#i'm still going to create characters here and branch them out

[evertidings]

— JUNE 2025.

Accomplishments.

Ah, I'm not going to lie, I have a reminder set to write this update every 1st of the month, but I always dismiss it and well, here we are, nine days late. Let's just pretend the month just started, shall we? I'm still so shocked at how fast July is already moving. It truly feels like things are flying by. The same goes for WTS.

Chapter 13 is on track to be the biggest chapter to date. With five major branches and only one near completion, I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be close to 100,000 words... And that's not an exaggeration. The thought of my word document being that big is already stressing me out, but hey, that's just how it is. I'm currently working on Blane's route and spent the entirety of June kicking my feet and giggling about it. I've been building Blane's character development for quite some time now, and while they still have a long way to go before their mental state could be considered healthy (put them in therapy, immediately), this chapter is truly the beginning of their journey. They open up to the Hunter in ways that you'd be surprised to hear and admit things that, in Chapter 1, you'd think would be impossible to come from their mouth. It's really the start of something new.

Blane has always been a character dear to my heart, for more reasons than one. This isn't to say I have a bias or anything, but I've always resonated with Blane's cold persona and sympathized (as much as you can when you're the one who created the character) with their need to push people away. This chapter is a breaking point. You will finally get to see them let the Hunter in, begrudgingly or not, and I think it's a beautiful thing. I've written it in a way that still makes sense to the nuances of Blane's relationship to the Hunter, especially if you're pursuing a rivals-to-lovers (or friends!) relationship, so I'm super excited for you all to read it one day.

As for what's next, I'm hoping that in July, I will polish off Blane's route and move onto someone else's. I'm undecided as to who that will be yet, but I'm sure it'll be just as fun to write as Blane's was. I'll admit, there were a lot of difficult periods and I definitely had a few writing blocks along the way, but that's the case with anything I write. There will always be ups and downs; as cheesy as it is, what matters is that I got through them.

Alright, that's my yapping done. Progress on Chapter 13 is coming along nicely, but it'll be a while until it's out, so I hope that you all continue to be excited about it in the meantime. Thank you for sticking with me! I'll talk to you soon <3

Stats.

Chapter Total: 25,141 words (+14,800)

Game Total: ~592,728 words

[nikyu0]

Are there any fun shenanigans that unfold after the bond in the avatar au? after the angst dies ofc

I actually still have a lot of ideas with the other arcane characters that happen before the bond! Although ldk lf I'm gonna be able to draw them all, because some of the ideas are very lengthy. So, I might as well practice my writing!

One of the ideas involves how Jayce and Viktor begin their relationship with the tribe in the first place.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Jayce and Viktor have been out on their research trips for a couple of days now. Sergent Caitlyn Kiramman, a fellow avatar driver with combat training, accompanies them for protection. Although they have been exploring the deeper forest for a while, all they have encountered so far was peaceful fauna, yet none of the natives.

"I wasn't expecting that we were so good at hiding our presence to not even spot one na'vi." Jayce remarks as he tries to keep up with Viktor's pace.

"They've known we are here the moment we got off the military base." Viktor assures him while looking down at his tablet. "Afterall, we are in their domain. Just because we don't see them, does not mean they are not here, no?"

The eeriness of Victor's comment made Caitlyn's ears twitch, she couldn't help but look up at the thick tree crowns and scanning through them. As they continued through the forest, she grabbed her firearm tighter.

The trio reaches a cliff that opens a view to the base of the Hallelujah Mountains. All of them in awe as they watch the floating rocks defy gravity right infront of their eyes.

Unfortunately, the devices that were helping them navigate the forest so far, start to act up because of the strong magnetic fields surrounding the mountains. The group begins to consider returning to the base to prepare for tomorrow, when they suddenly hear the sound of a cry, a na'vi battle cry.

They have been spotted by 4 na'vi flying their Ikran, the one leading the patrol being Ekko (in this AU refered as "Eko", is a young warrior na'vi from the tribe that Jayce and Viktor are going to be working with later on. Although smaller than his fellow tribe members, he is known for his skilled flying, amazing scouting and leadership qualities).

He was informed by Vi, who suspected that dreamwalkers started roaming around the forest but was unsure how deep they might enter. Confiming her suspicions, Eko spots the trio too deep for his comfort in the tribes territories, on one of his flying patrols.

He was about to descend to confront them when he noticed the outsiders strangly waving at him in panic and the one with the weapon aming past him. Eko turns back to the sudden calls of his fellow tribemates. That is when he sees the Toruk above him, who was diving straight down to Eko, claws ready to grab him. An air chase through the mountains happens and he finally loses Toruk when he flies through the dense forest which annoyingly results in him falling off his ikran. Although the fall was softened by the big leaves, it still results in him getting injured enough to not make it back alone. His Ikran and fellow tribemates not hearing his calls for help.

That is when he gets discovered by our avatar trio. In an attempt to scare them off, he tries to stand up and grab his knife but yelps in pain. Viktor and Jayce try to calm him down to get closer to examine his wound, but it takes a while, especially with Caitlyn and her firearm facing him. Eko does finally let the two scientists inspect him when they start speaking na'vi and tell Caitlyn to step back.

Viktor tries to create a temporary brace out of branches for Eko but is unable to break the thick wood, frustrated at the tools he has at hand.

"Ugh, we don't have the right equipment here! Only if the labs were closer..." "May I try?" Jayce squats besides Viktor, who states that it is useless but does not stop Jayce from taking the branch. Jayce inspects the thick stick while holding it in his gloved hands, determining how much force he would need to use. "Jayce, I really don't think-." He snaps it with ease before Viktor could finish his sentence.

"Oh! That was easier than I expected... You sure this works as a good support? Maybe I should look for another one?"

Both Viktor and Eko were baffled at what they just witnessed, it wasn't unrealistic but it was definitely surprising to see. The hardness of that branch could compare to a thinner metal rod, and there you have Jayce just snap it in half with no trouble. He continues to ramble about the branch unaware of Viktor's perplexion. Eko simply muttering a low "Tewti.." (translation "what the heck...").

(Turns out Jayce is much stronger than the average na'vi, his Avatar builds muscle much more easily. Similar to Jake Sully.)

The 3 help Eko back to the tribe, where they are already expected. A crowd forms around them, many wary but many curious about the dreamwalkers since this clan had no prior interactions with them, besides through stories from other tribes. Before the leader and tsahik aproaches them, a na'vi, Jinx (in the AU refered as Tsyensk, a peculiar but very creative and innovative na'vi with a strong connection to Eywa, she usually keeps her distance from the tribe in self-exile because of her emotional unpredictability) jumps down from above the trees to check on Eko.

Caitlyn furrows her brow and points out to the two scientists in english that the na'vi girl has been following them since the they found Eko, what none of the 3 expected is that Tsyensk would reply back in english!

[femmenature]

You drew stars around my scars

The creator of this content does not speak English, constructive criticism on grammar is welcome😭

I know Liv identifies as non-binary and uses They/them as pronouns, but I used she/her just because of Vanessa's character!

Pairing: Teen Van Palmer/Vanessa Palmer x Fem!Reader.

Summary: Your girlfriend hasn't spoken to you since the wolves left scars on her face, and you can't ignore the sudden distancing.

Warning: Insecurity, bad words.

-

A few days have passed since the wolves bit Van. It was noticeable how distant she was from you. You understood, but on the other hand, you felt guilty for wanting to question her. How could she possibly think you'd judge her? How could she possibly think I'd be disgusted by seeing her face? It hurt you to feel that she had that perspective on you.

The secret relationship between you and Vanessa started before the accident. You were one of the defenders in soccer. It created a short distance between you and your team's goal. In other words, very little distance between you and Van. The chats at practice and the whispers in the locker room turned into make-out sessions and love confessions. Everything was perfect until the crash, and let's just say we managed to stay together. But this really messed things up. She won't talk to me, she won't look at me, she won't touch me, and she even does whatever it takes to push me away. And it sickens me, sickens me that I can't be by her side knowing what she's going through. So I took advantage of the moment when she went to look for dry branches for the campfire and cautiously followed her.

"Are you planning on ignoring me any longer?" Her shoulders lifted at your sudden voice, but she still didn't turn around. "I haven't even heard your voice in days, Vanessa" She cleared her throat as she continued collecting the sticks from the floor. "You don't understand," she said shakily, trying to get used to her voice again, as if she'd kept it hidden in the darkest part of her. "Why do you think I don't understand?" Your face clouded with confusion. 

"I don't know, things like this. This damn interrogation." She stops herself, trying to take back what she said "I'm sorry. I know I'm not reacting well. I just need to be alone."

"Stop doing that, stop pushing me away, because I'm not going to do it." You approach her, facing her back. Every step toward her feels like a step closer to the abyss. "You don't know what I'm like right now, you don't know what I'm saving you from," you furrow your eyebrows, even though she can't see you. Your hand reaches for her shoulder, not with the intention of turning her around. Simply so she knows you're there, respecting her time. "What are you talking about? Do you really think I'd react like this because of your scars, imagining what I was saved from now that my girlfriend was bitten by wolves?" You blurt out the words that had been stuck in your throat for so long. "Do you even know me at all? I need you to listen to yourself."

Her face turns away from where you placed your hand, still trying to avoid you. "I don't think badly of you. I just don't want you to be with me out of obligation." A sigh of frustration escapes you at the sound of her voice. "If you think I'd do that, you really don't know me."

Her body abruptly turns, facing you, allowing you to finally see her face. "Look at me. Look at me and tell me I don't disgust and repel you. That you could caress me the way you did before I had this." Her hands scribble, trying to point out her scars. Even the slightest reference to them repels her.

"You survived a damn wolf attack. What you have on your face are the marks of survival. Do you want me to tell you what would have been devastating for me? That you don't come back." Her eyes meet yours, hungry for the tiniest hint of contact. "So don't put words in my mouth I'd never say. Because having you here with me is more than I could have ever wished for, and more."

Her eyes glaze over and her breathing evens out, leaving behind the air that was squeezing her lungs. "Doesn't it disgust you? Doesn't it make your stomach feel sick, like you're going to throw up?"

"The only thing I feel in my stomach when I see you are butterflies," she rolls her eyes, though you managed to see a small smile escaping her lips. "Van, your beauty is eternal to me. The thing I feel when I see your scars is pride and gratitude that you're still here." One of her hands dared to move away from her body to stop contemplating yours from afar and do something about it. Brushing your hip, with the absurd fear that you'll reject her even though she's heard you say the opposite, her mind betrays her. "I don't deserve you," she whispered to you while her thumb caressed you. 

"You fought with fucking wolves. I don't think anyone really deserves you. And I think it's important to emphasize that you look way too hot with them." She lets out a chaste laugh, not believing you. "You're just saying that." Your hand approaches her cheek, delicately caressing her sensitive marks. "I'm not lying. It's a constant reminder of how brave you are. And you know very well that I admire that about you."

After staring at each other for a while, you pull her into a hug, wrapping your arms around her neck as she rests her face in the crook of your neck. "Thank you. Thank you for staying even though I tried to push you away. I don't know what I would have done without you. You always know just the right thing to say, at the right time, in the right way. I love that about you." Her voice is low as she clings to your body "I love you."

Your head moves away from hers, forcing her to look at you. With a smile, you stroke her hair as you respond with the same feeling you always had. "I love you, Van. Nothing could change that."

Unable and unwilling to prolong the moment any longer, their lips found each other as they had before.

-

Again, sorry if there is any mistake, it's late here and for some reason I write when I'm sleepy. 😫

[steamberrystudio]

22/06/2025 Tumblr Update

Helloooo everyone! I am here to update you on When Stars Collide! *dramatic pose*

On time!

FIRST. An announcement:

Yes. Chapter 6 should be publicly releasing this coming Thursday. 

Chapter 6 is currently in early access on Patreon and yeah, a few more days of that before the release goes public.

The jury's in and...so far, everyone agrees that Noel's butt gets many mentions in this release. And that's a good thing.  🍑

Anyway, keep reading for more info about WSC development!

Summary Bullets:

Released the Chapter 6 early access to Patrons

Finished the Chapter 6 Patreon guide

Finished all sprite staging for ch7

Started coding expressions into the menu branching for ch7

Edited two critical scenes for separate characters to add in slightly more variation in how that moment plays out for various LIs.

Wrote, edited, and coded two new scenes for the "No LI off-ramp" section

Created two new BGs 

Worked on a new minor character sprite

Started CG planning for Ch7

Art:

Since my last update I have not done too much art-wise but I did make two new BGs for a sequence in Chapter 7 and I worked on a new minor character sprite.

I actually do have a fair amount of art to do for Chapter 7 - I have 5 minor characters who need sprites, and while I will be re-using the sprite base for some of them, I still will be giving them unique hair, outfits, etc.

And I have the CGs (but that's for later).

The new BGs relate to some of the edits, which required some additional locations.

Writing:

I've been doing a lot of revising for this chapter as I work on coding expressions. 

And I added about 1500 words of new content for some short scenarios in the "No LI" route.

I went back through my Patreon posts and figured out that I first drafted Chapter 7 around September 2023 and then did the main revision of it in April 2024. So it's been a *while.* 

Re-reading it now I think it's natural to want to fix it up given that so much is going on in this chapter. 

Notably, this chapter is so long - over 80k with the new content - that I was clearly struggling with writing the same events multiple times. After the third time, rewriting the same events from a different perspective gets so tiring. I think it can be interesting to see how a different character's involvement in an event can alter how things flow. But it is really tedious to write...

So while I didn't copy/paste anything...they did all have pretty similar events through this one particular section. Thus, while coding in expressions I've also stopped to revise some sections to add a little variability in exactly what happens. 

Other Stuff:

Coding sprite expressions, as I've said.

Usually with sprites, I go through and stage all the comings and goings and sprite positions first. When I get those done, I start coding in expressions, starting with the MC, then going through all the characters individually.

I also usually get the menu branching coded first. This is just because it helps break the routes up into sections so I can keep track of it all better.

This time around, I'm fully coding the expressions in the menu - so first I code Wil's menu faces, then everyone else's menu expressions. 

There are enough choices in this chapter that by the time I have all the menu branching coded with expressions, I'll have about 35% of the total expressions coded. So it's a decent chunk of the overall expression work.

So I've gone through Asher and Daaz so far. And started on Noel.

I have the common route menus done too, of course.

Upcoming Weeks:

A couple of things in upcoming weeks:

As mentioned, Chapter 6 public release will be happening on or around Thursday the 26th!

While that is going on, I'll be continuing to work on sprite expressions for Chapter 7. My goal is to get all the menu expressions done this week which will put expressions at about 35% complete. And then I will continue to work on getting those done. 

Probably going to try to keep doing a bit of art every evening to just get some of that squared away early on instead of saving it all until the end.

Chapter 7 is so massive that I really want to buckle down and focus on trying to get it released by early-mid September if possible. That is when a lot of my free time to game dev will go away and I want to get as much work as possible done while I can.

Anyway, that is all for now. I will see you in a couple of weeks!

[theresattrpgforthat]

Do you have any recommendations for ttrpgs that can be played with 4 people and have simple(ish) rules? If you need a genre generic fantasy is good. Basically I'm trying to get my friends to branch out from dnd 5e, there's 7 in the group but on nights when not all of them can play I want to introduce a replacement game. Sorry this is vague, but I'm willing to try a variety

THEME: Branching Out From 5e.

Hello! Introducing players to the wide, wide world of indie ttrpgs is always a noble cause.

I know in my personal experience, finding games that fit the niche of some other pieces of media that speak to your friends is a great strategy; my friends have really taken to Pokemon, various horror games, and Final Fantasy to great success. It's also great if you can hype up elements of the game you're suggesting that players might not typically be able to do in a 5e game.

To aid you on your quest, I have the following selection to peruse! Most of the games I mention here are games I've mentioned before, but I'm trying to recommend categories of games more-so than specific ones, so read closely!

1400 Mage, by Unknown Dungeon.

1400 Mage is lo-fi hi-fantasy. Mages wield their arcane talents to push the bounds of adventure, exploring lost sky-keeps, slaying ancient titans, and saving kingdoms from aberrant armies. Whatever the source of their gift, mages fight an internal war to control the magic in their dominion, lest it take control of them.

1400 Mage is a stand-alone high-magic table-top RPG. The rules are short and easy to learn and the whole game can fit on a single sheet of paper. It can be played using just the rules provided, or combined with other entries in the 1400 series (1400 Quest, 1400 Below, 1400 Sneak, and 1400 Planes**) to expand the world and provide more character and game options.

24XX games are modular and quick, and easy to write, which means there's oodles and oodles of games out there that use the exact same system. Almost all of them use a bunch of different-sized die, which is perfect for the dice goblins at your table. These (typically) 2-page games include roll tables that give the GM plenty of inspiration that can generate a quest as you play, which means if you don't have time to prep - never fear! You'll still be able to come up with obstacles on-the-go. All of the 24XX games I've played can be as short as 2 hours, so they're also good if you don't have as much time to play as you normally do.

For games using the same system in different settings, consider 24XX Predators, 18XX Locker, and 24XX GOLIATH.

Vikings Vs Vampires, by Cartwright Shop.

Vikings Vs. Vampires is a rules-light role-playing game suitable for all ages created by Ben Cartwright and Jon Merrell. A big inspiration for Vikings Vs. Vampires was the wonderful game Honey Heist created by Grant Howitt.

Honey Heist games are very simple, with an easy-to understand premise and very few rules, and this game is no exception. It's a great option for lighthearted games with silly roll-tables - I've even had a friend use a series of roll-tables to create Honey Heist games on the fly! Characters are made up of two or three choices, and you have two stats that increase and decrease in tandem, which makes your character dynamic throughout the course of the game.

If you like the simplicity of Honey Heist games, but want a different genre, consider But I Handled It Like A Champion, The Great Soul Train Robbery, or Cryptid TV.

Stewpot: Tales From A Fantasy Tavern, by Takuma Okada & Evil Hat.

The adventurer’s life is tough. It’s time to call it quits. For years you stumbled through hostile lands, living off stale rations, and struggling to get a few hours’ sleep. Now it’s time to hang up your weapons, sell off your armor, and settle down. If only it were that easy…

Stewpot: Tales from a Fantasy Tavern by Takuma Okada is a collection of cozy mini-games that tell the story of a tavern run by former adventurers. Gather your dice, pick up a deck of cards, set aside a shiny coin, and get ready for a new set of challenges. Only this time… your adventures start behind the bar.

Stewpot allows players to pick up characters they may have played before, in a familiar setting but a different end goal: serving good food to weary travelers. The game takes place over a series of mini-games, which the entire group works together to navigate. Since it's GM-less, it gives your group a taste of collaborative story-building, and might possibly gives someone a bug for running games themselves. I definitely encourage you to check out various GM-less games, as they typically take a lot of pre-game stress away from the person hosting or facilitating the game.

If you like the laid back feel and pacing of Stewpot, but want some other options, consider A Complicated Profession, i'm sorry did you say street magic, or Intemperate Shadows.

Liminal Horror, by Goblin Archives.

There’s a strange comfort to ambiguity. To stand at the threshold between states of what was and what’s next, to inhabit the places of transition. But you’re never truly alone here. There are things that hunger within the dark places. Strange creatures and mysteries lie in wait and tumbling into the wrong place at the wrong time may put you on the path towards doom.

Grab your flashlights and blood splattered jackets as you try to make it through the night. Beware, snapping bone and rending flesh are often the simplest outcome. While there may be great power within these places… not all mysteries can be solved and not everyone can be saved. Above all, there are fates far worse than death.

Will you escape with your life? And what kind of person will you become in your quest to survive? There’s only one way to find out…

Liminal Horror sits comfortably in the OSR family, which prioritizes quick & easy character creation, and rules that get out of the way to let the locations and problems of the story shine. These kinds of games work best with pre-written modules, which both take the burden of planning off of the GMs shoulders a little bit, and helps you pace the game. Additionally, since Liminal Horror is meant to be somewhat lethal, you can kill off PCs and roll up new ones fairly quickly - exceptionally well-suited for one-shots.

Similar games within the OSR space but change up the setting include Mausritter, Mothership and Cairn.

Secret Science Sewer Siblings, by Cloven Pine Games.

You and your siblings are sewer animals mutated into bipedal beings with bodies and minds similar to human adolescents. You've also been trained in ancient martial arts. Go rescue your mentor and learn to share pizza with your siblings!

A simple tabletop RPG in the vein of Lasers & Feelings. Perfect for on-boarding interested newcomers into the world of roleplaying games.

Designed on the Lasers & Feelings ruleset, SSSS is extremely simple to play and on-the-nose-goofy, perfect for a lighthearted game night. It encourages as many jokes as you can think of, and cartoony hi-jinx, which creates an easy buy-in because players can always get silly with it if they're not sure what to do next. At the same time, it's inspired by a well-known cartoon franchise, so if your players understand what Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is about, they'll have plenty of references to pull on when deciding what should happen next.

Similar games that use the same rule-set but change up the genre include Vampire Cowboys, Monsters & Counselors, and the granddaddy of them all, Lasers & Feelings.

Escape From Dino Island, by Sam Roberts.

Escape from Dino Island is a thrilling adventure game of intrepid heroes trapped on an island overrun with creatures from a lost age—dinosaurs!

Players take on the role of brave, competent, but fundamentally normal people in way over their heads. The game helps you create action-packed stories that are full of suspense, but in which fighting is rarely a good option.

Pre-generated characters make it easy to jump into play, and Dino Island comes with characters almost instantly ready for you to start playing. Since it's designed for a one-shot, it's a low-commitment game that doesn't require the players to sign up for more than 2 sessions, and it doubles as an introduction to Powered by the Apocalypse games, which is a total shift from the game experience you find in D&D. If your table enjoys moments where their characters get into arguments, or if they are equally interested in failure as they are in success, then you'll get a lot out of this game.

Similar games that may differ in genre but provide the same easy experience include Visigoths vs. Mall Goths, Back Again From the Broken Land, and Sunset Kills.

For Your Reading Pleasure…

Some of the games here are better off as campaigns, rather than one-shots, so I'd recommend them if your group starts showing an interest in longer games.

Fabula Ultima, by NEED Games, for the anime fan in your life.

Dragonbane, by Free League Publishing, for folks who want Daffy Duck to be a playable character in their fantasy world.

Lancer, by Massif Press, for the hardcore mech lover and war-gamer in your group.

The Wildssea, by Felix Isaacs, if what your crew craves is something novel, fresh, and inspiring.

MASKS: A New Generation, by Magpie Games, and Monster of the Week, by Micheal Sands, for folks who love emotions, character arcs, and plenty of extra content.

Easy To Teach Recommendation Post

First-Time GMs Recommendation Post

(also honestly you should probably check out Cloven Pine Games in general, as I've accidentally recommended three of their games in this post alone.)

If you like what I do and want to leave a tip, you can check out my Ko-Fi!

[creatingblackcharacters]

Heya so I'm a Hispanic (non-Black) writer and artist who has been using art as a way to make political statements throughout college, now that I've graduated I plan on making some stories or art projects that I'll self publish as kind of a side thing, or perhaps just a local thing idk.

I generally write stories focusing on my experiences but as I've found they've been well-recieved I'd like to branch out a bit and write some stories to help bring attention to issues that I've witnessed but haven't been subjected to, one being racism against black people in punk/alternative spaces.

My goal is to kind of just create characters and/or narratives that help raise awareness about it, but I don't exactly want to sound as if I'm talking over Black people who have been directly affected as I'm just a witness and not a victim of it. My sociologist friends say that these are good things to write about as supportive narratives can bring in support to actual people, or at the very least help people introspect on their own behavior, or feel encouraged to speak out about their experiencesof discrimination. While I feel like technically any support is good support, I'm admittedly a bit divided as one one hand writing about these things could help, I also don't know exactly if it's like something I have a place in talking about as a non-Black person.

Do you have any tips about writing about that sort of thing without coming across as preachy? Or alternatively do you think its inherently preachy by telling these stories as a non-Black person about discrimination against Black people? Especially if the protagonist of these story's were to be a black person, it's not like I can say anything from my personal experience.

My goal isn't to draw attention to myself but rather to sort of act as a middle man to help garner attention to and support for Black people in my communities that are affected by these things.

*sigh* I can see you tried with the capitals so I'll let it slide.

I think part of it here is that if you're not confident in standing on whatever it is you want to say, don't do it. Because calling out antiblackness and supporting Black people very often comes with backlash that many artists (especially on here, Jesus) fear due to the loss of potential income and/or support. People that liked you for your prior work may very well turn face as soon as you speak on antiblackness in a way that either makes them uncomfortable or even reveals their complicity. But it would be wild of you to try to make an important political statement to support these stories, then waffle and take it down once the pressure starts. So... Don't be surprised!

I think a way to avoid that- and to avoid speaking over Black voices- is by actually involving yourself in the Black community. Do you have Black sociologist friends? Any Black punk/alternative friends? Do you support Black punk artists around you who do political art? Have you studied and promoted their work? Have you done anything else to help this community?

Funny enough, this brings to mind how we can tell who is performative and who isn't. Because you can make art saying "oh I care about this particular issue in the Black community and want to bring attention to it", but if there are no Black voices around you and none of us know who you are, it's going to be like... Who is this person? Are they anybody's friend? Why are they using our struggle for art clout? It's going to be harder for us to believe your intentions if you treat our struggle like a sample in a petri dish to show folks and not like the people around you.

And if you don't know anything about what you're talking about, but still want to help, then maybe rather than creating narratives, you can just boost the Black voices that already did! They already exist! You can be just as helpful boosting Black voices, and frankly everyone should be!

But that's me 🙌🏾

[funktrolls]

So glad the trolls proshitter weirdos who tried to sneak on Tumblr are getting pointed out here too 😭

Like what part of "do not interact if ur into these things" do you not understand? It doesn't matter that you have it on a separate acct and sometimes that's even WORSE if you're keeping that account a secret so that you can infuriate safe spaces people made to avoid you.

Like these people know how to read bios and the amount of them that just do not care and interact with whoever pisses me off.

Like, bruh, you may have became desensitized, but a lot of people aren't. Fictional incest or not its going make people uncomfortable and especially triggering because incest is abuse, it isn't whatever sick ass "romantic" and sexual fantasies you've made up. That shit can and have ruined people's lives.

And I've seen how Brozone, the Pop sisters and V&V have touched so many people emotionally and personally, and how Walt Dohrn, the director has said that all of Branch's brothers are heavily inspired by his older brother AND Bitty B is literally voiced by his kid.

So to see the shit that I've unfortunately seen due to having to go on blocking sprees genuinely makes my stomach churn, and it makes me feel just. Gross, that people would do this to characters that especially have a lot of irl inspirations behind their creations, and how they were literally created to remind audiences of their own family dynamics.

That these characters are nothing but fetish tropes to a bunch of freaks that should probably have restraining orders put on them by their own families. Cuz no matter how much they scream and pout, this shit bleeds into reality.

Anyways sorry for the long rant I'm just still so fucking pissed that so many ppl took a piece of media so personal to me and did the shit that they did. Yea i know i didn't MAKE Trolls but like come the fuck on. How hard is it to respect boundaries.

[leoneliterary]

Hello! I love the way you've written combat in HAT. I was wondering if you'd be willing to share how you plotted/organized writing the mechanics and flavor text for the different weapon types/combat styles? I'm dying to try my hand at an IF with Pathfinder WOTR style combat mechanics, but it feels so unrealistic, yet your fight scenes give me the same excitement, so I thought I'd ask for any insight you're willing to share :)

This is such a wonderful ask to get, because I always worry that the actions scenes don't have enough action or don't feel immersive enough, so thank you for the reassurance! More than happy to share how I go about it!

I think my main process can be distilled into three main components:

Weapon, Senses, and Circumstance

Weapon

I start out by narrowing down the weapons, if any, the character can choose from for fights. When there is a set amount of weapons to choose from, I can make that same amount of fights and further customize from there based on other factors like choices made in the scene.

I also treat weapons like indicators of personality and fighting style.

For example, blunt weapons indicate more force needing to be applied, but the type of blunt weapon matters too. A staff has a different feel and connotation than a club. Think about a great sword vs a rapier. Very distinct feels, and it needs to be reflected when writing the character's movements. It can say a great deal about the character, situation, etc. Which ties into the next component.

2. Senses

This, for me, is what makes the fights feel real. I try to describe the smell, the pounding chest, the nausea, the hand slipping off the hilt. Describing the sensory elements, what characters see, hear, taste, smell, etc, keep the scene grounded and make it feel tangible, without me having to drag a fight scene on for ages. Environmental awareness is crucial in this as well. I have the characters be aware of their surroundings, so that it (hopefully) doesn't read like they are fighting in a void.

I also like to tie in the characters' mental fight as well. Similar to the weapon choice, a character with a certain weapon might be slower, or have to think more. Because things are from the MC's perspective, this provides more opportunity for choice. Brute force or using the environment? Panic or cold calm? I group these internal feelings with the senses that focus on the external.

3. Circumstance

This is where the interactive part really creates headaches. This requires careful branching and labeling. Depending on choices, a character might be unarmed, or sad, or whatever. These choices make different fights. Or maybe something happens in the middle of the fight, rendering a character wounded, or even stronger.

This level of interactivity is something I still struggle with. (Just look at me attempting to fix glitches and bugs lol. Its usually because of scenes like this.)

Here are some practical tips.

Keep track of labels and don't be afraid to use them liberally.

Include and keep track of your variables and determine how long you want them to stick around. Just for this fight? Use a temp variable. Need it to come up in two chapters? Maybe it needs to be in your startup file.

When in doubt, map it out. Plan out what impact choices have on a fight and draw out the different scenarios. Then write each one separately, like it's the only one. (Feel free to reuse some elements of the fight, though.)

Hope this was helpful and let me know if you have any more questions!

[remidyal]

Intrepid Heroes PCs ranked least favorite to favorite

Some quick rules for this very arbitrarily created ranking: Only characters from IH seasons, not sidequests, and it's purely based on my vibes and feelings towards the characters. It also doesn't take into account Quangle-related material. There's spoilers here, particularly for Unsleeping City and Crown of Candy, so reader beware

34. Gunthrie Miggles-Rashbax (ASO) It can be very funny in a disaster sort of way and certainly Gunnie's not a bad performance from Lou or anything, but man he puts my teeth and my soul on edge when he's at work. Someone's got to be at the bottom of this list, and this was one of two characters I considered!

33. Cumulous Rocks (ACoC) The other consideration for the bottom, because while Gunnie makes me actively uncomfortable at all times Cumulous gives me nothing. As close as any D20 PC comes to being a non-presence. He's in almost twice as many episodes as Lapin and there's only one character of Zac's anyone ever talks about from Crown of Candy.

32. Theobald Gumbar (ACoC) For both Murph and Zac, I have a strong preference for what we might call their scummier characters, and Theo is basically Murph at his most paladin-y even though Theo is a fighter. I still like him alright - only the first two entries on this list are even remotely negative, if I was doing letter grades we'd already be into like B- territory - but this side of Murph is him at his least entertaining for me.

31. Mother Timothy Goose (NA) Already getting difficult! Timothy is a kind guy and I hope he has a lot of non-stolen apples in his future but he's definitely the weakest of the Never After cast for me. I admire the hell out of Ally for trying a pretty wide variety of characters; this one just didn't quite land for me.

30. Liam Wilhemina (ACoC) A VERY different Ally character, there's just a lot of whiplash with Liam from scene to scene that's part of the full Beardsley experience. Obviously this list would look very different if I were building out based on combat effectiveness. Honestly probably dropped five spots from that last Wish and resurrection of the villains alone.

29. Ricky Matsui (TUC) I'm going to get yelled at for this one being this low, and Ricky's got some incredibly funny moments obviously, but it's very much a Zac as comedy assassin sort of performance and I don't find him THAT interesting on a scene to scene basis. The TUC2 version of him's the better of the two, though. Even more than Murph, I prefer Zac playing assholes.

28. Sundry Sidney (ASO) So here's the thing: I'm southern USian and Emily's accent here drives me up the wall. Similar sort of situation with Moonshine being my least favorite of her NADDPOD PCs by a mile. Everything about the concept and character aside from that is great; the character voice docks it for me.

27. Kugrash (TUC) There's a lot to love in this performance, obviously, and I think it's actually an extremely interesting thing to come in on someone who has been working as a better person (rat) for a long time. I just don't necessarily need that many juicy cockroaches in my life. I think maybe suffers a little bit by only getting one season, because the players have definitely gotten better over time to me.

26. Lapin Cadbury (ACoC) I know, I know, but there's only six episodes with this dude in them as a primary PC and I'm not giving that many points for potential. Could have should have would have been a lot higher, but he makes it this far off what we did get.

25. Misty Moore/Rowan Berry/Holly Branch/Probably a bunch of other names (TUC) Similar to Kugrash she might have improved if she'd stuck though she does reappear in TUC2 more. Honestly if I was counting Quangle material she might jump higher because her appearances in those have been great, but she's relatively one-note even if it is a very funny note. Technically the first PC to really attempt romancing another PC unless we count Kristen kissing everyone freshman year.

24. Jet Rocks (ACoC) Another character cut short, though nine episodes is a significant amount more than six. A lot of people have extremely strong preferences between Emily's ACoC characters. EXTREMELY strong. I do not, which is why...

23. Saccharina Frostwhip (ACoC) ...they're ranked back to back. I think they're both pretty fun characters, but with some significantly flawed choices probably made worse by the filming circumstances of ACoC. I also think this was always the backup character (other than hilariously maybe Lou's) that was most likely to come into play, because Jet fought as though she was invincible from episode one. I will take this spot to note that I don't think Saccharina herself upped the power level of the party upon coming in as much as simply them getting to higher levels did, though she didn't hurt.

22. Ruby Rocks (ACoC) Honestly this is almost two characters too - there's the Ruby from the first half of the season and the Ruby from the second half. I think it's a bold choice to have gone into anger and fury so much in mourning, and also that neither she nor Saccharina are totally in the wrong in their fights throughout, but I do get where it wore on some people and it did for me a bit too.

21. Big Barry Syx (ASO) DEFINITELY my favorite of Murph's non-weirdo type, he honestly plays incredibly well off of everyone else in the season; I think there's individual interactions that are just stellar with every member of the cast here. There's another step up here into B+ territory; the list from here is so hard.

20. Fabian Arimaris Seacaster (FH) Yes that is the canonical spelling of his middle name for some reason, and yes this is my lowest Bad Kid. There's a lot I love about him, obviously, but I find his Junior Year arc in particular not all that interesting and Kristen and Gorgug jumped him there. I'm still looking forward to more of him, presuming Chungledown Bimothy doesn't murder him in a liveshow.

19. Pinocchio (NA) Speaking of character voices, it's been years now and I still can't believe Lou stuck to this voice the whole season even knowing he doesn't let things go. Honestly a very similar situation to Fabian, lots of things I like here and in this case maybe let down by just how disjointed all of Never After can be. This part isn't Lou's fault but I've never once spelled Pinocchio right the first time - I always want there to be two Ns.

18. Pete Conlan (TUC) Another tale of two seasons character, TUC2 Pete is much better than TUC Pete for me, and enough so that he rises up to here. (Season 1 Pete would be floating around 30). Love the arc and character development, love the connection to Dream, love the tweaks to Wild Magic that Brennan and Ally made to make it matter more because that subclasses is dull as hell as written.

17. Gerard of Greenleigh (NA) He's just so perfectly an asshole in the right amounts to be a hilarious performance, and yet isn't always in the wrong or at fault. The sword form names making fun of Wheel of Time are VERY fun for me as someone with a love/hate relationship with those books. Of all the cast, I'm pretty sure Murph has the closest match to me in media consumed.

16. Rosamund du Prix (NA) I still like the ace interpretation over the lesbian one but both are a lot of fun. Probably has the most complete story of any of the NA characters, which isn't saying much. Love the concept, love the curse, love the third mini.

15. Sofia Lee (TUC) I wouldn't visit Staten Island to meet Sofia Lee, but I would at least think about it and make a promise to maybe try the ferry sometime if I was in New York and had nothing better to do.

14. Gorgug Thistlespring (FH) A BIG riser for me in JY, because I genuinely didn't enjoy him all that much in FY or SY and he would have been around Ricky territory. Love the entire Barbarian/Artificer thing. The Mary Anne epilogue is probably the funniest single thing in all of Junior Year to me.

13. Puss in Boots (NA) Definitely has the MOST fragmented mess of a character arc of anybody in Never After and still is this high because Zac was born to play the role of a con artist cat.

12. Ylfa Snorgelsson (NA) It may have taken me two episodes to realize Emily was doing that voice intentionally and they didn't film while she had a cold. If the Bad Kids are teens from a John Hughes movie, Ylfa is the actual preteen who's throwing up in the backseat of your car on a road trip, aside from the wolf parts.

11. Kristen Chili's Applebees (FH) Not only is the middle name canon, so is the apostrophe. I love her junior year arc, and the moment in the woods where she releases Lucy and Yolanda's souls is absolutely incredible. Is she a lot sometimes? Oh, for sure, but she's still a lot of fun to have on my screen.

10. Being Deep Underwater and Finding a Current That Leads You Swiftly and Perfectly to Where You Need to Go (Riva for short) (ASO) Remember, at the end of the season they're the most cynical person their race has ever had and also have killed a whole lot of people! Just an absolute delight at every moment, even in a pretty purely supporting role.

9. Iga Lisowski (TUC) Yes, both TUC2 specific characters are in my top ten, for very different reasons. I love Iga, I love her family, I love her dragon, I just love everything about her, even if her art makes her look decrepit instead of like, 45.

8. Amethar Rocks (ACoC) I need to find the clip, which is either from ACoC or TUC2 adventuring party, of Lou talking about this but to paraphrase he mentions that Amethar has exaggerated versions of what he considers his own flaws, and he certainly does have plenty of flaws, but I think he's the pillar that keeps ACoC rolling and I think the season would have been a lot worse if Brennan had succeeded in murdering the shit out of him early as he wanted to.

7. Riz Gukgak (FH) Riz is a combo platter of Murph's offerings, being both a dogged story-character and a weird-ass little guy. Shout out to our canonical ace shrimp king, may his reign last a solid ten or fifteen minutes until he has to get to his next club meeting.

6. Normal "Skip" Takamori (ASO) I'm not splitting up the man and the slug but both would be high on this list independently. DEFINITELY the biggest jerk Zac's played, even over the con artist cat, and just so very much fun. He's my top Zac character, but he's not my top ASO character, because...

5. Margaret Encino (ASO) EASILY my favorite Ally character. Spends so much time in online banking during battle and is right to do so. An anachronism to the setting in the best ways, instead of being purely disruptive as it sometimes can be.

4. Fig Faeth (FH) If we've truly seen the last of Fig for a potential Senior Year, I'm okay with that, but everything we've gotten is so good. Pure heart and funny and unpredictable and just so much torture of NPCs who probably didn't deserve it but it's fine, they're not real people.

3. Cody Walsh (TUC) Definitely the D20 character whose player hates him the most, for me Cody's easily the funniest character D20's ever had, start to finish. I actually strained a muscle laughing at the bad turn. You know the one, if you've seen it.

2. Adaine Abernant (FH) Ow, right in the feelings. Solidly number 2 in spite of her Junior Year arc being also a little on the flat side, because she deserved a year with some breaks after the first two. Hopefully she and Aelwyn are having ice cream for a good long time.

1. Kingston Brown (from downtown, TUC) In the same clip mentioned above for Amethar, Lou described Kingston as being an exaggerated version of the things that he liked about himself, and I fully agree there. Kingston's an aspirational character in a lot of ways, someone I would love to be more like, and not in the whole having magic thing. And on top of that he's very funny! So Lou manages to take both extremes here, first and last, and I think that's appropriate.

[fortune-maiden]

The Hundred Line: Box of Calamity

All I'm saying is that if Kodaka really wants to create Hundred Line DLC, he should really consider a full on Gnosia/Raging Loop/Among Us style route! (Note: Spoilers for the Kill Eito Routes as well)

The Good

I think this has become one of my favorite routes outside of 1st/2nd Scenario! This route had it all! Mystery! Intrigue! Fun Character Dynamics! Comedy! ENDINGS WITH RESOLUTION!

Like Slasher, the route has fairly distinct branches depending on your choices which leads to a lot of fun divergent paths. And it really feels like a proper VN where different branches reveal different things!

(Eva Path) FINALLY EVA GETS A GOOD ROUTE! Even though she was dead for it I loved this version of Eva so much and I love that she finally got a route that gave her a good amount of exploration and actual closure! The Eva Path was my favorite in this Route, even though it's also the path that is not relevant to the SF Route. I love how we got to see a kind, caring Eva who gets to see the SDU outside of the battlefield and recognizes them as a bunch of confused kids who have no idea what they're doing. I think she's a little too lenient with them in some aspects (Eva, they killed you, and they're going to destroy your entire plant.), but I do like how even though she really isn't that much older than them she still sees herself as the adult in the situation and therefore the person who should take responsibility for them. And take responsibility she does! If you believe in her to the end, she rewards you with one of the most satisfying endings in the game (albeit a painfully rushed one ^^")

I also loved the scene where Takumi decides to tell his friends about the Futuran Village and the argument about the Undying Flame missiles that ensues. Especially how Kurara points out that even though she's against stopping the attack, this is not a discussion that should be taken lightly and shuts down any attempts to shut down the conversation. The whole thing also made be realize and wonder why the Exodus project leaders let Humanity's xenocidal champions have such normal free lives instead of having more characters like Kurara with an inclination towards militarism and extermination. It's interesting!

Also in this path, if we choose to believe Eva is a resentful ghost, we get another bizarre Casual Route type of scenario... and the treat that is Nozomi's evil laughter!

Seriously if you are not playing with the Dub audio, please look up at least this ending dubbed! It's incredible!

Meanwhile, when we choose not to take our findings to the rest of the SDU, we get a Bad Ending where Takumi is confronted with his own guilty conscience! I really love this especially because Takumi doesn't know he's in a time loop story, but depending on where the player is when they get this Route, we may already know from Hiruko that it is, and we may also have seen all the other routes where different members of the SDU are dead. I think it's fun to imagine this manifestation of Takumi's guilt isn't just from BoC, but from other routes. I remember also wondering if that could mean his version of Eva is also an amalgamation of the Eva from other routes (because she never reveals anything that we don't learn from her in those other routes), but I do prefer to think this is the real Eva especially because...

DAHL'XIA REALLY JUST RAGE QUITS ON US! This is the first route I've played where we really just had no plan for Dahl'xia (even Slasher gave us a deus ex Tsubasa!) and the only reason we survive is because Eva talks him down (even on the routes where we're not nice to her). It's absolutely hilarious! I really wish we could have at least heard what she said in the trust in Eva path ;w;

Anyway! G'ie! This is technically the route that unleashes them and I've really missed them from Slasher! They have a different vibe here, and I love Nozomi as the G'ie host because she's always the one person beneath suspicion... but I also love it because of the ending where Takumi refuses to out her! The ending where he realizes that the Nozomi he knew and loved died very shortly after Day 21, very shortly after she asked him for space because she couldn't accept his easy decision to kill Eva. At first I thought that plot point got dropped because of all the other things everyone had to worry about, but then this ending addressed it - Takumi did notice this and this is one of his biggest regrets regarding Nozomi's possession.

(It does however make the plot point's disappearance in BoB even more egregious though)

I also love how we get more Hiruko reveals about the time loop and also more Hiruko making incredibly stupid decisions! Sure just... send Kako into another timeline. That is certainly a Choice but given how many stupid decisions Hiruko makes, it's very on brand for her.

That said, if you realize which timeline she (and Eito) went to, it's fun to go look up what was happening on those days! Kako's appearance causes the Mystery/KG split, and then Eito shows up only in KG (afaik)

(Though it does also raise other questions... such as who killed Gaku. That murder was well before Kako's appearance!)

On another note, I also wonder if the Hiruko in BoC remembers the non-Goodbye Kiss branch of Slasher when she realizes that groups wouldn't work. Its' really interesting to think about which order Hiruko remembers things in (especially when she also says she doesn't remember other routes the way Takumi remembers Route 0. She just remembers snippets...)

Also speaking of Gaku, after unleashing the G'ie in Slasher, here he beats the G'ie by accident BY GOING FULL OCCULT HAM ON THEM! I am never getting over the Gaku & Takumi go all in on the occult being a required ending. I can't wait for this to come up in SF! I can't wait for Hiruko to discover this!

Also Gaku finally gets to be the Final Girl in a horror movie he was meant to be. Good for him!

For the Gnosia AU: Hiruko is Setsu, Kako is Kukrushka now xD

The Not So Good

unlike with Slasher, Multiple Eitos, and some other routes though, I feel like this Route really wants to be played in a specific order and I .... did not play in that order which I think ruined the impact of some of the reveals in it.

I feel like you're really meant to get the Kako ending first for the shock value, and for Hiruko's later reveal about Kako's disappearance to have more impact. Instead she basically tells you what happened in this route and then you play it and... it's literally exactly that. Not even something like a Hiruko's POV scenario the way we got a Nozomi POV in Slasher

(Also why does G'ie!Kako know about the Liver Mortis codes)

Similarly I feel like the reveal that the other Ghost is Takumi's guilty conscience is supposed to be one of your last endings but I also got it fairly early on which made some of the other branches with the Bad Ghost (namely the one where Hiruko also reveals your strangulation is your own doing) less impactful

I'm still a little confused how Nozomi got infected by the G'ie... It had to have happened somewhere between chasing off Kako and Kako's disappearance I guess?

SHOUMA! I know Uchikoshi did not write this route but since this Route is related to both Mystery & SF, I would imagine he still had some involvement so WHY ARE THERE TWO UCHIKOSHI ROUTES NOW WHERE SHOUMA PROCEEDS TO ACT IN WAYS THAT MAKE NO SENSE! When it was originally assumed that Shouma did the murders, I thought 'hey look a route where literal mind control is happening can make a murderer!Shouma scenario plausible' and then it was revealed that Shouma didn't commit the murders, he just knew who did and was covering it up because Reasons. Very stupid Reasons imo. I already ranted about it before so I don't really have much else to say here but I really cannot buy that Shouma's attachment to a dead-ish animal would be so strong that he could overlook literal murder!

Tsubasa, I love you, and your remote was very useful and all, BUT WHY DID YOU MAKE A REMOTE DETONATOR FOR OUR BOMBS????

Also Kako... Once again a route teases the idea of Kako being important only for her to either have an 80ish-day skip or to disappear immediately. We do have a sense of where she went at least but one of those routes didn't do much with her anyway. The other one may still have a chance though...

Speaking of... Are we going to get an answer about the Bees? Are they Adult G'ie? Are they going to appear in Mystery? I'm still so confused!

(Give my girl a route!)

On another note, back in Retsnom, I theorized that Retsnom could be related to the G'ie and how Takumi & Darumi's well meaning attempts to save their friends could result in the G'ie accidentally invading the Multi-verse. I was way off there but in this Route, that did sorta happen! Only I'm a little less satisfied about how it happened... I'm not sure how to feel about Hiruko deciding the best way to deal with her friends becoming possessed is to just... send them into another timeline... and it also doesn't explain where the G'ie came from in Slasher. Did someone just happen to open another Box there or are the G'ie in Slasher the same G'ie from BoC? (SF Route could still provide an answer here though so this is a minor quibble for now)

(Less of a minor quibble is how many dead!Eito routes are the result of timeline shenanigans from the spare!Eito routes...)

Also as much as I love the Eva path, WOW WAS THE ENDING RUSHED! Everything resolves super quickly as soon as we decide that Eva is not a resentful spirit. Suddenly! Nozomi is the mastermind and Takumi accepts her death very easily! Eva takes care of V'ehxness for us (still more satisfying than in Eva Route though)! Suddenly we can investigate the school and find a way to disable the missiles! Everything just kind of rushes to a conclusion and most heinously of all - THERE IS NO ENDING CG FOR ONE OF THE BEST ROUTES IN THE GAME!

(In general some of the Eva Path things felt very rushed and not QC'd well. I caught a number of typos and plot holes such as Takemaru knowing FB's name, mentioning that Nozomi can be revived with the Revive-O-Matic, and Takumi at one point talking to Eva directly but the dialogue treating the lines as though he was thinking the words. With a script this massive, I can accept that not everything can be caught but it's unfortunate that so many script issues were in this part specifically)

[angelshizuka]

Okay maybe it’s because I’ve been getting more and more YT videos in my recommended feed about how much people dislike this show, but I’ve been trying to figure out why people hate Helluva Boss to such a vitriolic degree?

At first I thought it was homophobia, but a large majority of people who have either turned against the show or never liked it in the first place ARE queer themselves, some even saying the show’s values are very conservative citing how the show condemns hypersexuality and pushes monogamy and family life as the ideal life (I don’t personally think it does but I’m not queer so I don’t think I should speak definitively on that).

And then I thought maybe it is an issue with the writing. And if I can extend an olive branch: the writing in Helluva Boss is a very mixed bag. It’s very rough in the beginning mainly with how it struggles with tonal consistency, plot structure, and it having trouble prioritizing its characters.

Okay those are all very valid criticisms of the show. Here’s the thing. I have watched other shows that ALSO had these problems mainly in the beginning. Some shows outgrew these flaws (The Owl House), some didn’t (Amphibia), and some doubled down on their problems and created even more problems (Miraculous Ladybug).

But unless a show actually gets outrageously bad, I have NEVER seen a show get lambasted the way I have seen with Helluva Boss for either normal writing flaws that are a result of a creator’s first show ever AND the nature of indie projects lacking a certain degree of structure, or because people have jumped to the absolute WORST faith conclusions about the story, its characters, and its themes.

The writing of Helluva Boss isn’t perfect, but it is very heartfelt which is something I feel has been lacking in a lot of shows lately, and that’s why I’m still invested in its story and characters.

So I gotta wonder…is it JUST because of Vivienne Medrano? Is it JUST because she has had a controversial and albeit problematic presence online?

Is it also because it’s an indie project and you’re a lot less likely to get blacklisted from the industry for going after an indie project than you are for a project backed by a major corporation?

Because I can’t help but feel like this show would not be getting this degree of hatred if Vivienne Medrano were someone who didn’t have a significant or any online presence.

At least from what I've seen a lot of the hate comes down to purity culture that has been a problem in fandoms in general the past decade, so HB and HH aren't "clean" to these people.

Honestly, I'm just gonna say it. Even if these "critics" are queer themselves, a lot of their arguments are still rooted in (internalized) queerphobia, because THEY act like queer people, including queer rep in media, needs to be "pure" in order to be valid. Instead of seeing queer people like the imperfect and flawed humans we are (not to mention queer people can also be bad people).

I've talked before about how HB and HH feel like the (pre-purity culture) fandom of a show being the actual show itself, so it makes sense so much of the hate is similiar to how "the wrong kind" of fandoms are hated by people who can't even tell the difference between fiction and reality, because they genuinely believe the "morality" of a fictional character perfectly alligns with the writers and fans' real life morality.

I definitely agree HB and HH aren't perfect and it would be interesting to discuss their flaws if the "critical" crowd hadn't ruined it. Though, I do go a bit easier on them because they're Viv's first indie shows (HH technically isn't indie anymore, but you get what I mean), but even if I were to hold them up to corperate show standards, even then I'd still consider them better than most corperate shows I've suffered through in recent years.

And the hatred for Viv as a person in general definitely plays a big part in it, too, because I've seen so many "critics" bend over backwards in any way possible to find ways to try and blame her for literally everything, even though she's far from the only person working on these shows and it's literally impossible for her to keep track of everything that's going on.

[glasscoral]

Finished my sixteenth ending cluster! SF/Mystery route, endings 53-60, and endings 93-100.

You know, before I played this, I heard that this route was bad. It is. I think it's actively one of the worst routes in the game, if not the worst. However, the ways in which it was bad kind of surprised me. Here are my thoughts on it. (Be warned I'm very negative about the central character relationship and the route as a whole.)

When I first heard about this route, I heard it was terrible.

The thing was, the parts of it that I heard were terrible were the fact that it apparently invalidates other routes, and the fact that it's not a satisfying ending.

When I played the route, I didn't really have an issue with either of those.

In terms of it not feeling like a satisfying ending...

Ima and Kako getting their issues solved offscreen, eito getting ~magically fixed~ that wasn't really an issue for me because early on in the route it did feel intentional. (Eito's cognitive disorder being an intentional thing he was 'created' with rather than an actual mental illness aside...)

It felt like intentional commentary on the idea of a 'perfect' ending, the fact that it'd feel hollow and cheesy if we magically managed to press a button and fix everyone, because part of what draws us to these characters is their struggles with an imperfect reality that they can't fix.

In that sense, I think SF could've been really interesting. I think it would've actually been really good if it'd been even more saccharine, even more over the top, even more 'perfect'.

Like I would've loved it if it was more embarrassing.

But then, we get to what feels like the actual issue with SF, which is that it introduces a whole lot of complexity, a whole lot of fake-outs, a whole lot of everything to then do nothing with.

Hiruko and Takumi spend half the route going through all these timelines to find these codes and through all of that, we don't really seem to get much about the two of them and their relationship except banter. I found the banter falling a little short because...Hiruko's kind of blushy/easily embarrassed/calls takumi a Pervert for doing nothing which is a trope I really dislike.

Kurara also does this, but she's usually scolded by others for doing this/we get to see other sides of her--for Hiruko, this is the first time her and Takumi have really hung out at length and the only time we've found out she cares about him being a Pervert (unlike CoT where she's just like yeah do you want to get a naked oil massage. like cot's 'special circumstances' aside i personally enjoy her deadpan side more, so..), so having this suddenly appear as a personality trait was a little bit offputting.

Still, this was just 'kind of irritating' until we found out what was motivating her.

So with all the timeline traveling, we've learned a few things about Hiruko. One is that she's a time looper. Unlike Takumi, she seems to experience these loops linearly--according to her, once she dies or goes past 10am on day 100, she'll wake up in the next loop. Also, unlike Takumi, she seems to remember each previous timeline in each iteration. She can also interact with them and travel to them using a machine separate from her timelooping.

However, she cannot fix these timelines herself. She says very early on that changing timelines for the better simply 'creates a new rail'--the old timeline, the one where everyone dies, still exists (but she thinks it's still worthwhile to make a new one)

What's motivating her is that in one of those (bad) timelines takumi was really nice to her/said he loved her. As a result, she chose not to go back to that timeline and fix it and 'let it happen again' by her description of it.

Except it's already been established that this isn't how it works, that all 'fixing' it would do would be to make another branch timeline.

And yet the story describes this as her ~unforgivable~ crime, something she'd be fine with ~dying~ to atone for.

Because she just loved what Takumi did for her so much.

The thing is I think you could kind of make something interesting out of this--not that 'not fixing the timeline' is some sort of unforgivable sin, but that she is devoted to one Takumi and one thing he did.

That she's seen him in all those different timelines, and she cares for him, but it's all stemming from her projecting her feelings for that one takumi onto all of the others--and, as a follow up, that this is why she hasn't escaped the loop--she refuses to see the one with her now as his own person, or even try to build the same kind of relationship with this one--she instead on some level simply wants to return to that one moment despite it being impossible.

But that's not what happened here.

What happened in this route was: 20000 alternate timelines, some of which ended with people randomly getting killed by Evil Kako who is jumping timelines to murder people.

(I have no fucking idea where Evil Kako went. She's still out there.)

Wait no she dies in kg. Great

Nozomi also randomly began to sparkle, also for no reason. This was also never mentioned again.

Hiruko was also given a USB drive that allowed for "vertical as well as horizontal" movement, by a mysterious older female scientist.

Neither the USB drive or the scientist were relevant or mentioned ever again.

There is a random clone of Shion that the people on the Artificial Satellite had lying around who exists to charge the rockets instantly, then die. This was never mentioned before and never mentioned since.

The reason they were protecting the school for 100 days was to give Shion time to charge up the rockets, but I guess that doesn't matter.

The last two choices of the route are identical, except one of them involves saying it's ok if we blow up the entire world, and the other involves saying no we shouldn't </3.

If you say we should blow up the entire world eva's brainwashing wears off on the escape pod and she says she's going to kill everyone when she gets to the artificial satellite, which i guess all the students on the escape pod are just going to Let Her Do,

If you say we shouldn't. happy end i guess. It doesn't wear off.

idk.

sf sucks because there are a lot of real interesting ways it could've gone and a lot of interesting things they could've done with it but all of that got tossed in favor of adding a ton of random ass plot points that were never hinted at before and will never be hinted at again so they just mean nothing

and i mean i guess you could file 'oh all the other timelines were actually loops' under this but it genuinely didn't have to be like that. you could do something really interesting with the idea that hiruko is the only one experiencing this timeloop and it's entirely due to her own desires. you could do something really interesting with the fact that she seems to remember previous timeloops even in the prologue.

you could do something really interesting with the fact that she says that all the timeloops she's remembered have her getting onto the escape pod and not onto the satellite and reaching day 100 but not day 101, and at the end of this route she only gets onto the satellite and only reaches day 100 and she assumes this means she's free.

you could do something really interesting with the fact that takumi mentions multiple timelines in which he's gotten way past day 100 and hiruko doesn't seem to understand what he's talking about.

but sf didn't.

and that's the saddest part of that all for me.

yaoi rating: 5/10 i guess eito was a little yaoi

yuri rating: n/a

het rating: 10/10

i found the kiss in slasher bad. this is that but central to the narrative

i give up. why this

i am so fucking tired

I COMPLETELY FORGOT TO MENTION MYSTERY. I THOUGHT THE MYSTERY PART WAS OK, IT HAPPENED BEFORE ALL THE SF PLOT TWISTS STARTED GETTING REALLY BULLSHIT the route was 'ok'. lots of stupid bad ends that are just (someone randomly kills you). i enjoyed all the REALLY stupid choices you could make during the persuasions. mystery was ok but not good, but i'm counting it as part of sf due to the format

there were a couple interesting ima bits in it i guess.

[mahou-furbies]

My game dev journey is inching forward slowly. I'm still very far from being able to create anything proper, but so far I have worked on a tutorial project even a little almost every day, so there's at least some progress.

The whole thing started when I thought of how I would like to have this one feature in a farming sim, but that I've never seen it in any of the ones I now, and was kind of pissed about it. But when I thought about it for more than 10 seconds it became very clear that it's not something you could just slap on at the end and would instead require the whole game to be built around it. Then I started to come up with ways how it could be implemented and- hey, Stardew Valley was made by just one guy right? Not that whatever I would create would be, like, good, because I am not the Stardew Valley guy, but it's still an encouraging thought that making a full game on your own is possible. So after 2-3 failed attempts several years earlier I downloaded Unity again and started looking at tutorials.

While working through early tutorials I was quite aware that a farming sim would be way too ambitious of a project for a first game and that I should start with something simpler. Luckily I had had a different idea of a magical girl RPG earlier, whose scope would be more manageable, so I changed plans to that. Also I remembered a tumblr post about a magical girl mascot themed manager simulator, which also super inspired me, but let's stick to top down 2d games now.

However the more I thought about my mahou rpg idea it became apparent that it too would be way too much, like I've envisioned turn based combat on a grid where I would have to write pathfinding for the AI, and you would have ally mahous whose behaviour changes based on your friendship level, and there would be a branching story and yeah this isn't going to fly either, it's best to scale down.

So the next idea was to just make the most basic version of walk around in an overworld + separate combat scene, rip it off pokemon or something, like the bare minimum that counts as a game. The plot can be DPPC fighting the monster of the week or something. Then again there's five of them and I don't want to have to deal with multiple player characters at once, so let's just give each of them their own stage. It ought to help build familiarity with the engine if I do the same simple thing five times.

So that is the current goal! Seems something that I could actually achieve too so let's hope for the best. Then again while thinking about this DPPC idea I also realised that if it works out I could actually try telling the main DPPC story with a video game; if you remember I once agonised that after the death of Flash there hasn't really been a medium for me to use on the DPPC story, because I can't write prose, or use comic book storytelling, or create animations (nor do I care to learn). But this could be the solution! Then again I don't think the DPPC story is that well suited for a video game since it has multiple/rotating protagonists and a lot of the story is told through flashbacks, but it should be possible to cram it in somehow. So that is idea number 5!

Mind you I am still not out of the tutorial phase of learning to use Unity, and here I am with multiple multi-year game project ideas. But it's so much fun thinking about them! I've felt super inspired these past few weeks and it feels great! I will actually do the small DPPC thing first though and then figure out if I want to have anything to do with game dev any more after that. Also of course the ideas for the DPPC "demo" have ballooned in scope before I've even started it, but hopefully I'll manage to stick to the basics when I actually see what it's like to implement it.

Right now the plan is to catch up with the ongoing tutorial series I've been following, and after that start a new project for DPPC. Let's see how it goes!

[eyesore-boi]

You think that you're alone but

We are waiting for you every night...

You're mine.

Close ups and other stuff below!

...so....10 years, huh?

I cannot understate how much FNaF means to me in my life, and yeah...know that sounds a b i t much considering it's the funny har har bear games, but lemme explain-

Truth is, i was actually terrified of FNaF when it first came out! I remember my first introduction to it was when i was having a sleepover at my friend's place and he was both playing and watching other people play the first game, and when i was watching it with him, i got scared and tried to avoid the game as much as i could, even claiming to hate the game despite just knowing the first game. I was young and was prone to sheltering myself from stuff i didn't understand, and that being the first scary game i've ever seen caused that reaction, but over time...that changed.

It happened when i was watching YT and clicked on a comic dub i never seen before, thinking it was an AU for a fandom i was in (probably Undertale i dunno), but lo and behold, it was actually a fandub/animatic for the missing kids incident, and that...peaked my interest. I got curious on how this scary game actually had an interesting story to it and not just some game that goes boo. So, soon after that, i decided to look up simply "FNaF Story", found the Game Theory videos, and...the rest is history.

I was amazed and hooked, got invested in how the games explained the story in ways i've never seen before, got excited when i saw everything click together in real time, and pair that with how i got into the series r i g h t when Sister Location came out, arguably when the lore really started to kick off, i knew there was no going back now. I stuck with the series since. I watched all the animatics and dubs, listened to all the songs, tried drawing the characters, made OC's, and even talked to other people about this franchise.

And now look- Not gonna pretened this whole time it's been sunshine and (Chica's) rainbows, especially in recent times. The drop off SB caused, the lore getting more and more complicated and convoluted, the divide between older and newer fans, being the founder of Mascot Horror (for every Poppy Playtime there i s a Garten of Ban Ban) and course the IRL drama, but in all seriousness...i still wouldn't trade it for anything.

FNaF, this series, is my very first experience connecting me with a community like this, both good and bad, helping me understand how to properly enjoy media and even learn/take things from it, and i think without it i wouldn't be in the fandoms i'd be in now. The scary, horror ones, the niche, hard to find ones, story driven, character rich, and of course...more importantly...getting me into Markiplier, which further influenced the "outside the box" kind of thinking cause my g o d for these two stories you need too-

And speaking of, because of those two stories, it lead to me branching out more creativily and even creating my own webcomic for an AU combining both of them, so regardless on how that'll go, i'm just glad this series has influenced me enough to create something for others to see, since that's all i ever want to give.

But really, this franchise will forever be with me, and though i don't always agree with all of it (i haven't read any of the books in y e a r s and i refuse to do so), it only makes some of the stuff it does do right completely worth it (like the movie, peak cinema), and for where ever this bear shaped train is going next, well, i'll be here for the ride for all of it. No matter how many burning buildings it goes through.

...oh and um- Right yeah. The actual art piece. Uh....it crashed multiple times when drawing it. It's even a miracle i was able to export it. I can't even open it up anymore. So even if i wanted to change anything about it, i c a n 't -

But still pretty happy with how it came together! Was run drawing these robos, some being kinda redraws from the past, while other's i've n e v e r drawn before, so that was interesting! But still, tried to draw the "main character" so to say from each of the main FNaF games, and just kinda be...walking along through the series, nothing too deep or complex, but still interesting enough! ....unlike the fnaf storyline cause g o d how many restaurants wERE THEIR S C O T T -

But for real this is going long enough, so ima head out and do my own FNaF related things thay you don't need to worry about shush *commits arson*

HAPPY 10TH FNAF BIRTHDAY EVERYBODY!! >:DD

[hyuneflix]

heyyyyy girlyyy first of all,lemme praise the shit outta your work cuz the scrumptiously delicious... second...

girly...should i start writing...i wanna write but yk the "what if_" are not leaving my mind...do you have any suggestions? ;-;

hi love!

thank you so much, means the world that you're enjoying my work <3

as for whether or not you should start writing my answer is absolutely you should!! life always throw a million reasons not to do something our way, but the most fulfilling parts of life are often found outside of our comfort zones. to get there we just need to take that leap of faith :)

advise under cut (cause its long af, sorrrrryyyy!)

my first suggestion is this: start getting your ideas down, that's always a great way to start motivating yourself and begin documenting things you wanna get around to writing. i always start with the very basics, something like this --

then if something starts to click and i'm getting excited about the idea i start to world build, character build etc ,, something a little more like this --

i find this useful for two reasons: 1. it sparks my inspiration/motivation and encourages me to get writing & 2. it creates a starting point/reference that i can use to start writing and return to when i've reached a creative block.

that being said, you don't have to do this every time you want to write a fic. i don't that's for sure! if you have an idea and you wanna go for it, GO FOR IT!!! capitalise on your momentum, let yourself get lost in the sauce lmao.

tips for world building: it helps to find pictures that relate to the world you're trying to build (it helps you describe your surroundings when you can visualise them)

tips for character building: mood boards can help with this, set the tone with outfits/quotes/pictures that encapsulate the personality of your character (having little character quotes is fun to do and helpful to have too. ex: for a f!boy seungmin character: "ha! silly girl thinks she can make me fall in love? don't make me laugh.")

tips for character development: what would be really helpful here is doing a mind map. you start with one point, for example 'strangers' and then you create a new branch for every change in their relationship. something like this: strangers > meet cute > friends > mutual pining > falling out > confessed feelings > lovers (this is a very basic version, you're probably gonna want to do it more detailed, ex: falling out - seungmin and reader fall out over a miscommunication, then describe their feelings etc).

all of those ideas that you begin to work on can and absolutely should be changed as you go (if you want to). the sign of a good writer isn't necessarily how well they can write, it's how well they allow their imagination to guide their work. you're going to keep coming up with new ideas as you go, plots are going to change and that's great! it means you're maintaining your excitement for the story.

then my last piece of advise would be to just start writing. it doesn't matter if the first thing you write isn't a masterpiece, you can edit it as many times you need to or bin the entire thing if you don't end up liking it. however, the benefit is that you started, you pushed past the what if's and gave it a go and that's the most important thing. besides, there are no wrong answers, you can't possibly fail! as long as you're enjoying it, as long as its serving you, you're winning by default.

tips for writing: 1. if you can, re read and edit often (with my adhd that's hard to do but it ends up being worth it even if i can only manage a few paragraphs). 2. have a thesaurus open in a tab. i'm lucky to have been raised with a good vocab but i still keep a thesaurus open to encourage me not to use the same words over and over (i use this site, the dictionary tab is also helpful to ensure the word is a good fit,, sometimes the meaning doesn't match despite being a synonym). 3. i find listening to music really helps, especially when it matches the mood that i'm trying to convey in the story. it also helps during the idea's phase because i've thought of loads of fic ideas just from songs. 4. put effort into your environment. i need a zero distractions, zero clutter environment to write. for that reason i always start by doing a general tidy up (lowkey only what's in sight lmao; out of sight, out of mind) and go through my to-do list. getting my chores out of the way means i have a clear head. alternatively, use writing to procrastinate your chores lmaooo, whatever helps!! also, light a candle, wear your comfy clothes, have a cup of tea/coffee, some healthy snacks--whatever you need to do to be locked tf in.

tips for staying motivated: 1. if you're a perfectionist like me you'll probably never be happy with a piece of work and that'll either make you reliant on the validation of others or unwilling to accept your work is good in spite of other people's positive feedback (tag yourself i'm the second one). either way, don't measure your work based on other people's feedback. if people love it, amazing, nothing makes me happier than seeing other's entertained by my silly little fics. but if you're not getting much/any feedback, it just means you haven't reached your audience yet and that's okay--it means you're in a beautiful place where you're writing solely because you enjoy it. so make sure you are!!! 2. speaking of perfectionism, don't be afraid of it. the advise i've always been given, particularly when it comes to creative projects, is that i should ignore my perfectionism and just put out work whether i'm happy with it or not. that sentiment has never worked for me. learning how to use my perfectionism to create a polished piece of work while balancing expectations--and not letting my stubborn perfectionism get in the way of my progress--was the cheat code i needed to thrive. 3. don't be afraid to abandon your work/take some time away from it. i have about four written fics just sitting in my google docs, some of which i spent days and days on just to quit. the point is to enjoy what you're writing not feel like you're trying to finish something. it's a creative project not a work assignment.

the best part is there's no pressure. it isn't going to see the light of day until you're happy enough to post it, and even then, when you do put it out there, you're in very safe hands. tumblr ff readers are lovely and they'll enjoy your work as much as you enjoyed writing it i have no doubt! when you pour your love and joy into your work, it's contagious for the reader, they can't help but love it too.

i hope you've found this helpful, feel free to drop any questions you have in the comments, or if this isn't the response you were hoping for let me know! if i don't get back to you right away i'll be more active on monday :)

oh, and you already have one fan in me, love, so lemme know if you do end up pursuing writing! i will be first in line for the premier <3

[zsakuva]

if you didn’t have to worry about the algorithm/making an income, would you change some aspects of you works?

like, would create works without a listener? would you explore other genres/plots that don’t focus so heavily on romance (or even cut out romance completely and have listener be a friend or something)?

don’t get me wrong, i love pretty much everything on your channel! but i can’t help but wonder if things ever get repetitive for you as a writer… 

i obviously don’t have access to your demographics, but is it naive of me to think that if you do ever decide to branch out, it won’t effect your views too much? (i’ve spoken to a lot of female listeners on here who really enjoyed niall’s series even though it’s m4m)

i hope that wasn’t too many questions ^^;;

have a wonderful day and say to kimahri:))

I would change a lot of aspects about my work.

When it comes to creating online content, experimentation can be quite unforgiving if you've already established a set expectation for your audience. Although it's a way to learn and grow, sometimes, creators either can't afford to take that risk, or they're not comfortable with branching out.

For me, I love experimenting! There are many times when I'm writing a script and I say to myself, 'How the hell am I going to pull this off?' Writing narratives in 2nd POV has its challenges and obstacles, and there's a certain charm to it. The dialogue and action must be handled differently. So if I could, I likely wouldn't scrap Listeners entirely, but I would definitely explore other genres and make audio dramas with a voiced main character. I also don't like writing romance, so that wouldn't be at the forefront of any story but a thread alongside many others.

Writing in this kind of niche can get quite repetitive, especially when the audience expects something similar. This is the reason for me retiring seven (currently) of my characters: though they look different with different backgrounds and beliefs, at their core they're very similar. They are cookie cutter idealistic boyfriends with great morals who run to the Listener's aid to comfort, and tease, and lend an ear, and give advice, and love in their own ways.

As a writer, it gets stale very quickly. Sure, I could make different scenarios to spice it up, but the essence will be the same. The things they talk about will be the same.

I still have a lot of ideas on the backburner for other series that involve Listeners so I won't run out of that anytime soon, but I also have other outlandish ones stored away that I hope I'll have time to visit and execute down the road.

Experimenting comes with risk. Niall is by far the least liked and least watched series on my channel. But I don't consider it a failure; I expected as much because it was made for a small part of my demographic. And I've received comments about how Niall's story helped them which makes the whole thing worth it.

Unfortunately, as I must consider what I do as a business, I can't do those passion projects very often. I have so many ideas that I'd love to make, but they'll likely never come to fruition unless circumstances were different.