#But I'm making good progress. Been getting a lot of basic functionality back

[r0b0t1me]

[saphig-iawn]

Springtime with Miss Saphi

Hello darlings!

I have had a quite a nice little break, and its given me time to think about how I want to progress as everyone's Welsh hypnotic witch. Below the cut is a big ol' post about how I do what I do. I will talk about my sessions, my writing, and my audio files. If you're interested then click on and keep reading. If not, and you're just happy to see I'm back, then thank you so much for the support and love.

💝

So, for the darlings who are still here, I've broken things down into 4 or so chunks that I feel tend to each part of what I do as a kinky creative. So, first up:

Sessions

Sessions are one of the main ways I keep my little business running. These are remaining largely the same, but I want to take this opportunity to explain a little about how they work, and what I'm doing to change them.

The prices aren't changing at this point in time, even though a lot of people have said that I am undercharging quite a lot. There is one big thing that is in the way of me doing so which is that, times are really tough right now. People don't have as much money to spend as they wish and things that felt safe and predictable are now not. With this being my only income too, I know how it can be when you feel like you have to choose between the things you enjoy and the worry and anxiety that comes with making a purchase that doesn't live up to what you wanted. I would feel so tremendously guilty charging more because of how things are right now, and so I'm finding ways for people to enjoy what I make in more accessible ways that also still support me (more on that later).

Firstly, I am remaking my intake form. I feel I need to do more to set expectations within it. I am a hypnotist, first and foremost, and a domme second if the scene or session permits. Between the sessions, I am not a Domme. I tried to be, and it began to make me quite sick. It would also be unsafe. I have a lot going on (as you'll see reading further along) and I would not be able to devote the attention needed to make sure that the domme side of things was done safely. Ultimately, the Miss Saphi you see in my posts and my writing and my audio and my sessions is going to remain in the content I make.

Secondly, what actually are my sessions about? In basic terms, you come to me, we negotiate the content of the session/scene, figure out boundaries, then we set out a date and time. The intro session is very much like this too, but a little more structured and strict in its content. I don't tolerate "I have no limits" or "Do anything to me" kinds of play partners. Much like hypnosis, everything we do is collaborative, even if I am the one leading the scene. It is a give and a take.

What they are not is me becoming more than a hypnotist in a few capacities. As I said above, I'm not a capital D domme, so what we do is in our sessions and that is it. I am also not a confidant or, to be reductionist, a therapist. While my work is warm and welcoming and I put forward a very caring environment, there are only so many things I can do. Providing you a safe space, in which you are always in control, to explore hypnosis and kink? I can do that. Flirting and teasing via text at any of day and maintaining play and scenes outside of my working hours? That is something I cannot do.

If you want a little teasing, my posts are the best and only place for it.

Talking of which.

Writing & Reblogs

I have been slacking on writing. I feel a good chunk of this was down to burnout.

My writing comes in three forms: session writeups, fiction, and posts.

When it comes to session writeups, I have a big backlog that I want to get through. I have had amazing sessions with beautiful people from all walks of identity and gender, and I feel sharing their experiences are good things. To be transparent, writing about these sessions has two functions: first, they share the wonderful experiences of hypnosis that is a bit different to what is usually out there. I've seen, time and time again, how people love that my kind of hypnosis is framed in a more caring and safe way. Second, they advertise. They show what I can do, what people enjoy, and that someone could have an experience with me themselves. Everyone I write about gives express consent and understands this. A business, of any kind, needs to reach out, and I want to do it a way that provides and isn't intrusive.

Fiction is something I want to get back to doing. It allows me to flex my writing while giving something different and fantastical to you. There are thing that my hypnosis cannot do, and fiction is where those fantasies can flourish. It also allows me to explore characters and places through the lenses of hypnosis and magic. Melody and Dina, my two witches who can't seem to catch a break, the wider myths and stories of Miss Saphi, and whatever ideas come to my mind or come to yours with commissions.

Then we have posts. These are like indulgent snacks compared to my writeups and fiction. I like to make these because I may have an idea in my head that maybe doesn't have the room to grow into something bigger, but should still be shared. They also allow me to interact with you lovely folk in the reblogs. Admittedly, interactions have become something that I want to look at a little differently. I do so love responding to you all and inviting you in to my little world of magic, but that also means I'm not doing other things while I'm responding to people. I don't want to stop responding to people, but I now know I can't respond to everyone. So please, if you reach out to me through my writing, know that I do see it, and that if I don't comment or react, it isn't because of you or anything you've done.

Audio

I have been having so much fun with making audio, but lots of things got in the way of me doing more.

I have them forming in two categories for me: hypnosis and narration.

With the former, I would like to begin provide hypnotic and hypnotic adjacent experiences. I want to create audio files that do what they can to emulate what I provide in my sessions, and avoid a lot of the pit falls that audio files seem to do. It also means that the people who want to try my sessions can do so in some capacity without needing to commission me. I've seen so many lovely folk tell me that they'd love to have a session with me but things get in the way, so this would provide something for them as well. With these audio files I hope they give the experience I want them to give, provide a creative outlet for myself, and to also provide a means for people who were able to have a session but were unsure or tentative, have more of an understanding and experience; a try-before-you-buy.

With my narrations, I want these to occupy a similar space that ASMR audio and roleplay does. Consider them stories that I tell you that can begin to feel a little real if you so wished. With regards to my work, they will sit between my fiction writing and hypno audio, something fantastical that might just suck you in if you want it to.

Support

As I've said, my sessions are my main form of support right now, with tips/donations right behind them.

I want to bolster my Patreon so it becomes a more accessible way for people to support me and my work.

Buying sessions is a scary thing, they're quite big, they're an unknown for a lot of people, and so I feel that my Patreon can be a place for people to engage with me in a way that supports me and is more respectful of them.

I am aiming to put new fiction and new audio on Patreon first.

I also want to create content that would be exclusive to Patreon. This is not to arbitrarily paywall. This is for the content that takes more to produce and create. This would include more involved audio roleplays and hypno content, and fiction.

---

Thank you if you got this far, that means a lot more to me than you might think. I am overjoyed that I get to do this, and I want to do so much more, and I hope you all will be here while I do it.

As a treat for reading all of that, here's what I'm going to do next. I'm going to release my first audio roleplay. It is about you visiting my cottage because you've wanted to have a session with me but you're not too sure. So, I sit you down in my cottage and talk to you about how my magic works. I do this in my intro session, and I feel its good to share for people. It isn't inherently made to entrance, but creates a safe space for those who may want to slip into my words.

[omorithedreamermod]

FEBRUARY DEVLOG - 1

The third DEVLOG has arrived...this time spelled correctly! Lots of progress has been made since the last update!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

So, about saves! I don't know if people noticed the edited DEVLOG from last time, but...it seems that you WILL be able to use your demo saves for the prelude! Testing looks good so far, so hoping it stays this way. Thank goodness, because now all those watermelons you collected in HEADSPACE won't be for nothing! Why is that...? Well! Hehe...

PROGRESS:

Remember how last time I said majority of maps were completed? That was incorrect. NOW the majority are done and only a couple are left. I've made so many maps this week. Thumbs up (fades into dust)

NPCs got cooked up. Basically all are complete, unless a couple more are needed, but for now, basically a done task. Some character sprite art needs to be made still, but not a lot!

All battle art is complete, including enemies, and portraits. They have also been programmed in, so they are fully functional, and battles are a done task! Wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, thankfully! Battlebacks still need to be made, but those are relatively quick.

OST...I said last time it was near complete. I was wrong. NOW it's near complete. At the moment, there are currently 44 tracks for the full dreamer prelude (including the demo tracks!). There's still a couple more to be made, but definitely mostly done ^^ It's going to be a LONG compilation video!

Writing was on the back-burner while I was focusing on creating assets. That doesn't mean there wasn't progress! Still, from this point on, writing and programming will be a main focus now that majority of assets are complete.

Portraits are not all complete. SUNNY needs more hospital portraits, and BASIL also needs new real world portraits! Those will take a bit...

Currently, all the mirror locations still need to be done, which means completing the battle-backs first. There is also a new title screen art that needs to be done. Along with that...a major, drawn cutscene, and another rougher cutscene...and maybe another short one, as well as art for the credits. A lot of art to do...

NOTES:

March is looking bright! Very bright! One part of the panic now comes from hoping I can program and write everything in a speedy manner, including NPC dialogue and miscellaneous stuff. Once again, a ton of the content is optional. But, like the DEMO, you are rewarded for you investment ^^ There's also a lot of secrets, so, good luck! Badges will be even more fun this time around!

Everyone really stepped up with the NPCs and I am very thankful for the sprite teams help! The OST is also coming along so well thanks to everyone. I've also appreciated the people who have taken the time to answer questions about programming and such that I have!

Still, the biggest point of stress is that I'm doing all the art, and I don't know how quickly I can do these cutscenes. One of them is very important to look clean and beautiful, and I have to do my best to stay very on style, which isn't as easy in cutscenes as it is with portraits. Along with that, real world portraits take longer than, say, STRANGER, who is monochrome. DREAMER was pretty time consuming, but I'm not as solid on real world portrait style yet. I'll figure it out, hopefully...

I'm also concerned once again about the trailer, and making art ahead of time for it for future events. I think it'll be okay, though? I usually pull through! And if need be, I can simplify the trailer a little.

CONCLUSION:

Currently, (along with completing the remaining assets) the goal is for me to complete all the writing/programming to start playtesting before March 1st, which means the PRELUDE will be completed and playable before March. This will NOT include the final art, such as cutscenes, and trailer art that aren't required for progression. So, while playtesting is happening, I will hopefully step back and really get all that art done so the mid-March release is possible!

There's still so much to do, but so much has been done, and I'm very proud of how things are going-to the point I even find the DEMO very lacking compared to the full PRELUDE! Please look forward to the coming release, and the next DEVLOG!

[cripplecharacters]

Alright, I'm just gonna bite the bullet. Worst that can happen is I make a fool of myself. I've been working on superhero stories, versions of the same universe since I was in 8th grade and what I want more than anything is to modernize superheroes, create a world where they act for all people's social good and take representation to the highest level I can think of. From your position of expertise, what can I do with the creation of disabled characters that would buck the trend, do some good, and show a good side. The non-prosthetic and non-corrected for disability rep in the genre is basically nil, I have no ideas and nothing to draw on. I guess I just wanna know what disabled audiences might like to see for once in their lives.

Hello!

Disabled superheroes are awesome. There's really few of them but the ones that we do have are often really important to us - you can look at the reactions to Sun-Spider being first introduced to the Spiderverse, back then I couldn't open my fridge without seeing that one panel where she explicitly says she has hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos.

Here are a few suggestions of what I'd like to see in the superhero genre:

Superheroes with facial differences. Comics love to use us for their ugly disfigured evil villains but not much else unfortunately. I'd kill for a superman type hero who saves people with a smile and a facial difference on his face. Especially for superhero stories that are geared towards kids and teens, we just desperately need something to help with shifting the public perception of people with facial differences from "evil and ugly" to "people that can be awesome". A hero with burn scars, with Treacher Collins syndrome, Bell's palsy, neurofibromatosis... anything.

Superheroes who use disability aids (and still need them when doing their job). Sun-Spider is an awesome example, she swings from her crutches and has a spider wheelchair. That's cool as hell. But even a less in-your-face aid would be great. A superhero flying above the city with her ankle-foot orthoses visible would go really hard. Also, superheroes who are concerned on how much these things cost and try their best to make sure they're still functional while they save the city.

Heroes with different causes of their disabilities. The vast majority of morally good disabled characters were involved in An Accident or some sort of Attack that disabled them. That's not bad or wrong at all, but I think in media is kind of oversaturated with this specific portrayal when a lot of people have progressive or congenital conditions. We need more stories that show those who were born disabled as heroes equal to those who were born abled and spent most of their lives abled. Superheroes with cerebral palsy, chromosomal disorders, congenital rubella, achondroplasia, all the disabilities that tend to get ignored despite so many people having them. Same for really common chronic illnesses, diabetes or COPD are criminally underrepresented.

Disabled superheroes that aren't saints because of their disability. This is the whole "disabled person can do no wrong" trope that appears sometimes. I'm mentioning it since superheroes are more "perfect" than most characters in other genres, so try to not make it so the disabled ones can do no wrong. Disabled people can still make mistakes that are their fault, make poor decisions, or just simply be angry sometimes.

When there's no active superhero action going on, show the normal human parts of the disabled experience. Depending on the demographic you're writing for it would be different things, but there are some fairly universal concepts like inaccessibility, microaggressions, or just boring things like the prosthetic leg no longer fitting well after the character gained some weight. If your characters are from the US, don't be afraid to mention that their insulin costs are barely affordable with their superhero pay. Show how the common everyday kind of ableism affect them when they're in civilian mode. This will make it much more authentic to disabled readers.

These are my suggestions, and I hope they are helpful. My last advice is to have multiple disabled characters, and in different roles. Maybe a character with ALS can no longer do superhero fighting, but he can still be a wonderful parent. Maybe the character with Usher syndrome is more interested in the hero than being a hero themselves (disabled heroes in relationships!). Maybe the character with phocomelia can't be a hero yet because she's six, but she can train hard to be one when she's older. Keep it varied, have them come from different life situations and have different goals just like abled characters do.

I hope this helps,

mod Sasza

[last-sprout]

Last Sprout Dev Diary - Nov 22, 2024

Hello sprout folks! I'm Valerie, or @oneominousvalbatross, and I've been working on Last Sprout since July, and I'm wildly excited to share some of the things I've been working on with y'all.

Ignore that Twiggs' hat falls off that's natural.

I'm aiming for a Dev Diary once a week on Fridays, and I'm just gonna be giving a brief look into making a game! I'm learning how to do a lot of this stuff live, so I'm sure there'll be a ton of massive rewrites and changes. I have probably a dozen huge systems that are already built that I'm not going to be getting into in this post, since I'm already half a year or so into development, but I'm sure I will find space to include them later!

XP

I spent most of my time figuring out exactly how we wanted to represent XP in the world. We were pretty certain that we wanted XP to exist physically as a substance you picked up, so I started with a system from a previous build.

In that version, we just created a bunch of XP objects and scattered them into the world, then had some code that scooted them around. Of course, that means that we're tracking an individual unity GameObject for every single instance of a point of XP which is, uh, slow.

This is what we call 'suboptimal.'

So obviously we needed to not instantiate an entire transform every time we needed to spawn XP. Even if we re-used objects that would just be prohibitively expensive for an object that really just needs a position.

I'm not going to go over each step in the process, but after experimenting with GPU instancing to just draw a bunch of XP objects at once, eventually I landed on extending Unity's particle system, since it has a lot of the settings I wanted access to.

To make the XP move how I wanted, I wrote a pretty simple process that iterates through all the little blobs and checks how close they are to a designated collector, then uses an exponential decay function (with thanks to Freya Holmér) to make them move towards Twiggs.

I think every game should have an action that can be best summarized by making the noise 'SHWOOOOOP.'

Parrying

Parrying was a good deal simpler, but it still has its issues. Essentially, all a parry needs to be is a hitbox and an animation, with some callbacks to enemies to let them react to the parry. Whenever an attack hitbox intersects with either a Parrybox or a Hurtbox, it checks its tags to see if it's interacting with the appropriate entities, to makes sure enemies aren't hitting or parrying each other constantly. If it passes the test, it calls GetParried() on the intersecting object.

GetParried(), idiot.

For the basic behavior, parrying just interrupts the attack in progress and knocks the enemy back by a set amount, but there's room in the system to add all sorts of neat effects, which I'm sure we'll be taking advantage of in the future. It's been a challenge to juggle the various kinds of hitboxes, but it'll definitely be worth it going forward!

Of course, between all these bits there were a ton of bugfixes and little experiments, but that's a topic for a later dev diary!

[sandyca5tle]

Slime HRT - 24 Months

Well, these past couple months have been hell, with a light at the end of the tunnel that I’ve now reached, but still. Anyway, on with the show…

So, before I get into the really gritty stuff, my jaw and teeth were converted pretty early on, as well as my ear bones. The former were a little funky, but honestly nothing really changed there, since I already don’t need to chew things, losing my teeth was no big deal, and for the latter, there was a small blip in my hearing - for a few minutes - but then it came back, honestly better than before. I wasn’t super worried about the hearing loss, particularly after eyes taste and smell, only how long I'd be deaf for, but fortunately, as I said, it really wasn't a problem. I’m pretty sure that my slime has just replaced my inner ear’s function innately, and since hearing is just interpreted vibrations, and slime is pretty good at vibrating. What was and has been nice is the cat ears I made a few months back can now actually function, which took a little getting used to, but my hearing is super good now, if a little overwhelming at times.

Right, on to the less pleasant parts: Remember how in the last update I said that apparently you know when your brain goes, yeah, that’s true, and it’s ‘cause it’s genuinely the most painful, disorienting, and scary thing I have ever experienced. First of all, unlike a lot of other changes, it kinda just goes all at once - I think it’s a survival thing, the brain/core wouldn’t function while being half transformed, and it’d probably kill you if they tried to. Only issue is that this means that your brain basically dissolves over the course of a few hours, which is excruciating, and the weeks leading up to that absolutely suck as well.

The first thing I noticed was the pain - headaches, some of the worst I’ve ever had (which I know I’ve said a lot over the course of this, but I was fortunate before to have very little issues, and turns out transforming your whole body hurts). I tried to take some painkillers to help, but they don’t seem to work any more - not sure if it’s ‘cause my biology is so different now, or ‘cause my body breaks them down too well, but either way they don’t work, so I had to suffer through the pain.

Either on top of or because of the pain, I've had a general sense of disorientation. It started off as just sometimes getting a little turned around in games and the like, but it progressed to getting lost if I tried to go anywhere (which was compounded by some other stuff too). Frankly it's a good thing in the final days before my brain changed that I hurt too much to go anywhere, else I probably would have ended up somewhere entirely unknown at a really vulnerable stage in my transformation.

I also have had some memory issues while things have worked things out. My memory has never been amazing in the first place, but I started to get very forgetful, forgetting appointments, plans, even eating (I'd usually ‘remember’ when I started idly eating random things I had around, which has meant I've lost a few things, but I don't remember what so I'm keep finding things I need to replace). I’m also pretty sure I lost some older memories too, but it’s really hard to tell if that’s from normal forgetting or forgetting ‘cause my brain was becoming mush, it’s kinda scary not knowing. This is also part of what compounded my disorientation - when telling left from right is getting hard, forgetting where you're even meant to go or have come from only makes things worse. Also, try reforming yourself from a puddle when you barely remember what you were before… definitely had some interesting shapes recently. Honestly, it was terrifying, I actually didn't know if I'd ever be able to remember things again (obviously I can, but I didn't know that at the time, and my memory of that period are sketchy at best)

Of course, the pain I mentioned earlier made it hard to focus on things, but even beyond that my ability to focus seemed to vanish. I have been so easily distracted over the past couple of months. Genuinely a glint of light or something could completely draw my attention from whatever I was doing, and then I'd usually completely forget what I was doing, get distracted by something else and wonder off. I apparently walked off in the middle of so many games and videos and just any activity I was doing. Frankly it's a miracle that I have any notes, or remember enough to actually write this entry, I kinda spent most of this last month piecing together what I do remember and have notes of (the notes are not the most legible, worse than my normal handwriting which is awful anyways (there's a reason I type these updates)). 

On top of all this, I also had nightmares and hallucinations. The former sucked, but honestly asides from waking up in some weird shapes in attempts to either fight or defend myself from whatever was jumping me in the nightmare (assuming it was a monster one) they were over once I woke up. The hallucinations were worse, since they could appear at any time, and oh boy do they seem real. Sometimes they were small things, noises, or a shape in my periphery. Other times they were blurry, intimidating figures in the distance. And of course with my inability to focus on things, these hallucinations would only be another thing to distract my addled brain. The worst though, was waking up from a nightmare, a puddle unable to reform, and the nightmare continuing as a hallucination in the real world. That'd usually shake me up for a day - and annoyingly my memory issues didn't really seem to extend to them. I'm still working out what was real and fake from that time, and it has not been easy, or fun. My ‘brain’ feels like goddamn soup whenever I think about that time. 

On top of everything else, sometimes I'd faint. Sometimes due to pain, other times (particularly towards the end of the transformation) I'd just keel over, only to wake up in a puddle of myself. It was really disconcerting and scary… kinda felt like my brain was just cutting out, and I was a little scared it might not cut back in at some point… and of course that’s one of the things I remember clearly, the fear and worry of that - very clear that the ‘remember bad shit’ survival instinct was and still is functioning, as annoying as that is.

Since I don't particularly want to linger on those thoughts more than I already have, an interesting thing to note is that even through all of this, my actual mental faculties didn't diminish - while I was forgetful and distracted, if I managed to make myself, I found myself just as capable as before. I partially did this to help assure myself I wasn't losing myself, but also because, let's be honest, slimes aren't known for being the brightest bunch, and I've been a little worried this whole time that I'd get dumber or something. The pamphlet I was given didn't really say anything about this happening, but I know from trans hrt that the information your given doesn't always include every possible effect (I know it certainly failed to mention the attention issues during the most recent stage, and the blindness from before) 

But, despite last month being basically the worst month of my life, I have survived, albeit a little scrambled, and I'm slowly putting everything back together. And of course, now, there's nothing human left in me! I'm all slime!!! (It makes me so unbelievably happy to be able to say that now).

Interestingly, unlike everything else, my brain hasn't fully gone, instead I ended up with what I quickly realised is a slime core! For those unfamiliar, slimes can have a core, which is essentially like their brain/major organ inside them, usually looking like a small coloured sphere. While slimes are usually pretty hard to damage permanently, damage done to a slimes core can be very debilitating, like heart, brain, or lung damage for humans and stuff. 

I actually think I had a kind of proto-core before hand, but didn't notice it, and I think it came around about when my digestive system was changed, since I think my core manages matter-to-slime conversion (I'm guessing this ‘cause that's improved since my core has now fully formed). I guess I didn’t spy it before ‘cause it was too small or something?

On that note, my core is/looks like, interestingly, a kind of verdant green gem. It mostly just seems to float inside of my goo, although I can move it around my body wherever I like, but I tend to keep it either right in the middle of my torso, or in the middle of my chest (at least in human form). Both areas have a decent amount of goo protecting my core, and it looks neat to have it there. 

It does actually look really pretty, especially when taken outside of my body (don't worry, it can be taken out of my body, so long as it remains in contact with my goo I'm completely fine), and yeah, just kinda looks like a funky green stone/gem. I am curious as to why it's green, and I'm kinda hoping it's gonna boost the efficiency of my photosynthesis, and that it's green ‘cause of chlorophyll, but I don't honestly know yet, need some nice sunny days to properly test it out. 

I did find out that if my core does become separated from my goo, I can just reform another body from stored goo around the core, leaving the old body to fall (but I can just reabsorb it afterwards to maintain mass). Oh, and before anyone worries that I was being reckless, I made sure to check that I wouldn't die before I tested anything.

On the note of stored goo, it seems like excess goo/matter is stored in the core, like fat in humans. I'm not sure what or if there's a limit or what happens if I try to eat too much, but as far as I've gotten for now, it seems to be fine. I have noticed that I actually seem lighter now, I still seem to weigh about as much as I look like I should (maybe slightly over) and as such it changes if I make myself grow bigger, but not really if I eat things. I'm not entirely sure quite what's going on there, as that seems like some physics defying shit, but it's actually super useful, means I can store as much mass as I'd like and not break the sofa when I sit down. 

So asides from all of those experiences and changes, I've found a couple other things that have sprung up from these changes. Firstly, I've found that my body feels much more coherent, I'm very much now one gelatinous entity, rather than bits of one and bits of another. Movement feels much more fluid now, especially outside of a humanoid form (not that I've gotten worse at being humanoid, just better at everything else) and I honestly find myself kind of hot swapping between slime ball and slime girl as I need/feel like it. Also navigating crowds is super easy now, just kinda slipping and moving between any gaps (I could kinda do this before, but again, now it feels so second nature). On top of this, my multitasking seems to have improved. I still can’t say one thing while writing another, but I've gotten better at physical multitasking; I struggle less coordinating my ‘hands’ when I try playing the piano for example (I still can't play it, but I've got more of the coordination for it). Add in that I can very easily have several limbs/pseudopods/whatever you want to call them at once (which is honestly why I think my multitasking has improved, it's to facilitate control of the numerous structures I can now produce) and it’s become very easy to manage multiple, physical, tasks at once. 

One thing I have noticed myself doing, almost subconsciously (and honestly, this might've started a little before now, but I'll talk about it here, since I've really noticed it now), I'll just adjust my body however I need in the moment. Now, this may sound kind of obvious, but it's a little funky (but mostly neat) to just suddenly grow an extra limb, or pseudopod to hold or grab something quickly, or to just adjust my mass to better balance or manage something. Again, very neat, but a little funky to realise when I didn't consciously think about it. 

Relatedly, shaping has become easier, not sure if that's due to practise, or having a more compatible neurological centre, but I seem to be able to shape myself quicker, and I seem to have gained a better memory for shape too, the latter is definitely due to recent changes, or at least, definitely due to the treatment.

I've  also still been working on my acid control, which feels like it's gotten easier, but again I can't say whether that's from practice or the recent changes, but I can at least somewhat reliably keep an area of my body acid free now for a bit.

Unrelated to the treatment, but I'm actually much shorter now, at least in my humanoid form, clocking in at around 4’4”(slime ball form has remained the same size, at around 30cm tall). I always liked the idea of being really small, and I can now, and it's not like it really offers any disadvantages, since I can just reach tendrils up to grab things from high up (with eyes/vision so I can see what I'm doing), plus it means I have more spare slime to spend on other, more fun things than just being tall. This all being said, the idea of using all my slime to become really big also has its appeals, but it's less practical for day to day life. 

To touch on one final thing, I definitely don't feel human anymore. I'm a slime, through and through, humanity is just a memory. I've mentioned before feeling more and more detached from humanity (if I ever felt truly attached) as this process has gone on, but now that I'm seemingly done, I don't feel human at all. Interestingly, I find this aspect has been remarkably similar to gender transition, with the feeling of being a guy slowly fading away until it seemed alien to think of myself as one, which kinda feels like where I'm at at the moment. I'll likely catch myself still including myself in humanity from time to time for a while, but I can safely say I'm a slime, and I am so happy I can now. So that’s what my life has been for the last couple of months, and while parts sucked - like, really sucked - the end result is so unbelievably worth it. While this feels like the end of slime hrt, I do have an appointment planned with the doc to talk about my next step and hopefully get myself onto shapeshifter hrt, so my next update will probably be about that. See y’all then!

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@calliecwrites, @friedsputnik, @now-entering-the-goop-zone, @scrubbinn, @lilacinthefog

@mint-and-authoress, @losttodreams, @redroversendjayover, @ariathelamia, @kanithedemoncat

[lilmissnatcat24]

Out of Eden Masterpost!!!

A Mass Effect fanfiction trilogy. The events of the games had Shepard not been on Eden Prime.

Book One: Turn Left (completed)

Delia Shepard, traumatized and addicted to red sand after Torfan, has found a quiet-- albeit boring-- life on the Citadel as a Drugs and Trafficking Officer. When one of her informants is found dead in an alley, she's forced to team up with Detective Garrus Vakarian: an unfeeling, stiff, full of himself douche. But as they work together, they find that a dead mole is the least of their issues. Trouble is brewing, enemies are at every turn. And to top it all off, Shepard has sworn off friendships completely after the Alliance. So why can she barely function without Vakarian?

In another dark corner of the Citadel, Archangel has decided to sign up for an anonymous sex club. What's the worst that can happen? He's matched with a human he knows only as the Commander, someone who he can demand to obey his every rule and whim. As their meetings progress, Archangel finds himself getting closer and closer to the Commander. Can lust turn into something more substantial?

TAGS:

Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, Slow Build, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Detective Noir, Sex Club, Anonymous Sex, Canon Temporary Character Death, Murder Mystery, Drug Use, Dom Garrus Vakarian, Whump, Smut, Heavy Angst, Alien SexAlien/Human Relationships, Dual POV, an overly sexual elcor named candy, Earthborn (Mass Effect), Ruthless (Mass Effect). Fake/Pretend Relationship, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Identity Porn, Minor Character Death, Torture, Blood and Gore, the dove is so dead i brought it back to life and then drowned it in its own piss, i wrote this with a diet dr pepper and a dream

Fic Link: x

BOOK TWO: Electric Sheep (ongoing, updates Saturdays)

Two years after the death of Garrus Vakarian, Delia Shepard finds herself stationed on Horizon when the Collectors attack and kidnap Kaidan Alenko. When a mysterious shadow corporation by the name of Cerberus comes to her rescue, she sees is as not only a way to save Kaidan, but to possibly do some good in the universe. But there's a mysterious turian who follows her at every step, one that may be more than he seems on the surface.

Garrus Vakarian is alive. He's 30% cybernetics, embedded with a control chip and surveillance devices that track his every move, and doesn't care about anything anymore-- but alive. He has one sole mission: to destroy Cerberus from the inside out. But when Shepard happens back into his life, he's forced to make the harrowing decision of whether to complete his mission, or to risk it all for the woman he once thought he couldn't live without.

TAGS:

Lovers to Enemies to Lovers Again, Slow Burn, Slow Build, Alternate Universe- Canon Divergence, Minor Character Death, Gore, Torture, Blood, Lots of Disturbing Imagery, Dual POV, Earthborn (Mass Effect), Ruthless (Mass Effect), Whump, Eventual Smut, Heavy Angst, Unrequited Love That's Actually Very Much Requited, Mind Control, So Much Pining Even I'm a Little Disturbed, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, A Children's Show Called the Electromenon That Teaches Shepard About Basic Physics, Hurt/Comfort, Found Family, OC Central, Yet Another Cliffhanger Ending (Sorry About That)

Fic Link: x

Fic Cover: x done by the absolutely stunning @milkywayes!!!

[justmeandmysickies]

Okay so Nick and Joe are back together but that's not actually what happened? Or how can I understand that? Not trying to be mean just trying to understand their story! Maybe you could give a rundown of the events you haven't written out? I love those two and I'd love to know more about them and their relationship! All love

ooh thanks for asking anon!! some additional information/ explanation of the "You're a coward" storyline under the cut:

1. Joe and Nick have never been in a healthy functioning relationship

2. When they first got together it was just supposed to be about sex however they developed feelings and figured they'd try

3. they fought more than anything and they both cheated on one another (to deliberately hurt the other i might add)

4. they ended that dumpsterfire of a relationship in mutual agreement

5. they both did some healing in therapy and otherwise after (they stayed friends the entire time because they have a mutual friend group)

6. Nick couldn't let go of Joe, realizing that he did actually kinda love that man and after a long time and lots of talking Joe agreed to try again

7. everything went well for a while (most of my fics with them are set during that time) but they still had loads of issues to work through

7.1. most prominently Nick's commitment as well as his abandonment issues and Joe's control issues

8. Nick broke up with Joe three separate times and Joe talked him out of it because he realized that this was Nick's trauma talking and not what he actually wanted

8.1. basically the more serious the relationship got (usually when hitting relationship milestones like saying 'i love you' for the first time or moving in together) the worse Nick's self sabotage got

8.2. "I'll leave him before he can leave me so that I won't be the one getting hurt"

8.3. that is the reason why Nick broke up with Joe and left when he realized he was actually thinking about marrying him

9. after the whole "You're a coward" storyline it took them much longer to get back together because turns out Joe met someone while Nick was gone - it was basically just sex as a distraction but Joe developed feelings for that guy and then struggled hard with the fact that he seemingly had feelings for two people at the same time

10. Nick obviously had a huge problem with that too (also the guy's name is Ira, and he became an official part of the friend group while Nick was gone)

11. because Ira got adopted by their friends both Joe and Nick have to see him all the time which drives Nick absolutely crazy (he hates Ira on principle) - so Joe has to spend a lot of time reminding Nick that he chose him and not Ira and that he is happy with that decision

12. Joe then has a falling out with his best friend Erik because Erik has a deeply fueled hatred for Nick because of what he did to Joe (and the fact that he also abandoned Erik and their other friends but that's secondary)

12.1. so Erik does not approve of Joe getting back with Nick and never misses an opportunity to remind Joe that he thinks that this is stupid (Joe feels absolutely misunderstood and unsupported by his best friend)

12.2. that puts a strain on their relationship as Joe is really struggling with what to do (he doesn't want to lose his best friend either)

13. right now Erik and Joe are basically just coexisting (and both hurting because of it) while Joe and Nick are working hard on their relationship and making good progress as well

aaand that's everything I'm gonna tell for now because the rest of their relationship may get relevant in the future ("another story arc yay" the crowd says)

[itsbenedict]

So this year went... not as good, vis-a-vis doing the things I wanted to do! Breaking down the goals...

Finish the first case of Justice/Arcana and revise the draft

Nnnnnope! I got through most of it, the players figured out the primary trick, but then I kind of hit a wall where I realized that I hadn't done enough to narrow down the culprit based on figuring out the trick. Doing so would require reworking the logistics such that the back room is the kitchen (an offscreen location the first draft never investigated) and characters have sandwich alibis. I've kind of got to go back to the drawing board here.

Finish the SakuraPetalFantasy walkthrough portion of Datasouls (not with the whole combat toy situation, just the rest of it)

Nope! I got chapter 4 done, but chapter 5 is only in an outline state right now. I did spend like a couple months doing Lost in Hearts instead, which built on the concept a little, but I didn't put in the work to finish things up.

Do 24 TFJ recaps, two per month

Nuh-uh. I got about halfway, but in addition to falling victim to my slump in the latter part of the year, TFJ itself kind of came to an unceremonious end due to some structural issues and player conflict. Current plan is to work with Farn to use the campaign as raw material to write a fantasy novel focusing on Saelhen.

Work through all the exercises in Genki 1 and 2, and catch up on WK reviews.

Nope- I mean, I caught up on reviews, but then fell out of the habit halfway through the year, and didn't finish the workbooks.

Date someone. I feel like I look decent and have a lot of desirable qualities that would make this not too hard to accomplish, but I have to put effort into looking or it’s never going to happen on its own. (I am unfortunately of the gender that doesn’t typically get asked out and has to take the initiative.) It’s gonna be tricky since I’m a weird person with weird life priorities and finding someone who’d actually be happy partnering up with that long-term is a tall order.

Haha, no. I wrote up a dating profile thing, and I did get one bite, but then she ghosted and it's been a couple months and it'd be awkward to try and go "hey, uh, are you still there?" at this point. I tried looking around myself, but I don't really know where to look- most dating sites are just hookup apps where you just swipe on faces nowadays, and that's useless to me. Everyone I've ever developed a crush on organically has been one of taken, ace, or lesbian, and at this point I have to assume there's a causal factor and I'm not just unlucky. I think I'm going to have to move somewhere more densely populated to have any shot at finding a good fit.

Actually get that standing desk walk-while-working workflow set up and establish an exercise routine that I keep to for more than half the year

Not quite. I did keep to an exercise routine for exactly seven months, but I didn't get the walk-while-working thing worked out- I haven't found any under-desk ellipticals that aren't extremely precarious and awkward to use while focusing on something else, so I'm thinking I should look for a mini treadmill next instead.

Release a functional version of that Fire Emblem content authoring tool

Nope! That was way more work than I expected- or at least, I expected I'd be able to keep working on it on and off throughout the year, which didn't happen. I did make pretty good progress, though- I'd say it's like, half done?

Replace grody old kitchen sink that has weird white stuff growing out from inside the handle

Okay I did do this one. But that was basically just a matter of ordering a thing on Home Depot and calling a plumber, so like, not exactly an achievement, just something I knew I'd keep forgetting to do indefinitely unless I put it on the list.

Finish the games I’m still playing through from this post

Almost! Still haven't finished The Sekimeiya, though I did make it far enough that I think I've got some kind of idea of how that egg thing works and how things fit together, even if there's a lot of gaps in the specifics.

Find some new source of income reliable enough to pay the bills without making me work more than 20 hours a week. (I’m a programmer, this is hypothetically doable.) Freelancing/contract work maybe?

Sorta? I did quit the horrible company that bought my division, but I stayed on as a contractor for miscellaneous stuff (and insisted on writing the noncompete clause out of the contract in negotiations, which they agreed to), and went back to work for the old company at the same time. At $100/hour, I worked an average of ten hours a week... kinda. The first five months or so, I worked almost not at all, living off my savings and doing odd jobs for less than my monthly expenses. The rest of the year, various disasters occurred and I was working my ass off putting out fires, so I was basically working full-time for much less than a full-time salary. I wouldn't say I nailed the employment situation, but I did keep my head above water.

How Come I Fucked Up?

Four reasons.

First, and smallest- halfway through the year was when the fires started at work and I started having way more stress and way less time. It was hard to focus on anything when something new was breaking and I was on the hook for it for months at a time.

Secondly: two of my grandparents died this year. Not only was this a pretty severe emotional blow, because they were amazing people and it's stupid and unfair that this happened- it also meant lots of traveling, to funerals and family events. It chewed through my budget and necessitated spending more hours on work, and left me exhausted and strung out for several weeks.

Thirdly and fourthly: the Elden Ring DLC came out, and also I got addicted to Pokérogue. I put... a stupid amount of hours into these games. Like two or three hours a day for multiple months. All my productive energy was consumed first by work, and then by vegging out and playing video games due to a lack of willpower.

This was a colossal failure. Like, from July onwards, I got practically nothing done. Half a year of my life, up in smoke! This is not sustainable. I need to do something major to course-correct here.

I think one thing that'll probably be worthwhile is... having failed to find a romantic partner, I need to move in with someone. I can resist the temptation to sit around like a lump doing repetitive videogames as long as there is some witness to my squalor. I'm very comfortable living alone, but I have to fight the temptation to vanish into comfort and never complete any of my many missions. I gotta have a friend around who can see when I'm wasting time, and cares at least a little about whether I'm getting things done.

So current plan is I'm moving to Providence with Farn pretty soon? And I'm going to try to land a flexible full-time position with just one of these companies I'm working with, so I can have health insurance and don't need to worry about being in the red during slow months.

[astercontrol]

Hey! Question for anyone out there who

is working on archiving stuff in case it gets lost, and

is more familiar with coding than I am.

---

I've been backing up my Tumblr regularly for years now. I'm trying very hard to get into the habit of saving everything I create that's of value to me and NOT relying on a website I can't control to keep it saved…

And the problem with Tumblr's innate "download-a-backup" function is that once you've downloaded it, it seems you can't fully access it unless your Tumblr blog still exists and you have an internet connection capable of viewing it.

Which, like, defeats the whole purpose of a backup?

???

And there is no reason that HAS to be the case! The backup does download the text of all your posts, and a copy of every image you've ever posted! You CAN look at all these things individually, on your computer, in the backup folder you downloaded, without accessing the internet at all.

But for some incomprehensible reason, the backup doesn't create real links between them!

At least, not the images.

It does give you a whole lot of individual html documents containing the text of your posts. And it does give you a big "index" html document with links to all of those.

---

---

And as far as I can tell, all of THAT works fine, whether you access it on your own private computer, or upload it all to your own self-hosted html website, or whatever.

But the images embedded in those posts are NOT the copies that you have in the big, huge, giant image folder that you went to all that trouble to download with your backup!

They're the copies that Tumblr still has stored on THEIR website somewhere.

And the images will not show up in your downloaded posts, unless 1. Tumblr still has that content from your Tumblr blog up on their site, and 2. you are connected to the internet to see it.

So… the whole Tumblr download thing feels kinda useless. Unless we can fix that.

---

There are apparently other methods of downloading one's Tumblr blog. But from what I've read, the reliable methods that actually produce a usable archive with embedded images?... are methods that require using the command terminal on your computer.

I am not enough of a programmer to feel comfortable with that.

Maybe, if someone could give me good enough instructions that I could trust not to mess up other stuff on my computer in the process, I might try it.

But right now, I'm just focused on trying to fix the archive I already downloaded.

---

The closest I get to being a programmer is editing html documents in a code editor. (I have BBEdit for Mac, the full paid version.)

And I've made some progress in learning GREP (regex) commands in there. Because that's basically an extra-specialized version of doing search-and-replace in a document, and the logic of it makes a lot of intuitive sense to me.

Anyway. To illustrate what I'm saying. Here is the link to a post of mine on Tumblr with 2 embedded images.

It is a slightly hornyish post, and LGBTQ-focused, and contains an image from a movie copyrighted by a very litigious corporation.

And I'm not saying any of that, in itself, is enough to fear for its continued existence on Tumblr.

BUT, I'm not saying I 100% trust Tumblr with it, either.

So.... because of that, and the fact that it contains two embedded images with different extensions.... it's a good example to run my tests on.

Here is a screenshot of what it looks like on Tumblr:

---

---

Here is what the post looks like in the folders generated by the backup:

---

---

The "style.css" document in the folder is what it uses for some of the formatting. Which is pretty, but not necessary.

Html documents stored on your computer can be opened in a web browser, same as websites. Here is what that html document looks like if I open it in Firefox-- while it's that same folder-- with my internet connection turned on.

---

---

Here is what it looks like if I open it after moving it to a different folder-- internet connection still on, but no longer able to access that stylesheet document, because it's not in the same folder.

---

---

Either one of those looks would be fine with me. (And the stylesheet doesn't NEED the connection to Tumblr or the internet at all, so it is a valid part of a working backup.)

But here's where the problem starts.

These are the two images that this post uses. They're in another folder within the backup folder I downloaded:

---

---

But the downloaded html document of the post doesn't use them in the same way it uses the stylesheet.

It doesn't use them AT ALL.

Instead it uses whole different copies of them, from Tumblr's goddamn WEBSITE.

This is what the downloaded post looks like when I do NOT have an internet connection.

(First: from the same folder as the css stylesheet. Second: from a different folder without access to the stylesheet.)

---

---

Without internet, it won't show the pictures.

There is NO REASON this has to happen.

And I should be able to fix it!

---

This is what the code of that damn HTML page looks like, when I open it in my code editor.

---

---

First, it contains a lot of stuff I don't need at all.

I want to get rid of all the "scrset" stuff, which is just to provide different options for optimizing the displayed size of the images, which is not particularly important to me.

Which I do using the Grep command (.*?) to stand in for all that.

---

---

This, again, is basically just a search and replace. I'm telling the code editing program to find all instances of anything starting with srcset= and ending with a slash and close-caret, and replace each one with just the slash and close-caret.

This removes all the "srcset" nonsense from every image-embed.

Which makes my document easier for me to navigate, as I face the problem that the image-embeds still link to goddamn Tumblr.

---

---

My goal here is to replace those Tumblr links:

img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/887612a62e9cdc3869edfda8a8758b52/0eeed3a3d2907da3-7c/s640x960/8fe9aea80245956a302ea22e94dfbe2c3506c333.jpg"

and

img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/67cdeb74e9481b772cfeb53176be9ad8/0eeed3a3d2907da3-c6/s640x960/785c70ca999dc44e4d539f1ad354040fd8ef8911.png"

with links to the actual images I downloaded.

Now, if I were uploading all this backup to my own personally-hosted site, I would want to upload the images into a folder there, and make the links use images from that folder on my website.

But for now, I'm going to try and just make them go to the folder I have on my computer right now.

So, for this document, I'll just manually replace each of those with img src="(the filename of the image)."

---

---

Tumblr did at least do something to make this somewhat convenient:

it gave the images each the same filename as the post itself

except with the image extension instead of .html

(one of the images is a .jpg and the other is a .png)

and with numbers after the name (_0 and _1) to denote what order they're in.

This at least made the images easy to find.

And as long as I keep the images and the html post in the same folder--

and keep that folder within the same folder as a copy of the stylesheet--

---

---

--then all the formatting works, without any need for a connection to Tumblr's website.

---

---

Now.

If only I knew how to do that with ALL the posts in my archive, and ALL their embedded images.

And this is where my search-and-replace expertise has run out.

I know how to search and replace in multiple html documents at once. But I don't know how to do it for this specific task.

What I need, now, is a set of search-and-replace commands that can:

change every image-embed link in each one of those hundreds of html posts-- all that "https://64.media.tumblr.com/(two lines of random characters).(extension)" bullshit--

replacing the (two lines of random characters) with just the same text as the filename of whichever html document it's in.

then, add a number on the end of every filename in every image-embed-- so that within each html document, the first embed has a filename that ends in _0 before the image extension, and the second ends in _1, and so on.

I am fairly sure there ARE automated ways to do this. If not within the search-and-replace commands themselves, then some other option in the code editor.

Anyone have any insights here?

[thegamingcatmom]

You asked for asks and I'm asking :) I know is probably a long shot from where we stand rn bc everything is new and terrifying, no matter how nice they are, how beautiful they are... MC has still been abducted and that's well, quite a shocking experience I might say, idk I've never been abducted by pretty women before so wat do I know, right(?) Thing is MC can't stand them, Irina can't stand MC, Tanya and Kate want to be in MC's pants and Eleazar/Carmen play a more chill kind of parental figure in all this, whic I'd say they both are the most neutral of the bunch but not less to blame bc well, they are part of it too. My question is. How the hell is this even gonna work? Like what's going to change for MC to go from hating them to tolerate them to eventually like them and fall in love with them? Same with Irina, how goes from wanting to unalive and suck MC dry to fall in love with her? I understand this may be kind of a huge spoiler to the future bc of obvs reason but I find it to be so interesting how the dynamics are going to change, sure is gonna be a bumpy road there (ha see what I did there? :p) but it is the goal after all, so I understand totally if you don't wanna say anything about it bc well, spoilers(?) But if you could at least share a lil bit of what's going through your mind on that regard? Bc in my mind I find it quite difficult, like is MC's love a lie? In the sense that she falls in love bc the trauma is so severe that she's accepted this is all that it is out there for her bc she is not getting out, like that's kind of sad but it is a possibility yk some kind of psychological response to trauma perhaps. or is her love going to be genuine, like she found true love bc she eventually got to know them and oh surprise they are not that bad despite the fact that they abducted her? (That doesn't sound pretty good either XD) But I think you'll understand where I am going with this? if not is ok I'll try to explain better (: Thanks <3

I knew I could count on you. ❤️

Aight so, right off the bat:

It is difficult. And complicated. And ugly. And beautiful. And just fucking complicated.

A bumpy road alright. 😉

...is MC's love a lie? In the sense that she falls in love bc the trauma is so severe that she's accepted this is all that it is out there for her bc she is not getting out

This is something I can answer with 100% certainty:

No, I won´t turn MC into a brainwashed puppet. I´m not saying she will always be honest with her abductors (which is well within her right, if you ask me), but when she does start developing feelings, they will be real.

...Whether she will accept them is another story. 🙈

But there´s so much that still needs to happen before we even get to that point. And I think this is really what it comes down to:

It´s about all these different struggles and obstacles MC & the Denalis will have to face - alone and together. These challenges will force changes - some for the better, some for the worse. But both is needed to make progress.

I mean, it´s easy to live in a bubble when there´s nothing there to burst it, right?

...Well, it has been burst the moment Tanya chose to bring MC home. Thing is, nobody´s realized it yet. 😅

I mentioned it a while back, but the Denalis have this system in place that has worked for centuries now. They never had a reason to change their way of living and their, well, "culture". Which basically means Tanya is the boss and everyone else just goes along with whatever strikes her mood at the moment.

...More or less. With lots of hissing and spitting. 😏

In other words: They´re a less than functioning community right now because Tanya is a less than ideal leader right now. A leader is supposed to act in the best interest of everyone else, which means Tanya should have ended MC in those woods.

...Logically speaking. 😏

But ye, there´s a lot that needs to change first before we can even think about feelings, which means that all of this here-

Like what's going to change for MC to go from hating them to tolerate them to eventually like them and fall in love with them? Same with Irina, how goes from wanting to unalive and suck MC dry to fall in love with her?

...can´t really be answered in a straightforward way. It´s gonna be a long and bumpy road (hehe) for all of them, and it´s because of those bumps that they´ll eventually (hopefully) become the best versions of themselves. Because, in the end, that´s what it´s all about. ❤️‍🩹

...she found true love bc she eventually got to know them and oh surprise they are not that bad despite the fact that they abducted her?

I mean...getting to know them is defo a huge part of it all. If not THE part. This will (hopefully) become clearer as the story progresses, but MC & The Sisters have more in common than they´re currently aware of. And I think this will make a big difference, in the long run.

(Tip: Check out Chapter 2 again. 🔍)

BONUS: REMINDER

We´ve also got something else heading our way that might cause some panic, distress, disbelief confusion among The Sisters.

Don´t forget: MC has a +1. 😉

.

.

.

Thanks a lot for your ask! I love reading those novels. 💋💋💋

[parachutingkitten]

Okay, this has been bothering me, and I'm gonna go into it, cuz I feel like being mad that the fandom didn't get better is friggin valid, so imma get negative here at some serious missed potential, if that's not your jam, 100% get it, please scroll past.

We have a season with 20 episodes, each of which are 20 minutes long. That is an unprecedented amount of time for a ninjago season- I would argue maybe too much time, but that's not what we're getting into here. Even just the first half is the length of your standard ninjago season back in the day. There is no excuse for not taking your time with ideas that deserve time. You've got time. You've got too much time.

If you're gonna do a mystical mind prison that traps you in your worst fears, you gotta do it! You can't do this wimpy half commit thing you're doing here. What is this cop out that's like three minutes long? This is a top tier trope! Loads of stories do this- for a good reason, it's a great way to get lots of new insight into your characters, not to mention have fun with environments, hypotheticals, bend logic, and do some creative filmmaking. And here you are, inventing a whole weird fictional animal to facilitate your nightmare state, and it legitimately takes up so little screen time that it hurts! What? Did you not have enough to say about your characters to fill out a full subplot? You thinking that surface level about things? Or was the basketball tournament fake out with the dragons so important to the story that you couldn't cut it out for some character introspection?

It's so short and pointless, it doesn't functionally do anything except tell us very directly "Here's what this character fears, and will have to get past this season!" No looking into why or making some progress/losing progress on the issue in the dream state. We don't even get to see everyone's visions, let alone see any interconnectivity between them. It's just such a waste of a classically exciting set up. And why on earth would you place this concept at the beginning of the season? Put it at the turning point man! That's what this scenario is made for! Literalizing characters overcoming mental challenges so that it's interesting to watch! Using the nightmare dream sphere for exposition in the most boring possible version of the trope is just dumbfounding.

I mean seriously? The black void? That's all you've got? You gonna go the Cars 2 route and set our supposedly deep nightmare sequence in a black void? No symbolism to the void even? No distorting of visuals within the void? Nothing? Can you get any more basic? Did you really put that little creativity into this? Like, the whole point of the nightmare dreamscape is to get creative! So much symbolism and messaging that you can easily tie into things! the possibilities are literally endless! But yeah, I guess Arin running in place is pretty meaningful too, I'm sure it took you a while to come up with something so profound.

There's a reason this story beat usually makes up at least half the plot of any given episode it's in! There's so much room to explore. The potential for crosscutting between nightmares is so high, drawing parallels between characters. Maybe they're all interconnected, and the mentally strongest of the team breaks free to help the others in their nightmares. Maybe it's a revelation point for the rest of the team as they see a dark past of another character they didn't know about. Or maybe it's just the audience who gets new insight into a sheltered corner of a character's mind, or a way to reveal to them a dark secret someone is hiding. You can also have fun subverting expectations, maybe one of the nightmares is just objectively pretty funny. And, the best thing about any dream environment you're creating, you can have the characters get involved in insanely creative fights and action scenes where they literally beat up their mental roadblocks with cool looking and symbolically important powers or tools.

Like, I know the fandom is losing their mind over this scene because 'omg Nya's gonna be so sad cuz of the memory loss(that hasn't even been revealed in narrative yet, so the irony doesn't even really work)' but I just need you to understand that the full fledged angst, character growth, and introspection y'all are speculating could have theoretically happened in Kai's plot is what we could have had for everyone. For a full episode. Like it deserved to be. And it would have been really cool, and really satisfying, and beautifully and symbolically stunning, because countless other people have done it, it's honestly not too difficult. Stop freaking out like they did a good job with this- they didn't do a good job with this. They couldn't even bother to give everyone a vision, they just gave up on the concept halfway through.

Not to mention how accessible and valuable this type of storytelling is to kids! Literalizing some of the big abstract issues these characters are supposedly battling this season would be a great way to get kids to grasp these ideas, but instead it's literally like two and a half minutes of slightly ominous stuff to bate us before we move on.

Stop teasing us with interesting stuff and then not actually following through! This is not how you do storytelling!

[rnelsoncapstone]

Capstone Log #6 - Troubleshooting

Sixth post, hitting the halfway mark! I'm making good progress, I hope! Trying to get into a habit of having these biweekly, but I was sick for a few days, so some of these posts are a little spread out, sorry! At the very last, I have March, April, and part of may to get these next few posts done as I progress, so thankfully I'm not lacking time whatsoever!

The past couple weeks I've been working on starting a little project of my own - a frogger-inspired game with a twist. It's going to be small and simple, but it's going to be my own! It's very bare bones right now, lacking most of its features, but I've coded in a simple player movement system and added sprite animations to make the player feel more alive! As of right now, the frog sprite you can see in game is a free asset from Itch.io, but I'm working on the animations! Below I've attached the idle animation (when the player isn't moving) of the unique frog sprite I'm working on!

A challenge I've run into while working on this game is that GDQuest's "Learn to Code From Zero", while a helpful tool that taught me lots of basic and intermediate functions, is not yet complete. Lessons are still being added to accommodate all of Godot's features, and one of the key concepts Nathan's lessons don't teach are signals, which are incredibly important to creating a complex game. While I've seen and used signals in tutorials, I've never made my own custom ones, nor have I used them on my own.

So, what I've done is enlisted the help of gamedev Youtuber DevWorm, checking out some of their "Everything You Need to Know" series, which explains Godot's features in simple, easy to understand ways and offers follow along exercises you can do while you watch. DevWorm also has an active discord server with other programmers I can speak with if I ever have any questions, so it's a good way to get into the gamedev community! I watched a video on signals and it got me right back on track! I'll link the video in this post as well.

The only place to go now is up! Keep working on my game and troubleshooting any problems I have. A developer learns by making mistakes, after all. :)

[groenendaelfic]

I've been thinking a lot about trans!Simon lately, specifically transmasc Simon, and the idea both saddens and infuriates me.

Not the part about Simon being trans of course, but how the Royal Court, the government and a not insignificant chunk of Sweden would react to Wille dating a trans man.

Because even if Kristina & co are told in the same briefing they find out he exists (unlikely but possible), they would hear his name first and assume he was AMAB.

Of course Kristina and the Royal Court would prefer if Wille dated a cis woman, but compared to a cis guy? They'd be delighted.

Transmasc Simon has a womb, to the best of their knowledge a fully functioning one, and that's all that matters. That Wille is enough into someone with a healthy womb that he's willing to marry and have children with them.

It's basically a win/win for everyone.

Wille gets to be with the person he loves, Kristina gets a happy son and hopefully grandkids and legitimate heirs in a few years, the government doesn't have to bother with pesky changes to the law and can still pride itself on Sweden being one of the most modern and progressive countries in the world, all without lifting a finger other than to permit the Crown Prince to marry the love of his life.

And if the relationship doesn't work out? Well then everyone can rest assured that Wille can manage to get it up for someone with a womb, so there's still hope. Yay.

Oh, except for Simon. It'd be a nightmare for Simon, because if he does not get pregnant, whatever the reason might be, then he'll be torn to shreds by the media etc and being called selfish will probably be the least of it. He will be pressured from day one of the marriage.

If Wille steps down? That is going to be a major blow to trans rights and acceptance, and terfs and transphobes will love it. I'm not saying that makes being a transmasc spouse to the future king worth it, I'm just saying there's no choice which won't be shit and leave Simon feeling guilty and most likely requiring therapy for life.

But if he does choose to get pregnant? He will be feminized to hell and back. He might enjoy being pregnant, but he also might not, and it as well as the entire circus around it might also cause the worst kind of gender dysphoria.

In fact I think it's very likely. And yet the pictures of him pregnant (and maybe photoshopped to make him appear more feminine because lets not kid ourselves people suck) will keep being posted and published for the rest of his life, whenever a "halfway plausible" reason arises, or maybe just because it's a slow news day.

And you know what happens after you have your first child? The questions of, why bother getting your figure back? Why not go for a second one immediately? Wouldn't that be easier? start coming up all day every day, even by "well intentioned people"'.

It'd be absolute hell for Simon, and that's why I'm never going to write trans!Simon (and/or pregnant!Simon of any kind). Apart from the fact that I would have too much anxiety about not being able to do the topic justice.

(I do know that there're a few trans!Simon fics out there I've yet to read, and that is awesome, because more fic is always good and because I admire those authors so much. This post has nothing to do with any existing trans!Simon fic, but is rather in reply to a few anon asks I got re Basket Baby and choosing to make Wille the one who gets pregnant, despite me generally seeing Wille as someone who prefers to top more often than not, and Simon to bottom, although they do switch plenty enough and want to try everything with each other, because they're Wilmon)

[beardedmrbean]

Oh thank you for liking my American wizards ideas

And about guns, okay modern trick a lot of writers use that magic is often uncomfortable with modern technology.

Now my Americans wizards gun magic is that they use mainly colonial muskets, revolvers, and recent advancements allow WW1-2 guns to be used.

Also like for the modern AK-47 and desert eagles, okay gamifying a bit. But american wizards enchantments get slow to change the type of bullets the guns use, ie a enchantment take make the bullets releasing posion gas after hitting the target and such

Actually I notice something I notice in post hp fantasy settings and especially after Rings of Power. A lot of modern creators try to put modern or globalized characters into middle age inspired settings

Like the push for black rep in fantasy…the problem is that the type of fantasy people that could resembled modern black people is if the fantasy setting take place in colonial or industrial eras.

But I think a lot of black activists in these progressive circles never realize or took the hard pill that the average black American and the modern Yoruba people are strangers to each other. We have no pagan cultural roots to Africa

Yeah it’s sucks…but it sure as hell will help you in the long wrong

And as you know I’m a Midwestern. This tweet made me realize my fantasy ideas is so different

https://x.com/oliverjia1014/status/1770085801113849979?s=46

It was a fun read

Now my Americans wizards gun magic is that they use mainly colonial muskets, revolvers, and recent advancements allow WW1-2 guns to be used.

You were talking about a steampunk type visual, you'll see a lot of old flintlock, wheel lock, and cap and ball type with the people that do steampunk, it's Victorian era so basically if it existed prior to to 1901 you're good.

Actually I notice something I notice in post hp fantasy settings and especially after Rings of Power. A lot of modern creators try to put modern or globalized characters into middle age inspired settings

Ya it's getting old, fantasy setting is not bad that and how they explained Morgan Freeman's character in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves worked great.

Moorish man that Robin had befriended instead of killed while out on the Crusade, came back to see England with Robin. It had a few 'magic negro' moments but not really magic other than the magic of his voice.

Just a inspirational speech, telescope thing too iirc been a while not really magic but a great vehicle for inserting someone who would not appear normally in that area at that time into a story.

But I think a lot of black activists in these progressive circles never realize or took the hard pill that the average black American and the modern Yoruba people are strangers to each other. We have no pagan cultural roots to Africa

Some are acutely aware of it

It's the 'they took our jobs' that everyone says it racist when you're talking about immigrants, but this is slots in college admissions and not racist at all if you ask them.

Xenophobic would be closer.

And as you know I’m a Midwestern. This tweet made me realize my fantasy ideas is so different

Guy moves to farm country and find out that farmers aren't actually the racist hicks he thought they were, many such cases.

There's a imageset from a post from FB or twitter or something, black woman breaks down in the middle of farm country on her way somewhere and her worst nightmare comes true when a white dude with confederate flag and maga stickers pulls up.

Guy was friendly and polite, helped to get her car functional and showed her where was a good place close by where a more permanent fix could happen.

There's a few, variations on who was driving and one I'm thinking of their bumper came loose, others with flat tires and what not.

They all end the same way, preconceived notions wind up being shown to be incredibly wrong.

[popculturebuffet]

Next up for Nickelodeon era of shows, who is your favorite character from each of the early 2010s Nicktoons shows (where quality got continues to be hit and miss in this batch) you've seen like: Winx Club (Nickelodeon seasons), Kung Fu Panda Legends of Awesomeness, The Legend of Korra, Robot and Monster, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012, Sanjay & Craig, Monsters vs Aliens 2013, and Breadwinners?

Winx Club: only one here I haven't seen but one I intend to for a project i'm working on combinng a lot of 2000's shows (and some 2010's shows) into one cohesive universe. A friend of mine really likes it.. or at least the pre nick seasons. From what I hear these seasons aren't the best but I really can't say either way.. though I can at least objectively say the concept of the first villian, a merman whose literally powered by toxic waste, is dumb. The idea of the guy himself, an arrogant prince who tried to kill his brother and is a fish man, isn't but why this. I'd worry about stepping on fans toes but the conseus from tv tropes seems to be "this guy bad".

Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomness: Don't really have a faviorite character here, but I thought it was okay. nothing amazing, it at least gave the five more spotlight than the films after 2, but it suffers from what i'm just calling now interquel syndrome: where your making a product specifically to slide in between bits of canon that aren't finished yet, so you can't really have the characters or evolve or change that radically. I have more hope for Tales of the TMNT despite possibly suffering from this simply because the creative team of the films seems involved so there's more synergy while with Kung Fu Panda they basically couldn't really have po or anyone change, which is fine for a status quo comedy show ala the simpsons, but dosen't work for an action show with a first film that's entirely about character development and progress. It's hard to have a show about kung fu mastery where the main character can't progress too much because it might contradict the next movie.

The Legend of Korra: Ladies and gents (And nb's) this is the moment i've been waiting for. Character choice.. Bolin. Not even close. Plenty of great characters here from Asami, who didn't get enough to do, to Varrick, stan pines long lost son, but my baby boy is just the best and is one of the few characters to get a consitently good arc in most of the seasons. While his season 1 had him stuck in the love triangle and his season 2 started with a HA HA ISN'T IT FUNNY BECAUSE IT'S A WOMAN ABUSING A MAN. THAT DON'T HAPPEN bit that made me die a bit inside, his move into the movers was a neat arc. even his stupid bit of sexual harassment was at least a character flaw and not LOOK I MADE A FUNNY BY HAVING THIS GIRL ABUSE A BOY. His arcs ins eason 3, finally finding a functional relationship and a special thing and 4, eventually finding out yes indeed we are the baddies, were great. The show itself is great and I feel gets entirely too much hate. Is it perfect?

Season 1 is a bit messy, trying to cram several seasons of romance drama into 10 episodes and having some bits that don't quite work like Korra's makes it easy getting the rest of her bending back and the half assed tournament arc (Pro bending does slap though) and some bits I get why they don't work for people like the return of blood bending. But I still think it has tons of great character, plotting and the series second best villian in amon.

I'm not one to take the side door so i'll just come up front and knock: season 2 is a shit show. The origins episode is pretty good. Varrick is amazing. But Korra is extra impulsive, Mako is a piece of shit who couldn't make a decision if he had a gun to his head, and Asami is just there despite having a decent arc and personality in season 1. Add in the worst villian franchise wise and the whole ISN'T IT WACKY A MAN BEING ABUSED plot and yeah, season 2 blows

But while as should be clear i'm not in the "the show gets good by season 3" camp, seaosn 1 is still solid just rushed, season 3 is easily the series best with the return of the air benders being a truly wonderful curveball, Bolin finally getting thrown a bone by the universe, finding out more about Toph's family and more screentime for Bumi, whose awesome. It also has some of the franchises best villians with the series getting it's own magneto, a clever soft spoken man who simply wants to make a better world... but will choke whoever he has to to get it.

Season 4 isn't nearly as strong, Kuivera just had an impossible act to follow, but still works as Korra has one hell of a character arc, finding herself after several years of avoiding her problems, having to reconcile with the love of her life and bolin having to reconclie with generally hurting everyone around him. Even Mako, while still cardboard gets a decent arc with the prince. Kuivera isn't amazing, but she does bring out the best in everyone to make a solid finale. She also has a giant fighting robot so there. We also get Toph back whose essentially become yoda and it fits her like a glove. Her terse answers to Korra's enthuastic questions are great as is every moment of her. She's the only one of the gaang to really get to play a full on involved roll (Katara gets an apperance once a book and Zuko shows up once ) and it's glorious. Overall the series is great. I didn't go into this much detail for nothing. That and having to prepare for this since avatar a few entries ago had me primed and ready. I feel the show has a great cast of characters that more than makes up for it's shortcomings and is worth a watch if you loved the original.

Robot and Monster: Robot if only because he's voiced by Curtis Armstrong of Dan Vs fame. I like the designs here, but what I saw of the show is mostly pretty standard nick premise, something that was going around in those days as I ranted about last time. it's not nearly as bad as some of the others, but it dosen't really have anything extra either. it's resoundingly meh.

TMNT 2012: Leo. It was Donnie when I started watching but then he got all stalkery but this leo is intresting: they keep him being the responsible one and leader man, but helped flesh him out. While I love some versions that are the stock bit responsible load bearing brother (03 and IDW), this one has a goofy charm: he watches old sci fi cartoons, takes the job a tad seriously and isn't afraid to joke. Out of the four boys in this series he's the one who feels the most diffrent in a good way and I like that he has to learn to be leader and slowly grow into the roll, but was also the right one for it with splitners little test.

Another one that like Korra I watched and felt like a sign Nick was turning the corner. I twasn't entirely but it was a bright spot at the time and part of a truly great age of animation. The series STARTED strong, season 1 is a banger but the creative team change hurt it a bit. Season 2 did bounce back in my eyes.. but season 3 caused me to fall all the way off, partly because back then I switched from cable.. and partly because their version of northampton was drug out to hell. And I say that with the original comics having the turtles away from new york for a year. I think the impulse was SIMILAR to that, have some wacky tension reducing side adventures.. but the problem is while there the problem was simply "a violence gang threw us out and took away our homes", bad but something they have time to think over, the problem here was "The kranng have taken new york".. and we're spending time with a sasquatch wanting to make out with donie, dream beavers and drag racing. I'll also always be bitter about the irma!kraang thing, as it felt like a waste of a character who tmnt media loves to ignore for some reason despite april amost never having any friends. Give april friends. They also ruined donnie and April

That said while I feel off I can't hate this incarnation: it was essentially a reboot of the 80's cartoon, bringing in a few elements from other sources, but mostly trying to make a serialized more serious show, but still with that goofy energy. And it worked for the most part when it was good and the later seasons seem to have picked things back up after the mess that was season 3 and it has some all time great new characters like bradford and xever, with the latter STILL not having been ported to any other continuity. A solid show that took a bad dive but seemed to end strongly.. then had to do another season but hey.

Sanjay and Craig: THEY MADE IT UP BONG. I'd have to say Megan. Shame they never did anything with her and Sanjay but she was a great side character. The show itself is decent. At itmes it wasn't my forte due to all the gross out, but I still think it was pretty good. I liked having a wing joint as a hangout (I love me some wings) it has a great voice cast, and was pretty fun. Not an all timer but a pretty good show.

Monsters Vs Aliens:

This show sucks. It's clear unlike Penguins and Legends of Awesomeness they weren't given even a modest budget, just a paper clip and a piece of string and it shows and they go with the weird premise of having aliens live with them as wacky neighbors instead of the obvious one of.. just have the monsters fight aliens and other weirdness each episode. You can still make that comedy, easily. Having seen the movie which is decent enough, it's not that hard but they somehow took a pretty damn good premise and made it just boring sitcom stuff. Easily one of my least faviorite nicktoons of all time.. probably not worse than planet sheen, but still not good at all.

Breadwinners:

This one like fanboy and chum chum was seen as the antichrist ast the time. And like fanboy and chum chum.. it's just mid. it's just trying to be the bog standard nicktoon. Unlike fanboy it';s world, while still wacky nonsense is at least a touch more consitant.. but it's your standard two dudes hang out cartoon. While this genre wasn't new (See Sniz and Fondue over on KaBlam or Angry Beavers , both on this very network), regular show did cause more to get greenlit. I don't think this nor sanjay and craig as they were accused are outright trying to rip off regular show. Both of these have more of a ren and stimpy vibe.. but unlike sanjay and craig which has it's own weird perspective this ones weird perspective just isn't entertaning or fun. I think I could dig it if it were actuallyf unny or batshit enough but it's neither. IT's just.. boring.