#one of my edits didn't save for some reason so i added it again

[sadhornydemons]

You gotta wonder..What are the events that lead to Via and Blitz having each other as contacts on their phones?

Blitz had Stolas in his phone as early as the first episode, probably out of Stolas' persistence in the aftermath of stealing his book. One might assume, maybe one day Stolas grabbed his phone; "Blitzy, let me add my daughter to your contacts!" which could be slightly odd, but not completely ooc in his mannerisms.

Having it labled: "Via (Stolas Bird Daughter)"..(how many different species of daughters do you think Stolas has, Blitz?!) seems like Blitz added it, or at least edited it later.

I could see, during the events of Seeing Stars, Blitz would have a good reason to add her as a contact. (assuming Stolas was already trying to call Via's phone prior to everyone trying to find her. I'm assuming a lot of stuff that isn't shown just so everything will make sense) By why Via?

And circling back to Seeing Stars, how or why does Via know where the IMP office is, or that her dad's book is there?

Obviously Stolas knows the location, he shows up at the office next. Did he have to explain to her one day, "Oh no, I don't have the book...uh, you remember our Loo Loo Land bodyguard? Well, he's borrowing it for his business..Oh say, why don't we pay him a surprise visit?"

Back to the original phone issue at hand, I can't see Stolas grabbing Via's phone to add anything (Stolas: "Oh, there's a message on your phone saying to click this link for a 'Mal-icious surprise!" Via: "Dad, no."). Going back to headcanon land, even if Blitz attempted to call her during the events of Seeing Stars and she answered, I'd see her blocking the number after finding out who it was instead of saving.

And Via already had the contact labeled "Dad (Calling From Shitty Bodyfriend's Phone)," (note the use of parentheses in both cases) complete with picture of Stolas in his This-Is-As-Dressed-I'm-Getting-Robe. If she hadn't blocked Blitz's number before, maybe she did find the number and edited it after her father was banished, knowing he didn't have access to his phone and that would be the only way he could contact her.

That's probably the most likely option I can find. Unless Stolas did manage to call her from Blitz's phone one day (prior to the events of Ozzie's). Again, I'm struggling to find a reason for that. "Via, it's daddy! Did you remember to take the reading materials for that history assignment to your mothers?", Via: "Where are you calling from?!" Stolas: "Oh, I just had to borrow Blitzy's phone while mine is...unavailable." Blitz: "I really didn't think it would fit up there."

There just seems to be a lot of character development or events unseen. Which makes sense, the show doesn't have time to show every stinkin' detail, while focusing on all the main cast. But some of these missing pieces might give more reason to why Blitz already feels bonded to Via, in addition to his relationship with her father, but despite them only sharing scenes in two prior episodes.

[herefortheships]

Somewhat darkish headcanon that ties the Toonverse with the Movieverse, if we didn't have the context of the first Beetlejuice movie. Below the cut, because, as I said, "darkish". (I mean, I don't think it's dark, but 🤷🏻‍♀️ Just in case). Basically, this is how I think people who only had the context of the cartoon interpreted BJBJ:

My mom's best friend watching Beetlejuice Beetlejuice without having ever watched the first movie is what sparked this thought.

There must be people out there who watched the cartoon growing up, but for whatever reason (mainly being casual viewers) didn't ever get around to watch the first movie. And surely there's got to be a few people out there who didn't even know the cartoon was based off a movie (please, there has to be, especially people who had really strict parents. I had a friend who had never held a ken doll in her hands, for example, because her strict mom didn't want her to see Ken naked lol Extremely controlling parents like that exist, is what I mean), and yet, these people went to the theater to watch the sequel.

For some of them, BJBJ would appear to be either a continuation of the cartoon or an adaptation. Of course, as casual viewers, they may not think too deeply about these things as the fans do, but with this idea in mind, here is how I think they interpreted the movie:

With only the context of cartoon to give them an understanding of the Beetlejuice story, it would look like Lydia and Betelgeuse were best friends while Lydia was a kid, but when she got older, at some point, Betelgeuse started having feelings for her and became obsessed with her. At some point it stopped being fun and games, and maybe Lydia even started feeling a little scared of him. Suddenly having a ghost friend wasn't so much fun anymore, when she started feeling that tension between them (here's where she started thinking of him as a demon vs a ghost, in this headcanon).

//She may have started having feelings for him as well around this time, which added to her fears of what could happen between them. After all, he was dead and an all-powerful ghost; there's a chance she feared what could happen, if they went there, if you know what I mean. But I'm kind of diverting from my point. lol//

Anyway, Lydia started growing a little distant, which frustrated Betelgeuse. Eventually he resorted to terrorizing Lydia's family to try to force her to marry him. That would have marked the end of their friendship in the cartoon, with Lydia banishing him and never summoning him back from the Neitherworld again.

Think about this: in BJBJ, Lydia explains that when she was a teenager, a trickster demon terrorized her family and tried to force her to marry him. She never mentioned that for Betelgeuse to be able to have free access to the world of the living he'd have to get married (Betelgeuse didn't either, when Lydia summoned him in BJBJ, now that I think about it, so the casual audience with zero context of the first film don't know that the reason Betelgeuse needs to get married is to be free, they just know he wants to marry Lydia). Edit: Before I posted this one, last night I posted a separate little post about this, even though I wrote this post first. lol

For a person who only watched the cartoon and had no context whatsoever of the first movie, what does this all sound like? Like everything was peachy keen between Lydia and her ghostly friend until she grew up into a teen and Betelgeuse fell for her, which led to the events which she appears to still be traumatized over in BJBJ. Then in BJBJ they reconnected (Lydia does look exasperated with him a few times instead of scared of him, the way she acted with him like she had known him a long time before; we can see this with the way she talks to him in the couples counseling scene and the quid pro quo scene), and by the end it even seemed like they were on their way to being friends again, when he saved her daughter and lent her his power to knock out Rory.

Even though she banished him again, with him sticking around her at the end of BJBJ, if they never make part three, at least we all can assume that eventually they might become friends again at some point in the future, and maybe even end up together down the line. After all, they used to be best friends once upon a time; they can get over all the water under the bridge between them.

As I said above, this is just a speculative kind of post, looking at the way someone with only the context of the cartoon might have interpreted BJBJ.

Now, how would I marry the Toonverse and the Movieverse with the context of the first film in mind? Completely ignoring the fact that the Toonverse is supposed to be non-canon lol. I'm going to leave that for another speculative little post, to avoid making this one into a long ramble. But I'll conclude with saying that I actually really like this headcanon (I hope you don't think I'm weird for that 😂).

[chaoticbindery]

Here's Looking at You Kid

By Messermoon(@sophsicle )

"Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world..."

George wanders into a bar. Nothing is ever the same.

Thanks to Soph for accepting a copy of this story. Apologies for the delay and ups being trash 💀

Thanks to @upthehillart for approving my use of their art for this fic.

Special thanks to the @renegadepublishing server for all your support, advice, and encouragement during the making of these books.

To ups, I hope you never feel the gentle touch of a woman, that your child never hugs you again, and that every time you enter a room, you forget the reason you are there.

Below, I will discuss the process, which will include a lot of spoilers. (But also more pics 😈)

When I heard this story was set in the same universe as choices, I lost my shit a little and read it. Slowly, however, this story began to mean a lot more to me than I could put into words. George's grief over the lost of his soul mate, the struggle to find himself, and Blaise's love, passion, kindness, and confidence in himself resonated to me in such a way that I knew I needed to hold it in my greedy little hands.

I started to think about what I wanted to do and how I wanted to bind this story. I struggle a lot from picking the font for the body text to picking the chapter titles. I finally, after fucking around with canva for more time than I'm willing to admit , I was able to come up with these:

(If you would like the files for anything I used, please dm me, and I will send them to you! I will eventually set up a google drive)

In the story, there is this moment where Blaise casts a spell that creates a constellation, of which George got the inspiration to make a mood ring that created a little sky, and depending on your mood the sky changes to reflect how you feel. He gives it to Blaise, and they have a picnic under the sky, indoors, later at Blaise's party they have such a cute moment at night and so I wanted to implant the sky in some way.

I also wanted to use constellations in this bind. I didn't know how or where. I just knew I needed them in my life. So while i mop over my inability to impelent them, I took a break. So one day, I was reading a book with these very cute corners, and then it hit me. (No, I didn't finish the book i was reading. I was busy stalking the internet, trying to find the perfect image)

After that, picking the page breaks was easy. I wanted something simple since I didn't want the typeset to look so busy that it took away from the most important element of the bind, aka the story. I added a few little things for me in Draco and Harry's 2 chapters because I'm weak, and that's for soph to find all on her own 👀

I will put this here, tho.

Lastly, because Tumblr won't let me post more pictures, here are the endpapers I used for 2 of the 3 books.

As some of you may have notice, there are blues, pinks, and whites in this bind. It's a subtle yet very loud depiction of the Trans flag. It was very important to me to show that this story is of a Trans man that, as soph, puts it, saved himself.

I added all the chapter notes, trigger warnings, and more information about this bind on the typeset itself. Ultimately, to me, this is a form of archiving stories I think matter, and if for whatever reason, technology dies on us, this story will still live on.

The info that's only important to the binders 💀:

Materials list:

Bookcloth: Colibri in color Cornflower, this cloth has a silk like finish.

Htv: I used siser's htv easy weed vinyl with a bit of a pinkish undertone to it.

Endpapers: they are from paper tree nook in the uk

Endband: 2 mm 100% leather with blue viscous thread

Textblock: I used standard 20lbs cream color paper. I used toner to print. To sew the textblock, I use blue linen thread and remie bands gifted to me by my friend duranbinding. I painted the edges using golden acrylic paint, and the charm and ribbon are both from Michael's

Typeset:

(I will edit in this bit later since I made so many changes its hard to recall them all)

[sodapopseagull]

Played more honor mode again last night and have added two more downs and one death to the count for a total of 5 and 2! It's been chaos and I did cry a little because I am overly attached to the pixel people and I think my friend might be rabid?? It would explain some things...

Lae'zel is no more. We sided with the tieflings that captured her. It was sad 😔

Astarion, when faced with the choice between the HUGE SCARY DRAGONBORN and my dumb idiot 8 STR human tav, chose to try and bite my friend. I tried to save him, to remind her of his purpose as Boooal's sacrifice to buy him just a bit more time, but she would not hear me 😭😭😭

Karlach is now on the chopping block in his stead. She dances so innocently at camp...

I pleaded for Wyll's life because, entirely on his own at the fight in front of the Grove, he used his scroll to resurrect my friend!!! A life for a life!!! And it was all well and good, but alas, he showed up at our camp after we recruited Karlach and he fell because my friend doesn't want anyone at camp FOR SOME REASON. I tried to convince her that Wyll deserves to make it to the end of the game for his selfless act, but alas... she would not hear me. I did actually shed a tear or two LMAO. It was very late and I love Wyll, he didn't deserve that.

Gale's fate is on thin ice, but as of right now he is tentatively safe. He had two snacks yesterday. Never have I been so fearful as when my friend kept asking "what did you feed him?" over and over again while channeling a Divine Smite right over his head...

This woman has not ONCE cared about The Watcher's Guide in our hundreds of hours of playing together, but apparently I shouldn't have let Gale eat it LMAO

I had done some negotiating to keep him around earlier in the day. Made a sacrifice I have never made before, but it has appeased her...

I will say that all of this is all done in good fun. My friend knows how attached I am to Gale and the rest of the companions (and she loves them too, make no mistake) and we manufacture a great deal of drama around it LMAO. And in her defense!!! she has lost hours of her life to me romancing this man in our countless co-ops and my BG3/Gale fixation pulled me away from our shared 3D/VR hobby... Like, is it hilarious that she has beef with a fictional wizard from a game she bought me? Yes. Does she also have a point?

Perhaps.

I don't want to give the impression that she's a bad friend or co-op partner- I love this person with my whole heart and we know where our lines are even in something silly and fictional like a video game! And I want to clarify that because she will probably insist on more unhinged nonsense as we keep going, and I like yapping about our playthroughs LOL

We're having so much fun on this run and, as of right now, are kinda cruising through the early combats! We're taking advantage of a lot of mechanics we've never really bothered with like dipping weapons, using Shovel to surprise enemies, actually using our scrolls, and properly teaming up to loot everything. The level 4 power spike is going to be so good for us, and at level 5 I will have Font of Inspiration and my friend will be ready to reclass to her Open Hand Monk hehehe

Last night she suggested that we relive the early days of our ownership of this game and do a marathon session today. I hope she was being serious, but if that's the case, I gotta haul ass on some fic edits before she wakes up LOL

[angelphonia]

Okay, I've been binge watching the Stop!!Hibari-kun anime and I've got some thoughts I need to let out.

Firstly, watching the anime makes me appreciate the Manga a hundred times more. Sure, the Manga had its problems, mostly the racism and the casual homophobia jokes and transphobia, but you could save stuff from it, like that even though there were homophobic jokes there was a gay woman who wasn't mocked because of her attraction to Hibari, or that despite the transphobia Hibari was never outright shown as being wrong by being herself.

Now, the anime does a lot of things I dislike. Firstly they make Kosaku's reactions be way more negative than in the Manga. While yes, he reacts negatively he is also seen blushing a lot when Hibari flirts with him. I may need to read the Manga for fourth time, but I also don't remember Kosaku constantly mentioning Hibari is a "guy" everytime she did anything.

There is a lot much more racism in the anime. There were problems with this in the Manga but it just feels way more present in the anime.

This one doesn't bother me too much, but I'm pretty sure the chapters do not align with the Manga, but again, this doesn't bother me.

I also noticed way more incest jokes, I don't care about them. Also the Seiji chapter where he falls in love with one of Hibari's bullies when she's 15 and Seiji is around 25/30 is very questionable. Again, this is a work of fiction so while I was like "why isn't this seen wrong?" I wasn't really uncomfortable. I do gotta say that in the Manga when the Japanese mob grown manchild son asked for Hibari's hand in marriage, it was inmediatly said he was 28 and Hibari was super taken aback. This doesn't happen in the anime, his age is NEVER mentioned. I can't quite remember, but I am sure Hibari also doesn't go on a date with him.

Oof, but here we go with the thing that has bothered me the most. The REALLY bad erasure of Jun's story. They absolutely took away her lesbianism, making it seem as if she was only interested in Hibari because of her volleyball abilities. They also totally changed the episode and made Jun be deeply ashamed of her family, that while in the Manga she was a bit embarassed it wasn't a main focus. In the Anime it was, even making her leave the volleyball club, which is crazy to me. Oh, and I'm NOT forgetting that they made Hibari enjoy getting gropped in the bus, when in the Manga she was clearly just disgusted by it.

I haven't finished it yet, may edit this post with more complains. Positive things? I'm sure Seiji and Sabu didn't have names in the Manga, so now they have identities. They try and give them more backstory, even adding an eye scar to Sabu, which was appreciated. Hibari's voice is absolutely the cutest. I liked the wrestling episode. Oh, the episode with Hibari's mother and her father was a delight, she didn't express this much emotion in the Manga, so actually seeing how she feels was great, and her end interaction with her father was adorable.

Can't remember anything more rn. As a side note, I've developed a little crush on Sabu and I'm gonna draw him. Hope you enjoyed my rambling!

EDIT:

Remembered the Honda thing. In the Anime he almost reaches his 1000 girls flirted with, but with one it is half a girl. In the Manga this was because he looked at a 5 year old by accident and she fell in love, while in the anime they made it so he flirted with a new half. For those who don't know, new half is an old Japanese term for transgender people, mostly trans women who were post op. In the subtitles this is translated as crossdresser, which I don't like. This isn't the first time this term is mentioned, in the spartan son episode, he calls Hibari a new half, which Kosaku tells him to not do. In another chapter there is a trans woman, and she refers to herself as New half, which again is incorrectly translated to crossdresser for some reason.

Even then there was some sort of minimal knowledge of trans people, not only with this, but in the Manga the addition of Genkijirou being a canonical trans man in hormones. Eguchi was aware and while his first idea was to make Hibari a feminine man, it obviously end up with her being a trans woman.

[randomfoggytiger]

Alpha In-Depth (Part I): Vibing and Internet Wive-ing

This was an anon request; and the idea intrigued me so much I immediately sat down and started hammering it out. So, here you go!

**Note**: I will ghost edit this later; but I'm working on Part II as I type so I'm in a bit of a hurry.

Surprisingly there is a lot of little details you can weave into an overall narrative in this episode. Alpha follows Arcadia and is followed up by Trevor, all three blending together to create the storm that is Milagro and the revelation that is The Unnatural. And, aside from that, there is still residual Diana-Fowley-under-every-rock suspicion and protection from Scully's side and some self-doubt (in denial) from Mulder's side. Both are half-right and half-wrong.

The Lead Up

I have a different read on S6 than most other meta; namely, that it was a ball compared to their previous seasons. What could have been in S4 (what was hinted in Home) was halted by Scully's cancer; and what couldn't be in S5 was aided by Mulder's "atheism" and Scully's loss and self-doubt (see here.)

But S6 is on the heels of FTF; and, while there was a huge setback in The Beginning with the files being taken from them and Mulder accidentally brushing aside Scully's big hallway confirmation, it's recovered in the name of grim survival: two agents, shoulder to shoulder, mucking through their toilet brush duties together, unbreakable. The shift in Drive is important, establishing Scully's skill at handling all the big mytharc pieces while Mulder is forced into a metal box hurtling down the highway; and Triangle affirms it by having Mulder stumble into another universe while both versions of Scully work overtime to save "Dorothy" and bring him home. By the end of Triangle all is normal: Scully is reaffirmed in her ability to add meaningfully to Mulder, not just his quest; and Mulder acknowledges this more openly, having to rediscover his FTF fears again on the Queen Anne (afraid of never seeing Scully again-- hence the kiss.)

The rest of the season is (mostly) a blast until the drama of Two Fathers/One Son-- which is important (and I wrote about it here) as a one-shot and 1 and 2 as a Typing Personality combo), because it establishes the central flaw of Mulder and Scully's ability to rip him out of it. By the next episode (Agua Mala) Scully is miffed, yes, but more at the storm than at Mulder-- because who would fly down to investigate a sea monster in a hurricane-- but whatever feelings that still lingered about One Son are demolished by the end when Dales forces Mulder to pause and acknowledge Scully's effect on the case. Not that he didn't want to; it's just that Mulder hadn't-- something a future Dales brother points out to him in The Unnatural. By Monday they're teasing and even beaming at each other, etc.

Suffice to say, there is normality restored with the X-Files back. On the heels of Monday there is Arcadia-- and while my posts on Arcadia were a bit dialed up to explore the psychological effects, the result is the same: Mulder and Scully enjoyed their time for different reasons. He enjoyed bullying the neighbors passive-aggressively and she enjoyed the domesticity of it all... but both of them were ready to leave by the end, Mulder having drawn firmer boundaries because of his discomfort with domesticity and Scully having retreated a little due to being teased to death (and almost literally dying.) This leads directly into the episode we're breaking down today:

Alpha

Ah-- Alpha, my Alpha... if only you weren't so badly written or were vastly more interesting.

The first shot of Mulder is him adding photo evidence to his corkboard, intently focusing on the crime. Scully appears in the hallway, having doubled back at some point from leaving the building, checking back in with him-- "Aren't you going home?", a question she may not have asked since Paper Hearts (correct me if I'm wrong.) It establishes that she and Mulder are on completely comfortable terms; and she's curious about his movements and well-being outside of the office, which is opposite to the prevailing meta that they were tense or on bad terms at this time.

"I AM home," Mulder cheerfully responds, still intensely focused, "just feathering the nest."

A fitting follow-up to Arcadia, which was an emphasis on a "normal", suburban home life. Mulder is still firmly rooted in his basement, not yet ready to step out on a Saturday night with his girl and baseball.

"Watcha got?" Scully slings out, interest piqued.

Mulder spells out the case, with Scully zipping out her own "Mind if I ask the cause of death?" in a scene not dissimilar to their quippy exchange in Fight Club (if more low-key and not as RST-y.) He's delighted she's involving herself this eagerly, hiding little smirks and smiles between his rapid-fire sentences and throwing out a quirky inflection to his "multiple bite wounds" detail, adding some pizazz to his delivery.

Scully's skepticism peaks when Mulder mentions the suspect is a dog; and she walks (read: leans on one leg then the other, seesawing into the room reminiscent of a teasing little girl on a playground) into the room to see the evidence herself and disprove it.

Mulder brandishes the X-Files enticingly ("That alone is not what drew me to this case") just out of her reach while he trots out the juiciest part ("The two men were found inside the container.") Scully plays along, taking the casefile when he dramatically relinquishes it--

until Mulder tells a joke so bad (repeating "doggone" thrice with various inflections, each more emphasized than the last, so that Scully will know he told a joke and smirk at his genius) that it spoils the mood and kicks her into full-on skepticism mode. Her "Yeah, I got it" is hilarious and deadpan; but it's a gentle "yeah, you stink" rather than her full-powered sarcasm-- and she bites off a smile of her own for "getting" him by a quick question about the investigation.

"Did anybody, um, examine the victim, Mulder?"

Scully's little quip amuses herself and Mulder, who gives a little head tilt in a 'well, y'know...' kind of way. Her amusement continues despite her charmed exasperation.

Mulder has witnesses, experts, and an outside source; but Scully doesn't budge. "Mulder, I don't have to tell you how absolutely and completely wrong that seems." He gives her a two confirmational head bobs and a few "yeah"s and "mhm"s, unphased by the nonsensical nature of the case.

Their vibe is very S7: lots of "yeahs", Scully sauntering around confidently and familiarly butting into Mulder's business after hours... it's domestic, really. Arcadia was the new wedding and honeymoon, settling in and sifting their lives together; Alpha is an exploration of "the couple"'s first cross-purposes disagreement (in this case, over the woman Karin); and Trevor will explore the complicated familial dynamics of two messed up people having a child. After those three episodes back-to-back, and no change in Mulder, the desperation of Milagro makes clearer sense.

Mulder KNOWS how ridiculous this case is.

Scully: "You're not going to tell me that a dog did this?"

Mulder: *a pause to consider*: "Bad dog."

Scully: "...Yeah."

At the first crime scene, Mulder leads the charge while Scully scuffles off to do some footwork of her own.

When Mulder questions the man in charge of the crime scene team, we learn a bit of backstory--

Man: "Did you ever own a dog, sir?"

Mulder: "Yeah."--

confirming a lot of meta speculation about Mulder's childhood (well, that and there might be a picture of a dog in Tena's house somewhere... if I recall the lore correctly.)

Mulder does a goofy little "gotcha" and hand clap over the man's not-so-subtle dog poop answer to his questions; and Scully, though not particularly fond of poop jokes, does almost crack a smile of her own... if only because Mulder stepped into that one (heh heh, puns.)

Scully takes over the interrogation while Mulder retraces her steps and stares into the same emptied box. ...Until he hears that there's a cryptozoologist involved in this case and scurries over, eager to get into the more outlandish aspects of mythological animals.

Scully's facial reaction-- "oh no"-- is perfect as he winds up and starts to rattle off his myths and monsters spiel; but he's put on pause when she ruthlessly cutting his speech down in the prime of its life with a smirk on her face.

As the case rattles on-- a dog attack in BELLFLOWER??? really?-- and Mulder scopes out the oddities about the newest crime scene (while avoiding dog feces and making a "Watch your step" joke to Scully. She heeds his warnings because she is, after all, practical),

In their exchange of theories, Mulder congratulates Scully on figuring out where he's going with his newest leap: "You get a biscuit, Scully." Scully stores her comeback for later, content (for now) to simply laugh at his idea of a dog with human intelligence.

A sidenote: Scully always, always holds the umbrella (Irresistible, Small Potatoes, etc., and here. Nice continuity.)

This leads them to Berquist Kennels, where Scully springs out her comeback pun, having lain in wait for the first golden opportunity: when Mulder responds "Actually, it's more of a behavior problem" to a contractor's questions, Scully smirks, realizing this is her moment (even the stars aligned so that she is accidentally holding her hands in front of her, clutched, like a devious little mastermind), and cuts in with the speed of light: "Yeah, he doesn't listen and he chews on the furniture."

Mulder, as shown above, is tickled-- but he's more caught out than overjoyed, huffing out a "heh" noise before digging for his badge.

An Odd Moment That Portents More

An odd moment happens: Mulder is completely at ease in Karin's office until Scully makes a sarcastic remark ("You sure this woman's not an authority on bats?"), his mood shifting a little.

He jovially makes a "tsk" sound, and reaches out in a "c'mon, none of that" gesture that almost fully envelops an unsuspecting Scully in a hug. He gets as far as grasping both shoulders before his partner turtles up, tucking her chin in and going straight and stiff as a board.

Scully's expressions shift swiftly from shock to realization that Mulder never gets this grabby without a motive (having just gone through an entire touchy-feely case where Mulder sort of used her as a cuddly prop to forward his sneaky motives.) Cynicism creeps in, and she begins to suspect that he has something to hide, searching through the room in earnest and starting to nail him down about "this expert."

Mulder, meanwhile, is not reading the room-- ironic, yes-- coasting through life unbothered while keeping crucial information back form Scully to determine her either way (which ends up shooting himself in the foot, because Scully's first impression of Karin is not a positive one.)

When Scully finds out he knew more about Karin than he initially let on, she is even more suspicious and not at all pleased... and Mulder knows he's in the doghouse (heheheh.)

THIS explains his weird arm grab earlier: Mulder knows Scully is viciously jealous, personally and professionally; and had tried to detour Scully from getting snippy about his new friend-- wanting his partner to trust and get along with her, a social outcast and someone he is already protective of. We saw how his last "friendship" shook out with Diana Fowley (not to mention his former collaborations with very helpful women in the field, i.e. Detective White in Syzygy and Bambi Berenbaum in War of the Coprophages); and this seems to be a redemption attempt on his part. A "see? I can make good friends-- I'm a good judge of character" mea culpa.

Mulder had even read Karin's books before even meeting her (an interesting parallel to reading Scully's thesis in the Pilot); but Scully is pleased when Mulder answers her "Better than human??" sniff over Karin's book with "She's not a real people person", giving her hope that this lady will be a very disinterested professional. She saunters away, playfulness restored (for now.)

Mulder is fidgety, holding something back; but the full jig is up when Scully finds Karin's 'I Want To Believe' poster.

"Well, she seems to have made a connection to you."

Karin now enters, not noticing Mulder's handwave at first. Then Mulder does something here he usually never does willingly:

"Karin? I'm Fox."

He's says it gently, establishing this is how they'd forged a connection between them; and Scully, savvy as she is, recognizes this and doesn't draw any attention to it. But still. (Not only did she have to content with Dr. Bambi and Fox, but now she has to contend with canid enthusiast Karin and Fox.)

Mulder is genuinely enthusiastic-- "Nice to finally meet you"-- sticking out his hand again with sparkling eyes (ala meeting his hero in Space.) Scully is... less enthusiastic.

When Karin realizes Mulder had come to consult her she asks, "Is there any other reason you came here?" It's sad when you consider her advanced illness and desperate wish for a loving-- or any-- human connection before her death; but this is Mulder pre-The Unnatural: everything is buried in work with no time for socializing.

Scully catches all of this, of course, without any of the context. She knows there is more going on, firmly pressing Mulder on the "friend" claim when Berquist leaves the room.

He admits that he and Karin met online; and Scully pauses, making sure her subtext meaning is clear: "Online."

Mulder catches it and closes his eyes, frustrated he'd fallen right into this pitfall. He firmly insists, "Two professionals exchanging information." Scully knows he's being honest... so that only leaves Karin's motive unexplored. And from what she's already seen of her (antisocial, not a people person) it's very unlikely that this woman's motives would extend only to professional interest.

Another murder, another crime scene.

Another Karin Berquist sighting, another opportunity for jealousy and suspicion.

Scully sees her coming and excuses herself-- "I don't think wolf woman is here to see me, so I'll..."-- not above giving the two "friends" some alone time (which reminds me of Mulder's "Don't say I didn't do nothing fer yeh", though it's a bit of a stretch.) She still tags along with Mulder back to the dog ranch where the three do some research, keeping her grouchy feelings in check until she sees proof positive that Karin is, indeed, amorous for her partner.

Scully then begins to grill Karin on her shift in opinions on the case (Mulder watching their pin-pong match with interest in both ideas), rolling her eyes at Berquist's assertion she's "just going by the facts."

When Karin explains the Chinese myth pertinent to the case, ending with the statement "...capable of opening doors, stealing wives, and disappearing into thin air. Maybe there is some basis in reality for this trickster myth", Scully snidely follows up with a pointed "Oh, I'm... fairly certain there is" while looking from Karin to Mulder, which earns her a measured look from Mulder. Scully turns from her waspish mood and this discussion, mocking the idea internally and recovering some of her former mood as she steps to the car.

Mulder follows her out, not irritated so much as confused; and his question-- "Everything okay, Scully?"-- sets her off.

"How well do you know this woman, Mulder?"

"How well do you know anybody you meet on the internet? She likes to talk."

Scully is appeased by his rationality, stepping back a little from her emphatic (read: aggravated) interrogation: "Well, I question her motives."

Mulder divines her interpretation, flattered but dismissive when he asks: "Are you suggesting that this case was the way to get me out here to meet me?" Off of Scully's confirming-but-not-admitting expression, he responds, "I'm flattered but, uh--" and does a little, flattered head shake.

He insists that Karin didn't kill a bunch of people to draw him to her; but Scully insists that "She's enamored of you, Mulder. Don't underestimate a woman. They can be tricksters, too."

Mulder's not buying it.

Two interesting things:

#1. A rather dark line of thinking for Scully, who would tie even extreme acts of violence to the lengths a woman would go to win Mulder's love or even his attention. This will ring more and more true in Milagro as it exposes Scully's desperation to be the center of his attention, too.

#2. Scully is alluding to this moment, yes; but more broadly, Diana Fowley lies right behind them with her treachery and cunning. Scully knows that her partner is easily manipulated, but it wasn't until the Fowley arc that she realized how much Mulder will believe on hopeful faith and blind loyalty. Since then, she's become his aggressive guardian. This will be immensely important in Part II.

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

[the-insomniac-emporium]

A. Caldwell: Resident Lover edition

ayyyye it's ya girl boy creature of questionable origins! originally I was going for a npc version of Ava, like they were a side character in RL, but honestly this design could work as my version of the MC (because, ya know, Ava was originally a self-insert who rapidly mutated into something else heehoo) also ignore my typo on their title. forgot to double check and it's too late now

Avaskian Caldwell: Miranda's (other) impersonal assistant

Mx. Caldwell was originally a student at Miranda's University, studying for their psychology degree, with the goal of being a counselor of sorts for future students. The official report states that their horrific injuries were the result of an accident that occurred off-campus, while Caldwell was running an errand for the student council. As a result, Mx. Caldwell suffered a brain injury, resulting in an unusual (and advanced) case of dysphasia, as well as increased sensitivity to sound. They now communicate almost exclusively through writing, which is less impaired than their speech, and wear special ear plugs meant to limit background noise without blocking out nearby voices. Headmistress Miranda graciously offered the former-student a job at the University, as a groundskeeper of sorts. Or, well, that's the official story...

Although few speak openly of such things, the rumors around campus indicate that Mx. Caldwell knowingly got entangled in a Cult while trying to track down an old friend. Supposedly, they betrayed the group's trust, and were cursed in retaliation. But if that is the case... why would the cult keep them around? As an example, perhaps? The truth is evasive as always, and unendingly complex.

Currently, the idea is that Avaskian's childhood friend attended the University, got involved in Alcina's secret society, goofed up real bad, tried to blackmail her way out of it, and got added to Alcina's sculpture collection. Ava questioned her sudden disappearance, despite not having been in active contact with said friend for some time. Just like in their OG story, they followed the trail, running into one of the cult's more remote ventures in the process. That sets up the bit for Ava's cult design, which I'm still working on.

Eventually, Ava made it to the university, got an invitation, emotionally manipulated their way into the thick of things (also by being intelligent, fast-thinking, and perceptive as hell), and eventually managed to put two and two together about their friend's fate. While they were unable to actually save their friend, they were able to essentially mercy-kill her, freeing her consciousness from the sculpture. Unfortunately, that meant betraying Alcina's trust...

Which is why Miranda definitely did curse them. Ava can no longer talk coherently, and is physically incapable of saying or writing several key words, to prevent them from openly revealing the cult's business. Technically, they can talk out loud, it's just... mostly nonsensical.

"Tongue twisting thoughts into scrambled egg salad. A typewriter monkey bowling for alphabet soup."

So, why did Miranda let them live?... Well, for one, they might not look like it, but they're already, like, 87% dead. Again, per their OG story (which I'm trying to adapt as seamlessly as possible), Ava's health regeneration is incredibly powerful, but uncontrollable. They literally drink poison tea (thanks Donna) to periodically give the regen something to do other than filling them with extra sets of organs. Ava manages to be resourceful, effective, and can mostly blend in without others realizing their inhuman strength.

But I think the biggest reason Miranda didn't outright kill them is that, to a degree, she recognizes a piece of herself in them. Someone who is ruthlessly persistent, utterly set on their goal, purely devoted to the one they want to protect. Ava wasn't able to save their person, but their loyalty is admirable, and Miranda knows just how to redirect it for her own purposes...

[mewtwowarrior]

The writing fairy visited again today, and this one's a weird one again, but I'll do my best, lol

It's an Ark-in-Fortnite thing, explanation and story under the Keep Reading.

I have this whole THING where Ark is in Fortnite and goes along the story as the player character-ish. I've not actually written any of it until today. (Well, unless it gets retconned by new developments as the new season goes along, lol)

Unfortunately, because I haven't written anything else of it, there's stories covering the seasons since 2021 that only exist in my head. There's a reference to at least one of them (that I probably will write one of these days, it's one of my favorites - I had thought that one would be the first one I wrote in this series but, uh, whoops).

I also refer to the Doctor Doom fight cutscene, which you can see here.

I'm also running with at least part of the Zero War comic as canon, at least for now.

Jonesy is my favorite and he starts out this season pretty grouchy, so I thought it would be fun to play with.

AS SUCH, MOST OF JONESY'S DIALOGUE IN THIS STORY IS STRAIGHT FROM THE GAME, AS IS A GOOD CHUNK OF HOPE'S - I got the transcripts off Twitter: here, here, and here.

If you don't know Ark, she's my Tron: Legacy OC, she was a System Monitor like Tron and a Renegade like Beck from Tron: Uprising.

If you don't know Fortnite, Jones is the longstanding main character and Hope's a newer main character. Their backstories are complicated, but they're awesome and they take down bad guys for breakfast.

This takes place at the very beginning of Chapter 6, Season 1. At the end of the previous season, everybody traveled to this new world.

This is a VERY rough draft and subject to lots of potential editing and alterations in the future. I definitely need to refresh my knowledge of Jones' and Hope's ways of talking.

This whole thing probably only makes sense to me, so good luck, lol

TL;DR: A story using current Fortnite dialogue snippets featuring my Tron OC dealing with things being different than she's used to with her friends.

So, with the scene somewhat set, here we go!

-

"Hey. It's you again," he greeted her, if you could call it that, with a cold, emotionless tone, quite different from what she was used to or expecting.

"What do you mean 'it's you again'? We came here together, of course it's me," Ark snapped at him.

"I don't mean anything, it was just an observation," Jones replied with the same impartial tone.

"That doesn't make any sense," Ark retorted, then sighed and decided to move the conversation along in the hope of improving it, "Fine, whatever, just tell me why we're here."

The reply she got was simple, and, to her, utterly useless, "I'm on a mission."

Ark glared at him, "That much is obvious, you had some plan and some reason for coming here, but never filled me in on what that was."

Jones relented slightly, "Hope and I are looking for something." He paused for a moment in hesitation and then added, "That's all you're getting."

The small concession didn't do much to appease Ark, "That's it? You might as well have told me nothing. After all this time and everything we've been through, you're not telling me anything?"

His reply wasn't what she wanted to hear, "When you're in a suspicious mood, everyone seems suspicious."

"Suspicious? I'm suspicious? How many times have we saved the world together? How many adventures have we been on together? We've had each other's back through so much, and you're saying that I'm suspicious?" Ark knew that that wasn't helping her case any, but she was too upset to care too much right now.

She shook her head, "I thought you had changed, given up on vengeance, but you're somehow worse than you were before…" In some ways she regretted saying it, but she wanted to get it out there.

"I guess change doesn't always stick," his tone was sharper and somehow even colder than it previously was, which was quite a feat.

Ark's reply was just as sharp, "I guess not." She grunted, making a decision that she knew wasn't a great idea, but she was dug in now, "Fine. If you're gonna be that way, then I'm gonna find whatever you're looking for and show you exactly how suspicious I am." Which was a suspicious thing to say, but it was far too late for that.

She turned and stormed off back into the building, where Hope had been awkwardly listening to their conversation.

Hope lightly grabbed Ark's arm to some protest, but she silently shook her head and gently guided Ark down the stairs - and well out of Jones' earshot.

She had only been adventuring with the two of them for a year, but she knew they had some history beforehand as well. Hope had never seen them fight quite like this and if things didn't improve, then all of their time in this reality was going to be awkward and strained, which was definitely not going to make their mission any easier.

"Look, we've all had some long and strange travels, I think everybody will feel better after some rest," Hope started, trying to smooth things out.

She glanced up in the direction their surly traveling companion should be, and she hoped that he couldn't hear what she was going to say next, "Jones and I are searching for… something, in this reality. I can't say much, but it's… like Pandora's Box. That's as much as I can tell you, at least for now. Because I don't think Jones and I are the only ones looking for it."

The information had the effect she was looking for and Ark visibly relaxed, "Thanks, I appreciate it. It's good to know something, anything, at all."

Hope nodded, "I wish I could tell you more, and I will, once I know it's safe to. I know it's hard, but you just have to trust us."

"I do trust you, I trust both of you with my life," Ark replied.

Hope smiled behind her mask, "Thanks, and, I do trust you, too. Just…I've gotta keep this quiet. There's no telling who's listening in and the less people that know about it, the better. For what it's worth, I'm sorry that we had to keep you out of the loop."

Ark gave her a nod, "Thanks…I'm glad I've got something to go on now, which is more than he gave me." Her mood might have improved, but she was still upset and frustrated.

"I'm not sure what's going on with him," Hope said, shaking her head. "I think he got shaken up by his brush with death from Doctor Doom…" She rubbed her arm lightly, Jones hadn't been the only one who had come out worse for wear there.

Ark winced, "Yeah, that was… It wasn't the worst day of my life, but it was up there. I can't tell you how glad I am that both of you came out of that alive." It had looked like both of them were goners, and there had been nothing she could do but watch. She had gotten to Jones far too late to do anything but help him stand and Hope had been beyond anyone's reach to help. Thankfully, Hope had taken care of both of those problems.

A gloomy silence descended upon them and Hope decided to change the topic for a distraction. It was a little risky, but she was curious and with all the bad moods going around, at this point, it couldn't really hurt.

"So, is Jones the reason why you didn't go back home to your world?"

Ark blushed at the question, her face turning red and her blue circuits flickered purple for just an instant, before she got defensive, "No!"

Hope raised an eyebrow, silently pressing Ark with a grin hidden behind her mask.

"Okay, fine. But he wasn't the only reason. Or even the main reason."

Hope laughed in return, "Sure, I believe you." She was teasing, as she knew that Ark wasn't the type to give everything up for a guy. But, she had never heard why Ark had stayed, and since she had also left her home, they now had that in common.

Ark shook her head, "No, I mean it. Back where I came from…" She fumbled for her words, "I've been in the User for nearly four cycles - I mean years - and I'm still getting used to some of the terminology. Here, there's day and night, light and dark, back on the Grid, there was just dark. And sometimes rain. A lot of times rain. There was no sun, no plants, and little color."

She gestured to her outfit, a black skintight suit with blue circuit patterns on it, "Everything was styled like this, black or white or sometimes gray, with some lines of color providing light."

Ark looked down, "How could I go back to the dark, knowing that I'd never see the bright sun or grass or trees or so many different colors ever again?"

She let that sit for a moment before continuing, "Not only that, but, early on, the Grid was taken over by a cruel dictator. He killed an entire race of people and rectified and enslaved and killed countless others. You saw my scars when you helped me with the dress for the party a cycle - year - ago, that's what I got for standing up to him. That, and getting rectified. I was one of the lucky ones, if it wasn't for Tron and his contacts, I still would be the Occupation's puppet."

Ark looked to Hope, "I kept fighting, though. I helped who I could, but…aside from what I could do for individuals, I couldn't make any big, meaningful change. The only reason things changed at all was because a User happened to show up and fix things. Everything I did, everything I sacrificed, was absolutely meaningless in the grand scheme of things."

She shrugged, "So, yeah, when a nice guy shows up and smiles and says that I can help, I'm gonna go with him. But, when I discovered the sun and grass, that's when I decided to stay. Spending time with him was a bonus…or at least, it was. I don't know if it is any more, since he decided he can't trust me any longer. If we can't get along any more, then maybe sometime I need to pick a different reality to live in and us go our separate ways." Ark wasn't quite ready to give up just yet, but it was something she was keeping in mind. Always have a backup plan and an emergency option.

That was a lot for Hope to take in and so much of it was entirely new for her. Some things she was able to figure out through context, but others were beyond her reach. She understood the important things, though.

"Wow. That's…I'm sorry. I don't blame you for leaving with all of that. And, I'm sorry that Jones is being surly about everything. I think everything will be better after a good night's sleep." At least, she hoped so.

Ark gave her a small smile, "Thanks, yeah, you're right." She yawned and stretched a little, "I guess I better get on that. Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Ark left and headed to her room. Once Hope was sure that she was gone, she went up to talk to Jones.

"Hey, maybe you should lighten up a little, Ark's feeling left out. I know we can't tell her anything, but we don't have to be mean about it." Hope tried to soften things by including herself in the 'we', but she meant him, and he knew it.

Jones scowled, but that wasn't much different from his usual expression lately, "This is how it has to be. She can't know anything or that puts the mission and all of us in danger."

Hope sighed, "I hope you're right. If you're not, there's gonna be consequences, you know that, right?"

Jones nodded, "Yeah, I know."

Hope shook her head, "All right. Goodnight."

"Goodnight." After Hope left, Jones turned his attention out across the town. He spent a moment taking in the night air, then took the well-loved photo of his long-gone family out of one of the interior pockets of his jacket. As he looked at it, he said quietly to no one at all, "I'm always aware of what the consequences are."

[bdoubleowo]

...sitting still in minecraft to get mmd background is so smart i was over here teaching myself to export chunks through mininator to blender to pmd fighting for my life getting textures to look right. god.

so, it really depends what you want from your background. if you don't care about like. the small animations like candles and torches then you can literally just take a screenshot. or you can sit and record for the background. but that severely limits your camera options. you cannot move the camera, and you need to make sure that the mmd camera matches the minecraft one's angle or it'll look weird.

i used this strategy for one of my first minecraft mmds (and actually probably my first public mmd akjshdsda) but actually instead of importing it directly into mmd as a background .avi i chromakeyed out the background, as i did with my most recent one. the first time was because of hijinks where i didn't save the motion edits after exporting, but then decided to change the background. and i didn't want to redo them.

this time was because i couldn't figure out how to use a background image with raymmd.

however, using an image does have the benefits of "i don't actually have access to this world right now but i do have a screenshot from a youtube video!" which i did here.

I use mineways to export portions of minecraft worlds to blender, but i've only used it like twice. it was. a bit of an ordeal because the materials weren't linked to the textures properly so i just. ported the mmd model and motion to blender. and rendered it there. you can see the results of that here, but it's not grreat. because i didn't know blender as well as i knew mmd. which honestly wasn't even that much at the time.

the second time i tried to use mineways i bit the bullet and figured out what the issue was. i had to go through each block and fix the texture paths. one by one. it had the issue of the textures being blurry but i think it was very much worth it. fancy camera movements really added to the fun, and by this point i'd learnt raymmd well enough to get some decent looking shading

now the reason i chose to go with the stationary camera method this time was partially i don't wanna fix all the textures again,,,,, but also the fact that it was a fully enclosed space. i wasn't certain how well mmd would respond to that, and it seemed like it was more effort than it was worth to try and fight the lighting. and i wanted to emulate lizzie's lighting as closely as possible, so i figured that'd be easiest in minecraft itself. even if the amethysts are considered?? emissive in my game but not hers?? so they're WAY brighter in my shader. i don't know. how to fix it without turning out all emissive light. which she CLEARLY has on with the lava and lanterns. so. rip me ig.

sorry this is kind of rambly haha. i just have many thoughts on the matter

[into-the-clintoris]

Hi can you tell me about your DVD collection?

@moreclaypigeons

IF YOU ARE READING THIS I HAVE FINALLY MADE A DRAFT I DISNT ACCIDENTALLY NUKE BY ADDING A POLL BECAUSE IT LOOKS LIKE BULLET POINTS AND NOT BEING ABLE TO DELETE IT

Anyways here it is, my pride and joy.

First up all my regular dvds. By the way, I am using the words DVD and Blu Ray interchangeably. I say dvds, I mean discs with movies on them, including Blu Rays.

These are all the movies I just wanted to have a physical copy of for one reason for another. 90% of these are thrifted, some I've seen, some I want to see because ive heard of them and know theyre good (see: The Normal Heart, O Brother Where Art Thou), and some I want to see because it looked interesting on thr shelf at the store (see: Much Ado, starring Keanu Reeves and Denzel Washington???? How have I never heard of this????).

Many of these I collect because they're important to me in one way or another (see: The Iron Giant, HTTYD).

Now here's all my pretty DVDs. Again, 90% thrifted.

Here's the highlights:

Scrubs season 1 has a plastic sheet that looks like an x ray and is removable. The inside is made to look like a doctor's clipboard and has a rubber chicken.

Walk the Line was thrifted and still had all of the inserts, including in character photos of Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon.

That Reservoir Dogs dvd is one of a set - each character had their own release. Still has the pamphlet, and inside is a quote from QT about the character.

Yes, 2 copies of The Matrix. The original DVD and the ugliest steel book I've ever seen, next to all the Marvel movies, but it was a gift.

Angels in America is just a damn high quality case. It has a magnetic closure.

Planet Earth box set has a gorgeous inside. Each DVD is about a different place, and so pays tribute to that subject.

That Band of Brothers set is METAL. Like a steel book.

Saving Private Ryan is the 60th anniversary of D Day special edition, its pretty cool.

The Silence of the Lambs criterion collection, not thrifted per se, got it from Amoeba Records. The booklet inside had BTS stuff and high quality stills. It's gorgeous. The whole thing is very Hannibal (TV) - esque.

Narnia is my favorite DVD. Hands down. The inside looks like the wardrobe, and when you remove the plastic dvd case from the cardboard sleeve, it reveals a picture of the lamppost and Lucy. It encompasses so concisely why I collect these things. Someone loved this movie a lot, and designed the case with their entire soul. You don't see that much any more. See: Disney """"""platinum editions"""""" that are just the same damn dvds but the sleeve is shiny.

This brings me to another section I'm super proud of:

I thrifted all of these. They all came from different stores. Fellowship is a little banged up, but I dont mind. Yall the insides of these are INSANE. I'm talking art, maps, the whole nine. And they do have a leathery texture. This set is in my top 3, probably tying SOTL for 2nd place after Narnia.

I love these things with my whole heart. They're so creative and beautiful and unique, and hunting for them at the thrift makes me feel like I've uncovered treasure.

I didn't try to get inside of these because it would be so complicated to try and get pictures of all of them and everything in them, but if there's something specific you want to crack into, let me know! Send an ask! I'd love to show these bitches off, they're literally the coolest things I own and I have barely anyone to talk to about them ✌

[raspberryconverse]

Tonight's edition of "Is this what marriage is?" Perhaps Wisconsin's Tattletale Notice isn't such a bad thing.

As I've mentioned a few times on here, our range's oven does not work. Does it heat and cook food? Technically, yes. Accurately or for longer than 15 minutes? No.

The internet said that the best time to buy new appliances is the beginning of the year. I saw one that I liked the first week of the year and we noticed the tag said the price was good though 1/4, so we decided we'd see what the next sale would bring it to. Well, that was a dumb move because it went up in price $100 and has yet to come back down to that price.

We finally started seeing prices drop on some models and found a similar one that's reasonable and a few others we hadn't seen because we had only been looking at Home Depot (my dad gave us a $300 gift card for Christmas/my birthday). Basically the only feature I really want is a lower storage drawer because our kitchen is tiny and we just don't have space for baking pans if we lose that drawer. My spouse doesn't want anything with a white cooktop because it shows all the dirt. We had it narrowed down to 2 models, but both Best Buy and Home Depot have new ads starting tomorrow (well, technically today). The Best Buy one is about $100 cheaper, but obviously we have $300 to spend at Home Depot (not that we wouldn't be able to use it for other things) and that makes us want to lean that way.

Since we knew the ad was changing, we decided to talk about it and make a decision. I currently owe my spouse about $800 for Lola's toe, so I suggested we pick one and I pay for it all with my PayPal credit account. If we pay it off in 6 months, we don't pay any financing. We were about to pull the trigger when apparently my spouse didn't gather that I already had that account.

NGL, I fell hook, line and sinker for the promotional offer of saving $50 when my watch broke and I wanted to buy a new one on eBay (I had a Fossil Q Venture Gen3 smartwatch and the newer models don't use the same size bands and I honestly didn't want to get one that wasn't going to fit the bands I already had, so I bought a Gen4). And I've been using it for awhile on frivolous things like new tile sets for my Letterfolk Tile Mats and that time I got sucked into the sex toy sponsorship Jordan and McKay did recently. I've actually done surprisingly well for me with a new credit account by not using up the whole thing like I'm always tempted to do.

But apparently my spouse is really pissed that I opened the account without telling them. And that completely shut down the new range conversation and I'm back to whatever can fit in the air fryer and the tech support "did you try turning off and turning it back on again" method for anything that requires more than 15 minutes to cook in the oven. The cooktop works fine (at least 2 of the burners work, which is enough for anything I cook), so that's good. Spouse also bought a toaster oven (the box says "countertop convection oven" and IDK if that's different from a toaster oven or not) for $15 at a thrift store a few weeks ago, but we have yet to test it out. But I'm kinda starting to feel like we're never going to buy a new range at this rate because I can no longer be trusted and don't deserve a new one.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying my spouse has no right to be mad about the account. If anything, I'm more mad that they gave me this whole "IDC what you buy. You don't have to have my permission to buy things and you don't have to sneak things in" spiel ages ago, but never gave me the caveat of "it has to be purchased with cash." I guess I'm less concerned about our credit now that we got the house, but I'm also realizing we've had to finance a ton of shit and we haven't even been here a year yet. And Lola is old and Meeah is ancient and Mable got bit by ticks before we adopted her, so they're all really fucking expensive. We just have very different philosophies when it comes to finances and it's really starting to come out now with owning an old house.

So maybe it would have been better if we were still in Wisconsin and they would have gotten a notice saying I opened the account. IDK. Is this what marriage is?

[fishing-croagunk]

Game Clearing 2024: A Retrospective

You know the drill by now, it's time to go over all those games I played and beat this year.

More detail about my experiences with each game under the cut.

her tears were my light - Jan 8 - Jan 8

Starting off with a game I planned to play last year, but just didn't for some reason. Back in 2022, I played BAD END THEATER by NomNomNami, and I really liked and alluded to trying out some of her other games. As of writing, this is the only other one to be released on Steam so far (though a lot more are available on itch). And, I also really liked it. It's a nice little game, and I would recommend checking it out. Of course, I am purposefully being light on details since I want you go in as blind as possible.

New Zealand Story: Revolution - Jan 11 - Jan 12

When I originally purchased this, I was wondering how much it was changed. It seems like not too much, as it seems almost all of the levels retained their layout from the arcade original. They even have the Heaven levels, which I was pretty surprised about, since this game has infinite continues and a level select. Since it's on the DS, they added in a lot of minigames that use the Touch Screen. Things like Spot the Difference, launching Tiki upwards, and a balancing act. These mini games are fine, but there's one issue with them. Sometimes, winning them will warp you to another level. This means if you want to save the Kiwi, you sometimes need to intentionally lose these minigames to progress in the level, which is a bit counterintuitive. There is a reason to do this, as saving every Kiwi in every level unlocks Expert Mode, where Tiki turns magenta and more enemies spawn. I would not say the Expert Mode much harder than the regular stages, except for a couple chokepoints caused by the increased enemies. I would definitely recommend this version, if you can look past the touch controls.

Tetris Plus - Jan 14 - Jan 18

An arcade game that made its way to home consoles (and the Game Boy), I quite liked it. The meat and potatoes of this game is the Puzzle Mode, where you guide the Professor through a board and to the goal. The professor can climb and fall off of blocks, so in some stages it's easier to have him climb rather clear lines. These strategies really only work if you get the right pieces, and the game's piece rotation means that you may be waiting a while for the only piece that can clear a line for you while hoping the ceiling doesn't come crashing down first. One minor complaint is that since the first few worlds can be played in any order, they all start super easy. Despite being based on an Arcade game, the offers infinite tries, and you can even save your progress. Other than a versus mode and classic Tetris, there's also an edit mode where you can create your own levels, which I think is really neat. I'd say the Puzzle Mode is worth checking out. Also, outside of an arcade-only sequel, the Professor and the Assistant haven't appeared in any other Tetris games which is a bit of a shame as these two are the closest thing Tetris has to mascots (unless you count the SS Tetra crew)…

Cult of the Lamb - Jan 19 - Jan 21

It was pretty fun returning to this game again. Overall, I would say that I like a lot of things added, like the outfits and the drinking. Part of me did wish had more to do on the crusade-side, other than completing Purgatory lines. I did not unlock everything that was added, and that was largely due to me knowing I have a lot of new games to check out. Still, if they are continuing to add content to the game, I'm still gonna come back every while to check it out!

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe - Feb 10 - Feb 22

Ah yes, the New Soup series. I really like it, and had a lot of fun revisiting Mario U and Luigi U. Honestly, I would have done that even if I don't log my game clearing. I did like playing as Toadette (who I main in a lot of the spinoff titles), even if does trivialize some levels. I also decided to check out the side content, since I literally have no memory of ever playing it. Boost Rush is a perfectly fine mode, and I'd imagine it'd be more fun with friends. The challenges however, are awful. A lot of them take stages from the Story Mode, and add a twist. There's the ones where you run through a course as fast as possible, but most of them don't feel like they were designed with speed in mind. Stringing one-ups off of one series of bounces, collecting coins or avoiding them. Many of them were a pain to just complete, I can not imagine going for a Silver or Gold Medal on all of them! With all that said, since this makes up a very, very small portion of the game (and one I'd recommend skipping completely), I would say I really enjoyed playing New Soup again.

ALIEN XENOBLASTER - Feb 22 - Feb 24

Definitely one of my favorites so far. If I had to describe this game, I would say it's like Donkey Kong, but you have a gun. And you are not Mario, you're trying to stop everyone from reaching Pauline. The enemies come out in waves, and your gun has limited ammo, so make sure you have time to restock before a Goob reaches your cardboard cutout. It's pretty addicting, and I liked the little cutscenes before each boss battle. Oh, and you can play as Peppino and Annalynn, alongside other guest characters. I'm a bit sad more people aren't talking about it, so I'd definitely recommend this one, no notes. Also, this game may be receiving updates in the future, so I might talk about this game again.

Pokemon: Kanto Expansion Pak - Feb 25 - Mar 1

Ah yes, a romhack I was looking forward to ever since it was announced. You might think this would just add in some new mons and call it a day, but no! This hack has new areas, new trainers, and new music, just to name a few. I'm intentionally being vague again since I want more people to go into this blind, but I would definitely recommend it.

Ufouria: The Saga 2 - Mar 9 - Mar 12

I was very excited when this was announced, as I personally consider the NES original to be one of my favorites for the system. And really enjoyed the sequel! It has just as much charm as the original, and the art style is wonderful. I did not care for the achievement that required you to grind coins, but that's completely optional anyway.

Pizza Tower - Mar 13 - Mar 25

It's time to bring the Noise. I was very happy when this came out, mainly because it gave me an excuse to play Pizza Tower again. The Noise's moveset is pretty different from Peppino's, but once you get acquainted with it, it's downright fun. I don't know if there's going to be any more updates to this game or if they're moving onto a new project, but either way I can't wait to see what these devs make next!

Donut Dodo - Mar 29 - Mar 29

Oh boy another arcade-style game! But for whatever reason, the game just never clicked with me. The gameplay's alright, the music and art is good, but I just thought it was okay. To the point where after beating the game once, I felt like moving on. I'd definitely say to try it out, maybe you'll like it more than I did.

Pokemon Silver '97 Reforged - Apr 11 - Apr 17

I really love the unused and beta content in games. And one good example of this is the Spaceworld Demos of Gold and Silver, which were wildly different from the versions we all know today. So naturally a romhack exists that takes these early concepts and turns them into a full fleded game. And this romhack does a great job at that! It's honestly great just going through the early version of the region and seeing / using early designs of mons, as well as mons that never got to exist. Honestly, if this was the game I got to play all those years ago as Gold and Silver, I probably would have loved Gen 2 as much as I do now!

Dangeresque: The Roomisode Triungulate - Apr 17 - Apr 17 & May 27 - May 27 & Jun 27 - Jun 27

I love Homestar Runner. One of my earliest memories online was watching toons on the site, back when Flash was all the rage. And while I never got the chance to play the Telltale Homestar games, I liked checking out this little point-and-click adventure. It's a bit short, but it also has plenty of jokes in it, and a lot of that brand humor I've come to love to the Brothers Chaps. I'd honestly say to play this even if you don't know Homestar Runner. Additionally, the game got two major updates, one Roomisode with Dangeresque Too and the ability to finally play Rig Rug!

Mario Vs. Donkey Kong - Apr 25 - Apr 26

For someone who played the GBA original last year, I was hesitant to play through it again. But then I saw that they added more levels and made some improvements (like removing the score system). The original levels played just as good as they did on GBA, although that might be because I sort of remember what I needed to do. The Plus levels didn't feel nearly as painful for similar reasons. I really liked the two new worlds added, they really fit the feel of the other levels. Plus, I also got to try the Expert levels, which were not as bad as I'd thought they be. I honestly hope they'll make a sequel to this that focuses on the puzzle platforming and not become Lemmings for some reason.

Gimmick! Special Edition - May 1 - May 1

I've played a few of Sunsoft's older titles, but Gimmick is one I've never got around to, until I saw it on Steam. While it is just an NES game, the ability to use save states and rewinds is a nice feature. I would definitely say to pick it up or to play it if you can.

Wario Land 4 - May 4 - May 5

After not playing any of the Wario Land games, I decided to finally rectify that by playing this. And I really liked it! The movement, the transformations, the exploration, it's all so great! I also found the escape sequences to be fun as well. I can definitely see myself playing through this one multiple times!

Gauntlet Dark Legacy - May 7 - Jun 5

This one's a bit of an interesting inclusion. So I actually host Parsec sessions my buddy Nyte (aka Spycrab). And up to that point we've only done Mario Party, but then he encourages me to check out this arcady action adventure RPG, and it was amazing. We ended up playing through with two other friends during our adventure, and it definitely added to the experience. There's so many classes to choose from, so many places to explore, and plenty of stuff to do as you gain exp and gold. Even if you can't find anyone else to play with you, I'd still recommend it.

Grapple Dog - May 8 - May 10

Momentum is what makes or breaks a good platformer. And what would be better for momentum than swinging around on a grappling hook! That's the core mechanic of this game, and not only is it fun to swing around, but the levels are designed to take what you know about Pablo and his grappling hook and take it into directions that makes each world feel great, but one gimmick never overstays it welcome. If you're a big fan of platformers, go pick this up now. And apparently they're working on a sequel, so this definitely won't be the last time you hear about Pablo.

Pokemon White - May 19 - Jun 15

As you can probably tell, I am a huge fan of Pokemon, but for some reason never played Gen V. And I can safely say kid me was missing out. I like the world of Unova, I like the story and the characters, the gameplay is great. There's a reason why many people say Gen V is the peak of Pokemon, and I agree with them.

Mr. Driller DrillLand - May 27 - May 29

Mr. Driller is a series I know vaguely about, so I was definitely curious when they re-released a Japan-only GameCube title to Steam, though this time everyone gets to play it. While I do suck at this game, I quite like how each of the attractions puts their own spin on the formula. Maybe I'll play another game in the series, maybe Namco Bandai will release another game if this sells well. Either way, this game's quite good.

VIVIDLOPE - Jun 25 - Jul 1 & Nov 29 - Nov 30

Of all of the games I've played this year this is definitely a unique one. The game is itself is a like a mix between Q*Bert and Vib-Ripple, for the people out there that have played the latter. I really enjoyed the game, although I did have to switch to a lower difficulty for some of the later levels. I am quite glad that switching to Easy mode and using items has no real penalty other than rankings. While I don't see myself getting all V-Ranks, I might try to get all S-Ranks someday. Additionally, there's a couple extra modes that are also great. Later I came back to play the new update, tying into the Swtich port. Adding in Miss Noir as playable character, and a ton of QoL changes. There's also the X levels, which are scrapped levels, which are probably the hardest levels in game, although the reward you get for beating all of them is really cool. It's a shame more people aren't talking about this one, so it's a strong recommend for me.

Pokemon Emerald Rogue - Jul 2 - Jul 5

It's rare for me to revisit a romhack, but Emerald Rogue received a major update that makes the previous version look barebones by comparison. A re-done hometown, more places to explore, and we're up to Gen 9 now. There's also plenty of ways to customize your adventure, beyond just difficulty settings. If you like Pokemon or Rougelikes, I can't recommend this hack enough.

The Simpsons Game - Jul 7 - Jul 14

Out of the dozens of Simpsons video games out there, there's usually three (four if you count the arcade game) that are generally considered to great: Road Rage, Hit & Run, and The Simpsons Game. And finally getting to play it for myself, I can definitely see why. The writing and humor is spot-on, with plenty of moments that'll get at least a chuckle outta you. The gamelay is alright, you get to play as all of the Simpsons family, and they each have unique abilities that spice up the platforming and puzzle-solving. Generally I'd say to check this out if you're a fan of the show. Also, I played the PS2 version, thinking that the removal of the hub area being the only major change, only to learn that a lot more was changed between generations, including mechanics and entire sections of levels altered or removed altogether. That being said, I do think both versions are good, though I might have to check out the newer gen version at a later date.

Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore - Aug 8 - Aug 8

The CD-i games are legendary, and while I've heard the gameplay is actually decent, most people remember them for the cutscenes. Arzette is a very solid spiritual successor to those games, improving and expanding on the gameplay of Wand of Gamelon and Faces of Evil. There's also a bit of Hotel Mario sprinkled in there for good measure. However, I do think this game definitely stands by itself, with its plot, characters, and music. Honestly, even if you have no experience with the CD-i games, I'd still strongly recommend it!

Wario Land: Shake It! - Aug 24 - Aug 31

I remember wanting to play this one back during the lifespan of the Wii, and finally getting to play it now, it's a very solid game. I think it plays with the formula well, and the motion controls do not take away from the experience! I really liked the secret levels, and the bosses. I did not feel compelled to do the missions, but I did enjoy the little puzzles involved with getting the treasures. Honestly, I think you'll have a good time even if you don't care about completion, largely due to fun levels and wonderful art style.

Demon Turf - Sep 7 - Oct 7

I've played quite a couple of 3D platformers, but I really like how this game takes that formula. Beebz' kit is very fun to use, and the platforming will let truly understand just how wild your moveset is. While I don't care for side content, I do think some of things on offer are neat, even if I don't care to complete it. The game's humor is also excellent, it's worth stopping to chat to the locals of the levels, they've usually got something neat to say. If you like 3D Platformers, I would certainly recommend trying this one out.

Monster Party - Oct 8 - Oct 8

With the Halloween season upon us, it felt appropriate to finally tackle this cult classic. I've seen a few Let's Plays of it way back when, but never played it myself. The levels themselves are fine (outside of the damn labyrinth), but that's not why you play this, you play for it the bosses. Highlights for me have to be the Already-Dead Spider, the Dancing Zombies, the Evil Cat, and the Fried Foods. I would say the game gets easier and harder in the later levels. Easier, since the game starts giving out pills like candy (cause even the devs know trying beat bosses with Mark is a pain in the ass). Harder, because they get really stingy with health pickups, and Bert's laser goes from a quick shot that shoots straight, to a slow wave shot that can whiff very easily. Despite all of that, I would still recommend playing this game, as it's a short adventure, especially if you use save states.

Papa's Freezeria Deluxe - Oct 10 - Oct 14

I have never played any of the Papa Louie games. While I'm sure plenty of people have memories of playing the games on websites in computer labs, I never did that back when was in school (mainly because we played Melee during lunch period and had Quake 3 Arena on every school computer). However, when I saw that one of the games was heading to PC, I knew I had to pick it up. The formula is pretty simple, but man is it fun and addictive. This game is also very casual, as messing up an order only results in a lower score and tip. I'd say to try out any game in this series, as they recently released a new entry where you make ice pops. It's only on mobile though, which is a bit of a shame, as I'd love to see more of their library get ported to PC (like those platformer games that are no longer playable).

Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure - Oct 15 - Oct 16

I've always wanted to check out Boogerman, after playing as him in Clayfighter. And, seeing as I have played the Earthworm Jim games, it was about time to get messy. And boy, is this game kinda rough. Power-ups are usually scarce, but getting hit once loses them, and you start at two, but can get up to three. As his name would suggest, the boogers are your go-to weapon, a quick projectile that gets better with milk. The gas is very situational, either needing to be charged, or so close ranged you're gonna get hit using it. The only time I use it is with a pepper, to fly over enemies. There's also bonus routes, but they're more likely to get you killed than reward you. The mountains are probably the worst levels, as you are pelted with rocks most of the way, and one missed jump can mean losing a lot of progress. Also, no continues and you get a password when you game over, but if you'll probably be on an emulator with save states anyways. I would only recommend this people who think they have the stomach, and I ain't taking about the gross visuals.

Backyard Baseball 2005 - Oct 23 - Oct 25

I have a lot of nostalgia for the Backyard Sports series, my brother and I played them since the first game. Although in my case I watched him play most of the time, as I was too young to use a computer. We even still have all of the CD-Roms, though we stopped buying them when Humongous was no longer the developers. With Backyard Sports apparently coming back, I was hankering to play one of them again. I have the most nostalgia for the 3D games, Baseball 2005 especially. I had never unlocked everything in one of these games nor finish a season, so I was determined to do both. And it was just as fun as I remembered! While there was a bit of jank sometimes, I was also playing this on Windows 10, on a disc I can best describe as "well-loved", via a USB disc drive. I would honestly recommend trying any of the Backyard Sports titles, especially with some of them coming to Steam. Will I be playing through any of them here? Perhaps.

Super Mario RPG - Oct 28 - Nov 3

Here's a game I've heard get universally praised, but I've never played. Actually, I have played the SNES original before, but that was back when ZNES was the go-to emulator, and I don't think I got far. Finally getting to play it now, it might be my favorite game I've played this year. The mechanics really clicked with me, I enjoyed the story, and the game is beautiful. While I have very little experience with the original, I do think most if not all of the changes and additions add to game's overall experience. Regardless if you've played the SNES version, if you've got a Switch, I can't recommend this one enough! A Super Mario RPG remake was seen as a pipe dream for some time, and this game is certainly a dream come true!

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga - Nov 6 - Nov 11

I've never actually played any Mario & Luigi title. So with this coming to NSO, and Brothership coming out to unanimous praise, I knew I had to finally play one of these. And yeah, I can see how this game created its own series. Funny writing, dope mechanics, and a fun world to explore. The minigames were fine, though I never wanted to play any of them more than once. Definitely worth checking this one out (or its remake). Now, will I play Brothership, and any of the games in between? Definitely, and probably.

Sonic Frontiers - Nov 12 - Nov 19

I haven't played that many Sonic games, but I heard good things about it, so picked it up. While I usually don't care for open-world games, I liked it here, even if I have no desire to fully complete it. I enjoyed the various puzzles and levels, and the boss fights were cool, although it got kinda annoying when I was running to get some place, only to have stop because I've entered a boss's arena. Story was also pretty good, though I don't want to spoil anything here. And before you ask, I have also played the Final Horizon, thought it was really cool, and it somehow ended the game on an even higher note for me.

Mendel Palace - Nov 26 - Nov 26

It's sometimes hard to remember that Game Freak makes games outside of Pokemon. Many of them are still held in high regard, such as this one, which is their first one. The game is simple, but challenging: flip tiles and slam the enemies into the walls. Learn what the various enemies do and capitalize on the various tile types. You also get infinite continues, so you don't have to worry about losing progress when you game over. There's roughly a hundred levels to play through, so it'll probably take you an afternoon to beat it. One interesting thing is the Extra Mode, which removes the map menu, but gives you 100 new levels to play, all of them much, harder than the base game! Do you unlock it by beating the game? No. You gotta hold START and SELECT as the game boots up. No idea how anyone was supposed to know that, but I would certainly recommend trying this mode. Additionally, there's also a whole manga about the characters in the game, which apparently ran for a few years, and to my knowledge has not been translated. If I had a nickel for every time a video game got a comic about it afterwards, I'd have two nickels. Either way, a strong recommend from me, especially if you like NES titles.

And here is the year end tierlist. Since I don't really play "bad games", the C and D tiers are a bit misleading. Nothing I've played would receive less than a 5 / 10.

[fafnirvt]

i loved this one! i wasn't a big fan of part 2 either, but part 3 was a massive improvement and kept me interested and laughing most of the way through. even when you got a little off-topic, it still felt related most of the time so i had a lot of fun watching it!

twitter users are totally wrong about your videos "ruining video essay culture". you're one of my inspos, and it's really dumb that just because they personally don't like your video they think it's bad in the grand scheme of things or whatever. :/

i think your plot recaps are perfect in their length and you spend plenty of time discussing your thoughts on each episode and how they relate to the nsu. not everyone has watched sam and cat, and you do a great job catering to that fact. honestly, it's something i wish i was better at.

however, if you want some constructive criticism i do agree with twitter a little bit on some things. at least based on your post, i haven't seen twitter's responses with my own eyes. (if you don't want the critique/you're not in a good headspace for it, feel free to just ignore the read more on this post and focus on what i said above! because again, despite my problems with it i do REALLY love this video! it's still a fun watch overall to me!)

while the icarly project always had long videos, they made sense in the past because each video covered like half of a multi-season show. part 1 of sam and cat made sense for the same reason, but i feel like the reason why parts 2 & 3 feel so unnecessary in their length to people is because you're just not covering that many episodes.

it's easy for a 6.5 hour video to feel like it's filled with excess padding when the main focus of it was implied to be sam & cat, you covered around 5 episodes, and you still didn't finish discussing the show. and you admitting to that at the end (from what i remember, i honestly haven't seen it in a minute) personally left a bad taste in my mouth. like you knew it was a problem but felt more interested in stretching it out into a third video instead of editing what you had to make sense for a singular second video. i think that's the main reason why people are saying your videos are too long. i don't think that was your intention when you said that, but to me it's easy to see how people interpreted it that way.

honestly, i feel like that video would have been received way better if it wasn't titled "the decay of sam & cat" and was just named after what you spent the majority of the time on: the things you forgot to mention in previous videos.

i feel like some segments could have been shorter in this most recent video, but i at least felt like the stuff that could have been cut was left there out of a genuine passion for what you're talking about instead of a wish to make the video as long as possible.

i also think it was very smart and kind of you to save the segment on jennette's autobiography for the end. it kept the video tonally consistent and also showed her a lot of respect.

i do hope you reach 1 mil, i'd love to see you do a video on drake and josh! adding this one to my 8156454 rewatch rotation playlist!

Hey tumblr

Well, as per usual, "X's" response to my latest video has been a bunch of viral tweets about how I'm ruining "video essay culture" (whatever the fuck that is) by making content that's too long or something. The people of X seem to think that I only do plot recaps, and also that too much of my videos are intermission analysis segments.

How are you guys liking the new video? I know Sam & Cat part 2 was controversial even here. I'm hoping part 3 has gone over a little better. I spent about a year on it, and I've been eagerly anticipating the ability to move on.

[nitrosodiumfmp]

TOWERTEST002

(There was a TOWERTEST001, but I didn't save the results, and it only had one participant, so the point of study is TOWERTEST002.)

Subject A - Owen

Subject B - hadyn

Subject C - Tobias Harvey/TruthReviews117

-

Subject A went through the tutorial in the linear path it was built around, though at the dock, he missed the note giving the game's premise, and then fell into the water, forcing him to restart. He lamented that he did not know the game's premise as a result of this.

In Subject B's playthrough, I moved the dock note to a crate right beside the gangplank, so it would be hard to miss. Subject B went through the tutorial in the usual way, reading all notes, and heading into the next level once he was done. While slightly misinterpreting the game's story via the notes, I was glad to see that the basics of it were being conveyed.

Subject C, as usual, spent a long time taking in the scenery, reading notes and even backtracking, though there was naught to miss. Once again, he found both notes, and progressed to the next level. Interestingly, he seemed to believe that he was playing a heavily edited Dock map, instead of an entirely new level.

-

The results of the Google Form are below.

Results are highly conclusive. After making the main lore note more visible, people have picked up on the basic story; that you are in the underworld, Nharro's domain, and you have to explore. The tutorial is also showing people the basics - I chose not to include enemies, as it is more of a surprise to the player when they do show up. Of people's suggestions: one person did request an enemy demonstration, but I have kept it out for the above reasons; one person suggested removing the lock from the door once you have the key, but I don't plan on doing this as it is a symbol on the door itself, and also a good landmark when the maps get more complex; and someone also suggested seeing more of the game, so I will pull back the curtain a little in Level 2.

I also got the chance to see the types of tutorials people like to see in games; primarily, learning things in the natural course of the game, having a list of controls, and an in-game tutorial. Obviously, a big control list is simple but conveys information well, and an in-game tutorial (what I have gone with for the most part) works well in a more immersive game. Naturally learning things is also something I want to implement, as people obviously like it.

Somewhat unintentionally, I have been following the narrative structure of Thief: The Dark Project. In that game, you first have a tutorial which teaches you the basics from a canon perspective, and then your first real level is Lord Bafford's Manor, a small map that lets you use what you've learned from the tutorial. In the context of Sinister, this would be the Dock level. From thereon in Thief, the player goes to Cragscleft Prison, which is a much larger map that tests the player in new ways. Cragscleft adds cameras and alarms, moss arrows and loud metal grating, the undead and holy water, ghosts, Hammerite mages; not completely changing the formula, but instead adding to it.

I want to do this with my next map for Sinister. By this point, the player can move around, solve puzzles, and evade enemies. I already spoke about my idea for stealthy Assassin enemies and traps, connecting to an overarching storyline concerning why Nharro is in a coma, and while I'm not sure how much of that I will add, I plan to implement some of it. The obvious choice, again, will be to make a Google form to see people's favorite parts of the game and exacerbate them, while leaving out what people enjoy less.

[gamesofcrimson]

Last devlog for the Isekai Jam

I'm a little late getting this out

The game is out. I would not call it finished in the slightest, but I've heard that it's still good to submit what you did even if it's not the best.

Below I'll quickly go over what I did since last update and how everything went with the impending deadline.

I was in such a hurry to get my game done that I didn't have the chance to post a devlog last week. In the past two weeks making the map took a lot longer than I thought, mainly because of one detail that was slowing down the process and I didn't think to fix what was slowing it down until there wasn't much time left

The day before the submission deadline I noticed the movement acting up a bit and making it harder to move, which unfortunately took about 2 hours to fix, which was time I was supposed to be spending on making the scenes.

Making the scenes took a lot longer than I thought because, unlike renpy, I couldn't really easily skip to a part in the scene. And then the function I made for easily moving a character in a scene wasn't working right and just completely broke when moving the player sprite for some reason, so then I spent a lot of time trying to fix it before having to decide that I just wouldn't use this function I spent a lot of time on because figuring out how to fix it would take too long.

Then I did some damage control and tried to figure out what scenes I could cut out. Even then I didn’t have enough time. I was rushing to try to get some last minute things done, but there was a lot more last minute stuff than I expected. Like making it so you could only use the sword when you pick it up (but I ended up putting the sword in the obstacle list instead of the pick-up list so you can't pick it up) and making it so you could use a potion (which I didn't have time to test and it ended up not working), and trying to make it so you could save but this feature was acting up so I just ended up taking it out again. And it was so late I couldn't test most of these things I added in.

And I was up so late at this point I knew I would end up sleeping past the deadline, so I had to get it done before sleeping.

It was either 4:30 or 5 am that I decided it was "good enough" for my panicked and sleep deprived self and make the executable file for it and packaged the game and uploaded it to itch.io.

And now the game jam is finished.

After waking up and testing out the game more, it's very broken and a number of things don't work like they were supposed to. Which is disappointing, but it is what it is. And I was using this to push myself to learn how to use pygame faster. It was the first time I made a game with it. Since I couldn't edit the game after submitting it because of the voting, I just typed up a guide on the game page on how to avoid the major bugs that would prevent you from playing.

After the voting is over I'll upload an update that'll make it more playable and fix the things that I wasn't able to get to.

Thanks for reading

[rrxnjun]

stress is deff a bitch but i feel like me and stress are the same now so🤡🤡

it's the 20th of august🤭 nooo that's a bit sad that u couldn't add urs but ur still a king for adding three birthdays in there🫡

WELL I HOPE THAT WONT HAPPEN AGAIN!!🤣 whaaattt that's such a long time oh my but the fact that u still had it is jaw dropping tbh

i don't understand why middle aged women have to be so rude sometimes☹️ wait i completely forgot that accents exist oh my god now thats even worse🥲 YEYY U SHOULD ARANGE ONE IN OCTOBER AS WELL COME TO THE 5SOS SHOW WITH ME/j (i'm heartbroken i have no one to go with so i probably can't attend) (i hope this doesn't break ur heart more cuz i saw ur posts about them sorry if it does☹️☹️hope i didn't cross a line with this joke☹️)

NOT TELLING ANYONE🫢 i look up to u for that cuz i'm still pretty much unable to do i suck💔 SO TRUE THE BEST DESCRIPTION I HEARD OF THEM JUST SOME GUYS!! i was so sad when yedam and mashiho left and i understand the soft spot he is such a lovely guy🥹 being a treasure stan is fun and a heartbreak but glad u admit now that ur a teume 🥲😌 ofc ofc we are sharing��‍💫 HE IS SUCH A MENACE AND ITS SO FUNNY tbh he was the reason why i came back to tumblr cuz i wanted to see more content and things about him then i ran into the same problem as u that there are not that many writers in the fandom here tbh (or i just can't find them)💔 (sooo if u end up writing something for jihoon i will be waiting🫣)

IT SHOULDNT BREAK UR HEART IM SORRY IT WAS A CRY IN A POSITIVE WAY!!! i think it just means u portray emotions well (?) cuz every time there is a good sad scene in movies or books i just have to fight the tears back even when i was in a good mood before💔 AND THANK U FOR BEING AN AMAZING WRITER AND JUST BEING LOVELY AND READING MY LONG ASS REPLIES LMAO U ARE JUST TOO NICE OF A PERSON💖💕💝 (liebestraum anon💕)

omg 20th august is such a good bday to have im noting it down!!! 😌😌

IT IS the fic was originally supposed to be a part of collab but the writer deactivated and cancelled it but when i asked if i can keep the idea they were ok with it!! so yeah hopefully one day 💓

LOOK lets go to the concert together 😭😭 im like,, half serious and half joking 😭😭😭 i keep telling my mum about it and like the bus tickets to budapest are only 7€ and then i can find a cheap hotel and shit and i have money saved for the tickets 😭😭😭 like. budapest is objectively the closest stop to me ((even tho im still salty there is no vienna then i would go for sure) and i wanted to visit anyway 😌 but my mum doesnt wanna go w me and my dad doesnt either and i have no friends that would wanna go w me either and i am not allowed to go alone so. theres that 😭😭 i dont think ill get to go tbh im still kinda heartbroken but oh well its not the first time :// if i didnt live in such a shitty ass place this would all be easier 😭

girl i think its a miracle tbh but i got the names down. thanking my hyperfixation tendencies 💓💓💓 when i saw it i was so shocked tbh and now i keep getting sad mashidam edits on my tiktok fp and living through the pain LMAO. GIRL my crush on jihoon is getting out of control like genuinely what the fuck is happening to me- WHY IS TEUMEBLR SO DRY THO WHERE ARE THE FICS ??? i found like 3 fics and the rest are like 2 years old headcanon posts its such a struggle 😭😭 do i really have to do everything myself on this site.... (dont feed my delusions but give it a few months and if i dont fall out of them i can see myself creating a seperate treasure blog.....got a jihoon drabble idea the other day but. i will contain myself. so far he's the new main side character of the mark fic im writing 🥴)

awh you are too sweet 😭😭😭😭 thank u so so much !!!! this means the whole world to me 💓 once again was happy to hear from u, hope youre doing well ily xx