#there's a cat during that section you can interact with

[quil12]

I’ve never picked the option that leads to this dialogue before and by god, there is no heterosexual explanation for this

#absolutely hate this section of the game #and i always just skip through it #but i paused to pick the option and oh my god #yosuke #my boy #why do you do this to me #i love him so much #and i just want the game to let me date him #oh #and the reason why the text looks weird is because i was figuring out how to mod the game #and i wanted a visual indicator that the mods were loaded #and youll never guess which mod i actually wanted to use lol #i got it all to work #and so i should be able to date my boy lol #persona 4 #souyo #asjkl #i almost forgot #there's a cat during that section you can interact with #i didnt ever know he was there #and i petted him instead of talking to one of the girls #truly a great day

[blainesebastian]

worth it

words: 1,373 ship: austin butler x reader summary: (combination of 2 requests) angry!austin + protective!austin (sentence prompt)  notes: thanks for all the requests! it’s been cool to write and realize multiple requests can fit into one writing piece :) hope ya’ll enjoy. masterlist is here  warnings: verbal abuse (men about reader)  tag list: @killerqueenfan, @karamelcoveredolicity, @elizabethrosecresswell, @gigisworldsstuff, @stylesmendeshearted

Austin’s pissed.

You can see it in the frame of his shoulders, tight across like rebar formed into the bone. He stands a bit straighter, the muscle in his jaw works, and his eyes which are usually the softest ocean blue turn hard, like the color of a frozen lake. When your boyfriend has these moments, you always remember something your mother would say when you were younger—to be wary of the anger of a gentle man. Not that you’re afraid of Austin or afraid of what he might do, but you know that he’s never quick to this emotion. So for him to be this upset? His buttons have to be pushed and pushed hard.

You feel like you should have known to just leave the bar that you’re at tonight altogether when you came in and you saw it was packed. It’s a place that you both have been to before, on dates, to hang out with friends and family, to just catch a quick drink before heading home after a long night on set. The entire makeup of the place tonight is just different given how crowded it is, people seem to have shorter fuses, tolerance, and the air is thick with a kind of tension that you can feel seeping into your pores long before Austin’s patience snaps.

But it was supposed to be an easy night of relaxation, of having a few beers, of maybe playing darts and picking up a 2AM pizza and eating it in bed together before crashing. When the first few comments from these guys around you started making things uncomfortable, you should have told Austin to close the tab and suggested heading out.

At first? It was kinda something that you were just ignoring because…it’s not the last time you’ll be out at a bar and guys are saying inappropriate things to you. Especially while drunk—you’ve learned the hard way that assholes will be opinionated no matter what. And giving these guys attention by either yelling at them or asking them to stop is just going to hype them up even more. You’re a woman and men, for the most part with a sparce few, suck. Cat-calling happens all the time and while you’re not saying it’s right? You don’t have the energy to deal with it.

Not to mention, sometimes, that when it happens and you’re alone—it’s not the safest approach to respond.

So a few comments float by while you’re at the bar with Austin, some of them you hear, other times it’s just a part of the loudness of people around you. Either way, you take a step closer to him and just enjoy the night, hoping it’ll just fizzle out on its own.

It doesn’t.

There’s these long string of moments where Austin goes to the restroom and you’re alone, doing your best to just ignore the lewd commentary coming from two or three guys a few bar stools over. You’re not about to look in their direction, give them a thrill or the time of day, but when Austin comes back he can tell you’re uncomfortable.

And then he hears it.

“Fine lookin’ piece of ass tonight at the bar.”

“Right? And usually this place is so fuckin’ dry.”

“Not tonight—you see the rack on her? Think she’s rentin’ by the hour? Could ask her—”

During the entire interaction, you can feel more than see Austin’s demeanor change beside you, the tensing of his body, the way his arm wraps around your waist to keep you close. You’re hoping he’s just going to let it go, maybe offer to go to a different section of the bar or better yet, leave altogether and find somewhere else to spend the night.

Austin leans back from the bar just enough to make sure his words land, “The fuck did you just say?”

The guys fall silent, just for a moment, startled that he’s actually said something to them. But this doesn’t deter them for long, there’s laughter which immediately sets Austin’s blue eyes alight. It’s obvious his blood is boiling and in any other situation? This might cause a shiver to course down your spine but your only concern right now is getting out of the bar without a horrible fight starting.

While you appreciate the gesture of Austin not letting these comments fly, it’s not worth throwing punches.

“We were wonderin’ if your girlfriend rents by the hour,” One guy slurs, taking another sip of beer, “Seems like a fuckin’ waste to keep her to yourself.”

Austin takes a strong step forward and you have to move quickly before you lose him, your hand falling to his chest, “Stop,” You insist, fingers digging into his shirt a little.

“Better listen to your lady, pal.”

You shake your head, tugging a bit on the fabric until he looks down at you. “Please,” And you can feel him relax, just slightly, when his eyes meet yours, “It’s not worth it, okay?”

The muscle in Austin’s jaw tightens before he lets out a short breath through his nose, “Of course it’d be worth it.” But he concedes, throwing cash on the bar counter before taking your hand and leading you out through the crowd.

The night air is cold and biting compared to the heated space of the bar, your skin prickling as a chill settles along your body. Austin doesn’t look back at you either, walking all the way to the end of the street with his hand firmly clasped around yours.

“Austin,” You try and then you pause at a crosswalk when the light changes, “Austin.”

He turns sharply at you saying his name and you…don’t have the words to tell him he’s squeezing your hand too hard when you get a good look at his face. He’s pissed. His breathing is a little off, eyes sharp like broken glass. The hand that he’s not holding quickly moves to cup his one cheek, running your thumb over the bone.

That seems to get him to restart, just slightly, taking a short, calming breath into his lungs and his grip loosens on your other hand. He tips his head back a little, sighing, running a hand through his hair.

“Nothin’ pushes my fucking buttons like that.” He comments, a slight twang in his voice leftover from Elvis when he’s upset.

You shake your head gently; he really doesn’t have to explain. “I know,” You mumble, running your thumb along his knuckles, back and forth in a soothing motion. “Definitely don’t need to be hittin’ people though.”

There’s a crack of a smile on Austin’s lips and from then on you know he’s genuinely calmed down, “Would be worth it though.” He lifts up the hands you both have laced together and presses a kiss to your fingers.

A soft sigh flutters out of your lips, a gentle eyeroll to follow even though it’s fond.

“I know I can’t protect you from everythin’, but sometimes I wish you’d let me protect you from the things I can control.”

And then that hits you a little differently, the warmth Austin obviously feels towards you rolling off in waves. You can’t help but smile up at him, touched that he wants to look out for you, even in frustrating moments like this. Maybe you need to realize that you deserve someone caring about you too—that idiots in a bar like that shouldn’t be able to just throw whatever comments they want in your direction and it just ‘be okay’.

“I mean—I guess throwin’ a punch would kinda be sexy, I dunno.” And you’re joking, of course, but the passion it represents in connection to what he’s said is still there.

Austin hums in amusement and slides his jacket off, the jean sherpa that he tends to wear out once the weather shifts into something cooler. He places it over your shoulders, drawing you close before crossing the street.

You’re not sure it’d be actually worth it to have Austin get into some sort of fist fight over you…but the sentiment is definitely there that he’d even be willing and worth more than you can put into words.

#austin butler #austin butler x reader #austin butler imagine #austin butler drabble #austin butler fic #elvis 2022 #mccall writes things

[s0lam33y]

attoye HCS [new and updated]

attuma is the cockiest man, he loves to show Okoye off and brag that he’s bagged the best warrior.

they give off golden retriever x black cat

“I love You.”

“Shut up.”

“I do.”

“Be quiet.”

“Say it back.”

“No.”

“Then I challenge you to a duel.”

attuma is so romantic. she loves to act like she hates it and he knows she doesn’t.

He’s always kissing her back because she has so many scars there from battle.

“I don’t like them.”

“Well…i love them. You look like a real warrior, ko.”

When she gets home from battle, he preps up a bath and learns to cook her favorite wakandan dish.

she braids his hair so often and begins to put shells in his hair so he looks good.

He always brings back something from the sea, a pretty shell, sometimes pearls, or books in his language.

“Weren’t these expensive?”

“No, I found them easily, I wish I could’ve gotten you more.”

“Tuma, these are PEARLS?”

“They really aren’t all that special.”

He’s a great artist and has painted her many times before.

She loves doing his hair, she loves doing it so much that she’ll tell him to sit down and it helps her calm down.

He has huge hands, hands so big, he can hold her waist with no struggle.

When they first became a thing, he always used too much force by accident.

example 1: he accidentally pulled on her waist and ended up damn near pulling him into her, they were so close to kissing.

Attuma loves the tattoos on her head and has traced them before, she always slaps his hand away.

“They’re so pretty.”

“My friend, move your hand.”

She always cooks seafood because she knows that’s what he likes.

He’s helped Wakanda a lot ever since the war. Did it cause problems with Namor and namora? Yes, but he didn’t care.

He didn’t really want kids for the longest time. Then he saw her interact with village children and he couldn’t not think of having kids with her.

They don’t really believe in marriage at least not at first, especially since they’re both busy warriors.

Aneka is literally their cockblocker. (So is M’Baku)

They go on missions together and when they do, he’s always making sure she enjoys them.

He’s very much the big spoon despite how tough she likes to acc.

He’s very affectionate and it eventually rubs off on her. She loves hugging him after a long day of work.

She said I love you first and immediately took it back because of the shook on his face.

She hates his wet hair in her bed but tolerates it because she loves him.

“Attuma! The least you could do is dry it!”

They always take baths together because it’s the easiest way he can breathe without his mask on.

He joins her when she meditates even though he sucks at it.

“You look strained, You alright?”

“How do You even get your leg up that high?”

They always walks to the market together because when he goes by himself, he gets the wrong thing.

“Tuma, this is sweet potato, that is yam.”

“Are they not the same?”

“NO.”

He’s always trying to hit on her during training and it makes her want to roll her eyes.

“You’re so beaut-“

“Please, put your weapon up and skip the sweet talk.”

She’s been to Talokan once and she thought it was beautiful.

if you want to be tagged in attoye content, let me know in the comment section.

#attoye #okoye x attuma #okoye #mcu okoye #attuma #black panther #mmcanons

[lyndentree63]

So you wanna watch Burrow's End but you are a Delicate Flower (TM) and don't know if you can tolerate gore, body horror, suspense, etc. But you reeeeaaallly really love Aabria DMing and all the players, and all your friends are excited and talking about it, what do you do? (It's me, I'm the Delicate Flower.)

First, know the difference between "this is uncomfortable" and "this is unsafe". It's really important to be in tune with your body and know what's inside your window of tolerance, what's on the edge of your window tolerance and what is straight-up trauma triggering you.

If you know ahead of time what your specific trauma triggers are, look at the content warnings, ask friends, or ask in the Discord server (either on the Burrow's End channel or DM the mods) for if those specific things are described and/or shown. Note the time stamps.

Skip the sections that trauma-trigger you. That might be the whole episode. Or the whole season. Take care of yourself. But if you think it's uncomfy and just outside of your window of tolerance, carry on. . .

If it's something that you think you might be ok with, try reducing visual input: listen to the audio-only version, adjust your screen setting so things are in different colours, make your browser window small to reduce details. If you're near-sighted like me, take your glasses off to blur things.

Alternatively, your brain might make things MORE detailed and worse than they actually are, in which case, try watching and focusing on the cast, their interactions, the funny bits, the sweet bits. Also try half-watching it while doing some other task like folding laundry, or doing something like knitting or hand-sewing.

Look at the set with analytic movie-maker brain. How did they make this TECHNICALLY? What shots are they using? Notice the cuts, the lighting, the paint details. Think about the boring nitty-gritty backstage details that went into making this.

Watch with someone safe.

Make stupid jokes (The Blue is Walmart)

DO NOT EAT WHILE WATCHING (Alternatively, eating and drinking may actually help because eating food activates the parasympathetic nervous system aka the calm down system)

Take it in small chunks. Watch only a few minutes at a time, and then do something else grounding and calming.

Watch during daylight, so you can process stuff BEFORE you have to sleep.

Have an aftercare plan in place, either for processing (talk about it with a friend, yell about it on Discord or Tumblr, journal, have a little sob, make art about it) or for distracting (watch funny and wholesome videos, scroll Instagram, go to work, play with your cat, read a book, go for a walk, have a wild dance party)

Have an after-aftercare plan in place for when stuff crops up a few days or weeks later and unwelcome things pop into your brain. (Hint: treat 'em like intrusive thoughts; just let them fly through like li'l bats out to get a mosquito dinner and move on to the next thought.)

Read all the spoilers beforehand (on the Dropout Discord, here, on other socials), and desensitise yourself to pictures that way.

Write a tumblr post to help other people out

Don't feel ashamed for reacting with disgust, horror, feeling like you want to cry and generally being a Delicate Flower. We all have different nervous systems and different tolerances and life experiences and traumas, you're not better if you can stomach gore and horror and you're not Too Much if you get squeamish at just the thought of some of the things mentioned in ep 2 of Burrow's End.

#dimension 20 #burrow's end #burrow's end spoilers #aabria iyengar #stupendous stoats #how to deal #anyways I'll see how much of these I actually end up using #I really hope I can make it through episode 2 because being on this ride with the fans as it's releasing is FUN #even if gory battle maps aren't fun #aabria I trust you #but let's see how far that trust goes #cause I gotta take care of my nervous system too

[snoopyblankie]

Li’l Pup’s Art Class Suggestions !!

Hellooooo !! I said I wanted to go more in depth with some of my “school”/“daycare” schedule sections, so I figured I’d start (out of order) with art class !

This is gonna include links to videos focusing on different mediums, as well as links to different craft ideas! I’m not gonna break ‘em down into ages because some folks may not follow those structures, so just pick and choose what you’d like! As you’ll notice, I REALLY like Miss Stephens’ videos, so look around her channel !!

VIDEOS !

Salt Dough Fish Bowl with Miss Stephens

Origami Pets with Miss Stephens

Pet Shop Puppets with Miss Stephens

Draw a Winter Dog/Cat with Miss Stephens

Coral Reef Sculpture with Miss Stephens

Draw a Treasure Map with Miss Stephens

Clay Bobble Head Pets with Miss Stephens

Picasso Dogs with Miss Sonheim

Rock and Roll People with Miss Sonheim + Miss Moore

Nature Faces with Miss Sonheim

Foldable Surprise Drawing with Miss Sonheim + Miss Doman

Elements of Art with Mrs. Hazleton

There’s lots of videos to find! I tried finding the more in-depth/interactive ones to help engage folks while they’re watching like an actual lesson! Searching up “kids art lessons” or similar helps, and if you have a specific artist maybe you wanna learn about, you could look up the artist and see what there is (Brain Pop is great for this, too!)

SOME RANDOM LINKS !

Paper Plate Tambourine (could be good to pair with a music “class” !)

Cardboard Laptop Craft (an upgrade cuz I used to make paper ones during recess with game slots and everything ^w^)

Egg Carton Cars

Farm Animal Finger Puppets

Fake Snow (good to pair with a science “class” !)

Woven Rainbow Fish

We Built a Zoo! (could also be good for science)

Paper Plate Pizza

OTHER IDEAS !

Do some seasonal crafts !

Draw and cut out different animal body parts (paws, horns, wings, tails) and glue ‘em together to make a whole new animal ! (Pair this with writing; name your new creature, describe what it likes to do, what sounds it makes, where it lives, etc)

Make paper/cardboard food for your stuffed animals/dolls ! You can even make menus if you wanna play restaurant some time

Try and make a pop-up book, or a sensory one !

Make bracelets for different moods, or make a chart with drawings of what each mood feels like for you

Finger paint !

Make a sensory bottle/jar

Make a paper doll of yourself (big or small) and cut out some fun clothes for you to wear !

There are a whole BUNCH of ideas you can do, just think a little bit and dream bigger ! It can be helpful if you look these up before you regress (or have a CG do it for you) and print out/write down the instructions beforehand so you’re not having to use your phone/laptop to look up ideas and take you outta the zone. Extra helpful if you queue up the videos you wanna watch! Have fun !! And stay safe with any scissors, hot glue, etc!!

#lil pup speaks ! #routines ! #helpful ! #agere resources #agere #age regression #age regressor #agere blog #age regression blog

[hugogetsrawed]

TVA archive anon again yes that is what I meant thank you! Sorry I wasn't clear enough in my first ask, I'm just a bit intrigued by the local fandom cryptid and don't know where to do research

No worries!! I can give you a quick overview of what happened (to the best of my knowledge) and places you can look for remnants of the Tall Varian anon.

The Tall Varian anon started posting under NSFW fics on ao3 that featured bottom Varian. (It's important to note that the Tall Varian anon and the Top Varian anon are the same person btw!)

They hit up a few top Varian fics, praising them for having that and begging for more material. These are mostly under "Anon Guest" users, but I think DAVIDOFF and Sararar were the pseudonyms they transitioned into using.

I'm pretty sure if you search Varigo on ao3 and filter it out to Explicit fics, you'll find a comment under one of those two names about it, so I would start there. It's mostly smaller comments like "this is actually good" or "why won't people write Top Varian?" until beloved fandom author PornOnTheCob declared open season on them in their comment section on I THINK their valentine's day fic in 2022 (?). After that it migrated to Tumblr and became way more hostile.

There was an incident where they posted under EVERY SINGLE Varigo authors' works (including non tts/vat7k fics) about how Varigo was a cult (these might be deleted, but I still have screenshots somewhere).

It's harder to search on Tumblr bc the search system is stupid and broken, but there were a million incidents on my main (@whothefuckisknives), and I'm pretty sure other blogs got hit up too (I wouldn't know tho bc I only knew a couple of ppl in the fandom at the time and we were in a Discord groupchat, not really on Tumblr).

Currently, they do have a Tumblr blog, but they have most ppl in the fandom blocked which is awesome for us tbh. I think they interact with 3 ppl tops.

One note to add, you'll probably find a lot of Tall Varian/Top Varian comments under Cheerio, HOWEVER you'll also find nice comments too. That's bc Cheerio was actually someone else, but Tall Varian anon started impersonating them to cause drama (I know this btw bc I knew who the original Cheerio was and they ended up making an AO3 account). So if you see Cheerio in the comment section during the Porn0nTheCob fights, that's not Tall Varian anon.

There's a bunch of other pseudonymous they used too, like Anali, Dan, Duchess de L'ciel, Rioteer, gds, and Lady [something?? i don't remember it but I think it began with an "A"]. They've gone through a couple of Tumblr blogs too that got deleted or banned too. The only one's I can remember is @imapervertedtangledfan (deleted, but you might be able to find it via archieve/waybackmachine fuckery), @/aliciasinferno (this one is still a little bit active).

Actually here's a really funny call out post that THEY POSTED ABOUT THEMSELVES to try and throw ppl off their trail (didn't work):

It has the names of all the blogs and some of the AO3 names they've used which is. Really really funny.

Anyway, those are some places where you can start looking! Its a really weird deep dive fr one you get into it. They're also still active on their current Tumblr, but I'm not comfortable with naming them outside of DMS bc I don't want them up my ass again.

#fandom salt #tall varian anon #tall varian anon if you are reading this don't even bother to get in my askbox bc we all know how that's turned out every time

[cinemastyles-blog]

Just a Guitarist?

Summary: Y/N fills in for Mitch for a few shows and gets sick of how much of an asshole Harry is and calls him out on it. But the situation turns, and goes in a completely different way.

NOT EDITED / NOT A REQUEST

Warnings: SMUT18+, strong language, mentions of alcohol consumption, unprotected sex, rough sex, creampie, oral (both), hair pulling, just absolute filth

I know that Harry isn't an asshole, but writing about him being one is so fuckin hot. Enjoy ♡

CURRENT HARRY

Mitch took some time off, along with Sarah, so you're his fill in.

You couldn't lie, you loved Harry. His music, his performances, everything. You were absolutely excited, until you started getting direct messages from other famous people, staring you need to prepare yourself for how much of an asshole he really is.

That surprised you. Majorly.

You never saw Harry ever being labeled like that. He's always so nice and kind. You always say never judge a book by its cover, but there's truly only one way to find out and that's to see it for yourself.

——

Harry was fine for the first few days.

He hugged you when you met him for the first time. He went over the music with you. He seemed like what you thought.

But you were so wrong.

It wasn't until you asked him to go over the one section of Kiwi with him before the one show. You honestly just wanted to make sure it was right so this didn't happen on stage.

"Jesus Christ, y/n. You should know this bloody song by now." He sighs and steps back.

You clench your jaw and press your fingers into the body of your guitar, "I just wanted to make sure it was right."

"Yes. Yes. It's fucking right, okay. Now go. Please." He motions towards the door as he walks into bathroom.

You flick him off as he slams the door but quickly drop it as the door opens, laughing to yourself as you walk towards the door.

"You're still here." He says with disgust.

"Not anymore than I need to be." You go to walk out but stop as he says your name, "What?" You say plainly.

"Come here."

You feel like it's a trick but you can't help but to go to him. You slide your guitar onto your back and sigh as you stop, "What?" You repeat as you tilt your head and look up at him.

He grabs the bag he keeps his rings in and you know exactly where this is going. You roll your eyes and hold your hands out.

He raises his eyebrows and parts his lips, "Ah, look at you being a good girl and knowing what to do."

His tone is mocking as he gently dumps the ring into your hands, "Figured.. since you were here.."

He looks at you and you look at him.

"I'd used you for something, right?"

You relax your face and tilt your head, "Not like I'm the guitarist in your band right now or anything, but okay."

You can tell it strikes a nerve when you cock off to him.

You low key enjoy that.

"Cat got your tongue?" You smirk slightly and he shakes his head, laughing as he finishes putting his last ring on.

You drop your hands and wait for him to speak.

"I just don't want to hurt your feelings. I actually do care." He looks at you and nods towards the door, "That's all I needed you for."

You stare at him for a few seconds and slowly bring you hand up, flicking him off as you take a few steps back.

"You wish, sweetheart."

You shake your head, "I'm good without it."

——

Mid show, while Harry is interacting with the crowd, on your side of the stage of all places, you bump into your stool with your drink on it and it falls over.

You didn't really think anyone saw and it didn't get on anything but the stage.

You felt a chilling glare slowly creep upon you, and you knew exactly who to look at. Your eyes meet Harry's and honestly, he's very intimidating but you don't let him know that.

You force a smile and hold your hand up, wiggling your fingers at him. He shakes his head and walks to the other side of the stage.

The rest of the show, you were basically on Harry's shit list.

During one of the final songs, and as you're playing, Harry comes up to you and takes one of your in-ears out. He leans in, "I swear to fucking god, y/n. If you don't get your shit together, I'll fuck you so hard it'll ache to do the next show."

You didn't even hesitate, "Don't threaten me with a good time." You smile and bounce around to the best of the song that you're playing.

He scoffs and leaves you to put your own in-ear back in. You roll your eyes at the ground and look up, pretending that Harry didn't just make you hot and bothered.

You wave to the crowed and blow kisses right before exiting the stage.

You were on your post show high, you totally forgot about your incident on stage with Harry.

"Come on guys. We don't have another show for a few days. Let's go out!"

Everyone agrees to the band mates idea and your eyes meet Harry's. His stare feels like it's making everyone stare at you, but they're not.

"I don't know. I think some of us need to stay back and practice the music, that they should know by now." Harry shrugs, "Just a thought. But I'm down to go out."

You purse your lips, smirking as you try not to laugh, "Real funny Styles." You watch him as he walks into his dressing room to fetch his belongings.

You get reassurance from the others, nodding as you know you're doing great.

"He'll come around." You're told, but that's hard to believe.

——

After getting ready in the hotel, you meet the others down in the lobby.

"Wow, y/n. You look so good!"

"I love that dress."

"Thank you." You smile and sigh, "Are we ready?"

"Just waiting on Harry."

You roll your eyes, "Of course we are."

Harry walks down the steps and he honestly takes your breathe away. You get on your phone, scrolling on Instagram to distract yourself from the fact that Harry looks hot right now.

"Let's go." Harry motions to us as he walks right by, not even looking at you. You never thought Harry would go for you anyway, sometimes you wish he would just see you.

You follow them out, waiting to climb into the car with them. You finally reach the club and everyone files out and through the club door.

The lights are flashing and the music is blasting. Everyone is so laid back, drunk, but still laid back.

You walk up to the bar and smile at the bartender. He smiles and leans in, "Hello. What can I get you, gorgeous?"

You smile and bite your lip, thinking about what you want, "Umm. I think I'll just do a vodka cran, please."

He nods, "You got it, sweetheart."

You smile and look around, jumping slightly as you see Harry standing next to you, "Jesus, Harry. Fuck."

"Is that the only dress you had?" His voice is low, almost jealous sounding.

"What?" You shake your head and look up at him, "Did you ju-"

"Here you go. A vodka cran for the lady."

You turn and grab the glass, "Thank you. How much?"

"On the house." He winks and Harry scoffs, "Please."

"Excuse me?" The bartender leans in, unsure of what Harry said. Harry shakes his head and turns away, "You fuckin' heard me."

You fight back a smirk and sip on your drink, "Maybe you can come find out if this was the only dress I had."

And with that, you walk away with the last laugh.

For now.

——

After mingling and taking a few pictures with a few fans, you find yourself on the dance floor. You laugh and sing along, you're having a great time until a tall blonde comes up behind you.

You look up at him from over your shoulder, "Hi." You yell loudly so he can somewhat hear.

"Hello."

"Oh you're Irish?" You smile and raise your eyebrows, "I like that."

The four tequila shots have made you extra confident, obviously.

"Yeah?" He leans in, gripping your hips as you grind back onto him, "I can show you some other things you might like, if ya want."

Though his offer was tempting, you couldn't help but feel like you had to deny his request, "I need another drink." You laugh and make your way through the sea of dancing bodies.

You go to the bar, ordering another drink. The bartender continues to flirt, but you're not that drunk.

"Having fun?" Harry asks as he walks up behind you.

You look over at him and with being drunk, you're wobbly, so with every move, your dress creeps up just a little bit too high.

"Yeah. Are you?"

He shakes his head, "No. actually. I'm not."

You pout but can't help but laugh, "Aww. Poor baby. Not having a good time."

He rolls his eyes and clenches his jaw as the bartender comes back over, "So, you have any pl-"

"Yeah, no. We're not doing that. You're done." Harry takes the drink from your hands and walks you towards the exit.

You willingly go with him, anxious about what's to come.

He's probably going to yell, but at the same time, you were going to let him have a piece of your mind regardless.

"Get in." He says as he opens the door. You look at him, getting ready to put up a fight about not wanting to leave but he leans in, "Get in the fucking car, y/n."

You don't say a word. You just get in the car and watch him as he shuts the door. He walks around getting in the back with you.

"What is this? Some sort of intervention?" You look at him and he just stares at you.

You stare back and raise your eyebrows, "Why did you drag me out of that club, Harry?"

"I didn't drag you out. You willingly came with me, so don't even." He shakes his head and turns towards you, "You and I need to talk. We need to get along for everyone on this tour."

You look at him, having no idea what to say.

"So we're going to go back to the hotel and we're not going to come out until you and I know we can get along. Yeah?"

"I don't really have a choice, do I?" You look at him and he rests his arm on the back on the seat and smirks,, "Not unless you just want to leave and I can fi-"

You cut him off, "No. no. I'll do it then.. I guess."

——

It's silent the whole way up to his room. You feel like you could throw up and it's either from wondering what's going to happen with Harry or the alcohol.

"Go in." Harry says as he holds the door open for you. You walk in, crossing your arms as you get a chill.

"Maybe you wouldn't be cold if you wore something that covered more skin."

You laugh and turn around, "Are you jealous, Harry? What does my dress have to do with you anyway? Huh?"

"I couldn't have a good time because I was too busy worrying about whether my guitarist would get taken by some bloody weirdo." He finishes and stares at you, his chest rising and falling with anger.

"Is that.. all.. I am to you Harry?" You bite your lip and shift your weight to your other leg as you look at him, "Just your guitarist? Is that all you think of me as?"

He scrunches up his nose and tilts his head, sniffing as he crosses his arms, "You don't want me to answer that, y/n."

"Why?" You ask, very interested now, "What if I asked you nicely?" You steps towards him and his eyes move down to your bare legs and he stays silent.

"Please Harry?" You fake pout, pushing your bottom lip out as you get a little closer. He looks back up at you and goes to say something, but doesn't.

"Do I need to be an asshole like you? Demand you to tell me what I do badly want to hear?" You walk up to him, inches from his chest.

"You want to know what I think, y/n?" His voice is low and kind of intimidating, but thanks to the tequila, you  hold your ground, "Yep."

He's silent for a few moments, keeping a straight, dark stare on your eyes, "I think about you."

You feel your heart skip and beat heavy in your chest,

"I think about why I'm so hard on you."

"You mean how much of an asshole you are." You cut in and roll your eyes. He scoffs, "This right here. I think about how you're not afraid to get yourself what you know you deserve."

Why is he being nice?

"But I also think about you just shutting the fuck up for two seconds."

There it is.

You go to say something but he cuts you off and his words make you freeze.

"I think about shoving my cock down your throat every time you run your mouth at me."

A shock runs through your body and you swallow.

"You piss me off, too fucking much."

"We can agree on the same thing for once." You tilt your head and subtly roll your eyes.

He smirks and shakes his head, waiting until you look back at him, "I think about fucking you until your legs ache so I'm with you everywhere you go because I fucking hate you." He grits his teeth and leans in as he says it.

"Fuck you." You go to walk away but his hand wraps around your wrist, pulling you back into him quickly, "No. you're not going anywhere."

You give into him and he backs you up into the wall, "I hate you." He whispers as he lays a hand on your neck, "But I love you so fucking much."

His words make you go weak. You weren't expecting this.

Suddenly, you feel it too.

"I love you."

"Don't." He shakes his head and steps back, "Don't do that."

"Why?" You steps towards him and he holds his arm out, "I can't." He looks away from you and gently take his hand into yours, "Harry."

He lets your get halfway up his arm before he pushes you against the wall again, "I said.." he leans in and presses his lips to yours, "I can't."

"Why?"

"Just shut the fuck up for two seconds, shit."

He presses his lips to yours and you're quickly in a rough make out. His hands slide down, pulling your dress up to around your waist, "Just please." He says in a whimper tone.

"Fuck me. As hard as you want."

He moans against your lips and slides his fingers into your panties, "You're fucking soaked."

"Just for you."

He dips his fingers inside of you and you gasp, clenching around his fingers as he spreads them slightly.

"Fuck.. get on your knees." He takes his fingers out and starts to undo his pants as you drop down. You help him get his cock out, eager to have him in your mouth.

You pull his cock out and instantly take the head of it between your lips. A strangled groan escapes his lips and his hips buck forward, "Sh-it."

You smirk as you lean back, dipping your head down to drag your tongue up the under side of his cock. He places a hand gently on the back of your head, moaning out as you take as much of him in as you can.

You dig your nails into his thigh , squeeze your eyes shut as Harry holds your head still. His cock thrusts in and out of your throat, squelching and gagging sounds fill the room.

"Fuck. Get up here." Harry moans as he pulls you to your feet and turns you roughly. You stumble as he walks you backwards, keeping his lips on yours.

He holds you up, basically dragging you. Your arms are around his neck and stay around them as he lays you down. He pushes your legs apart and breaks from your grasp.

He moves down, not hesitating to finally get a taste of what drives him absolutely insane.

What makes him forget the lyrics to his own songs because he's so lost on watching your hands play your guitar, so well that he thinks you're better than him.

And he hates it.

He bites down on your clit, causing you to yelp out in pain, but still pleasure. Your hands move to grip onto his hair but he slaps your hands down on the bed, holding them down as he shoves his tongue into your soaked and needy hole.

"Fuck." You whine out and moan, digging your fingers into the bed. You push him closer with your leg and he seems to be okay with that.

He moans against you which sends chills up your body, "H-Harry." You whimper out as you clench around his tongue. He nods and moves back up to suck your clit.

He brings a hand up and dips his middle and ring finger into you, curling them up as you arch your back, "Y-yes.. Yesyes."

You lay your free hand on his head and move your hips , "fuck." You moan loudly as you cum, squeezing Harry's fingers as tight as you can, "Shit. Shit shit."

"Yeah that's it. Fuckin' cum for me." Harry leans up and starts thrusting his fingers faster, causing you to squirt. Your body tenses up and you moan loudly, whining out his name.

Harry groans as he watches your panties grow darker, tilting his head as he watches the liquid drip off his hand, "You're a fucking mess, baby."

You tilt your head up and look at him with a smile, "Only for you." You shrug and let your head fall back onto the bed.

You hear Harry take off his pants and you look up, greeted by his face coming close to yours, "I'm not pulling out."

You go to say something but he cuts you off by pushing his cock fully into you. You gasp, arching your back and whimpering as he slowly stretches you.

"Should've done this sooner." Harry smirks and tilts his head, "Your pussy hugs me, fuck." He groans and closes his eyes.

You lean your head up, presses your lips to his, "Fuck me." You whimper out, "Please move." He pushes his lips back onto yours as he slowly pulls out, muffling your moans with his mouth.

He slowly slides back in, a few more times before quickly picking up the speed.

"F-fuck." You moan out and pull yourself close to him. Harry buries his face into your neck, kissing it a few times before sitting up.

He pulls out, "Turn around." He motions for you to move and you look at him confused before he sighs, "Just get on your knees."

You roll your eyes, knowing exactly what he's doing, and get on your knees, facing away from him.

He doesn't want to look at you, or so you think.

He lays a hand on your shoulder before slowly bending you over, keeping his other hand on your hip to keep your ass up.

He leans back, taking his cock and rubbing it up and down your slit before slowly slipping it back in. You moan out, pushing your hips back to get him in quicker.

He lets out a moan and slides a hand up your back, gently taking a handful of your hair. He leans down, pushing his cock into you a little bit more which makes you moan out.

He nips your ear before asking in a quiet tone, "Am I hurting you?"

You shake your head and turn to look at him, "No."

He leans back up and grips your hips with both hands, slowly thrusting in and out a few times. His fingertips dig into your skin, destined to leave small bruises.

You moan out and reach back to grab onto his wrist as his thrusts speed up. He takes your hand, pinning it to your lower back.

He looks down, examining how absolutely beautiful you look to him right now.

He bites his lip as his eyes trail to his cock slamming in and out of you. His face softens as he feel the urge to cum, "shit. I-I'm close."

You nod, your face pressed against the bed, "M-me too." You moan out and lift you head, moaning out curse words almost silently.

Your orgasm was coming on fast and you knew it was going to hit you hard.

"H-Harry." You gasp out and squeeze his cock, "fuck fuck."

"I love you." Harry moans out quietly, "fuck." He pushes his cock into you, leaning down to grab your chin. You turn, slightly caught off guard by his words, once again.

You thought you were just hearing things.

You gasp slightly as you feel his cock twitch inside of you, "I love you."

He doesn't put up a fight when you say it this time. He just pulls you closer and nuzzles his nose against your cheek, "I wish it was this easy."

"But you hate me, remember." You tease slightly and gasp as he pulls out. Harry smirks and rolls you over onto your back.

You look up at him and he brushes hair from your face, "we just have to be sneaky."

You smile and walk your fingers up his arm, "So you me-"

"Don't push it." He nods towards the bathroom, "Now come shower with me."

——

Thank you for reading <3

#harry styles #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles smut oneshots #harry styles smut #smut #harry styles dirty one shot #harry styles dirty fanfiction #harry styles smutty fanfic #dirty oneshots #cinemastyles-blog #nasty smut #dirty one shots #smut oneshot #dirty harry #harry styles fanfic #smut harry styles #smut one shot #dirty smut #one direction dirty one shot #dirty fanfic #harry styles dirty #Harry styles one shot #one shot Harry styles #Harry one shot smut #one shot smut #dirty smut oneshot #filthy one shot #Harry styles Niall Horan #Niall Horan #Niall Horan smut

[tomorrowxtogether]

Tomorrow X Together concludes tour with fun, fiery PH concert

MANILA — The production for Tomorrow X Together’s (TXT) recent concert at the Philippine Arena was nothing short of grand. Pyrotechnics, bursts of confetti and eye-catching backdrops complemented the song-and-dance numbers for a potent feast for the senses.

But more than these embellishments, it was the lighthearted interactions shared by the K-pop stars and their fans that made the concert a truly unforgettable experience.

Donning princely costumes, Soobin, Yeonjun, Beomgyu, Taehyun and Huening Kai kicked off the evening — the final show for their second world tour “Act: Sweet Mirage” — with a “dance break version” of the euphoric disco single “Blue Hour.” The boys spared no time in getting close to the fans, moving towards the B-stage halfway through the song.

“We’re so happy we can spend time with MOA in Bulacan this year following last year’s concert in Manila. Na-miss namin kayo (We missed you),” Beomgyu said, drawing loud cheers from fans called MOA.

He was referring to TXT’s two-night concert at the Mall of Asia Arena last October 2022, which also marked the final stop of the group’s first tour “Act: Lovesick.”

The 26-piece setlist for “Act: Sweet Mirage” incorporated songs that the boys performed in “Act: Lovesick,” but also drew from TXT’s extensive catalog to include newer performances. It also covered all of the tracks from the extended play “The Name Chapter: Temptation,” the group’s only Korean release in between the two world tours.

After removing their tops onstage to reveal more casual and colorful shirts, the boys continued to dish out fun and catchy tracks, such as “No Rules,” “Cat & Dog” and “9 And Three Quarters (Run Away).”

The group also brought angsty punk and pop-rock offerings “0X1=LOVESONG (I Know I Love You),” “LO$ER=LO♡ER,” and “Dear Sputnik,” and boasted its members’ dreamy vocals in “Anti-Romantic.”

In the genre-shifting “Eternally” — which remained a concert highlight in “Act: Sweet Mirage” despite having been performed in the previous tour — white and blue lights surrounded the boys as they delivered the soothing verses. But the moment the song swerves into its throbbing electro sections, the scene turned just as menacing, amplified by red lights and flames bursting from the stage’s front.

Filipino fans were also treated to a performance of “Do It Like That,” the group’s collaboration single with the Jonas Brothers released just last month.

During the encore, the quintet sang “Blue Spring,” an unreleased song dedicated to MOAs, and capped the show with a surprise performance of fan song “MOA Diary.”

Fan interactions

The Philippine leg of “Act: Sweet Mirage” — which ran for more than three hours and was produced by Live Nation Philippines — was also a testament of TXT’s growth as entertainers. Compared to the previous concert, the members seemed more confident onstage, not only in their performances but also through their interactions with the crowd.

Concerts have always been a way for K-pop stars to strengthen their bonds with their dedicated fan bases and TXT’s show was no different, featuring engaging talk segments that displayed the boys’ cute and goofy sides.

After “Cat & Dog,” which had the crowd barking, the members gave their own canine impressions. They later whipped out their lightsticks and each took turns in leading the audience to doing playful movements.

Before performing “Happy Fools,” the group also taught the song’s choreography and asked audience members to do the dance challenge, which were flashed on the venue’s big screens.

The Bulacan show also took place a day (or just mere hours) before Huening Kai marked his 21st birthday. As a surprise, the crowd chanted his name during “Dear Sputnik” and joined his bandmates in singing to him near the end of the concert.

“Actually, it’s on my wishlist, to have my birthday and concert happen on the same day,” Huening Kai said.

‘Beautiful’ last concert

As the night drew to a close, the boys thanked fans for making the final stop of their tour a memorable one. “Thank you so much for decorating our last concert this beautifully and to the point that we were able to finish this concert very well,” Yeonjun said.

“Last year, we were able to receive a lot of comfort and love from you guys. I’m so thankful that even today as well, you were able to give us a lot of comfort and love,” Beomgyu said.

Taehyun said the local crowd was “the best [in] singing, dancing, cheering and screaming for us,” adding that he was already looking forward to the group’s next performance in the country.

“‘Act: Sweet Mirage’ in Bulacan ends here but we will come back [for] MOA again to show you how much we have grown with the love that we received so please wait for us,” Soobin said.

#txt #tomorrow x together #230818 #article #abs can News #yeonjun #soobin #taehyun #hueningkai #beomgyu

[pawborough]

Greetings!

Welcome back, we’re chugging along in our progress, and we’ve got some content to share!

First off, let’s take a look at art.

The Fyret

As a reminder, the Fyret is the result of the exclusive Kickstarter Design a Breed tier – the backer chose to merge our Ragdoll breed with a ferret. It’s serious business!

We can't thank the backer enough for adding their own flare to our game. The outcome is cuter and more fitting than we could've imagined! The Fyret will be available to the player base during beta and at launch, and will be obtainable with a Metropolis Stone.

Improved Assets: Shorthair and Ragdoll

These renders are similar, but small aspects have been adjusted for better weight balance, flipability, color coordination, and line quality.

It’s our intention to continue re-rendering all the breeds available in the demo in order to bring them on par with recent breed illustrations. With these efforts, we believe Paw Borough will be coming out of the gate with an objectively stronger and more cohesive presentation, and we will continue to best preserve the integrity of the original designs and poses.

The Guild

As promised, we’ve outlined the pre-production for the guild and how it will function.

The Guild is a "mystery dungeon" and "tabletop role-play" inspired section which allows you to interact with clients, go on missions, and level up your cats. Guilds consist of 2-50 members (or you can have one all by yourself!), and can be registered at any time. When registering a guild, users may begin taking jobs and going on missions.

What are Jobs and Missions?

When you register your guild, you will be responsible for taking jobs listed by cats around Mewmoia. Jobs consist of escorting a cat through a treacherous area, defeating and reprimanding an enemy, or retrieving/delivering a precious item that you must keep safe.

NOTE: This layout is rudimentary and exists for testing purposes only. It is not indicative of the final product.

All cats will have a base number of stats totaling between 0-130, which dictate how many chances your cat has to succeed at an action.

For every 5 stats you have, you earn a 50% chance to succeed at an action. A stat will max at 30, equaling a total of 7 chances.

Green chances are a guaranteed success or critical success, and red chances are a guaranteed fail or critical fail! Some actions may require multiple successes in order to proceed, providing your cat with a hefty amount of challenge or ease depending on your statistics.

Cats can grow between 1-5 levels, and may choose between 5 classes: Warrior, Ranger, Medic, Thief, and Bard, which all come with unique sub-paths for specialty.

Each sub-path will come with an exclusive move for your cat to use in combat, so you will have to think carefully about what path to take your cat!

NOTE: These visuals are, once again, rudimentary for the purposes of internal testing. This is NOT indicative of the final product!

In the world of Mewmoia, other cats may be vying for the jobs you’ve taken, may be the outlaws you are tasked with defeating, or may be out to get you or your guild! The Guild combat system will feature rival generated cats as enemies, and will not feature any alternative creatures (we have a system for companions planned for down the line!)

We are approaching the design of Paw Borough with the intention to create unique story experiences for each player. Players are more then encouraged to use the space to develop their own imagination. It is our hope that of the many reasons for why players may face rival cats, players decide for themselves the best reasoning to suit their roleplay! Guilds are encouraged to foster imagination and for players to place themselves in the world of Mewmoia – or imagine something entirely new! Meee-ow!

Completing a job will reward your guild with experience to level up, and reward each player with guild currency (name currently in progress.) Guild currency will be usable in a completely separate shop with guild-exclusive items, and the items available for you to buy will be unlocked by your guild’s experience level!

Outside of missions, guilds will also be given private forum boards, the opportunity to upload a custom logo, and backdrop scenes to decorate with fellow guild-members, in order for users to establish community within their own guilds.

Note that everything shown is a proof of concept. More information on the Guild is to come once we complete further internal testing of the system mechanics. We must first ensure that the homebrewed system we are presenting is sound. Everything regarding the guild that we present, up until the end of player testing, will be subject to change. However, we hope users will have a hayload of fun with the dungeon-esque “adventure mode!”

We hope you enjoy everything we’ve presented today! We're on the road to more asset creation and building!

To summarize: we shared the final render of the Fyret, improved Ragdoll and Shorthair renders, and a first look at the mechanics which will be available in the Guild!

What to expect next month: we'll continue to share new and updated assets as they are rendered, starting with the Snowfoot, which is almost done! We plan for March to be a very productive month, as we are wrapping up recording our complete and comprehensive list of on-site items!

#kickstarter update

[millenari]

If you’re up to more bitching about the broadway revival, what are your feelings on Jennyanydots’s number? Personally I was surprised with how much I didn’t mind the new stuff at the end (though I wouldn’t say I PREFER it) but I thought the choreo during the verses was… it irritated me. I don’t remember which boot(s) I watched but it felt like Jenny did a lot more sitting, less moving than I remember her doing in the ‘98 and in the older boots I’ve seen. In general I thought the new choreo took her out of her own number a bit, which is a real shame. Just interested to know what you think, would be happy to disagree haha.

hohohoh you're in for it now, anon. I could talk about revival!Jenny for a long, long time...

AND I WILL!

I hate it.

I don't love a lot of the revival changes, but with each song generally there's something I can be positive about? Yeah they removed the horndog parts of Tugger's song, but there's cute tuggoff and platoria dances. Yeah they made all those little changes to Macavity's song but at least they're small. Yeah they changed Misto's choreo, but at least it is admittedly exciting.

Jenny's song? Idk even the spots that aren't bad, I don't think I can point at any element of her new song and say that it isn't a downgrade.

I rewatched it just now, and I'd like to list the parts I do actually like for the sake of being fair:

Andy Huntington Jones? a very cute Munk

That bit with Misto & the little light on the floor which leads to him opening the boot

The Gumbie trio interacting with the 'mice' kittens

you're right, the end is pretty cool

That's it.

Like... let's go over what the '''original''' Jenny song does. Gumbie Cat, like a considerable number of songs in Cats, doesn't really contribute to the plot at all. Some songs do, like Misto's, but many don't. They only thing Jenny's song really 'does', arguably, is tell the audience what Munkustrap's idea of a Jellicle Choice looks like (given his lyrics at the beginning of the song).

So otherwise, all this song does is characterize Jenny.

Which the classic version does very efficiently, I think! The poem gives us an idea of her personality: she's lazy during the day and active during the night. She teaches the local varmints how to be 'upstanding' members of society. It's specifically mentioned she started a 'Beetle's Tattoo' (A tattoo is a military performance of stuff like marching bands, dancing, drill team, etc) so she has this association with a military-esque discipline. The song also talks about her and crocheting and knitting and baking, so she also has this homestead motherly vibe to her as well.

Her nature is two-fold: she's lazy but also hard-working. She's motherly but also militant. The song capitalizes on this dynamic: it starts out with a slow lullaby, and then transitions to an upbeat tune, and then goes back and forth between those two vibes until the Tattoo (aka the tap section) starts. The feeling of the music matches her personality. So does her costume change: at first she has a big floppy coat, then she switches into a flapper-like bodysuit.

The style of the Tattoo is tap, (as we all know lmao). Most songs in Cats build upon ballet, but Jenny uses tap, probably because it's a more ''''aggressive'''' (obv I use that word lightly) style of dance, unlike the flowing and effortless impression ballet tends to give. It matches the military vibe, it seems like something that might actually be in a real Tattoo, and it gives the actress the opportunity to characterize Jenny further by having her act like a little drill sergeant.

(And sometimes the tap battle is included here, which is also nice characterization. It's usually either Misto or a kitten who challenges Jenny, and I think it's hilarious that either A) Misto feels the need to clown on an old lady's tapping skills or B) Jenny rises to the occasion when a literal child tries to clown on her tapping skills. Either way, funny and defining.)

Despite ping-ponging back and forth, the song is well contained. Most of the props are made of garbage: the cockroaches are made from garbage bags, the mice masks are piping bags, the cockroaches hold spoons and forks, etc. The song also builds well: it goes as such.

Munk, alone, introduces Jenny

the Gumbie trio join in, we start ping-ponging

Jenny comes on stage

Jenny stumbles around stage a little as she wakes up

Music builds

Costume change from day Jenny to night Jenny, tone immediately changes.

Cockroaches start coming out

Cockroaches + Jenny dance together

(maybe insert tap battle here)

Music builds up, the Gumbie trio and Munk join in, big happy finale

Tugger interrupts

The revival... sort of follows this pattern. The way the Revival Gumbie was choreographed makes me think of this Blankenbuehler quote that annoyed me.

'mm yes in this play about a tribe theres a lot of tribal energy. in this play about Cats Dancing Together there's a lot of dancing in unison. lets get rid of some of that'

The Revival Gumbie takes forever to get everyone dancing together, and instead of growing momentum-- where characters keep joining the dance and it gets bigger and bigger (starting with just Munk, ending with everyone)-- it feels like a bunch of disjointed nonsense.

The beginning is mostly the same, except you're right, Jenny does do a lot of sitting there. (Also the Gumbie trio has that same thing that the Macavity song has, where they fiddled with their choreo and the changes don't do anything but also aren't that important either)

But the Revival starts to divert after that first section-- instead of the (nearly) full cast wearing cockroach costumes, three (3) characters are given 'beetle' costumes. (Which yeah, the poem mentions beetles, and yeah, the beetle costumes are made of hubcaps so it matches the garbage theme. But they look so unwieldy that the dancers can barely move, and honestly I didn't even realize they were supposed to be beetles until I saw someone on here mention it.)

But yeah, Jenny and the beetles dance together for like 3 seconds, [I just went back to check how long it is exactly? 10 fuckin seconds.] and Jenny changes costumes. It's actually a pretty smooth costume change, because I'm always so busy looking at the hubcap beetles and being annoyed by them I forget to look at Jenny, but honestly classic Cats never really sought to hide/distract from the costume change here, and tbh I feel like that showy deliberate change is relevant to her dual nature? Whatever. Not a big deal.

But anyways so Jenny and the beetles start tapping. Oh, are we going to build on this momentum? Is someone else going to join in? No. That bigass broom prop comes flying in, the beetles go off stage (and probably rip off those huge costumes), and Jenny stops dancing. Then we spend like an honest thirty seconds playing with the broom and then playing with those basketball/soccerball props while pretty much 0 dancing happens on stage at all. Jenny mostly just wanders around during this section (& you're right, she definitely does less in this version).

Then there's the 'tick tock tap' section where that big clock prop in the background makes a bunch of tick-tock noises and Jenny dances to it. While everyone just kind of watches. Which is fine I guess.

The music BUILDS UP, EVERYONE COMES ON STAGE, OH BOY ARE WE FINALLY BUILDING SOME MOMENTUM?

No. Everyone dances for five seconds and then stands there and watches Jenny dance. Some cats are ? scrubbing the floor with brushes like cinderella ?

THE MUSIC BUILDS UP AGAIN EVERYONE IS GETTING IN A LINE OOH NOW THEY'RE SPREADING OUT ARE WE FINALLY GOING TO HAVE OUR BIG FINALE?

Nope pretty much everyone just stops dancing again to watch Jenny. Also Jerrie is breakdancing for some reason.

OKAY NOW EVERYONE IS DANCING TOGETHER! HOORAY! YAHOO!

Then like 15 seconds of dancing later the clock goes off, interrupting the finale, and the song ends.

Yay.

Where classic Gumbie builds up by adding more and more dancers over time, this one just kind of slaps everyone in there and then takes everyone out, a chunk of kittens will join, then leave, a prop will come in and then out, and the Tattoo element that the song was mostly made of is pretty much gone entirely. Instead of one unified piece of choreo, it feels like getting random crap shoved in your face over and over. 'Isn't this cool? Isn't THIS cool? How about this? Or this????'

Then you have the props: only a couple cats wear bug costumes and they don't translate well and look unwieldy. The clock, balls, (tooth?)brushes, and the broom are a disjointed assembly of props. Everything in the classic song characterizes Jenny. These items have nothing to do with her-- they're not even really things you'd find in a Junkyard. What does a clock have to do with Jenny's duality between her militant and motherly nature? What about the balls? With the cleaning stuff, you can at least say she makes the mice and bugs clean, but the poem doesn't mention her making them clean, it mentions 'music, crocheting and tatting', mentions turning them into boyscouts, mentions the Beetles' Tattoo, mentions baking for them, etc.

If the stuff like the balls and the broom were cool enough that I could forgive them being just slapped in there, that'd be one thing. But I got sick of the balls like 5 seconds after they came in, and the broom didn't really do anything for me. The clock wasn't that bad, but I don't know why they took out the Tattoo and instead added these elements. The Tattoo had to do with Jenny's nature, this shit doesn't.

I get why a lot of the tapping was removed, because they added a lot of hip hop and stuff in there and you can't really cast for people who can act, sing, dance ballet, dance tap, and dance hip hop, but regardless of how much tap they decided to use (which is a creative choice, I get it) it just doesn't feel good. It builds to nothing, most of the props say and do nothing interesting, there's big chunks of the song where no dancing happens at all, and there's even bigger chunks where Jenny is the only one dancing and everyone just watches her.

Right after that quote I mentioned earlier, Andy adds, "It’s like that circus in the second grade. It’s completely labor-intensive. You’re choreographing 20 numbers instead of one number."

And like. Yeah, Andy. You're right. This does kind of feel like a circus.

#cats fan on main #shall i make a bway revival negativity tag or smth #jelliclerants

[master-of-the-railway]

(Questions incoming also sorry I haven't been sending asks much lately)

(General questions)

Of all your aus, which one is your favourite to talk or think about?

Who is your favourite character out of that au, either by design, story or just general character?

(Monster au specific questions)

Do any of the engines gain hoarding instincts? (I think that's what it's called anyways)

Does Gator show up in your au, and if so is he a monster too?

Out of all the monster engines, who would be the most likely to go sit in the middle of a lake for fun (or to get away from people bothering them) (I know the above was a random question but now I really want to know lol)

(Children of Sodor au specific questions)

Do the kid engines (Thomas, Percy, Carly, Sandy, etc.) ever try to follow the big engines on their jobs? (Like, imagine the episode where Gordon drags Thomas behind the express, but instead Thomas isn't coupled up and Gordon isn't trying to teach him a lesson, Thomas is just running behind the express as fast as he can because he wants to be like Gordon, and Gordon doesn't realise until Thomas catches up at a station)

Not a question but I have a feeling that during the time before Sandy got to big to be picked up, if someone picked her up and she wasn't expecting it she would probably squeak (based off my cat sounding like a little squeaky toy if I pick her up and she wasn't expecting it)

How does Toad get along with Bruno? (If they've met)

And how does Duck view the kids? Does he stay away from them or does he chat/interact with them?

And now that I'm thinking about the Little Western branchline engines, does Oliver get along with the kids? Or Donald and Douglas?

(ToH au questions)

Does Willow discover she has magic, or does magic only work on the Boiling Isles? (sorry, I'm a bit rusty on ToH lore I cannot remember if magic works in the human realm) If she does discover she has magic, how does she and/or the people around her react?

How do people react to King? He's clearly not a very normal creature even if he is adorable.

Does Hunter ever meet Lady?

Is Belos looking for a way to get to Sodor/Shining time, to get his Golden Guard back, or did he just get a new one and forget about Hunter?

Sorry there's so many questions here lol you don't have to answer them all if you don't want to.

(Anon Orange)

EXCITED STIMMMING YESSSSSSS I LOVE TALKING THIS IS SO GOOD!!!!! Gonna take em' out section by section.

General questions: 1.) Mmmm that's rlly hard to decide on. I love a lot of them equally. I miiight say Children of Sodor? Purely bc AEG is a very big comfort show for me, I love the kiddos a lot, and I love my versions even more. 2.) Out of the group...either Gordon or Kana. COS!Gordon is beloved to me as the gentle old father he is, and Kana is just my favorite AEG in general, so I think about her a lot in my au content.

Monster AU questions: 1.) I'd say none of them are particularly hoarders. Mainly because they don't have anything they'd really want. They are enamored by shiny objects but once they're snapped out of it they don't really care too much. They've got plenty of water, coal, diesel fuel and such, so they're not hoarders of fuel either. The closest you could get would be yard leaders like Gordon, who sometimes would push their "packs" together and try to keep them in one spot because they were worried about losing any of them. They just didn't want any harm to come to their fellow engines and the leaders have particularly strong urges to guard everyone, Gordon was especially bad for it. 2.) I try to include everyone, so yes, Gator would be here too :) Seeing as I'm doing this to pretty much EVERY engine, I think it'd be unfair to leave Gator out of the fun. Adding onto that, despite being a steam engine, I think it'd be fun if he actually resembled an alligator instead of being a fluffy beast. Mainly because hey why not, and also c'mon, his nickname is Gator!! 3.) I think a lot of the engines would take advantage of the ability of getting to chill in water. As long as it's not super deep and they aren't doing it for too long, they can actually swim a bit. And in shallow waters they can just relax and cool off in warmer weather, they all enjoy it quite a bit.

Children of Sodor questions: 1.) The kids absolutely have always been trying to copy the adults. They have basic "instinct" to do jobs, but they don't know how to do things exactly, so they were looking to the older machines to learn how to do what they wanted to so badly. Carly was swinging her hook when Cranky would in an attempt to load cars the way he did, Thomas would beg Annie and Clarabelle to let him pull them so that he could pull a passenger train like Gordon (which he eventually started doing for real!), so on and so forth. 2.) Sandy did get very surprised the first little while, but eventually she got fully unbothered, mainly because Carly was far faster so she would lift Sandy and just carry her along all the time. 3.) Bruno likes to stick to routine and schedule, and he's usually with Diesel or Thomas if he's working, so he's not on the same branch line as Oliver and Toad all that often. He's met Toad before, and he likes him a lot, he's a very polite brake van and they have that same natural solidarity that all rolling stock of the same type feel. 4.) Duck thinks the kids are all very lovely! He'd heard about them when they first arrived, but didn't actually meet them until a few months later. He's not as intensely involved with their lives as some others are but he doesn't mind them at all, he's friendly towards them and will chat with them if they cross paths. Sort of similar to how Edward is with them, but Duck isn't as involved as Edward. 5.) Oliver is actually also a kid! Duck considers him his little brother, and Oliver is the only kid that Duck is almost constantly around. He likes hanging out with the other kids, Percy most of all, but finds himself more comfortable with the older engines. Namely Duck, Douglas, and Edward. 6.) Based off of my headcanon that Donald and Douglas are both really great with human kids, they're FANASTIC with machine kids. They're like the really fun uncles to the Tidmouth kids, if they get the chance to they're going to be spending every second they can with the kids, especially during the wintertime! They wanted to be as involved with the kids' lives as they could and were very present at the sheds when Kana and Nia had each first arrived so that they could make sure the overseas additions were settling in okay. The twins actually taught the young engines to clear snow!

On The Horizon questions: 1.) Magic from a natural born witch works pretty much anywhere, and in canon it does work in the human realm, though I feel I should point out that Sodor and Shining Time both are completely different from the "human realm" that Luna (aka Luz, I finally decided on the new names) came from. But yes, Wendy (aka Willow!) does indeed have magic! She didn't figure it out for a long while as there wasn't anything that really prompted her to do so and for many years of her life she fully believed she was human. The first time it happened was when she was 12 and it was a complete accident, one of her machine siblings had startled her and she just swung her arm around, managing to somehow summon a pretty large thorny vine from the ground. Wendy panicked and they ended up calling Hunter and MC over to investigate, and during that investigation Hunter finally confessed that he'd thought Wendy was a witch from the day he'd first seen her. He then sat down with Wendy and explained to her the very few things he did remember about wild magic, coaching her with his limited knowledge so that she could start training her powers. Her mother and all of her other loved ones were all quite shocked by this fact, but they didn't force Wendy to hide her magic just like the Hatt family didn't hide Oscar (Aka King) from the world. 2.) Speaking of the little guy! The rest of the island was pretty surprised by Oscar's existence. Topham had kept him hidden for the first few months, but he didn't want to keep the little guy cooped up forever, seeing as Oscar's clearly just as intelligent as any other kid and forcing him to hide for his whole life would be cruel and impossible. He did indeed startle many upon first meetings, but everyone adjusted and pretty soon Oscar was out among other kids his age with barely any issue. He did face a bit of bullying due to his strange appearance and clearly being nonhuman, but he has family and some friends who'd stand up for him and fix those problems. 3.) Hunter met Lady about 2 months after he'd been properly adopted by Mr. Conductor, actually! Seeing as the kid was already from a different magical world and he was healing from some rough times, MC thought it'd be a good idea to introduce the kid to Lady. Lady was a very welcome change of pace, she was calm and easy going and being an engine meant she didn't move that much and her facial expressions were far easier for him to read. Her kind voice and demeanor were really soothing to Hunter and him meeting her proved to benefit him greatly. 4.) Originally, I'd had the idea for Belos to go after Hunter. But then I thought about it. Belos, in the past, would kill the grimwalkers for the tiniest betrayals and then just start over with a new one like nothing happened...so I came up with a different plan. At first when Hunter was reported missing, Belos asked the coven to keep an eye out and listen to gossip. Interview residents of the isles. After a week of that, with no sign, he sent scouts to actively search for him. After a week of that? Belos sighed, shrugged, cut his losses, and cooked up a new grimwalker. This one's hair is a bit long and messy, but he looks enough like Caleb that he'll do. And this time, Belos is going to ensure this golden guard won't be going anywhere.

#ttte #thomas and friends #thomas & friends #ttte au #my au #the owl house #toh #crossover #crossover au #my crossover #Children of Sodor Au #Beasts of Sodor AU #monster engines #thomas & friends au #thomas and friends au #ttte aeg #all engines go #all engines go au #On The Horizon (ttte x toh) #THANK YOU FOR THE ASK AND ALL THE QUESTIONNNNSSS

[cutiecrates]

Game Review: Nyakori's Rabbit Doll (no/minor spoilers, minor blood)

I wanted to start my "cute game review" series with a disclaimer. I play a wide range of video games, and games that appeal to me usually have a cute aesthetic/appearance, and what I view as cute might not not be viewed the same way as others. I want to talk about cute games, but I'd like to also like about some other games too now and then.

For example, I decided to make my first review on an rpgmaker horror I saw while browsing Steam. There's a handful of people I watch who play these types of games on Youtube and they never played or even mentioned this one, so I gave it a shot because it looked too cute to pass up!

"One evening, Nyarutoru wakes up to find Nyakori and her rabbit doll have gone missing. While searching for her sister, Toru is led to a mysterious home. She runs into Kori, but someone has stolen her rabbit doll, forcing the two girls to go deeper into the large building to reclaim it. Along the way, Toru realizes that Kori isn't acting like herself…"

Nyakori's Rabbit Doll plays like a typical Rpgmaker/point and click game (you can even play it like one, this game offers mouse and touch control). The goal is to get from point A to point Z by interacting with the environment to look for new items, clues or puzzles while keeping Toru out of harm's way.

The majority of the game takes place inside this building, with one section late-game taking place outside of it. However, the locations all vary and this game features all sorts of "flavor text" that make it a lot of fun to click on everything and see what it says. Some of it is obvious (like a basket might just say "basket"), but others might lead to a remark from the character. There is also text for inventory items, some of which provide hints or alludes to something else:

Dialogue/Text

You might have noticed on the Steam page or the corner of my images, the game's title is written in Chinese. Well, that's because this game was originally Chinese, which is probably evident with the grammar and spelling being all over the place.

I noticed at the beginning of the game it's fine, and there are a lot of places where the text is good. But then it seems like as the game continues, it starts to become more apparent.

Expect to see the word "wired" a few times. It's supposed to be weird, which they do spell right a few times, which further confused me...

There is this also glaring example, which pops up a lot:

You'll see it every time you get a new item. I want to assume this was just an oversight, but they translated the item names so I don't know what to make of it.

Even the Steam page is full of grammar issues, but I will say that it's not enough to hinder the game. It's still clear enough to figure out what to do or what was going on.

Difficulty

It's not really difficult at all.

It offers several save points and an autosave feature (optional), the 3 "mini-games" have an easy option if you fail it once and beats it for you (and this doesn't penalize you at all). There are also tips and hints in the form of text throughout the game, either provided by talking to Kori, observation, looking at items in the inventory or using the "cursed cat food". Supposedly, using it too many times does something? I don't know what because I kept using it in a separate file and nothing happened. But I didn't feel like replaying the game through a fourth time in a short time span, so I stopped after a half hour.

This game is extremely forgiving if you let it be. Any death I triggered was basically because of my own curiosity, it was very rarely due to messing up. There are a couple of cheap deaths but they weren't abundant, so I didn't really feel annoyed by them.

There was only one, real thing that I got stuck with during the game:

At an early point you come across this mirror that depicts a number. A few rooms later, a box asks for it. To some people the numbers might obviously be 8010. But for me... it went like this:

"I clearly see the 0... is the first number an 8? It looks like an 8 but it kinda looks like it could be a weird 5...or an S? That makes no sense. That third number looks like a 4... is that last number a 0 or 9?"

I kept getting it wrong. I tried entering all sorts of combinations and even flipping the number order. I couldn't get it, the numbers were too hard for me to make out. I don't know if that was intentional or not, but I had to look it up.

I'm not even sure if the puzzle was necessary to get the true ending. It just led to some extra scene and dialogue.

Horror

This game feels like a light-horror.

It provides a creepy atmosphere which brought to mind The Witches House while I played it, but the music itself isn't scary, even when it stops and switches to general ambience. It overall made me feel lonely, not scared or on edge.

The blood and gore is there (at times liberally), but it never came off as being "too much/forced/shoe-horned in for the sake of a cheap scare". The game doesn't even load with a warning screen like some of the others do, nor were there anyway noisy, in-your-face jump scares.

There were things that startled me because they were unexpected, but I never felt scared playing this.

What I disliked

There was very few things I disliked about this game, but I believe that these are smaller issues based on my own thought process that won't interfere with everyone's experience.

One being the mini-games I mentioned. All 3 are themed around controlling Toru a certain way until you beat it. But each one plays differently. They were short and sweet and didn't overstay their welcome, which I like.

My problem with them is that the game doesn't necessarily tell you what to do. You're thrown into a mini-game and you got seconds to figure it out before you get killed and have to restart. There is a little bit of vague text around each game, but I couldn't tell what they wanted from me without some trial-and-error.

What negates the issue with this, as I mentioned is that the game offers to help you. I had to have the game beat the 2nd one for me because I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. I understood what to do after watching the game do it for me, but it too me 3 and 1/2 play-throughs of this game to finally beat it.

The only other thing I felt worth mentioning was the Kori interaction sections. You have to keep watching and talking to her until you can move on. You can't do certain things until she's in a specific spot/room, and the only way you would know this is if you just happen to see her do something, or opened the "cursed cat food".

This isn't really a big deal, I like talking to NPC in games so I tend to talk to everyone multiple times out of habit now. But it did get me stuck when I first played the game because I didn't realize it was a necessity- and I know there are people who don't care much for chatting up NPCs or playing the waiting game. These areas didn't last long though, which kept it from being a chore.

Oh, there was also the "developers room" after you beat the game. I love learning about unique trivia related to the game or what the makers of it went through. But here it felt kind of pointless. There wasn't anything to really look at, and you only learn one or two things.

What I liked

The art style! It's so cute and there are a lot of pretty scenes. This game has a lot of unique elements to it, it doesn't feel like the older rpgmaker games that featured generic text boxes and images, character rpg stats, etc (not that I'm saying those are bad). From head-to-toe, they fully embraced making this game as cute as could be!

Another thing I liked about the game is that the rooms are all unique and look really nice. They feel like they should be there. They aren't empty or pointless, nearly every room serves a purpose.

One of my favorite things is taking the time to backtrack to past areas. Some of them have trivial changes (or added death scenes), or feature additional content you may not have seen the first time. For example, here's one room during my first visit:

This is the same room after I returned a while later, notice the paintbrush on the floor and tilted picture (the one canvas gets knocked over too, but I came back too early for that when I was getting the picture). There is also a death you can trigger, but if you possess a specific item, you can avoid it.

There are also some extra cutscenes/dialogue you can find by observing certain things repeatedly. Playing as Kori also changes certain events, as does having her in the room with you when you observe certain things as Toru. There are a few items both girls can obtain too, and they have different dialogue for it. You can even skip one puzzle entirely by activating a hidden room you can find if you backtrack to a specific spot.

I love these additional elements x3 they show that the game has more depth to it than what's on the surface. Its beneficial to seek these things out because they offer more insight to the plot and characters.

Ending

In terms of endings, there are 4. The true ending, the normal ending, and 2 bad endings. According to Steam, the 2nd bad ending is the least obtained one, while the True Ending was the second least. But honestly, I got the true ending on my first playthrough. I'm not good at these games (I got the Platinum ending in Pocket Mirror), so I'm convinced it was just dumb luck that I happened to do the right things.

I replayed the game twice more to knowingly make the wrong decisions to get the 2nd bad and Normal endings. The 1st bad ending is the one everyone probably sees at least once, because it occurs earlier in the game and it's more like an extended death scene. You aren't locked out of getting the other endings or finishing the game if you trigger it. On top of that, I think you're required to go into the room it occurs (under certain conditions) to reach the True Ending.

I want to avoid saying anything too spoilery, so I didn't want to exactly go over everything to get said endings. But I liked each one, they gave good exposition to the overall plot and felt like they made sense.

Other Stuff

The length of the game on average is probably a couple of hours. Even when I replayed it knowing what to do, where to take shortcuts, it still took me around the same length of time.

There are 7 achievements in total for the game. 4 are in the base game, while the other 3 (one of which is a hidden achievement) is in the DLC story.

You probably noticed it in the very first image, but there is separate, purchasable DLC for this game! It's an after-story that offers more insight to the story, 2 more endings and some alternative gameplay.

I don't have it yet, because while I did buy this game a year or so ago, I only just recently replayed and beat the entire thing. I do plan on buying it though, and I'll probably make a separate post on it.

Conclusion

I really, really like this game. The art makes it a pleasing experience to the eye while the characters and mystery of the plot encourage you to keep guiding Toru to the end to find out what's going on. It's a fun and forgiving game, perfect for people who want a more relaxed, horror rpgmaker experience. I think it'd be a good choice for someone whose new to these types of games and wants to build their way up to the scarier/harder/more intense ones.

The more I played this game, the more it reminded me a lot of The Witches House. Numerous things made me think about it, like the room match puzzle, and how Toru's menu image changed after I triggered a specific death (I thought THAT was the cat food curse, until I realized why I couldn't progress at that specific part). This game is newer, so it might have taken inspiration from that one. I know a lot of rpgmaker games draw comparisons and influence in other ones.

I'm really glad I gave this game a chance, especially because I didn't know what to expect going in. I love a lot about it and even the things that I didn't like never made me want to quit playing. It's also very cheap, as is the DLC. You can even buy them in a bundle.

It is lacking in polish, but I'm willing to overlook it when the game itself plays very well and I enjoyed the experience.

Um.... thanks for listening to me ramble for a while. I hope if anything this review encourages you to check it out, here's a link to the Steam page if you're interested.

I'd love to do more of these, and I do have an idea for my next 2 reviews, but if you have any sort of recommendations for a cute game, or even rpgmaker games, feel free to let me know.

Until next time~

#cutie reviews #review #nyakori's rabbit doll #rpg maker horror

[theimpossiblescheme]

Now I get to finally type out the notes I took during the show (and fill in any blanks I might have forgotten to originally write down)--this is my account of the Cats US tour experience!

If you’re a Tussandra, Demelurina, Alonzostrap, or Skimbledots shipper, this is your show.  The first two flirted constantly, especially during Tugger’s song (Bomba actually had to push Cass out of the way to get Tugger’s attention), and the other pairs were basically attached at the hip throughout the show.  Alonzo and Munk were so perfectly in sync at times they really did feel like a singe unit, and there was a cute moment where Skimble and Jenny stood on the car boot during the Jellicle Ball and looked like they were fussing over the kittens.

Nora DeGreen is such a wonderful Demeter who feels like they’re still getting the hang of life in the Junkyard again.  They’re starting to loosen up and have fun, and they’re even quite comfortable around Tugger, but their social battery has a time limit (mood, honestly) and always runs back over to Bomba for comfort.  Bomba really feels like Demeter’s security blanket here, and it’s really sweet.

Plato and Victoria are also adorable--they feel like that couple at prom who are so obviously and obnoxiously in love and find every excuse they can to snuggle.  Yuka Notsuka is an absolutely precious Victoria, and her solo in Act One was lovely.

One of my notes just says “Cryptid!Cassandra.  That’s it--that’s the comment.”  I love Lexy Bittner’s energy as the character.  She almost feels like I would expect a good Mistoffelees to feel--mysterious and aloof, but quirky and unpredictable at the same time.  We also got a fair bit of Protector!Cass, which is always nice.

Hank Santos is a fucking delight as Tugger--some of the best moments in the show for me came from his interactions with the other cats.  This one’s probably my favorite: he briefly gets his number hijacked by a high note from Jellylorum (which got some mid-song applause from the audience, so much that the orchestra stopped), but he kisses her paw during the outro to let her know all is forgiven.  She’s flattered and beaming at him, but she remembers to be Scandalized(TM) when Jennyanydots rejoins her.

Speaking of Jenny, Megan Arseneau played her spacing out before the tap section like she was just staring out the window at something, and at one point she got this big smile on her face like there was a particularly enchanting bird out there.  All oblivious to Misto trying to get her attention, of course.  She’s such a fun Jenny--definitely the Cool Mom of the Junkyard.

Tumblebrutus really felt like Skimbleshanks’ son here.  They had all kinds of cute background interactions, and Skimble had to literally wrestle Tumble away from dancing with Tugger during his song.

Sam Buchanan’s Plato is so adorably earnest, and he has some great “Protector in Training” moments that made my heart grow three sizes.  My favorite was right at the end of Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer’s number--he and Munkustrap make eye contact over grabbing their swag bags, and it’s like Munk’s saying, “All right, just like we practiced...”

Victoria is also shocked--shocked, I tell you!--that Jerrie and Teazer were caught stealing, and she looks like she’s rooting for them to escape.

There were a lot of little... what I can only call moments of reassurance between Skimble and Munk, where they would make eye contact over the other cats’ heads or Skimble would grab Munk’s paw.  I got the impression of Skimble being like a mentor or parental figure to Munk in a way, and it was very sweet.

Kade Wright’s Munk is also a lot gentler than I’ve seen other Revival Style!Munkustraps, and he’s very attentive to the other cats.  He doesn’t shoo Jerrie and Teazer away after the Invitation, instead giving them little back skritches before gently waving them off and taking a second for the others, and he and Tugger have a beautiful moment of connection during the “Old Deuteronomy” duet.  His and Santos’ voices blend together so well (though on the whole I prefer Santos’ voice).

When Grizabella comes back on the second time, Gus gives her a... very curious, sort of coolly reserved look as she passes.  Not like he’s shunning her, but more like he doesn’t know what to make of her.

Speaking of Grizabella, holy hell, does Tayler Harris have a gorgeous voice.  Recordings don’t do it justice--I got chills multiple times listening to her.  She’s a very proud Grizabella, but one who’s also aware of how utterly unfair her situation is and has a lot of quiet righteous anger about her, and she refused to back down any time one of the other cats got in her face.  I wish dearly that I could pick hers and Kade Wright’s brains, too, because the relationship between Griz and Munk was fascinating.

Right at the top of Act Two, Coricopat and Tantomile went directly over to Old Deuteronomy, and it looked like Tanto was almost sitting in his lap as they had a moment regarding Grizabella.

Can John Anker Bow’s Gus adopt me?  He was absolutely lovely--I remember seeing him in a much smaller part the US tour of Ragtime when it came to my university years ago, and it was wonderful to see him again.  He seemed to have taken a cue from Christopher Gurr’s playbook of Gus not particularly wanting to have this song, even no-selling Jelly’s attempts to rib him about his pub habits, but eventually warming to the idea.  His relationship with Allyson Duarte’s Jelly was adorable, too, always taking her paw or her shoulder whenever one of them needed a moment.

The kittens loved Gus, too (except for Tumble, who checked out after Gus’s comments about The Kids These Days)--Sillabub was hanging on his every word, and Pouncival reached out and very cutely touched his paw on the line “I could do it again...”  And right as everyone got up to get ready for “The Pekes and the Pollicles”, Pounce and Sillabub did a little celebratory mirroring dance.

Also, Gus and Demeter, of all cats, had some really sweet background interactions--I can think of at least two moments where Demeter grabbed his shoulder and he reached back and squeezed their paw.

Also also, Gus and Skimble both do this adorable half-hug shoulder clasp thing with Old Deuteronomy at various points.

On Skimble’s “button you cold turn to make a breeze” line, it looked like Misto was trying to play a little prank on Demeter by summoning a cold wind to blow, but when they actually shivered he shrunk back and looked sorry.

I really really love Erica Lee Cianciulli’s voice as Bombalurina.  It has this very distinctive raspiness to it that’s hard to describe, but I could listen to hers and DeGreen’s rendition of “Macavity the Mystery Cat” all day long.

Sillabub spends most of Macavity’s song sitting on the tire and listening to the other queens sing, only getting up for the last chorus.  It felt like this was the first time she’d heard about Macavity in this much detail.

I’m not entirely sure if I caught this right, but it looked like Bomba was the one who helped Munk to his feet after the Macavity fight, even putting her shoulder under his and lifting him upright.  Meanwhile, Tanto had gone to shield Demeter after Macavity let go, and then she helped them to safety once he was gone.

Alonzo’s moment of steeling himself to fight back for Demeter was fantastic, too.  Sammy Fossum plays a really great “gallant and brave, but has his moments of doubt when he’s alone” Alonzo, and it made me wish he could have a shot at playing Goldenlonzo.  Ah, well... all Revival Style!Alonzos are Goldenlonzos at heart to me.

Tugger looked like he was going to cry when Misto brought Old Deut back, and he pointed to himself and looked at everyone around him on “And we all say...” as if to say, “I told you so.”  It really gave off the impression of “I knew it was going to work, but holy shit, it actually worked.”  He also had a little cuddle with Victoria as Misto hugged Old Deut--it was such an adorable moment all around.

Demeter started off “Memory” all curled up on the ground and slowly unfolded as the song went on.  Their reactions to the song were heartbreaking, and I so badly wish I could have met Nora DeGreen to tell them what a beautiful job they did.

Tayler Harris’s crescendo up to “Touch me” was... man, I wish I could bottle that moment.  Again, chills.  I wish I could have met her, too, even if I wouldn’t have been very articulate about it. 😄

Munk also looked like he was going to cry when Griz was chosen, which... same, my guy.  And his earlier tone of awed happiness on “Now Old Deuteronomy just before dawn...” like he still can’t believe he’s back really had me choked up, too.

Also, they brought back the big shimmering claw for her ascent to the Heaviside!  I was so happy to see that again!

Cameron Schutza’s voice as Old Deuteronomy was so powerful, and listening to his “Ad-Dressing of Cats” really made it sink in for me.  Hearing that song live is really something special, and I’m so glad I got the chance!

#cats the musical #cats us tour 6 #the schemer speaks #I just need Harris; Bow; DeGreen; and Cianciulli to be in All Of The Things now. <3 #ETA: Now with corrected pronouns for the performers

[princess-of-the-corner]

Toontown: Corporate Clash Recap: Make A Toon and Toontorial

Toontown Corporate Clash is a massively multiplayer online role playing game created by fans of the now defunct MMORPG: Disney’s Toontown Online.

The Corporate Clash Crew’s goal was to expand on Toontown Online’s mechanics to create a more challenging, strategic, and fun game.

The title screen shows a view of a tunnel on a generic Toontown street, with Toons running back and forth, interacting with each other, and sometimes getting chased away by robotic businessmen. Upon pressing any key, the camera zooms up to the tunnel, where the Pick a Toon screen appears.

There are six, color-coded slots for your characters. Clicking on a character will cause that Toon to appear in front of the tunnel, and make the button for going into Toontown appear.  Confirming you want to play as that toon will have them do a happy little jump before running into the tunnel.

Clicking on an empty slot will instead prompt you to Make A Toon, and confirming will send you to the titular Make A Toon. (The “Make A Toon” is themed after an animation studio. You are creating a cartoon character, after all.)

Ever since the Corporate Clash Team abolished gender, your first choice has been what species you want your Toon to be. You can make a Dog, Cat, Horse, Mouse, Rabbit, Duck, Monkey, Bear, Pig, Deer, Beaver, Alligator, Fox, Bat, Raccoon, Kiwi (the only armless species, though they do have floating hands), Kangaroo, Koala, Armadillo, or (during the Thanksgiving or April Toons events) a Turkey.

Then you choose your head shape. Then eyelash style (no eyelashes is an option as well). Then whether you want a fat, skinny, or long body. Then whether you want short, medium, or long legs. Then you can choose your color (either a solid color, or have each “section” of your body be a different color). If your chosen species has visible ears, you can customize their color here as well.

You then chose an outfit. There are 23 shirts and 16 bottoms (8 pairs of shorts and 8 skirts, I believe), with different color options. Whatever you don’t choose can be purchased later on in the game, if you so wish.

Finally, you can name your Toon. You can either use the preselected options (building a name out of a title, first name, and/or one-or-two-part last name), or type-a-name. Typed names must be approved by the moderation team. Until then, you are given a placeholder name (“Colorful [Toon Species]”). You can change your appearance and name later on, if you so wish.

After this, if you have any other Toons, you are asked if you want to skip the Toontorial. Otherwise, if this is your first Toon, you are sent straight in.

A short, fat, red dog named Lord Lowden Clear leads your Toon into a classroom, introducing you to the Professor as the newest recruit of the Toon Resistance, asking the professor to show you the ropes.

The professor, a blue cat named “Professor Pete” complies, and asks that Lord Lowden Clear to set-up the training room while he teaches you the basics. Lowden heads to the back and Professor Pete teaches you the controls. After which, he invites you to run around the classroom until you have a handle of the controls, and talk to him when you feel ready.

When you talk to him, he welcomes you to Toontown, a place of happiness and fun!

Well, it should be, but some recent events have complicated things. Lord Lowden Clear will explain things further in the training room, which is now open for you to manually enter.

Lowden opens by giving you a Laff Meter (it’s shape is based off your Toon’s species, and it’s color off of the color of your Toon’s head). It signals how happy your Toon is at any time, and you start out with a maximum of 15 Laff. But if it hits zero, it will turn green, and you’ll Go Sad and be sent back to the nearest Playground. Thankfully, there are treasures you can pick up that’ll restore your Laff, but what could possibly lower your Laff in a town as happy as this?

Robotic capitalists the locals call “Cogs” have been invading, taking over local businesses to expand their corporate empire. And worst of all, they can’t take a joke.

Fortunately, that’s also their biggest weakness, as Toontown Toons are all about jokes!

And lo and behold, they’ve set up a Level 9 Desk Jockey, a Cog-like training dummy with a patchwork suit and a head made out of office supplies, in order to teach you how to fight these cogs. In order to start the fight, all you have to do is touch the Desk Jockey.

Toontown was a turn-based RPG, and so is Corporate Clash. The camera pans out to a top-down perspective, the Cogs at the top of the screen, and the Toons at the bottom. At the bottom, you can see Panels showing each Toon’s Laff and what action they currently have queued up for that turn. At the top, you can see the Cog’s panels, which show their names, levels, and remaining HP. Your inventory of Gags is right in the middle. Each row represents a Gag Track, and this practice battle will teach you the ins and outs of each one.

You’re given the Level 1 Squirt Gag: A Squirting Flower, to begin with. Just click on the Gag to attack the Cog.

The Cog takes some damage, and is Soaked. This is a status effect added by the Corporate Clash Team to give Squirt Gags a specific purpose. The status effect is slotted onto the Cog’s panel. Soaked makes Cogs less likely to dodge. This is handy for Drop Gags, which deal high damage but have low accuracy.

(Not said in the tutorial is that, unlike other tracks, each hit or miss with Drop Gags is calculated per-Gag instead of per-Cog, so one Drop Gag missing doesn’t make them ALL miss.)

You’re given a Flower Pot, the level 1 Drop Gag, to attack the Desk Jockey with, with Lowden queuing up the same Gag.

Once you select the Flower Pot, both connect, which causes the Cog to take additional Combo Damage.

Throw, Squirt, and Drop Gags deal Combo Damage when multiple of the same track are used on the same Cog.

Unfortunately, on the Desk Jockey’s turn, it uses Light’s On Initiative to summon a Level 1 Desk Jockey.

Lord Lowden Clear then gives you a Joybuzzer, the Level 1 Zap Gag, and queues up a Squirt Gag to use on the Level 1 Desk Jockey.

Zap Gags (new to Corporate Clash) have perfect accuracy on Soaked Cogs, but deal 0 damage to dry Cogs. However, their electricity can jump to neighboring Cogs that are also soaked, but only if they connect to their initial targets, and only in a single direction.

Lord Lowden Clear’s Squirt Gag hits the Level 9 Desk Jockey, dealing some splash damage to the Level 1 and Soaking it as well, and your Joybuzzer hits the Level 9 and jumps to the Level 1, finishing the weaker Cog off.

Squirt can ALSO be used to damage multiple Cogs, Soaking and dealing Splash Damage to the Cogs to the immediate left and right of the target.

Lowden then gives you the Level 1 Lure Gag, a $1 Bill, and tells you to use it to Lure the Cog. Lure Gags deal 0 damage, but Lures a Cog for a set number of turns, and stores “knockback damage” that’ll be dealt to the Cog if attacked with a Throw or Squirt Gag before the Lure wears off. Lured Cogs ALSO can’t attack until the “Lured” Status wears off.

To demonstrate this, he gives you the Level 1 Throw Gag, a Cupcake, and has you attack the Cog alongside him. (Not shown in the Tutorial: Throw Gags give the “Marked for Laff” Status Effect, which makes any Gag that hits after Throw deal extra damage. The Status Effect wears off at the end of the turn it was applied on.)

This has the side effect of unluring the Cog, however. With the exception of Splash Damage from a Squirt Gag, almost ANY damage dealt to the Cog will unlure them, as will attempting to use a Zap Gag on a Lured Cog that hasn’t been Soaked.

He then gives you the Level 1 Trap Gag, a Banana Peel.

It doesn’t really do anything to the Desk Jockey, just sitting on the ground in front of it, and the Desk Jockey both attacks Lord Lowden Clear and calls in more Level 1 Desk Jockeys.

Lowden was NOT expecting to be attacked, and figures Pete must’ve changed the script without telling him. He also explains that Trap Gags only deal damage when a Cog is Lured into them, and queues up a Magnet to Lure all the Desk Jockeys (not wanting ALL of them to attack) while also giving you the Level 1 Toon-Up Gag, a Feather, and having you use it on him.

Toon-Up is used to restore the Laff of other Toons, applies the “Cheer” Status Effect (which causes any Gags they use that turn to deal extra damage) and restores a percentage of the Laff given to the target back to the user. However, it can ONLY be used on other Toons, so you can’t target yourself with it.

With the Level 9 Desk Jockey damaged and Dazed (debuff inflicted by Trap Gags that makes the Cog less likely to dodge on both the turn it’s inflicted AND the following turn), and the other 3 Cogs lured, Lowden decides it’s time to teach you how to use THE go-to AOE Gag Track: Sound, and gives you a Level 1 Kazoo while he queues up his own Sound Gag.

Sound doesn’t deal Combo Damage (anymore) and if it misses ANY of the Cogs, it will miss ALL of them, but thankfully all Gags have perfect accuracy in the Toontorial, so the two Sound Gags deal enough damage to destroy the three Level 1 Desk Jockeys, and put the Level 9 on its last legs.

It then attacks the Player’s Toon, dealing some damage to them.

Lord Lowden Clear then reveals the other big strength of the Sound Gag Track: using it gives the Encore Status Effect to the user, which powers up the next gag use. Using Sound while under the effect of Encore, however, will inflict the Winded Debuff, which keeps you from getting Encore and weakens Sound Gags until it wears off.

So, he queues up a Toon-Up gag to restore you to full Laff, and also gives you your choice of a Cupcake, Kazoo, Squirting Flower, or Flower Pot to finish off the Desk Jockey with.

After it’s destroyed, he takes your remaining Gags, and asks you to choose your two Gag Tracks to start out with, tells you to meet back with Professor Pete once you’ve done so, and then heads back to HQ via a portable hole.

For context, the order Gags are used in battle when Toons choose different tracks are Toon-Up > Trap > Lure > Throw > Squirt > Zap > Sound > Drop. Additionally, each Gag Track has extra bonus effects that can be unlocked if you Prestige them, but I’ll explain more on that in my next post, because this one is getting pretty long as is.

After choosing your Starting Gag Tracks, you’re booted from the Training Room and sent straight back to the Classroom. You cannot revisit the Training Room at any point.

Professor Pete welcomes you back, and asks if your training went well. He’s also got a few gifts for you, which are part of this game’s UI.

First is the Shtickerbook, which is placed in the bottom right corner of the screen. Clicking on it will begin the segment of the tutorial based around the in-game “Pause” Menu (even if it doesn’t actually pause anything because it’s an MMO).

It opens to the District Page first. Each district is a copy of Toontown (basically a Server), so if you’re gonna meet up with someone in game, make sure they know what district you’re in.

The next page is the Map Page. Clouds cover any part of Toontown you haven’t been to yet. There are three buttons at the bottom. “Go Home” sends you to your Estate, “Minigames” sends you to the Minigame Area, and “Playground” sends you back to the nearest Playground.

BE WARNED: The Minigame Area is a Playground. Using the “Go to Playground” button in the Minigame Area will just cause you to teleport back to the Minigame Area. Make sure you unlock your neighborhood’s Teleport Access before going to the Minigame Area. You won’t soft lock your game, but it’s a LONG walk to get back to Toontown Central from there. The Estate doesn’t have this problem, as it just sends you back to the Playground of the last Neighborhood you were in before you went “home”.

The next page is the Toontasks Page, where you already have the “Welcome to Toontown” task. You’ll have to speak with Flippy after the Toontorial is done. Aside from that, you’ve got three empty slots you can put other tasks in, after you’ve spoken with Flippy.

The next page is Items & Codes, where you can customize your Toon. He has you click on the “Clothing” tab (where you can customize your outfit), but your only clothes you currently own are the ones on your back. That will change as you progress through the game.

Next is the Cog Gallery. It’s separated into different sections based off the “Departments” the Cogs are divided into: Sellbots, Cashbots, Lawbots, Bossbots, and (new to Corporate Clash) Boardbots. The Toons don’t know a lot about the Cogs, so you’ll be filling this in yourself as you encounter the Cogs during your adventure.

There are more pages (which I’ll cover in the next post), but Professor Pete leaves you to figure that out on your own.

He asks if everything he said makes sense, and you don’t reply. Why? Because he hasn’t taught you how to talk yet!

He then gives you the Speedchat button, which goes up to the top left corner of the screen. You can click it and select any phrase or emote from the drop down menu. After using your newfound ability to speak, he gives you the Speedchat + and (new to Corporate Clash) Sticker buttons. Speedchat+ lets you type in custom phrases (with words that aren’t part of the whitelist being turned into animal noises in the speech bubble), while Stickers let you physically display emoticons.

He also gives you an Experi-o-Meter. This allows you to gain Toon Experience from Tasks, Achievements, Battles, and other sources. You’ve also got more Levels and Experience to gain than JUST Toon Levels and Experience, but that’s a topic for later. Each level up increases your Max Laff by 1, and certain level Milestones will even give you Training Points to spend. I’ll elaborate more on that in my next post.

With that explanation, Professor Pete turns you loose on the world of Toontown, and your Toon jumps through a Portable Hole to go straight to Toontown Central Playground.

And you officially join the multiplayer environment.

Welcome to Toontown Corporate Clash. It only gets crazier from here.

-

Fascinating! Sounds fun.

#submission

[lilies-and-chaos]

Watched this video and I have some Thoughts because for a very long time I've wondered if I'm autistic.

I feel like I have to qualify that claim, to explain myself, because despite watching a video breaking down and analyzing self-diagnosis, it doesn't feel valid to say.

When I was a baby, I didn't respond to my name. I didn't make facial expressions correctly as a young child. I had anger issues that I couldn't control (my younger siblings often looked like they had been scratched by an angry cat. We did not have pets.) and severe anxiety (I frequently had panic attacks, at times almost nightly, even going to the hospital once because I thought I was dying). I was tormented by horrible intrusive thoughts: at 8 years old, I was convinced that I would, one day, kill myself. My mom told me I would go to Hell. We were not religious. I didn't have many friends growing up. The friends I did have were often labeled as troublemakers, but I now realize they were (often) poor, (usually) unsupported, and (likely) neurodivergent. Usually, I would sit and read during recess instead of playing with the other kids. I was a great student and read voraciously, but if I was asked to make an inference about what a character was feeling I could not tell you. I didn't make eye contact until my 5th grade teacher told me and my mom that in middle school, I had to look at the teacher when they were talking. Somehow my mom hadn't noticed my complete lack of eye contact until then. Not that it hadn't been an issue before: teachers would call on me to ask what they had just said, thinking I wasn't paying attention. I was always paying attention. Until I was 13 or 14, I didn't understand symbolism in books or films: I watched La La Land and thought the musical sections were diegetic, that this was set in an alternate LA where people got out of their cars to sing. In 8th grade, I worried that I was a psychopath because I didn't feel as affected about stuff as other people. Between 14 and 16 my upper arms were so sensitive that I'd cry when they were lightly brushed. I've never been able to stomach the feeling of hand rails or rope moving against my skin. I've run my knuckles against the walls while I walk for as long as I can remember. At 18, 19, 20 years old I have cried about my plans changing. I have refused to eat because it wasn't the food I was planning. I rarely feel connected to the people I interact with. It's hard for me to identify my emotions past a general "good" or "bad" feeling. I have been told my voice is "exactly like my sister's," but the one telling difference is my voice is much flatter. I become obsessed with certain topics to the point where I won't talk except about that one topic and I'll forget to eat and sleep and use the bathroom.

Oh, and my RAADS-R score, when I take the exam with my boyfriend and my family helping me answer questions as accurately as possible, is between a 127 and a 148. I've taken it several times over the span of 2 years.

Not all of these experiences are symptoms of autism, which I know. But I included some to show how my parents handle mental health problems. I have anxiety but was not taken to a therapist until I was old enough to realize something was wrong, just told to stop overthinking. My therapist needed to tell my mom that I needed to be put on antidepressants so I wouldn't kill myself before therapy started working because she didn't want me taking medicine. My mom has told me that she suspected I was autistic when I was a kid, but didn't get me tested because I was doing well in school. Never mind that I wasn't doing well in many other aspects.

I've long thought that self diagnosis is not valid. This is despite the fact that every time I've sought and received mental health help, I've been correct about my self-diagnosis. Depression, Anxiety, OCD. Is Autism next?

But watching this video helped me remember that formal diagnoses are not always possible; that diagnoses are putting the human condition in a small box; that psychologists are as fallible and human as I am; that I know myself better than anyone else does. Why should I limit the tools and resources I use because I haven't had a doctor officially say that I'm autistic? If these tools help me function in my day-to-day life, what is truly the difference between me and the hypothetical autistic me?

It doesn't matter too much now. If I am autistic, I am high-functioning (although I am aware that term is not supported anymore). I have painstakingly taught myself the social rules and conventions I need to follow in order to fit in. I can small talk and joke and (apparently poorly) use sarcasm and usually even detect it. Not much would change if I was formally diagnosed. But man. I would love to know.

Ofc I will not say "I have autism" to people but those are my thoughts

#silly little thoughts #tw suicide #autism #self diagnosis #self diagnosed autism #mental illness #mental health #youtube

[manonamora-if-reviews]

The Staycation by Maggie H

============= Links

Play the game See other reviews of the game

============= Synopsis

Your housemate and her boyfriend leave for a spring break trip. Finally, you get a taste of sweet solitude. Just you, hobbies, and cat cuddles. Or so you think… As the days wear on, you start questioning your decision to stay. Navigate the unending night by dragging interaction icons to highlighted parts of the text. Find a way out of the loop or choose to fall…fall…fall…

============= Other Info

The Staycation is a Texture game, submitted to the 2022 Edition of the IFComp*. It ranked 61st overall. *a dozen of Texture games had been submitted to the IFComp that year, following a 3(?)-week workshop on game design.

Status: Completed Genre: <- to do

CW: Unsettling imagery, surrealism, jumpscares, and minor self-harm (scratching an itch from an unknown source) Note: Texture as an engine* *while it makes for an interesting type of gameplay and is pretty easy to pick up as a creator, Texture shines best when played on mobile/touchscreen. Playing with a mouse is not optimise and will make the game less enjoyable/tiring.

============= Playthrough

First Played: 2-Oct-2022* Last Played: 23-May-2023 Playtime: around 20min (max) Rating: 2 /5 Thoughts: A lot of potential, but missed the mark.

*I had reviewed the game during the IFComp in the Author's section (which was hidden to the public). I forgot to keep track of the notes I gave though... You can find the OG review under the cut.

============= Review

The Staycation is a short game about loneliness, psychosis? and a confusion about which genre/type it is supposed to fall in. The player is set to stay home while their housemate goes on a trip with her boyfriend. It becomes an opportunity to do whatever you want... or is it?

Spoilers ahead. It is recommended to play the game first. The review is based on my understanding/reading of the story.

This game was essentially my introduction to Texture games, and (as you can read from the OG review below) it hadn't made that good of an impression on me. Having replayed it, and this time on a touch-screen machine, I think my thoughts have but slightly differed. While using my phone to play the game instead of my mouse helped brush the mechanical issues I had with the game (click-n-slide is the worst...), it also made the content much more obvious.

The Staycation marketed itself as a horror slice-of-life, as you are forced to endure a nightmarish ordeal, forcing yourself to question your choices (a.k.a. you hate being left behind and alone). I personally enjoy psychological thrillers/horror, but I was disappointed to find the game didn't really deliver on either the horror or the slice-of-life aspect.

This time around, I also went through the game multiple times, and exhausting all limited options (helping your roommate with her luggage or leave her to deal with it, interacting with her or her boyfriend or ignoring them, enjoying yourself with a book or scrolling down your feed, and the final choice <- that is really it). Yet, it felt like the horror was only superficial and the slice-of-life very minimal. The final choice (making you realise you should have not stayed home) feels very underwhelming, as the hints of some past trauma and self-harm really comes out of nowhere...

As for the slice-of-life bit, the premise talks about days alone, but the story only seems to account for one (the one where your housemate and her bf leaves). Either the player's nightmare happens for days but it is brushed over, or there was a typo somewhere. This honestly added to the underwhelmingness of the piece. A build up of strange occurrences while the player goes about their day (with some more hints of their worries) would have made the story more poignant, in my view.* *as noted previously, this game was part of a workshop which lasted three weeks. It would not be surprising that a lack of time went into play for this bit. Still, other Texture entries did succeed to have a stronger story...

Still, there were some glimmers that helped the game. First, the illustrations were a nice touch, especially during the "nightmare" sequence. It really helped the horror aspect. I also enjoyed how calm and comforting the game picture was. Almost reminiscent of those pulpy book covers

Secondly, the use of senses as actions was a great choice, especially for the horror theme! Even the focus on strange smell (with the incense) or the peculiar noise (of your car) added to the uneasiness that the story was supposed to convey.

And finally, the formatting of the choices stood out among the other Texture entries of that edition of the IFComp. The Staycation is the only one using emoji in the action boxes rather than text. Honestly, kinda brilliant.

=======================

OG Review during the IFComp

I never heard of Texture as a program before nor played a game like this. It took be a bit of time to get used to it and I am not sure whether I enjoy the click-n-slide mechanic personally (this didn’t affect my review) [Note from 2023... it kinda did, ngl].

The game card looked to have an interesting premise, and I like some psychological horror myself. But I think the game itself under delivered. Even after multiple runs (which is doable since the game is quite short), it left me a bit disappointed. At the end, I am not sure what was the point of the story; and if there was one, I think I completely missed it.

[Note: the game card said 2h play, but I was done with it all within 30min max. I am pretty sure I “clicked” on all possible options. Did I miss something major?]

The story itself felt a bit underdeveloped. The premise talks about days but I am pretty sure the actual game only pans over one day(?). Some of the text as well read a bit awkward too or were missing some words (I believe). The story may have needed a bit more fleshing out.

The bright and calming colours of the UI also didn’t really add to the increasing “horror-y” setting, especially by the end. I am not sure whether it is doable in Texture to have multiple styling within the game, but a visual theme going from bright to darker colours would have helped with the setting.

Some positive points:

The use of images were a nice touch, especially during when you wake up in the middle of the night.

Having the choices being sensory actions (watch/see, smell, touch, say…) fit well with the horror-y setting.

Overall, this game had a lot of potential (who doesn’t like a creepy housesitting theme), but fell a short at the end.

#the staycation #Maggie H #review #twine game #interactive fiction #IFComp #2022 #complete #horror #slice of life #choice based