#unless they're going bareboned

[dearmizumi]

Angst potential angst potential angst potential angst potential—

I love them I'm not letting go of them anytime soon nuuh they're my bb now (should also make digital art too, got too many pencil doodles ajsbsjb)

[zaebeecee]

No, you don't want the Hays Code to come back.

Listen, I get it. I'm aroace. I don't like sitting through gratuitous sex scenes that do nothing for the plot and exist solely for the purpose of "being a sex scene in the movie". It's lazy writing and a cheap marketing ploy, to be sure, but don't try to fool yourself into believing that a return of the Hays Code will somehow only change this particular aspect of film, and that everything else will be allowed to flourish as a result.

Let's pretend that the Hays Code did come back. If that ever happened, what kinds of things could you expect from all film, going forward? Well, we're going to go on a journey. I'm going to go through the Hays Code (which you can find here in its entirety if you'd like to read it) point by point, and the following list is just what immediately comes to mind while doing that. I promise you, the full list is much, much longer.

Things you could look forward to if the Code came back:

You don't get any more sympathetic villains. The very first rule of the Hays Code is "the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin".

There will be no more characters who are happily allowed to live any lifestyle alternative to the Average American Nuclear Family With Dad And Mom And 2.5 Kids And A Dog. This includes everything from queer representation to just having a woman who doesn't want to get married (or, Heaven forfend, wants a divorce). Any characters who are living lives like this will either 1) have this rectified by the end of the story, usually by falling in love with the promise of marriage and a family, or 2) die.

There won't be any more criticism of the police or the government unless it comes from villains, at which point the criticism will be so cartoonishly over the top and miss the point so hard it isn't even criticism anymore. If a protagonist holds any of these views, they will very quickly be "set straight".

You won't have any more horror movies with any part of the horror coming from the portrayal of a character's death, because the Code prohibits murder shown in any context that people might theoretically be able to imitate or with any brutality whatsoever. The shower scene in Psycho pushed this rule almost to its breaking point.

All crime procedurals will be barebones by necessity, because even crime on property or non-violent crime (theft/robbery, arson, smuggling, etc) will not be allowed to be presented with any level of detail. Any sort of heist story will not exist for the same reason.

There will be no more action movies with guns in them, as the only presentation of firearms allowed will be "restricted to the essentials".

Not only can smuggling not be portrayed, basically everything about illegal drugs will be banned from film.

Characters will only drink alcohol in any form at all if it's critical to the plot.

No romantic affairs unless they're a vital plot point.

The ban on sex will not be limited to on-scene sex. There will be no kissing or even embracing that could be construed as "lustful", as well as no characters allowed to even hold themselves in a vaguely provocative manner. Also, the very act of seduction is banned, even if it's in a positive light.

Oh, hey, look, a good one: any rape must be essential to the plot, non-explicit in any capacity, and never used for comedy. You get one, Hays.

No more queer people. At all.

The Code explicitly bans the portrayal of "White slavery" and "miscegenation". Know what those are? "A white woman traveling in any capacity with a black man" and "any marriage between a white person and a black person".

No stories of anyone suffering from an STD.

No childbirth. You can't even say the word 'pregnant', and showing a woman who is pregnant is pushing your luck.

Good one number two: no depicting children in an even vaguely suggestive manner. So that's two, Hays.

The points on 'vulgarity' and 'obscenity' are so incredibly vague that basically anything objectionable is subject to being banned depending on the personal opinion of the person making the judgment. Also, no more jokes for parents in kid's movies, and that's not limited to sexual innuendo, because the obscenity clause forbids even the possible suggestion of something that might be considered objectionable even if only a small portion of the audience will understand it.

No profanity, for any reason.

There won't be any costumes that are considered immodest according to the standards of 1930. Also, you can't portray anyone undressing or being exposed to the point of indecency according to the standards of 1930.

No one will be allowed to dance in any way that isn't your basic Jr. High slow "save room for Jesus" type dancing. This includes, but isn't limited to, dances with any sort of sexually provocative moves. For context, it was this restriction that had people calling for Elvis Presley to be arrested and burning his records, because of that basic little back and forth hip movement he did. It wasn't even thrusting, it was mostly side to side.

There will be zero critique of religion. Doesn't matter why. On this note, the only acceptable portrayal of religious figures will be as wise, caring espousers of good advice and wisdom. No religious figures as villains or presented in a comedic light. Also, all religious ceremonies are to be respectful if portrayed and cannot be used for negative plot reasons.

If they show a married couple's bedroom, the couple must have separate beds, because you can't even suggest that a married couple are sleeping together.

Anything relating to the flag of the USA or patriotism will be required to be shown in a positive light. The same can be said of representations of other countries and cultures... according to the standards of 1930.

Good point three: no animal or child cruelty.

"Oh but isn't the next point good" no because "the sale of women" just means prostitution, so yeah, no more sex workers. And not just them actively working, you can't portray them at all.

Medical dramas and war dramas won't be able to portray surgery.

Now, yes, it's true that the Code goes on to clarify points, with things like "it's okay to sympathize with the person committing the crime, just not the crime itself", but these clarifications are always just there to make the Code seem less like a totalitarian dictatorship. Also, do you really think people are going to push their luck and possibly have their work subjected to severe third-party editing or, worse, flat out banned? Of course not. Filmmakers are going to err on the side of caution and not push anything.

You might be looking at this list and thinking, "but I know a lot of characters from the Code era that did all this stuff!" Right. I'm sure you did. And they were villains, by and large. And if they weren't, they were either fixed because it was a dramatic plot point, or they were punished with death.

I'm sure there are things on this list that you think are fine. But I'm just as positive that there's at least one thing that bans something you personally like. And I suggest you just stop for a second and think about all the media you like, and how many of them—under strict adherence to this code—would be banned.

Being in my 30s, some of these might be old or outdated enough to be obscure, but this would ban (or change past the point of recognition) things like Breaking Bad, NBC's Hannibal, Monty Python anything, V for Vendetta, James Bond, everything MCU and DCU, Ocean's 11, The Big Lebowski, The Boondock Saints, The Walking Dead, most every reality show in existence, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Substance, Straight Outta Compton, Heretic, Nosferatu, The Hunger Games, Percy Jackson, Salem's Lot, Boardwalk Empire, Wicked, The Passenger, Glass Onion and Knives Out, half of everything the Muppets have ever done, Smile, Skinamarink, The Babadook, Sister Act, The Blues Brothers, Gone Girl, X, Jurassic Park, Death Becomes Her, The Birdcage, Cabaret, Repo! The Genetic Opera, Mrs. Doubtfire, Smokey and the Bandit, Jaws, The Nun, The Amityville Horror, Reefer Madness, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Little Shop of Horrors, Moulin Rouge!, Les Miserables, Chicago, Hamilton, Adventure Time, The Menu, To Wong Foo, Paris is Burning, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, It, The Godfather trilogy, The Thing, Shakespeare in Love, Pirates of the Caribbean, Wilde, To Kill a Mockingbird, Fried Green Tomatoes, Murder She Wrote, and this is just what I can think of at the moment.

Even if you don't like or don't care about most of this list, you can't deny that this is a lot of things from a lot of different genres, many of which have almost nothing sexually provocative in them at all.

The Hays Code didn't make movies better. It isn't the kind of limitation that breeds creativity. The Hays Code existed explicitly to silence absolutely everyone that the Moral Majority didn't like, and I'm sorry to tell you this, but if you're on tumblr then there is a 98% chance that you are one of those people the Code sought to silence. It wasn't made for anyone's benefit except the people who made it and wanted to control as much of the culture as they could.

Things like the Code do not help people, and they do not only hurt people who aren't you. Ultimately, it does nothing except make art unilaterally worse.

[deniable-masterpiece]

The belly x-men ask was amazing, did you have any thoughts as to how they would be in any vore scenarios? I personally think Logan would a similarly cruel pred like Johnny depending on who you are. Scott I feel would be more of a ‘trying to protect you type’. I can see wade being totally into it and pietro would treat it as a joke and tease constantly while his prey is in his stomach.

thanks! I'm assuming you're the anon that sent it in? I kinda thought it was barebones and that I could've said more tbh, the visual alone of each of them with a belly is chefs kiss, but I'm glad you enjoyed it!!

tw vore. don't like? scrooooolllll please

Logan

Personally, I think Logan is more of a grumpy pred. He's very quick to get to the chase--no talking, just swallowing. If someone's in his way, maybe not walking fast enough for his liking, or someone is annoying him while he's trying to sulk and drown himself in alcohol, he might just swallow them down. His mind never goes straight to digestion, but he lets you stew in there for a little bit until you've learned your lesson (so try not to move so much in his gut or plead and beg and he might let you out!) In my mind, he's similar to Bucky. He will never go out of his way to target you for looking tasty, but he won't deny himself a snack if he's hungry. Additionally, if he doesn't like you and knows he will be turning you into pudge, he will eat food and treat you like any other snack he's eaten. Prepare to have alcohol and food surrounding you while you're in his gut. If he's eaten you during a fight between other mutants, he won't do much to shield his gut from the impact, you just have to deal with the jostles and jerking around while you're in there.

Oh, and what I said about Logan having an "iron stomach" still applies here. You're not getting out, there's no failsafe where you can make him hurl you back up. If you're a mutant, any powers you have are futile in the confines of his stomach. You're staying down there, and you'll only keep going further.

If he has a soft spot for you, he will be nicer, maybe even protective over only you. That side of him is seen by very few, though. He had to really like you to be swallowed with care.

Scott

Scott seems relatively nice about being a pred. If he's looking for his next snack, he'll be nice and take you out to eat. His charming personality is a lure, it's a false sense of security to those who should be scared of him. He treats everyone, even strangers and civilians, with respect when they're in him. He's a good host, he won't eat or drink unless he absolutely needs to while you're stewing away into nothing. He's very gentle, from swallowing you slowly and without the use of his teeth to the calming rubs he does over his belly, checking in at how far along you are and if you're still with him. If you do manage to last the drive back to the X-Mansion, he'll put on a movie or music with the volume loud enough for you to hear as background noise. He'll try to put on something you like if he has it, he wants your last moments to be good.

If you're someone he cares about, Scott will only vore you in the case that it's necessary. He knows the dangers and the risk that come with it, so doing it outside of a life-or-death situation seems to dangerous for his liking. He wants to keep you in his life for as long as he can, and while that does mean putting you in his gut to protect you, he will only do that as the last resort.

Similarly, he would eat people in the heat of battle, but he would be smarter about it than Logan. He would try to recognize them as people, and if they're on the other side of the battle, he'll keep them safe to interrogate them later.

Wade

Wade would fully be into it. If he had a choice, he would have anally vored that guy at the TVA, I know it. Wade was definitely a pred before all that happened to him, but I feel like his regenerative healing properties make unusual types of vore his jam. He loves swallowing people bigger than him and objects that are dangerously sharp, just to see how they feel inside of him.

While he would have insane amounts of fun with it since he can't do any real damage to his body, Wade would take it seriously if someone he cared for was in his belly. I kind of think Wade should have the adverse effect on people when they're in his belly, that his stomach can heal them because the stomach acid secreted from the walls carries healing properties or something. Whatever "magic bullshit go!" makes it work, Wade is more than happy to eat people to protect them and will use his wise-cracking monologue to make jokes about his belly and to cheer up the person inside of him. He makes them feel safe as they're being hugged from all sides.

But he could still be cruel. If being in his gut was a death sentence, that same comedy that cheers up someone in his stomach could read as completely sinister and unnerving.

Pietro

Changing the name to Pietro! Still written with Peter in mind, but technically is it Pietro and you're using Pietro to name him so I will be using that. Gonna try to write a blend of Peter/Pietro from X-Men and MCU respectively.

First of all, the super speed. The force of movement would press his belly flat against him while he's running as if he were lying on it. The person inside can't feel the effects of his super speed since they're literally surrounded by atoms moving at the same speed. While you technically aren't moving at the same speed, it's like you're in a really fast car.

Second, Pietro is probably the cruelest pred by default. Super speed applies to him in every facet of his body, including the speed at which he eats and digests. You could be swallowed in seconds and your mind wouldn't be able to comprehend the sudden change of scenery. This would cause panic, and that stomach acid would start to sting in minutes. It probably takes a few hours or even a few days for others like him to digest big meals, but Pietro can have some churned and turned out in under twenty minutes. All of that build up, all of that growth. Every second spent developing as a person is wiped away by someone who lives fast and eats faster. Pietro definitely goes on a power trip from time to time, setting records for just how fast he could eat people in a certain time limit, and loves to make fun of the collective fear.

[mosspodge]

HELLO @okartichoke I AM HERE WITH MOSSY'S GUIDE ON HOW TO START SEWING: A VERY MESSY TUTORIAL

I am extremely self taught, so this is gonna be a lot of links and infodumping!!!! Hopefully this helps a even just a little bit :>

SO! I honestly got into sewing through youtube during covid, largely bc i wanted silly fun clothes! There are a loooot I could recommend to you out there, but I personally find that the more chaotic and learn-as-they-go people help me the best! Rachel Maksy and The Stitchery are, to me, some of the best to learn from! Which is honestly pretty funny since they tend to just fully wing it most of the time lol. While i could recommend excellent sewists like the amazing Bernadette Banner (who is actually the first sewing channel I watched!), I find that the more loosey goosey the process, the more i can learn, if that makes sense? I find it helpful to watch people trial-and-error their way through projects and show where they succeeded and failed since I get a better grasp on their process that way.

The best way to start sewing, in my humble opinion, is to grab whatever sewing machine you can get your hands on and play around with it! Read the manual, find a tutorial video on how to thread the machine, grab some scrap fabric and play around! You don't really need any special needles or feet (the little thing that holds the fabric down), unless you wanna get started sewing denim or velvet or something Speaking of which, learn about fabrics!!!!! I learned mostly by going to joanns, touching the fabrics, and looking at the content labels. Everything has different uses, and while two things might both be cotton, one could be knit while the other jersey (tshirt fabric). I like this video for learning the basics! Tbh this one took me a while. Usually patterns have recommendations for what fabrics to use, so that's always a good place to start!

Patterns. Ah my arch nemesis. Unless you decide to start drafting your own patterns (or get a mannequin and learn how to drape fabric), you're probably gonna need to use one. There's two major things i recommend for this: 1) Make sure there's a video tutorial online before buying, and 2) start with something you might actually use/wear. Pattern instructions are notoriously vague, but thankfully many wonderful people make video tutorials for them! And while you might be tempted to grab one of those beginner friendly patterns, they can sometimes be. real ugly and not well fitting. Also boring! Finding something you like will hold your attention better and make you actually wanna finish it!

Ok SO. getting into more of the cosplay sewing stuff. First things first my knowledge here is a bit more limited, unfortunately. Fortunately there are many wonderful people out there with tutorials!! So if you wanna learn more definitely look there!!! General tip for cosplays + more complex sewing: MAKE MOCK UPS PLEASE IT SUCKS BUT IT HELPS SO MUCH. Go find the ugliest fabric in the sale bin and buy a few yards, then use it whenever you wanna test patterns. It might be tempting to immediately start cutting and sewing the finished garment, but the truth is that patterns rarely fit perfectly well (especially if they're fitted/tighter on your body). Make an ugly, barebones version first with your bad fabric, take notes, and then start making the finished piece. It'll save you money and sanity.

As for cosplay youtubers, I heartily recommend Sarah Spaceman, since not only do her videos show her process, she also does segments teaching you more about sewing!! She tends to tackle more complex projects, and watching her take those on has helped me a lot :} For cosplay patterns etsy usually has quite a few! I like Indigo Patterns (they have a good array of loz patterns I need to buy) as well as Alice in Cosplay Land. Please note that I haven't bought from either, but both their etsy shops have wonderful reviews and I plan to buy from them in the future!

not gonna lie I am getting very sleepy so I'm gonna cut it off there for now! Hopefully my rambling helped lol. Feel free to ask me any questions or for any clarification!

[jenroses]

When i built my first PC, I'd done a few upgrades, but Youtube did not exist yet so there were not endless videos of "This is how you build a PC". It was fiddly and fussy and i barked my knuckles and I did something temporarily terrifying but it worked out okay and I built my PC. Then prices on bare bones dropped precipitously so for a while I was just buying barebones and upgrading them. It was cheaper that way.

Last year, a couple of games came out that I really wanted to play but my 8 year old laptop, which was making a yeomanlike effort with most games, was just flat out not in spec anymore. So I started to research. Looked at Linus Tech Tips, then JaysTwoCents, then Gamer's Nexus, Paul's hardware, Hardware unboxed... LTT had a great "this is how you do it and this is what each part is supposed to sound like going in, yes the crunching noise here is okay, no your board won't die if you get a little regular thermal paste on it, very reassuring. I watched a lot of build videos, and finally, after a couple of months, I ordered parts.

Infodump under the cut

Now, picking parts is COMPLEX and HARD and FINICKY and it changes all the time. You can be an expert builder, take a couple years off and ignore buiding for a while, and come back and like, all the parts are different! Which parts are good deals has changed! But the fundamentals haven't really changed all THAT much, even since my first build. It's still motherboard, processor, cooler, RAM, storage, power supply, internet device, basically... but gone are IDE and even SATA is now pretty archaic. In 2024, your RAM will look pretty similar but the hard drive is a dinosaur and your storage is now basically a high tech stick of gum. Prices are wild, too. You can build a passable computer which can play most games for about $600 with new parts, or you can spent $4000 to get get the absolute tippy toppy "best" parts, and the parts being actively used and recommend and sold right now cover about FOUR YEARS of product development. This is NUTS. Most of the systems I've built fall in the cheap-to-middling range.

They're all competent at most games, though my mother is annoyed that she's having trouble getting Civ2 up and running on Windows 11 in 2024. I do fine with Alpha Centuari from GOG, but no, that's not good enough. (I like Alpha Centauri about 1000% better than Civ2, but when you've got a game, you've got a game, I guess.)

So where to start?

Look at the Youtubes of the folks I mentioned up top, and look for their "Top X of ___" videos. Most of them will ALSO include still-on-the-market for previous year stuff! This is great!

Think about what you need and what you're doing on your system. Unless you are doing competitive gaming and are made of money, you do not need the top of the line anything. It's not necessary and most people can't make use of it unless they're doing high powered stuff for money. In which case you probably know what you need already. Most people will be fine gaming at 1440p (2k monitor) or 1080p. Unless you have a giant fancy monitor already, the pricing sweet spot is probably expecting to spend about $140-150 for a 2k, 27 inch monitor. If your monitor is at normal monitor distance from your face, larger than that is not going to be easy to adapt to. You can get 1080p monitors for cheaper, but any larger than 24-27 inches, 1080p starts to look weird, so really 1440 is kind of ideal for the kind of computer you plan on using for the next 5-10 years. I don't go for refresh rates lower than 120hz at this point, but higher than 180 is not going to be noticeable for MOST people. The monitor i recently bought for $140-ish was a 180hz refresh rate 2k curved monitor (1440p.)

Once you know what kind of monitor you're aiming for, you can get a sense from those review videos of which cards will get you to the frame rate you want. Look for the games you want to play, and people comparing them at high/ultra settings, and look at the FPS that various cards offer. Keep in mind that there's a huge amount of technology aimed at boosting fps, and the upsampling is pretty good now. Nvidea cards are stupid expensive and have the majority of market share. I don't bother with them. The cards I've bought in the past 2 years include (all AMD): (Upgrading a very old system, AMD RX 6400, 4gb graphics card.) AMD RX 6650XT for two people on very tight budgets. AMD RX 6750XT for a mid-range system. RX6800 for two pretty good systems last year. RX7600XT for a casual gamer on a newer system. RX 7800XT for the fanciest system for the most avid gamer in the family. In 2024, I strongly advise going for a card which is at least 12 gb but preferably 16gb of VRAM. More than that is not yet really necessary for most systems at 1440p. The video card is the single most expensive component in most systems. I tend to build to the graphics card, but it is reasonable to set a budget, get the most reasonable parts you can afford for the rest of the computer and spend as much as you have left on the video card. 8gb cards are not likely to give optimal results long term, and since I build computers for people who hate changing computers, the only reason I would go with a smaller-than 12gb card is for someone who just doesn't game much and is unlikely to start playing the kinds of games that need it.

Then there's the processor side of things. Until Intel screwed the pooch this year, most of what we were putting together, parts-list-wise in my family were systems which had intel processors and AMD graphics cards, because that was the sweet spot for us price-to-performance wise. But if you have an Intel 13th or 14th gen processor, you need to update your bios, and we're still not 100% confident in them, as a community. There were a LOT of bad processors the past two years. Also, AMD came out with a bunch of reasonably priced kickass gaming processors, and those will be best for people whose primary purpose is gaming. The processors we've leaned on the most heavily include: Intel 12400 and 12600 processors and Intel 13600 processors. But recently, knowing I was about to build a FAST gaming PC, I knew I needed to get an AMD X3d processor, and my purchasing timing happened to correlate with the 9800X3d dropping, and I managed to order one... but the ship date was in JANUARY. And it's a Christmas present. And Trump is talking about tariffs, which WILL send prices through the roof. So I decided to build another computer, and ordered parts for it. So in order to get onto the platform that 9800x3d processor will need, I picked another processor which uses the same motherboard and got that, too. And then ordered inexpensive versions of that motherboard and other parts, and whatdyaknow, I'm building two computers. But the principal is pretty sound: If you need to build cost effectively, get a lower end processor for the motherboard of the processor you ultimately want, and upgrade later when prices drop. So all those Intel 12600 systems could, later, upgrade to a 14900k and get a huge performance boost if needed. On AMD, they tend to stick with a given motherboard ecosystem for a VERY long time, so people who bought AMD years ago can now upgrade to a perfectly capable 5800x3d and be fine, but AMD is now in the 9000s, and getting a 7000 series processor is on the same board as a 9000 series, so most of the time that's the best deal, EXCEPT for a 7800x3d which is almost as expensive as the 9800x3d for reasons.

Other parts are simpler. RAM: 32 gb is the sweet spot, DDR5 prices have come down okay. Most games can't and won't use more than 20 or so gb, but many will use over the 16gb that used to be the standard rec. You can, however, get 16gb and upgrade RAM in a few years.

Storage: Optimum for gaming is probably your operating system on a 500 gb C drive ssd, your games on a 1, 2 or 4 terabyte SSD. New builds will use a M.2 2280 ssd, and they fluctuate somewhat in price, but the performance boost of ANY NVME drive is going to be worth it over SATA or a hard disk. If you are just wanting to upgrade, upgrading to a SSD and increasing your ram will give a new lease on life to old computers and make them feel a whole lot more functional. If you have an open PCIE slot, you can get an adaptor board to allow you to install an M.2 drive even on an older system.

pcpartpicker.com will let you make build lists and tell you if there are incompatibilities but it isn't perfect at sourcing RAM for the correct processor family. It will also help you find best current pricing, but isn't always accurate.

newegg has a pc builder function which is helpful but only if you buy all your stuff there. If you live close to a microcenter, you'll want to go there and shop their combo deals.

All the builder tools will give you a rough estimate of how much power you'll need. I go a bit over, but unless you're doing a stupid expensive build, you will be unlikely to need more than 850w for a gaming system and 600w for a "regular" system for someone who doesn't do much gaming. That allows a fair amount of headroom for upgrades, since power supplies often last the longest.

Cases are very subjective, but I've done a lot of building in Fractal G Focus cases, which are cheap, big enough for most parts and not the most convenient to build in. I dearly love the Lian Li Lancool 216 which I just built in for the first time, but it's big. REALLY nice cable routing though. Worth it just for the complete lack of barked knuckles, and the fact that you don't need to install like any extra fans beyond whatever your cooling solution is, and it's under $100. Which case you get might depend a lot on aesthetics or space considerations. Like, I paid extra NOT to have a glass side because I don't want extra lights around me, at all. My kid's has a lot of rainbow RBG. Hubby's has a glass side but minimal to no lighting.

Cooling solutions... for any higher end systems for heavy duty users (i.e. gaming a LOT with newer games, doing a lot of computationally heavy 3d modeling or whatever) I like using an aio watercooler. These can be easier to install even than air coolers now, as long as you do a little homework, and the ones I've bought were all under $100. Most users will do fine air cooling, and Gamer's Nexus has some dandy charts on gamersnexus.net that will help you figure out which coolers to use. (Hint, most of them are pretty good!) And for case fans, if you need extra, Arctic has 3-5 packs for super cheap.

But ultimately, if your computer is functioning okay for you, or just needs some upgrades and maintenance, you probably don't need to upgrade. Laptops are a whole 'nother ballgame completely. And you know how I built this system to play a couple of new games?

I ended up mostly playing my old favorites with better graphic settings. LOL.

No regrets, the system is SUPER functional and will last me years and if anything breaks I can fix it. And since then, I've helped two people buy parts, upgraded two computers and built systems for four other people and helped others put together parts list or figure out which laptop would be right for them. And the old computers? Are not ewaste yet, because the build process will allow a lot of moving around of parts to improve the old systems which can then be handed down to other family members. Even my old laptop went on to find use with another family member.

[sunset-peril]

Hi! I was wondering, do you happen to know anything about writing fight scenes? If not, do you know anyone who does?

Sorry, I've had this first meeting thing thought out for some time & I'm tired of not having it finished. 😅

.....have I ever written a fight? Now I can't remember 😂

I think it would kind of depend on the type of fight. I've written a bedside argument between someone who'd been betrayed and someone who's hospitalized, if that helps, but I don't think I've ever written an actual fight. I've been putting off Link's accident that scars his face for the same type of reason. Most of my "fight" scenes are very short (Link and Revali practicing with dummies, Zelda ordering Vah Naboris to fire in AoC, stuff like that that's very barebones) because I don't really know much about it and I'm bad at fast pacings unless they're super back and forth like an argument.

I know someone on Ao3 who writes a lot of fights, but seeing as she's only on Ao3 I don't know a contact method other than to read her massively long Pokéfics. Also, her main goal with it isn't necessarily realism and I have a feeling that's what you're going for.

I don't know anyone else (off the top of my head) BUT

Pinterest has been fairly helpful to me for random topics. I've found massive Tumblr threads screenshotted and uploaded there. I saw one about sword fighting this morning but I didn't save it and now I can't find it, lol.

I found these for you on a quick search. I hope they help

[samuelroukin]

hi! not here in favor of you making Actual Books (i don't even read any of the newly published books anymore for reasons and reasons and reasons), just complimenting your work in general

i dont really care for cod at all but i really enjoy how you write the characters!! and tbh the only reason i watched some playthroughs of the games was so i could understand your work better. sure, fandom is the main reason people click in, but it's definitely not why they're staying. and it's not why people are writing paragraphs of praise to your stubborn ass even though you work so hard to never listen to any of it 💖

also id be enchanted to hear more about your ocs on future works or even here on tumblr!! you're great at creating made up people that actually feel real. they're pretty round (funnily enough that is the actual technical term), even when you don't tell us a lot about them

also 👀👀 say you have original stuff in mind?????? i would love love love love love to know more about that!! you're getting pretty darn good at worldbuilding and ambiance. better with each update now that you're trying out this AU thing. it would be infinitely interesting to see what you come up with when working with your own stuff only

anyway what i mean is. even though I don't quite believe in Published Books on this day and age, please know that your writing is definitely good enough for the editorial market (even more so now that those dark romance things are going mainstream and a lot of them read like the stuff 12yos post on wattpad. what tf is the deal with that? but I digress. out of those circles your work is still definitely good enough) it's legit like Good Work, even if the tiny mean bully whispering in your ear disagrees. it's good realism. good introspection. good porn and also good narrative and great junction of those. it's lovely seeing how far you've come in so little time and we're excited to see you reach new heights in the future (because you will, with absolute certainty, unless you stop. but i don't think you could really stop yourself at this point lmao)

and please know that achieving that level of quality with no help or instruction or training in so little time is a grand fucking accomplishment

point is: Who Care? We Care (even if we're not an enormous audience)(...yet?). and not just because it's cod

it's def a nice compliment to get thank u 🙏💖

and so is you reading my stuff without caring much for cod! though i wouldn't be able to write this much about them without (clearly) being completely insane about Them and the basis the games laid (haha laid) because without them i'd be nowhere at all, these characters are so. well they clearly took over my brain lol, though i worry a Lot about them being ooc when i write them 💀

i actually feel like my guys are so barebones and one dimensional rip, which is fine since i mostly created them as little more than a joke and they're just being used as set dressing, so that means a lot 🙏

my Main story is this sprawling urban fantasy thing, which if i ever did write it would need serious adjustments since it's. old and not aged very well. the gist of it was the main character (30 year old barista) has Visions, cue road trip with his bestie (ex bf from high school that he reconnected with years later) to figure out The Deal after they suddenly get much worse. it's about that on the surface, and below about dealing with missed chances and not living up to ur potential. it sounds stupid but i've been Thinking about it since i was like 14 so cringe is to be expected lol

lsklhkjhffghst yeah no offense to them but despite this fic being what it i i wouldn't really want to fall into that category even if that sound like i think i'm better than them (i'm not it's just not my thing. or i guess it is and i just have a superiority complex. anyway) um thank you once again 🥺i def feel like i haven't improved a lot but you're dead on about not being able to stop myself anyway lmao

idk why you're being this nice to me but 💖💖💖

[je-doute-donc-je-suis]

ARE WE FACETS OR FRAGMENTS

ARE WE POLYFRAGMENTED OR MEDIAN. THESE ARE OPPOSITE ENDS OF THE SPECTRUM HOW CAN WE NOT TELL

Being mostly one main emotion that grew an identity, "a specific trait or emotion". Yeah that's exactly how all of us are, except we don't have that "core" alter, all of us are floating around without a "center" we're based on. Unless you can count our shared childhood memories as that "core". fableing is also extremely accurate, especially for one/two we are still wondering if they're not veritbond too

But none of those have the "are temporary people and fade away" like with fragments. But we can't find a single type of system where it's all temporary fragments and we all have a lifespan of 10 hours or less before we fucking disappear forever

What the hell are we. Are our blackouts not from something else, but real secret full alters taking over without us knowing ? Making us a regular system with fragments and full alters? But we're clearly out the most with those blackouts being rare and only a very few times a month for like, 2 hours max. How could a cloud of fragments have full monopoly of the consciousness and body

(we genuinely see ourselves as a cloud where sometimes, a vague silhouette or pair of hands/paws reaches out and take control. and rarer, sometimes they even fully step out of the fog, and pretty much check themself over, discovering their identity. before suddenly getting dragged back to the depth of our cloud, identity stripped away and erased, assimilated back to our one consciousness fog. yet none of us want that [unless there's some weird "alter outside our "hivemind" we're not aware of that's messing stuff up with us" stuff going on. which i doubt, but who knows])

What the hell do we do, what the hell are we, what is going on and how do we stop us from disappearing and make everyone else come back. We're monoconscious, we share memories, objectively, we may not be full people at first, but in those once in a blue moon event, we do become one. Over the hours we grow a species, name, taste in pronouns and hobbies, we become someone. And then we/they pretty much fucking die a few hours later, back to being no one, with only the memories of them, and maybe their barebone simplyplural profile; if they had the time to make one and customise it before the fucking invisible timer ran out; left of them, like a fucking tombstone

We're so done with this, figuring out a sense of self was always such a good feeling, but now we completely gave up and ignore it every time the feeling of figuring ourselves out show up, because what's the point? We'll die in just a few hours anyway. Our lifespans are shorter than a damn fly

But gods damn it we don't want that, WE WANT TO LIVE

Even online we can't find anything or anyone...

[kuai-kuai]

webdev log 3

this log is longer since I'm writing it as I work, since I forget a lot once I've put down the keyboard for the night (day? I'm always up until morning)

okay, so...

I've implemented user (me)-only add story, edit story, and add chapter, and edit chapter functions

creating a story. I have some "preset" tags. clicking on them adds them to the input, and it'll get converted into arrays to be placed into the database. they're sort of placed there manually since I'm too lazy to make it so that it sifts through tags and posts them there but I'd rather not since some tags are only used once. for the series presets being manually placed there.. well, I have no excuse. I'm just lazy. I'll just kms when I have to add another, ig.

anyways once a new story is made, there's no chapter added so the link to it doesn't work. I have to go in and add a chapter. I will not update this because I don't care and it doesn't trouble me enough to make it a feature so you can upload it all in one go.

from there I get to see this shitty barebones chapter creator.

START TANGENT feel free to skip

laravel Eloquent stores the text as-is so I won't need to use my shitty markdown -> html converter that I have on my secret utilities site that I always had to use for when posting my stories onto my neocities.

that's what it looked like, lol. I had to make this because of the way I write and I want it to display in a particular way which I'll get into in a sec. the reason why I didn't want to use some shitty markdown -> html converter on some other website is because a single linebreak gets converted to <br> while <p> only gets sandwiched between paragraphs with double line breaks.

I don't like that since I wanted text indents for every <p> but text-indent doesn't apply to the next line within a <p> if you use <br>... they only apply to the start of each <p>. a workaround for this is to use text-indent: {size} each-line; but each-line isn't supported in all browsers, including chrome of all things. So I had to write up a program for my own converter which wraps *every* line into a <p> and applies a <br> if there's another newline after that.

but for my new site, there's a function that detects what browser the user is using and will add the text-indent styling only if using supported browsers. so chrome users will just be indent-less! sorry! (you should switch to firefox anyways)

END TANGENT okay, enough about my neocities..

What it looks like for a user (me)... guests won't be able to see the edit link.

When editing, there's an option to delete the chapter. if it is the first chapter of a story, then it will delete the whole story. it's currently the only way to delete a story, mostly as a safeguard for myself since I don't trust myself. if I have to delete a story with a ton chapters in the future... well.. then fuck me.

over on the side, I also went back and added a delete comment function too. accidentally had it earlier where if I tried to delete a reply it deleted the parent comment too. oops.

delete buttons (as well as the buttons that accept/reject comments on the user dashboard) had no confirmation so.. phew. now they do! I've accidentally deleted a whole years worth of art before on my computer, so I need this. very badly.

decided to move the warning into a confirmation alert once they hit submit. allows guests to see the warning in a less clunky manner, and also lets them know for sure that their comment is going to get sent! before the page would just refresh without any confirmation.. so this would be less confusing. two in one!

anyways, the next big feature I gotta implement is creating, editing, and deleting art. then I'll be done with all backend related things and I can finally start on the ~fun~ pages like my about. and other things.

unless I decide to make a guestbook. which I probably will end up doing..

I'll probably be keeping my neocities just for memory's sake and also to host my twine games and silly coding projects but I'll probably be removing my dreams page since I kind of don't want people seeing those anymore lest some tiktok-addicted teenager tries to kill me. better huff them all now if you want to peer into my sick twisted mind (jk I'm an angel)

[zmediaoutlet]

hello. huge fan of ur fics. do u think sam and dean/deanna could ever get past their internal cringe to explore petplay.

friendo I want so much to be the person who responds to this with a nice 2k of porn that would suit your lowercase desires, esp since you have been so nice to say you like my fics, but sadly I cannot get over my own internal cringe to write you some Sam/Dean(na) petplay. I can only apologize.

But also, yeah, I don't really see them doing it either. I mean -- unless I'm missing the mark entirely, and someone please let me know if I am -- petplay is essentially formalized D/s with different props, right? Like when you get down to the (milk)bones of it. If you like my fics you know that I'm obv into a certain amount of power play, even skating right up to the edge of properly formalized D/s, but with Sam and Dean specifically I just... can't get to that spot of like actual rules/roles/props being taken seriously enough to really make it... work. Like this is the same reason I never write Dean calling Sam 'sir' or them using the traffic light system or whatever the hell. That's just... not how they operate, together. (Barring like 10k of lead-up for why they might, obv.) Calling your brother your good little puppy is just. A bit beyond the beyond.

Now, I can sorta see it entering as a joke. Like, they're at a sex store and Dean sees one of those plug tails and makes a joke and next time they're in bed he half-assedly pretends he's wagging and they laugh about it. And then maybe it slips into something a tiny bit more serious? Sam says good boy and Dean's dick says, oh, yes, he's a very good boy indeed. But even so that's not about the pet, that's about everything else. With all that though I also can't see it fully getting into the like -- paw glove thingies and ear headbands or masks or whatever.

As far as Deanna's concerned, I feel like that's WAY less likely although if we spin it from dogs to cats then maaaaybe Sam could make some crack about her being a lazy house cat and she squints an eye at him and goes meow and he gets a weird catgirl boner, lol, but even so. If they're gonna do powerplay they're going to do it barebones, and not rawhide bones.

[asteriasfallingstarsandtears]

Not tagging this because I don't really want to contribute to the general discourse, but man, I am annoyed at the letter change. I've seen people be like oh but it looks better and fine, whatever, glad you do, but it doesn't change it takes away the nuance in a character that already has so fucking little in a game that he's supposed to be one of the three last antagonists of the game.

What was wrong with those letter beyond one single typo? Why did they need to change? Why could these new letters not be added in in addition to these existing letters.

Act 3 is a fucking disaster as is, Orin and Gortash get so little screen time, and what they do get, you can tell the actors are giving it their all. Besides that, we have a few scattered notes that give us backstory that are all optional and easily missed. If you don't go to the House of Hope and talk with the dwarf and find like one? Note, you don't find out that Gortash was sold to the Hells and was tortured daily. If you don't find his parents, you don't get the details of why he was sold and how his parents fucking despised him as a child.

Orin is likewise the same, you do have to face Sarevok to get the amulet to get into the Temple, but unless you go into his office, you won't learn before the Temple that Orin and Helena were victims of their father's abuse. If you don't use talk with the dead on Helena you miss out on a lot of how she gave everything to Sarevok and Bhaal only to be deemed as nothing more than a womb to be filled and a sacrifice to her God.

You have to find this note or talk with Helena to confront Orin and make her question what happened and force Bhaal's hand and see just how bad the abuse and trauma of Orin and by extension Durge and every Bhaalspawn mentioned in the game has undergone for Bhaal.

You have to undergo very specific actions in very specific orders to unlock memories for Durge and a number of notes just do not exist in the game if you are not playing the Durge, or are replaced by other notes that do not tell the story of Orin, Durge and the Temple of Bhaal.

Orin gets more attention given to her stuff than Gortash ever does. You cannot confront Gortash with your knowledge. There's hardly anything for you to do with him with the information you can gather.

So taking away from an already barebones character frankly (ha) sucks.

And before anyone tried to say something, no, this is not me excusing anyone's actions, they did what they did, they're all serial killers, slavers, and worse. Whatever, it's a game, they're very clearly Bad(tm), but they're also very interesting characters who have their stories squandered.

If you can't understand why this bothers someone, imagine your favourite character being rewritten for the worse post game and think about how much that would suck for your enjoyment of the character.

Might delete later, but wanted to express my feelings and thoughts on the matter.

[caparrucia]

What's IA and why is it relevant? Lol

So I'm gonna answer this in good faith, but I will point out that this is a very weird query to send to a stranger. This is the kind of basic research you should do on your own whenever you encounter topics you don't understand. Like, if you're at the bare bones basic, starting point of a discussion, it is actually very rude to walk up to a stranger participating in that discussion and ask them to give you the primer. Don't do that online, certainly do not do that in meatspace. Your teachers and professors are paid for their time to educate you, random strangers are not and unless they've clearly and openly signaled they're available to provide that kind of barebones, basic primer? Exceedingly rude to just feel entitled to demand that explanation from them.

If you don't know where to start, start with google. I know, google is not great these days, but you can add ?udm=14 to the base google URL to get the strict results, no AI slop added. Or you can bookmark this:

From a basic google search you can then go to wikipedia for a more in depth primer, and hunt down the sources and citations to track down more thorough explanations and resources.

Once you have a more nuanced understanding of the topic you can also search for forums and communities where the topic is discussed and track down more resources there if you need them.

But you have to do it. Because you have to be responsible for your own learning.

And also because asking random strangers, disregarding the matter of manners entirely, subjects you to their bias. Case in point, I will, as I said, answer the query in good faith, but that's a good faith answer with my bias. And because they're my bias, I can't signal them out for you. I might not even know they're biases.

Do yourself a favor and get in the habit of not delegating all your perspectives and opinions to others. Your very sense of self is built in your convictions. You become the person you want to be, by sculpting yourself with knowledge. You do yourself a disservice by letting other people determine who you are and what you should think.

That said!

IA stands for the Internet Archive, which you might know for their URL, www.archive.org They're a US based non profit organization dedicated to archival work effort. Their most famous and well-known project is the Wayback Machine, a webcrawler archive that maintains records of a good chunk of the lightnet. The lightnet, surface web, indexable web or accessible web is the part of the internet that can be reached through the use of standard, common web tools like browsers (windows edge, google chrome, mozilla firefox, etc) and search engines (google, bing, duckduckduck, etc). This is the thing that a lot of people are worried about being lost, since a good chunk of the last thirty years of the internet no longer exists or is accessible anywhere else. They also curate digital collections of materials otherwise unavailable to wider audiences, like out of print books, music, tv shows, and other media.

The Internet Archive is relevant because it is a well-established, well-known institution in the sphere of conservation that plays a crucial role in the preservation of modern, contemporary history. They have under their stewardship countless, invaluable assets that are simply not available anywhere, and they are one of the most public, vocal advocates for digitalization of and, in their view, access to information.

The conversation surrounding access to information and also accessibility of resources as well as the crucial role libraries play in their communities, often in the physical world and which cannot be digitalized by their nature as a Third Space, is a nuanced, often thorny one. Mostly because people whose idealism stops at ideas and has never contended with the practical application of any of those ideas, are very bad at understanding that they live in a nuanced, imperfect world and there is no true one size fits all solution to literally anything.

This particular group is having A Really Rough Time handling the fact their darling IA fucked up spectacularly in a preventable, observable way, and are trying desperately to silence any criticism about the IA leadership - which is... flawed, to say it politely - by screaming about bootlicking and fantasizing about The Great Revolution that will surely come one day to fix all of their problems.

It's all very Evangelical, if you ask me about it.

But then, most Americans are Culturally Evangelical and don't even realize it. So!

It's what it is.

[space-blue]

may we know what is the crumbs 3 wip? 👀

Aha! It's the 3rd chapter of the fic A Trail Of Crumbs whose concept I adore but fell out of love with when I stumbled out of the Avatar fandom.

It follows Recom Miles Quaritch after the events of the film, lone survivor back on base and wrestling with the increasing dread brought about by a series of 'crumbs' he picks up on over time. RDA staff say and do weird things. The way he's treated seems odd. Ah, and his fucking custom watch. The tattoos they all have... Stuff doesn't really add up.

The goal of the fic was to explore the nature of the 'soul drives', how edited recom memories are, and the growing realisation that Miles isn't anywhere near his old human self, not any more than any other Marine with a similar background.

It was pure vibes of Blade Runner, artificial memories, created as a sentient tool unaware of their own artificiality beyond the obvious, etc.

In the end, I think I explored the concept better in this short comic in Mansk POV.

Chapter 3 crumbs is the incomplete conversation between Aslan and Miles, hinting at past Miles/Parker Selfridge. I stuck to dialogue only towards the end so it grows barebones, but I'll put what I have under the cut for the curious because I honestly don't think I'll finish this unless Avatar 3 makes me its bitch again.

'Why did you come back to Pandora?'

'Well, we landed in fanfare, as you can imagine.'

Yes, Miles can well imagine the media shit-storm so politely labelled fanfare. There's a part of him he's not particularly proud of that is glad his own death allowed him to skip this particular shitshow. He'd been, after all, the man in charge of operations at the time. Had pulled rank and everything. The media would have vivisected his career, his entire being. It's unlikely to have been much kinder to other RDA personal, returning with their tails between their legs.

'And in the middle of all this, my family...' Aslan gnaws on their lip, their faraway look snapping back to Miles with sudden intensity. 'We weren't really friends, you and I. You weren't one to hang out with the "science pukes", right? You'd know about my family if you had. I used to complain quite vocally whenever I got a comm from them. The old vent, you know. Anyway, let's say they were there, at the landing pad, waiting for me. In the middle of all that... fanfare.'

They look through the blinds, over the blighted landscape of concrete and metal, crawling with bots and shivering with heat and ship exhaust fumes.

'I signed up for the next mission over.'

Miles nods politely. He knows the type of family they're alluding to. He's met people who worked on the Mars terraforming program off world, because restoring Uganda's water table wasn't far enough of a getaway. Pandora's one of the furthest frontiers known to mankind. Different appeal to the science pukes, who generally arrive thrilled to go pull up grass, but dysfunctional families are universal, and to many RDA workers, the distance is a bonus.

He goes to say some platitude, that he understands, because really, he does. But Aslan cuts him off with a sharp hand gesture.

'Can we cut the crap, General? I mean Miles. You're not interested in my family, and you're keeping me away from the deeply fascinating samples I've come all the way here to put under a microscope, so let's just talk.'

Miles is struck by the sudden realisation that he's got no easy segway ready to start on the whole RDA conspiracy thing. He turns a few sentences over in his mind, growing discomfort flattening his ears to his skull. Should he threaten Aslan? Ask plainly? He's burning to cut the crap, as asked. But Aslan is also the one who'd gone to great pains to arrange a believable meeting between them, who'd seeded fear into his mind.

The manual had held no hint when he consulted it. The term soul drive had an asterix to an appendix that wasn't in the book.

'Something bothering you?'

Miles smiles tightly. 'You can tell?'

'You have a long way to go before you obtain a Na'vi poker face. I suggest you stay away from the Thursday games.'

To hell with it. It's not like he expects he'll make it past the court martial, the way things are going.

'Why do your people tattoo us?'

'You flatter me if you think me this involved, but that happens on the ship over, with a crew well out of my jurisdiction.'

A deflection. He'll be damned. 'I'd appreciate an answer,' he says, putting steel into his voice. 'Of the straight kind, too, if you can manage those.'

'A jab at my sexuality? Too easy. Is the tattooing what's bothering you? Really?' Aslan's smile is knowing, the light in their eyes dances with unwholesome mischief.

'Let's say that I've tried and failed to find a better starting point.'

'All right then. Let's do a short test. Answer my questions fast and truthfully.'

Miles relaxes. 'Sure.'

'Year of birth?'

'2104.'

'Do you have a son?'

'...Yes.'

'What was his mother's name?'

'Paz Socorro.'

'What year was she born?'

'I...'

'Am not sure?'

'I don't think we discussed it, but—'

'You had her file. She was one of yours, wasn't she? Surely you remember how old she was?'

'I think—'

But Aslan doesn't let him catch his breath. 'Who was Parker Selfridge to you?'

Miles sits straight, ears point to attention now. Will Aslan also reek of fear if he answers 'friend', no matter how much of an overstatement the word might feel? Heck, they asked for fast answers, so he says, 'He wasn't exactly my boss, but he was the Head suit in charge.'

'I need an honest answer,' they say, rasping a knuckle on the table.

Miles has his jaw hanging. What do they want from him?

'Do you recall leaning in his doorway?' Aslan continues, hardly slowing down. 'Poring over maps together?'

'Well, we...'

'Do you remember the way he laughed at your jokes? You leaned into the corny dad humour and he loved it. Do you remember your mug?'

'Yes.'

'Do you remember how you got it?'

'...Selfridge? Wasn't it Paz?'

'That's a question, so I'll take it as a no. Moving on to—'

'All right, all right. You've made your point.'

'What point do you think this is?'

'My memories are incomplete.'

'No, Miles.' Aslan sighs and sinks into their chair. 'Your memories are edited.'

It's somewhat depressing that of all the emotions he feels in that moment, surprise is not one of them

'Look at it this way. The machine scours your neural pathworks, and bounces memories. But it can't recreate the events that got you there, and it can't recreate what you blocked even from your own wakeful memory. Things you've forgotten, things you've hidden under too many layers, things you've trained to look away from.'

'So we're missing chunks?'

'Yes, all soul drives are inherently incomplete. That's why the technology isn't widespread. But that's not it. When you're in the machine, they can trigger memory chains. It helps map out... Look, it's hard to simplify, especially since it's not my specialty either, but they can snip out entire sections, like cauterizing a thought beyond surface level, or blot out all emotional reactions to a concept.'

'Are you saying... Do you actually mean the RDA edited the story of my life like a fucking home movie?'

They shrug. 'Yeah. That's the gist of it.'

'That in the contract I signed?'

'Of course not. Come on, colonel, you worked private long enough to have seen this coming. What? Do you think they'd give a fuck if you had issues with your situation?'

Miles rubs a shaky hand over his eyes, trying his best to remember the sound of Parker's laugh. 'Are you— Are you saying Selfridge and I were close—'

'Close is a good euphemism.'

'—and they erased so much of it, I freaked the shrink out by referring to him as a friend?'

Aslan tuts. 'Bad move.'

Miles gives them a sickly sweet smile. 'What a shame nobody warned me about the nature of this assessment!'

[kogameh]

Uh, OC related thing

I did some ✨️significant updates✨️ to the main 6 characters' Toyhouse pages, so just in case anyone actually noticed "wait, since when this got added?" or you know, want to read them now BEFORE it gets overwhelmed with MORE characters, here you go!!! YAYYYY

➡️➡️You can view them HERE. (mainly the first section of characters. I've yet to update the rest lol)

And now the patch notes(?) under the cut:

The most significant update is the fact that their character description AND backstory now has at least 3 paragraphs. It's not as intimidating as it may sound, but I can 1000% predict only like 3 people max would actually read those, so welp. (HUGE special thanks if you do though!!! You're the REAL MVP here.)

This was mainly because I don't want to oversimply them too much to the point it felt too tropey/barebones and I'm putting away their longer/more fleshed out Weebly profiles (for now) which also means there's no access to that for the few people that may want to know more. So. Yeah. (I try to keep them relatively spoiler-free unless mentioned, though, which is why some characters may have less information than the others. Namely Kagami and Kureha haha.)

(Then again, I've learned the hard way that even a shorter one sentence of paragraph won't make a difference if people just, well, don't want to read them haha...so might as well go big or go home)

The moodboards are changed to be properly aligned with the rest of the sections now. I still don't know if I prefer the older, bigger layout where you can appreciate the artworks better or this one that is way cleaner and satisfying to look at haha. I do worry if it's much easier to scroll past them this way though...you wouldn't want to miss the cat on Kureha's page. Would you.

You can compare the old layout with the new layout here and here if you want to, albeit they're different characters aha.

I also reset the favourites for them, so if you have a TH acc and want to fav or re-fav, feel free to do so!!

And I guess that's about it! Not much else to say about the rest than some added trivia section (which I often update quietly whenever an idea strikes anyway lol) and fixing some outdated links :3c

With the Weebly site being temporarily put on hiatus(?) from new updates I also realize there isn't a way to thoroughly share the lore and worldbuilding anymore which TH isn't meant for so...I WILL finish that crash course powerpoint eventually for that purpose. Surely. SURELY.

Thanks for tuning in~

[the-ratronaut]

So I've been replaying the Alan Wake series and its connected games in preparation for playing Alan Wake 2 and I just felt like putting down my thoughts on Alan Wake and American Nightmare down. Nothing too intensive, just some random thoughts and critic I've had about them. Spoilers for those two 10+ year old games below. It's also long so, like, be aware of that lol.

Alan Wake:

God this game shows its age lol. It's such an XBox 360 game. Like you know the devs were super, super proud of their physics system when they made the game 'cause physics objects are everywhere and they really want you to play with them.

This is one of the most "wears its influences on its sleeves" horror games and unlike most of those it's mostly not based on Lovecraft (though it is partially). It's goddamn Steven King.

The combat is really barebones, but at the same time really tight. It works suprising well and hasn't aged too badly. Like shit maybe it's the sound taken make when you kill them but it's super satisfying to shot shit in this game. The poltergeist encounters can be a little annoying at times though and the fast Taken are always a slog unless they get stuck on a corner or something.

I always really liked the narrative devices of the manuscript pages. Giving the player a chance to see what's going on off screen or getting glimpses into the inner worlds of your nonpoint-of-view characters if they're diligent about exploring your world is such a fun idea. It's something you don't get to see in video games often but do see a lot in literature, so it fits very well here. Not to mention letting the player see glimpses of the near future is fun as well.

The DLC chapters are really funny conceptually because you know they spawned out of someone saying "Hey, you know that gimmick mechanic we had in literally the last five minutes of the game and nowhere else that we did nothing with? We should actually use that for something."

Also I do like how literally everything after the main story of Alan Wake is trying to resolve the resolution to Alan Wake. Like Alan did exactly what he needed to do to fix everything, but fuck it this man is really struggling to actually save himself from his own self sacrifice.

Alan Wake American Nightmare:

Once again, this game shows it's age. It's a very XBox 360 game, though the devs clearly put some thought into how to improve the original game's formula. Their conclusion was to make the combat quicker and more varied and I can't say they were wrong. I will say that the over abundance of ammo and ease of killing foes does make this a bit less scary though. This is much more of an action game than the original and the presence of an "arcade mode" makes me think that was the intention.

This is one of the better handled time loop stories I think I've seen. Though the duration of the loop is short, everyone involved quickly gets a grasp of what's happening and, suprising, they all are able to grow very competent. By the last loop, missions that took an entire act to finish are literally set up for you to complete when you enter the area. People learn from their mistakes and make sure not to make those mistakes again. It's such a pleasure to see people placed in this odd situation act like rational people.

The situation with Serena is super fucking unfortunate. Like, fuck. If you play this game, make sure to go turn on the light for her in the second and third loops. It's fully an unmarked optional event, but, like, fuck no one deserves that.

The ending is, annoyingly, a little misleading. Leading some people to see this game as non-canon. Like, I definitely get that but the post credits scene makes the situation a bit more clear... shame it's easy to accidentally skip tho. Cutscenes in general are too easy to accidentally skip in this game.

[stoneheart-paramour]

on today's "i'm being brave about it", i write a character throwing up

i get very, very easily sickened by even the mere thought of this kind of thing but it's a realistic reaction for this character to be having so. being real brave about it.

not that i'm writing in ANY detail whatsoever but STILL. i'm being!! brave!! about it!!

and now, i move swiftly on... the chapter's almost finished (first draft anyway) and this one's been even more challenging than the last even tho it's one of the clearer concepts/collection of scenes i've had from the very beginning. idk if it's bc i find it boring, per se? but i know that there are FUN THINGS directly ahead and i wanna write THOSE things!! alas, i can't neglect the connective tissue and important setup or else the fun stuff will be all form and no substance.

i'm at 3.5k words with it so far, which is much shorter than i expected it to be, but i think i'm writing slightly more barebones atm in order to push through to the end, to get the skeleton done. i will go back over everything for the second pass and then i can flesh stuff out. i feel as though descriptive language is lacking... so i'll be trying to tweak the balance between "don't let stuff drag on" and "don't leave ALL the visual aspects to the readers' imagination".

i think i'm just a bit rusty, if i'm honest - been a long time since i've done such serious prose that wasn't a one shot (or series of short and self-contained stories). there are also a LOT of characters to juggle, which makes balancing a conversation between them all quite a challenge. keeping each voice distinct, trying not to reuse the same word over and over (it's a pet peeve and the thesaurus is my spouse actually), trying to "animate" the characters while they talk so it doesn't feel like they're all just standing perfectly straight while they talk at each other (abnormal, nobody does this)... it's a lot to keep track of!

i'm also, on a more meta level, reminding myself that i need to track the development/evolution of characters' thoughts/feelings/perceptions, ESPECIALLY in the cases of Caelus and Aventurine. the central theme of this story is "identity", and on a very literal level Caelus is rediscovering/recreating his identity; for him more than probably anyone else, i need to be cognizant of where his paradigm shifts occur, what moments/events cause him to feel or think in different ways, etc etc. he's building himself up, finding his footing, his confidence, his power... as important as the BIG shift moments are, the incremental changes are almost more important imo bc they prime him for the big ones. you don't suddenly change your opinion on, say, murder, unless it's something you've had to confront several times already in different contexts which have subtly influenced your ideas and perceptions of the subject.

and then, there's Aventurine. now, this one's a bit of a spoiler so... don't read on if you're reading this now. you've been warned!

Aventurine's arc has him falling apart, the mirror opposite to Caelus. while Caelus is discovering himself and cementing his identity, Aventurine is crumbling into uncertainty and doubt over who he is and what he wants to be - what he wants, period. he's been stable and "in control" for a few years now (well, as stable as he's ever been lol), confident in his identity and goals... and Caelus just throws a wrench into everything. hard to blame him, really... imagine you if you spent months working towards a life long goal - finding someone important to you - but it involved doing something horrific to someone else, and you were starting to realize that this other person also means a lot to you, but you can't just give up on your literal life's dream/goal and you've already poured so much blood sweat and tears into achieving it so you just have to commit... only to learn that this person and that other person? they're the SAME PERSON. and now because of all your scheming and plotting, the person you were scheming and plotting to find is in terrible danger, that YOU put them in. liiike. i don't think i can imagine tbh, i can just assume that it would be brutal on the mind and heart. it sure is for Aventurine, anyway!

aaanyway. that's a hell of a tangent. suffice to say, i'm trying to be intentional about dialogue and action choices for the characters with regards to how it reflects their mind states and opinion of each other/the world/etc. and it's a slowburn romance! so i gotta balance the pacing, to make it make sense. we love a lil "doe eyed at first sight" but stronger feelings? they gotta take TIME. i've rearranged the timeline for that purpose alone several times, heh, partly because i do want it to feel like a natural progression, but also bc i enjoy holding them in that "will they won't they" state bc i'm a menace and a monster (to them)