#putting this in my game design reference folder

[sarahelizasims]

Nestled in the heart of Lombard Drive, this exquisite 2.5-bedroom, 2-bathroom residence embodies the elegance of modern French Colonial design. A harmonious blend of light neutrals and bold dark accents graces both the interior and exterior, creating a timeless aesthetic. The home’s grand façade is framed by lush, meticulously curated gardens, where vibrant red and white hydrangeas weave a captivating tapestry around the estate. Beyond the charming exterior, a private backyard oasis awaits—an entertainer’s dream featuring a striking sunken conversation pit seamlessly encircled by a shimmering pool, perfect for intimate gatherings and luxurious outdoor living.

40 x 30

Residential Lot

2 beds, 1 nursery

2 full bathrooms

Furnished

$570,487

Requirements:

Turn bb.moveobjects on before placing. **optional** TwistedMexi has a script mod that does it for you automatically, so there is no reason to always have to type it in.

T.O.O.L by TwistedMexi.

Required CC - Please refer to the included PDF document for downloading items that were not included in the zip file, as some are still in early access.

One of the cabinets is a recolor; download the original mesh here if you load into the lot and something is missing. The file name is [KKB'sMM]Aesthete - Cabinet ver.2.

The lush red hydrangeas are a recolor; download the mesh here.

Terms of Use:

Do not re-upload my lots and claim them as your own.

You're welcome to edit or modify my builds, but please remember to credit me as the original creator!

Do not put my builds behind a paywall.

I've included some of my recolors, please refer to those posts for their TOU.

Thank you to all CC Creators.

Please let me know if there's any problem with the build. Tag @sarahelizasims so I can see your gameplay and any personal touches you've made!

I sincerely apologize for the number of zip files. I had a tough time finding a way to upload everything at once or compress the main folder as a whole. As a result, I had to create multiple folders to split up the CC. If you have any tips on compressing and optimizing large files, I would greatly appreciate your help!

Please note that this is a very CC heavy build, which might cause lag in your game. I organize CC files to their content creator in my downloads. Make sure you're actively running batch fixes on your files.

My game is DirectX11, so you may need to update your images to DX11 in the Sims 4 Studio.

📥DOWNLOAD (Available for FREE on Patreon)

Floor Plan & Photo Gallery:

[glowettee]

✧・゜: how i organize my google drive for maximum efficiency :・゜✧:・゜✧

hey lovelies! ✨

i use google drive to organize mostly everything, and the truth is, my google drive used to be an absolute disaster zone, we're talking hundreds of "untitled document" files and random screenshots saved who knows when. but after one particularly stressful finals week where i lost a paper for three hours, i completely overhauled my system. here's exactly how i organize everything now!

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ the folder structure that changed everything ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

first things first, i use a simple top-level organization system:

📁 𝘢𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘤𝘴: all school-related files

📁 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭: journals, goal tracking, finances, etc.

📁 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦: blog drafts, design projects, photos

📁 𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘷𝘦: completed classes and old projects

📁 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘴: templates, reference materials, guides

the key is keeping your top level super simple, i used to have 20+ folders here and it was overwhelming! now i can find anything within seconds because i know exactly which category it falls under.

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ my academic folder system ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

this is the most detailed section of my drive! inside my academics folder:

📁 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳

📁 class 1

📁 class 2

📁 class 3

📁 class 4

📄 semester schedule

📄 assignment tracker

inside each class folder:

📁 notes

📁 assignments

📁 readings

📁 projects

📄 syllabus

i color-code each class folder to match my physical notebooks and planner tabs, this visual consistency helps my brain switch between subjects more easily!

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ file naming conventions that save me ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

the absolute game-changer was developing a consistent naming system:

for class notes: DATE_CLASS_TOPIC example: 06.10_psych101_memory_systems

for assignments: CLASS_ASSIGNMENT_STATUS example: econ202_midterm_essay_final

for group projects: CLASS_PROJECT_MYPART_VERSION example: marketing300_campaign_research_v2

this might seem excessive, but it means i never have to open files to figure out what they are! plus, sorting by name automatically puts everything in chronological order.

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ my favorite google drive hacks ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

these little tricks make everything run even smoother:

𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨: i star current project files so they always appear at the top of my drive

𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨: right-click folders to give them colors that match your physical organization system

𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘺: i keep a "templates" folder with pre-formatted docs for essays, lab reports, notes, etc.

𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴: i set important folders to be available offline (has saved me during wifi emergencies!)

𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴: using "type:pdf" or "after:2023-09-01" in the search bar to filter results

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ maintenance routines ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

even the best system falls apart without regular maintenance! here's my schedule:

𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘶𝘱 (15 min): every friday afternoon, i sort any stray files into their proper folders and rename anything with default names

𝘮𝘪𝘥-𝘴𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘵 (30 min): halfway through each semester, i check that everything is where it should be and create any new folders needed

𝘦𝘯𝘥-𝘰𝘧-𝘴𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 (1 hour): i move completed classes to my archive folder and set up the next semester's structure

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ sharing & collaboration settings ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

as someone who works on lots of group projects, getting these settings right is crucial:

𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴: i create specific shared folders for each group project rather than sharing individual files

𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘴: i'm careful about giving "edit" vs "comment" access depending on the project

𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨: i always disable "anyone with the link can edit" to avoid accidental changes

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ my best google drive tips ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

create a "quick access" document with links to your most-used files

use google drive's "workspaces" feature to group project files temporarily

download the desktop app to easily drag and drop files

set up automatic google photos backup for screenshots and images

use keyboard shortcuts (shift + n for new folder is my favorite!)

⋆.ೃ࿔:･ final thoughts ･:࿔ೃ.⋆

remember that the perfect organization system is one that works for your brain! mine has evolved over years of trial and error, and i still tweak it each semester. the key is consistency, whatever system you choose, stick with it long enough to make it habit.

xoxo, mindy 🤍

[theresattrpgforthat]

How To Find Cool Games: On Itch.io!

As I drift into a reduced posting schedule, I figured I’d give everyone a peek behind the screen for how I cultivate ttrpgs for recommendations! Some of these tips might even help you find your next favourite game.

This is a long read so let's put most of this beast under a read-more. Keep in mind that many of these strategies work best when you're checking itch.io a little bit every week, and when you're engaging with the platform as more than just a store page. There's a lot of features that you can choose to engage with if you want to find the game for you!

browsing physical game recent releases. This helps me see what’s new and happening, and it helps with a number of things. First of all, I get to see new games pretty much every time I browse recent releases. Secondly, I get a good sense of what’s currently popular in the design space. Thanks to my weekly browsing, I recognize Cy_Borg, Shadowdark and Mausritter as games whose content shows up rather regularly - if you see a lot of products attached to one game at once, that’s a good sign that there’s a related game jam going on (in this case, Shadowdark), or that a game is really resonating with its player base.

sorting games into collections. I personally organize by genre, system, player configuration and (in Games That Intrigue Me) games that I’m personally really hyped about. This works for me because of the nature of my work, but a few collections sorted according to level of interest or game style might work better for you.

Depending on the need, I might have a collection that works specifically for the request - Neon Lights & Cyber Nights is perfect for cyberpunk games, but I might also reference this folder for combat, inventory mechanics, resistance themes, or interesting tech rules. LUMEN is great for folks who want fast-paced games, folks who are looking for certain kinds of video games, or folks who want to feel powerful. If you follow other people on Itch, you'll probably also be able to see their collections, which is a great place to browse.

searching game tags. I don’t typically use the regular search feature, although recently the website did update the toggles to restrict your results to physical games, video games, etc. Instead what I usually do is type what I’m looking for into the url: so in this case, [deck-building]. I might use a couple different wordings, such as [deck-builder] and [deckbuilding] (no spaces). You’re not going to find everything that includes the thing you’re looking for, but you’ll definitely find places to start.

Game Jams! I find these either by looking at the “Jams” tab (although you'll have to wade through video games here) or by noticing that a number of games being published recently have the “for the _” jam in the description. Alternatively, I might be reading the page for a game and see the little “Submission” badge in interaction buttons. There’s game jams for specific systems, game jams for various themes, game jams with special restrictions, and game jams that are titled things like “finish your damn game jam.”

Bundles. I typically buy big-ass bundles and then sort through the games in my downtime. These games are sorted into collections for future reference, and if a game really pops out - into the Intrigue Me folder it goes! And the best part is that I already own it, so if I want to learn more, I can just download it and start reading.

following game designers that I like. This way I’ll get notifications if they release a new game, update an old game, rate someone else’s game, or sort games into their own collections. I also get to see what other folks in the space are excited about - on the day I was browsing, Plasmodics by Will Jobst was really hot.

If you follow me on Itch, you’ll get a notification every time I add a game to one of my non-private folders! Also - you can interact with designers on Itch by liking their updates, and even commenting on their posts, which is a great way to get involved in the design community - and also just make a designer’s day!

[destinygoldenstar]

TADC Episode 5 Trailer

JUNE 20TH?!?!??!

Goddamn, EVERYTHING is going on with me next week...

I guess I have to do my rewatches soon, huh?

(For those who don't know, it's been a tradition that I rewatch the previous episodes the days before the new one comes out.)

So, yeah, you're gonna see me on a Digital Circus hype train.

And watching this episode for speculation...

I GENUINELY DO NOT KNOW.

Like, I'm just flat out LOST.

But some point outs:

Caine says "And my flight to Copper 9 leaves in five minutes."

Murder Drones reference.

We have seen this Caine model before, from last episode.

This originated in the series trailer where they were calling out bootleg merch. And this was the model. An uncanny model.

You'd think that's just for a trailer joke, BUT NO,

THEY PUT SOME CONTEXT BEHIND THIS MODEL AND USED IT FOR THEIR SHOW.

This show is amazing, guys, you have no idea...

Now what the hell is happening here?

This is Pomni and Jax getting vaccumed.

I mean I can only make out these two. The trailer is piss poor quality. (ON PURPOSE)

My guess, and I'm gonna be wrong: IS THIS A CLIFFHANGER AT THE END OF THE EPISODE?

Pomni and Jax just end up in HELL together.

We all know Pomni does real well in hell.

I'm really excited for the experimental animation styles.

THIS FRAME really intrigues me.

This looks like 90s computer animation, does it not?

I mean most of the animation in this show takes inspiration from that, but still. This looks like the quality of an ACTUAL 90s game.

And Caine is holding all of them like they're puppets. HIS TOYS TO PLAY WITH.

Caine cares about their pleasure, to a crippling degree, he's just really bad at maintaining it. So to have this visual of him holding them up like lifeless toys is SUPER INTERESTING.

Caine's losing his mind, that's obvious, I think, as I said before, this episode might end with them being fed up with all this shit, cry that they hate Caine (and/or his adventures), and Caine just SNAPS.

Cause once he realizes he will never be able to please them and that they well always hate him... then he hates them too.

MASSIVE TONE SHIFT. "Silly before the storm". THIS EPISODE WILL END ON A CLIFFHANGER.

Caine and Zooble are in the void. Why?

THE VOID IS COMING BACK. WE HAVEN'T SEEN THE VOID SINCE THE PILOT.

President Pomni is trying to defuse a bomb.

I could make so many irl references and every single one of them will get me cancelled so I'm gonna just shut my mouth.

Hello new Pomni face frame to add to my collection in my photo album hehe...

(Can you tell she is one of my stans yet?)

But serious question: WHAT IS THIS LOCATION?

Again, piss quality so I can't make it out.

I don't think it's under the map cause it's more grid-like, but I also wouldn't be surprised if it is considering the episode is a meltdown.

I'm curious, Pomni has seen under the map, have the other EVER actually gotten stuck under the map before?

Don't see why they wouldn't know it exists, just saying.

I would think it's outside the tent since we've seen it, BUT we've also seen the outside of the tent is when it's day and night at the same time, and the night stars are drawn like five year old scribbles.

This looks too realistic to be outside the tent.

Oh so that's what Gooseworx meant. Bring on the angst.

I say as there is a frame of Zooble on crack, a bad miscoloring of Ragatha, whatever the hell Jax is, and Kinger as a military general.

And Orbsman?

NO GANGLE TOO. HUH...

Also rival Pomni is cursed. Her design is already perfect as is, so naturally ANY alternation is just gonna look wrong to me.

Another one for the folder hehe-

...yeah, yeah me too.

She just like me fr

"YOU STAY RIGHT HERE, WHERE I CAN KEEP MY HUNDREDS OF ALL SEEING EYES ON YOU" - CAINE, PILOT

So Caine just flat out has an office, that wasn't just for last episode. HUH...

OFFICE????

Okay so something involves seaweed.

And Gangle's mask breaks again.

I HOPE TO GOD GANGLE'S DEVELOPMENT LAST EPISODE WAS NOT FORGOTTEN ABOUT. BECAUSE THAT WOULD SUCK.

Also, note that ONLY KINGER AND GANGLE COME OUT.

We see Ragatha Pomni and Jax in that blue void, so...

WHAT HAPPENED TO THESE THREE????

HOW WERE GANGLE AND KINGER THE ONLY ONES THAT GOT HOME SAFE??

If Bubble turns out to be the mastermind, nobody will shut up about that twist.

...honestly it would be a good twist.

Okay... well, time to get my hyperfixation back.

See y'all on the 16th when I start rewatching to prep.

[ladytabletop]

Lady Tabletop's Primer for Getting into Tabletop Roleplaying Game Design Philosophy

Sam Dunnewold over at the Dice Exploder podcast has posed a fun question to his discord server: where would you tell people to start if they wanted to know more about TTRPGs and design?

First and foremost, I'd tell people to start with @jdragsky's article about Systems of Relation.

With the benefit of hindsight, I can now understand that the games we played on the playground were identical in nature to the tabletop RPGs I would grow up to play and help design.

Next, check out Thomas Manuel's analysis of the Axes of Game Design over on the Indie RPG Newsletter.

So the basic exercise is trying to figure out the standard axes or spectrums on which every game can fit. The idea is for these axes to be as descriptive and objective as possible.

Thirdly (and lastly for the purposes of this blog - it's entry-level, not comprehensive), check out this reddit thread about lonely fun.

The Lonely Fun is all of the stuff you do as a part of your hobby away from the table, in any way you might engage. For D&D 5e players, this is usually building complicated and elaborate characters on the page, pouring over the books for new races and subclasses, figuring out fun new combinations, and carefully crafting characters.

Read those? Now check out BALIKBAYAN: Returning Home by @temporalhiccup

Will we be able to outrun our Masters and those who hunt us down? Can we use our magic to bring about the rebirth of the city and all Elementals? ill this be our RECKONING or our HOMECOMING? That’s what we play to find out.

Why I make these particular recommendations below the cut.

All of these recommendations are hopefully all entry-level. I tried to stay away from any essays, blogs, or articles that reference game movements you may not have heard of or that require tons of reading before you can even read my recommendations. Some do have links to other stuff, and if you're enjoying the writing, definitely go down those rabbit holes! These are a tiny, tiny portion of my "TTRPG Homework" folder where I save essays, podcasts, etc that have helped me in my own game design journey. I'm always happy to share more, just ask!

The essay on Systems of Relation put into words something I had been thinking about the more I got into indie games/design: I've been playing my whole life, and ttrpgs are just another piece of that. I think it's crucial to break out of the framework of people trying to define play and games into neat little categories. Will I ever write a game as good as the ones I played in the backyard with my siblings? Probably not, but I'd like to find out.

Now that I've told you to stop trying to categorize games, we have an article about trying to categorize games. But I do like Thomas's assessment and examples of using game design axes. I think as designers it's important to figure out the things the game is trying to do and communicate, so that we can make sure it does those things well.

Lastly, I know 5e gets a bad rap (and it's gotten it from me, too!). But the concept of lonely fun has stuck in my craw since I first saw this thread. It's why some people prefer to GM (and therefore why GM-less games might not work for some people). Not all games are going to have lonely fun, but the ones that do are still going to appeal to people! This thread was key for me in terms of considering that no game is for everyone, and it shouldn't try to be, and also helped contextualize the enjoyment I get from the occasional high-prep game.

Balikbayan as a recommendation was a no-brainer for me. I'm not going to say it's the most elegant or tight of Rae's work, but it's the one with the most heart for me. The story this game wants you to tell is so clear, and as an introduction to "Belonging Outside Belonging" as a system/concept/design philosophy. This game really sings in its character concepts and emotional play.

If you've read this far, congratulations! I've been enjoying the DE podcast (even when I don't agree with some of the takes) and the discord has been a cool (if at times intimidating) place to hang out. I've had a hell of a game design journey this year and I'm so excited to keep learning, and to see what media other folks participating in this blog carnival recommend!

To sign off: my best advice to designers, especially those starting out can be boiled down to three things:

When in doubt, simplify or make it silly

The two cakes theory is your best friend - game design is not a competition

Not everything has to be finished. Not every part of the creative process is fun. Find the balance between these two truths (you're going to have to do that every day).

Best,

LT

[minervamagicka]

[SSO Conversion] Sheepskin Pad

For the SSO Dressage Saddle only!

Can't stress this enough, it will ONLY fit that saddle as it was designed to do so, even in SSO! That being said, versions to fit the Realistic & the EA Fit versions of said saddle are included :>

...Anyhow, an addon! This is a Saddlepad Overlay, meaning it will replace the default white pad on the SSO Dressage Saddle, but it will also add a little 3d sheepskin pad to it that I meshed based on the SSO textures to make it a bit more 3D. The swatches (~7) all come directly from SSO!

DL, info, etc. under the cut!

By myself & Schrodcat @ DA 🖤

Choosing a Version

Note: If you've already read this from the SSO Dressage Saddle you can safely skip! You should just grab the count version that matches whatever you installed for the Dressage Saddle.

First things first; in the download folder there are two different .rar files to choose from. One is labelled Highpoly and the other is labelled Maxispoly. YOU MUST CHOOSE ONE. THEY WILL OVERRIDE EACHOTHER IF YOU INSTALL BOTH HIGHPOLY AND MAXISPOLY TOGETHER.

The Highpoly version of the saddles is based on the original mesh resolution of SSO (Clocking in at ~4500 polys on LOD0 )which is why we have labelled this version as Highpoly. We offer it primarily for simmers who plan to be taking screenshots vs actually playing the game for extended periods of time, or for those with stronger PCs.

The Maxispoly version of the saddle is a decimated version of the mesh intended to be more in-line with Maxis polycounts, and therefore be more performance-friendly. It's about 50% less dense in polys than the Highpoly counterpart (LOD0 on the Maxispoly clocks in at ~2,339 polys), however it is still higher-poly other EA meshes. YMMV!

Custom Thumbnails appear as follows, with the version made to fit the EA-specific Dressage Saddle labelled as such! If you try to use the Realistic one with the EA saddle and vice-versa, the halfpad WILL look wonky!

Terms of Use

Credit/link to me AND Schrodcat AND note it is a conversion from SSO if you intend to edit, replicate or otherwise use this .package, meshes & textures as a base for your own derivative work. Additionally, at this time, we both ask you do not backport this model or its' textures to TS3.

Do not sell or post behind a paywall, even a timed one. This tumblr is anti-paywall to the extreme. This includes any content that might be created under Rule One. Do not do this. I will think you are an asshole. I have had issues with this in the past and my tolerance for it is absolutely zero. Additionally this asset is exported from a copyrighted game with the intention of it being used transformatively for derivative fanworks; it may be actually illegal to profit from it!

Do not reupload. If you let me know if there's an issue with SFS, I'll reupload it myself. Please link to this post or to the .package on SFS when sharing.

Credits: SSO for the textures; Schrodcat with fitting the meshes & testing/screenshots, me with meshing the 3d halfpad using the SSO textures for reference & for putting it all together into one diabolical package.

Download [SFS]

☕ Buy me a coffee!

☕ Buy SchrodCat a coffee!

[tacitcrow-blog]

Since Foregone Collusion is finished reposting here, I thought I'd post some detritus from the folder I've been keeping all the comic art in.

A year ago, when I finished the comic the first time around, I attempted to write a "making of" document, mostly for my own reference. Y'know, just in case I might decide to start another long-form comic project and need some idea of what I'd learned the first time around.

As part of that, I put together some "character sheets" while I still had Clive and Edgeworth's designs on speed-dial. Please enjoy my chaotic rambling.

I also thought it might be fun to post an example of some traditional (on paper) stuff I scanned to incorporate into the comic. Two and a half panels of this comic were inked traditionally, one of which is on the scan-page below, and all of the typewriter text is from an early-1950s Smith-Corona which I uh. Own,

But I think the most ridiculous multi-media thing I did for this comic was to carve an actual relief block so I could physically stamp game-accurate gibberish onto newsprint paper to make the clipping of the article about his parents' death in Clive's mental conspiracy board. A very pleasant way to spend 3-5 hours. (I'd already prepared the "Layton alphabet" reference sheet months beforehand)

In the end, I placed this article mostly behind Clive's hand. You can't even see it. But you can bet if I ever get my ass into gear re: selling art I will be handing editions of this "article" out like business cards. (Would people actually want them? I have no idea.)

And lastly here's a "phone logistics" panel that I had to edit out of No. 13 at nearly the last minute.

There's more but it's 90% earlier versions of strips/panels/dialogue... these are the highlights! Thanks again for reading.

[justwritedreams]

Welcome To The Kingdom | Jeno

Chapter Ten: Little Games

Prince Jeno x Princess Reader, enemies to lovers au!, royalty au!

Word count: 4670 Genre: drama, fake relationship Author: maari Warnings: Reader being jealous, the never ending slow burn, both of them being a total menace lol Note: HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!! I was committed to posting this chapter yesterday as a gift for you but I needed to celebrate with my family too, so without further ado here we are starting the year 2024 with a new chapter. Summary: The little games started in the kingdom and are far from over.

<<<Previous | Masterlist |

⪢ NCT Masterlist

Taglist: @floweronacloud, @cookydream, @travelleratheart101​, @ilvaussie​, @tyongf-sunflower99​, @mings-cafe,  @n0hyuck, @waltermitty97, @jihoonismydad, @madaboutjunmyeon, @actually-vl , @neomooniez, @pvppyhao, @ikayyyyyy (can’t tag you honey 😞)

“Your Highnesses.”

Y/N turned back and smiled restrainedly at the royal advisor, Linda had worked at the castle for many years and the best parties were organized by her.

It was one of the reasons for the princess to be there, in the King's office, to talk about the details of the wedding.

She and Jeno. Talking about their wedding.

It didn't feel real yet.

After breakfast, which was as pleasant as possible, the king explained that he would speak to parliament and the press on the same day, to ensure that the attack wouldn’t go unpunished, the atmosphere became more tense.

Although Y/N had suggested that she go along with her father, he denied it. This was a matter that would take up a lot of the princess's time and she would have to decide the details of the upcoming wedding.

“Linda, great to see you again!” Y/N spoke after the woman bowed to the two. “This is Prince Jeno.”

Linda lowered her head again to greet him and he smiled politely.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.” she said. “Although I already knew a little about your highness.”

Jeno raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, really? I wonder why.” He glanced at Y/N who pretended not to take the hint.

“Let’s sit down, we have a lot to talk about.” Y/N pointed to the couch and the three of them went.

Jeno sat a little closer to Y/N than he should have and that didn't go unnoticed, Linda smiled discreetly while the princess tried to keep her expression calm.

Although she wanted to move away because the heat of Jeno's leg touching hers was leaving a weird tingling sensation in her stomach.

“I put together some ideas for the ceremony and reception.” Linda handed the folder she carried to the two of them.

Jeno held on, it was incredibly heavy, and turned his torso a little more towards Y/N, getting slightly closer.

She took a deep breath before focusing her attention on the photos.

The parties that Linda had chosen were of different themes, one was completely royal that would have some traditions but was more modern than the last weddings in Y/N's family, another seemed to have a slightly more Greek theme and the last one a little more vintage.

The princess and Jeno observed the photos carefully, all the themes were incredible and the references that Linda had selected made the task of choosing much more difficult.

“What about our clothes?” Jeno asked, after they went through at least half of the photos.

“Well, I left it free for you to choose. We have a few designers who have offered to work for your highnesses' wedding, including Zuhair Murad.”

The princess looked at Linda, surprised.

“Zuhair Murad? That Zuhair Murad?”

Jeno looked at the princess, seeing her eyes shine.

“Yes, your highness.”

Y/N blinked a few times, perplexed. She admired Zuhair Murad's work and loved his dresses, but she never imagined he would be interested in making her wedding dress.

“Would your highnesses like to make any requests for the costumes?” Linda held up her tablet, ready to take notes.

“I can’t know which dress Y/N will choose?” Jeno raised his eyebrow as he looked at Linda, who laughed discreetly as Y/N crossed her arms.

“No, your highness.”

"I have a request." The princess spoke, looking at Jeno. “May his tuxedo have a decent shirt that covers his neck.”

Linda swallowed a laugh while Jeno looked at the princess almost offended, because part of him was even finding it funny.

“Honey, you don’t need to show your jealousy in front of people, soon I’ll be yours anyway.” He winked at her and smirked, amused to see her falter.

Y/N didn't respond right away, she just continued staring at him and then smiled evilly.

He wanted to play, right?

Well, she would have two dresses to get revenge on Jeno.

“You’re right, my love.” This time, it wasn't irony that Jeno found in Y/N's tone, but something he didn't expect, competitiveness.

The princess went back to talking to Linda about the designers and how they would get in touch with them to see the models of the dresses, while Jeno was busy looking at the photos of the buffet that would be hired even though his head was thinking about what Y/N was up to with all that.

She didn't roll her eyes or pinch him without Linda seeing, that was strange.

He was expecting some kind of retaliation and got absolutely nothing.

After everything was agreed with Linda, she left the room and left the two alone, Y/N got up and went to the large window hugging her body while Jeno looked at her curiously.

Y/N took a deep breath and faced the landscape outside, she had only been away from home for a short time but had missed practically everything in her kingdom, in her home.

“You seem happy.” Jeno commented and followed the same path as the princess, stopping next to her to observe what she was looking at.

He was getting used to that kingdom.

Y/N smiled discreetly.

"And I am." he sighed. “You know what it feels like to finally come home.”

Jeno agreed and put his hands in his pants pockets.

“Then why does your voice sound worried?” He asked, curious and that made her look at him in surprise.

Y/N debated whether or not to speak to him, but remembering that Jeno would be her ally from now on made her choose positively.

“So much going on and the two of us here, having to see the details of the wedding.” the princess passed her hand over her face. “It seems kind of… selfish.”

She shrugged, she hadn't gotten the attack out of her head since she had seen it on the news and being there, without being able to do anything useful made her feel… incapable.

"Hey." Jeno brought his palm to touch her shoulder very gently, almost imperceptibly. “It’s not selfish. It’s something that needs to be done, princess.”

“But while people are grieving for their injured loved ones in hospitals? How can this be acceptable?” she questioned, focusing her gaze on a fixed point outside.

“Princess, look at me.” Jeno didn't get a response so he brought his hand to her chin, making her lift her face to look at him. “Y/N.”

She couldn't look away from Jeno, even though in her mind she felt like she had to so as not to get lost in his serene eyes.

And she felt a very slight shiver on the back of her neck when she heard her own name.

“The people of this kingdom deserve a reason to celebrate.”

“Do you think they want to raise the flag on our coat of arms?!”

“That’s not what I mean.” he spoke firmly and she frowned. “I’m talking about our alliance, they will have reason to see security in our union.”

Y/N was surprised by Jeno's sincerity and she herself believed those words, which is why she smiled sideways. Jeno mirrored her reaction and neither of them moved an inch.

They stayed there, looking at each other complicitly until Jeno's eyes went down the princess's face and looked at her mouth.

Y/N swallowed hard and suddenly her lips seemed to have lost all their hydration when Jeno's eyes fixed them, but she did the same.

She stared at the prince's full, pink lips that seemed too inviting for her lucidity.

Y/N stood still without knowing what to say or do, and Jeno interpreted that as a positive response, if it had been negative he would have certainly already been slapped in the face, and he got close enough so that their breaths were closer and he took hand up to Y/N's cheek.

He just needed to get a little closer, she was there and didn't look like she was going to back down.

He was so close that he could smell her perfume…

The door being suddenly opened made them both jump back and move away, Y/N blinked a few times and almost thanked the odds.

If she hadn't seen the maid at the party there with a fake look of shock.

It was enough for her to frown.

“A thousand pardons, your highnesses, I didn’t know you were here.” she bowed before hurriedly leaving the room as quickly as she entered.

Y/N faced the closed door and felt a bitter taste in her mouth as well as her blood bubbling.

She wouldn't be a shrew queen, but she would have to deal with that insolent maid if she wanted to keep her truce with her fiancé.

Worse, if she wanted to maintain the stability of her reign.

[...]

"Mom?"

The queen raised her head when she heard the princess's voice echo through the office and frowned when she saw her there.

"Yes, my dear?" she put down her pen, giving her daughter her full attention.

"Are you busy? I would like to talk with you."

The queen moved her hand, indicating for her to enter and she did so.

“You can come in, I was signing some things about our financial aid for the victims of the attack.”

Y/N took a deep breath, feeling her heart sink and sat down in front of her mother.

“I saw the statement.” she smiled restrainedly.

The king and queen had announced that they would help the victims in every way, with medical and psychological help, as well as their families while investigations were still ongoing. It was the least they could do to alleviate the suffering of their people.

“We had to do it.” she explained and faced her daughter, interlacing her fingers on the table. “But I don’t think that’s what you want to talk to me about.”

Y/N nodded.

“Well, since I know you hate beating around the bush, I’ll be direct. What should I do when a maid can bring trouble to my alliance with Jeno?”

The queen raised her eyebrows, partly shocked to hear that even though it had already been predicted.

"What kind of problem?"

The princess measured her words, she would be honest with her mother but not rudely. She wasn't talking to Yeri, she needed to act like the princess she had been taught to be.

And that's why she went to her mother, she wanted to have a more rational opinion.

“You know I don’t love Jeno the way you love my father.” she remembered and saw the queen reluctant to agree. “And you also know about Jeno’s fame before Prince Romeo’s image, and let’s just say that this maid is an old fling of his.”

The queen understood her daughter's words well and smiled discreetly.

"Of course. What do you think should be done in this type of case?”

“Considering that we have to pretend even to the employees that we are in love with each other, her presence here poses a threat.” she concluded.

“Yes, and threats we eliminate.”

“I just don’t think it’s fair to fire her for sleeping with him.” the princess shrugged, feeling her head spin.

She was fed up with that maid and fed up with that subject.

“Do you know what makes a really good royal maid?” The princess shook her head. "Discretion. Trust. If one of our employees doesn't deliver on either of these two things, then our reign could fall apart.”

“Consequently the kingdom too.” Y/N concluded.

“There are two options, my dear, you fire the girl and run the risk of having a former employee spreading our secrets around or you can strengthen a bond that will be great for both parties.”

Y/N frowned.

"What do you mean by that?"

“Find out what she really wants and make it easier for her to get it.”

She narrowed her eyes, understanding the same line of reasoning as her mother.

“Don’t just give it to her as a deal.”

Her mother shook her head.

“Deals don’t work in situations like this, there will always be blackmail. Show that you have a faster way.”

The princess nodded and an idea emerged.

"You're right." She got up from her chair. “I will resolve this as soon as possible. Thank you, mom.”

Y/N prepared to leave, but her mother called out to her as soon as she opened the door.

"Yes?" she turned around after hearing her name.

“Be careful, maybe you're burying something you don't want to see but it's right in front of you.”

Y/N was confused and stared at her mother, waiting for her to continue but she didn't say anything else, making the princess agree and leave trying to figure out what her mother had said.

But her head didn't focus on that for now, she went to the kitchen where she knew most of the maids were and one in particular wanted to talk.

It wasn't so rare to see Y/N in the kitchen, she had her father's altruistic spirit and didn't follow the house rules about not going to the employees' quarters or the places where they worked, she liked seeing them and especially talking to them. It made her come out of her royal bubble.

However, it was still funny to see the employees stop in shock to bow.

“Your Highness!”

“Nana!”

"Something happened? Need something?"

Y/N smiled slightly at the housekeeper.

"No, it’s alright. Please get back to work, I’m just taking a walk around the castle.”

Nana gave the signal for the employees to return to their duties and the princess had to control herself not to roll her eyes at a specific employee.

“Nana.” Y/N approached and the housekeeper continued listening, attentively. "Can I talk to you?"

“Of course, your highness!”

The princess walked ahead, heading towards the back garden and stopped near the fountain, far away so no one could hear.

“I want to know a little more about the younger maids.” she spoke directly. “They recently came to the castle and I couldn’t pay attention to the details before.”

“Because of your training.”

Y/N nodded. At the same time that new maids entered the castle, the princess was busy with royal tasks.

Studying whatever she could, from geopolitics to the art of using a bow and arrow, she was being prepared to be the queen she was born to be, smaller details like maids were up to her mother.

“What would you like to know, your highness?”

"Everything." she spoke firmly and paid attention to Nana.

The princess heard everything, knew the names of the maids but was still confused about their roles.

And well, apparently the maid in question she wanted to know helped with everything she could or was assigned. From what she heard, she realized that the girl worked harder than she should and knew exactly what to do the moment she heard that she was a little more ambitious than the rest.

It was exactly what she wanted to hear and needed to know. It was enough.

She talked to Nana some more, really interested in getting to know her employees a little more and when she had heard enough, Nana was called and she walked away from the princess bowing.

Y/N took a deep breath, she already knew when she would act and how, she just needed to make a phone call and went back inside the castle in search of her phone.

She would resolve this situation as quickly as she could. She didn’t have time to waste.

She passed by the east side of the castle and would have passed by a room she knew well if it weren't for the reflection she saw in the mirror, she stopped where she was and slowly approached the gym door.

Jeno was preparing to do a series of weightlifting while breathing heavily, his black tank top was clinging as well as his slightly wet hair that fell across his forehead.

Well, of course Y/N's intention wasn’t to stay there and watch Jeno training but when his arms started to move, leaving his exposed biceps, it was a difficult task to move away.

Even because Y/N's jaw dropped because practically accidentally eating his body with her eyes that her brain wasn't working properly.

And when he dropped the weights on the floor and groaned loudly, her legs wobbled.

"My God." Y/N didn't even control her voice, which came out louder than it should have.

Jeno searched the room for the sound with his eyes and Y/N tried to hide before his eyes met hers, uselessly.

Because Jeno not only found her, he spoke to her.

“Princess, to what do I owe the honor?” she closed her eyes to take a deep breath and she could feel his small smile as he spoke.

Y/N turned completely to face him and smiled politely, forcing her eyes to look at his face and not his arms.

“I was just passing by to see if the gym was free but since it wasn’t, I’ll come back later.” she lied and heard him laugh.

"Wait a second." he said, approaching where the princess was. “With a gym this size, I think we can share the space, right?”

Y/N pondered, he was right.

“Unless you will get distracted so easily with me here.”

Jeno crossed his arms, making even bigger and she looked at him boredly, swallowing hard.

She needed to control herself, she wouldn't be tempted to look at his arms. Again.

"You're so funny." she replied sarcastically.

"And you like." he winked.

Y/N snorted.

“I’m leaving before I throw that steel bar in your face.” she replied ironically and Jeno laughed.

“Always running away.” he spoke quietly as soon as the princess turned her back and went back to redo his series.

Y/N clenched her fists and made to turn around to answer him but a more evil idea crossed her mind and she couldn't even hold back the malicious smile.

The princess then projected her torso forward, pretending to pick up something from the floor, leaving her butt exposed thanks to the skirt she wore so Jeno could have a free view.

She heard a crash in the gym and stood completely upright again, looking over her shoulder as Jeno was cursing and holding his foot that had been hit by a weight he had dropped.

"Shit." he complained, jumping up and down as the princess's smile grew.

“Oops.” she spoke with false naivety and left there shaking her booty more than she should have.

How good it felt to have Jeno's jaw dropped.

[...]

“Yes, your majesty.” Nana bowed before leaving the living room in search of what the queen had ordered.

Y/N couldn't hide the small smile of victory that appeared.

“My daughter, why do I have the feeling that this is connected to you?”

The queen then turned to face her daughter, it wasn't like she needed an answer because it was obvious.

"With me?" the princess pointed to herself, feigning surprise. “Now, mother, this is not the first time we have appointed people to perform services for other nobles in our neighboring countries.”

The queen raised an eyebrow.

“I know, and suddenly the Kim family needed maids so much?”

Y/N shrugged.

“Everyone knows that we have a lot of younger employees and in all honesty, the salary they pay is much better than ours.”

“Of course, because not everyone likes working in the winter for 10 months of the year.”

Y/N nodded.

The Kim family, from the northern kingdom, had requested some recommendations for employees as, due to the kingdom being extremely cold practically all year round, they were in short supply. And the princess had kindly offered some of her maids.

She informed the queen who asked Nana to gather the younger ones to find out who would accept the sudden change.

Something very normal between the kingdoms.

But of course, the princess had helped a little by making the process much faster than usual.

And there she was, behind her mother waiting for the maids to arrive to find out who would accept the proposal.

As soon as the girls arrived, accompanied by Nana, the queen began to explain.

“Prince Doyoung of the North Kim family will soon get married and will need more staff in his castle, he kindly asked for trustworthy people who work well and I would like to inform you that you have been selected to make the decision whether you want to go to there or continue here.”

Y/N saw the insolent maid's eyes light up at every detail the queen reported about the partnership between the kingdoms and could see that everything she had heard from her was true.

But she was sure that her plan worked when Nana distributed the papers with the description of the service and values to the maids.

The queen was giving those girls the choice and all the princess saw was that at least whoever she wanted had already accepted before even seeing the prices.

Three of the girls raised their hands to indicate that they accepted, including the one Y/N wanted. She didn't look arrogantly at the maid, she had rather liked the news and was more relieved, but she wasn't going to show the joy she was feeling in knowing that she was leaving today.

“Nana, do you know where Jeno is?” Y/N asked after all the girls were dismissed.

“I saw him in the library, your highness.”

"Thank you!" She smiled gratefully and Nana left, Y/N looked at her mother. “I have to sort out some wedding details.”

“Y/N.”

"Yes?" She stopped where she was.

“Did you happen to suspect something else?” she questioned, curious.

Y/N frowned and shook her head.

If the queen was referring to the fact that they had a spy in the castle, that was the last thing on the princess's mind.

It seemed childish and selfish, but all of this had been done to preserve the love story that had been sold between her and Jeno, nothing more.

“Even if it were, it’s better to nip the problem in the bud.” the princess said before leaving.

Y/N went to the library and even though she tried to be discreet, the huge door let Jeno know she was there as soon as she opened it.

"Princess?" he blinked more than once, to make sure it wasn't a mirage.

"I need to talk to you." she said, closing the door behind her and standing still, far away from Jeno, so that his perfume wouldn't permeate her nose, considering that he seemed to have taken a shower after training.

"Okay." He moved the book away from his lap, placing it next to him on the sofa and looked closely at her.

“We will have changes in employees.” she explained, seeing him looking completely confused.

“And what exactly is important to me?” he questioned and made a pout, which Y/N felt like undoing it.

With her own lips.

She took a deep breath before responding.

“It means that the next time you want to make out with someone in the castle corridors, please be discreet.” she concluded, with a lot of sarcasm in her voice.

This seemed to amuse Jeno, who, in addition to smiling, got up from where he was sitting and crossed his arms.

“Thank you, I am very honored by this.”

The princess raised her eyebrows.

“You would know anyway, we will have selections for replacements.” she shrugged and turned her body partially so she could leave.

However, she was interrupted by Jeno's voice.

“That’s not what I was talking about.” he started walking towards her. “I’m referring to the fact that I caught a note of jealousy in your voice.” The princess's jaw dropped, almost as if she was offended by the discovery, and Jeno didn't stop walking towards her.

In fact, he only stopped because Y/N stopped him, placing her hand on his chest and forcing him to stop before he touched her.

“The day I feel jealous of you…” she began speaking, her voice slightly weak but she could barely finish as Jeno brought his face closer to hers, even though her hand was blocking the contact between their bodies.

He stopped inches away from her, staring into her eyes with an intensity that made Y/N's legs tremble.

“That day has already come and I don’t think it was today.” he teased.

Y/N's chest rose and fell unevenly from heavy breathing, as if she had run a marathon, but in reality all she could do was stare at Jeno as if she wanted to kill him and kiss him at the same time.

“You are very cocky.” she spat out the words, hating herself for not being able to deny it.

“And you’re really cute when you’re angry.”

Y/N rolled her eyes and in one quick movement, Jeno grabbed her by the waist and crossed the gap between them, and then pressed her against the first wall he saw.

The princess could only react with a surprised whisper. Jeno's body was hard, hot and extremely inviting, that wouldn't be good for her sanity.

“How about we play fair around here, princess.” He tilted his head to the side and his breath hit her neck, Y/N squeezed the t-shirt he was wearing with the little strength she still had left in a situation like that.

Being pressed against the wall by him was something from her darkest and most naughty dreams, she didn't know how to react to that in real life.

“If you think I'm going to beg you to kiss me, you can give up. Make out with all the maids in the castle and this won’t happen.” denial was always the only way out she found.

He raised an eyebrow defiantly.

“I think you still don’t understand.” he spoke low, sexy, making the princess swallow hard. Mainly because Jeno brought his face closer to hers and touched their noses. “The only person I will kiss in this castle will be you.”

Y/N didn't have the courage, much less the strength, to respond, he was so close that she felt a slight tickle as he spoke, their lips almost touching.

For a brief moment, she considered giving in, it was true. Jeno was there, ready to end that torture once and for all and the scenes of the intense dreams she had with him were haunting her mind at that most opportune moment.

It seemed to be the answer her body needed but was in constant struggle with her reason.

However, not straying from that unsustainable script, knocks on the door echoed throughout the room and with all the strength she still had left, the princess pushed Jeno away, breathing heavily.

He walked away, clearly unwillingly.

“Honey, your dad arrived. Please get ready for dinner.” She heard her mother's voice and blinked countless times to return to reality.

"All right mother." she replied loud enough for her mother to hear but her voice was shaky.

Y/N stared at Jeno without knowing what to do as she heard her mother's footsteps move away, she wet her dry lips with her own tongue and put her hand to the back of her head, scratching the area.

Jeno ran his hand through his dark hair as he returned the look, a look of someone who didn't know what had happened there but he didn't want it to be interrupted.

Without saying a single word, Y/N left the room feeling Jeno's eyes watching her as her head spun.

Now she knew that it would be practically impossible to win the bet.

[oneknightstand-if]

So, uhhh, first ever message on tumblr, here's to hoping this is actually the place to post that stuff?

It's great, As a Game Master (mostly for rpgs on discord) I'm a big fan of the freedom of expression when it comes to characters. I just finished a run I'm pretty happy with, so I figured I should do as asked and share the results below.

(A word of warning, since I can only draw anime-style, this is now an anime.)

As a bonus, here's some design I doodled up for the character, to help myself visualize her.

Additional Data:

Adrian: Crush Merlin: To Befriend Pet: Cat (Roland)(Like the Paladin of Charlemagne) Wears: Frilly blouse and long skirt (She started wearing those to get reactions out of Adrian while avoiding more extreme outfits) Camelot Sequence: Lucid dreamer, talked to Merlin in the past (monty python reference to prove she's from the future), got directed to Arthur, asked Past!Arthur about lucid dreaming, Caught Current!Arthur about Lucid Dreaming (He now knows who she is), then spilled all the beans to Merlin after waking up (He knows who she is). Items: Magic 8-Ball, Cat memento, pouch of pearls, miniature garden (Audrey III!) Gas Station: Followed Merlin, Destroy Cameras, Clean traces, Get matches.

And now, for the wall of texts that nobody asked for but that you're all getting anyway!

Character Design

The design I went with was 'the super sussy character who actually is kinda hiding the least'.

Physically, she's basically hopeless, with her teeny tiny 10% on physical, which puts her firmly into the 'dead weight' category. Considering what's going on in here, it's a bit sus.

Even more sus is the amnesia background, because here's that girl popping out of seemingly nowhere with no memories right around the time the failed Lesser Circle happened, who just so happens to be a potential harbinger? Sus.

Appearance wise, her best features are her eyes (my dice determined they should be violet), but they are downturned (Tareme) ones, that usually express either gentleness, or belong to suspicious people, with a gentle, caring and overall traditionally feminine/motherly behavior (wears frilly outfits, cooks gourmet food, tends to her (mutant) plants). In other words, she's very much an 'ara ara'-type character. (The cuckoo is mostly limited to the confines of her mind).

However, she is an imposter whose special move consists of spilling all the tea (ironic, her favourite drink is Jasmine…), all the time. Had a weird dream (Part 1)? Write a report and drop it on Adrian's lap, almost shoving the marked arm under his nose. Freak encounter in a horse trailer? Write a report and drop it on the club leader's lap. Meet a strange but weirdly helpful stranger? Drop the Weird dream Dossier (part 1) on his lap. Questions about the self medication? Ha! She's got her entire (albeit short) life written in a folder ready for perusal! Had a weird dream (Part 2)? You better bet she's writing it down and dropping it on Merlin and Adrian's laps.

…

This is probably a side-effect of being overworked all the time and getting in the habit of making biology reports for everything, isn't it?

IC Thoughts on characters:

Merlin: Super strong incubus who may or may not be the actual Antichrist, may or may not want to cause the Apocalypse themselves to put humanity out of their misery if the Arthur plan doesn't pan out, and yet may very well be the most trustworthy person in this entire group, if only because waking Arthur up seems to be their number 1 priority. After all, all they needed to do was stand aside and do nothing if they wanted the Lesser Circle to fail, right?

Adrian: 'Friend' for several years, eventually got a crush on him a few months ago, but his ambiguous way of almost-but-not-quite friendzoning her is beginning to wear her down. Slightly suspicious due to his being much too prepared for the crisis at hand for a random bystander, but he had all the opportunities in the world to get rid of/corrupt her in all the years they knew each other, and she herself has this 'tiny' Impostor secret going on so she's trusting him so far.

IC thoughts about the adventure: 4 (Reluctant/panicking, but not forced)

What is there to be said. The end of the world, man-eating monsters, plagues, the end of the world, homicides, abductions, did she forget to mention the end of the world? For a woman with little inclination toward physical fighting and who would rather read a book in a corner, this is very much outside of her field of competence.

With that said, she almost got eaten by the monster under her bed and Merlin healed her when she was at Death's Doors, so she's giving them the benefit of doubt, for now.

Character affinities:

Probably Percival (cuckoo connection), Arthur (dream shenanigans) or Broderick (this entire thing is crazy!) would work best?

Here's to hoping this didn't get too long, I tend to get too verbose when I become enthusiastic about something.

It's impossible to be too verbose, especially compared to me. Also, my imagination runs in 4K surround-sound anime-style, so it was anime all along! Olwen fits in perfectly!

[asksythe]

Character Illustration for 'Lies and his wife Truth'

Vengeful King Oberon, or as Morgan calls him, 'Dread King Vortigern.'

Artist: Nikru

I've been sitting on this character design for close to half a year now. I commissioned this design pretty early on during the initial drafting of Lies and his Wife Truth, mostly because this part of the story was in the plan since the beginning stage, before I even wrote the prologue.

It's one of my most demanding commissions to date, requiring months and lots of reference materials, going back and forth over several different designs with Nikru.

The core reference is the Witch King of Angmar, but through an Oberon lense (hence the stag antlers, which Oberon is said to have in several real-world lore), and with armor details from Garden of Avalon and FSN (it's said that Saber Alter's armor is drawn from PHH Vortigern's armor).

The mantis leg scythe comes from Oberon's in-game model. The sword is an original addition, as swords are typically associated with kingship in medieval Europe (plus canon Oberon always wanted a sword, so we decided to give him one).

The intention behind the design is... I want it to be disturbing. I want Oberon to look... both regal and inhuman (that's why we can't see his face or eyes here). Because while I want to write an Oberon Vortigern in love and being an actual family man, I also didn't want to defang the character. I didn't want to... what's the word? Sanitize him. The character is compelling because he straddles such a fine line as an eldritch being with a surprisingly human core to him.

And Ritsuka is compelling in her dynamic with Oberon because she's exactly the kind of character who can accept and embrace him as both the charming, capricious fairy king and the monstrous eldritch insect of abyss. If she needed him sanitized and humanized, then she wouldn't be the Ritsuka we know and love in the first place.

Haha! I am pretty happy with how this design turns out. Initially, my plan was to sit on this design until the story progresses to that specific point where we do get to see Vortigern takes the stage, waging retaliatory war against the Wind clan and wiping them out until only Aurora is left.

That part is... still a way away, for all that it's one of the first elements in the plan for this story.

In any case, I decided to post it now because 1/my drive folder is slowly overflowing with all kinds of commed arts and reference materials that it's getting hard for me to remember the pieces I commissioned and whether I have posted it yet... hahahahah.... curse my post covid memory. 2/ I have some concerns over storing all of my stuff in one place only, considering what's been happening with our online space and all. So this one is just another place for me to put stuff just in case.

Ahh.... I'm sick like a dog. Pray I get better this week.

[anilyan]

All about Modding Genshin

So, I create genshin skins usable as mods in the game (I'm Anilyan on gamebanana).

The modding community is huge, and has been growing since people started realizing that there are no dangers in doing that, and that everyone can learn. There are lots of clickbaity info out there that make people scared of having fun, believing in bans or thinking that skins are cheating when they don't even change game files and have nothing to do with cheating software.

I was one of the people that started helping provide more SFW mods (and I even have a discord server focused on that for people who have questions and/or would rather avoid nsfw stuff). And it has been a joy seeing others value my work and also learn blender and a bunch of stuff just for the sake of turning designs they like into a reality. So, I think I'm quite qualified to do this post.

TL;DR: No one has ever been banned for using fan skins, in a massive modding community. They are PC-only and easy to use, no private servers required.

What can mods do?

What are Genshin mods? There are many types of mods, but this is exclusively about skins, specifically, 3Dmigoto skins. They don't change game files or cheat the game - instead, they are just a visual overlay not too dissimilar from changing the brightness of your screen - and despite being somewhat limited, they are what allow us to not get our accounts banned.

Can I...? No you can't add primos, no you can't change attacks/skills or their values, no you can't change animations, no you can't get artifacts more easily, etc. You can do those things on private servers, and there are mods that are less limited than 3Dmigoto mods (like melon mods), but those things can give you problems, so use at your own risk, and ask about them in more appropriate servers, not this one - this discord has nothing to do with that. That said, other mods that count as a visual overlay, like making certain UI elements invisible, can still be achieved with 3dmigoto. Either way, the whole Kaveh Destroyer of Worlds episode has nothing to do with skin mods or 3Dmigoto.

How do I revert back to not using mods? There is no such thing as "reverting back" because the game is not actually being changed. Refer to the safety/banning section for more details. Every time you want to see skins in your game, you have to run a certain program before launching the game, otherwise you won't even see it. So if you want to stop seeing mods completely, just never run that, and delete the folders that contain the program and the mods since in that case they will just be cluttering your pc.

What do you need to use mods?

Do I need to play on pc, or mods work on playstation/mobile? Sadly, no. I've only seen one video that seemed to be on playstation but I have no idea of how that was achieved or if it's using 3Dmigoto. Either way, skins are pc only. If you want more details on the possibility of mods for mobile (don't get your hopes high), here: ⁠general-questions⁠

So I don't need a private server to use skin mods? Yup, you don't need a private server, skins work perfectly in the official server ^~^

Anything else that I need? You will need to turn off the Dynamic Character resolution, and please watch the entirety of the tutorial I put in this post because it's an updated one, and that will be relevant,

Will I get banned? Is it safe?

Will I get banned for using skins in my official accounts? Like I said, 3Dmigoto doesn't really do things like cheating - the only broken rule is the fact that this counts as a 3rd-party software, but in about 85000 people using mods in the main discord server alone, literally no one has been banned (and most of them mod in the official server, not in private servers). And this has been going for well over a year. Hoyoverse knows about the existence of mods, but they seem pretty indifferent so far, and either way it would be difficult for them to ban people when mods don't change game files, even though mods can be detected.

Can other people in co-op see that I'm using mods and report me? No, because it's just a visual overlay on your side, the characters are not actually wearing another skin/glider. The only way people would know would be if you shared screenshots or recordings with your UID visible. If 2 people with mods co-op, each will see the mods that they picked for the characters, not the mods chosen by the other person. So if they took screenshots and showed them, they would only be denouncing themselves, not the other person.

What if Hoyoverse changes their stance? If they do, they will just issue temporary/short bans, not a permaban. That's what sometimes happens to HSR players and we don't even know if they are banned for using mods or for issues with the anti-cheating system mistakenly accusing people. Either way, the developers of HSR are more strick and people still don't have issues. And the modding community is so large that, if hoyo wanted to ban everyone permanently, they would lose a massive chunk of players. It would be a huge loss for them.

How to use and update/fix mods?

I'm convinced. How do I use mods? Follow this tutorial (embedded below): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAsb__3uK3o&ab_channel=Snowlit It's one of the most updated videos, so I recommend it over older ones, or you will struggle with some issues that arose with game patches.

Where can I ask for help if I find issues? If you are having difficulties, I suggest going to the AGMG discord server (invite: https://discord.gg/agmg - you need to prove you are using mods or trying to access other channels) and ask there in the channel dedicated to help you. You can also join my own discord server, focused on SFW mods, and we have help channels there too.

Why are so many mods broken? It's possible that those were all broken with the game updates. A script to fix them/update mods tends to release a few days after the patch is around, you can just run it in your Mods folder and it will fix all mods inside at once. Look for the version of this tool for the current patch: https://gamebanana.com/tools/15654.

This has already happened several times, so it's not reasonable to expect modders with tons of posts to update each of them when you can just easily fix it yourself and all at once. Only ask for fixes when there are things broken that can't be solved by you, or that require modding knowledge or access to the blend file - and even then, the modders have a right to refuse.

A good way to know if there is a widespread solution that works on multiple mods is to keep up with the announcements in the main discord server AGMG. The best places to check if a widespread solution was already made are either the announcements in the main modding server, AGMG (invite above) OR go to the gamebanana genshin modding section » Tools » Other/Misc (https://gamebanana.com/tools/cats/1239)

I've run the fix but the mods are still broken, what should I do? Most issues you will encounter are in the video I recommended. Either way, these are some frequent problems:

You can't have more than one active mod for a certain character in your Mods folder, unless they are merged (you know that they are merged if you have a merged.ini). This happens because, since we can't cheat the game, we can't add skin slots, and all mods will try to load over the same official skin of a given character - therefore, if you have more than one, they will conflict. Apart from merging, if you don't know how to do that yet, you can also put some mods you downloaded in a separate folder (so, not your Mods folder), or just write DISABLED in the start of the name of the folder with a mod you want to inactivate.

If some parts of the model are not loading properly, try going inside a domain with the modded character. Any mod can have that issue, it's just a loading problem that GIMI sometimes has, but going in a domain tends to reset it.

All mods are broken for you? Did you try disabling the Dynamic Character Resolution in the settings? Because that is required to use mods.

I found this mod where the character floats and/or changes underwater, but it's not working. You are probably not getting the appropriate files to track the character state or offset it, or are not putting them in the right place. Here is a step-by-step guide with pictures of literally all you need.

My mod shows a green reflection in the character menu, how do I fix it? You need to add this ORFix.ini file into the BufferValues folder inside your Mods folder: https://github.com/leotorrez/LeoTools/blob/main/releases/ORFix.ini. If that doesn't solve the trick, that's because the mod creator forgot to also add the line instructed in that link, basically how the picture below shows, but you can do it yourself. This is necessary for all characters released during and after Sumeru.

Pricing and commissions

Why are there so many mods behind paywalls? Actually, there are no mods behind paywalls. Except paywalls put up by scammers and thieves that steal mods that were free. Or that they thought that were paid, but those great heroes didn't even bother to check that all genshin mods can be a maximum of 1 month on patreon before being released for free. They all end on gamebanana or, like I said, in the main modding discord server. So before you subscribe to a patreon selling mods, make sure that you can't find the mod in those platforms I mentioned, and if that is the legitimate creator, subscribe only if you want the mod in early access and/or to support the creator. Because even if you don't become a member, you will still be able to get the mod soon.

Can I see my OC's in Genshin as a mod? Yes, with limitations. Your OC would work as a skin that overrides a certain character, in outfit/body, hair and iris. It won't be an actual new character. Besides, since we have limitations to avoid cheating, we can't add new animations or abilities, and that includes being unable to change the face and eye shape (the iris can be changed, just not the external shape, eyelids, etc). As for the height of a character, that can be changed but comes with certain downsides, like the weapons not being attached to the hands, the animations still looking the same, the camera being stuck at the original level, and the worst offender for me is the face stuck in the same expression and with a bad shading. So take all of that into consideration when picking what character to override, and deciding if it's worth to change the height of a certain character or going immediately for one with the correct height and facial shape.

How can I commission an OC/skin? I suggest going to the main discord server AGMG, verifying/proving that you are using mods in order to access all channels, then head to the commissions-area and see who has commissions open. If you don't want to commission anyone, you can still try your luck in the requests channel in that server, since some people accept free requests and even more if they have a bounty (which is cheaper than a commission).

How to create mods

Where do I start if I want to make my own mods? That depends on what stage are you starting, and if you have any skills that you can reuse for modding.

For example, if you are an artist, you have advantages at texturing, and if you are a 3D modeler or at least know a bit of blender, that will make the modeling easier (yes, genshin mods require blender, so if you are familiar with another software, you will have to learn this one).

It also depends on what your goal is: If you want to do full custom skins and all by yourself, that is more work, but some modders specialize in only one aspect of modding and work in collaboration with other modders. For example, I started as only being a texture artist, and now I also do full custom models, but the weights for my mods are always made by someone else.

Recommended order for absolute beginners: texture mods, small model changes and kitbashing, bigger ports or more ambitious kitbashing, and then custom modeling. If you want, you can do weapon mods too, they are technically simpler than characters.

Are there tutorials that I can follow? Of course ^^ I am making my own written tutorials, some of which you can already find in the Resources folder of this discord. I also compiled a brief list of where you can find videos to follow, here.

Keep in mind that most of these tutorials are about modding genshin, and don't teach you in depth how to model, even though you can still learn a bit from there. But I recommend that you do your own search on how to model things in blender if you aim to do custom models. Keep also in mind that many things that look 3D, in genshin, are actually details painted over textures, so don't go overboard with polygon count. Either way, the guides there are varied and will help with most issues you might find.

What content creators need to know

I'm a content creator. Is there any risk? Don't try to use mods as an official Genshin content creator, since they have your UID and Hoyoverse doesn't officially support mods. Other than that, your account is not at risk unless you show your UID in videos/screenshots, and even then, the chances of someone reporting you are very very slim.

Also, don't post anything that includes the word "mod" in the title, because youtube (and twitch?) flag them and you can have your videos taken down due to it being assumed that you are using a private server - even if that is not the case.

AND DON'T FORGET TO ALWAYS CREDIT MODS. Either way, the risk would be only for the video/channel in question, not for your genshin account.

How do I correctly credit mods? I'm glad you asked, because people often mess up/don't credit/credit the wrong person and reposters - I see my mods poorly credited every single day xD. Always check if a mod exists on gamebanana, and if not, check the main modding discord server AGMG. Why? Because sometimes people repost videos and credit the source of the video, but the person who edited didn't make the mod and often doesn't credit the actual creator(s). (((Blumiekei is the absolute worst offender))) In the discord server, the message posting a mod in the mod-reposting channel is usuall by one of the authors and includes the others, and on gamebanana, you can see what each author contributed with in the sidebar. You should at least say their names when featuring mods, and I highly recommend that you include the link in some way too, even though I understand that not all platforms allow it.

Why should I credit mods that are just ports from other games, that's just laaaaazy... You clearly don't know the work that goes even into a port, so let me enlighten you - using my Inazuma Ganyu as an example: You can see in the 4th picture here that the final textures have shadows that were not in the original, and the image quality is much better. That's because I painted all of that manually - and it took me over a day just for the textures. Then add the time for placing the model, potentially adjusting proportions of individual parts to be more like the canon genshin bodies, bring back some elements from the original genshin character, merge the textures for everything because genshin can only have one texture per group (Body, Dress and Head), adjust the UV's as a consequence of that, then also make the lightmaps and alpha channel so that the game knows what should behave in terms of shadows and outline like fabric, skin or metallic parts, and FINALLY it's time for weights. That are often a nightmare because, due to the limitations of 3Dmigoto in order to not activate the anti-cheat, we can't add bones or new rigging, so we have to work around by transferring weights from the official genshin model. And in the case of this Ganyu, she doesn't originally have long sleeves, so that's a whole other headache that very few modders manage to achieve properly (me not included, the weights of this mod were made by mimo4e since she is one of the very few that is capable).

And if this is too much text for you and you won't bother knowing the work that goes into a port, don't make assumptions either. If it's good enough for you to use/feature, it's good enough for you to credit.

I've seen a mod with the wrong/no credits. What should I do? You can actually list it in the reports channel of my discord. That way, it's easier for the mod author to know (even if they are not there, we can likely find them), and everyone else with an account in the platform where the video/screenshot was posted can also help by asking the person who posted the videos to fix the credits. Some try to delete messages asking for credits, but if there are many people asking for that, they usually get tired and learn their lesson. Usually. Hopefully. I've seen good and bad outcomes at this point.

[loserspride]

04/20/2025

For ease of reference, in this post I talk about — Kintsugi, Dee Dum, Bestiary, Keep It Together and Millennium Actress.

Kintsugi

Kintsugi was a short and sweet game about the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery using a lacquer mixed with gold pigment. The first thing that comes to mind to talk about this game is the absolutely insane music playing throughout it. I'm not saying that the game should totally lean into Thing Japan and play some wistful koto tracks if that's not what the creator envisioned for it but I did, at the least, expect a quiet and meditative song to fit with the calming nature of the game itself and instead got a very loud song I can only describe as Song That Plays During The Long Walk On Your Way To Face Off With The Final RPG Boss. It's so odd because it starts off very calm and chipper but gradually built to a point of total chaos where I straight up could not hear anyone I was streaming on call with. It simply did not match the vibe at all. Anyway, enough of that.

I thought the rest of the game was fine. Very simple. Fairly easy. I think something that would've been fun is if you dropped broken pieces, they too would also shatter into more pieces you had to put together. Or if when you were done with the game, you were told you were done with the game. What I mean to say is that it would've been nice if there was just a bit more care put into it. I guess maybe this was just meant to be a smaller lower-effort project, which is totally fine - I just didn't really personally get much from it.

Dee Dum

Dee Dum was another short game. I only really did a few levels because it's pretty easy to get a general idea of what's in store for you after a handful. I think the general aesthetic of the game needs a lot of work. I understand it's just a very simple shapes in puzzle game but there is nothing setting it apart from so many other games offering the exact same thing save for the fact that some of these other games simply look better. It was simply fine and I don't have a whole lot to say about it aside from that.

Bestiary

This one had so much potential. The crux of it is that you are a Professor tasked with cataloguing creatures from another world based entirely off of pictures sent to you from the exploring scouts. The game randomly generators a creature with a combination of top, mid-section and feet, you come up with a name, determine their diet and characteristics and send in the information. It sounds fun! But it's not nearly as fleshed out as it could be. After a few turns, you realize that the generator in the game does not have many assets to work with. The game also is never-ending. You don't really have goals to reach. Nothing really comes of the work you do aside from the game saving a screenshot of your work to a folder on your computer for you. This could've genuinely been such a great game but it was more of a concept of a project than an actually finished project. At least it's fun to collaborate and play with friends. Anyway, check out some of our little guys.

Keep It Together

Definitely my favorite of the night! You play as a bunch of rats in a trench coat and the goal is to navigate brief interactions with others in hopes of not being found out. Every wrong answer you give, your stress meter goes up. After each filled meter, you have to hold down a key on your keyboard as you continue to play. As you progress in the game, certain characters unlock traits to help you better curate which responses they'd react most positively towards. It goes on until you either can not hold anymore keys or the game bugs out because your laptop is not designed to have more than four keys held at any given time. The dev has cleverly pointed out how it serves as a metaphor. On the topic of bugs, that would be my main complaint of the game. Sometimes it decides to stop registering your responses entirely, other times it fills the screen with several faces of the people you're meant to be talking to one by one and asking you to press keys despite that game having just freshly booted up. It's fine, I'm honestly willing to overlook it just because this game is so much fun. This game — it is so addictive.  Fun, quick, chaotic. I love the art in it too so much. It's so original and colorful and silly. It perfectly fits the vibe.

Millennium Actress

I've been meaning to watch more Satoshi Kon movies and when this one came up from the randomizer, I was pretty excited — but not really for the reason you'd think. I feel like Millennium Actress has always kind of been held at a distance from other Satoshi Kon classics like Paprika and Perfect Blue and I really wanted to try and learn why. The answer might surprise you. (Sorry okay I wanted to do the corny media article thing I won't do it again)

Millennium Actress' story, while very interest-piquing, is still water compared to a lot of what is admired about Satoshi Kon's usual writing style. But my question is, have other Satoshi Kon's movies ever really had a really interesting storyline or were you just transfixed by the cool art and surrealist imagery? Now, for the sake of clarity, I have only seen Perfect Blue*. I'm eager to watch Paprika but I unfortunately do not have the time to watch movies all day so it will get its time in the sun someday. Millennium Actress focuses on Chiyoko, an actress who met a concerningly vague-aged man as very much a high school student and fell in love with him. The two are driven apart as political tensions rise in Japan and the man happens to be a political revolutionary. She then vows to find him again, something that he seems laughably indifferent about. She becomes an actress in hopes that he will one day see one of her movies and they would then be reunited by it. The movie focuses on her as a 70 year old woman as she reflects through her filmography and how it balanced her constant failures in searching for this man. Whose name, just to point out, she does not even know. A lot of people argue that it is misogynistic to portray a woman so obsessively in love with this stranger, so much so that she is willing to alter her life and essentially form her entire personality around chasing him. I personally think it's misogynistic to do that and never tell us why.

I wish the movie cared about Chiyoko at all. I think so much of it was sweet. The scene where schoolgirls tease her about this fellow she loves so much, asking her if he's cute and what his name is — only for her to break down and cry because she doesn't even remember what he looks like. It got me, y'know? I could feel some connections to this character, who is so devoted to another. I just do not think enough effort was put into rounding her out and giving her writing the respect it deserved. And here's the thing, I remember finding Mima just about as one-dimensional as Chiyoko. That's the thing about Satoshi Kon, it's that he gets you with a concept and then he bombards you with stellar enough imagery to keep your mind off the fact that nothing is ever narratively explored as thoroughly as the visuals.

The entire situation with Rumi from Perfect Blue left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't like the way her character was handled at all, it was dismissive and weird and in all honesty? kind of fatphobic and ableist. But that's a conversation for another day. The point of bringing this all up is because I want to highlight that Satoshi Kon's writing has never been peak, especially when stripped of the aesthetics the films are famed for. So what does that leave then? If the writing is as bad, then what makes Millennium Actress a less favored movie than other Satoshi Kon works?

I think it boils down to the aesthetics and surrealism. Millennial Actress is one of the more visually grounded of the movies. It doesn't go full surrealist but it plays with set design, time period, location, clothing, and so much more to keep constantly questioning — what is going on? Chiyoko's life as an actress keeps you wondering what is real and what is film, and I really loved that so much. It would have been cool if that was dug into more, could playing all these roles starting from such a young age have stripped her from developing an identity of her own? With nothing but a key the man left behind to hold on to? The surrealism was subtle enough to trick you and keep you engaged. And it was one of my favorite things about the movie, but I don't think it hit with other people like it did me. It's a bit disappointing. I don't want to sound pretentious or whatever — but I think a lot of people do not engage with Satoshi Kon's movies with any amount of respect. With the mindset of a Cocomelon toddler, they just want to sit and watch the pretty colors go. They don't want to have to pay attention. They just want it to be indecipherable from the jump so they can say, "that was cool" and then feel cultured or whatever.

Anyway, do I think Millenium Actress is Satoshi Kon's best work? I don't know. I've only seen two of his movies* and I liked this one about as much as I liked Perfect Blue so ... whatever that means.

Also, unrelated but at one point Ro and I were in hysterics shortly after finishing this because it was 3 AM and I logged onto Letterboxd to read the reviews people had written and I was confused as to why nothing came up when I searched it only to find I had typed Millennial Actress so ... American remake when?

Also when the Godzilla monster came up, Ro referenced this post and we also died laughing about it for like ten minutes.

Okay, that's it. Bye.

* Follow-up edit made on 04/28/25: A few days after posting this, a kind friend reminded me that I have, in fact, seen another Satoshi Kon movie — Tokyo Godfathers. I had completely forgotten because this movie is so good I forgot to associate it with him and also because it only ever exists to people during the month of December for whatever reason so it slipped my mind. Anyway, I just so happened to have watched Paprika this weekend so consider this movie brought up and added into the dialogue of Satoshi Kon's works there for the sake of preserving my thoughts in this post.

[cranjournals]

#002: AtsuHina Exchange - Baseball

Date of completion: March 16, 2024

Program: Clip Studio Paint (iPad)

My piece for the 2025 AtsuHina Spring Exchange! I was feeling so warm and grateful for the community that I wanted to pour everything I had into this. Check it out on AO3 along with the rest of the amazing collection! Everyone here is so nice and talented, I can only hope this gives back a little bit!

Notes:

So... I know nothing about baseball! I started out trying to plan a whole thing in my head, like what positions they would all play, what scene I could draw that was more atshn than just MSBY/team dynamics but still more baseball than just slapping them in a different uniform (even if that is a little bit what ended up happening), etc., but I could tell I was going to think myself to death if I didn't just pick an idea and stick with it, so I went with a post-game celebration!

And when I say I know nothing, I really mean it qvq Pinterest ended up being my bestie for finding inspiration and references, and then I saw a pic of a gatorade shower and hubris said "I can paint that!!" and the rest is kind of history.

Composed everything using a collage of reference pics first, just going off of vibes until things felt right proportion- and perspective-wise

Loosely planned out background elements and adjusted poses to create implied or real lines that would point to atsuhina's faces as the focal point

A little layer management goes a long way, so almost every layer was named or sorted into a folder

Every character got a base fill, skin, hair, black, white, and gold layer. The brush I use blends color a lot, so I decided not to use separate shadow and light layers in this workflow

The group of uniform colors is marked with red so they'd be easy to see while scrolling through the panel, and lineart layers are marked in blue for the same reason

Once established, palette colors were added to my color mixer for easy access

Usually am more of a sketcher/one sketch straight to lineart person, but this time I put a lot of attention into refining details over multiple sketches

Eliminated a lot of guesswork before going into lineart this way, and realized important details like the exact pose and angle of Meian's hand and atsuhina's lips were lost in the mess

Most anatomy is drawn from reference, but adjusted according to the character's body type or modified for a more appealing silhouette (Shoyo in particular had to be thickened up a lot. And caked up lol.)

Sakusa wasn't drawn from reference and maybe it shows... I also had to change his pose because I realized he was looking a little... homophobic.....

Meian also got changed because, for some reason, he just didn't feel like Meian?? I think I also didn't want him to look too surprised at the kiss, more like an "Oh! Finally!" reaction

Focused on lineart to strengthn one of my weaker skills. I have a difficult relationship with lineart because I love sketching and most of the time don't color what I make, but I also don't have a good workflow without it... Plus for something polished like this, I didn't want to leave my lines rough like I had been

Atsuhina are drawn with the default Real G-Pen brush so they're a bit more crisp while still having texture. Everyone else is drawn with the HB Pencil brush I use for refining sketches, so they look softer

I've heard that thicker lines = closer to camera, and thinning lines where two objects contact each other show that they are touching better, so tried to apply this in my lines

I have a naturally light hand, so tried playing to my strengths with very thin detailing

A lot of inspiration from this player and uniform when designing the Jackals baseball uniform!

It's impractical because black would get too hot to wear in the sun, but I wanted to keep the Jackal primary shirt color black, white pants, and gold accents

Only knew I wanted the end of their sleeves with gold trim, otherwise gold accents were added wherever it felt like I needed to break up the black. Putting gold into their socks was a little random, but I really liked it!

Inunaki's hat is colored differently because I originally thought the back should be gold with black in front... Then decided it looked better flipped, but Inunaki should stay black in front so it wouldn't be too distracting to have a lot of light colors there

Graphic design is not my passion :( But I try, for atsuhina

Entire Jackals lettering was based off of the two letters we see with the official logo

Tried to analyze where straight vs curved lines were used, the asymmetrical shapes, and the sharp points

Designed the logo on its own much bigger than I needed so that I could shrink and mesh it around without losing quality

Mesh transformation to get it to approximately the right shape, then finished using liquefy

Adjusted lineart where it curves around the body to make it look 3D like a sewn on patch

Decided on background details using reference pictures, designed the ads based on vibes/whatever I wanted at the moment! Even the "refined" sketch was loose and more for placing elements than anything

Fun facts: the sign under the screen originally had katakana for "rope bunny" because I didn't know what to put... then I got embarrassed realizing people can in fact read that and that it would be the only fully visible ad, so it got modified to "cope bunny" lol. If I had thought it out more, the "strongest dog"/"gleaming cat" signs would've been a fox and crow... Bouncing Ball and Pocari felt like they had to be included, but the easter egg I like most (and that ended up completely covered) was "Unmei Thread", just romaji for "destiny" + thread. That's Their Thing!!!

Starting furthest back in space to the front (in order: the sky and blocking in overall color transitions, the screen and ads in the back of the stadium, seating areas and crowd, grass, fence and ads, tufts of grass detail over the fence)

Struggle with freehanding architecture, so using the poly lasso tool until I have more practice. It gives it a unique sort of look, right? I think it's good for keeping things simple and "low poly"

Focus on shapes and selecting areas then adding color variation with the airbrush, or other brush as needed. Everything is done on basically one layer, so it's good to have brush variants like a Multiply/Highlight airbrush to make more interesting colors

This background technique is something I've been working on since I experimented with landscapes for a printmaking class. I was surprised to find people were actually drawn to the geometric style?? Been getting surprises lately that people are drawn to things in my art that I don't think are noteworthy at all

Tried out a different workflow! Where I usually focus on one character at a time, this time I tried painting everyone's skin first, then hair, then uniforms. I catch myself wondering how I got a certain look before when I work on a piece over a long time, so with so much going on it just made sense. I think I'll stick with this going forward!

After everyone was colored, used adjustment layers and a very light warm overlay to harmonize them more

Color saturation and luminosity: Areas of high saturation and contrast naturally draw the eye more, so I reserved these for atsuhina's faces and kept lighting/shading relatively subtle elsewhere

Sakusa and Inunaki in particularly were desaturated and painted over with blue from the background more to push them further back in space

In my sketches I favor hatching/contour lines a lot, and the delicate nature seemed appealing, so I tried bringing that in for rendering

Areas where its harder to blend colors smoothly or where things needed to be sharper, I used a very small size of my rendering brush to add hatching for texture. It's also good for darkening shadows or brightening highlights without being overbearing

If anyone wants to be an art nerd about it, that technique is probably classified as "optical mixing" where the viewer's eyes blend colors instead of blending them explicitly

Looked alright in the sketch then when it came time to render it turned out to be very hard...

Eventually approached with the idea of following "flowing lines" and staying mostly loose with it, just defining a couple spots where water would be splashing up

Followed this idea of "momentum" to block in shapes and large droplets with the Oil Brush

For the impression of a spray of tiny droplets behind Atsumu's head, I used the Dry Gouache brush, lightly brushed in the area with a large size, then erased out chunks or went back in with a smaller size of the brush to define the shape further

Oil Brush for more little details, especially highlights, until it looked alright

Airbrush set to "soft light" mode to give the effect of water "catching" in the droplets, then Droplet airbrush for larger drops into the Spray airbrush for very small but sharply defined particles

For the few rendered drops and happy tears, they were blocked in with white using the Oil Brush, erased in the middle, soft airbrush for the shadow of the highlight, highlight drawn in, then the "soft light" airbrush again in white lightly over the highlight

Raw image on the left, final on the right (Not blurry Sakusa exists!)

Spent much more time and effort than usual in compositing for this piece

Bounce lighting airbrushed over the characters from the grass, skin, orange keg, and pants. Light/bright colors will reflect more light while darker colors absorb more light. The airbrush can be large and loose too since bounce light scatters a lot.

Atmospheric perspective added to the background to push it further back

Nondestructive process: Creating flattened/merged copies of the background and characters to blur/use for other effects, and using masks to decide where effects would be applied without permanently erasing anything

Blurring areas aside from the focal point makes the focus very clear, and very light motion blur was added on Meian and Bokuto's legs

Blurred copies of the characters set to "soft light" mode at a low opacity gives a dreamy/soft look

Additionally, I had done a confidence building piece a little before I started this, just to remind myself that I'm most capable when I just go for things without fear, and to test drive some techniques before employing them for the first time on a work I considered much more important. I practiced some rendering techniques, giving the impression of lights, the dreamy glow effect, and reminded myself of things I often forget while making backgrounds, like working back to front and how messy my freehand gets haha.

Honestly, the process here looks long but it was a lot of fun! A lot of my weaknesses came from me just not having stamina to keep focused for a long time and lacking experience in certain things. if it takes a long time, it's because I haven't practiced enough. I want to study anatomy again and practice painting muscles more since my knowledge on the subject is fading and I'm scared of settling into what's comfortable instead of what's good.

In the end I'm not sure how to feel about this piece? I think it's good, definitely one of my better works, but after sitting with it for a while I can't help but think about what I wanted to do better. I think it shows some of my general weaknesses as an artist where I get absorbed in details and forget the bigger picture. I failed to plan properly and didn't take time researching different compositions, so I think in that respect it looks flat. I have resources for studying composition but feel intimidated by it, but it's one of the largest foundations of art so I have to try...!

I don't criticize my work to trash on it, but I do need to acknowledge where I could do better to set goals for the future!

[sevenrs]

okay so first of all our lord and savior raindb legacy mods https://www.raindb.net/legacy.html so first installing 1.5: you can have 1.5 and 1.9 versions completely separately and that's what I recommend. Go into your steam games folder, rename rw to anything else, the go to steam library -> properties -> betas -> choose 1.51 and it'll create a separate folder and install it there, leaving 1.9 files intact. When its done downloading, rename the 1.5 folder to anything else again (personally i have it as "Rain World 1.5"), rename the original 1.9 folder back to just rw and once again go to properties -> betas and choose none, it'll verify 1.9 files and leave 1.5 alone. BOOM! You have both of them installed.

now that you have that figured out, 1.5 mods: you need bepinex - extract the contents into 1.5 folder and BOI mod manager - extract it anywhere, run it and and choose the path to your 1.5 game. It will create a "Mods" folder in your game's root folder, this is where you're gonna have to put all the .dll mod files. AND NOW ! Custom region support - you will be able to download and install regions in an in-game mods menu. (feel free to contact me if you need help!) OKAY NOW TO ACTUAL REGION MODS all that i can remember rn and my rating Old New Horizons - one of my absolute favourite. But I do recommend playing it with dev tools otherwise it can be very frustrating. It's a collection of scrapped custom regions so some parts are not very well designed but overall it's a delight that offers A LOT and has some of the most unique level designs and mechanics. There's a portal reference region. And a build-a-ladder room. If you even care.

Arid barrens - a very solid mod. It adds a desert region thats very fun to explore, has an above dround and below ground routes which are pretty cool to explore. Drowned Pantheon - really loved that one. Has a nice vibe and there are bells :'] Aether Ridge - mixed feeling. It's pretty cool but very brutal. And MASSIVE. One hell of a skill check, also has manyt one way routes and dead ends. Personally was not a fan. The Mast - I ! LOVE ! CLIMBING ! UP ! Very cool solid region, similar vibe to atop the tallest tower in downpour. Would recommend. The Root - didn't like it. It's the leg but more. As an underhang hater would not recommend. Hanging Gardens - very pretty and chill I especially loved the design of the upper levels. Also Hollow Knight fans will see a lot of familiar architechture. Also it only connects to two custom regions which is interesting. Coral Caves - has a lot of frustrating water mechanics and one way paths. Except you don't realize that until the cycle is already wasted. But the vibe is cool. Would still not recommend honestly. One of requirements for Hanging Garden. Badlands - similar vibe to Arid Barrens, liked this one! Also has an above ground and below ground routes and overall is a nice enjoyable experience, it's also not a very big region, so I'd say give it a shot. Undersea - was not a fan, has some very cool moments but all also has some very frustrating moments. unsure about this one. Tainted overpass - played just a bit but from I saw there was nothing of note particularly. No cool mechanics or level design. Scorched District - UM. YES ?? IT'S VERY GOOD ??? METROPOLIS BEFORE METROPOLIS. Pilgrims Ascent - the leg but green. Side House - very different from other regions I mentioned, it's a collection of unused vanilla rooms, they aren't particularly good or flow together in one region, but it's a very curios thing to see and has some slightly different familiar rooms! Aqueducts - a challenge region, meant to be played by hunter, has a nice feel to it, some rooms are very interesting, but overall. Was not a fan, call it a skill issue. Underbelly - did not like it. Also kinda reminds me of the exterior (minus the wall) and superstructure, do you see a pattern? I certainly do. Anyway when playing I got stuck repeatedly dying in an area where you're supposed to wall jump. between those five pebbsi zap thingies in recursive transform arrays. Howling Rift - it's a very cool a well made region, I'm sure it's many people's fav and I recommend checking it out. Personally did not care for it tho. Grand Reservoir - recaptures that feel or going into shaded for the first time, has some frustrating platforming, but I loved it nonetheless, the tight pathways and spider enemies bring just the right level of unsetteling. Swamplands - I remember playing it for sure, but I don't even remember what was there. Also have a feeling I didn't like it ? Don't take my word for it tho. Pyramid Wall - what it says on the tin. The wall, but its a pyramid. Drainage System + - I like it :'] you will like it too if you like drainage and hate it if you don't.

Wet World - it's funne, Outskirts but more water, I liked it, but also some parts are very bullshit. Would you like a BLL in your outskirts sir ? Floating Isles - all the worst parts of sky islands. No thank you. ANDDD that's all, I'm sure there are more region mods, but I was only looking through the ones on Raindb and besides floating isles I couldn't remember more. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

damn you can have two rain worlds?

would they automatically have separate launches or do they need to be shoved into steam through the add a game button?

regardless. very cool. thank you lots pipa!

[bergeronprocess]

This prompt is from The Learning Network at the NYT. This is clearly designed for use by teachers in classrooms, but hey, we’re all students in the school of life, so here’s the PDF of 500 prompts: https://static01.nyt.com/images/blogs/learning/pdf/2014/500PromptsNarrativeAndPersonalWriting.pdf 

9/23/24

How productive and organized are you?

I find that I am actually getting much more organized lately, especially at work. There’s always so much going on and so many different projects happening simultaneously, so I am always taking notes, making checklists, curating calendars, creating filing systems and so on. Last year, I successfully moved everything on my work computer from internal server-based storage into cloud-based storage. That took quite some doing, but it was well worth it, especially when I briefly needed to work from home as my mom recovered from knee replacement surgery at my house. I also created systems for labeling and filing away different kinds of documents, making them much easier for me to refer back to later.

Recently, we’ve been starting to incorporate Microsoft Loop into the rotation of things we’re using to keep our projects together - and I’m enjoying it so much that I even sought out and watched videos to learn more about the service. I really enjoy the work I do, but I guess if I were to think about a big-time career change (not just doing what I do now but elsewhere), I’d consider looking into project management or something like that.

Which is very funny considering that, in my school days, I was often forced into the role of “the one kid who ends up doing everything in the group project because everyone else slacks off” and I resented that. I didn’t want my own grades to suffer, so I did the work, but I wasn’t happy about it. Things have changed, haven’t they? Now I enjoy being the one with all the filing systems, checking in on projects, taking notes. 

I’ve even started to use a pen-and-paper planner after years of just putting things in the calendar on my phone. I do still do that also, but in addition to that, I have a Hobonichi Techo Weeks planner. My coworker put me on to it. She had a spare blue leather cover for a Weeks planner and gave it to me near the end of last year, inspiring me to head over to Kinokuniya and purchase a 2024 planner to go in it. I enjoy using it and also write about good things that happen every day on one side of the weekly layout. I do wish they had included a 366th day in the daily check-off page, though. Like, how do you manage to forget 2024 is a leap year? It’s literally on the calendar. You are a planner company. Plan for it!

Another organization project I am working on, though just bit-by-bit, is organizing my photos and backing them up to a portable hard drive. I’m going through each year’s photos, as downloaded from Google Takeout, and removing any ones that are blurry or whatnot. I’m also putting memes into a different folder. That process is slower going, but it’s in progress.

I think all this organization is good for my brain, too. I’m prone to anxiety, the fear that I am forgetting about something, and if I don’t write things down then I’m afraid they will just fade away and disappear from my brain like deleting data from a video game memory card. The processes - writing things down, making lists, keeping calendars, taking notes - are all therapeutic in their own way and contribute to my productivity at work and in my personal life.

[emeraldcatears]

Making a Grass Autotile (part 3)

It's time to see how the tiles look in the game.

The first thing to determine is where to put them. I made a grass tile and a dirt path that are intended to be ground autotiles so those should be put in the game as part of the A2 block - the second group of the A tab.

The full image for this needs to be 768x576 pixels in size. I'll go ahead and open a new picture for this step.

The RPG Maker assets standards page shows how this is meant to be laid out.

These can be further adjusted in the database to be designated field or area type. If I'm reading this correctly this can determine how they interact with other tiles in the A2 portion of the tileset.

If Block A is "Field" then the transparent parts of the second and fourth tiles will autofill with the first and third tiles respectively. Otherwise, these designations seem to refer to how the tiles stack on the layers when mapping with auto-layering.

I believe "Field" is outdated and changed to "World" type in the most current MZ version I have.

Since World Type seems to be used for, well, overworld maps I'll go ahead and just make this Area Type and lay the tiles out without worrying about how the transparencies fill in like I would if I used World.

In short all that is to say I'll just paste my two tiles in next to eachother in the first two slots.

They look so lonely!

The beauty of things here is that I don't need a full set of tiles to start testing how they look in-game. I just have to have the ones I've made so far and can always save over this with a larger set later.

I'll go ahead and save this as Custom A2 and put it into the project.

Simply go to wherever you've got the project you're adding a your tiles to saved and open the img folder and find the tilesets to add your own. Make sure it's a PNG file.

Then open RPG Maker and open the project you saved the new tiles into and open the Database.

From here go to the tilesets button and the available sets appear. In this case I'll create a new set rather than just adding mine into an existing one.

At the bottom of the screen I can make room for a new set by changing the maximum and increasing it as needed.

Then find where you want to put the tilesheet. In this case I want it in A2 (Ground) so I select the image from the dropdown. Instead of appearing as the full image I made it displays the two tiles as just their representative pieces (the 48x48 section in the top left of the six-tile pattern that makes an autotile).

I honestly don't need to do much else at this point since this is just about putting them into the game to see how they look, but this is also the part where things like passability and terrain tags are set. They don't matter at this stage of the learnalong, though. I could also put other tilesheets in teh A1-E slots but I'm not worried about that at the moment.

Next I go to a map (in this case MAP001) and select my custom set for the tileset.

From there I can just draw the tiles I made into patterns the way I would the default assets!

Now, that took a while. While I know part of the time came from pausing to explain each step for the sake of the learnalong and that I'll get faster with drawing tiles with practice, it is important to take time to consider how long an original tileset takes to put together.

In other words, it takes hours upon hours to make a workable set of original tiles. If that's something you find doable then this post is also an appreciation of the time and effort that goes into it! It's "simple" in theory but it takes time and making them look good is a skill honed by practice. To everyone who puts the effort in: seriously, you all rock.

If you're not the type to put your own set together there are loads of other options for both free-to-use and paid tilesets made by others. Please appreciate the work put into each and every one of them and credit them as you use them.