#just go back to the old UI please

[murasaki-rose]

Super cool of Tumblr to re-arrange and hide features without telling anyone about it. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Heads up for anyone that has multiple blogs and uses the queue. If you want to actually VIEW or EDIT your queue on desktop you now have additional steps to go through.

Click on the little dude above the gear.

Click on the blog who's queue you want to view.

Now all the options that used to be on the right sidebar before tumblr decided to copy Twitter's homework are back on the right sidebar.

Click on queue and do your viewing, editing, etc.

Basically, they've almost entirely separated the blog management stuff from our dashes for some nonsensical reason. It's not like having everything accessible from your dash was causing any problems, so I can't think of a sensible reason to bury them even deeper in the UI.

Why the blogging website wants to make blogging more difficult, I can't imagine. Well I can, but it still doesn't make sense.

Note: If you click out of your queue you will need to go through the same song and dance each time unless you can backspace to it.

[losergames]

Chop Shop is strictly 18+ for language, themes, and potential explicit content. 

🔗 - Game Intro | Bug Report | Ko-Fi

Episode Four is now available! (+ 59,000) - PLAY HERE

Debrief after your meeting with Inez.

Steal... or don't!

Yvonne has a secret.

2 more achievements.

And more!

This update comes with a patch (Version 1.2.3) For this update you will need to start a NEW SAVE. An updated inventory macro has been implemented and is not compatible with old saves. I really wish you didn't have to but it's what's best for the game and its longevity!

Patch notes + author notes are under the cut. If preferred, you can access them in game in the start menu.

STORY

PROLOGUE:

General edits and fixes.

More vague, as to not elicit any emotional connection to the crew for continuity.

EPISODE 01:

Added a new set of personality building choices when meeting KJ, Jonno, Natasha and Aiden at the bar.

EPISODE 02:

Tweaked the conversation with Dilani in the closing scene to reflect more on the situation. Added some more fearful dialogue and flavour text.

Other general edits and fixes.

EPISODE 03:

Fixed gaps and spacing issues.

Minor phrasing and sentence structure changes.

Grammar and typo fixes.

UI + TECHNICAL

SETTINGS:

Changing the font size now only applies to the game text in the passages.

Added descriptions to the toggleable settings.

UI:

The background now changes colour dependent on what theme you are using, instead of the default black.

INVENTORY:

The inventory macro has been updated! Previously V2, now V3 of the ChapelR Simple Inventory Macro.

CREATE A SAVE

Modified the randomise PC choice, setting pronouns in 'sets' instead of randomising each pronoun separately.

GAMEPLAY MODE

Players can now choose a gameplay mode when starting a new save: Regular or Challenge.

Challenge mode disables the back button, disallowing players to return to the previous passage. Players cannot redo dice rolls or try out different choices for desired outcomes.

Challenge mode is not available in Create A Save. All CAS made saves default to regular mode.

AN: hello hello! it has been a while -- episode 04 is finally here!

this ep was a long one to get through but we finally made it out of the fog. i found that i wrote a bunch of stuff that just... didn't fit? but is hopefully going to be used later down the line, so it's cool i've got shells of scenes for later.

i can't find any game breaking bugs myself and my amazing beta testers have scanned through as many possible variants as they can! of course, if there is anything funky, broken, or maybe not triggering correctly, please submit a bug report!

again i will say that you will need to start a NEW SAVE for this update. unfortunately the updated inventory macro is not compatible with previous saves. i really didn't want this to be a thing when updating chop shop but it is unfortunately just the way for this update - apologies!! i know it's super annoying when games do this but chop shop is still a wip so there will always be some teething problems along the way.

as i look through my notes, we have now completed act 1 of my outline (AAAAHH) so soooo exciting. finally pc can stop wringing their hands about being bad and actually //start// being bad.

if you've made it this far -- hello and thank you! i'm so happy we're at the point where PC is making some real decisions, taking another step into their life of crime.

happy update day and happy reading!! thank you so much for the continued support and patience!!! i hope you enjoy the new episode! - becky :-) <3

[lj-lephemstar]

Progress Checkup! (Nov. 2024) | Scratchin' Melodii Devlog

​​Hey again guys! Sorry if it's been a bit since the last devlog. With how much I've been up to, it sure feels like it!

Let's get right into it. For starters, the 3rd rival battle of Act 2 is complete! I'll likely be showing a gameplay preview of it sometime soon. This is the first song to use the new framework that I'll be using for all the other stages going forward, which also means I've had to spend the past couple weeks getting the previous songs working with this new system too... Did you know that in the demo builds, if I wanted to change something about the gameplay, I'd have to manually go back and change it for EACH individual song one by one? Well now, imagine all the songs had like a peace treaty to just share one good, clean, and organized system that I can easily tweak and add to as I please. So development is gonna be smoother than ever from here! This is how most games are SUPPOSED to work, but I was a liiittle too stupid to figure out how to do this until recently!

While I was moving Cream Cheese Icing over to this new system, I took the opportunity to make the chart a bit more beginner-friendly! For example, the first line went from this...

To just this!

As you can see, it has less notes, therefore it is less scary for new players. Believe it or not, I actually never intended for Cream Cheese Icing to be so difficult for new players in the first place! Naturally, being too good at my own game can make gauging the difficulty curve a bit tricky at times, but I think I'm figuring it out!​

You may have also noticed that the characters have new UI icons too! I felt like the old ones were too flat and boring, so I did a new take on them, aiming for more dynamic shapes and angles, not to mention how my art style's just kinda grown a bit in general since I last drew the icons. I also ended up leaving out the circles behind them. I was a little worried I was gonna run out of unique colors for all of them at some point, plus SOME of these guys can have really big hair and/or hats that pretty much just cover up the whole circle anyway. (hi rensa)

Speaking of artwork, here's a little look at some of the updated animation I've done for Stir & Mix! (Try to imagine it in not highly-compressed-gif-form. I promise it looks better in-game!)

When working on Stir & Mix related stuff, I can't help but feel a bit of a sense of dread knowing how people may react to it... Honestly, sometimes I kinda wish it never got as popular as it did in 2022. But hey, doing my own thing regardless of what's expected of me is the most Scratchin' Melodii thing I could do!

Speaking of which, Mia learned a ton of new stuff while doing the VOCALOID tuning for the last rival battle we worked on, so we might revisit Stir & Mix's vocals again at some point before release to give it even more style! (By the way, Mia and 2cada are the same person! Sorry if I refer to both names interchangeably! She's been the one doing all the VOCALOID tuning and vocal mixing for the game since 2023.)

Well, I think that's all for now! Here's another friendly reminder that there will NOT be anymore demos of the game. Any new content will be saved for the full game's release. I know I've said it before, but I probably won't stop saying it until people stop getting confused about it LOL. Thanks for reading!! I appreciate you. - LJ

[mushroominaforest]

Hehe oc / siblings au lore drop time!!!!

(It’s kinda long sorry lol)

BEHOLD:

The Assistant!

Assistant was designed to look aesthetically pleasing. They don’t love their appearance that much, but at the end of the day, being doomed to look cute that isn’t the worst fate that a purposed organism could face. They’re Unparalleled Innocence’s messenger, but they also just sorta assist UI in general, hence the name.

UI is actually one of the decent Iterator parents in the au, but Assistant still got bored of running errands, and wanted to have an adventure. UI reluctantly let them go, telling them that they would be missed and were welcome back anytime.

Assistant was thrilled to have their adventure, but they were also what one might describe as ever-so-slightly privileged. They worked, yes, but they hadn’t actually had to survive on their own before, hunt for their food or fight for their shelter. So they were struggling somewhat, and considering cutting their losses and going back to their easy yet boring life with their parent.

And then Assistant met someone. Another purposed organism their age, the toughest, bravest and strongest slugcat they’d ever seen. Someone with beautiful purple eyes.

Assistant met Artificer.

Things were pretty good at first. Neither of them had really even had a proper friend before, let alone a relationship, and they rode the high of young love and freedom for a while. Assistant gave Artificer the love she’d never had before and desperately needed, and Artificer kept Assistant safe. But their happiness didn’t last, as Artificer started to go back to her old self.

Assistant eventually decided that they’d had enough, and it wasn’t worth it anymore. What followed was a messy breakup which left Assistant with a scar and Artificer with a broken heart. (This breakup happened before Artificer knew she was going to be a mother.)

Assistant was happy to be out of their unhealthy relationship, but didn’t have anyone to protect them from the unforgiving ecosystem anymore, and wound up going back to UI.

They still want to see the world, but don’t want to be on their own. if only there was somewhere they could go where they wouldn’t be alone. Maybe somewhere with a bunch of slugcats… some sort of community…

[leafington]

(𝙞 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙖) 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙮, 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙣𝙚𝙭���� 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙚. - kiyoomi s.

content warning !! - angst to comfort so essentially fluff, blackfem!reader, drinking implied but no intoxication, suggestiveness if you squint, mayhaps ooc but idc i do what i want

This isn't him. No chance in hell. He's supposed to be big, ignorant, and one-track minded Sakusa—MSBY Black Jackal's infamous outside hitter. His identity's been tainted by some girl he managed to wriggle into his life, denting his plans but not quite hindering them.

He used to threaten others with his wrist, messing with little kids by folding his hands. Said person told him to stop it, and he did. He can't remember the last time he crouched down to an 8-year-old and watched them run for their mother because of him. Sakusa had a strict hair routine that wasn't going to change no matter how long his hair got, the same four products he's used since his mother taught him how to take care of his curls. That woman came along and he'd let her share his bathroom, adding one extra product she claimed would make his curls more full which indefinitely worked.

In his first year of highschool, he would've freaked out discovering his future self succumbed to his natural teenage tendencies and fell for what he can only describe as the prettiest girl in the world.

She looked so ethereal barging into their practice one day, approaching Komori and exchanging words regarding whatever required discussion. Days passed of just Sakusa debating putting his pride aside just to talk to a girl. In the long run he didn't, but thankfully lucked out when Komori picked up on his interest and invited them both over.

"'Coincidence' my ass."

To this very moment, he cherished every day spent they together. Hence why he's so pressed that he's missing her, sitting on his hotel bed, finger hovering over the 'My World 🗺️' UI in his contacts. He never changed it.

She plauged his mind with her being. He wants see her again, feel her hands in his hair, scrub the hard-to-reach spots on his back (he can reach them, he just prefers for her to do it), apologize for his ignorance, pride, and one-track mindset; all of it.

Damn it all.

The rowdy bunch kept him busy all day, it's their fault he's waiting for the stupid ring back to either stop or tell him he's reached her voicemail, he hopes it's the latter that way he can flush down that reprehensive feeling of reaching out to her so late. What were they thinking taking him out for drinks?

"Hello?" Sleep and disorientation transmit on his side, regardless, he's grateful to hear her voice again.

"Baby? It's me," He sounds so pathetic, he can only imagine what she thinks of him for pulling such a stunt. "I miss you. So much, baby. You don't even know." It's unfathomable, not even Sakusa knows why he's doing this.

Yes he does. He wants his girl back. "I know it's late, I'm sorry for waking you, I just had to let you know." Sakusa speaks low into the phone, not so much a whisper, but to the point where she won't be disturbed. "Sakusa? The hell? It's like—"

"Kiyo. It's Kiyo to you." He never talked over her, except for this and one other time. He swears it's the last time, shutting up so she can finish. "Two in the morning? I have work." Either his surname or not at all, that's okay, he's determined to fix that. "Just listen to me, 'kay?"

"I never should've blown up at you. I was exhausted, tired, annoyed, I didn't mean anything I said. I should've talked to you, you know I would never voluntarily raise my voice at you, right? I can't keep this up. I wanna see you, I need to see you. Please, love." He's never felt more humiliated like this in his life, begging over the phone for his woman to take him back.

It's quiet, the faint squeak of her fan in the background. An annoyed grunt is detected presumably her sitting up. "Aren't you in Tokyo right now?" She has a point, but that's never stopped Sakusa from getting what he wants. "I'll make the flight, just say the word." He might just be willing to ditch the entire game, he'll do so at her command. "You're delusional. C'mon, you're not flying all the way out here just to see me. You better play tomorrow, I'm serious. I'm not in your way anymore, focus on volleyball."

He's not getting through to her. She's slipping from his fingers with the tight grasp he has on her. "Y/n. I'll say 'Fuck the team.' and blow it all for you. You've never been in my way, ever, so stop thinking like that. I'm sitting here, butt-naked in a towel on expensive ass bedsheets begging you to take me back. I don't know what I have to do, but I'll do it if it means I can be in your arms again, babygirl."

Silence again—meaning the worst or the best from her. She shuffles around a little, and digs through some type of drawer of sorts before finally speaking again.

"You better win."

Sakusa Kiyoomi is a lovesick fool, he admits it. Anything for his woman. And he means anything.

©2024 leafington dont steal please!! :)

[imagineanime2022]

The Variable *Part 4*

Caspian Keyes X Fem!Reader

Word Count: 3426

Requested: @far1ydimpl3s @twilight5139

Request: Hi so I have a request, can we please do a part 4 for Caspian Keyes x reader PLEASEE! There is only like a few of them on tumblr and I really like yours so please do this I beg of youuu AND this is really good, can u maybe do a part 4 pls

Warning: Everything following will take place in season 2 of the show, so if you want to avoid spoilers or have not watched the series yet, I'd recommend holding off for until you have.

*Part 3*

You and Caspian had been in Norway for a month and you still hadn’t gotten used to the cold. You had taken up self defense and safe weapon use to give yourself something to do in the time that Caspian spent trying to crack integrity. You still understood it as little as you did a month ago when it all started and yet Caspian always used you as a soundboard bouncing ideas off you and 90% of the time you had nothing to add.

Today was no different, Caspian was in a meeting with everyone he deigned to keep in the company, you were sitting at the head of the table with Caspian behind you as they moved through different ideas but no one seemed to be providing anything that he could use, even you could tell that. “We have one month, if that, before the world rebels against digital lockdown and the Internet starts to come back online. When that happens, UIs will flood the networks all over again. New UIs, more dangerous UIs. The only thing that can stop them is one of their own, one that doesn’t have this flaw.” Caspian explained as his hands pressed into the back of the chair that you were sitting on. “You mean one of our own.” The person that had spoken was someone who hadn’t seen it necessary to introduce himself to you. “What?” Caspian asked, eyes moving to the man that had spoken. “The only thing that can stop them is one of our own?” He clarified “an American UI.” “By all means continue to state the obvious.” Caspian grumbled. “Isn’t that what you're doing?” He asked. “Someone’s combative today.” You muttered into your hand as you leaned back in the chair, elbow leaning on the arm rest. “Maybe the obvious isn’t obvious to you geniuses.” Caspian said as he turned back to the board. “No matter how many times I say it. If a computer could have solved the flaw, it would have done it already.” “AI can’t crack it because the problem isn’t computational, it’s neurobiological.” Waxman explained. “What does that even mean?” Caspian asked hands planted on the table to the left of you as he leveled his gaze with Waxman. “We’re uploading regular old human brains, and regular old human brains decay and die. If an uploaded brain works exponentially faster, it just makes sense, it would decay faster.” Waxman explained, even though that sounded confusing to you, your eyes shifted to Caspian when nothing came from him. “Unfortunately we don’t have time to solve immortality at the biological level, Dr Waxman.” The man you didn’t know the name of explained as you looked at him and frowned. “At least he seems to understand what’s going on. All you're doing is pointing out problems.” You narrowed your eyes at him. “No, I agree with him.” Waxman said, leaning back in his chair. “So, there is no solution. That’s helpful. I’m glad you guys brought him up here.” Caspian stood to look at Julius who was standing by the door of the office. “Well, it wasn’t my choice.” Waxman muttered as his hands folded in his lap, you could understand the behaviour if he was strong armed up here which was likely after everything that he had done was not inconceivable. “The problem is computational, it’s just that a regular human brain has to solve it.” Caspian turned back to the board behind him. “It’s the ultimate NP-complete problem. So maybe the question I should have asked was did anybody here even understand the model I proposed?” There was silence for a second and that told you everything that you needed to know, your eyes shifting to the man next to you, Anssi. “I don’t think… it works.” “Really? Because I know it doesn’t work.” Caspian informed him “what I need is someone to figure out why.” Again silence followed and he leaned down to your ear “let’s go.” You stood to follow him out of the room “I told you these brainstorms were a waste of time.”

You both walked back to the office “I really think that you should exercise your right to punch someone in the face.” You shrugged as you walked towards the sofa “think it would be just as hot as you talking down to them.” Caspian caught your hand before you could get too far. “What was that last part?” He teased a soft smile on his face proof his anger had nothing to do with you. “Nothing.” You answered, burying your face in his chest, his arms coming up to wrap around you. “You sure?” He asked, dropping a kiss on your shoulder before squeezing you a little tighter. “Don’t you have work that you have to get done? You know, saving the world and all that.” You rested on his shoulders as he pulled back. “Don’t remind me.” He seemed to deflate his forehead resting against yours before finally pressing a soft kiss to your lips and then looked over at the desk he had spent a month working at with no results. “You’ll get it, I can tell you're so close to figuring it out.” You smiled. “You don’t understand any of this.” He reminded you. “And yet I know that.” You pressed another quick kiss to his lips before stepping away, he walked over to the desk, he sat down and picked up the glasses and you smiled as you watched him. “Run.” You knew from there on the programme allowing him to talk to an older version of himself was running, as he started working you walked to a small area of the office, Caspian had insisted on giving you everything that you needed to stay busy while he worked. You started on what was known as a daily self defense training up, not even noticing when Caspian turned to watch you. Your eyes caught the turned chair about 30 minutes in. “You figure something out?” You asked. “I…” He trailed off his eyes moving over you before looking back up at your face. “You?” You asked with a teasing smile on your face and a hand on your hip. “I need to talk to David.” He answered. “David?” You asked. “Mmm he’s the only other person that could have solved this.” He explained as you walked over to him. “How are you going to do that?” You asked. “Miracle of backups.” He shrugged as you looked at him. “Well if you want me there then you are going to have to wait for me to shower.” You informed him. “You could go like that.” He leant his cheek against his fist as he looked at you. “No I can't, you might run cold but I don’t, so I need proper clothes if I’m going out there.” You argued “plus I’m all sweaty, I’m not walking around all sweaty.” “Alright, I’ll wait.” He laughed as you jogged over to the bathroom off to the side.

Caspian had pitched the idea to Waxman who didn’t think that it was going to work. You sat in a chair off to the side waiting for him to finish setting everything up as Caspian paced back and forth. “Boot him up.” Caspian finally said. “I’m telling you this won’t work.” Waxman argued. “Boot him up.” Caspian insisted, Waxman sighed when he got no response from Caspian, you leant forward against the back of the chair as you watched the simulation load in. There was silence for a moment before Caspian spoke “You're kidding me, he’s just going to play solitaire every single time?” “That’s what I meant by restricted, higher-level functioning.” Waxman said, you remembered him saying something about that but at the time you had no idea what it meant by the sounds of it they were stopping him from using too much power while still stimulating the brain. “But this is an identical copy of the original upload.” Caspian argued as he walked out of the simulation to face Waxman. “Yes but in the original upload we separated linguistically-coded memories from the other frontal lobe capacities.” He explained turning to the screen to pull something up to help explain it to Caspian “This version of David doesn’t know who he is yet. He doesn’t even know that he’s a UI.” “How did you solve this problem two years ago?” Caspian asked. “We reintroduced memories of his family. We needed them in order to access his emotions, which then activates intuition and nonlinear inspiration.” Waxman explained. “Okay so do it.” Caspian ordered. “You don’t know what you're asking, what this will do to him.” Waxman argued. “We’re doing this for him. And we’re running out of time.” Caspian reminded him. “They brought you up here to help but if you don’t I’ll get someone who will.” “Waxman you should have said no years ago, now it’s too late to preserve what is left of your friend, you failed him already.” You stood from your seat following Caspian out of the room. “Are you sure that this is the right option?” “It’s the only one.” Caspian sighed as you both headed back to the office.

They had been trying to get David to understand the situation for hours now, reboot after reboot and every time he panicked and treated them like the enemy “There has to be a way to make him understand.” Caspian said as he turned to the simulation where David was looking at the picture of his family. “The original David found a way to escape our security protocols. Used the web to find his daughter, regain his sense of self.” Julius explained. “It’s too bad that’s off the table.” Waxman said, you could feel the conversation changing. “If David can’t go to his family… Maybe we bring them to him.” Julius suggested, you hand twisted into a fist as you looked between them and then at Caspian. “No.” Caspian shut the idea down “Maddie has buried her father twice already, I’m not putting her through that again. Not until I solve the flaw.” “We’ve done enough to them.” You added chin rested on the back of the chair. “But if you can’t solve the flaw without David and you can’t have David without-” “We’re not bringing her here. I’ll find another way.” Caspian cut Julius off. “David never got the chance to work with Stephen Holstrom back in the day.” You heard Waxman talking as you stood to leave “maybe that’s for the best.” “You want to go for a walk?” Caspian asked. “Outside?” You asked. “Yes.” He laughed taking your hand. “If you think it’ll help.” You nodded.

You both grabbed a coat before heading out “do you think this is the right move?” He asked. “I know why you're doing it, I don’t think that I would have made a difference if it were mine.” You explained “but I also see why it might be difficult to stick to that line of thinking, in the time that we have.” “You think the only way to get this right is to bring her here?” He asked. “I don’t see another way but I’m not a genius.” You shrugged, his hand brushed yours as his eyes travelled to you, he hated when you did this. Talk about yourself like you were unworthy to be there. Especially when he was sure that you're the only one that stood by him and gave him real answers where he needed them. “I didn’t ask a genius, I asked you.” He leaned down pressing a kiss to the top of your head as you passed a fish salesman, you both heard him talk but ignored him as you continued forward. “Caspian.” The man said, you both stopped and looked back at him, Cary. “Look at the fish.” You approached the box first as Cary knelt to open it. “What do you want?” Caspian asked as he stood close behind you. “Watch out for Pope and Renee.” He warned. “Renee is gone like you should be.” Caspian said, though now that you thought about it, it would be weird for her to have accepted being fired so easily. “She’s still in the mix, I don’t know what but they’re up to something.” Cary spoke quietly and rushed as you glanced behind him at the man that had been following you both keeping an eye. “Be careful though you can’t just fire Pope. He’s the one keeping you in charge.” “I am in charge.” Caspian argued, again something that you hadn’t said out loud but there had been a shift with very few people knowing Caspian’s true identity. It would be hair for them to trust the 18 year old genius. “Keep him close but watch your back.” He advised. “We need to go.” You muttered standing from you were crouched. “Nei takk” Caspain said as he turned away, taking your hand and walking away.

There was another meeting, one that you were again sitting in on, if only because Caspian didn’t trust the people you were both dealing with to leave you alone. Your eyes cast around the room before landing on the hall leading into the room where your eyes connected with Maddie, you took in a harsh breath which caused Caspian to look at you before following your gaze and seeing Maddie as well. Both of you seemingly realising at the same time that Renee was also there. “Maddie? What are- What is she doing here? And what are you doing here?” Caspian asked, aiming his questions at Renee. “I told you, I am on this earth to help you, Caspian.” Renee answered as you tensed, the last time that you saw her she scared you, now you wanted nothing more than to shut her up, especially as she reached out to Caspian. “Security, this is a trespasser. Get her out of here now.” Caspian ordered. “Do as he says.” Julius said, it was in that moment that you realised that Caspian was indeed only in control because of Julius. “Julius you- Julius! You son of a bitch! You know what I’ll do!” She shouted, you watched, she was leaving too easily for someone so invested that she would pull a gun on her partner, there’s a plan, you’d be seeing her again soon probably. “She’s clearly not well.” Julius said as he moved to stand between you and Caspian, you back leant against the glass wall as you watched them. “You too, Pope. Get out.” Caspian ordered. “Caspian let me explain.” Julius said. “I gave you specific orders not to bring her here.” Caspian glared at him. “Hold on, you're the project lead, but you don’t give orders.” The NSA agent said, you still hadn’t learned his name and had no intention of doing so when it seemed that you likely wouldn’t be staying for much longer. “All right, let’s just- Let’s give each other space.” Julius stepped in, you assumed because he worried that the truth would end up. “Why do you listen to this kid?” The agent asked and you smirked. “I doubt you'll ever find that out.” you mumbled crossing your arms over your chest. “You’re here to help me crack integrity, not the other way around.” Caspian reminded him as he looked at the man. “Let’s take ten, Come on. Everyone out. Let’s go.” Julius said as he ushered everyone out of the meeting room, you watched them all leave “I’m sorry about this.” “No you're not.” You muttered, your eyes narrowing as his connected with yours before he was gone too. Caspian looked down at Maddie and smiled but she didn’t return the gesture so Caspian’s smile dropped as he lead her back into the meeting room.

“Look, I'm sorry. All right? Pope obviously went behind my back.” Caspian argued. “I’ll have him refuel the plane and send you back home as soon as possible.” “No.” Maddie answered. “What?” Caspian asked. “I’m not going anywhere until. I’m positive every last trace of my father’s upload is deleted.” Maddie said. “As expected.” You looked at Caspian. “Deleted?” Caspian asked. “I didn’t come here against my will. I am here to see his soul to rest. I told you that he was gone.” Maddie’s voice shook at the end of the sentence as Caspian looked at you ‘tell the truth.’ you mouthed as his eyes moved back to her. “You didn’t know there was a copy?” Caspian asked. “I should have, I guess.” Maddie answered. “I don’t know why I trusted Waxman.” “I don’t think he knew.” Caspian said. “So you’ll help me?” Maddie asked turning to both of you, your eyes moved to the floor, you knew what the right answer was but you also knew what the answer was if you wanted to save the rest of the world. “Maddie I’m doing what we talked about, what you asked me to do.” Caspian answered honestly. “I am this close to solving the flaw. I can fix David’s upload to the point where he will become immortal.” “Why are you doing this?” Maddie asked. “I have a responsibility.” Caspian asked. “To who?” Maddie asked, her eyes moving to you for a second before settling on him again. “To everyone, everything, the world, the future.” He answered. “Oh my god.” Maddie stepped back slightly. “Yes! God. It’s that big. Whoever cracks integrity creates the first virtual god.” Caspian answered his voice raising, you kicked off the wall that you were leaning against moving into a better position to defuse the situation. “You said the flaw was the only thing saving the world. Now you want to erase it?” Maddie asked. “I was wrong.” Caspian argued. “When the internet comes back on, so do the UIs and more passed them. It doesn’t matter how fast they burn out, they can still burn us all down like suicide bombers with nukes strapped on.” “Who told you this?” Maddie asked. “The only thing that can stop a UI is another UI, a more powerful one.” Caspian argued. “This sounds like Pope.” Maddie leant against the table with her arms crossed. “Pope is irrelevant.” Caspian said. “I am in charge here. I just fired Pope.” “Is that what you think just happened?” Maddie asked “open your eyes, Caspian he is in charge. Those guys only left when he said so. These people are manipulating you.” Caspian looked away from her and his eyes fell on you, everything about you seemed unsettled, agitated as your fist clenched and unclenched rhythmically “they are turning you into someone you don’t want to be.” “You don’t know me.” Caspian said as he tried to catch your eye. “Who does?” Maddie asked. “Like I said, you're free to go home.” Caspian reminded her. “I’m not going anywhere until you stop using David Kim’s upload.” Maddie stated her terms. As you watched them you realised that they weren’t going to come to any agreement not yet and somehow they seemed to be the perfect opposition to the other. “Alright stay as long as you want then.” Caspian said as took your hand unclenching your fingers before intertwining them with his and leading you out of the room “I hope you like fish!”

“Something is bothering you.” Caspian said once you were in his office. “It’s nothing.” You answered. “It’s not nothing, you’ve never been wrong about people, so tell me what’s bothering you.” Caspian begged, he sat on the sofa pulling you to stand in front of him, never once letting go of your hands. “I don’t think that she’s wrong, they’re all dangerous and none of them believe that you are in control.” You answered honestly “but you still need this place and the people to get what you want.” “You think they will get what they want before we do?” He asked. “I’m worried that you both want the same thing for different reasons and I think you are more than capable of getting there.” You said. “I’m-” “You are going to do what we came here to do and I’m going to protect you, your brain child and the little diva that just showed up.” You informed him, he laughed as he pulled you down to sit on his lap, he leaned down and pressed a kiss to his lips. “We’ll get this done and then leave it all behind.” He promised, pulling you in closer as he thought of ways to make that promise a reality.

*Part 5*

Request Here!!

[cyle]

So, this will likely get ignored and I'm scared of actually sending asks off anon, but here goes, since the feedback on the navigation ui desktop has been so overwhelmingly negative already, with complaints about it being too crowded, too claustrophobic, and essentially just like twitter, which pretty much no one here likes, will you be listening, ending the test and letting the dashboard stay as it was, or will you be forcing an overwhelmingly unpopular change on us anyway?

the new design is an experiment. it's not out to everyone. we do these experiments so that you can provide us with feedback, and so we can see if updates like this cause actual behavior changes. please do send in your feedback to Support.

personally, i found the change really jarring at first as well. it took me a few days to get over that, as someone who's been using this site almost every day since 2009. however, i've been using the site with this new layout for a couple of months now, and i cannot believe it ever looked different. now i don't want to go back to the old layout, tbh. but that's just me.

i do hope the people having such a negative knee-jerk reaction give it a few days and see how they feel about it then. when we changed the reblog UI design back in 2015, it was like the sky was falling for the first week or so, and then everybody forgot the dashboard ever looked any other way. now we look back at that blockquote-reblog time like it was a joke. i hope we can say the same about this.

[autffiy]

My supernatural DR Stories part 1

Hello lovelies,

As promised I would tell you some of my favorite little stories from my Supernatural DR. Grab a coffee, tea or water because hell, this uis going to be a multi part series i think. I got so much to tell.

Mind you.. this is not series accurate so please don't come for me thank tou very much.

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First of all, I'm going to tell you a little bit about my DR self. So you guys can get to know my DR self a little better! {this will be written in my DR POV, little snippets from my DR journal. how fun.} I started writing this journal in September when I hadn't even met the Winchester brothers yet. So you will follow me on my journey when I meet the Winchesters. I started writing in this journal to keep up with my cases... and all the weird stuff happening around me.

₀₉₋₀₁₋₂₀₀₅

"So my name is Ashly Rowan, I'm a 22 year old girl who is currently moving from motel to motel because ha... i don't have a fucking steady job.. or a home. I drive a sage green 1975 ford F-100 which i sleep in most days... not the most comy tbh. It is now, september 1st when i'm starting to write this journal. I'm now in a motel in Little Rocks- Arkansas. Trying to figure out one of those stupid cases again... on my own. It's a vampire case, nothing too bad. Wish dad was here, he would be.. well probably in shock that i didn't do anything like college or something like that. But also would be proud that i was hunting the thing he got killed by....."

¹⁰⁻³⁰⁻²⁰⁰⁵

"I'm currently writing in my car.. I'm on my way to Bobby's house. Bobby Singer.. that old man. Sweet, but feisty and well.. old. But nothing i can't handle. I need his help with a case. Some nasty skin walker a few towns ahead. I need his advice.. and possible help because hell that thing escaped me many.. many times. My ribs are bruised.. and i have a few cuts on my face. Nothing to worry about. I found out that dad had some connection with the supernatural world before he died... but what?? That's what i need to find out.. Maybe i can ask Bobby? Anyhow.. I'm going to sleep now.. in my car in a parking lot at a gas station. Woohoo... goodnight."

The following day on october 31st, Halloween moring i drove the last bit to Bobby's house. Franticly knocking on his door. That's when i met Sam and Dean, their dad went on a hunting trip and hadn't come back. And Sam's girlfriend Jessica got burned up in flames a couple day's prior. Just how their mom died.. Well that's what they told me. I knew a little bit about John Winchester, because various hunters had told me about him. From what i heard he was a prick... but i didn't say that to their faces obviously.

Fast forward a few days later where the boys helped me take down the shapeshifter. We tracked its location down, it was staying in a sewer, of course. We made a game plan. All would enter different entrances of the sewer. So we could lock it in. This was I think one of the most terrible cases ever, so yada yada ya we walked our paths, all circling the skinwalker now. Then it decided to fucking run my way??? So now o was standing there.. in a sewer, covered in fucking slimy, bloody skin walker skin. Since Dean decided to blow that fuckers head off out of reflex. Fantastic... Definitely what I planned. We ended up cleaning off at the motel and meeting back at a diner to grab some food...

So this was basically my first few weeks in my DR. It was nightmare fuel in some ways, skinwalkers are definitely terrifying and I hate them. But even though, it was pretty fun if I say so. The brothers are so funny and sweet.

I will make other parts of this soon, i loveee telling you guys about my stories. Feel free to ask any questions, i'm happy to answer them.

xoxo alli.

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Tip jar

[cursed-40k-thoughts]

As someone who has played a lot of Armored Core games, and been fond of the franchise for a long time, man... Armored Core fans really are crawling out of the woodwork to loudly proclaim themselves the shittiest brand of FromSoft fan, huh?

The amount of vitriol, elitism and sheer whinging I’ve seen in the run up to AC6′s release is staggering. I have not seen a group of people more aggressively dedicated to trying to torpedo new interest in an IP than them in quite some time. They’re being utter children.

The main thing that seems to be setting them off is people asking how it compares to the Soulsborne games, right? Or people comparing elements of it to the Soulsborne games. Guess what? People use points of comparison and familiarity as a means of understanding new things, and seeing which parts of a new thing they can connect with. That’s how people work, you children. I understand that you’re exceptionally bitter and want to feel special or distinguished from the “mainstream gamers” and the “fake new fans” or whatever, but you need to grow up and recognise that the Soulsborne games are the games that the western world are most familiar with in relation to FromSoft. Hell, AC6 is only getting so much widespread interest because it’s coming from FromSoft, off the back off their most successful game launch of all time.

The fact people who like FromSoft, or know of FromSoft, are trying to find points of common ground and draw comparisons is a good thing. You get that, right? People are looking at a game that they largely have no immediate context for and are trying to find it because it’s interesting to them. And those comparisons are good, no matter what the game is. Being able to break down elements of something via comparative points in order to find a way for new people to connect with it is VERY GOOD ACTUALLY.

If someone wants to know about a thing I like, and why I like it, and why they might like it, you know how I explain it to them? You know how it’s normal to explain it to them? You take things that they understand/like/are familiar with and use those things to guide them along. This is good. This is information bridging. This is, it has to be said, common fucking sense.

What you don’t do, you fountains of sparkling uniqueness, you super special little guys, is go “It’s NOT like ANYTHING you’ve EVER played and FUCK you for making ANY comparisons it’s WHOLLY unique and you’ll ONLY understand by playing OLD games. Also it’s SUPER HARD. Get FUCKED.”

Because a), that’s not really true, and b), that’s fucking dippy and exactly how you drive people away. You do understand that if you assist in alienating people away from the series, and the game (which is part of an extremely niche genre in the west) doesn’t sell well enough, it’s entirely possible that Bamco will just not want to publish another one. Do you understand that?

Also, all the people whining about the modernisation/refinement of UI and various gameplay elements, and how the game will be too easy now. Just... shut up. Please shut the fuck up. This happens every time FromSoft does any kind of sequel to anything. It never turns out to be the case. When was the last time someone went “Ah, FromSoft, the guys who make the easy games.” Jesus Christ.

[ravings-of-a-mad-scientist]

I think there is something of a story that could be made out of tech no longer being supported by the tech is life supporting

You know what? YES! There is a story to be made out of tech no longer being supported even though it's life supporting! My fuckin emails!

I used to use Windows' default mail app, which sucked. It couldn't work with custom email addresses and was generally janky, but you know what? It was my janky default mail app, because I was too lazy to change it to a better one. Just like with every other default app included with Windows 10 (which I still use even though they came out with a Windows 11 (even though they said they'd never do that (fuckin tryhards)))

But then Windows was all like

"mail app will no longer be supported, please switch to Outlook, bleh".

And that's when my alarm bells started ringing. I knew shit was going down hill. First they took Flash, and now they're after my fuckin MAIL?!? Is nothing sacred???

And what's worse, they had the gall to make *me* do something, and accept change, when I'd much rather be embracing stagnancy. What? Are we too good for the bare minimum all of a sudden?

But, I also knew the deadline was like six months away, so I didn't do shit and forgot about it. Because I have a heavy prescription for A.D.D., a mental disorder which makes it difficult to not put things off until the last minute since I can't think in scales longer than about six days. I am heavily dependant on my calendar app to tell me when to do stuff.

But then it happened. Six entire months had passed, and I finally had to change to Outlook. That made my afternoon a SLIGHTLY more stressful and busy than it'd have normally been, the bastards

But, you know what? There's no point getting angry over that. I think I might have just been too complacent with my old shitty default mail app all that time, and was too lazy and had too many dysfunctioning executives to look for better options. I might never have known what other mail apps could be like until someone gave me that little push. There really is a lesson to be learned here. 😔

And you know what that lesson is?

DON'T EVER FUKIN TRUST WINDOWS! BECAUSE OUTLOOK IS WAY SHITTER AND JANKIER THAN MAIL APP! WHY DID THEY MAKE ME SWITCH TO IT???

It takes forever to open, it also fucked the calendar app because apparently those can't be separate windows anymore so I had to spend like 20 minutes fixing it, then it fucked my wife, and just today it refused to open at all because it FALSELY believed it was already open.

I ended up having to restart my entire ass computer, WITH A FORCED WINDOWS UPDATE, giving me plenty of time to write this post. Haven't slept in 42 hours btw (unrelated). Then Outlook decided to log me out, so I had to find my password to sign back in. Meanwhile, I couldn't do any work because the only thing I needed to do was see my goddamned emails! So I finally get in, and I discovered that apparently that Windows update was updating Outlook, because I had to tell them that NO, I DON'T WANT MY DATA HARVESTED.

All this and for what? Fashionable looking UI design? Compatibility with email handles that don't end with @gmail.com?

What do I look like, some kinda jackass who owns multiple alternate email addresses with custom domains? Custom domains that I've been using an entirely separate web based email service to check since the old mail app wouldn't let me open them, but I was just too lazy to switch over to completely for my primary work and school gmails? Do I look like someone who bought themadscientist@ravingsofamadscientist.com thinking that somehow a *mailing list* would make me INTERNET FAMOUS?

Because yes, I am and I did do that. But you know what? I STILL do all that because I haven't gotten around to putting those emails into Outlook!

YOUR FORCED EMAIL SERVICE MIGRATION ACHIEVED NOTHING! SUCK IT BILL GATES!

[silk-on-the-song]

okay so if moon kills sig. imma. imma need to know how/why/WHAT HAPPENS,,,,please,,,evil fucked up moon is making my brain go brrrr

OKAY SO

Let me start from the beggining

So in this au, everything is the same up until just after survivor/Monk timelines. Then, after a rain, she gets caught on something as the room is emptying out of water. So she tries to get loose, but by the time she can most of the water has drained, and she falls straight to the ground.

It damages her lenses, and her forhead symbol (in my headcanon its a glass thing with her personality processors in it.). So, this knocks her out and her systems desperately try to reboot. It pieces together what it can without her, but it takes several cycles. More drownings where internal mechanics are now entirely exposed to the water damage. Her personality gets scrambled.

Her memories however, remain. At least, the ones that she could remember in the first place.

At some point after waking back up, she'd get this sort of itch. Call it phantom pain, that itch or pain you get where a limb used to be. It's her structure but it's so infinitely frustrating and disorienting that in a fit of discomfort and rage she manages to rip herself off the arm.

Anyways after this she would sort of wonder what to do, still sticking around in that chamber for a bit. Then some scavengers would come by. They do sometimes but they visited today. Usually she can't move or do anything threatening appearing to them but she looks entirely different now, and out of a sort of "holy shit, creatures" she moves towards them which freaks them out and one throws a warning spear. This makes moon jump, but there isnt really anything she can do to show she wont do anything. spear into the chest. Directly into the memory processor.

This makes her neurons freak and try to save any memory they can. 3 are eaten by scavengers as Moon is sort of frozen with a spear sticking out of her, not even being able to process the intense pain she is in from the neuron losses and the spear itself. Some wires cross and something sparks.

Almost instinctually, she rips the spear out and one-shots a scavenger reaching for another neuron. scary fast she kills the other three in her chamber. And then with so few memories left, she stores those precious two neurons away within herself. She barely remembers a lot now. But what she does know is that pebbles put her in this position. And due to the personality scramble... she's fucking pissed about it.

After this she goes on a murder rampage towards Pebbles, killing anything that bothers her too much.

Shed get to Pebbles, who'd see her coming but be unable to do anything about it, a stressful encounter, and then shed yank out his umbilical wires, and take him off his arm. She'd do so in such a way that he cannot do anything else except for deteriorate. The horrid fate of a thing that can't die in any way that counts.

His would of course cancel out Pebbles lock down and all processes, immediately lowering steam output. This is noticed.

Moon then decides to visit her old bestie, now done with her main rage but still missing screws yknow.

(During this ui is immediately investigating the situation at pebbles.)

Anyways, Moon gets to sig all like "miss me?" Sig is freaked, but excited that they can both hang out again. Some way or another though sig finds out what Moon did and is highkey unnerved. Plus her personality is a lot different than it used to be so its... bothering.

Moon overhears a call between sig and Suns where sig expresses the concerns, and then moon gets pissed, unplugs sig on call, then tells Suns she's coming for him next.

Anyways, after that it becomes a chain. From sig toSuns, suns told wind, so she goes there next, and then ui manages to be the last girl and send put an emergency sos before dying and let's the whole iterator kind that can recieve messages that there is an iterator on the loose, and that she is dangerous.

From then on its kill kill kill baby

Btw with the different accessories:

Purple scarf: sig

Green ribbon: wind

Orange infinity scarf/armband: peb

Pearl bracelet: inn

Antennae clip: suns

[jpitha]

Some Good old-fashioned Shitposting

One of the main problems with posting to /r/hfy for me - beyond the mechanics of it being bad - was that they were very serious about sticking to story posts. Very little Meta, very little OOC, no posting about other sites, that kind of stuff. Posts like that were usually removed quickly.

I still wanted to reach my readers there and since my messages stating that I was leaving and giving the reasons why kept getting deleted I decided to... live within the rules, and posted this. It starts as JaLF 26 (the first time skip one) but from there goes off the rails...

It's been half a year, but I can't believe we're already on our third ship! High Line took two months instead of the one that Omar first promised, but that was because he and his crew were getting use to the process and how best to refurbish the ships. Then after that I made the decision to refurbish the food tugs, but those were (relatively) easy. New thrusters, some strengthening of the cargo containers and a few brand new ones and that was it. Once that was finished the food deliveries increased over 30%!

You would not believe how much cheaper, more abundant food improves one's legitimacy. As soon as that was finished and the food rolled in, almost all of the last grumblings about me coming in and "declaring" myself Empress died down.

Only a couple of weeks after the food deliveries had picked back up, I was on my Throne reading reports when Ava walked in and connected to her chair behind me on the Throne.

"Melody! You would not believe what I just heard." Ava sounded a little worried. I'm sure whatever was bothering her wouldn't be that big of a deal for us to take care of.

"I'm sure we can figure it out, Ava. I was just reading these reports about the increased food deliveries. I can't believe how easy it was to get everything straightened out; it was nice to have an easy win."

"No, this is way more important than that. Please hear me out. Let's talk in person." Now I was worried. Ava doesn't usually look this worried about things.

This was important. I disconnected, and gave Ava my full attention. "What is it Ava? How can I help?"

"The author isn't posting to Reddit anymore!" Ava was practically wailing.

"What? Why not? I thought the Author was trying to build an audience to look more attractive to potential publishers?"

Ava nods quickly. "That's just it, he was, but he's having such a hard time posting on Reddit that it's just not worth it to him. He has a much larger following on Tumblr, and would prefer that any of his readers on Reddit seek him out there." Ava raised her eyebrows. "Did you know he's finished this story over there and has started a new one?"

I gasped. A new story? "But that means that our story is done? What happens to us? Are we doing all right?"

Ava shrugged. "He just said 'no spoilers' and winked. Readers will have to go there themselves and check it out."

I sat up straighter in my seat, fully disconnected from the Throne now. This required speaking in person. "Was it the community? Did they give him a hard time?"

Ava threw up her hands in defeat. "That's just it. The community was so nice and welcoming! The rules about posting were a little Byzantine, but the Author did his best to post within them, but the poor UI and untenable bugs means that the Author spent more time correcting and copy editing posts than he did writing some of the entries. He told me he didn't have 'the spoons' to complete the story."

I sat back in my Throne, surprised. The Author was so excited about building his audience and introducing more people to his work, and through their excitement, improve his craft. "I wonder what he's going to do now?"

"I heard he's going to keep posting, but on Tumblr. He also said any of his fans are welcome to join him there. If they don't want to get an account, they can read his posts as they are public facing. I'm told that making an account and following will boost his follower count and look good to any potential publishers but it's not required."

I stood. It really was too bad, but who are we to go against the wishes of the Author. "Oh well Ava. It's sad to hear, but there isn't much we can do about it. Come on, it's almost dinner. Let's go find the others and eat."

Ava stood too and gave me a hug. "Oh Melody. Thanks. I feel better after talking it out.

"I'm glad." Together, we left the Throne, and walked out into the bustling evening on the Reach.

[losergames]

Chop Shop is strictly 18+ for language, themes, and potential explicit content. 

🔗 - Game Intro | Bug Report | Ko-Fi

Episode Three is now available! (+ 86,000) - PLAY HERE

Get your first taste of the underground car scene.

Meet some other players in the game.

Be made an offer.

5 achievements up for grabs!

And more!

AN: thank you so much for the patience - i've been dying to put this update out. lots of new characters and lots of variation!! there are 3 major paths to choose between in this ep, i recommend trying them all out! and thank you to my betas for keeping me sane lmao

This update comes with a patch and UI refresh (Version 1.1.2) Notes are under the cut. If preferred, you can access them in game in the start menu.

STORY

EPISODE 01:

MC should now be able to smoke! Buying cigarettes at the shop was not triggering correctly. If playing with an old save, you DO NOT have to restart as code at the beginning of EP 03 has resolved the error. Player will need to restart if they wish to read smoking related scenes in previous episodes.

Updated MC Name selection. Player can now choose from a list of names instead of having to input one to proceed.

Player can now give Taha their chocolate bar if it's in their inventory.

When asking Maz about their scars, the second choice 'You want to ask about it but you're going to keep your mouth shut.' should now take you to the correct response.

Extended and updated 'End Game' scenes.

EPISODE 02:

If MC is faint after exiting the car, but also drunk, they should now get the fainting scene, followed by Dilani helping the MC in the bathroom.

UI + TECHNICAL

SETTINGS:

Autoname Save is now defaulted to ON. This is to add ease and flow to gameplay, especially for mobile, tablet, and app users, instead of calling for an inputted saved name. If player wants to input save names, toggle Autoname Saves to OFF.

Autoname Save previously only used the forename of the MC but now includes the surname as well.

Removed the Fullscreen toggle as it is only intended for desktop use. Player can still toggle fullscreen function via the UI bar on the desktop interface.

Added a choice indicator toggle. (This probably won't come into effect until EP 04 or 05)

Changed serif font from Vollkron to EB Garamond.

OTHER:

Changing the MC's pronouns via the Dashboard has been updated. Additionally, after confirmation will take player back to the Dashboard and not close the dialog boxes entirely.

Hovering over 'Personality', 'Motives', and 'Skills' titles in the Dashboard will now display an information box with a definition. Mobile and tablet users will need to tap on the title.

'Resume Game' now only appears on the main menu when there is an autosave in the saves log.

Choices styling changes.

General UI and button style changes.

Fixed errors with the text message styling.

Added styling for reading text off of a page in game.

Darkened blue in light theme 'Skyline' to reduce eye strain.

CREATE A SAVE

Introducing Create a Save! This feature allows players to quickly manufacture a save file and start at a later point in the game.

Set your identity, appearance, history, and statistics; including personality, motives, and skills. Continue to set key decisions made in previous episodes.

Randomise options available for creating a PC and key decisions.

OTHER

Fixed gaps and spacing issues.

Minor phrasing and sentence structure changes.

Grammar and typo fixes.

whew -- that's a lot of patch notes! apologies for so much that needed to be fixed.

this update shouldn't break/ mess with saves but as a disclaimer i will say, if you spot anything funky, broken, or you don't think things are triggering correctly, try starting a new save. the new create a save feature is incredibly code heavy, and it's been tested relentlessly, but i wouldn't be surprised if something crops up.

if starting a new save doesn't resolve your issue - please submit to bug report or just send me an ask/message.

some things have been meaning to get fixed for Some Time - thank you to everyone that is using the bug report form!

apologies if there are typos and/or bugs - this was a long one to edit and my lovely betas did an OUTSTANDING job reading so much for ep 3 - thank you so much again!!! this time i am going to give it a bit more time before i put together a patch so i can grab more error responses haha.

create a save has also added a wee chunk to the word count, somewhere around 6k, but i'm not including it in the episode 03 word count as it's purely code. so, if you think the total wc is off, that's why!

if you've read this far, happy reading and thank you so much for the continued support!! :) - becky <3

[wakraya]

My Experience With Roblox

Hey! Hi! Hello! I have just gone through some pretty frustrating stuff and I wanted to share some experiences I've had with the Scam Formerly Known As Roblox.

So let me tell you a little bit of a story.

Back in the day I used to be a small Roblox Creator. And when I say 'back in the day', I mean like a decade ago, before a lot of the current extremely shady monetization and exploitation practices weren't implemented yet. And mind you, there WAS the 'Builder's Club' and there was Buying Robux, but it wasn't as blatant, and you still had Tix as the Free Currency.

Roblox was a place where I found quite the community. I was still not all that good at English, and it was through interacting with others that I pretty much taught myself to speak English. I met some of my longest-lasting friendships, I had my first Hyperfixation... Hell- It even introduced me to Homestuck!

But then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.

And by the Fire Nation, I mean that Roblox updated something that broke several of the scripts inside of my game. It dropped without warning, without a Legacy option, and forced Creators to simply adapt and update. Now, it wasn't even anything too big- I believe all I had to do was add 2 lines of code to my scripts, and they'd be fixed.

But, you see. I was inspired to make my own place, because of the work of other Creators. A major inspiration, in fact, was a pretty legendary Bleach Fighting Game, whose... Maker hadn't been on in years.

That was the day I learned the words 'Backwards Compatibility' and realized that Roblox had unceremoniously broken a lot of classic things that now had no repair. Alongside security concerns and the increasing monetization of the place, I decided to simply leave and never look back.

... A few years back, I got an email, telling me that there'd been a successful login to my account.

I quickly got in, changed my password to complete nonsense, reiterated my distaste for the state of the site, and left.

I didn't think much of this event for half a decade, but today. Today I was trying to see if I'd gotten a verification email from a different thing, and I ended up rummaging my Spam Folder, only to find someone writing an email... Asking, politely, for trading of some of the limited items left on my archaic account.

Unsure if this was a scam or not, and wondering what 'cool' items I even could've had in my inventory (Apparently I've got some unique octopus that sells for 22K Robux or something? Shrug-) I decided to log into the site, and... Just on a whim, I checked my messages.

Every single message for the last several years going back were just scams, which truly speaks volumes to how the site had developed. But, more importantly. Going further back, I found people asking me to please come back, and fix the game... Or. 'Make it free'.

...

Apparently. Apparently. In the time I got hacked years ago. Before whoever did it changed my email or password. They had, effectively. Updated my old game, with a message that 'it was back', and monetized it.

Apparently for the past few years I've gotten an insignificant but existent stream of Robux from some poor kids or nostalgic people trying to get back into my game.

I immediately went to try and fix things, only to realize there were no Options to remove the 'pass', and I couldn't find a way to remove the monetization, either.

Now. Mind you. I was doing this on the Browser. Maybe from the client it would've been better, easier, and clearer, but let me tell you- I have not. Seen. SUCH a Hostile UI in my entire life trying to just. FIND what to do to stop this from happening, and eventually I just. Opted for privating and taking down the game entirely. It's broken anyway, after all.

Following that I tried to make a statement on the description of my account, only to see, in horror, that my 1000 word message turned entirely into ####### because apparently I'd written one too many banned terms, because I was, in fact, talking about my account getting hacked, and monetization.

I tried writing a few other messages, and I swear, that was one of the most aggressive content filters I've seen in my ENTIRE life. 'Consent', 'Whole', and several other completely innocent terms just constantly eaten by the censorship algorithm, making writing a new description one of the genuinely most frustrating experiences I've ever had with any website online.

So. I guess. There's not much I want to say here. I am mostly venting about what an awful, awful experience this whole thing is, but like... Seriously. The hacking and security was rampant back then, and I doubt it's any better now. Even if it was, the sheer scope of the scams and exploitation that this... Service is even allowed, is genuinely a Late-Capitalism Nightmare.

Anyway, that was a wretched experience, and as nostalgic as I am for Those Days, and as sure as I am that there's people who still love Roblox and who have made incredible friends through it...

That... Thing... Is a monument to Humanity's Hubris, and shouldn't exist-

[01shiho-hinomori08]

"You wouldn't survive old vocaloid"

YES THE FUCK WE WOULD??? Hey, so, fun fact, being gross and a loli isn't fucking cool. "YoU wOuLdNt SuRvIvE tHe AsYlUm ThEy RaIsEd Me" YOURE EXCUSING CREEPY BEHAVIOR WITH THE PHRASE "BACK IN MY DAY?!??!"

MIMUKAWA IS CREEPY !!! ZAKO IS CREEPY!!!! Guess what, just because this shit existed before doesn't mean it was okay.

The old vocaloid Fandom, saying you wouldn't survive, what message does that give off? Like, oh, you think this song that paints lolis or even literal children in a good or fun light is normal? YOURE THE ONE MAKING IT NORMAL?

Back in my day 👴 we had World is Mine, we had songs about yanderes [not even the sexual ones, just the yanderes that are doing it for passion and insanity, not to get off in the blood], we had love songs, heartbreak songs, and every now and then we'd get a song that was talking about how great lolis were. Guess what? There's a reason nobody gives a crap about those anymore.

Plus boy and fucking Rotten girl are NOT THE SAME AS LOLIBAIT?!?!??! THEYRE TEENAGERS BEING LIKE "omg men kissing and boinging" and "omg I'm going through puberty" not "Hey, I'm a child so I'm gonna tease a grown man" like, Plus boy shows cleavage, I will say, but the lyrics and the video are just kind of, there, it's clearly not a fetish thing, it's a vibe.

Fujo Miku is also just a teenage girl that actually feels bad for reading Yaoi. But she still does. Again, it's a silly SONG, SONGS CAN BE DIRTY BUT THERES A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SILLY DIRTY SONGS AND SONGS THAT ARE PROMOTING STUFF

"Lolibait" It's not lolibait, it straight up either is loli or is a child.

Zako was made using the voice of a child. Doesn't matter if she doesn't sound like it, she's a child. And even when they change the voice, it is still a schoolgirl teasing someone and it's meant to be romanticized. When that's a kid.

Mimukawa is literally not meant to look like an adult at all. The oversized clothes and the childish demeanor, it fits into the type.

These things are promoting harmful behavior and feeding further into the people it's targeting, those that get off on little girls calling them gross, just like Shigure Ui did when they made the fetish song for her fans that everyone thought was against those people when ui is a LOLICON THEMSELVES

Fiction doesn't affect reality in the sense if I play a shooter game I'll do something bad. It affects it in the same way p0rn does. If you're looking at gross material of things that look like kids, you're normalizing that in your brain and it will eventually lead to worse. And if you think I'm being dramatic, think of the real cases of predators who got tired of fiction or even just seeing bad things happen to kids

It's not an issue of "hah, snowflake" it's just... no? Just don't engage and normalize these things? I get things are different in Japan, but the thing is, this is still appealing to a degenerate group in some way. But that's there. They have terms for that that are incorporated. Here, i expected so many people to not engage but no they're obsessed with these things and not in a "Oh, it's interesting to see the controversy" NO, P3OPLE ARE DEFENDING THESE THINGS!!!

Bring back old vocaloid but not the stupid loli songs that, like, one person has heard of, no, bring back the disco, the cringe videos, the vine as vocaloids. Our technology has gotten way better, so isn't it a good thing vocaloid isn't the same as before? Can we please just stop acting like old vocaloid fans will turn a blind eye to weird crap. And no, not normal weird, like, degenerate criminal weird. Sorry for this rant but Jesus christ

Anyway, more Gakupo songs plsplspsplspls

Love, your mom's bf

[Ps, the voices for the Kagamines, Miku, and a lot of vocaloids and cryptons are adults but the issue isn't there, the issue is when you're trying not to portray them in a way that is distinguished from a child to pander towards weirdos]

[spencerthespender]

There’s no doubt about it: Old roblox has a sort of charm to it. It resembles an older time, where everything was a lot less stressful and complicated, and where everything was more carefree and innocent. So, it makes a lot of sense as to why people use this artstyle in their Roblox games more and more. But at some point, the reasoning is lost. Please, let me explain.

Take, for example, Something Evil Will Happen and its excellent usage of the retro style of roblox games. Firstly, it’s extremely commited to being as retro as it can. The little Builder’s Club icon replacing the Premium logo on the leaderboard, the ancient health bar having a matching stamina bar, and almost all of the UI match that gray, somewhat glossy look of roblox’s past. Secondly, the retro feeling compliments the gameplay, as well. The chaotic, but playful feeling of every round, the multitudes of random gears at your disposal to cause antics with, it matches that feeling of being carefree that old roblox might remind people of.

A bad example, however, is Weird Strict Dad. It does a lot of the opposite of SEWH. The UI is rather basic, which is arguably something that compliments the simple style of old roblox, but it feels unintentional and lackluster. The gameplay has nothing to do with the emotions old roblox gives players, either. The game barely tries luring you into a false sense of security with its cozy, retro feel, and fails to actually relate the retro feel to anything in the game.

All of that was me trying to tangibly showcase my gigantic problem with the usage of old roblox as an artstyle. I don’t want to hate on the developer of wsd, but it’s slowly becoming clear that people are using old roblox in their games to excuse a lack of proper artstyle, or to add minimal detail. And, on top of this, when people keep on using it and using it, it erases that feeling of nostalgia, youth, and innocence because it’s seen just as much as it was back in the day.

And I know this is a rather heavy claim, but overuse of retro roblox is reinforcing one of the reasons why the gaming community doesn’t really acknowledge or respect Roblox as a platform, because to them, it’s just digital legos. When they see a platform that constantly uses this childish, simplistic look, people start to overlook the platform and assume that’s the best roblox can do.

And I knew people underestimated Roblox for this because it was proven when Doors initially spiked in popularity. Every non-roblox youtuber that played it would always have titles like “This is a ROBLOX game… (DOORS)” or “I finally played Roblox… (DOORS)”. People that aren’t roblox veterans don’t seem to understand that the engine is capable of so much. Look at Neon Knights. Look at Tunneler. Look at every modern Piggy chapter. The developers may have worked their ass off, but as a result, I can see a screenshot of their game and go “Oh, I know this one!”

Old Roblox, when used as an artstyle for games, and used very wisely at that, can be powerful. It can invoke a strong feeling of comfort, innocence, and simplicity. But if you use old roblox just to get away with low quality modelling or lack of details, please just take the time to find the style that works for your game. It’s extremely rewarding. If you try to look retro anyway for no good reason, your work will likely blend in with an unremarkable crowd.