#you don't need to match length. Just wanted to set the scene up

[cxncordia]

@oceanicxeyes - When the Sun met the Sea

It started when they attacked that girl during the sports event.

Two weeks ago, Toño and his friends saw how one of the students from the Infinite Academy pretty much transformed into a scaly abomination in front of them and with great bravery and strength stopped her. In the nick of time, Toño was able to undo the spell that had been placed in the poor girl. It was a whole ordeal but it was doable, she got to be healed from the horrible experiment placed upon her.

This had made the Teporingos, a group of five mages and Toño, become alert about the situation. Regina had mentioned having had premonitory visions about the arrival of the new enemy and Moises had his sights set on the Infinite Academy, a school for the rich elites that was heavily secured and, behind closed doors, dedicated to the pursuit of dark magic.

The Teporingos were the protectors of this city, the Verbena mages who took care of the land and protected it from evil that sought to take it away. Moises had tracked one of the professors of said Academy and after having investigated her, it seemed that Professor Yuri Aparicio, in charge of Etiquette and Decorum of the Academy, was also one of the Cinco Brujas that belonged to the group of Nefandi that Toño and los Teporingos were trying to elminate.

Tracking her by the whole city, Toño finally stopped when he saw the red-haired woman enter the bar. He had to follow her, to pursue her and to gather all the information necessary to stop this new enemy.

However, when he stopped the motorbike only a block away from the bar Tacho realized of a particular situation that the young Mage had not come to consider.

"And how do you think you are going in?" The small talking chihuahua scolded Toño from his back pack. "Do you want a disaster for us? Don't be a fool!"

"Disaster? But what do you want, Tacho?" Toño asked, frustrated by the small dog's scolding. "I told you that we need to investigate!"

"Investigate from afar, Toñito." The chihuahua explained. "This is an adult establishment and they won't let you get through."

"Well, I could disguise myself as an adult, you know?" The boy explained to his companion. "We are supposed to hide our powers in public! An adult will have no trouble entering and seeing what is going on." Toño took the backpack and adjusted it over his shoulder, the leather jacket squeaking when the straps were pushed back. The young mage found a place to disguise himself, sliding in the back alleys where the stench of urine and trash was almost nauseating.

"Stop, stop, stop, stop...You can't make a spell like that!" The small chihuahua practically barked from within Toño's backpack.

"Why not!?" Toño huffed. "Just wait and see!" Toño focused his energies, trying to imagine how he would look when being an adult and words in Nahuatl flew from his mouth. "Huapahua," Toño pronounced in a whisper. He had learned these from his Mentor, Huey Tlanextli. Taking a deep breath and soon Toño could feel how his height and his hair was growing. How his muscles got firmer and his clothes were getting tight around him.

Being a mage really made all these experiences so interesting.

When looking himself at the reflection of the window, Toño couldn't believe it: that really wasn't him, those were now more the face of an adult. "Hehe, nice..." He cooed, touching his chin and starting to notice how different his skin felt.

"What are you doing!?" Tacho scoffed in surprise. "Magic should not be used for fun!"

"Relax, Tachito. I got it all under control." Toño responded with more confidence than he would have. He then moved away from the narrow space and back to his bike. He took the helmet and put it back on the motorcycle, starting to look back towards the location, and once again thinking of a plausible and reasonable line for this adventure. He took a pair of glasses that Moises had given him, so that the Teporingos could see what he was seeing, set them on his face and walked towards the establishment, this time, pretty sure that nobody would notice him. Or the dog in his back pack.

As he approached the door, a sound, beautiful and enigmatic was heard. The light tone of a humming echoed with delight. Toño could not help but to try to follow the origin of the song with his eyes, completely forgetting that he was supposed to approach the front door, right at the entrance. A beautiful blonde man, with flowy hair and blue eyes was singing in the establishment. The boy's eyes met him for an instant as Toño grew enraptured by the tune.

For a second he felt as if he was carried by the waters themselves, the feeling of the breeze enveloping him and the gentle embrace of the water surrounding him. He remembered those days, one summer break, when he and his Dad got to visit the beach back when he was only ten years old. What a beautiful and soulful tune this was!

[punsxwebs]

@redhead-reporter semi-plotted out thing (If you want me to take it down so we can flesh this out more lmk I just had a decent idea to start it lmao)

It wasn't uncommon for Jameson to ask him to take photos of things that weren't himself swinging around the city but he usually just left Peter to take his glorified selfies so he could trash on him in the next morning's paper. Still, getting asked to work different jobs was sometimes a nice change of pace.

Apparently, all of his "decent" photographers (He really should be more respectful to the others and they might show up more.) were not available and he was in desperate need of someone who knew how to take a decent photo which meant enter Peter Parker.

Naturally on his way to the job he had to suit up and intervene in a police chase and he was now running just a little late. Jogging up to the site he leaned forward, hands on his knees, as he caught his breath.

"Parker... I know you're used to just taking pictures of one guy who always seems to love to pose for you but that doesn't mean you can take your sweet time getting here."

Lifting his head he offered the man a sheepish smile. "Sorry! There was, uh, some bad traffic... you know how it is..." He offered awkwardly as he rose to his feet prompting an eye roll and a shake of the man's head.

Jabbing his thumb over his shoulder he gave Peter a pointed look. "Just... get a move on, Parker. I'd rather not keep your partner for today waiting any longer if I was you." He sighed before placing a hand on his chest when he went to walk past. "And we take normal pictures here... I don't want to hear how you were hanging from some scaffolding or something looking for a good shot."

"Right... normal pictures... can do." Peter laughed awkwardly patting his shoulder before scooting past him making him shake his head again. He was surprised he was even given this job seeing as he'd seen some of this person's photos before, they were pretty good, this was probably just Jameson being Jameson and insisting on something again.

"Hey!" He called out as he approached the redhead, camera in hand, wait... wasn't this that woman he had saved from being run over the other day? Huh, small world. "Sorry I'm late there was, uh, bad traffic... typical New York stuff, you know?" He chuckled softly rubbing at the back of his neck. "I'm Peter Parker, your partner in crime for today."

[i-heart-hxh]

Do you think Illumi’s comment about how Gon is just dazzling to Killua and a temporary fixation and Hisoka’s line about how transmitters are fickle and their treasures can turn to trash easily were foreshadowing for how Killua has come to see Gon? How at first Gon meant the world to him but now he’s basically done with him because of what happened during the CAA? Togashi could be planning to reunite them, but maybe this was his way of saying that Killua is done with Gon.

Hi! I actually see it in the opposite way to this view, almost.

As the audience I don't think we're supposed to agree with what Illumi is saying--that Killua doesn't deserve to have friends and that he'll ultimately betray them. It doesn't end up matching what happens in the series, nor does it match the overall message of what the series is about, and Illumi is an antagonist whose views the series repeatedly refutes (think: Alluka and how he sees her).

However, I also think that early in the series, Togashi was potentially trying to misdirect the audience with Killua's intentions. Killua early on was much more dangerous and edgy than he becomes as the series goes on, and there were a few pieces of foreshadowing that he might turn on Gon or the main group, which includes Hisoka's statement about Transmuters being fickle and their priorities changing rapidly, as well as Silva making him promise never to betray his friends and then expressing certainty that Killua will come back (as in, he was setting him up for failure because of the needle). There are also a few comparisons of Killua to Hisoka very early on that might fit into this (beyond the Transmuter thing), some even from Killua himself, and the scene with him getting frustrated with the ball game with Netero and then killing those guys as a result.

I believe Togashi laid this expectation down early in the series in order to subvert it and have Killua grow in the opposite direction. Killua felt like a "rival" type character or one who might eventually betray Gon/his friends, but instead he ends up being extraordinarily loyal to Gon (to a fault, even), he gets kinder and emotionally stronger as the series goes on, and he goes to extreme lengths to save Gon even after Gon pushed him away. He actively defies what his family expects of him! Even when he does go back home as Silva predicted, it's in order to break Alluka out of there and leave, and keep his promise to Silva by never betraying his friends--the opposite of what Silva actually wanted to happen when he made that promise with Killua.

Illumi's comment about Gon being "too dazzling for Killua's eyes" actually "comes back" in the form of the You are Light scene, where Killua uses similar language (in the original Japanese version) to describe why he can't look at Gon directly. That whole scene is about Killua comparing himself to Gon and thinking he's not worthy of him. However, Gon ends up falling into darkness himself and only Killua is able to save him--therefore, Killua becomes Gon's "light" right back. Because of what Illumi told Killua and the environment he grew up in, Killua himself didn't have faith in his own ability to be who Gon needed, but he managed it anyway because of how deeply he loves Gon.

He helps break Palm out of her loss of identity after she becomes a Chimera Ant, and becomes Ikalgo's light, too, by befriending him even though they're initially on opposite sides of the war.

We don't know the full reasons for Killua leaving Gon, however I suspect one of the reasons he leaves is in order to protect Gon from Illumi, who very well may pursue and endanger Killua and Alluka. Killua likely also needed a break from Gon after all they went through, but I don't think it'll be forever by any means. I made a post previously about why a reunion and reconciliation between them feels just about inevitable.

So, I absolutely do think those statements about Killua were "planted" intentionally within the series, but for the purpose of him breaking those assumptions rather than living up to them. One of the best things about Killua's character is how he initially seems so much different than he turns out to be. His commitment to and care for those he loves comes from a pure place in spite of the way he was raised, and he grows so much as a person throughout the series. He's a kind and courageous boy. I don't see him leaving Gon as a betrayal or throwing him away or legitimately "replacing" Gon with Alluka--they just came to a point where, for the time being, they had to take diverging paths. But I absolutely think their paths will converge again within the series, assuming Togashi can get that far.

I don't think Togashi is telling a depressing story where these tragic things happen between the two protagonists (who clearly adore each other) and then that's it, their relationship is over and they'll never get to mend the issues between them nor communicate all the things they haven't gotten to say to each other. There's a reason the separation is as brief and complicated as it is--it's intended to leave us with questions, and I believe those questions will be answered someday, assuming the manga is able to reach that point.

[faghubby]

punished

Vicky, my wife of ten years and mother of my two children. opened the door to see me bent over the dining room table as a large black man drove his long thick cock in my ass.

"What is going on here!" She yelled. I tried to get up. But Marcus just pushed me back down into the table and pounded away on my little faggot ass.

"Be done with the cunt in a minute" he told Vicky. Vicky was stunned just stood there watching.

"Vic" I said only to be smacked hand across the ass

"Shut the fuck up bitch" Marcus told me. I didn't dare say another word. Marcus stiffened and grunted as he shoved the full length of his cock in my ass. Pumping his load deep. He pulled out and pulled up his pants.

"All yours" he told Vicky as he let himself out. I stood up my legs tied to the table legs. I was wearing a red bra and stockings. Along with three inch heels. I tried to bend to untie my legs but fell on the floor.

"What the fuck?!" Vicky screamed. "You fucking gay bitch" she looked around evennmore confused by the scene. There was a paddle and two leather belts, along with a bottle of lube and bandage gear. That with me naked on the floor, trying to untie my legs as I babbled about it being a one time thing.

"Shut up" she said disgusted half laughing. She kicked my hand lightly. "Stop that and get up" she ordered me. I tried to stand finally pulling myself up.

"You let men fuck you? spank you?" She held a belt. "Not even sure" she started holding a big 2 inch diameter butt plug. It was still covered in lube. She pushed me down back over the table. She pushed the toy against my ass that was now leaking Marcus cum. My ass sucked it right in.

"Wow" she commented. As I ler out a little wimper. She then walked around the table.

"Don't you dare move" she warned me.

"Vicky I can" I started

"Shut up" she screamed she grabbed a set of leather cuffs and hooked my wrist to one of the legs. Then used another set to hook the other. I could lift myself some but not much. She found the matching panties to the bra I was wearing.

"Open up" she told me and shoved them in my mouth. I don't even think she realized how much she was turning me on. She turned off the light and left. I heard the door close and the car leave. Was she leaving me here for good. Hoping someone else found me. I struggled to get free. But it was a very sturdy table. I was stuck. I cried myself to sleep. What had I done.

It was hours before I head the garage door opening. It woke me up in the silence. Vicky came in obviously had been drinking. I had spit the panties out of my mouth hours ago.

"Still waiting for me cunt" she laughed. I so needed to pee.

"Please Vicky I need to pee" I pleaded. She laughed and looked down at my cock.

"What is this?" She asked grabbing the metal cage and yanking. I screamed.

"Marcus doesn't like to see me get an erection" I wimpered. "So this stops you from getting hard!" She laughed. She let it smack into the table making me groan again. I was about to burst.

"Where the key?" She asked.

"On my dresser" she unhooked one hand then left. I quickly undid my other hand but Marcus nots on the robe on my legs was tight. I struggled getting only one unlocked before I actually peed on the floor.

"You are disgusting" Vicky told me as she returned. "I want this all cleaned up now" she screamed then returned to the bedroom. It was late but I did as she had said and cleaned everything. Scrubbing the floor with disinfectant. I took a shower and removed the plug my ass gapped open after wearing the plug for hours. Only then did I try and go into the bedroom it was locked. I didn't even knock just went and crashed in the guest room. I slept naked not having any clothes but the bra and panties.

I was up before Vicky, actually she didn't emerge from our bedroom till noon. She loomed horribly hung over. I had done some laundry so at least was able to get dressed.

"Can I get you something" I asked. She glared at me then said. There is a mess in the bedroom" I got up and found she had thrown up in the trash can. Looks like most missed. She had also got it on the bed. I cleaned up the floor, took the trash can outside. Then stripped the bed. I had scrubbed the floor and remade the bed by the time. Vicky came back in, only a towel wrapped around her. She had a bruise on her shoulder.

"Are you okay did you fall?" I asked. She glanced at her shoulder. Then smiled.

"No he just liked to bite" she told me getting into bed naked. I noticed another mark on her thigh.

"Bite?" I asked

"Yes, big guy was kinda forceful. A biter, I guess everyone has a kink don't they?" She said glaring at me. I just let her go back to sleep. When I went to check on her a few hours later the door was locked again. I desperately wanted to ask her for the key to my chastity cage but didn't think it was the time.

I let her be, she had cheated on me I guess I deserved that. But what did this mean for us. She emerged from the room again about dinner time. I had made pasta. She devoured a bowl. And then went back to bed with two bottles of water. I heard her lock the door. She didn't emerge until the next morning and then rushed out the door for work with barely a word. No option I wore the chastity cage to work.

When I got home Vicky was home, she normally was home before me so this was normal. I found a garage bag by the door and without thought I threw it away. I found Vicky in the bathroom folding laundry.

"Vicky can I have the key to the chastity cage" I asked just wanting it off I had never worn it this long.

"Why? You don't need it anymore" Vicky said confused.

"What?" I stuttered

"Well your lover obviously doesn't use it for anything, and I certainly an not going to be using it again. So why?" Vicky asked again looking at me. "I may have use of that tounge from time to time but that's it" Vicky added.

"Vick!" I wimpered.

"What you can't expect me to see you as a man after the other night can you?" She asked. "Come here" she patted the bed.

I sat next to her.

"I got rid of all your boy undies too, I mean you like wearing girlie things right?" She said her hand cupping my face.

"I slept with Greg" she confessed. Greg was my best friend he would never.

"Greg wouldn't" I started.

"When I showed him the pics of you getting fucked by your boyfriend he understood why I needed a man. I didn't know he liked to bite though" Vicky explained. "Here put these away" she handed me a pile of bras and panties. I headed towards her dresser.

"Silly those are yours" Vicky told me. I looked down and realized she was serious and placed them in my empty underwear drawer.

"I would like to meet your lover, what is his name?" Vicky continued

"Marcus" I said softly

"He has a big cock, is he gay. I mean does he fuck woman as well?' Vicky asked.

"I don't think so" I told her. In kind of a trance. Was this all happening?

she took my phone and called Marcus.

"Hello whore" he answered the phone with.

"This is the whore's wife Vicky "she told him.

"You want me to stop fucking the slut?" He asked with a chuckle.

"No, not at all. He seemed to enjoy it "she told him. "I think he like it if you fucked him even more" I listened as the two of them started to make decisions and a schedule of my life. I tried twice to interrupt but was silenced before I could speak.

Vicky gave up any marital rights, giving them over to Marcus. She promised to make me more femine for him as well. I found myself meeting Marcus two to three times a week. Vicky had hired a contractor to build a bedroom and bathroom in the basement. It even had its own entrance. As soon as it was done I moved into it. She had designed the room with hidden anchor points, the room was also done in pink and light blue colors. And the closet full of woman's clothes in my size. Marcus could come and go privately. Vicky didn't hide that I was a sissy fag. And openly slept with other men.

Marcus even started taking me put as his little sissy bitch in public. Even making me service some of his friends. We have been married for 15 more years. Where I don't think I have seen Vicky naked in all that time. We have both gone thru several lovers.

[last-sprout]

Last Sprout Dev Diary - Dec 20, 2024

Hello again, welcome to this week's dev diary! I finally (finally) got the upgrade system functional this week, which means that we're one-ish system away from the game loop being essentially complete! I'll briefly talk about the system itself, but as it exists it's pretty basic, so afterwards I'll write a bit about all the hidden things that crop up when you try to develop things like this.

Last week was a short one, if you want to read it you can do so here.

Faster, faster, until the thrill of speed outweighs the fear of death.

Getting Upgrades

On the surface a system like this is pretty simple. When you hold down the interact button, you slurp up all the xp in the area, and that increments a counter.

That counter is tracked by a Leveler script, which contains the formula to calculate level up thresholds. Once the value of the counter is higher than the value of the threshold, the Leveler invokes an event called OnLevelUp, and it sends its attached entity along to a UI that handles grabbing the upgrade cards, displaying them, listening for input, and then passing the mod back to the entity to apply it.

Because the upgrade ui doesn't need any knowledge about the game world, anything can say "hey I leveled up," and it will dole out the upgrades as needed.

We're basically done with this, right?

So why does it look kinda bad?

I don't think it's hard to see that a lot of parts in this clip are a little janky and awkward, right? I'm gonna take some time to break down everything that's gone into making it look like this, and how many tiny decisions are involved in relatively simple builds.

First of all, the text! There's obvious decisions: What font to use? we have a custom one that I think looks really cool, but it's missing a lot of unicode characters, which means that if we were to localize this to any language that uses another script, or even just diacritics, we'd need a second font for that, which means we need to find one with robust unicode support that matches the aesthetics. Plus, it needs to look good at the same size as the english text, or we need to make separate sizing and kerning settings. Also, there's no guarantee that the text will be particularly close to the same length in every language, so we need to be prepared for longer or shorter title bars.

How do we display the text? I opted for a teletype effect that plays after the animation ends, but I could also fade them in word-by-word or line-by-line. I could just have the text appear all at once, but you either need to find some way to hide the text in areas where the card animation is still see-through, or you need to drop it in after the animation, both of which have downsides. You also need to determine dynamic sizing - some upgrades have a lot more text than others - do you have the text auto-size? If so, what boundaries do you use? It looks weird when one card's body text is much larger or smaller than the others, so there's a limit on how much you can have the text resized. If the text gets too small, people playing in a window or on smaller screens will have trouble reading it!

Not to mention we probably want to have an option for accessibility that lets you switch out the font for a dyslexia-accessible one, so all the previous considerations apply there too. From a user interface perspective, the transition to leveling up is a little jarring - how does one smoothly switch between gameplay and leveling? When do you allow that trigger to happen? If you have it happen automatically you risk disrupting the player at a critical moment, if you have it function on button press you risk a player outright forgetting about levels, or dying with levels banked, both of which are feel-bads.

Behind the scenes, you also have to decide how to shuffle the upgrades, especially as they get weirder. If you have a rare upgrade that outright removes your ranged weapon, how do you make sure that ranged-exclusive upgrades don't appear in the pool anymore? To be honest, I could go on for a while still, but I think this gets the point across - everything in a game is complicated, and even if a player doesn't realize it, these decisions have a cumulative impact over the length of a 20-40 hour game. Even using really good tools like TextMeshPro still leave a ton of design decisions that a code package can't make for you. When it all comes together it's pretty incredible, but it requires an absolute ton of tiny tweaks and bugfixes in the meantime.

I felt like this needed one more gif to space out the text but I didn't have any ideas so here's Many Twiggs.

As per usual, feel free to send asks here or to @oneominousvalbatross, and thanks for reading this! There won't be a dev diary next week, we're taking some time off to avoid burning out after 6 months of grinding, but I'll be back in the new year to talk about cool visual effects!

[tillthereweretangents]

The book in the video for Free as a Bird

The video for "Free As a Bird" is chockablock with references to Beatles songs. We believe every one of their songs is in there somewhere, maybe even including songs that they didn’t release, and we’re working on putting together a comprehensive list.

However, true to form, we got waylaid by a tangent. (Stick with us to the end, we promise it's worth it).

In the scene representing "Paperback Writer" a book is seen on the table closest to the camera:

Tragically this is the clearest shot of the book (you can watch the video here, the book appears at the 3 minute mark). It seems as though it has been intentionally blurred. We’re not ones to back down from a research challenge though!

We tried all the obvious things: it’s clearly not Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, for example, but we weren’t having much luck finding a book with a two-word title (first word slightly shorter), whose author had a longer first name and shorter surname. (Did you know there are 1.5 million books in the Penguin archive collection?)

So we contacted archive@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk (because of course we did). They got back to us quickly, and were very helpful. 

Our correspondent Esmé tried to find a contract for any Penguin book being used in the video, but came up empty. So the Beatles didn’t get permission to use this book. Very interesting, especially since it seems to have been obscured. 

She pointed out that the combination of:

Two line book title

One line author name

Dancing penguin figure (only used between 1940 and 1950)

Is quite rare, so that really narrows the search. 

She suggested that, since it doesn’t appear to have “genre markers” on the sides, it would be from 1947 or later. However when you watch the video there may be compression artifacts (smudges) remaining of genre markers that are on the book, but not clearly visible (more on that later).

She proposed Silas Marner after having done a bit of research on her own (have we mentioned what a star she was?):

Armed with all this information we trawled the website given to us by Esmé for more suitable candidates.

The shape of the author name seriously narrows it down, and where a book might match by name, it fails to match by title. In fact, we only found three real candidates, plus the book Esmé gave us: 

Holy Terrors by Arthur Manchen

Paper Houses by William Plomer

And

Peter Waring by Forrest Reid

Just on first glance, only one of these books really had the shortness of the surname seen in the video,

But just to be sure, since the book in the video is blurred and very under saturated, we tried to replicate it:

Silas Marner, Holy Terrors

Paper Houses, Peter Waring

These are the settings we used if anyone wants to check our work:

And that blurred and compressed, the “fiction” marker really is more like a smudge, so we feel confident that we don't need to find a book with no genre marks. 

Here’s that screenshot of the book again, to save you scrolling back to the top:

Only one of these books has the right surname length. We actually measured with a ruler on screen, and the ratio of length between the Author names on our mystery book is 2.333. The ratio between Forrest and Reid (in the font on the Penguin edition): 2.3. Given the inaccuracies of measuring on a screen that’s remarkably close.

We found it. The book is Peter Waring by Forrest Reid. 

After watching the relevant section of the video through, with this book in mind, we’re now totally convinced this is the right book. (Please let us know if you can find another candidate!)

But why? Why that book? It’s not like they’d ever mentioned it, as far as we could find, at least. 

Here’s where it gets interesting.

Peter Waring (1937) is a full-scale revision of Reid's earlier Following Darkness (1912) in which Peter, a sensitive boy with literary inclinations, grows up unhappily in the household of his father, a cold village schoolmaster in Newcastle, County Down, and among his Belfast relatives whom he finds intolerable. 

'An acute and subtle story of adolescence. . . . A delicacy and a grave beauty which make their own quiet appeal.' Times 

'Reid has written one of the finest studies of the mental, sexual, spiritual life of the adolescent without ever mentioning the words.' Glasgow Herald

Sound like the family background of anyone we know? (hint: replace father with Aunt)

But, oh wait, it gets better. 

Forrest Reid was a gay man (very repressed by many accounts but seemingly just ace, or the equivalent at the time, by others) who wrote novels about the queer adolescent experience, more emotional than sexual, in the early 1900s. 

He was good friends with EM Forster, another queer writer of his time and other suspected but never confirmed queer writers as well such as Arthur Greaves. His works are not really well known still, and frankly weren’t even well known in the 50s and 60s, except in queer circles, according to our research. 

Perhaps the choice of this specific Reid book is related to one or more of the Peters in their circle? Shotton, Best, Brown, and Asher. That's a lot of Peters!

As we said at the start, in the music video the book appears in a scene depicting the song "Paperback Writer". And you know what fits better than “Lear” in the lyrics of that song? 

Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book? It took me years to write, will you take a look? It's based on a novel by a man named Reid And I need a job So I wanna be a paperback writer Paperback writer

(note: Lear never wrote any novels).

Knowing how they liked plays on words (read, Reid), half rhymes (Reid, be), and internal rhymes (Reid, need) we think it’s very likely the novel in the first draft of the song was by a man named Reid.

Much to think about!

Thanks again to Esmé Library and Archive Assistant at Penguin Random House Archive

[isa-ghost]

Hi! I was wondering if you have any tips for outlining your story?

I’m trying to work on one, but it doesn’t really want to cooperate with me when I try to outline.

Do you have any tips for what works for you?

I would say don't force it, most importantly. You won't be satisfied and it won't come out great if your heart and mind just aren't in it. Get your inspiration and creative muse going first.

I genuinely don't know how the fuck I got my plot as fleshed out as it is, I got hella lucky it kept going. It was very fuck it we ball.

I will say, I often reread what I already had planned before letting my little brain movie continue.

I can picture things in my head really clearly, so basically my brain gave me a movie of the first 5 chapters and I just let it "yes and" itself until it just kept going. Or I got specific scenes that popped into my head and then wrote from where I left off and pushed things in a direction that could make the scene true in a way that made sense and flowed well.

From there, I knew I needed to resolve conflicts I'd established ("how does Phil get EK out of his body?"), come back to certain plot points I'd planted the seeds of ("so how is Phil doing while the group is planning his rescue?"), or cover "well what's going on with x during this time?" type stuff ("how is Missa taking care of the kids on his own while this is all going on?"). So over time, I'd make sure to either devote a whole chapter or just a scene to cover the thing, whatever length felt right.

As soon as I get a rough idea of what major points I want to cover, the rest comes organically as I'm writing. For example, in Chapter 3, I did not plot the Pissa date thoroughly. My plan said "fluffy distraction date, but hes hallucinating," and eventually "Phil hallucinates an enderman which exposes he's not doing well so he confesses everything to Missa bc he can't bring himself to lie to him." I didn't plan them visiting an event venue, going on a picnic, taking pictures, anything casual they talked about before that point. I let it come out in the moment and allowed the pieces to just fall into place because over-planning something can sometimes choke the life out of it.

Though that could just be what works for me because I'm taking over a decade of roleplaying skills and fitting them to a fic. A lot of the scenes I write come out the same way I'd start a roleplay. You can see it most in the start of a chapter, because both require setting the scene before puppeting the character(s) within it.

And obligatory mention that the process isn't always linear, flowing perfectly, etc. Shit takes time and the first draft is not gonna be your last, even if only a single detail changes later. Don't expect perfection the first time, you'll limit yourself and you won't be satisfied later. It could straight up kill your motivation to write the thing at all. I've deleted whole paragraphs of text in chapter 4 because even though they were written beautifully, it wasn't what I wanted or didn't match my plan.

So basically:

Ride as long as you can on the initial idea. Milk as much Where Does This Go / What Happens Next from it as possible

Play to your strengths when writing. If you're good at describing setting or atmosphere, go nuts. If you're good at writing dialogue, weaponize that. Whatever you're best at writing, lean into that and it'll make your story shine.

Keep the things you need to conclude satisfyingly in mind. Figure out how you want to resolve the conflict(s) you've started, then steer the plot in that direction however you see fit. If you establish certain things, decide if you Need or Want to actually write it out rather than imply it happening/being done/whatever.

Make sure the events that connect two plot points together flow well and make sense, but leave room for improvising because things that unfold organically are important in order to avoid having a plot feel too "mechanical" so to speak. Not to mention things that miraculously fall into place and just fit in perfectly are super rewarding and motivating.

Don't be precious with your ideas. If something doesn't fit, suck it up and delete it (you can always copy/paste it elsewhere to keep it in case it works later on, or you're just so damn proud of what you wrote that you don't want to banish it to the void). Chances are when you rewrite the scene or steer it in a more logical direction, you'll write something you like even more. If you don't, sometimes sacrifices must be made and you can refine the new thing until it's to your liking as many times as you want. OR you can commit to the new thing you wrote, but make sure to make all the changes to your plot and such necessary to have that thing make sense and flow well with the rest of what you're writing.

And very important: If you're writing for something that has a Canon, make sure what you're doing makes sense for the character. Don't have a "he would not fucking say that" / "he does not have the emotional intelligence for that" (HUGE ONE. Modern fandom has a massive problem with bitching about characters not communicating, but if the character would not spill their guts to someone, don't fuckin do it!! Miscommunication sucks, but lack of communication is a device that often benefits plot and creates conflict necessary for an interesting story!!) / etc moment. Dig into the character's brain and understand how they work, take what you know about how they are in situations and in general and apply that. Binge read character analysis for help, your best resources are your fellow fandom mates who are insane about their little guys. Consult them if you can't find any analyses, they'll write you a whole essay often times. Characterization is extremely important and many readers just straight up won't read your thing if you're butchering their special guy. For example, Phil is deeply allergic to sharing his burdens and hates the idea of putting his friends in danger. Obviously I'm not gonna have him venting to anyone who'll listen that he's being possessed by a god they don't even know of and that he needs their help. Even when you're writing an AU, that will rarely ever make the character's canon way of being irrelevant, you just have to think about how those traits would look in your universe/specific situation. There's still even more nuance to this I won't cover, but just keep in mind that writing a character accurately matters!

[thedawningofthehour]

Making Fun of Rich People Round 2

This one's a little bit different. This house is in Arizona, listed for a clean 20 mil, eight bedrooms ten baths, 16,000 square feet. The outside is really nothing special, looks like every other southwestern wanna-be movie star mansion so let's

Kicking things off with a bang.

You know. I can't even say anything bad about this. Like, the other house, they were people who clearly had more money than taste and built their house as a shrine to their bank accounts. It was not meant to live in, but to prove their wealth. It was ridiculous and stupid and they deserved to be made fun of.

These people. These people know their house is ugly. They know that table was an obscene waste of money. They know that couch screams "my coke dealer was redecorating." They do not care. They love bringing people in and watching their expressions of horror. They rub their hands together gleefully as people try to think of a compliment that isn't too obviously pulled out of their ass.

I mean, come on. That green chandelier, they're absolutely trolling us.

And I'm going to be honest, this looks like a living room I'd actually feel comfortable hanging out in. I can see someone on that couch eating ice cream out of the carton at 3 AM. People sit on that rug and play board games on that table. These people furnished their house to live in, not to display.

I am still going to tease them about it, however.

I'm laughing with them, not at them.

Is it just the angle or does that bed seem super short?

I...don't even know what I'm looking at here. I think this is the closet?

No, okay, they have a whole mall outlet store in here. This is like that one scene in Princess Diaries 2 except Julie Andrews would politely show herself out.

Why the marble. Why do you need a sitting area in your closet.

I will admit, I'm disappointed that the owner of such an interesting house has this many black pumps. I get that they go with everything, but-that's the point. They're universal. You don't need over a dozen of them. I expected better shoes.

Nobody:

Rich People: "make the bathroom...ROUND."

fr, their insanity always seems to come out full-force in the bathroom. I legitimately think rich people might not poop or bathe, because it's always some crazy shit that would be incredibly uncomfortable or downright impossible to use.

Another thing I've noticed, rich people all seem to want bathroom doors that open to the outside. Why?!

Especially when this is the outside they're opening up to!

Seriously, what is the point of this?! You're buck naked and decide to go have a smoke next to some cactuses and your giant patio geode. That's all that's out here. Why. Why.

Actually, it looks like there's little paths, which...just makes this worse, honestly. Imagine you're taking a leisurely stroll through the cactus garden and you pass your parents' bathroom patio, getting a full view of your mom taking a bath through the floor-length windows.

"Yes, in our dining hall with the light fixture that looks like birthday sparklers and our collection of Totally Real cactuses."

I've seen designers rag on those unfinished wood tables before, and while I didn't really agree with them at the time I kind of do now. I think this would look cool as like, a side table or accent table, but on a dining table it's just kind of awkward.

This is the same room, they just kept panning out.

While I made fun of the other house for their grand piano, I have no doubt that someone in this family is a drug-fueled musician. This room looks mega-comfy to lay back and watch a movie in, and I love the sheep.

I'm just...in awe of the audacity.

They didn't even try to match. Didn't even pretend like they cared. And I'm not gonna lie, the red countertop is doing something for me.

"When we want the bugs to join us for dinner."

I can't stress this enough, they have multiple patio sets.

See, the last people didn't show off all their alcohol at their bar because they thought it looked more refined not to. These guys probably have art supplies tucked away in their bar just to keep you on your toes. (they don't need a bar, these are the kind of people who carry flasks around with them)

So like...objectively, this bathroom is hideous. It's way too much, the feather thing is ridiculous, that cabinet is ugly as sin.

But I kind of love it?

Just a reminder: this is in Arizona.

...I have nothing to say here.

WHAT IS UP WITH RICH PEOPLE AND THEIR UGLY BATHROOMS?!

Again with the doorway to the outside! And I see this a lot, but so many rich people bathrooms don't have storage spaces?! Like, look at those sinks. What.

More to my theory that rich people don't have any need for bathrooms.

This is the bedroom I wanted as a thirteen-year-old and just now realized I still do.

THE WALLPAPER IS EVEN BIRBS!

Like, I can't even make fun of this. I am just in awe. This entire house looks if sixth grade me had access to the Sims 3 Create-A-Style and the motherlode cheat, and I honestly love that for them. I hope these people find a new house to be extremely fucking cool in.

Leaving with these calming lemons in the backyard! Pay no attention to all the bathrooms that open up directly to the garden.

[morethanaloveinterest]

A Reverent Review of Padme's Costumes on ROTS

Let's look at all the costumes Padme wears in Revenge of the Sith and try not to cry.

This is the first costume we see Padme wearing in this movie. She wears it to wait for Anakin and then tell him that she is pregnant. It's not the first time she's worn buns, but these are the closest to Leia's and it makes sense for her to wear them when pregnant. She is also wearing dark clothes and wrapped up thoroughly in a cloak because she is hiding a lot - both her relationship with Anakin and her pregnancy.

Female representation: 10/10 I mean, she's very covered up, but can't complain.

Practicality: 9/10 Presumably moving around is a little impractical but it works great for what she's doing.

Here is the third nightgown we see Padme wearing. Unlike the other two, it is not white. Virginal white, some might say. The color reflects her married status, as does the bare shoulders.

Female representation: 9/10 It's a nightgown, so obviously going to be more revealing than other clothes. However, it makes sense as something Padme would wear, what with the detailing and the length.

Practicality: 8/10 Again, nightgowns are not the most practical. I'm sure she could manage to get up to some adventures if needed.

Padme wears this to meet with some other senators in a deleted scene and then talk to Anakin about what side they're really on. It matches the complexity of her other formal senatorial gowns while also hiding her pregnancy effectively. Her headdress is less elaborate but clearly different from her previous buns - she is definitely at work now.

Female representation: 9/10 You know, I am going to dock a point for having a pregnant woman have to wear something so voluminous to hide it. But it is nice to see a pregnant lady wear something so lovely.

Practicality: 7/10 As with her other gowns, it is probably fine and she could manage, but this one is especially large and difficult to maneuver in, I would imagine.

Padme wears this in her apartment presumably casually. Like most of her daywear in this movie, it is a dark color. Unlike her previous gown, it shows off her baby bump in a very flattering way.

Female representation: 10/10 A great representation of what a pregnant lady might wear in this universe. Padme would definitely wear this of her own volition.

Practicality: 9/10 Not the most practical dress she's worn, but the skirt is not so voluminous or dragging on the floor, and the sleeves are closely fitted under the lace shawl. So I think she could do whatever she wanted to in this.

Padme wears this in a more formal setting than the previous one, which explains how voluminous it is to hide her pregnancy. The belt is pretty but otherwise it seems more like a cloak than a dress.

Female representation: 9/10 can I drop a point because I just don't really like it? I understand the in-universe explanation for the design but Padme would not like being under all that weight while in a delicate condition.

Practicality: 7/10 Probably less than her other gowns but about the same the previous one of this design.

Nightgown #4! I really like this one. Again, it is not white because she is married. The blue reminds me of Naboo, the lake district where she and Anakin fell in love. I really like the detailing on this nightgown and the opening for her belly is a great touch.

Female representation: 10/10 I can not think of a better nightgown for a lady, especially a pregnant one to wear.

Practicality: 8/10 Still a nightgown, but pretty good for all that.

She wears this gown to the final senate meeting, where she gets one of the best lines in Star Wars. The structure is more like her queen's costumes and emphasizes her important position in the government. It also sort of resembles what Palpatine wears, which makes sense as she represents his opposite. And her halo-like headdress emphasizes how she could be the angle on Anakin's shoulder to Palpatine's devil.

Female representation: 10/10 Perfect for her last official senatorial gown. It hides her pregnancy without looking like she's wearing a tent, which is nice.

Practicality: 8/10 Likely no more practical than her other state gowns.

Can it be, Nightgown #5? At least leisure-wear. Her robe is similar to the one from the last movie but not, I believe, exactly the same. Her nightgown is now purple and I wish we had seen her wear that color more often.

Female representation: 10/10 Another great nightgown for our pregnant leading lady.

Practicality: 8/10 I mean, it is still a nightgown.

Padme wears this to go make a final plea to her husband to come back to her. It is similar to her action scene outfit at the end of the previous movie, though a darker color.

Female representation: 10/10 This is by far the most comfortable she looks in any of her pregnancy outfits. It would stretch in the needed areas but not leave her dealing with a lot of excess fabric.

Practicality: 10/10 Definitely the most practical thing she wears for the whole movie. Both because of her condition and to go potentially get into some adventures on Mustafar.

Padme's final gown, which she wears for the funeral. It's giving strong Ophelia vibes and that makes sense, given the similar reasons for their demise. It's very beautiful and tragic.

Female representation: 10/10 Okay, I mean, if we have to look at a deceased woman, it could be worse. She looks like she's in a fairy tale, Snow White or Sleeping Beauty, and that's a lovely way to go out.

Practicality: 8/10 I can't really tell, to be honest, since she is obviously only ever laying down in it. But I'm sure it's fine. I'm not crying at all.

If you enjoyed this, check out my Star Wars for the Girlies Series (Padme episode out now!)

[revretch]

Hey! Big fan of your work - I've recently started delving into Blender animation, is there any way you could share the workflow u use when animating stuff?

Of course, but be warned that my workflow is highly idiosyncratic!

First off: Rigging. How I do it depends on exactly what I'm animating. If I'm rigging Sophodra, Gregorsa, or one of the humans, I'll use Rigify, which ships with Blender (though you'll have to enable it in add-ons). It's free, and for roughly human-shaped figures, it gets the job done.

For the other insects, and especially for the arachnids, it gets a little harder. See, arachnid limbs have a lot of joints, and most rigging add-ons aren't equipped to handle limbs more than three bones long--and I definitely wouldn't want to set up inverse kinematics for that many legs manually. So for those, I use an add-on called FreeIK, which you can get on Blender Market for only $30 (but be sure to read the docs!): https://blendermarket.com/products/freeik

FreeIK is amazing! It uses a method called "ephemeral rigging," which lets me pin any bone in place whenever I please, making it much more like animating a puppet and allowing a much finer level of control than traditional rigs. Sadly, that can be a little too much control on some model--hips on humanoid rigs will shoot out at random. For something like a spider, however, it's absolutely perfect! (I recommend using it in tandem with Selection Sets, another add-on that ships with Blender, to keep track of which bones you want pinned.)

Moving on from rigging, I also use an add-on called Onion Skin Tools. This one is only $10 on Blender Market: https://blendermarket.com/products/onion-skin-tools

As the name suggests, it lets you use onion skinning like in 2D animation. I couldn't imagine doing a walk cycle without it! With its help, I'm easily able to make a repeating walk cycle that loops in place while I move a parent empty around. (And if you're using FreeIK, you'll definitely want to be using a parent empty for placement. It's powerful, but bones can start behaving unpredictably if you get too far from the model's origin. I use two nested parent empties--one for walking, parented in turn to a master empty used for general placement.)

As of work on episode seven, I've also start incorporating Grease Pencil. Grease Pencil is an excellent tool all around, allowing you to do 2D animation in Blender! My style is cel-shaded enough that I can combine it with 2D. Not only do I use it for storyboard reference, but I also use it to draw on top of the scene, for where the 3D just isn't cutting it. I import the storyboards and other drawings with an add-on I made myself--Blender by default only lets you import black-and-white shapes, but my add-on imports as strokes, and can handle color: https://github.com/revereche/lineart_to_gp

I've also started incorporating AnimAll, which is fantastic (and also ships with Blender!). Shapekeys are already powerful tools, allow you to tweak the mesh manually when the rig isn't doing what you need. AnimAll lets you give each Shapekey multiple frames, so you don't need to set up a ton of Shapekeys to do one complex chain of movement. (Be warned it can cause file bloat, though, so use it wisely!)

As for the workflow itself, I go in this order, more or less (after writing the script and making any needed model adjustments, of course):

1.) Storyboarding. Since it's just me, they don't need to be great quality. The most important thing is making sure of the placements, getting the poses down in gestural strokes, and most importantly, getting the expressions just right.

2.) Recording voices. This can also be done before storyboarding, but I like to be sure of the scene flow before I commit. I used to start with rough placeholder voices, but ended up with awkward timing when the length of the final lines didn't match the original well enough. (Good thing none of my characters lip sync!) So, now I do the final audio on this step.

3.) Staging. Previously, this meant eyeballing the storyboard while I roughly placed the characters in the scene. Now, I import the storyboards in a Grease Pencil parented to the camera, so I can pose the characters to the storyboards more precisely. It preserves vivid gestures that would be easily lost in the CG stage otherwise!

4.) Props and backgrounds. Sometimes, I put this off until after animation, but it's really best to do it now. This can be mesh objects, planes I've painted on--or, often, planes I've painted on and extruded partially into mesh. I like to use Geometry Nodes for mesh wherever possible, especially when instancing many objects! It makes dealing with tons of vines (and humans) much easier. Also experiment with Shader Nodes, since generated textures are crisper than you would get with anything but very large texture images. (And if you're using Cycles, don't overlook displacement! Though you'll have to remember to turn that on in the sidebar preferences. That said, I mostly use Eevee, but am starting to look into Cycles for backgrounds.)

5.) Finally, final animation! I've already put the rough poses down, so I begin by cleaning those up, then adding any needed transitional poses. Then, I manually tweak the speed of the tweening, and offset the movements of parts that drag or bounce more than the rest (e.g. antennae). When a character needs to stand mostly still, I'll add a very slight bob for a moving hold, so they don't look like a mannequin.

After this, I render the image sequences, then put them all together in a video sequencing file. There, I add the citation blips, credits, and Gregorsa's Notes, as well as do some editing in post. Then, it's time to render the final video!

Hope that helps. I wish you luck in your future Blender endeavors!

[bosstoaster]

How do you write long stories? Like, 20k+ ? I always have these grand ideas of how I'd like to write a fic that carries grander themes, like a plot against someone that's investigated or a slow burn romance literally anything that feels like it needs to be long to match the content? Like a 5k murder mystery would be over so quickly it'd lose impact? But I can never find the words or inspiration for what should happen in all the "in-between" moments. I can think of things for the beginning and end and a couple of scenes in the middle and it all comes out to about 8-10k. And I can never think of what to put between those scenes. I've got so many disjointed fics I've written over the years that have remained drafts because I don't know how to elevate them from scenes into stories? The pieces don't fit well enough together to turn it into something more epic. It remains a small fic :/ Any advice at all on this? I remember you saying a rough word count of all your fics combined over the past couple years and being flabbergasted by the number. Extraordinary. I'd love to be able to write long fics 🙏 sorry for the ramble!

(Current total AO3 word count is just over 2.75 million words, which doesn't count the 350k-ish in drafts, or fics on account accounts. But anyhow.) I had the same problem for a really long time, actually! Like, genuinely a decade of fic writing through middle and high school. The answer might be different for different people, but one thing really changed the game for me.

Outlines. Outlines are essential for longer stories, by my book.

What I do is I have an idea for a fic, usually a scene or like, an image of a ~vibe.~ From there I ask myself the first question. What do I want from this? Is it a cute romcom situation? Is it a sexy horror story about taming a monster? Is it a surrealist horror story? What do I want someone else to feel when reading this?

When I have that answer, I can answer the next questions: is this an AU or a canon fic? An AU means that your first chapter is probably going to be setting up the differences from canon. Canon means you have to tell your readers when we are in canon and set up how we got to the Situation (or jump into it, if you're feeling spicy.)

With that answer, we have an approximate starting location. It's fic, so we know where your audience is. How do we get from there to what you want to write about? What needs to happen for your fic to occur? For example, in my vampire fic, step one was turning/killing Dave. Okay, so you have your fic in a state where you're ready to run wild with your premise. Here's the actual meat of your questions.

How do I determine what goes in between the start and the scenes I want to write?

Usually one of a few ways

What needs to occur to get to the scenes I want to write? What makes the characters act in a way I want them to, but isn't out of character? Do they need to be hurt? Emotionally compromised? Worn down? How does THAT happen?

What makes logical, in character sense for the characters to do? Given any of the scenes and conflicts you have planned, what would be their next move/concern?

What SLAPS? What scenes add to the feeling I want the audience to have? For example, if this is a rom com, what scenes would make it clear they should get together, or would work well emotionally? If it's a cozy mystery, what clever things does the main character notice that tell you more about the weird cast of suspects? If it's a horror, what makes the situation more tense?

The point of an outline is literally to fill in these gaps. And there's no stress! You can change stuff or ignore it down the line. You're just drawing a basic map for yourself to know the directions you need to go. Just put down ideas, and if they don't work, erase it and try again.

Many vary a lot in length depending on how much detail I already have in my head, how long the fic is, and how complex the story will be. The Vampire sequel outline is six pages long (very long), while most of them are a page or so.

Here's the vampire sequel outline, speaking of. For that, what I had at the start was a) the boys testing what it means to be a vampire and b) Vamp kidnapping Dave. That's all. The rest I made up during the outline.

Without outlines, I would have no idea where I'm going in a fic, so I'd get through what I had then stall out and get writers block and dither and run in circles and eventually give up.

Respect the power of the outline.

[lifmera]

Hello! I adore your writing! May I please have a match up for Hazbin Hotel, Chainsaw man and Sally face if it’s not too much trouble? I'm demisexual 27 year old plus sized woman. I’m 5"7 with fairly wide hips that dip to more narrow center and broad shoulders. My eyes are pale green bordering yellow with short almost shoulder length dark brown hair that is an orange blond from the top of my ears down. I have a septum piercing, two sets of ear piercings and glasses in sort of an aviator style that I forget to wear. I'm a little buff under all this fluff as I am a baker by trade. But I have been dealing with a shoulder injury has kinda left me feeling a bit fragile and frustrated. I've been told I'm fairly pretty but I just kinda don't see myself that by conventional standards. I'm not really self conscious about my body, I am just a large animal and people will just have to deal with that. I prefer to dress comfortably but if I can I enjoy wearing jumpsuits as well as black dresses.

I would describe my personality as caring but very direct. I Tend to prioritize others well being over my own. However, I am working on ensuring I take care of myself just as well. I tend to be reserved around other people but once I get comfortable I tend to ramble on my interests in short bursts, primarily around biology, cryptids, animation and practical effects. Honestly I enjoy being a bit aggressive with my friends- usually intimidation play or picking up people to help make them feel a little small. Admittedly when I feel comfortable around someone I prefer feeling small and protected if I’m not needed for comfort. I have many creative hobbies, primarily sketching, painting, sculpting, and crocheting. One of my favorite things to do is wildlife drawings. Though I find it difficult to hold on to my passions for prolonged periods of time, if someone I'm close to is passionate about something- I'm completely enthralled and try to be as supportive as possible. I love word play, often trying to force puns where they don't fit. I love horror and thriller movies and have a decent tolerance for gore but to be perfectly honest I have a hard time with handling prolonged scenes with people actively suffering.

This sounds a little silly but I imagine if I was a demon in hell I would probably resemble something of a chimera. I do apologize if this is a bit of a long submission! Thank you so much for your time!! 💚

I read sally face and started tweaking….

God i love sally face. AND THANK YOUUUUU.

.. I’ve decided to pair you with… ALASTOR, DENJI & LARRY JOHNSON!

Let’s be real. I think at first you’d remind him of his dear old mimzy. Before she died anyways, and obviously not dependent on him to fight your battles.

Alastor would find your rambling interesting, and he’d honestly probably learn something he hasn’t before? like “wow! Thats new.”

He’d want to learn more about your interests, also because he’s the radio demon, and doesn’t seem to really know much about the modern world- or care for it. But he IS based off a wendigo. So i’d think he’d find it interesting!

He LOVES when you paint, draw, crochet for hum! It reminds him or his own mother, and he’d probably become attached to you.

He’d also enjoy it if you did all of this, while he’s broadcasting too. He’s not able to always be there, but if he is, he’ll want to be with you.

Alastor would LOVE to watch horror movies, but if it makes you uncomfortable, or a scene does, he will pay no mind and skip it. Not like theres anything new he hasn’t seen.

If you were a chimera. He definitely would’ve been surprised at your look! Like- “oh ! Thats new.”

Ok … Denji time..

This man would NEVER JUDGE YOU. He can’t even bag someone.

Honestly i think he’d prefer someone chubbier, he’d LOVE to give hugs.

I think Denji would be a very physical touchy person, esp after what happened with… everyone. It’d help him protect you :)

When he found out about your shoulder injury? He was on your ass all day, every day. You don’t get away!

He loves that you take care of others, but this man is always hurt. He’d rather you be okay than he is!

He would love to listen to you ramble. Denji knows when to shut up, and i think he would enjoy listening!

Okay i know I’ve said this before but denji WILL make you draw pictures of you and him together- or he’ll draw them himself. Like stick figures holding hands!

If you crochet him something? Over the MOON. If its a piece of clothing he’s always wearing it. If its a plushie? He’s sleeping with it at night.

Denji would be indifferent to horror movies. I think he’d prefer comedy. He’s seen enough! :(

NOW LARRY 💛

I feel like i shouldn’t have to explain.

He’d LOVE YOU. You remind him of his friends :)

Your personality allows his to come out! He loves that you care for his friends, and his well being cause we know damn well he doesn’t.

Larry is a Listener instead of a talker. He’d love to listen to you ramble and ask questions while he’s painting! His favorite things at the same time!!

You draw with him, you paint, you crochet? Holy SHIT!!!! HE’D BE IN LOVE. Like! Okay !!! I LOVE YOU!!! 🧡🧡

I think he doesn’t mind any movie you guys watch. As long as it’s a mean of being able to cuddle with you on the couch and watch a movie.

He definitely finds your puns funny.

~~~

I HOPE THIS WAS OKAY!!!

[recurring-polynya]

Writing/Art Update 12.5.2023

It took me all week, but I did, finally, finish Chapter 5.

I had two great wordcount weeks in a row. This was not a great wordcount week. I did spend a lot of time thinking about my fanfic, and plotting and outlining. These are not normally activities that I enjoy, but it honestly wasn't so bad. I decided that I didn't want to keep proceeding forward until I had decided how this thing is going to end. If you've ever read any of my writing advice posts, you'll know that I nearly always advise deciding how the fanfic will end before you start writing the fanfic. The only reason I didn't take my own advice is because I usually don't need to. While I am infamously bad at ending individual scenes and chapters, I nearly always know how a fanfic is going to end, and this time I just...didn't?

Anyway, I thought about it all week and thought up some scenes I would like to do and thought about the character arcs and motivations I wanted my three mains to go through in the second half of this fanfic, and I also thought about characters whom I felt had not gotten enough screentime. All of these things were easier than coming up with an ending, but I did eventually come up with an idea for my last few scenes, and I think it's good enough that the rest will fill itself in as I go. We are definitely shaping up to be 9 chapters and an epilogue, which means I am now slightly over halfway done? Yay? It still feels frustrating because the front half is pretty self-contained and I want to show it to people, but I cannot, it needs to wait but there's soooooo muuuuuuch left to goooooooo.

Anyway, let's focus on the positive! I added 2,939 (new) words to Chapter 5, bringing it up to 10,160, the longest chapter so far, but not egregiously so. I added one scene which is both unnecessary and dreadful. It ruins the pacing at the end of the chapter, it goofs up my alternating narrator structure, and it's just extremely weird. Also, if I cut it, the chapter length will better match the other ones. I wrote a note in my outline "this scene is bad and you should delete it." Will I? Readers, I likely will not. This is fanfic and when you write fanfic, you can just make people read unnecessary scenes about Renji and Iba's dirtbag friendship and they can't do anything about it because I do not receive any sort of compensation for this. I promise that if I come to my senses and actually ax, I will post it here. In other news, everyone who loved the Squad Six-gets-universal-healthcare scene from Hearts will be overjoyed to learn that this one features a bit in which Ukitake-and-Yumichika-discuss-the-Gotei-13-procurement-process. Once again, I do not get paid.

I also spent some time this week fixing up the portion of Chapter 6 that I had already written. Some of it needs to be fully reworked, but there was a significant chunk that could be pretty much pasted in with a little minor editing.

That brings the wordcount for this week to 17,423 for Part B, or 54,296 overall (+10,207 for the week). That is...that is starting to become a fanfic.

It's also December, and there's a lot of stuff going on, so I'm really trying to not be too ambitious in my goal-setting, but I'm hoping that maybe I'll be able to get through Chapter 7 by the end of the year.

I did a drawing tutorial this week. It was okay. I'm kinda 🫠about drawing lately, but sometimes I can only really concentrate on one thing at a time.

[exitthedoughnut]

Particle Accelerator // Marvel

About Me and My Writing

Hi, you can call me Malibu (or w/e floats thine boat). I'm in my late twenties, my pronouns are she/her. I am both queer myself and obviously queer friendly. I'm not always consistently around due to both some environmental circumstances and personal struggles (it's the mental illness).

My writing style is third person present tense. I do have the ability to write in past tense if present tense bothers you. I can write anywhere from 200 words to about 3,000 (I don't measure in paragraphs as I play a little fast and loose with the definition of "paragraph" aksjdfhg).

While I don't expect you to mirror/length-match me, I am asking for someone who is comfortable writing detailed, literate posts. Not every post has to be 800w, I often dip low in my word count during dialogue heavy scenes. And I'm not asking for perfect spelling every time, lord knows I have a myriad of typos and I don't re-read my posts when I get excited. But I'm asking for the basics.

I am not caught up on the MCU. I just watched Multiverse of Madness last week, which is about where I'm at. I'll have a more comprehensive list of what I do and don't know a little later in the post.

The Rules

Since I'm in my late-late twenties, I'm looking for someone who is at least 23 themselves, but it'd be even better if you were 25+

In this house we double. If you don't know what doubling means, it means that I write both my character and who you want me to write for you, and you write your character and who I want you to write for me. It's a fairness thing derived from the old days of "canon x oc is SO selfish and unfair" which is why old farts like me say it's for "balancing" or "tit for tat" or whatever, since I've seen a lot of confused people lately. If I'm asking for canon x oc, it's only right I offer the same (or whatever it is you want) in return. Something I am completely capable of, I don't know why people make such a big deal out of lying on their fainting couch and claiming they can't do two sets of characters at once. Especially when they're totally okay with writing out background characters at the same time??

I will even triple for you, if you're in the market for a love triangle or a polyam OT3. You do not in any way have to triple in return, in fact I'd prefer if you didn't.

I also am completely comfortable writing as much space filling NPCs and canons as we need. I never let a scene go empty, and I'm happy to write surrounding characters. In fact I do it automatically. Sometimes people are surprised by this. I used to admin group roleplays.

At this time I am not looking for any NSFW content in my roleplays. I fade to black, and I won't be bullied into doing otherwise. (Dick jokes and talking about the fact adults do fuck is fine though, fading to black doesn't mean instant prude status)

I am however alright with like, a bit of violence. About Witcher 3's level is as far as I'm comfortable going: Fights can get messy as a treat if we want, we just don't need to go body horror with the organs, right?

Limits: Are very important, do not forget them. I do not want drugs, alcohol, smoking, vaping, or substance abuse to feature in or out of character. I don't want to see memes about it, I don't want to write about it. Nothing. I should not have to justify this, but my hobby and the dms of people I hope to be friends with is literally the only place I can ask to be a safe space. Because it is everywhere. I'm not judging people, I don't care what you do. I just don't want to hear about it, because I can't escape it anywhere else. I also am not wild about sexual assault, or the community's standard limits list of: pedophilia, incest, bestiality, etc. Leave all of that at the door, thank you. Rule number one of the salon is don't be nasty and you know that!

The mediums I use are: Discord and Email (I'm not keen on writing here on tumblr, but I'd be happy to idk, make a private Proboard or something?)

New rule: Please do not show me AI art of your character. Don't use an AI generator about it if you plan to write with me. Find a picrew or a dress up doll or some random picture on Pinterest. Hell just give me a paragraph description if you have to.

When you message me, do not just ask for my Discord or my Email. Do not just ask if I'm still looking, don't just say hey. The first message is a first impression, make it a good one. Tell me about yourself, tell me who you want me to write for you, what you're thinking, if you're picking up what I am putting down. Put some personality into it: This isn't a job, it's a hobby, it should sound like it when you talk to me. In this same vein, I'd prefer said first impressions are conducted over email, but messaging me on tumblr is fine too I suppose

Characters and "Plots"

First of all, in regards to sexuality / gender / canon / oc identities, everything is peachy keen! M/F, F//, M//, Trans, NB, Canon/OC, Canon//, OC// are all fine by me ♡

My side will be M/F Canon/OC, but you are welcome to request anything you would like. This is Build-A-Bitch and you can, in fact, have it your way.

My side is also M/F in a distinctly queer way. My OC is under the ace umbrella, as well as someone who doesn’t entirely conform to gender, so take that as you will ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I will make you an OC, I will play multiple Canons for you, you can write as any gender identity or sexuality as you please. Just rub the lamp and make your wish! I will write almost any Canon for you, barring noted exceptions.

That out of the way, here's what I'm looking for!

I am looking for you to write: Tony Stark against my OC. I would particularly love to write for you: Steve, Bucky, Quill, Peter (Parker, MCU or Insomniac), Rocket (I will not make him a human), Drax, Stephen, Sam, Yuri (Watanabe, Insomniac), May (MCU), Mantis, Quentin Beck (Insomniac), Yelena, Natasha, Agatha, damn near anyone your gay heart desires Who I'm not particularly keen to write: Thanos, Quentin Beck (MCU), Tony Stark (duh)

And here's some plot jumping off points I've got rattling around in here, my favorites I'll mark w a heart scale out of five:

Iron Man 2008 ♥♥♥♥♥

My OC x Pre-established, Pre-Afghanistan Tony and working through the films? His life? An AU? W/e, but starting in 2008 Iron Man

Now I know a lot of people tend to cringe at pre-established or in general think it’s boring. But I don’t mean they were already like super together and had had a full character arc and everything prior to the roleplay ever starting. What I mean by this is I want to play with a plot where my OC and Tony were acquainted (preferably as friends with benefits) prior to his abduction in by the Ten Rings. During his time away my OC will realize oops! She accidentally fell in love with the emotionally unavailable playboy she was supposed to be having a not serious relationship with! And now he’s probably dead. Cue emotional turmoil! I like to pick the plot up at and start the roleplay when he comes home from Afghanistan, and work through the no doubt complicated feelings going on, building their relationship throughout the timeline. I’m not asking for insta-love. I’m just asking for two people who know each other and now have a whole lot of baggage to haul out of the basement thanks to someone’s near death experience.  I’m also not looking for this idea some people have that a roleplay ends with a couple getting together. I don’t want to artificially postpone them getting together, but again I’m not asking for insta-love. Just for something to evolve naturally. I’m sure that’s all obvious but I have had people try to withhold them from dating for esoteric reasons, and I just want to cover my bases since this is the most frequently misunderstood plot I want to do. Now obviously, this is very self indulgent. I would never dream of asking for this for my side without being willing to absolutely reciprocate. If you have a Marvel bae you want to work through the films with or some other self indulgent ask you never get to use, ask away. I am happy to do whatever you want for your side in exchange. I also recognize this is disgustingly self indulgent, but what is roleplay if not the wish fulfillment hobby? Naturally, in return, I am happy to write whatever self indulgent AU you are after!

Guardians of the Galaxy (1, 2, Game, whatever!) ♥♥♥♥♥

General space shenanigans. Tony + his found family the Guardians is extremely important to me.

I absolutely adore throwing Tony and my OC up into the cold, unforgiving expanse of space to be picked up by the Guardians. Them acting as a found family for Tony just means a lot to me, especially with how the writers for the MCU just. Refused to make the Avengers friends? If they won’t let the Avengers be friends, then I’ll give Tony friends by way of the Guardians god damn it. (Yes, him being Friends with Rocket and Nebula in Endgame was very important to me, thank you for asking) I am perfectly happy with your side being either from Earth or from space! Although this idea revolves around the Guardians, please don’t feel like your love interest has to be from the space scape, as I am ready and willing to find a way to drop kick everyone into space regardless of where your love interest comes from. If curious! My most commonly utilized plot involves the Collector hiring someone, be it the Guardians or another faction, to scoop up Tony. Frequently the reasoning is either A) Tony’s suit and reactor is unique, and he’s interested, or B) he’s interested in getting him as a gladiator present for his brother, the Grandmaster's, birthday. We don’t have to use this idea, I am happy to come up with others, brainstorm something together if you like But I know people often wonder how I plan to get them up there, and that one’s a pretty sure bet.

Potential Firefly influence?

Either instead or or in addition to the thoughts above, we could add some Firefly spice into this? Firefly is cowboys in space, let’s be real, and Quill gives a lot of pretending at being a space cowboy energy. I think kind of slapping him with some Mal energy could be really fun if you want him as a love interest.  Not required! Just something I’ve talked about with some people before and I am pretty fond of.

Miscellaneous

I'm also currently in Chapter 7 of the 2021 video game! And I love it a lot so far. I don't know anything about the comics (but want to start reading them soooon especially the arc where Tony is with them 🥺) and we don't at all have to stick to the MCU version of the Guardians (especially since I have my own headcanon version of Quill rattling around in my head that's 100% not Crisp Rat askjdhfg) I just love the Guardians as a concept. I love space families, I love Firefly and Star Trek is one of my favorite childhood series as well, and I love all the space stuff in Steven Universe, etc etc. I just love space settings LOL esp slice of life space settings (ST:TNG my beloved)

Insomniac's Spider-Man ♥♥♥

So I’m like too in love with this game. As someone who never read the comics, and didn’t really get into Tobey’s Spider-Man and catch the bug like my sibling did, I feel like with this game I finally get it, you know? Spider-Man is one of the most popular superheroes, and I wasn’t like. On the hype train. But now I’m on the hype train.  I’m unfortunately not really sure what I want to do with these games. All I know is that I love them, and I’d trade several organs to be able to write Insomniac’s Peter for you. I want to write him so so bad I just think he’s wonderful. I also love Yuri but not nearly as much as Peter.  We could follow the games, maybe do some pre-game stuff with Peter? Explore some of the 8 years prior to the game of him being Spidey? Maybe expand on some of the lore tidbits we get throughout the game in dialogue and mostly the backpack collectables? We could also do some post-game (any of the three) stuff. We could rewrite some of the game! We could save some characters maybe. I’m not sure! I’d love to explore literally anything with this, so if you have something in mind please let me know!  I’d love to figure out some ways to incorporate other Marvel characters too, just because seeing all the little nods and hints in the games to other villains or heroes or the dialogue tied to certain landmarks, or Otto getting bankrolled by Advanced Idea Mechanics: that shit was thrilling. I’d love to find a way to do more of this, even if it’s just figuring out how we slam dunk Iron Man into the scene. 

Thor: Ragnarok ♥♥♥

Science Bro reunion on the planet of trash is very good, ten outta ten. Love to slam dunk people into Sakaar.

I don’t have a whole lot more to say about this honestly? Other than we can also throw in whatever canon you want that isn’t normally there. Want the Guardians to show up? Carol? Want to slam dunk your bae in the gladiator ring too? Regardless of the movie I’m anchoring a plot to, I will throw anyone and everyone into the ring if you want.

Spoiled Princess gets anything she asks for, details at eleven.

I also have an AU where my OC (still human) was adopted by the Grandmaster as a baby, and is essentially the princess of trash planet, and Sakaar is where she meets Tony. Typically I have her ask her dad to spare Tony by way of insisting that he has a champion in the Hulk, why can’t she ever have a champion? He can’t just melt stick everything she takes an interest in! Other than that not much to say, I feel like Ragnarok is a pretty straight forward setting. Most of the ideas for this one would come about in talking it out with you.

Multiverse Stuff ♥♥♥?

Loosey goosey thoughts

I have a few multiverse ideas, one of which is original but could also be tied to NWH if we wanted. Another one involves TVA/Loki s1 stuff. We could probably swing something DSMOM related! Most of it deals with my OC having been involved with a Tony (be it MCU or some other universe's Tony), and loses him. Then typically she either tries to find a way to fix it (TVA intervenes) or she goes on a grief fueled vigilante spree and gets somehow knocked into a new dimension (original/nwh) where she can stop this universe's Tony from suffering the same fate, blah blah blah. It's all pretty loose and idk how super attached I am to it, but I came up with it because I was sad about IWEG and watching Phase 4 is hard LOL I also have a Spider-AU for my OC (who is normally just a civilian and doesn't have any powers other than This Stick She Found™), because who among us didn't make a Spider AU after seeing Spider-Verse LOL

Alternate Universe ♥♥♥♥

I'm always always always super down for an AU. We could use other media as the AU (Star Trek, Gargoyles, Disney/Fairytales, Indiana Jones, Anime, Jurassic Park, Steven Universe - literally name it, if I know it I can probably get hype about workshopping an AU) For more generic tropes/genres I loooove Fantasy AUs, D&D AUs, I love space and robots and sci-fi, I super love spies!! Like oh my gosh spy AUs are some of my favorites. It's like spies, fantasy, space slice of life, and androids are probably my four favorite genres? I'm super down for anything though. I also looove monster AUs, like vampire Tony?? Hello???? You could probably suggest anything and I'd be happy to babble about it. Magical Girls? Dungeon Meshi? Baldur's Gate? (though that's just Gale. Let's be real with ourselves. alkjhdjkg it's 100% why I am romancing Gale) I'm a slut and a whore for AUs aslkjdhfg and I am also a slut and a whore for tending to have like Six AUs I talk about all at the same time with partners who are tolerant of that behavior slkjdfg

Okay !! That should take care of the plot and characters section, onto the last little bit!

What Media Do I Know?

MCU:

Where I'm At:

Phases 1-3, Wandavision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Black Widow, Loki Season 1 (but not S2 yet!), Shang-Chi, a few episodes of What If, Hawkeye, Eternals, No Way Home, Multiverse of Madness, GOTG Holiday Special

What I'd Prefer Not to Do:

IWEG. At least in the way it was shown to us. I'd prefer to just nuke it from existence entirely through plot points that circumvent it altogether, but I understand the blip is like. important or whatever to most of Phase 4 aslkdhjfg so if you want to do something in P4, we can workshop this.

Other Marvel Entries:

Insomniac's Spider-Man, Miles Morales, and Spider-Man 2

Chapter 7 of Squeenix's Guardians of the Galaxy (2021)

Deadpool, Deadpool 2 (though I didn't care for the second film) I haven't seen the third yet since it's in theaters and since covid I don't go to those, but I'll see it eventually 🤷

Days of Future's Past, X-Men First Class

Into the Spider-Verse, but not Across the Spider-Verse yet

Marvel Rivals! Yeah there's not a lot of content there but I also really like the dialogue writing alskshjdfg (and as an Overwatch fan I'm used to this like No Content But Somehow the Voice Lines Make It Worth It vibe lmao

I own Squeenix's Avengers, TTG's GOTG, and the Iron Man VR game that I all plan to play but haven't yet

Alright, I think that's probably it!

Hope to hear from you guys, but if I don't, good luck on your searches!

And for those who stuck around to the end and are interested in contacting me, here is my email that you can do that at:

beachcityshores (at) gmail (dot) com

(sorry for it not being very copy-pasteable, trying to avoid you know whats just scraping my email and spamming me)

We can totally RP via Discord, but you gotta get my handle by talking to me first. I'm getting tired of handing out my disco only to be hit with "hi i saw your ad :)" great what do you want [insert something I didn't ask for here]

If you're gonna make me pull teeth at least pay me a dentist's salary first <33

Bye!

[viscountessevie]

Dark Olympus #0.5: Stone Heart by Katee Robert

Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ Summary:

In the city of Olympus, people hardly dare to say Medusa's name aloud. She is Athena's agent, the one she sends when she wants someone to disappear. Medusa owes her life to Athena, and if staining her hands with blood is the only way to repay her debt, it's a small price to pay. Until Athena sends him to find Calypso, the mistress of wealthy politician Odysseus. Calypso has done nothing worthy of a death sentence, and her conflicting feelings only worsen when Medusa first sees the woman behind the name. Calypso is beautiful, cunning and above all ready to do anything to save her life, including seducing her potential assassin. But what begins as a ploy to escape quickly turns into a real attraction. Because Medusa is not the cold killer that rumours suggest, and Calypso is much more complex than it seems...

My Review:

So it's been a week since I first read this and these two are still stuck in my head. I just adored this interpretation of their respective myths and how well they meshed well together. We've got disaster lesbian Medusa who thinks she's a monster and no one will ever desire her paired with cool and elegant pansexual Calypso who has only ever been desired in a transactional sense paired together. My my, IS IT BEAUTIFUL!! I seriously needed a full length novel of them exploring the themes of their characters and how true it rang with their original myths. Katee really knocked it out of the park with these two.

I really enjoyed the set up for these two. Like just the hunter and the prey but when they actually meet, Calypso flips the trope on its head. There's just many instances throughout the novella where you think it's going one way and we're given something completely unexpected.

Their sex scene(s) were top tier and it really hits you in the feels which is why I gave the book a full spice rating. It just added to their love story and elevated both their characters since their backstories were a lead up to the scene.

My main complaint is that's IT'S TOO SHORT AND WE DESERVED A FLESHED OUT ENDING. That's why they've been burnt into my brain. The book's ending was a little bit of a cop out and has a very powerful God playing their ex deus machina. So I kind of felt cheated out of the girlies fighting for themselves and their happy ending. Lowkey makes me wanna write my own ending but I don't think I can pull it off to match this book's calibre.

Overall, I'd say this is my fave book of my series so far which surprised me because I did not think anyone could beat Eros and Psyche in Electric Idol! I think anyone who is into romance novels and Greek myths can appreciate this one. The way Katee interwove both Medusa and Calypso's OG myth backstories into a great modern adaptation hit really well. 10/10 would recommend and happy reading!

[tokiro07]

Cipher Academy ch.42 thoughts

[Enter the Pungeon (Puzzle Dungeon)]

(Contents: New arc speculation, thematic analysis, minor Dekiai/Kogoe analysis)

...Huh, wasn't expecting Zakuroguchi to sit things out, especially since she's the only character who's explicitly stated her intentions for the Morg. That's mighty suspicious, she's definitely doing something shady behind the scenes

I forgot to mention it, but I was in fact expecting Eteshite to be Rikukeito's second. I knew we wouldn't know Yonakiuguisu's second, and while I predicted that Anonymity would be Hakanage's second, I'm not at all surprised to see that it's a supposedly new girl hiding behind the Class F mask. That leaves plenty of room for it to turn out to be Anonymity, but also doesn't necessarily mean that it is. I do think it's rather telling that we can't see any distinguishing features, whereas the other Class F girls at least had some hair sticking out, and her eye shape matches Anonymity almost perfectly even so zoomed out. If it's not her, Nisio and Iwasaki definitely want us to think it could be, which honestly just muddles the possibility more than if they'd reused a name and design from one of the other girls (in which case I'd be convinced it was Anonymity)

I really love the class picture visual; Iwasaki used it during the CLP election to show how Iroha had befriended everyone in the class while Anonymity distanced herself, but while that was the end of the introductory arc, this is the beginning of the real focus of the story as a whole. When you think about it, the Gradewide Leader Tournament was more like a second prologue, as it mainly served to establish the wider cast of the story and their motivations and relationships rather than resolve anything that had already been built up. With that perspective in mind, I almost have to wonder if even this is just set up for something bigger and more thematically central to come?

I won't make that assumption right now, but I think we can be confident that the coming world war that they keep talking about is going to be the payoff to every plotline we've seen and will see going forward, so while the metaverse may be the setting for the bulk of the remainder of the story, this arc specifically is probably just the introduction to that setting rather than the main event

I've talked at length about how the first two arcs lined up with Jump's themes of Effort and Friendship respectively, and how the coming arc would likely focus on Victory. When saying that, I always expressed hesitance since there wouldn't be anywhere to go thematically from there once those were all covered, but now I think I'm starting to get a clearer idea. While this is an expedition team with some level of cooperation to be expected, it's clear that Iroha is not really the leader of this group, and there is going to be internal competition here to decide who's really in charge, which strongly backs up my idea that this is a Victory arc, but once that's done? Well, if this is prologue part 3, then that means that we won't need to find a new theme to latch onto, but rather the true main event will be where Friendship, Effort and Victory finally meet! Iroha's efforts, the friendships he's made, and his hard-earned victories will culminate in his position as Code Emperor, allowing him to work towards his goals with everyone standing firmly behind him

That's not to say new themes won't arise, or that we won't revisit the individual themes one arc at a time, but rather that everything will be synthesized in the actual main story

I wonder if that's part of why Cipher Academy is still so low in the rankings, cus some fans feel it doesn't resolve anything it sets up? They'd be stupid if that's the case, since it's an ongoing story, of course things aren't going to be paid off. One Piece leaves threads dangling for decades, you don't see anyone complaining about that...

I am hoping that now that we're in a new setting with the opportunity for a lot of visual variety that the series should be able to establish more of an identity. That would really help it stand out and connect with readers who aren't already hooked by either the premise or characters, though I suppose that depends on how far it deviates from other VR adventure series like Sword Art Online or the like

I'm pretty excited to see this turn of events, I was worried that the metaverse would just be regular AR with visuals overlaid on the school itself rather than effectively introducing new locations ad infinitum (er...ad five-hundritum?). Literally anything could happen here, and presenting it as a procedural dungeon-crawler (I am NOT calling it a Roguelike and NO ONE, not even Nisio, is gonna make me!!!) is a really fun and novel way to do it! If it's procedural, that implies that players can be booted out and need to restart, so there's got to be a lose condition to worry about, though I guess that's to be expected anyway. I think the bigger questions are how many attempts they'll be allowed to make, how big the consequences of loss are, and most importantly, who's going to lose first? I imagine Iroha's going to lose at least a few times, though probably not until he reaches a much lower level than 1. If I had to guess, his first loss will be with someone at his side to make contextualizing it a bit easier

Do you think any of the puzzles are going to be conceptualized as monsters? This whole thing has a war theme, so maybe we'll see tank dragons or fighter jet gryphons or bullet-casing slimes. Zombie soldiers seem like a given, but that's low-hanging fruit, so I hope we'll get those out of the way and see at least one super-creative one quickly. Ah, but maybe I shouldn't even be speculating about this, it might just be setting myself up for disappointment...Argh, why is Sunday so far away?? Curse me for getting this review done in a timely manner for once!

Anyway, enough speculation about what's to come, let's focus a little more on what's actually in front of us. Dekiai is a super cutie, isn't she? With her heart eyes and literal bubbly personality. I've been wanting to see what made Iroha's Glasses Weapons special for a while, and I think I suspected that he'd have his own AI avatar like Kogoe's CG for a while, but I never was able to think of what she'd actually look like! The watery hair is the biggest surprise, it's so fun to look at!

Hm? Her hair is made of water? And come to think of it, her bangs and mechanical scrunchies look familiar too...Hold on, is Dekiai Kogoe with her ice melted? They both have similar catchphrases too..."can't say that too loudly," "don't say anything rude"...yeah, she could be Kogoe's sister with those looks and personalities. I wonder if perhaps Kogoe modeled the avatars after her family? I could definitely see CG being her grandpa or something

Or maybe she just modeled this one after herself. Whatever the case, I hope the other avatars have equally interesting visual flairs so they don't end up being monotonous

Oh, and fun fact, I looked into it and apparently Dekiai can mean either "ready-made", as in the mass-produced version of the Glasses Weapons, or "adoration/blind love," explaining her heart theme and potentially fitting in with Kogoe's stated goal of getting Iroha to fall in love with her. I bet that's why she gave him this avatar, actually, to help endear herself to him. It'll be so funny if Dekiai joins the harem and becomes competition for Kogoe, I really hope that happens

I think that about covers it for this week. I'm really excited to see how this arc plays out, and I hope that it helps garner a lot more traction going forward. The next chapter is in the back of the magazine reportedly, which I think is absolutely ridiculous; apparently CA was trending in Japan because of this chapter, what business does Jump have putting it so far back? Unless they consider it a strong closer, which is definitely a take I can get behind since I too save it for last every week. I'll tell you, being able to close the app and ruminate on this development was quite the experience for me! Really left me wanting more, which is a great problem to have in a Jump manga! I'll be waiting for it with bated breath!