#lotta character building though and it was fun

[irregularbillcipher]

watched the musical demon show (don't wanna name it so this post isn't in the tags) at the behest of an IRL friend and i can already tell this is going to be a piece of media where i absolutely cannot stop thinking about it, not because i really love the show as-is, but because it has so many individual components i really like and find incredibly fun or compelling, and i'm so frustrated that it doesn't come together for me

i think the main thing i can say about it as a show, setting aside some of the insensitive choices that were made that i really don't feel qualified to tackle or talk about, is that the entire thing sort of gives off this vibe of someone really excited to show you every single oc they made in high school and college and i very genuinely mean that in both the best and worst ways possible

there are some good hooks for season two though so i will absolutely give them that

[dinahdoeeyes]

My ideal production of Starlight Express.

I suppose I'll just get right into it. First the list of characters, then the songs (excluding little bits/non-songs like Taunting Rusty and the races), then the rest.

Cast:

Rusty

Pearl

Greaseball

Dinah

Electra

CB

Ashley

Buffy

Poppa

Belle, the Sleeping Car (called Memphis Belle)

Dustin

Flat-Top

The Rockies

Volta, Joule, Wrench, Purse, and Krupp

The original National Engines

Duvay and the Sleepers

Control

Setlist (* = will be addressed below):

Entry Of National Trains

Rolling Stock

Call Me Rusty

A Lotta Locomotion ('83 Workship version, but with Buffy added)

He Whistled At Me (Minus the Rusty/Pearl conversation)

*Dinah/Greaseball duet

Freight (With the girls bullying the boys)

AC/DC

Pumping Iron ("Trying to build my body, trying to lose my mind" and "Stretching my bullworker, heaving on my weights" switch spots because I just feel that it'd sound better that way.)

Sleepers moment

*Dinah solo

Hitching and Switching (probably original)

Crazy

*That was Unfair (extended)

That's Me/There's Me (duet)

Poppa's Blues

Belle's Song (Combo of OG & Broadway — especially "sniffing the coke")

Starlight Express

The Rap: Hey You

*Make Up My Heart

Pearl Twirl

U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D.

Girls' Rolling Stock

Wide Smile (Mostly the Broadway version, except he says the OG "...C.B." in the chorus instead of Broadway's "...the Red Caboose," until the ending after Electra & co leave.)

I Was Robbed

Right Place, Right Time

I Am The Starlight

Rusty and Dustin

*Dinah's Disco (extended)

No Comeback

One Rock & Roll Too Many

I Do and/or Only You (I really want "I Do," and it feels redundant to do both in a row, but I feel like "Only You" is important?)

*GreaseDinah reunion (extended)

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Starlight Express Megamix (of course)

Notes:

We are leaning hard into the 80's here! None of that trying to modernize StEx they've been doing since the 90's. It doesn't work, and the hyper-80's...ness is one of the best things about StEx!

This is about 60% the 1984 original, so keep that in mind.

Dinah & Greaseball look most like the original Dinah and Greaseball. (Though Dinah's hair looks like this. I'll get to her costumes below.) Greaseball looks completely like Jeff Shankley's GB.

Most of the costumes look like the Broadway versions.

However, Pearl gets 3 costumes; her pants outfit from the '84 previews (but with white pants), followed by her sleek Broadway dress outfit (w/ Electra), and then the fluffy dress outfit (w/ GB).

Dinah has 2 costumes; the first one being more Broadway (but I dislike the leggings, so different ones), and then, when she pairs with Electra, she changes to an outfit that is similar to her OG outfit.

C.B.'s look is very similar to the original, except his pants are black, and he has his later hat.

I want some of the choreography from the '83 workshop. ( x x x x )

Dinah & Greaseball banter a bit because "Incapable of feeding yourself, Greaseball?" Ohhh *chef's kiss* 2017 London Workshop did something right!

*Dinah & Greaseball get a couple's duet. It's a fun, cute, rock/80's pop mix song that touches on their love for each other and how they don't care about others' bullshit. ("Our Lips Are Sealed" kind of vibes, I suppose.)

Ashley and Duvay are sisters.

Greaseball pulls the girls during "Freight," like he originally did.

*Dinah gets a solo after "Pumping Iron" after the Sleepers talk their bullshit. It'd be about 3½ minutes long. If you've read my Dinah rants, you can get an idea of what it's about.

Greaseball, Bobo, and Espresso are part of the choreography during "Crazy" toward the end, racing around with Dinah, Ashley, and Buffy. (I promise this is FIRE in my head. Have faith. 🥺)

*Grease & Dinah have a longer argument before their breakup.

Dinah and C.B. have a duet. It's the Broadway version of There's Me combined with That's Me. (Dinah singing her solo part first.)

*Pearl sings "Make Up My Heart" about Rusty, Electra, and Greaseball. (Explanation here.)

*"U.N.C.O.U.P.L.E.D." is slower, sadder, and has more lyrics, like it was in the '83 workshop.

Buffy & Ashley are finally canon. It's Complicated™️, but they get it together by the end.

*"Dinah's Disco" is a bit longer, as is *Dinah & Greaseball's reunion/makeup.

Pearl is absolutely like original Pearl in this: A selfish bitch (who learns and gets better by the end); she is not "naive." ("Further from my vision" over "Sadder but no wiser.")

We actually acknowledge that Pearl is an asshole. But, like Greaseball, she learns and is working on herself by the end! 🙌🏽

Pearl apologizes to Dinah at the end. FINALLY. (During a break in LATEOTT.)

Control loves the trains/coaches/freight, and they love him. He's just a bossy little kid, but they're also actin' up. (I'm open to Control being a girl.)

Electra and the Components do come back.

I... think that's it. I hope didn't forget anything.

CHOO CHOO! 💋

[curio-queries]

I'll Be There

Okay, i know I already did one odd little post theorizing about Jin's upcoming release. But that was honestly more me just pointing out a small connection my brain made between the teaser footage and the Run mv.

...and now after seeing the I'll Be There mv, i have another connection and a whole lotta questions.

Okay, the scene with the stuff flying in the air. At first I thought it was bubbles to fit with the happy bouncy vibe of the song but it's pretty quick that I realized it was paper scraps. Not like confetti...more like trash. Just blowing all around these people and they don't care at all.

It's definitely an interesting choice and helps fill the frame but you know when else Jin has been surrounded by scraps of paper in the air? Fake Love:

Now, there could be a couple of reasons that I'm seeing these connections beyond me being just insane.

This is intentionally and the album really will have some further meaning or ties to the previous content.

The production team was given a general direction to callback to any HYYH moment whenever possible to build hype for whatever they're planning for the 10yr anniversary.

Time will tell...

Back to the I'll Be There mv though:

So...are we supposed to interpret this as the people were never really there to begin with and it was all in his head? The message is that we can makenour own happiness even if we've been told that our purpose is to fulfill others? There are so many ways to interpret this and I'm not really sure what is going to end up sitting with me. I will say some of those shots of the people joining liiiiiingered forever. Especially that guy that pulled up in the cab. Is that supposed to be a cameo? Is this character going to come back later? Why did they hold it for so long?

Anyway, so many questions. I genuinely wasn't expecting to have more thoughts on this entire release other than a fun romp but I'm pleasantly surprised so far. What do y'all think about it? I'm sure I'll have a Quick Combo for this song within the next day or so, it's absolutely an easy one to fit in.

[icequeenfanfic]

Fionna & Cake Episodes 3-4 First Impressions, Speculations, Etc.

[Obvious spoilers]

THESE EPISODES WERE SO NEAT IN TERMS OF LORE AND CHARACTER WHATEVER,,

PRISMO BEING REVEALED TO BE THE CREATOR OF FIONNA AND CAKE AND THAT THE F&C UNIVERSE IS THE RESULT OF A WISH MUCH LIKE FARMWORLD IS SO PERFECTSKNDKDJ

I LOVVEE THE SCARAB- LIKE I LOVE VILLAINS THAT ARE DOING THE “RIGHT THING” BUT FOR MESSED UP MOTIVES AND HIM BEING JEALOUS OF PRISMO IS SO FUNNY

i also think hes not but lets not talk about that

CAKKEEEEE i feel like a lotta ppl are gonna say that the beginning chunk of her episode felt like filler but i really enjoyed seeing her again AND her getting a proper song! it was rlly cute and its also funny that that episode dropped when i LITERALLY have a cake plush coming in the mail today dkdbfkdjd

fionna sleeplessly looking for cake all throughout the city with as heartwarming as it is sad- cake really is one of the only things that gives her joy in her bleak reality- it was also nice seeing more of ellis and marshall as well as gary who was acting just a LITTLE bit sus not sure whats goin on there🤨

i also love that ellis and marshall just fall asleep synced like what😭

one thing i WILL say though is that i wish we saw a few more genderbends that weren’t seen in the first episode, im sure we will later on but yknow-

it was really nice to see that universe’s ICE QUEEN though! oddly enough she feels like the most underrated character of the F&C universe, only having a really prominent role in the first episode and like 2 of the comicsdkdjkdj i just hope we see more of her and her ice cream escapades

this will never happen.

i really hope we get to see more of astrid shes rlly cute and the dynamic between her and fionna- first thinking both being fans and then realizing “oh shit its the real fionna” was really fun

ending this little rant off, the end goal being to bring the ice king back is honestly really heartbreaking

simon can’t just live as himself anymore- his identity will forever be in the shadow of the ice king and his insane antics.

however i really hope the show doesn’t just settle on this as the only way things work out. the message “damn you were a lot better when you were self destructive” would be INSANE to ride on so i think they’re building to a compromise that splits the diff- maybe simon learns to be ok with the ice king being his past while making an effort to explore his new world without shutting himself out because its not the way HE wants it to be

TLDR i really liked these episodes and am hyped to see what they do with this series now that the stage has been set for their multiversal adventure

[supersoakerfullofblood]

Great Books About Gender Identity

Seeing some posts about how new-adult romance novels popularized by BookTok don't show genuine queer experience and largely tokenize queer characters. And look, the prose of these books is ass too. One of my reading interests is how themes of gender/masculinity/femininity interact with other elements in a novel, and with the culture from which the novel was written. I've read a lot of great books on the topic!

As a disclaimer, most of these books don't have explicit queer representation. I read a lot of old books where that wasn't a thing you could openly write about, but you could write about cultural perceptions of masculinity/femininity (a lotta people still didn't like this, but like, you usually weren't stoned for it), which is where modern queer theory and identity comes from! So if you want to feel understood by a novel, here are my book recs on gender, in no particular order:

The Earthsea series by Ursula K. Le Guin: a series of children's fantasy novels that build the foundation for modern children's and YA fantasy (Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, some Neil Gaiman, Brandon Sanderson, etc.). Men and women's roles in society and relations with magic are a major theme in the series, and while no character is queer (though there's a reference late in the series about witches living together), characters are always bound or freed by the gender they express. Also, all the characters are black, which was unheard of at the time of the first book's publication (1968) and is frankly still unheard of today. And it's just a fun read!

The work of Virginia Woolf: My favorite author and one of the largest players in what we today call gender studies. Highly recommend Orlando, where the titular character changes inexplicably from a man to a woman halfway through the novel (it's tempting to call them "the first trans character," but the label feels disingenuous. Transsexuality as we know it didn't exist then, and Orlando didn't choose or want to switch genders. It just happened to them); A Room of One's Own, Woolf's essay on life as a woman author; and The Waves, a book less about gender identity and more about wholistic identity.

The work of Kate Chopin: Chopin is a huge player in starting the feminist literary movement of the 20th century, influencing the work of many authors on this list. If you can stomach Victorian prose, Chopin is for you!

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath: Plath's novel is written from an intimately feminine perspective and wrestles with questions of mental illness from such a perspective. A must-read.

The work of Oscar Wilde: Thrown in jail for a bit for likely being at least a little gay, Wilde's writing frequently riffs on and critiques gendered social customs. Highly recommend The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Windermere's Fan, and definitely other stuff of his I haven't read yet.

The work of Madeline Miller: I think Circe is the only "BookTok book" I've read that I thought was good, and boy is it fantastic. Its ideas of gender feel a bit cliche or elementary at times (Circe sometimes reads like an "empowered girlboss" stereotype), but how it plays with this identity at the same time it plays with Circe's identity in her family and pantheon make this book special. And Miller really is a delightful prose stylist. Galatea is also pretty good, and I haven't read Song of Achilles yet.

The Hours by Michael Cunningham: based on Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, Cunningham reprises Woolf's themes for a book set in the 90s! Great read, and another master of the craft.

The poetry of Sappho: The popular conception of Sappho is that she's this girlboss prodigal lesbian in a patriarchal society, which isn't true. There's definitely some truth there, but it's much more nuanced, and certainly Sappho couldn't conceive of the labels we put on her today and those labels' connotations. In any case, her poetry is some of the first, if not the first, love poetry from a feminine perspective.

Any piece of literature about slavery/colonialism written by a woman: This is a broad category, but the intersection of femininity and race is a broad topic which many writers fall into. You really can't go wrong here. My recs are Toni Morrison, Jean Rhys, Zora Neale Hurston, Oroonoko by Aphra Bein, and Jean Toomer. I still need to read Gwendolyn Brooks, Octavia Butler, and Alice Walker.

The work of Shakespeare: You can't go wrong here. Obviously not explicitly queer, but many of his plays deal with cultural gender perceptions and, of course, crossdressing! Twelfth Night is probably his strongest play on this front, but The Winter's Tale and Measure for Measure are both great here, and most of his plays have at least a little commentary on the gender front.

Leave other recs in the comments/rts! :)

[cyberdragoninfinity]

🔥🔥 i need your opinion on the duel links meta rn. or like. idk, a card you think is ugly that everyone else loves or vice versa? (hope your day gets better!!)

THANK YOU we got raising cane's so all is well

ANYWAY god DL meta is kind of a shitshow right now (to be fair it is. very often a shitshow. it is very rarely not a shitshow. i have to be somewhat fond of this fact.) DL will usually have this thing happen like every other month where they give a character the most atrociously busted ass skill and well we just have to live with it as a facet of Duel Links Life, but i can't say it doesnt drive me a little insane. Lotta Yubel decks in the high ranks rn and I'd rather see them than that fucking atrocious BLS deck that was Tier 1 for like three godless months at least (though the Yubel decks' skill is also broken as shit and that's. frustrating 🥴 win for jaden and yubel fans tho)

I'm curious about Tenyis but I don't really have the time or energy to build a pretty UR/SR heavy deck at the moment... really rn I think my DL tier issue is just all the good decks right now don't interest me too much, which isn't a bad thing i'm just a little. not inclined to deckbuild at the moment. it's not even a really spicy opinion but DL's inclination towards rewarding Pay To Win decks, while expected, isnt any less annoying sometimes. imma keep it real with you chief: im not spending that much

also god i would be remiss to not mention the Rush Duels. christ. i want to like them so bad. i want to enjoy and take part in the Rush Duel meta so bad. but oh my fucking god. "Rush" Duels. why dont they then. WHY DONT THEY. EVERY RUSH PVP DUEL TAKES 4000 YEARS GIRL GO!!! THERES ONLY LIKE 50 RUSH CARDS TO PICK FROM WHY ARE YOU STALLING!!!!! and then well konami shot Luke's dragons in the head so. there goes my main Rush deck lmfao. it was a bit of a messy release and im not super optimistic that they're going to get More Fun or Enjoyable but maybe. we can dream. the concept is fun and the sevens cast is delightful but trying to climb the Rush ranks sucks so bad dude.

also i wouldnt say shes ugly but i do not like her. i tend to not like Just Delicate Waifish Pretty Lady yugioh monsters but her especially

[sleepinthrumyalarms]

I’ve absolutely loved your writing for months! And I’ve been sort of shy to send this ask in but I’ve been having a hard time describing kisses in writing. Intimacy to be exact, and I absolutely love how you write! It’s truly inspiring! You see my main character just found out her best friend is in love with her, it’s the realization moment. I want the kiss to be very sensual, yet sweet and calm? I’m not sure if that’s a thing. But I figured I would ask my favorite author on here. Any advice on describing/ writing kisses? 🫶🫶

ohh fun fact kissing has been a hard one for me too so i feel you!!

whenever i happen to write a kissing scene i try to build up a whole lotta tension, that's v important. aside from the psychologically romantical tension, there's also the physiology, lots of it caused by the fact that the characters are focused solely on each other. describing the scent of one person, for example (if it's written from the pespective of the other). when i imagine kissing it's obviously two girls so i like to think of the textures of a character's lips, its softness (not that a man's lips can't be soft but i've never kissed them so i wouldn't know but girls are obv better) or maybe they're chapped and there's a contrast. the triangle method is an undying classic too

ABSOLUTELY NO 'THEIR EYES WIDENED IN SURPRISE AS THEY LAID THEIR MOUTH ON THEIRS' WHEN IT'S AN UNEXPECTED KISS, that shit is a huge turn-off. write a barely noticeable hitch of breath (it can stop, catch, accelerate, shudder or whatever). write about their heart racing, LEAPING like a frog or whatever, use some metaphors though not too much

if it's sensual and calm then there's defo some tranquility, so maybe lots of warmth, especially in one's chest, the heartbeat steadying, A LOT A LOT OF WARMTH, spreading all over. kisses are warm and sweet af. i also like the idea of smiling into the kiss, that's cute as hell

hope any of that is helpful babes

[askthepaldeanpassenger]

“A lotta the 'mons out here can be quite territorial sometimes. At least, that's what I remember being told all the time. You gotta be careful where you wander!"

“Yes, it is true. Those that gather at various towns are more welcoming to guests. For those that choose to settle in a more recluse location, usually outside of towns in the forests and mountainsides, they simply wish to be left to their own personal communities.

"It's important to know which areas are already inhabited, as well as learn how to find the signs of occupied territory. If you find yourself in marked territory, you would do best to find a way out as soon as possible. Some do not take too kindly to strangers."

“Being out here, it is nothing like Mezagosa! The largest town in the continent, located in the very heart and center of Paldea, has a bustling economy that relies on things such as tourism and transportation of goods. Some of the communities outside town borders have their own economies that rely on similar things, but places like Mezagosa are fun to see and explore. I surely hope we have a chance to visit while we are here!"

Prince stares off, wide-eyed and bewildered at Maria’s explanation. It looks like he’s trying to contemplate everything she’s said…

"A-ah, my apologies! I'm sure you did not come here for an historical or geographical lesson. Prince gets enough of that from me back home. I am a ‘mon well-versed in all things Paldea, and I would love to share some of its history! Feel free to ask me more specific questions later if you wish to know more…!”

((Maria's Ask Hints have been updated!))

@ask-the-shiny-pokemons

(I didn't fully address the original question in it's entirety, but I promise that I wasn't avoiding it! I wanted to at least TRY to keep this post trimmed as I could, so I figured putting more specific details under a Read More would be the best way to go.

As you might have read in my World's Page, this world of Paldea is different from that which you would know from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. For starters, there are no humans! In this world, Pokémon make up the entire population of Paldea, whether you're in a town or out "in the wild". Without a natural bond with humans, Pokémon rely on each other to get by.

Pokémon you would find "in the wild" are not considered feral Pokémon, but rather individuals that prefer life outside of heavily-populated towns and areas. This is the "danger" that Prince was referring to; a lot of those that choose a more solitary life do so from preference, and as such don't take kindly to outsiders. At least, not complete strangers.

In addition to solitary individuals, some Pokémon prefer living outside of towns, but still wish to gather in groups to build their communities. Again, it's all preference! These groups could be compared to the groups of Pokémon you would see in the wild in Scarlet/Violet, but more the size of a small community.

The real "danger" that exists in this Paldea region fully depends on the group you find. Some might be willing to let you pass, others may demand payment to move through their territory. Others may straight up attack you for trespassing! As Maria said, however, it's important to be able to tell what areas are occupied. Though the characters have mentioned being away from Paldea for some time, I assure you that Maria is more than capable of navigating these areas with ease!)

[tau1tvec]

I love the way you build so much! Do you have any tips for incorporating color? I tend to use a lot of beiges in my builds and even though they look nice,it’s starting to get repetitive when I’m decorating new lots! Any tips you have would be greatly appreciated ☺️

I get ya, I tend to trip into a lotta my own repetitiveness when it comes to builds too, which is a lotta the reason why I tried to challenge myself with Yan and Marco’s house, since my usual builds tend to lean more into an either colorful, moody, or grungy mess.

Either way, I still try to stick with a palette, so whether a build is more classic, modern or contemporary I’ll usually try to match all the wood grains, and stone accents, no matter what, usually something to compliment the actual colors and tones I wanna use.

Lighting can also be a huge factor in what I choose, I originally wanted to go for lighter more muted wood tones for the Garden House, but with all of the windows and candles being the major lighting sources, I ultimately chose a yellower wood to “soak” in the warm light.

For colors, the main ones I stuck to were greens, whites, and terracotta oranges. For the children’s rooms however, it’s kinda unavoidable to lean to more garish colors, as a lotta toys tend to come only in these tones, and tbh I prefer it that way? Since I’m not all too into a child’s room looking too beige, still, it’s likely they’ll come in the typical “red, blue, yellow” or “purple, aqua, teal” combos a lotta irl toys do, so due to the mixes of mints and citrus colors already present in Mag’s nursery, I stuck with the latter.

Treating rooms, and even bathrooms in a house as separate entities really creates a more lived in home. Cohesiveness throughout is cool and all, and certainly looks good in a mansion or an estate that was likely built to look more like a compound or a museum than a home, but a house where every room feels like you’re experiencing the life of the person inhabiting it is a lot more fun.

For example:

This living room…

… and this room exist in the same exact build.

Isa loves bright sunny pastels, and that being a contrast of the more moody look her uncle prefers shows they’ve got their own styles, and respect each other’s personal spaces.

So go and throw in a few cobwebs and wall holes in that laundry room no one likes to go into bc the water heater makes creepy noises, inside your otherwise pristine beige build!

The surroundings of your sims are as much characters as your sims are, treat them as such.

[twilightmalachite]

Machina - Test World 3

Author: Kino Seitaro (with Akira)

Characters: Mika, Makoto, Sora

Translator: Mika Enstars

"Oh! By the way, Sora’s making one of the ES buildings inside SSVRS into a black company sim!"

Season: Winter

Location: Saison Avenue (SSVRS)

Makoto: First, let’s begin with an explanation of how to create items here in SSVRS.

In order to create an item, you need the tools to “craft” it.

What tools you need depend on the item you’re making, but you’ll need a kiln for handicrafts, and a sewing machine for attire.

It costs money to get tools, so I’ll give it to you as a gift this time around, Kagehira-kun, okay?

Sora: HaHa~, nice tutorial, Yuuki-sense~!

Mika: Ah, thank ya kindly!

Are ya sure, though? Even if it’s a game item, it still costs quite a lotta real money… VL$, right? I feel kind bad…

Makoto: Nah, don’t worry about it!

This Test World is just an experimental server. Once the test is over, all the in-game money will be reset.

Though, there seem to be some players who are eagerly aiming high for first-mover advantage or something.

But as things are now, it’s far more efficient to work part-time in real life, so I guess it’s sort of all for fun.

Moving on. You can’t make items with only the “kiln” and “sewing machine”, you need to gather materials first.

You need to have these consumable items available in order to make things, like for handicrafts you need things like ore and clay, and for attire you need things like cloth and thread, jewelry, etc…

Mika: Gotcha… That part ain’t different than the real world.

Makoto: Right!

Collecting materials would be considered more difficult here, though… If they’re too easy to collect, the value of the resource would drop.

That being said, I wouldn’t want you to spend the day searching for materials, so I’ll likewise give you materials this time around too!

Now, with the corresponding tool and materials available, all that is left is for the player to design and create…♪

By the way, given you have the right tools and materials, you can make virtually any handicraft and attire you want!

Something like that would be uncanny in real life, but here it’s a feature…♪

Mika: Thank ya, Mako-kun! I can make all sorts of things with this much now! ♪

Sora: HiHi~, Sora will lend his support, Mika-chan-san!

Sora would also like to add that items created in SSVRS can be expressed in a way unique to games, that wouldn’t be possible in the real world!

Mika: Expressed in a way unique to games…? Like, how so?

Sora: Showing would be faster than explaining in this case~! ♪ Hop, step, jump! ♪

Mika: Nnah, Sora just jumped on thin air!?

Sora: Yes! Sora did a triple jump!

The laws of physics can be ignored a little bit in ways like that, which means unusual handicrafts can be made~! ♪

Makoto: To put it more accurately, the game-side of things can’t calculate everything with absolute precision. It’s difficult for even a supercomputer to simulate the real world 1 to 1.

But personally, I think that makes it more fun, since that means no restrictions on ideas, y’know?

Mika: Yeah! I’m already excited thinkin’ that there’s works of art that can’t be created outside of this world…♪

Alrighty, I’m gonna try t’get my creative juices flowin’ in this world! Thank ya so much, both of ya! ♪

Sora: Nah, Sora and Yuuki-sense~ are simply having fun developing games~! ♪

If Mika-chan-san’s enjoying our game development, then Sora’s super happy too!

Makoto: Hehe, how about we go play together elsewhere so as to not get in the way of Kagehira-kun’s crafting, Harukawa-kun?

Sora: Yes! Sora still has the map from Yuuki-sense~’s previous visit to SSVR! How about going there?

Makoto: Ahaha… Could you cut me some slack with that one?

That was pretty traumatic… I guess you did warn me of that when I had first entered the Test World as part of a part-time job.

Sora: Hm~, but Sora thinks it’d be boring if the game’s purpose was only to mimic reality, though~?

Oh! By the way, Sora’s making one of the ES buildings inside SSVRS into a black company sim!

Would Yuuki-sense~ like to join Sora in enjoying irrational demands?

Makoto: Why would I want to do that!?

Mika: ……

(Ooh, the clay hardens so quickly. Bein’ able to make things without the constraints of time and money sure is an advantage of virtual space, huh…)

(If I end up usin’ a 3D printer, the output would have to be resin, right? Then, I wouldn’t be able to make the most out of this material, would I?)

(So there are pros and cons… Still, I think the good outweighs the bad.)

(You can see the results right away, and like Sora said, you can create data without regard to the laws of physics, so it’s pretty handy for brainstormin’ ideas.)

(Yup, makin’ stuff in this Test World ain’t bad at all!)

(Maybe I’ll be able t’break outta my slump and finish my next work before Oshi-san returns to Japan if I do this, even!)

(If I create as many artworks as I can think of and hold an exhibition within’ SSVRS… If I can do that, I bet Oshi-san would also be pleased! ♪)

(Aaalright, and my first piece is done! And I’ll get started workin’ on the second one shortly~!)

……♪

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[xbuster]

Is there a good precure show to start with if youve never seen one, or is it just kinda whichever looks cutest to you? I dont have a lotta experience w magical girls in general either, aside from Magic Knight Rayearth and Cutie Honey which I absolutely love

You really can just follow the golden rule of picking whichever looks the most fun. With 20 years worth of anime, there’s bound to be a season that looks interesting.

My personal recommendation will always be to start with Futari wa. I say this every time I’m asked, but I started with Futari wa and the season that was currently airing at the time (Tropical-Rouge!) simultaneously. I think it is the perfect starting point because there’s a build-up to their powerful friendship that you don’t see in most of the seasons. Because there are only two main characters, there’s a lot of emphasis placed on their bond and character growth. Honoka is also still probably my absolute favorite character despite all the seasons I’ve seen. She’s at least forever in my top 3.

My other suggestions are Fresh Precure and Star Twinkle Precure because they’re my other favorites. Fresh has probably my favorite group dynamic and Hikaru and Lala’s relationship in Star Twinkle is one of the most compelling in the series, culminating in a movie that symbolizes the two of them adopting a child and becoming parents.

HeartCatch is also fantastic, and it’s often recommended as a first but I think it’s definitely better to experience it once you’ve watched at least one other series first. Yes! Precure 5 and Smile Precure are the two that handle large group dynamics best with five Precure members. They’re both fan-favorite seasons for a good reason.

If you do start with Futari wa, it has a sequel that’s worth watching if you want to see more Nagisa and Honoka (I absolutely did) and even though it introduces a new character to the team, I think she was a fantastic addition who compliments the girls really well.

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #297: Caster of Limbo

today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re making the challenger to Astolfo’s “enby that makes everyone feel a little funny” throne, caster of limbo! they’re mostly a Necromancy Wizard to take control of the living dead (i.e. servants), make extra bodies, and curse the bajeepers out of people, but we’ll also pop into the Rune Knight Fighter a touch to turn into a giant ghost and stick some neat tricks into those cards they like to throw.

check out their build breakdown here, or their character sheet below the cut!

next up: coconut head

Race and Background

limbo was a human, but they shoved a bunch of gods in there and now it’s all funky. that’s a Custom Lineage if ever I heard one, so you’ll get +2 Intelligence, proficiency in Arcana for those funky curses, and the Tough feat for an extra 2 HP every level. you spend most of them in wizard, you’re going to need every point you can get.

for your background, limbo left society for a good bit and came back with a new, evil perspective, so that’s a Hermit, which gives you proficiency in Medicine and Religion. but evil religion.

Ability Scores

we need Intelligence as high as possible for the most spells and to make it harder for the heroic spirit swordmasters to break your control. yeah, most high-level summons can make saves against helping you. it’s not great, but we’ll do what we can. after that comes Strength. that thing’s got abs for days, and they can rip people apart with their bare hands. admittedly every servant can do that, but I think they could do it before ascending? hardcore. third up is Constitution. it’s not particularly notable, but it’s gotta be high to make up for Being a Wizard. if you die, you’ll probably just come back anyway. so that means your Dexterity isn’t great, even though you fight shirtless. fun. we’ll also lower your Wisdom a bit since you left the monking behind in your backstory, and finally we dump Charisma. being hot and being charismatic are separate things, as limbo proves. I mean he did persuade Arjuna Alter, but… it’s Arjuna Alter. that’s not saying much.

Class Levels

1. Fighter 1: we’re starting off as a Fighter, mostly for the extra HP again and the proficiency in Constitution saves. most players won’t get far enough for a concentration-free curse, so it’s a good idea to make those saves as good as we can. you’re also proficient in Strength saves, and you can use your Insight to target a person’s weaknesses to exploit, and your Intimidation to hide out in their rafters.

you also get a Fighting Style, and if you’re going to tear people in two, you’ll need the unarmed fighting style. you can punch people for a d6 of damage or a d8 with both hands free, and you’ll deal some bonus damage while grappling people. you’ll also need your hands free for spells, so that all works out pretty dang well if I say so myself.

you can also use a Second Wind as a bonus action for a little extra healing. your boss fight didn’t give you self-healing, but there’s nothing wrong with an upgrade here or there.

2. Fighter 2: I admit we’re mostly here for levels 1 and 3, but Action Surge is nothing to sneeze at either. This gives you a no-strings-attached extra action once a short rest. You can attack twice, or even pump out two leveled spells no worries. er, you’ll be able to do that after we get spells. speaking of which…

3. Wizard 1: okay now you can cast Spells, using your Intelligence to cast and prepare them from your spellbook. you recharge spell slots each long rest, unless you’re using your Arcane Recovery once a day, letting you pick up a couple spell slots when you take a short rest instead! that’ll be verry useful later on, but for now let’s just talk spells!

wizards get a lotta spells, but instead of spending all day talking about all of them, we’re just going over the important ones here. the full list is in his character sheet, and the bold ones are important to the character. the rest are like “he is a caster”.

he is a caster though, so first we gotta get mage armor and magic missile for fighting shirtless and with paper things. you could use daggers as thrown weapons for this, but we’re not getting any extra attacks here, so you probably shouldn’t. you also get the cantrips chill touch for some ghostly spookiness from the get-go, and infestation and poison spray for quick and easy poisonings. finally, grab silvery barbs. it ends up on a lot of builds because it’s really good, especially here. we’ll get into why we need it in this build when it pops up, but making someone re-roll a save or attack is never a bad move.

4. Wizard 2: at level 2 of wizardry you become a Necromancer, which also makes you a Necromancy Savant for half the time and gold spent copying necromantic spells. I’ve said it before, but it’s weird how your very first ability dissuades you from picking spells you’d think you’d want to focus on.

why would you want to focus on them? because of your Grim Harvest. once a turn, you can turn a spell that finishes off an enemy into sweet sweet HP, up to 2x the spell’s level, or 3x if it’s a necromancy spell. this doesn’t work on constructs or undead though, so get out there and butcher some civilians!

5. Wizard 3: third level wizards get second level spells like Spider Climb to help you climb up your master’s rafters. yes that’s a vital part of the build, keep up. since we aren’t really buffing your charisma that much, you should also pick up either Gift of Gab for a verbal backspace or Enhance Ability to really help you trick a god into smiting your enemies. or your friends. really smiting is it’s own reward, when you think about it.

6. Wizard 4: now that you finally get your first Ability Score Improvement, round up your Intelligence for stronger spells, and your Constitution to hold onto them long. and for the extra HP, I guess. it’s a retroactive boost, so now you have 6 more HP, not just one.

7. Wizard 5: at fifth level this build really gets off the ground with the combination of Bestow Curse and Animate Undead. curses are limbo’s thing, and the zombies and skeletons will be your first foray into controlling servants. it’s a start, at least.

8. Wizard 6: of course a necromancer’s Undead Thralls are a little better than most people’s. you can create an extra zombie (or skeleton) with animate dead, and that creature has extra hp and deals extra damage with each hit. those bonuses work for any undead you create with a necromancy spell, so feel free to get creative! even if green isn’t a creative color…

and speaking of undead, let’s grab some ghostly goodies with Blink and Spirit Shroud. the former lets you blink out of existence when your turn is over. mostly. and the latter gives all your attacks a ghostly flair of extra damage, slows enemies, and prevents them from healing. just like the real limbo bossfight! we’re a long way away from turning into a giant ghost, but it’s important to get some practice in- you only die once, after all.

9. Wizard 7: seventh level wizards get fourth level spells, and if you want a god to listen to you there’s no better option than Charm Monster. this is like charm person, but it works for non-humanoids too! it lasts up to an hour if your target fails its wisdom save, or until you inevitably stab them in the back. maybe don’t do that?

10. Wizard 8: it’s time for another ASI, and we have to get the Poisoner feat at some point. this lets you poison a weapon as a bonus action, and you can use your new poisoner’s kit proficiency to make Proficiency Bonus poisons over the course of an hour. so now you do have a reason to use a physical card instead of magic missiles. or maybe not, since you now ignore resistance to poison damage on all your attack rolls, not just the physical ones.

you also get your first taste controlling a heroic spirit swordmaster this level when you take one of the Summon spells. Use Summon Greater Demon for an oni, Summon Elemental for Archer of Inferno, or Summon Construct for a ninja doll. Summon Aberration is more of an endgoal than a spell you should get halfway through the build, but foreigners are in rn, so maybe you’re just following trends.

11. Wizard 9: you get fifth level spells. there’s not really any we need to be a good limbo, but they are fun like, in general.

12. Wizard 10: at tenth level you become Inured to Undeath, giving you resistance to necrotic damage, and your max HP can’t be reduced. your body’s probably a spare anyway, so it won’t have the same biology as a normal human’s. that’s a good excuse, right?

13. Wizard 11: sixth level spells are good though. use Create Undead to make more powerful spirit swordmasters, and Investiture of Wind for extra-powerful ghostliness. for up to ten minutes after casting, ranged attacks will have disadvantage against you, and you get a flying speed of 60’. you can also spend your actions on an aoe attack, a 15’ cube of air that deals bludgeoning damage to creatures that fail their constitution save, also pushing them around if they fail.

14. Wizard 12: knock that Intelligence up as high as it can go, for the best damage and the hardest to beat saves. we’ll need that in just a second.

15. Wizard 13: seventh level spell time! power word pain is definitely on-brand, but we’re mostly here for Planeshift so you can run off with your tail between your legs when that lostbelt king you’ve been manipulating finally figures out what’s going on.

16. Wizard 14: we have finally reached your last goodie from being a necromancer, and it’s why we came all this way in the first place. a curse that will truly turn any heroic spirit into your own mindless killing machine, Command Undead. spend an action force a charisma save on an undead within 60’ of you. if they fail, they’re friendly to you until you use this feature again.

it does come with caveats though. any undead with an 8 or higher has advantage on the save, and any with an intelligence of 12 or higher can make the save again every hour until they break free. once an undead passes their save, you can’t use this on them a second time.

the good news though is there’s a shitload of undead with bad charisma and intelligence scores for you to use and abuse. for example, a Nightwalker is a huge undead of CR 20, but it’s intelligence is a 6 and its charisma is an 8, making it the perfect target to turn into your thrall for a heroic spirit swordmaster. and as long as you don’t try to control two at once, this control lasts forever, or as long as the undead does.

and it’s finally time to bring up Silvery Barbs again! with your maxed out intelligence and a way to kindasorta force disadvantage on a roll, you have your pick of spirits to choose from. (and in cases like that nightwalker, you’re almost guaranteed to succeed against any creature with a negative modifier.)

17. Fighter 3: now we’ve finally almost got Shimousa covered, we just need to turn you into that giant ghost I’ve been promising. and that’s why we’re finally back in Rune Knight for some Giant Might. as a bonus action you can make yourself large for 1 minute, giving you advantage on strength saves and checks, and dealing extra damage with your physical attacks once per turn. you can do this Proficiency times per long rest.

you’re also a Rune Carver, letting you stick some goodies on your cards for a passive benefit, or an invoked benefit you can use once per short rest. grab the Cloud Rune for advantage on Sleight of Hand and Deception checks, plus an invoked reaction to redirect an attack aimed at you or another creature within 30’ of you. now there’s no way Altjuna ignores you! also, grab the Stone Rune for advantage on Insight checks and 120’ of darkvision, plus the ability to stun a creature as a reaction once per short rest for up to 1 minute. it can make a wisdom save to avoid the effect entirely, as well as at the end of each of its turns.

18. Wizard 15: we’re all set for LB 4, but first we’ll grab some eighth level spells just in case. you couldn’t leave home without a Clone or two as a backup body, right? use a bit of your flesh, wait like a month or so, and then you basically have an extra life. You’ll have to pick up all your stuff again, but that’s barely an inconvenience, right?

19. Wizard 16: with our final ASI we can bump up your Strength at long last for some more accurate unarmed and weapon attacks. sorry it took so long, this build’s got a lot in it.

if you’re playing a campaign with another servant player and want them as your lead heroic spirit swordmaster, check out Dominate Monster! force a wisdom save on them, or they’re charmed for up to an hour. while charmed you can talk to them telepathically and give them commands without spending an action. you can even use your action to take them over completely! however, this spell isn’t the best for combat, seeing as they can repeat the save every time they take damage.

20. Wizard 17: ninth level spell slots! yeah, sorry to end on an anticlimax, but that’s really all we’re here for. with these bad boys, you can upcast a Bestow Curse to last indefinitely- very spicy.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

you’re surprisingly beefy for a caster, with a semi-decent amount of HP and ways to heal yourself via murder, you’re tougher to take down than most wizards we’ve seen.

it also helps that you have a lot of bodies on the field thanks to anime dead, create undead, control undead, and a summoning spell of your choice giving you a pretty sizable army of completely loyal minions. you’ll probably stab them in the back anyway, but it’ll be nice to have them in the meantime!

I will say this over and over again, a fighter dip for any caster is a godsend. you have more options when your slots run out, you have a bit of emergency healing, you get proficiency in concentration saves, and most importantly you get Action Surge, letting you cast two spells in one turn, and that’s huge. that’s a boost to your damage, or your utility, or even just your ability to run the hell away if the fight goes south.

Cons:

your AC’s really bad, and you turn into a giant ghost which really just makes you a bigger target. you’re going to have to murderize people left and right if you want to keep your HP up. huh, I wonder if that’s why you’re so backstab-happy…    yeah, probably not.

Poisoner is flavorful (literally), and it’s a nice boost to your poison spells, but if we’re being serious, it’s the weak link of your ASIs. you could’ve gotten more HP with constitution, or AC with dexterity, or even just better concentration with the War Caster feat. Plus you can’t use this feature in conjunction with your zombies or controlled minions, so it’s a lot less useful than you’d think.

the vast majority of your zombie army is at or under CR 3, so Fireballs can chew through your entire brigade pretty damn fast. another reason not to fight Altjuna, as if you needed one.

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

Which era of Archie Sonic did you enjoy more? Pre reboot or post reboot?

Hmmm that's a good question. Idk I think I liked some of the writing post reboot better and I did like the new characters. I also personally think the removal of the love triangles specifically made the comic so much more enjoyable for me and opened up for better characterization for Sally. However, reading post sgw I did miss some of the old charcters (rip all those claimed penders ocs) and their now unresolved storylines, was sad at the loss of certain character struggles (like Rotor who was struggling between his health and wanting to be in the field again), and I missed how pre sgw had just some of the most insane or out of the blue plot developments/world building choices.

In terms of enjoyment, though, I'd have to say post reboot for the following reasons:

1. I enjoyed pre reboot for what it was more often than not, but I had my most fun during Flynn era. I liked how the Penders era moved things to being more serious, but I often felt like he had good and interesting concepts/ideas without the writing to back it up. Meanwhile, while Flynn wasn't perfect either, I felt like he was able to make a lot of those established relationships more believable to me, and while he also made some batshit plot choices he had more of the writing skills to back it up. This is all to say that aside from some stuff at the very beginning of pre reboot, it was a long while before I was able to really enjoy what I was reading instead of just taking things I liked where I could. Post reboot was a lotta Flynn, so despite the loss of characters and plotlines I enjoyed greatly, I at least felt like I could enjoy everything post reboot.

2. It didn't have all of those Sonic based love triangles. I know I know I'm a multishipper I ship Sonic with a lot of people but by god. I just could not take the Sonic/Sally drama anymore. Bunnie/Antoine was fine. Flynn actually made me believe in Julie-Su and Knuckles as decent partners. But by that point (and this is coming from someone who loved Sonic/Sally before reading the comic) everything going on re-Sonic and Sally's romance prospects with the opposite gender and each other was like beating a dead horse. And for Sally specifically, she had been recharacterized so so so many times pre-reboot just for the sake of drama that she often...didn't feel like her own character. So post reboot with the love triangles and the romance with Sonic removed I felt like we could really see who she was as a character and a clear vision of her ambitions/cares. I could feel like who she *is* wouldn't be changed on a whim for the purpose of plot.

3. As they say, people get better with practice. And while I thought some of his pre-reboot stuff was interesting, I felt like by post reboot era, Flynn had grown better at depicting the nuance of living under the eggman empire.

ㅤ

So yeah I guess I'd say, gun to my head? Post reboot. But it's really more complicated than that. I did enjoy both a lot, and especially in the last like 80 issues pre reboot. Pre reboot was wild an interesting in a way that I enjoyed with characters and storylines I loved, but it wasn't always written amazingly and contained much too many ongoing love triangles and mehhh canon relationships to me. Post reboot gave certain characters more time to shine as characters, reverted the pre reboot growth of other characters, delivered some of its nuanced situations better, and was largely written nicely, but you could often feel that the post reboot team was now restricted in a much different way than they were pre reboot (like, pre reboot's struggle was keeping up with existing storylines and relationships and keeping things true to what they have been, but post reboot's struggle feels more like it may have had some of Sega's restrictions we see nowadays).

In the end, though, I miss characters and storylines from both pre and post reboot after the cancelation.

[silver-wield]

Your opinions about Aeirth and Tifa are very clear (and i agree wholeheartedly)

But what are your opinions about the other party members? I don’t see you talk about them as much.

Love Barret and Red, their character arcs are literally my fave parts of the story after the main scenario. I don't like playing as gunners and Barret is literally the slowest of everyone so that's not so much fun for me. Imma try and use him in my party and build him up, but yeah, not the best. I like fast melee combat. I'm expecting to like Red's combat because he's melee and fast paced and has that ravager mode.

I like Yuffie, I love going to Wutai for her arc, but she's also kinda annoying. Love her combat for Remake. I'm even replaying her mission rn because her combat is so much fun and she has the early synergy system with Sonon. Also Sonon is just 😍

Vincent and Cid I'm meh about. I just never got the hype over them. Also Vincent is a gunner so not my style, and Idky but I just don't vibe much with spearmen characters. I'm the same with Freya in FFIX even though I love her character. I also love Dion in xvi but you don't really command him so it's like I can just enjoy the aesthetic of his combat without putting any effort in 🤣

Hate Cait Sith. It's slow, obnoxious, has a shitty limit break and I honestly don't know anybody who likes it aside from dumdums for shipping reasons. Hopefully that opinion changes in Rebirth, his combat seems to have a lotta complexities now, so we'll see.

I don't talk about the other characters as much as Tifa because Tifa's my fave, but if I'm asked ofc I have an opinion about the other characters because I've played the game and followed the reveal trailers and stuff to learn more about them 😁

[schwender-exe]

Devlog #3?-ish

Hey all! it's time for the monthly devlog update! Well, kinda..

What have I done since my last post? A whole lotta planning, a whole lotta scrapping and.. to be honest I shelved the project. There! I said it! Last Letter is a promising concept but one that I clearly need to think on and tackle once I have more experience under my belt. As someone who has finished a total of.. 1 game, one which is a fraction of Last Letter's size and was able to be made without any prior planning other than "penguin" as the concept and the 'feeling of loneliness' as its core emotion.

Last Letter on the other hand is a huge undertaking for me, it's something which clearly I need to re-approach and properly plan. I'll be honest when I say, I don't think I'm able to do that with my current experience. A majority of my prototypes have been very 'one note', in that they are made with a basic concept of what I want it to be with no planning whatsoever and is more of a blind march forward approach, stumbling into fun things I can do with said prototypes.

I want to do this project justice and be able to approach it when I have a bit more experience under my belt with planning, structuring and developing something of its size. Because of this, I've shelved the project for now and will re-approach the concept/project once I have a few more finished projects of at least comparable size to Last Letter.

So now comes the question of "what have you been working on in the mean time"? And for that, I have an answer! Though in its current state, I don't have much to share outside of maybe a small work in progress gif to give you a taste, at the least.

Yes, those are final fantasy 14 plushies I'm using as placeholder sprites and yes, they are adorable. They're something I'm putting there until I have some proper sprites in place.

What is this? Well, it's something I feel would make a fun project. It's a small project which takes inspiration from Monster Hunter, Idle games, and of course "Desktop Pets". I wanted to make a non-invasive desktop pet which would sit around and could help you feel productive while you do some menial task, play a game, or something you can boot up every once in a while. The "idle game" aspect comes in that you'll send your 'guildie', as I'm calling them, on quests to gather and hunt and possibly bring back some collectables which will give you some insight into the world they come from. my elevator pitch is essentially "Send characters out to collect things while you work/play/etc. and learn about their world from what they bring back."

I always enjoyed how the Monster Hunter series portrayed the monsters you hunted as having a place within a larger ecosystem and thought I'd try my hand at something similar. With the game being an idle game, it also will let me focus specifically on storytelling and world building (something I don't have nailed down) rather than gameplay systems and mechanics (something which I definitely have nailed down, in comparison). On top of that, it forces me to work on UI, something which I also could use some practice with.

to wrap back to Last Letter, I hope my shelving of the project isn't too upsetting and I hope my reasoning is enough for any who were looking forward to it to still look forward to the game when I re-approach it with more experience under my belt.

Thanks to everyone who read through, hope this new project is something to look forward to!

[marcholasmoth]

OSRR: 3306

i got a lotta things to do tomorrow.

but i booked an appointment with an advisor to help me pick insurance! that'll be next week.

work was wild today. we didn't send out any notices today while i was there, but we saw on the news when prigozhin went down and india's lunar landing. and biden saying that "not much happens in russia that putin's not behind" which is a hell of a way to accuse a world leader of murder, even though shooting down aircraft is less of his style than poisoning is. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

i love my job.

also when i got in someone said "GSOCtopus" and jack drew a bad one on the board and challenged someone to do it better. so i did. below are the drawings done.

jack's is on the right. on the left, the artists from bottom to top are supervisor adam, coworker meredith, coworker adam, and me. the sign is our company's logo.

when i handed jack my octopus, he went, "what the hell, this is so good" and i was just kinda smug lmao. i encouraged everyone to draw their own. so we have a pod of GSOCtopi and i hope they're there tomorrow.

i love my job so much.

anyway, i stopped at the grocery store on the way home because i needed to get more yogurt and i wanted chocolate, and i walked out twenty minutes and a hundred dollars later with that and a little more. came back to the house to hot dogs and game which was BRUTAL. like one of our players' characters threw a grenade and ended up dying from it under MY character's hands. and he was my buddy, too, so that fucked callum up. my character's name is callum cross and she's a badass and gender-fluid in my head. he's a fun character to play because while everyone else is like "callum is a girl" i'm like "sure he's a girl, he's a girl alright" which is kind of the opposite of how i feel about me? like, im just some guy. im just a random ass man living here, yknow? im just a dude. so cal and i are two sides of the same coin. both intelligence-based highly-educated smart and confident people, but cal is military and im civilian and he's got a C in empathy and i would have a B at least. (the grade determines the type of die you roll for checks involving that skill - an A is a d12, B is a d10, C is a d8, D is a d6, and if you don't have a grade you don't get an extra die for that skill. you need a letter grade in the attribute, which is a category, but the skills under them don't need one. you have to put extra into skills to build them up. it's a fascinating system.)

but yeah. so joel's dad is making a new character which may turn out to be another connection for callum, which im excited for. he's gonna have another friend to help bring her back from the end of her rope after losing his best friend. im excited for that.

anyway, i was happy enough to sit next to joel. he's off doing something downstairs, but he's going to put my new battery in my laptop tomorrow, so that'll stay here. lots to do tomorrow, though.