#this is also just to help w/ screenshot edits in future

[bizzyboyfriends]

Some silly sprite based ideas, The bottom left four are all based off the ones in game, since all the bizzy boys have similar sprite things. The rest were all just doodles reflecting how my s/i would react at points in the game w/ events. Also just for fun and wanted practice drawing in the games style.

I'm gonna try colour and actually work on these more later but might be a while so thought I'd share the sketches hehehe. I keep sitting down and trying to draw me n' capo but I literally don't have any IDEAS. I'M JUST STARING. Which is funny cause I can draw others ships no problem :')

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

Pokemon Emerald: Ralts Only

The Wally challenge. AKA Why Would Anyone Do This, Please Love Yourself!

I've been watching frankly too much solo Pokemon content and decided to try my own run. But rather than anything remotely sensible I decided to start with Ralts. Oh. Ralts. We're going to get extremely acquainted with one another aren't we.

Ralts is quite bad and honestly a baffling choice for a solo only run.

It's base stats are really low, honestly lower than you would think they should be. It's BST is lower than every other Pokemon you can catch in the area, that's how little they want you to use this Pokemon. But even worse is...

the movepool. There's good moves on here and getting Psychic at the brisk level of 26 is really nice! But we are going to have to gatekeep gaslight girlboss our way past a lot of the early game Pokemon in Emerald. Every Poochyena is an Avengers-level threat.

Let's get started (and the last time I use an emulator's screenshot function again, holy shit).

You might be wondering if the run is even possible at all. After all, the very first thing you do in Pokemon Emerald is defeat a Level 2 Zigzagoon, and you might notice that we don't have any damage dealing moves. Only Growl. Surely the run is just dead?

Nope! It turns out that if the Zigzagoon would KO your Pokemon, it will actually run away instead! Which is both really funny, and depressing. There's no way out for us. We're Sisyphus, and we're assumed happy.

It is at this point that the realization dawns on myself. We cannot actually get to Route 102 without first defeating Brendan, and his Level 5 starter. Eagle eyed readers might notice we replaced Treecko, so Brendan is going to have Mudkip. (Edit from the future: what the fuck are you talking about how did you mess this up?) How, exactly, are we going to succeed in actually defeating him? Well, I have a plan.

It's not a good one, but it exists.

Now this isn't exactly a speedrun. I'm not exactly confident enough in my ability to play through these games quickly enough to make time feel like a relevant metric. I will eventually win, no matter how long it takes. ;w;

But for now, I do the most important part of the run. I save the game and open up PKHex. I'm using a Ralts, so I need as much help as I can get here, and besides, it wouldn't be fair if this Ralts wasn't as good as possible, right?

We actually got really lucky on the nature, as Naive nature is exactly what I was hoping for. 45 base Speed is going to need all the help it can get, so I'm happy for the 10% bonus. Sp.Def is probably our least important stat as well. Now you might wonder why I'm not going for Timid or Modest and...the answer is, unfortunately, we're going to need our Attack stat for a lot of early game fights and throughout the run.

The choice of ability for this run was Trace. Neither Trace or Synchronize are really that good in all honesty, but Trace gives us a bit of information and can potentially be good depending on the situation. Synchronize is neat as a status punisher, but it comes up too infrequently and isn't that good to boot.

Now it isn't immediately obvious, but this actually isn't a perfect Ralts. This Ralts is 31/30/31/30/31/30. This is because this run is going to be using Hidden Power. I'm personally going to be locking in Hidden Power Fire for this run for two reasons. The first is that I think the coverage on Steel-types is going to prove critical for one fight in particular, and the second is, I don't actually think Hidden Power Fighting is good. It sounds like a good answer for Steel and Dark-types, but in Generation III, Hidden Power Fighting is Physical and that means we can't boost it, and it's impacted by Intimidate, which is surely not remotely relevant.

Also for those who don't know, Caitlin is the name of one of my girlfriends, @juci-luci . It felt fitting to make her a Ralts. Love you <3

So let's talk about my plan for Rival 1. Brendan 1. The Mudkiperino. If we had access to Route 102, this would actually be nothing worth talking about. We would mull about in the grass until we got a Ralts or a Seedot encounter, and then use all of our Growl PP until we could use Struggle. But...

Like I said, we actually cannot go to Route 102 yet. So we have to find a way to deplete our Growl PP...and not go to the Pokecenter to heal our HP at all. Let's look at our options here.

Route 101 has three available encounters: Poochyena is definitely the worst, because it's only move at Levels 2-3 is Tackle, so it will constantly attack us. Zigzagoon is also pretty bad though since its a Normal-type, and will do a lot of damage to us as it rams into our face. Wurmple isn't a very strong Pokemon thankfully, so it could work as long as we keep trying for a Level 2 Wurmple.

If you're curious about Route 103, don't worry, it's even worse. Wingull doesn't even care about Growl and will blast us with its special STAB Water Gun. This ain't it.

We actually get pretty lucky and find a Level 2 Wurmple on our first attempt! Now begins...the pain. At -6, this Wurmple is only doing 2 damage to us but what's actually kind of weird here is that the Growls don't actually impact the damage. Wurmple's Attack stat and Level are already so low that the rounding evens out everything anyways. Just an incredibly weird quirk of how the damage formula works. But as an additional quirk, no matter what Wurmple's Attack stat can be, a critical hit will always deal 5 damage. This has a couple of interesting knock-on effects.

The first is we don't need to heal in battle. Once we get to a low enough HP total, we can just run away a use a Potion out of battle. This might seem odd, but it's actually beneficial to do so, since Wurmple's damage isn't affected by anything we do, but String Shot does meaningfully impact our Speed. Outspeeding the Wurmple will give us at least one additional guaranteed Growl, plus it means I can avoid using items in battle entirely. :D

The second is that, ignoring the possibility of crits, we always can waste a minimum of 9 Growls with each Wurmple we fight, and Wurmple has 50/50 odds of using Tackle or String Shot, so we'll likely waste even more. Despite my initial concerns about Potion rationing, we might be able to get away without having to use many Potions!

I'm not going to labor the point too much, but we do manage to waste a whopping 23 Growls during our first encounter. That's what I call progress!

A few short encounters later and we've finally used all 40 PP for Growl, and now have access to Struggle. Generation III is the last generation before Gamefreak decided to bust the kneecaps on this move to prevent shenanigans with infinitely long fights (see: why Wobbuffet was banned in competitive Pokemon for so long), so we won't be taking too much recoil.

It is precisely this moment where I realized I needed to replace Torchic and not Treecko in order to get my rival to pick Mudkip. Honestly I have no excuses for this, I started this at about 1 in the morning. We're just going to live with this embarrassment and move on.

I'm not really convinced this fight is doable at this level, but that is actually a fairly decent amount for Struggle to do. Ultimately it's very close but I needed Brendan to be slightly less aggressive with his attacks.

I've actually never whited out at this fight so I didn't even know respawning here was a thing that happened. It might also be because I didn't visit the Pokemon Center. The things you learn! Unfortunately this is going to be a reset, so let's just add this here...

Reset Counter: 1

There we go.

I want to make it clear how thin the margins are here. I think this is doable, but it is probably going to require some above average luck.

Growl is a blessing and a curse in this battle. On one hand, if Torchic uses Growl, it's a turn where it's not hitting you with Scratch, which deals 4-5 damage without a critical hit. But, Ralts is already doing 1 recoil damage to itself, so Growl reducing our damage output also, paradoxically, means we are going to deal more damage to ourselves with Struggle.

On the 4th attempt, Caitlin just decides she's had enough and scores a critical hit on her 3rd Struggle, not only knocking out the Torchic but doing it without taking a single hit. I knew she could do it. :3 We get a nice 69 EXP for our troubles and...oh. Well that's unfortunate.

Oh they REALLY did not want you using this Pokemon. Ralts being in either the worst or the second worst leveling group (depending on how you view Erratic honestly) is truly tragic. We didn't even come close to leveling up after the Torchic fight. Which means we're going to need EXP to help us out. Before I forget...

Reset Counter: 3

Oh boy do the hits just keep on coming. Emerald in particular REALLY hates Ralts with every fiber of its being. If this were Ruby or Sapphire, this Poochyena would actually be a Zigzagoon, and we could grind up to Level 6, learn Confusion, and push past it. But Poochyena is a Dark-type, meaning its immune to Confusion. So while we could get Confusion...there's no point. We might as well try and see if this fight is doable at this level.

Fortunately the answer is yes. We even got a little lucky with a Turn 3 Howl, but even if the Poochyena just used Tackle all three turns, it wouldn't have mattered. Keep in mind...for most of the early game, Every Single Poochyena has to be dealt with this way. The first available damage dealing move Ralts will have to deal with Dark-types is Thief. From the Slateport Museum. We're dealing with a special kind of bad here.

I'm gonna stop here because this post is already long as fuck, but the next one will include the first gym leader, and the Poochyena that will make us want to use literally any other Pokemon.

[willowsallen]

im so sorry this is going on with you and other indigenous people but i did notice you said you werent going to copy what you said in discord becaues it was so long but would it help to just post a screen shot? simply because it may diminish the proving anon you got for any future miscommunication again sorry this has happened and i stand with you all

hi! i was actually thinking about including the screenshot in my original post, but i just wanted to get it out there and didn't have time to go back and forth if it was really necessary! but with the anon i got asking about my wording, it may just be better to put my full reply out! and thank you so much<3 it's greatly appreciated. below the cut is the last interaction i had with her (maybe forever). i also posted the direct text because sometimes it's hard to read a screenshot!

Natalie — Yesterday at 3:33 PM: i've deactivated my blog for my mental health, left indigenousrph before doing so so hopefully that doesn't disappear, but you and ari (who i will be letting know) will have full control on what you want to do about it. i will probably be taking a break from discord as well, if i ever even decide to re-join discord. deactivating is something i've been thinking of since yesterday, and it is fully my choice i went with. i am sorry. (edited)

missing proxyrarbg — Yesterday at 4:52 PM: Hey bear w me im 20 mins from home

missing proxyrarbg — Yesterday at 5:27 PM: hi! firstly i want to at least thank you for keeping me updated - i guess i wanted to start this off by saying i'm confused why we didn't talk until i reached out and even then, it was limited. i'm not asking for an explanation, just explaining my mind. we've been friends for years. you were the first native person i met in the rpc, we used to be really close too - i would come to you with issues, we would talk about pretendians, we would help write guides, or answer questions. granted, recently we haven't been talking (somewhat due to me not being very active, especially in regards to the indigenous server or anything indigenous in general) but i still thought we were friends. i've said since the beginning, i'm confused and don't know what to think and you have whatever you need to believe in your indigineity. my confusion only comes when you didn't reach out to me, nor did you give me anything to go off of. you don't have to post anything publicly (what that blog did was more than enough) but even sending me some specifics from your life, something, anything and i could've had your back. i was inclined to side with you from the very jump! why would you have any reason to lie? and still, as i write this, i'm just as confused as when this all started. so i can only assume how caught off guard you were. but i guess i'm just looking for some reason? not that i'll get it, i'm not forcing or demanding. but why didn't you come to me, at the very least to explain until well into the ordeal? or give me some more information that i would've 100% gone to bat for you with, without exposing anything personal. i think this is all to say i just wanted to make my peace. i told you that only you know if you are indigenous and maybe to help us (indigenous community) help you. we all had your back until everything was piling up and we had nothing to go off of. i wish you well! and hope you get the healing you need. i think that's all i have to say about that. (edited)

[notbynary]

[ID: Screenshot of a reddit post by the_killer_cannabis. Text:

I see a lot of people asking similar questions, so I'd thought I'd clear a few things up:

The main sticking points for actors (SAG-AFTRA):

- residuals for streaming based on viewership

- AI regulations (as well as not using it to recreate an actor's likeness after the fact)

- regulations against/addressing self tapes. They want auditions to be in person again (this is actually a major point that most people outside of the industry aren't talking about)

Main sticking points for writers (WGA):

- residuals for streaming based on viewership (overlap w/ SAG)

- AI regulations. No AI in the script writing process (some overlap w/ SAG. Same overall issue, but different specifics, meaning different language in each contract)

- "Preserving the writers room". That's how it was written in the WGA pattern of demands and this might actually be the biggest sticking point for the WGA. The two major parts are:

1. breaking up mini-rooms that stop new writers from breaking in and seasoned writers from moving up

2. lengthening the contract length to ensure that screenwriting does not continue down the path to a gig economy

EDIT: expanding on a few things about the WGA that got lost in the sum up but has been commented on:

- part of their demand to break open mini-rooms is through guaranteed minimum employment, aka, guaranteeing a certain number of writers in the writers room based on the number of episodes in the season

- they are also demanding better terms for feature writers on streaming. With budgets above 12 million receiving full theatrical terms, a guaranteed second step, and revising the payment process so half of it is given up front and the other half given out weekly over the contract's length. This is meant to combat free work.

What the studios want (AMPTP):

- obviously, none of the above

- for the tech companies, and likely the biggest sticking point in all, is the residuals on viewership. This would require them to release their viewership numbers which they have vehemently refused to do, likely because it gives some insight into a not as successful business model as their other metrics have suggested

- regarding AI: they do not want this off the table in perpetuity. They see the opportunity to cut out labor and desperately want to protect the chance to do so

Now, the rumor is that Netflix is the holdout right now for the AMPTP. But a quick reminder that each studio is still allowed to make a side deal with the unions. It's called an interim deal and is how the last strike ended.

It's a divide and conquer strategy. You make an interim deal with one studio (on terms you, the union, favors), and that studio agrees to sign the contract the union eventually brings to the entire AMPTP. In the mean time, that one studio is up and running, meanwhile its competitors in the AMPTP watch their competitive advantage evaporate. This pressures them into caving as well.

Hope this helps anyone who is curious.

Also, DGA having reached a deal is now pretty pointless, considering it'll likely be worse than what the double striking unions will get, and all the while the directors will largely not be able to work anyways (except for many soaps)

EDIT:

A lot of people asked why self-taping is an issue here, so I'll link my reply below from another comment. Just to be clear, they don't want to ban it entirely, but ensure that in-person auditions do not follow the current trend of going extinct

On one hand, self tapes might be logistically easier for those not in LA, NY, etc. and can provide multiple attempts.

That said:

Most actors will not get the roles they're auditioning for. That's just how the numbers shake out. But if the audition is in person, they will get the opportunity to interact with the casting directors. This relationship allows them to get future roles and largely contributes to how actors eventually broke-in in the past

this is a lesser point, but self taping does require a certain amount of technology, means, and work on the actor's end. Who's to say that a casting director won't be swayed by a better or worse video/audio quality.

End ID]

X

Thanks Anon for sharing this link with me and for the explanations in this Reddit Post. 🙏🏾

[tomatograter]

Tips for writing Dirk and Jake?

They're both simpler and goofier than they seem. Dirk and Jake are heavily emotionally oriented, but at the same time their emotions are downplayed by everybody (including themselves!) for the sake of keeping up a "respectable front." They're not very good at it tho. If you keep this logic in mind you'll prolly be okay giving them words to say.

Specially when put together, their quirks play off one another. Dirk is all modern and hyper specific lingo, internet poison, and a tryhard 'street' impression pulled from the internet and god knows what 00's tv serial he cobbled up together all by himself to sound # hashtag # cool.

While Jake speaks like a golden age actor playing a character, on a stage, with a transatlantic accent (this means a mix of american and british lingo that did not truly belong to either culture - it is, from conception to limited use then eventual death, a language made for Prestige Movies and to embellish the telling of Stories.)

Their characters are paired up like this because they naturally contrast with one another. The man from the future / The man of the past, neither of them fully being what they seem.

One thing a lot of people slip up on is the Language thing. Dirk sounds like a guy who's sprinkling hard words into his dialogue to seem smarter, knowledgeable, academic. Whereas Jake has an expansive and peculiar vocabulary (think like Rose's, here), but he doesn't care about 'sounding intelligent' so much as he cares about being LIKED or being charming, so with him it's about pomp and flair. You could say Dirk pretends to be limitlessly reliable while Jake pretends to be "A Himbo", but they know there's a limit to the act.

With both of them carefully crafting a persona they want to project outwards and be remembered by, they tend to adjust to the environment. If there's not a public to perform to, it's gone. Dirk is less playful and more technical-incisive if he's talking to AR and Jake really tones himself down at the end of Act 6 when he's just exhausted of being read wrong.

Them being friends for so long also influences how they speak to one another in contrast of everyone else; in dirk-jake conversations, both of them use a lot of bro-speak deliberately and almost excessively. It's a lot of Bro's & Dude's & Man's that serve to denote bestfriendliness or reassure that they're in the same brainwave.

Also, they cuss a lot, indiscriminately, and to great comedic effect. I see a lot of people being afraid if making Jake Say A Bad Word but this is nothing new to him. He often abruptly cuts off his charming old-timey thing to just sound like a normal regular dude who's gotten frustrated and it's that whiplash that makes the character. Jake can be pretty & abruptly mean if he wants.

Dirk keeps more of a leveled writing voice and syntax, even when he's arguing with himself, favoring readability over tone. He wants to communicate something with his long-ass texts, even if his explanations are too convoluted. When Dirk goes off the rails we're talking about metaphor- Like Dave, he enters a trail of thought and keeps adding to it sometimes, needlessly, as if he doesn't know just when to end a joke. (The "Bounce a coin off that ass" monologue, ex)

While Jake uses asterisks to *narrate his own actions* or EMPHASIZES important parts of his run-on sentences to show importance/tone/frustration BY MAKING THEM BIG. He uses periods to separate sentences more often than commas. When he does use punctuaction he can also exaggerate!!!! Not always, but often enough. If you see it happening too much edit it a little. (Jake also occasionally uses an emoji here and there though its very sparse so its more like a callback to how Jade does it. He learned from her, after all.)

Rereading their pesterlogs w/ each other and then with different partners (like dirk with jane, jake with calliope, how each of them talks to caliborn, etc etc) can help you pick on other useful cues and subtleties. They're generally more amenable and friendly to the girls. Also, dont skip the jake/hal conversations. They're crucial for characterization.

If comparing/contrasting is up to your speed, here are characters whose quirks sound similar to, compound to, or can help you write:

Dirk- Rose, Dave

Jake- Vriska, Jade

TL;DR: "intent" matters a lot to the things Dirk and Jake say, even when the text is riffing off it. Its more useful to think on /why/ they're saying this rather than "does this sound like enough lingo/oldtimey speak", because focusing too much on the latter is gonna make you end up writing nonsense.

(*All screenshots used in this post are from actual pesterlogs in Homestuck)

[daemonhxckergrrl]

re: your ask from greyr4t about win10: as you said in your answer its free, just needs a key for 'activation.' ime activating win10 has been worth it. like you mentioned, it isnt strictly necessary, one can make do fine in a somewhat limited capacity with the watermark in the corner forever (unless your monitor is an OLED then have fun with 100% guaranteed screen burn in lmao. or unless always seeing it enrages you disproportionately. as in my case). but having windows activated is honestly just nice, it makes many things easier and is more sustainable in the long run... worth the extremely minor hassle as like a QoL thing imo. you also brought up that its possible to circumvent microsoft (and its brazenly insane asking prices 🤬) & buy cheap keys online from third parties. i wanted to talk about how i did shit, hopefully it helps the original asker directly or at least comes in handy to know

so i bought my (shady bootleg, yes, but perfectly functional for years now) win10 activation key for even cheaper than what Synthia listed as a price point- iirc, under 5 bucks USD. (might be higher now w inflation, but id be surprised if its much more than around 10.) if things still work how they used to, you can do this on ebay. technically ebays policies dont allow it, so the accounts selling these keys come and go frequently due to getting shut down by ebay after popping up. thus, dont necessarily be put off if the seller hasnt existed for long, as often thats just how it goes (or it did. hopefully this sort of thing is still going strong🤞); do trust happy reviews. now, there are a few TYPES of activation keys– priced slightly different, nothing big– that correspond to different editions of windows 10. so basically its home edition, pro edition, and "pro for workstations". might be worth finding a brief summary of each to determine which edition best meets your needs. (there are more editions beyond the main trio, look into those too if you want, but the tldr on em is theyre for like niche markets w/ highly specific use cases.) fwiw, i got pro & am happy with it. another thing, from personal experience: may or may not be obvious but you're gonna wanna save a screenshot of your key somewhere safe and accessible. additionally though, label the screenshot somehow so you know what it is later, and if youre a disorganized scatterbrain like i am then put that in multiple places you can reliably access so if/when youre having trouble tracking it down you know where else to look; it came in handy for me to have access to it in places both online (cloud storage like google drive or dropbox for example, or even just saving the email copy of the ebay mssg in the designated folder in your email for the ones containing info you wanna save) & off (physical note on paper, stored in the files on one or more personal devices, etc). theres a huge chance youll need it again in the future– like say if you want to upgrade certain hardware– and likely more than once. final advice: highly recommend looking into comprehensive ways of "defanging" and/or "lobotomizing" windows, as they say. i.e., a tip that gets circulated is doing the initial setup for windows w your pc in airplane mode / ethernet unplugged so you dont have to make a microsoft account so they cant create a profile on you to collect your data to sell off & target ads at you (which is obvi totally reversible later if you decide the benefits of having an account outweigh the drawbacks). shit like that, plus the loads of guides out there– many here on tumblr itself– on extensive fucking around in various settings to disable bloatware / preserve privacy / other useful stuff, that can get pretty granular. i think ive even seen Synthia herself reblog posts like that here a couple times, maybe? perhaps try checking relevant-seeming tags from the tagging system in her pinned, or do a blog search for the term 'windows' and see what all there is to find

phew, anyway, jesus christ! sorry this got to be such a long writeup!!! some of this blog's aggregate of resources have been a big help to me, so i wanted to try to pay it forward a little <3 and, Synthia, if you wouldnt mind, tagging the original asker in your response to this anon so that greyr4t is more likely to see all this would be very much appreciated by me!! ty in advance!! thanks also for your careful curation of useful info on this blog, plus the helpful posts and guides youve written here for us yourself 👍🌈

hi anon ! thanks for writing all this up !! lots of great points here - hopefully they help you out @greyr4t ! the airplane mode one is real important too if you care about privacy (and the fact you can't choose to make a local account during installation unless you are disconnected from the internet is awful and yet another dark pattern-type tactic.

i'm glad my blog's been good for you <3 (though i do need to go through and make all the important stuff a bit easier to access at some point)

iirc there's some reblogs on general privacy stuff (probably under one of the REPO tags and like "net privacy" or similar) as well as my own firefox post, and maybe more will happen in the future when i get to them

[ofdreamsanddoodles]

hey, i know i don’t interact much with mechs tumblr, but for those that do: please don’t interact with tumblr user alderations. they dated a friend of mine despite a predatory age gap, knowingly involved them discussions that would trigger them and defended writing rape and underage smut of characters. details under the cut

first off, i’m writing this because it’s an incredibly triggering topic for my friend, but because alderations is such a popular blogger in the fandom, they wanted someone to warn any potential future victim. as such, i’m keeping their name out of this post. if you want more information, i can ask, but do NOT ask me who this is about. if you think you know who this is about, please don’t contact them about this, even if it’s just to check in/let them know you’re blocking alderations. we appreciate the sentiment, but this isn’t a topic they want to think about any more than they have to.

also, i have alderations blocked. we haven’t interacted, and i have no interest in speaking to someone who’s hurt my friend, especially anything they have to say in response to this post.

a slightly more detailed tw, before I begin pulling out the receipts i’ve been given: one of triggering topics is a discussion of whether or not something is considered an incestous relationship. that will be the last screenshot i send. 

proof of the age gap:

This is a screenshot of a private message between my friend and alderations. as you can see, their discord handle is the same as their tumblr url. They knew each other for a total of three weeks when this conversation took place. Despite him acknowledging the unhealthiness of any romantic interaction between the two, adlerations continued to flirt with an 18 y/o they barely knew.

defense of another mechanism writer’s rape fics:

my friend brings up an important issue. Alderations immediately shoots it down, claiming that the writer in question is totally a good person, and leverages his friendship with the writer to make my friend back down. the proper reaction to hearing someone say “hey, this person is doing someone harmful�� is not to talk about how guilty this makes you feel. my friend attempts to voice their own discomfort at the friends this writer keeps, and alderations immediate reaction is to say how bad that makes them feel, and how everyone the writer knows is too nice to cut contact with. any attempt at discussing this topic becomes impossible because of this guilt-tripping, guiltripping that places my friend as the bad person for having a reasonable reaction to someone writing rape. 

alderations insists that they don’t support this kind of material, yet does everything in his power to stop my friend from condemning it. if you’re against rapefics, you should be against rapefics. you do not make an exception because your friend is the one posting it. and you do not get to claim you understand that the people you’ve been hanging out with are questionable, while making jokes about people who have been triggered by their work

EDIT (2/19/2021): someone who read this post recognized the fic writer my friend and alderations was talking about here and wanted me to add their experience of being in a discord chat with both alderations and their friend, who is aunt-zelda and sent me this message:

couldnt help but notice I think I was mentioned in it wrt that part abt an author making a note in their kinktober fic saying “stay tf away if u interact w this user”

Is that user perchance @aunt-zelda, bc if you need anyone to vouch further to the predatory bullshit of alderations being friends w her, I’m more than happy to add my voice

I was in the mechs nsfw discord for a while before I got kicked for “suicide baiting” predators (translation: telling rape/incest/etc writers to get hit by a bus) meanwhile a vast majority of fic writers in there were just tossing around all manner of disturbing assault plots for their fics, including aunt-Zelda, so u can imagine the priorities

essentially: there is no way alderations was not aware what this writer was doing. nothing my friend told him should have come as a surprise

also, this (tw incest):

it’s worth noting that, as my friend says, they have sibling trauma. topics about siblings in relationships is incredibly triggering for them, and alderations not only asked without warning, but phrased it as though it would be a fun question about polamory. i don’t know what to say to this. clearly, he was aware that it was a potentially triggering topic, because his reaction to the thought of someone he was dating (aka, my friend) also dating a sibling was to immediately cut off all contact. so like... what was the point of bringing this up, other than to purposely trying to upset your partner? do you care about winning this argument that much?

that’s really all i have to say. if anyone has any anything they’d like to add, feel free to pass them along, but my main purpose of this post isn’t a callout, or to shame alderations for their actions. it’s just my friend noticing a pattern of their behavior that’s been harmful. i won’t say that alderations is incapable of changing their behavior. i don’t want their growth to be at the expense of anyone else’s safety. If you’re a minor, please just block them.

EDIT: my friend made their own addition to this post, but because this post is still going around, and because they’re uncomfortable seeing a reminder of this in their notifications, i’m posting their thoughts below.

in regards to the screenshot above, regarding polyamory:

ive seen people in re: the original post calling it a perfectly acceptable question which it absolutely is not. if you think it is perfectly acceptable to ask an incest survivor questions about incest with no warnings and no opportunity to say “please ask someone else because this is a topic triggering to me” rethink that.

aside from a handful of jokes about religious trauma causing religion kinks, i had never said anything about sexualizing my own trauma, especially not this trigger that came about through the abuse i experienced from my brother. they knew it was incredibly triggering to me — to the point that even photographs of ink on skin can trigger flashbacks — and asked me this despite that.

i’d also like to note that not only did alderations ask this despite knowing my friends trauma, but upon being reminded about said trauma, they kept making jokes. a few people have approached me asking to know if the situation was “that bad” but that’s a conversation you need to be having with yourself. i’ve talked to friends about this situation, and all of them agreed that i had given all the information needed to form a decision. i don’t think i was wrong to assume that anyone demanding to see the entire backlog of these conversations, conversations so triggering my friend could barely even pull out these few screenshots, was approaching me in bad faith. if at any point it seemed as though i was not cooperating, it’s because having people approaching me to defend someone who i know solely as my friends abuser can be incredibly triggering. for those of you who did genuinely want more context, though, i hope this addition helps.

[kindlespice]

late ass replies but this time i have so much stuff to reply to that i actually need to split things up into categories :))))

also i apologize if any of this is no longer relevant / i am of absolutely no help :)))

otherwise, if you’ve asked a reshade related question...uh... sometime between christmas and now LMAO then it’s probably here!

nonny :

Hello Mikayla, I hope you're having a lovely year so far. I just wanted to ask this about the dove preshade (1st question here) kindlespice/tumblr/com/post/632163463099269120/ft-reshade-questions-a-theme-question-nonny i'm having the same problem, i have a new computer and after installing the game and it's last 3 updates and then the reshade it's not looking the same and it sucks bc i know how it's supposed to look (1)

the shadows are not as noticeable, the transparency between the walls is not there and the blur is gone (i have miiko´s ghibli's cloud override but i had that on my old computer and the reshade still looked normal) idk if it's the game or the reshade but it sucks bc i love how the original looks like anyways it would be really helpfull if you could answer. Take care and stay safe :))!!! (2/2)

hi hi! thanks for the kind message and i hope your year is going well! if I had to take a guess, I would say that maybe some of your settings in-game have changed? I would double check and make sure you’ve got edge smoothing off, and you could try turning off post-processing as well (im not ACTUALLY sure if turning off post processing does anything but it’s worth a shot!) otherwise i would try removing the preset and redownloading it? maybe the settings of the preset got jacked up and you can fix it by re-installing. let me know if this helps! if not, then you can always dm me so i can see pics of your situation!

nonny:

Hi! Sorry if this is worded odd but I just downloaded your Leif reshade and have completed all the steps, however there is still this blur over the screen which isn't the best for game play. If you could help explain how to toggle it for gameplay/cas that would be great :)

hi hi! the blur is the DoF (depth-of-field). it’s used for taking screenshots and is supposed to make the background all blurry. to disable it, you can use the hotkey shift-2 or open the reshade menu and manually untick the DoF option!

nonny:

Hi, i just installed the latest version of the dove preset and my game is dark. It is the MXAO that is doing it but i don't have the preprocessor definitions box. How do i fix it?

hello! im assuming you have a 4.0 version of reshade if you can’t find the box. in this version, it’s a blue tab called “Edit Global Preprocessor Definitions” beneath all the toggleable effects. if you have an earlier version, it should be under the “settings” tab at the top though.

nonny:

Hello!! Thank you so much for your work! I have a really quick question - so I am trying to work with the reshade and got it all set but when I play around with it, my objects don’t look “rounded”. If that makes sense. Other people who use it, their objects look rounded and smooth and just different (I have an image for reference) but mine just looks like the normal objects just different colors. Is there something I’m missing or doing something wrong? I have all the settings correct. :)

hi hi! hmm, im not really sure what that could be... probably something to do with mxao bc it’s always something to do with mxao lol. I would double check to make sure you have this line in your preprocessor definitions: RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_IS_REVERSED = 0 this line should equal 0 for the mxao to work properly. that might give you the “rounded” look. if this doesn’t fix it for you then you should go ahead and dm me so i can see what the game looks like!

nonny:

Hey, I tried your Dove preset but my game just can't handle it, it's pretty old and I just have to uninstall the reshade (even though I really loved the effect) but I'm scared to do anything in the Game folder or delete anything. Could you please help me with what to remove? I'm scared to break my game if I delete something that souldn't be deleted :( I tried searching for this in your WCIF and reshade questions and couldn't find an answear. Please help

hello! sorry to hear that your game can’t handle the preset :( here’s to hoping you can get an upgrade in the future! anyhow, to uninstall; i believe you only need to remove 

ReShade - config settings (it’ll have a little paper w/ gear next to it)

d3d9.dll - application extension  (it’ll have a little paper w/ gears ON it)

d3d9 - text document (little paper w/ lines icon)

reshade-shaders - folder

your reshade presets - config settings (if you remove the files above first though, you won’t be able to use/see these in-game)

that should uninstall reshade from your game! and don’t worry, if you accidentally remove something you didn’t want to, you can “verify your game files” through origin and that should restore any missing files. unless you.. *ahem*... acquired your game through other means... in which case be careful XD

@maddybarbz

Omg I don't know if you are active or not but I'm having some problems. So I downloaded the 3.0.8 and it was going smoothly but I loaded the game it said that magic bloom had issues.

i don’t know if im active either. probably not tbh XD but im here now so here ya go! i would recommend deleting the shaders you’re having problems with and then putting back the 3.0.8 shaders you downloaded. it’s really easy for things to break / be incompatible during the install so your best bet is always to delete the ones giving you trouble and put the new ones in.

@kaiamikulka

hi! I’ve been jealously stalking your page for a while, because I’m in love with the dove preset, but I’m very confused about how to download it. My computer keeps marking it as a virus, so i was kinda scared to download it. and when i finally did, it didn’t show up in my game. could you walk me through how to download it?(i have a pc laptop)

Thank you so much,

Kaia☺️☺️❤️❤️❤️

hi hi! lol im flattered for the jealousy stalk! anyway im not sure why it wouldn’t be showing up in game? unless you were so excited that you forgot to install reshade with it? i have a video here explaining how to install a recent version of reshade and set up dove with it so you can check that out here !

@bojanastarcevic​

Hello, I've been trying to fix the dove reshade for a long time, but the new version just doesn't support it, and the old version spoils the game and sometimes it won't even start ... Would you consider trying to make the same preset version for the latest reshade version? I'll be very grateful because your preset is the most beautiful I have ever seen?! 😘😂Don't know if you still play of work on your game but like I said if you have time to try make new one couse everyone was looking for it!!! 😉😘😘😘

hi hi! i totally understand not using the earlier versions--these later ones are soo much more user friendly!--but i’ve been able to get the preset to work with later versions (4.7.0 is the latest i’ve tried though) and it looks, if not the same, then very close to the original. I have a video here explaining how i did it if you’re really eager to have it

in the future i guess i could try to re-release the preset? i can’t give you an eta bc im lazy and i fall off the face of the earth regularly, but i do think it would help to have updated instructions right on the face of the download. 

[sims4yurionice]

Golden Hour- A fanfic vignette (yuri on ice)

As the sun set into the autumn sky, chilly air flooded over the dark horizon wall into the city of Saint Petersberg. The cold seeped through the doorframes and windows sils of the Nikiforov loft and turned the living quarters into a deceitful tundra.

“Thank you, it was nice meeting you Babushka,” Yuri said in airy, quiet russian and pulled the front door shut with one hand. He hopped, his feet feather light on the ice-like wood floor, to the coffee table to set down the pitcher of sunflowers. Sinking into the couch to admire them up close, he dragged his knees to his chest and wiggling his toes to bite back at the cold. 

Specks of pollen glowed around the petals, the sunflowers frozen into gold in the streaming spotlight of the bold evening sun. Then Yuris mind lost itself in that gilded cosmos, forgetting to long for his lover who would soon return from work.

Victor hung up his coat at the hooks in the foyer and, as silent as the dust flying around the air, settled onto the couch next to Yuri. He slipped his arms around Yuris slim shoulders like sweater-clad snakes.

In response Yuri sprawled his limbs over Victor like a human blanket.

“Warm.” Yuri thought. “Victor is warm.” 

He soaked in the heat radiating through Victors wool jacket, no words spoken between the two until....

“Who brought the flowers?” Victor turned to murmured into the crown of Yuris head.

“The neighbor, a housewarming gift from her well-suited garden.”

Victors eyes had since turned from the golden flowers to study Yuris face. 

“This must be her last clipping. Sunflowers wilt at the first chill of fall.” 

Yuri lifted his head up to look at Victor, blinking his brown marble eyes. 

“That’s very selfless of her.” 

“She’s my sweet egalitarian neighborhood babushka, and I hope you can meet more of my favorite kind of people here in Russia,”

Victor blew his kind compliments out of his heart-shaped mouth at Yuris nose and the smell of Victors cologne sedated Yuri. Yuri slumped forward into Victors sweet aura, lifting his palm up to victors cheek.

“You’re my favorite kind of person though,”

Perhaps because the sponsors had not only eaten the whole buffet at the meeting but also dined extensively on Victors voice, Victor was barren of any further comments. Eager to keep the conversation going and better at talking with his body, he closed his eyes and press his grin onto Yuris small smile.

Yuri gripped Victors shoulders. He too was gifted. He played ballads with his body- their bodies. 

Their tongues slipped over one another like satin ribbons as they tied their lips together in a kiss.

Victor strengthen his grip on the ribbon, pulling tighter at Yuris tongue until he had Yuri underneath him on the couch desperately hanging from his mouth. 

| ू´ᆺ`●) WoW~

I suck at writing. But sparks of a sweet vignette popped around in my mind while editing these photos and I couldnt help trying to catch them and slap them onto this post. I had imagined better dialogue but got tired. 

Imagine running your fingers over the worn out wool of Victors jacket, feeling his muscles etched out into what seems like self heating marble. Imagine Yuris shapely thighs imprisoning your own, a squishy layer of fat bouncing back against your legs when he moves them slightly.

Imagine the smell of the crisp water from the jug of flowers moisturizing the air above the coffe table. Imagine the dust that escaped Victors intense cleaning spree following his 12 month apartment vacancy tickling your nose.

I wanted to include all of these feelings, since I felt these when looking at the pictures. I hope I can incorporate better feelings in the future vignettes I do :) If I have the energy =w=

Or I could just edit my screenshots better. Since a picture speaks a thousand words. 

Sims ID: Punpuncake

Sims Models: Yuri Katsuki, Victor Nikiforov

[novantinuum]

A Link Beyond Memory (ch 2/4)

AO3

Fandom: Trollhunters, 3Below

Rating: T (for minor language in future chapters)

Words: 600~

Pairings: Jim/Claire, but not focus

Summary: Shortly after the events of the Eternal Night, memories of a day that never happened somehow resurface in Jim’s mind in his sleep- and upon recalling the friendship he and Aja formed, he decides to pursue that connection again. Slice of life, and kinda a slow burn friendship reunion. A hybrid of prose and chat fic (to be seen in later chapters.)

Previous chapter

|

Next chapter

Note: Unfortunately, fic circulation online is getting harder and harder as the months pass. Please, if you read to the end and enjoy, consider helping me out by reblogging this post, or even commenting/giving kudos over on AO3. Thanks! :D

Chapter 2: Transit

Transit- The instant when a celestial object crosses the meridian, thus reaching the highest point in the sky.

~

T: hhhh miss ya already. tbh i dont know what im supposed to do this summer now ahah

T: i was all looking forward to hangin with you and claire and everyone else in trollmarket and now…

T: i mean i still have aaarrrgghh. and darci and eli too i guess but

T: really starting to wish i came along.

T: i know you said to watch over the town while youre gone and i know thats a good point but honestly i just wanna be with you

T: jim?

T: yoooo ? did u die

T: god i hope not after all the end of the world chaos thatd be really anticlimactic

J: Sorry no I lost signal for a bit!! Miss you too gahhh.

T: pls know if you so much as say the word ill crawl on the first airplane i can find and launch myself directly at your face

T: jim liSTEN jim im not even kidding

T: screw arcadia

T: if you need me im there

J: Omg I’ll defo keep that in mind

T: ..jk dont screw arcadia tho i love this place. also its already screwed enough at this point so

T: hey but you think merlin could make me another warhammer for my growing arsenal?

J: Yeah I think he could be easily convinced.

J: He’s kinda sucking up to me now hahah

J: He already made Claire a sorta necklace amulet to store her armor so a magic hammer should be no problem

T: awesomesauceee

J: Any particular reason lol?

T: i dunno i just think itd look wicked cool to double wield, like general orzan from gun robot three. also lets be real after all the crap he put us through we deserve S W A G

J: I’ll ask tomorrow. Hey quick Q for you though

J: Well okay not exactly quick  

J: It’s actually a long story but-

T: ye?

J: Do you happen to have Aja’s number or anything?

J: We took her and her bro down to the Janus Order, lightning in a bottle, remember her?

T: ye i know- lively! and uhhh don’t think i do? havent really talked to them since why

J: I get the strangest sense we’re supposed to know them more than we do. Had a really weird dream but it felt more like a lost memory. Think it’s an amulet thing, like that alternate timeline it made me live through once?

T: huh funky

J: Also supposedly according to the dream/memory both Aja and Krel are… not from Earth?

T: dude no offense but are you sure it wasnt just a normal dream

J: Seriously.?

J: Merlin turned me into a fucking TROLL and aliens are where you decide to draw the line

T: okay yknow thats fair

T: i take that back  

T: okay so,, aja and krel are MAYBE aliens. got that. go onnn

J: What I saw honestly felt so real, I swear. It was two weeks ago, at the science fair. We were fighting a troll in the planetarium with them, and the troll kept combining magic with some alien tech, which kept reversing everyone back to the beginning of the day, like a time loop or something. But I could remember everything bc of the amulet. Aja remembered bc of some energy shield she had. We lived through the same day almost a dozen times.

T: whoa…

J: And get this- in some of those loops we even went to their house and got to look around inside their spaceship! But none of us are supposed to recall any of it bc technically the entire day never happened? It’s how we defeated the troll, that bit’s a little fuzzy. A lot of technobabble sorry.

T: goddd out of all the days to forget huh

J: Right??

J: I guess… if she remembered all of this before I’m kinda curious if she still remembers now too. If it really happened. We were friends in that memory. It’d be nice to maybe get to know her again, y’know?

T: okay you’re prob gonna hate me for suggesting this but i THINK steve has her number

T: bc i was talking to darci and she said that mary told her that aja and steve are like, a thing now

T: a Thing thing

T: i believe her exact words were ‘staja’ ?

J: Oh my god how’d that happen is he even capable of proper flirting

T: well if shes an alien like you think then maybe she doesn’t know what human flirting looks like

J: Haha maybe indeed. I’ll go talk to him thanks

J: G’night Tobes love ya

T: night buddy <3

(my notes from ao3:)

Admission, I had far too much fun with the text format. I've never attempted anything like it, but I especially wanted to create unique "character voices" that extended into the way they each type- which was a cool challenge.

I imagined Toby as the sort of person who types out his thoughts far too quickly to care about punctuation, and IMO if Trollhunters was set just a year later (I generally just imagine it all set in 2016) he'd be keymashing. Jim is more of a full sentence type of guy who never turned off auto capitalization.

ALSO, a note on the contact photos- (Jim's which I directly took from a screenshot from Claire's phone, and Toby's which I edited from some 2D concept art)- That's the photo Jim uses for Toby's contact, and I imagine there's probably some inside joke where Jim took a really derpy photo of him at one point and they laughed so hard about it that he immortalized it as his contact. Jim's personal contact photo is... well, as this all takes place post s3 of course, a rather sad reminder of his loss of humanity. He can't bother himself to change it currently.

Future chapters will likely be a mix of text AND prose, instead of one or the other. Hope you enjoyed!

[borderline-off-fangame]

Birb answers random questions you probably thought about asking!

Might as well do this. *shrug emoji* 

Q: When did you start working on Borderline?

A: September 18th, 2015 is when I sort of started working on Borderline? beforehand I actually wrote a fanfic.. it was terrible.. then again, the first few updates even more terrible. It’s been 3 years since I started working on it, and I’ve made quite a lot of progress over the course of a year. 

Q: What do you use to make assets? 

A: Sai to draw, and gimp and paint.net to save them in 8-bit format (if it has textures, use gimp. paint.net just.. fucks it up even if you lower transparency on that bitch). For voices and edits, I use audacity, and my laptop mic to record my voice.. not sure what wolf uses to make their music, you might have to ask them, as for chii, she doesn’t use sai, i know she uses medibang now??? again, ask them!!

Q: What got you to write the story in the first place? 

A: uuuuu.. too much fangames inspired me to make my own thing. It wasn’t as much solid as it was, but the premise was still the same: Max has to deliver food to the Guardians. Of course, I had to make several changes to the story, because the first variation, you already knew what you had to do. In the current version, Max has no idea why Puppeteer is there, and what their intention is, other than to help you with your job. There might be more changes to the story in the future, probably minor changes and shit like that, but the main premise still stays the same!

Q: You accept cameos in your game?

A: YES, ABSOLUTELY, GIVE ME YOUR CHILDREN RIGHT NOW AND I WILL EMBED THEIR CHARACTER FILES INTO MY GAME FOREVER!! ... yes, yes I do actually! From time to time, I do accept cameo appearances in my game, but these cameo appearances don’t like.. uuuh.. how to put this. usually cameo appearances are done where like the character simply exists and doesn’t contribute anything other than just.. existing. In Borderline however, each cameo has it’s own purpose in the game, as I want the cameos to DO SOMETHING other than just stand idly and exist, so of course, each cameo is given a purpose. So when you give me your character, I make sure to do them a lot of justice!

Q: Can we use your assets? 

A: I’d rather you ask first, but chances are that I would say no, and instead would offer to make assets for you. Even with school, I have lots of time on my hands and always need some kind of excuse to get out of my comfort zone and do stuff. I also make free assets from time to time, so you’re allowed to use those as long as you provide credit. In short, if you want some assets, don’t hesitate to ask me to make you some assets. Again, it gives me an excuse to do stuff.

Q: Are you in need of aid or suggestions maybe?

A: ... always! I’m just either too anxious to ask for help, or I’m unsure of how to organize myself and tell people what I am in need.. The most important thing I am ALWAYS in need of are beta-testers, and of course, the more the merrier! Not everyone might point out the same bugs as everyone else when they play my game, and most of the time I beta-test the game.. every. single. time I set up an event to MAKE SURE it works the way I want it!! ...But sometimes I happen to miss a couple.. or maybe a little bit more. (and I burned myself out doing that oops.) But even if you decide to offer your help, I’d be utmost grateful! 

Q: Is your game crossover friendly?

A: The fuck you saying, Borderline is the biggest crossover you’ll ever get to play! ...Yes my game is crossover friendly dun worry! ;w; Not sure why I’d answer that question but if you’re curious, refer to two questions above (the cameo one).

Q: Where do we report bugs?

A: You can use the submit box to report any bugs you find. If possible, provide a screenshot and submit it there. You can also personally IM me if you feel comfortable ;w; Just please.. be specific when you’re reporting a bug. I really can’t fathom at all, as I’m but a slow dunce and might not understand what you’re saying at first... I’msosorry!!!

Q: What program are you using to make the game?

A: Rpgmaker 2003. It’s only 20 bucks both on steam and on the official site (doe I did buy it from the official site cuz steam is hecc.. and my laptop can only handle so much. :’3) 

Q: I am stuck somewhere, and I need help!

A: There is a solution folder which can be found within the game, not only does it contain images, but it also contains videos as well.. Remind me to uh.. fix a couple of dem.. puzzles.. yes.. 

Q: Is it okay to make fanart/ask/rp blogs of your characters? 

A: Why yes, it’s actually okay! I really appreciate the gesture! For art, because the tagging system (on tumblr) can’t get any more wonkier than it is, so if I don’t see something that you drew for me, please don’t feel bad! It’s just tumblr is fucking garbo. :’3333 Instead, you can use the submit box or IM me. If it’s of lewd nature, I ask of you to NOT DRAW THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERS IN LEWD IMAGERY (and I am copying this from the main blog): Basically the protagons of the game (Max is ace who shames people for fun, doesn’t care about sex at all, Sam is a fucking child, Seneca is not even my own character, Puff is also ace and very sex repulsed, and Aleyes is.. he’s not a tentacle monster that’s for sure.), Asriel (He might be his own character, but.. please don’t fuck the goat!! He’s supposed to be innocent!!!!), Baka (not even mine), Pipscrap (not even mine)., Now.. Regarding ask/rp blogs however, I am okay with it, but do consult with me about it (hey, those are my children, I wanna interact with my own children!!) Plus, I can provide you with a bit of an in-depth detail regarding the characters so you know what’s up.. Which brings another question to light.

Q: Can we ship <insert character here> with <insert character here>???

A: I’m a thotticus for shippings, but I’m a huge ass sucker for chemistry(tm) and relationship development between two or more people! I really wanna see what y’all can come up with really so go crazy!! But, keep in mind..

There are... restrictions however.. mostly with Max and Puff who are in a canonical relationship; this should also apply for AU’s as well, please pleaaaaaase don’t ship them with any other characters other than each other! Not only because I can’t see those two being shipped outside their pairing, but also because their relationship is very critical to the lore itself! So.. please be respectful of my decision! ;; There are other restrictions, but I won’t list them here, because we’d be here for an eternity. ;; Just don’t do illegal shit that can get you called out or worse.. please do ask for restrictions.. ;; 

Q: Is it okay to add Easter Eggs/references regarding your game or your characters in our work? 

A: I’d cry? I’d appreciate you ask me about it first so we can consult and shit, but I’d be hella fine with that!!

Q: You inspired me to start my own game!

A: I know it’s not a question, but I can’t just shrug this one off, please excuse me while I go and scream into the void! *sniffs* I am glad that my work actually inspired you to make your own game, and I cry?? Like I literally feel the feels?? <333333

[poisonappletales]

BATW Update + Ambrosia’s Tips

Good evening, everybody! Some of you might recognize this from Ambrosia’s. It’s also one of her future costumes and hairstyles in Beauty and the War (X Playing Pieces). Now, I assume you all would have voted for which style you prefer, so I won’t have to make two different versions all the time.

If you’ve played Ambrosia’s, you’ll be able to see the animation as well - her shoulders rising and falling as she breathes. Her eyes flicker and her hair rustles.

The other characters will have similar animations with some differences. 

About this costume specifically, it’s meant to be evocative of a rose. The red shawl makes up the encircling petals, while the green floor-length skirt is like the stem. Can you see it?

Anyway, I’ve been working on the programming/writing for Beauty and the War (X Playing Pieces) lately. Let me give you a brief preview. I’ve edited it to be in first-person story format (from Ambrosia’s perspective) since I feel odd just plunking it down here in game format.

If you’re here just for Ambrosia’s Tips, then feel free to scroll past the excerpt below:

“It’s the Vi I can’t really trust,” Sir Chase said, his eyes like hard flints. “Especially that prince. What’s his name?  Alexandrite?”

I scarcely nodded before he continued, “He’s responsible for more than half of our battles – the ones that could be called massacres. He’s the one who has Onyx on a leash."

At that, I couldn’t help but exclaim, “Oh, Sir Chase!"

“What? It’s true, isn’t it? Onyx is the prince’s dog. The king’s too, but it’s not like the king does anything other than lay with our women.”  His frown deepened. “For that matter, I don’t trust Onyx either. I feel like he enjoys seeing our men bleed.”

His hazel eyes darkened as he added in a mutter, “Stinkin’ war chief." He snapped his gaze back to me. “In fact, I don’t know which one of the Vi I would really want to sit down and share a meal with."

I wished I could have changed his mind by extolling a few of the Vi’s virtues, but what could I have said? Would he have wanted to hear about how strong and stalwartly the Vi defended us when it spelled their demise?

Would he have wanted to hear how they were our hero when they were the perpetrator behind the Trold’s downfall?

Truth be told, I scarcely even knew the Vi on a personal level.

I couldn’t say that Sir Onyx was an experienced veteran with sage wisdom and a hearty laugh when I never ate with him myself. I couldn’t even tell you how his laugh sounded like.  I had never seen him without his helmet myself.

No, that wasn’t quite right.

I had seen him without his helmet once. I had seen the prince’s visage at that time as well. However, it was so long ago and amidst so many people that I could hardly begin to remember.

Something I will note about the above:

✿ This is from the First Act!

❀ Depending on your choices, you may miss this scene, but I wanted you to learn a little more about the Vi’s reputation, so there you go.

✿ Within a social circle, Ambrosia tends to be the quieter one. In the demo, Jasmine and Rosemary will sometimes go back and forth, while Ambrosia listens or gently tries to keep the peace.

Rosemary is outgoing, Jasmine is opinionated, and Ambrosia is the shy sweetheart. She doesn’t want to interrupt the flow of conversation, and she sees herself as a person who neither draws attention nor deserves it, so it’s better if someone more interesting speaks.

Of course, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have thoughts or strong feelings, as you might have observed in the excerpt above.

By the way, I’m not sure if anyone’s realized this, but Ambrosia is meant to speak with a hint of an “imperfect” accent. Reminiscent of British and oriental - but not the stereotyped sound you might hear in a movie or TV show. Closer to the kind you might hear when someone speaks another language and English isn’t their native tongue.

On one hand, her soft-spoken intonation is a product of her demure nature. On the other...well, I’ll let you find that out yourself later, but it’s why X wonders (in X’s Notes and the bonus scene, pictured directly below) whether she really has an accent.

I’ll leave that there as food for thought. On a side note, I’ve updated Beauty and the War (X Playing Pieces) recently to fix minor bugs and typos! I’ve also increased the volume of Ambrosia’s lines since someone mentioned it was a tad low. A big thank you to all of you who are helping us this way.

Now then! Let me give you some tips for when you pay a visit to Ambrosia’s.  ♥

- This is a super short game! Think of it as being episodic, with each update bringing in new features.

- You will run out of questions to ask her. At that point in time, feel free to put down the game and wait for the update. Pay her a visit any time you want some company! The game will automatically save your current number of relationship points.

- When you’re talking to her, don’t forget that it’s a conversation. In between questions, you may want to wait around for her to say something. It shouldn’t take her too long to speak. If you shoot off questions in a row, it’ll sound like a job interview or an interrogation, right? But you can certainly do that if you want to.

- If you raise her suspicion/make her feel Guarded, this is easily fixed. You don’t have to re-download the whole game. In real life, what would you do if you accidentally alarmed someone? You could change the subject to something happier or do something else (like play a game or watch TV). You could also exit the game and come back.

- If you want to know if she’s feeling Guarded, make these choices: Talk to Ambrosia >> You wanted to ask... >> Something in general. >> Ask about how she’s doing.

If you get a statement similar to the screenshot above, that means she’s feeling Guarded.

You can ask her how she’s doing as many times as you want! She won’t treat it as hostile or like an interrogation. She’s happy and honored you’re interested in seeing how she’s doing.

- You don’t have to play in real-time! This is only an option. If you don’t have time for that, you can simulate it by exiting the game and coming back in.  Exiting the game and coming back in is kind of like your webpage’s refresh button.

- You can share your problems with Ambrosia by talking to the screen OR making the following choices: Talk to Ambrosia >> You wanted to talk about... >> You’re feeling down about... >> Any choice (except for Back) >>  Any choice (except for Back)

If you wait around, she’ll say something different when you wait around for her to speak.

If you tell her about an upcoming exam/test or doctor’s appointment, she’ll say something different when you close the game and come back.

- When it comes to watching TV, she won’t recognize every series you type down, but you may be surprised by what she does! As a general rule, she doesn’t like graphic series or shows with offensive content.

If you do pick something that she’s not comfortable with, she’ll let you know! Other times, she may try to push herself to watch what you want. She tries to look for the positive in anything you watch.  But expect her to close her eyes during any scary scenes!

In the screenshot above, this is something she murmurs during one of your TV sittings. (In this case, we randomly went with Game of Thrones.)

- What’s that Update button for? Beauty and the War (X Playing Pieces) updates. Each game update/episode will see something new when you click that button!

- Do you want to restart the game? We strongly recommend reading the in-game How to Play, which shows up as one of the beginning choices when you start up Ambrosia’s.

To summarize, here are possible ways to approach Ambrosia (whether it’s the best way or not is up to you!):

♥ Have a conversation with her and don’t ask her too many questions straight in a row. (Make statements by choosing to talk to her about something or wait for her to speak. You can also do some other activities if you like.)

♥ Periodically ask about how she’s doing if you want to know if she’s feeling Guarded (and thus, less forthcoming).

♥ Playing games, watching TV and talking to her will give you a better relationship. When it comes to talking, don’t forget that you might want to treat it like a conversation (i.e. occasionally make statements and/or let her say something to you).

♥ Exit the game and come back to give Ambrosia some space. She’ll treat it as if you stepped out the room and came back. Made a mistake with her? This is what you want to do. It’ll be like refreshing your web browser! 

♥ Forget all that and do whatever you want! If you want to grill her with questions, go for it. Do you want to ask her how she’s doing after every action? You can! How you interact with her is entirely your choice.

♥ Please be patient when waiting for the next update. The story will continue in, shall we say, the next “episode.” After you’ve done all you can do, all you can do is answer the survey and/or wait! Your relationship will carry over to the next update.

♥ If you want to restart the game, read the in-game How to Play for more details. By re-downloading the game, you can restart it...but the How to Play will give you more details! 

♥ Feel free to join the Discord. Whether you’ve played Don’t Take This Risk, Beauty and the War (X Playing Pieces), or any one of our other games, you’re welcome there.

As a side note...if you want to maximize your relationship with her, it’s your conversations and activities that matter most. If a week passes but you don’t speak with her, it’ll count for very little. 

What does this mean? If you don’t want to play the game over the course of a few days, spam the exit button and then charge straight back in.  As I said, exiting the game and coming back will be the same as you leaving and returning. An alternative to playing it in real-time.

Tips for the Don’t Take This Risk easter egg:

♥ There’s a 1-in-23 chance of getting it when you first open the game!

♥ You have to specify yourself as female in the prologue.

♥ It won’t show up at all if you exit the game and come back under an hour. Wait at least an hour before trying again.

An update for the game is on the way, so be sure to get your survey answers in! This is your time to let me know what you want to do.

You might have noticed that it’s impossible to go outside. Not to mention, there’s only one game you can play with her (Rock, Paper, Scissors). That’s because I wanted you to tell me where you want to go and what you want to do in the survey. While I could think up a series of random events and activities, I wanted you all to get involved this time. Have fun with it.

Let’s see if I can’t crank out an update next month or the month after that.

Don’t forget to let me know which Art Style you prefer. This will affect the art in Beauty and the War (X Playing Pieces), so you better believe your vote counts.

Beauty and the War (X Playing Pieces) is still the main project at the helm here!  I just thought it would grow stale if I kept calling out progress percentages/hallmarks, so I’m trying to make things fun and colorful. It’ll also let me flex my creative muscles while the main dish is still on the way.

That said, if you don’t feel like visiting Ambrosia’s, there’s no pressure!

You can vote for your preferred Art Style right here. 

Ambrosia’s is meant to help you visualize the sprite in-game, together with the animation. Not only that but you can switch between the art styles willy-nilly until you’re sure of your choice.

If you’ve already voted in Ambrosia’s survey, feel free to give this one a go, too!

You see, I find myself in a writing mood (as you may have noticed recently). When I have the time, I’d like to write some extra scenes/short stories/blurbs for you all, so if you feel like it, let me know what you’re interested in reading by voting in the new survey linked above. (When it comes to your preferred Art Style, just tick off the choice that says you answered it already or skip that particular question entirely.)

Some Lovely X Playing Pieces Theories:

♥ @cursedauthor​ [Theory 1] [Theory 2]

♥ @liversquiver​ [Theory 1]

♥  @rose-of-the-winds​ [Theory 1]

You’re all awesome! You know I love reading these. I hope I haven’t missed any out there, but if I have, just let me know. 

I really want to give a shout-out to every single person who’s made something related to my games. Unfortunately, I can’t always be everywhere, and it’s a little past midnight right now, so I’m going to turn in for the evening. I just wanted to be sure I got this update in since I’m sure some of you are curious to know what’s going on. A few of you had some questions about Ambrosia’s as well, so I hope these tips were helpful!

I’ll be going through some of my e-mails tomorrow, and I’ll have a more thorough Fan Corner next time. Keep being wonderful, everybody, and let me know what new thing you’ve made! Your support, no matter what shape or form, never fails to encourage and inspire us all. 

Bonus treat: Before I head off, here’s a Let’s Play of Ambrosia’s - mostly in French. A partly translated version, you might say! Guess who’s playing it? The voice actor who does Don’t Take This Risk’s Unknown in the 2017 Valentine specials and the 2018 Valentine promo here.

Give Nicolas Derre some love and support if you have the time!

Also, since @therealjohannamarie​ brought this up in the comments...

Profanity and cussing. Those don’t exist on Virgo Island. (By that, I’m talking about the f-bombs and other modern-day imprecations.) Just a little fun fact to end this update!

[simkjrs]

Hi please PLEASE talk to me abt the socioeconomic state of japan in bnh verse I am SO interested to hear ur thoughts? I'm a poli theory major and let me tell u im a SLUT for fic that deal w the political/social repercussions of fictional happenings

sure thing! 

disclaimer: i only just graduated high school so i’m pulling all of this out of my ass one semester of macroeconomics i took in senior year. feel free to add onto or correct any of this 

edit: if anyone wants to use this for reference when writing boku no hero japan, feel free! i’d appreciate any credit, but it’s not necessary. 

--

what really got me thinking about the socioeconomic state of boku no hero japan was probably the difference between orudera junior high (bakugou and izuku’s school) vs. yuuei, both of which are in the same city, musutafu. orudera junior high gives off the feeling of a school that’s a bit run down; not terrible enough that it obstructs the kids’ education, but enough that you think the school probably can’t afford to keep it in good repair. 

here’s a screenshot of bakugou and izuku’s classroom:

and then here’s izuku’s desk, which has details indicating that it’s in slight disrepair: 

if you go back through the chapters and look at the setting at yuuei, it’s spic-n-span. just super clean and well-kept. it’s an entire world of difference… so already there is this huge disparity between the junior high school in izuku’s neighborhood, and yuuei, which is a 40 minute subway ride away (chapter 3).

makes sense that yuuei would be so nice and expensive if it’s the most prestigious hero academy in the country, right? but there’s more details too, like this brief exchange between bakugou & iida right at the very beginning: 

bakugou’s resentful comment about iida being an “elite” really only makes sense to me in the context of economic disparity. let’s infer that soumei junior high is better funded, better equipped, better everything in general. of course bakugou will resent iida for that, especially coming from the more ill-maintained orudera junior high. the difference in their economic status is already apparent. 

this isn’t even going into the difference between yaoyorozu’s incredibly rich status vs the rest of the class vs uraraka, who has decided to become a hero because she wants the financial security, and who also lives in an apartment by herself and skips meals to save on money. so even within the class itself there’s a huuuge difference in economic status. 

you could just think of it as the individual circumstances of the characters, but i think it’s more of a systematic problem – see, again, the difference in infrastructure quality between the different schools (the public school is not doing so great but yuuei is doing fantastic). maybe the city is poor, or maybe all of its funds go towards repairing the constant property damage from villain attacks, or maybe there’s just some areas they don’t care to maintain. either way: just by traversing different parts of the city you’ll probably see big differences in how well the neighborhoods are kept. 

and now, for a different question: if this is the golden age of peace, why are there still so many villain fights? 

looking at chapter one (the first villain we see is a guy who stole a purse and then tried to fight back when he was caught) and chapter 115 (villain activity increases sharply after all might’s retirement), i feel like… these attacks are driven by financial need. look at this: 

a group of adults gathered to commit crime… just to steal a register from a convenience store. that’s such a small sum of money! but they were so elated to get just that amount. it seems like the kind of thing that would happen if you were strapped for money, right? 

and then the villain from chapter 1: why would he fight so hard just because he got caught stealing a purse? he stopped the trains, for pete’s sake. all i can think is that a) he needed the money he’d be able to get by selling the purse, or b) he knew he wouldn’t be able to afford the fines, and that’s why he fought. 

maybe i’m reading too much into this, but based off these crimes, plus the other details provided above, i really feel like there’s a growing problem in boku no hero japan where there’s an increasing disparity in wealth. 

another thing to consider: in the golden age of peace, you’d have to be pretty stupid, pretty reckless, or pretty desperate to commit a crime where heroes frequent. (or you’re a black market dealer and/or evil.) if you’ve got an increasing number of people who are poor, who are dropping from the middle class to under the poverty line, or who have no upwards economic mobility, then you’ve got plenty of people desperate enough to try some petty crime for the sake of just a bit more cash for rent this month. that would be enough to explain the frequent villain fights that heroes get into – which are common enough that people will stop by and watch the show on their way to work. (chapter 1) 

this is really just a theory… but what could you use to explain why there’s a growing number of people struggling to make ends meet? 

here’s some factoids about japan (this article is from 2016): 

its real wages were falling, and as such, had weak domestic consumption; people buying less & saving more, or people just not having the money to spend in the first place, resulting in less money circulating in the economy and causing the economy to slow down. efforts to stimulate wage growth in 2015 did not make it down to the workers 

there was an increasing number of people with non-regular jobs, part time jobs, etc. as opposed to full time jobs, so they couldn’t get the financial security of a full time job (source)

one in six people in 2014 were living in relative poverty. this rate is higher among single mothers and among middle aged men without families, i believe. 

japan was like, 39th of 41 developed countries in terms of child poverty (the higher the number, the worse it is). something like that

this is despite japan having a high labor participation rate and a low unemployment rate, and also a low violent crime rate 

basing boku no hero japan off of actual real world japan’s current economic problems: we could surmise that, in boku no hero japan, although nominal wages are rising, real wages are falling; infrastructure spending is poor and disorganized, geared towards repairing villain-inflicted property damage and not enough towards everything else; and people are finding difficulty holding onto jobs (as seen with uraraka’s parents) and are forced into low-paying, part-time work, and may find themselves struggling with debt. 

oh, and here’s a quote from the guardian (jan 2017): “experts say programmes to help needy children are underfunded and held back by bureaucratic inefficiency and political apathy.” 

so it’d actually be quite viable for boku no hero japan to be doing quite badly, economically, and to be struggling with wealth inequality and other super fun things like that. 

boku no hero japan is also like centuries in the future, one where villainy is commonplace, so it’s not a surprise that people’s response to struggling to make ends meet would be “well, i have a pretty good quirk. if i’m lucky, i think i’ll be able to steal some cash, and i’m desperate enough to do it, too.” SO, my personal guess, is that this is a biiiig portion of the crimes that heroes fight. 

i mean, it doesn’t really make sense for villains to do so much… villain-ing… when there’s footage almost every single week of the heroes taking down yet ANOTHER criminal. why do they keep coming out of the woodwork? why’s there still enough criminals to keep all the heroes in business? ‘cause they’re desperate and need the money, probably. which is understandable. so even if you eliminate a villain, you haven’t addressed the economic problems that drove them to become a villain in the first place; hence, there’s always someone else rising up to take their place. 

on that note, let’s take a closer look at the hero industry! 

in chapter 1, horikoshi gives us a brief history of heroics. quirks emerged, the government wasn’t sure what to do to combat quirk-related crime, heroes emerged, and heroes eventually became sanctioned by the law. and when that happened: 

so that’s pretty cool! seems like heroes aren’t specifically a government institution, but they are affiliated with & rewarded by it. makes sense, since heroes have to work closely with law enforcement on some matters, anyways. heroes =/= police only because heroes are specifically there to combat quirk-related crime. 

but times have changed since then, as shown in the latest manga chapter: 

“it’s all about entertainment and approval ratings and whatnot.” 

we know from the stain arc that heroes are still paid by the government: 

‘given my status’ – in other words: his hero ranking? popularity? how respected he is as a hero? hmmm. 

uraraka’s mentor that arc explains that heroes are sort of “paid on commission” by the number of crimes they can resolve, but said commissions usually get sent their way by the police: 

but to get your name out there (both to the police and to the public), and to become higher ranking in the popularity polls, you need to cultivate a public image, too. get yourself some attention. 

so to cultivate a public image, one thing that heroes can do is to conduct a fight in a public, open space where anyone can see. apparently this happens often enough that izuku would actually regularly run into one of these fights on his way to/from school, and would stay to take notes and learn from them. villain attacks are ALSO frequent enough that apparently all might keeps arriving at yuuei late because he stops to help out: 

in other words, villain attacks and fights are a regular, almost quotidian experience. more on that in a sec. for now, just think about how the heroes benefit from public fights: they get to show off, and their fights are broadcasted, and they can get a boost in their rankings. fighting against a villain, they don’t just have a motive to do their job and save people; they have a motive to grab the spotlight and show off. popularity boost! we actually see this happen in chapter one, when mount lady leaps into kamui woods’ fight and defeats a villain in one kick. 

so, as a citizen, you may be grateful to the heroes for saving people – but you might resent them for turning these situations into a spectacle for showing off. incidents sometimes turn into competitions between heroes. if you take that a step further, you might think some of the heroes are only helping because they want to look good. and hey, that’s not the kind of person you’d want to entrust your life to, right? 

because heroics is now partially driven by entertainment and image, heroes are all forming their separate hero agencies to try and differentiate themselves. for example, this list: 

while they work together to fight crime, they have to battle for popularity and attention… they probably even have to vie for commissions/crime cases from the police. they all need to make themselves stronger, cooler, & a better choice than the other hero agencies. it’s something of a conflict of interest. you can imagine sometimes that gets in the way of cooperation (i.e. endeavor’s forever grudge against all might. y’all should read the illegals spin off.) 

and if you’re battling for popularity and attention… it would also make sense for you to center your hero office somewhere with lots of crime, and lots of people to see you fighting crime. right? urban centers would provide plenty of both. what about slums, and the underground, and the outskirts, then? these are places that news reporters and cameras can’t reach easily – and possibly might not want to travel to at all. these are also places where passersby and onlookers might run away instead of praising you. you won’t get a lot of return (in terms of publicity) by working here. so if you’re business-minded… you’re not going to conduct your hero investigations here. 

i mean, yuuei even has a business department. heroics is a business. you make money off of this, and you have to sell your image to the police and the public. if you focus more attention on places that are profitable to you, then the other areas lose. there’s no way around that. 

so poor neighborhoods, bad neighborhoods, camera- and television broadcasting-inaccessible places get the short end of the stick. the heroes don’t go here as often, because it’s not profitable. (well, the heroes probably come down here if they get a police commission. but where are they if a spontaneous crime happens, hm?) meanwhile you turn on the t.v. and you see like five heroes show up at one battle downtown, which is complete overkill. you’d feel pretty resentful, right? do the heroes think your area of residence isn’t worth protecting, just because it doesn’t get them as much attention? do the heroes think it’s okay to just ignore your area of residence? fuck that, right? heroes are supposed to serve the public, and you’re still part of the public too, right? 

that’s gonna build up more resentment between bad neighborhoods & areas v.s. the areas that heroes frequent (often urban, downtown, lots of people to witness their good deeds). and it definitely builds up resentment towards heroes who aren’t so discreet about the money-making aspects of their businesses. 

like: all might sells merchandise. okay, understandable. present mic has a radio show (which probably gets paid to run advertisements). okay, that’s pretty cool! but then you get things like this: 

a hero using their public service, publicly paid hours… to shoot a commercial and make themselves a little bit of cash on the side. if you’re in one of those areas that heroes don’t frequent so often – wouldn’t you be pretty furious to find out that the person who’s supposed to be fighting crime in your neighborhood just made $500,000 by filming a commercial instead? 

you’re going to turn on the television and see ads with pro heroes in them – pro heroes who used their public service hours to do something for their own profit. this isn’t to say that heroes can’t film commercials, or make money on the side. if they’re helping people, it’s great that they can make a living! but they’re making that living by pandering to the entertainment industry when they’re supposed to be… you know… helping people. even kendou (in the picture above) comments that it’s not very hero like. the next page, momo replies that this aspect of the hero business is ‘unavoidable.’ ads, entertainment – it’s all part of the hero industry now. 

and they don’t feel that good about it. 

if all this conjecture is true, then – as grateful as people are to the heroes – they might be quite critical of the hero industry itself, and the heroes that embody the worst parts of it. i’m not surprised that there are a whole bunch of people who feel “othered” by heroes, and by society as a whole. 

like… that’s no excuse to be a villain. stop that. but it would certainly be a reason for people to dislike the hero industry. AND it would explain why it is that stain’s ideology resonated so deeply with other people. 

AAAAND that’s basically the rundown of what i think the socioeconomic state of boku no hero japan is like. sorry this was horribly long

[comicteaparty]

December 21st, 2017 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party chat that occurred on December 21st, 2017, from 5PM - 7PM PST.  The chat focused on Legendary Beings Ara & Celi by NAAN.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

Good day everyone~! This week’s Comic Tea Party is now officially beginning. Today we are discussing Legendary Beings Ara & Celi by NAAN~! (https://tapas.io/series/AraandCeli) For those new to CTP, discussions about the comic are freeform, so please feel free to bring up whatever you wish. However, every 30 minutes I will be dropping in a discussion question to help those who would like a prompt. These questions are totally OPTIONAL to answer so pay them no mind if you wish~! Remember, constructive criticism is allowed, but the primary focus here is to have fun and appreciate the amazing comics that the community makes~! Each chat a top comment will be picked and featured on an ad for this chat, so let’s have a great discussion~!

With that said, let us begin with this first question~!

QUESTION 1. What is your favorite scene in the comic so far and why?

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

I thought the opening was pretty strong since it started with a lot of tension

made me excited to see where that was going to lead up to

snuffysam

The opening scene was a really strong hook, agreed.

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

hook! yeah that's the word for it

NAAN

slips in here, nobody notice me vibrating

✨Tenor✨

-Flops on NAAN!- :D

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

OLLEH

snuffysam

NAAN alert!

hey everyone!

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

hai

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

hiiiii NAAN~!

✨Tenor✨

UUUGH I don't have a fav sceeeeene. I've pretty much enjoyed the whole trip so far x3

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

yeah the opening scene was definitely very interesting. especially in terms of scale because when looking back in retrospect you can see the difference in terms of epicness? i cant think of a good word

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Yeah, the art style is really something

NAAN

Hello, hello!

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

*notices no vibrating lives in blissful ignorance *

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Hi there!

Kabocha

I'm gonna agree with Draco! The opening scene was my favorite so far -- mostly because Angels vs Demons is often pretty cool

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Great to see ya @NAAN(edited)

And yeah, that opening was spectaculat

Kabocha

also, I really got very curious about the nature of Ara and Celi themselves, so I'm looking forward to finding out more about them. (They're both intriguing and a little scary...)

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

That scene of everyone doing battle in outer space

NAAN

screams on all these thoughts so far

snuffysam

I think the opening scene also helps bring the other scenes up- because while you're reading through the comic, the thought that this sort of scene may happen again in the future is always in the background.

NAAN

"Intriguing and scary" - this made me laugh so hard

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

is this character's art style intentional

MathTans the Pun Prince

Hello. ^^ I think my fave was actually when Ara said that Miyara wasn't a chosen one, this is just the way things happened to turn out.

NAAN

MY FAVE PANEL

snuffysam

I love when the art style changes like that. really shows that sort of emotion

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

yes

snuffysam

@MathTans the Pun Prince that was an incredible line, yeah

MathTans the Pun Prince

I like how the art style stays that way until Miyara comes to terms with her emotion.

NAAN

I do that on purpose @snuffysam, so that makes me happy to hear(edited)

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

@math yes definitely i have to say that is my fave scene actually. i really like how the toning was used and it had a spectacular atmosphere

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

\

snuffysam

the most recent scene, where ara is explaining miyara's role, is also a strong contender for the best

Kabocha

I am extremely curious to find out what exactly Miyara did in the past to Ara, though. "Surely you don't expect me to forget what she did then!" Gyaaaaaaaaaaaah, I'm expecting something sordid

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

I wish I had found out about this comic sooner

Do you plan on returnnig to it someday, NAAN?

I'd love to share live updates of the comic as new pages are rolled out

NAAN

@MathTans the Pun Prince one of my favorite lines to write. And it was a new edit too. I'd written something else previously.

MathTans the Pun Prince

Oh, cool. Interesting how these edits can play into things.

Maybe it happened during one of her supposed blackouts?

(The thing that was done in the past I mean.)

NAAN

Oh yes, I will be returning to it once I graduate in May! It's on hiatus bc of grad school, and that + insanity of graphic design makes for no comics.

Kabocha

aaaaaaaaaaaaaa grad school. D: D: D:

snuffysam

real life always finds a way to butt its head into comics (edited)

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

yis :<

sorry if i get distracted, i'm lining a page atm too

MathTans the Pun Prince

Related to the blackouts, the dad's a cool character.

NAAN

@Kabocha and @MathTans the Pun Prince your questions are related -- no spoilers but a hint: the blackouts are related, but it didn't happen during

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

yeah, i liked her dad a lot too

he was different than i expected, in a good way

MathTans the Pun Prince

He had stealth skillz.

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

and i liked that she cared about his well being

Kabocha

oh, also, this page amused me too:

NAAN

also @Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨ the screenshots you posted, I find it enlightening and heartwarming (for me) -- because I'd submitted the comic to a collective once, and most people HATED those XD

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i liked how he just shrugged to the fact she stayed home from school XD

NAAN

also, fujiro is a lot of fun to write ad you will definitely see more of him ; ))))

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

lol

XD

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

yaaaay~!

MathTans the Pun Prince

I'm guessing when he has his somewhat scary wife to deal with, he takes things in stride.

NAAN

also yes @Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨ those panels were intentional. (sorry I missed this question, so many comments brEEZING)

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

XD

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

thats mean math. that is clearly best wife. O_O how can you not like the waifu?

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

we need more sudden/funny art shifts

cause I feel like they work when done right

NAAN

the panel that Kabocha posted, can you all read the tiny text? I've always worried you can't see that

Kabocha

yeah, it's readable on my computer

MathTans the Pun Prince

Heh. I dunno. She has strange vibes, even the friend picked up on that.

snuffysam

not at the scale discord shows for thumbnails, but if I click it I can read it yes

MathTans the Pun Prince

What snuffy said, aye.

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

lo

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

yeah I can read it~!

NAAN

oh good! it's meant to be small, hehe. i've been going through the pages today for future lettering edits and that was one of them

especially for print

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

yeah the tiny text is readable even on my tiny screen

NAAN

i'm a huge believer in shifting the art between humorous / dramatic, just because it lightens the tension. like a small break before continuing

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

yes i agree it can definitely be used to lighten the tension for sure

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

hahah, it reminds me of old school clamp

that technique

NAAN

old school clamp was a huge influence on wee bab NAAN (edited)

MathTans the Pun Prince

I'm kind of bad for noticing techniques. ^.^

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

heehee

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

yeah, i love old school clamp~

snuffysam

oh yeah, i guess it is kind of clamp-y

NAAN

I got something related to the waifu~ exclusive, 2nd chapter back cover for the printed edition

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

OMG

���🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

lol omg XD

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Cute!

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

thats is adorable~!

NAAN

may be quiet now, feels like she's derailing the entire discussion(edited)

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

nah dont worry about it. sometimes it happens cause i think most ppl are multitasking at the same time.

i wanna say i really like how wyda(sp?) looks. like of all the things in the comic that struck me as the most clamp like

but in the good way of course

where i got all nostalgic

MathTans the Pun Prince

I'm so bad with names too. ^.^

NAAN

;w; sniffs

wyda is an extremely new character to the cast, compared to the others. I created her recently when I realized some parts of the story needed reworking

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

lol

I'm kind abad with names as well

NAAN

she ended up being a good foil for ara imo, when I wrote her voice separately

snuffysam

Did you redo old pages at some point, or are you just referring to scripting things?

NAAN

so she stay wyda, u stay

re: wyda, I mean script. HOWEVER, save for the last...3 pages of the first chapter, that was entirely redone

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

gonna go afk for a bit to respond to some friends in pm

Kabocha

So, how is her name pronounced? for some reason I was imagining Wyda's name to be pronounced as "Vida"(edited)

NAAN

originally hosted it on comic genesis, and when I moved to comicdish, I just decded to redo them.

some of the pages even then, were redone for the print edition

let me show you

snuffysam

and I think you're working on a new site too, iirc?

NAAN

some of the old ones on comicdish before I edited/redid them for the print version (later the actual official thing, christ so many edits)

Yep! I am, hosted at ac.jadinerhinestudios.com (I goofed up in domain registrations, so it's a subdomain for now) @snuffysam People are helping me with the code for it, haha(edited)

snuffysam

cool! yeah, whatever works, ha ha.

NAAN

@Kabocha Her name comes from a part of a classmate's name, so Wee-dah. (Or Wí-dah)

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

QUESTION 2. Though reluctant and rather unwilling, Miyara accepts her destiny and chooses to become one of Ara’s “bodies.” How do you think these new powers will affect Miyara’s life? Will everything go back to the way it was (relatively speaking) or will she, as was ominously mention, lose things she once had? What about her “episodes” that cause her to violently punch her father? Will she be over them or will they continue? What are her episodes anyway and do they relate to her status as one of Ara’s chosen?

NAAN

oh snap, it's a goodie

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

you know what's hard about this is that we didn't really see much of her life before

so we don't have much to compare it to

so we'd have to mostly make assumptions based on the little bit we do know that what comes from here after is new

MathTans the Pun Prince

Well, she seems to have lost her ability to dream with this, that's an interesting side effect. I feel like Miyara will TRY to have everything the way it was, even though she can't, which will cause issues.

snuffysam

It was an interesting choice that the "episodes" weren't even mentioned until after the museum scene...

MathTans the Pun Prince

As to the episodes thing, I feel like that's not linked to the chosen thing directly. Might play a role in having her somewhere she doesn't remember going.

Her dad could also have been joking? Like, it's a bit of an odd time to bring that up. Or maybe dad can sense what's going on, that's why he said it?

Kabocha

I think Miyara's screwed. (lol) I think it was mentioned in Ch3/World 3 that Miyara's episodes are related to how her powers aren't like, fully bound to her quite yet? So she's not in a good position as a human, magical girl, or incarnation of an angel's power. SUCKS TO BE YOU MIYARA.

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

lolol

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i wonder if her episodes are actually dreams tho? cause what if they arent full dreams so keep happening

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

I was thinking maybe they were memories of her past life or something

MathTans the Pun Prince

Oy, what if she has dreams but they're not really dreams. o.O

Kabocha

The impression I got is that Miyara's human life will basically be subsumed by her life as Ara's servant -- but interestingly, the key that she was given in ch 3 seems to have both an angel and a demon wing...? o_o Is Miyara the link between Ara and Celi somehow?

MathTans the Pun Prince

Why wouldn't Celi want there to be a link then? What with the killing and all.

snuffysam

So far, it seems this magical girl stuff has only made Miyara's life worse. Will it eventually get better when she fully fills that role?

Kabocha

Because if there's a link between her and Ara, that means something's going to be pulled into balance, maybe?

or at least, that's what I would assume. Things seem to be off kilter between Ara and Celi themselves. And Celi's kind of nuts.

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Indeed

MathTans the Pun Prince

I feel like Miyara's life was a little off the wall in the first place. Perversely, this might calm her down, giving her an outlet for her more crazy side.

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

yeah~

true~!

MathTans the Pun Prince

Celi needs a hug.

(I don't think Miyara will be in the mood to give her one.)

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Relievant

Kabocha

Miyara will probably try to kill Celi as payback lol But Celi will then be like "Nope, listen, you can't pay attention to Ara, she's not as good as you think she is. Either you go along with me (since you're no longer easy to kill), or I'll basically make sure your life ends horribly right here."

...also maybe I'm starting down the path to crack theories.

MathTans the Pun Prince

That's a bit of a contradiction though, if she's not easy to kill and ending her life.

Maybe someone should take out a new life insurance policy.

Kabocha

Nah, it'd be an empty threat.

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

lol Math

Kabocha

'cause if Miyara still is in the dark about a lot of stuff, Celi would then have that on her side.

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Have comics ever delt with insurance before?

MathTans the Pun Prince

Does Celi need bodies too, maybe? Or did she at some time in the past, and it went badly, so she's jealous...?

snuffysam

Maybe she's trying to get by without them

NAAN

(bad cell camera, but couldn't resist)

snuffysam

lol NICE

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

nah celi is evil. evil sustains you O_O

MathTans the Pun Prince

Heh, nice.

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

I love it @NAAN XD

MathTans the Pun Prince

Ara respects Celi still though. Why respect evil...?

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

cause there has to be balance in the force

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

maybe its also sort of villain respect. you know when like arch rivals are like "ah yes this is a worthy opponent"

Kabocha

Celi tried to rebel against the creator in the beginning. So it's easy enough to say that Celi is EXTREMELY powerful. Maybe that's part of what makes Celi crazy though.

Ara had to split herself into different bodies, while Celi kept it all in.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

oh thats definitely an interesting theory

that they started the same but couldnt handle all dat power

snuffysam

maybe keeping all your power inside you makes you stronger, but it's a riskier move somehow

Kabocha

That could also be why Ara has some level of respect for Celi -- they were once the same.

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

i like that theory

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Me too

Kabocha

OR you shouldn't disrespect something that powerful, because that means you're gonna get cocky and THEY WILL KILL YOU FOR SURE

MathTans the Pun Prince

Hmm! I like that theory. Celi just needs to let it all out... maybe she can't? Maybe that's why she doesn't like Ara, she got the shorter end of the stick?

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

or maybe ara is just nice and is fond of respect, politeness, and good manners

which is why miyara is clearly her mortal enemy in that respect

MathTans the Pun Prince

Heh. Gotta teach Miyara table manners in Book 4.

The loss of temper felt realistic. Also shows that Ara has flaws and a breaking point.

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

yeah~

NAAN

so many theories, so many good ones

MathTans the Pun Prince

(All of them wrong, but good theories. )

snuffysam

just because a theory is completely bonkers doesn't mean it isn't good

Kabocha

Indeed. :'3

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

they said allah at one point, i was wondering if there's an islam backing to the story or if that was them capturing several religions in one invocation

Kabocha

Well, Celi did ask "Which creator" at the start, didn't she?

snuffysam

I think there were multiple religions referenced on that page

Kabocha

(sorry I've now decided CELI IS MY FAVORITE)

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

i'm gonna do some stuff AFK, if I don't make it back in time thanks for having me!

snuffysam

see ya!

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

bye super~!

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

Bye-Bye!

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

yeah, it seemed to be a mixture of religions~ they mentioned jinns too

in one of the invocations

NAAN

@Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨ thank you for coming and for all your feedback!

Superjusting of ✨Time🕑&Space☄✨

You're welcome! It was great checking out your comic @NAAN

Cute illustration too X3

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i actually enjoyed that is referenced a mixture of religions. it made it a lot more interesting to me and made me want to know how everything works together. like whats the worlds explanation for tying them all together

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

yeah I enjoy the mixture feeling as well

MathTans the Pun Prince

OMG, NAAN, you drew something that fast? O.o

NAAN

I can sketch stuff like this pretty quickly XD

MathTans the Pun Prince

I's impressed.

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

was curious what the inspiration behind the religious portions of the story were~

NAAN

so long as I don't pay attention to proportions, though lmao

oh! this I can answer, it's not necessarily a huge spoiler i've said it to some people, but I'd really like to try to interpret/show how different religions interpret the idea of an angel + devil (or other beings like the jinn)

like how angels in Buddhism are called dakini -- skydancers

cue the show opening for skydancers the toy(edited)

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

oooh~ that's really neat

NAAN

i want to try showing diff religions through that too, but that's a slight back seat haha. too epic for me

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

hahah that'll keep me reading to see how you incorporate the different ideologies

Kabocha

bwahahahahaha

MathTans the Pun Prince

Mmm, that's interesting. Ambitious.

snuffysam

so essentially these characters are beings that were interpreted by different religions and cultures throughout history?

NAAN

most of them are my own take/understanding, some may be the literal interpretation by diff religions and cultures, yes ^^ (the latter because sometimes you just have to, especially when it's a religion that has had bare representation)

like

water angels are going to be punk aesthetics

and they won't subscribe to one religion, it's p "whatever mang"

snuffysam

oh ok, cool

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

religious mythos is pretty untapped beyond christianity in western stories so it'll be nice to see something that uses a broader scale(edited)

NAAN

@Kabocha good celi go౦ԁ cEli thats some goodceli rightthere rightthere if i do ƽaү so my self i say so thats what im talking about right there right there (chorus: ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ) mMMMMᎷМ НO0ОଠOOOOOОଠଠOoooᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒ Good shiz

snuffysam

lol next question time

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

QUESTION 3. Ara mentions that she needs 11 bodies to survive. Will we meet these other bodies in some form (whether flashback, astral projection, etc.)? If so, what do you think they’re like? If you don’t think they’ll meet, why not? Speaking of bodies, who is Samsa? Is it Miyara? Somehow Miyara and not Miyara? Is it someone else entirely?

the question was summoned

NAAN

@🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄 yep! that's what I'd like to do, since even I get bored XD;;

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

spooky finger wave

MathTans the Pun Prince

Were the other bodies even human, necessarily?

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

w

snuffysam

@MathTans the Pun Prince you mean, like, one's a dog?

NAAN

an example of some of the water punk angels, sans wings

snuffysam

cute!

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

oooooh, they look bad ass~!

MathTans the Pun Prince

Yeah, or a dolphin or something. Like, we're not the only intelligence on the planet.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

those are some awesome designs

snuffysam

i mean that's a possibility. i feel like most of the other bodies are probably human though.

Kabocha

Also ooh, I like the punk angels!

MathTans the Pun Prince

Extending a little less then, would they be female?

snuffysam

hmm that's a trickier one to answer

the prototypical magical girl leagues are typically filled with... like... girls

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

im curious about the fact that when wyda came ara mentioned something about having trouble "with the one here ." so does that mean that theyre in different cities? different times? other planets

snuffysam

but I suppose there's nothing saying a boy can't be one of them

MathTans the Pun Prince

And would they also be as young as Miyara? Like, maybe one was an 80 year old woman. And she's passed away, hence why we might not be meeting her.

bends all the rules

NAAN

nyuck nyuck

@snuffysam there's a hint in my DA gallery

MathTans the Pun Prince

It might be fun to meet some ghosts.

snuffysam

the story's themes are pretty multicultural as far as the mystical beings go, yet so far we've stuck to Japan for the human side. so I'm thinking the other bodies will be from other countries.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i would be really interested in seeing an 80 year old magical angel girl XD

MathTans the Pun Prince

Miyara did have that one panel where she was old and missing her juice.

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

me too XD

80yr old magical girl for the win

snuffysam

I suppose if the magical girls get old and die eventually, that explains why Ara needed a new one right now?

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

but do we know for sure they age

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

idk if they get old. im unclear but it kind of sounds like theyre giving up their physical bodies for a higher purpose

Kabocha

They might not live long enough

snuffysam

true true. that could be one of the things Miyara loses

MathTans the Pun Prince

They live long enough to get new threads.

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

they're really just energy dolls that get eaten

you are my eleven energy pod meals

Kabocha

See, this is why we should deal with celi instead

MathTans the Pun Prince

At least with her, you know where you stand?

(In front of a firing squad?)

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

im getting suspicious that Kabocha is trying to bring us to the dark side

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

kabo must like the dark side

as long as it's not an angels vs. demon where the demons are right story

MathTans the Pun Prince

Hah! NAAN, you're hilarious.

Also, so fast.

Kabocha

Hey, I don't trust Ara very much. I'll trust Celi, who wants to kill everyone instead. At least we know where she stands

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

to be fair i dont trust ara that much either. i feel ara is very much a use them and lose them sort of person cause omg higher purpose yadda yadda yadda

not to say i think celi is right, just i imagine theres a little bit of ara sucks as motivation

MathTans the Pun Prince

Ara is, I think, not used to pushback.

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

yeah i don't trust ara either

ara seems too high strung and emotional to be logically rational

snuffysam

But Miyara could be the one to change her ways

MathTans the Pun Prince

(Maybe that's why she picked Miyara on some level. She needs someone to challenge her.)

snuffysam

exactly

MathTans the Pun Prince

wavelengths

As far as Samsa goes, I think that's a type of fried food. Or possibly the person Miyara turns into when she has episodes.

(Episodes when she craves fried foods.)

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

the impression i get is samsa was a past life or something

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

i was confused by the samsa thing

snuffysam

maybe she

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

but my assumption is that i'm meant to be at this point

snuffysam

's the 80yr old who died

that Miyara is replacing

Kabocha

I feel like Celi's been slowly destroying Ara's spare bodies.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

if thats the case why cant celi touch miyara now as ara stated?

Kabocha

but if Ara is the Universe. And she has multiple bodies... does that make each body a parallel universe?

MathTans the Pun Prince

Hm, maybe Samsa is a past life, and that's what Miyara's reliving when she has episodes.

NAAN

whispers into the wind 'there's a hint in chapter three ~re: samsa~

tiny

MathTans the Pun Prince

Haaha, now I want to see all the characters in short shorts.

NAAN

they can be more comfortable than a short dress, that's for sure 8'D

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

samsa is the beetle?(edited)

Kabocha

"I am the obscure object of desire, that which gods eye; my unkown origin I am she of transcendence I am she of dirt I contain the knowledge of Good and Evil but she has allowed the Living God ---"

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

"The Egyptian god Khepri, Ra as the rising sun, was often depicted as a scarab beetle"

is it related to that, lol

MathTans the Pun Prince

(When I do an image search on "samsa", I still just get fried food. Maybe it thinks I typed "samosa".)

Kabocha

I actually thought "Samsa" was short for "Samsara"

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

oh good

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

oh noice~!

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i thought i was the only one who thought samsara XD

NAAN

@🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄 no beetles involved, sadly

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

when i saw samsa

NAAN

cockroaches though

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

I kept thinking of samson

shot

Kabocha

:'3

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

tear for no beetles

NAAN

dedication in reading and transcribing what it says on page 3, Kabocha XD

Kabocha

You hide stuff in little details

>:3 so it's a good hunt

MathTans the Pun Prince

Check behind the fridge.

NAAN

nah, that's where fujiro's hiding from nonka

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

lolol

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i dont think theres a lot of space behind the fridge for that O_O

MathTans the Pun Prince

You're not thinking 5th dimensionally. (That's where all the other bodies are, in the 5th dimension.)

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

ah i see my mistake XD

so i wonder what this promise samsa made was O_O that miyara cant escape

like the slavery promise

the i hate celi too promise

MathTans the Pun Prince

The you can have my first born child promise.

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

looooooooool

make them babies

MathTans the Pun Prince

smol Celi?

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

thinking teen preg is highly improbable in this XD

MathTans the Pun Prince

Art Gallery is not the best place to pick up guys.

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

d'aaaaaw

Kabocha

The art gallery is a good way to pick up incarnations of oneself though

and targets for murder.

MathTans the Pun Prince

"Oh look, I'm in that painting of 50 years ago. ... ... Waaaaait."

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

it's like that episode of yugioh

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

ah these are super cute pics~!

QUESTION 4. The comic opens showing a war between Celi and Ara. While it’s implied that Ara won the battle, what exactly happened is unclear. What do you think the spell that stopped Celi was? What was the war about/what exactly are Celi’s goal? Who is Celi to Ara? Why has Celi returned only now?(edited)

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

yus ;3;

i assumed it was a good vs. evil battle

MathTans the Pun Prince

Could be chaos vs order. Maybe Celi wants to sow chaos.

Kabocha

At first, yeah, I was like, "ooh, Lucifer analogue"

but if it's chaos vs order, then Celi and Ara are inextricably linked :3

ONE CANNOT EXIST WITHOUT THE OTHER

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

maybe

it's inside someone's head

the inner battle of the mind

MathTans the Pun Prince

Maybe the goal is to devour the other and have one being for both then.

(I make up weird theories a lot.)

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

tbh i was leaning towards celi is trying to destory the system and isnt a fan of the ara angel thing and the servant stuff. and celi just mad cause she somehow feels used.

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

aaaaah yeah that's my leaning as well

because that's generally what i assume with angels vs demons

NAAN

(aw man, they're inversed. oh wELL)

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

lol omg XDXD

MathTans the Pun Prince

I want to believe. ^.^

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

i wonder where celi has been this whole time

cause i wouldve assumed imprisoned but ara seemed surprised

well not surprised

but definitely didnt have a concrete when

MathTans the Pun Prince

That's a good question. Why not attack Miyara when she was younger and less able to defend herself? I don't think they exist out of time...

Kabocha

Celi shows up when she wants.

But tbh I think she's more likely to show up where/when Ara exists

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

great now all i can picture is celi sitting back and talking about how everyone needs to chill out and how time is a construct of man to control ppl and how the sheeple need to wake up

Kabocha

see, I was imagining something more... Cartman like

"Screw you guys, I do what I want!"

MathTans the Pun Prince

Celi's been on the talk show circuit.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

hmm but back more on track, is it possible that by ara scoping out miyara that somehow summoned celi in and of itself. cause they both get a fair shot at the bodies.

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

i don't think celi actually wants her dead

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

and so it goes like Ara: Ah man you killed the body this time. Celi: I know right. Well see you next century. Good luck~!

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

but to use her

MathTans the Pun Prince

Could be. Actually, does Celi have minions? Why take action when you can send underlings?

Maybe the underlings failed? (All they did was make her eat lots of buns.)

Kabocha

Celi prefers to do things herself. ;3

besides, why share the power. It's so much better in one body

MathTans the Pun Prince

Celi originally wanted her dead. Unless that was all an act to get her in Ara's clutches. O.o

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

idk tho cause in that opening scene it kind of seemed multiple ppl were fighting each other vs. attacking just celi

MathTans the Pun Prince

(The big twist is they've been working together the whole time...)

"So the plan is I attack, you save her, you get the body, I get the soul?"

NAAN

( having too much fun with these, let me know if it gets annoying though )

reads and still vibrates in the meantime

MathTans the Pun Prince

OMG, not annoying at all. You're so good.

Also, I know my theory doesn't really hold water because of the whole transformation thing. ^.^

NAAN

I like everyone's theories for celi's purpose especially. She does have a good reason....( of course i think it's good, i wrote it lmao )

MathTans the Pun Prince

'Tis better to die as the girl you were, than to become a slave to my sister...

Kabocha

of course Miyara would enjoy Kafka lol

is she slowly gonna become a bug

is that how people will see her from now on?

slowly, Miyara becomes a creature beyond her ken -- but yet pitiable somehow.

MathTans the Pun Prince

I think that'd bug her.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

XD

Kabocha

Come now, let's not ANTagonize with bad puns

NAAN

tis better to roach her than to rooster her(edited)

i tried

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

someone better tell her that shes truly looking like the pest she is if she starts looking like a bug

mostly ara

MathTans the Pun Prince

Puns is, like, actually my name though. ^.^ Flea now.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

so on a different note im curious what wyda's relationship to ara is

like how do they know each other

did they meet at starbucks

MathTans the Pun Prince

Good point. There's fire deities and water deities, maybe they all have parties?

Oh, maybe Wyda was an old body of hers?

Or maybe she simply officiates at the weddings.

Kabocha

"Yo, I heard you like Caramel Macchiatos -- wanna fight your evil twin sister together?"

Wydanno the answers

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

loooool

MathTans the Pun Prince

There was that interesting parallel conversation too, like Wyda wasn't going to stick around for the heavy stuff.

Kabocha

Well, I'm pretty sure she's seen what happens when people are Celi-ng their soul to Ara.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

well it does sound like wyda just mostly came to "witness," whatever that means in this context

but why would there need to be a witness

is it like getting married for real XD

MathTans the Pun Prince

They exchange magic rings. There's many tears.

Kabocha

Hey, wait

is... Is Ara wearing two rings on one hand

DAMMIT IT ALL COMES BACK TO ZENCHAV

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

looooool omg noooooo

MathTans the Pun Prince

Familiar ring to it?

Kabocha

but serious question -- is it "Celi" pronounced "Seli" -- or is it "Celi" pronounced "Sealy"

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

i keep reading it as sealy

MathTans the Pun Prince

Miyara climbs out of a well "I have seen the cursed video tape!"

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

so before we close out does anyone have any final thoughts they want to share?

MathTans the Pun Prince

Huh, I read it as Seli.

Kabocha

I kept reading it "seli" ahaha

(hence the "Selling" pun)

MathTans the Pun Prince

Falling sequences were well done, I'll toss that out there.

NAAN

I would pronounce it "seli" -- however, I usually tell people to pronounce it as ce-lai, because my understanding has been that Americans don't know how to pronounce spanish sounding words right. and then it turns out, everyone's pronouncing it correctly anyway! XD for real though, the pronounciations of the names isn't so much a big thing? unless it's like wyda, where it's there haha (I did like the vida idea though)

🎄🌟Draco ⭐ Plato 🌟🎄

i thought the falling sequence was done really well as well

Kabocha

Ahahaha, well, with Wyda, I went all german on it so I mean

'cause I keep seeing german pop up in comic

NAAN

That would be a good presumption though! And probably if the comic were translated into German, that'd happen XD(edited)

I keep saying the f sound anytime I see someone with a germanic sounding last name though (like Justin Verlander, pfft)

Kabocha

Ahahaha

Kabocha

Well, in any case, I do look forward to seeing how the comic progresses once you're done with grad school

MathTans the Pun Prince

Well, here's hoping Miyara comes to terms with whatever she needs to come to terms with.

✨🐱 RebelVampire 🐱✨

Unfortunately, the scheduled Comic Tea Party is now complete~! Thank you everyone so much for joining this week’s chat~! That being said, if you would like to continue discussing the comic, we encourage you to do so~! We want to give a big thank you to NAAN, as well, for volunteering Legendary Beings Ara & Celi for our reading queue. If you liked the comic, please be sure to support NAAN’s efforts. If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions about CTP, please feel free to PM me, or e-mail me at rebelvampire@startfaire.com.

With that said, next week’s Comic Tea Party will focus on Cosmic Fish by Cosmographia. Please use this week to read as much of the comic as you would like. Hope to see you next Thursday (December 28th) from 5PM to 7PM PST~! Until then~! Comic: http://cosmicfishes.com/

[forextraderpost]

Option Alpha’s New Auto-Trading Platform Updates

Important Note: This post will be the central hub for updates on the new platform. It’ll be updated as needed and as new milestones are hit and/or when feedback is requested. The newest updates will be added to the top of the post with older updates pushed lower for reference. We encourage you to bookmark this page and come back often!

July 15th, 2020

Position Monitoring

Focus of late has been on polishing up advanced position monitoring. The ability to easily use a bot to monitor any type of position and strategy makes the new platform super powerful. You can think of Monitor automations as little “Portfolio Managers” that constantly sit and watch open positions for an opportunity to close them based on a set of pre-defined conditions you set.

For example, we built an automated bot that we shared on our YouTube channel and Facebook Community earlier this week. The Monitor automation triggers only when a new put spread is open. When opened, the manager will constantly run this automation below.

Notice that it offers dynamic position management. First the automation checks to see if we have a 50% profit, IF SO it closes the position and banks the profit. If not, it moves into the next decision, in this case we want it to check and see if the position expires in 5 days or less. IF SO, it’ll close the position to avoid assignment risk. How cool is that? Constant and continuous monitoring of your position all the time.

Now, what if you wanted to get a bit more complex? No problema!

Let’s assume you want to manage call spread positions slightly different than put spreads. All you would need to do is simply create a new Monitor automation like the one we built below.

This automation runs a bit different. Now it checks first to see if we have a 25% profit on a call spread, IF SO it closes the position and banks the profit. If not, it checks to see if we are 10 days from expiration AND then if we have a profit of at least 1%. The idea here is that if we are 10 days from expiration maybe we are willing to take any profit at that point vs. forcing ourselves to wait for a 25% profit. Finally, if we don’t have even a 1% profit 10 days before expiration it’ll keep checking until we reach 5 days before expiration and then close the position.

Fast, smart, easy decision framework with completely NO CODE for options management.

June 26th, 2020

Bot Automations, Log, and Activity

We are excited to share the many of the enhancements to the bot building workflow the team has been working on. We understand algorithmic trading can ‘feel’ complex or out of reach for traders who’ve never traded with a bot. With this in mind, we are attempting to align the process of building a bot with how a trader thinks about setting up a trading strategy.

The bot building process is now broken down into three types of automations: 

Scanner: Triggered repeatedly to find new positions. An example of a scanner automation would be “if SPY RSI is below 30, enter X trade”

Monitor: Triggered repeatedly to monitor an open position. An example of a monitor automation would be “if POSITION expires in X days, close trade”

Event: Triggered on a schedule or when a specific event occurs. An example of an event automation would be. “Every Friday run: if 200 DMA then enter credit spread”

Automations

While we’ve stuck to the ‘decision tree’ process of building an automation, we’ve cleaned up the UI and added new features.

Pictured above is an example of a scanner automation where the bot scans the RSI of a chosen ticker (which can be customized each time you use this automation) and enters either a short put or call spread based on the stock’s current RSI. In this example, the automation is set to enter a short put spread if the RSI is below 30 and a short call spread is the RSI is above 70.

We are also aware many traders may use the same entry or exit criteria for different setups. The great part about the way the platform is being built is once you create an automation, like the above, the automation is stored and available for use any time you want to create another bot.

Decisions

To take you one level deeper, let’s see what happens when you select the + button on the automation builder:

What you are seeing above is how to create a ‘decision’. Decisions are exactly what they sound like. They are little if/then statements that would mimic a decision you might make when deciding whether or not to enter a trade. To create a decision, all you need to do is complete one of the prebuilt sentences made by our team. 

Our hopes with creating pre-built sentences like this are to bring the power of algorithmic decision-making to anyone with a trading idea, not just the ones who can code. Pictured below are a few sets of sentences the team has been working on. We are excited to see what people request to inspire the next round of automations. 

Bot Log

The team is also working on updates to the bot’s log which keeps track of every decision result made by a bot. Details currently include the time, date, actions made, and the results of every decision. Logs of current and past trading positions will be displayed in the dashboard along side the bot’s statistics.

Activity 

While the dashboard is not fully functional yet, one unique feature the team has created is the bot’s activity log. This log keeps a running tally of scans, decisions, and more to give you piece of mind that a trading opportunity was not missed.

January 9th, 2020

Bot Schedules & Actions

The team has been flying through new code and functionality, as we previewed to some ELITE members live a couple of weeks back. The focus this week is on scheduling bots and linking actions. The beauty of how we are building this is that you can create repeatable bots that can be used multiple times. For example, you could start a bot that sells strangles or iron condors or credit spreads or buys long VIX calls (whatever you want). Then choose when and how often to run that bot.

In the screenshot above you can see just how details you can get with your scheduling.  Run it every month, week, or day. Choose specific times to run it or not. Pick and end date or not. It’s up to you. Plus you can select multiple days of the week to get even more control as shown below.

But what if you just want to use the functionality of a bot to run something once without having to mess with a bot’s schedule and routine? Well, we built that in too. If you just want to run a bot one time for some odd-ball reason, you can do that quickly and easily.

You can even schedule the bot to run at a later date. Maybe you want to execute a hedge trade next week, on Wednesday at 9:45 am or before some major market event, like a Fed meeting or interest rate decision, but you’ll be away from your desk or unavailable. Before this platform, you’d be up a creek without a paddle. Now you can just simply schedule your hedge bot to run at some point in the future.

And of course, this wouldn’t be complete without full reporting and details on all current positions and bot activity to review. We hope you enjoyed this update and stay tuned for more!

November 25th, 2019

Automated Blocks & Decisions

Progress on the new platform has been great. In the past few weeks, the team worked hard on more functionality around decisions and trade entry. Decisions are amazingly flexible because of the ability to compare, contrast, and calculate metrics that are important to you. In the quick screenshot below we add a simple decision framework to see if SPY’s IV Rank is over the 50th level. If “YES” we can do one action, if “NO” we can choose to just wait or do a completely different action. Plus, you can add and layer multiple decisions inside one group. For example, you want the bot to decide if IV Rank is over the 50th level AND/OR SPY’s Closing Price is higher/lower than it was a week ago.

We’ve also made progress on the details within different standardized option strategies. Using templates for the most common and used strategies you can edit and customize the exact trade entry criteria you want to use. Here we create a simple SPY credit spread.

As always, we’ll continue to post more updates right here as we add and polish new features.

October 8th, 2019

Bot Decision Trees

Been a bit since we’ve updated but we as we’ve mentioned earlier, much of the focus for auto-trading has been back-end development. Hence, there wasn’t much to “show” visually. We are now making great progress on the front-end (yeah!) which means we will continue to add more screenshots as we roll out changes.

Today I wanted to highlight the new framework for building bots or automations using decision trees. This framework is super simple, extremely intuitive to use, and will also allow you to create hundreds of possible combinations of blocks. More importantly, we can scale this functionality in automating trading activities into vastly more powerful setups.

Decisions can have any number of possible “Outcomes” or child actions. Each possible outcome has its own “Criteria” to match for it to be chosen (imagine if/else >

July 16th, 2019

Show #160 Podcast Interview w/ Team

This week we jumped on the podcast with a couple of our leadership team members to answer questions, comments, and discuss the new platform updates. It was a fun, long discussion that I know you’ll find helpful and as always if you have follow up questions let us know! Enjoy the show…

July 2nd, 2019

Questions/Comments Request for Upcoming Podcast w/ Development Team

We wanted to do something a little different this week on the upcoming weekly podcast (Show #160) and bring on a couple of our team members for you all to meet. Since we have continued to get a bunch of requests for updates on the new platform, auto-trading, backtesting, forum improvements, etc. we thought it might be best actually to have the whole gang (or most of them) together to talk about where we are, what we are working on, and what you can expect moving forward. But that’s not all…

With this goal in mind, we are opening up the floor to you all and would love to hear your questions, feedback, concerns, etc. in the comments below. We’ll be recording the new episode with our team in the next few days so please get your questions and comments added now below. On the podcast, we’ll answer as many of them as humanly possible to help give clarity to the new platform.

The goal is simple; give you all, our community of traders, yet another look inside the rollout of the updated website and trading platform we’ve been tirelessly working on for years now. Although we have posted updates to our PRO/ELITE members during strategy calls and updates inside our Facebook Community, it’s time we created a central hub of updates going to continue to reference. This post will now be that central hub you can continue to review and come back to if you want the latest update.

Over the next few days, I’ll come back in here and “backfill” prior updates aggregated from social media posts we did previously so you don’t have to go looking for them ;). Until then, please use this time to quickly add your comment or question in the section below. Remember that all comments go to moderation for me to reply to or approve for the post so please don’t feel the need to post multiple times.

Talk soon and happy trading!

Older Backlog 2019

Consolidated Prior Updates

As promised above, I’m consolidating some of the updates and notes we have sent out previously to members and via social media. Much of this might be a repeat if you’ve been following along but I’m also adding into current context for any tweaks or updates as it stands now. As always, the design and function of the platform are subject to change in the future. Also, the list below is in no particular order.

“Learn” Tab/Section

I described this new framework a while back to members but the new Option Alpha platform is going to be re-organized into 4 main tabs or sections: Learn, Ideas, Trade, Follow. Everything will flow from these main areas which we painstakingly decided on for many months. We went back and forth many times on figuring out the best possible outcome for you all in reducing friction and choice while also not compromising on function and clarity. Ultimately, I’m super excited about this framework for our platform as our entire team feels that it gives you all the best possible navigation clarity and ease of use that we are after.

The first and arguably most important tab is the “Learn” section. Education is the foundation of everything we preach and teach here at Option Alpha so it should come as no surprise that we are doubling down on improving this aspect of the platform. We’ve collected tons and tons of feedback and feature requests from members over the past 2 years and have completely re-built the entire Learning Management System (LMS). This custom platform is very cool (actually that’s probably an understatement) and helps you manage your own personal journey through the courses.

No particular order or focus but inside you’ll be able to:

Track your progress on courses with much-needed navigation improvement. Easily pick back up mid-video from where you left off.

Create a “My List” of favorited or saved content to review later on. Easily toggle between tracks, courses, podcasts, answers, and articles.

Quickly find answers to those burning questions neatly categorized by topic. Or search the entire platform easily for specific topics or videos.

We also implemented some amazing “tagging” technology. Anyone can use tags inside the content or comments and immediately you’ll be able to see a categorized list of content with that tag. For example, #short-straddle pulls up these 4 videos right now.

All of the regular functionality you would expect has been upgraded and synchronized as well. Things like transcripts, commenting, following of posts or videos all are done seamlessly with your account.

“Ideas” Tab/Section

This section was actually a rather new addition following our team meetup in Florida earlier this year. Previously we were going to jam some of these sections into “other” spots on the platform. But, we all decided, thankfully, to create a new tab called “Ideas”. And honestly, I’m not sure why we didn’t just think of this in the first place but one of the core complaints we hear from traders is that they “have a hard time finding ideas and trades.” So, why not try to centralize all the possible ideas from the community, or your own scans and backtesting, into a single area for you to review?

The “Backtester” tab is the future version of our Toolbox PLUS software and has already undergone a major overhaul. We’ve added tickers, new and updated data from the recent periods, as well as expanded the list of possible strategies to test to including strategies such as short calls, short puts, long calls, long puts, etc. The biggest overhaul was completely re-coding the software to accept data updates on a more frequent basis. This means we’ll be able to update the databases with new data much quicker than ever before.

And while everything above probably sounds great, what’s really exciting is that everything is now archived so that the best strategies naturally filter to the top if you’re interested. We’ve been able to see this aggregate data on our end for many years now through research reports like the Profit Matrix. But what we are doing now is offering you all the ability to crowdsource this intelligence in real-time.

“Trade” Tab/Section

The trade tab is a beast and would come as no surprise is the area of focus for us right now. With so much possible functionality and security/compliance hurdles to cross; we’re continuing to do some very deep and heavy coding on the backend before we start turning to the design. Essentially, our team has been working non-stop on building the engine and transmission (to use a car analogy) before we get to painting the car. This work is very important and is required so that we can quickly handle more than 160k users logging in and trading at one-time. We want to deliver a high-quality product and we much rather compromise the delivery date than to deliver something that is half baked.

Performance Journal/Stats

One area that has been highly requested is the ability to track your performance and see your own trading stats. It’s been impressive watching our users band together to find a solution for tracking the Option Alpha portfolio. I’ve seen everything from Excel spreadsheets to Google Drive to Miro. It’s no simple task for any options trader.

As I said before, our goal is to reduce friction and provide solutions where there is a need. So we’re doing both. You’ll notice on the screenshot below that we are opening up two new software features: Stats & Journal. The Journal sync seamlessly with your TD Ameritrade account. No downloading CVS files and importing them. Just click Sync and your new transactions flow in. From here you can group, categorize, re-arrange and add notes as you see fit. It’s your trading “journal” and seems to be the perfect fit for what we know everyone needs.

I will also be posting the full OA portfolio publicly, along with historical history, on the new Stats & Journal, which will be updated in real time as new trades are placed.

Note: This is just using a current dummy test account screenshot above so we could test the functionality and tracking of all types of trading strategies. Naturally, I do not trade long call options so we had to create a test account to do testing and tracking like this.

“Follow” Tab/Section

The Follow section I believe will be where many traders spend their time during the workday when not trading. The concept behind the Follow section has always been to supercharge the community and our individual members by allowing you to connect and share ideas and trades easily. Maybe you’re a super risky long call option buyer (like one of our team members tends to be) and so you naturally want to follow people who do that type of trading. Maybe you prefer covered calls and short puts.

Whatever the case, our goal is to be the platform that helps you connect and share ideas with other traders. There have been many platforms for connecting traders before but what makes Option Alpha different is going to be the integration of community along with these trading tools and auto-trading functionality from one platform. It’s going to be awesome!

Upgraded Forum/Community

High on the list for us was a complete upgrade and overhaul of the current forum software. So we built our own from the ground up which means it’s integrated into everything else on the platform. We’ve also narrowed the discussion channels to the critical few below which can help focus on the right area for posting or commenting.

Membership Pricing/Cost

Pricing for Option Alpha as a whole will change when the new platform is first released. The main 3 membership levels will remain in place (FREE, PRO, ELITE) but the most noticeable change will be the removal of the Lifetime Membership choice. In addition, we will no longer be offering the Toolbox LITE or PLUS software on the basis of a one-time purchase. Naturally, anyone currently in the Lifetime Membership and/or have already purchased the Toolbox LITE or PLUS will be grandfathered in and we will honor our prior commitments and you will not have to re-purchase or be charged in the future as promised when you first signed up.

With the removal of one-time purchase access for software like backtesting and the watch list, the future Option Alpha platform will include tools like backtesting and auto-trading (as well as others we haven’t yet released) as part of the monthly PRO or ELITE membership. In essence, we are moving to a much simpler and streamlined model for pricing. We have yet to determine the exact specifications on which level will include which functionality so I’ll leave that for a future update and we’ll give you plenty of time to review this before launching.

Research Report Pricing

Research reports will be the only remaining area in which we will continue to charge for individual access. For example, as we roll out new research reports you’ll still be able to purchase the ones you are interested in on an a la carte basis and have them added to your profile inside Option Alpha. We feel this is the best approach given that some people may or may not want to purchase research and therefore are keeping them as a separate category so that you can make the choice for yourself.

Brokerages & Integrations

The initial launch will integrate directly with TD Ameritrade only. We’ve recently renewed our agreement with TD Ameritrade yet again to continue our long-standing relationship with them for this launch. This means that you will need TD Ameritrade account in order to connect and trade through Option Alpha. If you do not have one, you will still be able to access the platform, tools, scanners, bots, etc. you just won’t be able to place trades directly on Option Alpha.

We are continuously open to connecting with other brokers in the future though many that have been requested at the current time do not even have a public API available. Tastyworks and Robinhood, for example, both do not currently offer a public API by which we could connect. Interactive Brokers is not and will not be supported until they produce a Web API that can sufficiently scale to a user base as large as ours. If any of this changes in the future, which we expect it might, we’d love to consider adding more choices at that time.

*****

Whoa – that was a lot to digest (and to write out). But I hope this mini-update helped give you some more insight into the new platform from the inside. Option Alpha is built by options traders, for options traders. Period. If we won’t use it, we don’t build it. As always, we welcome your comments and questions below. Just do me a favor and review previous comments before posting one just to make sure we haven’t already addressed the question or topic already. This helps me save time and consolidate the responses for everyone.

The post Option Alpha’s New Auto-Trading Platform Updates appeared first on Forex Trader Post.

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[colourmytech]

Welcome to the year 2020. We have taken portable computers to a whole new level. When we used to say, “there’s an app for that,” we now actually mean there’s a mobile computer specific for you as a user and not only certain applications. Although many tablet computer devices preceded the iPad, Apple’s iPad reinvigorated the market and bought tablet computing to a whole new level.

Apple iPad Pro 12.9 and 11-inch Side by Side

Equip Yourself for The Future

Laptop computers were the ideal mobile workstation for the past decade. Although it only took some time before everyone grew tired of lugging around their heavy sling bags and had to chase around wall sockets when they had worked on the go. Enters the tablet computer.

Tablet computing has changed the way we integrate work into our lives. While a smartphone is convenient due to its size and modern capabilities, the ideal workhorse is the tablet computer. Excel sheets are more accessible, and photos are easier to edit on tablet computers.

Whether you are a student or a young professional, managing your time is always challenging, and the ability to be able to do some work while mobile is essential. Having your tablet with you lets you achieve that.

MS Surface Pro on Amazon

Answers to Every Question You Would Ask Before Buying a Tablet Computer

1. Where Do You Start?

There are many kinds of tablets available in the market today, each one catering to a specific demographic and budget. There are entry-level tablets that do essential functions of any laptop computer, perfect for students and professionals. Naturally, these are the cheapest. Stiill, they are capable of light up to medium-heavy computing tasks and come at a price range of up to $399. Dare we say something that students and young professionals can afford. At the same time, there are also pro-grade tablets for digital designers and engineers, that cost upwards of $999. These are more powerful devices with top of the range processors, plenty of storage and memory as well as support for optional stylus and smart keyboard.

Apple iPad Family – iPad on Amazon

2. How to Choose a Tablet Operating System?

Luckily this won’t be as difficult as it sounds. There are only 3 to choose from: Apple iOS, Windows Mobile, and Google Android. If your smartphone is an iPhone, you might be better off with an Apple ecosystem and run everything with iOS. You are going to want to choose the iPad which will make all your devices somewhat interconnected over the cloud and be able to pass files along with ease. Apple introduced iPadOS back in 2019, adding features to the iOS to take advantage of the big screen, be able to multi-task, add files, take screenshots, add mark-up, edit videos and more.

The iPad is at the top of the list in terms of popularity. However, Windows is the most powerful in terms of functionality and compatibility, particularly when transitioning from PC be it the desktop or laptop to tablet seamless. Tablets like the Surface Pro now come with the full Windows 10 OS, and designed for your ten and up to 12-inch screens. If you are one for heavy-duty computing on a tablet, the Windows OS is the choice for you with the right specification. The downside for this is the price. Once you start customizing your Windows tablets, it can get really pricey.

MS Surface Pro 7 with Surface Keyboard Type Cover on Amazon

If you are a beginner and new to using tablets, a good recommendation is the Google Android OS. With its simplistic and easy-to-use interface, this is the choice for a lot of people who want a reasonably priced tablet that can do most of what they need a tablet for. The quality of some of the third-party apps are questionable but you can get a lot done just using apps from Google alone. While every developer is optimizing their apps to be compatible with different displays, there are still old apps designed for smaller screens. If you are a student or an office worker needing to access many web-based applications, then the Android tablets is for you.

Apple entry level iPad 10.2 with Smart Keyboard on Amazon

3. What Kind of Tablet User Am I?

To help determine what kind of tablet computer to get, you need to know what kind of tablet user you are. For simplicity, let’s classify the users of tablets as:

Casual Users like kids and elderly

Mid-range users: student or mobile workers who use their tablet for work on a daily basis

Heavy-Duty Users like content creators, graphic designers, gamers and techies

Casual Users

For Casual users, the friendly user interface is most crucial function. Users need to know how to ‘drive’ the device and use the apps from simply trying and exploring. The icons and menu options must be consistent so the elderly users can easily remember where they are and what they are for.

The best operating system that fits this bill is the iOS on the iPad, otherwise known as the iPadOS. If you are choosing a tablet computer as a gift for your elderly parents or younger children, the iPad is the best choice. Not only will they take to it like a duck to water but it is likely that they will learn a few shortcuts of their own.

Mid-Range Users

If you are choosing a tablet for a teenager in college who is looking to do a lot of school reports, research, and are a whole lot of browsing on the Internet, then tablets like the Samsung Galaxy or even the Lenovo Yoga pad is the one to go for. Integration it with Google Drive or any Google apps for that matter would be seamless. It is also likely that the school or college may be on Google for Education, a solution built for teacher and students. An Android tablet is well placed to take advantage of this.

Heavy-Duty Users

If you are a content creator and do a lot of work like videos, music, graphics, and photo editing, then it might be wise to invest in a high-end Microsoft Surface Pro 7, Surface Book 2 or Apple iPad Pro tablet. The integrated and sometimes discrete on-board graphics processing unit in the tablet will handle graphic intensive applications.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e

4. Do I Need to Spend A Lot of Money?

The quick answer is no. There are plenty of budget tablets to choose from. Tablet prices typically start from under $100 to over $1000. Big name manufacturers such as Lenovo, Samsung, Huawei and Amazon offer their version the budget tablet for under $200. Apple’s own entry level iPad 10.2-inch starts at $349. The company iPad mini starts at $399.

Recommended Entry Level Budget Tablets (up to $200 except for the iPad)

Amazon Fire HD 10 Tablet

Apple iPad 10.2-inch Tablet

Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1-inch Tablet

Lenovo Smart Tab M10 10.1-inch Tablet

Huawei MediaPad T5 10.1-inch Tablet

Recommended Mid-Range Tablets ($200-$500)

Apple iPad Mini 5 2019 7.9-inch Tablet

Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e 10.5-inch Tablet

Apple iPad Air 10.5-inch Tablet

Huawei MediaPad M5 Lite 10.1-inch Tablet

Lenovo Smart Tab P10 10.1-inch Tablet

Microsoft Surface Go 10-inch Tablet

Lenovo Yoga Smart Tab 10.1-inch Tablet

High-end Tablets ($500 and above)

Apple iPad Pro 12.9-inch Tablet

Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 10.5-inch Tablet

Microsoft Surface Pro X 13-inch Tablet

Apple iPad Pro 11-inch Tablet

Microsoft Surface Pro 7 12.3-inch Tablet

Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 on Amazon shown with optional keyboard cover

5. Will 2020 Be the Decade for Samsung To Finally Beat Apple?

Based on the global tablet shipment statistics for 2011 to 2019, Samsung is a close second to Apple. The company has been eating away Apple’s tablet market share for over a decade now with their Galaxy Tab tablets. Their current tablet portfolio starts with the entry level Galaxy Tab A series costing just under $200. This full size 10.1-inch tablet is both affordable and capable of meeting most day-to-day needs with up to 13 hours of battery life.

A mid-range Galaxy Tab S5e was introduced in 2019. A think and light device, it goes head to head with Apple’s new iPad Air. Catering mainly to young professionals and mobile workers, the tablet supports DeX mode and Book Cover Keyboard, the former turns the tablet into a working desktop with optional accessories while the later transform the tablet into a laptop. The tablet spots a brilliant Quad HD AMOLED display, big storage at 64GB or 128GB and excellent battery life of up to 14.5 hours per charge.

Finally, the top of the range tablet from the Galaxy Tab series is the Galaxy Tab S6. This 10.5-inch tablet is aimed squarely at the iPad Pro 11 with its small footprint and narrow bezel. It has a super slim chassis measuring only 5.7mm thin and weighs a mere 420grams. The display is capable of Quad HD resolution, it uses the vibrant Super AMOLED panel and has a big storage at 128GB or 256GB. On the back of the tablet is a dual camera setup with an ultra wide angle lens and a magnetic area to attach the included S Pen stylus. Even with all that power and an ultra compact chassis, it is still capable of up to 14 hours of battery life.

It needs to be said that Samsung is targeting executives and young professionals with their top of the line offering more so than graphic designers. Paired with the S Pen, the Galaxy Tab S6 supports handwriting recognition, sketching and drawing and annotation. It also supports air gestures to navigate and control the tablet without touching the screen. Throw in the optional keyboard and it instantly transform into a laptop with desktop multi-tasking and window-like interface for your apps.

Apple iPad Air 10.5 has Powerful Graphics

6. Can a Tablet Keep Up with Your Work and Play?

In order to mix work with personal items such as photos, files, apps and games on the same device, you will need to consider one with a bigger storage. And, if you are to enjoy streaming movies as well, we would recommend at least 10-inch screen or bigger. In order to cope with demanding apps such as games, faster processor with GPU are a must. All of those we listed under the high-end list above will undoubtedly fit the bill.

If you are more of an on-the-go gamer, the Apple iPad Air and Pro are the right choices since it has a healthy developer base designing games for the iOS system. Qualcomm, the leading chip maker that makes processors for smartphones and tablets released their latest 8-core processor, the Snapdragon 865. This and other 8-series and 7-series chip come with powerful Adreno GPU designed to support mobile gaming. When choosing an Android tablet for both work and play, make sure the processor comes with a powerful GPU on-board.

7. Should Kids and Tablets Mix?

Every study that is published describes why screen time is not suitable for kids. However, to deny kids of screens entirely is close to impossible. While we can control their screen time using the control panel or by restricting their WiFi connection, it would be better to educate them on how to handle their screen time efficiently.

If you are picking up a tablet for your child, be sure to get a rugged case to go with it. Kids are more likely to drop their tablets than adults. That extra money spent will pay for itself protecting the tablet from accidental bumps and damage. It is also worth getting a full size 10-inch tablet. A bigger tablet is harder to lose, easier to spot and not be left behind.

Next, picking the right educational material and learning apps are equally important. This ensures that your child enjoys age-appropriate content such as apps, games, videos, books, audio books and more. Apart from controlling the amount of time, you can also prevent explicit content, set content ratings, filter web content, restrict web search and more, see parental controls on iOS devices. Similar controls are available on Android devices, see Android tablet restrictions to protect your child.

Fire HD 10 Kids Edition Tablet

Fire HD 8 Kids Edition Tablet

Fire 7 Kids Edition Tablet

Fire 7 Kids Edition Tablet Rear

8. Other Questions

Here are some other questions you can ask before buying a tablet.

What should I use the tablet for the most?

How much should I spend on my tablet?

Do I need to bring it around with me all the time?

Can I sync it with my smartphone or computer’s eco-system?

Can I use it as a laptop replacement? With the right accessories, Surface Pro and iPad Pro are designed to do most of what a typical desktop computer is capable of.

If you have a specific answer for each of the questions above, then you will know by now which tablet you should get for yourself. Sometimes, more than the budget concerns, performance, and the purpose of the tablet may influence your decision more.

Microsoft Surface Pro with Surface Pen and Surface Keyboard

The Ultimate Tablet Buying Guide: Everything you need to consider before buying Welcome to the year 2020. We have taken portable computers to a whole new level. When we used to say, “there’s an app for that,” we now actually mean there’s a mobile computer specific for you as a user and not only certain applications.