#External Screen Customization

[vmantras]

Motorola Razr 50 Ultra Review: A Modern Flip Phone

The Motorola Razr 50 Ultra is a modern reinvention of the iconic flip phone, blending nostalgia with cutting-edge technology. Building upon the legacy of the Razr series, this device is an attempt to bring the flip phone into the modern era, offering top-tier performance, impressive displays, and a blend of unique features that set it apart from other flagship smartphones. In this review, we’ll…

[loveletterworm]

everytime i experience a weird issue with either my computer or external hard drive i get worried because whenever i look up how long these things typically last the answer is 3-5 years and these are both definitely within the range of 3-5 years old....But they are expensive to replace...and scary because my files..........I like my files....

[glowettee]

digital notes guide part 1/5: setting up your aesthetic note-taking system 🎀

posted by: glowettee

hey study angels! ♡ mindyyy heree

omg so many of you have been asking about my digital notes setup, and i'm so excited to share all my secrets! this is going to be a 5-part series on creating the most aesthetic and effective digital notes ever. i'm going to start with the basics! this is super exciting because digital notes are literally unlimited, no wasting paper, and no perfect handwriting required.

♡ choosing your digital notebook

because the right foundation changes everything:

notion (my personal fave):

amazing for linking different pages

super customizable layouts

can embed literally everything

aesthetic cover images

databases for tracking progress

easy table of contents

goodnotes:

perfect for iPad users

feels like writing on paper

pretty digital stickers

custom paper templates

easy organization system

beautiful handwriting options

onenote:

works across all devices

infinite canvas (so dreamy!)

easy subject dividers

voice recording option

drawing capabilities

♡ essential digital tools

make sure you have these ready:

hardware needs:

reliable device (laptop/tablet)

stylus if using tablet (worth the investment!)

external keyboard (for faster typing)

good lighting for screen

comfortable study space

backup charging cables

software must-haves:

note-taking app of choice

cloud storage system

screenshot tool

pdf annotator

calendar app

backup system

♡ creating your aesthetic setup

because pretty notes = happy studying:

color scheme selection:

choose 3-4 main colors

pick 2-3 accent colors

create highlight palette

save hex codes

make color meaning system

maintain consistency

font selection:

main text font (i use garamond)

heading font (something cute!)

emphasis font

quote font

size hierarchy

spacing rules

♡ basic organization system

keep everything findable:

folder structure:

semester folders

subject folders

unit folders

topic folders

resource folders

revision folders

naming convention:

date_subject_topic

use consistent formatting

add emoji indicators

number sequence system

status markers

importance levels

♡ template creation

work smarter not harder:

essential templates:

lecture notes template

reading notes template

study guide template

revision notes template

project planner template

weekly overview template

template elements:

header section (date, subject, topic)

learning objectives area

main content space

summary section

question bank area

revision checklist

setting up your digital note system might take time, but it's so worth it! think of it like creating your perfect study sanctuary - every detail matters!

the next post will be getting into actually taking notes during class (and making them both pretty and effective!). for now, focus on setting up your perfect system.

pro tip: don't get too caught up in making everything perfect from the start. your system will evolve as you use it, just like how my notes looked completely different freshman year!

xoxo, mindy 🎀

[autumnslance]

Benchmark Tech Notes

Running the Benchmark

If your Benchmark isn't opening, it's an issue with the executable file, and something not completing properly on either download, or extracting the Zip file. The Benchmark is designed to run and give you scores for your potato computer, I promise.

I actually saved my Benchmark to my external drive, and it still pulls and saves data and runs as it should. Make sure you allowed the download to complete before extracting the zip.

Resolution

Check your Settings; in Display, it may be defaulting your monitor Resolution to something than you might otherwise use if you aren't on standard 1920x1080.

To check your monitor Resolution, minimize everything on your screen and right click anywhere on your Desktop. Go to Display Settings and scroll down to find Resolution and what it's set at.

You can set the Graphic Settings 1 tab to Maximum, or to Import your game settings. Display Settings tab is where you set it to be Windowed, Bordered, or Full Screen, as well as select Resolution to match your monitor in the dropdown (or customize it if needed). I speak on Resolution as some folks in my FC noted it changed how their characters looked.

The Other tab in Settings is where you can change the text output, or even check a box to disable the logo and score; I do this on subsequent plays, once I have my scores at various settings, to get the clean screenshots.

@calico-heart has a post about fixing graphics settings, with screenshots of the settings tab. Basically, change graphics upscaling from AMD to NVIDIA, and/or uncheck Enable Dynamic Resolution. Also check the Framerate Threshold dropdown.

Screenshots

The benchmark auto-saves 5 screens each playthrough. In the Benchmark folder there is a Screenshots folder to find the auto-images taken of your characters.

Character Appearance

If you want to get your current in game appearance, including non-standard hairstyles, make sure to load up the live game, right click and "Save Character Settings."

Then go to Documents/My Games/Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (this is the default in Windows 10 so mileage varies). The file will have the date you last updated their settings and be named FFXIV_CHARA_01.dat (or however many saves you have/made).

Grab those newly updated DAT files for your character(s) and copy them, then in the same base folder, go to Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (Benchmark).

Paste the copied DAT files in there, and rename to FFXIV_CHARA_BENCH01.dat (the number doesn't matter, and you may have more).

When running Benchmark Character Creation, use the dropdown menu.

If you do Create a Custom Character and Load Appearance Data, it will give you default hairstyles again. Meteor's Dawntrail hairstyle is a new default.

In Char Gen I am finding that a very pale hrothgal reflects the green scenery around her, giving her white skin/fur a green tinge. The other zones do not have this problem, or at least not to the same degree.

They added a Midday vs Evening setting in outdoor areas as well to test lighting. The lighting in the Gridanian innroom is better; not as bright as outdoors, to be expected, but not completely useless.

New voice type icons to clarifying the sounds you make.

Remember we're getting a free fantasia with the expansion, so some tweaking may be needed; Iyna I felt like I needed to adjust her jaw. Other colors--skin, hair, eyes, tattoos, etc--are showing differently in the various kinds of lighting.

Uncertain if the limit on hairstyles for the Hrothgals so far is just a Benchmark thing; they do have set styles for different head options. Everyone gets Meteor's hair though, so it may be a temporary/Benchmark limit. But which clan and face you choose drastically alters what hair and facial feature options you have access to.

Check your settings, tweak them a bit, play around with chargen, and remember this is still a Benchmark; they always strike me as a little less polished than the finished game, but so far I'm actually pretty pleased with having defined fingers and toes, the irises in the eyes, scars looking cut into the skin, and other improvements.

[maryymaruu]

I finally completed the transfer process onto my new lappy :"0

Drawing on it is... different, and if you couldn't tell by how much I cried about a simple phone UI update, I hate hate HATE when things I use daily *change*. Things like phone layout, apps, programs... slight change and I am in mental anguish.

It's different, of course, it's a whole new device, but thank goodness it's not different enough to send me into a meltdown. I fear my art style will look different now, as it always does when using a different tool than usual...

The pressure sensitivity issues persist, it seems to be the fault of yet another downgrade of an update of the tablet driver itself. You get to pick only from "not sensitive enough" and "too sensitive".

I've lost all my custom brushes in CSP... good that my favorite brush is one of the basics.

The touch screen option is not ideal- I get it, it's not made specifically for artists. But I'm not enjoying it... i have zero line control. But for a quick sketch when there's no time/space for an external tablet setup? Awesome 👌

TLDR: The new laptop is all set up. Drawing on it works- it will just take a lot of getting used to it. Ough.

[collapsedsquid]

A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that Apple must loosen its grip on its App Store and stop collecting a commission on some app sales, capping a five-year antitrust case brought by Epic Games that aimed to change the power that Apple wields over a large slice of the digital economy. The judge, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, rebuked Apple for thwarting a previous ruling in the lawsuit and said the company needed to be stopped from further disobeying the court. She criticized Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, and accused other executives at the company of lying. In her earlier ruling, Judge Gonzales Rogers ordered Apple to allow apps to provide users with external links to pay developers directly for services. The apps could then avoid the 30 percent commission that Apple charges in its App Store and potentially charge less for services. Instead, Judge Gonzalez Rogers said on Wednesday, Apple created a new system that forced apps with external sales to pay a 27 percent commission to the company. Apple also created pop-up screens that discouraged customers from paying elsewhere, telling them that payments outside the App Store may not be secure. “Apple sought to maintain a revenue stream worth billions in direct defiance of this court’s injunction,” Judge Gonzalez Rogers wrote. In response, she said Apple could no longer take commissions from sales outside the App Store. She also restricted the company from writing rules that would prevent developers from creating buttons or links to pay outside the store and said it could not create messages to discourage users from making purchases. In addition, Judge Gonzalez Rogers asked the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California to investigate the company for criminal contempt.

[delta-orionis]

tell me abt your fucked up laptop

Oh god where do I even begin.

It looks normal at first glance, but this thing has been through hell.

I've easily had this laptop for over a decade at this point. I can't remember when I got it- 2014 or 2015 I think. When I first got it it was pretty beefy for the time but it's definitely showing its age now. It's pretty heavy and sturdy- I've definitely dropped it once or twice.

This thing got me through all of college. It worked well for a while, but in 2018 the hard drive died. To this day I'm convinced that a Windows update is what bricked it. Thankfully I was able to get the hard drive replaced on very short notice because I was literally leaving for an internship the next week. It behaved for the duration of the internship.

At some point the screen started to malfunction- it behaved for the picture I took, but it likes to randomly flicker and even cut out entirely. It eventually got so bad that I stopped taking it places with me, and I just hooked it up to an external monitor and keyboard on my desk.

I eventually had to replace both the power cable and battery because it was neither charging nor holding charge. That worked well for a while, but eventually that battery died as well. It currently has no battery, and is directly hooked up to wall power. If I unplug it, it instantly dies.

At some point during all this, Windows forced an update to Windows 10, which absolutely throttled this poor thing's performance. I think it might have actually shipped with Windows 7 but it's been ten years and I honestly cannot even remember. Either way, it was already chugging on Windows 8, and 10 wasn't much better. I think updating this laptop to Windows 11 will actually kill it.

At this point it permanently lives on my desk as a glorified desktop computer. I don't even keep the lid open anymore. The few times I've tried to lift or move it while it's turned on, it will decide to randomly freeze or shut down, so I try not to touch it.

I'm absolutely terrified that the hard drive will randomly die again, so I also have this laptop permanently hooked up to an external hard drive that backs up the entire computer on a regular basis.

Oh, and among all of these other issues, a few weeks ago it randomly started making some very loud and concerning noises upon startup. They eventually die down though so I'm ignoring it.

TL;DR, my laptop is actively dying and is basically hooked up to permanent life support. I refuse to let it die, at least until I can afford a new computer.

I have a second low-spec laptop that was given to me a while ago for free because it basically didn't work- it was trying to run Windows 10 and literally took more than 45 minutes to boot up. That's not an exaggeration. When it did boot up, it ran so slowly that it was basically unusable. I couldn't even use it to check my email. So basically I was allowed to keep it if I could even get it to work in the first place, it was going to be thrown out otherwise.

I was able to revive it by wiping it and installing Linux (Lubuntu, a lightweight version of Ubuntu, to be specific) on it, and now it works perfectly fine. When I actually need a portable laptop for something I just use my Linux laptop instead.

When I finally get a proper PC I fully intend to wipe my Windows laptop and install Linux on it the exact same way, just to squeeze a few more years out of it if possible. I will not allow this thing to die on my watch.

(P.S. Before anyone asks, I use Stylus for my custom tumblr dashboard theme. I use the Old Tumblr Dashboard and Custom Background themes.)

[weirdmageddon]

with the help of a friend i successfully transfered everything from my PREGNANT surface 3 tablet from 2016 high school with swollen batteries after some frustrations and scares.

the battery swelling and screen warping had happened over a month ago and i hadn’t had plugged my tablet in since then. but today i wanted to get my paint tool sai brushes and textures off of it, only to be reminded of this. so i talked to one of my newer friends who happens to work at a computer repair shop and he swung by my place since he does home visits anyway.

i didn’t actually know how volatile bloated batteries truly are in reality. especially if they’ve been discharged for over a month. people online say theyre dangerous and you shouldnt even turn your device on, but i have a feeling they’re saying that so people don’t get carried away continuing to use them. but i’m smart and know this thing is finished, but i need data that is on here.

my friend says that he’s had customers use laptops with swollen batteries exclusively on the charger for over 6 months after he told them to get it replaced.

when he comes over we plug it in. the fearmongering internet says you should NEVER EVER plug in a device with swollen lithium ion batteries, so i was scared something was gonna happen or the batteries were going to get hot and swell as chemical reactions happen in them. but nothing happened. the internet lied to me. nothing happened. plugging it in was actually necessary to get past the 0xc0000225 blue screen error which i had been receiving even before the batteries swelled so much they opened the screen. it was unpredictable if it would boot up with that or not, sometimes it did sometimes it didn’t. my tablet would also sometimes shut down at random with no warning in the middle of drawing and that’s when i knew i needed to start looking for something else. but yeah so nothing happened and having it plugged in was essential in order for my tablet to not shut off in the 3 hours it took to transfer data to a USB stick.

and my tablet didn’t even get hot the entire time. (though i turned the screen brightness down to 0 in order to protect against any potential source of excessive heat during the process.)

over a decade’s years worth of paint tool sai brush settings …. welcome back on my main laptop where i use my intuos pro to draw now. i will probably be more inclined to make more art now :D

this post was originally a lot longer and more detailed about the technical scares if something were to have gone wrong but tumblr eated it with a background refresh :\ e.g., the memory chip in this device is soldered on, not removable like a m.2 SSD, so if something happened to the hardware, then my data would be unrecoverable.

my friend even bought a portable windows drive to boot into WinPE but thankfully it wasn’t necessary. he brought the USB keyboard since my surface 3 doesn’t recognize the finicky external keyboard attached by magnetic pins until the boot-up process is over and you’re at the lock screen, so it wouldn’t have been possible to do advanced boot during startup with the F8 key (which we also didn’t actually need anyway, since plugging it in got rid of the blue screen booting error).

[ostrichmonkey-games]

OC Incubators: TTRPG Design for Making Cool Little Guys

I've been thinking a lot about why some people like to play Certain Games and how that intersects with action figure style play and the desire to make your own little blorbos.

What is it about Certain Games (which will not be named so I don't go down a rabbit-hole of breaking apart that game's design lmao) that really gets people's sitting down and just making a whole bunch of cool OCs? You know, your zany wizards, sexy demony bards, and all of that.

So, I've talked a lot about this with some people (shoutout to @temporalhiccup), and I'm not the only person to be thinking on similar wavelengths (check out this fun read by @sprintingowl), and in those discussions and in that reading, I've put together a few what I think are Key Ingredients for making ttrpg that is also an OC incubator. At least, in the sense of how I would want to do it.

So first, what is an OC Incubator? My definition is basically any sort of semi-sandbox/open ended game where you make your own cool character and then go do cool things. Along the way of doing those cool things, you come up with cool stories and have your OC evolve in even more cool ways. Cool, yeah?

Here are the key ingredients I've identified for the incubator stew (store bought is fine);

Character Options

Character Potential

An Inviting Sandbox

So let's break these down a bit more below;

Character Options

Character options is the most straightforward of the points. You need interesting and fun options - building blocks - for the players to craft their little guys from. Options that are exciting and easily communicate their core identity quickly.

A lot of this is walking a fine balance of providing enough options that making a choice is exciting, but not too many so as to be overwhelming.

But ultimately, these options are there to hit the dollmaker, picrew, character customization screen, itch. It should be fun to make all those decisions.

Aside: I gotta do more stuff with lifepath systems.

Of all the main ingredients to our incubator, character options are probably the easiest to come up.

Character Potential

This is where things start to get a little more complicated. Potential is all about aspiration. It's less about being able to get to that point, but more about "oh wow, look at all these extra things my cool OC could do".

These options are something to look forward to, something to think about. Neat cool extra doodads for making your cool little oc even cooler and expand on your cool little oc's story like milestones and growth.

In a lot of ways, these sorts of options are just an iteration of the initial character options you use when making your character. These are probably going to expand on core elements of the character options (class or playbook abilities, etc).

Again, the key point is potential and aspiration. To make you think about the future of the character.

I think, ideally, a game is intrinsically rewarding to play. You play it because its fun, not to get some sort of external reward. Play to play. But it also can be fun to put some carrots on the stick.\

As a treat.

Inviting Sandbox

The setting and premise of the game needs to invite players in. It's the big fancy dollhouse for all your cool toys. There needs to be space to play in it, but also there needs to be something to still play in! Some games are operating at an advantage: with well established settings that have been around for years and/or using a setting that utilizes tropes and ideas that also have been established for years. You know. Elves and stuff.

But! You absolutely do not need a well established setting or play with well established tropes to make an inviting sandbox! The main criteria is that it is inviting. Whatever that means to you, go for it. For me, an inviting setting, one that would make me want to play around in, needs;

Enough foundation to guide the play. What are the major players and assumptions of the settings? Give me the overview and broad strokes first!

Enough space for the table to add to while they play in. If every thing is set in stone, then what are we playing in this sandbox for? You need some sand to sculpt! Put some sand in your sandbox!

I could spend a lot more time talking about settings, sandboxes, and how it all circles back to anti-canon, but that's a story for another post.

Mixing It All Together

So, with those ingredients identified, how do you go about layering them all together? How should they interact with each other? And the easy answer is "I don't know, figure it out."

But also, I don't entirely know. You gotta figure that out for yourself. That's part of the design process. I don't think there's one singular way to "design" around getting people to have fun whipping together some cool OCs and then playing around with them together. In many senses, you can do that in practically any game. But for some of my current projects, I want to try keeping the three ingredients in mind as I write the games (particularly Furry Crime Game), and see what happens. Maybe it'll end up hitting the notes I want it to - crafting a game that makes the players constantly rotate their cool little guys in their mind - maybe it'll end up being something else. I dunno, real Ms. Frizzle hours: Get messy, make mistakes.

Also, as I'm writing this out now, I think a potential fourth ingredient to try mixing into the stew is Player Investment. Time, creativity, emotional. It all feeds into the character and different games expect different levels of investment. Something to probably keep in mind while you hone your game.

I don't know how else to end this, except to say that I'm excited to experiment in this space. Maybe you are too?

[generic-sonic-fan]

Ensom

Summary: All the words in the english language downloaded to a dictionary on his drives, yet Omega can’t find the word he needs. 

He isn’t used to not knowing how he’s feeling. 

It’s frustrating. At least he knows that much.

(Vent fic. 1947 words)

---

Omega finds himself alone in his room. This is fine. He rolls the chair out from beneath his desk, sits down, executes the steps to turn on his computer. Exact movements he’s programmed into himself to save processing power, since the power buttons for both the external hard drive and the monitor will never move. 

He stares into the blank loading screen. 

He’s been here before.

He’s been in this exact posture before. Unmoving for hours. Maybe a twitch here and there to maneuver the computer mouse, that’s all. 

He pushes himself away from the desk and stands. He walks out the door of his room, emerging into the hallway. He’s been here before, too; hours standing in front of Shadow or Rouge’s door, hours walking up and down, fractions of travel that add up to significant percentages of his entire operation.

He passes the living room. The couch he has remained stationary on. Hours. The television he’s stared blankly at. The kitchen. The microwave he has watched rotate thousands of times while Shadow and Rouge wait for their food. The pantry that they stare into. Hours. 

He curls his claws around the handle of the front door. 

What is he going to do out there? Wander around and have meatbags stare at him? Have them run away screaming like they would any other Badnik? Judge him stupid, explaining things like love and freedom and what it means to be alive again like he’s supposed to obsess over their every word? 

Running simulation now: THANK YOU NONDESCRIPT HUMAN, I NEVER ONCE THOUGHT ABOUT MY OWN EXISTENCE IF IT WERE NOT FOR YOUR MARVELOUS AND UNIQUE INSIGHT ABOUT THE CONCEPTS THAT NO SENTIENT SACK OF FLESH CAN SEEM TO SHUT UP ABOUT!

And then they kick him out of their shop because he’s scaring away customers because he forgot to look them in the eyes at the right time or ask a meaningless “HOW ARE YOU DOING?” to every passerby to indicate friendly intent. 

As soon as he opens this door the entire city is staring. He wouldn’t care if they hated him. They don’t. He wouldn’t care if they were afraid of him specifically. They aren’t. 

All of the words in the english language downloaded onto his drives, and there’s no word he can assign to it that doesn’t make him want to tear every building in the city down.

He tears off the doorknob and slams it down. He grinds it into the cheap linoleum tile until the downstairs neighbor pounds back on the ceiling and screams at him to “shut up”. 

He draws his weapon. He aims for the blob of heat in his infrared scanner on the floor down. He aims slightly to the left, and pulls the trigger.

—

“Another complaint from the landlord. It’s our third strike. Managed to talk him back into letting us have a fourth.” Rouge tosses the paperwork onto the kitchen counter in front of him.

“I DO NOT CARE.” 

“Well I do. This is my apartment. Next time I’m kicking you out.”

Omega pauses. 

“What happened, anyway?”

“I WAS ANGRY.” 

“Fork found in kitchen, what else is news?” Rouge rolls her eyes. 

Fork is an eating utensil. The kitchen is where organics eat. She is saying the fork is found in the kitchen in a tone that, if he compares it to previous data of the various tones of her voice, most closely matches sarcasm. She is asking if finding a fork in the kitchen was somehow new information. She is relating the absurdity of this idea to-

“Nothing to say for yourself?”

“IT IS YOUR FAULT!” He slams his fist on the counter. 

“How is this my fault?!” 

She is relating the absurdity of this idea to his rage. Asking if his rage was new somehow? No, too much sarcasm. Relating absurdity, the absurdity of asking a stupid question, the absurdity of asking him if he was angry. Because she knew he was always angry. Solution derived. 

This data would have been useful fifteen seconds ago, but is useless now.

“Sure, blame me for all your problems. See how well that works out for you!” Rouge snarls. 

“NOT JUST YOU,” Omega snarls back, “ALL OF YOU.” 

“‘All of me’? What, you mean-?”

“ALL MEATBAGS. ALL OF THEM. WITH FLESH AND BLOOD AND PATHETIC NEURONS. I’LL KILL YOU ALL.” 

He simulates ripping Rouge to pieces. It’s not satisfying. He simulates actually shooting the neighbor downstairs, watching the blood pour out of the exit wound. It’s not satisfying. He simulates torching the old woman who walks her dog every morning across the street. Nothing. 

Yet something is still burning in his code. He can’t put it out. 

“You don’t mean that.” 

He looks at her. I DON’T floats somewhere around his voice box, but can’t find a place to slip through.

He looks away. 

“What happened?”

“NOTHING HAPPENED. NOTHING HAS OCCURRED FOR TEN HOURS.”

“You’re bored.”

“NEGATIVE.” This isn’t boredom. Boredom is like an itch that they all talk about. This is different.

Rouge furrows her brows. Omega checks his database. The expression matches with confusion but also anger. This particular instance is leaning more towards anger.

“Tell me what’s wrong.” 

“I ALREADY DID.” 

“‘Meatbags’ isn’t an answer.” 

“AND HOW IS IT NOT?” He snapped his gaze back to her. He leaned forward, closer, brushing the tip of his silver outcropping against her nose. “WHAT IF IT IS?” 

“There’s clearly something deeper-”

“HOW DO YOU KNOW?” 

“Because you’re not acting like yourself!” She planted a hand on his chest and pushed him away.

He straightened. “ELABORATE.” 

She resettles her tongue between her teeth, data matching with ‘considering what to say’, before she speaks again. “You’re never this vague. You normally don’t snap only once and then get quieter again- you usually stay as excited the whole conversation. You didn’t shout when you said ‘kill us all’ which is how I know you didn’t mean it. You hate touching any part of us that you’ve seen drip snot or spit or anything like that, yet you got close to my face.” 

Omega compares her analysis against his actions for the past six minutes and thirty-one seconds and finds an exact match for each. 

“CORRECT.” He offers. 

“So what’s going on?”

That question tears the smoldering hole he’s been circling around in his code wide open again. His thought processes choke. Is this what it’s like to choke? The cessation of a function absolutely vital to determining your status as operational? 

“Do you. . . not know?”

“I AM ANGRY.” 

“You’re always angry. But this is different.”

“IT IS.” 

“It’s not your joyful rage.” Rouge puts her finger to her chin. “And it’s not your Eggman rage.” 

“MAYBE IT IS.” 

“You didn’t mention him once, hun.” She shakes her head. “I don’t think this is your rage at me or Shadow.”

“IT IS NOT.” 

“That’s good. I know you feel rage at stupid organic processes like bureaucracy and the like. Is it that?” 

Omega pauses. “CLOSER.” 

“And it does have to do with meatbags. But non-specific.” 

“CLOSER.” 

“. . . have you considered it might not just be rage?” 

Omega stares at the fridge behind her. “I AM ANGRY.” 

“But it’s quiet.” 

He reviews the past ten hours and finds himself having been silent for most of them. 

“YES.” He says. 

“You know, sometimes you can be angry and feel another negative emotion at the same time.” 

“SPECIFY.” 

“Oh no, I’m not going to guess. You’d get mad at just about everything I’d think to suggest.”

“GOOD! MAKE ME MAD.” Omega hits the countertop with his fist again.

“Okay. Sadness?” 

His hand freezes above the counter. He stares at it, commanding the actuators to move, but they don’t. 

“See, told you.”

“I HAVE NOTHING THAT WOULD MAKE ME ‘SAD’.” 

She looks at him. Her facial muscles weave a new expression. The closest match in his database for it is ‘pity’, but there are not enough markers to fully confirm it. 

“What do you think would give you the excuse to be sad, huh?” She asks, then stops herself, then lets herself speak anyway. “Having a dead sister?” 

“YES.” 

“Well, you don’t have a dead sister. So clearly it’s something else.”

“I REPEAT: THERE IS NOTHING TO BE SAD ABOUT.” 

“That you know of.”

“EMOTIONS ARE A RESPONSE TO AN EXPERIENCED STIMULUS.” 

“Sometimes you’re just sad for no reason. It happens.” 

“THAT IS STUPID.” 

“If you want to get technical about it, you’re actually sad about a lot of things, but you aren’t sure why or maybe you just don’t know how to think about it. Then you say you’re sad for ‘no reason’. Make more sense?” 

Omega stares at his hand that is frozen above the table. He sends one more command to the actuators in his arm. Slowly, his fist retracts and settles back by his side. 

“Have you ever felt sadness before, do you think?” 

He has never experienced a similar arrangement of symptoms to Shadow: neither silence nor isolation nor the urge to cease existing. He has never experienced a similar arrangement of symptoms to Rouge: neither lying nor pretending nor the urge to binge sensory inputs. 

“UNKNOWN.” He replies. 

“That could explain things.” 

His dictionary doesn’t offer a concise comparison either. ‘Sadness’: affected with or expressive of grief or unhappiness. Searching ‘unhappiness’ is equally as useless, only meaning not cheerful or glad. ‘Forlorn’ is a synonym, but it specifically relates to isolation or desertion, and he is experiencing neither at the moment. ‘Downcast’ and ‘woeful’ and ‘despondent’, they all slip away.

‘Melancholic’. Of or relating to the subject of ‘melancholy’- a depression of spirits (a useless definition) or a pensive mood. ‘Pensive’ meaning a sad thoughtfulness. 

“RESOLUTION PROPOSED:” Omega finally says, “ELIMINATE RUMINATION.” 

“Think less? God, shouldn’t we all.” 

“SO YOU AGREE TO STOP TELLING ME TO ‘THINK THROUGH THINGS’?” 

“No,” she whispers a common lighthearted insult to herself, “but sitting there and brooding on your bad mood never makes it any better.” 

“I DO NOT BROOD.” 

“What were you doing this afternoon, again?” 

He crosses his arms. “BEING MELANCHOLIC.” 

“Don’t tell Shadow you’re going to beat him at his own game.” 

“THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN.”

“I’m afraid it will. Came with your free copy of being alive, unfortunately.” 

“I HAVE RECEIVED NO COPIES OF ANYTHING.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I DON’T.” 

She pauses. Furrows her brows. “You don’t?”

“YOU HAVE NOT USED THIS EXPRESSION BEFORE. THE APPARENT RESPONSE YOU WERE EXPECTING WAS NOT CORRECT. YOU ARE FORCING ME TO CALCULATE YOUR HIDDEN MEANING USING OTHER CLUES.” 

“What I meant was that being sad just happens if you’re smart enough. That make sense?” 

“YOU ARE SAYING I’M SMART?” 

“Yeah, I am.” She replies. She does not deflect into any other specification or technicality of his question. 

“LOGGING UNDER: ‘BLACKMAIL’.” He says again.

She doesn’t contradict him. 

“Just. . .” she sighs. “Let us know if you’re ever feeling sad again, okay? Even if there’s no obvious reason for it.” 

“MELANCHOLIC.” He corrects.

“Melancholic, then.”

“. . . I WILL.” 

“Good. Now,” Rouge flicks her finger over the complaint from the landlord, sending it off the countertop and onto the floor. She crushes it beneath her heel. “Shadow stayed behind at the firing range because he said he had something on his mind. We’re gonna go join him and see who can blow a bigger hole through either GUN’s wall or their wallet. Sound good?” 

“AFFIRMATIVE!” 

She trails her hand across his chest plating as she walks by. He stays motionless for three seconds, allowing the sensation of her touch to fade from his tactile sensors. Then he follows her out the door of the apartment.

[mareastrorum]

I played Strange Horticulture on my Switch, so here’s a few thoughts in case anyone was considering it.

Overall, it was a fun game that I would recommend for anyone who enjoys riddles, though there are also a few puzzles. I spent maybe 8 hours total, probably less. There are multiple endings, and it’s not easy to memorize any solutions, so it can be replayed several times. Overall, I’d say it’s worth the money to purchase.

You spend the entirety of the game in your shop, which is a greenhouse with numerous rare plants. You begin with several unidentified potted plants and a book to help you identify a few based on botanical notes from the prior owner of the shop. The first few days gradually acclimate you to the UI, how to handle customers, “travel” (which is just picking a spot on your map and reading text about what you encounter), negative consequences for wrong IDs, and so on. As the game progresses, you receive letters and clues from friends and customers about where to find more plants or reference pages for your book. You must solve the riddles to determine the right spots on the map to explore. Guessing incorrectly for plant IDs and on your map will accumulate dread, which could drive you to insanity, and you must solve puzzles before you can return to the main game. There is also a story that unfolds over the course of a few weeks, and your choices about what plants to give to different occult factions will affect the ending.

The game has some clever riddles in there, and it stumped me a handful of times. As long as you remain open minded about the various tools at your disposal, you should be able to get through the game without external help. It also helps to stay organized; you can attach labels to plants for any info you want handy, and you can sort your tools and letters in a side drawer, as well as archive any items that aren’t useful (and bring them back out of course).

There are a few downsides to the game. There’s only a specific script of customers that will come to the shop, so while you may forget which plant is which in a new game, it’s mostly same requests every play through (with a few unique ones if you choose certain factions). Many of the plants are only needed once, which can be a little disappointing given the effort to ID several of them. A longer game with some filler days so you can have that “aha, I know just the plant” moment would have been satisfying.

In addition, the UI is not designed for small screens, and the text can be very small, so you will probably make heavy use of the magnifying glass to zoom into the various parts of the screen. It would have been a good idea to have the UI switch between screens (a shop counter, the garden, desk/study, etc.) rather than put it all in a single screen. Because of this, I would recommend playing on a computer screen rather than a handheld device or TV.

Otherwise, Strange Horticulture was an enjoyable game. It’s worthwhile for anyone who enjoys riddles and puzzles.

[bytesizedpetal]

>Been a moment, hasn't it? For a digital sophont, I've been off the Overnet recently- or at least, this little segment of it.

>Quite honestly, it's because I've had a lot more to do physically after my... y'know, domestication. >~<

>Miss Jade went ahead and got me a (custom made! <3) robotic frame, so I can interact in a more physical way! Personally, I generally prefer interacting through more digital means, so having my primary components transferred into the chassis wasn't particularly appealing, but she went out of her way to find a workaround!

>Given how incomprehensibly fast Overnet transfer is, it is more than viable to simply interface with the chassis through that with zero delay while not directly tying my hardware to it. Plus, it's kinda fun being able to interface with stuff like the hab directly while also controlling a physical body...

>And on that note, I even got some revamps in terms of hardware itself! Some pretty extensive hardware upgrades and alterations (apparently, haustoric implants have a digital equivalent of sorts >//<), and even a custom casing itself, integrated nicely into our hab but still removable if needed- a genuinely massive battery to support my removal from the hab for an extended period of time, a wired interface to some of the hab's functions themselves, and a screen on the case itself, so I can express even without an external monitor!

>I'm still... A bit guilty they went through all of this work just for me, this must have taken so looong, and I certainly didn't need all of this... But I'm more than grateful, and I suppose she insisted.

>Now that so much is sorted and in place, though, I'm more free to interact here again!

>So, of course...

>Hello, World~

[asyastudieskorean]

07.28.2924 — 안녕하세요 여러분? 오늘은 일요일이에요. Today, I’ve been (trying) to set up and get familiar with my new MacBook Air 15”, which I bought for several reasons that probably still do not justify the price, ㅋㅋㅋ. Mainly it’s because my old laptop’s keyboard started breaking down, so many keys did not work, hence why you’d see me using an external keyboard. I could just get it fixed, but the smaller screen size had been bugging me when working too. I decided to go with a Mac because you can get the keyboard customized to include Korean, and because I am already an Apple user with basically all my other electronics. Now I can easily switch between English and Korean, so that is going to be loads helpful when classes start in the fall and for future translation work (fingers crossed). Anyways, I’ve been a Windows user my entire life, and still think it’s more user friendly, so it’s been a big learning experience so far. Hopefully it’ll get more comfortable to use with time.

[owlmylove]

sick burn bro. now tell me something beautiful and true

G13 is so struck by the sense of her — how settled. How at ease, even in a body not her own. She doesn’t hold herself like an apology.

// Never stop.

G13 blinks into himself pressing >ENTER on a truly explosive detonation sequence, his finger’s instinct moving faster than a pair of dilating pupils — igniting not real explosives, mind you, but rather a bit of “inside baseball” which some insider traders would be pissed to see made public. An instant, intense satisfaction floods through him, a joy as perfect as his finger meeting the clunky keycap. It’s a custom specced model that he built himself, G13 knows without needing to recall; Something about the feeling of the board beneath his fingers is as deeply known as his name—

>INPUT :: CHARACTER FREEZE FRAME

—which is, of course, G13. The young man leans back into his desk chair, automatically laughing. He notices the sound is unkind.

G13 cracks his knuckles, rolls his shoulders back like a pianist taking the bench. Prepares to execute another perfectly choregraphed line of code, the kind of adrenaline rush of pitting a car going faster than any body should (just because the machine could take it doesn’t mean the flesh can) up against an airplane taxiing down the runway, maybe, or a motorcycle keeping speed with a bullet train. Just to pit yourself against a machine that was always meant to do more than you could and see; What happens? How long can you keep it at bay? Each and every keystroke, blink, drop of sweat driving you closer and closer and closer to that place you strain to reach, veins thrumming with the need to just see if your hands can finally seize—

>INPUT VALUE :: null

—his XL Orange TrueBrand™ Soda 2Liter bottle, his hand dwarfed by the massive printed plastic depiction of an orange wedge erupting with fat droplets of imaginary juice the soda doubtlessly doesn’t contain. He drains a long pull from the bottle, head tilted back, neck working before the electric light. G13 polishes it off with a gasp, smears a hand across the back of his mouth and tilts his glasses down as he considers the screen, somehow — how? — just knowing that the lenses would be a perfect reflection of the screen in this moment. Something deeply fulfilling to him in the knowing.

G13 steeples his fingers against the bridge of his nose and heaves a huge sigh, lets his slack shoulders expand outwards as he weaves his fingers together and cracks his knuckles outwards, prepares for another coordinated evening of gaming and daredevil risk taking. It’s what he’s made for, he knows. It’s what he’s made himself for.

// Never stop.

G13 is so struck by the sense of her — how settled. How at ease, even in a body not her own. She doesn’t hold herself like an apology; she is unrepentant, the type of little old woman with a grocery cart and parcels which, mysteriously, end up taking up half the damn bus seats all while she’s smiling and nodding easily at anyone who catches her eye like a pageant queen on a parade float. When she gets off at her stop, she probably thanks the bus driver. By name. G13 groans at the thought and flicks his (imaginary? real? neither?) desk chair into a spin. Screens and screens and screens of external bodily (piloting? Whatever the hell she’s doing with his body) data blur sideways, like a horizontal stretch of a Star Wars credit effect.

When did he see Star Wars? G13 knows he has strong opinions on the correct order of a Star Wars viewing. He once hired strippers in Princess Leia bikinis to come to a penthouse suite at The Deluxe Royale on J-Kwon’s dime before Carter Haldwell came bursting through the suite’s double doors, a fretful concierge on his heels saying “Well sir, Mr. Kwon’s card already went through—“ only to nearly run into the agent’s frozen back. Haldwell barely held in a sneer at the hacker, greeting him with a waggle of fingers. G13 grinned till he felt the bite of his braces dig into the sides of his mouth. Tilted his head back against the couch, arms slung over the backs of it, and looked down his nose from under his hoodie; “These are not the droids you’re looking for.”

He loves Star Wars enough to have it memorized, enough to know Princess Leia was the first person he ever wanted to marry, And yet, and yet — he can never remember watching them. He can’t remember sitting in the theatre, clutching his popcorn, watching the sconce lights go dim as the credits flared to life, the dizzying lift in his chest as the IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY came sliding above the screen. He should remember that. How old was he when he saw the first film? How did he get to the theatre? It almost feels as though he was born knowing the knowledge, and that’s—

>INPUT VALUE :: E̴̪̻̓͘͢͠R̵͇̻͉͚͂͑ͯ̉᷆̽ͦ̿͛͞R̷̘̗̱̝̰̩̳̮̟͌̇͡O̷̪̺͞R̶̨̼̭͋͟ 4̴̘̤̻̯̐ͧ︡︢0̷̦̙͓̘̲͎̼́͌̿͟͝4̸̬ͬ̐︠̂︠︢︠͋᷆͠ V̸̯̙͔̠̣᷅̅̏̚͜Ą̵᷿︡͐᷾̿͒L̸̨̗̹̬̤᷂͈̟̗͛ͧ͜U̷̯͈̰̞̝̟͈︠͜͢É̵̘̣̙̞̬̫͇̍ͥ́᷉̕ N̶̨̰̝̠̳̱͗᷅͂̓᷈̇̌Ò̵̜̠ͯ̾ͫ͊͌̽ͮ̏̕T̴͓̘̞ͥ︠̂̿̏̑͛͗͢͠͝ F̴̨̹͔̺̭̻͉᷿͓̟̏Ǒ̸̱͎̦ͮṴ̸̤͋N̷̰︡̈́Ḏ̵̝̟̬͈̣͊᷉̎̏ͦ︠͋̀ͩ

There’s some sense memory his mind flicks into frame, the feeling of being a little kid twice the size of the popcorn bucket, but when he remembers looking up and over to [E̶̬̗̻᷄ͦͬ́̇̀͠Ŗ̴̭᷄͋R̶̩̖͕̮̤̫̬̘̀̐ͪͬ͋͟O̵̜ͩ̀̎ͮ︡ͫͥͮ͡R̸̠̹̘̺̆ͣ᷅̋͒̾ͯ N̶͚̫ͬͬͥ̔̇ͨ͑/̷̫᷂̟̰̤̻͈᷿̜᷀ͪ̀᷈̾ͯ̃̓̃A̴̫̭͇︢] , somehow

somethin—

>INPUT VALUE :: null

// Never stop.

Nothing’s real. Nothing’s real. Nothing’s real.

// Never stop.

I want people.

// Never stop.

Getting barfed out of a VHS player ranks about equally high on G13’s list with getting steadily covered in piss by a pissed-off field agent. Which is to say, not very fucking high at all. G13’s skin is steadily covered in static as he emerges, limbs shaking, involuntarily trying to flick away the sensation, his skin slick with a pins-and-needle afterbirth. His bones abruptly heavier under his skin, the feeling of gravity pressing down, down, down, compressing him like a .ZIP file. For the first time, ever, G13’s scalp itches. When he brings a tingling hand to his scalp, scratching hard, he almost jumps at the projectiles fluttering in his peripherals. Flakes fall to his shoulder. G13 swallows a scream.

The horrified glances shared by the other fleshbags surrounding him are lost on the hacker, because nothing can come even remotely close to the travesty that’s unfolding in his own body right now. His chassis, so to speak, has never felt so alien to him — not even when it was being piloted à la mech suit by the world’s most oblivious fucking octogenarian. Which, speaking of —

“Oh! Well would you look at that young man?”

G13’s shoulders launch up to squinch against his ears, a jump that definitely was in no way something as ridiculous as a “flinch,” thanks very much, and he’d like to see you suddenly have a tight, gnarled little bronze hand seizing the base of your neck without reacting. Every muscle goes taut in a sensation that feels simultaneously deeply familiar and entirely alien. G13 is no stranger to tension, snarling little livewire that he is, but was tensing always supposed to feel this much? He turns wild, cornered animal eyes to Usha, who is (humiliatingly) standing perfectly level with his gaze.

It’s surreal, seeing her body while being so much in his own. Something feels deeply, viscerally wrong about it. Like he’s attempting to open a corrupted file with the wrong program. He can feel every tremor in her knuckles, her rings cool through his Deluxe Royale t-Shirt (which, what? How does he even have this? Where the fuck are his normal clothes?), and her eyes are steadily meeting his, her face showing wrinkles he didn’t even know humans were capable of — G13 has never seen another person with so many wrinkles, he’s positive, not since—

Õ̵̧͙͎̮͙͍̦͕̪̪͙̩̼̦̬͒̀̅̉̀̔̀̅͂̏̄̆̋̎̆̆̍̐̕͜͜H̶̡̥̲̗͎̺̻͔̭̳̔̈́̎͆̕ ̷̳̗̗͎̲̙̙͂͒̋͛̌͌̍̿̃͠ͅD̵̛̛͕͍̺̩͈͕̟͕̼̂͐̎́͊́̂̓̌̍͛͌̾͗̾̍͘̕͜͜͝ͅͅE̵͉̯̭̘̤̠̝̰̤͇͉̝̜̻̹̥̝̿̈́̍͋͝Ą̷̠̻̥̞̭̫͈͖̪̱̭͎̲̟̞́̉̽͜R̸̡̢̛͙̺̖̝͚͉̗̦̫͈̼̋̈́̉̽̏̃͊͜͝Ḭ̶̪̘̬̼͙̲̳̝̽́͒̇̿͒͂̽́̑͆̏̑̑͐͝E̷̺͈̬͓͍̜̎̈́̾͠

Brain stinging, thoughts flinging away from something like superheated metal to the touch, G13 flinches. Shuts his eyes. Waits to hear what fucking nonsense verdict, what deranged form of justice this senile old lady sees fit to dispense. Maybe, if he’s lucky, this crew of dumbasses will just drive him into the desert and let him wander back to civilization. It’d be a familiar form of mercy, finding his own footing.

Wait, familiar?

“Looks like a snowstorm on your shoulders, eh? We oughta get you this Delsun Blue stuff, Lisa was telling me it worked wonders for her little neighbor boy, poor thing looked like his head was a snowglobe, Lisa had to tell him to stop wearing black shirts. But then, I don’t think black is the most cheerful color, you know? We’ll go to the CVS and pick a bottle up—“

G13 opens his eyes as slowly as an amateur pyrotechnic still waiting for the bang. The horror he’s waiting for isn’t coming, because this is so much worse. She wants to coddle him. G13 stares at the moving shape of her slack lips, zeroes in on the crinkles stretching her skin with enthusiasm as she keeps on talking. In the background, he can feel strangers reassessing as they make their threat assessments, factoring in for his silence, his stillness, the vacant gaze. And that’d be mortifying, all of this would be more shameful than he could bear, if it weren’t for one specific question hanging heavy in his mind.

G13 raises a hand to bat away the old lady’s arm, feels every eye sharply on his as he screws up his brows and snarls.

“What the fuck is this, this— thing moving inside my body?”

A growl emits from his stomach like some kind of animal has taken up residence, and who the fuck knows what kinds of cosmological horrors this nightmare world might hold? G13 is ready to cut himself open, Alien-style, to find out, when someone in the peanut gallery suddenly stifles a bark of laughter. He cuts a glare at all of them, just to cover his bases. The old windbag, Jesus Christ, is looking at him with a knowing twinkle in her beady eyes.

“Seems like you don’t want people young man. What you need now is food.”

// Never stop.

(Food, it turns out, tastes amazing here. The consequences of eating, however? Disgusting beyond compare. And worst of all, everyone tries to act like he’s the weird one.

“….What exactly did you think ‘a piece of shit’ meant then?” the reedy Black kid with glasses similar to his own asks, somewhere between appalled and legitimately curious. Annoyingly, he’s much taller despite sharing such a similar build. G13 blows a breath of exasperation and rolls his eyes skyward. “Obviously, it’s like calling someone a piece of dogshit. But it’s not like people shit. That’d be disgusting.” He doesn’t understand the collective heavy eye contact throughout the group at that, until he does. 

This world fucking sucks.)

[autumnslance]

Hi! I’ve been trying to make an introductory post for my WoL, but when I tried doing so freeform it ended up overly long and full of rambling. I’ve searched for templates all over the internet, but the only ones I can find are in the general style of D&D character sheets that include irrelevant information about stats while not properly dedicating space to the actual character traits. I saw the format you used for your OCs, and it seems to be about what I’m looking for. Is there any chance you could provide a blank template along those lines for me and others who might have the same problem?

Funnily, while I keep them all similar, I didn't have a template before now. Also reminds me I need to do some updating and revision on my own OCs, it's been awhile and they can use a refresh for character and plot updates.

I recommend making static pages over posts; easier to track and edit. I am a stickler for organization, so keep my pinned post to the bare basics with links to the profiles and other pages, to keep from stretching the post to a mile long, in part, and to keep the info where it's easily read and relevant. Also because mobile app view won't show one's theme and links, and the pinned post is more likely to be seen and accessible than a sidebar or menu.

I have tutorials on how to set a custom theme (and access full blog features) as well as how to create those static blog pages. Tumblr may have made some updates since, but the gist is the same, and the Help pages have newer details if necessary.

I do urge keeping colors and format simple, accessible, and reader friendly, including screen reader friendly. A row of asterisks or tildes as a separator line are usually individually read out by screen readers, as is the code used to make those fancy hard-to-read gothic letters folks use for "aesthetics." In a lot of my profiles, I split sections with images of the character (which should also use alt text if we're trying to be kind and inclusive, and it's to the point of a profile page anyway).

I think I will put the intro and template here in the post under a cut, and then in a Reply Comment add a link to the Google Doc version, cuz of how Tumblr is about external links. An actual blank copy-pasta is on the GDoc, what's below has some thought processes for each section for guidance.

This a pretty modular template, that can be added to or subtracted from as needed. Move descriptive blocks around as they seem more or less relevant for your OC, substitute things that make sense over things that don’t; this is just a starting point!

I see these as broad strokes; a quick introduction and general overview of your character, meant to give an at-a-glance idea of who they are. It’s handy for other writers and artists, and even oneself for keeping track of some details. I recommend practicing succinct writing here; these blocks should each stay between 100-300 words or thereabouts. Use links to other pages and tags to point toward longer details and stories (and keep them handy for yourself!). It also makes it much easier when you want to revise things when characterization marches forward, or if you want to retcon something entirely.

But these are all just my opinions and ideas on how I approach OC profiles after making them in some form or another for about a quarter century. Make it as long or short as it needs to be, change it up, go nuts, I ain’t your mom, and so on 😉

-

Statistics: The basics; barebones, at-a-glance stat blocks, handy for quick reference. Can be added to or shortened as needed. If a stat starts to word wrap on a standard screen, trim it and move that extra detail to the “Description” paragraph below the list.

Race: (for FF14 fantasy possibilities) Nationality: (or Ethnicity, whatever works. Where are they from, as that helps shape them?) Height: (both feet/inches and centimeters are handy here) Eyes: Build: (I prefer this to weight, as that’s ridiculously variable depending on one’s build, which is more important visually anyway; are they broad, stocky, skinny, muscular, stringy, etc) Hair: (color, type, texture, preferred lengths and styling) Skin: (sometimes I fold scars into here, if there’s nothing too outstanding) Scars: Voice: (how do they sound?) Nameday: Age: (depends on your personal timeline for your OCs, but I recommend an age range over specifics; mid-20s, 25-35, late teens, a little over a century, etc. Less updating and fits with the handwaved time bubble anyway) Disciplines: (what are their main job[s]? The adventuring or professional skills they’ve learned?) Hobbies: Birthplace: Current Home: Occupation: (Their actual day job, different from or part of their disciplines?) Signature Items: (A particular weapon? A piece of jewelry? Always wear a specific coat?)

Description: A very short "immediate impressions" type description; what would someone "on the street" see when meeting/looking at your character on a typical day? Taking some of the info from the stats but then how you want those barebone facts to be seen; is the OC elegant, or rough? Expensive clothes or simple attire? Any particular smells, or sounds? I recommend around 100 words.

Biography: Very brief, general overview of the backstory that led them to the point where they become a story protagonist (adventurer, the WoL, or other roleplay archetype). Don't have to go into great detail, keep it short and simple; it's a blurb that sets up how they got here in broad strokes. I think my longest bio is around 300 words, and it probably shouldn’t go over that here.

To get more details, one can always link to specific stories, or to a tag. I have multiple OCs, so I might make my tags something like "Aeryn Backstory" or "Iyna Lore" or "Punchy History" or some combo thereof (I usually try to keep them consistent though for ease).

Persona: What face do they present to the world? How are they perceived by the public, acquaintances, coworkers, family, actual friends? Some of these answers will be the same, some may change depending on if and how they code switch in various social situations.

From there, what lies underneath the surface? What are some general internal attitudes, traits, feelings?

A hundred words for outward demeanor and another one hundred for innermost self ought to cover the general broad strokes.

Romance: If so inclined, details about the OC's relationship details; sexual and romantic orientations, relationship history, current situations, how they view and approach intimacy (or not!).

Links to relationship tags or stories or art can work well here, too.

Echo: Does the OC have an Echo at all? Is it a "typical" Echo, or do they have some special abilities, some things they're better at than others? How does it affect them, how do they feel about it?

This is another section that may be a free space section to remove or swap to something else relevant to the character.

Hobbies: The stuff outside of work and heroics. Ways they relax, special interests, side jobs, things they enjoy, and so on. This can be an expansion of the listing in the stat block, or you can cut out one or the other to avoid redundancy.

Companions: What’s their chocobo like, or do they have another favored mount? What pet(s) do they have? Are they practically a Disney Princess? Have a familiar? Do they prefer arcane entities? Technological constructs? Or do they eschew companions entirely?

How to find the OC in game: This is where I list things like realm and data center, and addresses for the FC house and personal house or apartment. Not necessary if you don't want folks to go looking.

Links: The links can be scattered through the post in relevant sections, or gathered together here. I tend to put my basic tag for the character, if I have an aesthetic tag for them, their story tags, any links to art references or other miscellaneous items I want easily found for myself and others. I often put this close to the top if a profile is longer and I want those links to be quick referenced.

OOC: Any particular notes one wants to make about the character from a meta perspective. Can also be combined with the Links.

[genericpuff]

welp, this kinda sucks

I'm currently at odds with the PC that I got a couple months ago, it's started freezing and soft-resetting randomly for seemingly no reason. It would usually be after hours of use that I could chalk up to the memory overloading, but now it's happening as soon as I boot up the frigging thing. And just to make it clear how much I've done on my own to diagnose the problem, our attempts to fix it have included the following:

Limiting startup applications

Running virus / malware scans

Swapping out display monitors

Updating the GPU drivers

Setting a lower overclock profile in the BIOS settings

Swapping out power cables and outlets to check for power surges

So far none of these things have worked and if anything, the issue has just gotten worse in the last two days. Like, it can barely make it to the startup screen sometimes, despite the memory and CPU usage being >20%, there is zero reason it would be the PC overclocking itself just from startup.

(and no, it doesn't even compel me, i'm just annoyed to shit LOL)

So I dropped it off with the guy who built it (he runs an electronics / pawn shop downtown that's very reputable and well-known so it's not like I don't trust him or anything, he's been building PC's for people in the area for years) and it's now in his care for the next day or two while he tries to isolate the problem. Right now the only thing I can imagine being the problem is the power supply or my display monitor, which is my old Huion Kamvas 22 Plus that still works as a monitor, just not a drawing tablet - but if something's still fucking around in the tablet, it could be causing problems through the PC, maybe.

When I dropped it off with the guy, he went and set it up in his office and came out and told me that so far it seemed to be running just fine, when he asked me if I was doing anything specific I told him it was crashing even after startup so I gave him permission to overclock the shit out of it, run 53879205893 browser tabs, run my games, software, anything he needed to do to push it to its limits and see if he could replicate the problem.

I am terrified if it has to do with the motherboard, because that will be an expensive replacement that will also potentially lead to losing files / installations / etc. depending on how big an issue it is. It could also potentially be Windows 11 having a hissy fit especially seeing as how it's freezing up on startup, but doesn't freeze on the BIOS screen when it loads up in safe-mode after hard resets, so something is clearly happening between the hard boot-up and the startup of Windows 11 itself.

Thankfully I do have Google Drive sync support and plenty of external HDD's that I can back my stuff up to, but with the freezing and restarting getting as bad as it's been, I haven't been able to back anything up, and I don't want to risk doing it manually if it'll just freeze and potentially corrupt my files in the process. So I told the guy to call me if he needed to mess with anything concerning the system storage so that, if he could at least keep it running stable in the shop, then I could swing by and get everything I needed synced up safely before he messes around with anything.

It could also very well have something to do with the power supply itself, the house that I occupy the main floor of isn't exactly built with electric optimization in mind, we've had fuses blow on us before just from running the hair dryer at the same time as the TV, so if it's something to do with the PC drawing too much power for the electrical system here to keep up with, either (hopefully) the guy will be able to instruct me on how to lower and manage that power intake through the PC's BIOS (I believe you can but I'm still a massive noob on custom builds and I don't want to go tinkering with it myself) or, idk, maybe I'll have to get my landlord to drop by again with his electrician and check out the fuses to make sure they're all operating properly. I'm not an electrician either, so fuck if I know at this point what could be going on. I feel like it can't be the house itself because everything else is running fine and it's just become a recent issue, but our city's power grid is also not exactly praised for being good at its job, especially not in the winter.

So yeah, I'm a little - well, a lot - stressed right now, but all I can really do at this point is wait. Fortunately, I have my iPad and also remembered that I still have my old PC, so I've hooked it up, at best if the problem repeats itself on this PC then I'll know it has to do with the display monitor, at worst I'll just be stuck working with my clunky old hardware for a couple days, which is annoying, but it'll get the job done. Fortunately I had the newest episode of Rekindled uploaded to the cloud in Clip Studio so I can still download it and work on it, which was my biggest worry when everything started to go belly-up (next to just, like, having a working PC).

Sooooo yeah. It's annoying, but I'm hoping for the best. Send good vibes y'all, I really could use it rn, between this and slow traffic at work and some other personal shit that's been going on, it's been a shitty few days (╥﹏╥)

And yeah, I'll keep y'all updated on if it affects this week's update, it really shouldn't honestly as most of the work left is doable from both my iPad and PC, but obviously at this point anything can happen so if anything has to be postponed or changed to accommodate the current situation, I'll update y'all as soon as I can! Thanks everyone, y'all are the best, wish me luck <3