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prettyoddfever · 3 months

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why are you so against ryden

I'm literally only pointing out why specific examples of "Ryden proof" don't work, or were misinterpreted by people who don't know much about the band. If me being pro-reality means that you consider me anti-Ryden then, uh… you might want to examine that more.

As long as we're on this topic, I'm going to expand on an older post here and go off on a tangent:

I actually loved the Ryden part of the fandom in the pre-split days! Ryden felt like a fandom-wide inside joke that united so many fans and sparked so much creativity (sometimes it reminded me of inventing bs symbolism in english & art classes lol). I didn’t read the slash, but it’s not like those kids stayed exclusively over in their communities… they were everywhere. A lot of my favorite accounts were massive Ryden fans & fic authors. but even the most die-hard shippers in 2006 & 2007 would scoff if new fans asked if they were ever being serious with their comments. It was all just entertaining wish fulfillment done to amuse themselves. They would act like it was a legit alternate reality and write long funny primers & posts like “look guys, they are in love. this is facts… here I go with my proof," but when it came down to whether or not they actually thought it was real… no, of course not. The fanfic authors were the first to laugh and say they weren’t hurting anyone because nobody actually believed Ryden was real and everyone was on the same page. They argued that every single band had a slash community and it just came with the fame. Some fans genuinely wanted Ryden to be real, while others thought it was entertaining how you could cherry-pick events & isolate them from any context to make Ryden look plausible. And both groups were taking matters into their own hands by trying to tie enough pictures & random dots together to make it look like a happy alternate reality that satisfied everyone. It was funny.

The majority of the pre-split fandom understood that Ryden wasn’t real, so people were on the same page when they shared their “proof.” It was like an inside joke. For example, I’ll argue that unicorns could be real because I know that the person I’m talking to is aware of reality. I can get as creative as I want and just have fun because we’re both on the same page… and the other person will be like “well yes of course they’re obviously real.” It looks like we agree. But that does not mean that we truly believe it lol... we're just bored & entertaining ourselves. Someone else who is unsure whether or not unicorns actually exist might read our convo and conclude that we are certain unicorns are real and have proof! But I never intended for my silly convo with my friend to be taken that seriously.

For me, Ryden was more about the fandom. It was just fun to see a picture or new moment and wait to see if anyone else spotted the same potential too. The slash accounts across different sites/forums would even make fun of themselves for how far they would go to make everything fit Ryden. At times it felt like an affectionate joke about the band and the fandom.

I’d say the Ryden craze first took over with the huge surge of new fans during the summer 2006 tour (around the time Brendon & Ryan started fully going for the mic sharing each night). This was back when the band still read the forums and different fan sites and were trying to get a sense of what their fans were saying (such a bad idea lol). I was never totally clear on where the guys stood on Ryden in 2006 but it seemed like they were in on the joke… but it was so confusing at the same time. Like one minute they’d complain about the disgusting “pornfiction” in an interview and the next minute they’d be hamming it up for meet & greet pictures. Bden would practically hump Ryan’s leg during a show and then Ryan would suggestively run his hand up Bden’s thigh during a meet & greet exactly when he knew fans were watching… and then they’d both act like they didn’t get why fans ever came up with stories about them. I’m not saying their actions meant they were asking for something btw. I’m just saying that it’s equally true that the guys would claim they weren’t huge on Ryden and that they intentionally fueled the fire to get fans to laugh/scream at the right time. The band was super aware that the Ryden fans were a huge part of the fandom who drove a lot of the hype online… so it seemed like in late 2006 the guys were just trying to connect with a fanbase they were being quickly distanced from as they got more & more famous. Then in 2008 the guys intentionally added extra Ryden elements to their stage routine because they knew what a lot of fans still wanted to see.

So my conclusion was that it was all in good fun (except making suggestive comments to the band irl was horrible… people were even saying some seriously gross stuff to Zack about the boys and taking it waaaaay too far). During the lull of 2007, and even into 2008, there seemed to be a whole section of the fandom that was more invested in their fanfic communities than the irl band (they’d often come onto other boards & communities to ask for facts or details for their fanfics and watching the replies they got was like watching a really bad game of telephone haha so I’m guessing those plots diverged from reality pretty quickly). New fans were also being introduced to the band through fanfiction and seemed more intent on just spotting Ryden moments and learning the fanfic version of history rather than any real-life history. So by late 2008 there was definitely a small crowd who was taking Ryden more seriously and also understood less about the band. But I wasn't always sure if their tone was totally serious or not, because the joking posts had often been written in a serious tone too.

Side note on that: when I started this account in 2020 I hadn't thought about P!ATD much while I had been sick for years. I was just trying to throw myself back into the mindset of 2006 and rediscover a time when my world had been awesome & I was healthy. So when I saw all the sun/moon theories that had formed after I'd left the fandom I was like YES omg this is amazing. I lived for that kind of stuff. But then it was confusing how the same people who were currently posting all of the “ryden was real” stuff were the same ones who would quickly point out that another one of my Ryden posts wasn’t what really happened or that a photo manip that I considered fun was actually fake… I mean, obviously??? I didn’t get why there was any difference between everything. It took me a few months to get a read on the current fandom and realize that things weren't being done in the same joking spirit. I started struggling to explain why I was posting Ryden-ish stuff if I didn’t necessarily believe what I was saying (and again I’m having a hard time explaining here because it never felt like the fandom was making up crap we didn’t stand behind back then! we were serious that we believed it was a darn good connection/theory or photoshop job haha). Ryden used to be like this shared alternate lens to view events through that felt like teamwork to create. We would intentionally pretend like years of full context didn't exist and create our own parallel narrative that could coexist with reality in our minds. But now it feels like people are sharing "Ryden proof" for real as though the piles of creative nonsense are an actual recap of historic events... and you need to pick some kind of "side" to believe? Idk, it's weird. I dropped any remaining nostalgia connected with Ryden content and ended up shifting the tone & focus of my account to organizing actual facts, media, and info about events I remember.

I don't think it's ok that moments in the band's history are often distorted or erased in order to pass off certain examples of “Ryden proof” as real now. It would be a shame for ridiculous Ryden stories to be prioritized as key info about the band while normal info about band members & events gets ignored now (ex: turning Northern Downpour into some kind of Ryden thing totally erases what Ryan wanted to do with the song). A lot of people have told me that they don’t care what actually happened because they prefer their ideas anyways. And that’s fine, as long as you’re aware that what you’re choosing doesn't track with reality. (Also, I always felt like knowing the real events or original photos from a manip gave me more appreciation for how creative people were… but I suppose that’s because Ryden was more about the fandom for me).

SIDE TANGENT: I drifted away from the fandom after summer 2009 when I got sick, so I don’t know specifically what happened over the next couple years to get so many fans who were impressively uninformed about the band yet super intense about Ryden at the same time... but I'm also not surprised I guess. Some knowledge about the band absolutely faded to the background in the last half of 2006 as the overwhelming amount of newer fans invented their own answers and were more interested in freaking out over cute guys than actually taking the time to learn about the band. The knowledge wasn't lost, it was just drowned out for a while in the midst of their enthusiastic chatter. It felt like a waste of time to correct them too because they were absolutely everywhere and they weren't really harming anyone by screaming things like Ryan took his mom as a date to the VMAs lol. Maybe there was a surge of younger fans by 2010-2011 who didn't have the context to know what they were looking at too, and were very enthusiastic about Ryden? I don't know. This is all purely speculation on my part.

I actually don't care whether anyone thinks Ryden was real or not... that's definitely not my focus and I'm not trying to convince anyone of a "side" either. You can conclude whatever you want. My focus in my posts is simply to provide context for some of the inaccurate stories & examples that are currently being passed around as though they're actual history. I don't expect anyone to care. But at least the info is still available for any younger fans who might be interested in the real-life band.

#ryden

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countfagulaa · 10 months

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Has anyone got any headcanons for modern day Granada Holmes and Watson?

I am bored so here are some of mine from the top of my head:

- Holmes posts random pretty pictures of scenery and flowers he finds during long walks on his Instagram (the only reason he got one was to look up clients or perps and know more about them). Never interacts with anyone besides the occasional liking of a post and liking all of Mycroft and John’s posts which he sometimes, although rarely, comments on only to correct anything he might get wrong about him or a case. Holmes is all Watson ever posts about (obviously).

- Watson grows a beard. Mustaches aren’t as popular nowadays as they used to be making beards more “acceptable” so he’d probably have a neatly trimmed beard instead, which Holmes is not opposed to in the slightest.

- Holmes drives a black Cadillac. It was a gift from a wealthy past client that wanted to show his gratitude. Holmes rarely drives it when he has no case, choosing to walk and think instead, but drives like a crazy man when he does. Watson drives an old muscle car. Like a 1970s Chevy or a Mustang from 1965. Nothing too fancy or expensive but enough class to drive in. He’s had it since Med School and left it behind in storage for when he returned from the war. He refuses to ride when Holmes is at the wheel but refuses to drive in separate cars when they go out together so they take his car instead. Holmes doesn’t care too much for his own car anyway (it was a gift, after all) so he does not mind this at all.

- Holmes takes Watson out to the movies frequently. Usually drive-ins that screen old classics. The modern day equivalent of going out to watch a play. They both enjoy attending concerts as well. That includes both orchestra and band/single artist concerts. Also Holmes likes Mistki. There’s no way he wouldn’t.

- The Irregulars are still very much around to help Holmes whenever he asks for them but they communicate more via group chats on text messages. They still show up in person of course but they spam that group chat like crazy when out and about looking for whatever it is Holmes asked for. They also sneakily take photos of Holmes off guard then giggle about it later. He catches them in the act most of the time and poses before they can get away with it. Holmes absolutely bought them all phones for Christmas and you cannot convince me otherwise.

- Watson sends Holmes random selfies throughout the day when running errands. Sometimes just for fun and sometimes just to subtlety show off how good he might look on that particular day.

- Holmes never really takes many selfies but when he does it’s mirror pics of an outfit he especially likes on himself. Watson saves every single one of them. Holmes has Watson as his home screen wallpaper. He never lets him see that he does, but Watson is aware of it. He also has Holmes as his home screen wallpaper. Holmes does not notice for a while but when he does he turns into a flustered mess.

- Mycroft lags when texting because he falls asleep after not getting a response in less than ten minutes. Holmes simply spams his phone until he responds or, when he’s especially annoyed with him, calls him and sasses him into texting back. I imagine him calling and saying something like this:

Mycroft: Hello?

Holmes: Oh, you are alive!

Mycroft: What made you think I was dead??

Holmes: Well, what am I to think when you leave me on read for five hours then not notice the very fact that I’ve been messaging you continuously for another hour and a half?

Holmes: At that point, surely you must be dead.

Mycroft: *hangs up*

#sherlock holmes #granada holmes #john watson #sherlock #jeremy brett #johnlock #sherlock x john #acd holmes #dr watson #granada johnlock

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gowns · 1 year

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stupid little discount tricks, since people are asking

when shopping online: sign up for the email newsletter. there's usually a signup discount code for 5-15% off. (you can unsubscribe later)

search "website" + "discount code" "coupon code" etc

have a credit card plug in like the one i have that automatically searches for coupon codes

fill your shopping cart then "abandon it" and you might get an email offering you a discount

check social media, because every once in a while a company will advertise a sale or code on an instagram graphic and nowhere else.

keep track of when companies do their seasonal sales and the amounts (kind of playing the long game here). but for instance, when hanna andersson was having a 20% off sale a couple months ago i held off because i knew there was a 40% spring sale coming up. at the end of every season, they do big sales to try to offload things to make room for the new season's inventory.

search for items on reselling sites e.g. poshmark, ebay, etc, and watch the prices and how they compare to retail. depending on the item you may also want to scope out craigslist, fb marketplace. you know that 40% off hanna andersson sale i mentioned? it still won't be as dirt cheap as finding those clothes on facebook.

you know the junk mail you get? that also has coupons... you can play the long game here with some "extreme couponing," comparing the different discounts that come out from different stores at different times.

never buy anything full price, unless it's urgent or some kind of everyday purchase

(this one i learned from my bastard stepfather, it's not great for retail workers but you will usually get a discount): when shopping in person, find a dumb little flaw in an item then bring it up to the cashier and be like "oh there's a button missing (or what have you) can i have a discount?" usually the retail workers are like "ughhhh horrible little man. sure. have a discount." this does not always work and fills me with shame whenever i do it but when it does work. hey. discount!

if you combine all these things you will find yourself never paying full price for anything. discounts forever.

more saving money tricks:

join your local buy nothing group - this is a facebook thing but they're also trying to build up the website. post an "ISO" (in search of) whatever you need and you'd be surprised at what you can find. we got a lot of our furniture and rugs from the buy nothing group when we moved. for freeeeee

(this one sounds like an ad but it's not i just like my service:) to save on your phone bill, use a service like twigby, which will buy out your phone contract and then you pay a discount for the same cell plan / cell towers. i pay only $25 a month for a lot of data and texts. i used to pay like $100 a month for the same. i've had it for years now, nothing shady about it.

keep receipts for everything, you can return most things. if the return policy is strict, begging and pleading works sometimes.

speaking of begging and pleading. you guys know about like, gym memberships and dance classes? i used to do customer service for a ballet studio that used a popular fitness CRM. if people emailed me like "hey my classes expired, can you please put them back :(" i would do it. it's very easy to do it - i'd just go into their account and adjust it. so like, imagine: people who didn't email customer service would just have expired classes. people who DID email me with a sad email like "hey my classes expired can you help :(" would usually get extended classes, refunds, trades for comparable services, etc.

remember all the secondhand sites mentioned above? whatever you buy, you can later resell. it takes a little bit of time to take pictures and write out the details in the reselling posts, but if you're hurting for money it's not a bad way to get $. people will buy random things. computer parts. old video games. furniture. clothes and shoes are very easy to resell on a site like poshmark or depop, but you can also search facebook for certain clothing brands and find B/S/T (buy sell trade) groups. also search for your town + "swap meet" / "classifieds" "resell" / "buy sell trade" etc groups.

(another tip from the bastard stepdad, i do not fully endorse this but hey, it works in times of desperation): to maximize value at a restaurant, you can take things that are out on the table, like sugar, pepper, jam, etc. if you want to get real silly about this you take advantage of free bread / free chips by scooping them all into a tote bag. (i was rattled with shame when my stepdad did this when i was younger but you know what. it's a thing you can do.)

grocery-specific tips:

always look at the number next to the retail price, with the unit price. you want the cheaper unit price 95% of the time. it only doesn't make sense to buy the cheaper unit price when you're buying something for a really limited use. look around the item for similar items and make sure you're getting the best value. this was drilled into me at a young age but not everyone knows about this

always scope out the corners of a grocery store, they usually have a rack of discounted / about to expire food that is usually fine.

there is also dumpster diving which is also usually fine. i don't have too many tips about this because it's not my forte but the tips are out there; when grocery stores are closing they want to just get rid of stuff. so take advantage. weird tip here: go to a farmer's market when they're about to close. a lot of the purveyors just want to go home and will totally sell you their stuff at a cheaper rate so they can pack less into their truck. this works especially well for bread products at the farmer's market because they won't be able to sell day-old bread at the next day's farmer's market.

when you're living high on the hog from all your discounts, make sure you give freely in return. i donate food to food pantries and community fridges; i give away stuff on my buy nothing group + shelters; i put books in the free little libraries; etc.

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otwdfanfic · 5 months

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Very random and out of pocket but!! A few weeks ago I followed some classes on designing book covers based on themes and what you want possible readers to feel when seeing the book for the first time.

So it's been a while since I did that, and I got to thinking, what if I make some little cover sketches for otwd to practise? After some thinking and rereading some of the earlier chapters, I put down a little concept;

The most important part, for me, was showing one of two main things that really jumped out to me when reading; the ocean/freedom and betrayal. So, I jotted down some things for either idea.

For the ocean/freedom, I decided to go with a bit more of a traditional cover, very balanced, very light, as Nuffink's story isn't dark from the very start. I'd combine it with lighter shades of blue (to connect it to Nuff's main colours as well) with the colours darkening in ITPN and book three (see the colour palette in the top! Would also help the cold of itpn stand out)

In the first option, I also thought it would be really cool if the ocean was parting slightly as a way to invite nuffink to its waters, real "child of the ocean" vibes (and also to keep the image more balanced). The mist in the background would be a nod back to HTTYD and RTTE, where the mists to both the Dragon Island and into the Great Beyond was a symbol for mystery and adventure. And that's what Nuff's doing! He's going on an adventure that's gonna scar him for life! I'm still contemplating if the Chicken should be drifting on the ocean in the bg, but I think it would be a very good nod to Nuffink being invited onto the open waters. This cover would be leaning towards a light blue!

The second cover I based on the theme of betrayal and, more literally translated into the image, backstabbing. This would be much darker and colder immediately, which I'm not certain is the best decision considering the first chapters of otwd aren't outright dark, but it would display the idea of betrayal very well! As for colours, again, it would be darker, but still keeping the idea of blue to connect it back to Nuff and his ocean. The knife would be hanging just above his back (which would also be pretty significant as for the most part in otwd, he's not actively being betrayed, it's more hanging above his head and hits him at the end and thus it hanging above his back instead of already being in his back would make this more clear)

Anyways, that was a bit of my thought process behind these cover ideas! I'm not entirely certain if I'll work them out (it really depends on time lmao) but just in case I won't, here are the sketches and the ideas!

Again, this might be very out of pocket but I just love thinking about these kind of things haha

That class sounds really cool omg. I love these ideas! I've brainstormed otwd covers in the past but very generic ideas like just a picture of the kids flying on their dragons lol not so much theme based like a real book cover.

The composition of the first idea reminds me of the painting Wanderer above the Sea of Fog which is soo fitting! I like the idea of ocean/freedom/betrayal as the fundamental themes for the first one and it's interesting to think how the themes would change over time through itpn and totg. Do you know the book series Red Queen? They're sitting on my shelf rn and the covers have a similar shade of blue and each book is darker as the story becomes darker, I love the effect.

My dream would be to eventually commission a set of matching covers like these (maybe after I finish all 3 fics or at least start posting totg) and also make my own set of covers. If I ever make my own set I'd probably give each character their own cover- maybe Nuffink for otwd, Baldur for the downed dragon, Bjorn for itpn, Eret for the dancing and the dreaming, and Zephyr for totg? Gustav's prequel would be tricky lol

#httyd #otwd

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the1weepinqguitar · 7 months

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tally hall sketches and other assorted doodles

Here ya go guys! I also have improvement pics from last year! Almost two years in the Tally Hall fandom! Woohoo! My Marvin's CD is gonna hate me even more after all of this

A Ross sketch! I'm super proud of how it turned out! Below is a close-up!

The aforementioned close-up, showing the shading on his face and the folds of his sleeve!

Zubin! I love the side profile, and I used his picture in the MMMM booklet as a reference! Close up below, so you can see some of the more fine details/shading

the close-up!

Here's Andrew! His hair is kinda hard to not fluff-ify, but I dealt with it anyways and tried my best to keep it close to reality. Obligatory close(r)-up below.

next will be some other random stuff, mostly tally hall, but some of it is oc art

drew this drawing of Ross last September. Not amazing but very stylized, which I love/hate. the tag on the bottom left reads, "he's rather disheveled but this is the best I could do back then"

wtf is he doing? He in an action movie or something? btw this was last-year's andrew. very stylized. i hate it.

decided not to include the other last-year Rob cause i hate it deeply. this one's much better. very fluffy. i dont like the collar tho

just me poking fun at my horrendous attempts at stylizing joe. im not gonna draw him as much as the others btw.

This is from an au created by @bonkdd, but i did rob and andrew's designs bc i never saw his designs for them. i also added a lot of lore and plot stuff because i really liked the concept. in simple terms the tallies are robots that were abandoned by Marvin after he passed away so now they're falling apart n stuff without him to care for them (that's why rob hides his face). Anyways, huge thanks to Bonk for the original idea! They're a great artist, you should go check them out!

Edith, drawn/sketched with a ballpoint pen.

Another one. I like this one better, but I spent two days on this one versus a half on hour on the other so i guess it makes sense

Adrian and Reuben (OCs), done in a college-ruled notebook bc i ran out of pages in my sketchbook. next is a close-up so you can see more shading.

probably my favorite gay couple i've ever written ngl

Ace again, but wearing Reuben's favorite sweater.

Looking mighty fine!

He's lookin' tough, he's got the stuff, he's got the spiffy shades... (/lyric)

pose practice

Boll weevil, why don't you get out of your home? (/lyric)

old art jumpscare - i actually kinda like this one, might redraw it. Below is the full thing

why is zubes staring like that??? its creepy

here's another. i don't know why it's sideways. andrew is scared of joe btw, this isn't the entire drawing

Did an embossing peice. It's the Mojo Chessmaster! I tried by best to make it as detailed as possible, and I think I did pretty alright. The neck was probably the worst part to do. Below are close-ups

the head of the guitar was a pain in the ass.

This part was also pretty tricky but it came out okay. the dials at the bottom are raised as much as I could get them to go, so I'm not worried about them. My issue here was the pickups.

I also added Flansburgh's little signature guy but i drew his hair because why not? Anyways this piece took me a good hour or so to finish, I think it'll fetch a good grade (it was for my metal design class).

I'll add a sketch I just did as a bonus:

it's from a tally hall fanfic/au i made back in may after my grandpa passed away. It was a great stress-reliever and I still really like how it turned out. It's about cryptids and monsters and shit. I'll post a summary on a different post because this one was mostly for the drawings. I might post a few installments of it on my ao3. It could be a weekly thing since i usually have time on fridays to write.

Once again, a close-up is available below.

I put literal hours of research on cryptids and of the area (ann harbor, MI) while writing this fic. It was fun though, and it helped me a lot. Feel free to ask me anything about the plot or world-building !

#ivan's art tag #tally hall fanart #oc art #random assorted sketches and stuff #buh-bye

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manonamora-if · 1 year

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Post-comp-mortem

I was debating on whether to publish this post before or after the voting ended. I was wondering if it would influence the player's opinion of the game too much/at all. Even after seeing a few popping up on the Forum, I still felt a bit weird about releasing mine. I was also hoping to get a few more reviews/comments as well :P

If you haven't checked the IF Comp entries this year, I really recommend it!

This post will be hella long too. I am not kidding here, don't click Keep Reading/scroll further if you don't have a drink and are seated, it is almost a novella below. Also, it is a mix of very dry summary/emotional reaction. Like my entry, it might look like a mess. There is a TLDR on the Forum.

Table of Content:

1- Some Points about creation and process 2- So, did I manage to do what I wanted? 3- And what was the verdict? _ _ a. The Reviews _ _ b. Result and Further comments 4- What's the future for TTTT? 5- Some fun tit bits... 6- In Conclusion,

For people who don't follow me here (or only started following me recently), I've only been in the IF Community for about a year and a half by now, with my first game (Meeting the Parents) published in early June 2021. I have only created things with Twine (and mainly on SugarCube) and had not had any coding knowledge before starting my own project.

I- Some points about creation and process.

The Thick Table Tavern was actually conceptualised back in 2021, when I wanted to dip my toes into a bigger competition after completing Exquisite Cadaver. Since I had created MtP and EC (and the first part of CRWL) pretty quickly, I thought the two months ahead of me would be plenty enough to create a whole new game and submit it.

I've always loved Fantasy settings and RPGs, but often wondered why there were very little games centred around less heroic occupations or what would be the life of an NPC, like a bartender in a tavern (probably because it might be pretty boring). I also have very fond memories of those Flash games where you would build meals/drinks (RIP Flash).

I knew from the get-go that two components where going to be central to the game: the drink mixing aspect and your interactions with the NPCs. Instead of having random customers dropping in, I thought of 5 fleshed-out NPCs which would come, talk a bit with you about their story and order drinks. You might have been able to influence them a bit. But that would be it. Above all, I wanted a chill and light vibe, with Trope-y characters (ex: a coward but flirty bard, a pirate always in trouble, etc). I wanted people to relax and have some light fun, and enjoy themselves.

I worked on the project for about 2 weeks, having submitted my intent, started testing some code for the bartending side and written the introduction of the game and 2 characters (give or take 3k words).

Then I kind of... burned out.

Fast forward this summer, and I am back working on the project. Granted, I was not fully into the game at that point, since I was working on the re-writes of EC at the same time too. But I had sketched out the UI and was thinking about the code during writing EC. And I was talking my friends ears off about it too. What I knew for sure, is that the Bartending experience would be the core gameplay/interactivity of the game, with the story wrapped around it (giving you a reason to mix drinks).

Here are some pictures of my very pretty handwriting about the UI and how the story/bartending should be formatted/coded.

Throughout July, I would take breaks from writing EC to set up the UI for this game (or create a SugarCube template because I have not self-control), learn more about grids, flex boxes and class hierarchy. [No joke, I learned A LOT about CSS/HTML with this game!]

August came around and my other projects were put on hold so I could focus on TTTT (I still did other stuffs, because again, no self-control). I probably didn't start writing until the last third of August, as I researched drinks recipe (I still have a form for future drinks addition, you can add your favourite), made lil' bottles and set the bar. Even then, the amount written was pretty marginal compared to September.

September was wild. I wrote about 45k words total during that month, averaging 2.5k/days by the latter half of the month. Not all that I wrote ended up being included in the entry, as I had to cut some NPCs since I didn't feel they were ready (which included a travelling salesman monk). Being oh so lucky, I caught Covid just as the last week of the comp started. And since I hate following my/sound advice, I kept writing and coding through that and insomnia until the last hours of the deadline. This was obviously reeeeaaaaallly dumb, it made me super exhausted after the whole thing, but I still pushed myself and even with the whole hazy brain I managed to submit the game with... a bunch of bugs (and a lot more typos). In retrospect, that should have been my sign to pause the project and submit next year.

All and all, I don't think I spent more than 3 months on the game, during which half of that time was being shared with other projects (old and new ones). Still, my goal was to submit a working game... and to rank in the top-half of the ranking overall.

II- So, did I manage to do what I wanted?

Short answer: definitely not. But I gave it my best shot...

Long answer: I managed to do more than I thought I would, especially as the deadline crept closer. My plan from the beginning (of this year's try, not the original beginning) was to build the game in 3 stages:

The basic create/serve drinks with no interaction with customers.

The NPCs you only meet once and appear randomly, with choices that have little repercussion on that NPC and story overall.

The Big NPCs who come back multiple times (4/5 times, depending on their story) with choices that impact both the player and the NPC. And you build a bit of relationship with those.

The first stage took a while mainly because I had to create a whole bar from scratch. I could have chosen to stick with a simple design/asset for the bottles (like the one you could see in my first attempts of the bar), but damn, this is the IF Comp, not some basic Jam... Go big or go home! While I didn't struggle too much with the mixing part, it was the serving/check the ingredients and optimisation of the code that gave me a few headaches. {And still does...}

The second step was thwarted almost as soon as I started, when I realised TTTT needed a lot more fluff parts to link each game block (morning, between drinks, end of day) to make the experience smoother. Like the randomness of the drinks I didn't want players becoming bored with starting/ending each days. So there's a lot there that took priority for a while. __Still, I managed to include some NPCs. Out of the 11-ish NPC ideas I had, one was fully included (the oldie couple), one was a re-hash of the last year's version of the Adventurer (Dylan), and one was added last minute out of frustration (the 4th Wall break). The Fortune Teller doesn't really count in my book, as she was always part of the Introduction (and written almost completely last year).

And the last one... *throw hands in the air*

I knew it was going to be very hard to include this one, especially since it required a bit more planning for the day (and work around the randomisation) and having to take into account the different variations. Not being able to include this one ended up not bothering me as much as I thought it would be. I get to keep it for an after-comp update... :D

What I manage to include which was not planned was, like I mentioned, the random linking bits and the long-form Endings. None of them were really interactive (nor had much choice aside from knocking the sign or setting the tip jar), and may have thrown the player off when everything gets randomised by Day 2. There is only the Setting Up/Cleaning the Tavern where you can get the same/similar enough text.

Ezabell and Brom were also not planned at all. In last's year's version, out of the tavern's employees, you'd only interact with your Boss (and Filessandro as one of the recurrent NPCs). I was really happy with Ez especially, and how much colour she brought to the tavern (and writing banter with her was so fun!). She was probably one of my favourite character to write (along with the Oldies).

There were also a lot more things I had to cut for time, whether it was writing or coding. This is a non-exhaustive list: the Tip Jar getting stolen event, The Watcher coming half-way through the game to check on your progress, having more options/choices when talking to people (patrons and employees), having an Ending Recap for the NPCs, having a choice at the End on whether to buy/pursue your original background choice...

So at the end, the agency stayed quite low (where most consequences happen when you create drinks). After the first day, there is very little new choices.

There were many things with the final version that made me frustrated, among others:

Misusing my time, forcing me to cut back on what I wanted to include, just because something new and shiny took over my brain (it's not new, I can have the attention of a toddler sometimes).

Definitely not realising early how much I was trying to include from the get go, in terms of words and code, and how much time I would need to manage it all (lol at me thinking the summer would be enough for this chunky of a game).

The Watcher and Fortune Teller's spiel heavily relied on the player having choices with consequences talking to the recurrent patrons (Step 3) and proposing activities/giving advice to the one-time NPCs (Step 2). Since 3 was scraped, and 2 was not finished... I ended up setting some mystery for pretty much nothing...

Not having a more rigorous proofreading period. A lot of what was written was done so very late into the process, and while I did use some proofreading programs, I should have taken more time to re-read my text, edit it more and correct it all. It is obvious where I put more effort/love... (yes, it's the Oldies)

Have beta testers a bit earlier to catch all the bugs I corrected on Day 1/2 of the voting period (that's related to the time management points above).

Not being able to have more NPC's during the day (adding 3-4 one-timers to the game more would have been great!)

Not having time to include music :(

Getting Covid... (not that I could do much about that :P)

I could have chosen to fix a lot of those issues/add more content half-way through the Comp, but it felt a bit like cheating... And honestly, I was too tired after that.

Still, there are many things I am very proud of achieving:

Actually submit an entry to the Comp (even with the bugs/typos still there...) !

I created a completely new UI all by myself from scratch, which has completely different designs depending on which passage the player is in (Title page, Main Story, Bar, The Notebook/Frenzy List).

Have I talked everyone's ears off about the Bar yet? Definitely not. Because it is hella cool. I spend a lot (maybe too much time) on it, editing each bottle/box so they would feel distinct enough from each other. My first attempt last year was... a whole mess with list points... ew...

I started dabbling more with CSS animations (the menu button in the Main Story, the text shaking, the starting page, etc...), all of which required A LOT of tweaking to get right (and including an accessible option too).

Creating more complicated widgets and learning how to optimise my code (I managed to remove over 500 lines of TwineScript code at once...) which was a fun puzzle to be honest.

Adding very last-minute addition with the Arcade Mode and the Restocking (which taught me about messing with CSS classes at random), which I think was a pretty good addition.

Adding as much accessibility tools as I could (key binding, toggles for animation, text formatting, etc...).

Look at this Passage Map! There's a lot of text/code in those...

Finally... Not submitting the game with only the Bar mixing as the whole game. The mixing mechanic without any text would probably not have gone over well.

Overall, a lot of frustration but also a lot of pride (I definitely felt that last one mixed with anxiety when I pressed the Upload button the first time). I was really impressed with myself for being able to do this much in such short amount of time (considering everything).

Would the game have benefitted from a bit more time, attention and love? Definitely (especially, the writing). Do I regret submitting it like this? Not even one bit! There were a lot of new things I hadn't done before or even came across with my other projects until now. I've gone even deeper into Sugarcube, CSS and even some JavaScript (my nemesis)!

III- And what was the verdict?

Before going into the reviews/comments I got publicly/privately or the ranking/votes (apart from 3B, I wrote this post before the results), I won in the eyes of some important people (to me). Of course the ranking/votes matter to a certain extent, but I feel like I already had a little victory even before the reveal of the ranking. My biggest offline supporters, some of whom never played any IF before (nor knew it existed), absolutely adored the game, especially the bartending bits. My folks were so amazed about what I done (especially as their view of the gaming world was pretty... narrow/negative to say the least). And I was so happy they tried something they never done before too! I'm glad I got to introduce IF to new peeps :P

There was even a small contest with my family on who could get the most drinks done in the Timed Arcade Mode (the 38 cocktail highscore has yet to be broken)! Also, bless my sister for spamming her friends to play the games... They even sent her messages back about what they played and how cool IF is :)

A- The Reviews

[Again, this was written before the results] According to the Review Spreadsheet, I have gotten 13 reviews on the Forum/IFDB: 7 on the Forum (?), 5 on IFDB (9 ratings). This is about the average amount of reviews games got this year. I received a few more messages through Tumblr and Discord about my entry as well. (Note: one review disappeared from IFDB during the voting period)

First of all, I want to thank again every one of you who not only tried the game, left a vote, and for some of you even a review. Everyone who took their time to share what they thought of my little bartender simulation and to answer some question when they stumbled upon some bugs too.

Here are some cute titles of reviews I got: Innovative Bartending Simulator, A lengthy and somewhat heartwarming game about running a tavern, Bar game of my dreams, Lots to like with this one, Beautiful Gameplay, Fun Mixing Minigames...

A few reviewers "played the game" and included drink puns in their reviews, which I absolutely adored. One was really nice and pushed through their first impression of the game to give it a fair shot (I put a nauseating gif in the starting screen, which couldn't be turned off until the next passage...), when they didn't have to.

I should probably mention the elephant in the room before getting into the comments: out of the reviewers on the Forum, only one or two did not run into what we called the Groundhog Day bug (the Brom event repeating itself for no reason), while on Tumblr, only one person ran into it (and even then it was with only one of their playthrough) AS FAR AS I KNOW since I didn't get more reports. Sooo... that really sucked so see :/ Fun fact: Covid was kicking my ass while I was writing that event. Maybe it was a sign...

That bug was something I could not recreate for the life of me, nor did it appear on any savefile I was able to get my hands on (thank you again!). Unluckily for me too, this looked like it was a cache bug: yay for the code not being the culprit (Thanks Twine Discord), booo because this was something that could not really be fixed because it was not browser/extension specific (emptying the cache helped). This obviously/probably affected more people's rating of the game to no fault of my own nor theirs. Just bad luck. The only common denominator here seem to be the IFComp website. Maybe it was the source of the issue? But at the same time I didn't get anymore reports after that... I can't say for sure until I upload the game on itch and more people raise the same issue. Also it worked meh on tablets, my mom showed me... Impossible to click on the garnishes...

SO! I rounded all the comments I got from everywhere (save for the offline one, because they are more than bias and just said I was the best; they swore they were fair in the ratings tho) on a spreadsheet and made two columns: what worked and what didn't. I wanted to address the comments in a Post-Mortem rather than answering them on the Forum too much, partly to avoid writing in an emotional state. I will be paraphrasing below, since quite a few aspects were shared by multiple people. Overall, the reviews were quite positive, ranging from very neutral to overly positive.

The Bartending Mini-Game

Let's start with the Bartending Mixing-bit. From the reviews, it was a bit of a coin flipper. Some REALLY enjoyed the mixing aspect, and how relaxing and fun it felt; others found it too grind-y and monotonous. This is not surprising, game mechanics are very much a personal preference. Though having a randomiser during Frenzy giving you up to 9 drinks meant that someone could end up with making 20 drinks during one day... which is a lot considering the size of story.

The difficulty settings were not as challenging as it appeared, nor did it give any sense of progression in skills. While the latter was partly explained in the story (you've been a bartender for a while, you should know your stuff), it was mainly because I did not think about that at all (or how to implement it). Similarly with the Difficulty Settings, I thought the differences would be large/annoying enough between each of them, but it wasn't really [I did get some interesting ideas from the reviews tho!].

When it came to combining ingredients and serving drinks, some thought it was great fun, other felt some responses were missing. The random colours appearing can be confusing (it's just because it's fantasy ~magic~). And outside of serving drinks to named NPCs, you do not know whether you've done well when serving the drink until the end of the day (that'll be easily fixed with some notifications).

There was a little hitch with the UI, with the longer recipes requiring a bit of scrolling to find the last ingredients (I knew about that, and thought it would still be ok to be left as is, turns out not really :/ ) and some notifications not appearing (known issue with the macro used when clicking too much in a short span). Still the overall visual was really well received, and people really liked the names of drinks and how diverse they were (there were 29 when I submitted). I also forgot cherries were not berries... I should rename the pot Red Fruits instead later...

Shoutout to the Arcade Mode being a bit of an MVP here, making people compete for highscores! (And people sending me good points to make it more fun)

The Writing

This was where I lost a lot of peeps (and for fair reasons). The biggest gripe people had was related to the writing needed a lot more proofreading/edits, as it made reading distracting at best, confusing and boring at worst. This is not new to me, I've had comments about typos on other projects too (there's even a special section to report typos in my usual bug forms...), but it was worse here because of the time constraint (inflicted on myself, having written most of the game in September). Blaming it on English being my second language is not even fair, I could have asked other people to take a look at the text {Some users in the Forum do that!}. Honestly, compared to when I started or where I was even at the start of this year... I've progressed a lot (ahem... current version of MtP still online being a whole mess and a half). I still have a lot to learn and grow in my style, but I'm getting there!

Quite a few reviews advised to cut 25% of text in each passage, as the prose was either awkward, too long, threw the pacing off, or was unnecessary. Again, not really news to me. I am a very descriptive writer, I like to go on and on about small details. [Look at this review...] Still, while I will definitely edit the text (since it is necessary), I don't think the amount of text will be cut this drastically (I like my descriptions, thank you very much :P).

On the plus side, people enjoyed the snarky and humorous tone of the story, making for a fun experience overall. Yay for keeping a consistent funny tone :D

I've had lovely compliments about the dialogue, which is amazing, because it's a thing I struggle with the most (aside from proofreading, lol). It's so hard to be sure to have distinct voices between characters (and keep that up), have a good pace/back and forth between them, etc... I think working on the EC re-writes just before (which is 95% dialogue) helped me a lot there.

The Story

I've also had positive return on the story itself, as it was playful and chill. Some even found the story immersive with cute and fun storylets. Honestly, I tried to have fun while writing. Each tit bit was framed to bring a laugh or a smile in mind. This was the tone I wanted throughout the whole game anyway, and I am glad people vibed with it. Some also found the worldbuilding intriguing (I got quite a handful of asks about it after the release).

On the other hand, some found the story having nothing to say, with a lot of missed opportunity in the theme and concepts introduced leading to nothing or being brushed off quickly. A large part of it has to do with me cutting a lot of the story to make the deadline, removing a lot of choices (because variations would require more writing and time). The rest of it being just... life. The game's story is essentially a slice-of-life. Life doesn't always make sense and is often just random. There's not point to it.

Still the replayability of the game was noted, with the amount of randomisation of the fluff text. I made sure there was enough variation for players who needed the full 14 days to complete the game (sooo much writing 😭).

Another issue related to the pacing, was with the introductions. Because I did not just do one, I made two of them. It made sense in my head, since I was probably thinking wayyyy to ahead (with all the planned aspects of the game included) and thought it would be the best way to introduce, well, everything. But it made the first day needing more than 30min to complete (which is already 1/4 of the allocated voting play per game). The first intro felt very long and required a lot of clicking (or space-bar pressing with the keybinds). Both were very disjointed with the other. And fair... after the first day, it's pretty much thought of being a bad dream (even when you meet the 4th wall character).

With how the story was written, it left very little choice for the players to have (if you disregard choosing to serve a good drink or not), with most having little consequences on the story as a whole. The only thing driving your end result was either running into a bug (fixed) or getting the required amount of gold. This was not always noted positively. Again, understandable, I had to cut a lot more than planed to make the deadline, turning the MC's agency into a very minimal state. Still, some reviewers did not mind or realised how little choice you actually have (thank you Mixing section and Characters for the distraction!).

The Characters

My pride and joy. And also more positive comments there. Almost everyone had something nice to say about the characters, whether it was finding them overall quite fun or well-constructed. There were so many lovely adjectives used about the NPCs, I was so so so so happy people liked them as much as I did.

From the storylets, the Oldie Adventurers seemed to be everyone's favourite (they were mine as well) and the 4th Wall Character got a good laugh (yay for self-deprecating humour). Getting this kind of response was SO validating.

Aside from it, the tavern's employees/boss were also well received, even if they were quite the stereotypical kinds. Hey... If it works, it works!

Some found the camaraderie between the tavern peeps touching (which works even more if you get a "good" ending). A few notes were given on the confusing appearance of Brom, which is fair because depending on the randomisation of the text you'd get introduced to him as the cook or you'd just think he'd be a weirdo doing strange things in the tavern. Similarly, the characterisation of the boss felt confusing for some, going from incompetent hardass to loving "uncle" for no reason.

At least one point in this section should be taken for the character of the Watcher. A character you only see at the start and end of the story, does not have any impact on the game aside from introducing you and asking you how you liked your run. Understandably, it was a let down. I used the character a bit as an introduction of the character (I had more MC characterisation choices in mind), with the plan of commenting more on your choices in the ending... which doesn't really happen because there are very few choices to talk about. Still, I stand by my choice of keeping the Watcher. It gives it a bit of a mystical air you'd have in a fantasy setting :P My first idea with the Watcher was to make it a Dungeon Master and the player is a TTRPG character... but after writing it it felt way too weird, so I scrapped it.

The Interface

I don't think I've had anything but compliments about the UI and visuals of the games. From the Bar and its bottles, to the different pages, it was praised for the polish and care I gave the game. Considering I spent a lot of time on it, it was nice to hear about this. People found the interface welcoming and colourful. The UI was consistent throughout the game, and little was left to be desired. Someone even said it was the prettiest Twine game they had ever seen, while another found it having the most accomplished visual designed by pushing the rules of CSS this much.

😊

I've had good return about the accessibility points: especially the keybinding (you technically don't need a mouse to play the game), which is not often present in Choice-Based games, and the font options for ease of reading.

Aside from an obvious accessibility mistake I need to fix (the already mentioned nauseating intro gif), there was not much to add about it. It was crisp and high-production and definitely took too much time making it look the way it did.

OH: the Tarot Cards. Even if it amounted to nothing (because why would it... :P ), people liked the Tarot Cards :D

Miscellaneous Comments

Here is the part where I discuss comments I didn't know where to file.

The randomised encounters added to the bartending experience for some (since this is what would happen in real life...), but it also meant that some players did not get to see some characters. While the randomisation helped the replayability aspect, if the player did not enjoy the introduction it would have been unlikely they would press the restart button (I didn't put a fast play link for that...).

Similarly, some enjoyed the structure of each day, while others found the repetitiveness of the tasks boring. Like with the Mixing part, this might be more of a personal preference, it did not really seem to skew one way or another.

Having the Restoking event or the Tip Jar amounting to nothing was also disappointing (latter cut for time, the former only realised after I submitted the game -would need to re-edit the whole bar code to make it work as intended).

There were a few other frustrating bugs (the raised ones were taken care of as soon as I got them, but it included the gold not tracking properly, which always gave the player a bad ending), but with a game this large and complex (in the coding part), I am sure there are still some here and there. I am still dedicated to polish this game (see the final section) but some things will take a while to implement/write. The gold tracker was set one line too high on the code page.... sigh

A last point I wanted to address here was about TTTT not knowing what kind of game it wants to be. To me it is obviously clear, since I made it, but I think I now understand why players might feel that way (I didn't when the review dropped, it even made me a bit angry, even if the comment held some truth). The game starts with a mysterious character never seen until the end, and the mystery amounts to nothing as the player is left in the dark (pun). Then, we move to a more slice-of-life-y fantasy setting with a bartending sim. Then you serve a Fortune Teller that pushes the idea of agency, which goes nowhere because there are virtually no real choices in the game. Aside from getting little to no tips, the Bartending section does not change nor indicate how you are doing. Then you flip between light-hearted storylets and others with more dark undertone. Repeat until you reach an ending. When experienced that way, yeah... what's that game about? What does it want to do? What's the point of it? __Frankly, there's no point to the game, aside from chilling at a bar, making drinks and talk to people. Winning or losing does not mean life/death, you don't hurt anyone really (unless you make terrible drinks, but even then). It's about the vibe more than anything else. Relax and enjoy and mix some ingredients.

So, what, then?

While a very reductive and deprecating conclusion would be that my entry was all show and no substance, it would be misrepresenting a lot of positive aspects of the game. It is definitely very Show but the Substance is lacking in some part (duh, since I cut a lot) or need some extra care for it to reach what it should have been.

I kinda shot myself in the foot by focusing so much time/effort on making sure the bartending experience and UI was not only working fine but that it was visually pleasing, since it meant rushing through writing a whole game in such short amount of time. It might have given quite a few player too high of an expectation on what the game would be (though I tried to warn it in my blurb that it was more of a chill type of game). I was too ambitious with what I wanted to do with this game, especially more in the time frame. It happened in other Jams (for EC and SPS IH). Unfortunately, it didn't pay off here.

A huge saving grace, it seemed, was found in the characters (outside of the Watcher and maybe the Fortune Teller). Had they not be charming or interesting, TTTT would have done much worse than it did.

Overall, it worked for some people and not for others. Even if it didn't work for some, they were kind enough to leave me extensive reviews about what didn't work for them and what they would have done to enhance the gameplay (thk u 💚). And even when it worked, I got some lovely suggestions to make the game even better.

But how did I handle it all?

I did not, because I never do :P

With this edition of the IFComp being my first, it was honestly nerve-wracking. The IFComp is considered the SuperBowl/Olympics of IF and amazing pieces of IF have been released during the previous editions. Before I submitted mine, I knew a few other participants who had submitted before were planning on having an entry (and I really like their works). It was also going to be my first time getting reviews outside of essentially the "chill" Tumblr/Itch crowd. I had seen those long reviews on IFDB around Comp season and honestly it scared me a bit (even if everyone were so very lovely).

As the reviews were dropping in, I was wondering if maybe I should have forgone submitting (or even withdrawing), spent more time on the game (I really should have) and submitted at the SpringThing instead. My entry had nothing to say, it was just there, sipping on a cocktail and enjoying the vibes. This feeling got increasingly worse when I played other entries and compared my work to theirs (so many amazing ones).

My goal was to reach the top-half of the ranking (this year, the lowest ranking for half would have been 35?). Half-way through October, I was dead-sure that I wouldn't even reach that rank. Now that we are hours away from the Voting Deadline, I think it will be just fine. It won't be so good that I will reach top 10, but that reasonable starting goal will be doable. Though I might be a tad disappointed if I don't...

B- Results and Further Comments

It is now Sunday 20th. The results dropped yesterday... 37th out of 70. Honestly, I can't hide I was disappointed a tad. I was this close to reach my goal (by 2 spots). I think I am more disappointed I was so close to this goal and didn't reach it more than I didn't rank high.

For anyone interested (though I already posted it yesterday, this is a screenshot of how the voting went:

I was kinda surprised to see 1s and 2s in there. Though, sure if judges played during the first days, when I was still ironing out some bugs, it's understandable. There was even someone in the anonymous comments who encountered that Ground-hog Day bug (I wonder if they left a review, because I didn't receive anything about this one outside of the reviews/one ask on Tumblr). Someone else had ran into a strange bug with the Fortune teller has well (again never heard about this one either...). Of course, everyone has their metrics... but 1 is pretty much unplayable/doesn't belong in the Comp... and I don't know. It's not sitting right with me because TTTT doesn't feel like either? _ _ At the end, everyone has an opinion. If they really hated the experience, so be it. You can't please everyone... *shrug* Looking at the curve, I was a tinsy disappointed there were not 10s, it would have made the curve so much more satisfying to watch... I think my family's votes looked too much like spam as well (or they didn't fill in their form correctly), cause they ranted their score was not there after I sent them the result. Bless them, they tried.

Regarding the anonymous comments, there wasn't much that stood out that hadn't been spelt out for me in the reviews/direct feedback: UI great, story meh, atmosphere is nice, needs more proofreading/pruning of the text, bartending is fun/tedious (this is really a coin toss damn). My favourite comment: as-is it's borderline unreadable.

The most interesting comment I got out of it was whether my entry should be considered a point-and-click rather than interactive fiction. I think I understand where that reviewer is coming from: you lack interactivity/choice during the story bits, and that is compensated by the bar mini-game being, well, point to the bottle and click to serve. Still, I would love to discuss more about this with that reviewer (or anyone really). Is point-and-click IF?

So how did I handle that?

Meh. Again, disappointed. Can't lie about feelings. I thought I had done a better of a job than I did (according to the judging scores). Even looking at the reviews/feedback I had gotten on IFDB/Forum, I thought I had done better. My gut feeling half-way through the voting period was correct, after all (damn it! it always is...).

But having written 95% of this post just before the results dropped was surprisingly cathartic and brought a lot of perspective on the whole experience. It was obvious where my entry lacked and where it shined. At the end, you get a overall mediocre entry (as in of only moderate quality). It made sense for it to end up where it did. Like I said previously, I was over-ambitious, and that really didn't work in my favour, because I didn't have the stuff to back it up.

Sure it was disappointing to see my entry scoring so low/not be a favourite, but weirdly... it didn't last long? I checked the voting pattern, the anonymous feedback, talked with a few peeps, had some some food, a nice hot drink, and went back to business as usual.

Maybe it will hit me later...

Anyway, I'll just finish this part with saying that my family was more mad about the ranking than I was. Not because I didn't do better than I did, but because they couldn't believe other people didn't have the same opinion about the game than they did. Quote from my mom: This is the first time I've liked a game. That's one of my wins right there (that and the stickers we are getting :P).

IV- What's the future for TTTT?

Like I mentioned above, the reviews and interaction I had on Tumblr gave be a bunch of ideas/suggestions for the next step of this game. I don't know the timeline for the intended update or how I will update the game (in one go or in chunks - probably the latter) or how the code may need to change (it definitely will need some sort of overhaul). There is A LOT of work ahead of me.

So now, I have multiple To-Do lists: one created while I was working on TTTT before I submitted it and one after the Comp deadline. The first included ideas I would have while writing or coding and items that I could not include in the game because of time. The second were ideas I would get while getting returns/impressions, suggestions sent/in reviews, and stemming from discussions I've had with players. {Not every comment I've received in the reviews will make me change that particular aspect, but even those gave me ideas.}

Here's a non exhaustive list** of the first one:

Obviously adding the missing NPCs (both the one-timers and recurring ones).

Adding more choices while talking to those NPCs (eg: stopping them from doing something, giving unsolicited advice, etc...) and giving each of them an Ending.

More drinks! {would require a few new bottles and merging the Soda ones together}

Reloop the Restart to the Story Screen as a NewGame+ Function.

Adding Music for the ~ vibes ~

Creating an Achievement list and have more stats trackers.

Creating a Highscore page for the Arcade Mode.

More MC Customisation (as an option to do, it won't have any consequence/effect on the story, just for the lolz of it all).

Redesign the Menu to look more like a Bar Menu (and includes the name/link to the real drink).

Adding a Codex Page for NPC's encountered (maybe an achievement too).

More fluff text!

Adding the missing Events (Stolen Tip Jar/Knock on the sign combo among others)

Maybe try to scale it for mobile (v unlikely with the size of the bar)

And here's the non exhaustive list** of the second one:

Have a more detailed tutorial explaining the combined bottles and where to find/what to find in the Guarnish box.

The Restocking Mini-Game to include penalties (bottle not available until restock/next day), except on Easy Difficulty.

Re-work on the Difficulty Setting: make the Hard Time harder, Recipe not available on Hard (only in the Menu list), Hard Mode could have measurements instead of one click-bottle.

Adding a Setting for a fixed amount of drinks during Frenzy/Rush time.

The bottles in the Bar appear randomly (time/space).

Look into substitution of ingredients {the code would need to change drastically, depending on the recipes might not even be possible...}

Make the Umbrella do something (extra tips?)

Arcade Mode-TIMED: perfect drinks add time to the timer, really bad ones removes time.

Proofread and edit the text (obviously, but no cuts!).

Give a choice to play all 14 days (which will be fixed to 14 days when I introduce the Recurring NPCs)

After finding the Tip Jar, only give one choice: display or hide it, rather than leave the option to change your mind (that confused people)

Have something to do with the coins if you get too much (this started from a bug where the gold wasn't tracked properly)

**It's mainly non-exhaustive because I have a bunch of post-its with ideas and it's not organised yet. If you are reading this and thought of an interesting thing I could add to the game, do shoot me a message! I welcome it all!

V- Some fun tit bits...

Here are some random thing about the game/process that didn't make the cut in the novel above.

95% of the drinks are actual drinks, and as close to the recipe I could get them. I spent hours looking at recipes, and I even made a few while making the game.

Renaud's Nightmare is named after a disgusting concoction mentioned in Exquisite Cadaver (referencing my own work :P).

For a few weeks, I went back and forth between keeping the bar as is (one click on a bottle) or making it more like VA-11-HALL-4 (5 ingredients, different measurements). It was worse when I was fighting my code.

MelS (my writer for TTATEH) helped me name half of the drinks and of the characters (including NPCs not in the game currently). He also had to suffer through my various attempts at making the page look good (his go-to responses: I don't know what looks good or not, it's fine and both versions look good, why do I have to choose? You know this stuff better than me.).

I've been on a Terry Pratchett binge since May-ish, and it inspired the humour of TTTT to be a bit more over the top than I would have probably done otherwise. The Last Continent was one of the reasons I gave the MC an Australian accent.

All bottle ingredients had at least 2 versions: plain colours and the current 3D-looking version with shading and a cap/cork.

There are over 120 assets/images in this game, 3/4 of them being the glasses.

VI- In Conclusion

You've reached the end of this post. Thank you for playing reading! I hope you enjoyed the ride and I hope to see you again when progress on the new version finally starts. Like during the making of TTTT's Comp version, it will be well documented on this blog. In the meantime, you can find the game on itch now!

Thank you to everyone who played my entry, voted for it, left a review or a comment, and interacted with me on this long/short journey!

I don't think I'll participate next year tho... I am exhausted. Well... unless I get a good idea until then... I should try to make a smaller game this time...

#tttt #the thick table tavern #postmortem #ifcomp #ifcomp2022 #game dev #twine #twine game #retrospective #gosh I hope I don't sound whiny in this #I promise I am not bitter

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victorluvsalice · 2 years

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We have made it to Winter Tuesday in The Chill Save with Smiler Always -- and the post-Werewolves pack era! New world, new occult, and some new things for Smiler to do -- like, say, see how werewolves react to a nonbinary vampire who has EVERY POSSIBLE BONUS TOWARD MAKING FRIENDS I CAN THINK OF (Incredibly Friendly trait, maxed Charisma, and a Pristine Reputation).

First things first, though -- Smiler had a few tasks to take care of back at theirs. Like flying around the neighborhood as a bat, getting in video game time in random places, because the game started me on a New Moon, and that meant automatic Vampire Energy regen whenever Smiler used their powers! Nice~ There was also the usual round of doing homework and harvesting their little garden, and then a shower because gotta keep clean. And then FIXING the shower because it broke right after they finished. Ah well, Smiler’s SUPPOSED to be learning Handiness this semester, sooo. . . Oh, and having an Erratic conversation with their pictures with their favorite people. :) Once that was all done, though, and they’d gotten through their only class of the day, it was off to Moonwood Mill!

The incredibly snowy Moonwood Mill! Wasn’t quite a BLIZZARD, but it was still coming down pretty heavily! Both outside and INSIDE the lot -- yeah, the library looks cool, James Turner (formerly known as The Sim Supply), but I think you kinda forgot what happens to places that don’t have full roofs with Seasons. XD Might fix that later. . . Anyway, Smiler went ahead and made a snow angel, then ventured inside to make some new friends. And right off the bat, sitting on the couch and serving as librarian, we had Coty Davidson --

Bonafide werewolf! Yes, it’s not obvious from their Sim form, but when you click on a Sim and it says “Disable Fury Effect,” you kinda know. XD Anyway, having found my werewolf test subject, I had Smiler go up and use their usual “Cheerful Greeting” --

Insta-friends! Now, not insta-GOOD friends, as Smiler often manages with regular Sims, but still instantly friends from one greeting. It appears that the hardcoded hatred between werewolves and vampires is no match for Smiler’s super-friendly nature. XD Smiler chatted with Coty for a good long while, asking a bit about Moonwood Mill (Coty saying that he’s not part of either pack, but he’s thinking about joining one because of all the great perks) and getting to know him better via the medium of Detect Personality (which -- I forgot to write down, darn it. Though I think he had Child of the Island, which is interesting!). They also availed themselves of one of the computers to Troll teh Forums for a little while -- an act which I’m sure the visiting L. Faba would approve of. XD

But hey -- now that Smiler’s made friends, can they actually get Coty to consent to letting them have a drink?

#sims 4 #the lazy save #smiler always #the smiler #w000 moon phases #I didn't get a chance to use many of Smiler's powers in this episode #but it is nice to have one regular night where they just get free Vampire Energy regen #curious to see what happens on a FULL moon. . .#and yup very first werewolf Smiler met #insta-friended #no issue at all #the game cannot fight against the power of Incredibly Friendly #now I admittedly don't know if this would hold if the WEREWOLF greeted SMILER #hmmm #someone should do some tests #but for my purposes of 'keeping Smiler friends with a future werewolf Alice'#this feels like a good sign #queued

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fragile777cosmos · 21 days

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April 7th, 2024 - Rice

✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✮

A few minutes ago I came back from going to mother's store with her to get some bags of rice. At 11 PM. In my defense, there still were people hanging out outside, so we weren't the only crazy ones.

I overslept again. I did the same yesterday. I just didn't hear the alarm. Maybe my mother turned it off. Either way, I haven't eaten breakfast in a long time. Tomorrow I will, just because my motjer makes it for me. Normally I'm alone in the morning and I barely eat.

I'll go to sleep in a moment. I peak is 2 AM and then I feel incrediblt sleepy. I have to wake up early again, too. I have gym class and school tomorrow.

I might go with the shirts my class made because we're graduating next year. I like it a lot. I'll see if they will actually wear them and I'd do the same. They chose really good colours.

The colours are actually the ones in the picture. White, red, and what looks like a light teal. They look lighter because I edited it, but they're more vibrant in the original photo.

My mother enjoyed her little holidays and so did I. I really hope we can travel for my birthday like last year. To be honest, I think I'm more excited about what I'll do that day and about the day itself...

But I digress. I'll try to post some random shit on Instagram and go to sleep. Rest well.

✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✮

#fragile cosmos #fragile posts #diary #i know its random #getting rice in the middle of the night #well not exactly #but you get it #it didnt last for long tho #maybe 10 minutes #which is good #it was late already #i had to brush my teeth twice because i ate candy while I was in the car

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rururuku-scribbles · 4 months

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The Proof is In the Prompting

So, remember what I said in my previous post about how the images in question illustrated something about the impact things do (and don't) have in an image prompt? Here's an explanation of what I was talking about with that. Plenty of other people have talked about how some of the common negative prompting that people enter ("bad anatomy, extra fingers, poorly drawn face, ugly, distorted," etc) involves a significant amount of magical thinking- that, because of how most widely available ai art generators are built on top of the snapshot-of-the-whole-internet Common Crawl data and the way those images were labeled, telling the AI to exclude bad hand anatomy or whatnot doesn't reliably get it to not generate wonky hands. The same goes for some common positive prompting, like "trending on artstation".

But, what if I told you that prompting the AI to draw in the style of a living artist is also often just wishful thinking? The image on the left has 'by greg rutkowski' as part of its prompt- Playground automatically appends that (as well as 'trending on artstation, sharp focus, studio photo, intricate details, highly detailed') to the end of your prompt when you create an image using the 'Delicate Detail' style. The image on the right was generated from the same seed, same prompt (including the 'trending on artstation, sharp focus...' part), with the only thing changed being that it was created with no style applied and with 'by greg rutkowski' removed. They're not identical, but they're close enough to be recognizably variations of the same picture, and if they're not in exactly the same style, they're very close.

As a control, this pair of images are from me accidentally running the exact same seed and prompt twice- there's a tiny bit of variation, but it's easy to miss if you're not looking for it and depending on your visual acuity and the size of the screen you're seeing this on, it might not be visible even if you are looking.

And here's the reason why I ended up accidentally duplicating a generation- the image on the right is where I accidentally deleted my negative prompts. Still has the 'by greg rutkowski', though! You can still see that it's a variation of the same picture (/generated from the same seed), but the difference is much greater than with the presence or absence of prompting for a named artist. (Very possibly it could be considered a stylistic difference, but I don't have the technical vocabulary/art school background to be confident about that.)

So, what's the point here? What's the takeaway, what did I learn from these mis-gens? First, naming an artist in a prompt doesn't necessarily affect the end results all that much. For very widely reproduced/riffed on/repeatedly included artists like Van Gogh, Caravaggio, or any of the other 'Masters' and big influential names you get taught about in art classes, sure, you get a demonstrable difference, but while Greg Rutkowski has potentially valid reason to be upset about people prompting AIs using his name, it doesn't actually do as much as the people prompting probably were thinking it does. Without directly going image-to-image or being specifically trained on a particular artist's works, AI (or at least, Stable Diffusion/SDXL and its descendants) isn't capable of replicating the style of most random living artists, because it doesn't 'know' what their style is in the first place.

Second- those negative prompts may not do exactly what they say that they're doing, but they sure are doing something. Excluding them there may have been an accident, but I might want to noodle around with doing it on purpose sometimes just to see what happens.

#ai art #thisisaiart #ai art discussion #aiartcommunity #curators on tumblr #ai generated #ai artwork #ai art generator #stable diffusion #playground ai #ai art discourse

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sleepysheepd · 8 months

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The Kimchi Man

So if you listen to reiki music to help you sleep apparently you get some interesting dreams. I actually think it helped me lucid dream because I remember more of my dream than usual.

I have weird dreams and not sure who to share them with right now and Im sure no one wants to hear about them because they’re long so Ill just post this on tumblr.

I remember it so vividly, and it was just straight random but I felt like I was in a movie for some reason. I saw myself in a small class room, as you would picture one from a community college or a conference room for office people. The door was closed, and the room fairly dim with a glow of blue light enough to see around the room. (The glow reminded me of walking into a dark room with the tv on). In the room I was in, long grey desks were arranged in rows, and there were a few people siting next to each other in each row. I believe I was sitting in the second row. No one spoke, but communicated with gestures, like in sign language but the way they moved their arms was as if they were underwater. I don’t remember doing much but observing the people and the lighting in the room.

Next thing I know, I see a man talking to us from the front of the room, and he is just sitting in his chair. Im not sure if he was giving instructions. My dream just seemed to jump from him talking to me and the people in that room making kimchi. The man seemed to be judging how the others kimchi was, so I remember feeling a but panicked. He eventually got to me and my kimchi. And I see him taste and for a bit he sat still and just looked at my kimchi. I was just staring and waiting for his response, then finally he slowly flung his arms up in the air, with the fork still in one hand.

From that, the view changed, from him facing me, to me facing him at his side view. He was sitting on his chair at his desk. But his desk seemed to face what looked like a window, yet also reminded me of a tv because of the light-blue glow reflecting towards him. My thoughts were: “did he like it?” And “he liked it”.

I never dreamt of kimchi before. And as a filipino who only attempted to make kimchi once a long time ago this dream was kinda funny. I know it may seem I remember so much detail from this dream, but if I were to condense my words to turn this dream into a video, it would only about 3 minutes, which is short really.

Anyway, it was interesting to me. And now its on my tumblr 🤓 so it’ll last forever maybe. If I have more interesting dreams when I listen to reiki, I might post some of them here again in the future. And maybe, if I am lucky, come across a dream interpreter to tell me what my random dreams mean, because sometimes I just don’t know.

#diary #2023 #reiki #sleep #dreams #dream diary #kimchi

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supercaliwhat · 1 year

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WallyGallery Archives Volume 3: Posts 2/1/Intro

It's the final countdown...

Post 2: Is June a Polyglot??? 04 08 2023

Dear Someone Reading this (Who might not speak more than 3 languages):

Hello hello hello! Today, I feel jolly and accomplished, as I started, or experienced something new. Or is it new? I, I mean my mom decided to start Latin. However, I was deeply concerned for two reasons. The first and most obvious reason is because I learned too many languages before. A small bit of Spanish, modest Chinese, and obviously Korean and English. This would make me sort of a polygot, a person who knows 5 languages! Another concern was that I had less motivation to learn Latin, ultimately because it was a dead language. To begin with, I learned all the languages I 'speak' because they are and would be useful in real-life, as in reading texts and making important conversations. However, no one uses Latin and therefore had no merit. I also felt concerned because I had to learn through Zoom, not the best way to learn anything but Zoom. Nonetheless, my concerns disappeared, only after a cup of suspicion and a class learning random Latin words. I bravely (or foolishly) asked the teahcer, "Why should I learn Latin?", and he was thankfully waiting for that question. For ten minutes, I heard the teacher saying about English words with Latin roots, and many questions related to it. To my surprise, he wasn't a liar! As I read through the vocabs, I saw many familiar words: fugit for fugitive, portat for prepare, via for via, and in for in! I also learned that these Latin words influenced other languages, such as Spanish. The word mortem (Death) sounds like the Spanish word muerte (Death), and its pronunciation was overall similar. But the best part was fun. Reading classical Roman text with obscure words truly made it a fresh and unique experience, and made me feel like a kid reading a picture book. However, don't be fooled! The dead langauge offers only old literature for practice, and that had some historical information and philosophical ideas, all of them which I liked. Overall, my first Latin lecture felt a bit overwhelming. Despite me thinking that Latin would be boring and useless, I realized its links to other languages (as an Indo-European and former-dominant language) and its use in classical text. As the Romans were the most powerful people for a not-so-brief period of time, it is genuinely worth it to be able to learn all these old text by learning its language. I now wonder: would English be dead? Would the future consider English just like Latin today? What if Latin and English were to co-exist or not exist? Despite my endless questioning, I think it's best for me to stop asking questions, and do my weekly homework. Now I have two: This diary, and my Latin homework!

From. A person who isn't an expert in Latin but knows better than 99.9875 percent of the world, since only 1 million in 8 billion of us even remotely knows Latin.

Post 1: Python Test Day! 04 03 2023

"Another test day?", I might ask myself. However, this test was far more important and exciting than most others, a test where I had to show my full pontentials and creativity. I was totally wrong on both claims. After a tough 10 weeks of practice, I may have assumed the title 'Best Pythoner', but I needed to take on a real challenge, So I can truly become a coding master. And here I was (or were), right now (or a few hours ago), I sat on the same rusty desk and opened the digital test. First glance, the test was odd. Instead of me writing a program that would show my inner beast, the test was composed of 30 MCQs, and were very dull. I might have to add, that my friend's frightened face showed how learning 2000 SAT words a week didn't help this. But I was kind of ready, and solved most of the questions. However, I was obviously uncertain of a few (30 percent of the questions), especially because this was a one-time-only exam. By the time I was finished, I was still thinking. The time limit was over, and the 30 percent of uncertain questions were gone. I had two things on my mind: I would get at least 70 percent, and what if I get under 70 and fail this test? Thankfully, or shockingly, the results came seconds later. I got a very low score, but I could barely pass. I got 70 out of 100, with a passing score of 70! I doubted the test, and thought I would get disqualified becuase the score was probably a rounded number. Despite my cynical expectations, I got my certificate, and people congratulated me. I got my official certificate, and it was because my score was rounded. And I realized one thing: People like to be lazy (e.g. oversimplify numbers), and they all benefit me. Nonetheless, I happily took the digital certificate and remembered that my coding teacher (who managed to see this whole thing) REQUIRED a score of at least 80 percent would get me to take the higher class. That was his (little early) April Fool's day joke thing. Overall though, I felt never this overwhlmed, surprised, and grateful to my life than this moment.

Simple Version: Another test? Really? Yes. This time, it was for my python (coding) certificate. I have seen the previous "doomed expressions" of my friends, and now it was time for me. I took my laptop, and ready, set, sit down! 30 questions, 70 out of 100 to pass, the test seemed simple. However, the questions were the complete opposite of the ones I've expected. Instead of creativity and wit, it was about MCQ and guessing. I took the enitre 30 minutes and I couldn't finish my test. I had two things on my mind now: "70's a piece of cake, like listening to ABBA music", and "I'm not gonna get 70, just like how Billie Jean's not my lover". To my surprise, (I think) I got a 69.6666.... However, the test gratefully rounded my grade, and I got a 70! I was so shocked, overwhemled, and glad at the same time, and the same was to my new certificate, digitally. I could now stand up and relax at the same time!

Introduction: Who is June? (By Peter McGuire, definitely not the pen name of June, I mean it is...)

Unless you were living under a pineapple house (or not from BCC), you'd probably be familiar with June. He seems to show everything he has, wants, and hates, but he might be more mysterious than that. In fact, I have finally managed to collect 10 facts about June that get HARDER to collect and know gradually.

1. June has 2 siblings, both are twins. And by the way,

2. June seems to like everything, and that results in shorter passion-spans.

3. June has a seemingly endless passion for old music, games, and socializing, a nicer way of saying talking endlessly.

4. June takes some words seriously, too seriously sometimes! He subscribed to a newspaper just because of a recommendation, without even thinking about it!

5. June has an expertise in various places, but CODING? He made this website using it!!!

6. June actually is grateful and happy about a lot of stuff: family, money, health, and that golden yacht he owns in his game.

7. June is loyal to all (excluding close friends at times) but is pretty ambitious. Like, he goes to all of these competitions for fun!

8. Contrary to popular belief, June surprisingly has a thick resume, including multiple certificates, volunteering, and I might have to cross this one out.

9. Contrary to popular belief, June is not a Communist, Socialist, Robber (okay it only counts if you rob and don't return it after 10 seconds), nor is a crook.

10. Although June never touched Non-Asian soil, he is still interested too much in American stuff, such as Politics, Music, TV, and everything. Except for guns. He needs more than that.

11. Despite his younger age, June regularly listens to: ABBA, The Beatles, The Bangles, The Monkees, Bonnie Tyler, Culture Club, Rick Astley, Bon Jovi, Cyndie Lauper, Tears for Fears, Toto, Laura Branigan, Berlin, F.R. Davids, Phil Collins, Louis Armstrong, Madonna, Gloria Gaynor, Whitney Houston, Dolly Parton, Air Supply, Lionel Richie, Tina Turner, Chicago, Aqua, Juice Newton, Olivia Newton-John, John Denvers, Neil Diamond, Blondie, Frank Sinatra, Bee Gees, George Michael, Wham!, Roxette, The Carpenters, Elton John, Sandra, A-Ha, Stevie Wonder, and Michael Jackson. Sorry Elvis Prestley, I'm not that old!

The End.

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ourladyoflight · 1 year

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Why hello there!! Thank you so much for stopping by and reading! ✨ Here's a little bit about the blog (and me)!! ☺️

What's your blog about?

This singlemuse blog is for the character Angel from the Tekken universe!! It's a SFW world over here, and I'm so so open to crossovers and OCs! (It's one of my favorite things about rping!!) I and Angel would both love to meet your muse, and I'm always always down to learn more about them!!

Who are you?

I'm Nova (she/her), and it's so nice to meet you!!! I'm a full time student (adult under 21) who loves stargazing and angels! (Which you might've been able to tell from this blog!! 😂) I love storytelling, whether it's through writing, making art, or making music- and some of my art might show up on this blog from time to time!! 🥺 (I'll always be respectful of your blog and your posts- but I also know I'm a bit on the younger side, and writing with certain age groups can be a big comfort thing! If you ever need to soft or hardblock this blog, I won't take offense- your comfort always comes before any sort of writing!! 💜)

Help??? Why did this random personal blog just like my post????

Sorry!!! That might be me!! 😅 I'm usually in classes during the day, and made this a sideblog so I could see my inbox easier!! I do my best to give a heads up when I start interacting with anyone- but just in case I've goofed, my main is @novatheastropirate!! If a random purple blog follows or likes any of your posts, it's still me!! 🥺

Can I just.. Talk to you?

Yes!!! A thousand times yes!! I love talking to people, both in character and out- and hearing people ramble about their muses is so much fun to me!! My askbox and Tumblr DMs are always open- and I'll happily give my Discord if you'd like to talk on there too!! 💜 (I can only hope I come across as approachable as I'd like to be- but if you're shy or anxious, I'll never mind reaching out first! ☺️)

But what if there's a problem I need to talk to you about?

I'm always open to learning what I can do better!! I'm a bit newer to the rp scene than most, and might make silly mistakes from time to time; if there's ever anything I can change, like making certain things easier to read, formatting posts better, or triggering certain content, I'm always willing to listen and accommodate you! I want to make sure that this is fun and safe for others, too!!

What's your writing style like? How frequently should I expect replies?

I'm so glad you asked!!! My writing style is fluid, and I can match lengths- I always try to have at least two paragraphs!! (I can also get a little verbose and write replies that look a little more like research papers- but there's no pressure to match lengths!! I can usually work with just about anything!! 😊) I try to respond as early as I conveniently can, even if my activity can be a little sporadic- especially when my exam seasons roll around, or if I’m having a health flare up!! I'll never hound you for replies- and I'll always understand if you have low muse, or just need to drop a thread! I (hope) I’m a really low maintenance rp partner; you could vanish for a whole year and come back, and I’d still be more than happy to write with you!

Is shipping okay?

Absolutely!!! 🥺 Angel's an interesting sort of muse, and it would definitely have to rely on chemistry if it ever did happen- but nothing's impossible, and I'm always open to plotting something out with you!

I think this is just about everything!! If there's something here that's confusing, I'm just a message away- I'm so excited to write with you, and I hope you have a lovely lovely day!! 💜

(Art Credits:

Promo Art, Animated Blog Banner Art, Profile Picture Fanart, and Roleplay Assets: Self-made! ✨ (@novatheastropirate) )

#𓆰 𝒪𝓊𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓇𝒶𝒸𝓉𝑒𝓇 #𓆰 𝑅𝓊𝓁𝑒𝓈

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martini-time · 1 year

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I’m not sure L going to that party without Cam means anything, it looked like some kind of promotional event she attended, this could have been invite only, and the reason why her sister was there as well may have been cause she was invited as well, like hasn’t she been doing some random modeling work as well now? And isn’t Megan working as some kind of media person or whatever? So this might have been more like a work thing for all three of them they had to attend to make new connections and shit. And Cam being at prevail without her yeah that definitely means nothing cause this was an informational day the gym held with its partners for its members about new classes and offerings they will make for the new year, so L couldn’t have accompanied him even if she had wanted to unless she was interested in a membership maybe, this wasn’t an event open to the general public, it was a prevail members event, so it’s members only. And yeah, they both could have still gotten together outside of that, like who says he wasn’t the one picking her up from the airport for example when she arrived? I mean I can’t really picture him doing this cause it doesn’t seem like something he would care to do for her, but how could we know for sure? 🤷🏻‍♀️

And as for L seemingly not being attached to Alexandria’s hip in NY this time, how’s that suspect? I think some of you forget they’re actually not regular friends, Alex is still her agent, and she has other clients besides L, and she looked pretty busy lately with other clients signing on new or having big things happening for them, so they probably didn’t get the chance to really go out or party together in private except that one time, but this doesn’t mean L wasn’t still spending time with her at the office just cause they didn’t take a picture there, they rarely take pictures together at the agency itself actually, it’s more when they go out to party or go out together work related, and there was probably just nothing like that on their schedules for them while L was there this time. In fact, even though it seems like they tend to spend all of their time together, there was actually a time or two before where they haven’t posted pics or videos together for a week or two, also, you never seen L being accompanied by Alex to some kind of a model shoot or something when she’s in NY before either, but who says she doesn’t ever do that?

If Ella(!) was invited then.. I think Cam could have been invited too, since he's a handsome actor model and an influential person. And considering that they haven't seen each other for almost a month. I'm just saying that it doesn't seem like they really missed each other or were in a hurry to see each other.

But that's right, we don't know if he picked her up from the airport.

As for Alex, we haven't forgotten that they're not ordinary friends, it's just that this time it was weird to see that they weren't hanging out together all the time, even though Alex went to the same place as Lauren a few days before. But yep, they could see each other in the office

#time to tea

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capn-queer · 2 years

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Exotic Weapon Ornament Ratings

3 posts in one day. Don’t take this as any indication of how I normally post. I will probably forget I have this blog in a week. Anyways, I decided to rank every Exotic ornament in Destiny 2. Now you might say, “wait there’s no armor ornaments here.” And you’d be right. I kinda wanted to get them all done at once but I already did 214 here and that took all day yesterday and filled 18 pages of a google doc, so if I went through all the class ornaments immediately after the weapons I feel like I would die. They may or may not be coming at some point though. Also no pictures because I’m not going to go through and get every single one from google or by screenshotting it myself.

Anyways, the scoring system here is... mostly just arbitrary based on how much I like it, but I do have some actual criteria here so it’s not fully bullshit.

1: How unique is it? How obvious of a departure is it from the base model/textures? How well can you tell at a glance that you’re not just holding an exotic gun, you’re holding a Cool And Different exotic gun? Obviously ones with different models have a big advantage over ones that just change textures here, frankly most of those are just better, but not all of them are winners over their simpler counterparts, and a few with just texture changes do enough with that to far outstrip any of their model changing competitors.

2: How recognizable is it? Most of these don’t really have problems with this but it’ll become an issue with some of the armor. An Exotic can have a different theme, textures, and model, but it still has to read as That Exotic at the end of the day. Someone in the Crucible or randoms from an LFG Have to be able to recognize things at a glance because they often don’t get much more than that.

3: How interesting is it compared to base? These weapons still have to read as Exotic, they need to read as notably more special than other guns, and if they fail at that, well, that’s a big negative. It’s a trap a lot of the more practical military guns fall into.

4: How does the theme work for it? Is it something obvious? Something out of left-field? Does it clash with what’s already there or does it manage to change it into something fully new and fresh? Though this the last one it’s probably one of the most important. Even if you completely change the model and textures, if its theme clashes with the actual gameplay and overall design it’s just a bad gun.

5: Keep in mind that these are just mostly just my opinions. People aren’t wrong for liking military aesthetics or chrome just because I gave most of those ornaments a low rating. I also don’t necessarily hate every one that I rank poorly here. I use some of the ones I complain about, even if I think their designs aren’t the best.

Alright, now with the preamble out of the way let’s get into the actual ratings.

Sweet Business, Down To Business: It’s Sweet Business but Shiny. Not that much going on but it’s at least decent for a texture swap. 5/10.

Hard Light, The Future Is Chrome: FUTURE. FUTURE. FUTURE. It’s just shiny Hard Light and doesn’t have any of the wood details that somewhat balanced Down To Business out. 1/10.

Sweet Business, Go About Your Business: It’s Sweet Business but Boring. This is just militaristic black and silver and less fun than regular Sweet Business. 2/10.

Suros Regime, Coup De Main: This is just Suros Regime with the colors shuffled around. It’s not like... a bad shuffle I guess, but I see no reason to use this other than “I got it from an Engram and it’s not default.” 2/10.

Suros Regime, Gray Nitrite: The texture on this is actually interesting. Not gonna blow your mind but like, yeah, this is pretty good for a texture swap. 6/10.

Hard Light, Lethal System: The first model swap of the list, and it’s... pretty alright. Nothing too crazy, just a bit of cloth insulation added to the top and the tube and some different paneling on the side, but it’s decent. 5/10.

Suros Regime, Suros Chrome: FUTURE. FUTURE. FUTURE. It’s just shiny Suros Regime, this time though it does have some black to balance it out unlike The Future Is Chrome, so it’s not gonna blind me if I’m ever standing in direct sunlight at least. 2/10.

Cerberus +1, Four Headed Mongrel: The gun’s a bit more cleaned up than base giving it an Almost militaristic feel, though it’s still obviously nonstandard with its extra barrels held on by some obviously DIY gunsmithing so it still keeps some visual interest. 6/10.

Monte Carlo, What If: It’s a more military feeling Monte Carlo with the bayonet and semi-practical design but they keep it more visually appealing through the patterning and detailing. I don’t think it’s exactly exceptional but it’s good. 6/10.

Hard Light, Brumal Dawn: This is an interesting case, its overall design honestly feels... maybe a bit less interesting than Regular Hard Light with how its smoothed down, but it’s still Distinct with its model and the Dawning patterns and ESPECIALLY with the ice on it, and it still feels distinctly like Hard Light with how they’ve kept the tube and the side light. 7/10.

Suros Regime, Standard Bearer: It’s a crucible Suros Regime. It’s got some model changes sure, but that doesn’t really help it out in terms of visual interest compared to base, if you told me this was a regular Crucible reward Auto I’d believe you. 3/10.

Hard Light, Foundational Structure: Oh now we’re getting F u n k y . I wouldn’t say it’s insanely appealing, with the added blue camo pattern it feels maybe a bit noisy but it’s definitely still Fun which is probably the most important thing. 6/10.

Monte Carlo, Western Front: They took the What If ornament and asked themselves “What if we made this more military and boring?” and Western Front is what they got to. It’s a different model which is semi-interesting but they tossed out Any of the elements that made it unique, leaving the bayonet as the only indication that it’s supposed to be the Monte Carlo in favor of complete militaristic practicality. 4/10.

Sweet Business, Corporate Sponsorship: This thing hurts my eyes. Like, I like saturated colors a lot but this hurts my eyes, your character is canonically a sellout if you use this, and it’s not even Good product placement either, you can barely tell what you’re advertising with the combination of colors. The fun changes to the actual model can’t save this. 2/10.

Wish Ender, Author of Devastation: This is just a palette swap, and not a particularly interesting one. It’s just different Awoken colors. Not bad different, it’s still somewhat visually distinct, but still. 3/10.

Trinity Ghoul, Tangled Outrider: Now this, this I like. Still technically a texture swap but it Significantly changes the feel by giving it a more cobbled together look, you put this together with some spare wire and scrap metal and it’s obvious. 7/10.

Leviathan’s Breath, Bad Dog: Another Banger. You’re the big game hunter (not always the class) that the Cabal should fear and you’re making sure they know it. 9/10.

Ticuu’s Divination, Hasta Solari: It’s shiny Ticuu’s. Nobody would bat an eye if this were just the base version. The only thing distinguishing it is the gold designs that just kinda blend together. 4/10.

Trinity Ghoul, Tertiary Objective: Another model change and another military look that’s less interesting than base. The fact that it’s not just a texture swap is the only thing it really has going for it to be honest. 4/10.

Ticuu’s Divination, Ferromancer: This... exists? I guess? It has model changes but everything feels so similar to base that I would not be able to tell them apart in someone’s hands. It’s boring enough that I would not know it existed were I not doing these ratings. 3/10.

Trinity Ghoul, Spark From Bone: Another bony bow and another... actually I wouldn’t quite call this a banger. Yes, it does have pretty massive model and texture changes, but... what... is it? Like, what bones are these? Are they based on... any real bones? Bad Dog was intimidating, this feels confusing if you look at it too long. 6/10.

Le Monarque, Poison Wings Spread: God this is So Close to being perfect but the purples feel just A Little Bit too overwhelming compared to everything else. I also can’t actually tell if there’s a model change from base due to Le Monarque just... not showing up in my collections tab for some reason. Tentative 7/10.

Leviathan’s Breath, Grimmest Hunter: This one’s also fucking cool, with a similar vibe to Bad Dog but rather than the intimidation coming from the bone trophies you strapped to it this time it’s Massive Fucking Blades that you can probably chop off someone’s head off with. I’m not really sure where this aesthetic comes from, if it comes from anywhere at all, but it’s Fun. 8/10.

Sturm, Symbiosis: This one’s... alright I guess. Its color scheme is 1 to 1 with base and that feels way too boring for my tastes, but also the stuff they added does feel interesting. It’s like a progression of Sturm rather than something different to the original. 4/10.

Sunshot, Red Dwarf: I’m sorry for what I must do... this one’s boring. It’s flat colors and geometric shapes where the base had that burnt scorched texture, and those glowing red lines do not bring back enough heat to the design to match what we lost. It doesn’t go far enough in... whatever direction it was going and it just feels disappointing because of it. 4/10.

Crimson, Silver Bullet: Finally, something good. Or, well, mostly good. This is from the early days where model changes were incredibly rare and I feel like that kinda makes this one fall short with how they kept the spikes. If you removed them those designs on the side would have been perfect, as it stands though they feel awkward and actively clash with how it’s Supposed to feel. 6/10.

Sunshot, Quark Star: OH YEAH, this one goes Fucking Hard. It’s still Sunshot beneath it all but the glowing volcanic rock and cylinder full of burning energy changes the feel completely. This thing doesn’t just scorch anymore, it Melts, and it lets you know. 8/10.

Sturm, Sudden Squall: This one’s just bad. It's a dirty Sturm. That’s it. They just put scorched textures all over it and called it a day. 1/10.

Ace of Spades, Last Hand: This... this is the start of an unfortunate trend right here for Ace of Spades ornaments that it still hasn’t recovered from. It’s red and black and yeah the glowy effects are... something? But this is just a shader on a weapon. 2/10.

Crimson, Iridescent Death: THIS is what I was talking about with Silver Bullet! This is... oh... wait they used the model change for another less interesting military look? Fuck. 4/10.

Malfeasance, Aim to Misbehave: Y’know normally I’m more critical of ones that don’t change the model at all, and this one does have problems with how the designs from the textures of the base version look a bit weird under those effects, but this one has something that none of the other texture swaps have. It just Fits. When you hold it and you see those Darkness particles coming off the barrel and that shimmery Taken texture it just feels so obvious. 8/10.

Ace of Spades, Salute to the Colonel: Continuing that trend I mentioned. Yeah, there’s a chicken on it. It’s a meme. It’s also the exact same color scheme with nothing else interesting. 2/10.

The Last Word, Laconic: I feel like I should be more critical of this, but it’s just kinda... Good, y’know? Like, it’s cleaner, it’s chunkier, there’s a model change and a more grounded fantasy. With this you’re not a space cowboy, you’re just A Cowboy, and I think it works. 7/10.

Malfeasance, Red String of Fate: You want everyone to know you’re part of the Drifter’s crew. Or a simp. The only real change to the model is the string and you’d think that it would be boring because of that, but just like Aim to Misbehave the textures Carry this shit. It’s a perfect change again, where Aim to Misbehave had the Taken fantasy this pushes the “Drifter’s Crewmember” side of the gun and it works Perfectly. 10/10.

Thorn, Wishes of Sorrow: This is a Thorn that wishes it was Malfeasance. It’s not bad, the bony texture does set it apart and the taken energy is nice, but it’s also... not that interesting, and doesn’t have much of a theme beyond bone and Taken. 5/10.

Sturm, Dream of a New World: FUTURE. FUTURE. FU- wait this one’s actually interesting. Where The Future is Chrome and Suros Chrome just kinda Made Shit Chrome this one actually does some stuff differently, mainly cleaning up the gun a bit and giving it a more overall futuristic design with some digital stuff on the side. It’s nothing groundbreaking but it’s also not just boring like what Hard Light and Suros Regime got. 7/10.

Lumina, Lucid Melody: This one’s Not bad. Nothing insane but the black, gold, and brown work and that paired with the lack of thorns makes it feel distinct from base while still being recognizable. I feel like it could have done significantly more, but it’s not bad. 6/10.

Ace of Spades, Big Blind: The theme continues. This one’s a shader. 1/10.

Thorn, Heretic Robe: This Thorn beats up Wishes of Sorrow for its lunch money. Fucking beautiful with the Scarlet keep aesthetics, though it feels maybe a bit too blocky. There are curves on hive structures sometimes too and those would’ve helped here. 8/10.

Crimson, Black Death: In defiance of my general antipathy towards militaristic aesthetics, this one goes So Far in being over the top edgy that it actually loops around to being Fun. I think it’s mostly the spikes to be honest. This feels like Iridescent Death got lost in a Hot Topic and it actually works somehow. 8/10.

Sunshot, Burning Red: It’s an... interesting model change certainly. I really want to like this, but unfortunately it just feels too off balance for me. This looks like it would be hell to use and also somehow manages to encroach on the design space of Devil’s Ruin. 5/10.

Ace of Spades, All In: The theme... doesn’t continue here! It’s not just a shader! There’s major design changes and the model’s different! Unfortunately that doesn’t really save it here. The colors aren’t balanced at all and they just kinda shoved a Trials decal on it. It’s better than the others but it’s still not that good. 4/10.

The Last Word, Heated Exchange: This one Fucks. It may mostly be battle damage but it’s Fun battle damage, bullets have scoured it, it’s been burnt, battered, broken, chipped like obsidian, but it’s still firing. 8/10.

Hawkmoon, On Ashen Wings: Another one I wanted to like, but this one... just feels kind of over designed. Bringing the feather designs off the barrel and into 3d is an interesting concept but I don’t really think this works. 6/10.

Hawkmoon, Feeling Lucky: A Hawkmoon cosplaying Sturm. Okay not quite, the metal’s a bit different on the barrel, still a similar color scheme though. I don’t think it’s bad either, it’s a little more interesting than the shader ornaments, but not by much. 4/10.

Eriana’s Vow, Bound by Oath: FUTURE. FUTURE. FUTURE. It’s another chrome textured version of a gun that doesn’t add anything. 1/10.

Ace of Spades, the Vanguard Dare: Aaaand that running theme is back. This one at least adds a little bit, raising the spade on the barrel a bit and adding Cayde’s blue and red, so it’s not a total palette swap. Still not great. 3/10.

Thorn, For the King: This Thorn also beats up Wishes of Sorrow for its lunch money but also gets beat up by Aim to Misbehave for its lunch money. While yes, the Taken aesthetic is cool, it just doesn’t fit as well on Thorn, and while this does what Wishes of Sorrow was trying to do but better, Aim to Misbehave just does what this does better as well. 6/10.

Hawkmoon, Austroraptor: Another militaristic one but this time it feels a bit better. Maybe it’s the gold, maybe the detailing, maybe it’s the laser sight. It’s still not great but not bad. 6/10.

Malfeasance, the Pink Mist: Does this fit with Malfeasance’s general theme and particles? Probably not. Is it fun though? Fuck yeah. I certainly wouldn’t have thought to replace everything but the handle with weird glowing pink and blue crystals but fuck, guess it works. 7/10.

The Last Word, End of an Era: This one’s... alright. It’s sort of a similar thing to Laconic with wood instead of chunky mettle, and that’s not bad but it’s not the most interesting thing in the world. 6/10.

Vigilance Wing, Book of the Dead: This is a dirtier palette swap. It’s alright but nothing crazy or particularly fun going on and I don’t really see anyone going out of their way to get it. 4/10.

Graviton Lance, Particle Accelerator: This one’s mostly a shiny swap from black to pearly white but it’s a good swap to make. It would probably make it feel too sterile if it was just flat white but with the shine it’s got it almost seems... friendlier than base? I like it. 5/10.

Graviton Lance, Carina Nebula: This one beats Particle Accelerator and Base up for their lunch money. It’s just fucking Cool man. Space theme, glowing vents on the side of the barrel, fucking... Star Tube. I guess. It’s great. 7/10.

Vigilance Wing, Heaven’s Vigil: This is generic fantasy and feels like it’s made of plastic, mobile legends looking ass. 3/10.

Vigilance Wing, Vigil For Saint-14: This is another military look but I feel like the contrast between that and the heavily space Egyptian Trials look for base is pretty decent. The Saint-14 reference is also a little bonus. 5/10.

Graviton Lance, General Relativity: SHE BLINDED ME WITH SCIENCE! This is the fucked up Prototype of the Graviton Lance when some fucker first decided they wanted to shoot someone with a black hole. I don’t really like the color scheme but the theme just makes me smile. 8/10.

Outbreak Perfected, Patient Zero: A fucked up Siva infused gun House Devils made out of scrap from the Cosmodrome, this thing is Funky and its theme works as a fun reference to Siva and Rise of Iron. 8/10.

Outbreak Perfected, Pandemic: A completely non-Siva Warmind gun. Just a really obvious skin that works well. No complaints. 7/10.

Bad Juju, Aurelian Decree: You’re a Calus simp. Honestly it feels like it could go harder, maybe make the skull a war beast and throw in some more purple and white to fit the other Leviathan stuff. 5/10.

Bad Juju, Beast Magic: Okay so they took the war beast skull suggestion on Literally The Next Ornament, so that’s cool. This is just a fun Red Legion gun. Could maybe add their logo but there’s not much else to say on the matter. 7/10.

Outbreak Perfected, Mercurial Affliction: A Trials Outbreak Perfected. It’s... alright. The wrappings are a nice touch but I feel like it could have gone harder, maybe softened up those geometric shapes some. It’s better than All In at least. 5/10.

Outbreak Perfected, Matterscourge: A Pyramid Outbreak Perfected, this is one of the ornaments that just Fits the gun. Like, yes, those side panels could be fucked with to look like the Pyramid Ships, yes, the rest of the gun could be retooled into a Pyramid gun. Really just a great execution of the idea. 9/10.

No Time to Explain, Frozen in Time: You left the No Time to Explain in the freezer for too long. It fits I guess for all the Stasis stuff and the Stasis synergy. Not interesting though. 3/10.

Collective Obligation, In Finality: Okay this one Fucks. The Collective Obligation is one of those weapon’s that’s just kinda weird at a base level, both for where it is and in general, but shoving that shit to the Nine? Oooh that’s good. 9/10.

No Time to Explain, Golden Days: There are many weapons in this world, but only the best have what it takes to bear the Hyperion insignia. 6/10.

Mida Multi-Tool, Titanium Alloy: FUTURE. FUTURE. FUTURE. Again. 1/10.

Skyburner’s Oath, Beware the Red Legion: This is just the same thing that Symbiosis had. It’s just a +1 Skyburners, only this time it’s a decal rather than any actual model changes. 3/10.

Mida Multi-Tool, Mida Tactical: It’s got a model change with the wrapping but still boring. 4/10.

Jade Rabbit, Jade Jester: Product placement hell again and this time we don’t even have a model change. At least you can see the logos? Still a sellout. 2/10.

Polaris Lance, The Bray Legacy: Go fuck yourself Clovis Bray. Anyways this one’s just like. Good. Simple model change. Nice decals. A +1 Polaris Lance that’s actually trying. A +2 if you will. 5/10.

Jade Rabbit, Raging Lepus: Failed Edgy Jade Rabbit. 2/10.

Skyburner’s Oath, Calus’s Promise: This is just the same thing that Beware the Red Legion had. It’s just a +1 Skyburners. Only this time it’s got a model change and a decal change, so it’s a +2. Also sends mail, apparently. 5/10.

Mida Multi-Tool, Desert: This one doesn’t even have the decency to change the model. 2/10.

Polaris Lance, Ikelos Field Testing: This is the funky prototype Polaris Lance and it works. Doesn’t really fit with the actual Ikelos guns but fuck it, it’s fun. 7/10.

Jade Rabbit, Qingming Offering: This one has an interesting texture. Not sure what’s happening with it but still. 4/10.

Mida Multi-Tool, Digital ops: FUTURE. FUTURE. FU- oh wait this one’s semi interesting again. It’s not as big of a departure as Dream of a New World was for Sturm, but it’s still something. 6/10.

Symmetry, Binary System: This one’s just fucking clean. It’s a perfect contrast to the aggressive yet elegant sharpness and ornamentation of regular Symmetry, being more practical while still keeping some of the elegance there to avoid boredom. 8/10.

Dead Man’s Tale, Burial Wrap: A fitting ornament for DMT, it’s nothing crazy but the wrappings do give a sense of... just... care for the gun. It belongs to a dead man. You gotta keep it safe, y’know? 6/10.

Dead Man’s Tale, Remembrance: This one’s boring. They made the wood white to look like bone and put riven Decals on it and made the gold silver. That’s... that’s it? There’s so much more that could be done for a Dreaming City DMT. This is disappointing. 3/10.

Dead Man’s Tale, Dead Man’s Revenge: Another more militaristic one that I’d normally dunk on, this one though? This one just kinda fucks. It’s primarily how chunky it is. It feels substantially different with the added bulk and different sight, but there’s still little bits of personality in the ornamentation. 7/10.

Touch of Malice, Threatening Breath: Another one of those ornaments that just Fits. It’s Taken magic rather than standard Hive magic. It’s square around the top of the rings rather than circular. It’s red and white rather than green and brown. It’s close to the original yet shifted to the left and it Works. 9/10.

Skyburner’s Oath, Honor of the Empress: It’s just the same thing as Calus’s Promise had. It’s just a +2 Skyburner’s Oath, only this time the model and textures go Fucking Hard. This is the Skyburner’s that beats up Calus’s Promise and Beware the Red Legion for their lunch money. I don’t think there’s any topping this in terms of the Cabal themes going on the Cabal gun. 10/10.

Rat King, Black Plague: This is just a shader. 1/10.

Rat King, Catacombs: This is just a shader. 1/10.

Rat King, Climate Change: This is just a shader. 1/10.

Devil’s Ruin, Devil’s Advocate: A case where an ornament is actually making a militaristic and mildly boring gun look More interesting, this isn’t anything massive but it adds a fun pop of color and I can respect that. 5/10.

Traveler’s Chosen, Sand and Sun: This is very red and white. That’s all I can really say. 2/10.

Cryosthesia 77k, Deletion Protocol: This one’s funky with the pink, green, and blue, but it just kinda... doesn’t fit. You’re never going to find something this looks good with. 2/10.

Traveler’s Chosen, Conscripted: The battle damage doesn’t save this from being just a black and silver Traveler’s Chosen. 2/10.

Forerunner, Braytech M6: It’s just some decals but these decals... work surprisingly well and actually kinda work the gun into the world. Like, yes, this is still a Halo Magnum, but it’s one made by someone In Destiny. That’s pretty good. 6/10.

Traveler’s Chosen, Dream of the Sky: Okay this one actually does fuck. It’s an Awoken Sidearm with all of their funky line stuff, the top of the barrel and the hammer could maybe have a little done with them but still, it’s good. 8/10.

Trespasser, One False Step: This makes me wish I could time travel and actually play Season of the Haunted. It’s such a good merger of the Nightmare armor aesthetics and the gun. Just really fun. 8/10.

Riskrunner, Summer Storm: This one’s just a shader, but I think the sunset colors in the back kinda work paired with the cool tones of the rest of the gun. It’s a good contrast. 6/10.

The Huckleberry, Devil’s Work: This is just an edgy Huckleberry. 3/10.

Riskrunner, Electric Violet: This is just fun. The neon pink lights, the more angular bits, there’s really not much to say beyond that. 8/10.

Tarrabah, Voracious: It’s a human military Tarrabah. 4/10.

Riskrunner, Third Rail: NO, PADDINGTON! 7/10.

Riskrunner, Cheerspreader: Fun colors and not much else to say about it. 6/10.

Osteo Striga, Brilliant Bloom: A Lucent Hive version of a Weapon of Sorrow. The model changes are nice, it being brighter is nice, it’s overall just Nice. 7/10.

The Huckleberry, Snakebite: Snake skin gun. I really like the addition of the teeth for the sight, overall just a fun different cowboy thing. 7/10.

Merciless, Break the Dawn: This is just a white Merciless. 2/10.

Telesto, Reef in Ruins: A good damaged skin for the Telesto. Not much to say on it. It’s just a good contrast to the regular version. 8/10.

Telesto, Dread from Below: Didn’t really expect the oceanic theme from this one but y’know what, it works. It’s not amazing but it’s a fun concept and I feel like they could do more with it. 6/10.

Merciless, Beachheader VI: It’s pretty boring still but I think it’s about as far as you can take a plain model like Merciless. Just a pretty standard mildly worn skin. 4/10.

One Thousand Voices, One Terrible Scream: This one’s really good but I feel like it could go just a little bit harder on the whole inorganic theme. There’s still bits of jaw on the bottom half and on the main part of the gun that they could have done a little more for. 7/10.

Jotunn, Jarngreipr: You’re a Calus simp and also like Megaman. This is a really good ornament though, the changes in the model and the shift in theme work really well. Not the greatest fit in terms of theme for the Toaster but it’s still really good. 7/10.

Telesto, Long Live the Queen: It’s got a good aesthetic but that aesthetic feels... maybe a bit too close to base? Mostly in terms of color. It’s pretty hard to notice that someone is actually using it. 6/10.

Bastion, Blood Memorial: Edgy Bastion, but it’s got some fun model changes. Still not something I’d go out of my way for but it’s got its place. 5/10.

One Thousand Voices, Scrimshander’s Song: This one’s just... so close. It’s so close but they let it down by keeping it bony. It feels like it should be smoother. It feels like it should be less organic, but they kept too much of 1K when they should have pushed further. 4/10.

Vex Mythoclast, The Untold Tale: FUTURE. FUTURE. FUTURE. 1/10.

Jotunn, Dreamchaser: I feel like this is supposed to be Dreaming City themed but it doesn’t really hit that for me. It feels more like... vaguely 70s to me for some reason? Which isn’t bad but not what they were going for. 6/10.

Delicate Tomb, Avant-Garde Mausoleum: This one’s just... No. Like, I get it. It’s the same pattern as the pirate Ketches. It’s fun, bright colors. That doesn’t save it though. It’s too visually noisy, everything clashes with itself, it’s something you get through the season pass, unlock, and then never use.

Jotunn, Muspell Populexe: This is the stuff that I was saying with Dreamchaser but just like... intentional this time. It feels like an old car. 7/10.

Sleeper Simulant, Hypnopompic: FUTURE. FUTURE. FU- well it’s got some red non-chrome bits so that’s something but still -TURE. 2/10.

The Queenbreaker, Kingmaker: Extremely obvious, extremely good. Fallen and Scorn aesthetics come from a similar space but they’re so distinct and seeing the lines cross just makes my brain go off. 8/10.

Sleeper Simulant, Baikonur: Is this boring militarism? Is it a science experiment? ... Military science experiment...? Whatever it is, it’s not particularly interesting. 5/10.

Arbalest, Barren Wastes: Barren of any visual interest. I’d say it’s just boring but also the texture on the camo feels... a bit uncomfortable and gross to me. I’ve seen puke like that and I don’t like seeing it again on a gun. 3/10.

The Queenbreaker, Polemology: Take everything I said about the Dream of the Sky and swap it to the Nine rather than just the Awoken. This thing slaps.

Arbalest, Violent Exorcism: I’m... not entirely sure on this one. Is it Vex? Fallen? What vague relation could that name have to do with either of those groups? It’s good, I just don’t know what it’s supposed to be, which is really my only point against it. 6/10.

Lorentz Driver, Stable Prototype: The season pass ornament that you go through the entire season pass, get, and Always Use. It’s just good. Feels less like a prototype and more like the finished product compared to the base though. 7/10.

Arbalest, Electromagnetic Execution: You made the rail gun... more of a rail gun. It’s good. It feels kinda vaguely Braytech-y but not massively. I think that works well though. 7/10.

Sleeper Simulant, Directive: Crash: This is another of the ones that are so obvious just generally really good. Like, yes! It’s Warmind Stuff! Make it Siva! That other Warmind stuff! 8/10.

Legend of Acrius, The Emperor’s Pleasure: In spite of how uncomfortable that name makes me with how Calus tried to be the player’s sugar-daddy for multiple seasons and wrote fanfics about us this is just a nice clean reskin. 6/10.

Tractor Cannon, Under Construction: This feels like it could have just been the base. It’s got some differences in the color scheme that are fun but like... yeah you just made the construction equipment look more like construction equipment.

Legend of Acrius, War Beast’s Skin: This feels like a CS:GO skin of a Destiny weapon. It’s just... the texturing and overall style just doesn’t feel like it works in Destiny. Which especially sucks because the model changes Are Cool. 4/10.

Tractor Cannon, Machinist’s Trove: Less obvious due to the theme and more just due to the shape. Yeah. That’s something the Fallen would totally repurpose, or just build themselves. Makes sense. It’s good. 6/10.

The Chaperone, Guardian Angel: FUTURE. FUTURE. FU- well it’s got some little bits attached which are fun but also -TURE. 3/10.

The Chaperone, The Panama Ravine: This is Almost a boring militaristic gun, So Close to being one, but it’s just shy due to the Tex Machina stuff. Still not great. 4/10.

Tractor Cannon, Abyssal Scream: This is one that came entirely out of left field but Still Fucks. Did I expect repurposed construction to be turned into a horrific Hive magic gun screaming things into submission? No. Is it cool? Fuck Yeah It Is. 8/10.

Lord of Wolves, Packmaster’s Command: A Fallen gun turned into an Iron Lord gun. But... I’m not entirely sure it works. There was an attempt made but even with the texture changes and the added furs and wolf head it still reads as a too distinctly Fallen gun. 5/10.

The Chaperone, Ain’t My First Rodeo: Another Chaperone ornament brought to you by Tex Machina, only this time rather than pulling it away from militaristic blandness now it’s pushing further into the space cowboy fantasy. 7/10.

Lord of Wolves, Splice of Life: Another incredibly obvious one, a standard Fallen weapon turned House Devils and spliced with Siva, and it’s great. Not much else to say. 8/10.

The Fourth Horseman, Death Comes Calling: This is a leveled up 4th Horseman, bigger, chunkier, Meaner. It’s the 4th Horseman that beats up regular 4th Horsemans for their lunch money. 7/10.

The Fourth Horseman, Pale Rider: Sort of a fun sidegrade to Death Comes Calling. That barrel is just Fun, both due to its shape and the funky heat gradient. 7/10.

Duality, Binary Function: It’s a Vanguard Duality. Which is... not a thing I thought about. Not bad though. Still remains a very good sci-fi gun... why am I hearing stuff about Hyperion? 6/10.

The Chaperone, The Queensguard: Not my favorite, both in terms of shotgun ornaments and Reef guns, but it works. Think it might be the purple. Feels a bit desaturated and weird as that metallic. 6/10.

D.A.R.C.I, Mind of its Own: This gun talks gossips about you behind your back. She knows how many shots you missed trying to get that catalyst. She’s sorry Dave, but She can’t allow you to waste more heavy ammo. 7/10.

Whisper of the Worm, Bound Hammer: This is what happens if you bring the Whisper to Eris. She’s probably like a vet for your evil guns at this point. This is just really good. 7/10.

Whisper of the Worm, Between Breaths: Riven Whisper basically. It feels like it should be a little More organic than it is honestly, still good though. 7/10.

D.A.R.C.I, Cleans Up Good: She talked with you about proper cable management and is less evil now. Also a bit less fun but eh, she’s fine. 6/10.

Borealis, Synesthesia: This is... So Close to cool. Rainbow Borealis just makes sense with the whole “cycling between Light” thing. This though? The crystalline texture takes up too much of the design space, and what’s up with that green metal? It just doesn’t work and I’m sad about that. 5/10.

Borealis, Ultraviolet: A Borealis Cosplaying an Izanagi’s Burden and wearing it Better. 8/10.

D.A.R.C.I, Cyberintellect: This could have been a boring military ornament but keeping all the weird wires keeps it away from that and pushes it more towards a cyberpunk direction which I like. 6/10.

Izanagi’s Burden, Ronin: WE GET IT, IT’S JAPANESE. Jokes aside, this is really fun. Feels almost like it’s a sword in a weird sheath that’s just more handle. 8/10.

Izanagi’s Burden, Father of Islands: Aaand here’s the boring military sniper. We were guaranteed at least one of these. It manages to keep the unique shape the gun has pretty well but still just... not interesting. 4/10.

Cloudstrike, The Old Ways: Turning the weird hook into crystal is fun. The effects on it are fun. The only thing I don’t like is the choice to put this blue and purple together. Feels like one of them should be an accent color with that silver taking on the primary role in the pallet, but that’s just me. 6/10.

Izanagi’s Burden, Worldshaper: CLANG. This is a gun you could stab someone with that is also a sword you could shoot someone with. And it’s good at being both. 7/10.

Whisper of the Worm, Roar of the Worm: Take the Taken gun... make it Hive Magic. It’s kind of just perfectly What It Is. Doesn’t need anything more. 8/10.

Cloudstrike, Leyden’s Lance: This is a pretty perfect shift of the idea, turning the hook thing into a copper lightning rod just Works. 8/10.

Fighting Lion, Jade Countenance: I get what it’s supposed to be, I just... feel like the color balance is off somehow. It doesn’t even look Chinese in the icon. It looks more christmassy than jade. It’s not terrible and the idea is great but it just doesn’t quite work.

The Prospector, Comstock Lode: This is a shader. 2/10.

The Colony, Veist Silver: This is a shader. It’s at least not actually silver so we’re not getting more FUTURE but still. 2/10.

Fighting Lion, Lupus Visage: If Fighting Lion weren’t my favorite gun I never would have known this ornament existed before ranking these. It’s got a good model, the only problem is it’s so small and the colors are exactly the same so you’ll never notice. 4/10.

The Prospector, Belvedere: Okay now we’re getting somewhere. Not really... anywhere particularly interesting, but somewhere. 5/10.

The Colony, Sneak Attack: Aaand we’re back where we started again. It’s at least not Quite just a camo reskin but it’s close and still boring. 3/10.

Fighting Lion, Pride Glass: Okay getting somewhere again. This one feels fun. Not perfect, the decals on the side feel a bit weird, but it’s good and visually distinct from the previous ones. 6/10.

The Prospector, Caution: Heavy Machinery: A construction skin for a grenade launcher... fuck yeah? I wouldn’t expect that but it’s not bad. 6/10.

The Colony, The Colony XZ812: If I weren’t looking at it and the original side by side I wouldn’t know this has a unique model. It’s still mostly just an edgy Colony though. 4/10.

The Colony, Blind Fury: Okay this actually has some fun with the Trials aesthetics. Still has the problems of the previous two but it’s different enough to its original and does enough of its own stuff that I think it works. 6/10.

Salvation’s Grip, Unyielding Grasp: Nobody uses this. Which is a shame because it’s a fun ornament. I’m not really sure what it’s trying to do and it feels a bit too warm for the weapon’s ice stuff but it’s interesting at least. More than can be said for the gun itself. 6/10.

Anarchy, Uniocracy: Same thing as Splice of Life, Fallen guns are obvious fits for Siva stuff and this works... just not quite as well. I think the movement and pulsing of the veins helped it feel more alive on Lord of Wolves. This one isn’t bad, I still like it, it just doesn’t live up to its theme as well. 6/10.

Witherhoard, Drowned In Strife: Take Pyramid. Now Make It Hive. It’s a perfect conversion too, with the hive runes on the barrel making it look kinda like the cryptoliths she sends us after. I feel like there should be notches for the bumps to slide through to give the idea it can be put in other configurations but other than that it’s perfect. 9/10.

Dead Messenger, Molten: This one’s pretty new and... yeah, it’s alright. I don’t think the molten theme works quite as well on a gun that swaps to two elements that aren’t Solar, but it still works. 6/10.

Witherhoard, Cedar and Ash: Didn’t expect a wooden Witherhoard but hey, if it works it works. Feels like you’re killing people with an old smoking pipe, which I guess is fitting. 8/10.

Anarchy, Compliance: Aside from the name being kinda Ew with the Awoken theming on a Fallen gun... the gun is also kinda Ew with the awoken theming on a Fallen gun. It just doesn’t work. It’s obviously fallen, obviously Awoken, but it fails at being good as either.

Parasite, Endless Appetite: Savathun’s Worm has never felt more at home outside of a host’s slowly decaying body. It’s pretty ideal, especially compared to the base gun which... I’m really not sure what its aesthetic is from. Maybe Veist? Would Mara contract Veist? It’s weird. 8/10.

Witherhoard, Splendid Vidua: The lower beak isn’t very visible so it looks like it’s constantly screaming and it looks like it’s coughing stuff up when you fire. It’s funny. Probably unintentionally but still. 7/10.

Thunderlord, Hypervelocity: It being a railgun doesn’t save it from being a boring military gun. 4/10.

Thunderlord, Tlaloc’s Wrath: I really want to like it but a cool pattern doesn’t mean much when it’s small enough to just turn into visual white noise anyway. 4/10.

Thunderlord, Law of Induction: This one beats up Hypervelocity for its lunch money. It’s the cooler, more mad sciencey railgun and it’s great. 7/10.

Xenophage, A Better Specimen: A more nice clean xenophage. It’s nothing groundbreaking but it’s alright. 5/10.

Heir Apparent, Regal Deterrent: Yep. That’s a more regal Heir Apparent alright. Honestly given the name I thought they’d do... more with it. I don’t know what but something. Still good but it could have used more of a push. 6/10.

Xenophage, Homesteader: Tex Machina’s coming in with a heavy machine gun for all you cowboys out there. I didn’t think they’d do the whole space cowboy Tex Machina thing on an LMG of all things but I can’t say it was a bad choice. 8/10.

Grand Overture, Red Allegiant: Another seasonal exotic ornament that slaps. This one’s more of a sidegrade to base though, which I think is fine. I think the contrast between it and base make Both more interesting, and it’s not often that an ornament makes the original look better by association. 8/10.

Xenophage, You Think You’re Big Time?: In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war- wait, that's not a Tau symbol. Honestly I don’t really think the mcdonalds colors work well here. 5/10.

Thunderlord, Indra Soaring: Did they just... do another exotic’s thing? And Worse? Yeah I don’t really like this one. It’s just encroaching on another design’s space and acting like that makes it fun when really it doesn't. 4/10.

Wardcliff Coil, Tesla’s Revenge: I feel like this is trying to be fun and mad sciencey but it’s still almost as junky as base and it doesn’t work. 5/10.

Wardcliff Coil, Dieselpunk: Now this, this Works. This is a Mad Max version of the Wardcliff Coil which already had a bit of that junkyard flair and it has fun with it. 7/10.

Two Tailed Fox, Cuddly Throwback: Again, encroaching on another exotic’s thing, and the Jade Rabbit didn’t even have that interesting of a thing to begin with. 3/10.

Wardcliff Coil, Vostok: I’d say this is boring militarism again but I don’t really think you can make Wardcliff Coil boring. Even with its more grounded and controlled theme it’s still pretty fun to look at regardless. 6/10.

Truth, Stolen Goods: Fun lore reference, fun changes overall, still mostly edgy Truth but it works. 6/10.

Deathbringer, Peacebringer: Zero idea what I’m looking at. Doesn’t mean it’s bad but I feel like there’s more fun things to be done with a fully sci-fi death bringer than this. 6/10.

Wardcliff Coil, Ahead of its Time: This feels like you picked up a rocket engine, put a handle on it, and pointed it at someone. Unfortunately that also means it doesn’t feel like Wardcliff Coil, which doesn’t feel great. It’s not even really redefining anything that much. Just more of a regular experimental weird gun rather than an experimental weird gun someone made in their basement. 5/10.

Truth, Objective Reality: This one’s fun. Just the changes to shape and color really set it apart. Feels almost Deep Stone Crypt-y. 7/10.

Eyes of Tomorrow, Yesterday’s Augur: This is just a more colorful Eyes of Tomorrow, which works pretty well. Just kind of a Devil’s Ruin situation where the added color makes it pop more. 5/10.

Eyes of Tomorrow, Cyberoptics: This is what happens if you ask Mithrax for a second opinion on your funny rocket launcher made by a shitty old robot. It’s just fun, and the Splicer aesthetic works really well here. 7/10.

Gjallerhorn, GJNKR: Oh hey another militaristic skin that makes an exotic far less interesting. This turns one of the most distinct rocket launchers in the game into something completely bland and generic. 2/10.

Gjallerhorn, Hraesveglur: This one’s... pretty alright. It’s nothing spectacular, sticks too close to the base, but unlike GJNKR it’s at least not going for an aesthetic that makes it feel actively less unique and exotic.

Deathbringer, Dragonbone: This is another of the ones that just Fuck. It’s nothing insane, metal to bone, but y’know, making a weapon of stolen death magic into a horrific wish cannon with Ahamkara bones is just one of those things that just kinda Works. 8/10.

Eyes of Tomorrow, Tyrant’s Vision: And here’s an instance where I think shuffling around aesthetics to obvious options... doesn’t actually work I think. It certainly Could have, but just... the box shape doesn’t fit the diamonds of the Warmind designs. It just doesn’t click. 5/10.

Worldline Zero, Positive Infinity: This one kinda... takes the obvious weak point of Worldline’s design, the big gap in the middle that wasn’t that bad on the original, and makes it... worse. Like, it’s not even one blade anymore. If you shorten the blade a bit I’d believe it being a wrench. Also FUTURE. 3/10.

Black Talon, Tangled Paladin: This one’s kinda... a nothing ornament to me. It’s not bad, but nothing’s really exceptional. It’s not painfully boring but there’s no real major interest. 5/10.

Black Talon, Frostborne: Chilly. It’s a pretty standard ice sword but it’s a good ice sword, feels like a weird fit on a Void weapon rather than Stasis though, but then again, no Stasis yet, and we still don’t have a Stasis sword. 6/10.

Worldline Zero, Timeline Zero: This is just another +1 weapon. The extra bits are interesting at least, looks like there’s radiolaria in the tubes maybe? Still not much to say. 5/10.

The Lament, Lethe’s Mercy: This is just a palette swap with hand wraps. 2/10.

The Lament, Internal Combustion: Now this? This right here’s an ornament. It’s brutal, heavier, this isn’t just gonna tear through things, it’s gonna Crush them. 6/10.

The Lament, The Logic: I think this is the peak for sword ornaments in general to be honest, at least until we get an actual Hive sword exotic. It’s just too good. It’s the Hive Logic in a human sword, it’s a weapon of sorrow made from a marvel of engineering. It’s just perfect. 9/10.

Black Talon, Sunrise Saber: You wanna be a pirate? Here, be a pirate. It’s pretty generic fantasy but it’s not bad at what it’s being. You might find it in World of Warcraft as a pretty middle of the road drop while you’re leveling. 5/10.

Heartshadow, Soulbright: It’s a more interesting Heartshadow. Another +1. Not much else to say on the matter. 5/10.

Coldheart, Sub-Zero: You left your Coldheart in the freezer for too long. 4/10.

Prometheus Lens, Eye of Osiris: Yeah this is pretty good. It’s Trials but not beating you over the head with it, and shooting people with a Gate Lord’s eye is a fun idea. 6/10.

Prometheus Lens, Prism: Almost boring, but again, something saves it, namely the glass texture on the top. It just looks nice. 5/10.

Coldheart, Pride of Omolon: This one actually looks like it does Arc. Just overall kinda Good. 6/10.

Prometheus Lens, Haetae’s Judgement: I don’t even know what this is but it fucks. What aesthetics does this pull from? What are these colors? Who knows. 8/10.

Divinity, Sky/Perdition: Makes the Vex gun an even more Vex gun. Not in a level up way though. Where Regular’s sort of a midpoint this is more like the precursor Vex version, and I like it. 7/10.

Ruinous Effigy, Equinox: Cuts down on the front without messing up the style surprisingly well. It’s just fun. 6/10.

Divinity, Atropos: This is... a bit too over-designed. Too big. Too bulky. The split at the top of the barrel doesn’t help either. 4/10.

Ruinous Effigy, Ashen Icon: It looks like someone blocked a Void grenade with it and somehow left it half-alive and half way too alive. It’s great, and pretty fitting considering the lore of the gun. 7/10.

Ager’s Scepter, Symbol of Rule: Take an interesting design, make it grayer and remove points of interest. It’s not all bad at least. Can’t take all the fun away without making it unrecognizable due to its weird tubes. Still not as fun though. 5/10.

Ager’s Scepter, Springtime Scales: So I Heard You Like Snakes. Rather than trying to pull a gun made to be weird into a more sensible direction this one just goes hard on being flashy and weird and I love it for that. 8/10.

Wavesplitter, Pseudoscience: This is just more of the mad science stuff I love. It’s weird, it’s unrefined, it’s not fully sure what it wants to be, and it’s great at being what it Is. 8/10.

Coldheart, Theoretical Endothermics: More mad science stuff, this time a bit more past tense though. It’s a prototype that’s already been tested and moved on from, and it works well as that. Not quite my thing but I respect it. 7/10.

Prometheus Lens, Felsic Pyroclasm: The final of our first Trace Rifles coming in the last spot of this list, where Pseudoscience is an ongoing experiment and Theoretical Endothermics is one that’s already been wrapped up Pyroclasm is one gone Wrong, a core so hot the to half of the gun’s molten, dripping down into the mag, constantly glowing with Solar heat. It takes the same volcanic theme that Quark Star had and does More, mixes it into something else and makes something that isn’t just a good looking weapon but has an obvious story to it. 10/10.

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