#it was Mostly done a few days ago and i made final edits and was going to post it just before i rushed out to work

[restinpeacesensei]

traditional style 💖

[crescencestudio]

๋࣭⭑ Devlog #41 | 5.28.24 ๋࣭⭑

It's hot girl (/gender neutral) summer season

HAPPY MAY!!

Hope you're all doing well <3 We're already getting into summer, which is a little crazy to me. The year is flying by! Before I get into what we actually did this month, it wouldn't be a May devlog without our annual Mermay celebration!

Look at those locks. His Ariel/Rapunzel era fr

Since I already had updated Mermay pieces for the Alaris LIs, I decided to do one for our beloved Van this year ^^ Hope you all like it!

For writing this month, I spent a lot of it catching up on Etza edits. Being totally transparent, I wasn't Completely Happy with their route when their draft was finished. But now that I've started the editing process with Wudgey, I'm really excited to see how their route is shaping up!!! We've been fleshing a lot of little interactions out with their route, and I can already see Etza's character really starting to shine with these edits ^^

I've also been chipping away at Kuna'a's route! While it's nowhere near finished, I'm hopeful that this upcoming month will be the month of Kuna'a now that I don't have a bunch of releases I'm trying to balance. His route is also one of the ones whose outline is more fleshed out (Druk and Etza I would say were the least fleshed out, which might be why they also took a bit longer). So I'd love to see Kuna'a's first draft complete/almost complete by the next devlog!

This month, I had to dust off my art skills tbh LMFAOIJSDF. It's been.... a WHILE since I've made CGs since I've been in the writing and coding dungeon for so long. So most of this month's art updates are me getting tilted from redrawing an ugly sketch over and over.

I DID manage to get the Van Mermay piece out. And I also was able to sketch out Kayn's Tragic End CG; that leaves only one CG that has to be sketched out! Currently, six of their CGs are finished, two need to be rendered, and one needs to be drawn still.

And since Kayn's CGs are mostly done, I've started drawing Fenir's. I was actually able to finish one because I basically Locked In when I made it, so here is a sneak peek!

Kisses his little pink nose

You might notice there's not toooo many updates on this month's devlog. The reason for that is because this month, I spent a lot of it recovering both mentally and physically. April shenanigans and those back-to-back releases took a lot out of me, and after going full speed basically since this year started, I learned I REALLY needed a break. That coupled with the concussion I got made it so that most of this month was focused on recovering and then getting back into the groove of things.

Another thing I tried to focus on this month was finding a balance in my workflow. Going into this month, I felt like I was on the verge of a mental breakdown almost every day, in large part because I have a lot of big things I'm trying to accomplish this year. Between finishing my dissertation, Alaris, and a personal big event that I have to plan, I have a lot on my plate this year, and it's made it easy to get overwhelmed as the months pass by. So I wanted to find a balance between all three that didn't make me feel like I was also falling into insanity. After talking to beloved Wudgey of @herotome fame, I've started adopting a schedule that gives me enough structure and flexibility to feel like I'm making progress without going crazy and getting lost in the sauce.

While it's still early in the process, I'm really happy with the balance I've hit, and I'm feeling much more like myself now compared to a month ago!

I caught up on quite a few things in my backlog this month, which made me happy ^^ I always like to learn from and support other devs, so finally being able to return to that helped with the recovery process <3

I don't have any actual fanart pieces, but there are a couple of games I'd like to highlight!

First of all, of course I must talk about our hot girl (/gender neutral) summer cross-promo. If you haven't checked out these games, I can't recommend them enough!!

Links to each game can be found on the Alaris Game page under the magic and mystery otome section!

Specifically, Save the Villainess, The Good People, and Thorn for the Villain are amazing games if you're into thriller/political games layered with mystery

The Silent Kingdom (which I played recently and is AMAZING) and Dual Chroma (Otojam 2023 ALLY) have added mechanics of RPG for exciting action-adventure fantasy stories

Lost in Limbo, Obscura, and Snow White Ashes are BEAUTIFUL dark fantasy games. I've played all three of these and they have some of the most beautiful writing and visuals... BIG FAN OF ALL OF THEM.

Mask Beyond Lies and Sigh of the Abyss have that epic fantasy adventure appeal to them, in a way that I think is similar to Alaris! And Pearlglow Cafe (another Otojam 2023 ALLY) is a very lighthearted and charming game for those of you who like the comfy vibe that most of my stories have!!

Some other games that I played are Favor (@favorvn) by beloved @concreteparasite which is SOOOOO stylish. If you've played Binary Star Hero by Connie, you can expect that same stylish, dark, sultry vibe from Favor. If you haven't checked out either of those games by Connie, I can't recommend them enough, especially if you like yanderes. There is so much aesthetic and atmosphere to them!

I also played Where Winter Crows Go by @prikarin who is a VERY talented developer (and one I'm sure many are familiar with). I had a lot of fun romancing Crowe and both the MC and him have such strong personalities, it was so fun seeing their dynamic!!!! The CGs were also made by anta, who is the dev behind Thorn for the Villain, and they're BEAUTIFULLLLL. Each one has so much style and rly has a professional look to them. Can't recommend enough if you haven't played already ((heads up that it is another yandere game for those who can't do yandere!))

Okay I've yapped enough. If you've made it this far, you are god's strongest soldier LFMASLDIFJ. See you all next month with hopefully some exciting progress!

[moonlitcelestial]

Lipstick Stains - Hongjoong

Valentines Day Special

W/C ~2,782

☽ Masterlist ☾ 

♡ Lipstick Stains Masterlist ♡ Disclaimer: This story is purely a work of fiction. It is not meant to assume or mock anything about Ateez or Atiny. I will be attempting to keep it as gender neutral as possible but it will lean toward she/her pronouns.

Thanks for reading <3 Moonie

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

You were currently preparing dinner for the eight hungry monsters that were coming to your house for the weekly dinner. While hanging out at their dorm just about a year ago, you had mentioned the idea in passing. They had been chatting adamantly about missing all of the home cooked meals from their families. You were surprised they even heard you seeing as they had just barely started a debate on whose food was better. Wooyoung was loudly stating he makes the best meals. Once the words had come out of your mouth, much to Honjoong’s dismay, they almost jumped you for even suggesting you make them a home cooked meal. They leapt up and started chattering at a far quicker rate than which you could understand and continued getting increasingly louder then the earlier debate. Seonghwa was the one leading the rally being the foodie he is, although Wooyoung and Mingi were the loudest. You giggled to yourself at the memory of Hongjoong’s scolding of the boys. Once they finally settled down you had started making suggestions about what to do for dinner the next week. The boys hanging on to your every word. While you were speaking to them about it Hongjoong had a small smile on his face in awe of how you could catch their attention. He was also surprised they kept relatively quiet white you were speaking which was a miracle in itself. Hongjoong had always bragged to them about your home cooked meals and even gave them some when they were around. Although, he mostly hogged it to himself by hiding in his studio. Once you had left for the evening Hongjoong had messaged you stating how ecstatic they were for the following week. If you could use one statement to describe eagerness, it would be those boys when it comes to food even while they were dieting. 

Since that day you had been keeping your weekly routine, their schedules permitting. Even when they could not attend, you made sure to pack them each a box and delivered it to them while they were at the studio. This was the one of the few times they had consecutively missed the weekly dinner. The boys just got back from their 6-week tour yesterday. They had begged you in the groupchat during the second week of their tour to make them dinner as soon as they got back. You knew they had worked hard through Atiny fancams and edits. Thus, you came to the conclusion that you would make several of their favorites to eat and take home for the time they missed. You had been planning this for the past few weeks and had extensively prepared yourself for the daunting task of making so much food. It had taken you all day, and you even had to recruit the help of your bestie and mom to make sure it got done before they got here. You startled as the music you were paying stopped and your notification sound went off loudly. Checking the message, you realized it was Hongjoong.

"Hi nae sarang, we are just leaving KQ. We will be there in about twenty minutes."

You smiled at the term of endearment and sent back a thumbs up, and kissy face emoji. Taking a step back you took the last dish off of the stove and brought it to the dining room. You placed it on the huge drop leaf table that you had for nights like this. The boys would be in for a treat as the huge table was almost completely filled with several food items. You looked at your handiwork and smiled.

Stepping into the living room, you checked that all of the things looked okay. You had recently rearranged the living room to make sure you could fit the rowdy bunch of 5 year olds comfortably on the couches. You also got a bigger tv for them to play games on. You really felt like a parent to them at this point with how spoiled they are when they come over here. The thing you were most proud of was the wall you dedicated to your chosen family. It had pictures of you and all of them, some without you, and your favorite picture. That one, which took a lot of convincing for Hongjoong to even consider it, hung front and center. You smile at the memory.

You had been scrolling on social media when you saw a couple doing what they called the lipstick kiss trend. You watched the genuine happiness on their faces, they were both all giggles in the process of her kissing him all over making sure the marks were prominent. They looked at eachother once she had completed her task and burst into a fit larger of giggles. They commemorated it by taking a picture which they posted at the end of the video. You had made up your mind to do that with Hongjoong even if you knew he would protest at first. It took you several days to convince him, and you did the trend and videoed it. The process was similar, and you made sure to have lipstick all over his face. The thing that stuck out to you was one of the several pictures he snapped with the remote you gave him to take pictures amidst the video. He was looking at you with such devotion; his dark eyes had that sparkle similar to when he finally gets something to work in the studio. You were giggling like a madman with your hand covering your mouth to help you stifle your laughter while he smiled at your joy. After that entire incident you looked at the photos and decided that one, in particular, was your favorite because of the genuine smiles on both your faces. It did not help that you absolutely loved covering him in your favorite lipstick and making him a giggling blushing mess in the process.

There was about 15 minutes until the rowdy bunch got to your house. You decided to take that time to freshen up and make yourself not smell like the food you prepared all day. Once you decided you looked presentable you applied a little bit of tinted chapstick and walked to the living room. You double checked to make sure you had your minifridge stocked with soju and any of the other kinds of alcohol that they mentioned in passing. Then you walked over to the entertainment center under the huge tv to make sure all of the controllers were charged for the game battle you knew would ensue. Tonight was going to be so much fun. You anticipated them staying here scattered all around the house in your three guest bedrooms and on the huge couch you just got. You knew they had the next few days off and you were more than happy to host them. Once you finished triple checking the things in the living room and dining room, you jumped as you heard the front door unlocking and swinging open violently.

The boys all burst through the door making sure to take off their shoes and putting them on the rack in the entryway. Once they finished they all smiled and piled toward you giving you various greetings of hugs and kisses on the cheek. Hongjoong smiled with one of the biggest toothy grins you had seen from him and he swept you into a large hug, spinning you around and kissing your lips sweetly. You melted into his embrace and kiss. Your small moment was interrupted by the various shouts of what you could assume was excitement from the living room. Hongjoong looked at you with raised eyebrows and grabbed your hand to lead you to investigate what the ruckus was about. Once you reached the living room, you could see all of the boys piled onto the large couch and looking over the room. Hongjoong looked at you with surprise while he took a step away from you to investigate the picture wall. His eyes immediately fell to the picture in the center of it all. 

“Yah hyung, why can't we give you kisses like that?” Wooyoung shouted while giggling and making exaggerated kissy faces. The rest of them burst into peals of laughter. Hongjoong still had his back to them taking in the rest of the pictures, lingering on the way you fit in with his chosen family, which had become yours. You knew there would be a little bit of teasing but you were not expecting some of the comments they were making. 

Mingi smiled and stated, “That red looks good on you Captain.” as the others burst into various states of harder laughter. Mingi was on the floor at his own joke, his breath coming in spurts. Wooyoung was hiding his face while his squeaks betrayed him. Hongjoong turned around and glared at all of them which sent them into more laughter as they saw how red his face was with embarrassment. His blush was travelling and you could see his ears turn red. You started ushering the bunch of hooligans into the dining room with the promise of food. As they all collected themselves they followed you to the dining room. You were surprised they did not even notice the state of the table before now. They produced more shouts which used to startle you but dealing with them for so long it almost didn't phase you anymore. They made sure to give you hugs and express their thanks. They all took their unassigned assigned seats leaving you and Hongjoong’s open in the middle. Praise was thrown your way as they took in the table covered in food. 

“Excuse me just a second, go ahead and start eating, I'll be right back. I'm going to go check on Joongie.” They nodded while starting to pile their plates high. You meandered back to Hongjoong who had turned around to look at the various pictures again. You slid your arms around his waist and leaned your head on his shoulder. You could feel him stiffen and then relax when he realized it was you. He turned around in your embrace, and you could see the fresh tears lining his eyes. You pouted and asked. 

“What’s wrong nae sarang? Do you not like it? I can take it down if it causes too much trouble.” you rambled.

He silenced you with a kiss. “I absolutely love it.” He said, “It means the world to me that you have taken so much time to show you love the people I love. I cannot describe how happy I am with this; so no you can’t and shouldn’t take it down.” He stepped away from your hug while holding up a finger for you to wait here. You looked back to the dining room where multiple conversations were flowing and some exclamations were heard about how amazing the food was. You smiled while thanking whatever God or Goddess gave these eight men to you. Since they had come into your life it had been utter chaos, but not the bad kind. You loved being a part of their family, even if you and Seonghwa had to team up on them to make them get their shit together. 

You turned back and watched as he approached you and smiled at him. You didn't seem to notice the shaking of his hands or the wobble to his stride. “I was going to do this at another time, but seeing this made me realize I cannot wait anymore.” He started as he approached he paused a couple of feet away and knelt onto one knee. Producing a box out of his back pocket, he opened it and inside was one of the most stunning rings you had ever seen. It was a round cut diamond ring with four smaller diamonds on either side. You gasped and brought your hand to your mouth feeling the tears well up in your eyes. He continued, “Y/n I love you so much, you are the entire reason I can manage to make it through the day. You have stuck by my side at the most difficult times especially during comeback season. You take care of my brothers like they are your own, you have the kindest heart of anyone I know. You have been there for me for 5 years, and I cannot stress this enough it has been the best five years of my life. Will you do me the honors of becoming my partner for the rest of our lives?” 

You couldn't believe it. You nodded, kneeling down to his height and threw your arms around him releasing a sob. You startled when the boys started cheering from the dining room which had the perfect view through the bannister. You nuzzled your face further into his neck crying and giggling softly. After a few seconds he gently pushed your shoulders away and grabbed your hand and slipped the ring onto your finger giving you a sweet lingering kiss. Once you pulled away you both looked over at the seven awestruck men who were still cheering. You noticed your best friend, Seonghwa, as he held his phone up to his face with the biggest smile and a thumbs up to you both. 

Hongjoong leaned in and whispered as he noticed you smiling at Seonghwa. “He is the only one who knew, lord knows I couldn't trust the other blabbermouths with the information.” You threw your head back and let out a loud laugh and got up helping him in the process. Once you got up and Hongjoong wrapped his arm around your waist they all came running at you to squish the both of you in a group hug. They all chattered in excitement and you looked over to Hongjoong smiling. As they backed up they all motioned for you to show the ring. You took a step back and threw out your hand in front of you in one of the most dramatic gestures you could come up with. Hongjoong smiled and shook his head at your antics. They all laughed and got up close, some taking your hand to turn it to further inspect the ring. It was Jongho, ever the master of details, that picked up on the meaning of your ring. 

“There are nine diamonds, " he said, inspecting the ring closely. Your eyes opened wider, catching the double meaning of the ring. You hadn't gotten the chance to think about the amount of diamonds and put two and two together. You looked at Joong, your eyes filling with another round of tears. 

“It gets better,” Hwa said, smiling sweetly. You looked at him cocking your head to the side. Then you looked at your fiance for an answer. He gently took your hand and took off the ring, your finger already feeling empty of the weight. He brought it up to your face and showed you the inside of the ring. It had an engraving, 9 makes 1 team, in Hongjoong’s handwriting. You covered your mouth as tears spilled down your face while the others crowded you to see what was happening. All of them smiled wide and clapped Hongjoong on the shoulder for the cleverness of the engraving. 

“I have to give credit to Hwa for the idea, he was the one who suggested it. I knew what I wanted it to look like but he made it even more personal.” You smiled at Joong and gently took the ring out of his hand and put it back on. You turned to Seonghwa and threw your arms around him. He had always been the person who knew you best aside from Hongjoong. He knew how much their crazy group meant to you, and he knew that Hongjoong was also a sap, whether or not he let the others know about it. All of the younger members gave Joong hugs and congratulations, he begrudgingly allowed the affection from them.  Once you let go of Hwa you turned back to look at your fiance. He was smiling in the middle of all of his brothers. You walked back to him and his arm immediately went around your waist giving you three squeezes for I love you. You smiled at him. This man was the love of your life. Who knew it would take hanging a few photos of you, him, and his brothers to get him to propose to you. You kissed his cheek and laughed when you noticed the small stain of pink that you applied to your lips on his cheek. 

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Seonghwa Yuhno Yeosang San Mingi Wooyoung Jongho

[don-dake]

So I've been playing around with Cāngjié…

And I thought a post like this (similar to a post on Zhùyīn done by linghxr) may be of interest to some.

Edited: 10 Sep 2023

This post has gotten a little popular lately and on scrutinizing my own post again, I've come to the conclusion that I had made some mistakes in my given character examples.

Amended now. Namely, 「唔」 and 「龍」 have now been swapped over in the examples.

「唔」 is really the “3-parts”, and 「龍」 is indeed a “2-parts” character! Amendments are reflected in orange.

What (and who) is Cāngjié?

For those who may not know, Cāngjié is another way to input 漢字/汉字 (Hànzì — Chinese characters). It is way less popular than Pinyin (or even Zhuyin) but it still has its fans, and has a few advantages over the other two.

Cāngjié is also the name of the mythical figure in Chinese legend who is said to have been the inventor of 漢字/汉字, for which Cāngjié (the input system) was named after.

Would I recommend it?

Yes, if you think you have already acquired a good (enough) understanding of 漢字/汉字, and/or just like a new challenge.

(TL;DR at the end)

Why am I learning Cāngjié (and why you may like to, too)?

1. Mostly for fun.

Have long been intrigued by both Cāngjié and Zhùyīn, and since I finally mustered up the courage to tackle Zhùyīn not too long ago, I thought I'd finally give Cāngjié a try.

While learning Cāngjié does require more effort than learning Pinyin or Zhuyin, it can also be really fun! Inputting 漢字/汉字 with the Cāngjié method is almost like doing a jigsaw puzzle.

The euphoria derived from figuring out and piecing together the radicals that make up a word is something that learning Jyutping (Cantonese equivalent of Pinyin), Pinyin or Zhuyin can't quite match.

And while I know I'll never be as adept with Cāngjié — my knowledge of 漢字/汉字 is nowhere near good enough to ever use Cāngjié efficiently — as I do Jyutping or Pinyin (or to some extent, Zhuyin), it'll still be fun to use Cāngjié every once in a while!

2. Helps with thinking and typing in Chinese.

The upshot of relying too much on using Jyutping/Pinyin/Zhuyin is, I'd tend to think in Roman letters or ㄅㄆㄇㄈ before I'd even think about the actual 漢字/汉字.

But with Cāngjié, because it's based on knowing radicals and joining them together to form actual characters, it'll encourage thinking of 漢字/汉字 first, so I think that would help some with 漢字/汉字 memory retention.

Now you may be thinking, why not just you know, practise actually writing then? That is the tried and proven method to better remember 漢字/汉字 after all?

Yes, of course I can do that — and am doing so occasionally — but we live in a digital age now, and the probability and opportunity to type things out is much higher than actually writing stuff by hand.

The idea here is, more looking to think of and envision characters fully in my head, and trying to lessen over-reliance on Jyutping/Pinyin/Zhuyin.

And this is where I find Cāngjié can be useful, which leads to my next point…

3. Haunted by “What if” scenario.

What if there comes a day (however improbable) where I'm presented with only a Cāngjié keyboard to use for typing Chinese? It has happened with Zhùyīn for me!

That means, no Pinyin or Zhuyin keyboards, no Handwriting tools/touchscreens to write with fingers/mouse, no speech-to-text, and no option to copy-and-paste characters from somewhere else either! What then?

4. Able to type without knowing pronunciation, and with more accuracy.

Cāngjié is shape-based. Unlike Jyutping/Pinyin/Zhuyin, where you have to know what a character sounds like before you can type it out, with Cāngjié, you can type out (again assuming no Handwriting or other tools available) characters without needing to know how to pronounce them at all.

With shape-based typing, you'd also get more accurate hits in the first few 漢字/汉字 that show up, versus sound-based methods like Pinyin where for e.g., typing out “wan” will get you a whole list under the same sound and you may have to scroll through a whole lot to get the exact “wan” you need.

You can also type both Traditional and Simplified characters without having to toggle something or switch keyboards.

So how does one begin learning Cāngjié?

Install a Cāngjié keyboard.

Duh…but of course! Heh! Gboard offers one, banded under Cantonese language input (Android user here, don't know about iPhones, sorry).

There are two versions of Cāngjié that are prevalent currently. Cāngjié 3 and Cāngjié 5. Cāngjié 5 is supposed to be an improvement over version 3 but I don't find there's much; having a slightly altered version just adds to the confusion and unnecessarily complicates matters, in fact!

If you have a choice, I'd recommend selecting Cāngjié 3 as that is more supported. Some operating systems may not be too compatible with Cāngjié 5 still, for some strange reason.

You may also come across something called “Quick” (速成) aka, “Simplified Cāngjié”.

This is simply a scaled down version of Cāngjié, it's still based on Cāngjié's formula. So you still need to know how Cāngjié works in order to use “Quick” efficiently.

You'd then need a chart like this. ↓

* the 重 (Z) key doesn't really come into use. I don't really know what it's for, but it seems to be used (paired with other keystrokes) mainly to type out various punctuation marks.

There are variants out there, some having a little more, or less, radicals shown than in the above example, but I'll say the chart here is one of the more comprehensive ones I've found so far (and sufficient enough) — other charts often fail to highlight the 難 (X) key and what it corresponds to.

You don't have to memorize the chart all at once. Just always have a chart like this on hand to refer to and with enough typing practise, you'll eventually remember which key corresponds with which radicals.

Remember the rules. ↓

“1 part” character (e.g. 寫) = first 3 & last (radical).

��2 parts” character (e.g. 唔龍) = first & last, first 2 & last.

“3 parts” character (e.g. 難) = first & last, first & last, last.

e.g. 寫 ↓

With radicals 宀，丿，臼 (first 3) and 灬 (last).

Corresponding keys: 十，竹，難 and 火。

寫 → 写 ↓

With radicals 冖，卜，㇆ (first 3)，一 (last).

Corresponding keys：月，卜，尸 and 一。

e.g. 龍 ↓

With radicals 亠，月 (first & last), 卜，コ (first 2)，ヒ (last).

Corresponding keys: 卜，月，卜，尸，and 心。

龍 → 龙 ↓ (Simplified 龍 → 龙，a “1 part” character)

With radicals 丶，ナ，ヒ (first 3).

Corresponding keys: 戈，大，and 心。

e.g. 難 ↓

With radicals 廿，人 (first & last)，亻(first & last)，土 (last).

Corresponding keys: 廿，人，人 and 土。

難 → 难 ↓

With radicals ヌ (first & last)，亻(first & last)，土 (last).

Corresponding keys: 水，人，and 土。

Occasionally, you may get a character that looks like a “2 parts” but is actually a “3 parts”. ↓

e.g. 唔 ↓

With radicals 口 (first & last)，一，一 (first & last)，口 (last).

Corresponding keys: 口，一，一 and 口。

Or looks like a “1 part” but really a “3 parts”. ↓

e.g. 奪 ↓

With radicals 大 (first & last)，亻，土 (first & last)，丶 (last).

Corresponding keys: 大，人，土，and 戈。

奪 → 夺 ↓(Simplified 奪 → 夺，a “1 part” character)

With radicals 大，寸 (first 3; the 丶 is the 3rd component).

Corresponding keys: 大，木，and 戈。

But these are exceptions, and don't occur that often.

And you can start practising!

You can try out this pretty good app called 『五色學倉頡』 (learning Cāngjié with 5 colours), for practise. It's on Playstore, just search for “Cangjie Dictionary” and it should show up.

You have to pay to unlock higher levels, unfortunately. ↓

Anyway, each character comes with colour coded hints and you can opt to turn them off if you like more of a challenge. There are also hints (提示) and the chart (字根表) to refer to if you're really stuck. Also has a dictionary component (查字典) to check out the Cāngjié input for characters.

Another option would be a website called HKCards. ↓

You can use it to check the Cāngjié input for any 漢字/汉字, and there's section for practise (倉頡輸入法練習) as well. After inputting your answer with Cāngjié keys (手田水口廿卜), you can click on the “Answer” (答案) button to see how right or wrong your answers were. ↓

There are 8 characters each time, and you can just hit “Practise Again” (再做練習) to refresh for another 8 to practise with. I've yet to hit a limit.

Unfortunately, this website has lots of ads popping up. And it only supports searching in Traditional characters (Cāngjié was initially catered more for Traditional).

Or you can just try practising randomly with a Cāngjié keyboard and check for mistakes with a Cāngjié dictionary (『五色學倉頡』 app's dictionary comes in really useful here — it appears to support searching in Simplified too).

TL;DR

Cāngjié could be useful (and fun) to know if your 漢字/汉字 knowledge is already adequate, and/or you just like a new challenge.

And if watching videos is more your thing, here's a really helpful YouTube tutorial on how to use Cāngjié (has English subs)!

[otomevibes]

Otome/Amare Games for Pride 2024 Edition

Hey hey, I'm back with more pride rec games in the realm of otome/amare/dating sims! I haven't done a rec list in a hot minute, and I'm glad I finally have time to make another one! I have two other lists similar in theme, which I'll link in a reblog! With that said, here's some more recommendations!

Heart Fragment

Platform: PC [Steam and Itch.io]

Price: Book one is free, Book two is 2.99 USD

I know I posted this in my 'otome/amare games where you can get the girl' post, but I want to shout it out again because I love it a lot. This is a soft sci-fi/mystery/paranormal genre blend where you follow Xani (renamable and gender selectable) as they learn about themselves, their strange powers, and the mystery around their mother. I love this game so much, mostly because of how much I related to the main character as well as the love interests. It's a solid game, and one I replay often.

Obscura the Dark Descent Chapter 1

Platform: PC [Steam and Itch.io]

Price: Chapter 1 is free

This is still in development and pretty popular in the indie space, but I thought I'd shout it out just in case. I love the atmosphere of this game, and I like the concept of it. You're dying so you go into the mountain where everyone wears masks, searching for a cure. The feeling of it is so oppressive and all the love interests feel really unique. I also love the MC in this, they're so funny to me.

Pitstop in Purgatory

Platform: PC [Steam and Itch.io]

Price: 4.99 USD

A weirdly comforting game about death. You play as a young woman named Astrid who died, but has no memories of it. As you interact with those also stuck in purgatory, those memories start coming back to her. I think the art style in this really helps with the feeling of this, and it's one of those games to kickback to over the weekend.

Titan Arum

Platform: PC [Itch.io]

Price: Free

I was so obsessed with this when it first came out. You're a failed writing whose back in your childhood home trying to finish a manuscript. However, weird things keep happening, and you're sanity might just be slipping. The art, the atmosphere, the references to the King in Yellow? 10/10. The fact this was made in ten days just makes it all the more impressive and I highly recommend it.

Breathless Winds

Platform: PC [Steam and Itch.io]

Price: 12.00 USD

Poppy is a closeted trans woman who has just recovered from a boating accident. As she readjusts to life again, she has to find a way to save her home, and discover who she is and who she wants to be. The full game just came out a few days ago from posting this, so I've only played the demo but I loved it so much and I'm so excited to play the full game the second I get a chance. This is one of the only games where the main protagonist is a canon trans woman (if you know more dating sims like this please let me know lol), and the demo was lovely as well.

We're Women, After All

Platform: PC [Itch.io]

Price: Free

I'm cheating with this one because it's not in the realm of dating sims but shhh. I loved this game so much I had to shout it out. This is a sapphic horror game about a woman wanting to escape from an oppressive family and her conversation with the mermaid she loves. It's short, so I don't want to spoil it, but it was such a great experience. I enjoyed the characters and writing, and the art was stunning.

[inkandpaintsnowleopard]

This is so real honestly <- has asks from my edit blog from like two years ago I never got around to

Fr tho I can relate! Time. Time is weird. And tbh I don't mind that you never answered the asks (bc I know life just Be Like That Sometimes); if anything I find it kinda funny so many of them have just made homes in your inbox and brain /silly

But do you mind telling me some of the asks that got engraved in your personality? I'm honestly super curious /nf

Master post time

I JUST NEARLY FINISHED MAKING THIS AND I LOST ALL MY PROGRESS SO I’M DOING IT AGAIN

NO DON’T COME ONLINE YET I’M NOT DONE

First of all, there’s all the headcanons/story ideas that I’ve just accepted without ever talking about them for some reason

Then there’s all the asks you’ve sent about using Robert’s alien costume in mod designs

:’| I swear I’ll draw these one day

Other designs I haven’t drawn yet:

I SWEAR I’LL DRAW THESE ONE DAY

Then there are some that I meant to answer THE DAY YOU SENT THEM, BUT I PROCRASTINATED FOR SO LONG THAT I DON’T EVEN REMEMBER WHAT I WAS GONNA SAY

Mostly the CD and Kevin one. I swear I had the greatest, most lore-dropping thought, that I just HAD to write down, AND I DON’T HAVE A DAMN CLUE WHAT IT WAS. I THINK I LITERALLY DRAFTED IT A FEW TIMES BUT IT NEVER SAVED. I’m actually lowkey sad like bro. BRO WHAT DID I THINK???

For the Atonement one, I listened to it that day in PE (they let us run with headphones :D) and was like “Oooh yeeeaaaaahhhhhh that makes so much sense.” Meant to say that when I got home, never did, that was back in like May

Also apparently you’ve mentioned Wizard Gregor to me before and I have no memory of it?

Sorry dude you’re a genius and I forget literally everything

Then there’s this:

I never actually finished the video, but this is literally where I first heard the “Crazy? I was crazy once” meme, and now I reference it all the time

Then there’s this guy:

One day I’ll draw you, little guy

And finally (for now because I’ve spent like an hour and a half writing this and I should probably go talk to my family and stuff),

I’ve now literally spent a year drawing to get all my thoughts together about this. I wish I could just beam you all my thoughts 2020-present. I love toons. I love toons do you know Dandy’s World. I love toons have you heard Candle Queen. I love toons have you considered that minions are basically organically created toons. I. Ahhhhhhh

[aaronstveit]

i would loooove to hear more of your director's commentary about deep end! <3 not sure how much you can say without spoiling but did you make a lot of changes from the original draft? and are there any scene that didn't make it into the final fic? thank youuu <3

omg hi anon this question made my entire day <3333 gonna answer beneath a read more as always because when talking about deep end i am this trc meme

okay so firstly! i wrote deep end 3 times. the original draft had a final wordcount of 126,978 words. the middle draft had a final wordcount of 175,065 words. the final draft's wordcount is not finalized yet because i am still editing & still adding one scene to the epilogue, but obviously we've already surpassed the first draft's wordcount, so that's fun.

as you can see, about 50k words were added in the middle draft! there are a lot of reasons for this. chapters 8 & 9, as well as about half of chapter 10, did not exist in the original draft. i added them during rewriting because i felt we hadn't spent enough time with enjolras & cosette.

combeferre and éponine were almost nonexistent in the original draft. not just as a couple, but individually as well. every single grantaire & éponine scene was added in the middle draft, and most of enjolras & combeferre's scenes as well.

i actually didn't cut any full scenes out! there were quite a few though where i started writing a scene, realized it was wrong, and erased what i had written and started over. for instance, this bit in chapter 18:

in the original draft, i tried writing enjolras turning to grantaire at this point and saying, "I think I'm in love with you," before cosette answered the door. obviously, i ended up deciding against this, mostly because i decided the kiss scene would pack more of a punch if enjolras realizes he's in love with grantaire right when he's in the middle of their argument.

i also deleted soooooooooo many arguments. this is probably surprising considering how often they argue in this fic, but at least once a chapter i really had to stop myself and say, okay no this is getting unhealthy. i enjoy writing arguments too much apparently - which is good for writing exr, but only to a certain extent.

originally, grantaire was not going to have a sister. it genuinely did not even occur to me until chapter 11 (which was chapter 8 at the time), but once it did occur to me, i couldn't not do it. his grief plotline became way too dear to me way too quickly.

the biggest changes i made during writing all had to do with reordering events!! originally, karaoke happened somewhere around chapter 8. i ended up moving it wayyyyyyyyy back because i felt like their flirting was out of place so early in the story.

i also moved enjolras' arguments with cosette and grantaire to an earlier point than i originally intended. at first, i thought they were going to happen around the second-to-last chapter, but i moved them forward a lot earlier because i thought more work needed to be done with enjolras.

the chapter that underwent the most changes from the middle draft to the finished draft is chapter 24. obviously i can't say just yet what those changes are, but i'm really really happy with how that chapter turned out and i hope you all will be as well <3

several of my personal favorite scenes in this fic are actually cannibalized from something i tried writing and gave up on a few months ago. marius getting mugged in chapter 4, the hamlet conversation in chapter 7, and enjolras tending to grantaire's broken nose in chapter 14 were all taken from the same abandoned wip.

as for some more random tidbits that i find fun:

a fun fact for everyone is that cosette did not pull the phrase "who has a flag where he should have a heart" out of thin air! she takes this from courfeyrac in chapter 13:

which is why courfeyrac winces when enjolras says it in chapter 19:

also in chapter 19, enjolras means to say that Train to Busan is his favorite horror movie ending. i didn't just choose that because i love that movie (although i really really do) but because. well. i'm not going to spoil the ending for you if you haven't seen it, but... it was very deliberate is all i'm saying.

i really cannot overstate how much of this fic only exists because of cossette notebookmusical. for starters, i only even attempted writing it because she said "jamie if you don't write this." she also got to spend months listening to me bitch about it and receiving so many horrible snippets from the original draft so coco, if you're reading this, thank you from the very bottom of my heart 🫶🏻

more specifically, the entire beginning sequence of chapter 17 with grantaire staying the night at enjolras' apartment was inspired by cossette! i was asking her for situations to put the blond man in and one of her ideas was that he loses his keys. so everyone say thank you cossette!

also the bit in chapter 19 where enjolras thinks about combeferre a psychology minor is the worst thing to ever happen to you was added after i said something to cossette and she said something along the lines of, "would you like to elaborate on that?"

the ending bit of chapter 23 is also inspired by and written for cossette. you'll see what i mean in a few weeks.

there are a lot more bits and pieces inspired by things that cossette has said and done, or added just to make her laugh, but if i listed all of them i would be here forever. just know that this entire fic is cocoservice and it is only because of cossette that it exists at all <333333

there is also a collection of scenes i'm considering writing as "bonus content" for when the fic is fully posted - mostly scenes that already exist, but from another point of view, and a few that are only mentioned in passing.

okay i'm cutting myself off now because this is a lot of yapping even for me but you may always ask more if you're so inclined <3333 thank you sm for asking i had so much fun answering this! i really can't tell you how much it means to me not only that you're not only reading but also enjoying it so much that you're asking about it like... this is literally a fic writer's DREAM. thank you so so so much <3333

[morganski-19]

The One with the Late Night

Argyle walks into the kitchen to get a drink, eyes fighting to stay open. The small lamp is clicked on next to the couch. Jonathan sitting there with his legs crossed, laptop resting on his legs. He should be asleep but isn’t. Never is. Argyle places his empty glass on the counter, his body finding its way to the couch. Flopping down next to Jonathan.

“It’s like four in the morning,” he mumbles out.

Jonathan rubs at his eyes. “I know.”

“One of those nights?”

He nods, “One of those weeks.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Argyle pulls the blanket off the back of the couch and drapes it over himself.

“I knew you had a busy week this week, didn’t need you staying up with me every day.” Jonathan messes with the photo he’s editing, trying to fix the lighting.

Argyle yawns. “So, what if I have a few extra shifts than normal. Doesn’t mean I can’t do something nice for my best friend,” he gently pushes Jonathan’s arm.

“I just don’t want you to feel like you have to, that’s all.” Jonathan yawns, body relaxing further back into the couch.

“Ha, five minutes with me and you’re already half asleep. It’s working.”

Jonathan looks at Argyle. “What’s working?”

“My glorious presence, that’s what.”

“Whatever,” he snorts. “One yawn means nothing, I yawn all the time.”

Argyle shrugs, leaning over to see what Jonathan’s working on. Practically leaning on him. “Doesn’t mean I didn’t cause it. What’re you working on?”

“Wedding I worked a few weeks ago. They’re mostly done, just some that need more fine tuning.”

“I like the background, it makes their dresses pop,” Argyle points to the bushes covered in flowers behind the couple.

Jonathan nods. “It’s actually where they got engaged. They wanted it to match the engagement photos I took for them.”

“That’s sweet. Speaking of sweet, guess what your mom told me when she called me today.”

“Why did my mom call you?” Jonathan turns toward Argyle again after saving and shutting his laptop.

Argyle scoffs. “Because your mom loves me, duh. Said your families going to come up next week for a visit. I offered to let them stay here but they refused, as always.”

Jonathan sinks further into the couch, leaning towards Argyle. Yawning again. Argyle fixes the blanket so they can share.

“It’s almost like the forget we got the pull-out couch just so they could stay here.” Jonathan pulls the blanket up to his chin, eyes starting to droop.

Argyle’s not sure what does it, but every time he catches Jonathan staying up, he almost always falls asleep after talking a little bit. Sometimes he can’t, and they stay up for another hour. Or until Argyle falls asleep again and Jonathan stays up for longer than he’ll admit. But most of the time, it just takes another person in the room to get him to go to sleep. Or really, another person next to him. Still doesn’t help him until the after-midnight hours. But it’s something.

“Yeah. And that you could bunk out in my room to give them another bed. Be like college all over again.”

Jonathan snorts. “And deal with your snoring, no chance. Best part about not sharing a room with you anymore.”

“Oh, come on, it couldn’t have been that bad.”

“The neighbors complained to me one time. Told them I’d tape your mouth shut.”

Argyle laughs. “Like you’re any better. When you’re out, you’re out. Snoring and all. And it’s not quiet.”

Jonathan’s head falls on Argyle’s shoulder. “You could’ve woken me up if it was too loud,” he slurs out.

“I’d never do that. I knew how little sleep you got back then, you deserved whatever you got.”

“Thank you,” Jonathan says with a deep exhale. “For always staying up with me. It makes it a little more bearable.”

Argyle looks down at Jonathan’s face, studying it. His eyes finally closed and breaths slowing down. It was a simple choice to stay up with him. When they got to be like this, and no one was around to tell them that it was weird or unusual. That two friends couldn’t just act like this without feeling anything.

Even if it made Argyle feel something he know he shouldn’t. Because the other person didn’t feel the same, and that was ok. But he could never stop himself from indulging in what he could get.

“It’s no problem. Do you want to head to bed? It’s better than the couch.”

It falls on deaf ears, Jonathan finally falling asleep. Argyle smiles softly. He gently stands, holding Jonathan up before laying him on the couch. Gets him in a better position so he can sleep more comfortably. Before heading off to his own room.

Tag list (let me know if you want to be added or taken off) @slowandsteddie, @annieofhearts, @cacdyke, @ubpd, @captain--low, @thespaceantwhowrites, @goodolefashionedloverboi, @anne-bennett-cosplayer, @lunaticparisianlady, @apomaro-mellow, @dolphincliffs, @dragonmama76, @maggiebug417, @stevesbipanic, @fearieshadow, @eightpackdiaz, @au79burger @bookworm0690 , @practicallybegging, @potato-of-the-lord, @autumncrocusandladybug, @estrellami-1

[12timetraveler]

Something In The Orange

Chapter 13

Summary: In the aftermath of the big reveal, reader finds herself at a crossroads.

Notes: Hey all. I just wanted to say thank you all so much for your constant support. Just a few days ago marked one year since I posted the first chapter of this story. I honestly never expected so many loyal readers who comment every chapter. I get so excited to read your reactions every time.

I hope you enjoy this chapter. Especially after the pain of the last one.

As always, blame typos on my phone's autocorrect system. One day I'll go through and edit all of it.

As per usual, below is a little sneak preview. Read the full chapter and the full story on AO3

You must be logged in to an account to read my works on AO3. Blame AI Scraping for that.

You'd think that returning to the place that you'd called home for a decade would be comforting. But all it did was serve to highlight how lonely you were.

It reminded you of how you'd felt after your granny passed. Couldn't even hold a funeral due to the pandemic. Just hired some grave digger to bury her in the family plot and that was that. You were all alone.

Going to university, making all those friends, meeting Hosea, it had saved you from that lonely feeling. You'd finally had a herd of people who cared about you. You had a family. But you'd gone and ruined that, and now you were alone again.

You were convinced it was your punishment for some unknown wrong: loneliness. Now you'd ruined your found family, possibly destroyed an actual blood family too. You had a hard time imagining a world where Arthur could forgive his father. The two had been thick as thieves but now they were separated but this giant rift, with John likely caught in the middle.

And the loneliness was your reward.

The friend group of course was blowing up at the drama. You couldn't stand to look at the group chat, but they all sent you private messages (except Arthur, though that was no surprise). Their reactions ranged from shock to concern. None of them seemed outright angry, though you wouldn't have blamed them if they had.

Sadie was the most persistent of all of them, texting you nearly every hour for three days just to try to find out if you were alive. Finally you texted her back, if only to stop her from calling that reality show bounty hunter guy to come and track you down.

This satisfied her for about a little while. At least she knew you were alive. Though she made you check in with her multiple times a day.

Your first week back in Brandywine was mostly a blur. You spent most of it crying, occasionally cracking open a bottle of liquor and downing it at an alarming rate. Though there wasn't much alcohol in the house, and you ran out pretty quickly.

After that you hardly left your bed, alternating between fitful sleep, hysterical crying, and long stretches of dissociation. You knew you should try to pull yourself together. This wasn't healthy. You should get it together and do something instead of just wallowing in your mistakes.

But the loneliness had a grip on your heart that rivaled anything else. Like shackles chaining you to a prison wall. You were unable to do anything to help yourself. Could hardly remind yourself to eat most days. You'd try to watch something, read something, do anything but lay there. But you were held down by the monster tendrils of your depression.

The first time you really managed to snap out of it, even for a moment, was when you were pulled from your dissociation by a knocking at your door. At first you felt nothing but confusion, almost like you didn't even know what knocking at the door meant. Slowly you seemed to come around. Though you were now confused as to who may be knocking at your door.

You considered ignoring it. You didn't really have the energy to entertain. Or to face what you'd done. But still the insistant knocking finally dragged you out of your bed. Slowly you descended the stairs, not sure who could be knocking.

“Dove, please,” Hosea's muffled voice carried through the door.

[eljeebee]

📩 Simblr question of the day: Do you have a process for making your simblr posts?

- an anon ask contribution for @simblr-question-of-the-day (Hi squat!)

I decided to do a separate post, just like what @changingplumbob did a question ago!

Since I mostly do story posts, here is my workflow:

a.) I draft the next story updates. Nothing serious, nothing deep. Just a rough draft that I want to happen. I have drafts in my laptop,

as well as in my phone [spoilers? lol]

Sometimes just one paragraph, or two, as long as I get the gist of it. This draft will be the basis when it comes to shooting the scenes.

b.) Before taking the scenes, I make sure that I have the poses and some specific clothes that I want and need. When it comes to clothing, it's rare that I use specific clothes on some scenes, because I have tons of CC in my mod folder, but I download it in advance. Some of it are already download in advance (that is not yet needed now, but is used far in the future)

b.1.) Sometimes, when I need a certain portrait of a character for a scene that is from a different save file, I make sure I do that first before I load the main save.

b.2.) When I need a certain build for the scenes, I have to build it myself. This is evident with the Strauds' nightclub and the Beau-Asvang's penthouse. It took me weeks to finish these. This is tedious for me, so some updates gets delayed, especially when I feel overwhelmed or bored.

c.) After that, I shoot the scenes. I base my scenes on the draft. This is another tedious part for me, especially if it involves a lot of characters. Sometimes, it has to be in a certain time of day. I don't mess time in that save, because I fear I'll mess up the calendar, so I rely in the fast forward function. The only thing that I mess with it is the weather. It can take me a whole IRL day, or a few days to finish this step.

d.) After taking the scenes, I choose which shots are the best, then delete the rest. I don't edit the photos because the reshade preset I use was made to skip editing it, but will only edit if necessary. No resizing is done (sorry if I'm lazy ;-;).

e.) In this step, the draft that was written before will be finalized once the scenes are done. Most of the time, the drafts get changed, because I change the parts of the story based on the scenes I took. The whole essence or message of the story doesn't change, only the flow and how I structured it will be modified. The finalized script is written in MS Word. A tip for everyone: type the tags you're going to use for the post in the document, so all you have to do is to copy the tags and paste it here in the text editor!

f.) Next, I'll upload the scenes and the script here in my Tumblr drafts. Sometimes, I break the scenes in separate posts, but sometimes I post it in one, depending on the story and the flow.

g.) Finally, I either: queue the posts, or I post it myself. I post the posts that has the "previous | next" links myself, because I want to quickly add the links as soon as I post it. I only queue on some posts, namely Beneath, and New Beginnings.

Again, this is my workflow when it comes to story posts! Gameplay posts like The Life of the Hatcher only get captioned based on the shots, and is not as heavily planned as the DLU (Davis Legacy Universe).

If you've reached the end of the post, thanks for reading! I hope you find this helpful!

[greatsylveon2007]

"Kids with passion to play make-believe;

Will become young adults with the will to achieve"

Alright, so I figured I wanted to make this eventually. I finally finished my part for the Guaraná MAP a few months ago after like, almost two years of having it lmao, and those two years were wild and included a bunch of different versions of the part which would never see the light of day outside of the map server, so I figured I should put them all here :)

Here is the finished part which I am very happy with honestly, love some Hollyleaf angst

So now let me tell you about how the part used to be IWKFOLSPS

To get the part I actually had to fist fight a friend because it was one of the few really simple interesting parts and we both wanted it pretty badly

When I eventually got the part I made two storyboards for it, and my idea was for it to be very limited animation with mostly tweening, as, in my head, it would make my life easier

The first storyboard I was not happy with so I threw it out the window and made another soon after

This one I was way happier with and is the storyboard I used for most of these two years, here you can see a little light/shadow behind Hollyleaf that, while I liked, was really out of place so I didn't keep it in the end :(

What followed was multiple months of me chipping away at this part and telling myself every time that it would be easy to do because it was pmv, I got pretty far with this, making the assets for all of the cats and only needing to shade Hollyleaf, finish the backgrounds and guaraná plants and edit

At that point however, despite being almost done, I really couldn't bring myself to work on this part anymore, I'm not sure what exactly it was, but messing around with all the assets and tweening and all that just wasn't fun for me at that point and I just began stalling to avoid having to open the file again

Eventually in February a light shone upon me, if I wasn't having fun with PMV then screw it AMV was my new best friend

In a few hours I made a new sketch, skipped the rought animation stage and finished Holly's entire animation (don't do this ever, don't be like me)

I had also started on Lion but I was struggling on what to do with him because of how I animated Holly lol

I don't remember the exact plan but originally the character acting was:

Holly and Lion are looking up, Jay is a little frustrated. Holly talks to him to cheer him up and he looks at her, feeling a bit more encouraged. Then she would look at Lion, he would reassure her, and they'd all end up happy

Somehow though, while animating Holly, I ditched the plan and made her be surprised by Lion and look at him, so I struggled a bit trying to figure out what Lionpaw could do to get her attention, and spent a good while trying to figure out the solution to a problem that I created in a few hours of not following a simple plan ISMOCKSKKDS If you plan something, preferably follow it, don't be like me²

I could have just remade her animation so that would have been solved but I liked her animation I didn't want to redo it :(

Anyway, eventually I figured he could say something stupid to help cheer up Jay or something and I like his and Jay's new movements so it all worked out :)

After making the first shot, I caved in to something I wanted to do for a while which was a transition between the shots, instead of having it cut to the second shot or move the characters around a little bit.

I didn't know if I wanted to do a transition with stars or with the fire scene, until eventually I figured that the fire scene and Ashfur's... thing was what really affected the siblings, especially Hollyleaf. The part also follows a sequence of Hollyleaf feeling guilty for what she did so in general I thought that Ashfur would transition well

You may also notice that I hadn't splattered blood all across Holly's face in the second shot and that was because I forgot she was supposed to have blood on her until I read the script again for some reason and realized I forgot ISNKCKAKDLSL

So, what did we learn? PMV sucks, animate it all at 24 fps in one sitting instead/JOKE

This is all I have about the Guaraná part, it was pretty fun to work on and I loved joining a map about my country, this map lives in a little part of my brain rent free <3

Might do this for other parts that have a bunch of wips or something I'll think about that, it's kind of fun to just lay out your process like this, would recommend 10/10

[bikinizagel]

I had this posted on my other account, but I like it enough that I decided to repost it here as well!

A while ago, I found an unfinished Sable Able/Tom Nook fic I began writing but abandoned (mostly because I was too busy to finish it). It’s an AU where Tom didn’t meet up with misfortune (or Redd... yet...) and actually succeeded at founding his business in the city. Of course, he still longs for the countryside, or at least for certain animals (👀), but his full intentions for returning out of the blue one day aren’t entirely clear.

This is the first draft of the first chapter (I cleaned it up a bit with a little editing, but it’s still pretty drafty, so sorry for any weirdness). If anyone’s interested, maybe I’ll post up the second one, too (or maybe even just finish the whole thing if people enjoy it?).

Dreams Before Money – Tom Nook/Sable Able: Chapter 1 🍃

(honestly that’s a working title lol does that sound dumb i think it’s dumb i might change it… anyway… please read on!)

“Yes, yes, welcome all, welcome all! I do hope you’re enjoying your shopping experience!”

Tom strutted down the wide corridor of his extravagant store, a spring in his step as he tipped his hat and waved to passersby. A few of them gasped when they met his gaze, almost dropping the items they were perusing in their surprise. There wasn’t a single frown to be seen on any of his customers’ faces, which made his heart skip a beat or two (maybe even three!).

It had been a success! He had finally done it! The pride brimming inside of him hadn’t gone away since the day his department store had opened a few months ago, located at a prime location right in the heart of the hustling, bustling city. Many animals had said it couldn’t be done, that he was a fool to believe he could ever open such an establishment. Ho ho! How wrong they had been! All of his determination and hard work had paid off. His dreams had come true, even bigger than he’d imagined, and he couldn’t be happier.

As he reached one of the grand lobbies of the department complex, he couldn’t help but tilt his head towards the ceiling and marvel at how beautiful the construction had turned out. Of course, he had been through this section many times before, but the white marble walls and golden gilded accents – not to mention the grand, glittering chandelier hanging above – were so striking that… well, he chuckled to himself, he was just so pleased that everything had turned out just the particular way he had planned it. It was almost like he was living inside of his own fairy tale, and here he was: king of this glorious castle, built entirely by his own design.

“Mom, Mom, over here!”

Tom turned around to where he had heard the voice. A young cat was excitedly jumping up and down as she pointed at an extravagant mountain of teddy bears on display. His staff was so very talented, he thought with pride. They could make the simplest products look so incredibly tempting.

The girl’s mother, in comparison, looked worse for the wear, pushing a stroller with a baby kitten sleeping inside. She sported an exasperated expression on her face, her ears dropped in exhaustion. Her eyes traveled almost immediately towards the price placard on the display.

“Oh, sweetheart, they’re very lovely,” she sighed. “But we came here for a new pair of school clothes for you. You don’t need any more toys.”

The little girl pouted as she looked back and forth from the bears to her mother, slumping her shoulders as she began to step away.

Well, well! Tom shook his head. This just simply wouldn’t do. He breezed over to the mother and her daughter and, plucking the object of her affections off of the table, he knelt down to the girl’s level and held it out to her.

“For you, young lady,” he smiled, “This fellow is on me.”

Her eyes widened as she grabbed the bear from him. She hugged it so tight that he swore the stuffing was about to pop from its seams.

“Oh, sir,” her mother began to protest, “That’s very generous of you, but we don’t–“

“Nonsense, nonsense, it’s quite all right. I only want my customers to be happy!” he chuckled, standing back up. He took out a green ticket from his suit’s inner breast pocket and handed it to her.

“Once you make your way to the children’s department, please, let my staff know that Tom Nook himself has given you a 50% off discount on any article of clothing you choose to buy.”

To say that the expression on her face changed dramatically would be an understatement as her jaw dropped.

“Th-the Tom Nook?!” she stammered, inadvertently wrinkling the ticket as she clutched it. “Why… why, you’re as generous as they say you are. Thank you so much!”

He nodded, and tipped his hat.

“No trouble at all! Have a good day, yes yes!”

An extra spring had been added to his step as he made his way back through the corridors of his store. This was how one should run a business, he thought to himself. For his whole life, he had ascribed to one motto only: dreams before money. One could have all of the riches in the world if they so wanted. They could bleed their customers dry and swindle them out of their hard earned savings just to get the money they coveted. But dreams? Dreams were priceless. His dream had come true in a very big way, so it only seemed fitting for him to grant the dreams of others in return. Besides, he couldn’t stand to see a frown on someone’s face. It just didn’t feel right. Some had chastised him for having such a generous spirit in the past, saying that others might one day take advantage of him for it, but he didn’t know about any other way to act. And so far, it hadn’t hurt him, so why should he act any other way?

Ah, yes, he sighed happily as he entered one of the executive elevators and made his way up to his office. His life was almost like a fairy tale. Almost. There was another reason why today was such a happy day for him: he was determined to change that “almost” into an “entirely.”

“Good afternoon Mr. Nook!” his secretary chirped as he exited the elevator, a clipboard in her wing as she followed him down the hallway. “All of the arrangements have been made and your limousine leaves in 15 minutes.”

“Excellent!” he beamed. “And my luggage?”

“It’s with Mr. Lyle at the north exit. That’s where they’ll be picking you up.”

“Wonderful! Absolutely splendid, thank you!”

His secretary laughed as they entered into his office, light pouring in from the large window overlooking the rest of the city.

“Well you’re certainly in a good mood!”

“Is there ever any reason not to be in one?” He made his way towards his office desk, circling around it. “I’ll make my way downstairs in a moment. I just need to get the rest of my affairs in order first.”

“Absolutely!” She began to leave, but poked her head back in after a moment. “Don’t forget to really enjoy that fresh country air while you’re gone. They say it does a body a lot of good!”

He chuckled as she left for the hallway, and began to stack some papers he had left on the top of his desk. Most of the matters that he needed to take care of before he left were complete, and he made a mental checklist of some of the essentials he had packed. Phone, wallet, watch, extra shirts, and had he remembered to bring a toothbrush? Of course, he was sure he had. He opened up one of the side drawers of his desk and rifled through some stray notepads and pens until he found the last item he needed. Quickly he replaced it with the last few discount vouchers he had had as he dropped it into the breast pocket of his suit… and paused. His heart began to pound in his chest, and he clenched his fists as he looked out the window at the streets below. He couldn’t help but smile.

This was happening. Another chapter of his life was being written, and he was more than sure that it would be the most splendid one yet.

🍃

The sun was beginning to set, and warm rays of pink and orange were beginning to shine through the windows on the clothing in the shop. A handful of customers still milled about as the hum of the sewing machine filled the room. Sable bit her lip as she finished the hemming on a periwinkle colored dress, pulling it from the sewing machine bed as she began to snip off the stray threads.

“Whoa, that is SUCH a pretty color!” exclaimed a white rabbit, her eyes shining as she checked out Sable’s newest creation. “I want it soooo bad, but I pretty much just blew all of my bells on shirts.”

Sable chuckled, smoothing out the fabric.

“This one won’t be done for a while, anyway,” she said, picking her scissors back up again. “I still need to add some lace to the hem and the sleeves, and a bow in the back, and–”

The rabbit gasped so sharply that Sable jumped, almost cutting the fabric of the dress in surprise.

“That. Is gonna look. So. CUTE! I hope I’m able to buy it once you’re done.“ She squirmed in place worriedly, a tiny sweatdrop forming on her forehead. “How many bells is it?”

Sable hesitated for a moment, holding the dress up as she considered its worth. “Well… hmm…”

“Two thousand!”

Mabel skipped next to her sister, beaming at the rabbit as she held out a small cloth bag.

“By the way, Ruby, you almost forgot to take everything you bought!”

“Ugh, I’m SUCH a space case lately. Thanks Mabel!” Ruby took the bag and rose her paw to her chin, considering the price of the dress. “Two thousand bells isn’t that bad, I guess.”

“Sable could always make another for you special later, if you weren’t able to buy it right away,” Mabel cheerfully offered. “Isn’t that right Sable?”

“Oh, yes, of course!” Sable nodded.

“That’s good to know. I hope I’m able to snatch it up before anybody else, people would be SO jealous of me!” Ruby laughed, and walked towards the exit as she waved. “See you later, girls!”

The two hedgehogs waved back. One by one the other customers in the shop began to leave, and when the last one had gone, Mabel hopped over to the front door and turned over the wooden sign in the window to read “CLOSED.”

“Phew! What a day.”

Sable let out a loud sigh, stretching as she stood from her sewing stool. It has been a particularly busy afternoon, and she had hardly taken a break from sewing. …well, who was she kidding, she thought. She rarely ever took a break!

She grabbed a pile of clothing from the back closet to restock the shelves with, handing a few to Mabel as they began to tidy up the shop together.

“Boy, it must have been quite a day if you forgot what day it even was,” Mabel grinned at her sister as she buttoned a shirt on a mannequin.

Sable turned from folding a stack of pants and eyed Mabel suspiciously.

“What are you talking about?”

“You know!” Mabel laughed as she finished buttoning. “Come on, you couldn’t have forgotten, right?”

Sable looked up at the ceiling in thought. Today was a Friday, which meant that there would be more customers during the weekend. Was there a festival going on in town that she had forgotten about? Ugh. Sable was so bad at remembering dates. She had even forgotten her own birthday a couple of times. Her mind was always so laser-focused on her sewing work that sometimes things tended to slip from it, no matter how important they were.

She was about to give up on guessing when she turned back to Mabel, who was sporting one of the toothiest grins she’d ever seen. Her sister began to giggle, and it suddenly dawned on Sable what day could possibly make Mabel so giddy.

“No!” she shouted, and abandoned her folding as she dashed up the stairs of the store to their home above. Mabel cackled, chasing after her as Sable fled to her bedroom and looked in the mirror.

“Ohhhhhh, I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in a week. I look like a wreck!” The rings beneath her eyes were way too dark, and her complexion was so pale from being cooped up in the store this summer. She threw off her work apron and ran to the closet, frantically trying to find a dress to wear that wasn’t too wrinkled.

Mabel sat herself on the corner of the bed, kicking her legs as she watched the entertainment playing before her.

“We even closed early today. I can’t believe you forgot!”

“I can’t believe it either!” Sable yelled from the closet. Finally, she emerged with a pink striped dress that she had begun half putting on, fumbling with the zipper on the back as she looked in the mirror.

“You know,” Mabel said as Sable fussed with her outfit, “Tom’s not going to care what you look like.”

Sable shot a look at Mabel.

“We haven’t seen him in a while,” she countered. “And I just want to look my best. Is that such a bad thing?”

All Mabel responded with was a sly smile. She jumped off the bed and wandered out of the room as Sable turned back to the mirror to fix her collar.

She began thinking about the last letter she had received from Tom. He’d told her that he’d be visiting the town later that month. It came as such a surprise to her that he’d even consider coming back, what with everything that was going on with him. He had apparently had lots of luck living in the city, and had opened up a giant multi-level department store that carried more products than she had ever thought possible to sell in one place. Tom had even sent photos of it as it was being built, and she had to admit that it looked incredibly elegant and luxurious.

But she was thrilled that he was visiting, even though he hadn’t told her how long he’d be staying. After he had left, she had prayed for him every single day, asking whoever was listening that he would be kept safe. She was very grateful that her prayers seemed to have been answered. Admittedly, she had missed him very much, and a small part of her was dismayed when he had finally told her of his store’s opening. Of course she was immensely proud of his achievements. What kind of friend would she be if she wasn’t? But so many people had been lost to her because of the city, she thought, a feeling of sadness beginning to creep up on her. She hadn’t wanted to lose her best friend as well.

…and that was something she was still worried about, despite everything. He seemed like the same old Tom in his letters, but almost three years had passed since they had last seen each other. Three years was certainly a long enough time for someone to change. She glanced at herself in the mirror and smoothed a stray quill back in place. Part of her hoped she hadn’t changed too much, or at least that he wouldn’t notice any drastic changes in her that she hadn’t paid attention to. In those three years they’d been apart, she had worked very hard to make her parent’s old store even more of a success, not to mention that she had single-handedly taken care of Mabel in the process. All of that work felt like it had taken such a toll on her, mentally and physically, and from the stories she had heard, the city was filled with tons of beautiful, glamorous animals. As she looked in the mirror, her reflection frowning back at herself, she felt far from glamorous.

“There’s a limo outside!”

“A limo?!”

Sable ran downstairs to find Mabel, but she had already left, the front door of the store swinging behind her. There was a limousine parked outside on the road across the way, and Mabel had run out to greet it. Sable peeked from behind the open door as she saw the limo driver rush out to open the passenger’s side. Her eyes narrowed: was Tom really coming back to a humble little town like this in such an ostentatious way?

“Mabel!”

Tom excitedly leapt out of the passenger door as he picked Mabel off of her feet and spun her around, the two of them laughing. Sable quickly hid herself behind the door. Her stomach dropped, and her heart began to pound a mile a minute – it was him! She was so nervous that she had to pause for a moment and take a deep breath. It’s okay, she thought. Tom’s your best friend. He’s not a stranger. You know him. He’s practically family, and he’s kind and sweet and…

“Where’s Sable?”

“She’s inside. I thought I heard her following me.”

Sable mustered up enough courage to emerge from behind the door, taking a step outside as she nervously strayed in the doorframe. Tom’s eyes met hers, and suddenly all of the feelings of her happiest moments with him came flooding back: playing games together in the forest, goofing off at all of the annual town festivals, watching the stars past midnight and sharing their dreams together… his eyes still sparkled like they did the day that he left to follow those dreams. Her heart felt like it was radiating happiness through every single inch of her body.

Before she knew it, he had ran up and wrapped his arms tightly around her. She threw her arms around him too and hugged him back, a laugh escaping her lips.

“Oh, Tom, I’m so glad you’re back!”

He couldn’t help but laugh too, and finally let go of her, looking into her eyes as he grinned.

“I’m glad I am, too.”

🍃

Tom had completely forgotten just how delicious the apples from his hometown were. They were so good in fact that he felt a little bit greedy as he wolfed down the slices that Sable had cut up for him. He couldn’t help it, though. It had been so long since he’d eaten one! Nostalgia swelled inside of him as the sweet but slightly sour taste of the fruit hit his tastebuds. Of course he had purchased many an apple in the city – he even had a cafe on the lower level of his store that prepared gourmet dishes using all varieties of fruit – but there was just something different about a freshly picked apple from a local tree compared to millions of wax covered ones picked days or weeks ago from farms far, far away.

The three newly reacquainted friends had spread out an impromptu picnic on the front lawn of the shop. They had all agreed that the summer weather was much too lovely to waste, so the girls had brought out a couple of containers of food and fresh fruit, and set up an electric lantern nearby for when it began to grow darker. Wispy streaks of clouds lit orange by the setting sun peeked from the leaves in the trees while, high above, the purple sky was only just allowing some of the stars to begin to shine. Even a number of fireflies were starting to make an appearance, the soft glow of their blinking lights slowly emerging from the woods and surrounding the house.

A slight breeze rustled through the trees as Tom took in a deep, refreshing sigh. It was so nice to be back home like this, surrounded by familiar sights, sounds, tastes… and surrounded by two of the animals he loved the most in the world, ones hadn’t seen in years. But strangely enough, despite the fact that he had been gone from them and from the town for so long, it kind of felt as if no time had passed at all.

“Sorry about all these leftovers,” Sable apologized, loading up a small plate with a mix of vegetables. “We’ve just been so busy that I had forgotten to make something special for when you arrived”

“Oh please, don’t worry. This is wonderful! I take it that the shop is doing well then?” Tom asked.

“We’re doing great!” Mabel exclaimed behind an open mouthful of potato salad. “We have tons of customers. You should see the size of some of the crowds that come in. Sable’s even been teaching me to sew so we can start making twice as many clothes!”

“Mabel, honey, chew,” Sable sighed.

“I am!”

Tom couldn’t help but laugh at their banter. Time may have felt like it hadn’t passed, but at least Mabel was there to remind him that it certainly had. She seemed to be getting even more outspoken since he saw her last. …goodness, she had only been 8 years old when he had gone to the city. She was so much taller now, but still just as much of a chatterbox as always.

And Sable… well, so far she seemed to be the same caring and hard working hedgehog he’d always known. Before he left, Tom was worried that things would seem weird between them after having only corresponded through letters for a few years. But from the moment he had hugged her, his worries had instantly melted away. Talking to her was as natural as anything. …of course, he thought as he took another apple slice, at first he was so taken aback by how much prettier she had become since he’s last seen her that he’d been afraid he wouldn’t even be able to move.

“So…” Sable began, pausing for a moment as she hovered her fork over her plate. “…I don’t think you said in your last letter how long you’d be visiting for.”

“Oh, about a week or so. Maybe a little longer.”

“Where are you staying?” Mabel asked.

“In a house not too far away from your shop. It was actually quite fortuitous,” he continued as he loaded his own plate with some of the potato salad Mabel had been enjoying. “The last owner had recently decided to leave town for a fresh start, so the place is furnished. I decided to rent it while I’m here.”

“Awwww!” Mabel stuck out her bottom lip and frowned. “You could have stayed with us!”

“I didn’t want to intrude,” Tom replied, shaking his head. “Besides, I have some business while I’m here in town, aside from the business of visiting the two of you, of course.”

“Hmm,” Sable wondered aloud, “And whatever could that business be?”

She pressed the tines of her fork to her lips thoughtfully as she looked off into the forest. He could have sworn she was looking in the direction of Town Hall. If that was the case, he thought, she might already be on to him. She knew him best, after all, better than himself sometimes.

Tom smirked, and gave her a wink.

“It’s a secret.”

He went back to eating his food, and for a moment she looked as though she was about to press him more about it. But she stopped, and continued eating as well, a smile slowly forming on her lips.

They continued their meal and their conversation, and it was filled with tons of laughter and fond memories. The girls gossiped about what had gone on in town while he had gone, and he in turn gave them gossip on how things were back in the city. He told them all about his adventures: reaching the city almost penniless, meeting new people who gave him information on what investments to get into, and his stroke of luck reaping the benefits of their advice after he had finished his third odd job in the city and almost lost all hope. They were all stories that he had written in his letters, but now he could see their reactions to it in real time. Sable seemed a little indifferent to his stories about city life, although Mabel listened to everything he had to say with rapt interest.

The sun finally set and the food disappeared. The three friends began cleaning up, bringing all of the dishes and picnic accessories back inside, and Tom helped out with some of the washing up in their kitchen.

“I suppose I should probably leave for tonight,” he said as he finished drying off one of the last plates.

“Do you need the lantern for your way back?” Sable asked as she took it from him and placed it back in the kitchen cupboard.

Tom considered it for a moment, and nodded. The three of them went back downstairs, and Sable grabbed the lantern she had left outside and handed it to him.

“Be careful, it can get a little hot,” she warned.

“Make sure to stay safe!” Mabel said. “We’ll see you tomorrow, right Tom?”

“Bright and early!” he confirmed as he started making his way down the front walkway. “Have a good night, ladies!”

He watched as Sable and Mabel waved to him from the doorframe, then turned back to begin down the road to his rented home for the week. What a great day, he thought to himself, and took in a huge, refreshing breath of air, sighing it out happily. Luck must have really been on his side with everything going so well already. Hopefully the rest of his time here would continue to go on just as—

“Oh, wait, Tom!”

He hadn’t even made it that far when Sable came running after him, and he turned to meet her as she finally caught up with him, huffing and puffing in exhaustion.

“I… I just…”

She hesitated for a moment, not saying anything as she continued breathing. He studied her and noticed that, even with just the glow of the lantern lighting her face, her cheeks were beginning to turn a little pink. Was it from running, or…? Suddenly he began to feel a twinge of nervousness, hoping he didn’t seem flustered to her in any way. It had been so long since he had hung out with Sable and her sister, but it had been even longer since he had spent any sort of time alone with her.

“…I just wanted to let you know that the lantern knob is a little finicky.” She took the lantern from him and pointed it out. “Sometimes it gets stuck and doesn’t turn off all the way.”

“Oh! Yes, yes, I see.” He fiddled with the knob a little bit before taking the lantern back from her. “I’ll be sure to not let the battery run down.”

She nodded, and hesitated again, twiddling her fingers together.

“And you… wouldn’t be meeting with Mayor Tortimer tomorrow, would you?”

He’d been right. She had been looking towards Town Hall earlier.

“Well, not tomorrow, but–“

She surprised him with a little gasp as she smiled, clasping her hands.

“So you’re thinking of meeting with him? Does it… would it have anything to do with your business?”

It was impressive how close to the truth she was getting, but how could she ever know what his plan really was? And what could he say? He had it in mind to tell her after the next few days, after they had finally got time to be alone together again, but he had to admit that now he really wanted to just tell her and be done with it.

Now it was his turn to hesitate as he felt his own cheeks reddening, fiddling with the lantern’s handle. He finally took one of her hands in his, and smiled softly.

“You know what I’ve always said: dreams before money, right? Well… I’m preparing for another dream, and that’s all I can really say right now. But I think it’s going to be wonderful, absolutely wonderful… for both of us.”

Her smile fell a little bit as she gave him a puzzled look, and he swore he could see the pink in her cheeks growing. It also felt like the gaze between them might become inescapable, and he knew he had to tear himself away. He squeezed her hand, and she squeezed back before they both let go, even though he desperately didn’t want to.

“Have a good night, Sable.”

“…you too.”

[snapsnzips]

Why Am I Even Here? My Initial Dragon Age: Inquisition Reaction

I didn’t even like DAI at first. Especially coming in hot from DA2 and a lifetime of built in keyboard habits from Bioware games. Suddenly trying to click-to-move has me stopping and shooting. I can’t walk around using my mouse buttons while I drink some coffee or have a snack. Every time I try to pause the game I jump and the pause is now way off where my small handed pinky can’t really reach.

I’ve always played dual wield rogues. I love them. I instantly hated them here. No DA2 gap closer, no click to move if I’m not quite close enough, she kept ending up back in front of mobs no matter how I positioned her. No health bars or nameplates on mobs, they were impossible to see for someone overwhelmed by the input of a new game.

Also wtf is that tactical cam? As a diehard DA:O combat enjoyer, I was in shambles.

I can’t name my save games, I have to maintain a text file with save timestamps of things I want to keep.

I had to be standing on top of something to loot it with no click to move for better repositioning. The hold key is more of a suggestion to your party than a command that they actually fucking stay where I put them. Releasing a party from hold (if they actually stood still for more than 5 seconds) is now a separate keybind.

I finally made it to the tutorial boss and was so mad about how bad melee rogues play that I restarted the next day with a mage. Things got a little better.

I remapped jump to a mouse side button. I remapped disengage to another mouse side button. I put pause on the key it’s used for the last fucking 20 years of bioware games. I gave up mostly trying to get my party to stop moving. (I’m never doing the temple puzzles again where it requires everyone to stand in really specific spots all over the room). I installed mods that:

widened search radius

constantly search pinged

extended gathering reach

quicker looting

more banter

deshine (why tf is everyone soaking wet?)

more hair mods because again bioware hair is all square blocks

HD textures

A Reshade preset

complexion textures

beard edits for the male NPCs because wtf is that facial hair?

And then I restarted again to get something better out of the character creator.

I ended up with a bunch more mods but those are the big ones. I finally ended up needing mods to stop Maryden from singing so loud when I’m talking to people, to shut up Xenon because he’s so loud and stop the requisition officer from talking so she stopped interrupting banter that triggers on zone in.

Weirdly I don’t hate table missions. Although I wish some of them could have been side quests. I managed to kill my Dalish clan at least once and also killed off the Wardens in a set of missions. At first I thought table missions were purely flavor so I didn’t realize I could accidentally murder people and get really bad outcomes. I honestly don’t mind the war table although I did eventually cut mission length to 50%.

I got a conversation zoom-in mod as well. The default conversation zoom is so impersonal it just felt bad. The game should allow more zoom in during none cutscenes.

In case you can’t tell, I’m a game restarter. I often need two or three starts into a game before I can finish. I’ll restart and play the intro a few times to get a feel for what’s actually going on once I’m no longer overwhelmed. I’ll also restart halfway through if I realize I’ve made some really irredeemable mistakes (those conversation wheels don’t always mean what you think), or if I realize I’m really into what’s going on and want to replay what I’ve already done for a deeper understanding before moving forward with my story.

Restart scenario: I had been playing DA2 from my original pre-order disc from over 10 years ago. When it went on sale over Christmas, I bought it so I could play the DLC. Which I did then realized as I was part way through act 3 that I didn’t want to go there again. Anders my beloved.

Since there’s no way to save a character outside a new game, I had a lot of early false starts with DA:I. But that’s probably a story for a next post.

[mothersminstrel]

I probably should’ve done a separate post for Bruno, but oh well 🤷‍♀️ On to the triplets!

Karina and Julieta used to be somewhat close before Bruno left. She was the only adult left in the house during the day who wasn’t completely accident prone (Agustín I’m looking at you bud). But Julieta has always been one to easily bend to Alma’s will and that caused a lot of hurt for Karina. One minute they would be having a fine time talking and cooking together and the next minute Alma would come into the room and it would go stale and awkward. Like Julieta had been caught hanging out with a “bad seed”. After the events of the movie Karina doesn’t fully trust Julieta anymore. And any time they spent alone for the next few years Karina would always be secretly waiting for her to switch up like she used to. But, Julieta is a sincere person and she took the new changes very seriously and put in the effort to make it up to Karina. They aren’t close, but they are family.

Pepa on the other hand always made Karina nervous. She hates loud abrupt noise and Pepa’s constant mood shifts put her on edge. Karina relies heavily on pattern recognition to gauge how to act socially and Pepa is a hard card. Pepa never really tried to make any sort of relationship with her mostly because she was always fighting with Bruno and anyone on Bruno’s side was against hers. After the movie though she comes to terms with the fact that that is not true and Karina learns to be more at ease around her.

Karina and Bruno’s relationship is very special. They’ve been each other’s safe haven since they were kids. They spent so much time together that once they were married they hardly had anything to ever share. They were content enough just being next to each other. They felt like home to one another. When Bruno left, Karina felt very lost. Like someone had torn a piece of her away. She spent a lot of her time in and out of disassociation. When he came back into her life she was at first ready and willing to try and pick up where they left off, but she quickly learned she wasn’t as ready for that as she thought she was and neither was he. It took a few months for them to finally open up. Which also accidentally ended up with her pregnant with the triplets (carnal desperation type thing y’know how it is sksks) Both had been given a new goal in life and that motivated them to put in the work. Once the kids are grown, things are even better than they were before. They both have stopped having nightmares years ago. Bruno has a much more regular sleep schedule. Nobody in town knows him for his “bad luck” anymore and they’re finally given the chance to flourish.

@encanto-extended-edition

[04dissection]

I've been a bit too drained to work on any of my actual theories or detail catching(there's a yuno draft I keep staring at) so with that said, I may or may not have been listening to the entire Mili discography and couldn't help but assign MORE songs. I've previously assigned Yuno(Camelia), Mahiru(Rubber Human), and Mikoto(Sleep Talk Metropolis) songs. So they don't get any. Yeah.

Haruka: Extension of You

There is me, and there is you Who knew everything, teach me how to sing Teach me how to sing, teach me how to sing

I learned the good and the evil Learned your boundaries, learned your mortality You're out of service, out of service

There are still many things that I want to know Stories left untold Does it feel good to love? To hand out your own? To hand out your own? Does it feel good to hate? To shelter one's self? To shelter one's self?

Note: Vibes.

Fuuta: Painful Death For The Lactose Intolerant

Cleanse up your body, cleanse up your soul

Perfect life for you and I People who's trying to get by Painful death for the lactose intolerant For you there is no lament

Begin the revolution!

Note: Technically is the one that gave me the idea to actually make this list, though I came up with Kazui's WEEKS ago, and Amane's I gave to her basically as soon as it was released- which was a few days ago. Either way, Fuuta fits the allegory of this song for me- the disdain for people who 'can't change' in his view. I think his views of change are... changing now, so this is definitely for before he was injured. Yeah.

Muu: GIVE ME RICE

Honey This is all, this is everything All the things you want All you'll ever need

The entire 'give me' section that I am NOT pasting. It makes more sense listened to.

Note: I'm not entirely sure how to explain this song. While the song is mostly of just wanting things, there's elements of the singer knowing that this isn't what they need. It feels like a song of just not knowing how to end a cycle that is actively hurting you, even if you want to, and ending up perpetuating it as you give up. Maybe my explanation of why doesn't entirely make sense as to why I'd give it to Muu. I think with Muu, she didn't really want to break the cycle in the first place- when she was on top, of course- and that she simply fell into her role when she was no longer in that previous position. Muu is fairly passive, and I feel as though this song is better for the Muu shown in It's Not My Fault.

Shidou: Nine Point Eight -special edit-

Please don't leave me behind, leave me behind So you held me tight And said I will be just fine

Take me to where your soul may live in peace Final destination Touch of your skin sympathetically brushed against The shoulders you used to embrace

Note: I don't really have anything particular to say. I don't think it fits well per se, but I think the softness of the special edit over the original better fits Shidou. There's also a lot of flower imagery, so.

Kazui: From A Place of Love

There's just so much work Too much work to be done Committing to commitments Hiding my indulgence The freedom we sacrifice for love

You're a nice girl I'm just not ready now But then mommy said It ain't family biz Get over it Toughen up Just like the man we expected

I know that I agreed to this myself (Myself, myself) I wish it was their fault

Note: I was so tempted to paste all of the song lyrics. I also hope that all Library of Ruina fans that see this post take sanity damage from seeing THIS song here. I don't think any arguments can be made here. There's so much about getting into a relationship that ends disasterously because of being pressured into it, and then the blame that the singer puts on themself, that just works so perfectly for Kazui's story. The version specifically posted here is the battle version, not the Key Ingredient version, because that version leans more into some of the other elements of what this song was made for, elements that just don't fit. Either way. Kazui song. Don't read the comments.

Amane: Duetting Solo

(Holy land, with Her we stand) The love we teach, violence we preach (Knives in hand, we're innocent lambs)

My hands are red, my heart is black

I cried I screamed I slept I woke up mad

Note: Duetting Solo is a song of revenge, one that just so happens to have a heavy layer of religion on it. I know nothing of the source material, it is just kind of there. But yeah, to me, at least, this song feels very similar to Purge March in tone to me. Amane doesn't completely respect the beliefs she's been born into, even if she uses them to justify herself.

Kotoko: Rosetta

For everyone everywhere everything Will betray your innocent heart All of them

Vile, vile Shield yourself Mind my words Don't let yourself corrupt

Come back to me Rosetta No-one nowhere nothing will take anything anything anything from me

Note: There's a certain... anger to Rosetta that I can't really explain. It's just one of those things you feel, you know? Anyways, this one is a Kotoko and Lucky one. The song is so concerned with Rosetta remaining 'pure' and 'uncorrupted.' It's so distinctly paranoid that she will be hurt in some way. I have more reasoning but I began writing it and quickly realized 'oh! I should save this for my very complicated thoughts on what Kotoko and Lucky's relationship was, WHICH I WANT TO HOLD OFF ON BECAUSE LUCKY IS DEFINITELY BEING ASKED ABOUT.' The not-really summary on that though is that the singer of Rosetta, in my personal analysis, seems to be an overprotective/helicoptor guardian of sorts, paranoid of what the world could do to their child, and so paranoid that they end up being left behind by Rosetta anyways. The last lines of the song to me indicate that the singer saw Rosetta less as human, and more of something the singer 'had' in some way- just like how Kotoko seemed to treat Lucky like something she needed to protect and not much else, regardless of her genuine thoughts on her. Please do not make of that what you will I have a lot of thoughts and it's VERY hard to elaborate what I mean. Just. Rosetta. Kotoko and Lucky song.

[twofee]

Sims tag

Thanks for tagging me @episims :)

1. what’s your favorite sims death?

old age with the hula dancers welcome but mostly i try not to let anyone die!

2. Alpha CC or Maxis Match?

i’m somewhere in the middle, i have a game thats more heavy on the semi realistic content and another that’s more maxis match-y.

3. Do you cheat when your sims gain weight?

i wouldn’t say i cheat, but i do have them work out a lot to change back

4. Do you use move objects?

of course but i usually wait until the end of the decorating stage to do that.

5. Favorite mod?

i don’t use a lot of mods but i guess whatever one adds custom sliders or at least the bodyshop sliders to regular CAS

6. First expansion/game/stuff pack you got?

Well my simming career started back in the sims 1 release days and I got double deluxe base game followed quickly by unleashed shortly after it’s original release.

7.  Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing?

like LIVing

8. Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made?

i am very partial to Malle, Echo, Abba, and my legacy founder VJ!

9.  Have you made a simself?

in the past yes but i never really did much with her. there might be a saved file of her stashed away somewhere...

10. What sims traits do you give yourself?

very few outgoing points, plenty of nice points, a good handful of active

11. Which is your favorite EA hair color?

umm i tend to make lots of blonde sims but not with EA’s yellow blonde...so Brown I guess??

12. Favorite EA hair?

The shaggy surfer dude one

13. Favorite life stage?

Adult I guess

14. Are you a builder or are you in it for the game play?

i’m more in it for sim creation and decorating that playing or building.

15. Are you a CC creator?

yeah i’ve got a whole downloads tag worth of it but i wouldn’t say i am good at it and i don’t do it very often.

16. Do you have any simblr friends/a sims squad?

i’d like to think you’re all my friends but a few are closer/more interactive than others

17. What’s your favorite game (1,2,3,4)?

TS2 forever, with a special space for sims 1 in my heart

18. Do you have any sims merch?

no, not really my thing

19. Do you have a youtube for sims?

i tried dabbling in sims machinima at once point way back in the day, even had a couple voice actors record lines for the start of my little story. i made a little prologue video that i posted on youtube. not sure if it’s still around in some dusty corner of the internet....

20. How has your “sims style” changed throughout your years of playing?

while i have embraced and started leaning a little more maxis match since coming to simblr wayyyyy long ago, i would say it hasn’t changed too much, it’s still a mix of everything that i like and falls victim to my current mood and whims, but it’s maybe a little more cohesive now. i’d like to think someone could recognize twofee style decor or sim.

21. What’s your origin ID?

i don’t need it for sims as my install is off the discs but i think it’s twoffee

22. Who’s your favorite cc creator?

everyone who makes cc!! no way could you narrow that down!

23. How long have you had a simblr?

my archive says January of 2013 is when i finally gave up lurking!

24. How do you edit your pictures?

wow it’s been so long since i’ve done it, but i’ll crop, run a super old action i got from another popular simblr, then resize and be done. if i feel fancy i might add a little boarder shadow thing. but really not much.

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next?

i just want more content of any variety. new hairs and clothes, new decor items, floors and walls, conversions from other games, new recolors of everything. maxis match and semi realistic. or even bringing back some long lost content. I have an entire folder of 2000s content on an old external HD that I would love to just plug into a fresh game folder and see whats in there. it was all stuff i downloaded to save while i was in college and not able to play but didn’t want to lose or forget.

i’ll tag: @charmandersims, @holleyberry, @ove51, @simmer-until-tender, @lurking-lilibeth, @andrevasims, @lifetime-want, @simoleontree, @grilledcheese-aspiration, and anyone else who wants to participate!