#like outright from the code and files and everything

[risaonda]

if simulacra was a game what would the play style be like?? 🤔

a while back when rpgmaker was on sale and everyone was talking abt making games and downloading renpy too (I think it's free? or was? I had it for a minute idk if I still do) I was gonna make a joke dating sim where u could try to date the gods but u could never actually romance any of them except like maybe el but then they'd immediately disappear out of nowhere

[just-a-creep-babe]

A Demon’s Ache — Part 17

Eyeless Jack x Reader

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16

Commissioned by @cookiereblogss — thank you infinitely for your support 🫶 💗💞💗

Requests are closed but commissions are open!

Masterlist: x

As soon as he gets back, he ends up at your door

It’s instincts—it’s hormones and longing and obsession—like he’s just a mere puppet on the strings of your whims

His heart’s pounding in his chest as he waits there, in front of the familiar well-worn wood of your door, and for a minute, he almost wonders if you’re going to answer

His fingers drum against his thigh while his mind races back to the most recent list of events that happened between the both of you

You agreed to let Hoodie watch in order to help Jack out of the favor, rejected his kiss not too long after that, and then you sent him nudes, of all things, while he was away

Trying to sort through the complications of mixed messages and tangled feelings leads him to two plausible conclusions

One; you really aren’t interested in anything but sex with him, and every time he inadvertently pushes for more, it forces you to pull away

Two; you’re secretly just as madly in love with him as he is with you, but for some cosmic reasoning beyond his understanding, something’s stopping you from being with him

Despite how much he wishes the latter was true, he knows the former is the more likely scenario

It’s been that way since the very beginning, but he’s too much of a lovesick puppy to hold himself back from always trying for more

He needs better impulse control

Even now, as he waits for you to answer, he wonders if he’s pushing things yet again

He’s just here for sex, he reminds himself, he’s been away for a while and now he’s needy, and you probably are too, and even though it’d be better for him to wait for you to come to him, he’s just too fucking eager

And if you, for some reason, outright reject him yet again, he figures he can use the opportunity to sit down and establish better ground rules with you

He’s waited long enough to figure out what you want—you might as well just tell him at this point

When you open the door, he almost doesn’t know what to expect—he never does

But it’s like as soon as you see him, you just know

You let him in without a word, and as soon as the door clicks shut behind him, his mind goes blank

He forgets all about the two conclusions he reached, forgets about his worries about being pushy, forgets about wanting to establish an agreement—he forgets everything

All he can focus on is your lips busying themselves against his, your body in his hands and the scent of your lust and adrenaline filing the room

The whole thing is familiar

The taste of your tongue, the warmth of your skin, the way your breath stutters and your pulse jumps every time he squeezes you just a tad harder than he meant to—he’s lucky enough to have experienced it all before

But even despite the familiarity of it, it doesn't stop the pure rush of heat traveling to his groin

It's like it's just never enough

He's desperate for your touch, desperate for anything and everything you have to offer

The way your smaller body clings to his, the way your hands mimic his own eagerness—fuck, he's missed you

You release something like a quiet whimper against him and a growl tears through his chest before he can stop it

He yanks on the loops of your jeans, forcing you to grind against his hard-on, and when you whimper again, he almost rips your clothes off right then and there

You reach up to tug him closer into you, your fingers scratching at his scalp, pulling at the dark strands of his hair as if the few inches between you are too much to bear

It's like you want him pressing harder into you, like you're as insatiable for him as he is for you

In the heat of the moment, nothing else matters

The on-and-off signals, the ever-indecipherable code of mixed messages that he can never fully crack—right now, with your body held so tightly up against his own, he doesn't care about any of it

All he cares about is touching you, gripping and groping at your soft, malleable flesh to coax those perfect little sounds from your lips

More

He wants more

You weigh practically nothing as he picks you up, and it brings him a special kind of satisfaction when you yelp and wrap your legs around his hips for support

He's the only thing you can cling on to

He has all the power right now

Hands on your thighs, he bounces you up and down his form, using your own weight as leverage to rub you against his bulge

The friction is heady, already bordering on euphoric, and he hasn't even gotten you naked yet

When he snaps his hips up in tandem, the yelp you release grants him the perfect opportunity to force his tongue down your throat

Your taste is divine

He swears you were made for him, he swears your body was meant to be his

He loses track of his thoughts yet again, unable to focus or think about anything else except you

Your hands mimic his excitement and impatience as you pull and tug at him, trying to scratch lines into him like you're trying to mark him

It should be him trying to mark you

Amidst all the pulling and tugging, somewhere at the back of his mind, it registers that his mask slips off and falls to the floor with a heavy thunk, but he's too lost in your pleasure to care

Instead, he walks forward, secures you against him with a hand on your lower back, and then he lowers you to the bed, caging you between his body and the mattress beneath you

You're trapped, with nowhere to evade him

He could basically do anything he wants to you; you're completely at his mercy

At the mercy of a demon

Your clothes come off quickly and easily, his deft fingers impatient to get you bare already

And fuck, the sight of you naked is never something he could get used to

You're glowing; skin wonderfully soft, chest heaving up and down with panted breaths, your bruised lips parted with that perfectly desperate look in your eyes

He wants to ruin you

He's going to ruin you

He yanks his own shirt off his head, pops the buttons of his jeans open, then kicks his pants and boxers all the way off

He doesn't miss the way you greedily drink up the sight of him as you lay there, need clear in your eyes with the scent of your arousal filling the room

He teases a hand along his shaft, and his cock twitches in response

"Like what you're looking at, little morsel?~"

You whine his name at the taunt, and he nearly snarls as another fresh wave of your arousal perfumes the air

He wraps a hand around your ankle, yanks you toward him, then splits your legs apart to fit between them

You're a mess of slick

You're practically dripping

It's coating your inner thighs, glistening wet against your skin, and if he wasn't so impatient right now, he'd take the time to taste you

He'd eat you out all night long if he could

But right now, his dick's throbbing and you keep squirming and whimpering, and all he wants is to push himself balls-deep into your perfectly inviting little cunt

He presses the tip of his drooling cock to your entrance, gliding it up and down your perfect slit, and then he’s slowly thrusting all the way in

It’s almost too much

Your walls tighten around him, trying to swallow him in deeper, and when he shifts slightly, trying to get used to the way you're milking him, you gasp, reaching up to dig your nails into his skin, and he realizes he's already hit your most sensitive spot

He releases a low breath, trying to steady himself, trying to clear the haze of his instincts threatening to overtake him

You're a trembling, squirming wreck beneath him, and if he didn't know any better, he'd think you keep trying to grind him into your G-spot

He reaches up, resting one hand next to your head to support himself, and with his other hand, he grips the flesh of your thighs to force you still

He needs to adjust

He needs to adjust to how wet you are, how you keep clenching and pulsing around him or he's going to fucking lose it

But as if you just can't help it, it doesn't stop you from squirming, doesn't stop you from moaning his name like you're just begging for him to snap

An involuntary push of his hips forward, and you cry out, back arching as your hands fly up to rake down his back

Your thighs cinch around his waist, effectively trapping him inside you, and he honestly doesn't know how much longer he can hold back anymore

Slowly

He needs to do this slowly or he will lose it

In and out, in and out, he drags the length of his cock through your velvety walls

He can feel every inch of you, every perfect detail of your body molding and wrapping around him like it was made for him

He groans out your name, dick throbbing inside you, and the way you beg for more has him burying his face into the crook of your neck to muffle yet another groan

Your body's too perfect

You're too perfect

He's never hungered so deeply for someone like this before

He feels like a ravenous dog

He pulls out, inch by inch, your gummy walls tightening, and when he tries to say your name again, all that comes out is a demonic snarl

"J-Jack!~ Need more—n-need you to breed me~"

He snaps

It's like what you said and the way you said it triggers him beyond his own comprehension of himself

He loses control of his hips, loses control of what little shreds of humanity he has left, and he lets loose

The bed creaks, headboard slamming into the wall as your smaller form bounces with every impact

Your eyes screw shut, brows furrowing as a silent scream escapes you

Your hands dig into his skin, and if he was still human, you’d undoubtedly be drawing blood

But all it does to his thick skin is merely tickle

Still, the idea that you’re so much weaker than him only fuels him even more

He loses track of the pace he set, loses track of your obscene moans and cries as one word repeats itself over and over again in his lust-drunk mind

Breed

Some other inhuman sound escapes him, followed by the sound of something ripping, and he realizes he’s clawing at the sheets so hard they’re tearing

You’re shaking and writhing beneath him, your skin soft and wonderfully malleable for him to bruise

The sound of your cries overwhelms the sound of skin slapping against skin, and you clench around him, cunt gushing, soaking him with your arousal

He thinks you might’ve squirted—you’re fucking drenched—but his head’s too foggy, too lost in the sheer bliss of your body to really know for certain

All he’s sure of is that you came, or maybe you’re still cuming, because your whole body’s shaking and your legs are wrapped so tightly around him that he doesn’t know if you’re trying to pull him in or push him out

But even despite your obvious overstimulation, he can’t stop

He can’t stop pounding into you, can’t stop the rapid, ravenous pace he’s fucking into you

You’re his

Instincts purely in control, he pushes your legs up, forcing you into a mating press, and the shift in angle has him throbbing in your velvety walls

You babble out a slew of incoherent sentences, your voice all whiny and desperate between choked sobs and broken whimpers

He doesn’t grant you the luxury of squirming; with your legs pressed up against your chest and your pretty little cunt all exposed to him, you’re completely at his mercy

He’s reduced you to just a fleshlite

“Jack—J-Jack, fuck!”

When he hears you cry out his name like that, it’s all it takes for him to snap all the way forwards, his cock twitching and throbbing, and with a low, dangerous snarl, he cums deep inside of you

“F-fuck!~”

You whimper out one final cuss, your head rolling back and eyes falling shut, and god, it’s basically like you’re just presenting yourself to him

His lips find purchase around your neck, tasting you, reveling in the way your throat feels against his tongue

You’re so perfect

One sloppy thrust after another has him pumping his cum as deep inside of you as he can fit it; he doesn’t want an ounce to go to waste

And then he stays there, fully sheathed inside you, before finally unlatching his lips from your throat

He’s still hard

If it were up to him, he’d go another round

Hell, he’d go for the whole night, if he could

But he knows that dazed look in your eyes means he’s completely fucked you out

He forces himself to be content with what he had, and then he’s pulling out, resisting the urge to split you open on his cock one last time just to make sure his cum really stays inside you

You snap your legs shut as soon as he pulls away, faint post-orgasm tremors still coursing through you in the aftermath of it all

He settles next to you, wrapping his arms around to pull you in, and you immediately nuzzle into him in response

It doesn’t take long for your breathing to slow, your poor little body utterly spent, and although he wants to stay awake so that he can watch over you, he finds himself dozing off without realizing it

Sunlight filters through the room the next morning

Jack blinks once, then twice, groggily pushing the fog of sleep from his mind

You’re as warm and soft as ever in his hold

You look so angelic—he swears you must be part angel

He reaches out, fingertips gently tracing over your delicate features

For a split second, he considers just biting the bullet and telling you that he loves you right then and there

You’re sleeping, so it’s not like you’d hear him or anything, and even if you did, you’d probably just dismiss it as a dream or something

He takes in a shaky breath, carefully absorbing every detail of your skin

And he’s about to say it, he really is, when suddenly, you shift slightly in your sleep, and that’s when he notices it

His heart drops

A knot curls in his stomach, stiff and heavy like a boulder, and cold hard dread fills his veins

No—no, there’s no way

There’s no way he did that

He holds his breath as he gently coaxes your head to the side to get a better view

Surely enough, it’s as clear as day

A dark bruise colors your neck, surrounded by the indents of his teeth like a flowery crown around it

He feels like he just might be sick

Repulsion lumps at the back of his throat

He doesn’t want to believe it, but the evidence is as clear as day before him

He marked you

[nenilein]

Hello! Apologies for sending an ask out of the blue but considering your familiarity with localisation differences in persona 4/golden, I was wondering if anything comes to your mind regarding this aspect and how the game depicts queerness and queer themes? Thank you!

Heya! Don't worry, I was thinking people would probably ask stuff like this. After all, I already replied to somebody's tags asking this same thing previously, but I know not many people saw that, so let me use the chance to go into more detail:

Unfortunately, Persona 4's treatment of queer themes is not a result of the translation. The only things that were down to translation choices were small things, such as which pronouns are used in which situation (because Japanese does not at all have the same concept of third person pronouns as English, and the way first person classifiers that mean "I" work is very complex and a lot more vibes-based than actually tied to gender.)

But for the most part, everything is pretty much the same. Kanji's reaction to Chie mumbling about something being "off" about how he interacted with Naoto that first time, the tent scene, Yosuke's extreme insecurity in his own sexuality in addition to everyone else's... I think maybe the only thing that's a biiit better in Japanese is that Teddie is kiiinda genderfluid in Japanese, with the artbook outright stating that he doesn't necessarily consider himself "male" when he's in his bear form, unless it's necessary for a joke.

A lot of this can be traced to the really odd relationship the game's director, Katsura Hashino, has to queer themes. In interviews about Catherine Fullbody (a game which infamously has a rather weirdly handled gay romance route which, however, is notably also the only romance route in the game that cannot possibly result in a bad ending), he talks about how he's always admired queer people for being "strong" and wanted to write queer stories, but couldn't really do it until Fullbody because Atlus higher ups were afraid of backlash from the fans.

Traces of this are actually seen in Persona 4 Vanilla's data, where remnants of a surprisingly well done romance route for YOSUKE, of all people, are still present. That route made it far enough into development to have voiced lines in both, English and Japanese. However, it was dummied out in the final game and its script content was removed. Yosuke STILL has the "girlfriend flag" in the code that all the female romance options also have, but in the finished game it only checks whether you can hug him during his social link or not. Everything else was dummied out. You can still find the voice files on the cutting room floor if you want:

And yes, the "I like you" line is unambiguously romantic in Japanese. His wording is very hard to misinterpret.

However, in the finished game and the rest of the franchise Yosuke's bisexuality was reduced to an in-joke of the developers. It's most poignant in Persona Q (the first one), where if you get the "marriage" scene with Yosuke in the second dungeon, his reactions differ WILDLY depending on which Protagonist you are playing as, far more than other male characters. With Makoto Yuki he acts nonchallant and deadpan about it. With Yu Narukami he acts like a blushy Tsundere and panics constantly. So, yeah.

Okay, so, if the director had interest in writing queer stories since before Persona 4, why is Persona 4 the way it is then?

Well, because - and there's no way around it - he sucks at it.

Katsura Hashino has to be one of the clumsiest "gay activists" I've ever seen in my whole darn life. He finds queer people "cool", but seemingly never had any queer writers or sensitivity readers on his teams and it's caused enormous blunders in how these themes have been handled. For example, when after Persona 3 it was pointed out to him that the writing of the female characters in interaction with the male characters was bad, he immediately hired more female writers and gave them free reign for how to handle the female characters from then on out. But apparently the same thing never happened with his mishandling of queer themes. He wants Catherine's Erica and Rin to be empowering figures for trans women and gay men, but makes a lot of blunders in how he has other characters interact with them to the point it buries his good intentions. Erica's boyfriend having gay panic upon realizing she's trans is treated as "funny and cute", even by Erica herself. Rin technically being a monogender alien really undermines his story of becoming more secure in his sexuality. It goes on and on like that.

The intention with Naoto's story was to point out the extreme sexism in Japanese society and how it forces female nerds to find alternate modes of self-expression, but the clumsy choice of including surgery themes in Naoto's dungeon completely buried that for especially western queer audiences. Most people don't even remember Naoto's dungeon was outright modeled after a Kamen Rider villain hideout. They completely shot themselves in the foot with this one. Additionally, the way Naoto is handled AFTER the dungeon makes her (I'm using that pronoun because she calls herself a "woman" in Japanese in the game) seem more like someone who's on the verge of discovering they are X-gender (the japanese word for "nonbinary") than a repressed girl. Like, right down to how she has Rise help her experiment with clothes in the canonical drama CDs only to realize she really is uncomfortable with skirts and go for an androgynous but less restrictive look going forward. The way she dresses in the Golden epilogue and P4D is pretty X-gender core if you ask me. If they had leaned into that they could have genuinely have had something AMAZING, while also presenting the themes of sexism they wanted to explore, but the lack of queer sensitivity readers kind of ruined it.

Same for Kanji. The way they write him makes it seem like he's bisexual or pansexual, rather than straight, but they kinda shove that part of him aside after his dungeon is done, leaving his actual orientation up in the air and wasting a really good chance for representation. NOW, given what happened to Yosuke's social link, it's quite possible the original intent WAS to explore this more and it got cut, but as it stands, we'll never know. The huge problem of the internalized toxic stereotypes his Shadow presented never being reflected on and put into their right context in the rest of the game, when his social link could've given a great opportunity for that is also a huge shame.

All of this happened because of Atlus being unwilling to let their writers go all out with queer themes in fears of alienating a cishet audience AND because Hashino never sat his writing team down with any actual queer writers to sort this shit out and learn how to get across what the team was ACTUALLY trying to say. Now, given, Persona 4 was far from the only Japanese media property with that exact issue at the time, but it hurts especially much in its case because of the game's themes of exploring the truth to its logical conclusion, as well as psychology. These are issues that a remake REALLY would do well to address and correct. I feel like they actually will HAVE to do that, because sensitivity readers have become the NORM in handling these themes now in Japanese media, rather than the exception. You can thank trail blazing mainstream works like Zombie Land Saga for that.

All in all, Persona 4's handling of queer themes is an exercise in frustration that I hope is corrected soon.

[dcdreamblog]

As someone with WW2 expertise, maybe you can clear something up for me. What was the deal with Baroness Paula von Gunther? I've read differing accounts of her activities during the war and her relationship with Wonder Woman. Can you help me out?

I can give it my best shot! However this comes with a couple of disclaimers. 1. As far as my records indicate because of circumstances at the end of the story, Baroness Von Gunther is probably still ALIVE. Not that I think she has an interest in speaking for posterity just know that should she ever have the inclination her own word could contradict everything I am about to say 2. Certain folks on Tumblr are not gonna like this story because the lesson to take from it is that ANYONE can change and should be given the opportunity which is a philosophical stance the Amazons and Wonder Woman specifically STILL come under fire for. Records on Von Gunther's very early life are scarce but it can be inferred that she was born near the end of WWI in modern day Austria to a family of minor nobility. Noble enough to be stripped of their titles after the collapse of Austria-Hungary but not sitting on enough land to bounce back. She was married young to a slightly higher minor noble named Gottfried Von Gunther. Given later circumstances we can assume their marriage was not exactly a whirlwind romance but it DID create one of the monster important parts of Baroness Von Gunther's life: Her daughter Gerta

(Personal Photo of Paula and Gerta circa 1937~. One thing of note is that this was torn from a larger photograph, which presumably included Gottfried somewhere which speaks to Paula's relationship with the man) It was in 1938, during the Nazi annexation of Austria that the Von Gunther family was target by the Nazi Gestapo. Seeking the family's remaining wealth Gottfried was killed in Nazi captivity and Gerta was taken hostage. Paula connections in the fashion and beauty industries built during her time as a bachelorette in the early 30s were leveraged to allow her position as a spy and saboteur. It was in this position and under the codename "Uberfraulien" (That is under the original meaning of "codename" in that it was used to refer to her in coded Nazi messages, not an intentional moniker) that Baroness Von Gunther would cross paths with Wonder Woman, the newly arrived Hippolyta of Themyscira

(File Photo from Von Gunther's OSS records circa 1942.) In her espionage career Baroness Von Gunther unlocked a previously unknown skill in all things scientific and was the creator of many disquieting devices. Robots, mind control, etc. She was captured, imprisoned and even sentenced to death multiple times but with Gerta's safety back home dependent upon her activity she always escaped. It wasn't until war's end when she formulated a plan to invade Paradise Island itself that she was captured for good. And that Hippolyta in her Wonder Woman guise was able to reunite her with Gerta, rescued from Nazi captivity in occupied Vienna. It was after this rescue and behind closed doors she was made an offer that would be controversial today and was considered treasonous at the time. Serve out her "sentence" on Paradise Island with interest in reform rather than being handed over to the US for execution as an enemy agent. America ERUPTED at the news. Hippolyta was branded a security risk, stripped of most of her earned credentials. Only the All Star Squadron and the Justice Society refused any orders to purge her membership outright by simply not responding to them at all. And that's where the story has stood for the last...79 years and counting? Paula and Gerta Von Gunther were taken in as adopted Amazons and have been there ever since, far from the public eye. The only modern information we have on them is when some fucking asshole college leftist shouted an accusation at Diana after she intervened during unrest at Harvard University. The transcript of said response is better than I could write so this is from the lips of the Amazon herself Student (after being asked to disperse as the protest on campus was creating a risk of violence): "We don't take orders from people who shelter Nazis!" Diana (Pausing and turning to face the student directly): "One of the things of Man's World I might truly never understand is your insistence on punishment. Paula Von Gunther is a sister of mine. She has harmed no one in lifetimes, every moment since spent in contemplation and the care of others. If six decades of reform is not enough to sate your lust for retribution than the crime lies with you, not her."

[silverskye13]

That xisuma fic was absolutely incredible! If you have any more specific headcanons about android!X I would love to hear them! The idea is amazing and you wrote it so well!

Hai-yo! I'm glad you liked the writing snippet! ^_^

Oh boy, headcanons. How dare you make me organize my thoughts! Let's see.

Android!X is a server that one day decided to stop running in the background. Where I think most of the hermits were "born" on a home world that they can return to, it's more like Xisuma goes into his own mind. Similarly, if someone were to plot a course in the universe to Xisuma's home world, they'd just end up standing in front of him. [I feel like this also means between seasons X just kinda floats like a spaceman in hyper sleep through the void, go you funky little robot go!]

His body is made of circuitry and nanobots? In a way that isn't in any way functional to real life. But it's like he's a beehive almost. He has a living, moving body, but it's built for finesse and life-like expression. That kind of detail needs constant maintenance, so he has a fleet of little drone nanobots constantly doing repairs.

On that note, I think metallic/cybernetic/redstone components don't respawn like organic matter does on death. If it takes damage, it has to be repaired. Hermits like Doc are only mildly hampered by this, since any time his mechanics break, only parts of him are out of commission. For X though, anything that doesn't kill him outright has to be repaired. His nanobots help this, especially with small bits of damage accrued throughout the day, but anything that does significant damage requires him to power down to focus on repair and rebuild, where his nanos can run rampant while he rests. [He's never not productive though. Normally he uses this time to catch up on writing memory transcripts and other general internal housekeeping.]

Android!X is functionally smart but because everything he's ever done has had to be coded, a lot of things slip between gaps in his logic. He's a very smart computer, but he's still a computer. Common sense things slip between the cracks because common sense on regular people is mostly pattern recognition and intuition. Xisuma's only intuition is something he's hand-written in a table in a file somewhere. If he's never had to write/code it, and it's unique enough to not show up in a basic dictionary/archive search, it's a blind spot for him. He can query and in a millisecond give you data facts about the deep dark and still forget that the clicking noise his thinking pattern makes would attract a Warden. This also means he sometimes has weird hang ups in social situations sometimes. Yeah sure, Etho and BDubs are having the same friendly debate from last week, but this time BDubs is 30% louder [possible difference in altercation severity?] and Etho is on hazardous ground [standing on scaffolding, increasing height, personal endangerment? Posturing? Intimidation technique?], which means this situation is actually totally different and he's never coded protocols for it. He's gotten pretty good at reading other people's reactions to gauge his own, but when he's alone, he sometimes has an error he's affectionately labeled a "social short circuit". Good thing they're all hermits and understand when he sometimes just... walks away from things.

Even X doesn't know where his emotions come from. He knows he can augment them [He has a database for complex feelings like "happy and also sad" and "lonely but content", as well as for tonally dissonant scenarios like "feel worried when Cleo says 'its fine'."] and he has on a handful of occasions been able to shut them down when he was too overwhelmed or in a tense situation. But he has no idea where the emotions originally came from, and his ability to control their intensity [and turning them off] is so non-existent it's nearly random.

Xisuma has been trying to code a way to feel pain for a long time. Most of the hermits think he's crazy when he talks about it, but he thinks it would cut back on a lot of his time spent on damage assessment. It's much easier to tell if something is broken if you can feel it break. Currently his only indication something is wrong is if a circuit is actively frying or something stops working -- or if his nanos sniff it out.

Xisuma doesn't eat, but he tells his friends he eats redstone. It cuts back on some of the unnecessary worry about his well-being. It also means when they think he's distressed, they leave him little gifts of redstone, and he finds that endearing.

Xisuma likes to dress up his cybernetics. It started out with trying new paint jobs and slowly escalated to building new body casings with fancy cosmetics. He's very proud of his bone mage cosplay. The little dragon helmet has glowy-eyes and smoke comes out of its nose and everything. Tango, Joe and Cleo like to help him design things, and he lets Doc and Grian go ham trying to stress test [ie ruthlessly destroy] the parts to make sure they're durable before he commits to a design.

And that's about all I've got for now I think!

[hamofjustice]

Okay, so, I said I was working on Pokemon Scarlet / Violet fanfic and that's still kiiiinda true? But for the most part the past few months I've instead been working on...

HamOfJustice's League Club Expansion Pack

... which is a text-file-based imaginary mod of the game (but a blueprint for a real one if someone is able to make it, I guess) that massively expands the DLC postgame to include like a hundred things for characters to talk about, adds new friendship storylines, expands their team rosters and battle AIs, and lets them follow you anywhere in the world, making it not really a League Club thing at all except in spirit.

I'm aiming to do the following:

1. Give the players the living-happily-ever-after postgame that they deserve, and that Pokemon SV basegame really seemed like it was leading up to after Area Zero and all those friendship strengthening storylines

2. Prove I know this gamedev thing isn't easy and do all the work myself to see how viable it really could've been for SV and Pokemon games in general to have more meat on its bones, inspired by what we did get from it so far. I'm not asking for much of anything that requires new models, code, or animations, just text, menus, and repurposed features. Even the AI is pseudocoded by myself

3. Live up to the characters' potential more and leave less up to speculation and fanfic to really explore, explain, heal, capitalize on, and have fun with (okay, this is basically fanfic formatted as a fake datamine, but still) while still being consistent with the tone of the game and leaving plenty of subtext and small details to have fun discussing with other readers rather than stating everything outright

Basically, I wanted this so bad I just did it myself instead of complaining some more, and I want everyone who feels the same way to get to have that experience through me. I've been steadily working on this thing for months (the scope got a little out of hand as you can imagine) and I'm pretty close to releasing Nemona's files, which are the parts I'm most passionate about, but I'm hoping to keep at it after that if I can (Nemona, Penny, Arven, and maybe Kieran and Carmine, at least)

Reviews from people who've seen early previews of my project on Twitter or in DMs:

"You legitimately know more about [Nemona and Penny] than Game Freak, there's really no question about that at this point"

"OH MY GOD IM OBSESSED WITH THIS. it amazes me all the time how your characterisation and voice is PERFECT"

"Holy shit this is so cute... This dialogue is stellar"

"Oh wait this is ur fanmade dialogue? DAMN I THOUGHT IT WAS REAL"

"Goddamn, you went HARD. Congrats on writing more and better story in one day than was put into the DLC"

"AKJCJAJFHQBXBXB nemonas dialogue is so perfect like its EXACTLY her 😭😭😭😭 so is everyone's like Penny's too??? you must be some kind of secret game freak writer…. THIS IS AMAZING 💓💓💓💓💓💓"

There's a big ol' batch of old and new samples I've picked out for you today under the cut if you wanna look. Either way, expect the Nemona part of the actual project to be posted for real soon-ish and her friends one at a time after that, once I get past a bit of writer's block on one part and stop trying to make the angsty cathartic bits perfect

[secretgamergirl]

The latest disinformation campaign from the con artists pushing "AI" - Expanding the definition.

As a growing percentage of the population is waking up to the fact that the whole "AI" thing is some combination of outright lies, the same autocomplete function your phone has had forever, and obfuscation of the outright theft of an unfathomable amount of art, writing, contents of theoretically secure databases, etc. the newly emerging strategy to keep the world from pulling the plug on the whole thing and putting the people stealing basically every file accessible on the internet is a pivot to a defense of "well SOME uses of AI are outright criminal acts sure, but there's a lot of useful things about it to!" However, since that's... you know, not actually true, what they're actually doing is just going around pointing at literally anything cool involving computers and going "see, that's AI!"

Some of the examples I've been seeing have really just been flooring me, too. These hucksters looking for useful software to use as a shield for their scams are pointing at stuff like the basic fundamental concept of a database, AI in the sense of the routines that dictate enemy behavior in games, and even things like freaking shaders. You know, the code that gets applied to 3D models to determine whether they react to lighting realistically or look cartoon-y or whatever. There's a post going around this site right now trying to claim we wouldn't have Miles' jawline in Spiderverse if we shut down the people stealing every digital artist's portfolio to repackage and pretend a computer did it. Yeah no, putting a hand drawn looking line on the edge of a 3D character's jaw is something we've been doing for at least 30 damn years now.

Everything about these scams infuriates me, but this latest set of lies is particularly setting me off, because we're already apparently dealing with a serious problem in society where a huge number of people under the age of 25 or something are just shockingly lacking in basic computer literacy, and now we've got a bunch of con artists trying to convince them that basic math and data structures are beyond all human comprehension and possible only because of whatever goes on inside of the unknowable black box that has an honest to goodness thinking machine, which not only can't be understood, but will stop functioning if you try to stop people from committing blatant theft.

I'm honestly mostly just venting here, but for real, any time you see this sort of crap, please do your civic duty and call out how none of this stuff is "AI" and useful software has nothing to do with any of these creeps scraping every file they can off the internet.

[simtanico]

Are the creators whose sliders you're modifying aware that you're doing so and re-uploading them to your account? I'm asking because, following what happened in the community, I want to make sure I'm not contributing to the violation of anyone's TOU.

So this is gonna be a little long! I got things to say:

Yes. Mostly. The answer is really depends on whether the creator is still around. My updates usually deal with sliders that are pretty old.

The only time it was not clearly sanctioned was for Pu+Chi House’s sliders. Their tou doesn’t allow it. However, I’ve updated and I’ve iterated that I’ve uploaded for archival purposes and will take down if told to.

I could care less about clicks and if someone has uploaded other things for archival purposes, then I usually just link back. What's cool about this community is not letting CC fade into obscurity! I hope whenever I'm not here anymore, that my cc is still available for you all. Something I try to do with my slider master list if find working downloads before I resort to doing it myself.

With creating, I try to practice all this with the intention of sharing with the community and never claiming work that is not my own for complete transparency. Every original creator is named and credited clearly. I make sure that TOUs allow changes or conversion (when it comes to S4 conversions). And I've said it in posts before but yeah I would absolutely take things down or refrain from posting if creators do not approve.

The updates I make, while not revolutionary in any way, I hope are at least transformative enough to warrant me being able to upload them myself.

If you're not sure what good faith, grey faith, and bad faith entails in this community, a lot of current creators got together and kinda wrote out what that might entail. It's a good read and is only meant to tell you what the consensus is generally!

I've had my things reuploaded without my permission, and I've actually allowed it in cases with regional access and all that. Nowadays, I'm aware I can't control everything, which is why I don't put every single person who uploads my sliders in huge packs on blast.

And for me it's really simple: While the creator is still active and openly has their downloads available, there's really no reason to be reuploading works of a non-transformative nature.

But people are gonna do what they're gonna do.

The times it's really a community issue are when people don't do what's listed above or are not completely transparent with use of previously existing cc or code, which is exactly what happened these past few days.

Credit was not outright given (not without a weird non-apology), it was not transparent how transformative the mod was (kept the code mostly the same), and they uploaded and zipped up dozens of creators work behind a paywall for the sake of "convenience" which actually just does more harm than good when the collection contains outdated and possibly buggy, older, or incompatible modifications.

So IMO, it's not just about the TOU re-uploading and all that. It's about behaviors that don't exhibit bad faith with creating!

What it comes down to is being able to listen to others and do what's right. We only have each other to answer to.

That's all I have to say on the matter. If you're new, welcome to the community! I do hope that you're going directly to creators and getting their stuff the way they would like it distributed and downloading from people who don't charge you money for recolors or tuning files. :)

[thorns-and-rosewings]

Time to post some Seraphim AU🔥 Character Information!

(Like I have mentioned, I have a bit of brainrot from this idea sooo... I guess it's time to give the characters in this AU bit more of a proper introduction. Warning this is quite long because I always overdo my writing.)

Let's start with Canon Eclipse, after getting his dumb ass stuck in Seraphim Eclipse's Universe...

-The satellite blast didn't kill him, as Nice Eclipse (Solar) told Moon, he built the satellite in a month... Something could go wrong. Which it did, rather than just blasting Canon Eclipse to dust, it punched him clean into another dimension. Severely damaging both him and the Newton Star.

-An energy blast punched right through Seraphim Eclipse's roof and deposited the damaged remains of Canon Eclipse into the ballpit. Scaring the absolute bejesus out of both Seraphim Eclipse and all the kids in the daycare.

-Upon realizing that there looked like another version of himself, albeit much smaller and without wings, Seraphim Eclipse took him to his workshop in order to investigate what this was all about.

-To clarify his damages, Canon Eclipse's legs and right arm had been blown clean off and his torso and rays were damaged. Thankfully all his pieces made the trip and could be re-attached.

-His remains were strapped to a table and Seraphim Eclipse proceeded to hook him up to his computer and go through his mind...

-That wasn't fun.

-He woke up three-quarters of the way through the process. Only to meet his alternate self looking through his memories and additional files... And got a very unamused look from the larger animatronic.

-He got put back into unconsciousness pretty quickly.

-When he wakes up again he finds his body repaired and meets his alternate more properly. Which... Honestly doesn't go all that well.

-Pretty much Seraphim Eclipse explains that he's in his universe and he has no way to get back to his own... Which to be frank is probably a good thing, given how he acts.

-Canon Eclipse unfortunately is... Well, Canon Eclipse and starts being the asshole that he is and stupidly starts threatening the bigger version of himself. Which results in Seraphim Eclipse attaching a collar of sorts to his neck that can both shock and freeze up his body to prevent him from doing things. As he doesn't want this jerk sabotaging his life and work.

-Canon Eclipse is forced to to become a janitor and boy does he hate it.

-Things get worse when he realizes that Seraphim Eclipse took his designs for Bloodmoon and Lunar and begins constructing his own versions.

-He has one hell of a tantrum because of this, which Seraphim Eclipse refers to him as a brat for it.

-Gets even more frustrated when this Bloodmoon DOESN'T turn out like his did.

-...he tries very hard to avoid the new version of Lunar outright...

-Overall he's angry. He's angry at the situation he's in. Angry that he's powerless and likely not going to be able to return to his home universe... But the thing that enrages him the most is how Seraphim Eclipse gets to have all the things that Canon Eclipse secretly wanted. Things that he WOULDN'T have without having STOLEN it all from him.

-He's just... In a very bad place.

.

Next up is Seraphim Eclipse!🔥

-Once he aquires the Pizzaplex and implements the changes he desires, it should be noted that everything runs far more smoothly and efficiently. For both the human and animatronics that work there.

-Far less health and safety code violations.

-His skills for hacking and creating false identities and establishing various contacts is put to good use and he creates a fictional persona of 'Fredrick Bearson' for Freddy. So that he can essentially become Gregorys adoptive father. And even sets up a comfortable apartment for them in another section of the Pizzaplex.

-This undoubtedly comes from his programing in regards to taking care of children; in this case a very roundabout way and recognizing that the boy was in better hands with Freddy than he was living on the street homeless.

-When dealing with the children in the daycare, he's extremely patient and takes everything very easy. He can be firm if he needs to be, such as putting some children in time-out, but his calm easy-going demeanor makes him very good with his job.

-He is EXTREMELY claustrophobic. Due to his trauma of being locked away and trapped within his body, he has severe issues with enclosed spaces to the point that he will have panic attacks and could even become violent in his attempts to free himself from any sort of 'confinement.'

-That being said, he refuses to acknowledge he has a problem and just tries to shrug the past and its pain off. Like it's over and not going to affect the future.

-He's in denial he needs help.

-He also fully realizes how dangerous it is to keep Canon Eclipse around . But... He cannot help but feel immense pity for him and even sees the sickening possibility that he could have ended up just like him. Bitter and hateful. So in a way he hopes that he might somehow find a way to actually help him.

-He has good intentions but not always the best execution...

-In that regards, his more negative aspects are that he is known to carry grudges and he has a LONG memory. Pissing him off is a very bad idea because he can also be vengeful and in some instances... Capable of excessive cruelty.

-His more negative qualities mercifully don't surface often.

-His most treasured possession is his sword, which is a Nodaichi. One crafted by an expert craftsman from Feudal Japan. It was given to him by Twila, Cassie's aunt.

-She obtained the sword from someone who was throwing out all of his grandfather's possessions and unaware of exactly what he was disposing of... and once thrown out, Twila scavenged it and prepared to list it on eBay.

-Seraphim Eclipse is fully aware of how valuable such an item is, as genuine 'Real' swords can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. He was reluctant to accept it, but Twila pointed out she would rather have her niece safe than money. He eventually accepted and has treasured it since.

-Nodaichi swords are typically two handed weapons, but Seraphim Eclipse is strong enough to wield it with one hand. He has a fighting style that varies between one handed and two handed. Often if one hand is free he will use that hands flamethrower.

-He fully acknowledges he is modeled after an angel and now owns a sword that he knows how to wield. He is the embodiment of the meme 'I have the power of God and Anime on my side!' and he gets a good laugh out of it.

-Unlike Canon Eclipse, he builds his Bloodmoon and Lunar not to be tools, but to be his brothers and he adores them both. But occasionally he butts heads with Bloodmoon due to his rash behavior and at some of his Lunar's more mischievous antics.

-"I love you both to the moon and back... But damnit if there aren't some days I want to leave you up there..."

-That being said, picking a fight with them is a great way to get on his bad side very quickly.

-When his Lunar's magic begins to affect him, the first thing that happens is his wings are reconstructed and become far more 'Bio-Mechanical' in nature. He gains the ability to fly and with six wings he is not only fast, but can turn on a dime.

-He also becomes fireproof, and his flamethrowers no longer seem to need to be refilled. Rather function in a more magical means. The way he wields his fire powers is similar in motions to a firebender from Avatar.

.

Now for Arc Bloodmoon

-As soon as Seraphim Eclipse activated him, Canon Eclipse dove for cover behind a table, expecting the worst... And this Bloodmoon immediately shot straight up and raced outta the workshop. But it was because he was created with a high amount of excess energy. And he just starts parkouring around the daycare.

-He initially appears to be harmless. Just extremely high energy with the equivalent of ADHD.

-Like Seraphim Eclipse, he works in the daycare and his high energy and playful nature make him a huge hit with the kids. Often wearing them down so they are ready for naptime. Which he himself might join them on. As he tends to fall asleep in random places when his energy gives out.

-He only has two wings, but his wings were built to be functional in flight. When he doesn't need them he can drape them over his shoulders to make it look like he's wearing a cloak. He also has the same type of 'tail' that Seraphim Eclipse has.

-However... Things don't really remain quite so simple in this instance.

-It becomes obvious that he definitely is more aggressive than Eclipse is. Get him to the point he wants to fight and it's very difficult to get him to stop.

-His playful antics go over well with virtually everyone he knows... But then he started trying to tease Canon Eclipse, but it ended with Canon Eclipse snapping that he's going to turn into a murderous double personality freak and he's going to laugh when he starts killing innocents for fun.

-That froze him down to his core...

-He proceeded to look through the data on his brothers computer and saw what Canon Eclipse meant... What he was modeled after... And it deeply disturbed him.

-Worse yet he had started to develop a deep bloodlust and craving for blood.

-...he has to restrain himself all the time...

- Eventually he finds that Strawberry Jam acts as a decent substitute for his blood cravings. Maybe it's just a mental trick, or just internal desperation, but he consumes A LOT of it. He will however hunt down rats and rip them apart for their blood on the occasion that the jam doesn't quell the craving.

-When they start having interdimensional adventures he is able to channel his aggression much better in fighting enemies and Eclipse realized he would fight better with a weapon or two.

-Seraphim Eclipse takes him to Twila, who not only owns the scrapyard, but also does custom forging swords/daggers as a side job. To order him custom swords.

-When Bloodmoon sees her... He immediately becomes smitten.

-His wings flutter around her a lot...

-He grows to visit Twila quite often and they become a good friends. Which is beneficial because there are idiots who break into her scrapyard. And he has FUN scaring them off.

-He does bite people...

-He also develops a sort of friendship with the displaced Sun/Moon/Eclipse that live at the scrapyard.

-Being at the scrapyard lessens his secret bloodlust.

-Twila eventually gets him his scarf, which he never takes off... Accept when his brothers fight to get it off him on laundry day. And even then he doesn't leave the laundry room.

-When he gets his katanas, his style of fighting is that he will just slice his opponents apart. He gets joy and satisfaction from spilling his enemies blood and will feed on it.

-Internally though, he's stressed. As he is deeply afraid that he might lose control of himself and kill and maim people like Canon Eclipse's Bloodmoon.

-He DOES have a second personality that had just been napping a lot during his initial awakening. When it had just started to be active is when Canon Eclipse snapped at him and when they both learned about their... counterpart...

-The second personality... chose... To just stay hidden. In an effort to prevent their combined fear of turning into a monster from coming true.

-But he is so alone...

-When the primary personality goes to sleep the secondary personality occasionally takes control and might eat more strawberry jam on toast rather than just straight bread. Or... Might pick up and hug their Lunar for seemingly no reason. Or randomly go to where Seraphim Eclipse is sleeping and wrap one of his wings around himself.

-There is a way to tell which personality is active though. Their heterochromia... When the secondary personality takes control, their eye colors flip. This and their fighting style seems to become more feral if possible.

-Finally when Lunar's magic starts affecting their lives, Bloodmoon is unaffected. He doesn't develop any sort of magical powers.

-The irony of this is that he does have a desire to create or find a star to use for his own personal reasons.

.

And finally, Cherubim Lunar

-When Seraphim Eclipse is constructing his version of Lunar he is also looking over the damaged Newton Star that, through the memories of Canon Eclipse, he learned this... Star... Is extremely powerful, but useless in this universe. However... He begins to try and modify it. But ends up fragmenting it to pieces which mostly fizzle out. Still somewhat curious if any effect at all could be had, he collects the fragments and uses them as he builds a custom heavy duty battery. Which he uses for Lunar.

-The immediate effect is that all of his internal wiring begins to glow the color of soft blue moonlight.

-And his Lunar awakens with a cute yawn and stretch.

-Seraphim Eclipse just shrugs. No longer caring if it actually did anything. Just hugs his new little brother.

-This Lunar is built to be like a Cherubim, which are actually angels of Mercy. Playing further into this, Lunar has an incredible amount of sympathy for people. Even the individuals who Seraphim Eclipse would have given up on. He can see if there is even a tiny light left inside of a person.

-He has, almost from the moment of his creation, had access to vast amounts of magic. Also seemingly just knowing how to use it without training.

-His powers appear to primarily be 'Healing' even to mechanical beings. In fact this ability is so potent that it can also trigger mutations, such as making machines more 'Bio-Mechanical' such as his mutating Seraphim Eclipse's wings to the point they function and allow him to actually fly. The feathers actually growing and shedding (And the sheddings having magical residue within them.) And in some instances, he can even revive a completely destroyed animatronic. But the catch is that it will not be to their original design, but instead to whatever mental image Lunar has for the new body.

-Here's looking at you Killcode...

-While his magic is potent in his own dimension, but in other dimensions he is much more limited and can completely drain himself if not careful. How much energy he expends can truly wreck his systems if he overdoes it. Eerily similar to star power...

-The glowing star on his tail can separate from him and will randomly float around him until he wants it to reattach. No explanation is ever given about this.

-Also jokes that he regularly converses with stars. And that he likes most of them. (Might not be a joke...)

-Seems to have a desire to help Canon Eclipse even more than Seraphim Eclipse does. Though Canon Eclipse goes out of his way to avoid him.

-His desire to help him doesn't mean that he won't confront him with some very hard truths. Which usually gets Canon Eclipse even more upset.

-Canon Eclipse has chased him away once with a broom...

-BAD DECISION; as Seraphim Eclipse was immediately upon him and was snarling at him while his sword was ready to behead his alternate in defense of his sibling.

-It scared the hell out of Canon Eclipse. Seeing Seraphim flip on a dime and become borderline manic. Given how large Seraphim is, that's a pretty horrifying image.

-Fortunately Lunar and Bloodmoon were able to pull Seraphim off of Canon. Bloodmoon commenting that Canon isn't even worth the energy for the kill.

-This was the first time that Lunar and Bloodmoon started to realize that their older brother... Wasn't completely alright.

-Life is frickin complicated no matter what universe your in appearently.

(Aaaand that's it. Holy hell that was a lot to write... In any case I hope this was interesting to read. 😅)

[los-ninos-tortugas]

Previous

"Leonardo da Vinci? The Leonardo da Vinci!?" Donnie exclaimed. Captain Janeway chuckled behind him.

"The one and only" da Vinci replied.

"A holographic recreation," Captain Janeway murmured, "extrapolated from contemporary accounts as well as from da Vinci's own journals. "

Donnie knows that logically, that still leaves a lot of gaps for the computer to fill in. He has to admit though, he finds it oddly comforting that even so far into the future people still hold such admiration for the fathers of the Renaissance to go so far as to try to make accurate AI recreations of them to interact with.

Just the implication of the complexity behind the code that makes up the man standing before him has Donnie bouncing on the balls of his feet just thinking about it. The holodeck is for recreation, surely the codes and subroutines are publicly available? He'll have to take a moment to rifle through the computer core and find the raw data form of this file. (His access has been frustratingly limited thus far, it'd be nice to have a file he can look up that won't have Commander Tuvok coming to lecture him about abusing his computer privileges.)

Presently however, Donnie's fingers are itching to touch literally everything in this workshop, dear Galileo where does he even start!?

"You two have come on a fortuitous day," said da Vinci. "There has been a funeral this morning, now all we must do is wait for dark, tell me, Katerina, how does your young friend feel about a little light grave robbing?"

Before Donnie can even begin to process that, Captain Janeway thankfully steps in.

"Er, maestro, perhaps we should save that for another day. Donatello is much more interested in inventions than anatomy."

Da Vinci seems nonplussed by the apparent change in his plans, giving nothing more than a shrug.

"Then come, come, I will show you what progress I have made on my latest creations."

And so they are led into the heart of the workshop, and not only does Donnie get to witness a true genius at work, but he gets to work with him.

Donnie is not sure how much time passes, too consumed with the satisfying feeling of letting his hands go to work and create something for the first time in a long time. The materials he has to work with are so simple, that it's all the more gratifying when he is able to assemble them into something more complex.

Throughout it all Captain Janeway is a surprisingly congenial presence. She never talks down to him or ever shuts down an idea outright. She offers suggestions and advice, and Donnie is struck by the realization that she is a fellow "student of the sciences" as she put it, and not just a commanding officer.

(And if that doesn't just make her even cooler...)

By the time the artificial day has turned to artificial night and the workshop is lit by candlelight, Donnie feels lighter. And also apparently tired, as he fails to hold back a jaw-cracking yawn.

"I think that's our cue to say goodnight," Janeway said. With that, Janeway saves and closes the program. Donnie almost wants to protest and ask for just a little more time, but she did say he's welcome to come back whenever he wants...

"Come on, I think we've both missed dinner, but I'm sure we can cajole Neelix into scrounging something together for us."

Soon enough they're both lounging by the windows in the mess hall, watching the stars go by at warp speed, each with a cup of hot chocolate for dessert. (He's mildly surprised the Captain didn't go for her usual black coffee, which she seems to drink no matter what time it is. Maybe she's trying to set a good example, the adults here have been annoyingly particular about limiting his own caffeine intake.)

The silence is amicable, the ambient sounds of the ship make for a pleasant hum to fill the space between them. There's no pressure here, in this moment to be anything other than content but, still, Donnie feels like something is released when he murmurs,

"My brother is named after him, you know."

Janeway almost misses the small revelation beneath the gentle buzz of the ship's internal workings. "Pardon?" she asks, curious.

"My twin," Donnie said, now at a regular volume. "He's named after Leonardo da Vinci. Not that anyone besides dad ever calls him Leonardo. We usually just call him Leo, sometimes he calls himself 'Leon'... I call him Nardo sometimes. He's nothing like da Vinci himself but... I dunno."

His eyes stay resolutely on the window but he can tell that the Captain has her full attention on him now. He drums his fingers on his mug, not knowing what to do with that.

"... Donatel-" she starts, "... Donnie." He finally looks at her, mildly shocked. He can tell the informality sits awkwardly on her tongue but she smiles at him anyway.

"Please, tell me about him."

[casualtydept]

thinking very hard about the unused skull face audio just sitting in the files. and rambling about them below.

people use these to prove there was a cut boss fight but if you go in the game script all the hurt sounds etc are actually part of a list of generic sounds used for prisoners/anyone you can carry around on your back (so quiet, code talker, even ocelot all have the same basic lines in there although i haven't checked if they were recorded)

that still doesn't really answer the question of Why or Where these were supposed to be used, or my own burning question of why they didn't let me inflict more suffering on him for my own amusement but a boss fight this is not.

weirdly he doesn't have any lines for being lifted onto snake's shoulder or jostled around while running which all the other characters have so it seems you weren't allowed to pick him up and throw him around like a ragdoll for whatever reason. sad.

the other half are from a different version of the walk and talk section in mission 30, where you could apparently still access your weapons and use them to outright threaten him.

the "i haven't finished yet" and "you don't care what i have to say" lines were seemingly repurposed for the final build for when you refuse to follow him but from what i can tell from poking around in the code the rest go completely unused.

his soldiers do still have behaviour for killing you during this scene because i used infinite heaven to set an alert mode during the scene and they all immediately dogpiled me so there's That. i tried to see if he could take damage from the grenades they were throwing at me but unfortunately even with my health set to something absurd i just got stuck in BOSS THAT'S A SERIOUS INJURY mode and could do little but accept my fate.

i am a little sad we did miss out on getting to annoy him to the point of testing his patience, though.

if i had to guess the POW lines and the extra walk and talk lines would have both been part of the same scene - he does specifically have lines for throwing punches and being tranquilised so it's possible him turning his guards on you wasn't an instant kill and you could have some fun with him if you could manage it but i know no more than anyone else.

(edit: there is actually a "target dead" game over state if he dies still in the game suggesting you totally could just kill him if you wanted to)

in general if you go looking in the script a lot of things stand out to me as them just putting down everything they were even remotely considering (there's quiet speaking navajo as a buddy in there) so it's hard to know to what degree any of this was implemented, if at all.

(as a side note a long while back i took a lot of the unused hurt noises etc and made a little voice replacement mod to go along with the skull face player model mod which i should probably share sometime. i remember spending like 20 minutes knocking myself out with sleep grenades just to hear his little sleepy sounds <3)

[fandommemequeen]

my 2022.

alright gamerz itz that time of year again 4 Gamerz Yearly Retrospective!!!

so uhh im not gonna sugarcoat it: this year rlly sucked. a lot of stuff went down this year that id rather not go into detail abt here, but its been rough and unfair and sometimes i felt like it was never gonna get better. add onto that skool being mega rough, facing tons of imposter syndrome over my identity, anxiety, World Events, and fricktons of executive dysfunction, and youve got urself a total recipe for disaster.

but amidst all the doom and gloom.. i had better days. i played videogames and arcade games, i hugged the stuffing out of plushies, i anticipated release dates for new videogames, i got my hands on the g3 monster high dolls and relieved my childhood, i still luv siivagunner and wii deleted you and invader zim and deltarune, i got into just shapes & beats, i discovered the tourney community through mashup week: megamix and made some amazing friends, i got into creepypasta and yfm and osu and taiko no tatsujin and arcane and tmk, i got kirby and the forgotten land and splatoon 3 both on launch day and have had SO MUCH FUN with both of them, i luved watching ghost files and puppet history s5 after school and catching new toh and g3 monster high episodes,,

ive also acomplished some milestones too. first time getting an award for one of my cosplays, coming out as arospec [and proceeding to fall in platonic luv with my irl bestie xd], getting a compression top/binder, getting the awesome short emo hair i wanted for months, first time cosplaying at a convention, getting diagnosed with adhd and finally confirming what i had suspected for so long but never outright said due to self-doubt and fear of faking, starting medication, being in counseling/art therapy, trying sodas and monster energy and starbucks frappucchinos with no coffee, and learning to luv being "cringe".

but overall the best thing i did to make it through 2022 was,, just being me. i wrote. i drew. i roleplayed. i cosplayed. i scrolled through social media and chatted with friends far away from me. i read and wrote fanfics. i crafted. i brainstormed. i coded. i listened to music and cranked the volume on my gamer headset with cat ears. i was so very Not Normal about fictional characters. i made new friends and still kept up with old ones. i revisited old fandoms. i vibed in the front yard while listening to music. i checked the mail pretty much every day, secretly hoping one of my pieces of fandom merch would be there. i supported my family through the hard times, and they always supported me. i imagined scenarios and animatics and animation memes while listening to music. i listened to fandom lofi while trudging through overdue assignments. i rocked out to skrillex and monstercat and camellia playing beat saber at 8 in the morning for my virtual p.e. class last year. i learned the absolute beauty of platonic love. i started making unironic mary sues just for the heck of it. i felt so many emotions. i cried of happiness and of sadness. i hugged. i made vent art on my phone. i had complicated feelings. i felt like a faker at times. i was [and still am] learning to overcome climate doomism and death anxiety. i was weird, i was imperfect, i was cringe... but i was so cool for embracing my weirdness, my imperfection, and my cringiness, and i wouldnt have it any other way.

i know i can survive whatever life throws at me. ive got my friends and family by my side, and just being me in the face of.. well, everything, is the strongest thing i can do. im tired of lying down and just taking it. im tired of feeling hopeless. i will fight. i will persist. i will find ways to cope with anxiety and executive dysfunction. and above all, i will continue to love. i will love my family and friends who always have my back, i will love my interests and hobbies, no matter how weird they may seem to others, and i WILL learn to love myself.

after my 2019 retrospective post, i always hesitated a bit to look to the new year with confidence and resilience and hope, in fear of my hopes being crushed and being miserable. now i see that no matter what, lifez gonna be hard sometimes, but i am strong and i will NOT BACK DOWN.

so, for the first time in years, ill say it again. and i rlly, TRULY mean it when i say this:

BRING IT ON, 2023. this scenekid and tourney-obsessed geek can and WILL handle WHATEVER U THROW AT ME!!

[jcmarchi]

The Fight to Own Your Creative Content – Speckyboy

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/the-fight-to-own-your-creative-content-speckyboy/

The Fight to Own Your Creative Content – Speckyboy

As a platform, the web caters to creators. It’s a place to publish and share whatever we want. We’ve used it to fuel the rise of everything from blogs to influencer videos.

The results are impressive. Think of all the careers kickstarted by online publishing. I am living proof. Writing and web design have provided me with income and a platform. I’m forever grateful.

However, the rules of content ownership seem to be changing before our eyes. And it’s not the familiar trope of a spammer copying your text and images.

These days, large companies are trying to stake a claim. Social media has been doing this for years. And now artificial intelligence (AI) is putting the practice into overdrive.

Not everyone wants to own our content outright. Various platforms are looking to profit from what we create, though. Let’s take a look at what’s happening and what it means.

A Misunderstanding That Made Creators Think

Imagine a tool that helps you create compelling content. It then takes your content and profits from it. A recent change to Adobe’s Terms of Use seemed like it might do just that.

Users were up in arms regarding the revised language in the agreement:

“4.2 Licenses to Your Content. Solely for the purposes of operating or improving the Services and Software, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free sublicensable, license, to use, reproduce, publicly display, distribute, modify, create derivative works based on, publicly perform, and translate the Content. For example, we may sublicense our right to the Content to our service providers or to other users to allow the Services and Software to operate as intended, such as enabling you to share photos with others. Separately, section 4.6 (Feedback) below covers any Feedback that you provide to us.”

I’m no lawyer or legal expert. But it sounds like the company is permitting itself to use your content. Theoretically, Adobe could use content created in Photoshop to feed its AI model.

Adobe has since clarified that this is not the case. The changes relate to allowing their cloud-based AI tools to modify your content – at your request. Furthermore, the language is there to facilitate the sharing of files via Adobe apps.

Perhaps it was all an honest misunderstanding. But can you blame anyone for being suspicious of the change?

Content Isn’t Just for User Consumption

The relentless pace of AI is making some people uncomfortable. Tools are scraping our websites to feed their models. Opting out isn’t straightforward.

It’s also different from social media. The workaround there has been to create content on a platform you control (a website) and promote that content on social media. We’re merely funneling traffic from a proprietary platform—not allowing it to own our creations.

AI has changed the game. The platforms are meeting us where we are. They’re indexing what we’ve published to improve their product.

All of this happens in the background. It may not be a big deal to some. If you can’t see it happening, what’s the harm?

We may not immediately see the effects. But the long-term ramifications could be significant.

What happens when a company chooses AI instead of a copywriter? Or let ChatGPT generate all of its custom code? Or replace a graphic artist with a text-to-image tool?

These things are already happening. Maybe they haven’t impacted you just yet. But pessimists will see this as feeding the machine that will take your place.

Rethinking the Role of Apps in Content Creation

I can’t say that I ever considered the role apps play in what I create. For example, I’ve used Photoshop since the 1990s. It was a great tool that helped me accomplish my goals. It still is.

The misunderstanding surrounding its Terms of Use has me wondering. How far will an app go to serve us and itself?

It’s no longer paranoia to think a software company would use our content for profit. And governing bodies can’t act swiftly enough to stop it. It’s the wild west out there. Companies will experiment and go as far as they can.

So, perhaps it’s no longer about using the most powerful tool for the job. Now, it’s about using tools that respect users.

App developers should be clear about their intentions. And, if they are feeding content to AI models, they should allow users to opt out. The process for doing so should be simple.

There’s a market for apps with a privacy-first focus. We see this with web browsers like Firefox and DuckDuckGo. That’s a roadmap for creative apps and publishing platforms to follow.

The New Reality of Content Creation

There’s always been some risk when publishing online. Anyone could copy your work and call it their own. Or they could redistribute your work in an unapproved manner. It’s frustrating, for sure. But we’ve learned to live with it.

These days, the concern is how and where we create. Do we own our content – or are we expected to share ownership? What rights do we have? What does all of the legalese in the Terms of Service mean?

The answers may deter some of us from publishing. That’s a shame because the internet is the perfect medium for sharing ideas.

In reality, we should think twice before using a tool or platform. As creators, we need to know what we’re getting into.

The situation also underscores the importance of free, open-source software (FOSS). Platforms like WordPress ensure content ownership and portability. Integration with AI is optional – even if blocking content scrapers isn’t automatic.

The bottom line is to do your homework. Find tools that respect your privacy and rights to ownership, and avoid the ones that go too far.

We can’t control everything in this industry, but we can make informed choices. For now, it’s our best option.

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[maggyoutthere]

Understanding inherited fearlessness

Everything felt foggy and dull. Lightheaded, as if waking up from a dream. In reality, he was just powering back up. Someone took him back.

" ... Nova! Brother, you're awake! "

It took him a minute, but his system booted up eventually. The place was unfamiliar to Nova. Where were they? Had they won?

" Take it easy. You took a lot of nasty blows. "

" Where is...? "

" Don't worry, we got him. "

His arms had been rebuild, no more headaches. Nova felt as good as new, or at least as good as he felt before White perished. Still, he leaned on White as he helped him out of the room he was in. They looked to be in some kind of base of operations. Now, this looked familiar, but Nova couldn't tell exactly where that feeling came from. Had he been here before? He didn't even knew if he was still in White's dimension or back to his. Where was everyone?

White guided him to an adjacent room from the hallway they walked down from. The electric panel next to the door gave away exactly why this place felt so familiar.

" Look who just woke up. "

" Morning, sunshine! "

Nova instinctively recoiled at the sight of Neut, but quickly felt White holding him closer. He couldn't tell if White was trying to comfort him, or if even he was uncomfortable with the situation. He didn't seem very happy to be there either.

Sonic stood by Tails as the little one focused on his work, multitasking between various computers and devices connected to Neut. Sonic explained how White had been able to knock out Neut while he was focused on Nova and was still able to send Sonic and his team a distress signal to come pick them up. Apparently Nova had received the most damage, so they were happy to see him up so soon. When questioned by Nova as to what were they doing with Neut, Sonic explained how they wanted to see if they could disarm him so they could get a chance to talk. If that didn't work, deactivate him. Nova quickly realised this was similar to something they had done to White when he was still a Metal Sonic, right after losing as Neo Metal Sonic for the first time. He looked up at his big brother to comfort him. Nova got a reassuring smile in return.

Nova questioned them over why this facility seemed so familiar.

" This is one of Eggman's old facilities. "

" We haven't found him yet. "

There was an odd silence for a few seconds. It felt like everybody knew what had happened to the doctor, but nobody wanted to outright say it.

Luckily, Tails broke the silence with some information. He had managed to get past Neut's defence systems, commenting on how similar they were to Neo's, perhaps even stronger. Nova assumed that was a result on how Neut was able to hack him all the time, how he must have learned from that and upgraded himself. Tails also confirmed what the brothers and even Sonic suspected; Neut had indeed found some kind of artefact and given himself a major upgrade. He concluded it was probably a set of gems similar to the Chaos Emeralds, but it was impossible to know what they were since White had brought so many new things in from other dimensions during his time as a tyrant.

However, there was one interesting feature about Neut that he hadn't been able to find on either White and Nova during the small amount of time he'd had fixing Nova. Neut appeared to have a couple of extra files compared to White and Nova, these much older than the rest of his system. Tails concluded these files seemed to have a willing of their own, or at least were able to influence whoever they were programmed into in situations like decision making and evaluating conflicts.

" These files are directly connected to their host's mind, leading them to have desires of grandiosity, fearlessness and strong convictions to finish tasks. It seems to be- "

" Around the time Neo Metal Sonic happened. "

Nova stared at him. What did he mean?

" This was Neo. All that old code did remain in my old body until the day I died. Apparently it remained in there, and now it belongs to Neut. He must have inherited the... 'no longer afraid of anything' part of being a Neo. "

" No! "

It was almost a yell. There was some kind of desperation in it.

" I went through every circuit, every chip, everything that... thing was! Nothing remained of White, because if it did, I would have found it! "

" You must have missed something- "

" I DID NOT! "

" Nova! Behave yourself! "

" But he's lying, he has to be! You mean to tell me that in the last two years, there had ALWAYS been a piece of you in that thing and I failed to retrieve it?! That I could have prevented this whole mess from happening in the first place?! "

Nova ended up letting his head fall against White's chest, trying not to sob. Another thing he could have fixed. He thought he was over this, but apparently it had just been laying dormant, waiting for another mistake of his to be angry about. There had always been a little bit of White left in Neut - Blank at the time - and still, Nova hadn't been able to get to it. To know his plan was actually possible to achieve, but he'd butchered his chances regardless. It hurt almost as much as whatever Neut had done to him just a few hours ago.

White held his distressed brother close, hoping to calm him down. He asked Tails what he considered to be the best thing to do now. The fox child suggested trying to delete those files. He had a hunch perhaps they what were causing Neut to be so vengeful of Nova. Sure, Neut had reason to be angry at Nova on his own, but that NEO code was giving him the will to want to kill him and not live the free life he had ahead of him. However, he was curious over what Nova had yelled about. If that NEO coding was indeed in that body since White had died, how was it only now active? Could it have something to do with the upgrade? Tails questioned if he could run some tests on the brother to figure out if they still had that code themselves and what had happened to it. They were reluctant, but agreed as they realised it was for a greater good.

After some browsing through their systems, Tails came to a few conclusions.

" You two have vastly different operating systems. White was build mainly by me, so his system is pretty familiar. Since we build him, he never coded any NEO code in him, so he's free of it. "

White sighed. Was he relieved? Apparently so.

" As for you, Nova... your system is incredibly damaged. There are various corrupted files, some even locked behind passwords, others just gone. "

Nova knew why that was. Neut's hacking had left a lasting impact on him. He'd been fixing himself little by little since White arrived, but had kept it a secret from him for the most part. White looked at him with a mix of worry and shock.

" I was able to recover a few files, but it seems you've been working on that yourself. The hacking seems to have completely destroyed your NEO coding as I couldn't find it anywhere. I guess you two can be considered... no longer Neo Metal Sonics in disguise. You are officially something quite unique. "

The brothers felt... odd, but in a good way. Knowing they were no longer tied to what they once were felt comforting. They were no longer Neos, just Nova and White, the Starfields Siblings, something they'd been fighting to be for years now.

As Tails went back to work out a way to delete the NEO coding from Neut's system, the brothers relished in their new identities. Nova apologised for not having told White about the hacking he was still dealing with, but White wasn't really angry at him, just worried. After a few hours, Tails called everyone in again. He explained how he thought he had been able to isolate and delete the NEO coding, but he wasn't sure how Neut would react when he woke up. He needed everyone there for protection and to be ready for another possible fight, though he hoped that would not be necessary.

With his own brother and two ex-Neos having his back, with a flick of a switch, Neut was awake again.

[pokemoncreepypasta]

Forever Mine

[STORY SOURCE]

I live in one of those small towns with a big community. It feels like everyone knows each other, and parents would visit their friends and leave their kids to mess around with each other. Classes in school weren’t very large.

So when there’s news about a kid dying, it travels at god-speed. 

Everyone at school kept talking about the death of this girl who was probably a year behind me.

I didn’t know her personally. I wouldn’t have even been able to tell you her name if everyone wasn’t talking about her.

I didn’t want to pick up gossip about how she died. I decided to attend her funeral myself. Not because we were friends or anything, but I did want to show my respect for this girl and her family.

The local funeral home was within biking range of my house, so I set off.

I sat awkwardly as I noticed her parents. I’m not usually very good at picking up feelings from people, but I could tell that beyond their grief was disappointment and maybe even hostility.

They made me wonder what she was thinking about before she died.

After she was buried, I hung around the cemetery. I’d wished I brought flowers with me, but decided I’d give her some the next time I stopped by.

Around this time, I had been aiming to get a Sky Forme Shaymin, since it was one of my favorite Pokémon back then.

I had caught a wild Shaymin using the "Pokémon Modifier" cheat code. I was terrible at coming up with creative names. But then, I remembered the name of the girl and thought it would suit a Shaymin rather well.

“Skye.”

Little did I know that this would invite strange things to start happening to my game.

I wanted to keep this Shaymin in its Sky Forme whenever possible, so I planned on keeping it in my team 24/7, only playing during daytime, etc. I was a dirty cheater who liked putting illegal moves on my Pokémon, so I taught Skye to use Fly.

At the time, I didn’t know you needed to catch the Shaymin in Flower Paradise to receive the Gracidea Flower, so when I talked to the blonde girl NPC in Floaroma Town, I had no idea why she wouldn’t give it to me.

So I was stuck with a Shaymin that knew Fly. It was weird, and I never really grew all that attached to it. Eventually I boxed it, forgot I had it, and released it without thinking.

The next time I booted up the game, I got this message.

“The save file is corrupted. The previous save file will be loaded.”

My first instinct was panic. I didn’t have any time to think or process the initial message, because all my hours were gone. With nervous anticipation, I started up the save file to see what the damage was.

To my surprise, I found myself on an incomplete Seabreak Path. The south path to Route 224 was cut off, with a featureless Shaymin staring vacantly over the edge.

I checked my party, and found none of my team members.

Only a level 100 Dusknoir with the move Follow Me.

Very useful, I thought. I’d have to boot up my Action Replay to teach this thing Fly in order to get off the island later.

Checking my items, I noticed everything was gone, save for a single PokéBall and an Escape Rope. Neither of which seemed particularly helpful for getting me off this island.

Out of curiosity though, I decided to see if Shaymin would be at Flower Paradise. I started my trek north, lamenting the loss of my bike.

To my surprise, Shaymin was there, despite never having Oak’s Letter or triggering the cutscene with it. Its face was obstructed by flowers, but it seemed like its pink flowers were missing just like the one I saw before.

I spoke to the Shaymin, and a message appeared.

“I remember you.”

“But… You don’t remember me, do you?”

The wild Shaymin attacked, and my heart stopped at its name.

“Skye appeared!”

Featureless, like before.

I felt a knot in my stomach, not even caring about the game. Something was very clearly wrong with it, and I wanted to stop playing. But I decided I was already taking pictures of the weird stuff that was happening, and I wanted to document it in full.

Steeling my resolve, I went about my options.

Dusknoir only knew Follow Me, so it was useless to weaken the Shaymin.

Remembering the PokéBall I had, I tossed it at the Shaymin.

Most people would be ecstatic to catch a Shaymin with full HP in a PokéBall on their first try, but I got the feeling that the game was rigged. There wasn’t any triumphant music playing either, which didn’t help my feelings about it.

I tried checking my newly caught Shaymin, but my game froze upon checking my party.

Upon restarting the system and starting the game up, this message appeared.

“My heart is corrupted. Please save me.”

My save file was gone for real this time. The trainer’s name was “SINNER”.

I live in a pretty religious community, so reading this made me ill at ease.

Starting up the game again, I found myself in the Lost Tower, playing as a featureless Shaymin.

My only Pokémon was the same Shaymin, named SINNER, knowing Fly, Scary Face, Fake Tears, and Spite.

A text box appeared when I tried to leave the tower.

“Today’s the day.”

It pushed me back, preventing my exit. The only option I had was to ascend.

No random encounters happened, and all the trainers wouldn’t interact with me.

It went this way until I went to the top floor. I’m pretty sure there isn’t supposed to be a man and woman NPC standing in this spot.

"There’s nothing left to say.”

Interacting with them just prompted this text.

It was here that I noticed a staircase that wasn’t supposed to be there.

I found myself on the top of the tower. I stepped into a scripted event, and the Shaymin faced the edge without my prompt.

"It's a long way down... Are you ready?"

Hoping for some way out of this, I wanted to say “no”, so I could cheat my way out of the tower and get my game back to normal. However, upon selecting it, this text appeared.

"You've held back for long enough. It's time to go."

“SINNER used the Escape Rope.”

A battle started against the same Dusknoir as before. I was intimidated to go against a level 100 Dusknoir, but then I remembered its only move was Follow Me, so it was harmless.

I realized that if I let SINNER faint, I could go to the last Pokémon Center and escape the tower.

I used Spite, thinking that if I reduced Follow Me’s PP, the Dusknoir would use Struggle and OHKO my Shaymin.

“The wild DUSKNOIR used Follow Me!”

“SINNER used Spite!”

“But there was no target...”

Dang it.

Deciding to experiment, I came to the conclusion that there was no harm in screwing around with SINNER’s attacks until DUSKNOIR ran out of PP. I chose Fly.

“The wild DUSKNOIR used Follow Me!”

“SINNER used Fly!”

“The wild DUSKNOIR used Follow Me!”

“SINNER kept going and crashed!”

Not the KO I was expecting, but I took it nonetheless.

The game, of course, crashed as soon as my Shaymin’s cry played, leaving nothing but pleasantly ear-grating screeching sounds.

I decided to take a break from playing for a moment to process what I just witnessed. I had a lot to digest.

The only conclusion I came to was that ghosts are real and this was the same Skye as the girl who died. Which would sound insane if I didn’t have the pictures to prove it.

I choked back tears. I was afraid. Why did Skye want me to see this?

I wanted to put the game down and be done with it. But if she had a message to give me, then I felt like I had to see it through to the end.

I guess I vainly hoped she’d pass on and find peace if I listened to what she was trying to say.

Another message when I started the game up again.

“I can’t fly. I tried to.”

I found myself at Spear Pillar. The staircase to the Hall of Origin was in front of me.

My exit was gone, so I just went straight to Arceus.

A level 100 Arceus stood before me.  

Instead of sending out my Shaymin, it stayed in the field. It was now bleeding. Its status said it was fainted, but it was still able to battle somehow.

I felt cornered. There was no way a level 14 Shaymin could take on something like this. I tried to use Fly, hoping it would give me the same result as before.

“Can’t use that here.”

It wouldn’t let me use the move. Instead, I just outright try to flee.

“Can’t escape!”

“ARCEUS used Judgment!”

I braced for impact...

“The wild ARCEUS’s attack missed!”

...But was pleasantly surprised to see it miss.

“I’m not ready yet.”

The game made me flee automatically.

The screen faded to black.

“I’m not ready. I’m not ready.”

“I’m scared.”

When the screen faded back to the overworld, I found myself in the Distortion World. The portal that takes you back to the main world was gone, so the only thing I could do was explore.

I found another Escape Rope while looking around.

It was the only thing noteworthy I could find, so I started trying to think of ways to get out of here.

I tried using Fly, since SINNER still knew it.

“There’s nowhere to fly to.”

Figures.

Trying to test my other options, I went to my bag and tried using the Escape Rope.

Of course, the “There’s a time and place for everything” message still appeared.

Deciding to mess around until I got results, I went to give the Escape Rope to SINNER.

“Don’t suppose you know what to do with this?” I muttered.

The game crashed again, and it assaulted my eardrums once more. I sharply inhaled, wondering if I touched a nerve.

I took a deep breath and started the game again.

My character’s name was now Skye.

I started in Floaroma Town. The first thing I did was rush to the Pokémon Center to check on my Pokémon in the PC. Of course, they were all gone.

I’d grieve for them later, though. Maybe Skye would be nice to me and give them back.

While I was in the center, I figured it might’ve been good to heal the faint status off of the Shaymin.

Sure it is. Glad you can tell when something is suffering, nurse.

Heading outside, I talked to the blonde NPC.

“You should always give flowers to someone who has passed away.”

“It’s rude not to.”

“You got the Gracidea!”

I was suddenly feeling very guilty for not leaving flowers before.

Wondering if I could fix the poor Shaymin in my party if I used the flower on her, I went to try it.

“It won’t have any effect.” 

Of course not.

The blonde NPC turned into my Shaymin. I spoke to her.

“That won’t help me.” 

Yeah, I thought not.

At a loss of ideas on what to do next, I absentmindedly made my way to Valley Windworks and walked around in the grass.

A wild Sky Forme Shaymin appeared.

I sent out Skye, of course.

I chose the fight option, and the battle continued without me selecting a move.

“The wild SHAYMIN used Reflect!”

“Skye’s rage is building!”

“Skye used Cut!”

“She hurt herself in her confusion!”

The Sky Form Shaymin was knocked out in one hit, despite the game telling me Skye had hurt herself.

Back on the overworld, I found the mangled parts of the Sky Forme Shaymin lying in the grass. I inspected them.

“Please put me back together.”

It gave me another prompt, and I chose yes.

The screen faded to black.

And then Skye appeared again in a black abyss, with Skymin ears and flower. My trainer was nowhere to be seen.

I checked my party to see that Skye had changed again. Her cry sounded like a distorted mix of Shaymin’s two forms.

I went back to the overworld and was unable to move. Instead, a dialogue box appeared.

“Can you hear me?”

"Thank you for caring about me.”

"I can fly now.”

“Because...”

“I love you.”

My heart skipped a beat. My hands began to shake.

“You must care about me too, right?”

“So... I’m going to stay with you.”

“I won’t leave, not without someone who loves me.”

“Will you fly away with me?”

My shaky hands went to say no. I didn’t want to be like her.

"...”

“I’ll wait for you.”

“I’ll change your mind.”

“You’re mine now.”

“You’re mine forever.”

With that last line, the game froze.

The first thing I did was take the game out of the system. I decided to drop off all my Pokémon games at the nearest GameStop. I didn’t want her talking to me anymore.

So why do I feel like she’s still here?

[ask-octoberotto]

It was difficult to tell what time it was in the space out of bounds; time practically moved at a crawl, the sun and moon didn’t exist, and rarely did anything change in this space. A dull, quiet drone murmured over the air that somehow made this place feel more empty. There was a small discrepancy however: upon a blank platform in an otherwise sea of white void was the only spot with colors. It looks like a parlor, a library, and laboratory rolled into one space.

Book shelves and filing cabinets stuffed with vital information, a velvet antique loveseat adorned with pillows, mahogany coffee table, a record player, an old work desk adorned with computers and strange typewriters, the floor covered with scattered papers… and a mobile chalkboard with notes on programming were hastily scribed on its surface. Mihai was alone, as he always was these days. Today he was on his computer, one that looked like it was Frankensteined into a bizarre, indescribable mess of a machine. More research was needed if he ever was going to win the attention of an outsider…

Em approached the platform, with a facsimile of her favorite cookies on a tray in her hands- double chocolate with a dash of cayenne heat, lovingly coded herself. Despite being undetected, she had a strange sense that Mihai could feel her approach, though that could’ve been the nerves. The wall resisted her slightly, the way things do when they’re uncertain. Near one corner, there was a soft, permeable plane. She turned and pressed her back to it, then stepped through.

The cookie tray rattled a bit as it clipped through the edge of a bookshelf, but otherwise everything was intact. Still, the sound was jarring enough to ruin her graceful entrance.

Em took a breath and put on a warm smile, “Hey, Mister Anghelescu.”

Mihai’s pointed ears seemed to twitch a bit as Em approached, an instinct he hasn’t quite been able to fully control. But even before he could hear her, the distinctive air of disturbance was felt as he noted another presence just entered an otherwise vastly empty plane.

He turns to face her, his gold, goat-like eyes being the only truly discernible thing that wasn’t obscured by hazy shadows. Even with the lack of a fully visible face, Em got the feeling he was surprised by her appearance.

“Ah, welcome. I certainly wasn’t expecting a visitor, Em,” he chuckled, “Forgive the mess—I would’ve tidied up if I knew you were visiting.”

"Oh, it's fine. I've never been one for keeping things too orderly, either." She felt slightly more at ease that he didn't reject her presence outright, like most of the people she'd been interacting with outside her universe. "I uh, made a little something for the occasion, but I don't know how they taste yet, so forgive me if they suck."

“Oh?” Mihai’s eyes widened a bit in curiosity, mostly because he hasn’t remembered a time someone truly wanted to gift him something.

Em nodded, placing the cookie tray down on his desk, "Yeah! Spicy chocolate cookies- they're one of my sister's favorite recipes... Y'know, she always says she hates baking, but likes tasty food enough to do it anyway."

“…Thank you,” he said, tentatively taking one for the moment. “So, what brought you here to visit me? As far as I can tell, most spiders seem to hate me and purposefully misunderstand me..”

“That’s kind of why, actually…” Em trailed off for a second, “I don’t think anyone should have to be so alone, especially not in a bitter world like this. The cluster doesn’t really like me, either- I know how it stings when people jump to assume the worst in you… The frustration of it all, I guess.”

“… Yes. I suppose that is why I spent so long pursuing that Doctor Otto,” Mihai considered it for a moment as he glances back the nightmare of wire and machinery that served as his way to influence the world. “As much as it pains me, I see that chasing after his affections is.. distracting me from my escape. I wish he understood but he refuses to let go of this accursed world. And the others? They simply don’t realize that my world is fundamentally doomed from the start. There is no saving it.”

He sighs as he sets the cookie aside onto the tray and begins typing on his computer’s keyboard.

“…Which is why I am now trying to reach out to those on the outside world that were responsible for the creation of this dimension. They have more power than anyone else over this world. They should be able to change things…”

"That's pretty clever... I've dabbled in this stuff, myself, but I'm nowhere near that level of talent."

“Ah, I’ve been doing this for decades now. It took me years to learn about the coding and what it can do,” If his face were just more visible, a knowing smile would’ve been easy to spot… the only visible thing that indicated this were his eyes.

Em leaned on the back of his chair, watching the screen. She took a moment to ruminate on what exactly he meant by 'outside'- a higher reality, she supposed.

"What do you plan on doing, if you get out there? Like... What's the first thing you'd wanna do?" She asked, playfully.

“… Well, I hope to find someone who loves me there. It shouldn’t be too hard—I’ve learned that some people outside would kill to have a ‘character’ such as me be ‘real’ to them. Its a documented phenomenon that I wish to experience for myself…” He trails off for a bit. A tone of despair hidden underneath layers of his otherwise friendly demeanor began to surface. “.. I just.. feel too distant from everyone in this world. None of it is real. I just want to be real.”

"It's scary to watch the world go flat." Em commented, "I guess having things to do might help stave off the antsiness, though. Even if it doesn't feel totally real, sometimes... I don't know, a distraction might help... You wouldn't mind if I stop in like this more often, right?"

“… It would be a nice change of pace,” he said, pausing his typing, “While I technically do have a ‘life’ I live in, the people who are part of my ‘friendships’ are not really friends. They’re friends with a lie. Nor would they ever be able to grasp what I am or what I know…”

"Just another part of the game, huh? That must be pretty hard." she nodded, "I think I've gotta get back to my own universe before the kids get in trouble, but I'll stay in touch, kay? Maybe I can even bring you some more things from my world."

“Of course,” he nodded, looking back to face her. “I’d love to speak with you more often.”