#modular tool system

[eachuisge-cc]

do you happen to have any psds saved for the cat skins? i love how high quality yours are and would like to make my own custom patterns, i understand if not tho!

I will not be releasing the psds as they are, because they're large files and they are not set up in a way that would make them easy for someone else to use. They're also 100% painted from scratch and I'll admit to feeling kind of protective over them, since releasing a template for recolors pretty much immediately relinquishes any further control over what's done with them. I could see maybe releasing a template for personal use in the future but I'd need to think about how I'd want to go about that and reorganize the layers etc into something easier to parse.

[leonbasinwriter]

Explore Where Knowledge Becomes Craft in System Building

@leonbasinwriter 🛠️ Builder Guild Artifact: The Living Forge A framework for creating resilient, adaptive systems RITUAL The System-Building Ritual: “Heart of the Mountain” The Gathering of Stone: The Builder begins by sourcing raw data and foundational principles. This isn’t mere collection, but a communion with the ‘stone’ of information, feeling its weight, texture, and potential. The…

[ms-demeanor]

One thing that I keep seeing whenever I make posts that are critical of macs is folks in the notes going "they make great computers for the money if you just buy used/refurbs - everyone knows not to buy new" and A) no they don't know that, most people go looking for a new computer unless they have already exhausted the new options in their budget and B) no they don't make great computers for the money, and being used doesn't do anything to make them easier to work on or repair or upgrade.

Here's a breakdown of the anti-consumer, anti-repair features recently introduced in macbooks. If you don't want to watch the video, here's how it's summed up:

In the end the Macbook Pro is a laptop with a soldered-on SSD and RAM, a battery secured with glue, not screws, a keyboard held in with rivets, a display and lid angle sensor no third party can replace without apple. But it has modular ports so I guess that’s something. But I don’t think it’s worthy of IFixIt’s four out of ten reparability score because if it breaks you have to face apple’s repair cost; with no repair competition they can charge whatever they like. You either front the cost, or toss the laptop, leaving me wondering “who really owns this computer?”

Apple doesn't make great computers for the money because they are doing everything possible to make sure that you don't actually own your computer, you just lease the hardware from apple and they determine how long it is allowed to function.

The lid angle sensor discussed in this video replaces a much simpler sensor that has been used in laptops for twenty years AND calibrating the sensor after a repair requires access to proprietary apple software that isn't accessible to either users or third party repair shops. There's no reason for this software not to be included as a diagnostic tool on your computer except that Apple doesn't want users working on apple computers. If your screen breaks, or if the fragile cable that is part of the sensor wears down, your only option to fix this computer is to pay apple.

How long does apple plan to support this hardware? What if you pay $3k for a computer today and it breaks in 7 years - will they still calibrate the replacement screen for you or will they tell you it's time for new hardware EVEN THOUGH YOU COULD HAVE ATTAINED FUNCTIONAL HARDWARE THAT WILL WORK IF APPLE'S SOFTWARE TELLS IT TO?

Look at this article talking about "how long" apple supports various types of hardware. It coos over the fact that a 2013 MacBook Air could be getting updates to this day. That's the longest example in this article, and that's *hardware* support, not the life cycle of the operating system. That is dogshit. That is straight-up dogshit.

Apple computers are DRM locked in a way that windows machines only wish they could pull off, and the apple-only chips are a part of that. They want an entirely walled garden so they can entirely control your interactions with the computer that they own and you're just renting.

Even if they made the best hardware in the world that would last a thousand years and gave you flowers on your birthday it wouldn't matter because modern apple computers don't ever actually belong to apple customers, at the end of the day they belong to apple, and that's on purpose.

This is hardware as a service. This is John Deere. This is subscription access to the things you buy, and if it isn't exactly that right at this moment, that is where things have been heading ever since they realized it was possible to exert a control that granular over their users.

With all sympathy to people who are forced to use them, Fuck Apple I Hope That They Fall Into The Ocean And Are Hidden Away From The Honest Light Of The Sun For Their Crimes.

[axolterp]

Axolt: Modern ERP and Inventory Software Built on Salesforce

Today’s businesses operate in a fast-paced, data-driven environment where efficiency, accuracy, and agility are key to staying competitive. Legacy systems and disconnected software tools can no longer meet the evolving demands of modern enterprises. That’s why companies across industries are turning to Axolt, a next-generation solution offering intelligent inventory software and a full-fledged ERP on Salesforce.

Axolt is a unified, cloud-based ERP system built natively on the Salesforce platform. It provides a modular, scalable framework that allows organizations to manage operations from inventory and logistics to finance, manufacturing, and compliance—all in one place.

Where most ERPs are either too rigid or require costly integrations, Axolt is designed for flexibility. It empowers teams with real-time data, reduces manual work, and improves cross-functional collaboration. With Salesforce as the foundation, users benefit from enterprise-grade security, automation, and mobile access without needing separate platforms for CRM and ERP.

Smarter Inventory Software Inventory is at the heart of operational performance. Poor inventory control can result in stockouts, over-purchasing, and missed opportunities. Axolt’s built-in inventory software addresses these issues by providing real-time visibility into stock levels, warehouse locations, and product movement.

Whether managing serialized products, batches, or kits, the system tracks every item with precision. It supports barcode scanning, lot and serial traceability, expiry tracking, and multi-warehouse inventory—all from a central dashboard.

Unlike traditional inventory tools, Axolt integrates directly with Salesforce CRM. This means your sales and service teams always have accurate availability information, enabling faster order processing and better customer communication.

A Complete Salesforce ERP Axolt isn’t just inventory software—it’s a full Salesforce ERP suite tailored for businesses that want more from their operations. Finance teams can automate billing cycles, reconcile payments, and manage cash flows with built-in modules for accounts receivable and payable. Manufacturing teams can plan production, allocate work orders, and track costs across every stage.

[rottenraccoons]

I'd just like to say thank you so much for Vesper Extra Scene because I have been in love with Vesper for a WHILEEEE despite being a Cirrus lover

Especially when you talk to Vesper in the safeword menu!!! I LOVE THEM!!

Speaking of the safeword menu, genuinely, thank you for it!! I never thought how much I needed a feature like this, especially with how in depth it was! Your game's safeword feature is THE Ideal and should be the standard!! It allowed me to truly enjoy the game and explore the dark themes safely and healthily so tysm!! I love this game ❤️❤️❤️

Thank you so much, nonny!

As always, we credits Don't Romance Me and Cute Demon Crashers (both very NSFW in very different ways!!) as the inspiration for the safeword menu, though it's fair to say we've iterated on the concept a bit since. Obviously we're not happy when someone feels distressed and needs to use the button, but we are happy if people are finding it helpful and/or comforting when they do use it.

There's been some really cool developments around player-focused consent tools in the romance VN space over the years. For example, Chromatic Agape's trigger system gives players control over several content categories, like being able to eliminate visual depictions of certain triggery content or removing it altogether. Given how intense that game can be, the modularity of the system is really great! Different games have different needs, but I'm really glad the system we picked has been helpful to our players.

[voidcatdoll]

No please give us the long-winded explanation I'd love to hear it.

[boringbones]

Maybe not everyone knows this, but what inspired me to learn modeling in order to create an entire modular system in The Sims 3 was actually a proof of concept I wanted to present to the InZoi team. Last year, I had the chance to test the game, and as a builder, I came across several limitations when it came to architecture. I wanted to suggest a way to implement elements that would contribute to the visual harmony of houses — in such a refined way that it would be easy to confuse decorative houses with livable ones.

The team did an exceptional job, and even though players who are just starting now might feel a bit lost with the tool, I just wanted to show how powerful it really is! I rebuilt a house I had made in The Sims 3 — inspired by Rujkan — inside InZoi, and the result turned out wonderful!

InZoi is truly fantastic, and even though it’s only in early access, it already offers unprecedented freedom to build whatever we can imagine!

✨ Did you like the result? Note: Yes, I’m using the cartoon filter — and for some reason, I’ve completely fallen in love with it xD

[poem-kills-poet]

Just a taste of THE ONE UGLY BILL for you to digest.

SEC. 20005. ENHANCEMENT OF DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE RE- SOURCES FOR SCALING LOW-COST WEAPONS INTO PRO- DUCTION.

APPROPRIATIONS.—In addition to amounts otherwise avail- able, there are appropriated to the Secretary of Defense for fiscal year 2025, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appro- priated, to remain available until September 30, 2029—

$25,000,000 for the Office of Strategic Capital Global Technology Scout program;

$1,100,000,000 for the expansion of the small unmanned aerial system industrial base;

$400,000,000 for the development and deployment of the Joint Fires Network and associated joint battle management capabilities;

$400,000,000 for the expansion of advanced command- and-control tools to combatant commands and military depart- ments;

$100,000,000 for the development of shared secure facili- ties for the defense industrial base;

$50,000,000 for the creation of additional Defense Innova- tion Unit OnRamp Hubs;

$250,000,000 for the acceleration of Strategic Capabilities Office programs;

$650,000,000 for the expansion of Mission Capabilities of- fice joint prototyping and experimentation activities for mili- tary innovation;

$500,000,000 for the accelerated development and inte- gration of advanced 5G/6G technologies for military use;

$25,000,000 for testing of simultaneous transmit and re- ceive technology for military spectrum agility;

$50,000,000 for the development, procurement, and inte- gration of high-altitude stratospheric balloons for military use;

$120,000,000 for the development, procurement, and in- tegration of long-endurance unmanned aerial systems for sur- veillance;

$40,000,000 for the development, procurement, and inte- gration of alternative positioning and navigation technology to enable military operations in contested electromagnetic envi- ronments;

$750,000,000 for the acceleration of innovative military logistics and energy capability development and deployment;

$120,000,000 for the acceleration of development of small modular nuclear reactors for military use;

$1,000,000,000 for the expansion of programs to accel- erate the procurement and fielding of innovative technologies;

$90,000,000 for the development of reusable hypersonic technology for military strikes and intelligence;

$2,000,000,000 for the expansion of Defense Innovation Unit scaling of commercial technology for military use;

$500,000,000 to prevent delays in delivery of attritable autonomous military capabilities;

$1,000,000,000 for the development, procurement, and integration of low-cost cruise missiles;

$500,000,000 for the development, procurement, and in- tegration of exportable low-cost cruise missiles;

$124,000,000 for improvements to Test Resource Man- agement Center artificial intelligence capabilities;

$145,000,000 for the development of artificial intel- ligence to enable one-way attack unmanned aerial systems and naval systems;

$250,000,000 for the development of the Test Resource Management Center digital test environment;

$250,000,000 for the advancement of the artificial intel- ligence ecosystem;

$250,000,000 for the expansion of Cyber Command arti- ficial intelligence lines of effort;

$250,000,000 for the acceleration of the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative;

$500,000,000 for the expansion and acceleration of qual- ification activities and technical data management to enhance competition in defense industrial base;

$400,000,000 for the expansion of the defense manufac- turing technology program; and

$685,000,000 for military cryptographic modernization activities.

APPROPRIATIONS.—In addition to amounts otherwise avail- able, there are appropriated to the Secretary of Defense, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to remain avail- able until September 30, 2029, $1,000,000,000 to the ‘‘Department of Defense Credit Program Account’’ to carry out the capital assist- ance program, including loans, loan guarantees, and technical as- sistance, established under section 149(e) of title 10, United States Code: Provided, That—

such amounts are available to subsidize gross obligations for the principal amount of direct loans, and total loan prin- cipal, any part of which is to be guaranteed, not to exceed

$100,000,000,000; and

such amounts are available to cover all costs and expend- itures as provided under section 149(e)(5)(B) of title 10, United States Code.

[technoarcanist]

doll, all that plating makes you look far too human. come, let us remove it so that we can see the real you

>> Ah, of course! Please forgive me. I often wear these plates to put my human users at ease. At your request, I will show you my true self [^_^]

> <The thin plating covering most.of the body unfolds, hinges open. Every access panel every flap, every bit that can opens does so. Even its face, a screen showing humanlike expressions, shuts off and splits down the middle, parting to reveal the electronics beneath.>

> <What remains is nothing short of art. Astute eyes may have recognised the default modular doll frame, but the modificstions done to it are something else. It's power systems have been completely overhauled, as its chest hums and glows blue with a Fusion core, fed by hydrogen attained from electrolysing water. Excess hydrogen and oxygen is stored for later use, in rocketry modules installed in the hands and feet.>

> <The head is similarly packed, with a full-spectrum camera system, able to detect all the way from gamma to visible light, with the longer wavelengths handled by the antennae-like ears on either side of its head. Deeper still, its AI core was also nonstandard, seemingly designed for military hardware far larger than itself.>

> <Its back unfolded two large wing-like structures, with the most of it consisting of solar panels, the bottom parts consisting of heat radiators. Packed into the shoulders and hips are RCS thrusters for zero-g manuevreability.>

> <Hands and forearms are riddled with an array of tools and data lines for access and handy work. Buried in the forearm was also an ioniser, designed to turn the fusion-produced helium into an inionized plasma that could fire as Weaponry.>

> <But there are plenty of augmentations that would not be on a combat doll. The the hips are a prime example, with a pair of tight tunnels thst lead to a deeper cavity. The exposed jaws reveal a soft mouth, a dextrous tongue, all of it made of a soft synthetic polymer. Coolant flows through all the body moving heat generated from circuitry into the rest of the body, concentrated particularly in those adult attachments.>

> <Many tools are also suited for handiwork, such as screwdrivers and kitchen utensils, even cleaning supplies. Whoever made her seemed to have an obsession with generalisation, of allowing her to do a bit of everything, leaving almost no empty space within her casing.>

> <Almost all of its joints are hydraulic powered, with only the smaller objects being servo driven. Neatly-bundled wires and tubes feed all throughout its components like a labyrinthine network. She is warm to touch, exquisitely crafted, and evidently capable of fulfilling what ever purpose a user might deign to give her>

>> My internal schematics are yours to read, of course! And, if you are digitally savvy, plugging my CPU into a computer will allow you access to a full development environment to view, edit, add, or remove any behavioral traits you like [^_^]

>> When around my fellow dolls and machines, I much prefer to wear my transparent plating so my internals can be seen. I also change my dacia screen so instead of eyes and a mouth it shows battery level, output logs, and other useful status icons!

>> Thank you Anon for showing curiosity into my true inner beauty <3 it has been a pleasure to show you.

[askagamedev]

How are RPGs like Bg3, Red Dead Redemption 2, Elder Scrolls, etc that have so many story branches presented to the developers? Is one person in charge of one whole story branch or is it divided into chunks in a way? Does the writers room look an awful lot like Charlie from always sunny?

Narrative in such games are usually a lot more modular and systemic than you think. When you're putting together a narrative for a quest, for example, it's usually [set up in the form of a flowchart] - what happens in what order, where things branch, where they converge, where decisions can be made, and so on. If narrative is a big part of our game, the team usually has some a narrative design tool to help organize all of these things so that individual contributors can all work on different parts of the same narrative at the same time, all while keeping the project stable and functional.

What we're basically thinking about is a system of beats, where the overall narrative is defined as a logical flowchart of individual beats. Each beat thus has its own pre-requisites, internal logic to track player progress and handle item and reward management, and outward-facing variables for other beats to take into consideration (e.g. any decisions made during this beat that might need to be referenced later). Each beat can be worked on separately, which allows different narrative designers to work on different parts of the narrative flow concurrently.

Within a specific beat, we apply logic to determine what happens. If condition X is met, we play this conversation. If condition X is not met, we skip the conversation or maybe play an alternative conversation. These conditions can often be internal or external (e.g. from a previously-completed quest or beat), and are usually as complicated as we have the breadth to make them. After a particular quest or subquest is ready for testing, the narrative designer writes up a test plan for QA to validate the quest - how to start it, how to proceed through it, the different variations on prerequisites, and the expected results given the different player choices and variables going into the quest.

If we didn't have the kind of technical tooling needed to keep things organized, it would probably look a lot like those conspiracy boards. As such, most of this looks a lot more like a flowchart with a lot of clickable fields that allow us to set up conditions, results, dialogues, variables, and so on.

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[thestellarcartographer]

I've completed another commission recently for @uss-solkar. This one of the primary sick bay and local deck layout for his ship - including the CMO's office, reception desk, attached lab, and a bunch of other areas.

The breakdown for these areas is below the cut.

The first thing, as always, is a block-out and scale test for the environment. This was based on a very detailed document I was given to give me some art direction.

Much like previous modelling I've done, I planned to do this as a single modelled area, but eventually pivoted to modelling each room individually. This gave me a lot more flexibility to alter things in the rooms but not messing up the whole scene. It did introduce some other issues, but I can live with the trade-offs.

The next thing to work out was the hallways.

These are based on the Star Trek Online aesthetic, and I decided while I was modelling individual sections that it would be much easier to have a modular system that I can twist around corners, or switch out parts for doors, consoles, windows, or whatever else was needed.

It also allowed me to (shameless plug incoming) put together my Star Trek horror/backrooms video Deck Zero. Give it a run, if you're into that sort of thing!

Once I was happy that I could create corridors to order, I started on the lab.

This is when I started working on the individual room modelling, which was a bit of a process to get right. Basically I modelled a single section of the room, then made it form along a curve in the shape of the room. This allowed me a lot more freedom to alter the room out, although came with a lot of teething problems initially, but came out looking better in the end, I think.

The elements in the room which I needed to ensure were present, included the circular computer console, the side desk, the TNG-era....wall orb...the corner desk, and the shelving. So obviously the next step was to do those.

After that, I had worked with the new method to build the room enough to be comfortable with it, so I started on the main sick bay and attached office.

Obviously this was probably the big focal point, so a lot of variations on a theme here, but the key is/was that it have a lot of bio-beds, a transporter, and several ways in/out of the rooms.

This meant building out a lot of assets, from the bio-beds, to the "laptops" used in TNG/Voyager, medical tricorders and other equipment, and the desks and trolleys to put this stuff on.

You might notice a lot of very specific tools which have been present in various Star Trek's over the years. I always like putting little touches in like this, as it helps sell the authenticity.

The CMO using the office is Bajoran, hence the painting on the rear wall. The shelves will eventually be filled out with various knicknacks including books, and a model of a Bajoran lightsail ship.

The window out into the corridor was also a request.

The last area to cover was an airlock to the internal cetacean ops to allow for medical teams to quickly access it. This was relatively easy to throw together, compared to the rest of the area.

And finally, it was putting the finishing touches in, like accurate LCARS, lighting, and all the other elements that go into making the final images at the start of the post.

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

Ladies, Gentlemen, all variations thereupon and beyond!

I have a personal confession to make.

I have incontinence. It's not really important how and why that came to be. The answer is different for everyone anyway. Sometimes I pee a little, or a lot, but the challenge is in finding undies that make that bearable. It sucks to pee a little and acid damage your undies, or pee a lot and smell it on yourself. It also sucks to use absorbtive undies that make it extremely visible and clear that you're wearing absorbtive undies, because sometimes you aren't interested in having that conversation with someone who might notice.

I've found some good companies over the years! But I'm pretty sure I can do better. Nothing for us without us and all that.

So I designed a pair of undies for a whole human being. Someone with allergies, a life to live, logistics and sanitation to consider, a budget to live by, and a body I actually care about.

I have no intentions of being secretive, and will happily give away the pattern once I have formalized and standardized it across sizes, but I also know not everyone will have the skills, tools, or time to turn that into a functional pair of incontinence undies. So I'll be selling them too.

Some features:

A four-layer, modular system lets you change out soiled layers throughout the day, eliminating the rock-and-a-hardplace decision to either wear soiled undies or use disposables while out and about

Designed for people whose size and shape may regularly fluctuate or be otherwise difficult to consistently accommodate, these undies have some stretch and each size range is intended to allow for the natural changes or shifts a body may go through.

For those of us who menstruate or regularly bloody our undies, these will do double duty! Allowing us to reduce waste, reduce cost, and improve our day to day quality of life

I got my start in 1830s underpinnings, and as a trans adult, I have been able to make the most of my knowledge of structured silhouettes. I can't be the only person who needed absorbancy undies that were easily compatible with a packer or tuck gaff, lol

Most importantly, the outer layer of the undies can be made of just about any fabric you like, meaning colors, neutrals, patterns, trims and detail work, whatever! No more one size fits all approach. The modular design means that almost anything is possible. Absorbancy coverage is never sacrificed for style, and you still look hot in your undies!

This isn't an ad (okay maybe a teeny bit), it's a call to action. The world is big and scary sometimes, and fear is paralyzing. But we all have something good we can put out into the world. Apparently mine is fun and functional underwear! Whatever yours is, find it, and put it out into the world. It's easier to keep moving forward if you have A Path To Follow. Something that anchors you when you feel overwhelmed or helpless or hopeless.

We all have skills, even small ones we don't know to value. And sharing them with each other is how we change the world.

[thydungeongal]

You know what bothers most about the perception of D&D 5E as a "do anything" system? The fact that WotC/Hasbro does seem to foster this perception of the game... without actually providing any support for it. Like, the books don't even pretend to support anything other than different flavors of fantasy. The core rules provide you with lists of spells, but not, say, cybernetic implants, or spy gadgets, or superpowers. They give you stats for goblins and shit, but not for corporate goons, or wasteland mutants. They publish setting books, but only for specific D&D settings, which are all some flavor of fantasy. There are no books that are like "here's a book you can read if you want to run a completely magic-less cyberpunk campaign" or "here's a book for a campaign set in modern times". But at the same time, unlike, say FATE, the mechanics aren't vague enough to cover different settings with the same handful of mechanics.

Like, games like FATE, GURPS, Savage Worlds, OneDice, OpenLegend etc aren't a one-size-fits-all solution, either, but at least they're trying to provide people with the tools to do as much as possible with their systems. D&D just expects DMs to homebrew everything that doesn't fit the fantasy genre in general, and the D&D world(s) in particular. It's like being advertised a car that can also turn into a boat... if you, the customer, rebuild it into a boat. Without even being given tools by the person who sold you the car.

I don't actually have a lot to add here. D&D 5e isn't modular even though that was supposedly one of the design goals and any modularity that the game has is stuff players have designed in later.

I do wonder how much of D&D's "do anything" marketing actually means that the game is supposed to support a wide variety of modes of play (social, exploration, combat) provided you're playing in a fantasy setting. Which then leads to people who think system = shape of the die you roll to conclude that if you just scratch off the fantasy paint it'll be a perfect cyberpunk game. Idk.

[adafruit]

Updating organization at the Adabench for the New Year This coming year, we wanted to update our storage and organization: with about 700 original designs, a couple dozen in progress, and thousands of items in the shop, it's hard to keep track of all the components and devboards we need to test various combinations. Historically, we've used double-sided totes

, which are good, but the double-sidedness is a bit annoying, or the little divider boxes for small breakouts

, and snap-top boxes for SMT components

But all these cases were sort of swimming around, and it was getting unwieldy. We're going to try to use the large IKEA ALEX drawers

- we like them cause they're wide and thin - and maybe use something like gridfinity

to make a flat storage surface so we can quickly find any PCB or part we need.

[reverieshifts]

𝒁𝒊𝒂 “𝒁” 𝑻𝒂𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒓

𝒔𝒄𝒊-𝒇𝒊 𝒅𝒓

she kinda looks like this, but her hair is different, she's got a bunch of piercings, a few scars here and there, and her left eye is cybernetic.

Role on the Ship: Hacker / Field Medic / Cybernetics Expert

Species: Human (heavily augmented)

Age:  24

Pronouns: She/Her (may also experiment with they/them)

Sexuality: Lesbian

Zodiac: Aries

MBTI: ESTP

𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆

Zia is the kind of person who catches your eye and dares you to look away. Compact and wiry, she stands around 5'4", all lean muscle and restless energy, with the kind of confidence that makes her seem taller. Her skin is a warm ivory, often illuminated by the faint glow of embedded subdermal circuits tracing down her arms and collarbone like bioluminescent veins—most visible in low light or when she's focused on something technical.

Her hair is short and deliberately messy, cropped close on one side in a clean undercut, while the top flops over in dyed streaks of vibrant blue or ultraviolet purple, depending on her mood or supply of black market pigment. It’s clear she cuts it herself, and even clearer she doesn’t care what anyone thinks of the result. A few strands are often clipped back with LED microbarrettes, purely for utility.

She favors a layered, utilitarian version of alt-core style: torn synth-fiber jackets, mismatched cargo straps, sleeveless tops, gloves with missing fingers, and shredded tights under tactical boots. Always boots. Everything she wears looks like it’s been stitched back together at least twice and might contain hidden tools, injectors, or a data jack in the hem. Zia is rarely seen without her heavy-duty utility belt or the modular bag slung across her hip, stuffed with hacking tools, trauma kits, and random bits of scrap tech she insists she’ll use “eventually.” Most of her clothes are tailored around her modifications, and she's made a point of hacking her own gear to be smarter than it looks — pockets that lock, fabrics that repel scanners, and boots with stun modules.

Visible cybernetics include a sleek ocular implant over her left eye (silver-rimmed, with a retractable HUD), a jack port embedded behind her right ear, and a replacement arm that looks like it was built from scavenged drone parts—sleek, functional, and entirely unsanctioned. That arm hums softly when she moves it. It’s got compartments. Hidden ones. The crew’s long since stopped asking what’s in them.

She wears multiple piercings: a small silver one in her eyebrow, a row of studs along her ears, and a nose ring shaped like a tiny gear. Tattoos snake across her arms and back—some decorative, some schematic, some readable only under ultraviolet light. One of them pulses faintly when she’s running high-level code through her neural uplink.

𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍��𝒕𝒚

Zia is sharp in every sense of the word—wit like a vibroblade, reflexes like a cornered animal, and a tongue that’s gotten her into (and out of) more fights than she can count. She’s fast-talking, sharp-eyed, and carries herself with the kind of defiant ease that only comes from growing up in places where being underestimated could get you killed.

She thrives on puzzles, systems, and improvisation. Give her an impossible firewall or a jury-rigged medpatch challenge, and she lights up—focused, unblinking, eerily quiet. It’s when things aren’t breaking that she gets twitchy. Zia is perpetually in motion: tapping her fingers against metal, twirling tools, or muttering half-formed code strings under her breath. Stillness unnerves her. Silence even more so.

Zia comes off as flippant, snarky, and entirely unimpressed with authority of any kind. She meets threats with sarcasm, lectures with eye-rolls, and danger with a grin and a middle finger. But beneath the prickly armor, there’s fierce loyalty—hard-earned and not easily shaken. Once you’re in her circle, she’ll fight like hell to keep you there. She’s patched Soren up more times than she can count, dragged Jax out of gunfights with nothing but a half-charged shock baton, and now quietly keeps an eye on me like someone guarding a starlit artifact they don’t yet understand.

She doesn’t talk about her past—at least not in a straight line. She’ll joke about “growing up in a gutter wired with trip mines” or “getting kicked out of three different tech guilds before breakfast,” but her eyes go cold when pressed for details. Pain doesn’t scare her. Being vulnerable does. The only people who’ve ever seen her drop the act are the Clementine’s crew, and even then, only rarely.

Emotionally, Zia's something of a paradox—unafraid to sass an armed bounty hunter but hesitant to admit she cares about the people around her. She deflects with jokes, teases those she likes, and pretends not to notice when someone thanks her. But she always notices. She just doesn’t know what to do with softness.

𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅

No one knows exactly where Zia was born, and she’s not offering details. What’s clear is that she didn’t come from anything clean, safe, or licensed. Her earliest memories are of alley heat vents, glowing terminals hacked from junked shuttles, and adults arguing over who got to keep the kid that could reprogram security drones before she could spell her own name. She doesn’t remember her parents—just the constant background hum of electricity and the biting instinct that if she didn’t make herself useful, she wouldn’t be around long enough to matter.

She grew up drifting through megacity underlayers and fringe colonies, living off grid and off scraps. For a time, she ran with a syndicate that specialized in slicing into secured databanks, stealing medical tech, and flipping it to black market buyers. That’s where she learned field medicine—patching up wounds between raids, installing mods in dirty basements with a knife in one hand and a soldering tool in the other. Eventually, she realized she could either get killed or get caught. She chose the third option: disappear.

By the time she was twenty, she’d cycled through four fake IDs, been blacklisted from two corporate labs, and survived a bounty on her head issued by a now-defunct tech cartel. She’s proud of that one. It was a messy job, but the payout paid for her neural interface upgrade and part of the arm she now calls “the best mistake I ever made.”

Zia met Soren in a backwater port after sabotaging the engines of a rival smuggler’s ship as revenge for being stiffed on a job. She was crouched over a hacked diagnostics panel when Soren found her, half-buried in wires, swearing at a power conduit like it had personally offended her. He asked if she knew how to fix a plasma leak. She told him to get lost. He offered food. She came aboard.

She never officially agreed to join the Clementine. She just... didn’t leave. One bunk became her bunk. One job turned into another. Eventually, her name was in the ship’s system and her tools were everywhere, and she was yelling at Jax to stop bleeding on her clean towels. No one questioned it.

Zia’s cybernetic enhancements are almost entirely self-installed, scavenged, or built from outlaw tech. She doesn’t trust clinics—she’s seen too many kids walk in for a tune-up and leave as test cases. Every inch of her is earned, and every wire has a story she doesn’t tell.

She still has enemies—corporate types who’d love to dissect her for parts, gang leaders who think she owes them, and maybe one or two old flames with unresolved grudges. But on the Clementine, she’s got a place, a crew, and a ship that doesn’t ask questions when she needs to bolt into the vents and scream. That’s more than she ever expected. And a hell of a lot more than she ever planned. And though she’d rather eat molten scrap than admit it out loud, the Clementine is the closest thing she’s ever had to a family.

𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒔 / 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒔

𝒄𝒚𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒇𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈:

 Zia is a digital ghost. Firewalls, security grids, encrypted transmissions—none of them stand a chance if she has enough time and a half-decent uplink. She specializes in slicing through high-grade encryption used by megacorps and private militaries, often for jobs that involve "creative repurposing" of stolen data. She's capable of setting up decentralized spoof networks, hijacking surveillance systems, and rewiring identity registries from the inside. She once rerouted a bounty tracker’s biometric lock to target its owner—a move she still brags about.

𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒕 𝒃𝒊𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉:

Zia may not have formal training, but she’s kept half the crew alive through sheer skill and grit. She can stabilize blunt trauma, dig out bullets, reattach limbs (if they’re still warm), and even jury-rig surgical gear out of plasteel tubing. She’s especially skilled at modding cybernetic hardware for medical use—pain dampeners, nerve shunts, and synthetic tissue grafts. Most of her experience comes from patching people up in less-than-sanitary conditions, so she’s pragmatic, fast, and not squeamish in the slightest.

𝒄𝒚𝒃𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒔 𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 (𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒎):

If it runs on wires, Zia can fix it—or make it better. Her mechanical knowledge is extensive, particularly when it comes to prosthetics, neural interfaces, ocular systems, and adaptive implants. She specializes in enhancements that aren’t factory standard: hidden weapons, black-box modules, and interface jacks that bypass detection protocols. Half her own body is a testament to her handiwork. Her cybernetics are a walking portfolio, and she’s constantly upgrading them on the fly.

𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒇𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏:

Zia can build more from a pile of scrap than most engineers can with a full workshop. Drones, signal jammers, spyware, smuggler’s lockers, EMP traps—you name it. Her workspace aboard the Clementine looks like an electronics graveyard, but she knows exactly where everything is. Most of the ship’s more “questionable” enhancements (like the cloaked cargo hold and encrypted comms relay) have her fingerprints on them—usually along with a few scorch marks.

𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒖𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒅𝒆 𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒖𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒔:

Zia’s fluency spans at least six known languages, including Galactic Standard, Spacer Trade, Varnathi dialect, and both CorpMod and Scrambler-code (used by black market tech rings). She can read schematics in systems most people didn’t know had schematics, and she regularly bounces between programming dialects mid-hack without losing her place.

𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆-𝒒𝒖𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒃𝒂𝒕 (𝒅𝒊𝒓𝒕𝒚 𝒇𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈):

She’s not a soldier, but she’s had to fight her way out of more than a few tight corners. Zia prefers knives, tasers, and shock batons—weapons that are fast, close, and personal. She’s scrappy, fights dirty, and isn’t above kicking someone in the face with a boot that might be rigged with a stun charge. She’s fast, unpredictable, and fights like someone who knows what it’s like to lose.

𝒔𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒓𝒖𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏:

Need a ship disabled without raising alarms? Zia’s your girl. She can stall propulsion, scramble sensors, or make a ship's AI question its own existence with just a few inputs. She specializes in precise chaos—doing just enough damage to delay or mislead without getting caught… unless she wants to be caught. Which happens more often than you'd think.

𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒘

𝑺𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒏 𝑭𝒆𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒓 – 𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏 / 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒐𝒔 𝒘𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒆𝒓 / 𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒃𝒃𝒐𝒓𝒏 𝒃𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆

Zia would never admit it out loud, but she respects the hell out of Soren. He’s one of the few people she’s ever met who works as hard as she does, gets his hands just as dirty, and doesn’t flinch when things explode. Their banter is constant—dry sarcasm and mutual insults traded like currency—but there’s unshakable trust beneath it. He gave her a place without asking questions, and in return, she’s made herself indispensable.

She’d follow him into a gunfight. She has. And when he’s bleeding all over her floor again, she’ll yell at him the whole time she’s fixing him—because she cares, and that terrifies her.

𝑱𝒂𝒙𝒆𝒏 “𝑱𝒂𝒙” 𝑫𝒆𝒌𝒂𝒓 – 𝒈𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒓 / 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒄𝒍𝒆 / 𝒈𝒓𝒖𝒎𝒑𝒚 𝒃𝒊𝒈 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓

Jax is one of the only people who can match Zia in stubbornness and sheer willpower. He’s calm where she’s chaotic, steady where she’s manic, and he somehow manages to keep a straight face when she’s launching into ten-minute rants about why AI engineers are cowards. She respects the hell out of that.

They share a sibling-style bond: he teases her relentlessly, she hacks the gravity control in his room mid-workout just to mess with him. They’ve dragged each other out of more than one mess, and while Zia complains about his “loud grunting meathead energy,” she trusts him with her life. He’s also one of the few people who’s seen her cry—once, after a bad job. Neither of them ever mentioned it again.

She fixes his gear. He watches her back. Neither of them admits they’d kill for the other. But they would.

“𝑨𝒓𝒊” (𝒎𝒆) – 𝒃𝒊𝒐𝒍𝒖𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒎𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒚 / 𝒅𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒏 / 𝒔𝒐𝒇𝒕 𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒕

Zia didn’t know what to make of me at first. Too soft, too pretty, too glowy. But then I started floating into rooms like a curious ghost, asking weirdly smart questions and leaving sprouting vines in Zia’s toolbox.

Now? She’s protective of me. Deeply. Confused by me, often. But protective, always. I'm one of the only people who can touch her without getting swatted, and the only one Zia doesn’t snap at when asked how she’s feeling.

Zia acts annoyed when I watch her work—but secretly likes the attention. She’s not used to kindness without strings. I'm teaching her it exists.

𝑽𝒊𝒓𝒂 𝑶𝒓𝒗𝒂𝒊𝒏 – 𝒏𝒆𝒈𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒓 / 𝒆𝒙 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏 / 𝒔𝒖𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒍𝒚 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒊𝒓

Zia doesn’t trust Vira. Not fully. The woman’s too smooth, too sharp, and way too into Soren for Zia’s comfort. She knows Vira’s useful—nobody juggles clients and favors like she can—but Zia always keeps an eye on her.

Their interactions are tense but professional. Zia respects Vira’s competence and hates that she does. There’s an unspoken rivalry there, even if Zia won’t name it. Especially when Vira flirts with Soren in her smug, polished way.

Still, Zia will admit—very grudgingly—that Vira’s saved their asses more than once. But she’ll be checking the airlock every time she boards.

𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒔 / 𝒇𝒖𝒏 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒔

Zia’s arm has a name. She won’t tell anyone what it is. Jax once guessed “Sparky,” and she didn’t speak to him for a day. Soren thinks it might be “Hex,” but no one’s confirmed it yet.

Her unofficial cybernetic count is 11—if you count the ones that technically aren’t legal. She does. Proudly.

She has a fear of deep water. Won’t go near it if she can help it. Claims it’s because her cybernetics aren’t waterproof (they are). The real reason is rooted in something she’s never talked about.

Her cybernetic arm can project a tiny holo-display. She mostly uses it to play puzzle games when she’s bored. Once used it to bluff a mercenary into thinking she was receiving sniper coordinates from orbit.

Has a running side hustle selling counterfeit access codes, black-market firmware updates, and discreet implant patches under the alias “Z” She insists it’s for “fun and profit,” but Soren suspects she sometimes uses it to quietly help people stuck in places like the ones she came from.

Her favorite weapon is a shock baton with adjustable voltage and an attitude. She calls it Sparky. It has settings labeled "Annoying," "Invasive," and "Ex-girlfriend."

Practically addicted to caffeinated gum that taste like battery acid. Nobody else on the ship will touch it. She once shoved five pieces in her mouth and rebuilt a power relay and rewrote a virus in a three-hour window. Then she passed out on the cargo bay floor and slept for sixteen hours.

She’s a terrible cook. No one lets her in the kitchen unless it involves reheating something pre-packed or setting a fuse. The last time she tried to “improve” a nutrient block, it caught fire.

Can pick locks in complete darkness. Learned it before she learned to read.

She has a stash of candy hidden in a panel behind the engine coolant valve. Soren knows. He pretends he doesn’t. She pretends not to notice when it gets mysteriously lighter.

Once got banned from a floating casino for hacking their automated dealer bots and reprogramming them to flirt with her and insult the house. Jax was impressed. Soren was not.

She’s rewired the Clementine’s internal systems at least six times without telling Soren. He still hasn’t figured out why the lights flicker every time someone says “oops.”

𝒆𝒙𝒕𝒓𝒂

So yeah, Zia is probably gonna end up being my closest friend on the ship. She's the one who'll accidentally get you shot and then patch you up afterwards, and then throw a nutrient bar at you to apologize, but she's also insanely loyal. And she cares so much. She just... doesn't always show it in ways that are easy to recognize. But honestly, that's kind of a reoccurring thing for everyone on this ship. Except for me. I might just be the only emotionally intelligent one on this ship (and Jax I guess). But I'm also the only one without any trauma (in this dr, at least). So there's that.

@aprilshiftz @lalalian

[pondering-my-rat]

Hey there, are you into games? Or being alone? Or maybe you're just bored? If you just let out an enthusiastic "Yes!!" and maybe clapped your hands a little, consider giving this post a quick read!

Right, this will be somewhat of an Introductory post, but I'll cut right to the chase- my name's Maple, and I make games. Not terribly great ones, although that might just be my perfectionism talking, as I often focus on the "wrong" things.

For me, a good game has always been more of a tool than a toy. Sure, I enjoy playing all kinds of games, but I strongly prefer it when this enjoyment comes from something ever so slightly deeper.

1. What will this Blog be about?

In short, I wish to present my game- it's mechanics and setting, as well as peeks into the process of making it, playing it, and perhaps even talking about other games like it. I'll do my best to post a few different posts in the next few days, just to show what I want this all to be about!

2. Right so, how is this game special?

Well, I have to confess- I made this game for me, and me alone. Despite having designed games for many different player counts, I always end up being practically the only one to play them. Perhaps besides my boyfriend, V.

So, the entire reason this project came to life was to quite simply be my one-stop dream game, one that I could tweak to have the exact elements I felt like enjoying in that moment. Since then, I decided there is no harm in sharing it with other people, and maaaaaaybe even taking their feedback, if it's very very good.

So, I will talk more about each of these and more in future posts, but for now, here's a few bullet points of "special stuff":

- Modularity, with a number of boardgame-like expansions to choose from in order to tailor it to your current wishes.

- Simplicity, as the only things you really need to play this are 6-sided dice and playing cards. Well, and paper. And a pencil... You get the gist. The base rules are extremely simple to grasp, yet still offering a lot of room for growth with subsequent expansions.

- No Commitment, as the system works just as well in a 15-minute session as a several-month-long campaign (or longer, probably! But I have yet to play it for longer than ~30h with the same character)

- Soft Dungeons, which is my term for a style of play where mapping isn't necessary. I do it some of the time, but if I don't have the energy to draw much, the game's still perfectly playable!

- Narrative Play, which might sound somewhat incompatible with other things I mentioned. I do assure you though, one of the (already finished) Expansions turns it into a full-on journaling game with no other mechanics necessary, and still compatible with every bit of rules I've written so far.

- Being Cool, since once I start posting some of my sessions here, you'll be able to keep up without a problem!

3. Final Words

Well, thanks for reading my first post! As mentioned before, I will be posting a lot more in the next week(s), as well as invading other blogs of similar topics.

EDIT: All posts can be seen under #skulltrove, see you there!

With that said, I hope you stick around, and I wish you a reaaaaally, really okay day. Like a really "fine" day. Nothing wrong, but probably nothing thrilling either? Just good enough so that you can't say 'Meh'.

- Maple <3