#and its not a copypasta so I can’t just hope that people will get it from a few words

[alectoperdita]

Several ways I’ve thought of constructing a Kaijou Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West fusion

@sheepnamedpig since you expressed interest in receiving the brain dump

The one where we copypasta our heroes into Aloy’s story in ZD/FW

Ok, so this one isn’t technically Kaijou. Not really. But stay with me—Set as the Aloy proxy while Kaiba is his Old One counterpart as the Elisabet proxy. The overall plot is still very much the same; because of the mysterious signal that targeted Hades and caused the subroutine to gain sentience, GAIA self-destructed in a last ditch attempt to protect humanity. But not before creating a genetic clone of its creator in the hopes that some day he’ll repair the system and stabilize the biosphere.

So this is probably my Ereloy shipping shining through, but I’d cast Jounouchi as the Oseram Captain of the Vanguard, having earned his place after helping the current Sun-King Atem overthrow his war-mongering uncle, the Mad King Aknadin. And they would likely meet the same way that Aloy and Erend did right before the Proving. It’s not hard for Jounouchi to get smitten with Set for his razor-sharp intellect and martial prowess. (Would definitely tweak their questline together a bit when it comes to what happened to Ersa but unsure what exactly I would change).

Either Noa and/or Gozaburo would make good Ted Faro proxy here.

The rest under the cut are more Forbidden West-centric and contain potential spoilers

The ones where Kaiba is a Quen imperial

Kaiba is a Quen imperial cousin who leads an expedition across the seas in hopes that they can recover knowledge from the Ancestors’ Legacy to help the empire back in the Great Delta. Unfortunately, the journey was long and perilous, and the fleet is but a small remainder of those who set out. Much like the side quest The Way Home, there was also a storm that battered them as they approached the shores of what was once San Francisco. Kaiba is unluckily swept off the ship and washes on on a beach where he’s rescued by a local “barbarian.” So begins the adventures of a long-suffering Jounouchi trying to reunite a snooty Kaiba with his people. If they don’t try to knife/shoot each other first.

This is one where you could do more of a crossover where some of the original characters still exist and Jounouchi’s part of Aloy’s merry band of companions working to save the world. Jounouchi with a Focus to help further keep them alive. Who knows, maybe there’s treachery among the Quen expedition and imperial power struggles have spilled ashore as certain parties are trying to use this as a cover to eliminate Kaiba entirely.

The ones where Kaiba is a Quen Diviner

Similar to the one above, but less political intrigue and Kaiba’s only a smidge less arrogant. 😂 Would probably hate the fact that Jounouchi has a better Focus than him that gives him access to data Kaiba can’t perceive.

The one where Machine Strike is just Duel Monsters

The game, Machine Strike, has made it east all the way to Meridian, where it quickly gains a small but fervent fanbase. (Rumor has it that even Sun-King Atem is taken with the game.) Which tribe you assign Kaiba and Jounouchi probably matters a lot less in this one. Although to preserve some of their canon power differentials, Kaiba as a Carja noble, related to Sun-King Atem, works especially well. The important thing is that they bicker and have a bit of a rivalry where they shit-talk at each other. But they’re constantly meeting up to play Machine Strike to develop a better mutual understanding and I dunno, eventually fall in love.

#yugioh #puppyshipping #violetshipping #there's obviously other ways you can try and mesh these two canons #but these are the ones that speak to me most #I really do not write enough Set/Jounouchi content for someone who thinks about that ship as much as I do #feel free to scream/word vomit back at me with your thoughts <3 #still laugh to myself every time I recall 'my Ceo' as a noble title

[theyarebothgunshot]

ROSE I AM FREAKING OUT HAVE YOU SEEN THE PREQUEL STUFF???? WHAT IS GOING ON, my god... I was literally about to go to sleep, decided to check Tumblr one last time and see this.... what WHAT!! WHATTTT!!!!!! I don't even know if this is good bad or what but just JENSEN IS PRODUCING A SUPERNATURAL PREQUEL AND DEAN'S GONNA BE THE NARRATOR OR Sth LIKE???? -🐸

YEAH i am normal about this <3 (jk i am also freaking out) welcome to: people screaming to me in my inbox about prequelgate ft. j/2 fallout theory. let's goooo!

Another copypasta and suddenly chaos machine is full on gay I love this prophecy

you know whats funny i just checked the j/2 tag and i feel like for the first time in a long time they are starting to realise that maybe THEY should be the ones who are "gutted" *sips tea*

ROSE HOLY SHIT ROOOOOOOOSE ITS HAPPENING HOLY SHIIIIIT

YEAH

Nevermind just read prequel and well good luck I guess but just you know kind of bleh who wants to watch John Winchester well let’s have hope anyways

i know a lot of people are bummed out but i am kind of very excited actually?? i trust robbie and even though yeah j*hn winchester turned into a nasty abusive bastard, it can be interesting to explore how it all started (imo). it's just the first of many stories they can tell.

I can only accept this circus if it’s Dean telling the stories to his and Cas’ kids and then we have a revival to show that the whole finale was in fact the end Chuck wanted there Jensen I fixed it

i would not say no to this

heyloo bee anon here

um- wtf is happening?

jackles prequel series?? why? i want to be excited about this but sheesh im scared

because supernatural is never dead <3

okay, but, jensen... john winchester ≠ jdm, you don’t have to go /that/ hard for him 🙃

true true... though i am waiting for jdm to comment on this, please i need it

WAIT A SECOND J2 FALLOUT THEORY TRUE??

LMAO HELL YEAH BESTIE

Rose you really picked the worst time to sleep for real

bestie it was literally 4 in the morning, what do you expect from me sdfjsfhsf

I can’t literally can’t we were all right LMAO j2 fallout theory is real and cockles (Misha supporting Jensen) is [gunshots] I’m just laughing cause what the hell is this timeline we’re living LMAOOOOOOOOOO

we would always end up here <3

Do we have the copypaste anons to thank for JP basically confirming the J2 fallout? lol 🦚

yes, everybody say 'thanks annoying idiots!'

ROSE, WAKE UP, COME HERE,

THERE'S A LOT GOING ON FFS

YEAH I KNOW BUT I NEEDED SLEEP

Anticipating that there's going to be a lot of yelling about the prequel on here: I am cackling, but also, I mean, the first time Dean got a look into his parent's past, Cas was the catalyst: literally entered Dean's mind and catapulted him to the 70s. So idk, it's not completely unreasonable to expect some Cas cameos, maybe setting up a parallel timeline since Dean is narrating. What I'm saying is, this is Jackles, he's getting JDM and Misha in on this lmao -Honeymoon Anon

you were right lmfaooo also i fully agree. misha's tweet further cemented that thought for me. he knew about this prequel and i dont think he is cas-baiting us, i think he'll be involved. i'd also be obsessed to see jensen and jdm act together again (though idk who jdm could play seeing as it's a prequel and he is way too old to play young j*hn)

longlivethetribbles heeft gevraagd:

Heyyyyyy bestie, are you SEEING the absolute madness going on right now holy shit

well a little late but I SURE AM BESTIE

bestie wake up pls s16 finale just dropped.

- 🍯

and WHAT a great one it was

I love coming home from work to see all of the chaos unfolding on Tumblr and Twitter. I'm absolutely buzzing right now. I'll probably still be here by the time you wake up and check tumblr 😂 - 🐢

lmaooo and were you still awake?? did you see my freak out??

Oooh bestie wake the fuck up, I know you’re gonna be excited for this one jsnsjsj

god i had SUCH a morning like. it's 12:00 now and all i did since i woke up is check tumblr rip

short summary: jen and dee gain the rights, they post on ig/twitter about a prequel ft john and mary that no one asked for, the fandom loses its everloving shit as usual, they trend on twitter thanks to the beloved twt intern who missed us, misha qt’s jen about cas possibly benefiting from being in the prequel, then j*red qt’s jensen abt how his feelings got hurt by him not being told about a prequel his character as no involvement in & he initially throws a tantrum, and the rest is history - 🦋 anon (ps: i hope this helps a little, i’ve been scattered brained trying to keep up with it all night lmao so pls let me know if i missed anything, bug crew !!)

thank you so much darling i figured it out eventually but this is a helpful summary!!!

I hope you enjoyed waking up to all of this XD -🐢

i sure did!!! also that answers my question about you being awake lmao

I WILL NEVER EVER EVER FORGIVE MYSELF FOR SLEEPING THROUGH ALL OF THIS DRAMA AND NOT EXPERIENCING IT IN PERSON I DIDN'T NEED THIS SLEEP - tea anon

well the party was still going strong this morning so im not TOO "gutted" see what i did there lmaooo

Now that you are caught up with the news... So idk if you remember this but...didn't jarpad tell jackles he was up for a reboot in an online panel? And jackles answered that this was news to him??

-🍯

yeah i think you are right but he was clearly joking and didnt expect jackles to actually be working on something already

J2 anon spare more of those anons let's finish this - tea anon

please, we're having a ball in this bitch

I saw a post on tumblr where someone said now that Kripke gave J&D the rights, maybe they’re starting with a prequel just to end on a reboot in years time and honestly ? I wanna believe that so badly. This is tinhatty but what if this is all calculated in a way that makes it so that Jensen is slowly starting to fix everything that was wrong with spn - now that he has the rights and he’s slowly making spn his own story ?! I mean he did say in his ig post he wants to ‘fill in the rest’ - and maybe Mary and John’s story is only the beginning of spn related content from J&D to come ??? Maybe he wants to give spn the justice it deserves ?? Thoughts ??

i dont think this is tinhatty at all i think this is very possible and not that much of a reach. i could see this happening yeah for sure

want to hear something funny. I found out I had a ruptured blood vessel in my eye because I was sending my friend a video freaking out when the prequel news dropped and I noticed the corner of my eye was red af. and when I got back online jared had tweeted.

DJFHSJD ANON THE CHAOS OF IT ALL, HELP, are you okay? <3

rose.. bestie... how are you feeling about The News? nsfshsf being european is a curse </3 🐞

i feel GREAT im living for it i feel on top of the world tbh (and yeah it really is dsjfhs)

What am I waking up to I can't WHAT I rested my eyes for like 5 minutes help *hits reblog button* - anon anon

yep yep essentially djfhs

“Jensen and Misha are Co workers who barley talk”

I can’t be sure of course but I’m fairly certain that this is the copypasta that brought the j/2 fallout theory back to life. Who’s apparently ‘barely talking’ now? skansjsjsj. It’s almost prophetic, these j/2 anons have superpowers I’m telling ya.

-poker face anon

next time we get one of them we should be thanking them lmaooo

ok, but are we gonna talk about the "When Daneel and I formed Chaos Machine Productions, we knew that the first story we wanted to tell was the story of John and Mary Winchester [...]"-quote because the way this is phrased implies they formed CHAOS MACHINE Productions with the intent of telling this story (first), i haven't been in this dumpster long enough but the name just tickles me in that Misha way, isn't it so sus??? am i missing something???? i mean with this announcement they SURE lived up to that name... 🧩-anon

you are absolutely right, chaos machine SCREAMS misha and we are all here for it!!

hey hey hey. joining the clownverse, there's no way THEE cas girl danneel doesn't know just how much the fandom loves misha and cas. so 2 + 2 = misha in the spn prequel!

AGREED

So I think I finally managed to catch up on wtf happened while I was asleep and my brain melted. What a shit show to wake up to.

Anyway thoughts.

I don't hate the idea of a Mary&John sequel. I think it has the potential to be good (It has the potential to be really bad too, so I'm kind scared).

🕯️🕯️🕯️ manifesting Mary being badass and John being kinda useless🕯️🕯️🕯️

As for the Jensen and J*red thing.

I can see Jensen not telling J*red even if they are still friends, because J*red is kinda good at accidentally telling Secrets. He could have told him right before he announced it so, so that J*red didn't have to find out from twitter. He was on the show for 15 years, he is bound to get asked about it. The public twitter meltdown was really unprofessional so. Like you have Jensen's number J*red. You could have sorted that out in private like a normal person, but instead you choose to act like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

Is it weird that I'm actually going to be kinda that for them if the actually had a falling out, even tho I don't like J*red all that much. They seemed to be really important to each other and while I thought before that the might have triefted apart a bit, I didn't think that the where actively fighting.

- 🐌 anon

the thing is, the polite/normal thing for jensen to do was text him before announcing it on twitter. it's weird he didn't, and that makes me believe that maybe yeah they did have a falling out. especially with the way j*red responded to it on twitter. if he had no other reason to be this upset (no prior beef or falling out) you'd think that he wouldn't be responding like this. on the other hand, the man is a mysterie to me so who the hell knows. i'm not gonna mourn about it if they did/do grow apart because j*red is just.... awful imo.

#frog anon #bee anon #peacock anon #subtlerainy #honeymoon anon #bestie mutual #honeypot anon #turtle anon #butterfly anon #tea anon #ladybug anon #anon anon #poker face anon #puzzle pieces anon #snail anon #good lord i think i got more anons about this than about anything else before lmao #good luck to anybody who actually reads this <3

[inmyarmswrappedin]

Thoughts on each even, you don’t have to answer. You just have some of the better skam opinions on this site.

Hi 🤩💫 First off, flattery will get you absolutely everywhere with me, anon, thank you so much haha. 

I took a few days to think about how best to answer this ask because most of the Evens don’t feel so different to me that I could think of many things to say about each one. But then I thought I’d approach the Evens through their art style. 

I was a bit of an Even in high school— liked 90s hip hop, fell in love a lot, was a bit of a dreamer and a romantic, doodled and tried my hand at different art projects with mixed results, etc. So in talking about the Evens, I’m also going to talk a bit about myself if you don’t mind! 

I’m also not going to rank them this time, let me know if you want me to rank them (or to rank anything else about Skams, idc).

Even - I like Even’s drawing style and I feel it suits him very well. He never had an insta, but Isak’s season banner features a good amount of his drawings, plus the ones we saw on the show. He’s obviously influenced by American hip hop and comic culture, what with the COOLCAT, the weed, the crown, the diamonds… and the dicks. I’m very fond of Even’s Illuminati eye surrounded by boners, lol. It really feels like the kind of things a boy like Even (who loves Romeo + Juliet and Pretty Woman and Gabrielle, but also Nas and Lars von Trier and Stjerner uden hjerner and FIFA) would draw. I like that Even felt inspired by his conversations with Isak and pushed through his own fears to make art directly referencing things Isak said. Even felt scared by the possibility of parallel universes, but in order to show Isak how much he cared, his drawings for Isak all referenced parallel universes. I also like that Even’s art style is not stereotypically cute. It reminds me of the borderline gross style of Daniel Clowes and Peter Bagge.

Niccolò - Okay, so at this point I think we’re all aware that Skam Italia didn’t even have the budget for insta content, and they clearly didn’t have the budget to hire an artist specifically to create Niccolò’s art. He does have lots of drawings in his room, but then he doesn’t really draw anything for Martino? It feels like Niccolò is more of an arts and crafts kind of person, at least to me. Anyway I like that (aside from the red string of fate, which never got a follow up of any kind) the stuff Niccolò makes for Martino all reference Last Man on Earth, the TV show they bond over, in one way or another. The show is really not what I would call epic romance material, which I feel works for them tbh!

Eliott - My thing with both Eliott’s furry thing and Polaris, is that both seem really cute, but ultimately like… they didn’t mine either thing for all it was worth, I guess I would put it. Also, in comparison to other Evens, Eliott’s thing is almost developed (Eliott is after all a fictional character, not a real person) in order to elicit maximum cooing from its audience. Like, no one would say the illuminati boners or Last Man on Earth are objectively cute, not out of context! (And I’m far from a Skam Italia fan, I’m just saying.) But the hedgehog and the raccoon and the cat are all drawn in a very cute style. It feels a little too saccharine sweet for a 18-year old. However, Maxence not looking like a 18-year old might also play a part in my hesitance, because as a 18-year old I legit drew a full on comic about me and my then crush as superheroes fighting against our teachers in order to conquer college admittance tests together. (Like I said, Even and I have some shit in common lol.) And I drew my crush as a cat because he looked like a cat to me. So where the hell do I get off criticizing Eliott, y’know? As for Polaris, it’s like… Okay, so one is afraid of the light and one is afraid of the dark, and they meet and kiss right outside the cave, what else? It’s like, it’s cute and romantic, right, but not very developed as a season long motif.

David - I mean, do I have to say it? I love David and everything about him. I love that he has different art styles and uses different tools, it’s very realistic for someone his age still trying to find what his specific thing is. I love his sketches and his collages and the fact that he has a vampire persona that he draws in thicker lines. I love that he didn’t initially have an insta, and that he only got it because Sara and Leonie needled him about it, and I love that he didn’t post selfies or pictures of himself until he went through his character development. I love that his vampire persona crap is only for Matteo and he doesn’t post those cartoons on his very serious, very aesthetic insta. I love that his vampire persona looks similar to the Magdalene Hanke-Basfeld illustrations for the Angela Sommer-Bodenburg “The Little Vampire” book series. (I have no idea whether it’s intentional/an homage or just me seeing things where I wanna see them, but I loooove it.) I love that his first posts on insta really just seem kind of random (aside from the bird taking flight ofc) and like they don’t have a connection to the s3 storyline, it’s as if David really existed and made art and had ideas and thoughts before he met Matteo. I get such a kick of David’s sense of humor, like he seems kind of angry at the cliche of being barefoot on the beach and having a good time (ZUM KOTZEN!!!). Lol he’s just so delightful. I love that he can’t post a goddamn pic or video without a filter, oh no that’s simply not him!!!!1 And let me tell you about the time he made a highlights folder and named it Nights on Earth, I almost lost it on twitter I had such a great time. Anyway, David’s art and insta really scream that he’s a bit of a pretentious snob who corrects people on proper terminology and will only make cute things for the person he cares about the mostest AND NO ONE ELSE. PERIODT!

Joana - I’m a bit torn about Joana because I’m not into her more anime-esque stuff, but at the same time, god, if that isn’t me. I learned to draw by watching anime and trying to emulate the style, and because I’ve never really taken lessons, my cartoons just scream anime. I’m a bit embarrassed about it, because weeaboos and what not, and that extends to Joana as well lol. Before I revisited the Evens’ stuff for this ask, I had this idea in my mind that Joana’s art is a bit unrealistic because it seems too polished and professional for her character, but really, that’s just the piece that she in character made for the hospital/the BDP project. The stuff on the show and on her insta is actually believable as doodles or pieces she can put a bit more effort into, but aren’t like, art gallery-ready. I like that Joana started posting black and white doodles from graph paper notebooks (ftr this is the kind of notebooks most Spanish students use, lined or blank paper notebooks not so much), and started adding colors and creating more complex pieces as her relationship with Cris progressed. I think it says so much about Joana that the cartoons that represent her are always in some kind of pain, physical or emotional, but the cartoons that represent Cris (including the toads) are always cute, always happy, always desirable. Like, be more in love pls. I love that Joana is a bit of an edgelord, and uses a lot of imagery related to arrows, knives, tears/blood drops. That’s so accurate of girls like her. I love that the season banner has an actual to god vulva on it. Compared to other Evens, Joana seems more focused on drawing than anything else, so maybe that makes her video for Cris’ birthday not plausible, but on the other hand, I feel like Croana shippers could’ve used more cuteness in week 10, so you know what? Imma take that video, copypasta of “Gutten som ikke klarte å holde pusten under vann” as it is. I hope that Joana keeps posting art in s3 and s4, and so we get to see how her style develops. ✨

Sander - I haven’t really watched wtFOCK. 

#skam #druck #skam españa #skam italia #skam france #ask #Anonymous #brain vomit

[dvp95]

quiet on widow’s peak (2)

pairing: dan howell/phil lester, pj liguori/sophie newton/chris kendall rating: teen & up tags: paranormal investigator, youtuber phil lester, dan howell is not a youtuber, online friendship, slow burn, strangers to lovers, nonbinary character, trans character, background poly, phil does some buzzfeed unsolved shit and dan is a fan word count: 3.2k (this chapter), 6.4k (total) summary: Phil’s got a list of paranormal experiences a mile long that he likes to share with the world. Abandoned buildings, cemeteries, and ghost stories have always called his name, and a particular fan of his has a really, really good ghost story.

read this chapter on ao3 or here!

"Do you remember the Wilkins place?"

"I'm well, thanks." Martyn's voice is dry, and Phil finds himself grinning at the wall despite himself. "How are you?"

"Good," says Phil. It's mostly true, although he could do without the piles of clothes he's sorting through. He holds his phone between his shoulder and his ear as he picks up a top of Sophie's and starts a whole new pile that he's calling delicates, aka things he's absolutely going to screw up somehow. "People think the Wilkins place is haunted."

There's a beat. Presumably, Phil's brother is trying to fit the name into adolescent memories to see where it slots in. "Oh, that wreck in Rusholme? It hasn't been condemned yet?"

"Apparently it's still a hot spot for binge-drinking teenagers," Phil says.

"Well, sure. But haunted? Really?"

"That's what I said!"

Phil feels a little vindicated by the skepticism in Martyn's voice, to be honest. His friends hadn't taken his weird feeling seriously at all.

"I mean, it's a dump," says Martyn. "More likely to be haunted by a bunch of rats than anything else. Why haven't we heard this before?"

"According to my sources," Phil says, only feeling a bit ridiculous about referring to a bunch of strangers on the internet as 'sources', "the activity only recently started. Which makes me think that someone's lying, or maybe one incident kickstarted everyone else's imaginations?"

"Both could be true. Why don't you ask Ian to go check it out?"

It's not exactly a sore spot, but something inside of Phil still twinges at the question. "He's a little busy, isn't he."

"So am I," Martyn says in that same dry, familiar tone that makes Phil feel as comforted as his mum's fretting or his dad's bad jokes do. "And yet here you are, on my phone."

"You don't have a toddler," Phil points out.

"I don't? Yet here you are..."

Phil snorts a laugh and drops all of the socks he's gathered into an empty basket. It's as good a place to start as any. "Shut up, Mar. I'm at least six."

There are, literally, enough dirty socks and pants between the four of them that Phil has a whole load of just underthings. He spares a moment to be grateful to Sophie for not including her bras, because he'd have no idea where to begin with those. He sighs and picks up the basket, fitting it against his hip with one hand so he can hold his phone with the other.

"Well, I can ask around," says Martyn. "I think my friends might be past the point of sneaking into abandoned houses to party, but maybe they've heard something from their annoying little brothers."

"Ha, ha," Phil says dryly. "Think I should contact some of the people making these claims?"

"Deffo," says Martyn. "If you can record them, it'd be best."

"Yeah, that way I can use them in the video," Phil hums, setting his basket on the washer and opening every cupboard to try to find the detergent. "I mean, if they're okay with that, obviously."

"I actually meant because your bullshit detector is dysfunctional, so me or Peej will have to tell you if someone's lying."

"Wow, rude. Whose fault is that?"

"Yours," Martyn informs him dryly. "Just because I told you Santa would pull you up through the chimney doesn't mean you had to believe me."

Phil rolls his eyes, but he's grinning. Maybe it's just a big brother thing, or maybe it's their personalities, but Martyn isn't wrong - Phil has a hard time telling when someone is lying to him. Martyn was always good at lying with a straight face and seeing right through Phil's outlandish stories.

"I still blame you," says Phil.

"Alright," says Martyn. "When are you coming to visit?"

"Probably not ‘til after this one," Phil says slowly, glancing at the kitten calendar on the fridge. They'd let one of their milder housemates pick this year's after everyone got tired of looking at Chris' previous choice of nude knitted puppets.

"Yeah? You gonna head up north for this one?"

In the very last cupboard he checks, Phil finds the detergent. He wants to be annoyed about it, but the truth is that Holly's habit of switching around the kitchen when she's anxious has saved many a pack of biscuits from expiring behind some flour. Phil has never once been useful to anybody when he's having a meltdown, so.

Phil absentmindedly loads the washer while he considers Martyn's question. Maybe it would be best to check the place out for himself, see if anything's really going on. He likes being on-site best, trusts his own gut more than he trusts strangers' eyes.

The problem, of course, is that Phil's childhood home is up for sale, he has no money for a hotel, and Ian's gone and got himself a child. The last thing Phil wants to do is impose or, like, get roped into babysitting. A trip to Manchester might be out of the question for him right now.

"Maybe," Phil says, noncommittal.

Martyn sees through him in an instant, like always. "Want me to ask Mum if they've got any viewings next weekend? I'm sure you know not to trash the place."

"Have I ever once trashed the place? Don't answer that," Phil adds, remembering the shaving cream incident.

A huff comes down the line, and Phil feels the same pride at making his brother laugh as he had when he was seven and making weird noises out the car window. Yeah, he definitely needs to go to London soon, the Isle afterwards - he hasn't seen his family in way too long.

"I'll let you know what's buzzing, if anything," says Martyn. "And I'll call Mum for you and all. I know you get weird about asking them for favours."

"I get weird about asking anyone for favours," Phil says instead of a thank you, because if he gets weird about asking for help, then Martyn gets twice as weird about reacting to gratitude.

"Except me."

Phil smiles, watching the rainbow of socks and pants spin. "Yeah. Except you."

--

Laundry does end up taking Phil most of the day, but he doesn't mind much. It's the least he can do when Chris always does the first draft edit for him, PJ reminds him to take his EMF meter and his meds when he's packing for an overnight, and Sophie sends him pages upon pages of research while she's at work. He's so fond of these people, and he appreciates all they do for him, but being in debt to them - and not in sole control of his projects - makes Phil feel like he's got ants crawling up his arms.

While he waits out the machine cycles, Phil starts putting feelers out into this story. He checks the sources linked to him again and shoots off a couple of direct messages and emails to see if any of the people posting about the Wilkins place are eager to chat one on one.

He's got his laptop set up at the kitchen table and he's on his third coffee of the day when it occurs to him that he's not out of the woods of owing favours just yet. He clicks back into the Tumblr submission that started this spiral.

He decides that he needs to thank this person, at the very least, and maybe offer to buy them a coffee or something when he's in town. They did so much of Phil's grunt work that it feels weird not to pay them back somehow.

"Well, I can't exactly do your laundry," Phil murmurs to the screen. He hopes none of his other housemates are milling around to hear him.

Another click, and he's on the blog. It's minimalist and monochrome in a way that makes things easy to read, but not very interesting to look at. Phil's eyes start to glaze over as he scrolls through, because it's entertaining enough but - well. It's a typical Tumblr blog. That familiar mixture of memes and rants about social issues and some gifs from shows that Phil doesn't have time to watch. There are a lot of familiar walls of text tagged as personal posts, but Phil still can't parse them without really trying.

They do reblog Phil's video posts, though. That makes him grin.

He scrolls back up to the top of the page to shoot them a message and immediately gets distracted by the bio.

winnie. 21. any pronouns.

For someone who sent Phil a wall of text that could be mistaken for copypasta at first glance, it's surprisingly succinct. Phil takes another swig of his coffee and tries not to get caught up on the last part of it.

Any pronouns? What does that mean, any pronouns? What if Phil uses the wrong ones? He isn't exactly a queer theory student, and as much as he supports everybody under his little rainbow umbrella, he's got to admit that a lot of things still go over his head.

He dithers for so long that his laptop screen goes black, and he makes a face at himself in its reflection. Surely he's overthinking this.

Hi!, Phil types, and then accidentally hits enter. He was just trying not to send the fan a paragraph back, but, fine. Oops. So I'm looking into the things you sent me on the Wilkins place and I'm really impressed by the amount of time you put into this? Like it makes MY job a lot easier haha. Is he a triple-texter? He's a triple-texter. The first one didn't count anyway. So thanks!!!!! I'll def give you credit in the video, but is there anything else I can do to pay you back?

Not literally, he wants to add right after he's sent it. Oh, well. He can't just keep spamming this poor person's chat. He hopes it's obvious that he'd offer monetary compensation if he had it.

Phil leaves the Tumblr tab open and works on editing for a little while. It's almost frustrating how bad this video is, how little effort and energy Phil has started putting into these, and he doesn't know how to fix it short of rethinking his entire career.

He could easily keep churning these out for as long as people watch them, but. He's not having fun anymore.

The Phil on his laptop screen is asking questions, wandering around a cemetery just to see if anything will happen, and Phil can't help comparing it to things he did last year, the year before that, the year before that - it feels like his content is declining as his enthusiasm for the topic does, or maybe vice versa.

Phil zones out for so long that the dryer chime goes off from the hallway, echoing through the old, creaky house. He'd given up on sorting the loads after the fifth shirt that could belong to any of them, so he just takes his own things out and folds his housemates' clothes into one basket.

They can figure it out, he's sure. There's only two bedrooms between the three of them, so there's only two closets, and Phil has gone so long without knowing who's officially sharing that it would be awkward to ask now.

Phil swaps the load over and goes back to his laptop, even though the very last thing he wants to do is continue editing and uploading this mediocre video.

The thing is, Phil doesn't need his content to be perfect. He's happy to post things that just make him laugh or have a nicely spooky vibe or whatever, he doesn't need to solve mysteries every month or two. It's just that. He can hear how little he cares about it, lately. It won't be long before people notice, if they haven't already.

Phil sighs and exits the project. Maybe this video is best left unposted. He's not happy with it at all.

Maybe, if this Wilkins place video doesn't pan out, Phil can start redirecting his energy into a different type of creative output. He's got so many stories bouncing around in his mind, he just needs to figure out how he wants to tell them.

It sounds like his father's voice inside his head, telling him you can't chase ghosts forever. He wishes he still had the gumption to disagree with it.

His laptop makes a little noise, and Phil blinks back to reality. He has to click on a few different tabs to figure out where it came from, but then he realises that he's gotten a response on Tumblr.

Phil smiles despite himself and gets ready for another difficult-to-read message.

Sure enough: UHHHHHH hi hello what the fuck i didnt expect you to say anything this is so weird i am being so weird right now um like no problem? i was procrastinating an essay and this was more fun to research so you dont have to thank me or pay me back whatever that means like i was just fucking around its fine but thank you?????

Phil thinks about the four word Tumblr bio again and snorts. Maybe Winnie wanted to seem as cool and minimalist as their theme itself was.

Procrastination or not, I appreciate it!, Phil replies. Would it be ok if I use you as a reference?

?????????????? i mean yeah but what the fuck, he gets back almost immediately.

It's nice to see you know some punctuation! Sorry if it's weird to reach out like this, I just wanted to like acknowledge the work you put in. I don't have to mention you in the video if you'd prefer!

The sound of the front door creaking open and slamming shut interrupts Phil's nervous typing. He freezes for a moment, fingers still on the keyboard, but then PJ comes in the kitchen with a little salute and several bags of craft supplies, and Phil can breathe again.

It isn't that the other people who live in this house are bad people. Far from it. It's just that, of the people Phil has opted to share this large space with for nearly two years, only three of them have made any kind of effort to understand Phil. The others are nice enough, he supposes, but sometimes they come and go and new people replace them and - Phil isn't exactly good with change, is the thing.

So he relaxes when he can talk to PJ instead of making small talk with someone who thinks he's weird and too messy. "Hey! How's your day?"

"Better than yours," PJ laughs. He drops all the bags on the table and starts puttering around the kitchen. "Hungry?"

"Please. And it wasn't so bad, I got some work done."

"Yeah? Any new info on the new haunt?"

It's incredible how genuinely interested PJ always is in Phil's work. Phil grins down at his keyboard and shrugs a bit. "Some. Mostly just poking around right now, though. Mar's asking his friends too. Oh, and I thanked the person who sent it in."

"That's good," PJ says. He's putting the kettle on, because that's what PJ does when he comes home. "How'd they react?"

"Mostly confusion," Phil laughs. He glances at his screen to see if Winnie has responded - they haven't - and chews on his lip a little bit. "Hey, Peej? If someone says any pronouns are fine, what does that mean?"

"Generally," PJ hums, "it seems like it would mean any pronouns are fine."

"Oh, shut up." Phil runs a hand through his hair, always anxious about getting stuff like this wrong.

"I'm not joking," PJ says, although his tone is still light.

"Oh. So it just... doesn't matter?"

"Not to some people, I guess." PJ leans against the counter as he waits for the water to boil. At least he's smiling, although Phil can't help but notice that it's a little patronizing. "You do know that I'm not a gender guru, right? I'm barely a gender novice. I failed gender out the gate, buddy."

Phil knows his cheeks are pinking up a bit, but he rolls his eyes. "Shut up," he repeats. "You still know way more than me."

The shrug he gets in response makes Phil huff a laugh. This isn't something they talk about, but Phil has been present for enough of Chris and PJ's conversations that he'd gotten the idea.

He wonders if PJ cares that he's bringing it up. Is he making PJ uncomfortable? They don't talk about this.

"Stop spiralling," PJ says easily. His smile is warmer, now. "I don't hate you, nobody hates you, and the fan who doesn't care about pronouns certainly doesn't hate you. If you're that worried about upsetting them, though, you can always ask."

Maybe he's known PJ too long. He's grateful for it, still, so relieved that he doesn't have to voice the swirling anxiety of doing something wrong when he only has the best intentions.

"I guess I could do that," Phil mutters, embarrassed by how easily he's been read.

Winnie's responded by the time Phil looks back at the chat window, a lmao yeah ofc thats fine i just cant believe you want to, im not trying to b weird ive just been a fan for a really long time?? (used a comma for you too) (and brackets) (youre welcome) that makes Phil smile.

Awesome! And are the name Winnie & they/them pronouns fine to talk about you with, or do you prefer something else for this?

no yeah thats good idc how you refer to me, is Winnie's immediate response. It's stupid how much of a load feels like it's been lifted off of Phil's shoulders at that easy reassurance.

"You were right," Phil informs PJ.

PJ nods, solemn, as he stirs his noodles. "I often am."

"You're annoying, also," says Phil. "Hey. D'you wanna come up north with me?"

"Phil," says PJ dramatically, holding the wooden spoon up to his heart. "Are you asking me to run away with you?"

"No, absolutely not, stop making that joke." There's no way in hell Phil is going to keep putting up with this from both of them, and PJ is more likely to listen to him than Chris is.

PJ laughs. "Yeah, yeah. You going to see the haunt?"

"If my parents are okay with us hanging out for the weekend, yeah."

"Oh, okay," says PJ. "We're just waiting on confirmation that Kath and Nigel want to spend time with you? Might as well pack now."

"Your stuff's folded," Phil says helpfully. PJ throws a noodle in his general direction. It flops onto the floor between them, a sad, wet spiral of a thing, and Phil touches his nose at the same time PJ does.

"Well, one of us has to pick it up," PJ says in his Reasonable Adult voice, as if he hadn't thrown it in the first place.

Phil looks at his laptop, valiantly pretending not to see the floor noodle, and blinks.

and i mean i havent seen any of this shit firsthand but if you need to ask me anything about the stuff thats gone down im always free. like literally always.

#phanfic #phanfiction #dnp fic #phan #words words words #quiet on widow's peak

[evieyuzukaisabigot]

I want to preface this post by saying that I struggled on if I should write it or not. I don’t think callout posts are entirely useful in changing someone’s behavior and, more often than not, end up making them feel as if they are still in the right. It is not my intention for this person to be harassed. It is my intention to warn other players about them so that those players can avoid this person.

That being said, you could have avoided this, Evie. But you decided to make logs public on Reddit in order to attack <EMBER>. You posted those logs in three separate threads under the username FlayFlag. So, here we go.

This is a post about Evie Yuzuka, also known as Narumi Malaguld and Ellie Amor.

On June 2nd, 2019 you joined The Order of Ember roleplay free company (also known as <EMBER>). Less than two hours later, an individual that led another roleplay free company whispered one of the officers to warn them about your behavior.  When the officer in question brought this up to you, you said that you had changed and that you hoped you could start with a clean slate. You then proceeded to whisper your previous free company leader to harass them for warning <EMBER>. Screenshots here, though I’ve edited out the name of the person Evie whispered since I don’t have their consent to post their name.

Trust me when I say that this level of harassment is not uncommon from Evie, as you will soon see.

At the same time that this warning took place, multiple members of <EMBER> mentioned knowing of you or having a problem with your attitude. Still, the officer staff decided to give you a chance, seeing as you had claimed that you were trying to better yourself.

Five days later, you spent the early morning of June 7th, 2019 being a transphobe. Yikes.

I was not a witness to this exchange, as I personally would have taken screenshots rather than a text log. Still, I will post the text log here. Please keep in mind that some of the language used here can be upsetting, so proceed at your own risk. While Evie is not on their main, they are on an alt (named Narumi Malaguld). I have taken the liberty of highlighting Narumi/Evie’s responses so that the log is easier to read.This took place in Ul’dah shout chat.

I think I can speak for us all when I say: gross.

During or immediately after this conversation, Evie was pulled into a chat with <EMBER>’s officers. These screenshots are presumably taken by Evie, as they were posted to the aforementioned Reddit threads.

Here is a link to the imgur.

Here is a backup link in case the first one gets deleted.

The officers attempted to be reasonable. You had been warned already not to start drama and yet you did. You decided to be a transphobe in the middle of Ul’dah in a public channel while representing <EMBER>. On a roleplay server, you are often as good as your reputation. It’s fine if you want to throw your reputation in the gutter – that’s your prerogative. But as a representative of the free company, you might as well have been screaming that <EMBER> held the same beliefs you do. When you found out that what you did was not okay, you pitched a fit.

And then you got kicked.

You have this bizarre need to constantly be on a crusade, Evie. If you feel you’ve been wronged, you need to be vindicated. While I don’t have the context of this exchange, here is another set of screenshots of Evie starting drama with what appears to be a Coeurl roleplay group. The language used by Evie alone was enough to raise my eyebrows when I first read it.

Here’s the thing: I don’t care about the drama concerning <EMBER>. What I care about is that fact that you’re transphobic, Evie. Final Fantasy XIV has an amazing LGBTQ+ community. You said during your argument in shout chat and during your conversation with the officers of <EMBER> that it is just your opinion and that thoughts are different than actions. What you fail to realize is that by normalizing your highly bigoted opinion, you are making it okay to commit acts of violence against the people you say those things about.

Frankly, you should be ashamed of yourself.

I said in the beginning of this post that I was conflicted about writing this. That was, of course, until your Reddit post. You could have kept quiet. You could have slinked away to lick your wounds. You don’t know who I am but I’ve been watching this unfold from the beginning. In the words of a very old copypasta from the internet, with some liberties:

“What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I’ll have you know that I graduated top of my class in Limsa Lominsa. I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on Bahamut and I have over 300 confirmed wipes. I am trained in PvP warfare and I’m the top roleplayer in the entire Crystal data center. You are nothing to me but just another bigot. I will wipe you the fuck out with DPS the likes of which has never been seen before in Eorzea, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to my friends over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak, I’m contacting my secret network of spies and your various accounts are being tracked right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your roleplay character. You’re fucking ruined, Evie. I can be anywhere, anytime, and screenshot you in over seven hundred ways and that’s just me alone. Not only only am I extensively trained in /random combat but I have access to the entire catalog of custom combat systems on Crystal and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little comment was going to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You will drown in it. You’re fucking ruined, kiddo.”

That’s all I have to say about that. Thanks for reading.

Wait, one more thing: don’t use the same username across your different accounts.

The Links

Lodestone links:

Evie Yuzuka lodestone (main character), ID #20466185

Narumi Malaguld lodestone (alt #1). ID#23056294

Ellie Amor lodestone (alt #2), ID#18928985

Social media:

Evie’s Twitter (Confirmed via the discord link in which Evie is the owner of the server)

Evie’s Twitch (Linked in the twitter)

Evie’s Steam (Private but the same logo as the twitter is present)

Evie’s REAL Reddit profile (Confirmed by being linked to the Twitter)

While I can’t link it, Evie’s discord username is Evie#1000

Imgur links/logs:

The conversation with <EMBER>’s officers

The Coeurl conversation

The Ul’dah log

A picture from this thread that I thought was funny. Why do you have such a problem with authority?

Miscellaneous:

Evie’s Wildstar character names, just in case anyone recognizes them: Kiarri Shimizu (if you google this, Evie Yuzuka’s lodestone profile pops up), Evie Miura. Evie might also have been Azami Starflower, but I’m not absolutely positive of that.

PS: I’m not an officer of <EMBER>. They are my friends and I’m just nice enough to stand up for them since they’re all too nice to say anything.

#crystal data center #final fantasy 14 #final fantasy xiv #balmung

[machinavillage]

i keep saying this but i really love how i can say anything i want on this site and nothing happens. its always been like that but more so since people are ditching this. 

im just in a real stab myself mood today, i have a lot of things i could be doing, some work, mostly hobbies. and looking at any of the stuff laying around my brain just says “no” to all of it. but in a way that just makes it feel like there’s this deep pain in my chest. and its not like sleeping would help, i’d just feel more depressed or i’d have more weird nightmares where I wake up in pain but can’t remember what i had a nightmare about. 

and its not like there’s any sort of things people could say that would help me. i already know people would miss me. i’ve already seen that shitty copypasta idiots online share about What Would It Be Like If Your Mom Found Your Body. (people don’t share that one around in recent years but it was super upsetting and I hate everyone who shared it in good faith.) I’ve already been told about having hope and saw my therapist yesterday. I’ve already been told the typical “you have a place in this world and things will get better”. and i’ve been told it for years and I don’t care if anyone would miss me. 

and its not like I want to talk to anyone because I’m in such a bad mood. I just want to break something I guess or set something on fire I guess. I’m sick of being told about how people would miss me or something I really don’t care. 

also if anyone reads this far this isn’t a suicide note or something im just venting 

[hopoo]

DEADBOLT Q&A

I tried to answer every question as honestly as I could, so I hope this is a good read. If your question isn’t there, it’s either identical to another one asked or joined together with another question. Cheers!

Q: In total, how much time does the campaign of Deadbolt span? It’s hard to tell, what with it being infinite nighttime and all.

A: I would imagine a month-ish. It is implied that the Candles are doing some sort of investigative work between missions, which would surely take some time. Q: Did you have any major inspirations for the visual design of DEADBOLT? A: John Wick is obviously the biggest one! Q: What would hopoo do if someone made a game completely based and inspired from Deadbolt and its… Concept? (with permission and not) A: There’s no way DEADBOLT is that unique in settings or thematics – ultimately, you know what’s right and what’s wrong when you’re inspired by a work, and so will everyone else! If you feel obligated to ask for permission, maybe you’re not exploring enough original ideas? Q: When will we get modding? if so could we get a simplified modding kit? Any plans for updating dedbort, even just the map editor? Feature for adding custom sprites, rotation tool, copypasta tool, just to name a few… A: So the thing with that is that the map editor is only half the equation – while the map editor may be writing stuff to files, it also has to be interpreted on the end by the DEADBOLT game itself. Therefore, adding features that aren’t supported in engine simply won’t work – it won’t know what youre talking about. While rotation is supported in the engine, it doesn’t know how to read that from the files, etc. I also am trying to avoid any legacy issues where old maps are required for old versions of DEADBOLT, or vice versa. Q: When is deadbolt 2 coming with werewolves and mummies A: Werewolves aren’t undead you dingus. But mummies could be cool.

Q: Will the stuff that came with the release of Deadbolt on Play Station, will be added on PC? A: Nope, that was sorta our deal-sweetener for getting on the Sony consoles. Q: Will we ever see expansion levels for Deadbolt or would we get Deadbolt 2 instead? A: DEADBOLT 2 maybe sometime

Q: Does Ibzan is gay? A: I haven’t really thought of the sexual orientation of any of the characters, and I definitely don’t want to pull a JK Rowling and retroactively assign them. So in terms of canon, that just hasn’t been explored.

Q: Would you prefer deadbolt 2 to be in 3d and 2d? Would you do a sequel? A: DEADBOLT is probably the narrowest design space I’ve worked with – there’s no dodging, insta death, insta travel attacks. By the end I felt very stretched out in terms of enemy design, and for that alone I’d think 3D. But hey, I may also just hate 3D by the end of RoR2 so who knows :^). I’d love to do a sequel one day, most likely from the perspective of Ibzan. But who knows! Q: Did Ibzan want to kill the Fire, or just try to reconcile with it? A: He just wanted to talk – but who knows what would’ve happened after the Fireplace rejected him? Q: Would you be interested in going back to the world of deadbolt sometime in the future? I remember hearing somewhere a 3D concept would be interesting to work on. A: I wish I was talented or driven enough to write comics for it – I think DEADBOLT is more about the stories of individuals, compared to RoR who is a story of the universe. I wrote the Cassette Tapes to reflect that. Q: Looking back, is there anything you’d change about Deadbolt? A: Hmmm… I just wish I somehow could expand more on the lore and gangs, and what their goals were. Gameplay-wise, it was a tad too short. I liked doing a few standard stages, and then a mix-up stage (sniper, trap, boss, etc) – maybe we could’ve fit in a few more rotations. Q: What’s your favourite loadout? A: Death/Taxes and Flashbang, like a scrub. Q: Would you ever be interested in restarting the asset suggestion thread A: I consider DEADBOLT to be done – as a 2 (now 3!) man team, we financially can’t do the games-as-a-service thing like most big companies can for smaller games like DEADBOLT. I also intended DEADBOLT to be a one-and-done thing as a contrast for Risk of Rain, which we updated for years after release.

=CONTROVERSIAL OPINION ALERT= I personally also think that EVERY game getting a bunch of DLCS and updates and patches for a long time is, in a way, exhausting as a player. I think it makes it hard to feel satisfied when you finished a game and it’s over and you feel completed in the journey, knowing it’s not ~technically~ over until the devs stop patching. I think it’s great for some games (mostly multiplayer-based ones), but some games you just gotta let… finish, on a good note. Semi-open ended endings are always unsatisfying, in my opinion, and so recently it just feels like you don’t ever complete a game. …On the flip side, we are planning on doing lots of post-launch support for RoR2 because it’s actually inline with our design goals, so don’t fret! Q: Will bugs like Scythe not having a cover sprite or some enemies not having a falling sprite (which causes the game to crash) be fixed? A: Which enemies have been missing a falling sprite? They should be resorting to idle, not crashing. Bosses? Q: Just wanted to say, you guys are my favorite games studio, hands down. Now for the question: Now that the Reaper has completed his task and is allowed to rest, what’s next? Is the Fireplace going to keep him resting for a while? Does our MC have another task to accomplish? A: The Fireplace has never let a reaper “rest” before - the reason he is allowed to rest is because Ibzan never got to, and the Fireplace is trying something different with you. This is unexplored territory for the both of them – presumably he just pets his cat and gets bored before getting back to work. Q: What happens to everyone else in the afterlife? A: People who aren’t in the Place? Who knows, and who cares about boring happy afterlife 😊 Q: I had a question about the lore. There’s mentions of places outside the city, across the river Styx. What are they and what are they like? A: The Styx connects the other realms together, including (presumably) wherever the demons came from. This is explored lightly in one of the demon cassette tapes. Q: Will you ever expand more on the world of deadbolt or are you 100% done with it at this point? A: Nope definitely not done, really wanna explore more one day Q: What’s your office address? For post and stuff, maybe I want to send you a box full of A4 sheets of paper with a thousand hoopters on each. A: Maybe this is the paranoia in me but I’m not comfortable posting my address online – you can just tweet it at me a thousand times instead Q: Did Ibzan think the flames would give warmth to the Dredged or was he just lying to them and using them for his own gain? A: He was lying to himself, but he did truly believe that this was going to work, because this (at the time, anyways) seemed like the only way out. Metaphor woawoawo Q: Could you add some sorta DEADBOLT reference into RoR2?  Will the Reaper be playable in Risk of Rain 2 as a bonus? A: Definitely references happening in some form, but playable might be stretchin’ it a bit, especially since it’d be taking up the slot of some more in-universe secret character. Q: How excited are for RoR2? A: Honestly very nervous for the reception, with very big shoes to fill as a sequel for RoR. I just hope people like it, and that we don’t get burnt on 3D because there’s so many possibilities in the future for our games in 3D. Q: How are the Demons born? We know they’re made in birthing chambers, but then is it just like humans or is there anything specific needed for a demon to be born f.e. skeletons>suicide, zombies>overdose, etc. A: Demons aren’t undead and don’t naturally exist in the Place, which is why they have to be smuggled over – they exist in whatever version of hell is in the DEADBOLT universe, and are natural denizens of the underworld. Q: was izban hot before he died? A: The hottest Q: do all the nightclubs canonically have chris c. as the dj A: Yes Q: I love Deadbolt very dearly and i’ve listened to its soundtrack (particularly “Now I Am Become Death”) more times than i can remember. What’s your favourite tune from Deadbolt ? A: Defunktorum or The Proverbial Dust Biters Q: In the Hardmode Cassette Tape it talked about a Reaper that wasn`t the current Reaper that we play as in the Game. Was this Reaper Izban? Since in the tape, he talked about the fireplace as his friend and that could be why he wanted to go back to the fireplace through the portal at the end of the game, to revisit his friend. A: Yes yes and yes. This was most heavily implied in Ibzan’s “home”, which parallel yours. Q: Will RoR2 still have opportunities to create silly messy builds like covering the screen in missiles or releasing an endless stream of Thqwibs? If so, how are you working to mitigate the performance impact of those crazy builds? A: Yep! Currently we have a system that detects the average particle count in a scene and slowly adds a chance non-important effects (like hitsparks or impacts) don’t ever spawn. This will at some point also involve turning off expensive effects and reducing particle LODs. Q: I really love the attention to detail to the characters, environment, aesthetics and gameplay mechanics. Its themes on the criminal underworld and the supernatural give a unique identity in a high-octane/stealth pixel action game I have not seen before. Additionally what prompted or inspired you to make DEADBOLT in the first place? A: DEADBOLT in its entirety was supposed to be not-Risk of Rain. It’s a gorey, violent, moody singleplayer puzzle-stealth game. We were just burnt out from the Risk of Rain experience, and we also wanted to flex our design muscles a bit and show that hey, we’re not just a one-trick pony of gamedevelopment :^) Q: I just played through this game on PS4/Vita over the weekend. Huge fan of Risk of Rain. Even bought it through Limited Run Games. So I had to pick up Deadbolt (Didn’t previously know you had made it either.) and I love it. Its a super solid experience. I’m not sure I have any questions about it. I guess I was curious if co-op multiplayer was ever considered in development? Keep up the great work. Can’t wait to see what you guys make next. A: Nope, because of the reasons above – we wanted a single player game, since RoR was a multiplayer one. Q: First of all, congratulations!! I really loved the game since came out, I bought it for my birthday, since risk of rain made me fell in love with all the pixel art in it, deadbolt didn’t disappointed me!! Everything in it I love it! Thanks for the game!! Now the question You already answered about how the skeletons or vampires came to be in that Place, how the vampires are killed by their lovers, but, how a reaper, becomes to be a reaper? I mean a candle said “I’ve never been so close to one” A: Originally, the reapers were actually supposed to be from suicides – if I remember right, the reaper when going down the stairs to the docks still has the hole in the back of his head in his sprite. Currently, it’s not explored how a reaper is made – I think a bit of mystery is always needed in making a believable universe J Q: Lorewise how many reapers are there total? Why are they incredibly fragile compared to the undead? What makes the reapers not undead? A: IIRC there were 4 fireplaces in the final stage, which was supposed to represent the way the fireplace was communicating to all reapers in the field. Q: Do you like turtles? How about corgis? A: Yes, and yes (although there’s way too many in Seattle now). Q: Did you have any idea Chris would break out a whole band’s worth of musicians for the soundtrack? His work was superb and the OST remains my absolute favorite to this day. A: DEADBOLT OST was actually done with many people – it must be in the credits somewhere! If I remember right, there is at least a drummer and a musician.

Thanks for all the questions, and happy hunting :)

hopoo

#deadbolt

[friendlystarfruit]

Oh no bestie… I just realised something…HERB anon…

Seriously I can’t believe they got you last time! I’ve read somewhere that HERB anon is a bot who sends the same copypasta request to different artists.

I think you should definitely check out the recent posts in the “Herb Oh Yeah Cartoons” tag 🤔 uhh they’re kinda strange.. - 🥧

Omg is it bad that I find that funny? I just went through the tag WOAH there ARE SO MANY requests , I only hope people still get to enjoy the art even if a bot asked for it

I mean its kinda shitty because the bot isn't a real person but yet I still find it funny that I got pranked xD into drawing that thing in diapers

#pie anon #anon #ask #anon ask

[studiousbees]

[App Review]—LingoDeer (Chinese)

Doing my Saturday post a bit early!

Finally got around to testing out LingoDeer’s Chinese course! This will be my last LingoDeer review. I’m going to handle this review just as I did my LingoDeer Korean and LingoDeer Japanese reviews, by talking about things I noticed as I went through the first few levels of the course (you can see below I did 8% of the course to write this review. I think that’s sufficient just to judge the starting levels, yes?). Ready?

(Apologies if some parts sound like copypasta from my previous reviews!)

What is LingoDeer?

LingoDeer is a language-learning app for the three major east Asian languages, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese. In this review, I will of course focus on the Chinese course!

Very first impressions

I already mentioned this in my previous two reviews, but LingoDeer app’s design and interface is very clean and visually appealing. The slow loading that used to plague me back when I wrote the Korean review is no longer a problem :) The loading screens I do see are processed very quickly!

Settings

In case you aren’t aware, I study Mandarin using traditional characters. It’s a preference of mine that hung over from studying Hanja in Korean. Since all of the Hanja Korean uses are traditional, I just stuck with traditional when I started learning Mandarin. You can choose to have LingoDeer display the traditional set of characters if you go into your settings! You can’t change this during learning levels, so if traditional is your preference, make sure to set it before you start a learning level! However, during learning levels you can choose if you want to see just the Hanzi (Chinese characters), just Pinyin, or both together.

"Alphabet”

The first block on the learning path is labeled “Alphabet,” and you can skip it if you would like, though of course I went in for the sake of this review! The explanation of Pinyin and the sounds that Chinese uses is VERY thorough, with a ton of great audio files so you can listen to the sounds. Again, this sort of explanatory notes system is, as I found in the Korean and Japanese courses, very robust and informative.

 When you do the Pinyin learning levels—and I admit I didn’t go through all of them because I got bored—it has you listening to initials and finals separately, then combining them into the full sounds. Doing the levels that I did, I felt like I would feel very well prepared if I were a total beginner at Mandarin.

While the Pinyin notes and explanation were awesome, what honestly blew me away was the Pinyin chart included. It shows every possible combination of initial + final + tone in Mandarin (you select the tone separately; the chart changes depending on if a particular initial + final combo is used with that tone or not). Every one of the initial + final + tone combinations has its down audio file and an option to record yourself. You hear the audio file pronunciation, then record your own, and then it plays your recording and the audio file on loop so you can compare your pronunciation to the file. Cool, right??

One more thing in the “Alphabet” section that neither the Korean nor Japanese LingoDeer courses has is a section for “Survival Chinese.” This includes a ton of useful phrases that you might need while traveling, all divided into different categories ranging from health to flirting to signs you might see in public. These are not normal learning levels—rather, you listen to the read-out of each phrase, record yourself saying it, and if the app deems your pronunciation to be good enough, you get a happy little green flag! This is an excellent feature for people who just need to learn some quick phrases. I do have one bone to pick with it, though—even with my settings set to the traditional character set, it only displays in simplified :< Boo.

Grammar notes and some oddities

After getting Pinyin down (or skipping it because you’re a boss and already know it), you can start with the first level. As with the Korean and Japanese courses, you can’t test out of the lower levels if you are already somewhat familiar with Chinese. This is unfortunate many other comparable apps, including HelloChinese, allow you to test up.

Anyway, once you tap into the first section, there are notes waiting for you if you swipe to pull up the tile to the left, only the edge of which is visible as it starts you right on an actual lesson tile. It would be nice if the notes were the first tile, because some people might miss it. Anyway, the notes are extensive and generally well done, but I did notice a few grammatical oddities and such. While they don’t really cause any misunderstandings, I feel like a more thorough editing by a native English speaker would make it feel more polished. Also, in the notes for Basics 3 I noticed some blatant errors where the wrong Pinyin was written with two characters (I reported the errors, of course).  Also, I was disappointed to see that the notes were only available in simplified.

I found some unusual grammar and translation choices in the actual learning levels as well. Again, while they did not obscure meaning, they definitely could have done with some editing. For example, the English sentence “ Peaches are a type of fruit” is the given translation for the simpler sentence  “桃是水果 (Peaches are fruit)”. Another somewhat uncomfortable example is “ 這個中國人在吃桃。,” which is translated as “The Chinese is eating the peach.” The meaning is clear, but (at least to me) it sounds strange, almost inappropriate, as we don’t usually call out a person using the form “the (insert race, ethnicity, etc. here)” except with countries where the adjective is also the noun used to refer to the people who live there. “The American is eating the peach” sounds alright, but sentences like “The Chinese is eating the peach” and “The boy likes Korean” (intended meaning was “The boy likes Korean people”) are iffy. 

Getting into learning

Now for the actual learning! Same as with the Korean and Japanese courses, the activities in the learning sections are very similar to Duolingo and HelloChinese. You can expect to do activities like matching spoken and/or written words to pictures, unscrambling sentences, filling in missing elements, deleting unnecessary elements, and more. Unfortunately, there were no speaking questions to be found. Considering that there are speaking elements in the Alphabet section, I had gotten my hopes up. 

Among the actual questions and problems you do, there are some screens for practicing writing characters. The stroke diagrams are really smooth and nice, and it’s a great way to get used to writing! But... again, all simplified! T T It really seems like the inclusion of the traditional character set was just an afterthought since so many aspects of the Chinese course do not have traditional characters in them.

Once you finish a learning level, there is the option to review what you just went through. This feature is in the Korean and Japanese courses, but I admit I never actually checked it out when I wrote those reviews and it was only later while continuing my Japanese studies that I checked it out >.> In the review section, it breaks down which new sentences and words you did poorly, well, and perfectly on. You can then choose to do more questions on those categories, or you can just tap on the words and sentences to hear them read back again. Personally, I like using this section as dictation practice, tapping on the tiles, listening, and then writing what I hear :)

There is also an option for timed review if you go back to a previously done learning level. In these timed reviews, you must try to answer all of the presented questions in a short amount of time. If you want a quick review, that’s a good way to do it!

One thing that I like a lot about these beginning learning levels is that you quickly build up vocab and they have you making sentences of five or more characters in short order! I did not feel like it babies beginner users but rather tries to push them to quickly acclimate using sentences that aren’t super short but are still simple in meaning.

Upon completion of a level, you can get up to five stars. When you first start studying, you set a goal for how many stars you want to get each day, and if you choose the lowest possible number (five) and do a single level perfectly, your study for the day is complete.

Review and stats

If you want to go back and review vocab or grammar flashcards, there is a section where you can do that. The review questions are the same as the regular level questions. You can choose to do a single lesson, or you can combine lessons for a comprehensive review. Also, there is spaced repetition listening practice, which is pretty cool. After listening, you can reveal the correct answer and rate your recall/performance “weak,” “good,” or “perfect.” You can of course use these features to make sure your knowledge doesn’t deteriorate over time!

As for stats, you can check how long your learning streak has been ongoing, and it even tells you how long you have studied for. There are some little achievement badges similar to Duolingo for things like learning time and streaks also. You can also set a time for reminders to study if you would like.

Conclusion

LingoDeer’s Chinese course is very quality despite some grammatical errors and incomplete support of the traditional set of characters. It lays a good foundation for Mandarin Chinese beginners, starting with an excellent intro to the sounds used in Chinese and moving into a well-paced course.

PROS:

GREAT audio files

Pinyin chart is AWESOME

Lots of good notes and information on grammar

Spaced repetition practice and flashcards

Study reminders

Course is paced well

Survival Chinese section

CONS:

No function to test out of lower levels

Strange grammar in notes and in learning levels

No speaking practice for normal levels (speaking on Pinyin chart and Survival Chinese is adequate)

Traditional character support is limited

#studyblr #langblr #chinese studyblr #chinese langblr #mandarin studyblr #mandarin langblr #LingoDeer #LingoDeer Chinese #app review

[mpprblaketoman]

Reddit: You Can’t Have Your Copypasta and Eat it Too

(Not the kind of pasta I was hoping for. Credit: u/rockaether)

Searching through Reddit is like searching for gold: if you’re lucky, you’ll find something incredibly valuable, but most of the time, you end up with a lot of dirt and a bit of depression. After browsing the platform extensively over the last several days, I can tell you with certainty that if you can think of a subject, it probably has its own subreddit with a dedicated community of followers with opinions on all ends of the political, social, and economic spectrum that will go to war with one another to prove they’re right.

When I initially started browsing through Reddit two years ago, it was at the prompting of a close friend who told me that if I wanted to see great, funny content, I just had to go on Reddit. While what I found on the front page of Reddit was anything other than fun or interesting, I joined a few individual subreddits, like one that covered professional League of Legends in North America. I’d maybe check up on the subreddits once a month, but it was not, and still really isn’t, a significant part of the time I spend online or on social media.

For those who didn’t understand a word of what I just said, Reddit is a social media network and content aggregator. It was founded way back in 2005 by a pair of college roommates. Where have we heard that before?

(It’s okay, Mark. You still created the more popular site.)

The core of Reddit’s brand lies in its individuality and the popularity of the content on the site, which is encapsulated in its tagline, “the front-page of the internet.” While Reddit’s terminology and active community may be different from more traditional social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, the structure and organization its content makes it, in some sense, incredibly ordinary.

Reddit and traditional social media networks have various groups of people that interact with specific types of content and only those specific types of content. On Facebook, people generally only interact with their friends' posts or the posts of pages they follow. Content is sorted based on recency, popularity, and other metrics. Reddit is much the same way, but instead of following individual people or pages, people follow a subreddit, which usually means a specific topic area. For example, you can find a subreddit on exclusively videos of people receiving a dose of instant karma or people who play a specific video game like Call of Duty. It’s a similar structure, just with different terms.

From my brief experience on Reddit and a quick search about the people who use Reddit, there’s a certain negative connotation about being a “Redditor.” Redditors are often viewed as obnoxious, poorly informed, and overly confrontational about the most minute of disagreements. For an example of what popular content creators think about Redditors, here’s a clip from MoistCr1tical, who has almost 6 million subscribers on YouTube, talking about what he thinks of when he hears the term.

(Just watch the first nine seconds. Yikes! Credit: penguinz0)

Now by no means is this true of everyone who uses the site. From my adventures in various comment sections, there can be very constructive, enlightening, or even hilarious comments that were enjoyable to read. But, as even the community will tell you, it is often the most annoying users of Reddit that will appear the most frequently in the comment sections of posts you enjoy. The majority of Reddit users are, for the most part, people simply trying to keep up on what’s trending in popular culture and what’s going on in the world around them.

To be more specific, Reddit users over-index in terms of gender, with a study from the Pew Research Center finding that 67% of the site’s users were male. Add to that the fact that the majority of users are within the ages of 18-49, and the target audience of the site becomes incredibly clear. (22% of its adult users are 18-29 and 34% are between the ages of 30 and 49.) Even in some of the popular threads on the front page, it’s clear that those age ranges and gender are a core part of Reddit’s community. Just take the trending thread titled, “A Player made sure to tell-me how horrible of a DM I am, and it cut really deep” on the Dungeons and Dragons Subreddit. (And yes, that’s 100% a real, trending thread.)

(A really... riveting story... right? Credit: u/TheFledgling)

You may notice that the thread is very text-heavy. There’s not a single image or video in the entire post, and that’s not entirely atypical of Reddit. The use of media on Reddit is highly contingent on the subject matter being discussed. For example, when people tell stories of their personal experiences or events that they witnessed, it will almost always be text-based with little to no images included. However, there are also entire subreddits devoted to people sharing pictures of cute houses or videos of police officers responding violently towards protestors. In the Reddit community, form generally follows function when it comes to media.

Unfortunately, advertisers and companies that use the platform have somewhat failed to get the memo. The majority of companies that use Reddit do so by paying for sponsored posts that contain a video ad that will most likely air on television or any other form of social media they choose. Here’s a post from Samsung recently and the 23 upvotes on the thread tell you everything you need to know about how the community received it.

(It didn’t even have a single comment. How sad!)

This disconnect between companies and their audience often gets in the way of conveying their message. Who’s going to click on what is clearly just another advertisement? Moreover, when the community starts to think that way, why would anyone ever post a reply or engage in a discussion? In fact, farm more discussion will occur on a subreddit about Samsung that isn’t run by Samsung than will occur on any of the company’s posts.

So, this post is really long, but it demonstrates a point. There are so many diverse communities on Reddit covering a plethora of topics, some of which probably shouldn’t even exist on the internet. I can’t tell you how many times I felt myself groaning at the way businesses would just place an ad in a promoted post and expect great engagement. Great engagement requires you to be engaging. That’s what makes Reddit posts popular and… well…. we could learn a thing or two from that.

[iliyovunjika]

Dealing with Aesthetic™ [ As someone with bad eyesight ]

Listen my lovelies, I understand that Aesthetic is important to some people or that you just like it. I understand that its something common now a days and I do love the various things created! However, as someone with bad eyesight, there are some things I have to take into account when I look into people’s bagels. These things can also make it so I can’t follow you even if I love your content on my mobile view! Which is why its so heartbreaking when I can’t follow you because you don’t have mobile pages available.

See, when someone’s Aesthetic™ is really gorgeous but really low saturation or really fine in print, I can’t read it. So I rely on being able to:

Read Mobile pages

Adjust my settings (zoom, contrast, etc)

Or just all around fiddle with things on my computer till its legible for me.

Why do I rely on these things instead of just being outspoken about the inability to read pages or the like because of Aesthetic™ outright? Because my eyesight isn’t the same as everyone else’s! So I make adjustments according to my own visual prowess (or rather, lack there of.) However, when someone’s bagel is:

Extremely low saturation

Muted colours on muted colours (like maroon on dark grey or something like that)

Super small text

Or all three

I can’t even make those adjustments to read your pages or look at your blog. The reason is because its so hard on my eyes that I can’t look for more than a moment. Hence why I rely heavily on mobile pages when these things happen. Now, this isn’t some shout out for people to be concerned about these things, its so you can at least be aware of people with bad eyesight and at least have some mobile pages up for us blind bats! I want to be able to read your rules, your stats, your bios, everything! I can’t follow you if I don’t read your pages because that’s like, taboo now a days, and your rules may state something vital to your own mental and physical health that I need to adhere to and I wouldn’t be able to if I can’t read it.

Mobile pages are pretty easy to put up, you just copypasta the stuff you already have really! And they really really help us bats out so much because on those mobile pages, there’s no Aesthetics™ we might be struggling with concerning our ability to read! And before you might think,”Well what about your correctional lenses? Don’t they make it so you can see clearly?” Well yes! But they don’t take away the eye strain nor do they provide anything but Clarity. Now clarity is different than being able to see text in certain shades on top of certain shades. Clarity is like providing sharpness to a blur! We can see the text, we just can’t read it because its hue or size isn’t able to reach that clarity due to the masking effect low saturated colours has. And c’mon, 8px text is really hard for anyone to read unless they sit uncomfortably close to their screen or have a magnifying thing going on.

Now please bare in mind, this is just one person who has these specific difficulties, but other bats like myself may have these issues too and it makes it very difficult for us to follow you. Even if we really love your writing or love your portrayal or anything really! Even if we really really want to get in contact with you or the like, we can’t because we can’t see your rules to know what’s okay and what’s not.

So bare in mind, Mobile Pages are phenomenal! Really, that’s the only thing I can think of that would be suitable for all eyesight troubled people because everyone has different difficulties and adjustments to make. And while some can take blinding neon or low saturation, it differs from person to person! So those mobile pages really help all around! That’s all!

I hope you beautiful starlings don’t see this as a bad thing or something you need to be cautious (or nervous) about. Remember to take your medicine, eat well, stay hydrated, rest when you need to, and know that I’m always super proud of you!!

#Psa; #OOC #L: ᵍᵃʳᵈᵉᶰ ᵏᵉᵉᵖᵉʳ | ˡᵉᵒ ;; #Q|ᵘᵉᵘᵉ ᵃʳᵉ ᵃ ᵠᵘᵃˢᵃʳ | ˡᵒᵛᵉ ʰ��ʷ ᵇʳᶤˡˡᶤᵃᶰᵗ ʸᵒᵘ ˢʰᶤᶰᵉ ;;

[hollyholy]

Writer Interview Tag

I was tagged by @maxwrite

1) What made you start writing for the first time? lol, the first first time? When I was an akward teenager, I decided I needed to write to impress a girl (which is hilarious because I was a section leader in band and the resident school artist, so if she wasn't impressed, I have NO IDEA how the heck my awkward Guns N Roses slash was gonna do the trick, but anyway...) but I hadn't really thought to get my ridiculously active imagination down on paper until my mid twenties. It's ironic, because the girl I'd tried so hard to woo with my writings is long gone from my life, but the girl who got me to give writing another shot is sitting next to me in bed answering this same set of questions. :)

The first time that counts? I'd lost my damned mind and decided to move from my cradle in warm, crowded, metropolitan Southern California to the literal middle of nowhere in what basically amounted to a tiny forest about an hour's drive from the White House. There was no running water, one working outlet, and the only internet to be had was in the (unoccupied) house next door, which meant running three phone lines attached with phone line couplers across about a half football field's worth of "yard" (aka tiny forest). I was BORED as FUCK and needed something to do, because we could only get two channels every forth blue moon, and the nearest entertainment (besides my precariously interneted computer) was in a different town. I wrote my first longfic in that house, and about five more short pieces, and from there on I was hooked.

2) If you could only write about the ocean, the forest, or the desert for the rest of your life, which one would you pick? ...uhhhhh I don't know because I kinda hate nature so everything I write tends to take place INDOORS BECAUSE WHO CARES ABOUT OUTSIDE

3) Would you ever write a memoir? girl bye

4) Do you like writing by hand, or writing with a computer? Both! I also hate both. See, the thing is, I hate writing with a vicious passion. But I'm FUCKING ADDICTED so I do it anyway. I love fountain pens and smooth paper, I love the way the ink pools in places and shimmers and dances. But I can't stand crossing shit out and having to type it in later, or smearing the damned wet ink, or dropping my book in my coffee and ruining half of what I said. I love typing noises and easy editing and copypastaing bits of work. But I can't stand the impersonal way some fonts look, no matter how cute they were when I downloaded them, and I hate the blinking cursor when it mocks me. So, yeah, I hate them both.

5) Would you rather be popular among many readers, or unpopular, but loved by critics? lol I write fanfic the readers ARE the critics

6) Do you listen to music while you write? What is the best writing music? Sometimes I listen to music. Sometimes I curate playlists full of pop and rock and country and r&b because the lyrics have particular meaning. Sometimes I listen to super long meditation videos on YouTube just to have some soothing, mindless noise in the background. Sometimes I listen to curated lists of alpha and theta wave music, in the hopes that some hippie dippy new age crystal bs will make its way through my brain fog long enough to get a word down. Sometimes I listen to a white noise app just to drown the world out. Sometimes I listen to other noise apps that have rain sounds, for the same reasons. And sometimes I use a word processor that has typing sounds so I can listen to the click clack of productivity. Ahhhh, so satisfying...

7) Do people you’ve met find their way into your writing? Not on purpose.... 

 Tagging: uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..... anybody who wants to do it, lol

#writing #memes #lol i can't #i actually remembered to do one of these things #it's a miracle

[sirfitzroymichelle]

ibuki mioda? sakura oogami?

Mioda

sexual orientation headcanon: BIG lesbian. It’s like pretty implied in the game so its not really a headcanon but

gender headcanon: she composes a song to go to the down with cis copypasta (shes a nonbinary girl) 

mental illness / neurodivergent headcanon: im not really that knowledgeable about many neurodivirgencies, so i dont have anything specific, sorry!

3 random headcanons:

1) She obviously plays guitar and sings, but she’s also really likes wind instruments, like flute. She doesn’t play them as often as guitar, but she does try working them into her songs if she can find a way.

2) She really loves interacting with her fans. Like she always goes on youtube and stuff to find covers of her songs, and writes sweet comments on all the ones she finds. She also holds alot of like meetups to hang out with them, she just really loves making people happy

3) She is not subtle. At all. If she has a crush on someone, they (and everyone else within like a 50 mile radius lets be honest) will probably figure it out within like a week. 

Oogami

sexual orientation headcanon: bi

gender headcanon: trans girl 

mental illness / neurodivergent headcanon: see above

3 random headcanons:

1) She likes sports, but only the ones that are like less… aggressive, if that makes sense? She gets enough of that in fighting. So stuff like football or basketball that involves a lot of contact are not her thing. Her favorites are tennis and golf. 

2) She’s not a huge fan of the water, either. At least she wasn’t up until she started going to Hope’s Peak. She would still never do it alone, but hanging out with Asahina made her appreciate swimming a lot more.

3) She’s not good at taking care of herself. Some days she just forgets to eat or spends too much time on training, and is just not good at managing things. She needs someone (*coughcough* Asahina *coughcough*) to remind her to do those things and to teach her that she can’t always put others’ needs before her own

#obligatory anon tag #obligatory mail tag