hateful space, or how this makes it harder to copy post links without tracking shit because it's in a different menu now, or how it's now more difficult to access a previous post for reporting purposes. All that shit's also true, but they're side effects of the big three problems the changes introduce.

This change is ultimately user-hostile and seems to follow the worrying trend of 'other sites are doing it, so let's do it too!' Tumblr's been kicking about recently. Tumblr Live, the new change to images and videos, gating viewing posts behind making an account, and attempted algorithm feeds through 'Best Stuff First' and 'Based On Your Likes' are what immediately come to mind. Tumblr's defining, driving aspect for it's continued existence has and always will be its uniqueness. Pretending to be Instagram and TikTok and fucking Twitter will do it absolutely no favors- all it does is undermine what actually makes this site, as a social platform, interesting and vibrant.

But it's one thing to just complain and it's another entirely to provide feedback. Here's a link to the Tumblr Staff support page. They've walked back on new features before when we've made a ruckus- the Shop icon replacement is on the forefront of my mind right now- so it's time to make another.

TL;DR 2- This change makes browsing Tumblr more difficult than it needs to be. It breaks previously established signifiers and removes vital social functions only to add redundant and empty features to cater to a new userbase instead of actually improving the site for the users they already have. It's not a good change.

Thanks for reading ✌️

[f1daydreamers]

𝐀 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐫 𝐓𝐰𝐨 [𝐋𝐒𝟏𝟖] 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟔

photo credits: Pinterest

Pairing: Lance Stroll × Fem!Reader

Summary: Asking the driver of the team you work for to attend a wedding with you as your fake date is possibly one of the dumbest ideas you've had ever.. but also one of the best.

Warnings: angst, lottssss of fluff cause u guys deserve some, lots of mentions of alcohol, basically a party lmao

A/N: I’ve got ideas for a mini-series with Lando and one-shots with Max but I need to finish this off before I get carried away elsewhere!! ALSO, super sorry for the late update but it’s been a hectic last few weeks with weddings (summers are BUSY) but yep, finally dialled down and ready to post!

Listen to 'Ho Hey' by The Lumineers during the dancing part, it's such a feel good song :')

Word Count: 3.4k words (12 mins reading time avg)

…

"Ow." You say monotonously as Lance rewraps the elastic bandage, then loosens it amidst your very nonchalant way of expressing agitation.

"The bruising's little better, you just gotta try and keep it straight." You nod, turning your attention to your sister who slid her chicken off of her fork by her teeth.

Lance turned to face his body forward again, tugging the sleeves of his blazer down. He watched as you directed your gaze towards your knee, carefully adjusting the bandage a couple of inches higher to prevent any itchiness.

"Can't believe you hurt it the day of the wedding." You shrug, fiddling with the hem of your dress and stretching your leg out, being careful as to not collide it with someone else's foot beneath the table.

"Just my luck," you settled on an answer and took a sip from your wine glass which desperately needed refilling if you wanted to let the thoughts of your damned knee waft out of your mind.

As if on cue, the waiter who was serving your group tonight popped open and poured a few inches of content from a fresh bottle into your glass. You refrained from asking him to hand you the entire thing. Once he'd began tending to someone else, you spared no moment in taking another sip, though this one was much longer than the previous one.

It didn't slip your notice how Lance leaned in, his words laced with a faint concern.

"You do know alcohol slows your healing down." You only give him a side eye, your lips touching the rim of the glass. Maybe you paused for a brief moment to register what he'd told you, but it didn't matter because you resumed consumption of the liquid seconds later.

He chuckled, shaking his head. His lips parted as if he wanted to say something else but his eyebrows raised in attention as his head whisked to meet your brother.

"Try some of the sushi mate," he prodded hospitably, but Lance brought a hand to his stomach, "I'm not a fan of it. I'm sure it's been well-made but I've tried it a few times in the past."

"Ah." He paused before your mum cut in, she was dabbing her napkin to either side of her lips. "Y/N, you should've told us. I would've asked for something else to be made." You really wanted to roll your eyes, she definitely wouldn't have. In fact, had she known, she probably would've asked for just seafood to be made.

"No harm done." Lance smiled, seeing the impatience with your mom already bubbling up evidently on your face. "Do you cook?" Your mother didn't stop there though as she recaptured his attention.

"I do sometimes, yes." His response took you by surprise, you'd never pegged him as the cooking type. Yet, the revelation only added to his allure in your mind.

"What, tea and toast?" She covered with a laugh though you knew it was a subtle dig, it didn't seem to occur to the man besides you as he only breathily laughed with her, assuming lightheartedness but there was nothing lighthearted about her.

"He can make plenty of things." You added, injecting a touch of seriousness into the conversation. Lance's eyes briefly flickered towards you, his eyebrows furrowing in a slight downward motion.

"Oh?" She sounded surprised, he was quick in interjecting to downplay the sudden admittance. "Y/N's hyping me up," he smiled then continued, "um no a-a couple of things sure. Just practical stuff."

You tucked a strand of hair behind your ear, noting his growing nervousness as he struggled to comprehend the atmosphere surrounding the conversation. You could sense the tension in the air, a feeling that lingered.

Releasing a sigh, you made a conscious effort to ease the growing awkwardness, forcing a smile as you lifted your gaze once again. "A man of many talents," you commented, aiming to lighten the mood.

Lance smiled at your compliment, remaining modest as he nodded appreciatively in your direction. It was evident that he was grateful you didn't let your mother's remarks affect your mood.

...

A few of the guests were beginning to leave the dinner table, the party now beginning to bleed on to the dance floor. You were slouched in your chair, going through your Instagram when Lance stood up.

"Where you going?" You asked him, though soon to be regretting it when his smile widened. "To dance. And you're coming with me."

Your eyes widen in horror, "I don't- no. I-" He doesn't let you finish your sentence, already tugging your hand up as you slide your phone flat on to the dinner table.

"My knee." You say in a matter-of-fact tone but you know it's not nearly as bad as it was earlier, the compression doing wonders for it.

Lance sees right through your lies because his grip on your hand doesn't loosen, "I'll be careful." You quickly join the assumption that he wanted to dance with you, not just have you up there to lessen his own embarrassment.

"I-" He tuts, "come on."

"Go have fun Y/N. It's not like this opportunity'll come 'round again." Your aunt wags her eyebrows suggestively, and Lance tilts his head towards her, wordlessly agreeing with the cheeky grin on his lips still very much prominent.

"You've definitely had more to drink than I have." He laughs, successfully helping you stand up and guiding you to the dance floor. He moved to the rhythm of the music, already grooving as he walked.

Suddenly, he tugged on your hand, causing you to turn towards him. Your eyes locked as his gaze swept over your body before returning to meet yours. With a playful smirk, he lifted your hand and drew you closer, his arm wrapping around your waist.

As the beat pulsated through the air, he began to shimmy his shoulders, a glint in his eyes. A smile adorned his lips when you instinctively started swaying your hips, matching his energy.

"I don't know where I belong, I don't know where I went wrong, but I can write a song," Lance sang along with the words, his voice as silky as butter. Oblivious to the effect he was having on you, he seamlessly continued on to the chorus, his energy contagious and captivating. You struggled to keep up with the whirlwind of feelings surging through your veins.

A genuine smile graced your lips as Lance playfully tried to engage you in the dance, guiding your arms and encouraging any movement. Laughter bubbles forth as he effortlessly twists you every which way. In the midst of the moment, the encounter with your mother fades into insignificance, and any lingering irritation dissipates.

You're overwhelmed with appreciation for the lengths your 'boyfriend' is willing to go to keep up an appearance.

Lance extends his arm, spinning you around before pulling you close, your bodies meeting. Your forearms align with his chest, and his hands firmly hold yours against his body as he continues to sing.

The lyrics escape his lips, "I belong with you, you belong with me, you're my sweetheart," and in that moment, everything else fades away, leaving only the two of you entwined in a dance that feels like pure magic.

You're already breathing a little heavier after the song had ended, beads of sweat trickling down your forehead but the man who'd constantly been spinning and twirling you around looked effortlessly handsome still. The perks of being fit, you supposed.

"I love this song." You listened a little closer then laughed when Lance began singing again, but messed up the lyrics a little.

"It's a beautiful night, we're looking for something stu- dumb to do." The note way off-key meant you couldn't help but chuckle, finding his imperfection endearing. Your head naturally found its place nestled in the dip of his collarbone as he joined in with your laughter.

Moments later, you lifted your head, resuming the dance with him. Once the chorus had begun, he quickly found his rhythm, the music guiding his movements flawlessly.

As the DJ continued to spin songs perfectly suited for a lively and exuberant wedding reception, a few guests eventually broke off from the floor to take a break or grab another drink.

However, you and Lance showed no signs of faltering. Fuelled by the atmosphere, you both remained in sync, undeterred by the fact that it'd been a while you'd been dancing. The music seemed to invigorate you, carrying you both through the night as you danced with unwavering enthusiasm, creating sparks of energy and joy on the dance floor.

As you settle onto a stool by the bar, your now sister-in-law taps you on the shoulder, holding a drink filled with clear liquid in her hand. Leaning down to ensure you hear her, she whispers, "you guys look great together."

Despite mustering a smile, a sour feeling comes over you. On one hand, it feels amazing that you and Lance have managed to convince everyone of your relationship, but you know it's not real. Your feelings for him are genuine, but he remains your colleague and friend — nothing more.

"I don't know how much it means coming from me, but he seems like a really good guy." You look up to meet her gaze, she tugs her dress closer to her legs to sit on the stool opposite you. "Can you tell my mom that?" She smiles, remaining cautious but you understood why. That is her mother-in-law now.

"I don't get the ex thing. The way you look at Lance, I don't know, you never looked at Thomas that way." She leans in to add convincingly, she was only dating your brother during the brief time you were seeing your ex, but the fact that she sees right through you makes you wonder just how obvious your attraction really is. To Lance especially.

You smile appreciatively nevertheless, at least someone's in your corner.

When you feel a presence come up behind you, you don't hold back a grimace when Thomas steps forward. You mouth 'save yourself' to your sister-in-law who chuckles, giving you a small hug before being whisked away by your brother, her husband, as he invites her to dance.

He takes her spot on the stool and you move to get up but he grabs your arm, "five minutes." You shrug his grip off of you and sit back down, pushing your stool a little back to maintain some distance. "Two."

"You're not serious about the F1 bloke, are ya?" You sigh, wiping the tip of your nose with your thumb to catch the tiny drop of sweat.

"I don't have to explain my life choices to you but just so you know, yes, I am serious about him." You state as if it should be clear, although maybe it was. In another reality far from this one, nobody would bring their partner to a family wedding unless they were truly committed to them.

"I know he's not your boyfriend, Y/N," Tom stares at you intently as he finishes his sentence, clearly anticipating any change in your demeanor or facial expression, causing you to suppress any visible reaction. But you're quite certain that your internal organs momentarily ceased functioning.

"What're you on about?" You question him.

He scoffs, as if you're just prolonging the inevitable truth. "At best, he's a friend. There's no way that dude's your boyfriend." You want to ask him how he caught on but didn't know how to word it so you chuckle instead, albeit a little nervously.

"You're funny." You say bitterly but Tom shrugs, a smirk on his lips, oozing confidence and surety in what he was saying as if he was aware this wasn't alcohol talking but the facts he'd built up since this weekend began.

"Come on. The air mattress in your bedroom, obviously has been slept in. On top of that, I haven't even seen you kiss the guy, just hugs and hand holding. People manage that with their mates."

You're beginning to get angry and you wonder if the two minutes you'd allowed him had grown to pass, "perving on my bedroom are we?" You suggest disgustingly through gritted teeth and Tom rolls his eyes, knowing you were stalling to gather a possible answer.

"I went to the bathroom, door was wide open. It's not like you tried to hide it." The smugness in his voice made you want to slap him but out of the corner of your eye, you saw your sister-in-law tap Lance's arm and point in your direction. You hid the relief washing over you, and swallowed your words.

"I couldn't give a shit about how you feel about my relationship." The anxiousness settling into the pit of your stomach caused you to feel a little nauseous.

"Mm-hmm, 'relationship'," he says, using air quotes with his fingers as he takes his hand off of his glass, followed by a playful wink directed at you. The feeling of nausea grows stronger, but you distract yourself when Lance places his hand on the small of your back.

Without wasting another moment, Tom leaves when Lance glares at him, leaving the two of you alone. He immediately redirects his attention towards you, his gaze fixed, wordlessly asking if you're okay.

"He knows," your voice shakes as you meet his eyes.

"Who?" He asks.

"Tom. He - figured it out. He knows we're not dating, he knows about the extra mattress in my room, he knows." You find yourself repeating, your mind in a frenzy as you whisper whatever you recall of the situation to the man currently hovering over you.

Your eyes glance behind Lance's body as you watch your ex go over to Kevin, interesting him in a conversation that you have no doubt is about his recent discovery.

"He's going to tell my brother, he's going to tell everyone-" You cut yourself off when Lance pushes his hand into your back, forcing you to meet his eyes again. Though this is not the time for it, the contact causes somersaults to erupt in your body.

"No he's not. He's not going to do anything, don't let him fuck with you." He reassures you, advising you to try and forget the encounter but it's all that is playing on your mind. You can't have him unwrap this entire weekend like a present waiting to be opened and showcased to everyone.

"Come on, it's the slow dance." You huff, finding right now a pretty stupid time to join your date for a dance. He sensed your hesitation, pulling you up by the hand much like he did a while ago.

"Isn't now a good as time as ever to convince everyone we are in love?"

You think about his question for a while then realise he had a point, you nod and let him guide you back to the dance floor, in a crowd full of many other couples doing the same thing.

You interlock your fingers around his neck, his hands finding their rightful places on either sides of your waist. You both begin to sway and you can see Tom standing just off of the floor, his eyes obviously trained on you and the F1 driver.

Lance looks down into your eyes to break your concentration, there was a subtle softness in them that you knew you could only claim as your own.

"What if he does tell everyone?" You whisper to him but he only smiles, contrasting you massively. One thing that differed between you was the lack of anxiousness in him and the load of it inside of you.

"A mattress can easily be explained, and he has nothing to prove that we're not dating." You swallow, remembering the other point Tom made in the short conversation.

"H-he said we haven't-" Lance's eyebrows furrow as your speech falters so you decide to rephrase it. "We only hug and stuff, to him couples do more than that."

"And to you?" You meet his lingering gaze, "what?"

His eyes fall to overlook your expression before catching your stare again, "what do you think couples do?" You subtly shrug when Lance tugs you closer to him. "I-I don't know. Traditional couple stuff." You curve around the obvious answer and he chuckles, nodding his head.

His eyes flicker to your lips and you could swear your heart skipped a beat, or maybe multiple beats. Your heart was fluttering vigorously within your chest, its rhythmic pounding so intense that you wondered if Lance could hear it if he focused hard enough.

You gazed at him, momentarily lost in admiration without any specific thoughts occupying your mind.

He observed you attentively, analysing you with deep contemplation. There was obviously something playing about his mind, but you couldn't decipher it, he'd never been one to read easily. He tucked in his bottom lip.

No words were exchanged but your chest was conveying more than enough, just as Lance's was. His emotions seemed to be a mix of nervousness, anxiety, and perhaps even panic. He couldn't understand why, this would only be a justifiable favour.

His gaze again shifted from your eyes to your lips, and the agitation in your body reached such a level that you felt your ribs may explode from the sheer feeling pent up inside of you. Raw emotions surged, unearthing feelings that perhaps you hadn't been sure about before. They were springing to life, blooming ever so confidently.

But so were you, every new sensation coursing through your veins made you feel alive, but frightened you too. It was powerful, overwhelming and a sensation that had never quite been matched with previous boyfriends.

You noticed the bob of his Adam's apple as he swallowed, the rapid rise and fall of his chest. In response, you leaned in closer. You didn't want him to retreat from this proximity, despite the anxiousness gripping you.

You couldn't help but wonder the potential consequences that could arise. Any platonic friendship you'd built up until this point would be shattered. Lance sensed your distraction and squeezed your waist in response, "how's the knee doing?"

You sigh out an unsteady breath, "g-good." Your gaze was darting between his eyes, barely formulating a clear response to his question, obviously lacking confidence. You knew the song was only a couple of moments away from ending, though there was no countdown, everything felt perfect enough for it to happen now.

Your face began to warm up, "I-I'm not the only one who's having all these feelings, am I?" You asked ambiguously, half-fearing his response.

Lance knew exactly what you meant, it seemed a little inconclusive to make assumptions on such an open-ended question but the breathless look on your face and the glint in your eyes both served as hints.

"No," the ends of his lips curve slightly into a smile, only to serve as assurance that he wasn't answering for convenience but because he was telling the truth and he too was sick of having to hide it.

Lance moved maybe a centimetre or an inch closer to you, his proximity was so close that the tip of his nose brushed against yours, causing your eyelids to flutter. His hands slid slowly from either sides of your waist to your back, interlinking.

Your lips parted instinctively, your mind becoming clouded, and any trace of logic vanishing from your thoughts.

His bottom lip skimmed over your top one and you could've sworn your body had turned into jelly, you could feel him smile faintly before his mouth closed around yours. For a moment, neither you or Lance breathed.

Perhaps to give the other ample time to process this was really happening. A blush crept on to your cheeks, his lips began to move, enticing you to join him in an illusive dance.

You released a content sigh through your nose which only offered Lance more assurance, continuing to kiss you with eagerness you didn't know he had. You toyed with a few strands on the back of his head, gently tugging at his neck to urge him closer.

He hummed in response, happily complying with your unspoken command. You pulled away to catch your breath, he allowed you to step impossibly closer to him as people began curving you to go back to their seats as the next song began.

You took the minute you had to appreciate just how good he looked, his eyes light, his lips pink, and his fair skin glowing even under the DJ's overhead spotlights.

You met his lips again, remaining there for a few seconds before he moved against them, kissing you a few times. "God, you're amazing." He whispered when you detached for the final time, blushing but making no effort to conceal it anymore.

...

Part 7

Masterlist

Two more parts to go!

Taglist: @fantasticbouquetwitchsthings @topguncultleader @spicyclover @amirahart @softiecaro @alilstressyandlotdepressy @eugene-emt-roe @e-lisa-bettan @strolleclercs @jjsprobablywrong @carmelita-holland @flowerchild-96 @rd14 @honethatty12 @gaslysainz @pierre-gasssllyy @lestappenloverr @secretlyangrymagazine @chiliwhore @mentallyunstablebish @mcmuppet @xscorpioxmoon @ferrariloverr @rivivie @starkeyellow @vanillascreams @tororossoseb-blog @hiphopdancer101universe @hc-dutch @love4lando @chonkybonky @angstyeighteen @natasharomanoffisbaebby @little-angel-07 @voidskywxlker @vildetry-06 @sharllec @aundercover @taylor-will-be-the-death-of-me @spicyclover @mloyer @alesainz @hockey-racing-fubol @cinnamonroll2003 @honeyric3 @nikki01234 @purplephantomwolf @mindflay3r @ttzjune @xitsyaiizax @dylylylylyly @junhuilvrrr @f1-hyperfixation

[butchsophiewalten]

FINDJACKWALTEN 6/29/23 UPDATE #2 WALKTHOUGH

Findjackwalten updated last night! To properly understand the content of this update, you'll probably wanna check out these other posts on the 6/27/23 update: [HERE] and the 6/29/23 update #1: [HERE] if you haven't seen them already.

This one's a fucking Doozy. The main page has updated to a full on Jack Walten Takeover.

Most of the existing page has been put under a red filter, and images of Jack and Rosemary (cut off in this screenshot) Walten have appeared. The 'page under construction!' text has changed to read "CLOSED PERMANENTLY. (effect:072074)", the second half of that being the date Bon's Burgers shut down. The play button present in the site's previous incarnation is still here, but now plays various Christmas carols, rather than Battle Hymn of The Republic, starting with Silent Night.

The "CONTACT & INFORMATION" button that became clickable earlier in the day still leads to an unchanged /0714-74 page.

The "MEET BON!" button that also became clickable earlier in the day leads to a /mynameis-bon but with Bon himself now missing.

The most significant update has been to /caretakerlibrary, which now contains four new audios from Richie.

Our first new Richie audio, Richie 3, is titled "AUD06-27-74opnn-nights" meaning it's dated for the 27th of June, 1974. The "opnn-nights" referring to it being the night before Bon's Burgers opening day. I've roughly transcribed this audio as follows:

Another day, another dollar, as they always say! Sorry- sorry, dude- just ignore that, I don't know- I don't know what I was doing, okay, uh, forget it. Yeah- yeah! Uh, tomorrow's the big day! You excited? Uh, Boss gave me some instructions to give you for today. So, uh- get those in a second. Uhm, I needed to- wanted to say I uhm, I put the chairs down. That, y'know, next to the tables, so uh, just- save you the hassle of having to do tha- having to do that tomorrow morning, so you're welcome. Uhm, uh, if you can, keep an eye on the uhh, the- whatchamacallit, Poker maze? It's, uh, pretty easy for kids to get lost in there. So, y'know, just, don't want anything to- anything like that happening. Just, uh, y'know, pop in like every minute or so, just make sure there's no kids crying, screaming, y'know. Actually, don't get lost in there yourself, either. You're still a teen, right? How old are you again? That's- doesn't matter, whatever, you'll be fine. Uh, don't worry about it. Unlock the generator room, uh, clean the bathrooms- especially the men's bathroom, more on that later. Uhh, right, right, right! Uh, keep the main stage curtains closed. Uh, for the time being, we uh, we transferred Sha to the secondary stage for this week, so she'll be next to Boozoo. The uh, Bon animatronic won't be performing this week, uh, he's uh- they- they gotta do an extra week of maintenance on him. So, that's a shame, but nothing we can't fix. Uh, luckily we do have a- uh, a costume! A, uh, Bon costume! Uhm, the uh, sister company gave it to us a while ago. So, y'know, if you wanna earn some, uh, extra bucks, you might wanna pop in that thing. Dance around, tell some jokes, whatever. Uh, Felix will probably tell you what to do, they're kids, they're stupid anyway, they won't notice. Uhm, just- try ignore the smell. Right, uh, that, uh- that reminds me. Uhm, uh- apparently, uhm, apparently some employee might've, uh, might've been, uh. Smoking pot. In the men's bathroom. Uh, so, uhm, just, just- um. Y'know, don't mind the smell, if you, uh, keep the windows open, just try and freshen up the place. Uh, make sure Felix doesn't notice. Uh- I- uh, wouldn't want whoever that was to, y'know, get in trouble. If, uh, if they did smoke pot in there, which I doubt. But, y'know, just in case. So, uh, yeah! That's it, goodnight.

The next audio, Richie 4, is titled "AUD07-01-74BCKSTG-DAY", meaning it was recorded on the 1st of July, 1974. I've transcribed it as follows:

Hey man! Okay, so, uh, we got some good news, and some bad news. So I'll start with the good news! So, uh, Boss is happy! He said we did good work- said we did good work on the first week. You did a good job with the Bon costume actually, I was surprised. I actually got it all recorded on film, so, uh, if you want, I can show that to you next week. Or, I could use it to blackmail you at some point in the future? Kidding, kidding, kidding. Uh, nah, I wouldn't do that. Uh, um, oh yeah, uh! I bet you're happy to hear: Bon will be back on stage by tomorrow! Yeah, uh, Felix set it up himself, so uh, maybe they worked out their differences after all! Sorry, just, trying to make a joke. Um, right, ah, okay onto the, uh, the not so good news. Uh, so, um, we- uh, we have a- um. We have a associate. I- uh, I believe she does the, uh, art for the restaurant. Um, she's been coming in a lot lately, she keeps going on about like, her, uh, husband or something. She's not well. Um, to put it lightly, I- I don't wanna sound mean, but. She, uh, there's something wrong with her. And, and uh, I- I believe you know her? Uhm, like, um, you've been talking to her whenever she comes in, um. I- I appreciate it, I appreciate it, right? Um, and I'm glad you are, y'know, helping her. Uh, but, mmn. How do I say this? Um, she's been- uh, she's been, uh, let go out of the company yesterday, and uh, so, it's now a company policy that if a former employee makes any sort of drama inside the restaurant, uhm, they'll be permanently banned from entering, so. Uh, if- if you see her again, tell her to keep quiet. It's, um, Boss' orders. Uhm, I'm sorry if that- I'm sorry if that's insensitive, um. Okay. Okay, uh, lighter note: nobody got lost in the maze! So, good job! Uh, you're a natural! Or whatever. Uhm, uh, okay, on with the, uh, bad news, I guess. More bad news, uhm. The backstage is now locked for the week. Um, I asked staff for explanations and they refused to elaborate, so um. Ba- uhm, Banny will be off the stage for a few days, uh, so, keep the curtain on Banny's stage closed. Uhm, what else? Oh, uhm, all of the, uh, animatronics must be sent to the men's bathroom at night, instead of backstage. So, uh, yeah! Uh, let me know how you've been. Um, I had a blast last week. I will say, uh, you make a really good cook! I'll tell you that. So um, yeah, see you tomorrow then. Goodnight!

The next audio, Richie 5, is titled "AUD07-12-74LLY-NIGHTS", meaning it was recorded on the 12th of July, 1974. The second part of this title likely is "Lily nights" and refers to Lily's birthday party. I have transcribed the audio as follows:

Uh, hola amigo! Is that how you s- is that how you say it? Agh, I never knew how to say it. Uh, yeah! Uh, good things are happening, my friend. Uh, the- the backstage is still locked. Uh, but! The, uh, the generator room is where we sh- should be, uh- should be keeping the robots for now. Right- uh, we actually, uh, we actually have a new one. Uh, agh, what's the name, what's the name? Bob- uh, Bobby the clown! Buh- buh- Billy the clown! Billy- ah- yeah, Billy. He, uh, just arrived yesterday, actually. Um, top of the line technology, man, I'll tell you. I- I was messing with their, uh, little radio thing all day. Uh, Bon seems to be working fine now. Uh, his- his, uh- his gloves keep falling off? Like, uhm- not gloves, uh, what- what're they called? Uhm, blue hand thing- y'know, the suit, uhm. And it's revealing the mech underneath. Uh, so just, uh, be careful with like, the hands and stuff. Okay, whatever, uhm. The, uh, oh yeah, we have a birthday party coming up! A birthday party on the, uh, the tw- no, uh, fourteenth? Yeah, the fourteenth. Uh, we're going to be using the, uh, Billy robot. It's actually, um, the daughter of one of our associates, uhm. Augh, what was the name? Forgot the name, doesn't matter. So yeah, uh, we gotta m-make it look extra good, okay? Uh, I might even come over, y'know, show up in the Bon costume myself. I dunno, we'll see how it goes. Uh, well, if you show up, actually, we could, y'know, stay smokin' in the arcade area? You smoke, right? Ah, whatever. Um, yeah! Look forward to seeing you there. Take care, man!

The last audio, Richie 6, is titled "AUD07-20-74CLSD-MRNING", meaning it was recorded on the 20th of July, 1974, the day Bon's Burgers shut down. Transcribed, it reads as follows:

C'mon, man, where the hell have you been? Some big shit happened, alright!? Whuh- we're- we're sh'down! It's fucking bad, dude, we are SHUTTING DOWN! We're DONE! We're fucking DONE, Alright? Augh, god, I- I- I clocked in last night, right? Some staff were still in the restaurant, right? It's all good, it's all okay. FOUR IN THE MORNING, I get a call from NORMAN, right, telling me the cops BROKE INTO THE PLACE, right? Some call about, like, SCREAMING inside the fucking restaurant? Whole neighborhood was freaked out. They- uh- they checked the place, most doors were locked so they just shrugged it off, anyway. There- there's nobody inside. But, uh, Norman's shutting us down! He said the- the- the scene it caused is humiliating. Alright, everyone's outside the fucking restaurant, claiming that somebody got killed! It's fucking BAD, man. Agh, he gave us, uh, THREE DAYS, we have three days to shut everything down. Ugh, sorry, oh god. Sorry, it's been a fucking crazy night. Uh, there is, uh, the bo- sorry. Uh, the Boss came up with a new plan, alright? He hasn't shared it with CyberFun yet. But, uh, long story short, we gotta take all the fucking items from this place and put them in a truck and take 'em to the storage place somewhere. Tha- he didn't say where. It- uh- it's BIG fucking money, dude, alright? It'll only take a few days. Uh, you in? Also, uh, just for the record, don't- don't tell this to anyone, okay? See you tomorrow, then. See you tomorrow, man. I'll be there at six, Bon's.

Revisiting the main page, the new Silent Night audio contains a peculiarity that might go unnoticed.

If you listen for long enough (a little more than four minutes), you can hear backwards text-to-speech audio overlaid on top of the end of The First Noel. When reversed, this speech can be heard as such:

Transcribed, this audio reads as follows:

"[We] here at BSI apologize for the confusion regarding the shocking scene from last night. Apparently, screams for help were heard inside our installations. Thanks to the help of the Brighton police department, this has been confirmed as a hoax and that nobody has been harmed inside our restaurant. Nevertheless, for budget reasons, we are shutting our doors until further notice. Thanks for joining us on this small adventure. Kindly, the Bunny Smiles family."

[canonicallyobserving911]

Buck & Eddie: Buddie Endgame!

Before 7x5 aired, I decided to take a break from 911blr and Buddieblr since the BTS pics and the "supposed leaks" for 7x5 showed they were about to do another wash, rinse and repeat with both Buck and Eddie. Their storylines have been seen before and at this point, they've become predictable. Anyway, I'm glad I took several days off because I figured most of the people who watched it would see Buck on a date with T*mmy and it would prompt them to start "Jumping ship" (Eddie’s words from 7x4) even though the whole situation was rushed and there's no substance there. If people did jump ship, they have every right to do so but just in case they're new here and they haven't watched all of Buck's train wreck relationships starting in season 1, the facts are Buck is making the same mistakes he's made in the past even though in 6x1, he said he didn't want to do that anymore.

Here's the thing... I'm not trying to convince anyone about who they should and shouldn't ship because everyone has their own preferences. However, I do think it's interesting how some are choosing to forget or just don't want to acknowledge/admit the fact that T*mmy did the same thing to Buck that both Taylor and Natalia did but it didn't take him multiple episodes to do it either.

Here are the cycles...

WASH: He showed up to the loft UNANNOUNCED.

RINSE: He kissed him.

REPEAT: And then he left him standing there dazed just like they did.

BONUS SPIN CYCLE: He told Buck to "Take care of yourself" (he just said it before he showed up unannounced and he said it while they were at Air Rescue when he was trying to date Eddie 👀).

Therefore, it appears the only difference between T*mmy and Taylor and Natalia is, T*mmy's a man which seems to be the only reason why some are willing to look past his bad character traits (discussed here) based solely on that fact. He's just like Buck's previous relationships where it starts off with Buck being kissed like he's in some kind of fairy tale or some BS and then it follows the same pattern as before (as indicated above).

I'm not going to go into the Buck and T*mmy of it all or lack thereof any further because this post is about Buddie and only Buddie!

I've witnessed the REAL LOVE Buck and Eddie share and it's the reason why I have and always will ONLY ship them with each other. They've built a family together and the fact is they know each other inside and out. They don't have to pretend and they know how to take care of the other one. They agreed to have each other's backs years ago and they've continued to do it. Chris views Buck as his second dad and he was doing it way before Eddie updated his will and named Buck to be Chris' legal guardian. Chris called Buck when Eddie was having a mental breakdown and it's obvious he could have called 9-1-1 but he didn't. Reminder, Buck and Eddie are both first responders so he could have called emergency services but he called his other dad, the man who told him months before Eddie was shot that he's not going anywhere 👀.

Buck has cried, screamed and clawed at the ground while trying to dig through 50 feet of wet earth to get to Eddie. He's also crawled underneath a ladder truck (one of the things that tried to take his leg) to save Eddie after Eddie was shot by a sniper in front of him. Eddie’s blood splattered all over Buck’s face and he was in a CATATONIC state of shock until Capitan Mehta tackled him to the ground.

Eddie was the one bleeding out but he was conscious enough to ask Buck "Are you hurt?" before he went unconscious for the last time from the pain of being shot with a large caliber bullet. Eddie climbed up a 70 foot ladder while it was extended in the air without being harnessed in to get to Buck after he was STRUCK BY THE SAME BOLT OF LIGHTNING AND WAS CATAPULTED OFF THE BASE OF THE LADDER to get to him. He was the one who restarted Buck’s heart after Chimney had been doing chest compressions on him for 3 minutes. Trust, that last 17 seconds was ALL EDDIE DIAZ! Eddie took Buck to play poker to help him keep his mind off the fact that he died so he could relax and have a good time.

THAT'S LOVE!

Buck’s own definition of love describes EDDIE DIAZ and only Eddie Diaz! Therefore, it's ridiculous that people are literally trying to dismiss Eddie’s love for Buck just because some dude with a sorted past (with Buck’s found family. Hello Taylor Kelly anyone?) put his lips on Buck and kissed him the same way all the women Buck’s been with did.

Buck and Eddie are IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER and they're each other's ENDGAME!

The point of this post is people can ship whoever they want but I HAVE AND ALWAYS WILL SHIP BUDDIE because they share a once in a lifetime, love of their lives, soulmate type of love that transcends space and time.

I'LL NEVER SETTLE FOR A KNOCKOFF VERSION OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP. WHY? BECAUSE FOR ME ANY ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS they've had or will have with others resembles a cheap piece of costume jewelry that looks ok from far away until you get up close and realize it's a cheap imitation of the real thing.

Why would I settle for Buck to end up with a KNOCKOFF version of Eddie?

I won't!

And why would I settle for Eddie to end up with some babysitter who's more in love with her brother when Buck’s already been shown to be another one of Chris' parents?

I won't!

Buck and Eddie DESERVE THE REAL EPIC LOVE STORY that 9-1-1 has been showing and telling the audience about them for the last 6 years and no other love interests have or ever will compare to what they mean to each other.

Ship whoever you want but I only ship BUDDIE and I always will.

[ultrainfinitepit]

Shop Update December 2023

Hello Tumblr followers, I hope you are having a pleasant week and have fun plans for the weekend. 2023 is coming to a close and so is my shop for the rest of the year. I will be closing my Etsy shop December 8 2023, if you're hoping to purchase any holiday gifts now is the time. To sweeten the deal, all items in my shop are on sale now until the shop closes and every order will get a free sticker and/or seconds pin while supplies last.

I will reopen the shop sometime in 2024, no specific date yet but probably sometime in January. Look out for another update, keep an eye on my social media, or opt in to email notifications for my shop once it's closed, to be notified when it's open again. While my shop is closed, you can purchase from my stockists who have most of my items as well as some older ones.

I have just a few new items this month, here's the list:

Baptism by Fire, a spicy Wolfwood/Trigun-inspired pin

Another putto for the Astrological Putti series, for the constellation Ophiuchus

A restock of the Clock pin

Seconds Grade Mystery Cowboy Monsters Pins

Variety Pack Mystery Bags

Restocks of items from the SJMade Holiday Fair

New pin hoops!

I've gotten a few comments about pins selling out quickly, so I thought I'd talk about that here. Recently, I have reduced the quantity of pins I order for self-funded designs. This is to save on space since I have a lot of designs I'd like to make and not enough space to keep all of them in-stock. Additionally, I am planning to start selling wholesale and on Shopify soon, meaning even smaller quantities of my pins and other items will be listed on Etsy. Going forward you should expect my listings to sell out more quickly.

If a design is popular, I will consider making it with new colors or plating. You can find a catalog of my pins on Tumblr along with a link to a Google form to suggest restocks or variants. It's more exciting for me as a creator to make new pins and recolors instead of the same pin in the same colors over and over, so that's why I may not restock a design in its previous colors.

If you miss out on a pin you really wanted, please check with my stockists. Please be patient with them, it can take months for them to receive and catalogue new items. They get a lot more orders than me so they may be slower to ship to you as well. I am planning to send a few of every item I make to each of my stockists so long as I have enough inventory to do so. You can also tag me on social media if you make an ISO (in search of) post and I will share it. I hope this helps you in your pin collecting journey.

Finally, one more thing I'd like to mention. My current newsletter service Tinyletter is shutting down soon, so I will be moving to EmailOctopus. If you're a current newsletter subscriber, I've already moved your subscription over to EmailOctopus. You can expect January's update from that service instead of Tinyletter. 

That's all until 2024. I hope you have enjoyable winter holidays and a happy New Year!

[maddiesbookshelves]

📚🗓 Mid-Year Freakout Tag 2024 🗓📚

Thank you @cleopatras-library for the tag ☺️

How many books have you read so far?

10 novels, 2 graphic novels and uh, like 10 or more manga? I don't track all of them

What genres have you read?

Fantasy, historical, romance and mystery. Sometimes several of those in the same book

Best book you’ve read so far in 2024?

Probably The Briar Book Of The Dead, by A. G. Slatter if we're talking about novels only. But the graphic novel Rivages Lointains by Anaïs Flogny is just so good, I'm obsessed with it. If you can, please read it, it's French but it's been translated into English and Italian

Best sequel you’ve read so far in 2023?

The only ones I've read were either manga or the full Dr. Greta Helsing trilogy by Vivian Shaw, which I've read back to back. So either that (book 3, Grave Importance), or the manga Requiem Of The Rose King, by Aya Kanno, that I reread and finally finished after YEARS (yes the ending ended ME)

New release you haven’t read yet, but want to

There are way too many, and I keep seeing more at work, I'm gonna die of frustration. Evocation by S. T. Gibson is eyeing me very strongly because of the internet. As is The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal, from where it's sitting on my coworker's display (it only came out in February in France)

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

I don't know honestly. The one book I was really waiting for this year was A Crane Among Wolves because I loved June Hur's previous books, and since I've read it now (it's very good btw), I'm not waiting for anything else

Update I learned something as I was writing this post: HEAVENLY TIRANT MIGHT STILL BE COMING OUT THIS YEAR???? DECEMBER 24????? MERRY FUCKING CHRISTMAS TO US???? HELLO?????? After Xiran told us the release date had been pushed back I thought for sure it would come out next year but apparently not so YEAH THAT'S MY MOST ANTICIPATED RELEASE OF THE YEAR, PERIOD

Biggest disappointment

It's a toss between How To Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie, and A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft, for reasons that are very different. If it wasn't for that ending, How To Kill Your Family wouldn't even be there but unfortunately. And A Far Wilder Magic just wasn't for me. I didn't expect it to be YA romantasy so I was sorely disappointed

Biggest surprise

Probably A Sign Of Affection by Suu Morishita? Don't get me wrong, I love shoujo (I know, I don't like romance novels but I love shoujo, it makes no sense, don't look at me) and I thought I would like it but I didn't expect to like it this much

Book that made you cry

I cry so often when I read/watch/listen to things that it all gets mixed up in my memories. I think I cried for Rivages Lointains, I definitely cried for Requiem Of The Rose King HAHA. I might have cried for Run Away With Me, Girl by Battan, I'm not sure. All of those are manga by the way, I don't remember if I cried reading a novel this year

Book that made you happy

The Bandit Queens made me happy because the ending was great (unlike How To Kill Your Family) which healed me a little

Most beautiful book cover of a book you’ve read so far this year

Aaaaaaa I don't know. The cover (and sprayed edges) for the French edition of A Far Wilder Magic are a big part of why I even bought it in the first place, but also A Crane Among Wolves...... And of course Aya Kanno's art is just so beautiful, all the covers for the Requiem Of The Rose King series are 👌

How are you doing with your year’s goal?

I had set a goal of 40 on goodreads/storygraph but I might have underestimated how work would impact my reading habits. But also, I'm not dead set on reaching that goal, I just want to read

What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

I'd love to read more of the books I already own because it's becoming a problem. Other than that, there's no urgent need

That was fun so if anyone wants to join in, please feel free!

[aviyinglet]

Roadmap post for Pixel Yinglets v0.98

Arr! It's been a couple of weeks, here's a Pixel Yinglets blog post. It can be viewed on my Gumroad page, or after the break.

An important reminder, also! Pixel Yinglets is currently in Early Access pricing, which will raise from $30 to $40 when it hits 1.0. There are two version number updates (each of which are slated to add features) between now and then, so you've got time if you'd like to see how it pans out -- but if you'd prefer not to wait, it can be purchased here.

Hello, everyone! I've been hard at work on a few things, one of which is an update to the model. It'll be a few weeks before 0.98 releases, but I'm committed to working on it routinely until then: I want to get this in its absolute best possible shape before Furality Umbra, and that requires a few additions to the model to make it look and feel a bit more yinglety.

The above screenshot is from the first steps of 0.98's remodeling push: as this is going to be the update that'll also be going on FurHub and VRCArena, the focus here is going to be on model aspects the player's going to see first: the hands, head, and face. What you're seeing here are two important changes: first, nostrils that aren't just a painted-on cluster of pixels, and second, ears that have concave geometry lining up with what you find in the yinglets of Val Salia. This is particularly important, as the previous attempt to articulate the form of the ears through a pixel texture is one of the messiest aspects of the model to date. I still need to make sure this new look plays nice with the customization blendshapes, but I'm very proud of how this looks so far.

I have very charitably been sent a set of three Vive 3.0 trackers, which has brought to the forefront an incentive to recreate more aspects of the Yinglet Experience. Here are a few things I anticipate putting in 0.98:

Remodeled ears, snout, hands, and feet. Already mentioned, bears mentioning again.

Toggleable shirt, dress, shorts, and skirt. Technically the main feature of this update; also bears repeating. Shirt will have a spot for front and back graphics, easily replaceable in the texture.

Cleaned-up pixel texture. I keep noticing minor tweaks I could make, and I'm gonna make 'em! Just you watch!

Toggleable first-person snout. I've tried this out in a different model and it's now a top priority.

Ears (and possibly whiskers) animating to facial expressions. The Out-of-Placers comic has gone into exceptional detail describing and depicting how this is meant to work, and I want to make good on that.

Puppetable tail. I anticipate it being a circle menu option where you can position it with a thumbstick and set it in place. I might not be able to get this fully working for 0.98, but I want players to be able to have their tail lay as flat on the floor as their back, for the noodle-like nature of the yinglet body to be made obvious in that pose. Ideally, when you lay on your side, you should have the ability to see your body from the chest down to tailtip without interruption.

Texture map resize from 512x512 to 4096x4096. Oh, an eye-popping figure! This is not to add fidelity to the pixel aspects, but to instead give myself more room to work. More on this further down in this post.

Elimination of gap between bottoms of tearducts and top of snout. Finally! UGH!

I want to take this opportunity to highlight one of the key traits of where I've always wanted to take this model: I started on this with the intent of having it replace the original yinglet model I used for myself, and for there to be no reason for me to want to switch back to my former main. We're not only not there yet, we're still quite a ways off -- and one of the reasons for that is because of a difference in direction between Pixel Yinglets and the original. For comparison, here's the original in its current state:

Pixel Yinglets is currently more advanced than this, even when you only consider the eyes alone. The original's eye proportions look 'off' (they're spherical compared to the current model's oval shapes), and they're basically headlights with how emissive they are; I'm glad to have improved over those, and those traits won't be changing. The original's eyes do, however, have animating eyelids that move fluidly, as well as the wispy slit-pupil characteristic of a yinglet's eyes. This would be difficult to accomplish with the yinglet model's eyes in their pixelated state, which has me strongly considering for 0.99 making the "pixel" aspect of this either a toggle or a separately uploadable version (maintaining feature parity, that's important) rather than a given aspect of the model: to allow players to swap between pixelated and non-pixelated pupil and eyelid geometry sets, and to in turn also make a version of the body/clothing textures that's in a resolution you expect to see in any other VRChat model. In short: As of the eventual 0.99 update, in addition to Pixel Yinglets, you'll also have access to a featureset and aesthetic look equivalent to if the model package was just called "Yinglets", without any upgrade fees or anything like that.

Anyway, that's where I'm at at the moment. Thanks for your support, everyone! Any thoughts on this, let me know.

[blackknightax]

Sorry about this, I'd been meaning to post this for like 2 weeks. This is chapter 2 of my story.

Chapter 2: Aiko alone

The next morning Emily got up and for the first time in a long time she was excited to get up, she had a friend she needed to get to know.  She groggily went to her computer to be greeted by Aiko who was excitedly waving at her from a lying down position. Emily wrote "did you sleep? Do you need sleep?" Aiko opened the on-screen keyboard and responded "I did because you did... and, probably not? I just wanted to feel like I was doing it with you." Emily couldn't help but ask "was the Taskbar comfortable?" Aiko inaudibly laughed "lol, no, far from it." Aiko then motioned at the keyboard then typed "i wish this was smaller Emily san..." Emily typed "unfortunately not much I can do about that..." They both sighed. Aiko then asked, "so, what're we doing today?" Emily sighed again. "Unfortunately I have work today and honestly... I should be getting ready soon." Emily then got up from her desk chair.

Aiko looked at her with a sad expression "Emily san has to go?" Before Emily saw the message she was gone. Aiko slumped, her arms almost touching the task bar. She slapped an internet browser to open it. Emily had downloaded a second one for Aiko to use so that they have separate histories. She opened a video sharing site and looked up a video so she could lip sync the phrase "All, by, my, seeeeeeeelffffff." She paced back and forth, not really sure what to do. She could dance but how long til that got boring, she has no idea when or even if Emily will come back. She looked up some cartoons and started watching them, sitting on the recommended videos on the side. A few minutes later Emily came back, showered and dressed for work. Aiko, misinterpreting the situation, she switched back to the document and wrote "welcome home!" Emily giggled "I just got ready for work Aiko. I haven't left yet." To Aiko it felt like hours had already passed. But she'd only watched one cartoon. Aiko started waving her arms distraught, upset, stomping around, pushing keyboard buttons as a result.  Just throwing a tantrum. She sees what she wrote then hits enter, as if to say "that's staying. I don't care" then she types "what does Emily san even do at work?" She starts waving her arms again, she is just so upset. Emily typed "honestly... mostly fill in spreadsheets... I'm an insurance claims adjuster. The most soul sucking job I've ever had but it pays the bills..." Aiko understood none of that. Her tantrum continued "just don't go! They don't NEED you!" She typed Emily pointed at the time using the cursor then wrote "it's too close to time. I have to get going. Have a good day Aiko!" Emily grabs her things and goes. Aiko fell to the Taskbar in defeat, sitting down.  She reopened her previous video and lip synced it again.

Now actually alone Aiko decides to use some time opening up the explorer of the files. She wants to learn about her creator and friend, the first thing she learned was her full name, Emily Hawthorne.  Going through she found Emily's resume that she seemingly recently updated, date suggested that it was updated within a week. She looks at it in disgust. She stops herself from writing on it. The resume shows she has a bachelor's degree in business marketing and computer science with a minor in animation. Emily has worked 4 jobs, all for about a year each.  And based on writing her current job in her job history, with a plan to leave this one too. Aiko can't stand looking at the words of the resume, it feels so fake to her. She hops back into the folder, makes a copy of it and renames the copy "Emily's worksona." Before moving on, she goes to the pictures folder and inside are more folders. 

She goes into the first folder where she finds old photos and such. She uses context clues to see Emily has a very popular older sister, a dad who looks grumpy in every picture and the most photogenic mom, possibly ever, not that Aiko would know any different. Poor Emily obviously takes from her father, while her sister takes from their mother. As she looks at the the photos she finds a photo of Emily all dolled up, the photo was titled "Before the disaster" Aiko worried about the implication. She found a picture of a boy. It was renamed "the one that got away." It looked like a yearbook photo.  Aiko silently giggled, the plans to bring this up inevitable.

She goes back and moves into the next folder which had even more folders in it. Concept art, 3d models, renders, etc. She even finds her own file in it, which was odd because it was blank, until she walked up to it, then it became a mirror. She started posing in front of it. She playfully assumed it was a mirror and even thought to kiss it, to her surprise she didn't feel glass against her lips, but her lips. She pressed her hand against it with the same effect. She can't go through the image preview because her mirror self is too exact. She shrugs and moves on, giving herself a wink as she walks off. That's when she noticed the name of her file "idol 3, Aiko" She is confused why she's number 3. She looks through files until she finds the folder labeled "passion project, idol jam"

Once there she goes into the text files to find that her character is, the best friend of the main idol from before she became an idol. Someone who joined because her and the main do everything together. She looked at herself asking if she's even important to the story... if Emily planned on removing her character from the story. Because to her, she sounded like a temporary character. She looked at the main and second idols, in complimentary colored outfits... she felt anger, that even she felt was probably unjustified. She felt like she was an afterthought. She tries not to be hurt. Surely Emily had an explanation. 

She kept looking and found so much research. Maps of towns in Japan, photos of certain locations, even the names of concert halls, most small, one large. She could tell it was meant to show progress of the group. She found the concept art and in every concept art her character is usually behind the main two. What she doesn't find is songs... or music of any kind. It felt off to Aiko that Emily was writing an idol story with no music. She again assumed Emily would explain if asked. 

She found next Emily's old college work. As she looked through this folder she could see Emily was really smart, smarter than Aiko felt like she was. She looked at words she felt like she'd never be able to pronounce, assuming she could speak at all. She felt dim looking at Emily's college work.  She decided to be done looking at Emily's files at this point. She closed the document explorer and walked over to the right side of the Taskbar to see the time. She sighed, letting out a visual sigh cloud like in an anime. It was 3pm, there were still two more hours until Emily got off work.

She looked for one more thing to do. She found a game library service and opened it. She opened a game that turned out to be an idle game. It seemed like a good time waster to Aiko, especially once she got it small enough to play without running around. After what felt to her like 20 minutes, it was actually 5:30 and Emily was home. Emily opened the word document and wrote “sorry I'm late. I grabbed something on the way home.” Aiko, genuinely confused, went to her keyboard and wrote “what did you grab?” Emily showed Aiko a box for a headset. Emily wrote “I wanna test if you can hear me, so I got me a headset with a mic. I've never needed one before so I didn't have one.” Aiko waved her arms excitedly and sat in suspense. Emily plugged it in and the computer recognized the device. Emily spoke “he-hello?” Aiko waved her arms even more, waving as if saying “hi” over and over. “I guess you can hear me now.” Aiko started hopping up and down, she basically forgot ever being upset at Emily. Emily looked at what she was playing “you got far in the idle game. Let's play another game together!” Aiko nodded excitedly.

So here we learn about Emily, through Aiko's eyes. Just thought it'd be a fun idea.

[etes-secrecy-post]

Hi, before I explain my post, I want to say something important.

• What you see my blog has become a major overhaul. And despite the changes, I decided that my 2nd account will be now my artwork blog with a secret twist.

⚠️NEW RULE! (W/ BIGGER TEXT!)⚠️

⚠️ SO PLEASE DO NOT SHARE MY 2nd ACCOUNT TO EVERYONE! THIS SECRECY BLOG OF MINE IS FOR CLOSES FRIENDS ONLY!⚠️

• AND FOR MY CLOSES FRIENDS, DON’T REBLOG IT. INSTEAD, JUST COPY MY LINK AND PASTE IT ON YOUR TUMBLR POST! JUST BE SURE THE IMAGE WILL BE REMOVED AND THE ONLY LEFT WAS THE TEXT.

⚠️ SHARING LINKS, LIKE POSTS, REBLOG POSTS, STEALING MY SNAPSHOT PHOTOS/RECORDED VIDEOS/ARTWORKS (a.k.a. ART THIEVES) OR PLAGIARIZING FROM UNKNOWN TUMBLR STRANGERS WILL IMMEDIATELY BE BLOCKED, RIGHT AWAY!⚠️

😡 WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT EVER LIKED & REBLOG MY SECRET POST! THIS IS FOR MY SECRET FRIENDS ONLY, NOT YOU! 😡

Okay? Capiche? Make sense? Good, now back to the post…↓

My Wangan Maxi Tune Career Returns 2024 Edition [Timezone Arcade Araneta City Gateway Mall II & Gateway Cinema] - Part 7 [First Half] (Recorded: Jun 19th, 2024)

Hey, hey! It’s me! 😁 And welcome back for another installment of "My Wangan Maxi Tune Career"! I returned in 2022, and now I'm continue it, this 2024. Yes, it's been a while. I haven't shared my WMMT's play progress in this current year, with the last record I posted was on May 31st, 2023 (Pls, go check it out in the "previous" section) before it went into troubles. And by that, I'm talking about my PC desktop problem. *sigh* 😫😔 Nevertheless, I have now SO MANY photos and screenshots that need to be uploaded on my current social media sites right away before I move on to my current update.

Once again, If you haven't seen my "first & second half" of "Part 6", then please check out my "previous" down below (w/ highlight).

IMPORTANT NOTE(S):

#1: Once again, no #OnThisDay throwback post for this date.

(And) #2: Whoever say's "FFA" was making me unhappy... 😥 Because I can't find the acronym on the Google search... This is why, this game is not ready to meet. Even though, they've already launched the old vanilla installment.*sigh* 😔

So, without further ado, let's get started:

1st to 6th Image(s) 📷📲: ↑

• [1st to 3rd Images] June 19th, 2024, I'm here at the specific TZ Arcade branch in Araneta City Gateway Mall II, with my two beloved paper dolls (🐻👨‍🍳 Chowder & Panini 🐰👩‍🍳). Upon entering the said mall and TZ branch, the atmosphere was pretty nice and clean, much like I visited every TZ branch. Anyway, I've redeemed the ₱200 free Power Load coupon through my gold membership TZ Power Card 💳🕹️😁, with an additional ₱150 load for a good measure 💵. However, there's one problem though... There's no Wangan Maxi Tune cabinet at this particular TZ branch. 😥 Damn, it'll be better if I play it inside this awesome atmosphere, alas it ain't happened. 😓 So, should go back to Trinoma where I previously played? 🤔 Nah, because as far as I know, there's another TZ branch located somewhere at the huge "Araneta City" mall. So, I venture myself to search for another TZ branch with my trusty Google Maps app 🗺️📲, in about a 1 hour ⌚.

• [4th to 6th Images] And said an hour later, I finally found another TZ branch located at the OG Gateway Cinema. 🎞️🕹️😃 Huh, you know what, the layer reminds me of going to the Ayala Glorietta mall in Makati City, where there's a TZ branch beside the Cinema. And that was my "Real Life Story". 😁📖 I was in my High School days 🧑‍🎓🏫 (3rd year High School to be specific; 2010 to 2011) when my former BF ("Best Friend") 👤 invited me to a meet-up for playing a music rhythm arcade game (named "DJ MAX Technika" 👇🎶🎧) at the aforementioned Glorietta TZ branch, which I suck at it. But, I was also playing my debuted "Wangan Maxi Tune 3DX Plus" 🚘🌃🛣️ arcade, which is my preferred over that music rhythm. 😊 Yeah, who doesn't love playing arcades after watching an awesome movie (say the new upcoming Disney movies, etc..). I've been there, but I never actually attempted that in my life. 😥 As for the actual arcade branch, it matches my memories back in 2012 😊, and no doubt this is one of the most unique branches unlike the Glorietta branch because besides the TZ branch was this Taco Bell / Pizza Hut stand, which is an awesome nice touch if I want it to grab something delicious Taco/Pizza from the "Yum" brands! My paper dolls loves eating Taco/Pizza! Yum! 🌮🍕😋 Sadly, I don't have funds for ordering food. Bummer... 😥😓

7th & 8th Image(s) 📷📲: ↑

• Okay, let's move on to the Maxi Tune experience, with "The Speedster Twins" w/ their Impreza cars! 🐶🇯🇵🚘🟥🔵🌸🐰🇯🇵🚘 So, without further ado, let's bring out the twins! Take it away! 😊

Spot 🐶🏎️ & Riya 🐰🏎️ [wearing Teenage Dogday's attire w/ Teenage Dogpressed's jacket & Teenage Hoppy and Teenage Catnap's clothes combined respectively]: Thank you, creator! 😄

Riya 🐰🏎️[wearing Teenage Hoppy and Teenage Catnap's clothes combined]: Actually, you go first Spot because you've received something cool! 😃

Spot 🐶🏎️ [wearing Teenage Dogday's attire w/ Teenage Dogpressed's jacket]: Why thank you, Ri! 😃 Yeah, I've got my first-ever marker in my Maxi Tune experience! I'm sure it's nothing knew, but here it is! That so-called "New Driver" 🔰 always embraces me throughout my childhood, including you Ri!

Riya 🐰🏎️[wearing Teenage Hoppy and Teenage Catnap's clothes combined]: Yes, sir! I think it looks good on you, you know! A Japanese symbol for any kind of beginners! Whether you're a beginner in trading card games, a skillful chef, or whatever you desire! 🔰😀

Spot 🐶🏎️ [wearing Teenage Dogday's attire w/ Teenage Dogpressed's jacket]: You bet! For us, it is a symbol of our beginners as a Maxi Tune player! Even though I've been there since 2011 and then you followed in 2013. 😊

Riya 🐰🏎️[wearing Teenage Hoppy and Teenage Catnap's clothes combined]: You're correct, twin bro! 😊 Hey, let's move on to our "Story Mode" journey, shall we? 📖🚘🙂

Spot 🐶🏎️ [wearing Teenage Dogday's attire w/ Teenage Dogpressed's jacket]: Yeah, sure! 🙂

9th to 22nd Image(s) 📷📲: ↑

• Spot & Riya's Maxi Tune "Story Mode" Journey 📖🚘:

Spot 🐶🏎️ [wearing Teenage Dogday's attire w/ Teenage Dogpressed's jacket]: Let's proceed to our Maxi Tune "Story Mode" journey, with the continuation of "Garage ACE" second half. 📖🚘

Riya 🐰🏎️[wearing Teenage Hoppy and Teenage Catnap's clothes combined]: Yes, sir! However, we have a problem with the steering wheel. 🙁The maneuver is completely jaggy over solid & sturdy wheel. 👎

Spot 🐶🏎️ [wearing Teenage Dogday's attire w/ Teenage Dogpressed's jacket]: Yeah! These previous aggressive jerks doesn't know how to respect the machine , or fixing it from the mechanic employee! 😑

Riya 🐰🏎️[wearing Teenage Hoppy and Teenage Catnap's clothes combined]: Yeah, does this came from the "PVP" matches? 🤨

Spot 🐶🏎️ [wearing Teenage Dogday's attire w/ Teenage Dogpressed's jacket]: *Sigh* What do you think, Ri? 🤨 But, all that aside, we've continue it anyway, and I've lost my ("5") winning streak because of the aforementioned jaggy steering wheel! 😫 I'm so frustrated! 😠 Ri? What about you!?

Riya 🐰🏎️[wearing Teenage Hoppy and Teenage Catnap's clothes combined]: Well, I carried on and I continued my winning streak! 🤷‍♀️

Spot 🐶🏎️ [wearing Teenage Dogday's attire w/ Teenage Dogpressed's jacket]: YOU WHAT!? 😳 HOW THE HECK DID YOU DO THAT?! 😲

Riya 🐰🏎️[wearing Teenage Hoppy and Teenage Catnap's clothes combined]: *Sigh* I was so lucky, that I haven't got the same fate as yours. And while it was challenging with the jaggy wheel, I put in on my best and I've got 45 wins (now 46) on my winning streak. 😮‍💨 *Phew* What a sign of relief for me, Spot... 😩

Spot 🐶🏎️ [wearing Teenage Dogday's attire w/ Teenage Dogpressed's jacket]: Lucky you, Riya. Looks like, I'm about to re-climb my winning mountain once again. *Sigh* 😩

Riya 🐰🏎️[wearing Teenage Hoppy and Teenage Catnap's clothes combined]: But hey, on the bright side, our Impreza cars are now at "Level 9, Step 33"! 🔧⚙️🚘 With the last stop to "Fully Tuned" 🔥🚘 is completing "The Legendary F1 Turbine" stories! Eh, Spot? Do you think, you can handled "10 wins" on your winning streak? 😁😉

Spot 🐶🏎️ [wearing Teenage Dogday's attire w/ Teenage Dogpressed's jacket]: Heck, yeah! You're right, Ri! I can handle it! 💪😁 One last level and our cars were "Fully Tuned"! LET'S GO! 😃

Riya 🐰🏎️[wearing Teenage Hoppy and Teenage Catnap's clothes combined]: *pat on his back* Awesome, there ya go! Uh yeah, should you changed your title, with this awesome "Tune Maximism"!? 🙂 I've already update my title, though! 😁

Spot 🐶🏎️ [wearing Teenage Dogday's attire w/ Teenage Dogpressed's jacket]: Sounds cool, but I'm gonna save that title via Wangan Navi App. 🚘📲😊

Riya 🐰🏎️[wearing Teenage Hoppy and Teenage Catnap's clothes combined]: Sounds fair, and that includes our Maxi Tune "Story Mode" journey, with us! 📖🚘😊

○ Unfortunately, this is far as I go for now owing to the limitation of Tumblr’s photo upload. But don't fret because I've posted my "second half", right here → [CLICK ME!]. 😉 ○

In the meantime, that’s all for now. More Wangan Maxi experience, coming up soon.

If you haven’t seen my 2019 Wangan Maxi Tune 6 & Wangan Navigator app (on the alternate blog), then I’ll provide some links down below. ↓😉

My Wangan Maxi Tune 6 Experience:

My WMMT6 Progress (2019): Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 , Part 4 , Part 5, Part 6 , Part 7, Part 7½, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14 [Final] (The Last WMMT6 Update)

My Wangan Navigator app (2019): Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14 [Final]

My WMMT6RR Progress (2022 - present): Part 1 [Nov 19th, 2022], Part 2 [Nov 19th, 2022], Part 3 [Nov 19th, 2022], Part 4 [Final] [Dec 28th, 2022], Part 5 [first half], Part 5 [second half], Part 5 [third/final half], Part 6 [first half], Part 6 [second half]

Also check out my previous Maxi Tune installments:

• WMMT5DX - [CLICK ME! #1], [CLICK ME! #2], [CLICK ME! #3], [CLICK ME! #4 (The Last 5DX Update)]

• WMMT5DXPlus (All in chronological date) - [CLICK ME! #1], [CLICK ME! #2], [CLICK ME! #3], [CLICK ME! #4], [CLICK ME! #5], [CLICK ME! #6], [CLICK ME! #7], [CLICK ME! #8], [CLICK ME #9], [CLICK ME! #10], [CLICK ME! #11], [CLICK ME! #12], [CLICK ME! #13], [CLICK ME! #14], [CLICK ME! #15], [CLICK ME! #16], [CLICK ME! #17], [CLICK ME! #18], [CLICK ME! #19], [CLICK ME! #20], [CLICK ME! #21], [CLICK ME! #22], [CLICK ME! #23], [CLICK ME! #24], [CLICK ME! #25], [CLICK ME! #26], [CLICK ME! #27], [CLICK ME! #28], [CLICK ME! #29], [CLICK ME! #30], [CLICK ME! #31], [CLICK ME! #32], [CLICK ME #33], [CLICK ME #34], [CLICK ME #35], [CLICK ME #36], [CLICK ME #37], [CLICK ME #38], [CLICK ME #39], [CLICK ME #40], [CLICK ME #41], [CLICK ME! #42], [CLICK ME! #43], [CLICK ME! #44], [CLICK ME! #45], [CLICK ME! #46], [CLICK ME! #47], [CLICK ME! #48], [CLICK ME! #49], [CLICK ME! #50], [CLICK ME! #51 (The Last 5DX+ Update)]

[morningstargirl666]

3, 4 and 5 for the fic asks :)

Oh hi Yokan!!! Lovely to talk to you, as always, thanks for the ask ✨

3. What's your favourite fic you've written?

The Red Wedding. Idk, I'm just really proud of that one, even though it's not my most popular. I feel it's written really well and in a unique way, mirroring the past and the present. Caroline is totally badass in it too, seeking one of my favourite things - revenge 😈

4. How many WIPs do you have right now?

Call me out, why don't you 😅 I've got quite a few, some that aren't even posted. There's obviously my biggest fic, The Big Bad Wolf, then there's Falling For You and Divided We Fall, which I haven't updated in over a year, along with Songs of the Sea, my Mermaid!Caroline AU (I'm sorry, I will eventually come back to them guys, I'm terrible I know). I also started writing a ghost fic for halloween last year, but haven't finished that yet (I'll probably try and get it done with this year's halloween instead). I've picked up a rhythm with TBBW, so I decided to solely focus on that for now. So that's 5 WIPs? Not including all the various one-shot ideas and other fics I'd like to one day write.

5. What's a fic idea you've had that you'll never write?

There's kinda two? First one would be a six-part Peaky Blinders AU idea I had after I binge watched the show. I worked out which Mikaelsons would be which Shelbys and everything, they and Caroline fit so well into the story, and it'd be great, but I don't think I could do anything original with it, just kind of follow the show's plot line and perhaps end it a bit differently. I believe a Peaky Blinders one-shot AU is also already out there somewhere. The second one is dark. And I mean DARK. Like I'm kinda scared of my own head for coming up with it. But it would essentially be a Bluebeard AU and if anyone is familiar with that fairytale... yeah. You understand. But eh, there's something interesting about the idea of Klaus keeping his previous wives in a dark, bloody dungeon after he killed them (I'm thinking Camille, Hayley and Aurora heheheheh) while he dotes on his new wife, the ever beautiful Caroline Forbes. I don't know if I'd end it really twisted, on a cliffhanger, not making it clear if he kills Caroline too, letting the readers decide the outcome, or as a happily ever after, where Caroline is the only wife he doesn't kill and maybe they go on murder sprees together as a date. Lmao. Idk, I told you, it's dark.

[michygranger23]

Hello everyone!!

Wanting to start this by saying Happy New Year!! (some of you may already be on 2024 already, I'm still a few hours behind fhxyicyi)

So! I know I haven't been very active recently this past couple of months, and I apologize for that!! Irl has been very very busy, and adding that to me planning the content that I want to post to my account was already time consuming, BUT!! I have some few announcements for 2024 that hopefully you guys will like!!

For one, at the end of January I'm going to start college!!

Hopefully this will help me out with improving with my art and my speed of doing it too!!

Second, remember those Disney AU's I've been talking about? Yeah well, I'm going to make a fic collection about them :D!!

My goal is to make long fics with pos! Discduo in different Disney movie scenarios that I've already talk about here and put them all in a collection!! And this would include me making art for the fics too!! I want to make art of my own fics and include them in it and also just to draw the scenes that happen in them as a way to promote them in my social media!

So I want to leave a poll (at the end of this post) to see which fic you want to see first! (All of the options will be done at their own time, and I already know which one to do first, but I want to see your opinion too!) (In the meantime that I write the fics, I'm still gonna make their Tumblr posts to talk about them from the previous poll! Just not with spoilers ;D)

You can also suggest me other Disney movies to turn them into discduo fics too in the hashtags/reblogs!

Third, yes I'm still continuing the discduo Vampire fic dw hehe, I've just been very busy irl but I will update it with the third chapter this next days!!

Fourth, in a couple of days I want to make another poll to see if you guys want to see a fully fledged fic for my discduo Spider-Man AU!! I started the AU by just improvising the story as Tumblr posts but I want to see if you guys would be interested in reading a full fic or if it stays as just Tumblr posts!

Bonus to the previous point, I'm still gonna make fanart for the AU with the options of that poll I did some time ago about the designs for the Spider people!

Fifth, I'm going to start making art for the Canon DSMP too!! I'm very late to the party with that but idc since art doesn't have an expire date lol and I also want to make my designs for the characters since I've been itching to do that for a while now!

Sixth, my main fandom is DSMP and Discduo, but I also like other medias and have my own OC's too, it's even stated in my introduction post, but I haven't follow my word through that so I want to change that! I will start posting about my other interests here with reblogs from other accounts, fanart of my own, etc. (My content will mainly be about DSMP with Multi-Fandom and OC content at the side in resume jgchichi)

Seventh, going alongside point five, I'm gonna start making fanart for the Life Series/Hermitcraft!! I've loved the Life Series since last year and I started watching recently Hermitcraft, so I want to make my own fanart of those too!!

In conclusion, I just want to start posting again since I miss it and posting whatever I want and what I'm most passionate about.

And that's it!! Thank you all so much for the love and support this year and hopefully you are all aboard to the ride I will make in this year!

Happy New Year and 2024 everyone :D!!

(Remember that you can suggest me other Disney movies you want to see in the fic collection!)

[katzirra]

Aggressively rubs my face, complaining about anything in life feels so tedious compared to what's going on in the world. World events and disasters and genocides and just fucking everything make you feel so small and worthless. Like god damn I feel guilty for thinking how stressed I am because HAHAH COULD BE WORSE, BITCH. WHICH is kind of a weird thing the internet really uh, perpetuates. Which is kinda what people get at when they say take care of your mental health.

Like I'm staying as up to date as I can but it's... wow it's hard to stomach, and it's hard to know what to do when you're in a financial spot lmao... Fucking god damn. Like carrying on like normal is really hard because there's that thought in the back of my mind right now about how upsetting it is realizing so many people can't do that. Will never do that again. It's like tv static in my head lately low key saddening me more and more.

But yaknow that just sounds like I'm complaining about a world event, but it's not. It's just...a profound sadness. Saturating things. I find myself just kinda sitting lately unsure what to be doing that feels... productive in this time. Not really feeling, uh, creative or happy. I dunno. Low simmering fear as well tbh.

That wasn't the topic I was planning to post about uh... FRIVOLOUS UPDATES I GUESS... I USE TO DO THOSE, YEAH? IDK WHO CARES ABOUT MY PERSONAL LIFE THESE DAYS TBH LOL

Taking a break from Xig because I'm just ..out of it and need the expectations off me for a second.

Having anxiety even checking my art blog because people weirdly correcting me/giving me a compliment that's shorter than a correction and making me come off rude telling them I'm not wrong makes me anxious as hell :))) so I end up avoiding my own haunts!!! How fucky is that.

I am almost done with my small sketchbook?? I was fixing a few pages up before hitting a few dried out Copics, which lead to me checking all of them to see who I needed to fix/replace and uh... relocate them in my office. Which became redoing my pen pouches and seeing if those got fucked up. Hopefully I'll finish that and start scanning. 2018-2023... with huge gaps in there lol...

I miss doing art I liked. Its kinda stagnant atm so I might take the rest of the year to do studies on angles and shit tbh. I need something. It all feels same same.

Uhhh figuring out some dental stuff - bought myself a bougie electric toothbrush and I think my old one's timer was fucked up and making me brush too long?? Which is bad!!! So this new one already has my teeth feeling better 👏 mom's genetics have me terrified!! My teeth feel better after two brushes??? insane.

Getting bloodwork done Thursday so hopefully figuring some shit out about my weight and health :))) I'd like to lose the like 20-45lb I mysteriously seemed to gain over the past few years??? Uhhh??? And figure my periods out, money has just been BAD since Hannibal's surgery....

Having panic scares about if my job is going away in December or not and hating every job listing I see online so I gotta look for whatever listing sites exist outside indeed. Also something this decent with the same pay :)))))) so that's on my todo list... again.

Box spring is busted on my bed, so hopefully I don't have to replace the mattress just yet because of the previous point AND THE FACT I JUST STARTED GETTING TO SAVE FOR MY PC..... first world problems but fuck, dudes. Vakarian is fucking suffering sometimes... :(( but we'll see because MATTRESS PRICES.......!!!

I cleaned my office and room and that made me feel like I've accomplished something for myself so that's... something.

Trying to focus on things. Depression cocktail is going on..... money, job, housing, health, the world... it's all so much all the time, man.

[manonamora-if]

Last one of the month!

So this one was an unexpected surprise... Essentially, woke up in the middle of the night with an insane idea, could not go back to sleep, wrote/coded for 4h (and spent 4h-ish the next day to translate), and BAM! this happened.

You can find the game here! I've shoved it into 3 ranked jam (well, two, but one of them for 2 diff languages), if you want to vote for it too...

small note: essentially half the plan was scrapped because of time constrains. I might do an extended version in the future?

Current wordcount : 9.327 (FR) + 920 3.898 (EN) new Coding update : 20% change

Oh boy, did we manage to do some things this week for this one!! I wasn't able to add much in the French version (it is still incomplete), so I focused on the translation, filling the gap for the former when needed. This meant I could clear out the first beat of the game, and part of the second one (currently working on it). I am about 1/3rd fully complete. I also worked a bit on the UI, fixing the sizing (essentially copy/pasting the template again) and adding themes.

Will it be ready for EctoComp? I have two more days to try!

After reviewing 40 IFComp entries, I am tapping out for now. There are still 3 more weeks left, so I might play but not review them. It is a bit more than half of the entries, and more than last year… So many long entries. I'm tired.

~

I did an AMA last Friday, and answered all your burning questions until there were no more (about 2h). It was loads of fun! Thanks again for sending questions :)

~

What's happening in the IF sphere:

Speaking of the IFComp: 3 more weeks to play and vote for 5 games! If you have about 2h to spare... there are a handful of 15min entries :)

The voting for the inkJam is underway (wink, wink, scroll above): there is a 5-game voting queue before you can vote for any other entries.

The entries of the EctoComps are about the be released. This is ALSO a ranked jam, so consider voting for a few. La Petite Mort category are games created under 4hs, so they are usually fairly short.

Last chance to enter the Bare-Bones Jam!

Missed a jam deadline or you have a concept you're not sure you can finish? Throw it to the @seedcomp-if.

~

Now, there's a lot I've been wanting to reorganise with the way I've been sharing progress/communicate and where, especially since working on revamping @crimsonroseandwhitelily.

This is pretty long, so I stuffed it all under the break.

First order of business: Monthly check-ins A shortened version of the monthly check-in will be publish on itch from next month on, on the first of each month (unless IRL gets in the way). It will recap what I did the previous month and the plan for the next one, as well as other news of what I am organising/doing aside from game-making. The longer versions going into more details and wishy-washy feelings, also including fun events to participate in and recaps. You know, the usual. Those too, will be posted on the 1st of every month. I'll also have separate posts for jam announcement.

Second: Weekly check-ins These will continue to be published every Sundays (usually mornings EST), even if Sunday is the 1st of the month (will be up before the monthly check-in). The format won't change: recap of progress on projects, other stuff to mention, maybe some events to participate in.

Third: AMA I've been doing AMAs at hella random times, and on a whim, but I'd like to do those more often, because they are fun, and with a more set date/time, so more of you can participate/not miss it (like I did last Friday). Maybe once a month type of thing, around the start or end of the month probably. I'll at least do one more before Christmas.

Fourth: Where else to get updates I've tried out a bunch of places, and while Tumblr feels the most easy/comfortable right now, I don't want to rely on one place only to share releases and big updates (who knows what will happen to Tumblr). I want peeps to be able to have options about where they can get news/updates (esp if you don't want to create an account on a specific website). I'll need to update the nav post about this (maybe have a carrd? or mailing list?), and be more consistent about updating all these places. I need to find some log-ins again... For now, Tumblr will be the most comprehensive one. And I'm not updating Twitter, btw.

Fifth: Update calendar So this year has been so far pretty different from what I hoped to do (mainly because I've participated in so/too many jams), good progress has been done in some places, none in others. That's on me, obviously, I get distracted by new ideas. I can't promise that next year will be much different and that I will stick to a rigorous calendar of updates. Time management and hobbies are like oil and water... But I want to be more careful with how I map my year and where I put effort. Working on remasters and participating in jams has shown me I can do quite a bit in short spurs. And I think I could manage to close more small WiPs if I put my eggs in order (participating in jams/comps usually stops quite a bit of that progress). I think coming to term with leaving some projects be would help a ton. Not everything needs a remaster/update.

Sixth: Itch Pages Update + Trailers? With each remasters, I've tried to be more consistent with the formatting of the itch game page, with screenshots and links to relevant pages. While this should be something to do from the start (with the OG release), with the way I've been release things, I can at least try to make it happen after release. I've struggled a bit for some entries in what to include, ngl. Text-based game seems much duller than non-IF. Also, and somewhat related, I'd like to make trailers for some of the games, mainly the longer completed ones. Also because they look neat and I've never done that before. I have no idea where to start, how to do them, or what to include, but I'm excited to learn! But realistically, this won't be something I'll start this year...

Seventh: Stop with this jam nonsense. So this is more something that's been requested by anons relentlessly in my inbox (esp CRWL's inbox, which I've been deleting every time), than me actually stopping participating in jams. First of all, lol at those request. I participate in/organise them because it's fun and it makes me want to create more not before I personally want to make you suffer by making you wait for months for an update (legit got this as a message). Should I calm down with participating in jams? Maybe. I've made 9 new games this year alone (not counting promps and templates), with varying length and completion (1 is incomplete, 2 needs fixing, at least 1 should be longer), which 50% more than last year. It's not sustainable for me to do the same next year, especially if I want to finish more of my WIPs (I can't just add more to the pile). We will see what next year brings in terms of jams... I will probably submit an entry to multiple jams. Jam FOMO is real...

Eighth: Blog(s) regorganising I've started with CRWL already (it's back up with limited posts), and it will take a bit of time to have everything back in tip top shape. Aside from purging/re-writing posts, I'll also be updating the interface (I'm thinking or re-wroking it from scratch) to make it more mobile friendly. The same will happen at some point with this blog. I want to clear out unnecessary posts/reblogs, and have a better tagging system (the more projects I have, the worse it becomes...).

!~

And finally, I think I'm gonna need a few weeks of a proper break. IRL has been weird and I'm mentally exhausted. I don't know whether I need a break from everything or just the internet... but I might be away for a bit for sure. doomscrolling has not been helping either...

[freifraufischer]

Hello folks!

I've reached 2010 so it's time to update on how the cataloging project is going.

For those of you who haven't seen this before I took on the completely insane large task of trying to catalogue every gymnast whose performances survive in meet videos on youtube. The goal being so that fans can look up the name of their favorite gymnast and follow their career even in small or obscure meets that they may not know exist or haven't had individual routines uploaded in more easily searchable form. The second goal was so that gymnasts who may not know that any of their elite careers survived can find their own performances. The example I used before is that there is a Yugoslavian gymnast's floor routine at the end of the Spanish coverage of the 1982 World Cup. When google searching that woman to make sure I had her name spelled correctly I found no evidence of a gymnast but I did find a Slovenian philosophy professor who likely has no reason to know that a tiny bit of her teenage sport survives.

Originally I was doing this on a google doc but after several months (and about 350 pages) into that I finally accepted that was the wrong medium and have moved it all into spread sheet form which you can find here.

The first sheets in the document are the meets themselves with links to youtube and include things like the date and location of the meet, the format of competition, who was the broadcaster, what language the commentary is in, and who were the commentators.

The meet sheets are broken up into Elite (which is the backbone of the document), NCAA Post Season, Professional Leagues (eventually Bundesliga video will get it's sheet), Exhibitions as well as two sheets I want to explain. HV Recordings are those meets that we have surviving through video taken with home movie or video cameras either by fans in the stands or national federations. Because the experience of watching meets in this format is so different I wanted to catalogue them but keep them to their own page. Because it's often difficult or impossible to identify individual gymnasts in some of those recordings HV recordings are excluded from the individual gymnast sheets. The other odd ball is the USGF Single Elimination tournament which is a slightly odd creature to watch now but included some performances from great American gymnasts that don't have a lot of meet footage. They get their own sheet because it's just a strange beast but I wanted to be able to include them in the gymnasts index.

After that you get four sheets of gymnasts in alphabetical order (broken up to reduce lag). Those sheets are sorted by name and date with gymnasts listed in FAMILY NAME Given Name format. Please note the links are to the video in general not specific time stamps. If a gymnast is known by a different name either by marriage, name change, or transliteration differences (within limits) there are lines telling you where to find the main entry for that gymnast. For example: IOURTCHENKO Nataliia SEE: YURCHENKO Natalia or RYBACKI Beth SEE: KLINE Beth. Post Season NCAA performances are are only included if the gymnast was already in the document from a previous elite performance to limit the scope of the project.

This project is months from completion but you will find everything up to 2010 right now.

So what do I need help with: Well first of all I will have made mistakes. The sheer amount of data here makes that inevitable. As did the several days of brute force data entry when things were moved off the google doc and into the sheets. At one point Boginskaya was given to Belgium for example before the mistake was caught.

One of my biggest priorities is to try and spell peoples names as correctly as possible (given that this is an English language document). The invention of FIG licenses has made that a bit cleaner as I've gotten into more modern recordings but they strip off all the dialectic marks which are part of these people's names and I have made an effort to restore them but I'd appreciate any corrections people notice.

I am deeply concerned about Chinese and Korean gymnasts which have had non standardized spellings in some of the earlier material and whose family names and given names were often given in whatever order a meet decided but my ability to google the name and find the correct order was sometimes limited. I am also very concerned that I have used the wrong family names for Latin American and Spanish gymnasts because meets would often choose those at random. I've even seen Brazilian broadcasts that used inconsistent family names for the same gymnast at the same competition and European meets that decided to pick two names at random and designate them given and family names when they were both family names. I've done my best to try and locate the most correct versions but more eyes would be helpful.

Otherwise people are welcome to use the project as it is now if you want. If you save it to your own computer you will be able to sort the data how you want. Just know that this is a working document and so will continue to change as I make my way through future years.

[fandom-trauma]

Hello hello! Ive been gone a while. Lots of things have happened, and I'm still in the thick of my final year project, but it's (mostly) coming to an end mid-Feb! Thought Id do a little post (mainly for me and the 4 followers I have) on my current WIPs Ive picked up, and what I plan to be doing. Personal update under the Read More.

First of all, I have like a million art and fic WIPs related to Immortal Desires and Perfect Match 2. No biggie, I just have... lots and lots of thoughts about Poly!PM MC and Poly!ID MC. Yes, this means I do have a fix-it fic about how that end of book confession goes... maybe even a rewrite of the entire last chapter... but hold that thought!

Now that I'm a little bit more versed in Twinery (see second point below for why), I'm a little bit tempted to make my rewrite interactive as well. Just text tho lol, but either way, an ending rewrite is a ways away, and also I kinda wanna wait till Bk2 is released to really start working on it. (I didn't realise ID was GOC so you bet I binged it within three fuckin days when I did. It's a bloody amazing book. I also finally finished my playthrough of PM2, so that explains why these books are giving me immense brainrot.)

SECONDLY, 'A Date with Bryce Lahela' is about halfway done! I'm not exactly sure if I've ever shared the idea publicly to the fandom, but this is the basic gist of it: Date is an attempt on my end of trying to recreate those TF Date Specials, but with the one and only Bryce Lahela. Cool, right? Unfortunately, it's only in text format, bc I'm learning Twinery Harlowe.

What's left of Date? When can I play it/a demo? Pronoun choices, smut scenes and equipment variations, a whole activity is uncoded, trackable achievements, load/save functionality, and after that it's just making sure the whole damn thing works. As for a demo... ;) .. ... Joking. The entire predicted gameplay is short enough to not really need a demo, so there won't be a public one. I aim to have this done by, god, hopefully end of the year? This damn thing's been sitting in my WIPs for two whole years, so I would really like it done and over with, haha, but it's a lot of work for one person.

THIRD, I have a 1.2k word rewrite of Foreign Affairs Ch12 Tatum diamond scene that has been in the making, and rotting away in my WIPs, since 2 April 2021. Honest to god, it's a little bit of a vent fic, and I've been slowly chipping away at it whenever I've been stressed. The rewrite isn't because I see the scene as bad, but I do wish there was a liiiiiittle more hurt/comfort in it lol.

FOURTH, well... I have a few Bryce x M!MC smut fics that, uh, really should be finished and see the light of day. Or, at least escape the WIP folder and experience the cool damp corner of my tumblr blog.

So, that's my WIPs so far! Personal stuff under the read more.

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

My 3D animation final year project wraps up a couple of weeks before my graduation. I knew the workload was going to be larger than what I've had with my previous 2D animation projects, but boy it really hits different when you're actually working on it. I won't go into it too detailed, but if you're curious, feel free to ask about it!

My 2023 started off as a... mixed bag. Low lows and high highs, I guess. Won't go into it, but yeah, not great.

Me having Date in semi-working condition is purely because of a NYE group gift exchange and my hubris at making a working product within 2 weeks. It was... yeah, no, I've been humbled, but man was the result such an endorphin rush.

I've also got really into making custom content for The Sims 4, so that's where the bulk of my free time went, really. I'm active in a few TS4 discord servers, so if you see mothy-simmie, say hi :P