#meet the creeper

[redlettermediathings]

[2voodoo4u2b]

[avenger-hawk]

I saw someone reblog an old post about Itasasu, with a comment even, showing that they were really interested in what I wrote years ago, but all I could think about was that they reblogged it from the person who acted like a creep, with the pretext of Itasasu roleplay and shipping, pulling an Itachi, so to speak, acting ‘protective’ with me but in fact isolating me from the online friends I had back then (I was really active), using my weaknesses  (that I told her because I kinda trusted her in the beginning) to destroy the little self esteem I had, and making me doubt every single word I wrote, about myself, about Itasasu and more. So that post this person reposted has an ‘introduction’ where I point out that said creep made me notice mistakes, I even thanked her for this, and it was such a manipulation cause I remember the drama she started whenever I did things she didn’t approve, apparently related to my interpretation of Itasasu with an Itachi that wasn’t 100% a good person, and in reality related to the fact that I wrote essays and meta and stuff that had a lot of visibility back then, which she didn’t have.

My posts in that creep’s blog remain even if I should delete my blog, so I can’t do anything. Anyway, if my followers and those who stumble upon this post, see meta, asks, essays in other ppl’s blogs, where I’m the OP, they might open said post in my blog, and see if it’s different, cause after I cut all contacts with that creep I removed all the forced bullshit I wrote to please her. Just in case someone is interested.

(also, be careful: don’t open to ppl who act suspicious, like not spontaneously, as to appear mysterious and cool. They’re not. They’re just manipulating you into being interested in them, making you open up so they’ll use your weaknesses against you when you won’t do as they say)

Hawk out

[iolypse]

MISSA MIGHT NEVER MEET TALLULAH.

[ykoopsya1]

Grim Creeper from Skylanders

Thanks for message 🙏🏿

[dxnger-dxys]

Will was so lovely. 🖤

[grapecaseschoices]

From the detective ask game 👀 for Kai: 13, 15, 21, 25

13. What do they think of the Agency?

Kai has no strong thoughts about the Agency, at least on a moral stance. To him they exist like the FBI -- they are a, well, agency there to monitor and police. Does he trust them? No. Does he think there is more to how they present themselves? He thinks it is likely.

Of my actively played, current lot he's the most accepting of this next step of being an agent.

15. Would they have reacted to Falk's flirting, if given the opportunity?

Nope. Especially not with Nat in the picture. If she hadn't been he would've been a touch more amused.

21. What does their apartment look like?

It is the tech-based apartment. But I see his as HIGHLY so, but something that would both impress a spy/hacker for a civvie-based apartment and give N hives. Lots of silver, metallic (probably a touch copper shades too) and dark colors (not even black, just DARK like navy blues and dark, dark maroons). Everything is digital and just computer focused. Strangely, he doesn't have siri or anything like that.

25. How do they handle the reveal of the Supernatural?

Stat wise he was 'disbelieving'. And this is true, but I also marked him as skeptically reluctant and then occasionally excited (as time went on -- after all, the discovery of the supernatural is intriguing in a scientific standpoint).

[darckcarnival]

T poses at you

Darck stared, dead pan, at the shark themed robot standing there and just... T-Posing, arms out straight and standing perfectly still. Honestly, she really shouldn't be surprised by this point, having seen far stranger in her time around the proverbial block.

"You, ah... You good, shark boy? Gotta say, that as much as I am unsurprised, this is new so good job there. You trying to issue a challenge here?"

[positivitypetal]

Are meet the artists still a thing? Yes? Maybe?

[schlock-luster-video]

On February 27, 1965, Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla was screened on Jeepers Creepers Theater.

[patolemus]

No because this is not a want, it is now a necessity

Imagine a universe where Paige lived, where she wasn’t bitten or survived the bite, and her and Derek are still together. The fire may or may not have happened. But like that Derek being pulled into a universe where sterek happened and just being obsessed with stiles and the relationship he could have with stiles.

Like the second he gets home he finds the stiles of his universe and

If the hales survived they like stiles better

[twostepstyless]

hi girly pop! long time no see (i took an extended tumblr break!) anywayyyyyy, i came back bc i heard about harry with a dog but i can’t find the pics anywhere??? do you have themmmmmmm

lots of love from lil sis T

Ah T!! My darling I’ve missed you! I hope you’re well, gorgeous!! I most certainly do, there’s only one like solid pic from the back but I’m thriving off it all the same !

[foldingfittedsheets]

I feel the need to share since my lube post is going around that my life is just like that since I worked at the sex shop. Sex Ed is a very standard topic. People just immediately pick up a vibe from me and even in situations where someone doesn’t know I used to sling dildos for a living they’ll just start confiding sex stuff to me.

Not in a creeper way. But like this weight had been lifted and they can finally talk freely about sexual topics. The energy I put off is just so blasé and accepting that people tell me about their sex lives, usually very quickly after meeting me. They usually then have a moment of panic or regret and apologize but I always reassure them that I used to work in a shop and that I see nothing odd about talking about it.

My go-to line is, “I’m a creature devoid of judgement.” They always laugh. Then the questions get more specific or people start asking for brand recommendations. It’s always been funny to me.

My beloved has always been a little confused by it. “People don’t just start talking to me about sex! I know you don’t bring it up. It just always seems to go there when people talk to you.”

“It’s just my energy.”

The first time I was meeting their mom she was coming to stay with us. We picked her up from the airport and brought her home. My beloved went upstairs to use the bathroom. When they came back down their mom was asking me questions about vibrators and their jaw hit the floor.

In our room later they said, “She doesn’t even talk to me about that stuff! She’s so embarrassed about sex topics, I cannot believe she was asking you about that!”

“What can I say,” I shrugged, “I’m a creature devoid of judgement.”

[nghtmarish]

@infectvd : don't baby me. memes from the old blog.

    𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬  𝐡𝐞  𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐨𝐭  𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭  𝐤𝐢𝐝𝐬  𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧'𝐭  𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭  𝐛𝐞  𝐤𝐢𝐝𝐬  𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞,   that  despite  their  young  age,  they  had  to  grow  up  incredibly  fast  because  the  world  didn't  allow  them  to  be  kids  anymore.   yet  sometimes  he  just  wanted  to    𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭   ellie  from  the  harsher  realities  of  the  world,  but  of  course  she  saw  right  through  that  and  was  ready  to  call  him  out  for  treating  her  like  a  child.   he  sighs  softly,  running  a  hand  over  his  hair  as  he  looks  over  at  her,   "   fine.   you  don't  want  to  babied,  i  get  it  but  i  don't  think  you're  ready  to  hear  what  other  people  might  do  if  they  find  us,    "   joel  nodded,  unsure  of  where  exactly  to  start  because  he  didn't  want  to  outright  scare  her.   sometimes  he  felt  in  this  world  that  the  infected  weren't  exactly  the    𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭  𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦   anymore.   the  infected  were  easy  to  avoid  or  put  down  if  you  knew  how.   other  people  on  the  other  hand,  they  were  scarier  than  anything  in  this  world.   once  society  collasped,  things  became  very  different  because  people  started  to  feel  like  they  could  do    𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠   they  wanted.   he  should  know,  because  he  didn't  exactly  hesitate  nowadays  to  kill  someone.   but  at  least  he  made  it  quick   .   .   .   most  of  the  time.   yet  there  were  people  out  there  who  would  do  way  worst  than  just  kill  her,   "   society  fell  and  so  did  what  most  people  deem  as  correct.   there's  a  reason  we  avoid  others  as  much  as  we  can.   there  are  worst  things  that  can  happen  to  you  than  just  being  killed,  ellie   .   .   .   i'm  not  babying  you.   i'm  trying  to  protect  you  from  what  might  happen,  even  though  i  hope  it  never  does  because  you  deserve  to  be  a  kid  as  much  as  you  can  in  this  world,    "

[quicksilversnails]

Took some notes from the Wild Life retrospective episode of the Imp & Skizz podcast featuring Grian because I thought the behind the scenes info was really interesting!

(3:15) The wild cards were all kept totally secret from the players (apart from Grian), with the exception of the superpowers and finale (as they required the players to set keybinds)

(3:45) The players were given files containing the required mods each week, which were named things like "creeper rain" to throw them off

(4:12) Wild cards were a combination of data packs and mods

(4:38) Grian told them not to read the folder name to avoid spoilers (which is kind of impossible), so everyone fully believed there would be creeper rain lol. Grian was saying it in jest but everyone took it seriously and were apologetic about having seen it, to which Grian told them not to worry

(6:58) Grian originally contacted a data pack dev called Brace for help with programming the wild cards. Some, like the shrinking/growing could be achieved with minecraft attributes, but the snails were too janky and unusable. Grian still liked the idea though, so he reached out to mod developers Henkelmax and Breadloaf, who designed the pathfinding/behaviour from scratch

(8:49) They had a debugging mode used to test the pathfinding of the snails, shown in the podcast and in Grian's credits

(10:09) Grian wants most of the credit to go to the development team and artists, as he was mostly in charge of ideas & organization!

(10:39) Grian's only regret with the snails was that they were too fast in session 3, leading to unexpectedly many deaths. They were apparently not so difficult to get away from during testing, but perhaps the testers were more used to them than the players were

(11:44) Grian: "We did develop to the lowest common denominator" ie. prioritizing how players would struggle over how worrying about if players would do too well

(12:56) Oli's voice for the snails was iconic. It cost Impulse a life because he intentionally stayed closer to it to hear the voice lol

(13:42) Danny was in charge of the snail models and animations

(14:11) During testing, the snails just sounded like Oli, which made it feel weird. They pitched up his voice so that it'd be less immediately recognizable

(15:18) The snails' jumping attack was meant to be clearly telegraphed: they would stop, wiggle, make a "ooeee" sound before jumping. Many players had their friendly creatures volume turned very low/off (as cows and other mobs are loud), which made this attack much less obvious for them

(16:57) The growing/shrinking had the least testing done for it, as it was the simplest conceptually and to program. This meant that the falling off of blocks due to the shrinking hitboxes wasn't anticipated

(17:55) Before the 1st session, Grian told them that he didn't think anyone would die to the wild card. Pearl's death made Grian pretty nervous, as he didn't want everyone dying too early in the season

(19:29) 6 lives were given, knowing that many of the death to the wild cards were unexpected/unfair. The intent was for ~3 lives to be allocated for wild cards, and ~3 for PvP.

(21:13) The developers were all fans of the Life Series!

(22:43) The shrinking/growing was intentionally pretty simple to ease players/viewers into the concept and build up toward more dramatic wild cards like the snails

(25:38) In the hunger episode, Grian didn't know which foods would be good

(25:58) Grian thinks that "it's unfair that Grian already knows everything" is valid criticism, but that it's important for him to be involved with the ideas. Having someone else do that is like having someone else record his videos: Life Series is his brainchild

(26:35) Well before the season began, while they were still developing the concept, Grian asked the other players for wild card ideas that would meet a few criteria. All of them ended up being unused for one reason or another. Impulse thinks his ideas were very "inside the box" because he was viewing things through what was possible in vanilla Minecraft. His idea was to have a scavenger hunt where the players would search to find a relic. The first person to find it would get a buff. Skizz's idea was for every player to turn into a random passive mob for every given interval of time. They would have to find every other player of the same mob type as them or else the whole group loses a life.

(29:44) The food qualities were weighted by the rarity of the item, so very common blocks like dirt and cobblestone would never give anything good. The other items were randomly selected

(30:23) Regular blocks/items cannot be made edible normally, so they had to circumvent that and custom code a fix for items not stacking correctly

(32:41) While a lot of players do want to win, the main priority is creating entertainment, which prioritizes playing recklessly

(33:20) The food wild card wasn't included in the finale because it would've felt like "too much". There was a higher risk of technical issues since it changed the data values of items, and Grian didn't want someone's last death to be because they ate their sword. In his mind, it was a good and fun wild card, but didn't need to be repeated in the finale. Impulse points out that they all would have collected more rare items by that point, removing the incentive to search for blocks to eat

(33:46) The wild cards in the finale were nerfed from their original sessions. The shrinking/growing had a smaller height range, the snails moved slower, etc.

(36:21) The personalized snail skins were a late addition by Danny, who made 18 skins very quickly

(36:49) Grian did not anticipate the snails becoming as popular with fans as they were. After the session released, they had the idea to release the snail merchandise, which directly funded the rest of the season

(39:20) Grian spent what "felt like every day" testing with the developers. They'd record the sessions on Tuesdays, meet up with the dev team, talk about what need to be done, testing, bugs, etc, edit and upload on Saturday, and would get a few days grace before starting again

(40:01) After the snail session, Grian was worried that the season would be very short due to all the deaths. They were considering toning down the later wild cards but ultimately didn't change them too much

(40:36) The time wild card was carefully balanced. If it had gone even a little faster, many players likely would have died because they wouldn't have time to react to threats like baby zombies or creepers.

(40:57) While sessions normally run for a variable amount of time, session 4 was hardcoded at 2 hours. Grian ended the session ~10 minutes early, just after they hit max speed, because he felt like things were getting dicey

(42:46) When the wild card first activates, it looks a lot like the server had frozen or crashed. Grian told the players before the session started that it would look like the game was broken, but that it isn't broken. Skizz tabbed out anyway and missed the beginning 😔

(43:30) Having the rain start just as the wild card began was a good visual indicator of time slowing down. This was a suggestion from the dev team (probably Brace)

(44:41) Impulse and Grian "cheesed" the end of the session by going branch mining. Grian wanted players to take advantage of the wild cards (eg. mining quickly, helping to kill someone), and not have them just be an annoyance.

(45:30) Keeping the client and server-side time stay in sync was challenging. The sky's motion was changed to be smoother on client-side. The players were also not as fast as the server (around 2x faster), the server was going faster than that, and the time of day was even faster

(46:56) The sounds were pitched up/down based on the speed to add to the effect

(27:46) In testing, if the players were made 7x faster, it would be basically unplayable, which was why it was capped at 2x speed. This made mobs very dangerous, as they were now faster than players and could catch up to you and kill you easily

(49:01) On several occasions, they had to extend the fuse duration of creepers to make them more fair. In the time session, their speed was only increased by ~10%

(49:39) Usually, Grian was the one to test the wild cards and notice when things like creeper speed would be an issue, since he was the one with experience making videos

(50:50) A challenge with balancing wild cards is accounting for the playstyles of so many players: reckless players like Scar and Skizz, "kind and gentle" players like Bigb who would stay off to the sides, and "the sweat squad" (Scott, Impulse) who play very cautiously

(52:48) Trivia Bot was the only wild card that was not planned in advance. Grian was struggling to come up with a wild card for that episode, and wanted to have a wild card available that could give people lives in case many people died to early wild cards without it feeling cheap.

(53:33) Trivia seemed a little boring on its face, so presentation was essential

(54:34) This one made Grian the most stressed due to all the moving parts involved in making it (coding and pathfinding mostly by Henkelmax, visuals by Hoffen, audio/music, questions)

(55:08) Trivia Bot's design was based on Grumbot and Mettaton from Undertale. Hoffen drew concept art shown in the video

(58:32) They show Trivia Bot's custom animation for becoming a snail and it's really cool

(59:12) The music was the most stressful part of the project. Grian spent 2-3 days looking through Epidemic Sounds for a Trivia Bot theme song and couldn't find anything good. He commissioned Zera @hopepetal for a theme song, which is played in the podcast. However, Grian realized he needed a full audio package, so he commissioned Oli late in development, who created the final soundtrack and many audio variations

(1:01:38) Grian wants to send appreciation for everyone who worked on the project, even if their work ultimately went unused

(1:02:58) Skizz was happy to give back however he could by staying on standby in the final episode as a zombie, as the players were able to "reap all the benefits" of the hard work of the development team

(1:05:21) Grian didn't know any of the trivia questions beforehand, which were done by fans of the series. The goal was for ~50% of the questions to be answered correctly, which was approximately met

(1:07:11) Players couldn't get questions about themselves because it would be too easy. This would encourage players to leave their bot, allowing other players to mess with them

(1:07:57) Grian felt a little left out from the discovery element of the wild cards, and decided to mess with Scar by hiding his bot. He wasn't expecting Scar to die from it, and could tell that he was genuinely a little upset by it. Grian felt bad about it, which led to a genuine in-game alliance between them

(1:12:32) Grian was very close to letting Trivia Bot give lives as rewards, but decided it would feel too cheap

(1:14:38) Mob swap was slightly toned down, with more camels and sniffers spawning

(1:15:07) Evokers didn't drop totems anymore. Instead, there was a minuscule chance a warden or wither would spawn, which would drop a totem if killed. Grian was a little disappointed that the warden got cheesed in the end

(1:17:45) Having the mobs start passive and turn hostile was mostly for the presentation, building anticipation, and so players could predict where mobs would spawn and react accordingly, making things feel less unfair

(1:20:32) There was no superpower made for Skizz (or Mumbo presumably)

(1:20:38) The superpowers were another late addition. There was a large design doc where Grian created all the powers, which were handed over to Henkelmax and completed over 4 days

(1:21:42) Grian avoided superpowers involving strength, that could cause someone to die easily. Most of the powers were social or movement-based, which couldn't be used for offence as easily

(1:22:25) Some powers were randomly assigned, others weren't. Impulse's was random. Cleo's, Bigb's, Lizzie's, Grian's were assigned.

(1:24:25) Grian gave himself the mimic because it could easily backfire (like in Grian's fall damage death), and because it would've been confusing for a player who wasn't aware of the other powers. They likely would've spent the episode just figuring out how everything worked and not actually using the power to its best ability

Lots of discussion about the superpowers and how they interacted in the episode itself, go watch if you're interested :)

(1:33:38) Talk on how the series "standard" rules evolved since 3rd Life. There was no keep inventory, and no restrictions on enchanting levels or potions, which created slow or unbalanced fights

(1:36:23) 3rd Life was designed to be an experimental series, which made Grian eager to improve it. For example, some people just weren't dying in 3L, leading to the boogeyman in LL, and so on

(1:37:17) The goal with the seasons isn't to one-up the previous one, but to create a different experience every time, which keeps things engaging for the creators

(1:38:31) At the end of each session, Grian would ask the group if they had fun and how they felt about the wild cards. According the Skizz, the answer was "a resounding yes"

(1:39:08) Grian had moments throughout the season where he personally felt like things didn't go well for him, and was anxious for the rest of the group's episodes. Things worked out while editing the raw footage, though. His issues were never with the wild cards themselves, but his own actions (traps not working, spending too long branch mining), but would always find funny moments in his footage

(1:43:41) Everyone in the Life Series cast genuinely likes and genuinely respects everybody else in the group. This allows them to make the show and get mad at each other, because they know it's all just in-character

(1:44:50) It'd be hard to top Wild Life in spectacle, and Grian doesn't want to start an arms race with himself. The next season could potentially be closer to 3rd Life, but Grian's not sure yet. For Grian, Wild Life was the most enjoyable

(1:45:20) Grian: "As long as people keep enjoying [the Life Series] then I'd love to keep doing it"

(1:49:35) With the finale, Grian knew how the wild cards played out the previous sessions and was able to adjust them

(1:49:56) Grian's goal was to create safe chaos where everyone knew what was happening and wouldn't die to them, which didn't go entirely to plan. The snails were 60% of their original speed and people still died

(1:51:03) Grian made a precise timeline of when each wild card would start/stop, it wasn't randomized.

(1:54:16) All the superpowers were randomized, with Bdubs' power being removed from circulation because it didn't have much use in a finale setting

(1:56:10) It was important for Grian that in the final moments, the wild cards were removed, so there were no interruptions. The timing worked out well because there were a few people left and it ended within ~10 minutes (this implies that the change wasn't based on # of players alive, as people had speculated based on Gem's death)

(1:58:48) The players all randomly switched to zombie skins throughout the session to mess with people on NameMC. Well-played :)