#the preview feels future coded

[becomingabeing]

Did Pisaeng time travel this episode and we didn't see anything because it was Kawi's POV?

[wonryllis]

dear future husband (m) | lee heeseung.

i can't say i do without you.

PREVIEW. you always get what you want, spoiled with the love of everyone around you. and it's all innocent love, at least that's what everyone thinks. it comes with much surprise therefore, when heeseung makes a move on you. thirteen long years of being in the brother zone having made him utterly clueless that if he’s going to date you he has to pass through your actual brothers first. and he knows how scary they can be. especially since they are known to have a sister complex and he’s been the third scary one with them, numerous times before.

OR WHERE, bimbo heeseung has no idea what the fuck to do with his feelings for you who are oblivious as fuck and your brothers who are overprotective as fuck.

MEET THE CAST. insanely love struck lee heeseung with his spoiled rich girl!reader ft. yeonjun, soobin, the rest of txt and the rest of enhypen. NSFW VERSION: BRAT TAMER heeseung with his BRAT girl.

GENRE & WARNING(S). social media!au + written chapters, SMUT MDNI!!! in the form of written chapters later on in the series, fluff, humor & crack, minimal angst, lots and i mean lots and lots of swearing and dirty jokes and everything nsfw. college!au, nonidol!au, neighbors to lovers!au, childhood friends to lovers!au. heavy on sister complex! rest other warnings will be stated in respective chapters.

UPDATE SCHEDULE. discontinued.

ׅ ꢾ꣒ profiles, character introductions & the groupchats. ( PLAYLIST ) theme song, code blue!

YEONIE NOTES. incase someone wonders if this is incest, no it’s not, they are not related by blood. sister complex. a state of strong attachment and obsession to sisters, always having them as their first priority. FIC ASKS: ask about the characters!

EPISODES rolling ..

000. prologue: the backstory.

001. arranged date gone wrong

002. it's a shame yn wants you

003. all good when all delusional

004. can you afford her a McLaren? TWT + WRITTEN ( 2.4k )

005. heeseung finally— [REDACTED]!

006. you went as my arm candy

DISCONTINUED!

i think its obvious enough why, the lack of response and enthusiasm from readers has made lose all motivation to continue this any further. i was so excited to revamp it but it seems it isn't the case for the other side. feedbacks are what keep most if not all writers going and absence of it for this one has just rid me of all interest i had to share it with you all. thank you to those who read it, and i apologize those who were looking forward to read it. this is it. over and done, with this kind of support i'm never doing a series on here again.

FIRST TAGLIST @s00buwu @lilyuwon @pockyyasii @nctislifue @shawnyle @enhastolemyheart @aaa-sia @criminalyun @oddracha @satan-223 @diorsyun @hooniehon @fakeuwus @caramelcandescence @intromortal @kookify @yutasberryy @sumzysworld @nikiswifiee @shuichi-sama @primroselover @rayofsunshineeee @aishigrey @yjwluvs @soraokkotsu @nyfwyeonjun @srhnyx @trashx678 @wondipity @winuvs @hoondiors @niniissus @firstclassjaylee @biancaness @enhaz1 @sophi-ee @un06 @heelariously @d-earlog @pharaways @ethelia @eneiyri @secretbarbariangardener @seochangbinnnnnnnnnnn @microwavedstrawberr1es @randomanothercreature @thatsoraya @graythecoffeebean @rikibun @jaeyungxrl @mxxnintheskyreblogs

[roksik-dnd]

For everyone who asked: a dialogue parser for BG3 alongside with the parsed dialogue for the newest patch. The parser is not mine, but its creator a) is amazing, b) wished to stay anonymous, and c) uploaded the parser to github - any future versions will be uploaded there first!

UPD: The parser was updated!! Now all the lines are parsed, AND there are new features like audio and dialogue tree visualisation. See below!

Patch 7 dialogue is uploaded!

If you don't want to touch the parser and just want the dialogues, make sure to download the whole "BG3 ... (1.6)" folder and keep the "styles" folder within: it is needed for the html files functionality (hide/show certain types of information as per the menu at the top, jumps when you click on [jump], color for better readability, etc). See the image below for what it should look like. The formatting was borrowed from TORcommunity with their blessing.

If you want to run the parser yourself instead of downloading my parsed files, it's easy:

run bg3dialogreader.exe, OPEN any .pak file inside of your game's '\steamapps\common\Baldurs Gate 3\Data' folder,

select your language

press ‘LOAD’, it'll create a database file with all the tags, flags, etc.

Once that is done, press ‘EXPORT all dialogs to html’, and give it a minute or two to finish.

Find the parser dialogue in ‘Dialogs’ folder. If you move the folder elsewhere, move the ‘styles’ folder as well! It contains the styles you need for the color coding and functionality to keep working!

New features:

Once you've created the database (after step three above), you can also preview the dialogue trees inside of the parser and extract only what you need:

You can also listen to the correspinding audio files by clicking the line in the right window. But to do that, as the parser tells you, you need to download and put the filed from vgmstream-win64.zip inside of the parser's main folder (restart the parser after).

You can CONVERT the bg3 dialogue to the format that the Divinity Original Sin 2's Editor understands. That way, you can view the dialogues as trees! Unlike the html files, the trees don't show ALL the relevant information, but it's much easier to orient yourself in.

To get that, you DO need to have bought and installed Larian's previous game, Divinity Original Sin 2. It comes with a tool called 'The Divinity Engine 2'. Here you can read about how to unstall and lauch it. Once you have it, you need to load/create a project. We're trying to get to the point where the tool allows you to open the Dialog Editor. Then you can Open any bg3 dialogue file you want. And in case you want it, here's an in-depth Dialog Editor tutorial. But if you simply want to know how to open the Editor, here's the gist:

Update: In order to see the names of the speakers (up to ten), you can put the _merged.lsf file inside of the "\Divinity Original Sin 2\DefEd\Data\Public\[your project's name here]\RootTemplates\_merged.lsf" file path.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions! Please let me know if you modify the parser, I'd be curious to know what you added, and will possibly add it to the google drive.

[poohsources]

🐝  *  ―  𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐃 𝐓𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝟎𝟐𝟓: 𝐁𝐋𝐔𝐄 𝐉𝐄𝐀𝐍𝐒. ( as pretty much always, this started off as something for myself until i decided to change some things and make it a template that can be used by anyone and includes fewer elements so more people can have access to it. it's a new multimuse template, and you can find the preview here. it includes a landing / navigation page, a rules page, a muse page, and a connection page. because i changed it from its original form that i may or may not use for myself in the future, it has less than fifty elements and is, therefore, base account friendly. if you want to upgrade anyway, feel free to use my referral code KB4W13V3 because it helps me out. )

―  HOW TO USE

please don’t claim this as your own, and don’t delete the credit.  you can change it’s size or color but it should stay where it is.

of course, you can edit all the colors, sizes, fonts, etc. however you like.

to get this template please click here.  it’s on a pay-what-you-want basis, so it is possible to get it for free if you set the amount to 0. ( if you’d like to leave a little tip, i'd very much appreciate it, though. )

when you first open this template, it might look a little weird because carrd deletes the images i’ve used so there will only be empty spacers of sorts that may look a little out of place.  just upload images and this will fix itself.

actual image sizes don't matter since carrd scales them to fit but you can see examples of the image sizes i’ve used in the demo to get an idea for the dimensions.  or just try your own and play around with the settings to get the desired outcome.

if you have any questions on how to edit it, just send me a message, and i'll try to explain it to you.

[ddwcaph-game]

Chapter 4 & 5 is finally out!

The wait is finally over. Grab your plot armor, Chapter 4 and 5 of Dear Diary, We Created a Plot Hole! is finally here!

🚌 Play it here! 🚌

To celebrate the release, a +50% ✨EXP Bonus Event will be running for the next couple of weeks!

The full change log is over 500 lines long, so here's an overview of all the new stuff:

🌈 UPDATE HIGHLIGHTS

~ 509,000 total wordcount (including code) ~ 278,000 additional words (including code) ~ New average playthrough of 115,000 words!

New Stuff to Discover!

52 New Secrets to discover, 8 New Trinkets to collect, 12 New Achievements

30 New Character Traits, 15 New Heritage Passives, 3 New Phobias, 16 New Status Effects

3 New Main Quests, 12 New Sidequests

and 1 New Song to sing along to!

New Scenes!

Introductions to Wayne, Lily, and JM's parents!

New exclusive bestfriend scenes!

Get a sneak peek into the story worlds you'll visit in future, in the Story Exchange!

Revamped crush confession scene with your twin!

Steal a kiss on the cheek from your crush!

Catch a preview of Chapter 6!

New Choices and Customization!

Choose the name of MC's dad!

Choose a second bestfriend, other than your twin (and give them a custom nickname)!

You can now choose to have two different pronoun sets!

Choose a mild swear word for your MC

Added B as a crush option

Tons of Diary and Stat Improvements!

New, updated, and expanded character diary entries!

New unlockable codex entries!

Write custom post-scripts in your diary!

Added new toggle settings for simple/detailed view of traits/passives, and background transitions

New trait option that reduces the frequency and gives additional context to Filipino expressions

Improved diary and stat notification layout

So Much More!

Added lots of new character art!

Added gameplay tips!

Lots of references to In Auctorem Credimus!

Roselyna is now approximately 20% more huggable!

---

I've also updated the Trinkets & Secrets Guide, as well as the Twin Character Templates!

If you encounter any errors, or have any questions or feedback, feel free to send me an ask! I'll go through my ask backlog after I have recovered from the update.

I hope it was worth the wait! 😊

[reel-fear]

Bendy And The Power Of Representation

So those graphic novel pages huh? Seems I posted my cover post at just the right time because literally minutes after I was informed the preview pages came out and uh. This is Buddy and Norman!

Oh dear... I'll put the full graphic novel pages down below but I have so much to say on how awful this is it'll need several posts. However, right now I want to mostly talk about representation and briefly touch on why it's so damn important + inform others about the current shit Mike and Meatly are saying about the books n such.

Now note: All the things I'm saying below are based on my personal experience, maybe some people don't care about seeing the representation of their identities in the media they consume. Maybe some will think I'm merely being dramatic and I might be but I'm not lying when I say I personally believe being represented and seen in the media you consume can be one of the most wonderful feelings in the world.

Look I'm not here to argue with people who think that Norman in particular was never meant to be a person of color, I would argue he is very coded but the points I'm making here are not about how Norman particularly had to be black. The point I want to make is the lack of diversity in our cast in general and how Norman's design has heavily dwindled it considering most people [including myself] rightfully assumed he was at least one of three black characters in our cast. Not according to this though and looking at the the rest of the pages our chances of seeing any kind of decent diverse character designs dwindle more.

So firstly... Buddy a character who has been said to experience discrimination for being Jewish, lacks any kind of ethnic features at all. That's... Cool but yeah I think this shows a rather grim future for the character designs as a whole.

Also, Norman... As I mentioned he was largely assumed to be black due to his southern dialect, his voice, and other factors. But nope, he's a generic white guy. With... Gross looking hair tbh...

Sadly this is not the first time the topic of poor representation has come up concerning Bendy either.

[note how he disregarded the other mentioned minorities and specifically cites LGBTQ+ characters]

This sucks as a response but sadly considering Mike's recent behavior it seems to fall in line with the Bendy team's general lack of care towards representing anyone who isn't straight and white.

So how did Mike respond to all of this? Well...

TDLR - "Who cares if the Graphic Novel we're selling to our fans for full price sucks, we now no longer consider the books canon."

This is horrible, I know Mike and Meatly are only really in this for the money, the fact BATIM is in the state that it is proved that, but they really couldn't have been less obvious about it?

So basically when it benefited them, AKA when it meant people would have to buy the books to understand important lore like Boris' identity... [the character you spend all of chapter 4 trying to rescue] They were considered canon... At least the author sure thought so.

Hell even in the tweet Meatly made here he doesn't say the books aren't canon, he just says they're not needed to understand Bendy's world. Now Mike is using that as a shield instead of doing the right thing and saying "You're right, the poc in our fanbase deserve better we'll have it fixed right away!" Like most reasonable people would considering how his studio has literally been accused of bigotry, poor rep, and general lack of diversity before. Why risk making more people avoid this franchise?

Also just... Imagine how insulting it would be to be an author who helps flesh out so much of this world and gives its characters depth like NONE of the games have managed to do, filling in plot holes, creating a timeline for events, etc... Then because they couldn't bother to change the graphic novel for ur story to be better they instead throw out all ur writing and declare it non-canon.

If I were her to put it bluntly I'd feel insulted and horrible. Why make her do all the work of making sure her works align with the timeline and game's canon if they're not part of it?

I can't speak for her obviously but Meatly and Mike know of her account, so speaking out against this could very much risk her being fired or at least not allowed to work on Bendy anymore... So I would take all her tweets on this situation with a grain of salt. She very much is not in a position where she could be honest if she was against this.

So with all that history now, the question I'm sure many are wondering is... Why does this even matter? Who cares how diverse the characters are when it doesn't affect the story?

Well for one thing, if you think like that consider having more empathy for your fellow human beings but also it does affect the story. One of DCTL's themes is about the bigotry of the period it is set in.

Now the Bendy team has managed to make the discussion of this book centering around their bigotry which is ironic in a way I almost find funny... Though this entire thing is just a bit too hurtful and upsetting to find any humor in, at least for me...

But another thing is representation can bring people such joy when it's done with care. It really shouldn't be understated how far it can go to make people feel more comfortable in their own sense of self to have a franchise choose to represent them and their experiences. I know this from personal experience.

Now if you've been following me for a while, you know I'm a big fan of Transformers. I no longer engage with it much due to baggage from the fandom's awful treatment of me, but before I left I remember being able to witness the release of Transformers: Earthspark first few episodes.

These introduced the Maltos the family who meets the Transformers and serve as our protagonists and guess what?

It's a family of Filipinos!

Now look I'm not Filipino, but I am half Mexican and I have a lot of love for that part of me. So seeing the representation of any Spanish culture in this franchise I loved made me so happy! I remember just watching the first episode I was happily telling my partner how fun it was to see people like me and my family in a world I love!!

But it didn't end with the Maltos in fact... There was another character who spoke to me, their name was Nightshade. Their pronouns are They/Them and they spoke about it on the show! Not just mentioning it and moving on but actually sitting down to speak about their experiences...

This clip in particular really turned them into an absolute favorite among fans and well... I'll let you see it for yourself.

This scene... Fills me with a joy I cannot describe. It is the creators of a franchise I love telling me they see people like me and find the stories of people like me important enough to include in this series. There really is nothing like being able to say there are Non-Binary characters in a franchise I have so much love for. I was far from the only one too.

This is amazing, this is wonderful, this clip and character were moving to so so many people and...

This is a joy the Bendy creators have no interest in giving their audience. They don't care how you feel as a queer and/or black person, which... Hurts...

I... Discovered I was trans while in the Bendy community... It was where I learned the word Non-Binary and started using it for myself. To me Bendy will always have that connection... But the devs themselves seem to hate the idea of being forced to actually represent that in their games... And I still haven't really gotten over that pain or betrayal if I'm being honest.

So...

With Norman now being portrayed as white here, we are down to two black characters. Thomas [who Meatly has claimed is white in the past] based on a vague conversation with Sammy in DCTL they could easily ignore... And Jacob.... A book exclusive character which according to Mike means he is non-canon.

If we don't count Thomas' vague talk with Sammy about disrespect as confirmation he's black [which the devs don't seem to think so] then we have one black character in all of Bendy... And he recently got retconned into non-existence. Great.

Look... The Bendy fanbase has always been full of wonderfully diverse designs for the staff and even more diverse people creating them. Bendy's fandom was built with the work of queer people from all kinds of places.

If the Bendy team continues to show how little they care for anyone who isn't straight or white... I wonder who they are counting on to buy this book or in general financially support their franchise?

I know right now, I am furious, I am hurt and I most certainly don't feel like buying a book that's currently just a massive fuck you to the fans and I hope I've expressed why I feel this way in an easy-to-understand way here...

Either way, I will not be forgetting this anytime soon and I hope the fanbase does the same. Maybe just maybe, if there's enough backlash to this series of horrible decisions they'll learn better.

Right now, it's kinda of our only hope for a better future, and if you know any poc who are into Bendy right now... Maybe consider making sure they're feeling okay.

I know from experience how much this sort of thing hurts, to have the creators of a world you love straight up tell you they don't intend to fix the fact no one in their stories represents your identity or life...

What I'm trying to say is...

This is a really low point for Bendy and its fans... Even more for the poc who have to witness such ignorant and careless attitudes from Mike and Meatly towards their feelings.

Please don't forget them when you discuss these tweets or this situation. That's exactly what Mike and Meatly want right now.

For them to be unrepresented and therefore... Unheard.

[respectthepetty]

Second episode of Perfect 10 Liners, and I am very much in love with Warm as a character, and not just because he is being played by Fluke Gawin.

Also, I really like the friends groups because we all need that one friend who makes us prioritize our educational goals before revenge.

But the color coding wasn't as strong this episode since the boys weren't as much in their colors as they were in the first episode, but I still feel very confident everyone is color coded.

Because although I couldn't figure out if Orange Oddity Pond was wearing a light orange shirt after not-so-subtly waiting around with Blue Boy Sand,

He did wear both his and his future boo's colors when he faked an injury to give Arc more time with Arm.

Which Red Rascal Arc desperately needed because his bullying is getting him nowhere with Yellow Yal Arc expect ignored.

I do like that Arm is making it clear that he does like nor appreciate Arc's behavior, yet is still doing everything Pun asks of him.

And that it's getting through to this hot-headed Red Rascal.

Because, once again, whoever color coded these character deserves a raise since a passionate, aggressive, and dangerously powerful Red Rascal would be the character with road rage.

And this week proved again that Arc is a Red Rascal not only through his actions but the colors because his cleats were red.

So was his shirt.

The 'introvert' text on his shirt was red.

And his bike, his Michael Jordon Air Jordan poster was red, and his Manchester United poster was red (Manchester? Really? *eye roll*)

But his couch is yellow like it was meant to have Arm asleep on it, and Arm did wear a yellow shirt when he was perfectly ignoring Arc.

And his drink was yellow when he met with Pun and Jet who I am hoping will be the stereotypical straight color-coded couple of a Pink Person and a Blue Boy.

Come on show! Give me this!

But it's clear, just like Arc's yellow couch meant for Arm, that this Yellow Yal's yellow shirt with a nicely placed sunset on his chest shows that his feelings for Arc are quickly developing.

And if the shirt didn't make it obvious, the scene in the hospital did.

The feelings are mutual.

And, thankfully, the previews for the next episode let me know that the gear pin the boys wear is yellow and red.

So I'll be here for episode three to see Pond with his orange drink and Sand in his blue 'relationship' shirt.

And to also see Cop return to his purple ways, and Warm be attractive by merely existing.

AND MORE COLOR-CODED BOYS IN LOVE!

[0lost-in-my-mind0]

Preview of Ep7~!

At the end of each episode, a preview appears with the number of days until the next episode.

Episode 7, based on the days reported, will be released for VIPs on August 30th WHILE for non-VIP users it will be released on September 4th~!

Honestly, from what I can read about the plot of the next episode, I'm curious and can't wait to play it.

It seems that our mother and sister have returned home for good after episode 6 and therefore (rightly) having a job, our Candy is looking for an apartment!

However, since she is single, the real estate agency doesn't want to rent her the apartment for this reason, so it seems like we'll have to collude with one of our LIs to convince the agency that we're not single!

Personal thoughts on what I think reading the preview.

As I said before, I'm really curious to play it, mainly because we won't be living at home with our mother anymore but we'll have our own house! Will I miss the pool? YES! BUT I think it's right to have a place where we can live peacefully (and maybe invite whoever we want to our house in the future~)

I admit that this idea of ​​deceiving the real estate agents doesn't seem like a great idea to me, but after all it's a game! I deduce that there must be "romantic" attitudes between the two, otherwise how could the real estate agents believe it? It seems very forced as an interaction to me. Don't know..to pretend to be engaged with our crush when we haven't even had a first date..I'm not sure I will like this D:

That said, these are just personal considerations and are based solely on the preview of an episode that hasn't come out yet. I hope it's fun and up to the level of episode 6, but I think it'll be less exciting~

In any case, when it comes out I'll play it and I really hope to change my mind~!

Little bonus!

I found the preview background in the site code. This could be the new apartment!

Feel free to post your thoughts! I'm curious to hear them!

[jpitha]

The Dreams of Hyacinth (redux) Preview

This is a preview of a future chapter of my redo of Dreams of Hyacinth. Long time readers will remember this as the serial I started right after Just a Little Futher ended. I liked a lot of it, but I didn't like the direction it took. It felt too much like a redo of the same basical story of JaLF. I'm going to start it over - posting it here and to Reddit - with a lot of the original intact, but changes keeping it to High Mars Hyacinth, more of a cyberpunky feel I was going for originally and less Nanite/Galaxy Domination Stuff. This is a preview somewhere in the middle. Nicholas North is separated from Eastern Standard his partner and is trying to escape... something :)

****

Nick made his way up the stairs, out of the transit station, trying to look inconspicuous. Just another commuter going to work right? Nothing strange about that. He tried to ignore his headache. It wasn't working.

Out in public, the scars on the back of his neck, hidden under his collar itched. All of his implants were colored to look like skin, and the blending was admirable, but he still felt exposed walking around. He seemed to have lost Houndstooth forces for now, but who knows how long before he'd be noticed again. For the fifth time he checked his camera hacks. It looked like the code Queenie copied for him worke; when he peered in on the camera lines, he didn't see himself. He couldn't be invisible, that would have been too obvious. Instead he had replaced himself with a composite based off of a bunch of media he had downloaded two nights ago. He looked generically male shaped, generically handsome and generically dressed.

The very illegal submachine gun strapped to his back under his coat, and the very very illegal crystal memory cube in his belt pack weighed heavily and reminded him that he was not very generic at all.

He went to a coffee cart and got a flat white. He wasn't really thirsty, but a coffee would give his hands something to do while he walked, so he didn't fidget. Cradling the hot coffee in both hands to warm them - Hyacinth was a controlled environment, but it was also old enough that they adjusted the temperature for Earth based seasons. It was 'winter' and while nobody would die of exposure on Hyacinth, it was still colder than Nick preferred. It never got this cold on Parvati.

As Nick walked around Congregation Square trying to look inconspicuous and hide from Houndstooth, he sat down on a bench - leaning forward a little so the gun didn't hit the back of the bench - across from a merchant. They sold beverages of all different kinds, human, k'laxi, Sef, and others. People were walking in and out carrying small paper bags. Maybe he'd gotten away with it. Maybe he'd actually lost them.

Far in the distance a siren started. It had a piercing, long wail. It was mechanical, or made to sound mechanical. As soon as it started, others joined in, making a massive minor chord wall of sound. It was loud, it was worrying. It was meant to be. Nick wasn't the only one who didn't know what it meant, but he was probably one of the only people in Congregation who could query a KB real-time and ask what it was.

Spin Alarm, was what came back. Details, he thought.

The KB began to rattle of a canned explanation. When Hyacinth was so old that it was built before gravity manipulation. To get around that small detail, originally the Orbital spun, so that centripetal force made ersatz gravity. It wasn't gravity, and didn't feel like it, but it was better than nothing. There was a link to a raft of very old welcome articles that explained how to deal with centripetal force and what to do about nausea and how most people got over it within the first week of arrival. As soon as humans learned how to manipulate gravity, Hyacinth was spun down and remained stationary.

That didn't mean the spin engines were removed however.

They could pivot and move in nearly every direction. On the rare occasions that Hyacinth needed to change position or orbit, they could be repurposed. Plus, it was expensive to remove them, and Houndstooth wouldn't spend that kind of money unless they had a good reason.

Just as they were designed to do nearly a thousand years ago, the spin engines on High Mars Hyacinth fired. Being a cylinder sixty miles by twenty meant that - at first - other than a low rumble and a jolt, there was no change. After a minute or two though, Nick looked up and saw the stars start to move. The ever present crescent of Mars below started to move out of the current glass panel and into the next.

Human balance is sensitive. K'laxi is more, but he wasn't around any at the time. As soon as the spin started, Nick felt weird. It was like that carnival ride he rode when he visited that fair on Parvati with his parents when he was small. His inner ear began to argue with his eyes about where 'up' was. He looked down at his coffee, and the liquid in the cup began to slosh oddly, and very slightly start to lean to one side. If it was happening this fast, then the spin engines were thrusting hard. As hard as a Starjumper maybe. Nick queried the KB again and it helpfully mentioned that they could thrust at up to ten gees on when set to Emergency Stop. Nick didn't think there was an Emergency Start, but who knows. The KB wasn't sure either.

In the time it took Nick to query the KB, things got worse. People started to stagger, and some fell to their knees. A K'laxi wearing an embassy uniform fell to their knees and vomited. After, they began a keening wail that Nick had never come out of a K'laxi's mouth before. They were clearly in distress. Nick stood to try and help them, but was overcome with waves of dizziness and his own nausea. He sat down hard on the ground and laid on his back. That made it better.

"Nick! Nick!" His comm chirruped. "Nick, I got it!" It was Eastern.

"Eastern? Where are you? I thought Jameson had you."

"He did. I talked my way out."

Even this uncomfortable, Nick felt incredulous. "Tell me later. Someone is spinning Hyacinth up, are you safe?"

"Safe? Sure I'm safe. I'm in the Basement."

The illegal moving bazaar in the underground maintenance tunnels? "How are you able to reach me on comm? The Basement usually has a comm block."

"Well for one, I'm using your implant line instead of your comm line." She said "And for two, I have root, so I was able to go around the block."

Root? How did she... No, another thing for later. "Well, can you tell who turned on the spin engines? Everyone down here in Congregation is doing poorly. Most everyone is laying on the ground, waiting for the world to stop moving." Nick also didn't mention that they were all starting to feel heavier too. The spin engines were designed to spin Hyacinth up to one gee equivalent, but the gravity generators had already had everything up to a gee. If the engines continued, everyone would feel two gees, and while that's survivable by k'laxi, it won't be without injury if they fall wrong. For the humans it will be mightily unpleasant.

"Millisec, I'll see." A pause. "Nick, it looks like the command was sent from the Houndstooth Command Center. They turned it on themselves!"

What? It was their station, of course they had access to "Why?" Nick said aloud.

"The orders don't say, but I'll give you two guesses."

As soon as Eastern had finished transmitting, Nick heard a rhythmic clanking. He turned his head, and fighting waves of nausea he saw three Houndstooth 'customer protection technicians' in powered armor clomp around the square. They had blackened visors, and their rifles were in their hands. As they walked they looked over everyone as a mini drone hovered behind. Nick could feel it scanning, but it hadn't reached him yet. They turned on the spin to make everyone stop moving, so they could find someone! Talk about overkill. The gun on Nick's back itched. If they scanned and caught it, he was dead - and that was one of the more positive outcomes. Nick had to be somewhere else, now. If he got to his feet though, he'd give himself away to the CPTs. "Eastern! I've got CPTs nearby. They have a drone and it's scanning people." he thought over the comm.

"Already? Fuck. Nick, they must have knew where you were and were just trying to hold you. Talk about overkill though."

"Later, Eastern! What do I do?"

"You have your sub right? You could shoot your way out." She could feel Nick's expression over the comm and quickly said "kidding, kidding. Hold please." While Nick waited, he dared not look at the CPTs clomping around, but he could hear the whine of their servos and the thump of their boots as they moved and stopped, and moved and stopped. It seemed like they were checking everyone. If they knew he was here, why didn't they just come towards him?

Because his hack had worked, he realized. He'll have to thank Queenie later - if he survives. He heard more of that odd keening wail from k'laxi further away from him, and that caught the attention of the CPTs. They walked over to check them out. Nick couldn't believe they were checking out of concern, but that did mean he was right to not make his image on the cameras to be k'laxi.

There was a commotion from the k'laxi, and a odd shout, and then the CPTs yelled and started chattering among themselves. Before Nick could figure out what was going on, there was a deep thump, and he felt a shockwave. Had one of the k'laxi thrown a grenade? Nick knew that their civil war was ongoing, and that there were reports on the news of it being very brutal, but he had no idea that the war had come to Hyacinth. By the alarmed sounds of the CPTs, they hadn't realized it either. One of them had triggered their assistance siren, and the other's suit was yelling 'medic! medic! medic!' over and over again.

"psst!" Nick turned his head, pushed down the wave of dizziness that accompanied it, and saw a gardening robot peer out from underneath a large potted tree. "Get over here!" It was speaking in Eastern's voice.

Without checking to see if the CPTs were busy, Nick half rolled, half undulated towards the opening under the tree. Without grace, he felt down the hatch and landed on his back a couple meters down, knocking the breath out of him. Now, he was dizzy from the centripetal force and the fall. Coughing, he tried to sit up and push past the dizziness. Next to him was a gardening cart, and the little bot was waving a small spade from the front. "Taxi's here Nick! Get your rear in gear!"

He pushed himself to his hands and knees and flopped onto the cart. With an electric whine and a strong smell of ozone, it started to move away - slower because of the high gravity.

Nick kept his eyes shut. It was easier that way. "Eastern, one, thank you for the rescue. Two, where are we going?"

"You're welcome Nicholas North, and I'm taking you to the Basement. I've got some friends down here and they can help."

"Were these the same "friends" that let you get into Houndstooth CIC? How did you know what they were doing?" Nick's voice warbled as the car raced over bumps and gaps in the paneling.

"I told you Nick, I had root. Don't worry about it. You'll be here soon and we can work out next steps. You have the memory crystal?" Eastern sounded distracted.

She was deflecting. "Yes, I have it." Nick didn't say anything else, but a knot grew in his stomach. Eastern was doing things she shouldn't be able to do, and none of her answers about why she could do that were satisfying.

[fibula-rasa]

Watch More Movies Notebook: September ‘24

(and a few things from August because I didn’t have the time to update last month!)

This month's blog journal features two contenders for best new-to-me films of the year (from Argentina and Brazil respectively), a handful of Depression-era shorts that range from absurdist comedy to Jungian fable to psychological actuality, plus one for the Sad Clown Hall of Fame (I've decided that's a real thing). Also included: a round up of recent posts and a preview of what's coming up this month.

Favorite New-to-me Films of the Month

(listed in order pictured above, L to R)

As always, if any other films catch your eye, but you need specific content/trigger warnings, feel free to ask and I’ll try to oblige!

READ on BELOW the JUMP!

I, the Worst of All / Yo, la peor de todas (1990)

[letterboxd | imdb | kanopy (US)]

María Luisa Bemberg’s film adaptation of Octavio Paz’s study of the life and work of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Sor Juana was a 17th century polymath from (what is now) Mexico and the film recounts her struggles to continue her work and her relationship with the vicereine of New Spain.

This is easily one of my favorite new-to-me movies of the year so far. Biopics often feel formally stodgy to me, but Bemberg’s film is highly visual and plays with time, space, and symbolism, revealing emotional truths in ways that avoid going artificially melodramatic. The relationship between Sor Juana and the vicereine unfolds beautifully and both actresses, Assumpta Serna and Dominique Sanda, are fantastic. I would recommend checking this one out even if you haven’t read any of Sor Juana’s work—in fact, watching this movie will likely motivate you to get reading! 

——— ——— ———

La cartomancienne (1932)

[letterboxd | imdb]

An experimental short about a lovelorn young woman seeking advice from a fortune teller. Jerome Hill’s first directorial outing is a Jungian fable peppered with references to supernatural folk beliefs. It’s evocatively constructed and has a great rhythm to it (paired with Hill’s original score). It’s a real gem!

——— ——— ———

Little Geezer (1932)

[letterboxd | imdb]

Theodore Huff took a mess of New Jersey ragamuffins, dressed them up as grown ups, had them act out half-remembered scenes from pre-code crime movies, and gave us the gift of Little Geezer. I found it genuinely funny, but, even if you don’t vibe with Huff’s sense of humour, you might get a kick out of how clearly the kids enjoyed playing gangsters or the shocking novelty of the kids smoking, drinking, carrying tommy guns, etc. Greta Garbage’s impression of Garbo was surprisingly great though??? Might not recommend this one as freely as the two above as Huff so densely packed Geezer with references you may need to have seen all of the movies referenced to pick up what Huff is putting down.

——— ——— ———

The City (1939)

[letterboxd | imdb]

A short, five-part documentary about American city planning produced for the New York World’s Fair of 1939 might be a hard sell for some, but with its truly outstanding creative team, The City is more compelling viewing than you might assume! The City was conceived by housing advocate Catherine Bauer, written by documentarian Pare Lorentz (The Plow that Broke the Plains) and Lewis Mumford, directed by Ralph Steiner (H2O, Mechanical Principles, Surf and Seaweed) and future MoMA director Willard Van Dyke (Hands), assisted by Henwar Rodakiewicz (Portrait of a Young Man in Three Movements), and scored by Aaron Copland. I might have some personal bias here as I grew up in NJ and have lived in New York and Pittsburgh, but as a modern viewer, I found The City to be an interesting window into the past.

——— ——— ———

White Paradise / Bílý ráj (1924)

[letterboxd | imdb | Watch at Národní filmový archiv]

Looks like Christmas X Criminals also has a tradition outside of the English-speaking world! Anny Ondra plays Nina, a whimsical young orphan under the guardianship of a nasty tavern keeper. On Christmas Eve, Ivan, a man framed for a crime against Nina’s parents, escapes prison to spend one last holiday with his ailing mother. Together, Ivan and Nina with the aid of a travelling puppeteer uncover the true bandit, exonerating Ivan and freeing Nina.

Bílý ráj is a charming film shot on location in the Šumava forest in Bohemia. Don’t be put off by the overly literal English translation of the title, the connotations are off by modern standards! This will be a solid recommendation for the coming winter months and I’m thinking about putting together a little list of some of the best Christmas X Criminals movies out there. If you have any underappreciated/underseen instances of the trope please suggest them to me! Bonus: it has a wonderful poster!

——— ——— ———

Seeing the World, Part One: A Visit to New York, N.Y. (1937)

[letterboxd | imdb]

This cheeky short by Rudy Burckhardt is a mock travelogue about visiting New York City. Referencing both Traveltalks shorts and the city symphony films, Burckhardt playfully jumbles genres and the film’s acerbity doesn’t overstay its welcome with a ~10 minute runtime. Also, Seeing the World features Joseph Cotten’s first screen role!

——— ——— ———

The Golden Clown / Klovnen (1926)

[letterboxd | imdb]

The great Gösta Ekman turns in one of the best silent film performances I’ve ever seen in this. Ekman plays Joe Higgins, a talented young clown in a travelling circus. Joe is in love with Daisy, the stunt rider and daughter of the circus’ owners. A twist of fate results in Joe becoming a top performer, headlining his own theatrical production in Paris. Unfortunately, Joe becomes a workaholic and Daisy gets romanced on the side by a caddish fashion designer. Both of their lives fall apart after they decide to divorce. A.W. Sandberg does a phenomenal job of heightening personal tragedy to an epic scale. I was astounded at how smoothly Ekman performed twenty years worth of aging in two hours. As much as I enjoyed this film (and cried over the finale), it did leave me wondering if they make movies about happy clowns? CW/TW for suicide.

——— ——— ———

April Fool (1924)

[letterboxd | imdb]

An occasional habit of mine is to watch silent comedy shorts during my lunch break. One afternoon this month, I watched three Charley Chase/Jimmy Jump shorts. They were all winners, but April Fool was my favorite. On the first of April,  Jimmy Jump gets blindsided by pranks when he arrives at work. Jimmy swears he won’t get pranked again and makes a bet with his coworker (Noah Young). Chaos ensues. The other shorts I watched, Publicity Pays (1924) and A Ten-Minute Egg (1924), were also good, though not as tightly constructed. Publicity Pays features an especially sweet and well-behaved monkey BTW.

——— ——— ———

Footnote to Fact (1933)

[letterboxd | imdb]

A harrowing short by Lewis Jacobs documenting The Great Depression in New York City. Originally intended to be part of a series that wasn’t completed, Footnote to Fact survived on its own (thanks to Anthology Film Archives) as a stream-of-consciousness rhythmic portrait of the quotidian horror of the Depression. Honestly, I can’t believe I hadn’t seen this earlier, but I’m glad to have finally remedied that.  Worth checking out, if you’re in a place to handle it. TW/CW for suicide and depictions of real dead animals (in a butcher window).

——— ——— ———

The Hole in the Wall (1929)

[letterboxd | imdb]

After a major train accident, The Fox (Edward G. Robinson) and his crew are forced to rework their phony psychic scheme. When Jean (Claudette Colbert) knocks on their door, fresh off a prison sentence for a crime she didn’t commit, she takes on the role of their faux medium. Jean has her own revenge plot in mind: kidnapping the granddaughter of the rich woman who framed her. 

I came across this movie when reading about Robert Florey’s feature films and I’m glad I did—as a big fan of both Robinson and Colbert. Robinson doesn’t have all that much to do in the movie, but he’s very charming in it. Colbert gets the most to do with the conflicted Jean—a woman who chooses a life of crime only after a life of crime was chosen for her. But, the real reason this overlooked pre-code made this list is that the climax of the film was such a shock to me! I won’t give it away in case you decide to check it out yourself, but I never anticipated that!

——— ——— ———

Quilombo (1984)

[letterboxd | imdb | kanopy (US)]

I’ve had really great luck working through my watchlist lately. Yo, la peor de todas is certainly on my best new-to-me list for the whole year and so is Quilombo! Quilombo is a fantasticized telling of the true story of Palmares, a free community of escaped slaves in colonial-era Brazil. The film primarily focuses on the events surrounding the fight to remain free of Portuguese authorities while Ganga Zumba and later Zumbi led the settlement. As I’m not Brazilian, this history was largely new to me and it’s been enriching to learn more about it. To me, this film seems like a great entry point. It’s stylish in a meaningful way, has a fantastic soundtrack (which I’ve already listened to twice since watching the film), and the production design, editing, and performances are all super. Also, Quilombo is a film worth studying if you want to see how a filmmaker can artistically condense a large span of time to fit feature length without awkwardly hopping along a timeline of events like a slideshow brought to life.

——— ——— ———

Monthly Round-up

In case you missed it, I spent the better part of the last few months constructing and heavily researching “Cosplay the Classics: Nazimova in Salomé.” There were so many compelling avenues to go down that I split the cosplay into two and a half parts!

Part One: “The Importance of Being Peter” covers Nazimova’s creative decisions in adapting Oscar Wilde’s play for the silent screen—illustrating both her filmmaking techniques and her keen awareness of her core fanbase: young/independent women.

Part Two: “Artists United?” details the struggles Nazimova had in getting Salomé released and finding its audience. This part describes how the American film industry was growing and changing in the early 1920s and how Nazimova’s independent productions fit into (or didn’t fit into) that landscape. I also aimed to complicate the oversimplified narrative of Salomé as a flop by collecting and analysing data surrounding its release in comparison to her Metro films.

Part Two Point Five (a.k.a. Cosplay the Classics: Post-script) will be up soon. It’s a slightly shorter piece covering Salomé’s place in cinematic Orientalism. Stay tuned!

——— ——— ———

Since the last notebook installment, I made themed gif/still sets for:

The Golden Clown (1926)

Salvation Hunters (1925)

(which I talked about in the last installment of WMM Notebook)

Danse Macabre (1922)

Yo, la peor de todas (1990)

A Day in Santa Fe (1931)

(which I talked about in the last installment of WMM Notebook)

I also made some gifs of my Salomé cosplay, because I was so pleased with how the wig turned out I needed to show it in motion!

——— ——— ———

In addition to the follow-up to “CtC: Salomé,” I’m working on a quick how-to rundown of the cosplay, in case you need some Halloween inspiration! 

I’ve also got a slate of spooky-season appropriate gifs/stills to post here on tumblr for October. 

Until next time, Happy Halloween and Happy viewing!

——— ——— ———

☕Appreciate my work? Buy me a coffee! ☕

[punkasshunter]

After much, much, much experimentation and back-and-forth, here it finally is! This is the Left 4 Dead-themed Ao3 site skin I've been working on for the past couple months! So far as I can tell, no one has posted anything like this, which obviously I had to change.

This is my first time making an Ao3 skin, so there will likely be areas that I've missed that will turn up broken or clumsy, and if so I will keep a running "change log". With that in mind, I'd strongly request feedback so that I can make these fixes and update the CSS with them!

This is to be followed in the near (likely within a few days) future by a similar work skin, allowing for a similar look within just a posted work, and giving the ability to use subtitle-colored character text like the tags in this!

This is not a lightweight skin; it themes virtually every area of Ao3 in some way. With that in mind, here are some major features!

"Saferoom graffiti"-style comments and inbox mail and health bar UIs for comment and inbox icons

A fun new site header! Just wait and see.

Campaign poster-style blurbs for works!

Campaign menu selection border title blocks and image borders.

Canon character tags in the color of their ingame subtitles, for both the survivors and special infected!

Detailed instructions are in the Ao3 work linked in this post, but I'll include them here as well under the cut.

Instructions to create and use the skin

This is important! If you will be using this skin for mobile at all, you must go through the steps to add the mobile parent skin, or else a lot will be broken and borderline unusable on small screens. If you will be using for desktop solely you can feel free to use only the main skin.

Creating the parent skin:

The first thing that needs to be done is to create a site skin with the mobile fix CSS. Go to your dashboard, and select the button on your side menu that says "Skins". From there, you will want to click "Create Skin". For skin type, select "site skin". Title the skin something recognizable, such as "L4D site skin mobile fixes". Then copy all of the code found here into the body. On "Advanced Options" hit "Show". The only setting here you need to worry about is Media, where you will check the box for "only screen and (max-width: 42em)". It should look like this.

Hit "Submit" and step 1 should be done!

The main skin:

Step two is to create the main portion of the skin and add the mobile fixes as the parent skin! Return to "Skins" on your dashboard, and create a second site skin. Title this something recognizable as well, such as "L4D site skin". Once again, you'll be selecting "Site skin" in the dropdown. Copy all of the code found here into the body. If you won't be on mobile at all, hit submit now and the skin will be good to go. Otherwise, show "Advanced Options" again. This time, the category you want is "Parent Skins". In the selection box, begin to type and then select whatever you titled your mobile fix skin, and then press "Add Parent". This should look something like this.

Hit submit again, and the skin creation is done!

The theme fonts:

Note that this skin was designed to use two text fonts from the Left 4 Dead games, Future Rot and Stubble Bold, to look exactly as intended, and one more open text font, Moinho, for the headings of the graffiti-styled comments and inbox. Those can be found in this folder, but are optional, and the skin will function fine without them. To use them, simply download, and then once they are downloaded, click on them and press “Install” in the window that appears with the example text.

Using the skin:

You're almost done! The last step is simply to go to the "Skins" tab of your dashboard again, where you should see the blurbs for your mobile fix skin and the main skin. Click "Use" on the main skin, and that will select the skin to use!

Here are, without spoiling a couple of the fun easter eggs, some preview images of the skin on desktop!

...And on mobile!

[animenostalgia]

The Anime Nostalgia Podcast - ep 125: 50 Years of Cutie Honey with Salvatore

This episode is sponsored in part by Tokyo Treat! To get $5 your first box of delicious snacks & treats delivered from Japan straight to your door, AND to help support my little podcast, use code "NOSTALGIA" at my link here!

This year, Go Nagai's magical super heroine turned 50 years old! So what better time to have an episode in her honor? And joining me to talk all about her is No. 1 English-speaking Cutie Honey Fan (who has worked on many official American Cutie Honey releases!), Salvatore (aka @retrosofa)! We discuss not only the history of the franchise, but how even though Honey is a pulpy, sexy, and sometimes goofy Magical Girl originally created for boys, she influenced the Magical Girl genre in all sorts of ways we're still seeing today! Also in this episode: the decades-long argument of if Honey even counts as a magical girl, the appeal of giant Go Nagai monster women, and answering all your questions in this extra-long episode!

Stream the episode above or [Direct Download] Subscribe on apple podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify

Relevant links:

Buy the original Cutie Honey manga and Cutie Honey anime on DVD

Buy the 90s New Cutey Honey OVA on bluray

Buy Re:Cutie Honey on bluray

Buy the Cutey Honey A Go Go! manga

Watch Cutie Honey: The Live on Retrocrush & buy the official bluray

Watch a short preview version of the Japanese stage musical, Cutie Honey Climax (subtitled in English officially!)

Read a brief interview with Jessica Calvello (dub voice of Honey) from way back in 2000 on her thoughts about the role!

Find Salvatore online:

@retrosofa on Tumblr and Twitter!

@retrosofa.inc on instagram!

Read his comic No More Mermaids! (NSFW WARNING! Absolutely not for kids!)

My theme song music was done by Kerobit! You can find more about them on their website!

Support the work I do on this podcast by leaving me a tip on Ko-fi! Want to have your name read in the special thanks segment on the next episode? All you need to do is buy me 2 or more “coffees” on Ko-fi!As always, feel free to leave me your thoughts on this episode or ideas for future episodes here—or email me directly at AnimeNostalgiaPodcast@gmail.com.

Thanks for listening!

[ja-lin]

Night of Sin: Encore Stage is the sequel to Night of Sin: Pride, taking place in the same alternate universe. This will be my second visual novel fanfic project!

After 2 months of writing, drawing, and coding I've finally finished Ripley's prologue! Available for reading on web/mobile browser (Chrome works now!) and Windows PC. (Please note: You'll need to input your custom name each time you start the game.)

Find my visual novel fanfic projects here: nightofsin.itch.io

Two routes are planned for Encore Stage, but in the future I may add more! Please note this is a non-canon work of fan fiction, but very much inspired by a lot of the original routes.

Ripley Summers (Envy assassin) Slowburn, second-chance romance. 

Quillan Tan aka Shadow (Sorrow assassin) Whirlwind, childhood friends to lovers romance. 

I'll be working on both routes simultaneously, there is no set schedule. But, feel free to check back once a week cause I post sketches, previews, and updates on my blog. That's the best way to see when the next episode will be released!

Since I'm working on this project solo, all I ask for is your patience and support! My visual novel fanfics will always be free to read and I'll never ask for payment.

[crescencestudio]

Devlog #30 | 04.27.23

Hi everyone!

We are back with a monthly update! If you all remember, last month I was feeling a bit burnt out, and I'm super happy to say I'm feeling a lot more like myself this month <3 Thank you to everyone who sent me a lil message/comment, I always appreciate them sm. I won't bore you with my gushing, but I am forever grateful for you all! With that, I'll get into the updates ^^

But first, it was someone's birthday this month! happy bday, hoe.

Writing

I have some exciting news! Kayn's route has officially entered the line editing phase, which is the FINAL stage of editing \o/ This will be the first route completed for Alaris, wow!!! Fenir's route is still going through developmental editing, but the changes are already super cute and he is giving ultimate grumpy baby energy, which we love to see.

I'm still chipping away at Druk's route. Honestly, I'm Very Sad I haven't made as much progress with him as I would've liked, but a lot of my time was dedicated to the enhanced demo this month, and between revamping the demo script, coding, voice acting, and edits for Kayn/Fenir's full routes, I just didn't have the time. I'm hoping this month, I'll finally Actually be able to get his first draft done <3

Art

We officially finished all Demo Backgrounds this month (wow!!). Having started revamping the demo BGs all the way back in, like, November, it's crazy that this first milestone has been reached! Now, it's only full game BGs left. I received the new Dusk Court BG recently, and she's stunning, so I'm excited for the more "core plot" BGs to start coming out :')

In honor of the enhanced demo coming out, I updated the sprite art for the LIs! I'll be getting to the side characters this next month, but I'm really happy with the new art. The differences maybe kinda small for some of them, but I think they look a lot cleaner, and I think the auras especially are pretty <;3 we also whoreified kuna'a

updated sprite preview for kayn, aisa, kuna'a, and etza

The full GUI was also finished this month. I just have to code them in, but it looks SO delicate and pretty and sharp. I'm so thankful to Alice for doing the most outstanding job with them---she is so talented!!

Sneaky peek of screens uwu

Additional Notes

I complained about it 29348 times, but I Finished the Voice Acting Coding this month uwu. That is probably the biggest accomplishment considering how much work it was reviewing all the lines, cutting them, and coding them into the game. I'm terrified for the full routes.

I selected the playtesters for the game so far. Thank you to everyone who applied! I wasn't able to reach out to everyone who applied, and I didn't want to have so so many playtesters, since filtering through everyone's feedback would be overwhelming. But there may come a time when I need more playtesters in the future, so please feel free to keep my little game in mind <3

It's been a bit since I mentioned my Patreon, mostly because I feel bad asking people for money and promoting a platform where people have to pay for content LOL. But it is there, and I do post to it! The reason I bring it up in this devlog is because the highest tier ($10) gets access to playtesting and the second tier ($5) gets early access to finished builds. With the enhanced demo slowly getting finished, I will be doing playtesting for the new beta build this upcoming month in May. SO if you want playtesting/early access to the enhanced demo, please feel free to check out my Patreon* ^^

*Note: If you’re interested in becoming a patron for the early testing/ playtesting, don't become a patron until May starts otherwise you will get charged for both this month and May ((unless you want to give me money for both months in which case u have my eternal love uwu))

Market Research

Lastly, I did a tiny bit of market research this month! I played Bustafellows after my dear friend Seyl (check out her and her team's game Lost in Limbo!!) recommended it to me.

Shu: why is his glove so slutty

And of course the game everyone has been talking about, I played the demo for Touchstarved.

Ais: my favorite, and it's not even close

Looking at these two, and I think I have a thing for smokers lmao. Anyways, I think that's enough from me, so that is all for this month's update! Stay safe, and see you all next month <3

[princesscolumbia]

Code of Ethics - Chapter 15 - Tactical Triggers

This one took a little mental effort to get over a hump, and I described it perfectly over on QuietVallerie's Discord, so I'm just going to copy-paste that here:

So I'm doing some work on Code of Ethics and the scene was...coming along. We already knew from ch. 14 that Diane doesn't take too kindly to slavers, but just the gut ugly feeling one gets from human trafficking just wasn't pushing this in the direction I needed it to go firmly enough. Diane's about to have her first in-game combat of any sort and the reason to do so is just a touch thin, at least for this part of the story. I got a little over 1.5k words in and wrote out:

...it feels like they’re challenging me with their stares. The realization made the puzzle pieces fall together, at least mostly. She was a woman. They were men. They expected her to be subservient, complacent.

...and I realized; that's the missing piece of the puzzle! Diane's instincts are being twigged because she's experiencing patriarchal condescension for the first time in her life!* She's always kinda recognized that it happens To Other People, but she never experienced it first- or even second-hand, so clearly it's only a thing that happens Far Away™️ and Only to People Who Aren't God's Chosen™️. To experience herself, firsthand, is going to be rubbing her SO the wrong way and she's going to want to lash out, so then add in a little detail that would be spoiling just a little more than I want to spoil here, and she's going to tip over HARD into, "Salt the Earth!" mode. So I went back to the start of the interaction between Diane and the first slaver she meets from the ship and started adding little details that would be noticeable to someone who grew up AMAB as, "...why are they treating me this way? I didn't used to have to deal with this..." Already I'm feeling MUCH better about this chapter!

Preview below the cut:

“Status of the security team?”

“Inbound, half of them are in one car while the other half are presently loading...ah, they just finished, both cars are on their way.”

She tapped a thumb on the screen of her mini-tab, “Any new comms?”

“Negative, commander,” answered Cynthy, “Any requests for more details just gets the same introductory packet again.”

Diane grumbled as she felt the rumbling of the docking clamps lock into place with the vehicle presently connected to the top of her docking bay. “Well, looks like we’re about to find out why they’re being so quiet. Monitor this channel, Cynthy, I’ll set this to broadcast anything the mic picks up.”

“Aye, Commander,” was the only reply as Diane tapped the buttons on the screen to mute any inbound audio. She shut off the screen and shoved the device in her pocket.

She turned to Katrina’s hologram, “Any better sensor scans now that they’re actually docked?”

“Negative,” replied the digital assistant, “You may want to consider prioritizing the sensor tower and astrometrics. Once those two buildings are completed we should be able to complete scans far more accurately, greatly enhanced resolution, and at greater range.”

“Yeah, well, that’ll be nice for future us, but right now I get to interrogate a potentially hostile party that just boarded my station. Kat,” the off-the-cuff nickname seemed to make the hologram smile, “Do docked ships automatically connect to the station’s network?”

Katrina nodded as the lights above the airlock flickered from red to yellow, indicating compression regulation and atmospheric testing was underway, “They’re connected now.”

“Good, start probing for vulnerabilities...discretely, if they turn out to be bad guys blow their firewalls to hell and get in as fast as you can. I want full control if we need it.” Katrina’s transparent eyebrows went up in surprise as Diane continued, “Dismiss the hologram for now, I want them underestimating us as much as possible.”

“Clever thinking, and just in time. Here they are,” she said just before she de-rezzed and the cargo airlock indicator lights flipped to green, the door hissing open with a puff of recycled air.

Standing in the wide access doorway was a single individual. He looked...like a salesman. Humanoid, though from his scent, slightly tinny, rather than the human and Morvuck coppery smell, he wasn’t human at all. Looking carefully, she realized that his ears seemed to either be nonexistent or fully flush to his skull. His...muzzle also seemed to protrude, like someone had started sculpting some other type of predator, changed their minds, and squashed it into a simulacrum of human shape without bothering to get it right. In all, it was jangling Diane’s nerves.

The man looked her up and down, seeming surprised she was there. A brief glance around quite obviously revealing nobody else there, he turned his focus back on her, noted the firearm strapped to her hip, and nodded, “You would be the welcome wagon, I presume?”

Diane debated internally for a moment how to best respond, finally deciding on, “If you like. It’s something of a concern when a large, unscheduled, and unknown, ship barrels in at a comparatively breakneck clip after only doing us the favor of sending the cargo clearance packet. You’re honestly lucky we didn’t blow you out of the sky.”

Apparently unphased, and perhaps a touch dismissive, the man just nodded in acknowledgement, “Well, for my own sake I’m glad you didn’t, then.” He extended his hand in a distinctly human gesture of a handshake, “Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Taliesin Sanghvi, I’m the primary agent and representative of the recently formed Branwell Consortium.”

“Diane Somni’els, station commander,” she said simply as she took his hand to shake it, “And the name ‘Branwell Consortium’ means very little to me, I’m afraid.”

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[guzsdaily]

I'm stuck

Day 87 - Jan 31st, 12.024

Apparently, writing Nix files doesn't count as "real programming", because it's being hard to code lately.

I have been writing Nix files, with are pretty much just "fancy JSON", for more than a week, and now, coding even on JavaScript is being somewhat hard on my brain. This new project is a "subproject" of the whole productivity system, and it is just a small CLI application to transform Obsidian's Markdown, into plain [CommonMark] Markdown. And my head is fighting on trying to come with solutions to code, it is like I can imagine the concept and separate the pieces of this project to work on, and I feel like even a simple task I can't just code y'know? Even when I'm being hands-off with things like dependencies count, scalability, etc. etc. Things which normally I take care in "production code".

To be honest I even don't know if I should use JavaScript for this, I choose it because it is the easiest language to just get things done, and it seems logical to use it for content-related and/or HTML-related things. However, I kinda feel I should use Go or Rust, even if I need to learn them from scratch and have a smaller related ecosystem, I don't know if I should, knowing that it is a project that I would like to not spend a lot of time, but also the idea of learning something new in the time kinda drives me another way? I don't know, maybe I will try to use Go or Rust in this project, so it's easier to use them in my future "actual" projects.

I even don't know if I should continue using Obsidian all together now, because even if it is where I settled up most everything, even when it is the center of my productivity and note-taking routine, I kinda feel locked-in a lot more than I like, and having this Obsidian-like syntax (together with all the plugin's syntaxes), it can be kinda hard to get out of it. Yes, it is impossible to me to not be locked-in some technology, but I feel like I would prefer to have everything in plain Markdown and edit it with a Neovim config, than to have a lot of things that I can't read and use without a specif editor and previewer.

However, if I continue this, I will also never work on actual projects, you know, the ones that can give me a job. But without "The System", I can't organize and share easily said projects.

I feel stuck.

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Today's artists & creative things

Song: That Funny Feeling - by Bo Burnham

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Copyright (c) 2024-present Gustavo "Guz" L. de Mello <contact.guz013@gmail.com>

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) License