#to be clear this is not a list of audios i like its just the ones that are actually truly good

[doctorwhoisadhd]

i love torchwood but ill be honest. many of the audios are bad

[xjaylyn]

PART 6 - Bad Boys: Second Chances

Pairing: Armando x Black! OC (Rya)

Warnings: blood, graphic, guns, death, mature, language (use of the n word), and some other stuff I probably forgot about sorry

Summary: It's been two years since Captain Conrad was framed. Another mission brings the team back together and new relationships are formed. It's said everyone deserves second chances and room to grow. So maybe this is that second chance

A/N: I was beating my brain trying to write this part in order to drop tonight as promised. I don’t know why it was so hard to come up with something for these past two parts, but whew. I’m not sure how much I like these past two parts, but I don’t know. We’ll see where it goes from here. Enjoyyyy🥰

(^ photo creds - @yeahnohoneybye )

…7:00 pm…

Taking one last breath and letting go of the bathroom sink, Rya steps back and looks at herself one last time before stepping out.

The beautiful silk champagne dress graced every curve of her body. Her hair was pressed and perfectly curled at the ends, and her makeup was light but effective. Despite how good she looked, she couldn’t help but feel the weight of last night affecting her body. Every time she closed her eyes, she was met with her father staring back at her.

Shaking her head, she grabs the small clutch on the sink and strides out of the locker room into the common room to meet everyone else waiting on her.

"Wow, you clean up nice, Rya," Mike says, fixing his cufflinks on his suit.

"Thanks," she mutters, watching Kelly walk over behind her to clamp the small, discreet necklace around her neck.

"This has audio and video. We’ll be able to see and hear everything. Just be careful, alright?"

Rya nods, feeling how light and delicate it is. To anyone else, it looks like a plain diamond necklace, which is good since they didn’t need the dealers to think otherwise.

Rita steps forward, clearing her throat, making everyone look her way. "Alright, everyone. This is it. Rya, you know what you need to do. The rest of you, be ready for anything. Let’s make this count."

---------------------------------------------------------

"Alright, everyone in position?" Rita says into everyone’s earpiece. A string of "yes" can be heard in response.

Nodding her head, Rya stands behind two people in line. Slightly looking up, she notices Dorn’s drone making its way towards her before hiding in place.

"Alright, we got eyes on you, Rya. You are good to go."

Looking ahead, she steps forward as the two people in front of her enter, coming face to face with the bouncer.

"Name," he asks, looking down at his list.

"Kim Smith," she says smoothly, looking up at the bouncer with a small smile on her face. The bouncer looks her up and down before checking a name off a list.

"Enjoy your dinner, Ms. Smith."

Nodding her head, she walks into the elegant place. Smooth jazz playing in the background and people in fancy attire holding glasses of champagne surround her on every corner. A waiter comes to her side, offering a glass, which she kindly takes.

Looking around, she spots a dimly lit booth in the far back corner. She can see a waiter stepping away from the table, granting a better look at the faces occupying the space. She instantly recognizes them as Sergio’s business partners whom she has worked closely with before.

Taking a quick sip of her champagne, she makes her way towards the booth. Staring at the man facing her way, he looks up before smiling at her.

"Agent 007," he cheers, standing up to greet her, causing the other man to look behind him.

"Mr. Williams and Mr. Velez, nice to see you both," she greets, taking a seat in the booth.

"Yes, lovely to see you. Hermosa como siempre, mi amor (beautiful as always, my love)," Velez says, putting his cigarette to his mouth and looking Rya up and down.

Javi Velez, despite his young age of 30, is a notorious kingpin in Mexico and one of the biggest drug dealers in the game. His supply of drugs has been keeping Sergio’s operation going for years, especially after Sergio suffered a major loss. It could be said that Sergio is in debt to him.

"What are you doing in Miami, agent? Heard some shit went down at the corp; shouldn’t you be there?" Williams says, leaning back in the booth.

Joe Williams is a very important connection to Sergio’s operation, especially being his financial advisor. Every deal and check went through Joe. His mind was always on the money and knew how to handle it very well.

"Sergio sent me here to handle some business. Said we have some loose strings that we need to tighten," she says, raising a brow at the men.

The two look at each other before looking at the young woman. Chuckling a bit, Velez burns his cigarette. "Nah, nothing over here, preciosa. We'll let you know if we hear anything."

"You sure about that? Word has gotten around that you made some new connections that you haven’t informed Sergio about," she says, picking up her glass and eyeing the man.

All of a sudden, the sound of a phone goes off. Silence falls between the three as Joe opens his phone to read the message. As Javi and Rya stare at each other, Joe clears his throat, setting his phone back down.

"Well, it seems to me, 007… you’re the loose string."

'Fuck.'

All of a sudden, the background music cuts off, and all the people in the building stop their talking and look back at the booth, pointing their guns at Rya.

"Whoa, what the fuck?" she can hear Dorn say in her earpiece.

Rya sets her glass on the table and looks up at the vent above them. There was Armando hidden with a rifle, aiming down at them, ready to fight.

The sounds of bullets ring through the room, and she quickly flips the table to shield herself. Grabbing her own gun from under her dress, she quickly points it at Joe, who aims his gun at her and shoots his wrist, causing the gun to fall.

From above, Armando jumps down and shoots Javi to immobilize him. Pushing the table down, Armando steadily shoots at all the people in the foyer along with Dorn’s drone.

In the corner, Rya notices Mike and Marcus making their way into the shootout. Feeling someone coming up behind her, Rya quickly turns around, blocking the swing to grab their arm and turn it back on them until she hears a snapping noise. Drawing her gun, she goes for straight headshots on each person running towards her, hitting each one. Running out of bullets, she drops her gun, takes the clip out, and blocks a punch before sending a hook and taking the clip, stabbing it up their side multiple times.

"Rya, watch your six!" she hears Dorn.

Spinning around, she swings, knocking the person down before reaching to a table to grab the fork lying on a plate. Throwing it with a lot of force, she lands it in the middle of the person’s forehead.

Feeling someone grab behind her, she quickly reaches out to fight them until she hears a gunshot and their body drops. Looking up, she sees Armando aiming her way.

"That was your eighth," he says before lowering his gun.

Rolling her eyes, she looks around, noticing all the bodies on the floor. Mike and Marcus standing in the middle, ready for more.

"Who else?! I may be old, but I still got it, come on!" Marcus taunts, looking around. Hearing a groan come from beside him, he looks down to see a man reaching up for him, glaring at him.

"Now that’s just pitiful," Mike says, shaking his head before shooting him.

"Guys, they’re getting away," Rita says in the earpieces.

Quickly reaching down for a gun, Rya turns around to where Joe and Javi were limping away before shooting at them.

Dropping her arm, she makes her way to the two groaning on the floor. Armando picks up Joe, sitting him up against the wall. Rya drops down in front of him.

"Just tell me where Sergio keeps his inventory, and we can all go home."

"I’m not telling you shit," he coughs, glaring at her.

"Okay."

Aiming the gun at his thigh, she shoots him again, causing him to scream.

"Fuck, f-fucking bitch!" he groans.

"You did it to yourself," she says, aiming the gun at his head.

He just laughs, pressing his head to the barrel. "You still can’t make me say shit."

"Alright, if he ain’t gonna speak, let’s ask this one," Mike says, grabbing Javi.

"No te voy a decir nada, negro," he grits.

"The fuck did he say?" Mike says, looking back at Armando.

"It don’t matter, I heard 'nigga,'" Marcus says, aiming his gun at him.

"How’s Diane? Heard she got student of the month at school. That’s cool, Haywood Middle School, right?" Rya asks, staring at Joe, causing his eyes to widen.

"You sick bi-"

"Didn’t Amy get a promotion? She’s a manager now at Kr-"

"The witch," Joe heaves out.

"The witch?"

"Yes, the fucking witch. I can’t say it out loud but what she does best," he rushes, glaring at her.

Aiming towards Javi, she fires another shot, hitting him in his calf, causing the man to curse her.

"Joe, don’t try and run ten on me just tell me the fucking location," she says, keeping her eyes on Joe.

Spitting out blood, he closes his eyes before relaxing against the wall. "Her fucking voodoo shop. It’s underneath there, you sick fucking bitch," he grits, giving up.

"You’ll live," she says, standing up and looking back at the crew.

"The shop is in Miami, everything we need should be there."

"Your hit," Armando says.

"How many times are y'all going to come for my appear—" Rya rolls her eyes, causing Armando to shake his head and point at her shoulder.

"No, I mean you got shot."

Stopping mid-sentence, Rya looks down to where he was pointing to see the open bullet wound. Blood oozing down her arm. It most likely went all the way through.

"I'm fine...we need to go and grab what we nee—" She says, looking back up at everyone.

"No, no, we're going to call it a night, and you're going to get that wrapped and bandaged. We can go in the morning," Mike says crossing his arms.

Opening her mouth to go against him, Marcus cuts her off. "Don't even try to say otherwise, especially to Mike's hardheaded ass. He already made the decision for you."

---------------------------------------------------------

...AMMO HEADQUARTERS 2 HOURS LATER...

"Rya, you can stay at my house for the time being. All I ask is to clean up after yourself and don't leave any bloody bandages around, alright? I got a one-year-old that's starting to understand the concept of walking and grabbing random shit to put in her mouth," Mike says, walking towards the common room where Kelly was wrapping Rya's shoulder.

Nodding her head, she thanks Kelly as she finishes with the last bandage. Mike watches as she gets up and heads towards the locker rooms along with Kelly, leaving him and Armando by themselves.

Clearing his throat, he looks up towards his son sitting by the computers on his phone. Hesitating for a second, he decides to make his way up towards him and pulls up a chair next to him.

"I know it's been a little hectic these past couple of days...you good?" he asks with concern, studying his son's features.

"I'm not in prison..." Armando says, looking up at his father before looking back down at his phone.

Raising his brows, Mike sighs, leaning back in his chair. "Yeah, uh, Mando, I know we aren't completely there with the whole...father-son thing, and we don't ever have to be...we can simply be two men that respect each other...uh, but, uh, I do want you to know that if you need to talk about anyth—"

Getting up from his seat, Armando looks down at his father, furrowing his brows. "I don't have anything to talk about with you...we help each other out...that's it," he says, giving one last glance at the man in front of him before walking away.

Nodding his head, Mike watches as his son walks out. Standing up, he grabs his keys and makes his way out to the car to wait for Rya.

'We help each other...that's it.'

---------------------------------------------------------

...MIKE'S HOUSE...

"I have spare pajamas if you need some, Rya. I'll be happy to lend you something other than police shirts and training shorts," Christine says with a small smile, standing at the guest room door.

"I'm okay with what I have, thank you, Christine."

Upon arriving at Mike's house, Rya was instantly greeted by his former counselor and now wife. With a wide smile and an even wider hug, Rya was a bit caught off guard by the greeting but appreciated it nonetheless.

Their home was beautiful and comfortable. With it being a four-bedroom space, she was given the option to choose her own space to stay.

"We have some pain pills and more wound dressing if you need to change it in the bathroom right here. Get some sleep this time," Mike says, stepping into the doorway with baby Amara in his arms, her head gently resting on his shoulder as he bounced her up and down.

"Yes, let us know if you need anything. Goodnight," Christine smiles before closing the door.

Laying down on the full-size bed, she groans, feeling the soreness of her shoulder now that her adrenaline is down. She didn’t know how long she layed there staring at the ceiling until she sat back up, sliding on her house shoes that Christine gave her.

'Yeah, I'm not getting any sleep tonight.'

Making her way downstairs, she pours herself a glass of water before sitting down at the island. Seeing a figure move in the corner of her eye, she quickly looks up and lifts the glass, prepared to fight.

"It's just me."

Dropping her arm, she watches as Armando steps out with his hands up before walking towards the cabinet to grab himself a glass and pour some water.

The two sat in silence as Armando took a seat next to Rya at the kitchen island.

"Back at the restaurant—" Armando starts, still staring ahead.

"The guy said 'the witch'... referring to my mother, right?" he asks, looking down.

Turning her body towards Armando, she glances down at the man, not answering right away. Since they've met, Armando had this hard demeanor, but tonight she can tell he was vulnerable. Though he's trying not to show it, she could see right through the facade... it's one she does often herself.

"Yes... that concerns you?"

Looking back up, he makes eye contact with Rya. "Nah... just connecting the dots," he says, standing up and walking towards the sink to rinse his glass.

Staring at her glass in hand, she looks back up at Armando making his way out of the kitchen.

"You really think she loved you... like a son?" she asks, watching as he stops in his steps before turning around. His brows were slightly furrowed, and his eyes wandered for a bit, trying to avoid eye contact.

"Even if she didn’t... she cared more than anyone else."

Staring at the man for a bit, she nods her head, considering his words. "You tired?"

Scrunching his face in confusion, he hesitates before answering. "Depends."

Standing up from her seat, she turns completely towards him and crosses her arms.

"Your mother’s voodoo shop... I can grab what we need, and you can find out who your mother really was."

Considering her words, Armando nods his head before turning around to head towards the garage.

"Dont slam my door getting in...I aint forget about earlier"

"you pissed me off"

Tag list: (lmk if you want to be added🫶🏽)

@blackgirlmagicforever @believeinthefireflies95 @wizewhispers @omg-mymelaninisbeautiful @sarcasticbitchsblog @maybepersuasivetom @d4rno @honggihwa @literallegendicon @ninacutebee16 @hannie-squirrel00 @themainacc @stressedmess-21

[sag-dab-sar]

Clarification: Generative AI does not equal all AI

💭 "Artificial Intelligence"

AI is machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing, and more that I'm not smart enough to know. It can be extremely useful in many different fields and technologies. One of my information & emergency management courses described the usage of AI as being a "human centaur". Part human part machine; meaning AI can assist in all the things we already do and supplement our work by doing what we can't.

💭 Examples of AI Benefits

AI can help advance things in all sorts of fields, here are some examples:

Emergency Healthcare & Disaster Risk X

Disaster Response X

Crisis Resilience Management X

Medical Imaging Technology X

Commercial Flying X

Air Traffic Control X

Railroad Transportation X

Ship Transportation X

Geology X

Water Conservation X

Can AI technology be used maliciously? Yeh. Thats a matter of developing ethics and working to teach people how to see red flags just like people see red flags in already existing technology.

AI isn't evil. Its not the insane sentient shit that wants to kill us in movies. And it is not synonymous with generative AI.

💭 Generative AI

Generative AI does use these technologies, but it uses them unethically. Its scraps data from all art, all writing, all videos, all games, all audio anything it's developers give it access to WITHOUT PERMISSION, which is basically free reign over the internet. Sometimes with certain restrictions, often generative AI engineers—who CAN choose to exclude things—may exclude extremist sites or explicit materials usually using black lists.

AI can create images of real individuals without permission, including revenge porn. Create music using someones voice without their permission and then sell that music. It can spread disinformation faster than it can be fact checked, and create false evidence that our court systems are not ready to handle.

AI bros eat it up without question: "it makes art more accessible" , "it'll make entertainment production cheaper" , "its the future, evolve!!!"

💭 AI is not similar to human thinking

When faced with the argument "a human didn't make it" the come back is "AI learns based on already existing information, which is exactly what humans do when producing art! We ALSO learn from others and see thousands of other artworks"

Lets make something clear: generative AI isn't making anything original. It is true that human beings process all the information we come across. We observe that information, learn from it, process it then ADD our own understanding of the world, our unique lived experiences. Through that information collection, understanding, and our own personalities we then create new original things.

💭 Generative AI doesn't create things: it mimics things

Take an analogy:

Consider an infant unable to talk but old enough to engage with their caregivers, some point in between 6-8 months old.

Mom: a bird flaps its wings to fly!!! *makes a flapping motion with arm and hands*

Infant: *giggles and makes a flapping motion with arms and hands*

The infant does not understand what a bird is, what wings are, or the concept of flight. But she still fully mimicked the flapping of the hands and arms because her mother did it first to show her. She doesn't cognitively understand what on earth any of it means, but she was still able to do it.

In the same way, generative AI is the infant that copies what humans have done— mimicry. Without understanding anything about the works it has stolen.

Its not original, it doesn't have a world view, it doesn't understand emotions that go into the different work it is stealing, it's creations have no meaning, it doesn't have any motivation to create things it only does so because it was told to.

Why read a book someone isn't even bothered to write?

Related videos I find worth a watch

ChatGPT's Huge Problem by Kyle Hill (we don't understand how AI works)

Criticism of Shadiversity's "AI Love Letter" by DeviantRahll

AI Is Ruining the Internet by Drew Gooden

AI vs The Law by Legal Eagle (AI & US Copyright)

AI Voices by Tyler Chou (Short, flash warning)

Dead Internet Theory by Kyle Hill

-Dyslexia, not audio proof read-

[man-down-in-hatchet-town]

So I Spied Another Day...

You know it was a good show when you can’t decide whether your heart is so full from all the love and joy, or so empty because it's over.

Really do buckle up, because this is a long one.

So the show went a little like this. They played the Spies pro-shoot on a giant movie screen, but any time a song started, the audio changed to the instrumental track, the video typically faded to simple background graphics, and the cast came out to perform the number live in concert style. There were also a series of audience participation prompts up on the movie screen, such as standing to deliver a line in unison, giving Lauren a standing ovation for the Pay Attention! Reprise, enthusiastically booing Dr. Baron von Nazi and the still infuriatingly catchy Not So Bad (for anyone who’s curious, in addition to encouraging boos and yelled disagreements with von Nazi, they also cut the audience participation bit from the song).

The energy in the room was so electric and full of joy and warmth. People shouted out iconic lines, went wild for everyone’s entrances, and absolutely lost their damn minds over Curtwen at pretty much every opportunity. And the cast were clearly having just as much fun. Doing This has always been my favorite, and there was something so sweet about them singing it again all these years later. We finally got Joey performing Spies Are Forever (Evil Reprise) again and it was just as chilling and beautiful as you’d expect. And One Step Ahead was just on a whole new level. I don’t want to give anything away, but the details in that performance were INCREDIBLE.

It was simply so special seeing most of the original gang come back while also bringing some new friends along. Shout out to Mariah for coming out at the top of the show so ready to play, setting the tone for the whole evening. Shout out to James for putting his comedy chops on full display (LET JAMES BE FUNNY MORE) and dancing the hell out of One More Shot (another favorite number). And shoutout to Carlos Alazraqui (taking over the roles of Sergio and Vladimir Poopin) and Tommy Link for coming into this crazy part of our world with such enthusiasm and silliness. Brian deserves a medal for agreeing to once again play the most cringe-worthy character in all of Pulp-StarCanWrecked history, and for sounding so fucking good while doing it. Tessa was having a blast in full unhinged glory and I gladly worship at her altar. Lauren is maybe the funniest person alive and deserved her standing ovation, prompted or not. Seeing Joe Walker perform live has been Item Number One on my fandom bucket list since I moved to LA a couple of years ago, and I still can’t quite believe I managed it. I’d wondered if he’d be rusty, but honestly he sounded great; it was like no time had passed. Mary Kate still has one of my all-time favorite voices and her Tatiana remains forever engaging. Joey showed up dressed to slay as a gay evil genius Bond-movie supervillain and proceeded to thoroughly deliver on that promise. And Curt… every time I watch Spies I am increasingly blown away by what he does with this arrogant, broken mess of a character. He clearly loves Agent Mega as much as any of us, and to see a performance refined and powered by such clear and thoughtful passion is just a huge treat.

(And while he wasn’t in the cast, I can’t not mention Corey. Between his roles as director and co-writer, so much of what Spies is comes directly from him and we don’t appreciate that nearly enough. And shout out to Esther Fallick for her wonderful work as Susan and the Informant. She might not have been there in person, but her incredible performance was with us the whole time.)

I know this is preaching to the choir, but Spies Are Forever really is such a special show. It’s a story about recovery, and devastating as it can be, I think there’s also something deeply healing about it at its core. For one thing, I know it played a huge role in mending my relationship with my asexuality. I will forever be grateful to it for existing, to TCB, Talkfine, and the original cast for creating it, and to those same people for maintaining its legacy with the amount of love and care it deserves. It was a privilege to be in the room as so many people came to celebrate this miraculous little musical. There were a couple of minor tech glitches (I wonder if they’ll even include the “big one”—the projector jumping over most of the staircase scene before getting fixed—in the digital ticket version), but nothing that could even begin to damper the magic of the night.

We all know that spies never die (except for Owen and the Informant, oops). And at times like this concert, I think this special little show with its short run in 2016 will prove to be just as immortal.

[refeminizeme]

hey yall, i was here, went 2 @re--feminize-me m i was having some tech issues on my other acct and decided 2 give this one another shot!!!

Mandatory disclaimer that transphobia in real life sucks and so does misogyny etc and i dont condone pretty much anything on this blog if its not in a consensual kink context, obviously. If this content triggers you pls block me.

_______________________________________________

kink list

loves

forcefem/feminization!!!!!!!

bondage esp sh1bari

brainwashing/conditioning/mind control

bimboification/dumbification

hypnosis!!!!!

breathplay (incl. being choked and more)

dp

edging & denial

sensory deprivation ♡

humiliation

consensual blackmailing but only w ppl i REALLY trust

gaslighting/manipulation (consensually and negotiated first, and only w the right person so dont do this right out the gate)

likes

cnc (if in the mood, with the right person i trust, etc)

breeding/sometimes pregnancy

spirals

intox (consensually and for the right person)

degradation in very specific like, um, ways??? like um, i like sweet degradation.

exhibitionism but like um, im not like, TOOOOO into this its a minor kink for me

misogyny kink

hucow

curious about

lactation

will update as i like, think of more???? if u think of anything not on this list ask me about it n like, it just may get added hahahahahaha

hard limits

findom/me

v0mit

watersports/scat

cgl/ddlg/daddy dom anything

age/re

alternate personality stuff/anything related to that

feet

body shaming, esp weight related

weight control/eating disorder stuff

racism/racist slurs/etc

any kind of inc3st including daddy/mommy as a title

ass to mouth in any capacity

rimming (giving)

_______________________________________________

some of my hypnotic triggers im like, willing 2 share publicly:

dr*p and sle*p - some obvious ones, put me into a trance

deeper and deeper - makes me go deep real fast if used after dr*p and/or sle*p

thr*b - makes me really horny and makes my cunt, well, throb

edge esp in all caps/bolded - makes me immediately reach an edge and if im touching i HAVE 2 stop until the edge has passed

like a go0d girl - makes me want to obey whatever precedes it

submit/surrender - makes me feel very obedient n like, submissive

tr*th - makes my subconscious answer a question without my conscious mind being aware of it and i will immediately forget answering the question after

(these are censored so i can read them without accidentally... yk. but use the actual word in asks if u wanna use them!!!!)

_______________________________________________

i occasionally make detr4ns/misgen/bimbofication files (you can find them here!!) but im primarily a sub.

I've been listening to hypnosis for like 3-4 years and this is like, how ive turned out bc of it???? I really am detransitioning n becoming the best bimbo i CAN be irl this is not like, ENTIRELY a fantasy for me but i dont like, condone this stuff outside of a consensual kink context to be clear. ask me abt it if ur confused lol

I used to be ftm and hypnosis fixed my brain ♡ now to fix my body lmaooooooo

my tits are like,,,, soooo big omg. last i posted abt them on this blog they were a DDD/F cup and now theyre an i or j cup depending on the day??????? i like, hope they keep getting bigger 😳😳

also fwiw i AM a bigger girl, which like, means dont expect me to be the waifish manic pixie dream girl many guys like, seem to expect??? My icon + header are both me so that shld give u an idea of what to expect from my pics.

Also i do "commissions" for pics, audio, videos/gifs, etc just lmk what ur looking for n im sure we can arrange smth!! For those interested I also also have a gdrive folder of my fave nüdes (23 pics, 2 vids, n a gif) for whatever u think is a reasonable donation ♡ I'm trying to raise money for several fun detrans things so I'm like,,, open to negotiation on that. DM me if any of that interests you!!

Alternatively, follow me on Loverfans here, for free (lewd content) or $5 a month (the good stuff) ♡ Easy peasy.

also, im in a polyamorous relationship and if i like you we can play, but dont start off with either "hi" (boring) or "hello slut throb" etc like.... straight up you need to treat me like a person first before ill let you treat me like a toy.

[comma-tose]

I wish Sasha had gotten better treatment from Debt or Alive. I spoke a bit about it in a previous post but she is just not developed at all and I have a LOT of problems with how the book portrays her. Which is a shame because I really loved her in Tales, she was a really great character. There ARE positives to her in the book but this is purely me talking about what I don't like about how she's portrayed here, so while there are good points I won't be speaking about them here.

(if you liked this book that's completely valid! These are just my personal opinions on somethings I didn't like in the book)

Spoiler warning for Debt or Alive obviously.

To put it into perspective, Sasha in Tales was someone out of her element like the rest of the group, she wasn't great with tech (although not completely clueless), she loved guns, she wanted to get off of Pandora, she cared about Fiona's safety, and she canonically liked Rhys. She had moments where she was pessimistic and occasionally didn't acknowledge Fiona's feelings (about the situation with Felix) but overall she was VERY close with Fiona and cared about her, wanting them both to be safe and okay. She was great and I love her.

Now... In Debt or Alive unfortunately that is not the case. That's not to say that she doesn't care at all about Fiona or Rhys, but the way the book portrays her is very strange. It tends to either give her very negative traits without ever acknowledging them as bad, or it treats her as a plot device that magically provides the way for the story to progress, either just handing her wins without earning them or giving her abilities that she shouldn't have, often at the expense of minimising what makes other characters special.

To be more specific let me start with the ability to hack that the book gives her. Now in Tales she showed no knowledge of it, quite the opposite actually, and the book randomly says that Rhys has taught her a "ton of stuff" about hacking, although when this happened it's not quite clear considering the book makes it clear that they leave Pandora fairly quickly after getting out of the vault... So I guess she just got the skill in a few weeks???

The first thing she hacks, which is also the first mention of her having any ability to hack ever, is the debt cuffs. The cuffs that billionaires have funded being made, the cuffs that they would have poured so much money into to make sure that no one ever got away without paying their debts. She just hacks into it and dismantles it. It's not a perfect job because the cuff does explode afterwards but she is able to remove it in time, You'd think if it was that easy you'd have a legion of people doing back-alley deals to remove them and the majority of the planet wouldn't be wearing them. So clearly this is something difficult to do, especially with the amount of money the billionaires of Eden 5 would have poured into it.

The other thing she hacks is a sec-bot. One of Countless Holloway's robotic security guards. In the middle of combat Sasha just leaps onto its back and just hacks into it, changing its allegiances almost instantly and rewiring it to be on their side now.

Now bear in mind we have seen robots change allegiance before in tales from the borderlands when Rhys takes control of the drones.

But in that case not only had Rhys been a programmer for YEARS, he still had to have help from Jack's AI to take control of them. So if Rhys with years of experience needs help to take control of robots, then in no way should Sasha be able to randomly take control of them from what could only be at MOST a few weeks of practice.

Now not quite hacking but along the lines of machinery the other thing Sasha does is repair Deathtrap. There is no explanation given as to how she does this. Deathtrap is barely functional at the time and has absolutely no vision, no ocular beam, no hover function, barely functioning audio sensors, and no digistruct claws. That's the list of damages explicitly given in the book.

Bearing in mind that this is a robot built by a literal genius, one who was essentially a technological prodigy, a robot so impressive that the Holloway estate ripped off the plans for it to built a robot army to keep the entire planet of Eden 5 in check. And Sasha just fixes it, the only time before this that Sasha had shown ANY kind of mechanical skills was when she was fixing the caravan during the intro song to Episode 3 of tales from the borderlands and even then she was being walked through the repairs by Scooter.

Sasha should not be just given abilities that are randomly as good, if not better than other characters whose whole thing was being REALLY good at that in particular. Gaige was a mechanical genius that's how she built Deathtrap after years of learning. Rhys was a good programmer who still needed help to perform complicated hacks. It doesn't make sense for someone with basically no experience to suddenly be even half as good as them at it. It also diminishes Sasha as a character because they don't give her something SHE IS uniquely good at. It essentially turns her into a ripoff version of those two ability wise, and she deserves far better than that.

Now then, personality wise... I wish I didn't have negative things to say here, really I do. This isn't to say that EVERY interaction or scene with her is bad, but the ones that are just really stand out.

To start with, Sasha gets mad at Fiona trying to restrict what she does which is completely reasonable for Sasha to be mad about, BUT then in response to being mad at Fiona she goes and does something insanely stupid. Something that doesn't just endanger her but also risks Fiona's life and it's not even done for good reason.

She frees Gaige.

Gaige who had EVERY reason to hold a grudge against her and Fiona and to go hunt them down and murder them, who also reiterated her hatred for Sasha and Fiona. Oh and she shows her the shard that can bring people back from the dead. So not only does she free someone who has every reason to go murder her and her sister, but she also just dangles the cure to death in front of a vault hunter who could just kill her and take it.

She also frees her knowing that she murdered Countess Holloway's daughter. Now we as the audience know that that was an accident, we know that Gaige didn't mean to and that Marcie had been awful to her for years, but Sasha does not. She saw the video of Marcie being killed and all she knows is that Deathtrap killed Marcie, and yet she still frees her. Because she's bored and mad at Fiona.

They could've had her find out the real circumstances behind Marcie's death and then impulsively go free Gaige, but no, she is just bored and angry at Fiona so she goes and frees Gaige so that she can go vault hunting with her.

This being insanely stupid is never addressed. Nor is the idiocy of Sasha literally KILLING HERSELF to prove that the crystal works to Gaige. Just a note, this is also all done after Gaige reiterates her hatred for Sasha and Fiona, and Sasha never tries to get Gaige to agree to y'know not hunt her sister down.

Couple of quick problems here as well regarding Sasha's personality in the book.

-When Fiona starts to free people from the debt cuffs she literally just stands there in bewilderment and says "what are you doing???" And only after Fiona starts freeing more does she join in

- throughout the book Sasha refuses to commit to Rhys, refusing to make the relationship serious, and doesn't say anything more than "I need more time" despite noting how upset it's making Rhys. It takes Fiona calling her out (which also mentions that she has a habit of just ghosting her boyfriends???), for her to actually make a decision. And even then SHE doesn't tell Rhys that she's decided to move the relationship forward and it's Fiona who has to tell him.

-Sasha also says nothing when Fiona is literally compared to Handsome Jack. Like she's literally standing next to them, replies to something Fiona says but she says NOTHING when Fiona is compared to Jack. Doesn't even reassure her that it's not true. (Tales Sasha would've thrown hands with the guy who said that, there is NO way she would let that slide).

Now for my final point, because god knows I've been yapping for a while, Sasha is just HANDED accomplishments and the most glaring example of this is when she goes vault hunting with Gaige, which is literally a weekend trip.

First Gaige just knows where a vault is, then, after she goes there with Gaige, there are NO guardians defending the vault because they were all somehow killed by a few bandits.

When they get through the bandits they get to the entry to the vault. Now what do you need to open a vault??? If you said a vault key then... INCORRECT! It turns out that they just don't even need one because the name of the monster IS the key... Somehow. But regardless they open the vault.

And how do they kill this vault monster you ask? How does Sasha finally, in her own words, be even and equal with Fiona? Well they shove a grenade in the monster's eye and it dies. Then they just go home.

This book does not let Sasha earn anything, which is a shame because her character in Tales was great and had a LOT of potential. But here she doesn't grow as a person, and for some reason has developed some really bad traits after Tales with no explanation, and doesn't bother to give her her own thing that made her unique, instead settling on just giving her other peoples. She would essentially be at the exact same point in her character, if not better, if this book just didn't exist at all, because it just loops back around to her and Fiona broke and vault hunting again.

Sasha deserved SO much better.

[foxes-that-run]

Paper rings

Paper Rings is about love over wealth and luxury. Paper rings are simple and unglamorous, but also can be fragile. Paper being temporary and disposable. The song mixes good and bad to say that Taylor choses an imperfect life with this person. Taylor described it as not having modern influences when it does and being punk, a word that fits this song better than reputation but Taylor used in Time. It's was hinted at on Reputation which makes me wonder if it was a Reputation vault track. It copies the sound of Hilary Duff's 2015 Breathe In Breath Out which Taylor mentioned on Tumblr:

Paper Rings was hinted at in the Me! Lyric Video with a Paper Ring with two polaroids (it mentions photo frames) and has a Spotify Story:

"I wrote "Paper Rings' with this idea of throwback sounds. We didn't want to use any sounds that were very modern on this song. This song talks about true love, and if you really find true love, you probably don't really care what the symbolism of that love is. Material things wouldn't matter to you anymore if you found someone that you just wanted to live your life with. "

In the iHeartRadio Secret Session (Audio in the video above) Taylor said:

[...]"imagining that I was a wedding band at a reception, playing the love songs that the bride and groom wanted to hear in, like, 1978 or something. It's called 'Paper Rings.' The whole song is just basically reminiscing on fun memories. [...] there's some fun, kind of, punk, like inspired by punk girl groups and the way they used to sing, shouting them in a really unapologetic way. [...]

A 1978 Wedding Band is a very specific reference. So thinking of songs from 1978... This wedding blog lists a few like Just What I Needed – The Cars, released in 1978 and one (H tweet) and was also in The Wedding Singer. Blondie is a clear reference for the Lover aesthetic and the song. Blondie released One Way or Another in 1978. (Before the 1D cover). The Ramones Blitzkrieg Bop is an earlier influence for it.

...also did she say Punk? as in the 2023 Time Magazine:

When was it written

Like all of Lover it is copyright 2019 for its release. It was Easter egged in the Call It What You Want Lyric video on 2 November 2016 and in the Reputation magazine hinting pretty strongly that it was at least partly written with Reputation.

It was recorded at Conway, LA, & Metropolis in London. London Boy was also recorded in both. Taylor didn’t record reputation at Metropolis but KOMH and a few lover songs were at Conway.

Live performances

Paper Rings was a surprise song in Minneapolis on 23 June, 2023, the other surprise song was If this was a movie. Taylor also performed it as a mash up with Stay Stay Stay on 21 July, 2024. It was not played the few Lover promo shows.

Rings

The Spotify Visual features a huge ring, pearls and beehive. When talking about the song Taylor talked about not caring about a ring if you truly loved someone, and the lyrics 'I like shiny things, but I would marry you with paper rings'. So why this visual with a huge ring and perfect life? To me this is about giving those things up, which fits the 'unapologetic' punk feel. This idea is also in the LAWYMMD video. Maybe rejecting a proposal with a shiny ring for a more youthful love.

Lyrics

The moon is high Like your friends were the night that we first met Went home and tried to stalk you on the internet Now I've read all of the books beside your bed

In the iHeartRadio intro Taylor said the song was reminiscing on fun memories which these first verses are. These are the sections which match Breathe in Breathe out. which has lines that start with “I remember..” while Hilary was looking back on a lost love Taylor is reminiscing on a current love, it sounds both nostalgic and new.

Some fans do gymnastics to make them about a specific muse but they are very generic but I’ll add that Joe was not with friends at the Met Gala, he was with a costar that knew Taylor better.

The wine is cold Like the shoulder that I gave you in the street Cat and mouse for a month or two or three Now I wake up in the night and watch you breathe

This verse continues the reminiscing, I like the use of cold shoulder and street compared to the intimacy of watching someone breathe. Also this line reminds me of the Hilary Duff song title.

Kiss me once 'cause you know I had a long night (Oh) Kiss me twice 'cause it's gonna be alright Three times 'cause I've waited my whole life (One, two, one, two, three, four)

This verse is the most like a wedding band, and one Taylor mentioned when talking about the song that Jack does the count in. Taylor has not used ‘be alright’ very much:

22 - Everything will be alright, if you keep me next to you

Shake it off - Saying, "It's gonna be alright."

Call it what you want - They took the crown, but it's alright

The Archer - But what if I'm alright, right, right, right here?

Death by a Thousand Cuts - I ask the traffic lights if it'll be alright

The 1 - And it's alright now

Fresh Out the Slammer - But it's gonna be alright, I did my time

I look through people's windows - Does it feel alright to not know me?

I like shiny things, but I'd marry you with paper rings Uh huh, that's right Darling, you're the one I want, and I hate accidents except when we went from friends to this

The refrain is where Taylor would chose a simple paper ring over a fancy ring or wedding. When talking about the song Taylor described this as the ring not mattering, but to me paper is more temporary, it’s not a wedding but a tentative commitment of sorts. Taylor also describes the relationship as non traditional with “this” an ill defined situationship.

Uh huh, that's right Darling, you're the one I want In paper rings, in picture frames, in dirty dreams Oh, you're the one I want

The one I want implies again there is someone Taylor is choosing this person over, she’s forgoing something shiny for this relationship. Yet the theme of reminiscing implies this is not a new relationship. Darling is not used a lot.

Picture frames are also uncommon in Taylor’s work, only HYGTG, Run and this song have a framed picture to mean a relationship. The Me! Lyric video had 2 Polaroids with the paper ring, very 1989/reputation-esque, one of her holding a cat and one with friends.

How You Get The Girl: With pictures in frames of kisses on cheeks

In the winter, in the icy outdoor pool When you jumped in first, I went in too I'm with you even if it makes me blue Which takes me back To the color that we painted your brother's wall

Taylor will follow this partner anywhere even when it’s not always easy or pleasant. More on the wall and icy pool below.

Honey, without all the exes, fights, and flaws We wouldn't be standing here so tall, so

In this verse their relationship has some history of "exes, fights, and flaws" they’ve overcome. Similar to “one I want” this is not a simple we met and went from friends to this, they have history.

Icy outdoor pool

I have a post on the icy pool. Which is something Harry has been known for (also in Hampstead Heath Pond) long before Joe did handy exposition for this. Taylor said on 2 June 2018 in Chicago ( Harry was in the City) "2 New Years Eve's ago I found myself in the midst of a very like incredible 3am moment where you think you are invincible and you end up like jumping in a pool in the winter and you feel super untouchable in that moment" Taylor Nation cut this part out.

The house Taylor rented in Hampstead in December 2016 has a pool and she included photos in the Rep Magazine. A post on that.

Blue Walls

I have a post on this blue wall line and that it is a metaphor for being emotionally isolated. She also referred to blue painted walls in:

Everything Has Changed - And all my walls stood tall, painted blue

The Lover photoshoot hints that it is metaphorical:

If you think these rep book photos are of Taylor actually painting a wall and not a photoshoot I have some ice to sell you.

I want to drive away with you I want your complications too I want your dreary Mondays Wrap your arms around me, baby boy

In the bridge Taylor tells how she wants good and bad, a similar idea to on New Years Day about wanting someone to clean up bottles after the party, or dreary Monday’s here. Again with complications, this is not a fresh relationship between 2 single people.

Drive is a Haylor theme also and this line reminds me of Style’s “let’s get out of the town” and finally taylor calls the muse “baby boy” .. perhaps she is singing about someone who’s ‘younger than her ex’s but acts like such a man, so.

[vyxated]

finally answering asks I've been keeping for a while ~.~

📝 sims2 & chalk'd ui, phone icons & wallpapers, cas bg recolor, font replacement, and some more (reshade & rig helper asks will be answered at another time ;; )

tysm anon!! I had to wrestle a bit with the file to make the taxi image work, and at the end it came out looking super neat! Especially if you have the sims 2's music playing (found a super cool music override that does that). It's such a cool idea, and I've been researching on how to do it 😆 ngl, making cc objects is something I wanna do someday, tho from the looks of it it's gonna take me a while to understand the process lol. If/when I make any breakthrough, I'll be sure to post about it :p (It'd be neat if it costs money too to use the taxi.)

jdfklsjf tysm @hellofears & @oshinsimblr !! I've been doing some final adjustments so hopefully I can release it within this week c:

thanks anon ^7^ you can replace them as long as you have access to the files (pancake1 made a pie menu & wants sound replacement and buurz replaced the in-game music with ones from other sims games). I looked around and found these resources you might want to check out: TS4 Sound Tool, UI sound kit & UI audio instance list

hehe tysm anon! My UI mods won't remove the shop icon so you'll need to grab other mods that do that. I decided not to do it myself to avoid having a new mod conflict ^^

Hii @simplyamazingsims, I've tested both mirroredup & triple mirror and both v3 files are working w/ the latest update. The reflection setting must be set to low or higher for the reflection to show up. You can also try clearing your caches and try removing the resource.cfg file (file will regenerate, and doing this fixes the issue for some). Oh and ofc having other cas backgrounds can cause mine to not show up so make sure there's only one in your mods folder ^^

@claravizeu it's a map override that I'll probably work on whenever I'm in the mood 😆

Hi anon! For the phone icons, I used xosdr's phone icons psd to create mine. For the wallpaper, I haven't found someone who've gathered & shared the files for it, so I'll see if I can do that myself :)

Heyy anon, it's a CAS bg that I made for the previews so it's not available to download. I haven't got the chance to prepare the files yet, but I'll try to find the time to do so ^^

Hey anon, unfortunately the notification wall is associated w/ the texture file that handles most of the UI panels, so you won't be able to remove a specific file to achieve it. I've received a request just like yours so what I can do is share it a separate file later on ^^

Hii as well, it's compatible yes ^^ you can use both mods as they don't have any files in common that conflicts with each other.

heyy @icyaliyah, sorry it took a while to respond! While I don't have plans to recolor them, you can download these pink recolors by estellics & dumbabie ^^ and thank you very much!

Hii as well, it's been a while so I don't know if you're still having the issue or if it's already been fixed. Afaik my mod shouldn't cause any loading issues on its own, as well as if you have the conflicting mod & files present and if you remove the conflicting files. So far, I've not received any reports of this exact issue, so I can't be of help. Sorry if that doesn't answer your question 😅

ahhhh @veone thank you as well for using it ever since it came out!! 🙈

Heyy anon, basically you'd want to only remove the files that conflicts w/ the mods that you do use, and not the other way around. For example, if you use TOOL, you'd want to delete the files in the Additional Files > TOOL folder (either both text and texture files or just the text file alone, depending on which one you prefer). If you don't use TOOL, keep the files be. So, if you only have the UI Cheats mod and none of the listed conflicting mods, then you don't need to remove any files ^^

heyy @swithdream, well very belated happy new year to you as well despite it being april already lol there's an update to the cas organizers that I haven't done yet, and when the time comes that I update those, I'll try to include the psds for all the templates I did ^^

Hii @kneptoone, it's a font replacement using TS3's Helvetica Rounded font that I made & haven't shared yet, yeah ^^ I can try putting it up for download since there isn't one out yet.

Heyy anon, I've been focusing on other things so I haven't yet found the time to work on my older uploads >< I'm definitely interested in doing those, but not sure when that'll be.

Hello anon, tysm! I'll do it at some point but not sure when :x I haven't properly played around w/ CAS since last year :X

[glngrbred]

Hot take, Elden ring is a really good souls like, but that doesn't mean its actually a good game.

within the subgenre, souls-likes have always had really huge issues with accessibility, and i don't mean for disability alone. Elden ring especially had extremely horrible performance issues at launch, which they did eventually fix. Even then you still have to get a 400 dollar PC. Aside from that there are some strange decisions made with teaching the player, like the tutorial is just a hole that players had to point out to each other, and On my barely stable first 20 minutes, i couldn't even find (my b i guess). Obviously alot of extremely experienced gamers would be able to handle themselves super well in Elden ring even without a tutorial. But there's another issue there with accessibility.

2 last things on accessibility. The game's audio is mixed like a movie, (so barely audible or ripping out your eardrums ;-;) witch is another accessibility issue, that you have to put a lot of work in to fix. And the graphics range from maxing out the brightness, to being completely black on bad screens. obviously an issue. I'm not going to go into the issues with explanations and the general tell don't show nature of alot of souls likes, because people have already complained about the text tunnels enough

I do really appreciate the artistry and just beautiful atmosphere Elden ring has, my only issue with the graphics is the performance requirements for them. Also if you never turned the graphics all the way down, it used to cause bit lag spikes just because it wanted to i guess :")

So, my argument is that a game can be a good version of the predecessors it bases itself off of, but if it doesn't actually deliver on playability and accessibility, I really don't think its deserving of the praise it gets. here are examples of games I think are flawless Unraveled/Unraveled 2 Hades Minecraft (Java edition only [cuz bedrock is completely broken somehow???) Never alone (a cool 2 player co op platformer that me and my brother played through when we were 6 and 8 or smthn, it was incredible, and i still think its worth playing as an adult) Spelunky 2 ***Monster Hunter (except for the extremely slow RPG elements) [takes 3 months to get 1 armor set built fully :)]

So i actually have some great news for the difficulty purists, You can actually do a hardcore game well, So long as you make failure quick and readable, Make trying immediate, and Make learning a part of the design. Spelunky is not my cup of tea, i have a bad time with reaction time, but spelunky is really great, in that your goal every attempt is simply to get as far as possible. In elden ring, you have the opposite problem, where instead of completing the objective being extraordinarily hard, getting from point a to point b is tediouse, saving the game takes time, occasionally you can be attacked without knowing why, and you dont get a clear read on what went wrong, ETC. If Elden ring was only the boss fights, I would say its almost a great game. Which is why I included Monster hunter on that list, despite its insufferable grind. Also BTW spelunky 2 has four fun minigames. a requirement for any game to be truly perfect is for there to be appeal for casual gamers, and i don't think adding casual elements makes a game worse, like, ever.

Anyways, last little thing, I really dislike it when People praise games for not catering to the needs of some players. Like everyone has heard dudebros or their friends be like "It doesn't have any difficulty settings! that's so sick!" But, like, Have you ever met someone with a motor function disability, or like, just someone who doesn't play games for 30000 hours every year? Difficulty settings and the ability to control your experience are important. and this isn't about Elden ring, But if you care about being an ally you should want your games to have accessibility features, they only benefit people. and if you're so worked up about about an extra tab being in the settings window, maybe you should like, go to therapy or something.

Also Elden ring's UI is so ass it gave my design teacher a heart attack and they hired a Pe*o as our sub.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Hey everyone, look what I made. It took me a completely normal amount of time and I definitely did not spent all weekend on it. All weekend just transcribing and collating. Not counting the time across the last couple of years I spent finding all this stuff. I wouldn't do that.

But if I had done that, it would have started as an Excel file, but some of the transcripts were too long to fit into even the maximum sizes of a cell. Exporting it as a PDF has page breaks and won't let it take up the whole screen, and turning it into an image destroyed the links.

So I ended up going back to the HTML that I learned at computer camp when I was 13 and then used to make Harry Potter websites when I was 14 and have hardly ever used since. Had to Google a bunch of stuff to remember how to do it, but I managed to rewrite the entire table in HTML code in Notepad, and then I found a website that let me upload it in exchange for that annoying little purple thing at the bottom. I would not like to admit how long I spent trying to work out how to just upload one HTML page without having to sign up for building an entire website. Because it was too long. There had to be an easier way to do this. But I don't know what it is.

Anyway, I made this:

So... does anyone want that? It's a spreadsheet where I've collected everything I've found that seems like it could be a direct reference to the Chocolate Milk Gang. It's got transcriptions of the relevant bits of video and audio, and links to PDFs of the text or mp3s or mp4s of the video and audio files, and overall, I spent way too much time on it.

I may have gone slightly Beautiful Mind about it this weekend, pinning links up to my metaphorical cork board, connecting them with bits of red string, and frantically declaring, "It doesn't add up! What, exactly, did Andrew Maxwell call them in 2002? Because I'm getting conflicting stories here!"

At least I now have an easy thing to link to when I want to tell people what the Chocolate Milk Gang is. I realize I throw that term around a lot on this blog, and I stop to explain it every few months or, but I'm also aware that sometimes people come across these posts without all that context and it's confusing. So there you go, if anyone's ever confused by what I mean when I say "Chocolate Milk Gang". It's that, the stuff at that link. It's all those things. It's an international crime syndicate that sometimes organizes soccer matches.

I realize there are a bunch of different sources at that link, making it look like information is easy to find about it. So for some further context, those 16 spreadsheet entries are the only references to it that I've been able to find, across many many hours of searching, across the last couple of years. If you're confused about what the Chocolate Milk Gang is and you want to know the real answer, it's that a few years ago I happened to hear one particular Daniel Kitson show too soon after I'd resigned as board president of my wrestling team, and I got a bit overly attached to the idea of simpler times when people were still building their dream, before it all got out of hand. So I decided to obsessively research this term that appeared on John Oliver's Wikipedia page. It made sense at the time.

Having one link I can point to and say "the stuff we know about the what the Chocolate Milk Gang was - it's all in there" is a nice bonus for that spreadsheet, but it wasn't the original point of it. I mainly wanted to make that spreadsheet so I could get some clear data on 1) its membership list, and 2) its actual name. Hence the spreadsheet columns for both those things.

I’d consider most name that appear in my column for the membership list to be a significant Chocolate Milk Gang member. Though one membership list included Jimmy Carr, as part of the “gang” of comedians who hung out with Demetri Martin in Edinburgh. I’ve already addressed that in another post, but the upshot is that obviously Jimmy Carr’s not in the Chocolate Milk Gang. He's just a guy Demetri Martin probably hung out with in Edinburgh once, so that article grouped him in with the others.

Oh, and there’s the Russell Howard documentary that describes his "golden generation" of comedians, which included some key CMG people, but then moved on to his other comedy friends, like his roommates from the famous Bristol house, and Wil Hodgson. I don’t think the other Bristol guys (Richardson, Robins, Olver) count as CMG, since they were younger and weren't doing comedy during those earlier days when the CMG was formed. But Wil Hodgson performed in Edinburgh in 2004.

This of course gets complicated, because if we’re being very literal about defining the CMG as “people who got milkshakes at the restaurant called Favorit after late-night shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2002” – which was the original meaning of the name – then we’re leaving out some important people who turn up on most CMG membership lists, like Josie Long and Alun Cochrane. So I tend to use the term more broadly than that, to mean “people who were making a certain type of comedy in the 00s, a type that at the time was considered alternative because it was more gentle and indie-like than their more glamorous showbiz predecessors, and they crossed over with each other a lot, personally and professionally.” But that definition can make it difficult to get a clear list, as it basically boils down to: anyone who, while performing comedy from about 2002 to 2007, ever wore a t-shirt on stage, made a vaguely nerdy joke, and hung out with Daniel Kitson. And that can include quite a lot of people. It may well include Wil Hodgson. It could arguably include some of those Bristol guys (although I think “not being an alcoholic” was a fairly big part of the CMG ethos, which rules out Richardson and Robins). Pappy's Fun Club? Lots of people were around at the time.

I think of a few people as being CMG even if they’re mentioned in that spreadsheet list at all. I count Gavin Osborn as a bona fide central CMG member, even though he sure didn't perform in Edinburgh in 2002. He’s been involved in so many collaborations with other central CMG figures, and his work so embodies their ethos, that it doesn’t matter that he didn’t do all that stuff in Edinburgh. He was in the National Youth Theatre with John Oliver; his CMG connections pre-date Edinburgh 2002.

I think I’d count Isy Suttie as CMG, too. She was performing during prime CMG years, and doing that type of comedy that characterized the CMG (gentle, indie-like). She’s also collaborated with CMG people quite a bit. So she didn’t have to be literally drinking milkshakes with them in Edinburgh 2002 to count on their membership list (though it’s possible that she could have been drinking milkshakes with them in 2002, as she was definitely spending lots of time with at least one CMG member at the time, but I’m pretty sure she wasn’t in Edinburgh that year).

So I would say, probably, the main list of Chocolate Milk Gang members is: Daniel Kitson, David O'Doherty, John Oliver, Andy Zaltzman, Russell Howard, Josie Long, Gavin Osborn, Isy Suttie, Alun Cochrane, Bret McKenzie, Jermaine Clement, Demetri Martin. Maybe Taika Waititi? He got mentioned a couple of times but I'm not sure he did any actual CMG stuff, I think he was just a guy David O'Doherty liked.

So that's the membership list. Now I'd like to address the title, and issue with which is what prompted me to start on this spreadsheet in the first place. That issue being: Why has everyone let me spend nearly 2.5 years posting constantly about a British group called the Chocolate Milk Gang, without informing me that the term "chocolate milk" isn't used in Britain like it is in North America? That is an important piece of information for my research, which someone gave me for the first time last week, and it made me decide I should probably do a full-scale study into what this means.

I had wondered, before, why they got named after chocolate milk, when they were apparently drinking milkshakes. I assumed it was just other comedians making fun of them for immaturely not drinking alcohol, implying that they weren't just drinking milkshakes, they were drinking chocolate milk, the way children do.

Nope. It turns out that in Britain, when they say "chocolate milk", they're referring to a chocolate milkshake. When they say "chocolate milkshake", they are also referring to a chocolate milkshake. How do they refer to chocolate milk? Most of the time they don't, apparently it's not as common there. I think. Someone in England told me this, and I've tried looking it up further, but it's confusing. Chocolate milk definitely does exist over there, it just apparently isn't served in nearly every restaurant, the way I'm used to in Canada. So I guess they weren't using that term for the milk and started just using it to mean milkshakes? I don't know, Britain is a confusing place. They also refer to juices as smoothies.

That certainly explains why some comedians got named after chocolate milk, when they were drinking milkshakes. It also explains a bit of the occasional variation in the group's name - Russell Howard recently called them "The Milkshake Brigade", and in an interview in 2006, David O'Doherty said they were "The Milkshake Kids". If "chocolate milk" and "chocolate milkshakes" are interchangeable terms over there, then I guess they can be interchangeable in the gang's name, too.

But it's definitely supposed to be a gang. I don't know where this "brigade" stuff is coming from. David McSavage called them the "Chocolate Milk Brigade", as well. And, again, David O'Doherty once called them kids. What is that? I am not going to change my blog's tagline to saying I am preserving the legacy of the "Chocolate Milk Kids".

And then we have the differing stories about the name's origins. David O'Doherty claims that Glenn Wool coined the term "Chocolate Milk Gang". David McSavage claims that Andrew Maxwell coined it (though he also claims that the coined term is "Chocolate Milk Brigade). David O'Doherty does tell stories of Andrew Maxwell being one of those people who made fun of them for the general nerdiness that got them the CMG nickname, but in his story, Andrew Maxwell was mainly making fun of their bags, rather than their drinking habits.

The interesting thing about the above paragraph is that no one in it is British. I've tried to look up whether chocolate milk was a thing in Ireland in 2002, and whether Irish people said "chocolate milk" to mean "chocolate milkshake" like British people did. I can barely find information about British people doing it, so of course there wasn't anything on Irish differences. But they share a whole lot of cultural colloquialisms, so I'm going to assume it was probably similar.

Glenn Wool, however, is Canadian. And Canadians definitely do not conflate chocolate milk with chocolate milkshakes, even in 2002. So it's odd if he coined that term, calling them the Chocolate Milk Gang because they drank milkshakes. So maybe it did, in fact, originally come from Andrew Maxwell. I assume they both used that term, making it not too difficult to reconcile O'Doherty and McSavage's differing claims about whose term it was.

...I am tired. I think I probably have more to say about that spreadsheet, but I need to go to bed. I could save this as a draft and add more to it tomorrow, but I genuinely think I'll sleep better if I hit "post" on this now and feel like I've got something to share from an entire weekend spent on such a pointless project. I'll just make a new post later if I have more to say. It's all right. So that's what I've been up to. How's everyone else doing?

[sayitaliano]

Studying languages tip #IDK

Reminder for my fellow language learners (not just Italian learners): do not just "listen" to your target language (and I mean also with subtitles), repeat out loud. Repeating out loud what you hear can help you fix in your mind the actual sound of a word and remember it better, and also recognize it whenever you hear it from natives. Do not just rely on how you remember the sound of a word, at least not in the first days you're learning it.

So for example:

1- search for easy youtube videos in which there are only words lists pronunciations. Kids videos generally will do. (Reminder if you're studying Italian I have posted a few audios in the "#audio audios" section and you can listen to them or ask me to make some more, talk slower or whatever). You can also search for kids' songs if you want, and break them down to easy words.

2- choose a song you like or by your fav artist (in your target language). Find the lyrics and follow your artist voice for a few times, then start singing along with them. It doesn't matter if some words will sound weird or be uncorrect or you'll end up saying "blabluojaos" instead of "macchina" even if you know how to pronounce "macchina": you're singing, following the rhythm and thinking about the pronunciation of the next words as well: it's a lot. Just take your time and remember, you can do it more than once and for a few days too. [I learned English and many vocabs more cause while I was having lessons in school I kept listening to English songs: for example I ended up learning by heart Linkin Park's songs and nowadays I can still sing Mike Shinoda's rap parts. So if I made it, you can too].

3- if you're watching movies, or anything you can stop and replay, try to stop and repeat especially the words you find "uncommon" or that you have never heard of. Listen to the actor/person saying them a couple of times, then repeat them a couple of times. You can also repeat the whole sentence you heard from the actor/person, note your word down and search for its meaning if it's not clear (it may also have more than one), and maybe try to use it in different sentences (make them up). [again, if you're studying Italian and need help with meanings, transcriptions -maybe you're not sure you heard a word correctly-, how to use a word... feel free to drop an ask or search in the vocabularies you can find on @sayitalianohome ]

Just beware: once more, especially if you're studying Italian, it may happen that the singer of your choice or actor/person speaking, may not use a "standard" Italian but a regional form or abbreviations or something like that. So keep in mind that you MAY learn words in a specific sound or with a specific use that MAY not always be the one we know/use in common Italian (but you can check it anyway). Back to my personal example: I have learned not just English but also Spanish by listening to songs. My "mistake" was that I kept listening to American English and South American Spanish: this is why when I listen to British/UK English and (Spain) Spanish, I still have some troubles in understanding some words (depends on the accent of the speaker tbh). But ofc you can ask for people to repeat, there ain't nothing bad in it. (And yeah, when I speak English I tend to use an American accent and same for my South American Spanish, cause those are the accents I am more used to and I learned better).

Anyway, don't be scared, sing, yell, talk out loud. It's gonna make a huge difference in your learning life.

[the-tmnt-ficfinder]

Ficfinder finds: The Lemonade Leak

Chapter 4: The Prophet

Chapter 4 Summary: (No summary)

The Prophet: Appraisal and Ratings

(Don't know what fanfic "Appraisal and Ratings" means? Check out my explanation on my Main Masterpost! Looking for a different fanfic to read? Head on over to my Fanfic List Masterpost!)

Disclaimer: This fanfic is only available to those who have an Ao3 profile. This fanfic is written by @turtleinsoup, so go show them some love and support!!

The fanfic ratings are not based on quality, favoritism, or how good I think it is, but rather, how intense a subject may be. Like a movie review, or the tags on Ao3, letting the readers know what to expect.

Plot: 💛💛💛💛💛

"Plot is five out of five! This chapter has a HEAVY lore drop in it, that tells so so much, yet so little about the boys."

Suspense/Mystery: 💛💛💛💛💛

"Suspense/Mystery is a full on five out of five!! The mystery from the last chapter is somewhat cleared up, only to be replaced with an insane amount of suspense!!"

Angst/Hurt: 💛💛💛🖤🖤

"Angst/Hurt is three out of five! The angst in this chapter is very much so the stressful kind, where you're on the edge of your seat, going "oh shoot, what will this mean for them?!"

Fluff/Comfort: 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤

"Fluff/Comfort is zero out of five!! No comfort, no fluff, no warmth. Just that angst and hurt that we all love!"

Emotions Conveyed: 💛💛💛🖤🖤

"Emotions Conveyed is three out of five!! This chapter portrays such a powerful sense of 'oh frick'. The intensity, the stress, the confusion, its all so well written!"

Drama/Tension Level: 💛💛💛💛💛

"Drama/Tension Level is five out of five!! The tension in this chapter is absolutely insane!! I know I keep using the word insane to describe this chapter, yet I feel like my usage of the word is well warranted lol."

Triggers: 💛💛🖤🖤🖤

"Triggers for this chapter are two out of five!! Prepare yourself from some scary violence from our favorite leader in blue!"

Legibility (Reading): 💛💛💛💛🖤

"Legibility (Reading) is four out of five!! Honestly, this chapter was so enjoyable to read!! The way Draxum's thoughts interrupt his words through italicized words is extremely well done!! Like how thoughts interrupt speech in real life, a very similar feeling is captured in this chapter."

Legibility (Audio): 💛💛💛💛🖤

"Legibility (Audio) is four out of five! Just as enjoyable to listen to, as it is to read!! The wild suspense in this chapter makes in an enjoyable read, as there is no skipping ahead by a paragraph or two."

Length: 💛💛🖤🖤🖤

"Length is two out of five!! Chapter 4 of The Lemonade Leak takes about 18-19 minutes to listen to!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next Chapter ->

<- Previous

The Lemonade Leak: Story Ratings and Chapter List

Personal thoughts on chapter below cut (Contains Spoilers)

To start off, I'd just like to say how much of a masterpiece I think this chapter is! The confusion, the stress, the lore drop is all so magnificent!!

Draxum gestured at his empty cup of tea, where the poison dried in its ceramic belly. “As little as possible? Or the most efficient amount?”

I really enjoyed this little distinction. Leo is well known for being lazy, though when you look at his actions in Rottmnt, he always seems to know what's going on (for example, guessing Big Mama was bad news way before his brothers did) and always seems to understand the random things his brothers are shouting about. A person who is lazy, is a person who simply doesn't do stuff. What Leo is doing, isn't laziness, but strategic actions. He does them so well, even he doesn't realize he's doing it. Its like he's constantly playing chess, sacrificing he little pawns in life to secure the safety of the king.

Draxum breathed out shakily. “I… Never intended for you and Three to-“ Leonardo kicked the table so hard, it brushed past Draxum and crashed into the opposite wall, where it burst into shards of wood and ceramic. Plaster crumbled from the wall. Draxum sat frozen in his chair with his lips pressed shut.

I have no words to explain how much impact this has. Draxum calling Donnie, Three. Leo's wildly violent reaction. Draxum, and how utterly terrified he is, heart racing, pressed into his seat like he could just melt away and hide. This scene right here, is powerful. Then, the paragraphs following that are like a kick to the gut.

“My knee twitched, Sorry,” Leonardo said again. “Go on, what did you do? It can’t be worse than what you did to my big brother. All the nightmares and nervous breakdowns he keeps having, man. Man. Can’t be worse than what you did to the kindest person I know.”

"The kindest person I know." To know that Leo is talking about Raph, really hits hard. Raph, who got mad at Leo over and over when he was made leader. Raph, who punched a hole in Leo's wall. Raph, who under the krangs influence, nearly choked his brother to death. Yet, Leo still refers to him as the kindest person he knows. Because, Raph is gentle, kind, sweet, and nurturing. Leo sees what Draxum has done to Raph, and he's livid. Because if Raph, who is naturally so gentle and caring, be so violent; what's going on with Donnie?

Of course. The kindest of you must be restless, Draxum thought. All weapons are placeless, in a world without war.

I find this right here, to be an excellent distinction between how Draxum and Leo view Raph. Leo sees Raph as his precious brother, who had his mind warped by Draxum, making him into a killer. He completely blames Draxum. Meanwhile, Draxum doesn't see Raph as that kindhearted person. Raph is a violent weapon, who has kind attributes. Leo and Draxum are literally seeing Raph on opposite spectrums.

Faster than Draxum could react, the edge of Leonardo’s katana kissed his throat. The second one buried deep into the wooden backrest, an inch from his neck. Their icy-hot metal nicked his skin, a twitch away from his carotid artery. The blades stayed dead calm, but Leonard’s voice shook. “Take it back,” he said. “Donnie’s not like them. He’d never hurt Mike. He’d never hurt my Unit.”

I find it interesting that Leo called them his unit. Not his family, or brothers, but rather his unit. This could have been a way to make Draxum understand him better, or to refer to his brothers as a team, though I feel as if it could have almost been a slip-up. Leo is clearly panicking, making excuses for Donnie, getting in Draxum's face and spewing the first words that come to mind, which happens to be unit. Like a military unit.

Leonardo’s expression fell. “I…” He jerked back, and pulled his twin blades with him, retreating. “No,” he croaked. He grasped his hands and traced his scars like he needed to relearn his claws. “I mean, I never was a real leader. I’m not supposed to be, right?! But I fixed it,” Leonardo grinned. “Because I’m just that awesome. The team’s alive and yes, yeah, Humans died because of… of what I did. But Donnie doesn’t-“ Leonardo chuckled, too sharply. “He doesn’t care about stuff like that. If I’m his leader or not; I’m his twin. I need him, I need him so much, it-” Leonardo clenched his teeth into a hard, wide grin.

In the beginning of the chapter, Leo is very adamant that he doesn't need Donnie. Its not a need, nor a want, nut simply love. However, as he dissolves into panic, Leo is very clear about how he need Donnie. As if he were a thing, and Leo doesn't even realize it.

Gosh, this chapter is so hard to articulate into words. So much happened, yet very little. I'm left speechless, no other words left to explain how much I love it.

[callmearcturus]

Also raised my eyebrow that the “pseudonyms” used in the piece were all TMA characters (and generally well-liked ones) which is something that’s going to play a certain way to the readers depending on who they’ve chosen and they definitely knew that! That alone discredited some of their journalistic integrity for me, even without knowing who the author was. The title of the piece was also off to me, considering it really wasn’t about Alex at all and that was acknowledged near the end. Not saying this means one thing or another either, but knowing who wrote it definitely puts some things in perspective for me!

yeah no zyka is sharing parts with the class and like this is so far from being objective or reasonable, it's complete horseshit

again: i am sure that managerial fuck ups happened and screwed people and that's not okay

but this shit is trying to build a narrative and uuhhhhhh

Was Rusty Quill testing the waters to see what they could get away with, and what people were prepared to call them out for? It seemed they hoped for everyone to stay quiet so the company’s image could stay clean and things would blow over. Why?

nah brah its pretty common to ask people not to talk about layoffs while they are still in progress, that's actually really fucking normal. you can choose not to obey but its not weird

An observation has been made to me that there’s a very good chance that the list on Kickstarter of stretch goal guest writers may be the totality of the people in the audio fiction indie world that have still not had an experience with Rusty Quill.

this is provably untrue and also the way it frames a specific narrative is incredibly suspicious

What Rusty Quill seems to be doing with The Magnus Protocol is banking on its fans to bail it out. Instead of putting in the work with their original shows, shows full of stories and characters fans have already become attached to, they’re pulling back and returning to what is profitable and nostalgic.

lmao fuck off

guess what, folks, i knew the second the KS was announced that TMA2 was for money. like, i'm sure they worked on an idea and formed it and tried to come up with something cool. but if one of their other properties had blown up, we would not be seeing TMA2

just because you are doing something to get paid doesn't make it soulless and evil.

and folks I'm sorry but: when you are a working artist, doing the art that gets you paid isn't a fucking crime, and the marketing director of fable and folley knows it.

also i hated the "WTNV is only big bc its gay" and i hate the "TMA only blew up bc its gay." get fucked. a lot of people found out about TMA bc jonmart but to be clear: if the show wasn't good, people would not have listened to 159 fucking episodes just for two boys to hold hands. grow up.

no fucking sell.

[flowergardeninthewall]

A quick list of types of hearing aids

I am hard of hearing or HOH and have been since I was born, and I have been wearing hearing aids for just about 18 years. The amount of rep I get from the QSMP is so special to me, and I've wanted to make a guide on the different types of hearing aids for a long time.

I will not be talking about cochlear implants because I do not know enough about them.

Hearing loss can be caused my multiple things. Loud sounds, aging, sickness, or even just because. Typically the sensors in your cochlear wear down and you hear less while the rest of your ear continues to work fine, so you can still feel pain from noises being too loud. Which is why Tallulah having hearing loss and being sensitive to noise are both able to coexist

-

Your doctor will tell you don't stick shit in your ears. But if you wear hearing aids that rule does not apply to you. They go into your ear, they do not sit on the outside like an earbud

Much like any other accessibility device, hearing aids are not one size fits all.

In the canal (ITC) or (CIC) hearing aids sit fully in your ear canal and most of the time the only thing you will see from them is a little clear tab that can be pulled to remove them. These can be water resistant, and worn 24/7

In the ear (ITE) sit in your outer ear and are typically mounded to your ear. These are what a lot of people stereotypically think of when you think of hearing aids, but it's been a long time since I've actually seen someone using them

Behind the ear (BTE) there are two types of bte hearing aids. And the biggest difference is where the receiver sits. On a regular BTE there is a molded bud that sits in your outer ear and then extends into the canal. The receiver is up higher and in the aid that sits behind your ear. There are also mini BTEs where the receiver is in the ear canal.BTEs sit behind your ear with a small light bit of tubing that extends down into your ear. These are typically the bluetooth ones that can also act as earbuds

Why would a person who is deaf in one ear wear hearing aids in both? Why wear two at all?

Noise comes from all sorts of directions, and most people benefit from being able to hear in all directions. So if you are deaf in one ear the aid in that ear will send the audio feed to the aid in your good ear. Most of the time it is all about equalizing what you can hear in both ears. It's less disorienting.

You can read more about hearing aids here

https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing-aids

Y la página esta en español también

https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/es/espanol/audifonos

While yes that is an american government site it still has some wonderful info on all sorts of communication disorders.

I do want to say that there are edge cases, and I do not cover all of them here. These are typically the hearing aids that you will come across.

My inbox is open if you have any other questions!

[wh-news]

ㅤㅤㅤAs Halloween approaches, a new update to the website of Welcome Home has arrived—how exciting!

ㅤㅤㅤIn this post, I’ll go over all the new secrets added on the 13th of October to the website of Welcome Home, a psychological horror project created by Clown (otherwise known as partycoffin). ㅤㅤㅤThings such as all the sources I used and special mentions will be listed in the bibliography section in order to avoid cluttering the post!

→ document ver. // og. website! // previous update ←

WARNING !! Heavy spoilers for Welcome Home lay ahead!

ㅤㅤㅤI encourage you to experience the website for yourself before reading this, as it'll take from the experience you'd have otherwise!

★ TABLE OF CONTENTS

What's New? 1.- Welcome Home page 2.- News 3.- Merchandise 4.- Transcripts 5.- Your Neighborhood 6.- Stickers

Final Thoughts

Bibliography

What’s New?

1.- Welcome Home page

ㅤㅤㅤJust like in the previous update, the changes are clear as soon as you step in:  the Home gif that welcomes us just like before now is adorned with Halloween theme, with spooky garden decorations —such as a friendly scarecrow and a cute blue pumpkin—, and a witch hat decorating Home’s roof.  But fear not—the previous gif isn’t gone!  These Halloween decorations are nothing but an overlaid image on top of the original one, aptly titled “dressup.png.”

ㅤㅤㅤHeading to the homepage, we find our favorite neighbor, Wally, now sits on the usual rock wearing a devil costume, with matching pants and cardigan, the filename now being “HappyHalloween!!”.  The theme continues with the drawings on the rock itself, now being of a pumpkin, a purple spider, and a smiley Home; and the tree, its leaf having turned orange and its log a brighter shade of purple.

ㅤㅤㅤThe same drawings starts being drawn on the screen as before, so we continue to the website’s update section:

ㅤㅤㅤThere, our friendly neighbor awaits sitting on the frame of the updates window with the same costume as before.  On the window itself, the gif has been swapped with a pumpkin-shaped tree ornament.  In its text we can find the offset “Y” like in previous updates —previously from the word “you,” now from the word “holidays”—, as it's crucial for the code to access some of the secret pages of the website, such as the “try again” pages (x, x, x), the slightly changed 404 Error page that leads to the “duet” audio, and our first look into the “answer” pages, which I talked about in my previous update document.

ㅤㅤㅤIt also encourages us to go read the news section, so that’s where we’ll go next.

2.- News

ㅤㅤㅤHeading now straight to the News page, we can find the familiar faces of the neighborhood’s favorite duo: Frank and Julie, still decorating the page with their sparkles and their stunning outfits.  Right below them, a new update telling us about the WHRP’s new findings: a few pages of a cookbook, which were restored surprisingly well—followed by an eerie, unpleased message to whoever their “source” is, reading “Our source has yet to send the full book. I don’t understand why. What is it worth to leave it out? Ripping out pages… What a waste. It takes so long to get everything off of them. Still, we’re patient, aren’t we. If you are reading this, please hurry.”

ㅤㅤㅤThe next finding is a Wally Darling Halloween Costume, of which we’ll see more later in the Merchandise section.  Last but not least, a new storybook record has been found, following the previous one titled “Eddie’s Big Lift”!

ㅤㅤㅤFollowing this, they mention how they’ve placed their full attention to something seemingly fundamental to the full restoration of Welcome Home, after this a somewhat off putting quote.  “What is it, I hear you pleading! Clawing at your screens just as we have! Coughing, headaches, nausea- I know. I know.”  Continuing as if nothing, they end the note by saying “Until then, have a happy Halloween!  Don’t forget to wave down below!”

ㅤㅤㅤAnd with that, we’re free to continue to the next section:  Merchandise.

3.- Merchandise

ㅤㅤㅤJust as mentioned in the News section, we scroll down to find a new section for the cookbook, counting with 4 images—all with a watermark reading “THE WELCOME HOME RESTORATION PROJECT,” a first for the website.  Here, we see recipes for “smiling treats,” cupcakes, and caramel apples, all using ingredients provided by the same company —Crispy SweetsTM— that produced the Welcome Home themed cereals seen in the previous update.

ㅤㅤㅤNext, the storybook record:  titled "Happy Haunting to Boo and Yours!”, endorsed by Crispy Sweets and produced by Marlo, it tells the story of the neighbors' Halloween party presumably located at Sally’s house, as she seems to be the host.  A narrator accompanies us throughout the storybook’s 19 minutes and 43 seconds, interacting directly only with Sally when she interrupts their explanation.

ㅤㅤㅤAlthough it states that a particular audio rip skips at 16:56 and quickly jumps past Sally’s dialogue to 18:51, unlike the WHRP we, as the audience, are able to hear her story.  I provided a full transcript, including this part, in this document.

ㅤㅤㅤA few things to note of the Vinyl Cover is that, when the update first came out, it had the same watermark of the cookbook plastered all over it, and only Sally’s face could be visible.  Also, at the bottom of the image, there is text that reads “Sponsored by Crispy Sweets,” Marlo’s logo, and “Copyright © Playfellow Workshop (illegible) the U.S.A.”

ㅤㅤㅤScrolling a bit further, we finally find the official Wally Darling Halloween costume mentioned in the News section: a rather comical-looking costume of unknown manufacturer that kids could wear, with the same drawing found in the homepage printed in the chest area.  Alongside it a Wally Darling mask with cutout circles in its eyes, so that the wearer would be able to see.

4.- Transcripts

ㅤㅤㅤGoing straight to the transcripts for the storybook record, as everything else seems to be in place, we’re surprised with nothing else than a new bug button, this time a pumpkin-lantern-themed candy spider, its filename aptly being “candy.gif,” making this the second bug with a filename other than random letters and numbers—the first being at the bottom of the homepage, titled “teeheehee.gif."  We can see a similar candy in Clown’s Tumblr, being Home-themed.

ㅤㅤㅤClicking on it will take us to a video named “00,” that belongs to what seems to be a new category, differentiated by the window title “listen.”  The previous category was titled “answer,” with a similar if not identical style of video, being seemingly recorded with a camera presumably being held by Wally Darling himself.

ㅤㅤㅤThis time, we can see a table filled with Halloween themed decorations and sweets, as well as the same baskets with the neighbors’ faces as seen in the cook book’s cover, in Merchandise.  To the left, a plate with a candy apple, which we’ll later discover belongs to Barnaby.  We hear the neighbors talking before Barnaby appears, trying to escape Sally’s lecture about Commedia dell’Arte —from where the character she’s dressed as, Pedrolino, comes from, being one of the first professional theaters originated in Italy, popularized in Europe between the 16th and 17th centuries—.

ㅤㅤㅤThey keep talking about it, when the video starts glitching, becoming brighter and darker at random, being covered in discolored static.  Not long after the video starts glitching harder, zooming in for a second to Frank’s basket before going back to normal, Barnaby’s candy apple seemingly moving on its own, now with a bite-sized chunk taken from it.  Barnaby approaches the camera —and therefore, Wally—, before realizing what happened to his snack, playfully teasing the others about it.

ㅤㅤㅤHowever, aside from the video’s distortion, there’s something off with the transcript itself: this is the first time, to my knowledge, that it shows personality and emotion, in lines such as “[Visual ID: Something… Has happened to the apple. A bite has been taken out of it, I think.],” and “[There is a brief pause. What is he doing.]”

5.- Your Neighborhood

ㅤㅤㅤMoving right along, we head to the Neighborhood, where some small changes have been made to some of the neighbors’ profiles.  Being that this update is Halloween themed, they all now have a brief segment related to the storybook record!

ㅤㅤㅤStarting with Julie, it reads: “In the storybook record, “Happy Haunting to Boo and Yours,” it is implied Julie and Frank could be a couple,” which is matching with Frank’s as theirs states “In the storybook record, “Happy Haunting to Boo and Yours,” it is implied Frank and Julie could be a couple.”

ㅤㅤㅤAlthough this will probably alert many fans as it did me, I’d like to point at a Tumblr post Clown made back in 2020: here, they mention homophobia and ableism being parts of the story, as they’re part of his own life and growth as a person.  Although old, and although these themes might not be implemented to the story in the same way Clown had planned back then, they might still be a part of it.  

ㅤㅤㅤFollowing with Howdy: “In the storybook record, “Happy Haunting to Boo and Yours,” it is implied that Howdy's antennae may have a mechanic that allowed them to move.”  We can also see this portrayed in the vinyl cover for it, in Merchandise.

ㅤㅤㅤLast but not least, the (literal) star of the show, Sally: “In the storybook record, "Happy Haunting to Boo and Yours," Sally Starlet invented a Halloween-esque holiday called the Macabre Menagerie of Monstorous Mischief Making,” which to her dismay Barnaby nicknamed “Terror n’ Treats.”

6.- Stickers

ㅤㅤㅤGoing, finally, to our last page: stickers!  As seen around in other pages of the website, all the sprites —except for Home’s— have gotten a halloween version, showing off their terrific costumes: Wally, as stated before, as a devil; Julie as a witch; Frank as a vampire, Howdy as a ghost (using his 100% on sale mattress); Poppy as a pumpkin; Eddie as Frankenstein, being the only one alongside Sally whose costume changed from the previous canon Halloween art we had, aside from minor changes; Barnaby as a werewolf (or were-beagle, as he calls himself); and Sally as Pedrolino.

ㅤㅤㅤHere, I’d like to give some more info about Pedrolino and the Commedia dell’Arte.  As said before, it was an early form of professional theater, originated from Italy, that was popular in Europe between the 16th and 17th centuries.  Characterized by masked “types,” characters usually represented fixed social types and character archetypes.  These were usually exaggerated.

ㅤㅤㅤAs for Pedrolino, he was a servant characterized by being simpleminded, honest, and cowardly.  He was of the "low", rustic class, and tended to be the victim of other's pranks.  Unlike most of the other characters, he usually played without a mask, painting his face white instead; when he did use one, it was one that only covered his eyes.  This was because his role used to vary depending on the play, so the expressions were left to the actor.  He was mute, or spoke very rarely; when he did speak, it was with the vocabulary level of a 2 year old.

ㅤㅤㅤSally specifically states that everyone was dressing up as something they’re not, so she chose her “opposite.”

Final Thoughts

ㅤㅤㅤAlthough short —or “bite-sized,” as said by Clown in this post—, this update provided interesting insight on Sally’s character and the neighbors’ relationships and dynamics, giving us also a lot of small things that can be used for the puzzle that is the bigger picture; plus, a lot of new, lovely art of the whole cast that I’m sure all of us greatly enjoyed.  Hearing their voices again is always a nice thing, especially in these spooky times.   ㅤㅤㅤOther than that, something seems to be off with whoever is writing for the website…  I wonder what it is.  

ㅤㅤㅤI’d also like to use this section to, like Clown, shout out some of the people that worked on this update!  Those would be…

@/downydig, who did the vinyl cover and the cook book art; @/rudeboimonster, who produced the Wally Darling costume; @/hollowtones, the narrator for “Happy Haunting to Boo and Yours!”; @/kmodoposts, in charge of composing the track for the storybook record; @/kindestegg, who made all the spooky sprites that adorn the website; And the voice actors: @/friendlyfrankenstein, @/syntheticcharmva, @/cyberscraps, @/GinaM9816, @/tunnelva, and @/modmad!

ㅤㅤㅤWith nothing else to say, it's time to wave goodbye… ㅤㅤㅤUntil then, have a happy Halloween!

ㅤㅤㅤDon’t forget to wave down below!

Bibliography

Clown (2022) Welcome Home | ClownIllustrations Sage (2023) Sage’s WH Resources !! Matt Parker (2014) Commedia Character Research - Pedrolino The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (2023) Pedrolino Wikipedia (2023) Commedia dell’arte Clown (2023) Hello, you!

[nighthazerpg]

Patch May 4th

Well that got away from me a little bit, here's a bargain bin full of small fixes and clarifications. Any substantive change that's not just clearing up wording has bold on it:

Martial Arts involving a melee attack now specify that they inherit the damage type of the weapon you're using - this made sense intuitively anyway, but it was worth being clear

Some minor clarifications on Pin, Shield and Boost Kick so their intent is clear.

Quickload may now be used in conjunction with other Trickshots because otherwise it just kind of sucks

Added the ability for the Drift Technique Stunt to be used with two-wheeled vehicles so you can Akira slide - and do so under that tanker truck that's sideways, but you can only drift for one turn!

The Brake Check and PIT Manoeuvre Stunts can now be used against vehicles up to one weight class above yours because without that they're just Ramming But Worse

Specified that the Gotcha! Stunt refers to you catching people with your vehicle, not reaching out the driver side window to catch people that sounds like it would end badly

The Blend In trait now has an * on the "you can't take this as a Pony" rule because there are exceptions like Palominians but there isn't the space to explain that in the Trait box

Added the Staggered condition to the list of Crowd Control effects on tab 10. It's just reference in case you never read the Martial Arts section

Specified that Aim only benefits the immediately proceeding Action

Specified that Thermocompensator Vest targets Resistance

Changed the notation on special ammo for the Amount of Default ammo to be "-" rather than "Infinite" because that raises more questions than it answers

Specified that the Combat Power Wing does not lose its Cover bonus against Opponents at higher altitudes

Specified that Heelz don't do anything if you're flying

Specified that normal methods of Fall mitigation do not apply to the damage taken in car crashes

Carrying capacity of ASL Encore buffed from L to 0.5. We'll be monitoring this change closely and watching out for any shenanigans that result. We're really trusting the community not to go crazy on this one.

Cargo capacity of F512 Hovercraft nerfed from L to 0. This terror has finally been reined in. I know the F512 mains will have my head for this one but the toxic gameplay that came out of this just had to stop.

Specified what happens with drones regarding Mind & Spirit damage - drones can be disoriented by dazzling attacks, but don't take damage, and they also don't have feelings you can hurt. But also, they don't pass this damage to the pilot in manual mode - I would imagine that someone piloting a drone in combat is expecting gunshots to peak the audio on their device, and has the volume adjusted accordingly. Not the same as getting literally flashbanged yourself.

Broadened the wording on what drone pilots are allowed to take advantage of with an aim action to include Trickshots

Specified that the Martial Staff is compatible with the Target Sprint Routine and also that you spend the stamina for all three spells cast

Specified that After-Image only affects sight and sound, which opens the door for somebody to use an exotic sense to tell it apart

Expanded wording on Simulacrum to specify that it can affect a range of senses (1/rank in spellcraft) but it is phantom and can't push buttons for you

Specified that when using Projection you need to have a sense to be able to deceive or perceive it - you can't use Projection to temporarily gain senses you don't have.

Spelled out on Spirit Blade some of the finnicky details of how it interacts with Martial Arts and Action Economy

Rising Strike reworked to clear up the ambiguity around Fall Damage and streamline the spell a bit more. It now launches equal to Margin of Success instead of a fixed 4 (which means a lot of Rising Strikes are going to be kind of underwhelming but some of them are going to be really impressive), and the ceiling height does NOT affect damage - because if you think about it, getting rocketed into a low ceiling comes with the consolation prize of only falling one floor instead of three. However, there's now a clause that explicitly damages the ceiling if you do that, opening the door (or, the ceiling) for some real matrix kung fu antics where you punch someone into the floor above.

Specified that Steady Heart and Knit Wounds cannot be cast multiple times per short rest

Dragonbreath has had its range buffed from 4 to Cone 4

Shared Burden now times out at 15 minutes so you don't have a Breezie shoulder buddy who makes you ungrapplable forever

Stated explicitly that queued hacks tick down in parallel, not in sequence - parallel was always the intention because Hacking gets comically weak if you need to wait for each one to go off before you start the next one, but apparently this wasn't spelled out