#project scope estimating

[asestimationsconsultants]

New Construction Materials Revolutionizing Estimating Services | AS Estimation & Consultants

New construction materials are revolutionizing the way cost assessments are conducted in the industry. Innovations such as self-healing concrete, lightweight composites, and 3D-printed materials are making it necessary to rethink traditional approaches to an Estimating Service. These cutting-edge materials often require updated cost databases, revised labor estimates, and new techniques to ensure accurate project budgets.

At AS Estimation & Consultants, we understand the significant impact of these materials on modern construction projects. In the past, estimating services relied on standard materials, but the emergence of sustainable and high-tech alternatives means estimators must adapt. For example, using prefabricated components might lower labor costs but could come with higher initial material expenses. A reliable estimating Service must account for these variations to offer realistic cost breakdowns.

Moreover, the prices of new materials can fluctuate due to limited availability or production challenges. This makes real-time pricing and predictive analysis essential for accurate cost estimation. By integrating these factors, we provide an Estimating Service that helps contractors and developers avoid costly surprises.

As the construction industry evolves, so should your approach to cost estimation. With AS Estimation & Consultants, you’ll ensure that your projects stay within budget while embracing the latest innovations. Reach out today, and let’s build a better future together!

AS Estimation and Consultants

6/32 LAW VIC 3020, AUS

(61) 488874145

https://asestimation.com/

[phoenixiancrystallist]

My fellow fic writers, do you ever reread something you wrote and get slammed with a fully rendered cinematic sequence so vivid you forget for a moment that it doesn't actually exist?

I don't have the ability to make that cinematic but oh my goodness golly gosh do I want to so bad ;-;

[kenomacreature]

A META-HISTORY OF ELYSIUM CORONA MUNDI

Chronicling (almost) everything we know about the development of Robert Kurvitz's quasi-sacral object complex

This post represents an attempt to gather (almost) all the reliable public info we have about the broader worldbuilding of Elysium Corona Mundi (the series to which Disco Elysium and Sacred and Terrible Air belong) and how it developed over time into one place, presented more or less chronologically and in a way accessible to fans unacquainted with the, shall we say, more arcane lore of Elysium. In the original incarnation of this post, basically every sentence was scrupulously referenced; however, referencing is a major pain in the ass on tumblr, so instead I just have a broad list of sources at the bottom and if you want to inquire any further into a specific claim you can just message me.

I'll also warn readers that the sections discussing the Torson & McLaine campaign and the (currently cancelled) sequel to Disco Elysium contain potential (albeit relatively minor) spoilers for the planned plot of that game. The creators still hope to make that game one day, so if you want to go in totally blind, you know what to avoid.

Evermier

The first serious worldbuilding project that Robert Kurvitz embarked on dates back to at least the year 1997. It was developed with his childhood friends in Estonia, including later Elysium worldbuilders Martin Luiga, Argo Tuulik and Kaspar Kalvet, and went by the name Evermier. This was a medieval fantasy setting formed around a tabletop roleplaying system that Robert Kurvitz and Martin Luiga have referred to as “bootleg Finnish Dungeons and Dragons,” but which Argo Tuulik suspects was actually a Powered by the Apocalypse framework. The vast majority of the boys’ time with Evermier was not spent actually playing any campaigns, but rather formulating the setting and mechanics (both Argo and Luiga ended up never participating in a roleplaying session of Evermier). Argo splits the time spent conceiving Evermier into two broad periods – one he dubs “Evermier 1.0,” which stuck close to traditional Dungeons and Dragons – and one dubbed “Evermier 2.0,” where no tabletop campaigns were ever actually played and all the time was spent system-building. Argo estimates this latter period lasted some 2-3 years.

Scope creep quickly hit the project, with character sheets evolving into whole character books. Luiga alleges that that “the wizard book” was supposed to have 350 spells altogether, each with at least a half-page story about the spell, in prose, and that “about a healthy third of the book got done in the end.” Argo gives a different number, stating that early estimates for it had more like 900 spells, but agrees that two-thirds of each page would’ve been reserved for “juicy literary stuff” about the spell in question while the rest of the page was dedicated to stats, and says that Luiga and Kaspar wrote a lot of excellent stuff for these spells.

Argo says there were about twenty different schools of technology (such as “metallurgy” and “optics”), at least twelve classes of mages, and “so many” subclasses of elves. There was also a subclass of dwarf that, instead of being stocky, chubby and bearded like traditional dwarves, were veiny and more like “Russian miners.” When implementing necromancers, Robert “zoned in on this soul aspect,” which later became the basis for Elysium’s pale. Argo describes these necromancers as “hobbits, but with these little lanterns that guide spirits or souls from this massive fog.” Luiga places the invention of this “fog of death with whom some could communicate” as happening late in Evermier’s development and likewise considers it a primitive precursor to what would become the pale.

The worldbuilders spent a lot of time gearing up for an ultimate roleplaying session that never ended up materializing, but their artist friend Jüri Saks drew illustrations in anticipation of it, including character portraits. Luiga’s character was a “sickle-elf” whose class was called “saint.” This saint character was a handsome elf with small pointy ears and a neat little beard, who wielded two “light swords” (possibly katanas), and a crossbow called Crucifix on his back. The character was from a “grim northern land” and was a “religious lunatic type” who believed in a “grim, monotheistic God.” Argo alleges that Luiga related to this character so much that it almost became a part of his persona; he “developed this mode that sometimes when we were drinking he happened to slip in, where he would start judging people. I would like to say that it still remained within the boundaries of normalcy, but uh, unfortunately it didn’t.”

Kaspar Kalvet at some point played an archer character named Minor Mortifer (“Small Death-bringer”), and there was also a dwarf king named Fuirum Thundergate.

According to Luiga, the name “Elysium” was suggested by someone on the dragon.ee forums, but it took half a year for Robert to start seriously considering it. This was back when the setting was still a medieval fantasy world. Luiga and Argo both agree that the historicized Elysium as we know it now was born around the time when Robert decided to get rid of fantasy races, because – as Argo puts it – “they were kind of stupid.” With this decision, Evermier underwent a modernization process of sorts, an attempt to bring the setting closer to real life, where many other fantasy elements were stripped away in favor of more realistic representations of cultures, mostly in the form of nations. Argo says that many of the fantasy races transformed over the course of this process into the nations of Elysium – the dwarves became the nations of Graad, the elves became the great desert isola of Iilmaraa (formerly Armaghast, a nod to Dan Simmons’ Hyperion, still referenced to this day with Iilmaraa’s Erg desert), the night-elves or star-elves eventually became Seol, and the snow-elves became Katla (which apparently has not changed too much since the Evermier days, and whose namesake is the dragon in Astrid Lindgren’s novel The Brothers Lionheart). Among the first innovations of the new modernized setting was the concept of floating magnet trains, later described in Sacred and Terrible Air.

After the Evermier setting had been discarded, many of its ideas ended up being repurposed into historical periods within the new historicized Elysium setting.

The Elysium tabletop campaigns

Between the years 2003 – 2007, three tabletop campaigns were played in the then newly formed Elysium setting. These all took place in Revachol during the Current Century and featured Robert as dungeon master. The first campaign seems to have been called Soul Milton’s World Autumn, the second one Riget and the final one known simply as Torson & McLaine, or alternatively the RCM campaign. The first two were played at Robert’s old apartment in the concrete block project at Mustamäe, while the third one was played in the house of Luiga's dad, which the three later lived together in following his death.

Soul Milton’s World Autumn

Of the three campaigns, Soul Milton’s is arguably the one most shrouded in mystery as it stands. It took place in Revachol and Martin Luiga played the titular character Soul Milton. The character has been described as “one of the cornerstones of the Elysium mythos” and an “aspiring world-historical person.” By the time of the campaign, Milton seems to have become an amnesiac as a result of “suppressing his own mind to protect himself from his enemies,” and in this process apparently also adopted a disguise by “putting another skin on himself” (what precisely that means, we don't know). He was “very rich” and came from a well-off family, had a complicated and possibly romantic relationship with his sister and was a “politician slash businessman” who “wanted to be the innocence of consumerism.” As it turns out, the enemies who were chasing him were the Therriers of Elysium’s final innocence, Ambrosius Saint-Miro (a major figure in both Sacred and Terrible Air and Full-Core State Nihilist, to be discussed later), who Soul Milton met at one point. Saint-Miro apparently told him that “there has never been an innocence who is also not an innocence.” This encounter places the Soul Milton campaign firmly after the events of Disco Elysium, possibly in the late Fifties or Sixties. During this campaign, Argo played Soul Milton’s horse carriage driver, a man by the name of Elroy Quint Duval.

Also associated with Soul Milton are two other characters. Before Sacred and Terrible Air was conceived, Robert had planned to tell the story of Elysium in three books; one starring Soul Milton, another starring a character named Dister, and the third a character named Dallasz.

Dister, or Marius Dijsters, was an extraphysicist and published author hailing from Oranje. He was a son of diplomats, one of them the grand ambassador of Oranje on Iilmaraa. He seems to have been a significant enough figure to have an entire strand of thought – Disterism – named after him (mentioned in the inside covers of Sacred and Terrible Air), and like Soul Milton, he had an antagonistic relationship with Ambrosius (as made apparent by an incident where he was threatened by the innocence’s Therriers at age 25). He is also apparently involved in some way with Theo Van Kok (of Sacred and Terrible Air fame), along with a Paul Messier (presumably the husband of Disco Elysium's Joyce Messier), apparently the beneficiary of such prestigious titles as "Enemy of the Press '67" and "Worst Person of the Year '67."

Information is rather scant on Dallasz, but during the making of Disco Elysium, there were plans to repurpose him into another project, a comic book named Mercurio Dallasz and the Twelve Kojkos which was going to be illustrated by Aleksander Rostov. This project unfortunately fell through, but we know the premise: a band of kojkos under Dallasz’s leadership attempt to assassinate innocence Saint-Miro. This was presumably an Inglourious Basterds type affair. 

Riget

“It’s better to die in the Kingdom than live in a shithole.”

This was the tagline of Elysium’s second tabletop campaign, Riget, whose name is Danish for “kingdom” and was taken from Lars von Trier’s mini-series of the same name. Once more, the setting was Revachol, but this time it was limited to a peculiar part of it: Le Royaume (French for, again, “the Kingdom”) a vast network of dungeons and burial chambers two kilometers beneath the city, housing ancient ruins and remnants (quite possibly of the Seraseolitic civilization mentioned in Disco Elysium), along with treasures such as bioluminescent plants which have adapted to living in total darkness. The stars of this campaign were three impoverished children, all between the ages of 10-12 and members of a gang named “Earthworms,” who decided to venture down into the catacombs in search of valuable artifacts to sell. At some point, these kids somehow found themselves unable to get out of Le Royaume, supposedly trapped underground by demons who sought to use the children as vessels to escape back to the surface. When this campaign was being played, demons were still a part of the setting and haunted the halls of the underground network, along with monsters – such as the armakhaan beast, also known as Lelo Lelo, a terrifying blind and flightless hunter killer bird which was a mix between the xenomorph and cassowary. As for whether demons are still part of the setting in any way; both Argo and Luiga's statements are too ambiguous to reach any firm conclusion. Argo does note that the concept of 'demons' connotes something subtly different in Estonian than the scary red guys in popular Western culture, and are more like a primordial evil.

In the campaign, Argo played a boy named Miron, whose nickname was ‘Sneaker’, while Luiga played Joschka, a crippled boy with a bad leg. During the campaign, individual roleplaying sessions with Robert were held where the players’ stories evolved in parallel without them being kept on the same page. Each of them would get info the others were not privy to: Argo’s was that Joschka is unaware of the fact that he’s not considered a true member of the gang; in reality, he’s an outcast generally considered a weird, creepy weakling, and was only brought on for his lockpicking and mechanical skills.

Eventually, the Riget campaign got quite far into “Lord of the Flies territory.” Near the end, Sneaker and the third boy (played by another friend) conspired to kill Joschka deep underground.

Torson & McLaine

The worldbuilders continued to refine the roleplaying mechanics they were working with for the campaigns. By the time of Riget, the basics of the Metric system had been introduced, with the now familiar INT, PSY, FYS, and MOT. But according to Argo it was the RCM campaign, known principally as the Torson and McLaine campaign, which was “the first mature cycle of Elysium storytelling.” It took place, once more, in Revachol – this time in a ghetto called Jamrock, named after a Damian Marley song, and was focused on the goings on in Station 51 (renamed Precinct 41 by the time of Disco Elysium), the RCM’s lone precinct in Jamrock. The campaign took large amounts of inspiration from the TV series The Shield and its depiction of corrupt police officers and the intermingling of gang warfare and state-sanctioned violence. A central concept was: the cops are a gang, and the gangs are cops.

The RCM campaign began on a sort of prologue session, wherein Argo and Luiga played characters named Antwone Novak and Trinidad Tranquile respectively, two junior officers newly recruited into the RCM. Antwone was a “petit bourgeois type,” whereas Trinidad was a young communist who had recently been given time off work due to excessive violence. Luiga describes him:

He worked at a meat shop that belonged to Carson Torsson, Mack Torson’s dad, and had a system of stealing from work in order to ‘adequately compensate for his labour’. He also liked to practice a crude type of critical theory in the vein of ‘this building has been made that large to humiliate me, to show off with a power greater than me, to scare me into submission’. And he had a system of smoking no more than five cigarettes per day to cut down on smoking costs — Kim’s single cigarette habit might be a distant echo of that. He had, I think, a 7 in PSY (at least 5) and 2 in INT and mediocre physical stats, the core system was pretty much set by then.

At the end of this prologue session, Station 51 became the target of a terrorist attack. We don’t know much about the perpetrators beyond them being “Church of Evil type guys” in Luiga’s words, but the dice was rolled badly and Antwone and Trini both ended up dying in a “horsebombing” attack, falling onto the bridge outside the station.

Map of Station 51, located in a repurposed steel mill.

Going forward, Argo and Luiga had to find new characters to play, and they ended up going with ones they had earlier conceptualized, half-jokingly, on one of their many walks around Tallinn from parties and other events, since public transportation was notoriously unreliable. These characters were Chester McLaine, played by Luiga, and Mack “the Torso” Torson, played by Argo. Torson was derived in half from Vic Mackey, the protagonist of the Shield, and half from Argo’s own personality. Argo says that Luiga put his own personality into Chester as well, but isn’t sure where the other half of that character came from.

The main plot of the campaign centered on a revenge operation against those who perpetrated the attack on Station 51. In the second session of the campaign, Torson and McLaine are involved in a church raid; though Argo takes care to mention that he doesn’t think this is the church raid mentioned in Disco Elysium, and that it’s not a Dolorian Church but rather the “Armed Church of Saint-Michelle.” Among the tasks of Torson and McLaine were gathering “guns and drugs” for the “big revenge operation.”

Mack Torson was an idiotic body builder, an admirer of Lieutenant John “the Archetype” McCoy, the Station’s resident mass murderer, and altogether “way too stupid to concentrate on the main plot and politics of the police station,” focusing his attention instead on matters like “how to get it on with the captain’s secretary and tattooing the word ‘Jamrock’ on his body hundreds of times over.” Chester McLaine was a little more perceptive, wondering about things such as “what the hell is going on with the armour maker or Nix Gottlieb,” but was still an all-around uncritical person who put a lot of stock into “loving the captain” and “being a communist memebot.” McLaine was also “a sword guy,” since at this point in the worldbuilding swords were still viable weapons, with guns being slow to reload. Torson and McLaine lived together, along with two other cops, Sundance Fischer and Elfboy Williams. “Elfboy’s thing was being the dexterity bro, in which he continually lost to McLaine, and Sundance’s thing was having a fat ass and cleaning his guns all the time.” Torson had a wife named Tessa Torson, and later in life both Chester and Mack would apparently raise adopted daughters, Tessa and Triss (whether these Tessas are separate characters or represent the same character at different stages of development is unclear; Argo and Luiga seem to contradict each other, unless there's something very weird going on).

Torson and McLaine both regularly abused their powers, as RCM officers in general were prone to do, and in their heads they were justified in doing so. A highlight of the RCM campaign had been sessions dubbed “the Ballad of Chad Tilbrooks and Émile Mollins,” centering on two junior officers who were ritually abused and exploited by the older members of their station, including Torson and McLaine. At one point, Torson and McLaine were also involved in an interrogation of a local religious figurehead which devolved into mutilation torture, which only the “bullet-lobotomized” officer Damien “44” Latrec called out for what it was (enthusiastically). The interrogation ended up being ineffective as the religious leader simply “retreated into a happy place inside his head.”

The Captain of Station 51, Ptolemaios Pryce, was immensely respected and glorified by its officers, whereas the station’s lazareth Nix Gottlieb, while also respected, was generally resented and found hard to tolerate for being “an absolute horrible cunt.” In spite of this, Nix Gottlieb was known to have a curious friendship with Pryce, talking alone with him in the Captain’s office long into the night. This fact regularly perplexed the officers of Station 51.

Eventually, at some point in the campaign, Torson and McLaine would come to the focal point of the story, when they make a shocking discovery: the reason for Pryce and Gottlieb’s strange friendship is that they are both members of the top-secret underground anarchist organization the Ultra, and not only are plans underway for a national liberation movement freeing Revachol from Coalition control, known as THE RETURN, but the two have set their sights on a much larger goal: world revolution. 

The novel cycle

No more campaigns were played in the Elysium world after 2007, when the boys stopped playing the RCM campaign (with the story unfinished). Robert Kurvitz instead shifted his attention to writing a book in the Elysium universe. Eventually the plan became for it to be the opening to a cycle of novels, totaling eight altogether. We have the English titles of each book and their epigraphs, along with the order of the series, from a post by Kurvitz on the dragon.ee forums.

They are as follows:

#0 A SACRED AND TERRIBLE AIR My heart will not rest until it rests in you. - St. Augustine

#1 THE COUNTERMEASURES What am I searching for in your dreams? I am not searching. I am merely cleaning up. - Christian Emmerich

#2 NO TRUCE WITH THE FURIES Man-kind, be vigilant! We loved you. - Julius Fučik

#3 MADRUGADA It must be lit as dreams, by lightning flashes only. - Witold Gombrowicz

#4 TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY NINE DAYS REMAINING Evening brings the child back to the arms of the mother. - Sappho

#5 COALITION WARSHIP I don’t want to be in no indie shit. I want to be in the big ones. I want to be in the ones that matter. - Mickey Rourke

#6 WE ARE THE WAITING What remains, is longing for something completely different. - Luis Althusser

#7 INDIFFERENCE A great silence, some low pressure front is forming. - Arvi Siig

Sacred and Terrible Air was eventually released in Estonian back in 2013, and after the success of Disco Elysium plans were made to translate the book into English. Rumor goes that this translation was very far along or even finished, but unfortunately all plans for releasing this translation to the public have been halted with the ongoing legal dispute.

Fortunately, dedicated fans have taken it upon themselves to translate the book into English for those particularly interested. The most successful translation by far is the one by Group Ibex, which still receives updates to this day.

Read it here.

Full-Core State Nihilist

Many don’t know that Sacred and Terrible Air is actually not the only written work predating Disco Elysium. Before even Sacred and Terrible Air was released, Martin Luiga wrote a short story later given the English title Full-Core State Nihilist, which was uploaded to the old ZA/UM blog. While obviously not as meaty a text as Sacred and Terrible Air, it deals with some overlapping themes and gives us our first proper window into the nation of Mesque, so important to the broader narrative of Elysium.  

Full-Core State Nihilist was later heavily edited and uploaded to nihilist.fm, another blog site which many of the ZA/UM members were active on.

Finally, in 2022, Martin Luiga translated the Estonian story, basing his English version on the original ZA/UM blog version, and uploaded it to Medium. This translation itself could be seen as a third edit of the story, featuring new references to Disco Elysium.

(As it happens, I have also arrogantly taken it upon myself to create my own translation of this brilliant story, which combines elements from all three versions, and is an attempt to render the prose in slightly less idiosyncratic English, closer to the “house style” of Disco Elysium, while remaining heavily informed by Luiga’s own translation.)

You can find Luiga’s translation here and my version here.

THE RETURN

In 2014, Robert Kurvitz pitched an idea to his friend and associate, novelist and businessman Kaur Kender, to turn the Torson & McLaine roleplaying campaign into a full-fledged video game for PC. The pitch proposed a 3000 EUR investment to produce a vision document, with design and artwork handled by Aleksander Rostov and Juri Saks, detailing the setting, plot, game mechanics and art style. In 2015, this document was finished, and by this time a provisional name for the project seems to have been settled on: THE RETURN.  

This vision document reveals that the game was once planned to feature turn-based tactical combat. The plan was also for the player to create their own character from certain “archetypes,” each with different personalities, talents and appearances. Over time it became clear that these plans were too ambitious; by 2016 the archetypes had been narrowed down into a single character – the “disgrace to the uniform” Harry du Bois – and the prologue chapter of his story, set in Martinaise, was split off into its own game. This smaller project received the title that originally was given to the third novel in the planned cycle (which was almost certainly anticipated to center around the story of Precinct 41 in the year ’51) – NO TRUCE WITH THE FURIES.

No Truce became Disco Elysium and the rest, as they say, is history. But unlike many fans who view Disco as a singular statement that needs no further comment, the developers were far from done with the world they had created. The dominant internal view, especially among the original worldbuilders, was that Disco Elysium was merely a minor project to get ZA/UM’s foot through the proverbial gate. Work on the true game – the one they had wanted to create all along – could finally begin now.

As far as we know, the plot of the game would’ve stuck fairly closely to the events of the Torson & McLaine roleplaying campaign. The game was to open with an attack on Precinct 41, and the rest of the game would’ve been a revenge story of sorts. Players would assume control of Harry again, and this time his primary partner would be Jean Vicquemare, although there would be an assortment of other potential party members. The map would be at least four times bigger and set in Jamrock.

Plot points which would be explored in the sequel had already been set up in Disco Elysium – among these are Pryce and Gottlieb’s revolution, Le Royaume, Edgar Claire, and La Puta Madre. Cuno and Cunoesse would’ve featured as returning characters; not much is known about how Cuno and Kim would’ve been integrated into the game given how variable their endings in Disco Elysium are, but Argo says that he would’ve insisted on Cuno returning. X7 – the now-cancelled DLC project which Argo worked on for the remainder of his time at ZA/UM after Robert, Rostov and Helen were ousted from the company, would’ve featured Cuno as the protagonist. Meanwhile, Cunoesse was planned to reappear in THE RETURN as a leader of a gang of kids in Le Royaume, according to Martin Luiga.

Obviously, the characters of Precinct 41 would've featured heavily, and we'd be introduced to many familiar names which we were already given glimpses of in Esprit de Corps checks in Disco Elysium. One of these would be Lt. Berdyayeva, a superior of Harry’s, whose daughter is Jean Vicquemare’s ex. A character we know nearly nothing about except for the fact that he was conceptualized back in the tabletop days as a sort of joke character, but survived all the way into the planning stage for THE RETURN, is “Marivald the Merry Butcher” – what his role might've been, your guess is as good as mine.

Pryce and Gottlieb’s goals in the game might've involved an attempt to unite several diverse groups with a common interest in an independent Revachol; this would’ve included the besmerties, the West Revacholian crime syndicates mentioned in Disco Elysium. Prominent among them would’ve been La Puta Madre, a Mesque gang leader and drug manufacturer, a man of such immense power that he has RCM officers tending his poppy fields in terror (his influence also seems to survive past the events of the game; he gets a mention in Sacred and Terrible Air). The Madre would’ve apparently been an attractive feminine-presenting man, impeccably dressed and wearing beautiful makeup; his gender-nonconformity a way of projecting power over the traditionally macho culture of Villalobos. The rival gang, Ahura Mazda, led by a gangster known as the Mazda, would’ve presumably also featured prominently – Rostov recently released old concept art depicting one of their gang members.

There were more plans for the sequel that only came along after the development of Disco Elysium itself. Robert has talked about wanting to double down on events like the Mercenary Tribunal, handling big action scenes within the more closed literary format of the FELD dialogue system, hopefully allowing for even more variation than was possible in Disco's big confrontation. Another infamous idea was the inclusion of a second protagonist – a pregnant woman, about 5 months along. Kurvitz has mentioned this idea in interviews, saying that it would be "an incredible writing challenge" within Disco Elysium's internalized skill system: "It would be unbelievable to use our skill system to speak about the bodily sensations of having another organism inside of you, while you're in the setting and talking to another person." That said, the addition of an entire new protagonist is very ambitious indeed – it's not clear whether the idea would involve alternating perspectives of some sort, or a choice in the character creator of which one to go with, but Kurvitz made it clear that these would be entirely different characters, unlike many games which offer only a superficial choice between male and female playable characters. Kurvitz expressed some doubt about being able to include this in the game, but at least expected it to be integrated via an expansion post-release if not.

Miscellaneous info

Argo and Robert have both hinted that there is a metatextual element to the overarching Elysium narrative. Whenever presented with readings or theories that contextualize the game as some sort of story-within-a-story, they act coy and refuse to give any clear answers. Argo outright offered an interpretation of the pale which presents it as what happens as the narrative starts “leaking out” of the head of a reader or audience member no longer actively absorbed in the world and said that “Elysium is a fictional world that is aware that it’s fictional.”

Apparently related to this aspect of the narrative, according to Argo, are the three satellites in orbit above the world of Elysium – Iikon, Zenith and Shakermaker – which have been there since “before the 8,000 years of recorded history” and before “the Polycarpeum event.” The satellites have only been mentioned in niche corners of the currently published materials, and the innocence Polycarp has only been mentioned in secondary materials, such as the artbook and the inside covers of Sacred and Terrible Air, leading to speculation about him being involved with the pale and the memory of his reign being wiped from history.

Also related to the metatext, again according to Argo, is a character known as “the Man Behind the Black Sun” – he gets one mention by the Paledriver in Disco Elysium, but curiously she seems to refer to it as the title of a movie that was released in Mesque during the revolutionary era, potentially a boiadeiro picture starring the actor Gabriel Buenguerro.

The magical elements of the pre-Elysium fantasy world morphed over time into what is called “extraphysics” in Elysium. The innocences, the pale, and “plasm” all testify to this supernatural aspect of the setting.

At some point, Ambrosius Saint-Miro apparently constructs nihilist death camps, which Triss and Tessa (the adopted daughters of Torson and McLaine) end up in and eventually escape.

"Magpies" are not a real thing and were never a part of the original plan for the Elysium narrative. The concept artist who made the image from which the term was popularized has gone on record saying that he invented this idea himself and that it was taken from his own worldbuilding ideas. There is nothing to suggest that this was integrated into the game; Argo and Luiga reacted with confusion at the mention of this concept.

Kurvitz had an insanely ambitious list of projects he wanted to make in the Elysium universe before he was ousted from ZA/UM; "The last one I want to make, when I'm 50 or 60, that I want to absolutely go crazy on and throw out all commercial considerations and get this as conceptual as possible, is the tabletop setting. The working title for the tabletop setting is You Are Vapor. It will be a really, really, crazy pen-and-paper game."

List of sources:

All parts of Argo Tuulik's Human Can Opener Podcast episode.

Martin Luiga's Human Can Opener episode.

Martin Luiga's Medium account and other blog posts: Interview, 8 years ago..., Hello Fellow Worldbuilders, Correction, A Policeman In Revachol, Fuirum Thundergate (Substack)

Tweets by Martin Luiga: 1, 2, 3, 4

Tweets by Argo Tuulik: 1

The dragon.ee post about the novel cycle

"Welcome to Revachol" on the devblog

"Outro" by Robert Kurvitz, featured in the official Disco Elysium artbook.

Disco Elysium, Sacred and Terrible Air, and Full-Core State Nihilist. Obviously.

Possibly more that I'm forgetting. Feel free to ask.

[probablyasocialecologist]

While they contribute little to society, welfare ranchers on public lands demand a lot in the form of subsidies whose scope is a testament to their outsize power and influence. It’s estimated the state and federal largesse to the industry amounts to between $500 million and $1 billion a year, all of it funded generously by the taxpayer. This includes below-market grazing fees for cows and sheep, fence construction, road building and maintenance, cattle guards, forage improvement and seeding programs, poisoning of unwanted vegetation, forest clearing, stream diversions, water projects such as dams, pipelines, aqueducts, stock ponds and troughs, the monitoring of livestock health, and control of predators and other mammalian and avian pests deemed a threat to the industry. The U.S. Department of Agriculture operates a specialized hunting and trapping unit—referred to by the Saboteur as “hired killers”—that slaughters tens of thousands of animals each year to aid public lands stockmen, including coyotes, beavers, and prairie dogs. Ranchers also receive generous federal and state tax write-offs for every cow they graze, along with reduced state property taxes for their private deeded lands. They are additionally “blow-jobbed,” as the Saboteur put it, by the very agencies that are supposed to be preventing their overstocking and overgrazing of public lands. The Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management are the primary culprits in this charade of regulation, in which it appears the cowboys run the show and the bureaucrats are their puppets. The industry is thus provided all kinds of preferential treatment and survives on the dole because in the arid conditions of the West, where the climate conspires against cattle production, it cannot do otherwise. “Western cattlemen are nothing more than welfare parasites,” wrote author Edward Abbey, the literary father of the eco-sabotage movement in the United States, who also observed that cattlemen “survive by hiding behind the cheap mythology of the ‘Cowboy’: literally, a boy who looks after cows.” Abbey was hardly alone in coming to this conclusion. Conservative pundit George Will opined that an inner-city mother on public assistance was “the soul of self-reliance compared to a westerner who receives federally subsidized range privileges.” The industry, naturally, wants ever more privilege. The primary advocacy group of ranchers who exploit the public domain is the Public Lands Council, which is funded and staffed by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, a political and cultural giant in the annals of lobbying. Every few years, the Public Lands Council issues a policy document to outline priorities for Congress and the White House. Katie Fite, an ecologist with the nonprofit Wildlands Defense in Boise, calls it the “Welfare Rancher’s demand letter.” “The Big Hats basically want super-duper extra special status for every welfare ranching permit holder,” she told me in an email, “because if you have herds of cows or sheep you are a Lord.” Among the common demands: the general annihilation of prairie dogs, a keystone species already 98 percent gone throughout the West but which ranchers still consider a pest; the stripping of Endangered Species Act protections for the trifling number of remaining grizzly bears and for “all species of wolves” in the United States; and rollbacks of key provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires environmental impact assessments of all commercial activities on federal lands, including ranching operations. The Public Lands Council has also sought to amend the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act so that wild horses can be killed because they compete for forage with cows. “They want wild horses in the West pretty much GONE,” Fite wrote me. “The Endangered Species Act rendered meaningless/GONE. They want a free hand to grossly pollute water. They attack just about everything good or positive with public lands and the environment.”

1 April 2025

[dptarotproject]

Hello friends. This is mod Jay coming at you barely alive with another update that includes an unfortunate delay. This should be the last one, and if it’s not, I’ll implode like a dying star in a major explosion that takes out everything around me and turns me into a blackhole that sucks in the debris and anything else that crosses my path. We’ve been working with this printing company and I am choosing to believe that they are trying their best but they lack communication and efficiency. We’ve told you a bit about what’s going on, the file transfer and formatting issues along with some mod health issues causing some delays but please believe me when I say we are doing our absolute best. Honestly, starting this project was kinda on a whim and most of the Mods have not moderated for a project of this scope, size or style, before. We did not know what we were signing up for. The printing company usually takes a few days to reply to the emails I send them and oftentimes their replies are vague and don’t actually answer the question or solve the problem I was contacting them about. They advertise a 14 day turn around, but that was misleading as it’s 14 days after FINAL approval, not initial approval.

What their provided timeline includes ✅ :

- time in the manufacturing process after final proof approval and before shipping

What their timeline doesn’t include ❌ :

- file transfer

- them coming back with feedback on the files

- adjustments we had to make to the files to fit their guidelines

- file transfer again

- file approval on their end to make the proofs

- our team approving the proof

- test pack manufacturing

- test pack shipping

- approval of final proofs once test pack received

- shipping of bulk order to me

- all the weekends/non work days that occur

- the time it takes for them to respond to emails when our team provides the necessary changes

Now we finally have a test deck on the way (that should arrive Wednesday according to the tracking information provided to me) and I’ll make another post when it arrives with some pictures. I’m out of town right now but I have a friend who will be picking up the package for me and taking some pictures so we can share the pictures with you as soon as possible.

Unfortunately it’s another 14 BUSINESS days until I get the bulk order SHIPPED to me, an estimation of about a week delivery time from there (based on how long shipping took from the printing company to me for the test pack BUT IT MAY BE LONGER AS THIS IS GOING TO BE A MUCH LARGER PACKAGE) and once that finally arrives I can ship them out to you guys.

If I could go back in time I probably would tell us to use a different printing company but unfortunately it’s too late to go with someone else. In the end we’ll wind up with a great product in my opinion but it’s been hard time getting there. I’m frustrated, and I’m sure many of you are as well. I get it, but they ARE coming.

Updated timeline: I plan to have everything shipped out by the end of July (Assuming the most recent information I got from the printers is accurate). I know that's like 8 weeks later than was originally communicated to ya’ll and I can’t express enough how sorry I am about all of these delays. It’s shit. It’s all a big flaming pile of shit. And I’m tired. So so tired. I see the light though! Now, is it the light at the end of the tunnel? Or is it heaven’s gate or hell’s fire? I don’t know. But we’re moving towards it together, hand in trembling, clenched, sweaty hand.

Thank you for your patience at this time and once again I am so sorry for all of these delays we’ve been facing. Another update will be posted on the tumblr and discord when the decks are shipped out!

Phazer loves you!!

[everlastingday]

traffic light game

thank you @heartstringsduet for creating and tagging me in this, it's such a fun game! and thank you @annoyingcloudearthquake, @lemonlyman-dotcom, @reyesstrand, @nisbanisba, and @emsprovisions for the tags 💜

Rules: Talk about something creative you're working on of any kind. 🚦 Green: What is it about, what excited you about it, what sparked the idea? Orange: Slow down and share something from it: a photo, a few words, some more background info etc. Red: What is the roadblock currently? What is one thing that is a necessary evil in making it?

green

taking this opportunity to talk about a wip i haven't actively worked on for a while now, but is in many ways my ultimate passion project, the tarlos dark academia au! i think i've been working on this one on and off for almost a year now (lol 🤡), but it's definitely the biggest in scope of all my fics. the basic premise is that carlos goes to this mysterious academy for mages because iris went there previously, but never came out, and nobody is investigating her disappearance, so he decides to take matters into his own hands.

i don't know how relevant this will be for anyone here, but some of the magical/school elements are borrowed from my favourite video game franchise, fire emblem (which fun fact, is actually the fandom i probably read most fics from, even though i don't write for it!). the school layout in particular is the school/monastery layout from the game, fire emblem three houses. no characters or direct references to the game, just little tidbits of lore and setting that hopefully you'll be able to pick up on if you've played the game(s)!

orange

From the other side of the hall, the door clicks open, and the low chatter around the room quickly dissipates as the new students enter the main hall of the Valentia Institute for the first time. By TK’s estimation, there’s probably around 60 new students this year. As he scans the group, his eyes immediately are drawn to one particular individual. TK thinks he’s never seen anyone as beautiful as the man standing near the back of the incoming class. He’s tall — probably a couple of inches taller than TK — with tan skin and cropped, dark brown hair that hints at some beautiful curls once it grows out. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t notice how his arms and chest completely filled out the olive green t-shirt he was wearing, but what really mesmerized him were the stranger’s brown eyes. Warm, soulful, brown eyes that he thinks he could stare into all day if he’d let him. A sharp nudge to his side quickly brings him back to reality. “TK,” Nancy hisses, “stop drooling.”

red

aside from the general roadblock of life that's making writing in general a struggle, this one's been on the backburner because i decided i didn't like one of the main reveals/plot points, and going back and reworking what i've already written just feels so daunting. and sometimes i just hate my own writing, so having to read so many of my own words makes me die a little on the inside 🥲 but i do love this project, so hopefully i can get over it and finish it one day!

open tag + no pressure tagging: @henrygrass, @carlossreaders, @carlos-in-glasses, @tellmegoodbye, @welcometololaland, @paperstorm, @bonheur-cafe, @whatsintheboxmh, @pimento-playing-hopscotch

[captainxtra]

Major June 26th Political Update!

So, Paxton vs Free Speech Coalition and Birthright Citizenship + National Injunction cases will be settled most certainly tomorrow.

Keep an eye and ear out.

------

Now onto the Spending Bill news!

Here is a combined summary of all the updates from the Politico articles I checked:

The Republican-led "megabill" (also referred to as the "One Big Beautiful Bill") is facing numerous challenges and undergoing significant revisions due to rulings by Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough and internal disagreements within the GOP. Republicans are pushing to pass this comprehensive domestic policy bill—which includes tax, defense, energy, immigration, and health care provisions—before a self-imposed July 4 deadline, using the budget reconciliation process to bypass a Democratic filibuster.

Key Challenges and Parliamentarian Rulings:

Medicaid Provisions: The parliamentarian has dealt a major blow to the GOP's health care plans by ruling that several key Medicaid provisions cannot pass with a simple majority. This includes a plan to reduce Medicaid costs by cracking down on state provider taxes, which was expected to generate substantial savings, and proposals to exclude undocumented residents from Medicaid. These rulings have created an estimated $250 billion budgetary shortfall for Republicans.

Civil Service and Pension Reform: Initial proposals to restructure the federal workforce, such as giving federal employees an "at-will" designation and billing unions for official activities, were ruled out of order by the parliamentarian. Republicans are now exploring changes to their pension reform plan, proposing to increase federal employees' retirement contributions to 15.6 percent (from 9.4 percent) to help fund the megabill, though members of Congress, their staff, and federal law enforcement would be exempt. Democrats and unions strongly oppose these changes.

CFPB Funding: Senate Banking Republicans are proposing to cap the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) funding at 6.5 percent of the Federal Reserve's operating budget, a reduction from the current 12 percent. An initial attempt to eliminate CFPB funding entirely was deemed ineligible. This new proposal awaits parliamentarian approval.

AI Moratorium: The parliamentarian has requested Senator Ted Cruz rewrite a proposed 10-year moratorium on enforcing state artificial intelligence (AI) laws, clarifying its scope of funding. While the measure is tied to a new $500 million fund for AI infrastructure, concerns remain that it could implicitly affect the entire $42 billion broadband program. The AI moratorium has also created divisions within the Republican party.

"Revenge Tax": Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has asked lawmakers to remove a projected $52 billion "revenge tax" from the megabill, stating it is no longer necessary due to a "new understanding" with other developed countries regarding a global tax agreement, where central taxes will not apply to U.S. companies.

Overruling Parliamentarian: Despite calls from some conservative Republicans to do so, Senate Majority Leader John Thune has stated that the Senate will not move to overrule Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, emphasizing the importance of preserving Senate norms.

Approved Provisions:

SNAP Plan: The parliamentarian has approved a modified version of the Republican plan to shift some costs of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) onto states. This is a significant win for Republicans, as it allows them to maintain a crucial $41 billion spending cut for the bill.

Internal Republican Divisions & Negotiations:

Medicaid Moderates: The proposed reduction of provider taxes in Medicaid expansion states is facing a "Medicaid-fueled mutiny" from moderate senators like Susan Collins, who find the proposed $15 billion rural hospital stabilization fund "inadequate." Some are threatening to block floor debate without more clarity on Medicaid changes.

SALT Deduction: Blue-state Republicans have rejected a Treasury offer to raise the cap on the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction to $40,000, calling it "unrealistic." This remains a key unresolved issue.

Public Land Sales: Five House Republicans have declared a "red line" against including public land sales in the megabill, threatening to vote against it. They view it as a "grave mistake" and a "poison pill." This provision also faces strong Senate opposition.

Leadership Meetings & Deadlines:

Senate Majority Leader John Thune met with President Donald Trump at the White House as Republicans work against their self-imposed July 4 deadline. There is skepticism among some in the Senate GOP about whether they can get the bill to the President by this deadline. An initial vote to begin debate on the bill is now not expected before Saturday.

Kansas Governor Laura Kelly (D) anticipates that Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), despite his objections to certain bill provisions, will ultimately vote with his party due to pressure from the comprehensive nature of the megabill.

The combination of parliamentarian rulings, internal Republican dissent, and complex negotiations across various policy areas is making the passage of the "megabill" a challenging and fluid process.

------

It seems that the bill is still being worked on so contact your Senators on troublesome provisions, reminding them to invoke the Byrd Rule against troublesome provisions should a procedural vote come before a new text is released.

General Page to call on the bill:

Page to call against Section 203, the provision that targets courts by requiring an expensive bond be payed to sue the government:

Page on AI regulation Ban:

------

Oh and congrats to Zohran Mamdani!

[jccatstudios]

Hi! Im pretty sure someone already asked you this but I really want to know. When working on the comic, do you make a script for yourself or do you "just" work with the book as it is? I know that making a script adds another work to the already long list, but working with the book as it is seems really overwhelming (many words me not likey)

You know, I don't think I have answered this before! Not in-depth, at least. Here's how I do it.

This is my extra annotated copy of the book (my original copy remains untouched). Got it used and as-is from Powell's. I also have a digital copy of the book when I can't bring this copy with me. I underline certain things I don't want to forget in the artwork, and write little notes to myself here and there. It's not shown on this page, but sometimes I cross things out that I won't/can't adapt like worldbuilding info and smaller flashbacks. If dialogue needs to be changed for lettering purposes, I do that when I'm actually making pages, not at the annotating stage. In the digital copy, I highlight character and setting descriptions to keep track of. This process is actually how I made my second graphic novel, which was an adaptation of a short story I wrote.

The ratio up top is my book page to comic page estimate. Last chapter's ratio was 10:21, which is in the ballpark of 3:7. With it, I've figured out how long each chapter and section would be just for fun. I even have a rough estimate of how long the entire book would be in comic format with nothing cut from it (try plugging in the numbers yourself if you'd like a fun surprise).

If this were a real professional project, I would write out a script myself. I'd want to keep the whole book in mind instead of doing it chapter by chapter. Working directly from the book for how things are structured is just a way to make the comic faster. Even thinking about the last chapter, I have ideas already for what I would change to create a stronger comic adaptation. For now though, I just go off the individual chapter to create something more one-to-one. This project has always been a way to improve my art and comic skills before I graduate, so doing structural rewrites to the story, even though that would be necessary for an actual adaptation, is out of the scope of this personal project I do outside of my classes.

[woebegonefanzine]

Updates and some FAQ answers!

We are already over 20 sign ups, thank you for the interest so far!

As of now the scope of the project based on interest check:

This will be a W.BG only zine.

There will be no strict theme! So long as you keep it “in universe” you can do whatever you like! Our plan is to include as many different characters and scenes as possible. Canon ships are all welcome!

We’ve had mostly artist sign-ups so far, more writing options would be great! Reminder that we’re accepting fiction as well as non-fiction for this project! (Meaning you can get meta and write an essay on the music in the show if you want!)

We want to be as clear as possible as to what this project will entail, but since we want to leave it open to anyone doing anything it’s hard to nail down! If you have any direct questions on what will be welcome we will be happy to answer!

As of now, every person who’s signed up will be making it into the project - we estimate every person who signs up will be accepted to at least 1 role.

We’re still looking for moderators! There’s been a lot of interest but not a lot of applications! The more mods we have the more people can join as well!

The current mod team consists of:

K.M. @threearmsally

Acting as Lead mod and finance/shipping (if goals met)

(@/malevolent-fanzine, @/malevolenttarotzine, @/malevolentfairytalezine, @/mycupofteafanzine, many others.)

Mar @xenoglssie

Acting as Art and Merch mod

(@/malevolent-fanzine, @/malevolenttarotzine, @/malevolentfairytalezine, others)

The zine itself is planned as a digital PDF with the opportunity to be made physical with both digital and physical merch options. All projects led by us go as close to “at cost of production” as possible.

There will be no profits made off of this - it’s entirely for the love of the fandom!

If you are having difficulty with the application or sign-up forms at all please reach out! We want everyone who wants to join to be able to!

Right now our only social account is on Tumblr, but feel free to share this project with everyone who may be interested!

A carrd with all the details including estimated schedule will be coming shortly!

Thank you!

Reminder that the interest check will remain open until January 15

Contributor sign ups will remain open until Feb 15

Mod applications open until Feb 01

[askagamedev]

Is classic game porting/remastering becoming its own specialization? What I mean is, of course it's happening more these days, so/but is space growing to be someone who specializes in these projects? Or is it still niche enough that the small number of teams/staff who do it will continue to do it?

The answer here is "kind of". Here's the main issue - game development is expensive. AAA studios are expensive and cost a lot to run, assigning a AAA studio a remake/port project is not really worth it when compared to the estimated return on investment. Instead, what game publishers often do is contract out the remakes/port job to an independent third-party studio. This has two major benefits.

First, it costs notably less than the publisher putting their own internal AAA studios on it. When you're doing a remake/port, you often don't need super high fidelity assets or extremely large scope - the majority of the gameplay design and systems already exist. Contracting the project out to an external studio means the publisher can just pay a flat amount and doesn't have to worry about things hiring new people, handling benefits, setting up the studio, etc. The external studio gets to do that, and often has their own stuff in place already. This works very well for the independent studios too - they can take jobs like this in order to pay the bills and fund their own game development. Behaviour, independent developer of Dead by Daylight, also has a second team that does work like porting and remakes/ports for other studios. Their porting and remake team provides the income to keep the studio afloat during leaner times.

Second, it allows the publisher to give these external studios a chance to prove themselves - can they deliver a promised project in time, budget, and quality? If they can, this studio may be worth acquiring or working with again. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom was developed by Japanese independent studio Grezzo, but this is far from their first game for Nintendo. They ported Ocarina of Time 3D, Majora's Mask 3D, and Luigi's Mansion for the 3DS, and they did the port for Link's Awakening to the Switch. The team that built Sonic Mania first proved themselves to Sega by doing iOS ports of Sonic CD, Sonic 1, and Sonic 2 before being given the Sonic Mania project.

With these two reasons in mind, doing remakes/ports do two things. First, they can earn money to pay the bills in a situation where it isn't worth it for the publishers to build them internally, allowing these studios to build their own projects or just have a more stable sustainable situation. Second, it provides a "minor league" situation where these external studios can prove their ability to the publisher in a lower-stakes situation in order to be entrusted with a higher and more interesting project later. As long as remakes and ports of games continue to do well, this kind of work will be in demand.

[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]

Got a burning question you want answered?

Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter

Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr

Frequent Questions: The FAQ

[the-golden-comet]

✨Writer Questionnaire Tag ✨

Thank you for the tags @wyked-ao3 here, and @thatuselesshuman here and @nczaversnick here. Y’all are great! 💛✨

How long have you had your writing Tumblr/Writeblr? A fast and loose estimate is fine!

I’ve had this blog since….end of April? Early May?

What led you to create it?

When I set up all my socials, I wanted to use this as a way to build a writing community, share my stories, and exploring and sharing the ideas of other likeminded individuals.

What’s your favorite thing about the Writeblr community?

How kind and welcoming writeblr is. The community is supportive of everyone’s stories and OCs, and everyone has some wonderfully unique and fascinating characters.

What’s one thing you’d like your mutuals to know about you?

You are always. Always. ALWAYS welcome to tag me, message me, send asks, interact with me. I absolutely endorse the engagement and excitement in this community, and even though I may miss a few tags, just know that seeing you tag me to see your stories brings the biggest, goofiest smile on my face. Thank you for being you and sharing your creative minds with us 💛✨

Is there anything you’d like to see more of on your dash?

Kindness, support, and creative stories. Keep writing, keep inspiring, keep on keeping on.

WIP it Good

Which Works-in-Progress (WIPs) or writing projects are you noodling about, lately?

Your Wish Is My Command is my current WIP at about 75% complete. I have a little bit to share from Tenshito as well, but the latter will have to get majorly cut down and restructured before it’s ready ✨

How long have you been working on them?

Planning and ideas began a couple of years ago. Writing them down? For YWIMC since early May, and Tenshito since 2020 (took a hiatus to focus on work and big life stuff, like moving twice and getting married)

Do you remember what inspired them/what got you started?

My love of storytelling, video games, and Disney. I wrote and published Peter Hart based off of a few of my favorite video games 🏴‍☠️💛✨

How much time, in your best estimation, do you spend thinking about them?

All the time. At least once a day, if not more. My stories help me get to sleep…when I eventually GET to sleep 😴💤

When someone asks the dreaded, “What do you write about,” question, what do you usually say?

BL romantasy novels. It encompasses every person asking, and umbrellas many subgenres.

Let’s Rotate Blorbos

Name any characters you created.  Side characters, protagonists, antagonists, characters who’ve never been written, the first original abomination you ever pulled from your ass; whomever you’d like!

Oof that’s a big list. Let me just do major protagonists/antagonists from stories: Peter, Benjamin, Davey, Ali, Noah, Tenshi, Itazura, Yoji, Tyr, Gustav, Jak, Johnny, Nathan, X, Ollie, and Callum

Who’s the most unhinged?

Peter 🏴‍☠️💛✨

Who comes the most naturally for you to write?

Peter 🏴‍☠️💛✨

Do you ever cringe at them?

Sometimes….depends on what they do. I never cringe at my stories, but sometimes my characters make choices that personally make me go “😬”

How much control do you feel you have over your characters?  AKA, do they ever “write themselves,” refuse to cooperate, or do things you didn’t expect? To what degree? Are some less cooperative than others?

(Slowly looks over at Peter)

Peter: …..What?

Do you enjoy people asking questions about your characters? And do you have a preferred means of receiving said questions? For example, as Asks, as replies, as reblogs, as tag notes, as comments on AO3, etc.

Oh always!! ALWAYS!! Any method is absolutely fine and encouraged by me, but I ALWAYS love when people leave AO3 comments on my stories 💖💫✨

On writeblr engagement

What makes you want to follow another Writeblr account? Do you follow ‘em as you see ‘em, or take time scoping out the blog to make sure you align with its content? Do you follow based on WIPs, or vibes?

I scope out the content before I follow for sure. Because I write adult fiction, I look through posts to make sure that our interests would align, and that the blog mentions an age that is 18+. If I am ever uncertain or have a suspicion beyond a reasonable doubt that the blog is run by a minor, I won’t follow them (and unfollow if I get suspicious of their posts)

What makes you decide against following?

I use discretion on age, politics, and religion before following. Any homophobic, transphobic, or otherwise hateful conduct gets automatically blocked. The world needs more kindness and uplifting of one another. We need to bring each other up, not tear each other down.

Do you interact with non-mutuals often?

I try to! Usually in the form of reblogs and ask games. My pile for work and tumblr keeps stacking though, so I find myself getting very busy very often (and that’s a good thing! ✨)

Do your mutuals’ characters occupy space in your noodle?

All the time, every time. To name a few mutuals: G.J, Jamie, Gioia, Casper, Tobin, Jay, Wyked, Gina, and Jev have characters that are my current hyperfixations. But there are SO, SO many that are so interesting that I want to learn more!! ✨

Thank you so much for tagging me, you two!! Going to alert the tag list on this one 💛✨

✨Tag list for writing snippets below. DM me if you’d like to be added 👇✨

Tag List for writing tidbits (lmk if you want + or -)

@jev-urisk , @sunglasses-in-the-bentley , @wyked-ao3 , @glasshouses-and-stones , @alinacapellabooks , @gioiaalbanoart , @fortunatetragedy , @deanwax , @dyrewrites , @honeybewrites , @paeliae-occasionally , @lychhiker-writes , @thatuselesshuman , @kaylinalexanderbooks , @katenewmanwrites , @zackprincebooks , @fantasy-things-and-such , @billybatsonmylove , @madi-konrad , @far-cry-from-finality , @froggy-pposto , @fractured-shield , @avaseofpeonies , @thecoolerlucky , @willtheweaver , @somethingclevermahogony , @noxxytocin , @leahnardo-da-veggie , @addicted2coke-theothercoke , @mysticstarlightduck , @the-letterbox-archives , @theink-stainedfolk , @ominous-feychild , @saturnine-saturneight , @words-after-midnight , @sableglass , @cowboybrunch , @moltenwrites , @pixies-love-envy , @davycoquette , @writeahurricane , @greenfinchwriter , @oliolioxenfreewrites , @lavender-gloom , @smellyrottentrees , @aintgonnatakethis , @thecomfywriter

[asestimationsconsultants]

Residential vs. Commercial | Comparing Construction Estimating Services in Australia

Construction estimating services play a vital role in both residential and commercial projects across Australia. However, the scope, challenges, and approaches differ significantly between these two sectors. Understanding these differences helps project stakeholders choose the right estimating services tailored to their specific needs.

Scope and Complexity

Residential construction estimating typically involves smaller-scale projects such as single-family homes, renovations, or small multi-unit dwellings. These projects usually have simpler designs and fewer trade specialties. Estimators focus on detailed takeoffs for common materials, labor costs, and basic site works.

Commercial estimating covers a wider range of larger, more complex projects such as office buildings, retail centers, hospitals, and schools. These projects often involve sophisticated architectural designs, multiple subcontractors, specialized systems (like HVAC, fire safety), and stricter regulatory compliance. Estimators must account for more variables, higher volumes, and longer timelines.

Estimating Methodologies

Residential estimating often relies on unit rate pricing for standard materials and labor. Estimators typically use detailed plans combined with historical cost data. Because residential projects have shorter durations, estimates may be less layered with contingencies.

Commercial estimating requires more detailed cost planning, including allowances for escalation, complex subcontractor bids, phased construction, and regulatory fees. Advanced software and BIM integration are more common to manage the complexity.

Regulatory and Compliance Considerations

Residential projects must comply with local building codes and standards, but commercial projects face more extensive requirements including fire safety, accessibility, environmental standards, and often more rigorous council approvals. Estimators working on commercial projects need to factor these compliance costs into their estimates.

Risk and Contingency Management

The scale and complexity of commercial construction introduce higher risks related to delays, design changes, and cost escalations. Estimators typically include larger contingencies and conduct detailed risk assessments. Residential projects may have smaller contingencies but still require allowances for unexpected site conditions.

Client Interaction and Reporting

Residential clients often require more straightforward estimates with clear explanations as they may be less familiar with construction processes. Commercial clients expect detailed cost breakdowns, phased estimates, and ongoing updates aligned with project milestones.

FAQs

Are estimating services priced differently for residential vs commercial projects? Yes, commercial estimating is usually more expensive due to complexity and detail required.

Can the same estimator work on both residential and commercial projects? Some estimators specialize, but many have experience across sectors.

Is commercial estimating software different from residential? Commercial estimators often use more advanced software with BIM integration capabilities.

How do contingencies differ between residential and commercial estimates? Commercial projects typically include higher contingencies due to greater risk and complexity.

Are regulatory fees always included in commercial estimates? Yes, professional commercial estimates factor in relevant regulatory and compliance costs.

Conclusion

Residential and commercial construction estimating services in Australia differ significantly in scope, methodology, complexity, and client expectations. Understanding these distinctions helps project stakeholders select the appropriate estimating expertise and tools. Both require accuracy and professionalism, but commercial projects demand more detailed planning, risk management, and compliance considerations. Choosing the right estimating service ensures realistic budgets and smoother project delivery in either sector.

[jgroffdaily]

Jonathan is involved in the documentary ‘Ghost Lights’, a documentary about Broadway, theater and AIDS.

From Mark Harris at Vulture:

Back in the day at Tower Records, there was a young, highly opinionated gay man who worked the register, an aspiring filmmaker named Kieran Turner. “He was considered the bitchiest clerk ever to work there,” says his friend Christianne Tisdale, an actor who has been part of the Broadway company of Wicked since 2019. “Epically awful. He knew his stuff, and if you didn’t, he could be fierce. And he was quite beautiful, so, of course, people would’ve been like …” A brief pantomime of gay bedazzlement flickers across her face. “He was a fascinating little creature.” His first documentary, Jobriath A.D. (2012), was a sad and enthralling portrait of a 1970s performer who was once compared to David Bowie and is believed to be the first fully out glam-rocker; soon after his first two albums, his career went up in flames. Jobriath died of AIDS-related illness in the Chelsea hotel in 1983, little remembered.

By the time Turner started his next film, he was 48, and he had chosen an even more difficult retrieval project — one that, in a way, was intended to finish what Neufeld’s list had begun decades earlier. Titled Ghost Lights: Reclaiming Theater in the Age of AIDS, the film would tell the story of theater’s devastation and resilience in the face of an existential threat to the people who kept it going. “He felt a huge connection with this population and with this story,” says Tisdale, who came aboard to produce the movie. Turner’s interest had grown from the front-of-house jobs he had taken as a young man working for Broadway’s Shubert Organization. Night after night, it was impossible for him to miss the toll the disease was taking on the theater community. “Kieran would read obituaries and keep seeing all these deaths in the theater world that were just strange, with all these weird causes,” says Tisdale. “So many young men, but none of them were dying of AIDS. Kieran was like, Oh, there is a story here that’s in danger of being lost forever.” Years later, he started compiling his own database of names, labeled DEATHS GRID, which became the foundational research for the movie.

In 2016, Turner was diagnosed with cancer and had to postpone work to begin chemotherapy. Six years later, as the film was underway, his cancer returned. Even as he continued to source archival material, he was often in pain that was difficult to ignore or conceal. Nevertheless, Turner came close to finishing Ghost Lights, banking more than 150 interviews with theater directors, choreographers, producers, writers, actors, and journalists, many of whom witnessed the first 15 years of the crisis, before he died at 56 this past December.

Turner’s documentary, which is now being overseen by Tisdale and the production company RadicalMedia, is seeking funds for completion. Tisdale sometimes feels overwhelmed by the breadth of the story it’s telling. “Is a thousand a safe estimate for those who died? It’s probably low,” she says. “Still, that’s the ensemble of Wicked, dying twice a year for 20 years. All the hopes and dreams they had, all that their families have lost. All the communities that were lost, all the work they had yet to do. It’s all gone.”

At the time of Turner’s death, a handful of interviews remained on his wish list. One of the people he had originally hoped to talk to, the actor Jonathan Groff, initially turned down the request. Groff was still in grade school when the catastrophe unfolded; he told Turner he had more questions than answers. The producers reapproached him and asked if he would consider serving as, in Tisdale’s words, a kind of on-camera “tour guide … a bridge between generations and a conduit to our audience.” He agreed. This is, perhaps, the central mission shared by filmmakers, museum curators, advocates, and activists — to bring a vanished era to life for generations of younger queer people, to tell them what it was like before there’s nobody left who knows firsthand.

[rjzimmerman]

In addition to the story about the waste caused by the layoffs, The Guardian reports that nearly $500 million of food aid is at risk of spoilage after trump shut down USAID. Brilliant, right? From The Guardian:

Nearly half a billion dollars of food aid is at risk of spoilage following the decision of Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s “Doge” agency to make cuts to USAid, according to an inspector general (IG) report released on Monday.

Following staff reductions and funding freezes, the US agency responsible for providing humanitarian assistance across the world – including food, water, shelter and emergency healthcare – is struggling to function.

“Recent widespread staffing reductions across the agency … coupled with uncertainty about the scope of foreign assistance waivers and permissible communications with implementers, has degraded USAid’s ability to distribute and safeguard taxpayer-funded humanitarian assistance,” the report said.

According to USAid staff, this uncertainty put more than $489m of food assistance at ports, in transit, and in warehouses at risk of spoilage, unanticipated storage needs, and diversion.

Excerpt from the Mother Jones story about the USDA:

The widespread layoff of Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists has thrown vital research into disarray, according to former and current employees of the agency. Scientists hit by the layoffs were working on projects to improve crops, defend against pests and disease, and understand the climate impact of farming practices. The layoffs also threaten to undermine billions of taxpayer dollars paid to farmers to support conservation practices, experts warn.

The USDA layoffs are part of the Trump administration’s mass firing of federal employees, mainly targeting people who are in their probationary periods ahead of gaining full-time status, which for USDA scientists can be up to three years. The agency has not released exact firing figures, but they are estimated to include many hundreds of staff at critical scientific subagencies and a reported 3,400 employees in the Forest Service.

The IRA provided the USDA with $300 million to help with the quantification of carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. This money was intended to support the $8.5 billion in farmer subsidies authorized in the IRA to be spent on the Environmental Quality Incentives Program—a plan to encourage farmers to take up practices with potential environmental benefits, such as cover cropping and better waste storage. At least one contracted farming project funded by EQIP has been paused by the Trump administration, Reuters reports.

The $300 million was supposed to be used to establish an agricultural greenhouse gas network that could monitor the effectiveness of the kinds of conservation practices funded by EQIP and other multibillion-dollar conservation programs, says Emily Bass, associate director of federal policy, food, and agriculture at the environmental research center the Breakthrough Institute. This work was being carried out in part by the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), two of the scientific sub-agencies hit heavily by the federal layoffs.

“That’s a ton of taxpayer dollars, and the quantification work of ARS and NRCS is an essential part of measuring those programs’ actual impacts on emissions reductions,” says Bass. “Stopping or hamstringing efforts midway is a huge waste of resources that have already been spent.”

[dalekowrites]

hellooo it’s me with the bug report for After Dark again!

so funnily enough I tried to play through the bit about crossing the river because of the smoke, and I went through it twice from my last save, trying to emulate the choices I picked to the best of my ability, but I couldn’t get it to loop again so. Maybe my device was just being weird 👍 either way the loop doesn’t affect gameplay other than having to play the same section twice, so it isn’t much of an issue (if it actually does exist at all)

however I’ve screen recorded the later scene jump bit! unfortunately videos cannot be sent through asks so I uploaded the screen recording to a google drive and that’s the link below. I hope you can access it!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xyl0ISyVgB8RLK1zTPA9UubfymhUw4tj/view?usp=drivesdk

as you can see the scene starts with stating that ‘You are outside’ but I highlight the bit where the text changes to when MC is somehow back in the diner. The whole bit after just shows that the MC is in the diner I guess? I’m not sure why I continued playing past that.

OH MY.

TL;DR: the bugfix will be implemented in the next update!

Ok, so. That was an indentation error.

I'm not sure how familiar you are with ChoiceScript, or even just programming languages in general, so sorry if I say anything obvious to you, but I’d really like to explain (to you and anyone else reading) what happened in the simplest way possible!

Basically, certain scenes, actions, or events are enclosed within indents (i.e., every choice is inside an indent). You can think of each indent like a box, and any additional indents inside it are like boxes within boxes.

In that specific scene, there's a variable: the phone can either be on—so the MC can check the time—or dead, meaning the MC has to guess what time it is. In both cases, we're talking about two separate "boxes," each containing the line of dialogue or description that should be shown. In your case, the phone was on, and that was—chronologically—the first indent.

After that comes the second indent (the one for the phone being dead), followed by the rest of the scene. The problem is, instead of placing the continuation of the scene at the regular (lower) level, I accidentally kept it at the same indent level as the second choice, which made it part of that second "box."

Since the game couldn't read the rest of the scene from there, it ended up skipping it entirely and jumping to the wrong scene—specifically, the first scene tied to the next directional choice. So it continued the game as if you'd stayed in the diner!

...this is probably even more difficult to understand than a normal explanation, lol. Let's try a slightly more technical one:

The issue stems from improper indentation, which in ChoiceScript determines scope and control flow. In the bugged scene, there's a conditional block based on the state of a variable (let's pretend, for clarity's sake, that it's a simple *phone_on variable):

If 'phone_on = true', the MC sees the time → first indented block.

If 'phone_on = false', the MC estimates the time → second indented block.

The problem occurred after the second condition: the rest of the scene (which should've been outside both conditionals, at the base indentation level) was mistakenly left at the same indentation level as the second conditional branch. As a result, that portion of the scene was interpreted as part of the 'phone_on = false' block only.

So, when 'phone_on = true', the engine correctly entered the first branch, but then skipped the improperly indented scene continuation, as it was not reachable outside of the second condition. This led to a fall-through to the next scene label, which caused an incorrect scene transition as if you had made a different choice (in this specific instance, staying at the diner instead of leaving).

Anyway!!

This kind of bug is one of the hardest to catch—especially in a project with complex code like After Dark. (Fun fact: about a quarter of the entire word count is just code, and the full text already amounts to the equivalent of 450–700 pages, depending on your formatting! :P) So seriously, you've done me a huge favor—thank you so much!

Can I ask if you're playing as a free reader or a subscriber? And are you only following me on Tumblr, or are you also on Discord / Patreon? Feel free to DM me if you'd rather answer privately!

[davycoquette]

Get to Know Your Moots Writeblr Interview

Remember, folks; if any of the questions don’t spark joy, just delete ‘em. If someone tags you and this feels like a chore, don’t do it! This is for fun!

On the Tumblr Writing Community

How long have you had your writing Tumblr/Writeblr?

A fast and loose estimate is fine!

What led you to create it?

What’s your favorite thing about the Writeblr community?

What’s one thing you’d like your mutuals to know about you?

Is there anything you’d like to see more of on your dash?

What tips/advice do you have for someone who made a Writeblr today?

WIP it Good

Which Works-in-Progress (WIPs) or writing projects are you noodling about, lately?

How long have you been working on them?

Do you remember what inspired them/what got you started?

How much time, in your best estimation, do you spend thinking about them?

When someone asks the dreaded, “What do you write about,” question, what do you usually say?

What do you want to say (if it’s different from what you do say)?

Let’s Rotate Blorbos

Name any characters you created.

Side characters, protagonists, antagonists, characters who’ve never been written, the first original abomination you ever pulled from your ass; whomever you’d like!

Who’s the most unhinged?

Who comes the most naturally for you to write?

Do you ever cringe at them?

How much control do you feel you have over your characters?

AKA, do they ever “write themselves,” refuse to cooperate, or do things you didn’t expect? To what degree? Are some less cooperative than others?

Do you enjoy people asking questions about your characters?

And do you have a preferred means of receiving said questions? For example, as Asks, as replies, as reblogs, as tag notes, as comments on AO3, etc.

On Writeblr Engagement

What makes you want to follow another Writeblr account?

Do you follow ‘em as you see ‘em, or take time scoping out the blog to make sure you align with its content? Do you follow based on WIPs, or vibes?

What makes you decide against following?

Do you interact with non-mutuals often?

Do your mutuals’ characters occupy space in your noodle?