#pixel parlor

[edenoi]

whoa.... an aliem......

based on this meme

[bleu-pale]

Happy April 1st everyone ! This pixel art was made for the Pixel Parlor Palette Collab 2024 (the palette is INKPINK by Inkpendude 💜). I wanted to try to reproduce a more “cartoonish” style with these 4 illustrations ☺️.

[whimsy-sim-sanctuary]

The Sims 4: Businesses & Hobbies Legacy Challenge

Written by Whimsy-Sim-Sanctuary.

Tag me to show your legacy by using #whimsylegacychallenge

"A family empire, built one business at a time."

______________________________________________________________

Generation 1: Legacy (Tattoo Parlor – A New Beginning)

"You grew up in a tattoo shop, but now it’s time to make your own mark."

You spent your childhood in the buzzing atmosphere of Nordhaven’s well-known family-run tattoo studio, watching your parents and relatives bring their clients’ visions to life. But you don’t want to just follow in their footsteps—you want to start your own studio, your own way.

Business: Tattoo Parlor (A brand-new shop, separate from the family’s!)

Skill: Tattooing

Goals:

Start your own tattoo studio from scratch in Nordhaven.

Master the Tattooing skill.

Achieve a 5-star business rating.

Have at least one artistic child who will be inspired by your work

Generation 2: Clay (Pottery Studio)

"Molding dreams into reality."

Your parents’ world was ink and rebellion, but you longed for something quieter. You found peace in pottery and built a business where others could create, unwind, and express themselves through clay.

Business: Pottery Studio

Skill: Pottery

Goals:

Master the Pottery skill.

Offer Pottery Classes.

Raise a child who loves baking and dreams of making people smile with sweets.

Generation 3: Sweet (Candy Shop)

"Happiness comes in all flavors."

Growing up in a pottery studio, you were surrounded by earth tones and clay dust. But you dreamed of bright colors, sugar, and the joy of a perfect pastry. Now, you run a charming candy shop, baking treats that bring happiness to all.

Business: Candy Shop

Skills: Baking & Cooking

Goals:

Master the Baking and Cooking skills.

Sell handmade chocolates, pastries, and confections.

Have a child who prefers animals over people.

Generation 4: Paws (Dog or Cat Café – Co-run with Parent)

"A place for good food and furry friends."

Your childhood smelled like freshly baked cookies, but you always felt more at home with animals than people. Inspired by your parent’s café skills, you start a Dog or Cat Café, combining your love for food and furry friends.

Business: Dog or Cat Café (Co-run with Gen 3 parent if still alive!)

Skill: Pet Training

Goals:

Master the Dog Training skill.

Offer pet-friendly entry at your café.

Have one sibling who grows up working at the café and later finds a different path.

(Requires Cats & Dogs expansion pack.)

Generation 5: Zen (Cozy Nail Salon & Wellness Center – Sibling Venture)

"Balancing beauty, relaxation, and business."

You and your sibling grew up running the café together, but you always believed in self-care and wellness. You open a nail salon with yoga and massages, offering Sims a peaceful retreat next door to the café.

Business: Nail Salon & Wellness Center

Skill: Wellness

Goals:

Master the Wellness skill.

Offer nail care, massages, and yoga.

Be a sibling of Gen 4.

(Requires Spa Day game pack.)

Generation 6: Spin (Laundromat)

"Rolling through life with style."

Your family built businesses centered around creativity and relaxation, but you wanted something practical. You love fixing things and keeping busy, so you open a Laundromat, a place where everyone in the neighborhood comes together.

Business: Laundromat

Skill: Handiness

Goals:

Maintain cleanliness and functionality of machines.

Offer a small coffee bar or reading corner.

Have a child who spends their childhood gaming on a tablet while helping out.

(Requires Laundry Day stuff pack.)

Generation 7: Pixels (Esports Café – Inspired by Their Childhood at the Laundromat & Cafés)

"Gaming isn't just a hobby—it's a way of life."

You grew up in the laundromat, passing time on a tablet playing games while waiting for customers. But you also spent weekends at your grandparents’ cafés, soaking in the vibrant energy. Now, you combine both worlds, opening an Esports Café where gaming meets community.

Business: Esports Café

Skill: Video Gaming

Goals:

Master the Video Gaming skill.

Start working as a teen, later on helping in the laundromat.

'Host' gaming tournaments and events.

Have a child who is deeply inspired by art and self-expression.

Generation 8: Muse (Artist Loft – Inspired by Gen 1 & 2 Ancestors)

"Art is what makes life colorful."

You grew up surrounded by screens and competition, but you were drawn to the hands-on creativity of your ancestors. Inspired by Gen 1’s tattoos and Gen 2’s pottery, you open an Artist Loft, where painters, musicians, and performers thrive.

Business: Artist Loft (Gallery & Performance Space)

Skills: Painting & Violin (or another instrument)

Goals:

Master either Painting or an Instrument.

'Host' Live Performances and Art Exhibits.

Have a child who loves nature and finds peace outdoors.

Generation 9: Bloom (Florist Shop)

"A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms."

Growing up in a chaotic artist loft, you longed for simplicity and nature. You open a Florist Shop, creating stunning arrangements for weddings, funerals, and everything in between.

Business: Florist Shop

Skill: Flower Arranging

Goals:

Master the Flower Arranging skill.

Grow your own flowers for the shop.

Have a child who is driven, energetic, and wants to do something completely different.

(Requires Seasons or Cottage Living expansion pack.)

Generation 10: Strength (Gym – Breaking Away from the Family Empire)

"Sometimes, the best way to honor a legacy is to forge your own path."

Your family built a creative empire, but you never fit in. You were drawn to fitness, discipline, and pushing your limits. Instead of following in their footsteps, you open a Gym, proving that strength comes in many forms.

Business: Gym

Skill: Fitness

Goals:

Master the Fitness skill.

Own a fully-equipped gym and mentor sims.

Achieve a 5-star business rating.

Have no interest in the family’s creative businesses.

[bbygyal123]

Scoop Ice Cream Parlour ♡

so i'm back & betterrrr !! as we all know i took a lil time off but i'm doing okay now and happy to be back !!

part 2 of my rebuilding magnolia promenade is this girly ice cream parlor made with kids in mind, so bring ur baby pixels to get some scoops @ scoop ice cream parlour, enjoy ♡

download info ~ free on patreon

ea id ~ bbygyal123

cc creds : @felixandresims @harrie-cc @pierisim @thecluttercat @awingedllama & more

[rachelsimbuild]

🐰 BUNNY TATTOO & GAME - The Sim 4

🎮🐰 BUNNY TATTOO & GAME – The tattoo shop for pink-loving gamers!

💖🎮 Lot Size: 30x20 – Built for The Sims 4: Get to Work & Hobbies (Latest 2025 Patch) “Why can’t girly, pink-loving folks get tattoos?” “Why do tattoo parlors have to look edgy and dark?” The answer is: They absolutely don’t!

💥 BUNNY TATTOO & GAME is a sweet yet rebellious mashup of a tattoo parlor and a retro game shop, made for Sims who love gaming, pastel colors, and expressing themselves in their own quirky, pixelated way!

🌈 Main aesthetic: A full-on pastel dream! Bright pink walls, neon signs, checkerboard floors in electric blue and purple, and plenty of plush seating shaped like donuts and hearts. Private tattoo stations with adorable curtains, cozy beds, and walls covered in retro anime, quirky line art, and pixel icons.

🕹️ Game zone includes: Vintage-style arcade machines, console displays, and gamer-themed decor. Sell games, geeky gadgets, and quirky collectibles—perfect for your Sim’s gamer biz!

🧁 Tattoo service, but make it gamer-core: Pixel art tattoos, neon cats, Sailor Moon sipping boba, glitchy Pac-Man ghosts, even kawaii robots with attitude. Perfect mix of chaos and cuteness—your Sim will leave with ink that levels them up. 💬 Slogan:

✨ “Gamers have style. And that style? Totally tattooable.” ✨

🌟🌟🌟 Download Here : https://www.patreon.com/posts/bunny-t...

or here : https://ko-fi.com/s/bfe098479b

[lungfishpoem]

IMSCARED analysis two, gender edition?!?!?!?!? (more of a theory/hypothesis/me going insane)

This will touch topics of suicide and transmisoginy. It also has light spoilers for IMSCARED's mobile port.

This is also MY personal opinion on White Face's gender and I wholeheartedly believe it can be interpreted in many many many many! different ways. This post uses she/it pronouns for White Face.

I've been thinking too much about White Face's gender identity and how this is reflected on Her. In my previous analysis, regarding Her, I wrote:

White Face morphs itself into something else, Her, trying to hook You with a story, a beautiful figure, a different personality. Her is an attempt to be stronger, she is stronger, she is bolder (chases You and feels no fear in telling You to kill her). But this act of morphing is agonizing, because the lack of fear creates agony in the fear entity's heart. So it screams. It screams so loudly you can't tell if it's laughing, crying, happy, sad... angry? It's full of anger. Having a body it deems ideal and real (flesh, bleeding. Closer to You) is too much. So she wants to die. And White Face has no word in it, because it created too much, and so it became (almost) completely separated from it.

Which is fine, but I've been thinking more about Her. Specifically, about my own personal theory on White Face's struggle with femininity through Her, the ideal woman in its eyes.

To understand this we must observe a certain point of my previous analysis: the player is a reflection of The Other, and Her is White Face's attempt to understand what The Other desires from it. To quote White Face:

"I just wanted to entertain You."

Her being an attempt to hook You with a story is already well defined from my previous post, but how does White Face know what the player supposedly wants? My theory is based off this small excerpt from Her final words:

"You made me think about life / About appearance"

With that, it's plausible to say that this "thinking" was a reflection about White Face's own desires, about her own appearance and her own life. What does it mean to be alive, now that White Face experienced the agony of the closest the digital could get to a bleeding body? That was already explored during my previous analysis. What matters to us now is "appearance".

Femininity. Her is the embodiment of what White Face believes to be desired by the player based off her own desires. Femininity. White Face desires to be feminine, and therefore assumes the player would also want her to be the "ideal woman" (strong, bold, beautiful). And so, she tries to become the closest thing to this idealization she has. Her. The pronoun, the embodiment of what she sees as what it means to be a woman, what she the player desires to see from her.

And then, when You first meet Her by the parlor's balcony, the game crashes, and, in the mobile version, it is said:

"It wasn't meant to happen, and yet I broke everything"

This is when Her remembers the most predominant feeling in the pixelated nightmare she inhabits: fear. The player's fear when meeting Her, the crash, it was not intentional. It wasn't meant to happen. Her is an attempt to entertain You, not scare you. And yet... she broke everything. And this is where I believe Her/White Face (not yet separated) most thinks about being feminine and her own desires. She is scared. She is scared of what she wants to be.

Let's derail this a little bit: how did White Face become an entity to begin with? It is not my personal theory, but I believe it must be widely accepted that if White Face was a human, it committed suicide and became a digital entity. With that being the case, it can be interpreted that what drove White Face to suicide was fear, following the overall theme of the game. But what fear?

Now, this where my interpretation comes in: White Face desires to be a woman because this was human White Face's desire. Human White Face was a closeted trans woman, scared of her own identity, and most importantly, of rejection. Being rejected by a transmisoginistic society, alongside her other personal fears, worries and solitude, she commits suicide and becomes a digital entity.

With this hypothesis in mind, it is possible to return to what we were talking about: why is White Face scared of what she wants to be? It is a matter not only of self-acceptance, but the fact that, just like she feared, just like in her past life, the player rejects Her. You reject and are scared of Her because, in this nightmare, no matter how perfect or ideal Her is, no matter how much she bleeds or screams, she is not seen as human, she is seen as scary. Because, in the pixelated nightmare, White Face's own personal hell, the ideas of a transmisoginistic society crawl in and haunt her. The player reflects these ideas, by accident or not.

Even the other representation of The Other, the one who writes the text files, rejects her being feminine: "It is a phantom of deception". Or perhaps, by seeing the author of the text files as White Face herself, even shows some internalized transphobia! How White Face sees herself as something that tricks, that disappoints, maybe even herself!

This is why, in Her final moments, she says: "I don't really like what happened to me", it's not that she dislikes the femininity, she dislikes what the player, The Other, did to Her. Rejected Her, feared Her.

And so, believing the death of the feminine may save her from rejection, she Buries Her. White Face separates herself from Her, from her feminine side, and kills her. Now, when we see Her again, she is broken and bleeding, agonizing in the snow. White Face is now disconnected from herself, she buried what was left of her feminine side and now all it has is The Other who still rejects her, and, later on, kills her amidst her begs to be spared.

Even with the feminine figures of the maze, they're dead. They're White Face slowly rejecting her feminine side, killing them, to then proceed and kill the biggest representation of it: Her herself.

Overall, IMSCARED is a deeply feminine game, trans or not. And I tried my best to show my personal view on what it all represents. If you believe in another interpretation, please tell! I am genuinely interested in listening/reading. This game is very dear to me and I hope I managed to do it some justice in this post... Thank you for reading!

[jojomills]

‘Great Red Storm’

My song has no music

To squeeze a million dreams in one wish

My words—our words—are a thin tissue

And our minds are great red weeping wounds

Soaking pages, pixels, and parlors of our days

Sing! I will sing! In a nearly mute melody

In the pulping scant ply of lyrics lent to me

My expression of only the reality I see

A whisper, a whisper in my spent breath

A chorus composed of our bound quiet yells

Against the immensely more roaring cosmos

My meager sound is not enough alone

A pinprick of blood, lost in oceans of thunder

Swirls of frighting storm on Jupiter’s throne

Ganymede’s cast shade passing over—

Merely a mote, barely a note of all our splendor

A wondrous piece of momentous forever

___

[crookedkryptonitebeliever]

Hey Yves wanna see my wicked cool tattoo? 😏* pulls up my sleeve to show him a large bold ‘YVES’ tattoo’d on my forearm*

"Ah." Yves uttered softly as he bent down to inspect the ink work. But his eyes aren't focusing on the artist's skill, rather, the way your body reacts to something foreign invading it, like a tattoo. He took note of any redness, texture or anomalies on the artwork.

He already knew that you were about to get one, Yves was even flattered that out of all the words and quotes you considered, you preferred his name to be permanently a part of your body. He only wished that he could have been the one who worked with the tattoo gun, that way, he could obtain more data regarding your skin and flesh. Moreover, this was one of the few rare instances where he could (begrudgingly) further study your behavior towards pain while allowing himself to directly inflict it onto you.

Yves would have taken in all the reactions, micro or macro, while enduring the needles too, but alas, he has to rely on pixels from the hidden cameras and microphones. It's definitely better than nothing, but there was just so much wasted information without him being physically present there, up close and personal.

You weren't sure if Yves liked it. He's staring at it blankly while gently tracing the pads of his fingers against your bare skin. It felt tingly.

"I'm flattered." He smiled. Yves knew you got this just to see how he would react, not necessarily because you wanted to be branded with his name. It's plain. Yves looked back up to you.

"What do you think about it?" He asked, somewhat catching you off guard. So you started to explain, fumbling over your words but pointing out the obvious: you wouldn't have gotten it if you didn't like it.

He hummed in response. Caressing your forearm tenderly as you watched him with anticipation.

Maybe you expected him to freak out, Yves seemed like the type of person to be discouraging permanent body modifications. You thought he would disapprove of it, at least to a certain degree.

But you're unsure what to make of his attitude, he's ominously vague about it. So you decided to ask him directly about what he thinks, straight to the point and no fluff.

Your direct question was met with a loving kiss on the forehead.

"You're adorable." He murmured. Cuddling you against him. Instinctually, you wrapped your arms around his torso while he went on to run his manicured fingers through your hair.

"What else can you tell me about it?" He whispered while holding you close.

You stuttered, you didn't know how to answer that. So you hesitantly told Yves you have nothing else to say.

He stayed silent and continued with his affectionate touches. Somehow, you felt uncomfortable not saying more, so you began grasping at straws. Telling him about how you love him so much, and you wanted to have his name on you for some reason.

You elaborated more than you needed to, somewhat cringing at yourself the deeper you fall into this chatty spiral. But you kept on going because it increased your unease when you stop talking.

While you're distracted and sounding like a broken record, Yves took the opportunity to usher you to the living room sofa. He rummaged through your bag, which is a normal occurrence on its own, so you never stopped to question why he is going through your belongings hourly.

He pulled out a tube of tattoo aftercare ointment that was given to you by the parlor, unscrewed it open and dispensed a pea sized amount of cream onto his fingertips.

Yves wordlessly urged you to continue blabbering by body language alone, showing that he is very interested in what you have to say and subconsciously encouraging you to overshare as usual.

He applied the cream onto your tattoo, alleviating it of any itchiness or soreness. The entire time, latching onto every word you said and permanently etching them into the sulci his brain.

It didn't even register in your mind that Yves knew how to care for a fresh tattoo despite not having one himself. You didn't realize how he automatically knew what to do, where to find it and what to use, as if he was there when the tattoo artist had explained it to you.

You simply accepted that Yves knew what was good for you and allowed him to act accordingly without your explicit permission.

You accepted that Yves will take care of everything.

[vmiuchi]

INK AND TEMPTATION

Chapter 6.

Just another normal and quiet day at the tattoo parlor you work at in the heart of Helsinki, Finland. Or so you thought ?

Y/N woke to sunlight bleeding in through the blinds, a dull headache thrumming behind her eyes. Whiskers was back, curled stubbornly against her hip, vibrating with soft, sleepy purrs. Her phone sat on the coffee table where she’d dropped it sometime after Ville’s last message.

She stared at it for a long moment, heart thudding against her ribs.

Maybe it had all been a dream.

Maybe he was gone—sober, horrified by his own honesty, pretending it never happened.

She picked up the phone.

No new messages.

No missed calls.

The silence felt like a bruise blooming across her chest.

Dragging herself up from the couch, hoodie slipping off one shoulder, she padded to the kitchen in bare feet. Poured herself coffee with shaking hands. Burned her tongue because she was too impatient to wait for it to cool.

Another glance at the phone. Still nothing.

Don’t be dramatic, she told herself. You knew he was drunk. You knew it didn’t mean anything.

But it had meant something.

At least to her.

She tucked herself into the corner of the kitchen counter, one knee pulled up, coffee cradled against her chest, staring blankly at nothing. Her mind kept replaying the words he sent: I want to be brilliant for you. I want to be the light in your darkest hours.

No one had ever said anything like that to her before. Not like that. Not when they had nothing to gain. And sure, maybe whiskey had loosened his tongue. Maybe morning would bring a hundred regrets.

But somewhere deep in her gut, she didn’t think it would.

The phone buzzed once—violent against the silence—and she nearly dropped her coffee.

She fumbled for it, pulse spiking.

Ville (???): Morning, sweetheart.

Still mean it.

Still here.

Didn’t dream you.

Her fingers tightened around the phone. Her heart folded in on itself.

And she realized something.

Maybe she was still terrified.

Maybe she didn’t believe in fairy tales.

Maybe trusting him was the stupidest thing she could ever do.

But she wanted to try.

She set the coffee down, thumb flying over the keyboard before her brain could catch up.

Y/N: Good morning, Ville.

I didn’t dream you either.

There was a pause—heavy, electric.

Then another buzz.

Ville (???): I’m outside.

Her pulse tripped.

That wasn’t possible.

He didn’t know where she lived.

Unless—

Her heart stuttered.

No. He wouldn’t have—

She yanked the curtains back just enough to peer out into the street. Nothing. Just the normal pre-dawn quiet. A parked car. A jogger in a neon windbreaker. The glow of a streetlamp washing the sidewalk in dull gold.

No sign of him.

Her phone buzzed again.

Ville (???): Kidding. Would love to see you panicking because you never told me your address.

Kind of.

I wish I was. I wish I knew where you were so I could bring you coffee and sit outside your door like a sad Victorian poet until you opened it.

But I don’t.

So instead I’m sitting in the hotel bathtub drinking lukewarm tea and wishing I had the nerve to ask.

Y/N let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. A mix of relief and something else. Disappointment?

Her fingers hovered.

Y/N: You scared the shit out of me.

Ville (???): I scare myself sometimes.

But I meant what I said.

All of it.

I want to see you. Not just in pixels. Not just in half-asleep texts.

There was a long pause. She could feel him holding his breath through the phone.

Then:

Ville (???): Not now. Not today.

But someday.

Can I hope for that?

Y/N stared at the message. Her breath caught in her throat. A thousand fears buzzed at the edge of her mind—but somewhere under all of it, something warm flickered.

She typed.

Deleted.

Typed again.

Y/N: Someday.

The typing bubble appeared instantly.

Ville (???): Then I’ll wait for someday.

Even if it kills me.

She closed her eyes, heart hammering, and for the first time in a long while, it wasn’t from fear—but from the terrifying possibility that she might actually be letting someone in.

He sat in the hotel bathtub, fully clothed, cradling a mug of now-cold tea like it was a lifeline. The porcelain was freezing against his back, but he didn’t care. His phone glowed in his hand, her last message still open:

Good morning, Ville. I didn’t dream you either.

He breathed out slowly, chest aching like he’d run a mile in the wrong direction.

He hadn’t meant to send that I’m outside message. Not really. It just…slipped out. One of a hundred things his half-sober, still-stupid heart wanted to say.

Truth was, he wanted to be outside her door. He wanted to knock once, maybe twice, and have her open it in that oversized hoodie, sleepy-eyed and skeptical, the cat tangled around her ankles. He wanted to say something that didn’t sound like a pick-up line. He wanted to be someone she didn’t flinch away from.

Instead, he was here. In a hotel bathtub. Alone, but not.

Because she hadn’t blocked him.

Because she’d said someday.

He turned the phone over in his hands. It still buzzed with phantom adrenaline, like it remembered all the shit he’d spilled into it the night before. He winced thinking about it—the dirty, desperate things. The soft things too.

She hadn’t shut the door on any of it.

He didn’t know what the hell that meant.

Maybe she was just kind.

Or maybe—

Maybe she wanted to believe he wasn’t just another fire waiting to burn her down.

He set the mug down, leaned his head back against the tiles, and closed his eyes.

"Someday," he whispered.

It wasn’t a promise.

But it was enough to keep breathing for.

Still, doubt gnawed at him.

He'd fucked up so many good things by being too much, too fast, too raw. Women who’d once called him poetry now called him damage. He didn’t blame them. Not entirely. He was exhausting even to himself. There were nights he hated the sound of his own voice, hated how easily it wrapped itself around pretty words and made them sharp.

But this felt different.

With her, he hadn’t wanted to impress. He’d wanted to be known.

And maybe that was worse. Maybe that was the real risk: that she had seen him—chaotic, craving, open to the bone—and hadn’t run.

Yet.

He wondered what she was doing now. If her hands still trembled when she held her mug. If she read his words again, like he read hers, dissecting every line for meaning and mercy.

He wanted to know what her room smelled like. If her books had cracked spines. If her cat liked strangers. If she smiled different when no one was looking.

He wanted things.

Not just the heavy, hungry wanting that came easy at 4AM. But the quiet kind. The kind that unfolded in silence. The kind that asked for nothing but time.

He rubbed his hand over his face. He looked like hell. Probably smelled like it too. But for once, he didn’t care.

If she could see him right now—bare, unfiltered, still waiting for a message that might not come back—would she still want to know him?

He didn’t know.

But he wanted to find out.

And maybe that was enough.

For now.

The bathroom door flew open with a crash.

"DUDE, are you dead in here?" Bam's voice echoed off the tiles like a shotgun blast. "Tell me you didn’t pass out texting again. That’s, like, the saddest fucking thing I’ve ever seen."

Ville groaned without opening his eyes. "Go away."

Bam ignored that, naturally. He was already halfway into the room, a bottle of something cheap in one hand and a granola bar in the other. "You look like a vampire who just got dumped."

"I didn’t get dumped."

"Oh shit, so it’s worse. You’re, like, in love."

Ville opened one eye and glared at him. "I will drown you in this tub."

"You’d have to move first. And you look like a corpse with commitment issues. Come on, man, you’re scaring the maids."

Bam flopped down on the edge of the tub, nearly sloshing Ville's cold tea. "So what’s her name again? Mysterious Tattoo Girl?"

"Y/N."

"Right. The one you wrote drunk poetry for."

"It wasn't drunk poetry," Ville muttered. "It was... honest."

"Same thing. Listen, if she didn’t block you after all that last night? She’s either into you or needs to reevaluate her standards."

"Thanks for the pep talk, Bam. Truly."

Bam grinned and took a bite of his granola bar. "I’m just saying, maybe shower, eat something, stop moping in porcelain hell, and then figure out how to not screw this up."

Ville leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. "She said 'someday.'"

"Then don’t be a dick and turn someday into never."

Ville looked at his phone again.

The screen was dark.

But his chest felt a little less hollow.

Bam was right.

He had time.

And maybe—if he didn’t fuck it up too badly—he had a chance too.

Bam stood up, stretching with a dramatic groan. "Alright, tragic prince, I’m going to find breakfast. You want eggs or are you just gonna sit there and brood until the water turns into emotional soup?"

"Toast," Ville said quietly, running a hand through his hair.

"Toast," Bam repeated with mock gravity. "A bold request. Very rockstar of you."

He paused in the doorway, half-turned. "Seriously though. Don’t let this be one of those things you regret because you couldn’t figure out how to get out of your own head. If she said 'someday,' she meant it. Don’t make her wait forever."

Ville nodded. He didn’t trust his voice.

The door shut behind Bam, mercifully quiet this time.

Ville stared at his reflection in the silver faucet across from him.

He still looked like a mess.

But maybe that was okay.

Maybe he didn’t need to be perfect.

Just honest.

Just real.

He picked up his phone, opened their chat again.

The cursor blinked in the empty message box.

He typed.

Still here. Still thinking about you.

Then deleted it.

He’d wait.

But when the time came, he’d be ready to say it out loud.

All of it.

Later, when Bam had returned with a bag of questionably warm breakfast burritos and three different kinds of bottled juice—"because hydration is punk rock," he'd claimed—Ville sat on the edge of the bed, finally dressed, finally moving.

The bathroom was behind him. The echo of his vulnerability still lingered in the cold tile.

"You gonna text her again?" Bam asked through a mouthful of egg and regret.

Ville nodded slowly, unwrapping his own burrito. "Eventually."

"You’re pacing yourself? Jesus, who are you?"

Ville smiled faintly. "Someone trying not to screw it up."

Bam chuckled, tossed a juice bottle at him. "Good. Because if you mess this up, I’m adopting her."

Ville caught the juice. "She’d eat you alive."

"Probably," Bam said proudly. "But I’d die a legend."

Ville leaned back against the headboard, toast untouched in his lap, thumb hovering over his phone again.

Still no new messages.

Still the chat open. Still that last word—someday—glowing in his memory like a distant lighthouse.

He didn’t need to rush it.

But he’d be damned if he let it drift away.

He turned to Bam. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Does it involve fire?"

"No."

"Disappointing. Go on."

Ville exhaled. "Help me be less of a coward."

Bam stared at him. Then he grinned, slow and dangerous. "Oh, that, I can do."

And Ville knew—ready or not—he wasn’t going to be stuck in this hotel room much longer.

[abonbons]

For the Lovely Pixel Parlor discord’s “X artists, 1 palette collab” using the Vivid Memory 8 palette 👌🏼

[wraithclatter]

2/22/25

“More moralistic garbage”

From bee-flies not content

From simply storming the hive.

Wild viola, pollen pocketed by parasites,

Musical flowers routine,

And the ol’ Hegelian 1-2-3.

Hide the evidence in aforementioned hive

(Obvious they are not welcome).

Across Europa’s mutilated face,

Across bruised bloody-black Atlantic,

Bombyliidae replace outdated Bombyliidae.

Hive is no more than mere husk now;

Wasps breed within, have been 4 a long while.

Bullion bullied out, dispersed to nomadic larvae;

“Which hive now hides the honey?”

Faking a census to keep cattle calm(ish).

Pretend an audit means a damn thing

In this era of pixelated parlor trickery.

Pretend that an ‘accounting’ is more than

The shuffling of a deck of rigged fortune cards,

Or scraps of numbers chosen by lot, by the wind.

Counter cursed Kursk offensive,

Rusky’s ball and court,

Paid for by Khazaria(trademarked).

‘Vance ta freedumb!’

You do not own a horse in this race,

You fucking simpleton.

You do not own a dog in this fight,

You fucking simpleton.

“Fighting” for schizophrenic psychopath’s

Fever dream of ‘secular salvation’;

And (You), simpleton, are the Olah.

[poltergeist-pixels]

Took part in pixel parlors christmas gift exchange! with my gift going to Yari!! (check them out!!!)

[officialgleamstar]

well now i wanna know what ur first tattoo is

When I was 18, summer after graduating high school, I was dating a 21-year-old who took me to a tattoo parlor and we both got walk-in tattoos for $80 each. Already not good XD But I got song lyrics from my favorite song from middle school, Override [A] by Area 11, specifically the lyrics “Trigger the Override” (meant to symbolize my life changing now that I had left high school and was going to college)

The tattoo artist let me get the lyrics, but I wanted it on one line down my forearm in like, a mock computer sci-fi font, very pixelated, and he went “Nooo I don’t think so” and we ended up with a plain sans serif font, box-sized on two lines, facing so other people can read it but not me… XD

My entire family says it’s ugly which I don’t agree with, I think it’s fine, it’s just not what I wanted to get and it put me off of word tattoos because it’s like. I designed a simple tattoo that I loved, brought in that design, and just got told “no” and talked down to something that people find ugly LMAO it did not go well. I’m glad I got the tattoo though it means a lot to me

[akihabaradivision]

Nikki's Thoughts on R.I.P Märchen

Queen Card

"It's not often I'm of the same mind as her, but I do agree with Keiko on this matter. I've heard of the woman known as 'Queen Card'. She's a supposedly skilled stage magician. I've never had interest in those sort of things. Like Keiko mentioned, they're merely just cheap parlor tricks with special effects. ...Kind of ironic that one of the people on this team works in special effects. But besides that, I think a woman as mysterious as her could do a lot more than just being a magician. But that's just me."

Reiaki Suzubayashi

"I think I've seen this woman's name before. Where was it again? ...Oh yeah, Criss mentioned that she was the one who did the artwork on some of the characters from her favorite live-action sci-fi film. While I've always loved sci-fi and horror, I feel that producers and directors can sometimes go overboard with some of the scenes in those movies. Not saying I'm scared, of course. But if you really want to make your audience interested or make them jump out of your seats, you could do more with getting your actors into their parts. You can buff up the effects all you want, but if a film doesn't capture the audience's attention, don't be surprised when sales are down."

"Anyway, besides that, I've heard she has quite a following on PROFILE. I think we have approximately the same number of followers, not that it matters much to me."

Miku Shirazuki

"Keiko and Criss mentioned this girl. She's a former pop idol, apparently. That might explain why I've never heard of her. Pop is probably my least favorite music genre. I'd sooner listen to boring elevator music over those overblown lyrics that most singers say these days. I heard that she quit performing due to an incident. ...If that's the case, why is she joining the D.R.B.? In an effort to reclaim some of her lost glory? If so, just go back to singing."

R.I.P Märchen

"The word 'Märchen' comes from the German word for, 'fairy tale'. So... I can assume that the group name signifies that they are bidding farewell to make-believe stories and such? Kind of oxymoron considering all of their occupations. The leader is a stage magician, the second member deals with special effects, and the last one is a former idol; all of these have to deal with some sort of glamor. I'm sure their team name has some sort of hidden meaning behind it, but I don't care enough to find out what."

"Besides that, like Keiko and Criss mentioned, I suppose since they are stationed in Minato, they're eventually going to go face-to-face against Oculus, the other Minato team that Keiko's mother is part of. Truthfully, it doesn't matter to me one bit who wins. We have enough to worry about with Pixel Syndicate. Let's worry about one team first before we focus on another."

[tasteandsmellday]

Beyond Sight and Sound: The Rise of Taste-Enabled Virtual Reality

By Mindy Yang

Close your eyes. Picture this: A steaming espresso, its crema glistening as it clings to the sides of a porcelain cup. The delicate bitterness, the deep caramel undertones, the whisper of citrus that lingers just long enough to make you crave another sip. The experience is so vivid you could swear you’re in a sun-drenched café in Rome.

Now open your eyes. There’s no espresso. No cup. Just a VR headset and a flickering digital world.

This isn’t science fiction. It’s the next frontier in virtual reality—one that doesn’t just trick your eyes and ears, but your tongue, your nose, your entire sense of presence. And yet, in our race to digitize everything, are we thinking deeply enough about what it truly means to taste?

Virtual Flavor: The Promise & The Hype

For years, virtual reality has been a mostly visual affair—a world of hyperrealistic landscapes, immersive gaming, and metaverse meetups that promise to feel real. But taste, touch, and smell have remained elusive.

That’s beginning to change. At Japan’s Meiji University, researchers have developed a device called the Norimaki Synthesizer 2.0, an electrode-based interface that stimulates taste receptors to create the illusion of flavor. Want something salty? A zap of targeted electrical stimulation. Craving something sweet? The same principle applies. Theoretically, this means you could sip a digital cocktail or bite into a pixelated piece of cake and taste it—without a single calorie or crumb.

Other innovators are pushing even further. Project Nourished is experimenting with multisensory dining, pairing AR/VR visuals with scent diffusers, haptic utensils, and textured food substitutes to create a gastronomic illusion. Meanwhile, OVR Technology is bringing olfaction into VR, developing scent diffusion systems that sync with virtual environments.

The possibilities are tantalizing:

• Gastronomic tourism without a plane ticket—sample sushi in Tokyo, gelato in Florence, or mole in Oaxaca, all from your home.

• Training chefs, baristas, and sommeliers—a sensory sandbox for mastering complex flavors.

• Rethinking diet and nutrition—could a VR cheeseburger satisfy cravings for the real thing?

• Immersive storytelling���imagine watching a film and tasting the wine the characters are drinking.

The dream is big. The science is promising. But are we truly ready for a world where taste can be digitized?

The Human Factor: Why We’re Not There Yet

The problem with most of these developments isn’t the technology—it’s the approach. Sensory experience isn’t just about isolated taste receptors or olfactory molecules. Flavor is a symphony, a full-body phenomenon shaped by psychology, memory, culture, and even emotion.

The way we experience taste is deeply human, deeply contextual. A glass of wine on a beach at sunset isn’t the same as that same wine under fluorescent office lighting. Coffee tastes different when it’s made by the hands of someone you love. The crunch of perfectly toasted bread isn’t just about the flavor—it’s about texture, sound, and expectation.

These nuances are what make taste feel real. And yet, most current VR flavor experiments focus on technical stimulation rather than emotional connection.

This is where experts—chefs, perfumers, neuroscientists, philosophers, experience designers—must step in. If we don’t approach this revolution in an interdisciplinary way, we risk reducing one of the most primal and meaningful human experiences into nothing more than a digital parlor trick.

What’s at Stake?

Beyond the immediate thrill of tasting in VR, we have to ask ourselves: What happens when digital taste becomes indistinguishable from reality?

Could we become addicted to synthetic flavors that are more perfect than real food? Will corporate interests manipulate these experiences for profit, tuning taste to maximize consumption rather than pleasure? Will we lose our connection to traditional craftsmanship, regional terroir, the subtle imperfections that make a meal truly special?

Or could this technology do the opposite—help us rediscover the art of savoring, of being more mindful eaters, of unlocking new sensory dimensions we never knew existed?

The Call for a Human-Centric Approach

This is the moment where we decide what kind of future we want. The race to digitize taste isn’t just about innovation—it’s about intention.

If done right, VR taste could expand human experience, making food more accessible, more immersive, more exploratory. Imagine giving someone with anosmia (the loss of smell) a way to taste again. Imagine reviving ancient flavors from lost civilizations. Imagine storytelling where you don’t just see a world—you taste it.

But if done carelessly, it could become just another way for tech to hijack human senses for profit, reducing one of life’s greatest pleasures into an optimized algorithm.

That’s why we need an interdisciplinary approach. This isn’t just a problem for engineers and programmers. We need chefs, sensory scientists, perfumers, psychologists, artists, philosophers, even ethicists to weigh in. We need to ensure that digital taste doesn’t just mimic reality—it respects it.

Because taste isn’t just about what’s on the tongue. It’s about memory, place, connection. It’s about being human.

And that’s something no headset should ever replace.

[starlight-time-machine]

Week in Review

12/15/2024 – 12/21/2024

Sunday

Week 45 of missing Cipher Academy

What’d I say about Drama Queen. I’m not even going to dignify this shit with going into my records, get the fuck out of here. This really is just Chainsaw Man for people with no reading comprehension.

Undead Unluck is so good…I’m going to be so sad when it ends… Everyone’s come so far…

True to my word, I finished Piczle Cross fairly quickly. It was a really solid picross game, and the Story of Seasons theming was a nice little cherry on top. I do wish there was more Trio of Towns music (since that’s my favourite Story of Seasons game of all time), and some of the pixel art left a little to be desired, but overall I had a fun time. I love the changing season mechanic – the different color palette always comes just when you’ve gotten sick of staring at the same thing for like three hours straight. (I do wish the farm had anything on it in the wintertime, but I guess it wouldn’t really make sense). As always, I wish there were more puzzles, but I had a lot of fun regardless. 8/10.

Monday

Read Sammy Keyes and the Night of Skulls in the dead of night and on some dark bus rides today, and it really added to the spooky vibes of this instalment. Compared to the previous Sammy Keyes book set around Halloween, this one really turns the horror energy up to eleven – we’ve got graveyards, grave robbers, funeral parlors, morgues, and a whole thematic arc about death. Van Draanen has really got things down to a science at this point in the series, and the way the mystery and Sammy’s personal life and growth moments intertwine is always entertaining to watch. The mystery itself was fun, though maybe a little all over the place – the motives were weak and we just never really get closure with one of the red herrings, but overall it was still pretty solid. I also appreciate the adults in Sammy’s life who really do care about and look out for her in their own ways like Borsch and André…it’s so sweet. I’ll give this one an 8/10.

Tuesday

Started playing Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and…hmm. For background, my first entry into the Paper Mario series was Origami King, and I absolutely loved it (so much so that it’s in the STM Awards). I’m almost certainly going to replay it in 2025 (which is something I rarely ever do) (and it’s because Thousand-Year Door has left me a little wanting…) so I’ll go more in-depth about my thoughts on it then, but I’ve watched playthroughs of the original Paper Mario on the N64 and heard about how the Paper Mario franchise has “fallen off” for years and years, to the point where it was just something I took as fact. So when news about the Thousand-Year Door remake came out, I was excited to finally play what people call one of the best games in the series. But…not gonna lie…so far…I’m not having as much fun with it as I did with Origami King… People complain that the newer instalments don’t have as many unique characters, and I get where they’re coming from, but I feel like Origami King still had amazing writing despite their restrictions. What they lacked for in a bigger cast with their own lives and stories, they made up for by focusing in on the few partners that you did have and creating much more cinematic moments. And while the former has its merits, I can’t help but prefer the latter since the Olivia and Bobby plotlines were so moving and memorable for me. Like, what other Paper Mario partner storyline has its characters actually sacrificing their lives and learning to deal with grief? Even small stuff like Bowser mentioning his worries about being a good dad still stick with me to this day…

Characters and story aside, I also love the world in Origami King a lot more… I can’t begrudge Thousand-Year Door too much for this, of course, since it’s about twenty years older than Origami King and had way more technical limitations, but it’s hard not to compare the two when they’re my only points of reference. In Thousand-Year Door, I really feel the sense that I’m just going from room to room, and each room will have its own puzzles to solve or secrets to find…the openness of Origami King allowed for the puzzles and secrets to feel more organically built into the world, I suppose, rather feeling like they were purposely put there as a challenge for me, the player. I also just can’t really wrap my head around the Thousand-Year Door dungeons thus far – because most of them are just similarly themed rooms connected randomly by door or pipe, I have a hard time remembering what connects to what…and this gets especially bad in the sewers where everything looks the same. And then there’s the fact that once the puzzles have been solved, a lot of the rooms are just empty halls for me to walk through if I get lost or have to backtrack for a secret. I think this element of dungeon design is something that has been objectively improved over the years – I think about places in Origami King like Shogun Studios or the final castle, where the rooms have personality and worldbuilding and flow into each other like a real lived in space while also holding puzzles for me to solve. But going from that to Thousand-Year Door makes its lacking areas really apparent…especially when I have to backtrack…

Here’s my big confession: I don’t really like having so many partners. I mean, the different moves are cool in battle, and it’s fun to have a little party going on an adventure together, but the way they’ve locked things behind partner ability checks kind of annoys me… Like, I hate when I’m going through a dungeon and I see something that I can’t reach because I don’t have the right partner yet, and I know I’m going to have to come back later and comb through every room again just to find a Star Piece or whatever. (Not to mention how Flurrie’s ability in particular has been pretty badly indicated thus far…why did no one tell me about blowing those Punis off the ledge…or how she can randomly blow away stuff that doesn’t have the dog-eared edge indicator sometimes…) And all of that is especially annoying when, like mentioned earlier, backtracking itself is a boring task because most of it is just going through empty rooms with their puzzles already solved.

One last gripe I have with Thousand-Year Door is…I don’t really care for the Peach and Bowser scenes. They’re fun bits of extra story, I suppose, but I wish they’d built up the TEC stuff instead of immediately being like oh you fell in love at first sight with Peach. If we had seen them build up a rapport and a genuine connection over the course of the chapters before TEC had its realization, it would’ve felt like a stronger arc in my opinion… But now it just seems like TEC likes Peach for her looks, which is a little lame. Bowser’s scenes are just for comedic relief – which is fine – but because they don’t contribute much to the story, I find myself wanting to get them over with so that I can get back to actual gameplay…the little platformer part was pretty cute and funny, though. That’s been like the one time Thousand-Year Door has surprised me with actually “going there” with a concept. (As opposed to Origami King’s non-stop barrage of those types of moments, but I digress…)

(Sorry, I just remembered one last gripe for real this time. I don’t like the plane mechanic because I’m bad at it and I don’t like the timing on the attacks, it doesn’t feel as intuitive as the attacks in like the Mario & Luigi RPGs.)

Anyway. All of my complaints aside, I’m having a decent amount of fun…just not as much as I’d hoped, I suppose.

I read the latest chapter of Takatora-kun, and I like the complicated relationship dynamics that Asada is exploring here with the unique challenges that an ABO society would have to contend with (especially in terms of consent). Pheromones turning otherwise rational people into sex pests had always seemed silly to me (and eye-rolly because it’s usually just a convenient vehicle for sex scenes), but the way Asada is engaging with it on a realistic level is really interesting.

Wednesday

I realized that the end of the year was quickly approaching, and so far I’ve only watched like, seven movies this year? If I don’t do something to rectify that, my Favorite Things of 2024 list is going to look pretty barren on that front, so I finally pulled myself together and started up Movie Roulette again! For the uninitiated, Movie Roulette is where I run a random number generator that picks a movie from my “to watch” list and watch it – it’s an extremely simple concept, but it helps me actually work up the energy to sit down and watch a movie. So today’s pick was Ocean’s Eleven, which I’d been looking forward to because I actually really like heist movies, and this is the quintessential heist movie…and I’m glad to report that it didn’t disappoint. Everything’s quick and snappy and clever, and everything that gets set up gets beautiful resolved later. It’s just a superbly tight script and I had a fun time, so I’ll give it a 8/10.

Thursday

Conceptually, I really like the setup of Chapter 3 of Thousand-Year Door: since the previous dungeons’ puzzles weren’t that fun for me, trying to rise through the ranks of a wrestling org was immediately a lot more compelling. Or at least it was, in theory. In practice…it’s a little repetitive. And while the rumblings of shady business going on around the arena are juicy, the area itself is a little boring to explore, and having to unlock things on X’s timeline is a bit of a drag. I do enjoy the worldbuilding being done with the other wrestlers and the growing sense of mystery, which was something that I felt was sorely lacking from the previous two chapters, but other than that it was just marginally better than the previous chapters.

Friday

Read the latest Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 2 chapter and it was fine.

Saturday

I got some puzzles and so I’ve been in my cave doing nothing but puzzling for like ten hours straight