#update: changed my icon now too so have fun figuring out who i am in your dash bjhdsbhj

[hey-sherry]

Sherlock Holmes The Awakened Demo Thinky Thoughts

A bit late, but I wanted to share my first reaction to the Awakened demo! This is essentially an expanded version of what I wrote on the FW discord, with screenshots edited to look nicer for tumblr. I will do a separate post on the extra stuff that is normally inaccessible without Ansel. [Extra stuff post here]

So: spoilers ahead + keep in mind that the game is darker and moodier, I edited some of the screenshots so that they are clearer on tumblr/mobile view.

Sweet sweet concept art, gorgeous intro music, yay! The main theme is atmospheric and dark, giving me very slight vibes of the Sarif HQ track from DX:HR... I mean this in a good way, not in a “they copied it” way. It’s that sort of nostalgic ambience, but deeper and darker. One day I’ll stop drawing parallels to Deus Ex, but today is not that day.

The intro cinematic is pre-rendered and really good; I liked Sherlock's narration and the implication it's all in Watson's/players' hands now... He sounds more authoritative and distant than in CO.

I really liked the visual with the fly caught in the cobweb.

I did not expect this! It's a really fun title sequence and wow, we’re being thrown straight into chapter 3. I too thought it would be London but this is great 😄

WATSON!!! At this point I’m thinking, “Oooh we're gonna play as Watson, they probably don’t want to show Sherlock just yet, I know someone who's gonna be very happy about this o,o” (ahem hem, @lucere-aeresta​) I like long dialogues/cinematics so this intro was a treat. I'll have to replay of course but it felt very satisfying to see a chunk of the story here and be introduced to the new characters. There’s a lot going on!

The receptionist

Dr. Gygax!

You can walk around a little and talk to a couple of NPCs. There’s this easter egg - it’s a Lovecraft easter egg (thanks for figuring that one out, Lucere!) The paper itself is straight from Cordona. :D

You cannot pick this letter up, but the message is very clear. May be a clue in the final game.

Who’s there...? BTW this is the exact face Sherlock gives Jon when he plays the guitar too loudly in the CO seance scene :D

OH NO. LMAO! This had me in stitches, and of course I lied. Nice American accent, you dork. The subsequent journal entry essentially saying "Watson tried to act, I guess" gave me a chuckle. I tried!  So hard! And in the en-- moving on...

Here’s how the journal looks like now. The clues have updated icons and you can toggle to sort them by type (document, conversation, item, etc.) or the order in which you found them.

So yeah, Sherlock shows up in disguise and a terrible American accent, says the iconic “Guten day,” and then he gets sedated because Watson cannot lie to save his life.

Of course. OF COURSE. Now I know someone who's going to be a bit disappointed we don’t spend much time as Watson, but that's not me. 😂 My first thought -> they heard us cry and wail about the stubble and said "We're gonna make you beg to have the stubble back" Ok, ok, you win. I'm sorry. 😭

(insert half an hour of zooming around with Ansel instead of playing the damn game) This is how the game levels look when you go out of bounds!

Found some of you in the back! And in the cells! :3 (There’s a wall with photographs of the Kickstarter backers, and a row of cells with names and custom faces - although you cannot see the characters very well at this point.)

Right, I should play. The lockpicking puzzles were fun, but I'll admit I found both of them extremely easy. But I am a seasoned adventure game fan and it's a nice little thing to do for that feeling of escaping the cells. The “Mycroft” (custom) difficulty setting does let you change the puzzle difficulty, so we are probably going to face a bigger challenge in the finished game. The settings don’t make a difference in the demo, though.

SHERLOCK. NO. PUT IT DOWN.

PUT THOSE DOWN OH MY GOD

So yeah, I think it’s safe to say he’s a full blown addict by now. Vogel, what have you done?

Ran into the guard three times, got a game over 😎 Confirmation that yeah Sherlock is still afraid of water! I bet he's gonna love the trip to America and boating around the swamps. What could go wrong.

FYI, there's a guard that you need to figure out how to get past. It's not a sneaking sequence, but you need some items. If he notices you 3 times he rings the alarm, and the game reloads

At this point I'm having fun just investigating stuff and admiring the new journal etc., it's all very nicely designed. It's awesome that we can sort evidence by type now! The mind palace facelift is so good and feels more involved than before.

Back to the game... I SQUEALED!!! 😄 duhhh

And again! Two back to back CO references, yay ♥

Well I am a smart detective and deal with the guard with my brain and not my fists. Time to yoink all of his clothes. Where did his body go? We don't ask such questions around here...

HEEEEEEEEELLLLLLL YEAAAAAAAH

ANSEL PHYSICS RESET MY BELOVED ♥♥ never fix this please never ever

(cue another photoshoot) 

The biggest tease in all of the demo: THAT EXCLAMATION MARK. Let... me... see... outfits! 😂 Lovingggg the updated outfit screen, so happy there's some gorgeous lighting in there. It looked kinda bad in CO.

Okay, back to playing the game! I LIED, more photoshoots as the inmates scream, cry, and wail all around me. Sucks to be them, I guess.

Okay, Gerda! I LOVE her new design, and her voice actress too! She was so great.

Gerda is the second inmate that we meet. She wants her friend Heidi back and until then she will not talk. The first inmate that we meet is Mauricio Napoleon, it is just a short but entertaining conversation/cinematic. We don’t talk to him any more in the demo.

He does that lil smile as she spits the worst threats at him, it's glorious

Something something Silent Hill 3 (Gorgeous!)

I try to play the mountain goat in every game and the absence of the jump button will not stop me

So I didn't take screenshots of the quite meaty gameplay surrounding getting Heidi back and figuring out what's going on, so here's some thoughts: - The updated crime scene investigation looks fantastic! The smokey green aesthetics are fitting and everything is much clearer than it was in CO. I like that we can see how many variations there are for each 'node'. The only thing I'm not sure about is the first person perspective - Sherlock's close focus mode - because I had trouble seeing what's different in the variations, and sometimes the models would push me back a little bit when they loaded. I'd move away from the node just by trying to see things and had trouble re-positioning... not a great deal of trouble, of course, but it is a downgrade from SHCO. I think the 3rd person mode like with Jon in CO works much better. This is my biggest criticism of the demo. - There was a tad too much running back and forth just to seemingly fetch a few items... this may be polished further, I don't know. It gave me old adventure game vibes where you kinda run back and forth for a few small things lol. - I wished we could use the items more directly and/or assemble things, not just have them as text in the inventory... but I understand that making a new puzzle feature may be too much work at this point - The "three clues" dialogue confused me for a moment, but so it did in CO as well so this may be a ‘me’ problem 😂 I keep forgetting that there are 3 different questions to answer, not that I need to present 3 accurate clues... hahah. - The darker overtones are soooo up my alley! When I figured out what had happened to one of the people in the casket... ooof anyway, time to find and assemble Heidi!

Him <3

Awww, isn't it cute?

BUT IT'S WRONG

Oh so wrong 😂 I did NOTTTT expect this ahahahahhhh Hands down the best part of the demo The mental health aspect of the remake was what had me a little worried, but you know what, I think it's gonna be fine 😂 Heidi is one bad bench, and Sherlock just ACCEPTING he's now talking to a demonic doll and making the most of it is just chef's kiss Love, love, love. We're all mad here.

I unlocked a reward, and what a sweet one it is! Sadly, you cannot change your clothes in the demo. The updated physics make his chain and bag go bouncing like crazy, haha.

And thank

you

for reading! Feel free to send me an ask if you have any questions.

#sherlock holmes the awakened #sherlock holmes #john watson #frogwares holmes #SHTA demo #thinky thoughts #my screenshots

[recurrentart]

Oh Hi, I haven't said anything in a minute

Hey there everyone! I realize I have been pretty quiet in journal updates lately I hope to fix that, and who knows, maybe start doing more regular updates here too. I do most of my updates on my Telegram Art Channel here - https://linktr.ee/RecurrentArt I have been catching up on a lot of my commissions lately, and while I did just pick up some more at LVFC, I am hoping to reopen for commissions in about a 2 to 3 months. My prices will be changing with my next opening though as a heads up. I have had my new prices pretty much set for months but I always feel weird posting a new commission sheet while commissions are closed, so expect that to be coming soon! I have a lot of Badges and Standees currently in my queue, but a couple fun TF pieces as well. I really want to draw some more fun TF stuff soon. I am planning another big Group TF Piece once I am able to finish a couple more pieces as well! Speaking of finishing pieces, I recently completed a very large animated TF, while I do still have one more smaller animation on my queue, I hope to be able to hold and auction for my Animated TF Icon (on Furaffinity) once that smaller TF Animation is complete. If you are looking to get an Animation from me, keep and eye out for that soon!  So what's happening in my life outside of art? Well I've been in and out of the doctor's office a lot lately. I figured out one set of issues, and then developed another. I'm pretty tired from that to be honest. But hopefully once they figure out why I have been breaking out in hives daily for the past 2 months, I can get some medication for it to stop (or maybe it just a very slow TF and fur will start sprouting soon, I can hope lol). I do a lot of fostering work as well and recently captured a pregnant feral cat that is a part of my local feral colony and I am now helping her raise 7 healthy kittens before I can get her spayed and released. I hope to TNR more of the colony soon but right now most of my spare funds are going towards momma cat and her kittens. As you may know I also work full time in addition to art and that has been pretty stressful for the past few months, which is why I haven't been streaming recently. I have been working with my boss to make it less stressful and hopefully that will mean I can start streaming again soon, but we shall see. I'll have to move my streaming set up back out to the living room again lol. I do recognize I haven't been as social recently while dealing with all of this, and for that I apologize. Please do feel free to reach out and say hi if you'd like, I may just be a little slow to reply while going through everything. TLDR? Commissions opening in a 2-3 months. Commission prices changing. New Group TF piece soon! Animation Auction soon!

[robertacolndrez]

xavierdalon -> robertacolndrez

now tracking #userbeat 💜

#url change #should've made this change months ago but i wanted a perfect canon url so bad... anyway #userbeat is cute and works because my name is beatriz but i wish i could get userbea 🥺 #that tag is currently dead but used to belong to someone and i didnt want to take over it in case that user came back #i'll still be tracking xavierdalon for a while ofc #xavierdalon #update: changed my icon now too so have fun figuring out who i am in your dash bjhdsbhj

[highpope]

Silver Keys - Chapter Five

JJ Maybank x OC x Topper Thorton Soulmate AU

warnings: none, let me know if there ever are :)

notes: first, I know this took agesssss I'm sorry but I've been sitting on a couple chapters so you guys should be getting some updates for a while. Second, I lost my tag lists. so lmk if you want added to this one or my general tag list. I've been writing a lot more to cope with my anxiety so... things are coming bahaha. Love you guys, thanks for your support recently - J

Silver Keys Masterlist

June probably wouldn’t admit it to anyone besides her sister and Kie, but going out with Topper was fun. When he had asked her out to have dinner at the country club, she was worried she wouldn’t fit in at all. June was convinced she’d make it about 15 minutes before she bailed and met everyone back at the Chateau. She had on shoes she could barely walk in and a dress she found at goodwill, no doubt someone’s from a homecoming dance in years past and she was fighting the urge to pull her hair up all night. But then she realized they had talked straight through appetizers, dinner, and the waiter had come by twice for the check. The two of them had fallen into a comfortable understanding with each other that had continued into the following weeks.

He picked her up from work on most days, driving around in search of the perfect chocolate chip cookie. June argues that the small bakery run out of one of the local’s houses has the best cookies, but Topper is determined to try every option before making a decision. It had started as kind of a joke, but now it was just an excuse for them to hang out.

Currently, they were at the island’s movie night, chairs propped up near the back and various snacks shared between the two of them. Topper’s arm rested on her shoulders, something she had become accustomed to the past few weeks. June found herself more relaxed with him, it was easy being with Topper. She didn’t have to think or worry, June could just be.

They were playing The Sandlot, arguably the best movie of all time and June had to hold back from saying the iconic lines with the characters. She had grown up watching this movie with her sister and had practically begged Topper to go see it.

“Really?” He had asked the day before, “The movie nights aren’t really our thing.”

“Yeah, that’s because you guys always cause trouble and then get kicked out.”

He shook his head.

“Yes, you do. Besides, you’re gonna be with me and I am a model citizen.”

He laughed then and again in the chair beside her now.

She found herself leaning into him naturally, even with the arms of both their chairs in between them. It was something she had never had previously. June didn’t do relationships. In high school, she mostly stuck with the pogues and focused on school and not getting in trouble with the cops. Sure, she had the occasional crush or hookup with a touron, but nothing was ever serious. Not that this was, but it was closer to that than anything else June had experienced.

The next morning June had her last piano rehearsal with Mrs. Hana before the recital. The Saturday coming up was the big dress rehearsal. The one with the kids from all over the island and hundreds of different schools and programs. And the weekend following that was the recital. Her whole family was going. Her dad had even surprised her by getting a hotel room for all of them and making a whole trip about it. He had to work night shifts for two weeks, but he assured her it was worth it. Not that that added any pressure.

At rehearsal, June played nearly perfectly. She had only messed up a couple of notes near the end. She’d be lucky if Saturday went as smoothly as this. Mrs. Hana corrected her posture and made her go from the top. They went on like this the whole lesson: June playing and her correcting one thing at a time before making her start over. Normally, June would argue, but she knew it was because Mrs. Hana understood how important this was. This could set her future up, get her off the island if she wanted. She could do something she loved every day.

The night before the recital, June was laying on a hammock in John B’s backyard.

“Nervous?” Kie questions.

June shrugged, “Kinda, yeah.”

“I’m sure you’re going to do fine,” Pope said with confidence. It was only the three of them. John B and JJ had ventured out to get snacks and beer but hadn’t been back for an hour. June’s guess was they found a party and couldn’t bother to text an update. That or they got arrested. Which probably would’ve earned a phone call quicker than the first option. She chuckled thinking about this.

“It’s just a rehearsal and Liv is driving down with me so I don’t really have anything to worry about.”

“You seem to have this all figured out,” he said with a laugh.

Kie said, “And I cannot wait to celebrate when you get back! It’s gonna be so fun.”

June could only imagine what her best friend was thinking when she said this. She was sure it would end like most nights did, tipsy and watching movies on John B’s couch. Her favorite way to end a day. The three of them drift into a comfortable silence, lost in their thoughts. June starts to hear a familiar melody, but can’t quite put her finger on it. She was sure it wasn’t anything she had chosen to listen to, but couldn’t figure out where she had heard it before.

She was brought back to reality when John B and JJ come strutting into the yard, cases of beer on their shoulders and grocery bags in their hands. Kie and June both started cheering.

They set down the stuff on the closest table.

“What took so long?” Pope asked, getting up and rummaging through the bags. He pulls out a bag of chips before turning around.

“You’re not even going to believe it.” John B starts, taking a seat.

“Hey,” JJ yelled at June, “Gummies?” He asks and holds up a bag of gummy worms.

She nods her head and he tosses them over before grabbing his own snack and beer and joining her on the hammock. They all listen to JB’s story, JJ adding in his own variations and making everyone laugh.

“And who ended up being in front of us at the grocery store?” He paused for dramatic effect, “Sarah Cameron.”

June realized a beat late that she was supposed to be reacting, “Sarah Cameron!” she repeated.

JJ turned his head to keep from laughing.

“Am I supposed to be excited?” Kie asked, an annoyed expression on her face. She and Sarah used to be friends before they drifted into different friend groups.

“Yes, Kie. It was like fate.”

JJ spoke up, “I would hardly call it fate.”

John B just rolled his eyes at his friends and took another drink.

“What happened to Molly Fields?” Pope questioned. That was the girl we had gone to elementary school with, the latest victim of John B’s soulmate search.

“Nah,'' he dismissed, “This one’s different.”

“Well, I hope it is, JB,” June spoke up. He looked over and smiled at her.

The next morning June and Olivia jump in the car and start towards the concert hall where her dress rehearsal was being held. She had been up for hours, too excited and nervous to sleep. June had gotten ready, done her makeup, changed three times, and called Topper twice all before Olivia had even woken up. Downstairs, their mom had made some breakfast and June couldn’t bear to tell her she was too nervous to eat anything. So, she grabbed a pancake and thanked her parents.

They listened to music the whole way down, Liv was always determined to get June to listen to the most mainstream pop music she could. She always argued that she wouldn’t understand anyone’s references and it would be an embarrassing mess. June made sure to point out that she had made it 18 years without that ever happening, but nonetheless she persisted.

When they arrived, they parked the car and decided to window shop. They were still about an hour early from call time and Liv was restless enough as it was. June was trying to push her nerves down. She didn’t want to come across that way to the instructors. June had a vision that she would walk across the stage, take a deep breath, and be transported by the music. She didn’t want to have the weight of the competition on her shoulders or the constant confusion about her soulmate circling in her head. That was a new development. June found herself lying awake at night going over everything Topper had said or done and trying to place it into this mysterious soulmate cut out she had in her head. She was trying to do a puzzle with the wrong number of pieces. And she wasn’t even sure if it was the right picture on the box.

….

“Okay, turning the key a bunch of times isn’t going to do any good if the battery is dead,” Olivia said, snapping her head to look at June from the passenger side.

After the dress rehearsal, June had called Liv and the two of them had eaten in the cafeteria with a few other performers. June was practically glowing after being there for a few hours, she couldn’t imagine how she would feel at the actual recital. Everything was going perfectly.

Until they got back to the car and realized the battery was dead.

“Well,” June sighed, “I don’t know what else to do.” Her voice pinched.

“Can’t we call a mechanic?”

“Liv, you know we can’t afford that. Especially in this area. We just need a jump.”

She surveyed the empty parking lot and tried to think of what to do without panicking. They were too far from home to have someone just pick them up and there were no cars in sight. Even if there were, they didn’t have any jumper cables. Maybe they could take the bus home and get help tomorrow. June probably had enough cash in her purse for two bus tickets.

“Isn’t there like a trick with distilled water? That could get us somewhere.”

“You think I have distilled water in my car? Besides, I have no idea how to do that.”

“I’m just trying to give you ideas here,” Olivia said, unbuckling her seatbelt and getting out of the car.

June leaned her head back and closed her eyes, thinking and thinking.

She was interrupted when Olivia opened the driver’s side door and handed her the phone, “here.”

Confused, June lifted the phone to her ear, “hello?”

“June? What’s going on?” JJ’s voice was on the other end.

“J, we’re fine. Just a little car trouble.” She rolled her eyes at her sister.

“We’re stranded!” Olivia yelled so that he could hear.

“We’re fine,” she said, shooting her sister a look.

JJ speaks up, “Doesn’t sound fine. June, I’ll just come out and help. No problem.”

“No, no. We just need a jump-”

“I’m already in the car, just send me your location.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Yeah, but I’m going to.”

Defeated, June agrees and sends him the address of the music hall.

About 45 minutes later, JJ pulls into the parking spot opposite of them, “Hey,” he says as he turns the key and gets out of the car.

“Oh thank god! JJ, do you have AC? I’m melting.” Olivia yells. She’s already getting in his truck and rotating the fans to blow her hair back before he can process what she’s just said.

“I’m sorry,” June starts, but he interrupts her.

“Eh, no big deal”

“I can give you gas money for coming all the way out here.”

He shakes his head, “Nah. Here catch.” JJ throws one end of the jumper cables to her, “You know how to put them on?”

June scoffs, “This isn’t my first jump, Maybank.”

Once everything is sorted out with June’s car, the three of them drive to the nearest ice cream shop. Mostly because Olivia was being dramatic and promised to pay for herself, but also to thank JJ for driving the whole way out here just to get them home.

“I don’t know, it’s like what if my soulmate doesn’t like ice cream? Ew, or worse, orders mint chocolate chip.” Olivia said as they headed to a table outside. The spot they had picked was really nice, there were picnic tables with umbrellas lined up on a patio in front of the window they had ordered from.

June just laughed, a conversation the two of them had had more than once.

“What’s wrong with mint chocolate chip?” JJ asked.

Olivia made a face, “only everything.”

“Isn’t the whole point of a soulmate that you overlook those flaws and-”

“Please. Don’t lecture me.” She begs.

“She’s kinda right though,” JJ replies, looking at June for a second and scrunching his nose. She smiles back, looking down at her ice cream.

“Have you heard it?” She asks him.

“Yeah,” he clears his throat, “the other night at John B’s.” He meets June’s eyes. “I fell asleep on the pullout and the storm woke me up. So I was just laying awake and that’s when I heard it. It was really faint. Mad weird though,” He finished and took a bite of his ice cream, making June shudder.

She remembered the night he was talking about. It had stormed for about two days last week. She thought about what she was probably doing at the time, practicing for the recital, maybe reading until

she drifted off.

“Do you think you know who it is?” Olivia inquired.

He shook his head, “No, haven’t thought about it.”

“You don’t wanna know?”

“I mean, sure. But if I’m gonna find out anyway by force of,” he struggled for the right word before landing on, “the universe, then why stress right now?”

That answer seemed to have satisfied her enough because she nodded her head and stopped asking questions.

When she finally pulled into her driveway, June had a phone call.

The three of them had left shortly after ice cream, JJ following them most of the way back before he went off towards John B’s and June continued straight, with a quick wave behind her.

Olivia had practically jumped out of the car before she had even parked so now, June answered her phone, unbuckling her seatbelt.

“Hey,”

“Hey!” Topper said on the other end, “I wanted to see how everything went. I stopped by your house just a little bit ago, but your car wasn’t in front.”

June groaned, “That’s because we just now pulled in. The practice was great! Everyone was so talented and I got to meet a couple of instructors. It was really cool.”

“That’s amazing, bub.”

“Yeah, it really was.”

“What took you so long getting home?”

“Oh, uh. I just had some car trouble, no biggie.”

“Oh, is everything alright?”

“Yeah, yeah. Just needed a quick jump and then we were on our way.” June chuckled, nervously. She hadn’t even thought to call Topper when her car wouldn’t start. Truthfully she hadn’t thought to call anyone, but she still felt nervous to tell him what happened.

“So someone had cables? That’s pretty lucky.” He pressed.

“Uhm. No, actually. We had to call JJ for some help and then we were good to go. It drove perfectly on the way home.”

There was a pause before he spoke again, “You could’ve called or texted me.”

“I didn’t want to bother you. I wasn’t even the one who called JJ, it was Liv.”

“Well, I could’ve helped.”

“It’s fine, really.”

“I would’ve called a mechanic for you, had someone come out and get you.”

“And I would have really appreciated it,” June laughed nervously, “Next time I promise I will call you.”

He stayed silent for a long time before speaking, “It’s just your first thought wasn’t to call your boyfriend. Forgive me if I’m a little upset.”

She pondered over his words for a moment, skipping over the mention of ‘boyfriend,’ “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to come off that way.”

“Yeah,” he sighed, “yeah, you’re right. I’ll call you in the morning, okay?”

June nodded even though he couldn’t see her and hung up the phone. She huffed, threw her phone in her bag, and marched up the sidewalk inside.

#highpopefics #silverkeys #silverkeys masterlist #jj maybank #topper thornton #outer banks #obx #jj maybank x oc #obx fic #outer banks fic #obx series #obx x reader

[leefi]

any updates on the ORV 16 personality analysis, now that you're this far into the story?

let me go cross-examine with the PDB page because my brain is fried like an egg

ok main trio i wouldn't change from what i initially thought. yoohankim ISTP ENTP and INTJ respectively

KDJ probably my favorite fictional INTJ ever because he's just so well written, look at his big stupid Fi heart that loves his family so much. KDJ I kiss you on the mouth for how well written you are and also everything else about you. even the war crimes. I don't have much to say for him because he's such a strong INTJ that if you asked me what an INTJ was I'd point to him. One more thing I think is interesting is how similarly he and YJH come off at times...I feel like ISTP/INTJ and INFJ/INTP can be easily mistaken for each other based off of first impressions. Their actual functions are SO different I just mean in terms of vibes here

Han Sooyoung is a very strong ENTP as well which is all the explanation you need for her horrible personality /gen - I have no idea why INTJ votes are so high for her because her style of leadership and planning is explicitly pointed out several times to contrast Dokja's (Ne dom vs. Ni dom) - he says almost verbatim in canon how much he admires how she can see the big picture of things (Ne) while he tends to stick to one plan and modify that One Plan if needed as he goes (Ni). And Predictive Plagiarism is such an Ne-Ti skill it hurts. I could see the INTJ votes coming in due to to her 1863rd form but imo that's just an ENTP operating at their best? Also fictional ENTPs who are more ambitious tend to have this kind of "dual persona" when it comes to their goals/leadership styles vs their day-to-day personalities. They're very good at molding to a role

Yoo Jonghyuk ISTP <3 yeah. I would take ISTJ arguments if we were just vibe typing (especially later ORV) and I can SEE Si arguments but also. His Se and Ti are so strong. If you want to compare Ti and Te compare him and KDJ. Also I don't know too much about enneagram but he and HSY both being 8s with different wings is the funniest thing. 8's seek dominance over others (essentially a desire to be the top of the pecking order, whether as a leader or an independent actor, because their biggest fear is being controlled), 9 wing (yjh) looks for security in life and from the others around it, 7 wing (hsy) just wants to have a good fucking time and party. Also tends to hide/conceal its pain

Yoo Sangah ENFJ Yes yes I agree with this because I am in love with her (I had her as ExFJ when i did the post iirc I wasn't sure which). Intuitively good with people, naturally friendly, subtly very keen and discerning and able to not only pick up on but also accept Dokja's internal logic, even when it's a bit ruthless to do so (Ni-aux). She's the group's public figure, a natural diplomat. Doesn't shy away from the paparazzi like JHW or prefer to have her notoriety speak for her like HSY and KDJ. She's also YJH's exact opposite, if you want to compare ISTPs and ENFJs look at them. It means they have the same function stack but reversed. Also she and LHS being the most amicable of the main group is due to their xxFJ typing. naturally tuned in to people, to the point where they may stifle themselves for the sake of others

Lee Jihye I disagree with PDB saying ISTP (I think she's ISFP) but I don't know enough about mbti to dispute it LMFJDHDHD so I'll go with the communal vote of ISTP. they're right and I'm wrong. Either way my jock Se daughter

Lee Gilyoung I initially had him as INTP and PDB has him as INTP but I'm not... SURE? He's so difficult to type because he's the babby of the group. A babby doesn't have their full function stack developed yet. I don't think it's WRONG I'm just not SURE

Shin Yoosung I can see ENFP! She's either an ENFP leaning heavily on her tertiary Te (to appeal to her sponsor/dad's aux-Te) or an ENFJ (seeing herself as the most responsible among the kids, tends to be a little bossy at times).

Jung Heewon ISFP (i have feelings for you. this doesn't have anything to do with mbti just in general), nothing to add from what I said about her initially. Dominant Fi in her strong personal sense of justice.

Lee Hyunsung big ol ISFJ teddy bear. yes. His whole arc is about learning not to lean so heavily on his Si-dominance. He LSH and YJH are the reason why the OG WOS adults are so like. Like. Like. I'm trying to find a more polite way to say "like they have sticks up their asses"

Lee Seolhwa OKAY yes they have her as ISFJ that's what I meant when I said her personality is similar to Tamao's (another ISFJ). Though frankly I could see ISFJ or ISTJ for her, and I'm leaning more towards ISTJ. Either way I'm in love with her a little and I think that as her mega evil villain persona she's tapping into that inferior Ne and running with it, as all ISxJs should be allowed to do it's so fun and sexy

SWK I had as ESTP initially but after we actually meet him at the Constellation Banquet definitely ISTP lmao. Friendly jock that doesn't actually want to socialize. objectively the best constellation

Secretive Plotter ohhh.... Ooooh you'd think ISTP because of Who He Is but 40,000 years in space will change a bitch. Who knows. PDB says INTJ...sure? I dunno I think that vote might be due to vibe typing. I welcome comments on this, I don't think the votes on this on PDB are "complete" yet so to speak I don't trust this one (like LGY I don't think it's wrong I'm just not sure)

Uriel BIG ENFP VIBES but based off actual functions idk. Her ENFP energy is so strong that I'd struggle to see her as anything else. She and JHW both having strong Fi placements tho <333

ABFD I don't remember what PDB put for him but it was probably ESFP or ESTP. I'd say ESFP. Kim Namwoon ESTP.

Yoo Mia being ESTJ IS THE CUTEST THING (and i agree with it completely) when her older brother is an ISTP. Iconic duo

#hsy 🤝 Claude FE 3H = ENTP leadership. they're not 1:1 but it's funny where their similarities lie #goofs with big plans and ambitions just under the surface #actually thinking about it more i totally see ljh as ISTP. she and yjh and their big stupid inf Fe hearts #kimcom #orv spoilers #borv

[twistedtummies2]

Top 12 Twisted Wonderland Students

THIS LIST IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE. PLEASE NOTE THAT BEFORE READING.

Well, if you follow my page, then you already know I love Twisted Wonderland. I don’t think I need to go into detail about what the game is, or what it’s about, and for those who are looking at this for the first time...look it up. It’s a surprisingly interesting game with a good story, a fun sense of style...and above all, some really awesome characters.

I was skeptical of TW when it first came out, largely because I worried the characters would either be just anime-style copycats of classic Disney Villains, or else stock stereotypes, similar to the title characters in the “Descendants” franchise, which bears some superficial similarities. To my great delight, Twisted Wonderland exceeded all my expectations. I can’t speak for the gameplay – I haven’t actually PLAYED this game, partially because I CAN’T; it’s only available in Japan, and I don’t know how to get a copy for myself I can comprehend – but I’ve been following walkthroughs and every other avenue of information I can to see everything I can find, and – at least in terms of the story and characters – this game REALLY does a SPECTACULAR job. The students of Night Raven are not only worthy successors to their iconic predecessors, but they are all interesting and fun characters in their own right. All of them certainly owe elements of their appearances, personalities, backstories, or all of the above to their sources, but they also do plenty to make sure they are their own unique characters, without ever feeling stock or stereotypical. Every single one of them is a fully rounded, complex character with layers and layers stacked on them to intrigue you. The main story of the game is not yet finished, I should state; it’s released in different chapters in an episodic manner…but the time that spans between episodes/chapters of the game is somewhat unpredictable. I WAS going to wait to do this list till after the main story was done, but it’s hard to say WHEN that will be, and I wanted to strike while the iron was hot. So, I decided – since I’m still obsessed with this title, and since a number of people I know online are, too – why not just give my feelings on the characters as I currently stand? I am 99% sure that, once the game’s main story is actually completed, my opinions will change in a few places…but for now, I think I have enough information through the chapters that have been released, and the ABUNDANCE of extra content, to come up with a solid set of choices and rankings. Also, I’m NOT going to include ALL of the characters in the game: I am SPECIFICALLY going to focus on the STUDENTS of Night Raven itself. So, the following characters will not be included… One, any of the staff – no Headmaster Crowley, none of the teachers, and no Sam the Shopkeeper. Two, no Grim – he’s really a sidekick to the main character/player, and that’s not quite what I’m looking at here. Three, no minor characters or supporting players – no Che’Nya the Cheshire Cat, for example, nor any of the many nameless students of the college besides the main ones focused on in the game; the ones adolescent young ladies (and some boys too, I suppose) are supposed to go gaga over. One last word of warning: this list is NOT the same as the kink-based list I made (and which I need to update), about my favorite crushes from this game. There’s a big difference between liking a character and having a crush on them. So just keep that in mind as you read this. With all this said…if this remotely interests you, step through the dark mirror and enter the academy! These are My Top 12 (Current) Favorite Students from Twisted Wonderland!

12. Vil Schoenheit.

No, that’s not a girl; every student in the game is a boy. (Which does raise some interesting questions, since the player’s gender is, to my knowledge, never directly stated, but…that’s another story for another time.) However, Vil is the first on our list to be a character based on a female figure, and he’s arguably the most effeminate member of the rogues gallery of Night Raven. Vil is based on the Evil Queen from Snow White; now, as you all know, I LOVE the Evil Queen, and that basis alone wins Vil a lot of points. Schoenheit is also one of the most successful and well-known students at the school, being a professional actor and model, as well as being talented in photography, singing, and dancing. As a lover of the arts myself, I approve of all this immensely. Much like the Queen, Vil is obsessed with his own sense of beauty and style, and fusses over details to the smallest degree; he’ll do just about everything in his struggle for perfection, and spares no expense when it comes to keeping himself “Fairest in the Land.” These leads to some funny moments, but he DOES take it seriously and doesn’t necessarily have temper tantrums, behaving in a fittingly lordly manner. He’s generally cool and confident…but the moment you intrude upon his standards of perfection, he starts to unravel. He really needs to be careful about that, incidentally; his hair WILL be a sight if he keeps tearing it out…

 11. Riddle Rosehearts.

Riddle is one of the first students we get to know well, in general, and the very first of the dorm leaders we encounter fully. Based on the Queen of Hearts, Riddle is an obsessive control freak, who keeps a strict eye on the rules established by the Queen, running his dorm with a near-iron fist. Much like the original Queen, Riddle is highly emotional; at times he’s strict but not necessarily dangerous, but at the drop of a hat he’ll be screaming like a maniac and demanding that heads roll. Thankfully, when Riddle declares “OFF WITH YOUR HEADS!” he usually DOESN’T mean a literal decapitation…USUALLY. No, instead, his Unique Magic allows him to place a collar around people’s necks, and this collar keeps them from using magic themselves. In a school of dark wizardry, however, that’s really enough to be a problem, and you will again note my earlier emphasis on “usually.” Bottom line, much like with the Queen, it’s a good idea NOT to tick Riddle off. Riddle also establishes the sort of pattern we see the other major characters follow after him, in terms of the central antagonists of each chapter: each one of them starts off quite antagonistic, but eventually, it’s revealed they have sympathetic and tragic reasons for why they behave the way they do, and why they so intensely pursue whatever they are after. Riddle has a vulnerable side, with honestly one of the saddest backstories of any of the characters, in my opinion, and you can understand why he’s so eager to keep a sense of order in a chaotic landscape. Also, being a big fan of the “Alice” stories, it’s only logical that a character based on the Queen of Hearts would be among my favorites.

 10. Idia Shroud.

Idia is a perfect example of a character who may very well end up ranking higher for me once we get a little further into the game. This guy is based on Hades, but if it weren’t for his design (I wonder if HIS hair can be put out?), you’d almost never guess it. The Disney version of Hades, of course, is a fast-talking, smarmy, bad-tempered sleazeball; he’s not shy about anything and in a crowded room, he’s quick to make jokes and dispense with flattery. In other words: he is the total OPPOSITE of Idia. I can only presume that the idea with Idia (heh…idea, Idia, so close…) is that he’s based more on Hades’ ROLE, as the Lord of the Underworld: someone who resides in separation from the rest of the pantheon and keeps himself TO himself. If you watch the film, in the opening scene, Hades is quick to command the room, BUT he’s also quick to LEAVE, and he pushes away any affection from his brother/rival, Zeus. So, I guess Idia is an attempt to go in an unexpected direction by playing with those aspects instead of the whole “We dance, we kiss, we schmooze, we carry on, we go home happy, whaddya say? C’mon.” aspect. Idia, to put things bluntly, is an awkward, anxious mess of a lad, and I find him…well…absolutely freaking adorable. He HATES being anywhere NEAR other people, feeling scared in his own skin, shying away from affection and crowds, always keeping a low profile. He tends to be a bit childish, and is, in his own words, “a stereotypical Otaku.” He’s also an avid gamer, and loves to livestream his plays; this is APPARENTLY where his proper “Hades Side” comes out, as apparently online he can be a lot more aggressive and confident. But when it comes to basic social interactions, he freezes like a deer in the headlights and becomes a whimpering puppy; it’s…incredibly cute, to be frank. Now, while I DO love Idia’s sweetness, it is both his greatest pro AND his greatest con. I do like how they go in a different direction with this character, and he IS a fun and adorable fellow, but the big problem is that we really only know Idia based on extra content: Events, Chats, Personal Stories, things like that. We haven’t reached his chapter of the game yet, and in HIS case, I think I really NEED to know what that chapter could bring to make a proper judgment call. The reason for this is because, when you really look at things, we don’t know a whole lot ABOUT Idia. Why IS he at Night Raven? What makes him the way he is? More importantly, what makes him a dorm head at what is essentially a “School of Villains”? It doesn’t SEEM to be an inversion of status quo, the way it is for the members of Scarabia (more on them later), so what is his deal, exactly? There are unanswered questions about a few other characters in the game, but with Idia, I really don’t think I can properly and completely ADORE him till I have the answers; with others, even with the unanswered elements, we can gather enough about them that I feel it’s easier for me to understand them. I understand Idia’s SUPERFICIAL elements, but I don’t quite understand what makes him tick; I don’t quite think I know what goes on, totally, in his head. As a result, while I do love the guy, and he’s a pretty solid choice for the Top 10…at least for the moment, the bottom of that Top 10 is where he must remain.

 9. Jack Howl.

If you hang around the Internet, and especially circles regarding Japanese culture, long enough, the chances are good you will come across the term “tsundere.” What does that mean? Well, a tsundere – as far as I can understand – is a type of character who acts tough (usually very stoic, very aggressive, or both), but is not-so-secretly a big softie underneath. They’ll always deny it, mind you, but they’re not very good liars. Jack Howl is exactly that, and there’s an interesting reason why. Jack is a “demi” – a human with animal features, in this case the ears, fangs, eyes, and tail of a wolf. (There are a few of those on this list.) He’s always ready for a fight, but he’s not necessarily someone who picks on people; he’s surprisingly noble, for a guy attending a school of black magic, and has a code of honor he follows. Jack likes being perceived as an intimidating and tough character, and he doesn’t like people mocking him or causing trouble for him or those he…TOTALLY is NOT close to. Nope. No sir. It’s not as if he actually CARES for anyone, HEAVENS no. (smirks) Yeah, you get it, right? That’s Jack, in a nutshell. Part of the reason for this is because of the relationship he has with his dorm head, Leona Kingscholar. It’s revealed that Jack actually used to look up to Leona, and he’s part of the reason he joined Night Raven to begin with. But like so many who meet their idols and get to know them well, Jack came to sort of develop a bizarre love-hate relationship with his dorm head once they actually started sharing rooms and classes. On the one hand, he’s impressed by Leona’s cunning mind, incredible strength, and vast magical prowess…but the less savory aspects of his hero’s actual personality make him feel conflicted, since they often go against his own ideals and beliefs. As a result, Jack seems to want to be like Leona; someone who is dominant and keeps a good poker face…but unlike Leona, who HAS that poker face, Jack can’t quite seem to make it work, always getting hyper-emotional and forming attachments he claims not to desire. Underneath his stern decorum, this werewolf (or perhaps lycan, more appropriately) is just a puppy at heart, and it’s fun to see those two sides clash time and time again.

 8. Ace Trappola AND Deuce Spade.

I couldn’t decide which of these two I liked more, and they do work quite frequently as a duo, so I decided to just lump them together in a tie. Ace and Deuce – based on a couple of the Card Guards from Alice in Wonderland – are the first two people at Night Raven, at least among the student body, you get to know well, and are basically the player’s best friends and most trusted sidekicks. Even though they aren’t always major support in every chapter, they do APPEAR in every chapter, and you never really have one without the other. Ace is a troublemaker; he tends to be careless with his words and actions, and enjoys riling people up…unless it gets him in trouble. As for Deuce, he’s an EX-troublemaker; apparently he used to be part of a juvenile gang, but when he heard his mother crying and realized how much his lifestyle had hurt her, he vowed to change his life around. Both have effectively come to Night Raven college for the same goal, that being to make names for themselves, although the reasons do seem to be different; as far as we can tell, so far, Ace is just there for Ace’s sake, but Deuce – in his own strange way – is trying to make his mother proud. Deuce is a little bit like Jack, in that he’s always trying to hide his inner prankster and ruffian with a stoic and dry-humored demeanor, but he’s a lot softer, and also a lot more mischievous, than he often likes to let on. The way the two banter back and forth and interact with each other is priceless, almost acting as a shoulder angel and shoulder devil to the player in many scenes and chapters; Ace always playing the instigator while Deuce plays the one trying to hold things back. Every time they are onscreen, they’re a riot, and with the exception of chapter four, so far, they’ve been a huge part of the proceedings in every episode of the game, so we’ve gotten to know them both pretty well. I kind of want to place them a little higher, but other characters just grab me more fiercely, I suppose.

 7. Jamil Viper.

Jamil is our Jafar character (pretty obviously), and the way they play with him on that front is pretty interesting. Jafar, of course, was a manipulative fellow who used his hypnosis to get what he wanted, and whom the Sultan trusted implicitly. His personality could shift from a calm, poised, refined counselor to an unhinged, flamboyant lunatic quite rapidly, but he was often able to keep a lot of that inner insanity tucked away behind his sly smile. Jamil embodies the same qualities, but with a deeper twist: Jafar, you see, was a character NOBODY trusted. The only one who seemed to like him or trust him at all WAS the Sultan, and that was because the Sultan was…well…a complete and total nincompoop, to be brutally honest. (I love the guy, he’s a loveable little Sultan-Claus, but I think we can all agree he was not the brightest bulb in the box.) Jamil, however, is someone who, even without his hypnosis, knows how to manipulate people and work a crowd. He knows what buttons to press, what words to say, and how to make people move to his side almost without NEEDING his hypnotic magic a lot of the time. In fact, a big part of Jamil’s character is that he does have something of a private side vs. a public side: the public side of Jamil is a person who is very reserved, quiet, mysterious, and seems to have a lot of talent and emotion he never fully allows to shine. In private, Jamil has been shown to have a decidedly more manic and excessive side to his character, and, much like Jack and Deuce, he doesn’t always admit to his true feelings or desires. He comes from a background where he always, ALWAYS was outright FORCED to play down his abilities and hide his true self, and after the events of Chapter 4, he’s still learning to let those inner elements come to the forefront properly. I really love this duplicitous nature to the character as, in some ways, it makes him a little more compelling than Jafar. When Jafar says he didn’t mean to do something wrong, we know it’s a lie; when Jamil says he didn’t mean to do something wrong…well…okay, we still KNOW it’s a lie, but we can BELIEVE that others WOULDN’T know it. We, as the players, know the truth, but we ALMOST could be fooled, ourselves. This goes for Jamil’s less evil moments, too; if he says he does or doesn’t like someone, it’s hard to tell if he means it or not, and the moments where he shows his true feelings on that front are quite interesting. I would say the only thing he’s missing is his own Iago…but, if we’re talking the Shakespeare version, at least, I’d say he has that covered on his own.

 6. Floyd Leech.

In order to properly talk about Floyd Leech, I also have to discuss two other characters: his brother, Jade, and their boss/dorm head, Azul Ashengrotto. These are the Octavinelle Trio, based on the villains of “The Little Mermaid”: Azul is based on Ursula, while Floyd and Jade are based on her eel henchmen, Flotsam and Jetsam, respectively. What’s interesting about Jade and Floyd is the way they seem to parallel Azul himself. On the one hand, Azul is calculating, refined, and elegant; on the other hand, he’s a little flamboyant, a bit of a chatterbox, and more easily flustered than he likes to let on. Jade is the calculating and cool side of Azul; his twin brother, Floyd, is the other half. And, let’s face it, that’s the half that’s the most fun…and, in some ways, the most scary. Floyd is…well…I hesitate to call him “insane,” but he’s definitely EMOTIONALLY unstable. He can change moods at the drop of a hat, and you never know what’s going to set him off. One moment he’s a big, happy nutcase, singing out every other word and grinning from ear to ear, giggling like a small boy and behaving quite exuberantly…and the next second his pupils become pinpricks as he gives you a hollow-eyed look, voice becoming low and dark, as his smile changes into a corpse-like frown, ice seeming to spike from his every word. In the game, all three of the Octavinelle heads are merfolk; Azul is half octopus (unsurprisingly), while the Leech twins are part eel. When they take on human form, all the muscle that is in the coils of the eels’ tails goes into their newfound limbs. Floyd finds this quite useful, as he has a bizarre obsession with “squeezing” people: in human form, hugging them. Now, at first, this sounds very sweet, and it can be: Floyd is hyper-affectionate and loves giving and receiving tight, squishy hugs. BUT, he has a violent side, and his squeeze are often something to be feared rather than enjoyed: he doesn’t look it, but he is literally SO strong, he can basically CRUSH you to death with a flex of his arms. The way Octavinelle runs is basically like an old-fashioned mafia gang; Azul is the boss, Jade is essentially his lieutenant…and Floyd is his chief enforcer. Nine times out of ten, when Azul needs someone “taken care of,” he leaves them to Floyd to squeeze till either Azul says stop…or, presumably, until they SHATTER. Yeah. You do NOT want to mess with this guy. Thankfully, demented and vicious as he can often be – to the point of being outright sadistic – Floyd isn’t pure evil, and CAN be very friendly and even helpful. He and his brother love each other dearly, and Floyd always looks for ways to have fun above everything else. He’s not a monster…but if he’s offering to give his “Little Shrimpy” a “nice, tight, warm squeeze,” you might want to try RUNNING.

 5. Ruggie Bucchi.

Ruggie actually used to be higher on my list, but over time he’s dropped a few spaces. This doesn’t mean I like him any less, though. Ruggie is not based on any one particular Disney character, but rather on a GROUP of them, weirdly enough: the second-in-command to Leona Kingscholar, Ruggie is a hyena demi inspired by the hyenas who aided Scar in The Lion King. He doesn’t seem to be analogous to any one hyena, just the hyenas as a whole. That’s fine by me, however, because it means Ruggie can really shine as his own character. Ruggie is a classic trickster: a prankster and a schemer who might swipe your wallet, but you’ll find it hard to be mad at him about it. He’s extremely exuberant and a constant joker, but he’s not someone you should totally underestimate; he’s perfectly capable of doing pretty vicious things and laughing about it all the while. You could almost call him the Muttely to Leona’s Dick Dastardly: a snickering, sneaky sort who enjoys everything he does so much that it’s hard not to enjoy it with him. He’s also a shameless glutton, much like the original hyenas were; always thinking with his stomach, always talking about food. It’s revealed that part of this is because he came from a poor background, where he didn’t always have a lot to eat; now that he’s in a bit of a better place, he’s appreciative of the chance to stuff his face every chance he gets. On that note, it’s pretty much confirmed in the game that all three of the Savanaclaw characters canonically eat people (which is…pretty disturbing, when you start to think about it, really), and he frequently teases the player about eating them up. Despite all these qualities, he is, again, not a total dastard; he regularly gives to charities, since he knows what it’s like to be down on one’s luck, and for all his scheming ways, he does seem to genuinely care about Leona, too. On that note, a BIG part of what makes me love Ruggie so much IS his relationship with Leona; in fact, I’d say it is the main reason. They have a bizarre relationship where they’re part best buddies (though neither of them will admit it aloud), part classic mastermind/henchman duo, and part mom and spoiled frat boy…with Ruggie being the Mom in that equation. Seriously, he has to get on Leona about everything: he helps clean his room, makes his bed, literally drags him by the leg out of bed to wake him up…for all his devil-may-care hijinks, Ruggie actually is a responsible and multi-talented person, and Leona’s laziness frequently gets on his nerves. Still, the pair make a great duo, and in a way, that’s almost detrimental here. See, the reason Ruggie has dropped down a bit is BECAUSE I realized a lot of what I love about him as a character is DIRECTLY TIED to Leona himself, and while that’s not a bad thing – character relationships are important parts of characters, themselves – I feel in some ways Ruggie “relies” on Leona too much for me to rank him higher. Perhaps ironic, since Leona’s dependence on Ruggie is a cruel irony that would make Yzma facepalm, but I digress.

 4. Kalim Al-Asim.

This kid…he’s just the freaking best, okay? XD Kalim is the one odd member of the school; I didn’t really know what to expect from him when the game was announced and when I saw stuff being put out prior to the actual release. Once I realized what they were doing, I was VERY much intrigued. Kalim, you see, is NOT based on a villain: instead, he’s based on one of the GOOD GUYS. Kalim is inspired by the aforementioned Sultan from Aladdin; this is automatically interesting because, suddenly, we have a twist on the usual relationships shown in the game. Generally speaking, the dorm leaders are the focal antagonists/supporting protagonists of each chapter. They’re the ones based on the classic villains, and who have the biggest arcs. With Kalim, we sort of had that inverted: now his SUBORDINATE, that being Jamil, was the one who was really the focal point, as – much like Jafar’s attempts to become sultan – his story in Chapter 4 is trying to overthrow Kalim and take over Scarabia as the new dorm head. It’s revealed the two have known each other since childhood, and while Kalim always looked upon Jamil as his best friend, Jamil has come to resent Kalim immensely. Chapter 4 ends with Kalim vowing that he and Jamil will be equals from now on, and hopes to rekindle the friendship and make it real…and here’s where things get interesting: their relationship, and Kalim’s character in general, continue to DEVELOP in the following chapter. What’s so cool about that? Well, here’s the thing: in previous chapters, the characters don’t really CHANGE much between things. Riddle in Chapter 2, for instance, is the same as Riddle in Chapter 1; it’s just now he’s helping us instead of causing us trouble. But with Chapter 4 and Chapter 5, Kalim actually continues to grow as a character, coming to face his inferiorities and also analyze the effects his status and lifestyle have had on his best friend. Unlike with Ruggie, however, I should state that while I do love Kalim’s relationship with Jamil, I feel he wins out because his mere EXISTENCE makes him a lot more unique. There’s really not a mean or villainous bone in Kalim’s body; at one point he does threaten to punch Jamil in the face when he realizes how totally he’s been betrayed…but the instant he realizes what kind of torment Jamil has been through in all the years they’ve known each other, he breaks down in tears and forgives Jamil in an instant, and even begs forgiveness himself. Much like the Sultan, Kalim is childish and a little slow-witted, but in a different way. The Sultan was like a loveable, silly uncle; Kalim is basically a big dumb puppy. He’s a sweet kid who really hasn’t grown up, and who wants to be friends with and help out everyone – a far cry from literally EVERYONE else at the school who, for all their sympathetic or vulnerable qualities, are still ultimately more villainous than heroic. Kalim is just a bundle of love and joy who wants to make people happy; a light in the darkness, you might say. Even the fact he’s MEGA rich doesn’t seem to be an issue or sore spot; anytime people suggest he feels entitlement, he proves them wrong. He’s happy and proud to be what he is, make no mistake, but he’s generous to a fault, and loves nothing more than to party and give joy to other people. In short, he’s a darling little cinnamon bun who is virtually IMPOSSIBLE not to love. He’s definitely deserving of a place in the Top 5.

 3. Malleus Draconia.

I debated for a while on whether to put Kalim or Malleus here; I think personal biases won out overall. Honestly, just on face value, you’d expect Malleus to be my number one – after all, he’s based on my favorite Disney Villain, and one of my favorite characters of all time, Maleficent. He’s also one of the most popular characters in the game, and effectively the face of the game, as well; he’s the one featured in all of the promo art above all the rest, and a big deal is made about him as a character. He’s the most powerful and famous student at Night Raven, one whom everyone either fears, worships, or wants to beat out. I do love Malleus a lot, but, much like Idia, his chapter in the game hasn’t happened yet, and because of that, there are some elements of his character that haven’t been fully explored. WITH THAT SAID, I think I “get” Malleus much better than Idia, as a character, since most of the important questions, so to speak, have either been answered or at least hinted at. I understand him a little better than Idia, in terms of what seems to drive hi and make him tick, and as a result I’m more curious about the unanswered portions than desperately waiting for them. Idia is a character who demands explanation; Malleus is a character where the mystery draws you in – slightly different sensations. Also, while he hasn’t had his chapter yet, he HAS had a lot of Extra Content, and has popped up throughout the game somewhat sporadically. Anytime he appears, it’s a big moment. In terms of Malleus as a character, there’s a sort of dichotomy to him that’s really interesting: he’s a mass of contradictions in the best possible way. On the one hand, he’s got what the other characters describe as a “dark aura” to him; he just lives and breathes POWER, and it’s a sensation that leaves many feeling overwhelmed within his mere presence. He’s aware of his abilities, his status, and his reputation, and this is where the interesting side of things come in: on the one hand, he loves them! He’s very confident and he is shown to have a fittingly mean side to him in several places, and he knows how to exert command. He’s fully aware of the effect he has on people, and he can and will use it to his advantage. BUT, on the other hand, he almost seems to hate it: he dislikes being left out of events, gets annoyed at times when simple things seem to take a while because others are too scared witless to deal with him. He has his soft sides: he loves ice cream, and has an electronic pet he loves dearly, and there’s a slight social awkwardness to him, as he can be rather old-fashioned. But, on the other hand, he also loves graveyards, old castles, and Gothic cathedrals – generally all things gloomy and macabre. On still another hand, he doesn’t seem to love them in an “emo” way, where he soaks himself in that sense of sadness or horror. He just…likes them. It’s just who he is. He’s elegant and intense, but has a sort of casual side to him, too, and it all just works in a fascinating blend. I’m tempted to say that by the time the game is over, he COULD be either my second favorite character or even outright my favorite…but as it stands, I do love Malleus, but I don’t feel justified placing him higher than number three.

 2. Azul Ashengrotto.

In some ways, I think the Octavinelle Trio are the scariest characters in the game. All of these characters are wicked in some way (well…except Kalim), but something about the way Azul behaves and the way he and his gang work just feels a little MORE wicked than all the rest. Though inspired by Ursula, Azul really feels much more akin to Mephistopheles from Faust, as he plays around with the concept of the “deal with the Devil” aspect to Ursula’s role in “The Little Mermaid.” Azul, as I said before, essentially works like an old-fashioned mafia boss, in terms of his sense of style and the way he conducts his business. What’s interesting about his bargains is they aren’t necessarily con-artist deals; Ursula, after all, isn’t Dr. Facilier. Facilier’s deals are rigged from the start; there is really no way you can win. But with Ursula, and, by extension, Azul…you CAN benefit from them, and you CAN win, it’s just not very easy. In Azul’s chapter of the game, for instance, he creates a study sheet to help people on their exams. The sheet is not a “cheat sheet,” per say; it doesn’t hold all the answers. It simply provides helpful tips and advice to allow students to study and pass the test a lot better. And it works! Everyone who uses that sheet to help them passes their test! So, what’s the problem? Well, here’s the catch: in order to get out of the deal Scott free, you have to be within the Top 50 students of the college at the end of the exam season. Why is that an issue, you may ask? BECAUSE AZUL MADE THE CONTRACT WITH ABOUT 200 PEOPLE. That is sneakiness I can’t help but respect: he didn’t LIE about a darn thing, didn’t do ANYTHING that broke the rules. Everyone had a chance to win…but that one little lynchpin ensures that HE’S the victor. Azul is greed incarnate: he’s always thinking about money, and even his power is an interestingly excessive one. Azul can basically drain you, with his magic, of…well…whatever he wants. Your magic, your talents, your voice, your intelligence…even, it is implied, your very LIFE FORCE. In fact, his contracts are a way of LIMITING what he takes; without them, he becomes a loose cannon, obsessively draining everyone of everything. And while Azul’s past is fittingly tragic, it’s still a vengeful path he charts, and he still has an intensely miserly soul. While he can be menacing, however, Azul does have his funny side; as I said before, he’s easily frustrated, and he can be a bit of a chatterbox, which leads to lots of humorous moments. Heck, even his intense avarice can, at times, lend itself to some comedic scenes. Ultimately, though, he feels like the single most villainous of the bunch in some ways (and that is saying a lot), and to me, that’s actually kind of awesome.

 But as much as I love Azul, there’s one character from this game I like even more…

 1. Leona Kingscholar.

Leona…is…just…my everything. Seriously. I don’t even know where to BEGIN with this guy. I’m scanning through my brain right to try and figure out where to start, and I’m just getting an error sign. (pauses and takes a deep breath) Okay…so…as you can probably tell, Leona is based on Scar from “The Lion King.” Scar may not be my favorite Disney Villain – he’s not even in the Top 12 – but do not construe this to mean I dislike him. And the ways Leona evokes Scar while still being entirely his own character are pretty interesting. Like Scar, he has a backstory where he is the second prince of his own kingdom, but his brother is the king and his nephew is next in line. Naturally, he’s resentful, but there’s more to the story. Unlike Scar, for a start, Leona DOESN’T hate his family. He dislikes being around them, and he resents the fact that they seem to get everything he feels he deserves, but he’s not even close to “Long Live the King” status. Yes, his nephew is annoying, but he’s not likely to try and feed him to hyenas; yes, his brother is a softhearted moron in his mind, but he’s not about to hurl him off a cliff. Keeping that in mind, however, he’s not likely to ADMIT to loving ANYONE, least of all them. This is the first big difference between himself and Scar: Scar cares for himself and absolutely no one else. He has no sense of decency or empathy for anyone; what made him that way has changed over the years, but whatever the root cause, he no longer has a hope of redemption, no longer has any real soul left. Leona isn’t that far gone: he DOES have empathy, DOES have some sense of care, he just doesn’t like to SHOW it. And unlike Jack or Deuce, he’s VERY good at keeping a poker face: throughout the game, Leona’s schemes are constantly questioned. He’s stated to be a brilliant chess player, and it’s possible his intellect reaches genius levels. Fittingly, he always has strategies behind strategies; plots within plots, and his true motives for anything he does are not always entirely clear. Was he being good for a change, or legitimately just out for number one? We virtually never get straight answers there. Despite all his intelligence, however, Leona is described as being like a “wild man,” and it shows: even more than Ruggie or Jack, in some ways, he seems most in tune with his not-so-inner animal. All he seems to think about, much of the time, is eating and sleeping; he’s so unbelievably lazy that his best talent is literally falling asleep in under three seconds, and he’ll fall asleep just about anywhere, even in the middle of places where people walk regularly. He cares very little what people think about him; he simply presents himself as he is and works with it. This is another big difference from Scar: Scar could be slothful, too, but there was always a sense of elegance or even foppishness to him. Leona doesn’t have that, really; he’s intelligent and educated, but his language and behavior rarely show it to its fullest extent, which of course only makes him more of a puzzle. On top of it all, he is POWERFUL; it’s stated that he’s second only to Malleus in power and prestige at the school, and in fact, part of the reason he’s NOT more powerful is because a.) his Unique Magic can be a little hard to control, and b.) he’s just such a lazybones that he doesn’t reach his full potential…and considering the fact people are regularly ALARMED by how powerful he is – physically and magically speaking – what his full potential could be is almost scary to imagine. Underneath all the intimidating elements, however, Leona is someone who has lived his life pretty much knowing he is, in many people’s minds, a monster; he’s learned not to care because he’s aware his powers put people off, and though he’s proud of his abilities to some extent, he also sees them just as much as a curse as a blessing. Much like Malleus, he seems to be someone who both loves and hates himself…though I’m tempted to say the love factor is FAR more prominent in Leona’s case. He can be funny, threatening, compelling…everything you could honestly want out of a villain or, heck, even a character in general! Perhaps surprisingly, perhaps not, Leona Kingscholar is most definitely My Favorite Twisted Wonderland Student.

 Honorable Mentions Include…

Jade Leech.

As I said with Floyd, he and Jade basically reflect the twin sides of Azul as a character, with Jade being his gentlemanly side. I honestly can’t decide which of the two twins is scarier: Jade or Floyd. When Floyd wants to scare you, he makes it FEEL scary, but Jade has a different way of working. Jade is quiet, polite, and seems almost eternally amused by everything around him. He never shouts, rarely shows confusion or dismay, and takes everything with patience and poise without ever appearing prissy. He’s UNNERVINGLY calm; the most emotion he ever shows is a particularly sadistic smile, as he seems to share his brother’s love of tormenting people. Floyd lets you know he could break you easily; Jade never makes this known, but you just FEEL like he could. Ultimately, I just find Floyd to be a more FUN character, and the ways he shows his layers more interesting, but Jade is wonderful just in how…incredibly unsettling he can be.

 Rook Hunt.

Rook is based on the Huntsman from Snow White, but much like Idia, he goes in a VERY different direction. The Huntsman in the film doesn’t have much screentime, but we do know that he’s a fairly serious, stoic fellow, with a good heart deep down, despite working for the Queen. Rook is almost the opposite direction: flamboyant doesn’t even BEGIN to describe this nutcase. He’s over-the-top, effeminate, theatrical, and old-fashioned in his sense of romance. He’s chipper and excitable, with a sense of debonair, almost swashbuckling style to him; more like Robin Hood, in a lot of ways, than the Huntsman. (We’ll say the Shrek Robin Hood, since Rook is also very, very French…seriously, why did that movie make that choice, again?) Despite his melodramatic attitude, he tends to be the voice of reason when speaking to Vil; both like a lot of the same things, but Rook is SLIGHTLY less critical than Vil, allowing him to smooth out the rough edges. It’s another great relationship between the head honcho and their main minion.

 Other Honorable Mentions Include…

Lilia Vanrouge.

Sebek Zigvolt.

Ortho Shroud.

Epel Felmier.

#top 12 #top #12 #countdown #list #meme #best #favorites #characters #students #night raven academy #night raven college #disney #twisted wonderland #non-kink related #well #except for leona #because he's just the freaking best #seriously #it would be a privilege to feed him

[catchweightstudio]

The big Conscript accessibility + options update!

Hello everyone, hope you are all doing well. I’ve been hard at work getting a new demo revision ready for mid-October. 

MAIN MENU

Here’s a look at the initial main menu for Conscript. I find it quite atmospheric and have found myself just keeping it on in the background while I work. The last menu for the previous demo was quite rushed so I’m happy with how this one has turned out. 

ACCESSIBILITY

Recently, the topic of accessibility has been on my mind. As a developer it’s easy to find yourself resisting against a player’s ability to alter your “vision” of the game. I can understand this sentiment - as I’m somebody who holds my project VERY close to my heart. This topic was inspired by a conversation on the Conscript Discord where I was asked how accessible the game would be. My immediate internal reaction to any questions relating to adding a new unplanned feature is generally “isn’t my damn Trello board already big enough??”

After some reflection and research however, this is a silly way to look at things. Yes, any new feature takes hours or even days to implement - but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing. For example, as a developer I end up putting in many extra days and weeks trying to get the game on different online storefronts or even other consoles, all in hopes of trying to expose the game to more people but I would never question this time as anything but time well spent. 

Accessibility is the same thing really. There are extra hours of work I can put in to ensure that MORE people can be exposed to the game and enjoy it.  So that’s what I’ve been doing, even if it has meant putting extra work hours in every day for the past few weeks.

PAUSE

First, you can now visit the options menu at any time without having to go through the inventory.  A tiny change, but it was requested quite a few times.

VISUAL OPTIONS

 Something I wanted to solve was text readability. There are now a variety of settings to adjust different properties of the text in-game.

You can now choose between HD and pixelated fonts. Even though low-res pixel font is coherent with the general art style, it is not the most legible typeface to read. Now you can have the option to “HD-ify” the font, which makes for greater readability. 

For those with dyslexia who may have trouble discerning between serif style characters, you can now opt for a simple sans-serif font style. This can also be toggled between HD or pixelated. 

Text colour can also be changed between white, yellow, green, red or blue.

This is applied to all standard text throughout the game! 

And finally, the background opacity of the standard textbox can be customised from 0 to 100. If you are struggling to discern between the text and background it may be easier to have this on 100 so the text stands more.

I feel like all these extra little options will solve the text readability issue for the majority of players. Any colour specific elements will also have non-colour related visual indicators. They are small changes but hopefully go a long way for some.

There are also some extra little visual accessibility options for those who may have trouble focusing on certain elements of the game’s artstyle. You can now zoom the camera in up close to our protagonist, and also alter cursor, crosshair and interaction icon properties such as size and colour. HUD opacity can also be lowered, but it is set to 100 by default. 

The screen blood that appears when you take damage can also be turned off now, as can any bright flashes in the game for those who are photosensitive or epileptic. For those who don’t enjoy screenshake, that can be turned off too. 

It hasn’t been implemented yet, but I am working on having brightness and contrast settings too in the future. Even though the game won’t feature much voice acting, I am going to work on having subtitles available not just for voices but also for any kind of hard-to-read environmental text. 

AUDIO OPTIONS

Nothing too fancy, but you can now adjust SFX, music and master volume all independently. This required a rework of the audio system so it was actually quite challenging, but happy to have it completed and working.

BLOOD TOGGLE

Blood and gore effects can now be toned down substantially, although it will be left on by default. The reason I decided to include this is because there may be some who are more interested in exploring the history of Conscript without the intense and bloody combat . In my opinion, Conscript is equal parts a history game and a survival horror game, so there will be cross pollination between those two demographics. Most of you will probably leave this on but it’s nice to have it there anyway. 

DIFFICULTY MODES

During the Kickstarter campaign, we reached the stretch goal for two difficulty modes but I am going to include some extra ones in the final game. There will now be six difficulty modes in total.

Training (Assist Mode)

This mode will feature checkpoints, increased health capacity and player damage will be increased. 

Recruit / Soldier / Veteran

These three will be the standard easy/normal/hard sort of thing from every other game in existence. Enemy damage and item quantity variables will be the main differences between these modes.

War Hero

This will feature more “realistic” elements from modes like Resident Evil Remake’s “Real Survival” difficulty. Item boxes will be unlinked from each other and limited saves will be mandatory. It will contain the same gameplay modifiers as Veteran mode.

Grognard (French for “old soldier”)

This ultimate challenge will include all the features of War Hero mode but with PERMADEATH. Yep, you heard right. 

LIMITED SAVE TOGGLE

Limited saving has always been controversial. The reason I opted for this old-school survival horror mechanic is because it introduces a risk/reward style of gameplay where players generally try and squeeze in one extra “task” before the next save, leading to extra hard decisions being made during gameplay. Understandably, not everyone wants to deal with this though. Despite this being the intended way to play, it will an optional toggle at the start of any Conscript playthrough. Note that on the very hardest difficulties it will be mandatory however. 

Here’s a look at the game parameter screen before you start a new save:

You will also have the ability to toggle off Kickstarter backer easter eggs if you so wish. 

CONTROL SETTINGS

Any action that requires you to hold a button - such as aiming and running - can now be toggled with one button press instead.

Also, I’m going to implement both a quick melee and quick heal feature so that you don’t have to go into the inventory just to break some barrels or use a healing item.

You can also turn off mouse support to play the game with a keyboard only. 

CONTROLLER REMAPPING

Full control remapping is now available for both keyboard and gamepad control schemes. This was a complicated and time consuming thing for me to implement but I’m glad to finally have it available. 

Hang on a second… did the inventory just change? 

BAG STYLES

By far the biggest feature in Conscript history....

This was a fun little extra I decided to make when I was testing out the flexibility of the new options menu. Admittedly it has nothing to do with accessibility, but it is related to the options menu! You can now change the colour of the inventory background. You will be spending a lot of time there so I figured it would be cool to give some small level of customization... there may even be some extra unlockable styles in the full game! Any ideas for patterns or designs? 

So that’s what I’ve been working on the past two weeks! What do you think? I know menu heavy things aren't exactly the most marketable features, but I felt it was important to share. Are there any other reasonably in-scope accessibility options you all would like to see?

#gamedev #indiedev #accessibility #indiegame #survivalhorror #horrorgame #conscript

[tubofskippy]

Yes, let's talk about Josh Gad and the fact that he single-handedly saved quarantine and 2020 as a whole

YES LET’S TALK ABOUT THAT

Right when the shutdown happened, he posted this.

Right away I knew I would be looking to him. He always has been one to support everyone, he speaks out against injustices, he sends his love to individual people and families going through hardships, but of course, this time it’s very different. The globe is adapting to a new, scary way of life. When I read his first statement, I just knew I could look to him for... a grounded feeling, I guess? I remember crying in fear those first few nights, away from my family. But when I needed a laugh or smile I rewatched Josh’s movies. And then the bedtime readings began. Just the fact he was doing them for us, knowing how scared we were (he was too), just 10 minutes of focused reading was so much help. I’ll bet it was even more cathartic and fun for confused kids who didn’t know why they couldn’t leave their houses or see their friends at school. Even more exciting to be talked to by the voice of their favorite snowman. But for the adults - reverting back to a childlike state, not having to do anything, nostalgic for a comforting figure reading sweet, short stories, and forgetting to look too far ahead, it was just what I needed. The fact that the readings were live made it feel so much realer, much more intimate than watching tv. He’s just a person trapped in his house like the rest of us. He really cares about everyone. I looked forward to them every night.

What came next were the At Home With Olaf shorts. I don’t think I even saw them all — but they were very sweet and calming! These were mainly a product of Hyrum Osmand. But they wouldn’t have been brought to life without Josh. I bet kids really loved seeing the shorts come out routinely. Kudos to Hyrum, Jen Lee, and the team for working hard on those at home.

Also - the song that Josh recorded as Olaf “I Am With You” by Bobby & Kristen got me choked up and it is 100% worth mentioning.

Followed by 2 appearances on abc’s Disney Family (at home) Singalong.

And then came Reunited Apart. REUNITED APART. Probably the most ingenious and heartwarming thing anyone could have ever brought about during this lockdown nightmare. Six iconic films. Six fundraisers. Over $200,000 raised for charities.

The Goonies - $31,847 to The Center for Disaster Philanthropy

Back to The Future - $23,575 to Project HOPE

Splash - $21,765 to The DigDeep Right to Water Project

Lord of The Rings - $163,417 to No Kid Hungry (plus a 1.3 MILLION donation from Cheerios!)

Ghostbusters - $17,434 to Equal Justice Initiative

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off - $12,793 to Children of Restaurant Employees

That’s INCREDIBLE. Not only has it done so much for these causes, but also, brought these 1980s classic casts and crew members together in a way that, back then, they never would have thought possible! Some of these guys admitted that they hadn’t even seen each other since the 80s. It was pure fun and an absolute joy to watch them reminisce. Josh geeking out with us as fans, and learning more about the ins and outs of these films we know and love so well... it’s the best thing that ever could have come out of this quarantine.

I also am really glad about how Josh has been using his platform to speak out against systematic racism and anti-blackness, especially these past few months. He’s been educating himself, making donations, attending protests, advocating for systematic change, supporting/having conversations with Black creators and artists. An excellent example of what non-black people should be doing during this time.

If you don’t follow him on Twitter already, I highly recommend it. He is very up to date on current events and very disgusted with our current lack of leadership, and he lets it be known. But he is balancing the anger and the sadness with laughter and virtual hugs, comforting those that he can, and raising awareness to those who still need convincing.

Here are some other honorable mentions since quarantine started:

Letting us know that it’s okay to cry ❤️

Sharing a secret video of him twerking to “maniac” as Mulch Diggums just because... we really needed it

Supporting small businesses

Singing When I’m Older with his daughter, Ava

Leaving an Olaf message to grieving children who lost family members to covid-19

Sharing jokes from his unreleased Muppets script that was scrapped from Disney+

PERFORMING BAPTIZE ME WITH NIKKI M. JAMES to raise money for covid-19 relief efforts

Teasing us with updates on the BatB prequel series

UMMM CENTRAL PARK?

Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel’s show dressed as a giant strawberry

His insane tribute to John Hughes

This important conversation with Asmeret Ghebremichael

and much more...

I love Josh. I really love him. I can’t get over how genuinely wonderful he is. I’m so thankful to have him to draw joy, knowledge, and inspiration from, especially right now. He has been such a rock during all of this. (To some, an angry rock that tumbles down the hill right at you, but hey, people are in need some motivation too.) What a guy. ❤️

#wow yeah this is a long post #umm basically just became a Gad Is Good masterpost #lmao thx for coming to my ted talk #i can really blab when i’m in love #josh gad #quarantine #covid #covid 19 #covid-19 #corona #coronavirus #lockdown #pandemic #celeb #celebs #celebrities #olaf #frozen #disney #tv #hollywood #actors #activism

[96percentdone]

Hey!! Saw you were doing requests and I wanted to request a saiouma // oumasai fic?with the ' is that my shirt ' prompt?? I love your fics!! -(☆^ー^☆)

As soon as Shuuichi is insidehis apartment, he crashes on the couch. He doesn’t set the door chain afterclosing it, he doesn’t turn the lights on, he doesn’t even take his hat,jacket, or shoes off. He just falls face first onto worn brown leather. Todaywas extremely long; he doesn’t want to move for the rest of hislife after all that running back and forth required for the currentinvestigation. Who knew affairs could get this messy? No more of that today.He’s just going to rest, even if the way his nose is pressed up against theupholstery is increasingly uncomfortable.

Buzz. His phone, pressed somewhere between his side and the back of the couch vibrates from his jacket pocket. Ugh what now? It better not be his uncle telling him to come back to the office or he’ll cry. A sigh, and he rolls over to his side, fumbling in the dark to take his phone out of his pocket.

Quickly he hits the power button, greeted with a message request. That’s weird...He hasn’t really used this website despite making a profile on Akamatsu-san’s request. At most he just scrolls through whatever updates his friends make without making much of his own. He hasn’t even bothered setting his profile picture, so it’s still a default. Who could it be? Click.

clownprince69: heyyy sexy ;)

Great, the bots have found me. It’s a weird username for a bot though, although he’s heard the rumor of bots taking over dead accounts. Is this a sign his own account is about to die? Eh, probably not. He’s pretty sure you have to delete for that to happen. Does he talk? Don’t I have anything better to do? Apparently not, because he’s responding anyway.

acedetective0: surprised you can tell. no picture after all.

Speaking of which...Shuuichi squints at the small icon near the bot’s username. Why does that picture look familiar? Something about that blue pinstripe button down...is that my shirt? Don’t I have a shirt like that?

clownprince69: i’m new to the site. how are you? :)

The bot of course, continues on oblivious, but Shuuichi has other concerns. Clicking on the image takes him to the profile. Shockingly, most of the account is set to private, which is pretty weird for a bot. He’s seen the bots his friends get, and usually they’re not given any privacy setting changes, because the goal is to generate as much traffic as possible. Very weird.

clownprince69: how are you? :)

He hasn’t even said anything, and he’s being asked the same thing again? That’s not typical bot behavior either, Shuuichi thinks. Maybe this is just a person, pretending to be a bot. That or this is a really badly designed bot. 

acedetective0: you’re pretty impatient for someone new.

And also too good at messing with privacy settings for the same reasons, but he keeps that to himself.

clownprince69: hahaha, that’s hilarious. anyway so I wanna show you something cool, you in?

Not really. Honestly, he’s still distracted by that picture. It’s too weird. Overly familiar. The shirt, the blue tie, the hint of black suit pants....isn’t this an outfit he owns? Didn’t he wear that when Akamatsu-san had him pose as her date at that one piano recital she had a few months back? This isn’t just a weird coincidence, right? Isn’t it? Shuuichi frowns. There’s one way to check.

He clicks the picture opening it fullscreen, before heading over to Instagram, aka the social media he uses the least. But he’s not really looking at his page; he’s looking at Akamatsu-san’s. She’s an active user, and if anyone took a picture of him that night and uploaded it, it’d be her. Scrolling...scrolling...scrolling....“Aha!” Found it.

pianofreak: i keep telling him he looks fine, but he won’t stop adjusting his tie lol @acedetective0

It’s a picture of him adjusting his tie with a small frown. He remembers complaining that she posted it, but she waved it off saying that all the likes on are proof he looks just fine, so he let it go. He didn’t think it would come back up again, it’s been months after all, so he forgot about it. And yet—

He quickly switches between Akamatsu-san’s upload, and the profile photo of the bot. Other than the obviously hasty crop job cutting out his face, it’s the exact same picture. The same tie-adjusting pose, the same crisp button up hanging over the same black suit pants from the same 3/4 angle. Guess he wasn’t quite done playing detective today after all. 

But he’s not finished just yet. He still needs to settle it with the ‘bot.’

acedetective0: sure, if I can show you something first.

clownprince69: oooo let me see! I love cool things!

acedetective0: [image upload]acedetective0: not very smart of you to try this with the person whose picture you’re using, huh?

“Got you,” he says, sitting up on the couch with a small grin.

For a minute, there’s no response, just a read receipt. And then finally—

clownprince69: nishishi~ guess you are a detective after all!clownprince69: i’m glad you didn’t disappoint me

Didn’t disappoint huh? So this was a planned thing. Explains why the profile was set to that degree of private. Shuuichi suspects this is actually just someone’s regular account, but they can’t troll so well if all their details are in public. But that just raises the next question.

acedetective0: why did you do this?

clownprince69: boredom mostlyclownprince69: most people never catch on even when i take the pic straight from their profileclownprince69: can you believe it

acedetective0: not really. I think most people would recognize something they posted.

clownprince69: good call cause i lied. i never take directly from their profilesclownprince69: anyway detective-chan, since you passed the first part of my test

First part?

clownprince69: wanna play a game with me?

He’s still hasn’t changed out of his work clothes at all.The lights are off, the door’s closed—a half hour ago he was probably going to just sleep on this couch until he woke up at some unholy hour desperatelyhungry. But he’s not so tired anymore. If anything, he’s kind of interested.

acedetective0: sure. what game?

clownprince69: well, it’d kinda be like guess who. i’m going to keep stealing pictures off the internet, and you’re going to call me out on it.clownprince69: maybe they’ll get increasingly obscure?clownprince69: ooh! here’s a neat twist! you have to figure out who I am too! >:)

acedetective0: how would I do that if you only catfish me?

clownprince69: i’ll make sure to throw in at least one picture of me at one pointclownprince69: and hey, if you get to know me well enough, you’ll figure it out ;)

Shuuichi can’t help but snort at that.

acedetective0: seems like a bizarre way to make friends

clownprince69: you’re just jealous your role isn’t nearly as funclownprince69: anyway, you in?

Well? Is he? If Shuuichi’s being honest, this sounds kind of fun. Maybe it’s just because he’s always enjoyed a mystery, and here one is, freely presenting itself as a challenge. Or maybe it’s just because this was the first amusing thing that’s happened all day. Or maybe it’s because despite his quip earlier, he could use some more friends himself. Maybe it’s all three.

Grinning a little to himself, Shuuichi eagerly replies.

acedective0: I’m in. 

#oumasai #saiouma #Ouma Kokichi #Saihara Shuuichi #saiou #ousai #hope.txt #my fic #ndrv3 #dangan ronpa #oh look its another radical au idea courtesy of me #AND I DIDN'T PLAY THE PROMPT STRAIGHT EITHER #SKYLAR'S BULLSHIT IS BACK IN BUSINESS BABEY #anyway I had fun writing this #it's a hilarious concept #please reblog if you enjoyed and thanks for reading! #Anonymous

[overthere-in-neverland]

Hey i was wondering if you could do one where the readers band is on tour with all time low and at night she sings herself to sleep and jack listens to her and starts developing a crush on her? You can change it up a bit so it doesn’t suck but thanks :)

AN Hey guys! Sorry it’s been three years since I’ve posted lmao. I think I’m slowly coming back to these. For one thing I’m at my job, and I work graveyard so I’m bored as hell. For another, I really miss creative writing. I’ll update you on my life if you want next time I visit this, but other than that, hello! I won’t be updating the halloween imagines for the time being, especially since I’m trying to come back to this. I know I had one  (1) request to update the side blog fanfics I had going on, but as for now, I’m going to try to do it one at a time. @ my motivation? Where r u (and im so sorry i cannot sleep i cannot dream tonighttttt) Anyways! Also I just realized that it was Creeper who were atl’s opening band on the european mainland tour for lyr and now im emo all over again. The text conversation is in the story already, I just felt the need to make it for you lol

Your POV

I knew we were going on tour with All Time Low. Our manager knew we were going on tour with All Time Low. My bandmates knew we were going on tour with All Time Low. We all were well aware, and now the fans were too. But holy shit, is it surreal. Starting from nothing, playing a max of ten people, then going to 1,000 cap rooms, oh my god is it fucking incredible. Not to mention All Time Low have been my heroes for as long as I can remember.

I’m in a pop punk band, and I play the bass. I’m not quite a singer, but I can do back up. I have three other bandmates. One sings, her name is Maria, one plays guitar, that’s Drew. And we have Allison on drums. Altogether we’re pretty badass.

I had heard in the industry that Jack was a bit of a flirt. Having Drew in our band, we didn’t think much of it. Granted, Maria was engaged, and Allison’s gay, so it’s not like either of them were available. But I knew of Jack’s wiles, so I knew to stay on my toes. We were touring in Europe around the mainland for Last young Renegade, All Time Low’s new album, and it was my band’s first time being in Europe, so we were stoked. We were up at like 8 am, exploring around the city. Though trying to fall asleep is critical, especially jet-lagged. I don’t know about most things, but what I do know is anytime I go anywhere, even if it’s in the same time zone, I’m always jet-lagged. Maybe I’m just always tired?

So we arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark, the first stop on our European tour, and we meet the guys at their bus, and I’m a little star struck. Alex Gaskarth and his iconic hair. I’m not saying I’m in the fandom, but Alex’s brown hair is nothing short of iconic. Especially when it’s longer. Huge throwback to Timebomb era, and hooo boy. That was an era to be alive. Alex was wiping down the table in his bus, muttering about these “good for nothing men, who can’t even pick up after themselves.” Jack is behind him opening the fridge, then opening the cupboards, then opening the fridge, then opening the pantry, I smiled a bit at that. Zack and Rian weren’t anywhere to be found, at least from what I could see, staring down the bus’s hallway. We were to be dragging behind them in our small little van pulling a trailer. Drew coughed, and Alex looked up. “Guys!” he smiled, throwing away his wipe. “You’re here!”

Jack looked over from his rampant searching of food and smiled at us as well. I felt my face grow hot, but tried to brush it off like I was alright. I kicked my other food and looked down at the ground to try and forget I existed for a bit. I noticed Maria smiling at me, probably knowing exactly what was going on. She knew that Jack has always been a celebrity crush of mine since 2008. “What’s up,” he said to us, nodding in our direction.

“We’re in GutterPunk,” Drew responded, usually taking initiative. “Nice to meet you guys. We’ll be on tour with you throughout the mainland.”

“Sweet!” Alex smiled, and came over to us, probably intending to shake our hands. “What’ll you be riding around?”

“We kind of don’t really know yet? We have to go pick up the rental van and trailer soon. We just wanted to meet you guys.”

“Well I’m Alex,” he said gesturing to himself. “And that fiend over there is Jack.” Jack paused from his cupboard raid and waved, then went back to it. “Hope to enjoy your guys’ music and energy out there.”

“Stoked, dude.” Drew shook his hand, and turned to walk away, out of the bus. We were all standing in his way. So he had nowhere to go.

“I’ve been a fan since middle school!” Allison told him, also shaking his hand. “Y/N and I have always dreamed of touring with you guys. It’s been a dream, really. You’re a huge inspiration! At least half of it. Tre Cool has always been my biggest, but don’t sweat it. He’s a fucking god on drums.”

“Here here!” came a voice in the back.

“That’s Rian,” Alex chuckled. “He always makes himself known at any mention of Green Day.”

I thought I had seen Jack peak over at us when Allison mentioned my name, but then again, it was all happening so fast, I didn’t have any idea as to what was going on. I tucked my hair behind my ears and introduced myself to Alex. We talked a bit before we had to go to the rental agency and get our modes of transportation. It was to be about a month in the van with these guys, tightly packed. Thank god we weren’t a ska band.

After a couple days on tour in Europe, I was getting my bearings. I started to get a feel of how it would be like throughout the month. It was a show every night for a couple days, then we’d have one or two days off. Our van broke down the fifth day, and we were ready to call it quits, me being on the verge of tears, and Allison kicking the wheel of our shitty van rental. Alex graciously offered to let us stay in their bus, but we all refused, trying desperately to figure out another way to travel. He insisted.

“Are you sure this is okay?” Maria asked him as we gathered our stuff in their bus

“Oh, it’s fine!” Alex waved us off. “You’ll just stay with us. It’s not fair that we get this huge ass bus for four of us and you guys all have to share that tiny van. Make sure you get your money back though, because that’s bullshit. Jesus Christ, man. I told Fueled that we should’ve just shared a tour bus but they’re all about ‘separating bands’ or whatever. Why we ever signed to this record label I’ll never know.”

“It was your idea,” Zack chimed in. We all laughed. “Well it was! After going to Hopeless, twice, Alex wanted to branch out. Which we all agreed to anyway. It was funny though, because he complained about it every chance he got.”

“I’m well aware of that. But Fueled by Ramen seems to forget that we were once small too! Power to the little people!”

We all laughed again and gathered in their bus to prepare for the next night which was to be a day off. I was nervous, because this meant that Jack would be just down the hall, if you can even call it that, from me. It reached 1 am that night after the show, and we had all gathered in our beds to try and sleep so we could get out and do fun things around France.

I always used to sing myself to sleep to calm my nerves, and after about an hour of tossing and turning, it seemed like that was my only option if I wanted to sleep. I started off by humming softly, in case I would wake anyone up. After about ten minutes of that, and no sounds of stirs happened, I sang quietly. First was Lullabies, which is my go to song to sing when I need to sleep. Something about the line “Sing me to sleep, I’ll see you in my dreams” makes me feel at peace. After I finished with that, I heard the quiet patter of feet. I stopped for a bit, to wait to see if it came again, and when it didn’t I started again. Snuff by Slipknot is another one that calms me down, and I sang that, but right at the bridge I heard the patter again. I drew back the curtain, and saw Jack standing there. He looked scared to see me notice him, and promptly turned back towards his bed, and didn’t look back at me.

I frowned but pulled the covers up. I guess he doesn’t actually want to get to know me. I closed my eyes to try for the.. Was it the fourth time? Third time? I lost count. But I tried once more to sleep. Then I heard the pang next to me of a text message.

I promise I wasn’t trying to listen to you sing.

It was from Jack. We had all exchanged numbers at the beginning of the tour. My thumbs danced over my screen as I thought of what to say.

Don’t worry about it

I just heard it and then i couldn’t stop

It’s fine, jack. Really

Your voice is really pretty tho Can we talk tomorrow? I have something I need to tell you

What could he possibly need to tell me? I was freaking out. And now I can’t sleep even more. Fuck. This was going to be a long night.

I mean I’m awake right now

I can’t really say it right now

Well, what the fuck does that mean? I sigh and then turn around and face the wall. The bus was moving, but I felt like my stomach was moving ten thousand times faster. Him talking to me like this is the first real conversation he’s had with me. Most of the time he avoids me. Whatever it is, I guess I can wait. I prepared for a long sleepless night after that.

When I woke up, everyone was bustling about, getting ready for the day off. “Jack! Y/N!” Rian called down to us. I guess neither of us had gotten up. “We’re going out to breakfast!”

I moaned in recognition, and heard nothing from Jack, so I assumed he had gone with them. I threw my covers off and went straight to the bathroom. When I got out, I saw a tall lanky man with bed head staring at me.

“Uh. Hello.” I said stupidly.

“Hey, uh. About last night.”

“It’s fine if you don’t want to say anything. I get it. I’m a backup singer for a reason.”

“No that’s not it! Um.” He stopped talking to look down at his feet. “Look. I know this is weird. Especially since I hardly know you. But, I’ve actually been following your band for a while. And dude, you’re like insanely hot. And then I find out you’re a good person too? Last night, hearing your singing it made me realize.. Fuck, this is so stupid. It made me realize I’m in love with you.” With the last uttering of  those words, he looked up at me. “Sorry.”

“Are you fucking serious?” I raised my eyebrows, completely awestruck. Jack Barakat, the celebrity crush of my teen years was telling me he was in love with me? When it looked like he in fact, was not kidding, I immediately blushed and looked away. “Dude. I’ve been in love with you since I was like 14.”

A smile lit up his face as he started talking really fast, rambling. “Oh my god! Really? Holy shit okay, so like we can go get breakfast with the others, or we can go get breakfast by ourselves, we could walk down the Seine, we are in France after all. Holy fu-”

I started laughing, but grabbed his hand with mine, since he was waving it all around. “Slow down there, I can barely keep up. Let’s go get breakfast first, and talk this out. You’ve basically been avoiding me since I got here.”

“Well yeah, I didn’t really know how to strike up a conversation.”

I chuckled. “This is weird, huh?”

“So weird.” He nodded in agreement. I realized I was still holding his hand, but I didn’t let go. Instead we walked off the bus, headed towards the cafe for breakfast. My heart was in my throat but this felt right. After the initial break of the ice, he wouldn’t shut up, but I loved hearing his voice. He could talk for hours on end if he really wanted to.

#jack barakat #jack barakat imagine #jack barakat fanfiction #all time low #all time low fanfiction #all time low imagine #band imagines

[lannpaige-blog]

Listen, my stupid mistake today has to count for something other than laughing at myself, so this is what’s happening now.

Characters: Patton, Roman, Virgil, and Logan

Pairing: Logicaltiy, but not established.

PG - No warnings.

Word Count: 1634

Mistakes Were Made

“Uh oh,” Patton said. It wasn’t intentional. The noises came as a shot out of his mouth just as the jolt of nerves did when he realized what he’d done. His fingers twitched against his phone as he bit his bottom lip.

“What?” Virgil asked, his voice monotone.

“I... I put in the wrong address,” Patton said.

“Like you put in the wrong apartment number?”

“No, I put in the address for the restaurant as the delivery address.”

“Wait, so what did you put for the restaurant address?” Roman asked, his voice a lot more flamboyant than Virgil’s had been, but Patton could see Virgil’s head finally lift up from his textbook out of the corner of his eye. Patton shifted. Heat started to stretch across his face.

“The restaurant’s address,” Patton murmured.

“Are you serious?” Virgil asked.

“Yeah,” Patton whined out.

“How did you even manage that?”

“I don’t know, I just copied the address and hit ‘order now’ before I fixed it.”

“Hello, food delivery driver?” Roman said in a mock voice, “Yeah, I’d like you to pick up my order. What’s the address? Oh, it’s the same one. If you could bring it to the table for me, that’d be great. I know they have waiters for that, but I requested this because I just felt like spending more money.”

Virgil snorted. Patton finally looked up from his phone and turned his head to pout at Roman, who sat to his left on the sofa, legs curled under the red oversized blanket that Virgil and Patton bought specifically for him.

“It’s not funny. Help me fix it.”

“I don’t know how. I’ve never ordered on a food delivery app before,” Roman said with a dramatic wave of his hand.

“Me either,” Virgil answered before Patton even had a chance to pout at him. Patton did it anyway and whined. “Why don’t you just ask the delivery driver? I’m sure they’ll help you out.”

Patton whined and looked down at the phone again. Frantic fingers flipped back and forth between screens trying to figure out how to change the address or even how to contact their delivery driver that wasn’t even listed yet. Then finally, after five minutes, a name came up, Logan, along with a phone icon and a message icon. Thank goodness. Patton clicked the message icon and began to type.

hi Logan! this is Patton. I accidentally put in the wrong address for the delivery location... is there any way you can deliver it to a different address? this is the first time Ive ordered through this app and I got confused :(

Patton hit send and waited. After a moment, the typing notification appeared. Then, words in a light blue bubble appeared on the left side of the screen.

Hello, Patton. I can deliver the food to another address. You will need to change the address in the application. Would you like me to walk you through the steps on how to do that?

Patton blinked. Was this some kind of automated message? No, couldn’t be. The guy did take his time to type that out. If it was a robot or something, it had to be one that lagged. Human. Definitely human. Regardless, he was willing to help. Patton let his fingers fly.

please? Id be so grateful!

The three dots appeared again. Then a message came up.

First, you will need to add the correct address to your address directory. Click on “Account”, select “Add An Address” and input the address you would like your order delivered to. Let me know when you have completed this and I will walk you through the next steps.

Patton flashed over to the application with a little bounce and a warm smile.

“Figuring it out over there?” Roman asked, a little tease still lingering in his voice.

“Yeah, the delivery guy’s helping me.”

“He laugh at you too?” Virgil asked.

“He didn’t say he did,” Patton said, his smile fading a touch. He input the correct address, saved it, then flicked back over to his text messages.

“He definitely did,” Roman said.

“Without question,” Virgil answered.

“You guys are mean,” Patton whined as he typed.

ok I added it now what?

Click on “Orders”, select the order that you have submitted, find where it says “Delivery Location”, and select “Change Address”. The address that you input into your account should appear there. Select that address and hit “Save”. Once it has saved, it will take you back to the order screen and it should have the updated information.

Patton flicked back to the application and followed the second wave of instructions. Once it automatically returned him to the order, the map and delivery address changed to show the apartment address that he and Virgil shared. He flipped back to text messages.

it worked! thank you! youre the best!!

It was no trouble. I am glad I could be of assistance. I am currently waiting on your order to be completed. Once it has, I will be on my way.

“Sorry, Patton,” Virgil said, his voice soft. Patton looked up at him and could tell his face paled quite a bit as he looked down. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, I just-”

“No, Virgil, it’s okay,” Patton said, “I was just stressed ‘cause I thought our food wouldn’t get here and it would be a big problem for Logan. But he helped me fix the address so it’s fine. He hasn’t even left the restaurant with our food yet, so it’s no big deal.”

“Oh, Logan,” Roman said, a heavy teasing lilt back in his voice, “Delivery driver has a name now.”

“I’m pretty sure he’s had a name since the day he was born,” Patton said as he grinned at Roman. Virgil snorted again. Roman flashed him a little smile in return.

“Fair enough,” Roman said, “But you’re calling him his name now and you have his phone number. Next thing you know, you’ll be walking downtown hand-in-hand, eyes and hearts filled with the sweetest love that could ever be forged in the minds of man.”

“Sounds gross,” Virgil said.

“It’s romantic, shut up.”

“I don’t know if he’s the romantic type,” Patton said, “I thought I was talking to an automated message because his typing is so formal.”

“Really?” Virgil asked.

“Let me see!” Roman called. Patton handed his phone to Roman. Roman’s fingers flicked through the conversation and he frowned. “Wow, you weren’t kidding. This guy sounds like a real bookworm. I mean, this sounds like it came out of the Q and A for the website.”

“Maybe it did,” Virgil said.

“No way,” Roman answered, “His introduction is just as stiff. I mean, he typed everything in grammatically correct sentences. Who does that?”

“Someone who wants to sound professional,” Patton said, “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Roman scoffed and handed the phone back. “Nothing wrong with it? He doesn’t need to look that professional to deliver food. He went overboard.”

“Really? You’re going to judge someone for going overboard?” Virgil asked.

“At least I’ll admit when I’m being dramatic,” Roman said, “I bet this guy would insist he isn’t a drama queen.”

Patton listened to them go back and forth for a while before he returned to the math homework he had placed in front of him on the floor. He worked through a few more problems before a knock sounded on the apartment door. He lurched up, pulled his wallet from his back pocket, and pulled out several of the ones he got as a tip from his own waiter job. Then he stuffed his wallet in his back pocket and opened the door.

In front of him was a taller man who looked about Patton’s age. If Patton hand to guess the kind of person that would have sent the texts he received from this Logan guy, this would have been him. Neatly brushed brown hair, polo, blue necktie, jeans, and oxford shoes. It was a nice look. What was even nicer was the glasses he wore. Patton blinked at them and smiled.

“Hey, we have the same glasses!”

The man blinked at him, then smiled a little. “Yes, it appears we do. You must be Patton.”

Patton lurched forward and took the two bags of food from Logan’s hands. “Yeah, I’m so sorry about everything. It was a silly mistake. You must get that a lot but I feel so dumb.”

“You shouldn’t,” Logan said, “It is a common mistake and others are not so apologetic about it.”

Patton held out his hand and the money. “Here.”

“You have already tipped me.”

“I know, but it’s for the help. You didn’t have to be so nice to me. I mean, my friends were making fun of me and didn’t help me at all.”

“Nark!” Roman yelled. Virgil snorted. Patton saw Logan’s smile crack a little wider as he took the money.

“Thank you,” Logan said, “Enjoy your meal.”

“Thanks,” Patton said. Logan walked away and Patton closed the door. He walked into the room and set the bags between them.

“I’m pretty sure that guy’s in my Advanced English class,” Virgil said.

Patton looked at him. “Really?”

“Yeah. I think he sits at the table opposite me.”

“I bet it’s the one closest to the teacher’s desk.”

“How’d you know?”

“Lucky guess. You gonna see if he’s gay and if he’ll go out with Patton?”

“No, don’t do that!” Patton cried.

“Why not?” Roman said, “You clearly liked the guy.”

“Dude, that’s weird,” Virgil said. “I barely know him.”

“Well you better start buddy-ing up to him so we can finally get Mister Goody-Two-Shoes a date with someone that could be his very own Prince Charming.”

Patton blushed, but he didn’t protest.

#sanders sides #ts logan #ts patton #ts virgil #ts roman #logan #patton #virgil #roman #fan work #fan fiction #my fan fiction

[theconcernedpotato]

Information overload

So today marks the first round of closed alpha tests. i am finally there. The feed back i got already was mostly good, some good points that were made along with some being completely irreverent. But i Get more into that later on within this blog. 

A ton of work has been done just in this last week, which generally means going to bed at four/five in the morning and up at seven for another round, all week long, so here it goes.

  Knocking out a basic Figma ui/ux flow, i set to work trying to get that within the game. For the most part it stayed quite close to what i had within Figma.

After having to steer at a screen for so long, i darkened up the whole game so it was easier on my eyes. 

So the basic Home screen remain the same with only getting an icon swap since everyone understands what a play button is. (Which by the way, everything you see including icons are all placeholders). Here you will see Stan within his house/caravan with all items you have won displayed around his home. With future updates having items you can buy (using in game money made from your stunts) to customize your home and stunt items. 

Both the Movie selection and stunt selection remain untouched from prototyping.

The game screen again mainly remained the same, with small changes here and there. icons would get a a face lift with trying to keep to things people could identify and understand without words. 

The item selection on the right is no longer retractable, although i may add that back for anyone that wants to navigate the level with a much larger screen visible, i mean whats the harm, use it or not?

The pause button has been removed completely since it was just irreverent in a game like this. 

The stunts budget and how much you currently have spent added  and also a working bin

You may have noticed a new button.. Was meant to be highlighted and was within the giff tool but oh well. At the push of this button it it takes your finish point, then once released, returns you to your previous point. 

Also you may have notice an increase in select-able items. i wont show case the crash mat since its just that. Stops Stan going splat. Currently you dont need it since i have yet to place in a payment system, but future updates will see you using them else Stan’s med bills will come directly out of his pay (med insurance can become expensive 😷😰).

The second item is a high powered fan. Self -explanatory really. Been having quite a bit of fun with this item.

The option menu remains a sore point. As it is I think the current one lacks the looks the mock up one did. Unfortunately its not clear the back arrow takes you back to the stunt screen rather then the game. Hopefully i will find a pretty solution.  

So once you finish the stunt, the man in charge looks over the sheet (figuratively speaking) and you are evaluated on how well it went. Now it may not have been clear but all those white dots are camera shots your producer really wanted to get for the movie. So you are evaluated on how many of those shots you got and how well you managed to keep under budget. 

At the end of the day there isn’t really a lose condition. As long as you get to the end point, you’ve completed the level, so its very possible to be way over budget and not get a single asked for shots, cause at the end of the day, no footage is wasted.

Once all the stunts in the movie are complete its released out into the world to be judged, much like this game will D: 

For reasons i wanted to go with having a rotten tomatoes score system within my game, mostly because i think it gives a better over all idea on how you went. You can totally boom the egg score but might kill on the Audience. leaving many options for rewards and different out comes depending on your own play style. 

I decided to condense the reward screen and movie screen in one. Just made sense, plus i was rushed off my feet, so anything that saves me work (like making, setting up or coding another screen is a win in my book).

So what didn’t make it to alpha.. mainly the in game shop. Not only was I crazy rushed off my feet, but i had no items for people to buy for Stan, nor did i have his payment for doing the stunts set up.

This will differently be rectified come the second round of testing (third i guess since you guys weren’t in on the first).

Now i know I’ve been pretty bad at this blog thing on this project, mainly because so much is going on with in-work and out that it's kind of been pushed to the far side of the brain. 

 A few notes that I failed to mention, in my prior posts is i have been corresponding with a musician over discord, who I only no as Greg. 

Things started with a bang, with me having all these grand ideas of themed music for each stunt, and other areas of the game like within Stan’s home. Even ideas of tracks being able to be purchased if you wanted something different to listen to. What I didn't account for was this would increase the file size dramatically and being on mobile, contrary to what you have herd, size is everything.. 

Currently I have placeholder music within the game, one tract that plays throughout the entire game. Passing the bad news to Greg, he came back with a single track will hopefully find a home within my this game. 

Now lets take about development. What a week, had its ups and downs and even learnt some new dance moves this week- I call it pushing alpha. 

 Five forward, seven back, three forward, two back, two forward. Kind of sums up the state of affairs this week, but at least it's moving. 

 Friday I was on fire! Unfortunately in my sleepy slumber I forgot to check off or write down where I was at.. this bit me in the ass I decided to take my little's out into the world for the day, mostly because i needed to step away from work. This landed me laying on the beach half the day looking up at the sky. Later with mind cleared, tea done and little's down, i jumped back into it. 

Unfortunately a large part of Saturday night saw me retracing every job I had done Friday night to see if it was done, set up for, or half completed.. once thinking I knew where I was, I was off again making progress. 

Before getting into the crazy stuff, i looked at the levels i had chucked together. Although not final levels as i had yet to design any, what i did through together needed reordering. turns out the second was way harder then the first four..

Along the way I started working on a job that gathered all the information of each level, then using that information, turned it into a usable score which would tell you how the movie was receive at the end of the last stunt. (Egg and Aud score) but It seemed I had actually wrote such a code the night before, but completely different to the one I had just done. Now I will fully admit I was on that next level shit and may have been possessed by the coding God when I wrote it, because as it stands, I have no idea how it works, but it does, so it's probably best I don't touch it and keep fully away from the Alien code. 

So with my eyes glowing red probably from Rad poisoning being on the computer for the last eight hours straight  #justjokingbutprobilynot, and Saturday resulting in nothing but net.. i went and did something stupid again. Last minute I break my game completely.. Half four and the kids will be up in a fe hours a head to bed in such a foul mood.

 Up a few hours later to make breakfast, as the little’s ate i jump back on. i in my state renamed one script somehow which saw the whole game destroyed.. on the plus side i found it, plus see that it needs to be more robust if one naming convention can do that.   

Wasn’t the first time. earlier in the week i spent two day looking for a bug that stopped play after you finished the first level, one that wasn't throwing up any warnings or stopping any other function. I had paused time at the end of the level and hadn’t turned it back on.. To be fair I’ve had about two hours of sleep every night for the last week. Don’t do it, its not good nor does it help in the long term. seems all these little mistakes caused from being over tied has pushed back the project rather then moved it forward.

Sunday nights I was up hitting all those notes till 5:20 this morning yet again, then up an hour later. Play test day.

So all that work came falling down in a heap on the floor in my time of need. Now i didn't ask for much but i figured when you put work in to something it should pay off.. Built out the game for the test phone i had and boom, I’m holding a seven week turd in my hands. Functions that worked before no longer did for some reason. Panning the camera, so placing items where you wanted them couldn't happen. the bin also no longer worked, nor the restart button. 

Deciding not to shit myself in front of a room full of people really to test the game (along with other dev games), coffee was needed.

So the game works well enough on the computer still which is good. Although not for the computer, i did at least have the functionality in there that aloud it to be tested to an extent, so i built out a computer version. Which is where some of the irreverent feed back comes in.. UI too big,  no exit button, no zoom in or out.. 

I wont go into it fully, as it made me realize a few thing like why not add functionality for the computer? Controls at least at the moment since a computer version will need more items and options etc. But as it stands, as annoyed as i am with a broken mobile game, its coming together. 

Hoping to fix those Mobile issues, and add some computer functionality, then push it out to the world on Wednesday. Till next time, Fingers crossed!

#HAVE #indie #IndieArtist #Indiegame #indiedev #indeartist #stunt #stuntman #unity #Unity3D #madeinunity #madewithunity #games #game #gamedesign #design #UIdesign #Dev #development #devlog #devblog #puzzle #prototype #alpha #casual #mobilegame #mobile

[pillowblaster]

Greetings mortal! Are you ready to buy?

Seeing there's been interest in some lore behind the Guncaster,  and I released the update lately, I might as well bother to exercise my writing skills again (if there are any) and explain some fun tidbits behind the new shopkeeper and perhaps his background, being older than GC itself, cause why not~

Art by Cage - DOCTOR, MY EYES APPEAR TO BE SWOLLEN!... WHAT?! TOO MUCH PORN? IMPOSSIBLE!

Hereby I present you Nithor Flaynithere - dragon deity of endless snarkitude!... Okay, patron of fury and courage actually, but that includes endless snarkitude. Formerly keeper of the eternal flame. Starter of a bloodline of dragons with anger management issues. As you know me, obscenely powerful cause I am sucha funny overkill guy, but he has his flaws and drawbacks to overcome.  Cygnis is obviously his direct descendant somewhere down the line; don’t wanna tie my hands with an exact generation.

Cyg's Ancestor job at first was being a sort of head of security in the Dominion - think like where Olympus was an HQ for Greek gods, it was such place for the gods of Vernazij (Can just read it as Vernazi - I also have a thing for silent H’s in names, just in case), his homeworld. His top priority was tending to the aforementioned flame. He didn’t question things the way they were, as much as he started to grow bored... and suspicious. A branch of fellow, godly brethren, he could tell for sure, was plotting something. There was an ages long conflict going between them and the rest of the mostly-content deities and the inhabitants of the mortal coil ever since the whole universe was a thing.

Whaddaya starin’ at? I swear on me mum I’ll punch ya in the gabber, ya spineless tosser~

Oh yea, speaking of the universe!... The legend goes like this: An almighty deity had left their two descendants into an empty void, with a well of matter, energy and space to shape their own universe in a way they deemed fit, both as a test and as a testament to what he thaught them. But of course, being siblings with different concepts on what their world should be, it led to an obvious conflict of interests. They both ended up in the well after typical argument with just a bit more cosmic power involved. It caused a big bang of sort and they got absorbed into their own creation. Once things settled in a little after the initial blast, first deities and supreme beings got formed, forged to carry out their will. Yes, they were still waging petty conflict between themselves even after they got evaporated, go figure. They went onto forming massive armies to fight and prevail with their concepts of forming the universe. From the ashes of broken matter and the corpses of destroyed creatures - the universe kept on forming itself on its own whereas the first inhabitants didn't even notice that miracle even going. They were too busy killing each other.

As the fight had progressed, some planets did form their own life!... But didn't quite make it due to the whole conflict of cosmic proportions. They became the victims of collateral damage. Still, as the shaping force kept going and the destructive forces kept on dwindling, only inhabitants of few planets across zillions of them were able to survive, step back and come into conclusion that their conflict at this point was undesirable and pointless. They realized everything was already formed out of chaos, without much of their involvement. They were too busy fighting over missed opportunity. Now it was just a battle of who would take control over the results of said uninvolvement. The deities of one of such cases came into agreement. They decided to sit back and see how things will go on from here, as much as that was an uneasy peace. They named their home - Vernazij. (It supposed to mean something metaphorical for all the forming that world went through, but again, couldn't think of anything clever enough yet. I AM SUCHA GREAT STORYTELLER HOLY SHIT~)

You have a ‘what’, napping in your living room?

Over the course of years, things have stabilized - respective roles that were fitting given gods’ particular set of skills were given, treaties were made, tasks were completed... suddenly, Mortals! Local gods went “They look so familiar! And adorable~”. Powerless, fragile creatures that often resembled the deities, they were another byproduct of the self-sustained world creation. The gods didn't have much ideas on what to do with them, seeing they were pretty weak. so they had let them be. That was until some of them helped their mini-me’s, or did quite the opposite. Their fear or reverence resulted in worship. Worship gave them power, so gods started unhealthy competition over the mortal souls in their respective fields, forming alliances, breaking them, stabbing themselves in the back, or protecting themselves from the others - generally, you know, your favorite part that divides or brings everyone together - politics. Every god could store their worship as some kind of power, as much as one spot wasn't decidedly taken over. The irony of no one being courageous or dedicated enough to become the patron of courage. All brave acts sparked as an eternal flame instead. Nithor was denied to become its patron by old gods, saying he was “not ready”, whatever that meant. So he was just protecting the flame and the whole Dominion instead.

Sir, we are late for burning time!

As the time passed without any relatively bigger conflicts, some of the older caste of gods, still having in mind “the great plan” and the responsibility behind it, feared the day when the Great God will visit their plane. They predicted it might end up with a total disaster, seeing how they seemingly failed to carry out the will of his children. As they were scheming about taking the universe's fate into their own hands, the mortals were rather unhappy with how the old gods were ignoring them and grew to be a force to be reckoned with. They somehow breached into Dominion, which technically was impossible for mortals to do so. Nithor tried his best to fend off the angry mob off (despite his obvious disdain towards old gods, duty was a duty). But that was too much for him, even for years of staying valiant. He tried his best to keep the mortals off the premise of the eternal flame without killing anyone (no word about work-related harm, though), the flame got dispersed and tainted, and looked for a nearest, suitable vessel to claim, which happened to be him - being the best, viable candidate.

I should probably make some pics depicting the story instead, but laziness. Look at that thicc boi lazy it out~

As the things calmed down, he begrudingly resigned from his job as a keeper, considering that the flame was no more and he failed to keep the place secured. The old gods got banished from Dominion onto Vernazij’s plane. Being unaware of his state as a wielder of the slowly self-corrupting flame, he took on a life of a demigod and an adventurer as his longed form of a vacation, seeing how he was done with the godhood. He went onto numerous adventures, met a lot of folk, got married, had kids, stabilized his life... All was good and dandy, despite the more and more obvious problem of the flame rearing out, but nothing that he couldn't manage - he just blamed it on some magic diarrhea of sorts, being as oblivious to his status as ever... Well, that was until huge accident happened. Or more like, an incident. A one that had changed the world forever, which got named in the legends as the Deadmaker's March.

That whole mess was orchestrated by his old god workmates - starting from leaving a breach in the Dominion’s defenses for mortals to enter, then letting the eternal flame to be disturbed. Their exodus was also obviously predicted part. They knew what the flame was capable of and wanted to weaponize it, but it needed a vessel... which Nithor was an obvious candidate for, but they needed both him and the flame to be unstable. After getting him on the edge by destroying his family and everything he valued from behind the scenes - Nithor went onto a rampage Vernazij has never seen before and thereafter. Only by combined forces of all mortals and all the gods they were able to seal him away, as defeating nor controlling him was impossible - every single act of force against him was only making him stronger and even more furious. The old gods initial plan had failed, they wanted to rebuild the world from its ashes as it should be in their eyes. Still, they got their much-sought retribution after having a hand in the process of capturing him. Their scheming continued.

Mona Lisa as fuck.

And what about Nithor? As much as they tried to fool him, speak into his senses to become their ally in their quest for the control over the universe “for the greater good”... He saw through their intentions of destroying anything that doesn’t want to abide to their will or worldview, which made him hate them with all his guts - he valued his own and the universe’s freedom of choice above all. After spending three millenias in fury-blinded seclusion, he breaks out from his prison, dead-set on murdering them all and anything that dares to stand in his path. As a last act of the prison's purpose, it used all the energy it stored by draining his unrelenting fury to get him back into senses, and seal it away. Unphazed by that event, he sets forth on a mission to kick the old gods' butts into oblivion (or whatever constitutes for them as butts) by retrieving his old gear as a keeper, getting control over his horrid power and single-handedly dealing with all of them. However, as three millenias worth of time was more than enough for them to prepare a whole plethora of nasty surprises, such as painting him as an evil villain in the eyes of the whole world and themselves as icons of pure intentions (imagine that whole narrative in history for past millenias is painting you as a Sauron of the universe) - his mission became harder and more complicated than ever. They hid the truth under unparalleled amounts of lies, and destroyed any evidence they could find that could prove otherwise. The fact that Nithor had all the looks and wits of a supreme asshole didn’t help on his case, either.

I am a tallyman of your mistakes. I am the executioner for your sins. Now face what you have poured into me, for what I’ll pour into you.

...Hot damn, that actually sounded pretty intimidating, go me, bwa-ha ha!

Most of his allies are either gone in the sands of time, or still mad at him, if they didn’t bite the dust yet. He scored couple millions of deaths during his grudge-filled killing spree, so you can imagine how many souls are willingful out there to get near or even think about hearing him out... Quite the contrary, with a little exception that are the depths of Taumthegos - the local equivalent of Hell. He is being revered there for obvious reasons.

A cynical jerk by trade, Nithor’s temptation to do the easy thing and go ballistic is strong. But he is not without a heart, even after everything he went through and people hating his guts, he refuses to do so. He felt partially responsible for all the mess he got involved in and wanted to prove everyone wrong and show who’s the real enemy here. He kept finding clues about old gods’ mischief during his time of absence. The problem was, with all due respect for his pure intentions, his rather abrasive nature. More often than not, he screwed up his opportunities on coming out as a good guy. He was hellbent on getting shit done and ignorant about anything that wasn’t helpful towards his quest, rather than approaching the people who were interested in hearing him out and finding a common goal. He still had plenty of humor and determination (and lack of common sense) to go against the whole world which hated him so much for sins of days long past. And a whole journey to go through to learn again how to be a decent being. The truth is the ultimate value, no matter how painful or regretful it might be - he will bring it out.

So lemme tell you Victor, the story of the great!... Meeee!... Crap, that sounded better in my head. I should have just used my name or something. Should I start over?

Considering that Cygnis and his descendants are a thing and I am writing this whole ordeal in retrospect, you can safely assume that he had succeeded in getting his good name and life (to a degree) back. But what constitutes of his adventures, how he knows about Earth and its fineness of culinary such as the casserole and how he got in touch with his late grandson?

...Those are stories for another time!

Tl;dr yada yada that’s a lot of bullshit. Kerist, that was stressful to pull off. Hoping that at least it’s somewhat enjoyable, to a degree.

[dimitrippy]

Pride month may be over, but it is also important to retain some sense of it. So here are some book reviews. If you've read these books, you might not like what I have to say. If you haven't, you may find that you don't want to. Or maybe you're so intrigued by what I've said, you'll want to read them anyway. The books I've chosen to read and review are (in order): This Book is Gay by James Dawson (2014), Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan (2003), and Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World by Sarah Prager (2017).

Note: I am an independent person with no affiliations and I am doing this for fun, I am by no means a professional book reviewer.

This Book is Gay by James Dawson

I'm gonna start right off the bat and say that this book is... out-dated. Published in 2014, this book is a crash course on all things gay... but that's it. Despite many a disclaimer within the book itself, I found the writing to focus almost exclusively on homosexuality, with very little focus on bisexuality or being transgender. 'Well' you may say 'the book is GAY.' And right, it is, but the author, James Dawson, touted it as a guide to all things LGBT, which it wasn't. I understand the lack of nonbinary genders being mentioned, as the term did not really become widespread until very recently, but many trans people will find themselves unhappy when their eyes flick to the words 'transsexual' and 'transvestite'. Not to mention, in a later chapter about sex (skipping this chapter is an option, Dawson makes that clear) diagrams that equate genitals to gender. Overall, incredibly cisnormative. I'm not going to lie, Tumblr may have made me overly bias to any sort of queer literature created by a cis, gay man, but a good LGBT book should really spread out the attention between all of the letters.

I also found the writing style to be, for lack of a better word, trite. And I guess another good word would be condescending. Don't believe me? Dawson refers to sex as 'sexyfuntimes' at least 3 times, if not more. I understand that this book was written to appeal to young adolescents who might be questioning their sexuality or gender, but the word sex was already being used. Why change it to sexyfuntimes? Anyone reading the book should KNOW what sexyfuntimes means. Once was funny, but to keep using it to refer to consensual bedroom business made me feel like the author didn't care about his target audience. Speaking somewhat from experience, an adult talking down to me always made me feel like shit. Teenagers aren't stupid. Us adults need to start acting like it. ( that's not to say that teens can't be stupid, but generally when consuming content that is meant for them, it can be alienating.)

Then the author wrote a chapter on religion that I felt was written from a Christian-centric point of view. The author himself said he had limited knowledge about certain religions but went ahead and wrote about them anyway, assuming knowledge. This is a book that contained interviews with other queer people, you couldn't have found queer people of faith to interview? That just seems lazy to me.

Another big BIG problem that I had with the book was the chapter called 'Gay Saints'... or something to that effect. I had to return the book and I'm writing a lot of this from memory, which is quite good but can't always remember everything...

Anyway, I'm sorry, but however they may have felt while functioning as a boy-band, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson are NOT gay icons. They're nothing more than two young men that over-zealous straight girls wish would get together. Sure, they may support the queer community which is all well in good but to refer to 'Larry Stylison' as a gay icon just... left a bad taste in my mouth. Also, Dawson referred to Macklemore as handsome which is just... not correct.

Honestly it felt like a lot of these 'icons' were straight people. And of course gay people have been idolizing straight people for basically forever (look up Friends of Dorothy) but one moment of activism does not a gay icon make.

Not to mention that leaving out Billie Joe Armstrong out of a list like that is criminal, considering he's been an open bisexual and supporting LGBT punk bands since Green Day became popular.

… Also a crime to leave out Prince but there are some battles you can't win...

Still, it would be remiss of me to not mention that this book was meant to be read by EVERYONE, not just by LGBT kids. I definitely understand the need for a book like this, but the queer community has become so fast paced and new terminology is updated and accepted on a near- daily basis. And I, personally, would not recommend this book to my friends (unless my friends want to know the book i'm slamming – LOL ). Perhaps a companion book titled “This Book is Trans” or “This Book is Queer”? Or maybe keep the title and come out with a second, more inclusive edition.

I would, however, recommend it to young, questioning kids and their parents – should said parents be aware of their kid's situation. I also recommend it to straight people who have very little interaction with LGBT people but who want to understand us a little better. I know I said the writing was condescending at times, but it is a good resource for people who aren't gay or who aren't sure what they are yet, especially if they don't wanna dig through Google, trying to find non-homophobic sources.

My overall opinion in a nutshell: Mediocre and non-inclusive

Score: 4/10

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

I'm not going to lie, if I had read this book in middle school or high school, I probably would have LOVED it. Pretentious teen romance was probably my favorite genre. (Something I don't talk about very much because everyone on Tumblr has a boner for hating the king of pretentious teen romance novels, John Green, and I rather like him.) Now, however, it is... to be honest it's uninteresting drivel.

The story focuses on local gay high schooler, Paul. Paul has ALWAYS known he was gay and everyone in his small, shockingly liberal town (shocking because it's so small) doesn't really care, except for the parents' of his friend, Tony, another gay high schooler. (only Tony's parents are homophobes and they have to lie about stuff just to get him out of the house)

We have other great characters! Such as Kyle, the bisexual who won't call himself bisexual because he doesn't like labels, also Paul's ex. Infinite Darlene, a trans girl who Paul does not call trans, only drag queen. She is homecoming queen and captain of the football team and also the other drag queens in school (???) don't like her because she's too masculine. Cis drag queens hating trans women, what else is new?

We also have Noah, the pretentious artist new kid and Paul's crush. And Joni, who was Paul's best friend but dumped him for her crappy boyfriend.

Right? The sheer amount of characters made my head spin too. And the drama with everyone was... too much. The only redeeming moment was when Tony finally stood up to his parents. Which he did so in, again, an unrealistic way.

And I'm not even going to mention the motorcycle cheerleaders.

So by the end of it, I was pretty disappointed.

Until I read the author's note. 10 years after it's original publication, David Levithan answers some questions about the book and gave a myriad of reasons as to why he wrote the book the way he did. He explained that he knew how unrealistic some parts of the story were, and that that's why they were there. Because as unrealistic as it was, it is something that he wants to one day be a reality. And that while we're far from that reality, it's something we should always, always be working towards.

There's something very brave about that. It's definitely true that there are far, far too many tragic stories featuring LGBTQA+ characters, but this is nothing short of a very happy story published in a time when stories like that simply didn't exist. A jaded queer person (such as myself) might brush off the pie in the sky life that Paul leads, but ultimately there really is nothing wrong with writing happy endings for people like you.

Should you choose to read this book, I recommend the new edition that comes with the author's note. It puts the entire novel in a much better perspective. It also has a short story featuring Infinite Darlene.

My overall opinion in a nutshell: Pretentious but well meaning

Score: 6/10 (points taken away were re-added after reading the author's not

Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World by Sarah Prager

As an avid history nerd who doesn't read nearly as much historic shit as they should, I loved this book. Clear, concise, and with a detailed bibliography in the back, Queer, There, and Everywhere gives us undeniable proof that people like us – queer people – have always existed.

Starting in ancient Rome, through the civil rights movement and up the the present, Prager makes the context easy to understand by using modern language and beginning each chapter with a brief flashback to each figure's time. While many scholars look at things from a cishet lens and use the language to match, Prager does pretty much the opposite, making a disclaimer at the beginning of each chapter any time modern terminology or certain pronouns usage needs to be used for clarity.

This book doesn't just cover cis, gay people over the course of history, it has something for everyone across the spectrum of gender and sexuality – trans and nonbinary people, lesbian pioneers (no, not 1800s pioneers),George Takei, and much, much more.

While queer history can be a touchy subject, Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World makes it so that our history can not, should not, and will not be erased.

My overall opinion in a nutshell: Fantastic and a necessary must for any person who needs a brief course in queer history.

Score: 8/10 (some of the historic figures she picked struck me as far-fetched, plus use of the outdated terms transsexual and transvestite)

#books #literature #reading #lgbtqa+ #lgbt books #queer literature #queer books #lgbt literature #book reviews #james dawson #david levithan #sarah prager #long post