#if it continues then there needs to be a communication improvement between the team so we can stop having issues of personality flipping

[cagedcats]

Going on a weird-ish tangent for some reason about the newest arc-

I feel like the main issue with the writing and characters is quite literally how many people are involved in the writing aaaaand that the editing team doesn’t… or never seemed to learn the characters from before them.

Such as characters we’ve known to be chill being uncharacteristically aggressive and characters flipping personality/opinions every book or so and just. Idk

Tho having multiple people writing one series isn’t a whole issue tho. It’s mostly the lack of communication between them. Which is the biggest fault in the writing process.

Finchlight supporting Nightheart in one book and in the very next book was treating him as a traitor for the very thing she supported him on. Having StarClan encouraging Leafpool to have a relationship, then treating her like an actual criminal that could be sentenced to the Dark Forest.

[reasonsforhope]

"For years, California was slated to undertake the world’s largest dam removal project in order to free the Klamath River to flow as it had done for thousands of years.

Now, as the project nears completion, imagery is percolating out of Klamath showing the waterway’s dramatic transformation, and they are breathtaking to behold.

Pictured: Klamath River flows freely, after Copco-2 dam was removed in California.

Incredibly, the project has been nearly completed on schedule and under budget, and recently concluded with the removal of two dams, Iron Gate and Copco 1. Small “cofferdams” which helped divert water for the main dams’ construction, still need to be removed.

The river, along which salmon and trout had migrated and bred for centuries, can flow freely between Lake Ewauna in Klamath Falls, Oregon, to the Pacific Ocean for the first time since the dams were constructed between 1903 and 1962.

“This is a monumental achievement—not just for the Klamath River but for our entire state, nation, and planet,” Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “By taking down these outdated dams, we are giving salmon and other species a chance to thrive once again, while also restoring an essential lifeline for tribal communities who have long depended on the health of the river.”

“We had a really incredible moment to share with tribes as we watched the final cofferdams be broken,” Ren Brownell, Klamath River Renewal Corp. public information officer, told SFGATE. “So we’ve officially returned the river to its historic channel at all the dam sites. But the work continues.”

Pictured: Iron Gate Dam, before and after.

“The dams that have divided the basin are now gone and the river is free,” Frankie Myers, vice chairman of the Yurok Tribe, said in a tribal news release from late August. “Our sacred duty to our children, our ancestors, and for ourselves, is to take care of the river, and today’s events represent a fulfillment of that obligation.”

The Yurok Tribe has lived along the Klamath River forever, and it was they who led the decades-long campaign to dismantle the dams.

At first the water was turbid, brown, murky, and filled with dead algae—discharges from riverside sediment deposits and reservoir drainage. However, Brownell said the water quality will improve over a short time span as the river normalizes.

“I think in September, we may have some Chinook salmon and steelhead moseying upstream and checking things out for the first time in over 60 years,” said Bob Pagliuco, a marine habitat resource specialist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in July.

Pictured: JC Boyle Dam, before and after.

“Based on what I’ve seen and what I know these fish can do, I think they will start occupying these habitats immediately. There won’t be any great numbers at first, but within several generations—10 to 15 years—new populations will be established.”

Ironically, a news release from the NOAA states that the simplification of the Klamath River by way of the dams actually made it harder for salmon and steelhead to survive and adapt to climate change.

“When you simplify the habitat as we did with the dams, salmon can’t express the full range of their life-history diversity,” said NOAA Research Fisheries Biologist Tommy Williams.

“The Klamath watershed is very prone to disturbance. The environment throughout the historical range of Pacific salmon and steelhead is very dynamic. We have fires, floods, earthquakes, you name it. These fish not only deal with it well, it’s required for their survival by allowing the expression of the full range of their diversity. It challenges them. Through this, they develop this capacity to deal with environmental changes.”

-via Good News Network, October 9, 2024

[cutehoons02]

SPEED OR LOVE?

HYUNG LINE X F1 DRIVERS SERIES

*title: I’m in love an idiot

*trope: Grumpy for Sunshines

*F1 driver: Jay F1 Mercedes driver (inspo charachter: Carlos Sainz)

*synopsis: Being the daughter of the most famous engineer in the world for having won world champions like Hamilton or Vettel has advantages but a disadvantage is to hear about 24h on 24h from Jay Park. The new Mercedes star, with her gentle ways of communicating with fans and flirting with any girl in the paddock and with her look as a movie diva manages to make people do everything he says in a snap of fingers, except when he finds himself having to face the daughter of his engineer, super cynical and with a different idea than that is the real Jay during the European season of F1.

*title: Still hate me? Always..

*trope: Enemies to lovers/Social media manager

*F1 driver: Sunghoon F1 Red Bull driver (inspo charachter: Max Verstappen)

*synopsis: Sunghoon could not stand Y/n and Y/n could not stand Sunghoon. Y/n loved his work as a content creator for Red Bull because he could cheer on his favourite team and feel the adrenaline that was felt before qualifying or race and at the same time travel around the world and create fan content on various social platforms, but there was only one problem in his work and that was called Park Sunghoon "Ice prince" of the grid. Whenever Y/n tried to get some social challenge or interaction, Hoon hated it more and more because he didn’t need to have millions of followers or social interactions but just run and maybe taste for the first time the win of his first world champion in Red Bull.

*title: Kiss me, don't say no!

*trope: There's only one bed/reader is Jake's Pr

*F1 driver: Jake F1 Mclaren driver (inspo charachter: Lando Norris)

* synopsis: You thought being an F1 driver’s Pr was exhausting but you couldn’t imagine when you had to live three weekends in a row with Jake Sim, Jake represented everything that a Pr didn’t want to face in his career. Drama in his social media because Jake was born in GenZ and used social media without thinking that he was one of the most famous pilots of the moment, flirting with models or even worse fans during race weekends, duels and scenes with his teammate because the Mclaren had the unhealthy idea of putting two young promises of twenty years to command the team. Y/n would have wanted to kill him but under that cheeky face of F1 driver, Jake suffered from many insecurities and who knows thanks to his Pr things between the two could improve race after race.

*title: Romantic lover

*trope: Celebrity falss in love with fan

*F1 driver: Heeseung F1 Ferrari driver (inspo charachter: Charles Leclerc)

*synopsis: Heeseung loved the adrenaline and anxiety before having to risk everything to qualify for pole position or to win potter but those butterflies in his stomach every time he entered his fiery colored car had never heard them until a shy girl university did not win a content to spend a whole season writing the thesis on the post-pandemic boom thanks to the DTS series and various media platforms that have helped make this sport increasingly focused on young people. Y/n had always loved Heeseung from his arrival in Ferrari but would never be expected to share with him beautiful moments like his first victory at home moments as his continuous panic attacks due to an accident.

If your are interested in this story leave me your @ so that when i publish the story you will be first to trade. ♡

[writingwithcolor]

Hey folks!

It has been a while! Well, we wanted to announce some big things coming your way!

WWC Askbox: Soft Re-Opening

Wednesday, Nov 1, 2023 to Thursday, Nov 30, 2023

In light of the recent attention WWC has received by the writeblr community, and the reception to our Guide to Academic Research—the mods have decided that we will temporarily reopen to your questions and test some important changes to the site! As you may have noticed, we've taken a much-needed break to catch up on our personal lives and restore our inspiration to answer the hundreds of Q&A that we receive. 

Once the submission window is up on Nov 30, we will evaluate how our new system is going, tinker some more, and reopen once again once the construction dust clears.

New Rules and FAQ! 

We are pleased to announce our new and improved Masterpost, which we hope will be a more centralized, more informative resource for those new and returning to WWC. 

Brand-new FAQs, with new answers and content for further reading

Code of Conduct and other etiquette rules

The Ask Tutorial—a guide to writing a good ask that we’ll answer!

Moving forward, all followers are required to go through the masterpost to submit a question so they are aware of the new rules, terms & conditions. 

Read the masterpost here and ask your question!

New Process

We're piloting out our own personal askbox via Google Forms. This will help us streamline the process and keep track of everyone’s questions.

We are also introducing the Deletion Log, a public, anonymous ledger that lets you know if your question (identified by a number code) has been deleted due to a rule violation, and what you can do to resubmit. Check out the Deletion Log here. 

Want to submit an ask? 

The below are topics of asks that we will get to right away, based on the mods who are currently active. 

Black 

Chinese

Colonialism

Iranian/Persian 

Japanese (INCLUDING: Anime fanfic questions! Only Mod Rina will be answering anime questions, and only if she feels that the ask would make for an educational post.)

Jewish

Mixed race

South Asian: Hindu, Indian, Punjabi, Sikh (please remember that when asking about South Asia you must indicate region & time period) 

Taiwanese 

Writing/Publishing industry 

Coming Soon: Writingwithcolor.org

We've made tremendous progress on writingwithcolor.org and are almost ready to show off the more permanent residence of WritingWithColor! However, it'll take a lot of time to fully transfer posts and links. To get the new look and all its benefits to you faster, we plan for a soft launch of the content. This will include back and forth linking between WritingWithColor.org and our home on Tumblr. We'll try to keep things seamless and your viewing experience on Tumblr shouldn't be too interrupted. Launch date is coming soon!

New Mod Applications

We still have some applications from our last call of mods and folks to respond to. So if you haven’t heard back, sorry for the delay, but no worries—we will get back to you as we start shaking the dust off our bones and getting back into Q&A. Once we are ready to invite more mods again, we'll continue our outreach.

A Special Thanks To You All

We want to thank you for your continued support, whether it’s been viewership, spreading the word about us, or sending us a tip that supports our domain and future projects for you all. The whole team really appreciates it. We will keep bringing you our best advice and guides on all things good writing with inclusivity. 

Be well and keep writing!

~WWC

[pillowfort-social]

Spring 2024 Funding Update

Hi Pillowfolks!

We wanted to take a moment to talk about the status of our funding as we head into the later part of spring 2024. It’s still important to us to ensure we are as transparent as possible to you regarding our finances.

We are very ecstatic to share with our community that thanks to your continuous support we now have enough funding to remain online as a functional platform until at least October 2024.

Rather than sharing only percentages this time we want to present to you the total amount of funding we received from our supporters so far in 2024. These totals include both one-time donations and Pillowfort Premium subscriptions. We need $5,000USD a month for site upkeep and to compensate our Staff.

January 2024: $4,078.58 February 2024: $5,586.22 March 2024: $5,627.57 April 2024: $5,515.81

Note: These numbers are from settled transactions.

And for those who are curious how this compares to our finances in 2023 here is a look at those numbers:

January 2023: $4,416.40 February 2023: $3,774.40 March 2023: $3,827.40 April 2023: $3,703.67

The difference between this year and last year has us cautiously optimistic, which feels great after many months of uncertainty.

It needs to be said again: we continue to be blown away by how our community continues to come together to help us continue to exist. Thank you for continuing to put your trust into our small team. Thank you for continuing to hold us accountable (especially when you let us know when we make a mistake).

We are still planning to update the donation tracker with improved verbiage. We hope that will remove the confusion that donations and Pillowfort Premium subscriptions are separate from our funding goals.

Will there be any Pillowfort Premium Updates?

Promoted Posts and Gifted Subscriptions are still coming this year. We have a bit more information to share regarding Promoted Posts. Promoted Posts will be rebloggable and can be blacklisted. The plan is to have promoted posts be available on a designated page, while also allowing users to choose the option to have promoted posts show up on their home feed.

We are still planning on increasing our Pillowfort Premium prices this year. Before any price changes occur we will consult with the community and take feedback.

Finally, we are going to improve Pillowfort Premium payment notifications so users have a better idea when their renewal is close.

Well, that’s about it for this post. Don’t ever hesitate to ask questions. We will do our best to answer. Stay tuned for future updates! We will provide another funding update next month. -Staff

[funkii4-blog]

NOTE: IGNORE ANYTHING WRITTEN IN BLUE, AS A MISUNDERSTANDING OCCURRED AND I TALKED ABOUT IT TOO SOON.

This take is most likely gonna be a piping hot one but it’s only fair I share it here too and do some ranting along with it since I’ve said it everywhere else:

The recent changes to the writers team as well as the supposed complete lack of communication within it is actively sabotaging the show and I would be perfectly fine with the show taking a hiatus if it meant that the team would take that time to get their shit together to improve their writing overall.

As you may or may not have known, early on in the year Kevin seemingly stepped back as head writer (not officially that I can recall but he’s had very few writing credits ever since chapter 4 of the PV saga began) and some new writers were hired starting with the episode Trash Friends, said writers being the Zamination bros Zach & Micah; X/Aaron and Medi/Paul have also been promoted to the most prominent major writers since then.

However, since these changes we’ve seen a very noticeable and steep decline in writing quality, most evident via the lore sections of 2024. They’ve all felt completely disconnected from the 2023 lore and even disconnected from each other at times. Not to mention there’s been a pretty severe mismatch between how the chapter-ending specials are advertise and how they actually turn out, but that’s a whole different ramble for another time.

Several months ago one of the Zam bros even admit to not having caught up on the early PV lore before writing for the later, which is a huge fuckup in itself that should not have happened; I made a post about it back in July when that circulated.

“But Funkii, where did you get the lack of communication thing from?” Hoo boy, allow me to present something I learned while chatting in the official discord yesterday.

We were discussing our dissatisfaction with the wotfi and the recent writing overall and someone stepped in with this (read bottom to top)

[MEDIA REMOVED]

I already wondered if the communication between writers for each episode was poor but it’s apparently literally nonexistent. Yikes, not a good look and definitely not a tactic that makes for good writing.

So basically Zach & Micah don’t know nearly enough about what they’re writing for, and then there’s Paul who notoriously relies too much on fanservice (+personal desires to a certain extent) for both his editing and writing. All of that makes the messiness of this year’s lore make a lot more sense to me.

Things of course got a bit crazy in chat after this and a large number of us reached this conclusion: the show needs to take a break, man. It doesn’t have to be for insanely long, it just needs to be long enough for the writers to fix their communication and overall consistency. I know I tend to be very impatient when it comes to waiting for new smg4 content, but if this were the circumstance that initiated a hiatus then I’d gladly wait as long as I had to.

I genuinely think that would improve the show’s writing drastically and for the better in the long run. Things have been such a mess this year and I really really don’t want to see things continue to decline.

[himeryu]

– Love Rivalry: 45. you're losing me

kaveh x reader

You stand still nervously as you and Alhaitham await your professor's approval. You gaze at your professor reading your project with a stern expression. Today is the deadline for your thesis submission-- the final deadline that binds you and Alhaitham together. Despite avoiding your partner for a week, you focused on your project. Unknowingly, Alhaitham's gaze is not on the professor; but on you. 

Your professor puts down your printed proposal with a grin on his face-- a grin of approval. Truthfully, your professor has high expectations of your and Alhaitham's output. After all, two of the outstanding students in his class are partners. "You two never fail to amaze me," your professor says. Your eyes light up, and joy befalls your entire being. 

"An amazing output," he continues, "from the formatting and paragraph construction. To think that two undergraduate students manage to create near-profession research would surprise the head directors of the academe." 

"You flatter us, professor," Alhaitham replies. 

"You two make a great team," The professor smiles.

 

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

You exit the classroom with your head up high, emitting an air of confidence. After months of sleepless nights and coffee every morning, you finally accomplished your project. And most of all, you could finally conclude your partnership with Alhaitham. 

Though you believe your relationship with Alhaitham would improve after the project, everything went south when he opened his mouth that day. Sometimes, you find yourself dwelling on the what-ifs: what if you didn't message Alhaitham? What if you didn't look for Alhaitham? What if you left first instead of staying? What if you didn't let curiosity get the best of you? 

Perhaps if you weren't nosy, then maybe every time you gazed into Alhaitham's eyes, your brain wouldn't replay the heart-wrenching memory of his foul tone. If you weren't curious, then maybe your expectations and heart wouldn't shatter into a million pieces like they did on that day. 

You painfully chuckle to yourself, running your fingers through your hair as a thought you desperately tried burying deep into your heart starts to resurface. 

'What if Alhaitham didn't mean those words?' 

How cruel human nature is. Despite hearing those words from his mouth, a slim, thin strand of hope binds you to the possibility that Alhaitham might be lying. 

But deep down, you knew dwelling on the numerous possibilities would be pointless. What's done is done; we cannot change the course of fate. 

Alhaitham exits the classroom, and his gaze immediately finds itself on your figure. You feel it, his gaze and the unresolved tension between you two. You stand still once more, not wanting to see his face. 

"Communication is the key," A phrase you frequently see while scrolling through the comments of your favorite romance novels. "Anything can be solved with just an exchange of words." You believe their words; after all, you've read plenty of books during your time in high school. 

Silence fills the air as you gaze into nothingness while he gazes at you. 

Ah, you needed to communicate. But can you? You no longer understand him.

Finally, you turn to look at him, much to Alhaitham's surprise. His eyes falter as you look at him with an indifferent expression-- a mask you created to avoid cowering in front of the man who gave you so much distress.

Hesitantly, you open your mouth to speak. 

"Alhai--"

"I've thought about what you said," Alhaitham interjected. "Let's talk, [Name]."

---------

Silence. No words were exchanged between you and Alhaitham in the desolate cafe away from the busy students of the academy. You awkwardly sip your drink, eyes glued to Alhaitham cutting a piece of his cake. 

You agreed to talk with him, yet the only words you exchanged were: "What will you get?", "Just a cafe latte." 

Deciding to communicate is easy, but doing it is difficult. After all, you and Alhaitham are arrogant freaks who refuse to put down their ego. Hahaha. Just like Blue Lock. 

The atmosphere in the cafe is tense, to the point that the barista can feel it. The barista glances in your direction once more, trying his best to conceal his nosiness. Nevertheless, his white-colored hair, tan skin, and red eyes are hard to ignore. 

You have to talk to Alhaitham, a decision you cannot ignore. But the inability to read his emotions and thoughts is making you hesitate. Speak now, or you'll forever hold your peace. 

"Alhaitham," You say. Oh, how his name leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. "You said you thought about what I said the other day."

"That's right," He replies. Unlike before, Alhaitham refuses to look at you. But why? You don't know. You can't even think of a reason. Alhaitham became unreadable, someone you can no longer predict.

"Do you have an answer?" You continue, "To, you know, your question?"

"I do." Finally, Alhaitham looks at you, his eyes firm. "But don't you have a question?"

Your eyes widen as your face contorts to confusion. "Me? A question?"

"That's right." He continues, "I can tell that you have something to say."

You stare at him in shock. The mask you created started to crumble. Unbelievable, you reckon to yourself. How dare he? You've been trying your best to conceal your thoughts, yet Alhaitham read right through you. How can he? When you no longer could? Slowly, somewhere deep within you, your emotions starts to pile up, waiting to overflow.

"Humor me with your question," Alhaitham continued with a smug tone as if he was expecting you to open up easily.

You scowl, "How arrogant."

"You know that all too well."

"Are you picking a fight?"

"Stop being difficult, [Name]."

Suddenly, emotions deep within you starts to overflow. It seeps into your blood and clouds your sense of reasoning as rage taints your entire soul, burning red. Your face contorts to anger as you finally succumb to your emotions. You furrow your eyebrows as you glare at Alhaitham's eyes. His gaze faltered, but you paid no mind. 

"Oh. So now I am being difficult?!" You yell, your tone filled with contempt. "You're the one who called for me. Moreover, we finally finished that God-forsaken project that binds us together, so there is no longer any reason for us to talk." 

The calm and collected facade of Alhaitham starts to crumble. "What? So I can no longer talk to you? Was the times we spent together working on that thesis for 4 months mean nothing to you—" 

"Ha!" You scoff, interrupting him. How dare Alhaitham ask that? How dare he? When it was he who forsaken that anguishing 4 months? However, right there you notice: Alhaitham, too, is losing his cool, abandoning his usual rationality and indifference.

"How bold of you to say that, Alhaitham." You continue, "That's right. I have a question. Do you truly mean everything you've said that day?"

Alhaitham looks at you, confused, "That day?"

"That day at the cafe, Alhaitham. Unfortunately, I eavesdropped your conversation." Alhaitham's eyes widen, ultimately realizing the gravity of the situation. You gather up all your courage as you refrain from shedding a tear in front of this man. Finally, Alhaitham's words sank in, burying itself deep into your heart. Oh, how his words hurt you so. Who knew a bunch of words could render you in such a pitiful state? 

You speak, trying to retain composure. However, your voice starts cracking. "Shouldn't I be asking you that, Alhaitham? Was the time we spent together all for naught? Do you detest me so much that you'd speak of me that way?" 

Pathetic. 

"I really thought we could be friends, you know?" You say, bitterly.

Unknowingly, a certain barista is eavesdropping on your conversation with Alhaitham. 

main m.list | series m.list | previous | next

Author Note: i was supposed to end the flashback here but this chapter is too long so I have to extend it to one last chapter. Im so sorry for being IA i was just lazy 😭 PLUS the written part took me such a long time cause I was losing ideas like I just want this to end and move to Moth To A Flame but I am lazy!!

SYNOPSIS You’ve been rejected by your academic rival, alhaitham, without even confessing or having feelings for him. You decided to go to a party to fix your damaged ego, so why are you suddenly making out with his roommate?

taglist

@dee-zbignuts @lxry-chxn @ducq @nikkicola @artssleepy @arraxthatsonjah @kunihaver @i-x4o @soohasoya @yae-raidenmyloves @aixaingela @09yyeol @nebulaera @bokutetsumu @kairxse @victoria1676 @thenightsflower @ti-lsy @alizaneth @abvolat @carnnieval @ultimate-imagines @ventisoba @skimm0nzz @slvdsjjk @succutie @empathum @saoiirsee @disa-ster @httpmitsuya @kunikuzushiit @semi-orangeapple @goodthingimsam @strawberry1894 @meep13r @leeyanyanyaaan @heart-cream @crueldinasty @justonemoreroz @boordbokee @moraxsimp69 @kkiryu @r4yyyyy @tartagli-yuh @raideneiari @kaekazuha04 @dazaiscum @mayasshitposts @kunikuzi @ruisann (taglist full)

[ndconceptarchive]

Mystery of the Seven Keys SuperJump Interview

Here is the interview that I promised to put up last week- it was published on Aug 18, 2024 by Rachel Alm.

"The HeR Interactive Team members interviewed are as follows:

Suzy O’Hara, Chief Creative and Creative Producer - Games

Cacie Desautel, Production and Project Manager

Penny Milliken, CEO

Jared Nieuwenhuis, Communications & Marketing Consultant"

When I was a child, my mother picked up a little mystery game called Nancy Drew: Treasure in a Royal Tower. That single purchase would launch a lifelong love for the wonderful mystery series and would open the door for a wider interest in mystery games, horror, travel, and history.

From halcyon nights spent beside friends, clustered around a small screen screaming gleefully at the occasional jump scare, to seeing the beautiful rendering of Nancy's story in the newest game, each time I boot up the title screen feels a lot like coming home. It's why I was ecstatic to have the chance and honor of being able to interview the creative team continuing Nancy Drew's celebrated legacy.

HeR Interactive was founded in 1995 and has produced Nancy Drew mystery games since the first release of Secrets Can Kill in 1997. The teenage detective has a storied history outside of the games, but it's in the games where many fans found a foothold. Her influence remains significant in pop culture, and Nancy's stalwart curiosity and actualization in these games continue to enchant fans. The most recent entry, Nancy Drew and the Mystery of the Seven Keys was released earlier this year.

The HeR Interactive Team members interviewed are as follows:

Suzy O’Hara, Chief Creative and Creative Producer - Games

Cacie Desautel, Production and Project Manager

Penny Milliken, CEO

Jared Nieuwenhuis, Communications & Marketing Consultant

SUPERJUMP

Nancy Drew: Mystery of the Seven Keys is your first release since 2019's Midnight in Salem. How did you approach this game's creation with the longer hiatus between? 

Suzy O’Hara

When it comes to development, there is no “hiatus” for us. Our team is continuously developing, refining, and creating for the next game. The transition from inception to development and then production is seamless and ongoing. Our approach to the game’s creation early on includes the game narrative design and technical engineers working closely with the creative team running on parallel development tracks. 

For instance, after completing production on our first game on the new Unity engine, Nancy Drew: Midnight in Salem (MID), we immediately began looking at what we wanted to implement in the next game. We especially considered the important fan feedback, brand elements, and the technology updates needed to improve systems. We are keeping in mind not only game 34 but also future games so we can make each new game even better while keeping those essential pillars of a Nancy Drew game at the forefront. We took time to create the new dual navigation system, develop new features, update the character production and animations, and explore ways to enhance the game's visual fidelity, making technical adjustments to the game engine along the way, all to be ready for game 34 production. 

The creative team I work on has multiple stories in development as an ongoing focus. We like to have many mysteries in varying stages of development, from concept to pre-production, ready. This gives us the flexibility to select a mystery that is relevant to the timing of the release and also a location that fans have often indicated they would like to see Nancy go to for her next adventure. We consider many elements that take time to develop properly, so we select the mystery that fits perfectly with our 34 other games for the next case. Identifying story opportunities and development is an exciting part of my everyday life and what I love most about storytelling entertainment. 

"As we work to adapt the Nancy Drew games for all audiences, we’re constantly looking for ways to reimagine old mechanics and design aspects in the 3D world of our new games." Cacie Desautel PRODUCTION & PROJECT MANAGER

SUPERJUMP

Mystery of the Seven Keys is a beautiful game! I love the loading screen facts, the painterly style, and the cleaner UI. I also love that you have a first-person and a Classic setting – it's how I'll always remember playing! How did you decide what to keep or/and remix in this game? 

Cacie Desautel

As we work to adapt the Nancy Drew games for all audiences, we’re constantly looking for ways to reimagine old mechanics and design aspects in the 3D world of our new games. In the future, we will continue looking for these opportunities and improving on what we have already adapted, such as the classic mode. The dual navigation system is a great example of what we are doing to appeal to both our longtime fans and new fans alike!

SUPERJUMP

Obviously, times have changed since the original game came out back in 1998, but it seems the heart is ever-present. How do you stay "true" to the Drew identity?

Penny Milliken 

We start from a place where we understand the significance the Nancy Drew universe has played in the lives of many of our players. Nancy Drew is an icon for a reason – because much of our fan base has found themselves in her, found strength in her, and escaped with her. Countless fans and celebrities traveling different paths in life cite Nancy as a central figure in their childhood. So, it's essential for us to maintain those core characteristics that have made Nancy Drew popular for over 90 years, such as her intelligence, courage, independence, and curiosity.  These key characteristics have made Nancy Drew an enduring and beloved figure, and we work tirelessly to ensure that those characteristics are seen in our games. 

SUPERJUMP

This is the franchise's first venture to Prague. How did you research the location and the stories surrounding the mystery? I've always enjoyed the cultural snapshots of the games, from ranches to ryokans, that give a little background on where we are. What is that process for story conceptualization – do you choose locale or mystery first, or do the two sort of naturally intersect?

Suzy O’Hara

It is a pleasure to know that you are a longtime fan of the Nancy Drew game series. As you know, we are one of the longest-running series games, ever-evolving and our players, as Nancy Drew, have solved over 34 cases! 

As noted earlier, development for Nancy Drew’s next case is a continuous process. With the rich legacy of the Nancy Drew franchise, we have a wealth of ideas and concepts to draw from. Nancy Drew, our iconic teen detective, is true to her roots but is also ever-evolving as the famed female detective. The settings, stories, characters, and crimes in our games are adaptations from the Nancy Drew book series or are original ideas and game worlds like Nancy Drew: Mystery of the Seven Keys (KEY). 

For the mystery, we like to consider current interests and unique crimes Nancy hasn’t solved yet. It could be a news story, a moment in history, or travel that sparks the idea. For KEY, the locale and mystery naturally intersected. The story is rooted in history with a modern cyber spin. It is a mystery plot that could only happen in Prague, and it was inspired by a family trip there.

While in Vienna working on MID, I visited Prague and was captivated by the Bohemian Crown Jewels and their protection by the seven keys and the key bearers. The haunted corridors and tales of royals and alchemists added intrigue. I was so excited that I called Penny, our CEO, and shared several ideas for a mystery set in Prague. Having visited Prague before, and then returning to consider it as a game story, she was equally inspired. The development of the game story, researching the crime, establishing the characters, so each is a suspect, puzzles, and experiences and how they fit into the game world were all part of the first phase of establishing the game story.

Turning the story into an immersive game experience makes it all come alive by working closely with the game design team. We had to ensure the narrative offered rich opportunities for player engagement through interactions, control, and Nancy’s signature snooping. Each story element needed to be translated into puzzles and challenges that felt organic to the history of Prague and the plot. Also designing an experience where players don’t just do things on Nancy's to-do list, but they have to think and reason like Nancy and become her. For me, working hand in hand with the design team, and our brand team to bring the iconic legacy game elements into the project is the heart of what transforms a story idea into an unforgettable game. We are so glad you enjoyed playing it! 

"Nancy’s character, with her unique blend of intelligence, courage, and independence, resonates across generations." Penny Milliken CEO

SUPERJUMP

The Nancy Drew games have a thriving fanbase, and I know many of us rediscovered a love of the games during the pandemic. From bake-offs to Q&As, how do you keep up with the social aspect of the studio? And do ideas or clamor from fans ever influence the next book-based mystery or location?

Jared Nieuwenhuis

I am so proud of the creativity the social media team shows daily. They understand the brand and our audience so well, which translates into great social media content and engagement. They collaborate seamlessly, and our team is constantly sharing ideas, being inspired by our passionate fans and their survey responses, and contributing to our social media goals. Additionally, they are disciplined and organized across different departments, which leads to a holistic communications approach. This enhances our overall success, aligns with the expectations of our fans, and grows the overall awareness of our award-winning games across multiple platforms. They also take a lot of inspiration from current trends and events. From International Video Game Day to the Olympics, we’re here to celebrate and cheer on our amazing fans while tying it back to Nancy Drew games and HeR Interactive. 

SUPERJUMP

One of the things I always loved most about HeR Interactive is its centering on women's stories. Nancy was one of the heroines I resonated most with as a kid, even though I had no shortage of superheroes to look up to. Why do you think she's remained such a role model to people of all ages?

Penny Milliken

Nancy Drew’s enduring relevance as a role model can probably be attributed to several factors:

Timeless Appeal: Nancy’s character, with her unique blend of intelligence, courage, and independence, resonates across generations. Her relatability makes her a timeless figure in detective fiction or video games.

Adaptability: Nancy has evolved over the years, from her original depiction in the 1930s to modern adaptations. This evolution is a testament to her ability to adapt to changing cultural norms and interests, ensuring her continued relevance.

Diverse Media: Nancy Drew has made her mark in books, movies, TV shows, and video games. This multi-platform presence not only keeps her relevant but also makes her accessible to a wide audience.

FanCommunity: We are constantly amazed by our passionate fan base who continue to celebrate Nancy Drew. Be it fan conventions, online forums, or social media, the fans are directly responsible for Nancy’s ongoing popularity.

SUPERJUMP

I know development takes a lot of different hands to move the boat, and one thing I've often overlooked is the music. The soundtrack in Mystery of the Seven Keys is as enchanting and atmospheric as the past titles. How do you craft such a smooth soundtrack for the games?

Suzy O’Hara

The music in KEY was inspired by the contrast between old-world ancient Prague with the beautiful settings, and the modern world of high-tech crimes in the story. 

Our composer, Ryan Ricks, is phenomenal, starting with the narrative and setting to craft a cohesive musical experience. We provide him with detailed scenarios and examples, for feeling and tone, and he transforms them magically into layered, dynamic pieces. These tracks often allow for a variety of combinations with different instruments, enhancing the atmosphere of each scene. Cutscenes, which are critical for story progression and emotional impact, benefit greatly from his unique compositions.

We're thrilled you enjoyed how we blended the sounds of old-world Prague, local street performers, marionettes, our cozy coffee cafe, and the whimsical elements of Old Town. The cello at the museum and the cathedral’s music pay homage to Czechia’s classic music, while medieval legends and mysterious happenings bring a haunting vibe and suspense. The Aparat computer store and certain puzzles transport players to the more high-tech elements. The music is one of the game's highlights, and we hope players will enjoy each piece.

"Nancy operates in a world of reality and crimes, but to me, the stories woven in the case that tie in history, fiction, and some fantasy into the adventure add to the mystery that Nancy has to solve." Suzy O'Hara CHIEF CREATIVE & CREATIVE PRODUCER - GAMES

SUPERJUMP

Video game designs have changed a lot from the early aughts, but people still seem to like click-and-point-style adventures. Cozy games are fairly popular too. Do you have any games or game genres that you've drawn inspiration from? What about books or movies or music? 

Suzy O’Hara

Inspiration from games I search out is usually very strong in story and character development. I simply love narrative mystery adventure games.  

I play many fun casual games that are always inspiring for our activities and mini-games. 

Those fun Nancy experiences give us the chance to develop new mechanics often played in more casual games and puzzle sim types. I like games like Monopoly, Portal 1 and 2, The Room, Countryle, and Papers Please. 

Also, games rich in investigative clue-gathering and deduction. These games to me are among the best for their unique storytelling, investigative gameplay, and often innovative mechanics. Some examples that are top on my list are Return of the Obra Dinn, the Uncharted series, and Sherlock Holmes.

As far as books for inspiration, all Nancy Drew mystery books, of course!! 

Also, fantasy books offer rich worlds and compelling stories, drawing on a variety of myths, legends, and folklore to create engaging fantasy elements in Nancy’s adventures. 

Nancy operates in a world of reality and crimes, but to me, the stories woven in the case that tie in history, fiction, and some fantasy into the adventure add to the mystery that Nancy has to solve. 

For movie inspiration for storytelling and mysteries, here is my list:

History! Drama and the classics all offer real situations told in universally appealing ways.

Spy and espionage

Classic mysteries well told: Agatha Christie's Orient Express, Glass Onion: Knives Out, and Sherlock Holmes films and series. 

For Music inspiration: Music that inspired ideas for KEY drew from the classical to the mysterious and lo-fi moods, as we used in the Nancy Drew Café holiday mix that has a cozy café vibe with music from past games and as well as new tracks from KEY.  

SUPERJUMP

Of course, I have to ask, what is one of the games in the franchise you consider a favorite?

Our favorite Nancy Drew games, not including Nancy Drew: Mystery of the Seven Keys:

Penny Milliken - Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy

Suzy O’Hara – Nancy Drew: Curse of Blackmoor Manor 

Cacie Desautel – Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy

Jared Nieuwenhuis – Nancy Drew: Ghost of Thornton Hall

I want to sincerely thank the HeR Interactive team for taking the time to interview with us! And, of course, thanks to Nancy – who taught me to be brave, kind, and always curious.

Mystery fans old and new alike should give Mystery of the Seven Keys a spin, or any of her 34(!) other mysteries, including those mentioned as favorites by the team above. As a longtime Drew fan, my opinion may be biased, but the longevity of the brand speaks for itself – these games have always been wonderfully realized point-and-click adventures. They're charming, creative, and most of all fun; so, there's bound to be a mystery (or many) right for you.

You can keep up with all things Nancy Drew via blog, YouTube, and Facebook, and other social media channels.

[zahri-melitor]

Ask game for Oliver Queen, I have been curious about your thoughts on him for ages! 2, 5, 14, 20

I do have a lot of thoughts on Ollie, actually. He sort of falls into the same category as Arthur for me, where I find him incredibly infuriating at times but I do like him and his setting.

2. When I think I truly started to like them (or dislike them, if you've sent me a character I don't like)

The thing is, I go back and forth on my feelings about Ollie all the time. I've read some absolute terrible behaviour from him, because he's exactly the sort of socialist-leaning white guy who tends to frame everything through his own viewpoint and is oblivious to intersectional issues until someone challenges him on them and makes them unavoidable for Ollie to consider. He is so very often written as the sort of dinosaur from the labour movement I know so well who is fully committed to its ideals but doesn't think of his own at home hypocrisies.

But by god, how he tries. If there is one ultimate redeemable aspect to Ollie it's when he's challenged on an issue and he realises he's been wrong about it, he makes an effort.

It's actually what I think drives a lot of the good dad/bad dad narrative over Ollie, because he is fundamentally bad at being a parent and makes so many mistakes over the years. But he also loves his kids deeply and works on his problems (once he realises he has them). He tries again. And it's in his willingness to make that effort and try again that the relationships improve, and why people see him as a good parent.

Now if he would at any point aim that self-reflection at his relationship with Dinah properly I would be extremely grateful. It's been decades and he takes her for granted far too much.

5. My favorite ship of them

...probably Ollie/Shado, actually, because it's interestingly toxic. They have issues. It's ridiculously complex given the layers of nonsense built into it by various reboots. I desperately want Robert and Emiko to exist in the same continuity because it's just hilarious to me in terms of the drama it would cause.

I also like it because nobody tries to pretend they're perfect for each other.

14. Best storyline they had

This is where I have to say I do need to sit down and read larger chunks of Ollie's runs. Because I've read a bunch of his stuff from various sections of the timeline between COIE and the present, but mostly in single arcs here and there.

I might be basic and say I did very much enjoy Quiver. It's famous for a reason, plus it did absolutely bizarre things to Stanley and his Monster for no reason at all, which amuses me in terms of how complex it made the lore and also depresses me as it means people overlook earlier versions of their story.

20. A weird headcanon

A weird headcanon for Ollie? hmmm. Given everything around his history and backstory as a character, in terms of being a Batman expy from creation, he does actually feel like he's in a constant competition with Bruce, a competition where he thinks he's losing on so many metrics. It means that he centres himself in the aspects where he thinks he has an edge on Bruce and puffs up them, and denigrates all the ways he feels inferior to Bruce.

It's what drives so much of his relationship with Bruce over the years, on so many teams, and he would actually really have an easier time if their kids weren't such good friends. Because. He cannot escape the comparisons.

I also have this elaborate backstory for how Bruce specifically asked Ollie to look out for and care for Cass on her very first 'adult' team during Justice League Elite, and he looked at her and saw how she was hiding so much of herself to play Kasumi that he felt protective of her.

Which is why he pivoted so hard in Batman & the Outsiders to mistrusting her after the evil arc, because all he heard about it were the community gossip, so he thought she had been playing him in JLE and he missed finding out that the issue had been that she'd been drugged by Slade. And Cass can tell that he no longer trusts her and wants to look out for her, and reacts to that.

[chiharuuu22]

Home

Part 1: I Want to Go Home

Part 2: Take Me Home

Part 3: Welcome Home!

Part 4: I'm Home

PART 2: TAKE ME HOME

If you asked when Caretaker's world felt like it was collapsing, Caretaker would answer: now.

Caretaker can no longer stand seeing Whumpee's critical condition. Whumpee has been faithful to his sleep for days. Several times, he collapsed and doctors almost lost him. His condition is now improving, but Whumpee doesn't want to wake up yet.

Before the fight with Whumper, Whumpee disappeared and was a prisoner for several months. Not only Whumpee, but five other team members were also prisoners. They were severely tortured. Two of them eventually died. Whumpee was one of those who managed to survive and fight Whumper at the end. Whumpee manages to win, but ends up in the ICU.

Whumper and his minions are, of course, captured by the authorities. Caretaker's anger exploded when she heard Whumper's speechless confession about what he did to Whumpee and the others. Caretaker could have killed Whumper right away if Team Leader hadn't restrained her.

Caretaker is almost crazy. No, she felt crazy.

The team members who died were given a proper burial and team members who also survived Whumper like Whumpee are still receiving treatment. Caretaker, Team Leader, and the remaining members take turns looking after them all.

"Whumpee, come on, get up. You said you wanted to go home? Let's go home; you've been out of the house for too long," said Caretaker while gently stroking Whumpee's cheek.

Every day, Caretaker will faithfully sit by Whumpee's bed. She monologues in the hope that Whumpee hears her. She is praying that Whumpee makes progress, no matter how small it may be. Although, until now, Whumpee has not shown any sign that he heard Caretaker.

Caretaker started to shed tears again and cried, laying her head down on the bed near Whumpee's shoulder. Her hand stroked Whumpee's face with longing. Without realizing it, Caretaker fell asleep.

Caretaker didn't know how much time passed while she was sleeping, but she felt something gently stroking her hair. Caretaker felt comfortable and wanted to continue sleeping, but suddenly she jolted and opened her eyes. Caretaker clearly saw a thin hand with an IV perched on her head. Caretaker's chest heaved and tears fell again. Whumpee was there, in his position, with his eyes open and breathing heavily. Their eyes met and Whumpee shed a tear.   What happened next was quite fast; where Caretaker called a doctor and nurse as soon as possible to check Whumpee's condition. Doctors said Whumpee was still weak, but his condition was improving. A lot of tests had to be run to be sure, but at least Whumpee was awake now. Apart from that, Whumpee still has to be monitored for some time, so he can't be released from the ICU yet.

"Thank God, you're finally awake, Whumpee." Caretaker squeezed Whumpee's hand. "You really scared me, you know? You haven't woken up in almost two weeks."

Whumpee blinked repeatedly. He let out a groan between the tubes entering his throat, as if trying to communicate.

"Shhh shhh. Don't try to talk yet. I know you're uncomfortable, but you have to let it be," said Caretaker gently while stroking Whumpee's cheek.

Whumpee squeezed Caretaker's hand with all the strength he managed to muster. Staring at Caretaker blankly as if trying to convey something. Caretaker didn't need much time to understand what Whumpee wanted.

"Yeah, I understand. You want me to take you home, right?"

Whumpee blinked.

Caretaker laughed, "Sure. I'll definitely take you home. But you have to get better first, okay?"

Whumpee blinked again and tried to smile. Right now, he really wanted to say one sentence containing his hope.

Take me home.

[inquebrar]

QSMP was one of the projects that had one of the biggest personal impacts on me. since i was younger, i have always been fascinated by getting to know different cultures and learning new languages ​​has always been something that captivated me. although for years i have "been part" of many fandoms and followed different projects, series, groups and things like that for years sometimes, but i just had my interests without having no one to talk with and share it. so this was the first time that i really participated actively and was so engaged in the "fandoms" i'm part of, to talk about it, share my theories and analyzes and stuff like that. so at the beginning (and tbh i still feel a little) i was always very nervous to talk about it or talk with other people in general (especially in a language that is not my mother tongue) because it was something so out of my comfort zone, but through qsmp i learned more about cultures and languages ​​that before i didn't even thought about learning, i felt the desire to continue learning languages ​​that i had left aside, i felt more proud of my nationality, i met very kind people from different countries, it brought me a lot of joy seeing many people starting to learn my language too and see so many people who like the same things as me who share opinions and interests and even people who speak my language who are also very engaging it's so cool to see and the whole feeling of unity, comfort and cultural mix between different people made me extremely passionate about this project and the things it provided.

but unfortunately, recently it has been very difficult to deal with the excess of negativity and heavy topics and serious matters that came to the surface and started to accumulate with disappointments and overwhelming things that i had been feeling for a while. having hyperfixation on qsmp stopped being something that motivated me and brought me happiness, it started to affect my mental health in a bad and unhealthy way, which already hasn't been so good in the last few days. so i thought i'd just vent a little so that maybe someone who is in a similar situation and having similar feelings to mine will feel less alone or a little more understood.

i heard Quackity's recent statement and i was relieved to see that he handled the situation responsibly and addressed the matters without taking away the importance also genuinely apologizing, it was a difficult and sad situation to witness in general but with the server closed on a temporary break, i really hope that he now stays informed and aware of how his team is working and how things are happening behind the scenes. i hope that this brings more organization, communication, correct and respectful treatment to all those who work to maintain the project with care and commitment, and i hope things get an extremely significant change and that everything improves from now on. i still have a lot of love for this project and i want to believe things will be more positive again, but in the meantime i hope that everyone who was affected by everything that has been happening takes care of themselves and always remember that you are important, your feelings are valid and you're not alone. speak up when you feel the need, when you feel disrespected, when you need help. also don't forget to be kind (to yourself too) and i'm waiting for better days.

[horizon-verizon]

Nymeria seized the power over Dorne by murdering its native kings and sending them to the Wall and replaced Dornish customs with Rhoynar as well as put Rhoynar settlers there while Targaryens kept everything untouched, except maybe for stopping the wars and improving the general state of the land, and there’s no Valyrian settlers in Westeros.

Anon maybe talking about this post.

She didn't "replace" any Andal customs. Her people and their people intermarried and influenced the already there culture. Her people were also not "settlers", or that sort; she teamed up with Mors Martell in conquest of other Dornish people. And there is no Ny Sar/motherland that directs the supposed colonization of Andal-FM Dornishmen for her people to really go back to if they so choose or were ordered to and for them to send the resources they supposedly seized for the economic benefit of said motherland...which you kinda need to call something a settler sort of colonialism:

people from one country settle in another country for the purpose of exploiting its people and natural resources

​the act of taking control of an area or a country that is not your own, especially using force, and sending people from your own country to live there

the exploitation of the valuable assets and supplies of the nation that was conquered and the conquering nation then gaining the benefits from the spoils of the war.”

Stanford - “The term colony comes from the Latin word colonus, meaning farmer. This root reminds us that the practice of colonialism usually involved the transfer of population to a new territory, where the arrivals lived as permanent settlers while maintaining political allegiance to their country of origin.”

https://www.theindigenousfoundation.org/

In settler colonialism the most important thing is land (water, earth, and air), because it is the source of capital and the new home of the settlers. It is also key to settler colonialism because “the disruption of Indigenous relationships to land represents a profound epistemic, ontological, cosmological violence.” This violence continues with every day of occupation as settler colonialism is a structure and not an event.

Beyond this the colonizers, in the process of settler colonialism, redefine the relationships between people and land as only being those of an owner to his property. All other relationships and connections to land are made to be pre-modern and backward as land is recast as property, a resource, and nothing more. This is done by the settlers through the destruction of Indigenous peoples, Indigenous communities and Indigenous peoples’ claims to land under settler regimes. In order for settler colonialism to occur, land is seen as a ‘resource’ and Indigenous peoples are erased so that the settlers can “truly claim ownership” of the land.

We really don't need to confuse the words in order to defend the Targs from Targ antis.

[kaidanworkshop]

Workshop Progress: Midsummer Update

Hello workshop followers! It's been about two months since our last major update, and for good reason: following the successful donation drive that we concluded in late May, we needed to reevaluate our staff timelines and prioritization of content, as we raised more than our initial goal. You can find more details and discourse on that discussion here. Additionally, we had several of our staff busy with all the things that summer brings; vacations & holiday, graduations, and birthdays galore. It has definitely been a challenge to pass work between different members and maintain clear documentation so all staff members could stay up-to-date on current tasks while out living their best (IRL) lives. We hope to have another update on our current progress near the end of August. Finally, we have set up our second commission with Paul Warren! It will be taking place this upcoming Monday, July 24th, 2023. Once again, we could not do any of this without your support, and we thank you all from the bottom of our heart. Onto the updates! Creation Kit & Assets Team: Much of our work has turned towards wrapping up the final implementation of the new lines, correcting subtitles to match the line edits proposed by the Writing Team (see more below), and turning our attention towards the rebuild of Kaidan's two personal quests, All of This Past & Blood and Fire. As our in-house alpha testing continues, we have fixed all of the reported bugs to date, in addition to our continued work on visual and quality-of-life-improvements, and supplanting new conditions for a more consistent dialogue experience when triggered. Writing Team: Our work regarding the creation of new dialogue to accommodate pronoun and/or nickname selection continues, alongside new dialogue being created (or old dialogue altered) primarily to remove mentions of the player being the Dragonborn (so that players have more role-playing options), as well as fixing a few plot holes that would become apparent depending on the order in which the player approaches different quests in the Skyrim worldspace. To that end, the team has been working with CK & Assets to create full flowcharts of Kaidan's personal quests, in an effort to see what can be preserved and what will need new lines. Community Team: Behind the scenes, we've been reaching out to other custom voiced follower creators to inquire about collaboration in the future, after we've cleared the full rebuild of the base mod. After the absolute success that was the new line livestreams, we will most likely be hosting another series of streams once we have spliced up the lines from our pending second commission with Mr. Warren. Besides that, we've been working with a member of CK & Assets to create a full blown trailer for our work in the Kaidan Workshop! We're still not quite finished with it yet, but in order to tide the masses over, here is a brief video from our alpha testing showing off Kaidan's brand new voice during his intro quest, A Bounty For The Hunter.

We'll see you in August!

[trigun-manga-overhaul]

hi there! im sure with the advent of a trigun rerelease upon us you've gotten a lot of asks about this over the past couple of days, but in the case you haven't been asked that: do you still plan to move forward with overhaul 2.0 even with the news of a reprint? i ask this with no disrespect or hopes that you do cease work on it, but im interested in hearing your thoughts and feelings about how to proceed.

as well, I'm curious to hear your take on this, do you believe dark horse will redo the translation? or simply edit it? i haven't read much dark horse manga so im not sure historically how they would handle a reprint for a manga that has been out of print for so long, especially since, imo, at this point they would have to meet or exceed your excellent translation. similar to how official video game rereleases at the bare minimum have to meet the current emulation standard- if that makes sense.

btw i just want to say thank you for your in depth and explanatory answers to the many questions you get regarding translation nuances and the work that goes into cleaning and typesetting from scratch and the logic behind your choices. i speak the language but still love hearing the thought process other translators go through when they make certain decisions. it's awesome how much passion you have for trigun and this project as well as helping people to understand choices in the original text and how you translated them for your text.

Hey there and thank you for your question!

We have not been asked specifically about this yet, so your question is very welcome.

We fully intend to continue with Overhaul 2.0, even in light of a Trigun Deluxe release, which the team is ecstatic about, by the way. The need for a digital version for people to read on their computers, phones and other devices remains, and the quality of life that comes with it. Larger pages, the ability to zoom in, very crisp black and white differences, all of these factors can be helpful for people who might find reading difficult due to various health or mental health conditions.

On top of that, it will be free for those who are not fortunate enough to be able to buy expensive Deluxe releases, or the very expensive regular releases, for that matter. We always encourage people to eventually find a way to support the original creator, which is why we suggest buying the digital version of the manga on Dark Horse Comic's own website and not buy second hand books. But until that is economically responsible for people to buy, we offer them a chance to read an accurate translation online in the meantime.

Personally, I doubt they will redo the translation, as the translation for the Berserk Deluxe release remained the same. I don't know if the translation was changed for the Deluxe Hellsing release, but given the trend with their first Deluxe release, I also doubt it.

Of course, they could have changed their procedures for these releases over time and decided some lines or words needed to be changed, however it remains to be seen. Were they to update the translation, we would be very interested in reading it to see the differences, and then determine if it has improved.

Not one wishing to question other industry professionals when it comes to translation, I must still say that Dark Horse comics has repeatedly proven to engage in assembly line translation. Each translation isn't deeply studied, engaged with or understood by the translators, and the work is passed to several individuals with no communication, as is evident by the changing translation of names and words. They do not have the time or means to study the text they are translating, and therefore will ultimately always release a somewhat clumsy but passable script.

None of the translators are incompetent, that is clear, they are instead bound by their workspace regulations to follow the set procedure within the company. You can draw comparisons between the translation industry and production industry; we have the perfect-every-time, cookie-cutter, assembly line product that will do its job but only that, and then the handmade, personalized and polished to the tiniest detail product. Of course, handmade products can come with imperfections caused by the work being done by hand, but that either adds character or can be corrected through recipient engagement.

Thank you so much for your kind words, though. We try our best to be as informative and transparent as we can about our project, while also spacing out information and avoiding to repeat ourselves too much. It is interesting to write about our process too, as it does put the work we do into perspective, even helping with reflection upon how we do it and how we might improve.

So everyone is free to ask about our team, our process or anything that might interest you, and I'll answer to the best of my abilities!

[theladysherlock]

talk shop tuesday! incredible coincidence - i wanted to ask you more about your dnd OCs, and you posted a new art piece with one of them! continuing the theme: could you tell more about your dnd OCs and how they came to be?

Ohhhh you have opened Pandora's Box my friend!! I could talk about this topic all day.

Basically there's two parts to this: my approach to DnD in general, and in-depth explanations of the characters. I'm going to put this under a Read More to save everyone's Dash.

Part One: Dungeons and Dragons

So the thing I love most about DnD (and other TTRPGs) is that it's a collaborative game. I'm not responsible for the entirety of the story, I bring my character to the table and everyone else brings their characters and between us, the DM, and the dice, we figure out where the story is going. I enjoy it so much more than trying to come up with everything on my own. And I love that people can surprise me!! @mothmansbigfatass and @ahawkmet (my irl friends and in most of the campaigns I play) can attest, apparently I'm a lot of fun to watch during revelations because I always have a big reaction.

So when making a dnd character, it's important for me to know 1. What the world we'll be playing in is like, and 2. What everyone else is doing. Again, it's a collaborative game, so I want to make sure that I'm playing nice with the DM's world. AND often the setting itself will give me an idea (see Ethan: the game is set at a community college. What's a college stereotype that would be fun to play?). Ideally, the character I make would have a really hard time being plopped into a different campaign and have it still make sense. Secondly, it's more fun for me to play a class that will fill out the party. For example, if we already have a cleric, I don't also need to play a religious character. Those story beats are covered by someone else, I don't want to be competing with another person for cool moments.

Once those two things are settled, character creation is determined by what seems fun to play and what would be interesting aesthetically. I like to keep the backstory light to see what happens as we start playing, and then I can fill it in bit by bit later. Sometimes that bites me in the ass, though (see Ethan: I didn't give him birth parents and then they were incredibly important to the plot). I tend to have a general idea about who they are and what they're like, and then I always get surprised by what they actually end up acting like once we start playing. It's fun for me to figure them out along the way!

The last thing I wanna say about DnD (for now) is that I love everyone else's characters just as much. I just draw mine more because, well, they're mine. I feel weird putting their guys in situations and guessing how they'd react because they aren't my little guys. I much prefer working collaboratively with the other players (like an RP thread) to just writing a story on my own.

Part Two: Ethan

Where to even start with my boy. A bunch of my work friends got together to start a DnD game, and I hadn't played with most of them before so I wasn't sure what to expect. I also did not think the game would last very long, since most campaigns tend to fizzle out after a few sessions. So I made kind of a joke character with extremely little backstory: He's a half-orc, since I hadn't played that race before, he's a bard who is the captain of the local community college's Improv Team, he's "the kind of guy to play wonderwall at a party but you're not mad about it", and I said he's adopted by two men, neither of whom were his biological parents, and he wasn't particularly interested in tracking down his bio parents. This last point is for two reasons: one, I was trying to avoid just duplicating a Dimension 20's Gorgug, a half-orc who was adopted by gnomes and spent the whole first season trying to find his dad; and two, I was pushing an "Adopted parents are not less than biological parents" agenda.

My DM took this personally (affectionate). First session, I was given a clue about his birth parents' identities. From then on, Ethan was dragged kicking and screaming into being the unofficial main character of the campaign. His mom was one of our favorite NPCs, a kickass pirate with a truly tragic backstory who would always jump to help us out of a scrape. His biological dad was the human embodiment of Pride who had took on the form of Fantasy Harrison Ford and was an extremely famous actor in-world. Our BBEG was his uncle, the embodiment of Greed. Every plot point became very personal and it was a lot of fun. I also loved putting him through the wringer, so between me and the DM the poor guy couldn't catch a break.

Part of the dice telling the story, I rolled so bad all the time when I played Ethan. It didn't matter which dice I used, I just rolled really bad, which was not something that normally happened with me. So that was fun to incorporate into his character as we played-- he was insecure about his own abilities compared to the extremely powerful characters he was surrounded by (we had a 20 ft Earth Titan who was an extremely powerful Druid, Emeshka you will always be famous). So he became a more three-dimensional and actualized character the more we played.

He's extremely easy to put in situations and his character design is pretty solid, so I end up drawing him the most. My perfect little guy.

(Anything about him I've tagged either "Ethan" or "Big Yarr Energy" if you want to find more)

Part Three: Mina

After the campaign with Ethan wrapped up, we started a new one in a Cthulhu-inspired setting. My goal with making Mina was to do as close to a 180 as I could from Ethan. While Ethan was a friendly and charming but bad at most things, Mina is a competent and intelligent Druid who's blunt and overworked and doesn't quite know how to meaningfully engage with her party members (but she tries, bless her). Druid was one of the classes I hadn't played yet and I've been making my way through the list of available classes. The One-With-Nature stuff isn't super interesting to me as a player, but I found a homebrew subclass that was based more in Big Cities and as an Architecture Nerd that was much more my speed. Also, I hadn't played an Aasimar before, so that seemed like fun. From all that, I pulled together her whole deal: She was from a bloodline of guardian angels who were sent to protect different villages and towns, and she's gone from her mother's small town to being the guardian of a city of several million people and it's overwhelming. She's lonely and she's jaded and she's got severe Gifted Kid Syndrome and she's got her head on a swivel to make sure her party members are okay even if they don't like her very much and I love her.

I didn't give her a lot of tragic backstory because there are a lot of us playing and I wanted to have a character who could push the plot forward with her actions, instead of having a "now let's stop and talk about my life!!" moment every session that seemed to happen with Ethan. Give everyone else some time to have cool moments, you know? And by GOD are there some cool moments. My fellow players are so good at making compelling characters. Ask @mothmansbigfatass about Nelly if you get a chance.

We're still playing this campaign, although we're nearing the end of it. There's still space for some big moments for Mina in the game, though I'm hoping our DM lets me save hers for last. She's the kind of character to make sure everyone else is okay before taking care of herself, so it feels appropriate. I'm excited to see where Mina ends up. She's definitely a character I'll go back and write/draw a lot afterwards, though. Part of being in a group this size means there's a lot of stuff that just won't get covered. I'll have a lot of material to play with for my own work once we get to the next campaign.

(Anything about Mina I've tagged either "Mina" or "Cthulhu Crimes" if you want to find more)

Part Four: Jess

Jess is a character that isn't from DnD but is a TTRPG character of mine, and I like her so I'm going to talk about her too. Jess is a cautionary tale in Knowing Your Audience.

Jess is from a different group of players than Ethan and Mina. Our DM for that game is notorious for wanting to give us Big, Shonen-Style fight scenes and an insane level of power creep. Character interactions are fine, but his true passion is making us look like Goku.

Jess was... not built to look like Goku. In this world you could identify different types of magic users by their focus, and I wanted her whole schtick to be about deception. She looked like a wizard when she was actually a monk, she looked like a dumb blonde girl when she was extremely smart and good at stealing things, she's a dancer but her primary fighting style was based on capoeira, etc. Also part of why Jess sticks with me as a favorite character is the way I had her powers work was so fun and visually interesting that I haven't been able to shake it. Basically her superpower was that she could snatch bits of other people's powers and use them herself, and you could tell which ones she had because they would fill out spectral stained glass wings with specific colors.

Jess was (and still is, frankly) too complicated for the game our DM wanted to run. Immediately any hope of her being a chronic liar was dashed as her powers did not manifest in a way that could possibly pass off as being a wizard. So instead of being sneaky, Jess became very angry. She was quick to point out injustices in the world we were in. She beat up creeps, she yelled at bigots, she stole powers from macho superheroes trying to one-up her. She had to get a lot less complicated for the story we were in, but the complicated version of her still lives in my head and I like to see what she's up to from time to time.

(I don't think I have anything tagged for Jess, unfortunately)

TL; DR:

TTRPG characters are fun because they let me do my favorite thing creatively, which is bounce ideas off of other people. I typically design them based on the setting, party needs, character tropes that I think are interesting, and just general vibes. Most importantly, though, I don't have a fleshed out character without the input of the other players.

[damianbugs]

i know you love the dynamics between bruce and his kids as they are, but alot of it is also due to iffy writing lmao.

in your IDEAL scenario, what would bruce parenting look like? would he still be as abusive as he is in canon? CAN he even change?

the short answer to "can bruce change?" is... no 😭 but let me try and explain!

its not because of who bruce is as a character or batman as a hero, but because it is basically impossible for a popular character like him to have any consistent writing. we've seen it before where he's a great father and mentor for a few issues, and then less than six months later he does something horrific and takes ten steps back in that regard.

it's why this conversation (to me) is a very complicated one, because i can't for sure say who bruce is as a person without taking into consideration the literal decades of almost hundreds of different writers, runs and universes. of course, he has made some terrible and very harmful decisions, but again, so much context is required to truly comprehend those situations. that doesn't remove the fact that he has hurt his children, both accidentally and purposefully.

do i think bruce is a bad dad in canon? no. do i think he is a good dad? also no. depending on where in time you're reading him, who's writing him etc — he acts like completely different people. my head spins trying to come up with a simple answer to this otherwise simple question.

a good example i think is the current zdarsky batman run. arguably some of the best bruce wayne as a father introspection we've had in a LONG TIME, the story doing well to remove the 'child soldiers' narrative that frank miller infamously popularised to main continuity despite it not being from the canon timeline. but who's to say this sort of perspective will last before being completely disregarded by the next writer?

it's no secret i pick and choose what i (personally) view as canon, my own personal bias against Certain writers making me ignore their writing entirely, but i am also not ignorant to the fact that bruce can and desperately NEEDS to improve as a parent.

sorry for rambling but back to your original question about what my ideal parent bruce would like and to that it's two very simple words; honest and communicative.

that's really all he needs to do. almost all his shitty decisions can be linked back to him lying or purposely evading the truth and just refusing to communicate to his children, which in turn makes them not want to communicate with him. this then leads to much larger problems and much more devastating outcomes.

bruce needs to realise that his children don't owe him anything more than the very little he's given them emotionally. this whole "soldier-team" mentality that he adopts when he's batman filters into his dynamics with them as family and as bruce wayne, and that is why he keeps hurting them and not taking responsibility for it.

they should not be vigilantes before they are his children. but to do that, writers also need to make the distinction that batman is also bruce wayne, but that is an entirely different conversation.

again, current batman writing (mark waid batman vs robin, zdarsky batman, ram v detective comics, tom taylor batman etc) seems very promising in giving bruce a chance to be a better father, so we can only hope it continues this way. maybe, we'll even get bruce actually holding himself accountable one day.

i try not to discuss this topic too much because in my experience it's far too nuanced to explain in short text posts on the internet but i hope this answered your questions <3